HELENA. Where is the doctor?

VOITSKI. In there, spending the night with me. Perhaps I am
drunk, perhaps I am; nothing is impossible.

HELENA. Have you just been drinking together? Why do you do that?

VOITSKI. Because in that way I get a taste of life. Let me do it,
Helena!

HELENA. You never used to drink, and you never used to talk so
much. Go to bed, I am tired of you.

VOITSKI. [Falling on his knees before her] My sweetheart, my
beautiful one---

HELENA. [Angrily] Leave me alone! Really, this has become too
disagreeable.

HELENA goes out. A pause.

VOITSKI [Alone] She is gone! I met her first ten years ago, at
her sister's house, when she was seventeen and I was
thirty-seven. Why did I not fall in love with her then and
propose to her? It would have been so easy! And now she would
have been my wife. Yes, we would both have been waked to-night by
the thunderstorm, and she would have been frightened, but I would
have held her in my arms and whispered: "Don't be afraid! I am
here." Oh, enchanting dream, so sweet that I laugh to think of
it. [He laughs] But my God! My head reels! Why am I so old? Why