FEDYA (interrupting). Please, please don't think I'm drunk and don't
realize what I'm saying. Of course I'm drunk, but I see everything
very clearly. Now go ahead. What were you told to tell me?

KARENIN (is standing L. C. Shrugging his shoulders). Your wife asked
me to find you and to tell you she's waiting for you. She wants you to
forget everything and come back.

[Pause.

KARENIN (stiffly). Elizaveta Protosova sent for me and suggested that
I--

FEDYA (as he hesitates). Yes.

KARENIN (finishing rather lamely). But I ask you not so much for her
as for myself--Fedya, come home.

FEDYA (looking up at him, smiling rather whimsically). You're a much
finer person than I am, Victor. Of course that's not saying much. I'm
not very much good, am I? (Laughing gently.) But that's exactly why
I'm not going to do what you want me to. It's not the only reason,
though. The real reason is that I just simply can't. How could I?

KARENIN (persuasively). Come along to my rooms, Fedya, and I'll tell
her you'll be back to-morrow.

FEDYA (wistfully). To-morrows can't change what we are. She'll still
be she, and I will still be I to-morrow. (Goes to the table and