Nicholas Ivánovich monologue (Act 2) — The Light Shines in Darkness

And what am I to do? Don't I know why that wretched man--dressed up in his cassock and wearing that cross--was sent for, and why Alexándra Ivánovna brought the Notary? You want me to hand the estate over to you, but I can't. You know that I have loved you all the twenty years we have lived together. I love you and wish you well, and therefore cannot sign away the estate to you. If I sign it away at all, it can only be to give it back to those from whom it has been taken--the peasants. And I can't let things remain as they are, but must give it to them. I'm glad the Notary has come; and I will do it.