Redemption and two other plays Part 68

[All fuss round him.

VASiLY LEONiDITCH. Let's go straight from here into the coachman's room. I've got a b.i.t.c.h there--epatante![7]

BETSY. What a horrid word! Couldn't you say dog?

VASiLY LEONiDITCH. No. I can't say--Betsy is a man, epatante. I should have to say young woman; it's a parallel case. Eh, what? Marya Konstantinovna, isn't it true? Good, eh?

[Laughs loudly.

MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA. Well, let us go.

[Exeunt MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA, BETSY, PETRiSTCHEF, and VASiLY LEONiDITCH.

FAT LADY (to GROSSMAN). Well? how are you? Have you rested? (GROSSMAN does not answer. To SAHaTOF.) And you, Mr. Sahatof, did you feel the effluence?

SAHaTOF. I felt nothing. Yes, it was very fine--very fine. Quite a success!

BARONESS.--Admirable! ca ne le fait pas souffrir? [8]

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Pas le moins du monde.

PROFESSOR (to GROSSMAN). May I trouble you? (Hands him a thermometer.) At the beginning of the experiment it was 37 decimal 2 degrees. [9]

(To DOCTOR.) That's right, I think? Would you mind feeling his pulse?

Some loss is inevitable.

DOCTOR (to GROSSMAN). Now then, sir, let's have your hand; we'll see, we'll see.

[Takes out his watch and feels GROSSMAN'S pulse.

FAT LADY (to GROSSMAN). One moment! The condition you were in could not be called sleep?

GROSSMAN (wearily). It was hypnosis.

SAHaTOF. In that case, are we to understand that you hypnotised yourself?

GROSSMAN. And why not? An hypnotic state may ensue not only in consequence of a.s.sociation--the sound of the tom-tom, for instance, in Charcot's method--but by merely entering an hypnogenetic zone.

SAHaTOF. Granting that, it would still be desirable to define what hypnotism is, more exactly?

PROFESSOR. Hypnotism is a phenomenon resulting from the trans.m.u.tation of one energy into another.

GROSSMAN. Charcot does not so define it.

SAHaTOF. A moment, just a moment! That is your definition, but Liebault told me himself....

DOCTOR (lets go of GROSSMAN'S pulse). Ah, that's all right; well, now, the temperature?

FAT LADY (interrupting). No, allow me! I agree with the Professor. And here's the very best proof. After my illness, when I lay insensible, a desire to speak came over me. In general I am of a silent disposition, but then I was overcome by this desire to speak, and I spoke and spoke, and I was told that I spoke in such a way that every one was astonished! (To SAHaTOF.) But I think I interrupted you?

SAHaTOF (with dignity). Not at all. Pray continue.

DOCTOR. Pulse 82, and the temperature has risen three-tenths of a degree.

PROFESSOR. There you are! That's a proof! That's just as it should be.

(Takes out pocket-book and writes.) 82, yes? And 37 and 5. When the hypnotic state is induced, it invariably produces a heightened action of the heart.

DOCTOR. I can, as a medical man, bear witness that your prognosis was justified by the event.

PROFESSOR (to SAHaTOF). You were saying?...

SAHaTOF. I wished to say that Liebault told me himself that the hypnotic is only one particular psychical state, increasing susceptibility to suggestion.

PROFESSOR. That is so, but still the law of equivalents is the chief thing.

GROSSMAN. Moreover, Liebault is far from being an authority, while Charcot has studied the subject from all sides, and has proved that hypnotism produced by a blow, a trauma....

[All talking together--

SAHaTOF. Yes, but I don't reject Charcot's labor. I know him also, I am only repeating what Liebault told me...

GROSSMAN (excitedly). There are 3000 patients together in the Salpetriere, and I have gone through the whole course.

PROFESSOR. Excuse me, gentlemen, but that is not the point.

FAT LADY (interrupting). One moment, I will explain it to you in two words. When my husband was ill, all the doctors gave him up....

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. However, we had better go upstairs again. Baroness, this way!

[Exeunt GROSSMAN, SAHaTOF, PROFESSOR, DOCTOR, the FAT LADY, and BARONESS, talking loudly and interrupting each other.

ANNA PaVLOVNA (catching hold of LEONiD FYoDORITCH'S arm). How often have I asked you not to interfere in household matters! You think of nothing but your nonsense, and the whole house is on my shoulders. You will infect us all!

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. What? How? I don't understand what you mean.

ANNA PaVLOVNA. How? Why, people ill of diphtheria sleep in the kitchen, which is in constant communication with the whole house.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Yes, but I....

ANNA PaVLOVNA. What, I?

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. I know nothing about it.

ANNA PaVLOVNA. It's your duty to know, if you are the head of the family. Such things must not be done.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. But I never thought.... I thought....

ANNA PaVLOVNA. It is sickening to listen to you!

[LEONiD FYoDORITCH remains silent.