[Enter KULYGIN in the uniform of a teacher.]
KULYGIN [goes up to IRINA]. Dear sister, allow me to congratulate you on your name-day and with all my heart to wish you good health and everything else that one can desire for a girl of your age. And to offer you as a gift this little book [gives her a book]. The history of our high-school for fifty years, written by myself. An insignificant little book, written because I had nothing better to do, but still you can read it. Good day, friends. [To VERSHININ] My name is Kuligin, teacher in the high-school here, court councilor. [To IRINA] In that book you'll find a list of all who have finished their studies in our high-school during the last fifty years. Feci, quod potui, faciant meliora potentes [kisses MASHA]. IRINA. Why, but you gave me a copy of this book at Easter.
KULYGIN [laughs]. Impossible! If that's so, give it me back, or better still, give it to the Colonel. Please accept it, Colonel. Some day when you're bored you can read it.
VERSHININ. Thank you [is about to take leave]. I'm extremely glad to have made your acquaintance. . . .
OLGA. You are going? No, no!
IRINA. You must stay for lunch with us. Please do.
OLGA. Pray do!
VERSHININ [bows]. I believe I have intruded on a name-day party. Forgive me, I didn't know and haven't congratulated you. . . [Walks away with OLGA into the dining-room.]
KULYGIN. Today, ladies and gentlemen, is Sunday, a day of rest. Let's all rest and enjoy ourselves each in accordance with our age and our position. The carpets should be taken up for the summer and put away till the winter. . . . Persian powder or naphthaline. . . . The Romans were healthy because they knew how to work and they knew how to rest, they had mens sana in corpore sano. Their life was moulded into a certain framework. Our headmaster says that the most important thing in every life is its framework. . . . What loses its framework, comes to an end -- and it's the same in our everyday life. [Puts his arm round MASHA'S waist, laughing.] Masha loves me. My wife loves me. And the window curtains, too, ought to be put away together with the carpets. . . . Today I feel cheerful and in the best of spirits. Masha, at four o'clock this afternoon we have to be at the headmaster's house. An excursion has been arranged for the teachers and their families.
MASHA. I'm not going.
KULYGIN [grieved]. Dear Masha, why not?
MASHA. We'll talk about it afterwards. . . [Angrily] Very well, I'll go, only let me alone, please. . . [walks away].
KULYGIN. And then we shall spend the evening at the head-master's house. In spite of the delicate state of his health that man tries before all things to be sociable. He's an excellent, noble personality. A splendid man. Yesterday, after the meeting, he said to me, "I'm tired, Fyodor Ilyitch, I'm tired." [Looks at the clock, then at his watch] Your clock is seven minutes fast. "Yes," he said, "I'm tired."
[Sounds of a violin behind the scenes.]
OLGA. Come to lunch, please. There's a pie!
KULYGIN. Ah, Olga, my dear Olga! Yesterday I was working from early morning till eleven o'clock at night and was tired out, and today I feel happy [goes up to the table in the dining-room]. My dear. . . .
CHEBUTYKIN [puts the newspaper in his pocket and combs his beard]. Pie? Splendid!
MASHA [to CHEBUTYKIN, sternly]. Only mind you don't drink today! Do you hear? It's bad for you to drink.
CHEBUTYKIN. Oh, come, that's a thing of the past. It's two years since I got drunk. [Impatiently] But there, my good girl, what does it matter!
MASHA. Anyway, don't you dare to drink. Don't dare. [Angrily, but so as not to be heard by her husband] Oh, to hell with it, I'm going to be bored a whole evening at the headmaster's!
TUZENBAKH. I wouldn't go if I were you. . . . It's very simple.
CHEBUTYKIN. Don't go, my love.
MASHA. Oh, yes, don't go! . . . It's a damnable life, insufferable. . . [goes to the dining-room].
CHEBUTYKIN [following her]. Come, come. . . .
SOLYONY [going to the dining-room]. Chook, chook, . . . . . . . . .
TUZENBAKH. Enough, Vassily Vassilyevitch! Stop it!
SOLYONY. Chook, chook, . . . . . . . . .
KULYGIN [gaily]. Your health, Colonel! I am a teacher and one of the family here, Masha's husband. . . . She's very kind, really, very kind. . . .
VERSHININ. I'll have some of this dark-coloured vodka. . . [drinks]. To your health! [To OLGA] I feel so happy with all of you!
[No one is left in the drawing-room but IRINA and TUZENBAKH.]
IRINA. Masha is in low spirits today. She was married at eighteen, when she thought him the cleverest of men. But now it's not the same now. He's the kindest of men, but he's not the cleverest.
OLGA [impatiently]. Andrey, come on!
ANDREY [behind the scenes]. I'm coming [comes in and goes to the table].
TUZENBAKH. What are you thinking about?
IRINA. Nothing. I don't like that Solyony of yours, I'm afraid of him. He keeps on saying such stupid things. . . .
TUZENBAKH. He's a strange man. I'm sorry for him and annoyed by him, but more sorry. I think he's shy. . . . When there's just the two of us he is very intelligent and friendly, but in company he's rude, a bully. Don't go yet, let them sit down to the table. Let me be by you. What are you thinking of? [a pause] You're twenty, I'm not yet thirty. How many years have we got before us, a long, long chain of days full of my love for you. . . .
IRINA. Nikolay Lvovitch, don't talk to me about love.
TUZENBAKH [not listening]. I have a passionate craving for life, for struggle, for work, and that craving is mingled in my soul with my love for you, Irina, and just because you're beautiful it seems to me that life too is beautiful! What are you thinking of?
IRINA. You say life is beautiful. . . . Yes, but what if it only seems so! Life for us three sisters hasn't been beautiful yet, we've been stifled by it as plants are choked by weeds. . . . I'm starting to cry. . . . I mustn't do that [hurriedly wipes her eyes and smiles]. I must work, I must work. The reason we are depressed and take such a gloomy view of life is that we know nothing of work. We come of people who despised work. . . .
[Enter NATALYA IVANOVNA; she is wearing a pink dress with a green sash.]
NATASHA. They're sitting down to lunch already. . . . I'm late. . . [Steals a glance at herself in the mirror and puts herself straight] I think my hair is all right. [Seeing IRINA] Dear Irina Sergeyevna, I congratulate you! [Gives her a vigorous and prolonged kiss.] You have a lot of visitors, I really feel embarrassed. . . . Good day, Baron!
OLGA [coming into the drawing-room]. Well, here's Natalya Ivanovna! How are you, my dear? [Kisses her.]
NATASHA. Congratulations on the name-day. You have such a big party and I feel awfully embarrassed. . . .
OLGA. Nonsense, we have only our own people. [In an undertone, in alarm] You've got on a green sash! My dear, that's not done!