GAEV (opens another window). The orchard’s all white. You haven’t forgotten, Lyuba? There’s that long pathway leading straight on, straight on, like a stretched ribbon, it glistens on moonlit nights. You remember? You haven’t forgotten?
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA (looks through the window at the orchard). O, my childhood, my innocence! I slept in this nursery, gazed out at the orchard, happiness awoke with me every morning, and it was just the same then, nothing has changed. (Laughs with joy.) All, all white! O, my orchard! After the dark, drizzly autumn and the cold winter, you’re young again, full of happiness, the angels in heaven haven’t forsaken you . . . If only I could lift off my chest and shoulders this heavy stone, if only I could forget my past!
GAEV. Yes, and the orchard will be sold for debts, strange as it seems . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. Look, our poor Mama is walking through the orchard . . . in a white dress! (Laughs with joy.) There she is.
GAEV. Where?
VARYA. God keep you, Mama dear.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. There’s nobody there, it just seemed so to me. On the right, by the turning to the summerhouse, a white sapling was bending, it looked like a woman . . .
Enter TROFIMOV, in a shabby student’s uniform and eyeglasses.31
What a marvelous orchard! White bunches of blossoms, blue sky . . .
TROFIMOV. Lyubov Andreevna! (She has stared round at him.) I’ll just pay my respects and then leave at once. (Kisses her hand fervently.) They told me to wait till morning, but I didn’t have the patience . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA stares in bewilderment.
VARYA (through tears). This is Petya Trofimov.
TROFIMOV. Petya Trofimov, used to be tutor to your Grisha . . . Can I have changed so much?
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA embraces him and weeps quietly.
GAEV (embarrassed). Come, come, Lyuba.
VARYA (weeps). Didn’t I tell you, Petya, to wait till tomorrow.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. My Grisha . . . my little boy . . . Grisha . . . my son . . .
VARYA. There’s no help for it, Mama dear, God’s will be done.
TROFIMOV (gently, through tears). There, there . . .
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA (quietly weeping). A little boy lost, drowned . . . What for? What for, my friend? (More quietly.) Anya’s asleep in there, and I’m so loud . . . making noise . . . Well now, Petya? Why have you become so homely? Why have you got old?
TROFIMOV. On the train, a peasant woman called me: that scruffy gent.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. You were just a boy in those days, a dear little student, but now your hair is thinning, eyeglasses. Are you really still a student? (Goes to the door.)
TROFIMOV. I suppose I’ll be a perpetual student.32
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA (kisses her brother, then Varya). Well, let’s go to bed . . . You’ve got old too, Leonid.
PISHCHIK (follows her). That means it’s time for bed . . . Ugh, my gout. I’ll stay over with you . . . And if you would, Lyubov Andreevna, dear heart, tomorrow morning early . . . two hundred and forty rubles . . .
GAEV. He never gives up.
PISHCHIK. Two hundred and forty rubles . . . to pay the interest on the mortgage.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. I have no money, darling . . .
PISHCHIK. We’ll pay it back, dear lady . . . The most trifling sum.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. Well, all right, Leonid will let you have it . . . Let him have it, Leonid.
GAEV. I’ll let him have it, hold out your pockets.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA. What can we do, let him have it . . . He needs it . . . He’ll pay it back.
LYUBOV ANDREEVNA, TROFIMOV, PISHCHIK, and FIRS go out. GAEV, VARYA, and YASHA remain.
GAEV. My sister still hasn’t outgrown the habit of squandering money. (To Yasha.) Out of the way, my good man, you smell like a chicken coop.
YASHA (with a sneer). But you, Leonid Andreich, are just the same as you were.
GAEV. How’s that? (To Varya.) What did he say?
VARYA (to Yasha). Your mother’s come from the village, since yesterday she’s been sitting in the servants’ hall, she wants to see you . . .
YASHA. To hell with her!
VARYA. Ah, disgraceful!
YASHA. That’s all I need. She could have come tomorrow. (Exits.)
VARYA. Mama dear is just as she was before, she hasn’t changed a bit. If it were up to her, she’d give away everything.
GAEV. Yes . . .
Pause.
If a large number of cures is suggested for a particular disease, it means the disease is incurable. I think, wrack my brains, I’ve come up with all sorts of solutions, all sorts, which means, actually, none. It would be nice to inherit a fortune from somebody, nice if we married our Anya to a very rich man, nice to go to Yaroslavl and try our luck with our auntie the Countess. Auntie’s really very, very wealthy.
VARYA (weeps). If only God would come to our aid.
GAEV. Stop sniveling. Auntie’s very wealthy, but she isn’t fond of us. In the first place, Sister married a lawyer, not a nobleman . . .
ANYA appears in the doorway.
Married a commoner and behaved herself, well, you can’t say very virtuously. She’s a good, kind, splendid person, I love her very much, but, no matter how you consider the extenuating circumstances, you still have to admit she’s depraved. You can feel it in her slightest movement.
VARYA (whispering). Anya’s standing in the doorway.
GAEV. How’s that?
Pause.
Extraordinary, something’s got in my right eye . . . my sight’s beginning to fail. And Thursday, when I was at the county courthouse . . .
ANYA enters.
VARYA. Why aren’t you asleep, Anya?
ANYA. I can’t fall asleep. I can’t.
GAEV. My teeny-weeny. (Kisses Anya’s face, hands.) My little girl . . . (Through tears.) You’re not my niece, you’re my angel, you’re everything to me. Believe me, believe . . .
ANYA. I believe you, Uncle. Everybody loves you, respects you . . . but dear Uncle, you must keep still, simply keep still. What were you saying just now about my Mama, your own sister? How come you said that?
GAEV. Yes, yes . . . (Hides his face in her hands.) It’s an awful thing to say! My God! God help me! And today I made a speech to the cupboard . . . like a fool! And as soon as I’d finished, I realized what a fool I’d been.
VARYA. True, Uncle dear, you ought to keep still. Just keep still, that’s all.
ANYA. If you keep still, you’ll be more at peace with yourself.