Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/173

ACT I . You were so enchanted by the conversation of Madame Arkadina that you did not even notice the cold. Confess that you admire her.

. I am fifty-five years old.

. A trifle. That is not old for a man. You have kept your looks magnificently, and women still like you.

. What are you trying to tell me?

. You men are all ready to go down on your knees to an actress, all of you.

. [Sings]

It is only right that artists should be made much of by society and treated differently from, let us say, merchants. It is a kind of idealism.

. When women have loved you and thrown themselves at your head, has that been idealism?

. [Shrugging his shoulders] I can’t say. There has been a great deal that was admirable in my relations with women. In me they liked, above all, the superior doctor. Ten years ago, you remember, I was the only decent doctor they had in this part of the country—and then, I have always acted like a man of honour.

. [Seizes his hand] Dearest!

. Be quiet! Here they come.

comes in on arm; also, , , and.

. She acted most beautifully at the Poltava Fair in 1873; she was really magnificent. But tell me, too, where Tchadin the comedian is now? He was inimitable as Rasplueff, better than Sadofski. Where is he now?

. Don’t ask me where all those antediluvians are! I know nothing about them.

[She sits down.