The Lower Depths

VASSILISA [significantly] That’s too bad.. perhaps I might arrange a match.

PEPEL [suspiciously] Who with?

VASSILISA. You know – why do you pretend? Vassily – let me be frank. [With lower voice] I won’t deny it – you’ve offended me.. it was like a bolt from the blue.. you said you loved me – and then all of a sudden.

PEPEL. It wasn’t sudden at all. It’s been a long time since I.. woman, you’ve no soul! A woman must have a soul.. we men are beasts – we must be taught – and you, what have you taught me – ?

VASSILISA. Never mind the past! I know – no man owns his own heart – you don’t love me any longer.. well and good, it can’t be helped!

PEPEL. So that’s over. We part peaceably, without a row – as it should be!

VASSILISA. Just a moment! All the same, when I lived with you, I hoped you’d help me out of this swamp – I thought you’d free me from my husband and my uncle – from all this life – and perhaps, Vassya, it wasn’t you whom I loved – but my hope – do you understand? I waited for you to drag me out of this mire.

PEPEL. You aren’t a nail – and I’m not a pair of pincers! I thought you had brains – you are so clever – so crafty.

VASSILISA [leaning closely towards him] Vassa – let’s help each other!

PEPEL. How?

VASSILISA [low and forcibly] My sister – I know you’ve fallen for her..

PEPEL. And that’s why you beat her up, like the beast you are! Look out, Vassilisa! Don’t you touch her!

VASSILISA. Wait. Don’t get excited. We can do everything quietly and pleasantly. You want to marry her. I’ll give you money.. three hundred rubles – even more than that.

PEPEL [moving away from her] Stop! What do you mean?

VASSILISA. Rid me of my husband! Take that noose from around my neck.

PEPEL [whistling softly] So that’s the way the land lies! You certainly planned it cleverly.. in other words, the grave for the husband, the gallows for the lover, and as for yourself.

VASSILISA. Vassya! Why the gallows? It doesn’t have to be yourself – but one of your pals! And supposing it were yourself – who’d know? Natalia – just think – and you’ll have money – you go away somewhere.. you free me forever – and it’ll be very good for my sister to be away from me – the sight of her enrages me… I get furious with her on account of you, and I can’t control myself. I tortured the girl – I beat her up – beat her up so that I myself cried with pity for her – but I’ll beat her – and I’ll go on beating her!

PEPEL. Beast! Bragging about your beastliness?

VASSILISA. I’m not bragging – I speak the truth. Think now, Vassa. You’ve been to prison twice because of my husband – through his greed. He clings to me like a bed-bug – he’s been sucking the life out of me for the last four years – and what sort of a husband is he to me? He’s forever abusing Natasha – calls her a beggar – he’s just poison, plain poison, to every one.

PEPEL. You spin your yarn cleverly.

VASSILISA. Everything I say is true. Only a fool could be as blind as you..

[Kostilyoff enters stealthily and comes forward noisily.]

PEPEL [to Vassilisa] Oh – go away!

VASSILISA. Think it over! [Sees her husband] What? You? Following me?

[Pepel leaps up and stares at Kostilyoff savagely.]

KOSTILYOFF. It’s I, I! So the two of you were here alone – you were – ah – conversing? [Suddenly stamps his feet and screams] Vassilisa – you bitch! You beggar! You damned hag! [Frightened by his own screams which are met by silence and indifference on the part of the others] Forgive me, O Lord.. Vassilisa – again you’ve led me into the path of sin… I’ve been looking for you everywhere. It’s time to go to bed. You forgot to fill the lamps – oh, you.. beggar! Swine! [Shakes his trembling fist at her, while Vassilisa slowly goes to door, glancing at Pepel over her shoulder]

PEPEL [to Kostilyoff] Go away – clear out of here —

KOSTILYOFF [yelling] What? I? The Boss? I get out? You thief!

PEPEL [sullenly] Go away, Mishka!

KOSTILYOFF. Don’t you dare – I – I’ll show you.

[Pepel seizes him by the collar and shakes him. From the stove come loud noises and yawns. Pepel releases Kostilyoff who runs into the hallway, screaming.]

PEPEL [jumping on a bunk] Who is it? Who’s on the stove?

LUKA [raising his head] Eh?

PEPEL. You?

LUKA [undisturbed] I – I myself – oh, dear Jesus!

PEPEL [shuts hallway door, looks for the wooden closing bar, but can’t find it] The devil! Come down, old man!

LUKA. I’m climbing down – all right.

PEPEL [roughly] What did you climb on that stove for?

LUKA. Where was I to go?

PEPEL. Why – didn’t you go out into the hall?

LUKA. The hall’s too cold for an old fellow like myself, brother.

PEPEL. You overheard?

LUKA. Yes – I did. How could I help it? Am I deaf? Well, my boy, happiness is coming your way. Real, good fortune I call it!

PEPEL [suspiciously] What good fortune – ?

LUKA. In so far as I was lying on the stove.

PEPEL. Why did you make all that noise?

LUKA. Because I was getting warm.. it was your good luck.. I thought if only the boy wouldn’t make a mistake and choke the old man.

PEPEL. Yes – I might have done it.. how terrible.

LUKA. Small wonder! It isn’t difficult to make a mistake of that sort.

PEPEL [smiling] What’s the matter? Did you make the same sort of mistake once upon a time?