A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads to Anya’s room. Daybreak, the sun will rise soon. It is already May, the cherry trees are in bloom, but it is chilly. There is a morning frost in the orchard. The windows in the room are shut.
Dunyasha enters with a candle and Lopakhin with a book in his hand.
LOPAKHIN
The train’s come, thank God. What time is it?
DUNYASHA
Going on two. (Blows out the candle) It’s already light.
LOPAKHIN
How late does that make the train? A couple of hours at least. (Yawns and stretches) I’m a fine one, too! Made a fool of myself! Came here on purpose to meet them at the station, and slept right through it . . . Sat down and fell asleep. A shame . . . You might have waked me up.
I thought you left. (Listens) There, I think it’s them.
LOPAKHIN
(Listens) No . . . They’ve got to pick up the luggage and all that . . .
Pause.
Lyubov Andreevna’s been living abroad for five years. I don’t know what she’s like now . . . She’s a good person. Easy, simple. I remember when I was a kid of about five or six, my late father—he kept a shop then, here in the village—punched me in the face with his fist. My nose bled . . . We had come here to the yard together for some reason, and he was a bit drunk. Lyubov Andreevna, I remember it like today, still a young thing, so slender, she led me to the washstand, here, in this same room, in the nursery. “Don’t cry, peasant-boy,” she says, “it’ll go away by your wedding day . . .”
Pause.
Peasant-boy . . . True, my father was a peasant, but here I am in a white waistcoat and yellow shoes. A pig in the parlor. Oh, I’m rich all right, I’ve got lots of money, but if you really look into it, I’m as peasant as a peasant can be . . . (Leafs through the book) I’m reading this book and don’t understand a thing. I fell asleep reading it.
Pause.
DUNYASHA
And the dogs didn’t sleep all night. They can sense the masters are coming.
LOPAKHIN
Dunyasha, why are you so—
DUNYASHA
My hands are trembling.
You’re much too pampered, Dunyasha. You dress like a young lady, and do your hair up, too. It’s not right. Remember who you are.
Epikhodov enters with a bouquet. He wears a jacket and brightly polished boots that creak loudly. He drops the bouquet as he enters.
EPIKHODOV
(Picking up the bouquet) The gardener sent it. He says to put it in the dining room. (He hands the bouquet to Dunyasha)
LOPAKHIN
And bring me some kvass.
DUNYASHA
Yes, sir. (Exits)
EPIKHODOV
There’s a morning frost, three below, and the cherry trees are all in bloom. I cannot approve of our climate. (He sighs) I cannot. Our climate cannot aptly contribute. And allow me to append another thing, Ermolai Alexeich. I bought myself some boots two days ago, and, I venture to assure you, they creak so much it’s quite impossible. Can I grease them with something?
LOPAKHIN
Leave me alone. I’m sick of you.
EPIKHODOV
Every day some new catastrophe befalls me. And I don’t complain, I’m used to it, I even smile.
Dunyasha enters, serves Lopakhin his kvass.
I’m leaving. (He bumps into a chair, which falls over) There . . . (As if triumphantly) There, you see. What a happenstance, by the way, if you’ll pardon the expression . . . It’s simply even remarkable! (Exits)
And I must tell you, Ermolai Alexeich, Epikhodov has proposed to me.
LOPAKHIN
Ah!
DUNYASHA
I really don’t know how to . . . He’s nice enough, only sometimes he gets to talking so you don’t understand a thing. It’s good, it’s got feeling, only it’s incomprehensible. I even seem to like him. He’s an unlucky man, every day there’s something. They tease him about it here, they call him “Two-and-twenty Catastrophes.”
LOPAKHIN
(Listens) There, I think it’s them . . .
DUNYASHA
It’s them! What’s the matter with me . . . I’ve gone cold all over.
LOPAKHIN
It’s really them. Let’s go and meet them. Will she recognize me? Five years we haven’t seen each other.
