f poultry.

YASHA. [Grins] You are just the same as ever, Leonid Andreyevitch.

GAEV. Really? [To VARYA] What's he saying?

VARYA. [To YASHA] Your mother's come from the village; she's been
sitting in the servants' room since yesterday, and wants to see you....

YASHA. Bless the woman!

VARYA. Shameless man.

YASHA. A lot of use there is in her coming. She might have come tomorrow
just as well. [Exit.]

VARYA. Mother hasn't altered a scrap, she's just as she always was.
She'd give away everything, if the idea only entered her head.

GAEV. Yes.... [Pause] If there's any illness for which people offer many
remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.
I work my brains to their hardest. I've several remedies, very many,
and that really means I've none at all. It would be nice to inherit a
fortune from somebody, it would be nice to marry our Anya to a rich
man, it would be nice to go to Yaroslav and try my luck with my aunt the
Countess. My aunt is very, very rich.

VARYA. [Weeps] If only God helped us.

GAEV. Don't cry. My aunt's very rich, but she doesn't like us. My
sister, in the first place, married an advocate, not a noble.... [ANYA
appears in the doorway] She not only married a man who was not a noble,
but she behaved herself in a way which cannot be described as proper.
She's nice and kind and charming, and I'm very fond of her, but say what
you will in her favour and you still have to admit that she's wicked;
you can feel it in her slightest movements.

VARYA. [Whispers] Anya's in the doorway.

GAEV. Really? [Pause] It's curious, something's got into my right eye...
I can't see properly out of it. And on Thursday, when I was at the
District Court...

[Enter ANYA.]

VARYA. Why aren't you in bed, Anya?

ANYA. Can't sleep. It's no good.

GAEV. My darling! [Kisses ANYA'S face and hands] My child.... [Crying]
You're not my niece, you're my angel, you're my all.... Believe in me,
believe...

ANYA. I do believe in you, uncle. Everybody loves you and respects
you... but, uncle dear, you ought to say nothing, no more than that.
What were you saying just now about my mother, your own sister? Why did
you say those things?

GAEV. Yes, yes. [Covers his face with her hand] Yes, really, it was
awful. Save me, my God! And only just now I made a speech before a
bookcase... it's so silly! And only when I'd finished I knew how silly
it was.

VARYA. Yes, uncle dear, you really ought