back] Nicholas, give me a rouble.

IVANOFF silently hands him the money

BORKIN. Thanks. Shabelski, you still hold some trump cards.

SHABELSKI follows him out.

SHABELSKI. Well, what are they?

BORKIN. If I were you I should have thirty thousand roubles and
more in a week. [They go out together.]

IVANOFF. [After a pause] Useless people, useless talk, and the
necessity of answering stupid questions, have wearied me so,
doctor, that I am ill. I have become so irritable and bitter that
I don't know myself. My head aches for days at a time. I hear a
ringing in my ears, I can't sleep, and yet there is no escape
from it all, absolutely none.

LVOFF. Ivanoff, I have something serious to speak to you about.

IVANOFF. What is it ?

LVOFF. It is about your wife. She refuses to go to the Crimea
alone, but she would go with you.

IVANOFF. [Thoughtfully] It would cost a great deal for us both to
go, and besides, I could not get leave to be away for so long. I
have had one holiday already this year.