DUNYASHA
(Agitated) Lord . . . Lord . . .
The sound of two carriages driving up to the house. Lopakhin and Dunyasha exit quickly. The stage is empty. Noise starts in the adjacent rooms. Firs, who went to meet Lyubov Andreevna, hastily crosses the stage, leaning on a stick; he is wearing old-fashioned livery and a top hat. He says something to himself, but it is impossible to make out a single word. The noise backstage keeps growing louder. A voice says: “Let’s go through here . . .” Lyubov Andreevna, Anya and Charlotta Ivanovna with a little dog on a leash enter, dressed in traveling clothes. They are followed by Varya, wearing a coat and shawl, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik, Lopakhin, Dunyasha with a bundle and an umbrella, servants with the luggage. They all walk through the room.
ANYA
Let’s go through here. Do you remember what room this is, mama?
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Joyfully, through tears) The nursery!
VARYA
It’s so cold! My hands are freezing. (To Lyubov Andreevna) Your rooms, the white one and the violet one, have stayed just as they were, mama.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
The nursery, my dear, beautiful room . . . I slept here when I was little . . . (Weeps) And it’s as if I’m little now . . . (She kisses her brother, then Varya, then her brother again) And Varya’s the same as before, looking like a nun. And I recognize Dunyasha . . . (She kisses Dunyasha)
GAEV
The train was two hours late. How about that, eh? How about that for efficiency?
CHARLOTTA
(To Pishchik) My dog eats nuts also.
PISHCHIK
(Surprised) Imagine that!
Exit all but Anya and Dunyasha
DUNYASHA
How we waited . . . (She takes Anya’s coat and hat)
I didn’t sleep for four nights on the train . . . I’m so chilled now.
DUNYASHA
You left during the Great Lent, there was snow then, it was freezing, and now? My dear! (Laughs, kisses her) How I waited for you, my joy, my angel . . . I’ll tell you now, I can’t wait . . .
ANYA
(Listlessly) Here we go again . . .
DUNYASHA
The clerk Epikhodov proposed to me after Easter.
ANYA
That’s all you ever . . . (Straightens her hair) I lost all my hairpins . . . (She is very tired, even staggers a little)
DUNYASHA
I just don’t know what to think. He loves me, he loves me so!
ANYA
(Looks through the door to her room, tenderly) My room, my windows, as if I never left. I’m home! Tomorrow morning I’ll get up and run out to the orchard . . . Oh, if only I could fall asleep! I didn’t sleep all the way, I was worn out with worry.
DUNYASHA
Pyotr Sergeich arrived two days ago.
ANYA
(Joyfully) Petya!
DUNYASHA
He’s asleep in the bathhouse. That’s where he’s staying. I’m afraid to inconvenience them, he says. (Glancing at her pocket watch) I ought to wake him up, but Varvara Mikhailovna told me not to. Don’t wake him up, she says.
Varya enters with a bunch of keys hanging from her belt.
VARYA
Dunyasha, coffee, quickly . . . Mama’s asking for coffee.
DUNYASHA
Right away. (Exits)
VARYA
Well, thank God you’ve come. You’re home again. (Caressingly) My darling has come! My beauty has come!
ANYA
I’ve been through a lot.
VARYA
I can imagine!
ANYA
I left during Holy Week. It was cold then. Charlotta talked all the way, and played card tricks. Why on earth did you stick me with Charlotta . . .
VARYA
You couldn’t have gone alone, darling. Not at seventeen!
ANYA
We arrive in Paris. It’s cold there, snowy. My French is awful. Mama lives on the fifth floor, I go in, there are some French people there, ladies, an old padre with a book, cigarette smoke, cheerless. I suddenly felt so sorry for mama, so sorry, I took her head in my arms, pressed it to me, and couldn’t let go. After that mama just kept hugging me and crying . . .
(Through tears) Don’t tell me, don’t . . .
