off the earth and landed on a strange planet. Please be seated,
ladies and gentlemen. Sonia! [SONIA does not hear. She is
standing with her head bowed sadly forward on her breast] Sonia!
[A pause] She does not hear me. [To MARINA] Sit down too, nurse.
[MARINA sits down and begins to knit her stocking] I crave your
indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears, if I may say
so, on the peg of attention. [He laughs.]

VOITSKI. [Agitated] Perhaps you do not need me--may I be excused?

SEREBRAKOFF. No, you are needed now more than any one.

VOITSKI. What is it you want of me?

SEREBRAKOFF. You--but what are you angry about? If it is anything
I have done, I ask you to forgive me.

VOITSKI. Oh, drop that and come to business; what do you want?

MME. VOITSKAYA comes in.

SEREBRAKOFF. Here is mother. Ladies and gentlemen, I shall begin.
I have asked you to assemble here, my friends, in order to
discuss a very important matter. I want to ask you for your
assistance and advice, and knowing your unfailing amiability I
think I can count on both. I am a book-worm and a scholar, and am
unfamiliar with practical affairs. I cannot, I find, dispense
with the help of well-informed people such as you, Ivan, and you,
Telegin, and you, mother. The truth is, _manet omnes una nox,_
that is to say, our lives are in the hands of God, and as I am