Ah! And do you have any brothers . . . sisters?

BELYAEV

One sister.

NATALYA

Do you love her very much?

BELYAEV

Yes, ma’am. She’s much younger than me.

NATALYA

What is her name?

BELYAEV

Natalya.

NATALYA

(With animation) Natalya? That’s strange. My name is also Natalya . . . (Stops herself) And you love her very much?

BELYAEV

Yes, ma’am.

NATALYA

Tell me, how do you find my Kolya?

BELYAEV

He’s a very nice boy.

NATALYA

Isn’t he? And so affectionate! He’s managed to become attached to you already.

BELYAEV

I try to do my best . . . I’m very glad . . .

NATALYA

So you see, Alexei Nikolaich, of course, I wish to make a sensible man of him. I don’t know if I’ll succeed, but in any case I want him always to remember his childhood with pleasure. Let him grow up free—that’s the main thing. I myself was brought up differently, Alexei Nikolaich. My father wasn’t a bad man, but he was irritable and strict . . . everyone in the house was afraid of him, beginning with mama. My brother and I used to secretly cross ourselves each time we were summoned to him. Sometimes my father would hug me, but even in his arms, I remember, I’d go stiff. My brother grew up, and maybe you’ve heard about his break with father . . . I’ll never forget that awful day . . . I remained the obedient daughter until father passed away . . . he called me his consolation, his Antigone . . . he went blind in the last years of his life. But his tenderest affection could not erase in me the first impressions of my youth . . . I feared him, the blind old man, and never felt free in his presence . . . The traces of that timidity, of that constant holding back, may not have disappeared entirely to this day . . . I know, at first sight I seem . . . how shall I put it? . . . cold, or something . . . But here I’m telling you about myself, instead of talking to you about Kolya. I only wanted to say that I know from my own experience how good it is for a child to grow up free . . . Now you, I suppose, were not stifled as a child, isn’t that so?

BELYAEV

How can I put it, ma’am? . . . Of course, nobody stifled me . . . nobody paid any attention to me.

NATALYA

(Timidly) Didn’t your father . . . ?

BELYAEV

He had other things to do, ma’am. He mostly went around to the neighbors . . . on business, ma’am . . . Or not even on business, but . . . He earned his bread through them, you might say. Doing this or that.

NATALYA

Ah! So nobody paid attention to your upbringing?

BELYAEV

Nobody, to tell the truth. Anyway, it must show. I’m all too aware of my shortcomings.