ANYA
She had already sold her house near Menton, and she had nothing left, nothing. I also didn’t have a kopeck left, we barely made it home. And mama doesn’t understand! We sit down to dinner in the station and she orders the most expensive things and tips the waiter a rouble. Then there’s Charlotta. Yasha also orders something. It’s just awful. Mama has this servant Yasha, we’ve brought him with us . . .
VARYA
I saw the scoundrel.
ANYA
Well, so, how are things? Have we paid the interest?
VARYA
Far from it.
ANYA
My God, my God . . .
VARYA
They’ll put the estate up for sale in August . . .
ANYA
My God . . .
LOPAKHIN
(Peeks through the door and moos) Meu-u-h. (Exits)
VARYA
(Through tears) Oh, I could give it to him . . . (Shakes her fist)
(Embraces Varya) Varya, has he proposed? (Varya shakes her head no) But he does love you . . . Why don’t you have a talk? What are you waiting for?
VARYA
I don’t think it’ll come to anything. He has a lot to do, he can’t be bothered with me . . . he pays no attention. Enough of him, it’s hard for me to look at him . . . Everybody talks about us getting married, everybody congratulates me, and he himself looks like he’s just about to propose, but in fact there’s nothing, it’s all like a dream, a troubling, bad dream . . . Sometimes I’m even frightened. I don’t know what to do with myself . . . (In a different tone) Your brooch looks like a little bee.
ANYA
(Sadly) Mama bought it for me. (Goes to her room, talks gaily, childishly) In Paris I flew in a hot-air balloon.
VARYA
My darling’s come home! My beauty’s come home!
Dunyasha has now returned with the coffee pot and is preparing coffee.
(Standing by the door) I go around all day, darling, looking after the house, and I keep dreaming. To see you married to a rich man. I’d be at peace then, and I’d take myself to a convent, then to Kiev . . . to Moscow, and go around like that to all the holy places . . . go on and on. What blessedness!
ANYA
The birds are singing in the orchard. What time is it?
VARYA
Must be nearly three. It’s time you went to bed, darling. (Going into Anya’s room) What blessedness!
Yasha enters with a lap blanket and a traveling bag.
YASHA
(Walks across the stage) May I pass through here?
DUNYASHA
I’d never have recognized you, Yasha. See what’s become of you abroad!
YASHA
Hm . . . And who are you?
DUNYASHA
I was only so high when you left . . . (Shows height from the floor) Dunyasha, Fyodor Kozoedov’s daughter. Don’t you remember?!
YASHA
Hm . . . A cute little cucumber! (Glances around and embraces her; she cries out and drops a saucer. Yasha quickly exits)
VARYA
(In the doorway, displeased) What’s going on here?
DUNYASHA
(Through tears) I broke a saucer . . .
VARYA
That means good luck.
ANYA
(Coming out of her room) We should warn mama that Petya’s here . . .
VARYA
I gave orders not to wake him up.
ANYA
(Pensively) Father died six years ago. A month later my brother Grisha drowned in the river—a seven-year-old boy. Mama couldn’t bear it, she left, left without looking back . . . (Shudders) How well I understand her, if only she knew!
Pause.
And Petya Trofimov was Grisha’s tutor, he might remind her of . . .
Firs enters wearing a jacket and white waistcoat.
FIRS
(Approaches the coffee pot, preoccupied) The lady will have coffee here . . . (Puts on white gloves) Is the coffee ready? (Sternly, to Dunyasha) You! Where’s the cream?
DUNYASHA
Oh, my God . . . (Exits quickly)
FIRS
(Fussing over the coffee pot) Eh, you blunderhead . . . (Mutters to himself) So they’re home from Paris . . . Used to be the master went to Paris . . . by horse and carriage . . . (Laughs)
VARYA
What is it, Firs?
FIRS
If you please. (Joyfully) My lady has come home! How I’ve waited! Now I can die . . . (Weeps from joy)
VARYA
You foolish man.
