The Undiscovered Chekhov

FROM

THE

DIARY

OF A

YOUNG

GIRL

OCTOBER 13TH Finally something is happening on my street too! I look out and can’t believe my eyes. A tall, stately, brownhaired man with dark, fiery eyes is pacing up and down beneath my window. His mustache—exquisite! He’s been pacing there for five days now, from early morning till late at night, and he’s constandy looking up at our windows! I pretend not to notice.

OCTOBER 15TH

It’s been pouring rain since early this morning, and the poor man is still walking up and down. As a reward I made eyes at him and blew him a kiss. He answered with the most charming smile. Who is he? My sister Varya says he’s in love with her, and that it’s because of her that he’s out there in the rain. She’s so naive! Is a dark-haired man likely to fall in love with a darkhaired girl? Mama sent us to put on something more elegant and sit by the window. “He might be a swindler or something, but he could well be a respectable gendeman,” she said. A swindler! Quel... Mummy, you are so silly!

OCTOBER 16TH

Varya says I’ve ruined her life. As if it were my fault that he loves me and not her! I unintentionally dropped a note onto the sidewalk. The naughty man—he wrote “later” with chalk on his sleeve! Then he walked up and down, and wrote on the gate across the way: “Yes, let’s meet! Later!” He wrote it in chalk, and then quickly erased it. Oh, why does my heart beat thus?

OCTOBER 17TH

Varya hit me in the chest with her elbow, the mean, despicable, jealous beast! Today he stopped a policeman and spoke to him for a long time about something or other, pointing up at our windows. The plot thickens! He must be bribing him... O men, you are such tyrants and despots, and yet how cunning and wonderful you are!

OCTOBER 18TH

After a long absence, my brother Sergei came back tonight. He didn’t even have time to lie down before they summoned him to the police station.

OCTOBER 19TH

The vermin! The beast! It turns out that for the past twelve days he’s been trying to catch my brother Sergei, who seems to have embezzled some money.

Today he wrote on the gate: “I’m free now, we can meet.” The swine! I stuck my tongue out at him!