Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/222

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. Have you put down three? Eight. Eighty-one. Ten.

. Don’t go so fast.

. Could you believe it? I am still dazed by the reception they gave me in Kharkoff.

. Thirty-four.

[The notes of a melancholy waltz are heard.

. The students gave me an ovation; they sent me three baskets of flowers, a wreath, and this thing here.

She unclasps a brooch from her breast and lays it on the table.

. There is something worth while!

. Fifty.

. Fifty, did you say?

. I wore a perfectly magnificent dress; I am no fool when it comes to clothes.

. Constantine is playing again; the poor boy is sad.

. He has been severely criticised in the papers.

. Seventy-seven.

. They want to attract attention to him.

. He doesn’t seem able to make a success, he can’t somehow strike the right note. There is an odd vagueness about his writings that sometimes verges on delirium. He has never created a single living character.

. Eleven.

. Are you bored, Peter? [A pause] He is asleep.

. The Councillor is taking a nap.

. Seven. Ninety.

. Do you think I should write if I lived in such a place as this, on the shore of this lake? Never! I should overcome my passion, and give my life up to the catching of fish.

. Twenty-eight.