ing angry, Varya? He's teasing you about
Lopakhin, well what of it? You can marry Lopakhin if you want to, he's a
good, interesting man.... You needn't if you don't want to; nobody wants
to force you against your will, my darling.

VARYA. I do look at the matter seriously, little mother, to be quite
frank. He's a good man, and I like him.

LUBOV. Then marry him. I don't understand what you're waiting for.

VARYA. I can't propose to him myself, little mother. People have been
talking about him to me for two years now, but he either says nothing,
or jokes about it. I understand. He's getting rich, he's busy, he can't
bother about me. If I had some money, even a little, even only a hundred
roubles, I'd throw up everything and go away. I'd go into a convent.

TROFIMOV. How nice!

VARYA. [To TROFIMOV] A student ought to have sense! [Gently, in tears]
How ugly you are now, Peter, how old you've grown! [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA,
no longer crying] But I can't go on without working, little mother. I
want to be doing something every minute.

[Enter YASHA.]

YASHA. [Nearly laughing] Epikhodov's broken a billiard cue! [Exit.]

VARYA. Why is Epikhodov here? Who said he could play billiards? I don't
understand these people. [Exit.]

LUBOV. Don't tease her, Peter, you see that she's quite unhappy without
that.

TROFIMOV. She takes too much on herself, she keeps on interfering in
other people's business. The whole summer she's given no peace to me or
to Anya, she's afraid we'll have a romance all to ourselves. What has it
to do with her? As if I'd ever given her grounds to believe I'd stoop to
such vulgarity! We are above love.

LUBOV. Then I suppose I must be beneath love. [In agitation] Why isn't
Leonid here? If I only knew whether the estate is sold or not! The
disaster seems to me so improbable that I don't know what to think, I'm
all at sea... I may scream... or do something silly. Save me, Peter. Say
something, say something.

TROFIMOV. Isn't it all the same whether the estate is sold to-day or
isn't? It's been all up with it for a long time; there's no turning
back, the path's grown over. Be calm, dear, you shouldn't deceive
yourself, for once in your life at any rate you must look the truth
straight in the face.

LUBOV. What truth? You see where truth is, and where untruth is, but
I seem to have lost my sight and see nothing. You boldly settle all
important questions, but tell me, dear, isn't it because you're young,