Redemption and Two Other Plays | Page 3

(alone to herself). And I am very glad. I'm very,
very glad.
[Enter MAID.
MAID. Victor Karénin.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Show him here and tell your mistress.
[MAID shows in KARÉNIN and exits door R. I.
KARÉNIN (goes C. and stands behind table C.). (Shaking hands with
Anna Pávlovna.) 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 PÁVLOVNA. Not very. The baby has been upset again.

However, she'll be here in a minute. Will you have some tea?
KARÉNIN. No, thank you.
[Sits chair R.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Tell me, do you know that he and she--.
KARÉNIN. Yes, I was here two days ago when she got this letter. Is
she positive now about their separating?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Oh, absolutely. It would be impossible to begin
it all over again.
KARÉNIN. Yes. To cut into living things and then draw back the knife
is terrible. But are you sure she knows her mind?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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.
KARÉNIN. Why?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. After breaking every oath he swore to decency,
how could he come back? And so why shouldn't he give her her
freedom?
KARÉNIN. What freedom is there for a woman still married?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Divorce. He promised her a divorce and we shall
insist upon it.
KARÉNIN. But your daughter was so in love with him?
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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?
KARÉNIN. Love can do anything.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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.
KARÉNIN. I know.
[Enter LISA R.I. KARÉNIN 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.
KARÉNIN. I'll do everything I can.
[LISA moves away a few steps down R.
LISA. You know all about this.
[Sits chair R.
KARÉNIN. Yes, I know.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. 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 PÁVLOVNA and SASHA.
LISA. Fédya 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.
KARÉNIN. 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.
KARÉNIN. 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?
KARÉNIN. No. (He hesitates.) But--well, candidly, yes. I am rather
surprised.
LISA. But you are not angry?
KARÉNIN. You know I couldn't be angry with you.
LISA. I ask you because I know you're so fond of him.
KARÉNIN. 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 Afrémov'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?
KARÉNIN. 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