Lyubov Andreevna, Gaev, Lopakhin and Simeonov-Pishchik enter. Simeonov-Pishchik is wearing a sleeveless jacket of fine broadcloth and balloon trousers.
Gaev, as he enters, makes the motions of playing billiards.
How does it go? Let me remember . . . Yellow into the corner! Double into the side!
GAEV
Cut shot into the corner! Once upon a time you and I slept in this room, sister, and now I’m already fifty-one, strangely enough . . .
LOPAKHIN
Yes, time flies.
GAEV
Whoso?
LOPAKHIN
I said, time flies.
GAEV
It smells of cheap cologne here.
ANYA
I’m going to bed. Good night, mama. (Kisses her mother)
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
My beloved little baby. (Kisses her hands) Are you glad to be home? I can’t get over it.
ANYA
Good-bye, uncle.
GAEV
(Kisses her face and hands) God bless you. You’re so much like your mother! (To his sister) You were exactly the same at her age, Lyuba.
Anya gives her hand to Lopakhin and Pishchik, exits, and closes the door behind her.
She’s very tired.
PISHCHIK
It must have been a long trip.
VARYA
(To Lopakhin and Pishchik) Well, gentlemen? It’s nearly three, don’t wear out your welcome.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Laughs) You’re still the same, Varya. (Pulls her to herself and kisses her) I’ll have my coffee, then we’ll all go.
Firs puts a little cushion under her feet.
Thank you, dearest. I’ve gotten used to coffee. I drink it day and night. Thank you, my dear old man. (She kisses Firs)
VARYA
I’ll see if they’ve brought all the things . . . (Exits)
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Can it be me sitting here? (Laughs) I want to jump around, wave my arms. (Covers her face with her hands) What if I’m asleep! God is my witness, I love my country, love it tenderly, I couldn’t look out of the train, I kept crying. (Through tears) I must have my coffee, though. Thank you, Firs, thank you, my dear old man. I’m so glad you’re still alive.
FIRS
Two days ago.
GAEV
He’s hard of hearing.
I’ve got to leave for Kharkov at five this morning. What a shame! I wanted to have a look at you, to talk a little . . . You’re as magnificent as ever.
PISHCHIK
Even got prettier . . . Dressed up Parisian-style . . . really bowls me over . . .
LOPAKHIN
Your brother, Leonid Andreevich here, goes around saying I’m a boor, a money-grubber, but it’s decidedly all the same to me. Let him talk. All I want is for you to believe me like before, that your astonishing, moving eyes look at me like before. Merciful God! My father was your grandfather’s serf, and your father’s, but you, you personally, once did so much for me that I’ve forgotten all that and love you like one of my own . . . more than one of my own.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
I can’t sit still, I just can’t . . . (Jumps up and paces about in great excitement) I won’t survive this joy . . . Laugh at me, I’m stupid . . . My own little bookcase . . . (Kisses the bookcase) My little table.
GAEV
Nanny died while you were away.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Sits down and drinks her coffee) Yes, God rest her soul. They wrote to me.
GAEV
And Anastasy died. Cross-eyed Petrushka left me and now lives in town at the police chief’s. (Takes a box of fruit drops from his pocket, sucks on one)
PISHCHIK
My daughter, Dashenka . . . sends you her greetings . . .
I would like to tell you something very pleasant and cheerful. (Looks at his watch) I’ve got to go now, there’s no time to talk . . . well, so, in two or three words. As you already know, your cherry orchard is going to be sold off to pay your debts, the auction will be on August twenty-second, but don’t worry, rest easy, there’s a way out . . . Here’s my plan. Please pay attention! Your estate is located only fifteen miles from town, the railroad now passes nearby, and if the cherry orchard and the land by the river were broken up into lots and leased out for building summer houses, you’d have an income of at least twenty-five thousand a year.
GAEV
Excuse me, but that’s nonsense!
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
I don’t quite understand you, Ermolai Alexeich.
