RADA


SCENE--_A guest-chamber, the typical living-room of a prosperous village
doctor in the Balkans. On the left, a small window and an entrance door.
On the right, a door leading into a bedroom. At the back, an open fire of
logs is burning brightly. Over the fireplace is the eikonostasis, with
three richly coloured and gilded eikons, the central one of the Madonna.
The light, which is never allowed to go out, is burning before it. The
room is lit at present only by this, the fire-light, and two candles in
brass candlesticks on a black wooden table under the window. Rows of
porcelain plates round the walls gleam fitfully. On either side of the
eikonostasis is a large chibouk, with inlaid bowl and amber mouth-piece.
There is a divan with scarlet rugs flung across it to the right of the
fire; and there are several skins and rugs on the floor.

Two Roumanian soldiers_, ARRAM_ and _MICHAEL, are seated at the table,
drinking_.

RADA, _a dark handsome woman, sits weeping with her head bowed in her
hands, on the divan_.

NANKO, _the idiot, sits on the floor, rubbing his hands, snapping his
fingers, chuckling to himself, and staring into the fire_.