Page:Plays by Antov Tchekoff (Scribner's, 1912).djvu/35

18. They are wonderful, your Excellency.

. To-morrow we shall go into the woods, shall we, papa?

. Ladies and gentlemen, tea is ready.

. Won’t you please be good enough to send my tea into the library? I still have some work to finish.

. I am sure you will love the woods.

. There goes our learned scholar on a hot, sultry day like this, in his overcoat and goloshes and carrying an umbrella!

. He is trying to take good care of his health.

. How lovely she is! How lovely! I have never in my life seen a more beautiful woman.

. Do you know, Marina, that as I walk in the fields or in the shady garden, as I look at this table here, my heart swells with unbounded happiness. The weather is enchanting, the birds are singing, we are all living in peace and contentment—what more could the soul desire?

[Takes a glass of tea.

. [Dreaming] Such eyes—a glorious woman!

. Come, Ivan, tell us something.

. [Indolently] What shall I tell you?

. Haven’t you any news for us?

. No, it is all stale. I am just the same as usual, or perhaps worse, because I have become lazy. I don’t do anything now but croak like an old raven. My mother, the old magpie, is still chattering about the emancipation of woman, with one eye on her grave and the other on her learned books, in which she is always looking for the dawn of a new life.