LOPAKHIN
You’ll charge the summer people a yearly rent of at least ten roubles per acre, and if you advertise right now, I’ll bet anything you like that by autumn you won’t have a single free scrap left, it’ll all be snapped up. In short, congratulations, you’re saved. The location’s wonderful, the river’s deep. Though, of course, there’ll have to be some clearing away, some cleaning up . . . for instance, you’ll have to pull down all the old buildings, like this house, which is no longer good for anything, and chop down the old cherry orchard . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Chop it down? My dear, forgive me, but you understand nothing. If there’s one thing in the whole province that’s interesting, even remarkable, it’s our cherry orchard.
LOPAKHIN
The only remarkable thing about this orchard is that it’s very big. It produces cherries once in two years, and there’s nothing to do with them, nobody buys them.
This orchard is even mentioned in the Encyclopedia.
LOPAKHIN
(Glancing at his watch) If we don’t come up with anything and don’t reach any decision, both the cherry orchard and the entire estate will be sold at auction on August twenty-second. Make up your minds! There’s no other way out, I swear to you. None. None.
FIRS
In the old days, forty or fifty years ago, the cherries were dried, bottled, made into juice, preserves, and we used to . . .
GAEV
Be quiet, Firs.
FIRS
And we used to send cartloads of dried cherries to Moscow and Kharkov. The money we made! And those dried cherries were soft, juicy, sweet, fragrant . . . They knew a way . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
And where is that way now?
FIRS
Forgotten. Nobody remembers it.
PISHCHIK
(To Lyubov Andreevna) How are things in Paris? Eh? Eat any frogs?
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
No . . . crocodiles.
PISHCHIK
Imagine that . . .
Before there were just gentry and peasants here, but now these summer people have appeared. All the towns, even the smallest ones, are surrounded by summer houses now. And it’s safe to say that in some ten or twenty years the summer people will multiply and begin to work. Right now they only drink tea on their balconies, but it may well happen that they take to farming their little acres, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich . . .
GAEV
(Indignantly) What nonsense!
Varya and Yasha enter.
VARYA
Two telegrams came for you, mama. (Chooses a key and with a ringing noise opens the old bookcase) Here they are.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
From Paris. (Tears up the telegrams without reading them) I’m through with Paris . . .
GAEV
Do you know how old this bookcase is, Lyuba? Last week I pulled out the lower drawer, I look, there are numbers burnt into it. This bookcase was made exactly a hundred years ago. How about that? Eh? We could celebrate its jubilee. It’s an inanimate object, but still, all the same, it’s a bookcase.
PISHCHIK
(Surprised) A hundred years . . . Imagine that . . .
GAEV
Yes . . . That’s something . . . (Pats the bookcase) Dear, much-esteemed bookcase! I hail your existence, which for more than a hundred years now has been intent upon the bright ideals of justice and the good. Your silent summons to fruitful work has never slackened in those hundred years, maintaining courage in the generations of our family, (He becomes tearful) faith in a better future, and fostering in us the ideals of the good and of social consciousness.
Pause.
LOPAKHIN
Hm, yes . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
You’re the same as ever, Lyonya.
GAEV
(Slightly embarrassed) Carom into the right corner! Cut shot into the side!
LOPAKHIN
(Glancing at his watch) Well, time to go.
YASHA
(Offering Lyubov Andreevna medicine) Maybe you’ll take your pills now . . .
PISHCHIK
No need to take medicines, my dear . . . they do no harm, and no good . . . Let me have them . . . my most respected lady. (Takes the pills, pours them into his palm, blows on them, puts them in his mouth, and washes them down with kvass) There!
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Frightened) You’re out of your mind!
PISHCHIK
I took all the pills.
LOPAKHIN
A bottomless pit.
FIRS
The gentleman came here during Holy Week and ate half a bucket of pickles . . . (Mutters something)
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
What’s he saying?
VARYA
He’s been muttering like that for three years now. We’re used to it.
