Arms and the man

Raina’s mother Catherine Petkoff enters looking for her daughter. Though beautiful in an earthy way, Catherine’s class pretensions - always wearing a fashionable tea gown - make her a somewhat ridiculous figure. She informs Raina that her fiancé Sergius headed a daring cavalry charge, winning a major battle. Raina and her mother become ecstatic, rapturously contemplating the Bulgarian maneuver. Yet Raina admits that as Sergius was leaving for war she had doubts as to whether all their ideas about heroism and love would be borne out in reality. She explains that she suspected their ideas were only the product of plays and operas, but she happily asserts that hearing news of Sergius’ exploits confirms that their ideas were real and correct.