pockets] Will you have a smoke? [He offers Ivanoff his cigarette case] These are very good.
Ivanoff. [Comes toward Borkin stifled with rage] Leave my house this instant, and don’t you ever dare to set foot in it again! Go this instant!
Borkin gets up and drops his cigarette.
Ivanoff. Go at once!
Borkin. Nicholas, what do you mean? Why are you so angry?
Ivanoff. Why! Where did you get those cigarettes? Where? You think perhaps that I don’t know where you take the old man every day, and for what purpose?
Borkin. [Shrugs his shoulders] What business is it of yours?
Ivanoff. You blackguard, you! The disgraceful rumours that you have been spreading about me have made me disreputable in the eyes of the whole countryside. You and I have nothing in common, and I ask you to leave my house this instant.
Borkin. I know that you are saying all this in a moment of irritation, and so I am not angry with you. Insult me as much as you please. [He picks up his cigarette] It is time, though, to shake off this melancholy of yours; you’re not a schoolboy.
Ivanoff. What did I tell you? [Shuddering] Are you making fun of me?
Enter Anna.
Borkin. There now, there comes Anna! I shall go.
Ivanoff stops near the table and stands with his head bowed.
Anna. [After a pause] What did she come here for? What did she come here for, I ask you?
Ivanoff. Don’t ask me, Annie. [A pause] I am terribly