YASHA
On the decline.
Charlotta Ivanovna, in a white dress, very thin, tightly corseted, with a lorgnette at her waist, walks across the stage.
LOPAKHIN
Forgive me, Charlotta Ivanovna, I haven’t greeted you yet. (Tries to kiss her hand)
CHARLOTTA
(Pulling her hand back) If I allow you to kiss my hand, then you’ll want to kiss my elbow, then my shoulder . . .
LOPAKHIN
I have no luck today.
Everybody laughs.
Charlotta Ivanovna, show us a trick.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Show us a trick, Charlotta!
(Going to the door) Someone is standing behind the door. Who’s there? (Knocking on the door from the other side) Who’s knocking? (More knocking) This is my gentleman fiancé. (Exits)
Everybody laughs.
LOPAKHIN
See you in three weeks. (Kisses Lyubov Andreevna’s hand) Good-bye for now. It’s time. (To Gaev) Bye-bye. (Exchanges kisses with Pishchik) Bye-bye. (Gives his hand to Varya, then to Firs and Yasha) I don’t feel like leaving. (To Lyubov Andreevna) Think it over about the summer houses, and if you decide to do it, let me know. I’ll get you a loan of fifty thousand. Think seriously.
VARYA
(Angrily) Will you finally leave?!
LOPAKHIN
I’m leaving, I’m leaving . . . (Exits)
GAEV
A boor. Pardon, however . . . Varya’s going to marry him, he’s Varya’s little suitor.
VARYA
You talk too much, uncle dear.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Why, Varya, I’ll be very glad. He’s a good man.
PISHCHIK
A most worthy man . . . to tell the truth . . . And my Dashenka . . . also says . . . says various things. (Snores, then wakes up at once) Anyhow, my most respected lady, lend me two hundred and forty roubles . . . to pay my mortgage interest tomorrow . . .
(Frightened) We can’t, we can’t!
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
I really have nothing at all.
PISHCHIK
It’ll turn up. (Laughs) I never lose hope. That’s it, I think, all is lost, I’m ruined, but, lo and behold—they build the railroad across my land, and . . . they pay me for it. Then, lo and behold, something else comes along, if not today then tomorrow . . . Dashenka wins two hundred thousand . . . on a lottery ticket.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
We’ve had our coffee, we can retire.
FIRS
(Brushing Gaev off, admonishingly) Again you’ve put on the wrong trousers. What am I to do with you!
VARYA
(Softly) Anya’s asleep. (Quietly opens the window) The sun’s up, it’s not cold anymore. Look, mama: what wonderful trees! My God, what air! The starlings are singing!
GAEV
(Opens the other window) The orchard’s all white. You haven’t forgotten, Lyuba? That long alley goes straight on, straight on, like a belt stretched out. It glistens on moonlit nights. You remember? You haven’t forgotten?
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Looks out the window at the orchard) Oh, my childhood, my purity! I slept in this nursery, looked out from here at the orchard, happiness woke up with me every morning, and it was the same then as it is now, nothing has changed. (Laughs joyfully) All, all white! Oh, my orchard! After dark, rainy autumn and cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not abandoned you . . . If only the heavy stone could be lifted from my breast and shoulders, if only I could forget my past!
GAEV
Yes, and the orchard’s going to be sold to pay our debts, strangely enough . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Look, my late mother is walking through the orchard . . . in a white dress! (Laughs joyfully) It’s her!
GAEV
Where?
VARYA
God help you, mama.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
No, there’s nobody, I imagined it. To the right, at the turn towards the gazebo, there’s a little white tree bending down . . . It looks like a woman . . .
Trofimov enters in a shabby student uniform, wearing glasses.
What an amazing orchard! Masses of white flowers, the blue sky . . .
TROFIMOV
Lyubov Andreevna!
She turns to look at him.
I’ll just say hello and leave at once. (Kisses her hand warmly) I was told to wait till morning, but I got impatient . . .
