or that price.
If we buy this, both banks will be ours, and we shall have the right to
build a dam across the river. Isn't that so? We can say that we intend
to build a mill, and when the people on the river below us hear that
we mean to dam the river they will, of course, object violently and we
shall say: If you don't want a dam here you will have to pay to get us
away. Do you see the result? The factory would give us five thousand
roubles, Korolkoff three thousand, the monastery five thousand more--

IVANOFF. All that is simply idiotic, Misha. If you don't want me to lose
my temper you must keep your schemes to yourself.

BORKIN. [Sits down at the table] Of course! I knew how it would be! You
never will act for yourself, and you tie my hands so that I am helpless.

Enter SHABELSKI and LVOFF.

SHABELSKI. The only difference between lawyers and doctors is that
lawyers simply rob you, whereas doctors both rob you and kill you. I am
not referring to any one present. [Sits down on the bench] They are all
frauds and swindlers. Perhaps in Arcadia you might find an exception to
the general rule and yet--I have treated thousands of sick people myself
in my life, and I have never met a doctor who did not seem to me to be
an unmistakable scoundrel.

BORKIN. [To IVANOFF] Yes, you tie my hands and never do anything for
yourself, and that is why you have no money.

SHABELSKI. As I said before, I am not referring to any one here at
present; there may be exceptions though, after all--[He yawns.]

IVANOFF. [Shuts his book] What have you to tell me, doctor?

LVOFF. [Looks toward the window] Exactly what I said this morning: she
must go to the Crimea at once. [Walks up and down.]

SHABELSKI. [Bursts out laughing] To the Crimea! Why don't you and I set
up as doctors, Misha? Then, if some Madame Angot or Ophelia finds the
world tiresome and begins to cough and be consumptive, all we shall
have to do will be to write out a prescription according to the laws of
medicine: that is, first, we shall order her a young doctor, and then a
journey to the Crimea. There some fascinating young Tartar----

IVANOFF. [Interrupting] Oh, don't be coarse! [To LVOFF] It takes money
to go to the Crimea, and even if I could afford it, you know she has
refused to go.

LVOFF. Yes, she has. [A pause.]

BORKIN. Look here, doctor, is Anna really so ill that she absolutely
must go to the Crimea?

LVOFF. [Looking toward the window] Yes, she has consum