MARY IVÁNOVNA. He has written to Lisa! She will show you the letter. That sort of conversion is very unstable. So also in Tónya's case; I won't even speak of that fellow Alexander Petróvich, who simply considers it profitable! NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH [getting angry] Well, no matter. I only ask _you_ to understand me. I still consider that truth is truth! All this hurts me very much. And here at home I see a Christmas-tree, a ball, and hundreds of roubles being spent while men are dying of hunger. I cannot live so. Have pity on me, I am worried to death. Let me go! Good-bye. MARY IVÁNOVNA. If you go, I will go with you. Or if not with you, I will throw myself under the train you leave by; and let them all go to perdition--and Missy and Kátya too. Oh my God, my God. What torture! Why? What for? [Weeps]. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH [at the door] Alexander Petróvich, go home! I am not going. [To his wife] Very well, I will stay. [Takes off his overcoat]. MARY IVÁNOVNA [embracing him] We have not much longer to live. Don't let us spoil everything after twenty-eight years of life together. Well, I'll give no more parties; but do not punish me so. Enter Ványa and Kátya running. VÁNYA and KATYA. Mamma, be quick--come. MARY IVÁNOVNA. Coming, coming. So let us forgive one another! [Exit with Kátya and Ványa]. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. A child, a regular child; or a cunning woman? No, a cunning child. Yes, yes. It seems Thou dost not wish me to be Thy servant in this Thy work. Thou wishest me to be humiliated, so that everyone may point his finger at me and say, "He preaches, but he does not perform." Well, let them! Thou knowest best what Thou requirest: submission, humility! Ah, if I could but rise to that height! Enter Lisa. LISA. Excuse me. I have brought you a letter from Vasíly Nikonórovich. It is addressed to me, but he asks me to tell you. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Can it be really true? LISA. Yes. Shall I read it? NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Please do. LISA [reading] "I write to beg you to communicate this to Nicholas Ivánovich. I greatly regret the error which led me openly to stray from the Holy Orthodox Church, to which I rejoice to have now returned. I hope you and Nicholas Ivánovich will follow the same path. Please forgive me!" NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. They have tortured him into this, poor fellow. But still it is terrible. LISA. I also came to tell you that the Princess is here. She came upstairs to me in a dreadfully excited state and is determined to see you. She has just been to see Borís. I think you had better not see her. What good can it do for her to see you? NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. No. Call her in. Evidently this is fated to be a day of dreadful torture. LISA. Then I'll go and call her. [Exit].