s to be no more
of that old thief, that old hag... [Stamping] that witch! And don't you
dare to annoy me! Don't you dare! [Stopping short] Really, if you don't
move downstairs, we shall always be quarrelling. This is awful.

[Enter KULIGIN.]

KULIGIN. Where's Masha? It's time we went home. The fire seems to be
going down. [Stretches himself] Only one block has burnt down, but there
was such a wind that it seemed at first the whole town was going to
burn. [Sits] I'm tired out. My dear Olga... I often think that if
it hadn't been for Masha, I should have married you. You are awfully
nice.... I am absolutely tired out. [Listens.]

OLGA. What is it?

KULIGIN. The doctor, of course, has been drinking hard; he's terribly
drunk. He might have done it on purpose! [Gets up] He seems to be coming
here.... Do you hear him? Yes, here.... [Laughs] What a man... really...
I'll hide myself. [Goes to the cupboard and stands in the corner] What a
rogue.

OLGA. He hadn't touched a drop for two years, and now he suddenly goes
and gets drunk....

[Retires with NATASHA to the back of the room. CHEBUTIKIN enters;
apparently sober, he stops, looks round, then goes to the wash-stand and
begins to wash his hands.]

CHEBUTIKIN. [Angrily] Devil take them all... take them all.... They
think I'm a doctor and can cure everything, and I know absolutely
nothing, I've forgotten all I ever knew, I remember nothing, absolutely
nothing. [OLGA and NATASHA go out, unnoticed by him] Devil take it. Last
Wednesday I attended a woman in Zasip--and she died, and it's my fault
that she died. Yes... I used to know a certain amount five-and-twenty
years ago, but I don't remember anything now. Nothing. Perhaps I'm not
really a man, and am only pretending that I've got arms and legs and a
head; perhaps I don't exist at all, and only imagine that I walk, and
eat, and sleep. [Cries] Oh, if only I didn't exist! [Stops crying;
angrily] The devil only knows.... Day before yesterday they were talking
in the club; they said, Shakespeare, Voltaire... I'd never read, never
read at all, and I put on an expression as if I had read. And so did the
others. Oh, how beastly! How petty! And then I remembered the woman
I killed on Wednesday... and I couldn't get her out of my mind, and
everything in my mind became crooked, nasty, wretched.... So I went and
drank....

[IRINA, VERSHININ and TUZENBACH enter; TUZENBACH is wearing new and
fashionable civilian clothes.]

IRINA