verything will change and
become as you would have it, people will live as you do, and then you
too will go out of date; people will be born who are better than
you.... [Laughs] Yes, to-day I am quite exceptionally in the vein. I am
devilishly keen on living.... [Sings.]

"The power of love all ages know,
From its assaults great good does grow." [Laughs.]

MASHA. Trum-tum-tum...

VERSHININ. Tum-tum...

MASHA. Tra-ra-ra?

VERSHININ. Tra-ta-ta. [Laughs.]

[Enter FEDOTIK.]

FEDOTIK. [Dancing] I'm burnt out, I'm burnt out! Down to the ground!
[Laughter.]

IRINA. I don't see anything funny about it. Is everything burnt?

FEDOTIK. [Laughs] Absolutely. Nothing left at all. The guitar's burnt,
and the photographs are burnt, and all my correspondence.... And I was
going to make you a present of a note-book, and that's burnt too.

[SOLENI comes in.]

IRINA. No, you can't come here, Vassili Vassilevitch. Please go away.

SOLENI. Why can the Baron come here and I can't?

VERSHININ. We really must go. How's the fire?

SOLENI. They say it's going down. No, I absolutely don't see why the
Baron can, and I can't? [Scents his hands.]

VERSHININ. Trum-tum-tum.

MASHA. Trum-tum.

VERSHININ. [Laughs to SOLENI] Let's go into the dining-room.

SOLENI. Very well, we'll make a note of it. "If I should try to make
this clear, the geese would be annoyed, I fear." [Looks at TUZENBACH]
There, there, there.... [Goes out with VERSHININ and FEDOTIK.]

IRINA. How Soleni smelt of tobacco.... [In surprise] The Baron's asleep!
Baron! Baron!

TUZENBACH. [Waking] I am tired, I must say.... The brickworks....
No, I'm not wandering, I mean it; I'm going to start work soon at the
brickworks... I've already talked it over. [Tenderly, to IRINA] You're
so pale, and beautiful, and charming.... Your paleness seems to shine
through the dark air as if it was a light.... You are sad, displeased
with life.... Oh, come with me, let's go and work together!

MASHA. Nicolai Lvovitch, go away from here.

TUZENBACH. [Laughs] Are you here? I didn't see you. [Kisses IRINA'S
hand] good-bye, I'll go... I look at you now and I remember, as if it
was long ago, your name-day, when you, cheerfully and merrily, were
talking about the joys of labour.... And how happy life seemed to me,
then! What has happened to it now? [Kisses her hand] There are tears in
your eyes. Go to bed now; it is already day... the morning begins.... If