Vanya On 42nd Street Page #3

Yet look at him.

He goes around as if he were saying...

"Yes, I'm here among you. "

Well, you know, I believe you're jealous.

Yes, I'm jealous.

What a Don Juan with women.

What a success with women is this man.

His first wife?

My sister, a transcendent beauty

pure as the blue sky.

Generous, noble.

She had more admirers

than this man had students.

And yet she loved him, God knows why,

the way only the pure angels love.

My mother, his mother-in-law...

she dotes on him to this day.

He inspires in her reverent awe.

And his second wife,

this beauty whom we just saw...

perceptive woman...

she married him,

he was already old.

She gave up to him her life,

her beauty, her luster.

For what?

Why? I'm asking you.

And she stays faithful to him?

Regrettably, yes.

- Regrettably?

- Yes, and I'll tell you why.

Because a fidelity like that is false.

From start to close,

it's composed of rhetoric.

To cheat on an old man who revolts you,

oh, that would be immoral.

But to willfully squander your youth

and stifle yourself in unhappiness...

well, now, that's something

we can really commend.

Well, now, Vanya,

you shouldn't say things like that.

I mean, someone who would betray

their husband or wife...

well, they just might next betray

the country or something, you know.

Oh, please, you're killing me.

Now, Vanya, please allow me.

You know, my wife, she ran away from me

the day after we were married.

I think she just didn't like me.

But do I then forget my duty? No.

To this day, I honor and revere her...

and to this day,

I am absolutely faithful to her.

I - I do everything I can for her.

That is, I give her what I have...

so that she could raise the children...

which she had

with the man that she loved.

Oh, have I given up happiness?

Yes, but I've kept my pride.

And what of her?

There she is, now no longer young.

Her beauty, as it must, has faded.

Her lover died.

What does she have now, hmm?

Nanny?

You go see to the chickens,

and I'll tend to the tea.

Yes.

You know, I came to see your husband.

You wrote he was deathly ill

with rheumatism complications...

and it seems

he's in the perfect pink of health.

- Ah, last night he was ill.

- Mm-hmm.

He complained of his legs.

Um, today, though, you're right.

He does seem fine.

Yes, he seems fine...

and I flat-out galloped 45 miles.

Never mind. It isn't the first time.

All right, um, I'll stay here tonight then,

if you don't mind.

At least I'll get some sleep.

Lovely. It's so rare

you spend the night here with us.

I - I don't suspect you've eaten,

have you?

No. Many thanks, and thank you kindly.

No, I haven't. No.

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