her hand] Your touch is golden. I remember when you were still acting at
the State Theatre, long ago, when I was still a little chap, there was a
fight one day in our court, and a poor washerwoman was almost beaten to
death. She was picked up unconscious, and you nursed her till she was
well, and bathed her children in the washtubs. Have you forgotten it?

ARKADINA. Yes, entirely. [She puts on a new bandage.]

TREPLIEFF. Two ballet dancers lived in the same house, and they used to
come and drink coffee with you.

ARKADINA. I remember that.

TREPLIEFF. They were very pious. [A pause] I love you again, these last
few days, as tenderly and trustingly as I did as a child. I have no one
left me now but you. Why, why do you let yourself be controlled by that
man?

ARKADINA. You don't understand him, Constantine. He has a wonderfully
noble personality.

TREPLIEFF. Nevertheless, when he has been told that I wish to challenge
him to a duel his nobility does not prevent him from playing the coward.
He is about to beat an ignominious retreat.

ARKADINA. What nonsense! I have asked him myself to go.

TREPLIEFF. A noble personality indeed! Here we are almost quarrelling
over him, and he is probably in the garden laughing at us at this very
moment, or else enlightening Nina's mind and trying to persuade her into