Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/85

ACT I

. How can I help it? I’ll be hanged if I can do anything about it now. And what do you mean by this irritating way you have of pestering me whenever I am trying to read or write or

. Must the workmen be paid or not, I ask you? But, good gracious! What is the use of talking to you! [Waves his hand] Do you think because you own an estate you can command the whole world? With your two thousand acres and your empty pockets you are like a man who has a cellar full of wine and no corkscrew. I have sold the oats as they stand in the field. Yes, sir! And to-morrow I shall sell the rye and the carriage horses. [He stamps up and down] Do you think I am going to stand upon ceremony with you? Certainly not! I am not that kind of a man!

appears at the open window.

. Whose voice did I hear just now? Was it yours, Misha? Why are you stamping up and down?

. Anybody who had anything to do with your Nicholas would stamp up and down.

. Listen, Misha! Please have some hay carried onto the croquet lawn.

. [Waves his hand] Leave me alone, please!

. Oh, what manners! They are not becoming to you at all. If you want to be liked by women you must never let them see you when you are angry or obstinate. [To her husband] Nicholas, let us go and play on the lawn in the hay!

. Don’t you know it is bad for you to stand at the open window, Annie? [Calls] Shut the window, Uncle!

[The window is shut from the inside.

. Don’t forget that the interest on the money you owe Lebedieff must be paid in two days.