Page:Plays by Antov Tchekoff (Scribner's, 1912).djvu/47

30 [She shuts it] We shall have rain in a moment. Your rights have never been questioned by anybody.

. I have spent my life working in the interests of learning. I am used to my library and the lecture hall and to the esteem and admiration of my colleagues. Now I suddenly find myself plunged in this wilderness, condemned to see the same stupid people from morning till night and listen to their futile conversation. I want to live; I long for success and fame and the stir of the world, and here I am in exile! Oh, it is dreadful to spend every moment grieving for the lost past, to see the success of others and sit here with nothing to do but to fear death. I cannot stand it! It is more than I can bear. And you will not even forgive me for being old!

. Wait, have patience; I shall be old myself in four or five years.

. Father, you sent for Dr. Astroff, and now when he comes you refuse to see him. It is not nice to give a man so much trouble for nothing.

. What do I care about your Astroff? He understands medicine about as well as I understand astronomy.

. We can’t send for the whole medical faculty, can we, to treat your gout?

. I won't talk to that madman!

. Do as you please. It’s all the same to me.

[She sits down.

. What time is it?

. One o'clock.

. It is stifling in here. Sonia, hand me that bottle on the table.