Lyubov Andreevna looks at him, perplexed.
(Through tears) It’s Petya Trofimov . . .
TROFIMOV
Petya Trofimov, former tutor of your Grisha . . . Can I have changed so much?
Lyubov Andreevna embraces him and weeps quietly.
GAEV
(Embarrassed) Enough, enough now, Lyuba.
VARYA
(Weeps) I told you to wait till tomorrow, Petya.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
My Grisha . . . my little boy . . . Grisha . . . my son . . .
VARYA
There’s no help for it, mama. It was God’s will.
TROFIMOV
(Gently, through tears) There, there . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Weeps softly) My little boy died, he drowned . . . Why? Why, my friend? (More softly) Anya’s asleep in there, and I talk so loudly . . . make noise . . . Well, so, Petya? How is it you’ve lost your looks? How is it you’ve aged so much?
TROFIMOV
A peasant woman on the train once called me a mangy mister.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
You were still a boy then, a sweet young student, and now—thin hair, glasses. Can it be you’re still a student? (Goes toward the door)
Must be I’m an eternal student.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
(Kisses her brother, then Varya) Well, go to bed . . . You’ve aged, too, Leonid.
PISHCHIK
(Follows her) So, it’s to bed now . . . Ah, this gout of mine. I’ll stay here . . . Lyubov Andreevna, my dear heart, maybe, tomorrow morning . . . two hundred and forty roubles . . .
GAEV
He’s still at it.
PISHCHIK
Two hundred and forty roubles . . . to pay the interest on the mortgage.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
I have no money, dear heart.
PISHCHIK
I’ll pay it back, my dear . . . It’s nothing . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
Well, all right, Leonid will give it to you . . . Give it to him, Leonid.
GAEV
Give it to him, hah! Good luck!
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA
What can we do? Give it to him . . . He needs it . . . He’ll pay it back.
Lyubov Andreevna, Trofimov, Pishchik and Firs exit. Gaev, Varya and Yasha remain.
My sister still has the habit of throwing money away. (To Yasha) Back off, my dear fellow, you smell of chicken.
YASHA
(Laughs into his fist) And you, Leonid Andreich, are still the same as ever.
GAEV
Whoso? (To Varya) What did he say?
VARYA
(To Yasha) Your mother has come from the village. She’s been sitting in the servants’ quarters since yesterday, she wants to see you . . .
YASHA
As if I care!
VARYA
Shame on you!
YASHA
Who needs her. She could have come tomorrow. (Exits)
VARYA
Mama’s still the same as ever, hasn’t changed a bit. If she could, she’d give everything away.
GAEV
Yes . . .
Pause.
If a great many remedies are prescribed against an illness, it means the illness is incurable. I think, I wrack my brain, I have many remedies, a great many, which in fact means none. It would be nice to get an inheritance from somebody, it would be nice to have our Anya marry a very rich man, it would be nice to go to Yaroslavl and try our luck with our aunt, the countess. The aunt’s very, very rich.
VARYA
(Weeps) If only God would help us!
GAEV
Stop blubbering. The aunt’s very rich, but she doesn’t like us. First of all, my sister married a lawyer, not a nobleman . . .
Anya appears in the doorway.
Didn’t marry a nobleman, and can’t be said to have behaved herself all that virtuously. She’s a kind woman, but, whatever extenuating circumstances you think up, still, you must admit she’s depraved. You can sense it in her slightest movement.
VARYA
(Whispers) Anya’s in the doorway.
GAEV
Whoso?
Pause.
Extraordinary, something’s gotten into my right eye . . . I can’t see very well. And on Thursday, when I was in the circuit court . . .
Anya enters.
VARYA
Why aren’t you asleep, Anya?
ANYA
I don’t feel like sleeping. I can’t.
My tiny one. (Kisses Anya’s face and hands) My child . . . (Through tears) You’re not my niece, you’re my angel, you’re everything to me. Believe me, believe me . . .
