Complete Works of Anton Chekhov

SCENE IV

The same and KHROUSCHOV

KHROUSCHOV: Hi! Is there anybody here? Semyon!

DYADIN: Have a look round.

KHROUSCHOV: Oh! . . . How do you do, Julie?

JULIE: How do you do, Mikhail Lvovich?

KHROUSCHOV: I’ve come again to you, Ilya Ilyich, to work here. I can’t sit at home. Tell them to place my table under this tree, as they did yesterday, and to have two lamps ready. It’ll soon be dark. . . .

DYADIN: At your service, your worship. [Goes out.

KHROUSCHOV: How are you getting on, Julie?

JULIE: So-so. ... (A pause.)

KHROUSCHOV: The Serebryakovs are staying with you?

JULIE: Yes.

KHROUSCHOV: H’m! . . . And what’s your Lennie doing?

JULIE: He sits at home. ... All the time with Sonechka. . . .

KHROUSCHOV: Of course! (A pause.) Why doesn’t he marry her?

JULIE: Well? (Sighs.) God bless him! He’s well educated, a nobleman; she, too, is of a good family. . . .

I have always wished it for her. . . .

KHROUSCHOV: She’s a fool! . . .

JULIE: Now, you mustn’t say that.

KHROUSCHOV: And your Lennie is a bright one. too. All your people are a picked lot! A palace of wisdom!

JULIE: Probably you’ve had no lunch to-day.

KHROUSCHOV: What makes you think so?

JULIE: You’re so very cross.

Enter DYADIN and SEMYON carrying a table.