Demons

At the same time that the group goes to visit Semyon, Stepan and Varvara have a meeting that Varvara has been putting off for some time. Stepan goes to Varvara’s house. She is busy with preparations for a gala she plans to hold after Yuliya’s to let the public decide who the better host is. When Stepan arrives, Varvara tells him that she’ll continue to give him a yearly allowance and will include extra money that will account for the servants and treatment he has grown accustomed to at Varvara’s house. But, she says, he can no longer live in her house.

Stepan is devastated. He cries out that he knows that perhaps he came off as a leech, and he certainly took Varvara’s money, but that wasn’t ever his guiding motivation. He says that he was guided by something higher: love for Varvara. He begins weeping and tells Varvara that he won’t take her money. By doing that, he plans to prove to her that he actually loves her. For a moment, it seems that Varvara might begin weeping, too. Instead, she says that Stepan’s threats are always hollow, and he’ll surely live out the rest of his days on her dime holding his weekly gatherings with his friends. Stepan returns home, deeply unhappy.