ANYA
I believe you, uncle. Everybody loves you, respects you . . . but, uncle dear, you must be quiet, just be quiet. What was it you said about my mother, about your sister? Why did you say that?
GAEV
Right, right . . . (Covers his face with his hands) It’s really terrible! My God! God, save me! And the speech I made earlier to the bookcase . . . so stupid! And it was only when I finished that I realized it was stupid.
VARYA
It’s true, uncle dear, you must be quiet. Just be quiet, that’s all.
ANYA
If you’re quiet, you’ll feel calmer yourself.
GAEV
I’m quiet. (Kisses Anya’s and Varya’s hands) I’m quiet. There’s just this one thing. On Thursday I was in the circuit court, well, so a group gathered, a conversation began about this and that, one thing led to another, and it seems it may be possible to arrange a loan on credit to pay off the interest to the bank.
VARYA
If only God would help us!
GAEV
I’ll go on Tuesday and talk it over again. (To Varya) Stop blubbering. (To Anya) Your mother will talk to Lopakhin; he certainly won’t refuse her . . . And you, once you’ve rested, will go to Yaroslavl, to the countess, your great-aunt. So we’ll attack from three directions—and it’s in the bag. We’ll pay the interest, I’m sure of it . . . (Puts a fruit drop in his mouth) I swear on my honor, on anything you like, the estate will not be sold! I swear on my happiness. Here’s my hand, call me a worthless, dishonorable man if I let it go up for auction! I swear on my whole being!
ANYA
You’re so good, Uncle Lyonya, so intelligent! (Embraces her uncle) I’m at peace now! I’m at peace!
Firs enters.
FIRS
(Reproachfully) Leonid Andreich, have you no fear of God?! When are you going to bed?
GAEV
Right away, right away. You may go, Firs. Never mind, I’ll undress myself. Well, children, bye-bye . . . Details tomorrow, but now go to bed. (Kisses Anya and Varya) I’m a man of the eighties . . . It’s a time that’s not much praised, but all I can say is, I’ve endured quite a lot for my convictions. It’s not for nothing that the peasants love me. You’ve got to know the peasants! You’ve got to know how they . . .
ANYA
You’re at it again, uncle!
VARYA
Quiet, uncle dear.
FIRS
(Crossly) Leonid Andreich!
GAEV
Coming, coming . . . Go to bed. Double bank shot into the side. Pot the clear ball . . . (Exits. Firs trots along behind him)
I’m at peace now. I don’t feel like going to Yaroslavl, I don’t like my great-aunt, but all the same I’m at peace. Thanks to uncle. (Sits down)
VARYA
We must sleep. I’m going. There was some unpleasantness here while you were away. As you know, only the elderly servants live in the old servants’ quarters: Efimyushka, Polya, Evstignei and Karp as well. They started letting some rascals spend the night with them—I said nothing. But then I hear they’re spreading a rumor that I ordered them to be fed nothing but peas. Out of stinginess, you see . . . It’s all Evstignei’s doing . . . Very well, I think. In that case, I think, just you wait. I summon Evstignei . . . (She yawns) He comes . . . How is it, Evstignei, I say, fool that you are . . . (Looks at Anya) Anechka! . . .
Pause.
Asleep! . . . (Takes Anya under the arm) Let’s go beddy-bye . . .
Let’s go! . . . (Leads her) My darling’s asleep! Let’s go! . . .
They start out. Far beyond the orchard, a shepherd is playing a pipe.
Trofimov walks across the stage and, seeing Varya and Anya, stops.
VARYA
Shh . . . She’s asleep . . . asleep . . . Let’s go, my dearest.
ANYA
(Softly, half asleep) I’m so tired . . . these little bells . . . Uncle dear . . . and mama . . . and uncle . . .
VARYA
Let’s go, my dearest, let’s go . . . (They exit to Anya’s room)
TROFIMOV
(Tenderly) My sunshine! My springtime!
Curtain.