e angel can bring you. [For his ear alone.] I could have brought you more; but you did not think so. Farewell.
EDSTASTON [kissing her hand, which, instead of releasing, he holds caressingly and rather patronizingly in his own]. I feel your Majesty's kindness so much that I really cannot leave you without a word of plain wholesome English advice.
| CATHERINE [snatching her hand away and bounding forward as if he had touched her with a spur]. Advice!!! | [Exclaiming simultaneously] | |
| PATIOMKIN. Madman: take care! | ||
| NARYSHKIN. Advise the Empress!! | ||
| THE SERGEANT. Sainted Nicholas! | ||
| VARINKA. Hoo hoo! [a stifled splutter of laughter]. |
EDSTASTON. [following the Empress and resuming kindly but judicially] After all, though your Majesty is of course a great queen, yet when all is said, I am a man; and your Majesty is only a woman.
CATHERINE. Only a wo— [she chokes].
EDSTASTON [continuing]. Believe me, this Russian extravagance will not do. I appreciate as much as any man the warmth of heart that prompts it; but it is overdone: it is hardly in the best taste: it is really I must say it—it is not proper.
CATHERINE [ironically, in German]. So!
EDSTASTON. Not that I cannot make allowances. Your Majesty has, I know, been unfortunate in your experience as a married woman—
CATHERINE [furious]. Alle Wetter!!!
EDSTASTON [sentimentally]. Don't say that. Don't think of him in that way. After all, he was your husband;
