tinually in sight. If my Simon could only get his remove I should forget it all in a month or two. It is a trifle.
Dorn and Medviedenko come in through the door on the left, wheeling Sorin in an arm-chair.
Medviedenko. I have six mouths to feed now, and flour is at seventy kopecks.
Dorn. A hard riddle to solve!
Medviedenko. It is easy for you to make light of it. You are rich enough to scatter money to your chickens, if you wanted to.
Dorn. You think I am rich? My friend, after practising for thirty years, during which I could not call my soul my own for one minute of the night or day, I succeeded at last in scraping together one thousand roubles, all of which went, not long ago, in a trip which I took abroad. I haven’t a penny.
Masha. [To her husband] So you didn’t go home after all?
Medviedenko. [Apologetically] How can I go home when they won’t give me a horse?
Masha. [Under her breath, with bitter anger] Would I might never see your face again!
Sorin in his chair is wheeled to the left-hand side of the room. Paulina, Masha, and Dorn sit down beside him. Medviedenko stands sadly aside.
Dorn. What a lot of changes you have made here! You have turned this sitting-room into a library.
Masha. Constantine likes to work in this room, because from it he can step out into the garden to meditate whenever he feels like it.
Sorin. Where is my sister?
Dorn. She has gone to the station to meet Trigorin. She will soon be back.
Sorin. I must be dangerously ill if you had to send for my sister. [He falls silent for a moment] A nice business this is!
