A sight for sore eyes! [He greets them. To ZinaidaSavishna] Good evening, Zyuzyushka! [To Babakina] Good evening, Pompom! ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: I am so glad, Count — you’re so seldom our guest. [Shouting] Gavrila, tea! Sit down, please. [She gets up, goes out of the right-hand door and returns at once looking very worried.]

[SASHA sits down in her previous place, IVANOV silently greets everyone.]

LEBEDEV [to Shabelsky]: Where have you come from? What forces brought you here? What a surprise, may God punish me ... [Kisses him.] Count, you’re an old pirate! Decent people don’t behave like that. [Leading him by the arm towardsthe footlights.] Why don’t you visit us? Are you cross or something?

SHABELSKY: How can I get to you? Riding a stick? I haven’t my own horses and Nikolay doesn’t bring me with him but tells me to stay with Sara so she isn’t bored. Send your own horses for me, then I’ll come ...

LEBEDEV [gesturing with his hand]: Well ... Zyuzyushka would sooner burst than give up her horses. My dear old friend, you know that for me you are nearer and dearer than anyone. You and I are the only survivors of the old-timers. ‘In you I love the pains I knew of yore, and my dead youth ...’5 I’m joking, but you can see I’m almost crying. [Kisses the Count.]

SHABELSKY: Let me go, let me go! You smell like a wine cellar ...

LEBEDEV: My dear friend, you cannot imagine how bored I am without my friends. I’m ready to hang myself from boredom ... [In a low voice] Zyuzyushka with her loan bank has driven away all the decent people, and as you see only the barbarians are left ... these Dudkins and Budkins ... Well, have some tea.

 

[GAVRILA offers the Count tea.]

 

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA [to Gavrila, anxiously]: Look, how are you serving it? You should have brought some jam ... Gooseberry or something ...

SHABELSKY [laughs loudly; to Ivanov]: What did I say to you? [To Lebedev] I had a bet with him on the way that as soon as we arrived Zyuzyushka would at once begin to offer us gooseberry jam ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: Count, you are still just as sarcastic ... [Sits down.]

LEBEDEV: They’ve made twenty barrels of it, so what can we do with it?

SHABELSKY [sitting down by the table]: Are you still hoarding, Zyuzyushka? Well, do you have your little million yet?

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA [with a sigh]: Yes, seen from the outside, there’s no one richer than us, but where would we be getting the money from? It’s just talk ...

SHABELSKY: Oh yes, yes! ... We know! ... We know how badly you play your game ... [To Lebedev] Pasha, tell me honestly, have you saved a million?

LEBEDEV: God, I don’t know. Ask Zyuzyushka that ...

SHABELSKY [to Babakina]: And our fat little Pompom will soon have her little million! Goodness, she gets prettier and plumper6 not by the day but by the hour! That means a lot of dough ...

BABAKINA: Thank you very much indeed, Your Highness,7 only I don’t like mockery.

SHABELSKY: My dear moneybags, is that mockery? It’s just a cry of the heart, my lips are uttering from an excess of feeling ... my love for you and Zyuzyushka is boundless ... [Gaily] Rapture! ... Ecstasy! ... I cannot see you both without being moved ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: You’re still just the same as you were. [To Yegorushka] Yegorushka, put out the candles. Why let them burn uselessly if you’re not playing?

[YEGORUSHKA comes to with a start, puts out the candles and sits down.]

[To Ivanov] Nikolay Alekseyevich, how is your wife’s health?

IVANOV: Bad. Today the doctor said she definitely has consumption ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: Really? What a tragedy! ... [Sighs.] And we’re all so fond of her ...

SHABELSKY: Nonsense, nonsense and more nonsense! ... There is no consumption, it’s doctor’s quackery, hocus-pocus.