Helena. [In great agitation] Do you hear me? I must leave here this very day!
Serebrakoff, Sonia, Marina, and Telegin come in.
Telegin. I am not very well myself, your Excellency. I have been limping for two days, and my head———
Serebrakoff. Where are the others? I hate this house. It is a regular labyrinth. Every one is always scattered through the twenty-six enormous rooms; one never can find a soul. [Rings] Ask my wife and Madame Voitskaya to come here!
Helena. I am here already.
Serebrakoff. Please, all of you, sit down.
Sonia. [Goes up to Helena and asks anxiously] What did he say?
Helena. I’ll tell you later.
Sonia. You are moved. [Looking quickly and inquiringly into her face] I understand; he said he would not come here any more. [A pause] Tell me, did he?
Helena nods.
Serebrakoff. [To Telegin] One can, after all, become reconciled to being an invalid, but not to this country life, The ways of it stick in my throat and I feel exactly as if I had been whirled off the earth and landed on a strange planet. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen. Sonia! [Sonia does not hear. She is standing with her head bowed sadly forward on her breast] Sonia! [A pause] She does not hear me. [To Marina] Sit down too, nurse. [Marina sits down and begins to knit her stocking] I crave your indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears, if I may say so, on the peg of attention.
Voitski. [Agitated] Perhaps you do not need me—may I be excused?
Serebrakoff. No, you are needed now more than any one.
