[MAID shows in KAReNIN and exits door R. I.
KAReNIN (goes C. and stands behind table C.). (Shaking hands with Anna Pavlovna.) Elizaveta Andreyevna sent me a note to come at once. I should have been here to-night anyway. How is she? Well, I hope.
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Not very. The baby has been upset again. However, she"ll be here in a minute. Will you have some tea?
KAReNIN. No, thank you.
[Sits chair R.
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Tell me, do you know that he and she--.
KAReNIN. Yes, I was here two days ago when she got this letter. Is she positive now about their separating?
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Oh, absolutely. It would be impossible to begin it all over again.
KAReNIN. Yes. To cut into living things and then draw back the knife is terrible. But are you sure she knows her mind?
ANNA PaVLOVNA. I should think so. To come to this decision has caused her much pain. But now it"s final, and he understands perfectly that his behavior has made it impossible for him to come back on any terms.
KAReNIN. Why?
ANNA PaVLOVNA. After breaking every oath he swore to decency, how could he come back? And so why shouldn"t he give her her freedom?
KAReNIN. What freedom is there for a woman still married?
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Divorce. He promised her a divorce and we shall insist upon it.
KAReNIN. But your daughter was so in love with him?
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Her love has been tried out of existence. Remember she had everything to contend with: drunkenness, gambling, infidelity-- what was there to go on loving in such a person?
KAReNIN. Love can do anything.
ANNA PaVLOVNA. How can one love a rag torn by every wind? Their affairs were in dreadful shape; their estate mortgaged; no money anywhere. Finally his uncle sends them two thousand rubles to pay the interest on the estate. He takes it, disappears, leaves Lisa home and the baby sick--when suddenly she gets a note asking her to send him his linen.
KAReNIN. I know.
[Enter LISA R.I. KAReNIN crosses to LISA.
I"m sorry to have been a little detained.
[Shakes hands with LISA.
LISA. Oh, thank you so much for coming. I have a great favor to ask of you. Something I couldn"t ask of anybody else.
KAReNIN. I"ll do everything I can.
[LISA moves away a few steps down R.
LISA. You know all about this.
[Sits chair R.
KAReNIN. Yes, I know.
ANNA PaVLOVNA. Well, I think I"ll leave you two young people to yourselves. (To SASHA.) Come along, dear, you and I will be just in the way.
[Exit L. U. ANNA PaVLOVNA and SASHA.
LISA. Fedya wrote to me saying it was all over between us. (She begins to cry.) That hurt me so, bewildered me so, that--well, I agreed to separate. I wrote to him saying I was willing to give him up if he wanted me to.
KAReNIN. And now you"re sorry?
LISA (nodding). I feel I oughtn"t to have said yes. I can"t. Anything is better than not to see him again. Victor dear, I want you to give him this letter and tell him what I"ve told you, and--and bring him back to me.
[Gives VICTOR a letter.
KAReNIN. I"ll do what I can.
[Takes letter, turns away and sits chair R. of table C.
LISA. Tell him I will forget everything if only he will come back. I thought of mailing this, only I know him: he"d have a good impulse, first thwarted by some one, some one who would finally make him act against himself.
[Pause.
Are you--are you surprised I asked you?
KAReNIN. No. (He hesitates.) But--well, candidly, yes. I am rather surprised.
LISA. But you are not angry?
KAReNIN. You know I couldn"t be angry with you.
LISA. I ask you because I know you"re so fond of him.
KAReNIN. Of him--and of you too. Thank you for trusting me. I"ll do all I can.
LISA. I know you will. Now I"m going to tell you everything. I went to-day to Afremov"s, to find out where he was. They told me he was living with the gypsies. Of course that"s what I was afraid of. I know he"ll be swept off his feet if he isn"t stopped in time. So you"ll go, won"t you?
KAReNIN. Where"s the place?
LISA. It"s that big tenement where the gypsy orchestra lives, on the left bank below the bridge. I went there myself. I went as far as the door, and was just going to send up the letter, but somehow I was afraid. I don"t know why. And then I thought of you. Tell him, tell him I"ve forgotten everything and that I"m here waiting for him to come home. (Crosses to KAReNIN--a little pause.) Do it out of love for him, Victor, and out of friendship for me.
[Another pause.
KAReNIN. I"ll do all I can.
[He bows to her and goes out L.U. Enter SASHA L.U., goes L. over near table C.