I can't do it. I can't do it. [Pause. MASHA is heard singing. MASHA bursts into the room. MASHA (breathless). I've been everywhere looking for you. To Popov's, Afremov's, then I guessed you'd be here. (Crosses to him. Sees revolver, turns, faces him quickly, concealing it with her body, stands very tense and taut, looking at him.) Oh, you fool! You hideous fool! Did you think you'd---- FEDYA (still completely unnerved). Awful! It's been awful! I tried---- (With a gesture of despair.) I couldn't---- [Crosses to table L. C.--leans against it. MASHA (puts her hand to her face as if terribly hurt). As if I didn't exist. (Crosses over to table L. C., puts down revolver.) As if I weren't in your life at all. Oh, how godless you are! (Brokenly.) Tell me, tell me, what about all my love for you? FEDYA (as if suddenly aware of a great fatigue). I wanted to set them free. I promised to--and when the time came I couldn't. MASHA. And what about me? What about me? FEDYA. I thought you'd be free, too. Surely my torturing you can't make you happy. MASHA. Oh, I can look out for myself. Maybe I'd rather be unhappy, miserable, wretched with you every minute than even think of living without you. FEDYA (up R.--half to himself). If I'd finished just now, you would have cried bitterly perhaps, my Masha, but you would have lived past it. MASHA. Oh, damn you, don't be so sure I'd cry at all. Can't you even be sorry for me? [She tries to conceal her tears. FEDYA. Oh God, I only wanted to make everybody happier. MASHA. Yourself happier, you mean. FEDYA (smiling). Would I have been happier to be dead now? MASHA (sulkily). I suppose you would. (Suddenly in a tender voice, crossing to him.) But, Fedya, do you know what you want? Tell me, what do you want? FEDYA (R). I want so many things. MASHA (impatiently and clinging to him). But what? What? FEDYA. First of all, I want to set them free. How can I lie? How can I crawl through the muck and filth of a divorce? I can't. (Moves to end of table and stands there facing front.) But I must set them free somehow. They're such good people, my wife and Victor. I can't bear having them suffer. MASHA (R. of table L. C.--scornfully). Where's the good in her if she left you? FEDYA. She didn't. I left her. MASHA. She made you think she'd be happier without you. But go on---- (Impatiently.) Blame yourself, what else. FEDYA. There's you, Masha. Young, lovely, awfully dear to me. If I stay alive, ah, where will you be? MASHA. Don't bother about me. You can't hurt me. FEDYA (sighing). But the big reason, the biggest reason of all, is myself. I'm just lost. Your father is right, my dear. I'm no good. MASHA (crossing to him, at once tenderly and savagely). I won't unfasten myself from you. I'll stick to you, no matter where you take me, no matter what you do. You're alive, terribly alive, and I love you. Fedya, drop all this horror. FEDYA. How can I?