Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/188

180

sand times sit alone in the room of a hotel learning a rôle by heart.

. [With enthusiasm] You are quite right. I understand how you feel.

. Of course it is pleasanter to live in town. One can sit in one’s library with a telephone at one’s elbow, no one comes in without being first announced by the footman, the streets are full of cabs, and all

. [Sings]

comes in, followed by.

. Here they are. How do you do? [He kisses hand and then ] I am delighted to see you looking so well. [To ] My wife tells me that you mean to go to town with her to-day. Is that so?

. Yes, that is what I had planned to do.

. Hm—that is splendid, but how do you intend to get there, madam? We are hauling rye to-day, and all the men are busy. What horses would you take?

. What horses? How do I know what horses we shall have?

. Why, we have the carriage horses.

. The carriage horses! And where am I to find the harness for them? This is astonishing! My dear madam, I have the greatest respect for your talents, and would gladly sacrifice ten years of my life for you, but I cannot let you have any horses to-day.

. But if I must go to town? What an extraordinary state of affairs!

, You do not know, madam, what it is to run a farm.

. [In a burst of anger] That is an old story! Under these circumstances I shall go back to Moscow this