Astroff. Why don’t you go to see them off?
Voitski. Let them go! I—I can’t go out there. I feel too sad. I must go to work on something at once. To work! To work!
He rummages through his papers on the table. A pause. The tinkling of bells is heard as the horses trot away.
Astroff. They have gone! The professor, I suppose, is glad to go. He couldn’t be tempted back now by a fortune.
Marina comes in.
Marina. They have gone.
Sonia comes in wiping her eyes.
Sonia. They have gone. God be with them. [To her uncle] And now, Uncle Vanya, let us do something!
Voitski. To work! To work!
Sonia. It is long, long, since you and I have sat together at this table. [She lights a lamp on the table] No ink! [She takes the inkstand to the cupboard and fills it from an ink-bottle] How sad it is to see them go!
Mme. Voitskaya comes slowly in.
Mme. Voitskaya. They have gone.
She sits down and at once becomes absorbed in her book. Sonia sits down at the table and looks through an account book.
Sonia. First, Uncle Vanya, let us write up the accounts. They are in a dreadful state. Come, begin. You take one and I will take the other.
Voitski. In account with ——— [They sit silently writing.
Marina. [Yawning] The sand-man has come.
Astroff. How still it is. Their pens scratch, the cricket sings; it is so warm and comfortable. I hate to go.
Astroff. My carriage has come. There now remains but
