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the same. The same ProfessorVólkov, the Feldman girls, journalists, lawyers ... all the faces are familiar....
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    LYULYA
(powdering her face)

Well, if you’ll really be a dear and count for me, I’ll go inside—to me it’s very interesting. May I powder your nose for you?
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    TAUBENDORF
    Thanks a lot. By the way, don’t forget—tomorrow is the last day of shooting. Go on, go on, I’ll take care of everything here.
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    LYULYA
    You are a sweetheart!
(Goes out through the upstage door. Taubendorf sits down at the table and counts the money. Olga Pavlovna, in coat and hat, enters from the right.)
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    Is Alyosha here?
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    TAUBENDORF
    You’re the last person I expected!...No, I haven’t seen him.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    That’s odd.
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    TAUBENDORF
    I can’t imagine him coming to this kind of affair!
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    There’s a lecture of some kind going on here, isn’t there? He told me Thursday that he planned to go.
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    TAUBENDORF
    I really don’t know. I ran into him on the street yesterday. He didn’t say anything about it.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    That means I came for nothing.
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    TAUBENDORF
    I wouldn’t think émigré lectures could possibly interest him. Anyway, it only just started. He may still come.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    Could be. Let’s sit down somewhere.
(They sit on the red settee.)
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    TAUBENDORF
    I don’t understand it—is it possible Alyosha hasn’t been to see you in the last couple of days?
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    The last time he came over was when the Oshivenskis were there—that would make it Thursday. And this is Sunday. I know he’s very busy and so forth. But I have been feeling uneasy and very nervous these last days. Of course what worries me is not the fact that he doesn’t come to see me but this business he’s involved in.... Is everything going all right, Nikolay Karlovich?
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    TAUBENDORF
    Splendidly. It sometimes almost makes my head spin when I think about the things that are happening.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    But the Communists are shrewd, they have spies and
agents provocateurs....
Alexey could get caught at any moment....
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    TAUBENDORF
    That’s the whole point—they’re not that shrewd.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    I wish I were living in the fifties of the last century, in the backwoods of Glukhov or Mirgorod. I get so scared and so sad.
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    TAUBENDORF
    Olga Pavlovna, you remember our last conversation?
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    Which one? Before Alexey’s arrival?
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    TAUBENDORF
    Yes. I told you—you may recall—that when you feel sad and scared—as you just put it—I told you that then—that in moments like this, I’m ready—what I mean is, I’m ready to do anything for you.
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    I remember. Thank you, my dear. Only—
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    TAUBENDORF
(getting up and pacing about the stage)

There’s nothing I wouldn’t ... I’ve already known you for three years. I was best man at your wedding—remember?—at that little church in Tegel. 7 Then, when you separated, when you fell out of love with your husband—and remained alone—already then there was a lot I wanted to say to you. But I have a strong will. I decided not to rush things. Three times Alyosha traveled to Russia, and I would come to see you—but not too often, right? It was deliberate. I had a feeling there might be ... well, all kinds of things—maybe you were seeing someone else ... and maybe it wasn’t fair to Alyosha ... it just didn’t seem right. But now I realize....
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    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    Nikolay Karlovich, for heaven’s sake, don’t....
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    TAUBENDORF
    Now I realize that I need wait no longer—I realize that you and Alyosha are like total strangers. He wouldn’t be able to understand you anyway. I don’t blame him for it—you see, I have no right to