LVOFF. Very well, let us admit that. Now to proceed. The best
cure for consumption is absolute peace of mind, and your wife has
none whatever. She is forever excited by your behaviour to her.
Forgive me, I am excited and am going to speak frankly. Your
treatment of her is killing her. [A pause] Ivanoff, let me
believe better things of you.

IVANOFF. What you say is true, true. I must be terribly guilty,
but my mind is confused. My will seems to be paralysed by a kind
of stupor; I can't understand myself or any one else. [Looks
toward the window] Come, let us take a walk, we might be
overheard here. [They get up] My dear friend, you should hear the
whole story from the beginning if it were not so long and
complicated that to tell it would take all night. [They walk up
and down] Anna is a splendid, an exceptional woman. She has left
her faith, her parents and her fortune for my sake. If I should
demand a hundred other sacrifices, she would consent to every one
without the quiver of an eyelid. Well, I am not a remarkable man
in any way, and have sacrificed nothing. However, the story is a
long one. In short, the whole point is, my dear doctor--
[Confused] that I married her for love and promised to love her
forever, and now after five years she loves me still and I-- [He
waves his hand] Now, when you tell me she is dying, I feel
neither love nor pity, only a sort of loneliness and weariness.
To all appearances this must seem horrible, and I cannot
understand myself what is happening to me. [They go out.]

SHABELSKI comes in.