Complete Works of Anton Chekhov

ACT I

The garden of ZHELTOUKHIN’S estate. The manor house with a terrace; in front of the house, on a platform, there are two tables; the large table is set for lunch; on the smaller table are placed zakouski (hors-d’oeuvres). Time: A little after two o’clock.

SCENE I

ZHELTOUKHIN and JULIE come out of the house

JULIE: You’d better put on your grey suit. This one does not become you.

ZHELTOUKHIN: It doesn’t matter. Nonsense.

JULIE: Lennie dear, why are you so dull? How can you be like that on your birthday? You are naughty! . . .

(Laying her head on his chest.)

ZHELTOUKHIN:’ No sentiment, please!

JULIE (through tears): Lennie!

ZHELTOUKHIN: Instead of all these sour kisses, all these loving glances, and little shoes as watch-stands, which are no damned use to me, you’d better do what I ask you to do!

Why didn’t you write to the Serebryakovs?

JULIE: Lennie, but I did write!

ZHELTOUKHIN: Whom did you write to?

JULIE: I wrote to Sonya. I asked her to come to-day without fail, without fail at one o’clock. Honestly, I wrote to her!

ZHELTOUKHIN: And yet it is past two now, and they’re not here. Still, no matter! I don’t care! I must give it all up, nothing is to come of it... Only humiliations, and a rotten feeling, and nothing else... She doesn’t take the slightest interest in me. I’m not good-looking, I’m uninteresting,

there’s nothing romantic about me, and if she were to marry me, it could only be out of calculation ... for the sake of money!

JULIE: Not good-looking! . . . You’ve a wrong opinion of yourself.

ZHELTOUKHIN: Oh, yes, as if I were blind! My beard grown from there, from the neck, not as beards should grow. . . My moustache, damn it . . . and my nose . . .

JULIE: Why do you press your cheek?

ZHELTOUKHIN: It aches again under the eye.

JULIE: It is a tiny bit swollen. Let me kiss it, and it will go.

ZHELTOUKHIN: That’s silly!

ENTER ORLOVSKY AND VOYNITSKY.