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Throws the shawl atPischin, curtseys and runs into the drawing-room.
Pischin. [Runs after her] Little wretch… What? Would you? [Exit.]
Lubov. Leonid hasn’t come yet. I don’t understand what he’s doing so long in town! Everything must be over by now. The estate must be sold; or, if the sale never came off, then why does he stay so long?
Varya. [Tries to soothe her] Uncle has bought it. I’m certain of it.
Trofimov. [Sarcastically] Oh, yes!
Varya. Grandmother sent him her authority for him to buy it in her name and transfer the debt to her. She’s doing it for Anya. And I’m certain that God will help us and uncle will buy it.
Lubov. Grandmother sent fifteen thousand roubles from Yaroslav to buy the property in her name – she won’t trust us – and that wasn’t even enough to pay the interest. [Covers her face with her hands] My fate will be settled today, my fate…
Trofimov. [TeasingVarya] Madame Lopakhin!
Varya. [Angry] Eternal student! He’s already been expelled twice from the university.
Lubov. Why are you getting angry, Varya? He’s teasing you about Lopakhin, well what of it? You can marry Lopakhin if you want to, he’s a good, interesting man… You needn’t if you don’t want to; nobody wants to force you against your will, my darling.
Varya. I do look at the matter seriously, little mother, to be quite frank. He’s a good man, and I like him.
Lubov. Then marry him. I don’t understand what you’re waiting for.
Varya. I can’t propose to him myself, little mother. People have been talking about him to me for two years now, but he either says nothing, or jokes about it. I understand. He’s getting rich, he’s busy, he can’t bother about me. If I had some money, even a little, even only a hundred roubles, I’d throw up everything and go away. I’d go into a convent.
Trofimov. How nice!
Varya. [ToTrofimov] A student ought to have sense! [Gently, in tears] How ugly you are now, Peter, how old you’ve grown! [ToLubov Andreyevna, no longer crying] But I can’t go on without working, little mother. I want to be doing something every minute.
EnterYasha.
Yasha. [Nearly laughing] Epikhodov’s broken a billiard cue! [Exit.]
Varya. Why is Epikhodov here? Who said he could play billiards? I don’t understand these people. [Exit.]
Lubov. Don’t tease her, Peter, you see that she’s quite unhappy without that.
Trofimov. She takes too much on herself, she keeps on interfering in other people’s business. The whole summer she’s given no peace to me or to Anya, she’s afraid we’ll have a romance all to ourselves. What has it to do with her? As if I’d ever given her grounds to believe I’d stoop to such vulgarity! We are above love.
Lubov. Then I suppose I must be beneath love. [In agitation] Why isn’t Leonid here? If I only knew whether the estate is sold or not! The disaster seems to me so improbable that I don’t know what to think, I’m all at sea… I may scream… or do something silly. Save me, Peter. Say something, say something.
Trofimov. Isn’t it all the same whether the estate is sold today or isn’t? It’s been all up with it for a long time; there’s no turning back, the path’s grown over. Be calm, dear, you shouldn’t deceive yourself, for once in your life at any rate you must look the truth straight in the face.
Lubov. What truth? You see where truth is, and where untruth is, but I seem to have lost my sight and see nothing. You boldly settle all important questions, but tell me, dear, isn’t it because you’re young, because you haven’t had time to suffer till you settled a single one of your questions? You boldly look forward, isn’t it because you cannot foresee or expect anything terrible, because so far life has been hidden from your young eyes? You are bolder, more honest, deeper than we are, but think only, be just a little magnanimous, and have mercy on me. I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather too, I love this house. I couldn’t understand my life without that cherry orchard, and if it really must be sold, sell me with it! [EmbracesTrofimov, kisses his forehead]. My son was drowned here… [Weeps] Have pity on me, good, kind man.
Trofimov. You know I sympathize with all my soul.
