not grown less in the hundred years [Weeping] during which you have upheld virtue and faith in a better future to the generations of our race, educating us up to ideals of goodness and to the knowledge of a common consciousness. [Pause.]
LOPAKHIN. Yes. . . .
LUBOV. You're just the same as ever, Leon.
GAEV. [A little confused] Off the white on the right, into the corner pocket. Red ball goes into the middle pocket!
LOPAKHIN. [Looks at his watch] It's time I went.
YASHA. [Giving LUBOV ANDREYEVNA her medicine] Will you take your pills now?
PISCHIN. You oughtn't to take medicines, dear madam; they do you neither harm nor good. . . . Give them here, dear madam. [Takes the pills, turns them out into the palm of his hand, blows on them, puts them into his mouth, and drinks some kvass] There!
LUBOV. [Frightened] You're off your head!
PISCHIN. I've taken all the pills.
LOPAKHIN. Gormandizer! [All laugh.]
FIERS. They were here in Easter week and ate half a pailful of cucumbers. . . . [Mumbles.]
LUBOV. What's he driving at?
VARYA. He's been mumbling away for three years. We're used to that.
YASHA. Senile decay.
CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA crosses the stage, dressed in white: she is very thin and tightly laced; has a lorgnette at her waist.
LOPAKHIN. Excuse me, Charlotta Ivanovna, I haven't said 'How do you do' to you yet. [Tries to kiss her hand.]
CHARLOTTA. [Takes her hand away] If you let people kiss your hand, then they'll want your elbow, then your shoulder, and then . . .
LOPAKHIN. My luck's out to-day! [All laugh] Show us a trick, Charlotta Ivanovna!
LUBOV ANDREYEVNA. Charlotta, do us a trick.
CHARLOTTA. It's not necessary. I want to go to bed. [Exit.]
LOPAKHIN. We shall see each other in three weeks. [Kisses LUBOV ANDREYEVNA'S hand] Now, good-bye. It's time to go. [To GAEV] See you again. [Kisses PISCHIN] Au revoir. [Gives his hand to VARYA, then to FIERS and to YASHA] I don't want to go away. [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA]. If you think about the villas and make up your mind, then just let me know, and I'll raise a loan of 50,000 roubles at once. Think about it seriously.
VARYA. [Angrily] Do go, now!
LOPAKHIN. I'm going, I'm going. . . . [Exit.]
GAEV. Snob. Still, I beg pardon. . . . Varya's going to marry him, he's Varya's young man.
VARYA. Don't talk too much, uncle.
LUBOV. Why not, Varya? I should be very glad. He's a good man.
PISCHIN. To speak the honest truth . . . he's a worthy man. . . . And my Dashenka . . . also says that . . . she says lots of things. [Snores, but wakes up again at once] But still, dear madam, if you could lend me . . . 240 roubles . . . to pay the interest on my mortgage to-morrow . . .
VARYA. [Frightened] We haven't got it, we haven't got it!
LUBOV. It's quite true. I've nothing at all.
PISCHIN. I'll find it all right [Laughs] I never lose hope. I used to think, 'Everything's lost now. I'm a dead man,' when, lo and behold, a railway was built over my land . . . and they paid me for it. And something else will happen to-day or to-morrow. Dashenka may win 20,000 roubles . . . she's got a lottery ticket.
LUBOV. The coffee's all gone, we can go to bed.
