old age and has surrendered all the glory of her beauty and
freedom to him. Why? What for?

ASTROFF. Is she faithful to him?

VOITSKI. Yes, unfortunately she is.

ASTROFF. Why unfortunately?

VOITSKI. Because such fidelity is false and unnatural, root and
branch. It sounds well, but there is no logic in it. It is
thought immoral for a woman to deceive an old husband whom she
hates, but quite moral for her to strangle her poor youth in her
breast and banish every vital desire from her heart.

TELEGIN. [In a tearful voice] Vanya, I don't like to hear you
talk so. Listen, Vanya; every one who betrays husband or wife is
faithless, and could also betray his country.

VOITSKI. [Crossly] Turn off the tap, Waffles.

TELEGIN. No, allow me, Vanya. My wife ran away with a lover on
the day after our wedding, because my exterior was
unprepossessing. I have never failed in my duty since then. I
love her and am true to her to this day. I help her all I can and
have given my fortune to educate the daughter of herself and her
lover. I have forfeited my happiness, but I have kept my pride.
And she? Her youth has fled, her beauty has faded according to
the laws of nature, and her lover is dead. What has she kept?