Lubov. Yes, but it ought to be said differently, differently… [Takes another handkerchief, a telegram falls on the floor] I’m so sick at heart today, you can’t imagine. Here it’s so noisy, my soul shakes at every sound. I shake all over, and I can’t go away by myself, I’m afraid of the silence. Don’t judge me harshly, Peter… I loved you, as if you belonged to my family. I’d gladly let Anya marry you, I swear it, only dear, you ought to work, finish your studies. You don’t do anything, only fate throws you about from place to place, it’s so odd… Isn’t it true? Yes? And you ought to do something to your beard to make it grow better [Laughs] You are funny!
Trofimov. [Picking up telegram] I don’t want to be a Beau Brummel.
Lubov. This telegram’s from Paris. I get one every day. Yesterday and today. That wild man is ill again, he’s bad again… He begs for forgiveness, and implores me to come, and I really ought to go to Paris to be near him. You look severe, Peter, but what can I do, my dear, what can I do; he’s ill, he’s alone, unhappy, and who’s to look after him, who’s to keep him away from his errors, to give him his medicine punctually? And why should I conceal it and say nothing about it; I love him, that’s plain, I love him, I love him… That love is a stone round my neck; I’m going with it to the bottom, but I love that stone and can’t live without it. [SqueezesTrofimov’shand] Don’t think badly of me, Peter, don’t say anything to me, don’t say…
Trofimov. [Weeping] For God’s sake forgive my speaking candidly, but that man has robbed you!
Lubov. No, no, no, you oughtn’t to say that! [Stops her ears.]
Trofimov. But he’s a wretch, you alone don’t know it! He’s a petty thief, a nobody…
Lubov. [Angry, but restrained] You’re twenty-six or twenty-seven, and still a schoolboy of the second class!
Trofimov. Why not!
Lubov. You ought to be a man, at your age you ought to be able to understand those who love. And you ought to be in love yourself, you must fall in love! [Angry] Yes, yes! You aren’t pure, you’re just a freak, a queer fellow, a funny growth…
Trofimov. [In horror] What is she saying!
Lubov. “I’m above love!” You’re not above love, you’re just what our Fiers calls a bungler. Not to have a mistress at your age!
Trofimov. [In horror] This is awful! What is she saying? [Goes quickly up into the drawing-room, clutching his head] It’s awful… I can’t stand it, I’ll go away. [Exit, but returns at once] All is over between us! [Exit.]
Lubov. [Shouts after him] Peter, wait! Silly man, I was joking! Peter! [Somebody is heard going out and falling downstairs noisily.AnyaandVaryascream; laughter is heard immediately] What’s that?
Anyacomes running in, laughing.
Anya. Peter’s fallen downstairs! [Runs out again.]
Lubov. This Peter’s a marvel.
Thestation-masterstands in the middle of the drawing-room and recites “The Magdalen” by Tolstoy. He is listened to, but he has only delivered a few lines when a waltz is heard from the front room, and the recitation is stopped. Everybody dances.Trofimov, Anya, Varya, andLubov Andreyevnacome in from the front room.
Lubov. Well, Peter… you pure soul… I beg your pardon… let’s dance.
She dances withPeter. AnyaandVaryadance.Fiersenters and stands his stick by a side door.Yashahas also come in and looks on at the dance.
Yasha. Well, grandfather?
Fiers. I’m not well. At our balls some time back, generals and barons and admirals used to dance, and now we send for post-office clerks and the station-master, and even they come as a favour. I’m very weak. The dead master, the grandfather, used to give everybody sealing-wax when anything was wrong. I’ve taken sealing-wax every day for twenty years, and more; perhaps that’s why I still live.
Yasha. I’m tired of you, grandfather. [Yawns] If you’d only hurry up and kick the bucket.
Fiers. Oh you… bungler! [Mutters.]
TrofimovandLubov Andreyevnadance in the reception-room, then into the sitting-room.
Lubov.Merci. I’ll sit down. [Sits] I’m tired.
EnterAnya.
Anya. [Excited] Somebody in the kitchen was saying just now that the cherry orchard was sold today.
Lubov. Sold to whom?
Anya. He didn’t say to whom. He’s gone now. [Dances out into the reception-room withTrofimov.]
Yasha. Some old man was chattering about it a long time ago. A stranger!
Fiers. And Leonid Andreyevitch isn’t here yet, he hasn’t come. He’s wearing a light, demi-saison overcoat. He’ll catch cold. Oh these young fellows.
Lubov. I’ll die of this. Go and find out, Yasha, to whom it’s sold.
Yasha. Oh, but he’s been gone a long time, the old man. [Laughs.]
Lubov. [Slightly vexed] Why do you laugh? What are you glad about?
Yasha. Epikhodov’s too funny. He’s a silly man. Two-and-twenty troubles.
Lubov. Fiers, if the estate is sold, where will you go?
Fiers. I’ll go wherever you order me to go.
Lubov. Why do you look like that? Are you ill? I think you ought to go to bed…
Fiers. Yes… [With a smile] I’ll go to bed, and who’ll hand things round and give orders without me? I’ve the whole house on my shoulders.
Yasha. [ToLubov Andreyevna] Lubov Andreyevna! I want to ask a favour of you, if you’ll be so kind! If you go to Paris again, then please take me with you. It’s absolutely impossible for me to stop here. [Looking round; in an undertone] What’s the good of talking about it, you see for yourself that this is an uneducated country, with an immoral population, and it’s so dull. The food in the kitchen is beastly, and here’s this Fiers walking about mumbling various inappropriate things. Take me with you, be so kind!
EnterPischin.
Pischin. I come to ask for the pleasure of a little waltz, dear lady… [Lubov Andreyevnagoes to him] But all the same, you wonderful woman, I must have 180 little roubles from you… I must… [They dance] 180 little roubles… [They go through into the drawing-room.]
Yasha. [Sings softly]
“Oh, will you understand
My soul’s deep restlessness?”
In the drawing-room a figure in a grey top-hat and in baggy check trousers is waving its hands and jumping about; there are cries of “Bravo, Charlotta Ivanovna!”
Dunyasha. [Stops to powder her face] The young mistress tells me to dance – there are a lot of gentlemen, but few ladies – and my head goes round when I dance, and my heart beats, Fiers Nicolaevitch; the post-office clerk told me something just now which made me catch my breath. [The music grows faint.]
Fiers. What did he say to you?
Dunyasha. He says, “You’re like a little flower.”
Yasha. [Yawns] Impolite… [Exit.]
Dunyasha. Like a little flower. I’m such a delicate girl; I simply love words of tenderness.
Fiers. You’ll lose your head.
EnterEpikhodov.
Epikhodov. You, Avdotya Fedorovna, want to see me no more than if I was some insect. [Sighs] Oh, life!
Dunyasha. What do you want?
Epikhodov. Undoubtedly, perhaps, you may be right. [Sighs] But, certainly, if you regard the matter from the aspect, then you, if I may say so, and you must excuse my candidness, have absolutely reduced me to a state of mind. I know my fate, every day something unfortunate happens to me, and I’ve grown used to it a long time ago, I even look at my fate with a smile. You gave me your word, and though I…
Dunyasha. Please, we’ll talk later on, but leave me alone now. I’m meditating now. [Plays with her fan.]
Epikhodov. Every day something unfortunate happens to me, and I, if I may so express myself, only smile, and even laugh.
Varyaenters from the drawing-room.
Varya. Haven’t you gone yet, Simeon? You really have no respect for anybody. [ToDunyasha] You go away, Dunyasha. [ToEpikhodov] You play billiards and break a cue, and walk about the drawing-room as if you were a visitor!
Epikhodov. You cannot, if I may say so, call me to order.
Varya. I’m not calling you to order, I’m only telling you. You just walk about from place to place and never do your work. Goodness only knows why we keep a clerk.
Epikhodov. [Offended] Whether I work, or walk about, or eat, or play billiards, is only a matter to be settled by people of understanding and my elders.
Varya. You dare to talk to me like that! [Furious] You dare? You mean that I know nothing? Get out of here! This minute!
Epikhodov. [Nervous] I must ask you to express yourself more delicately.
Varya. [Beside herself] Get out this minute. Get out! [He goes to the door, she follows] Two-and-twenty troubles! I don’t want any sign of you here! I don’t want to see anything of you! [Epikhodovhas gone out; his voice can be heard outside: “I’ll make a complaint against you.”] What, coming back? [Snatches up the stick left by
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