Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (novels for beginners TXT) 📕

kind people. My dear, good girl, they’re all kind and sincere people, and they like both you and me. Come here to the window, they can’t see us here.⁠ ⁠… Looks round. Natasha I’m so unaccustomed to meeting people! Andrey Oh your youth, your splendid, beautiful youth! My darling, don’t be so excited! Believe me, believe me⁠ ⁠… I’m so happy, my soul is full of love, of ecstasy.⁠ ⁠… They don’t see us! They can’t! Why, why or when did I fall in love with you⁠—Oh, I can’t understand anything. My dear, my pure darling, be my wife! I love you, love you⁠ ⁠… as never before.⁠ ⁠… They kiss. Two officers come in and, seeing the lovers kiss, stop in astonishment. Act II

Scene as before. It is 8 p.m. Somebody is heard playing a concertina outside in the street. There is no fire.

Natalia Ivanovna enters in indoor dress carrying a candle; she stops by the door which leads into Andrey’s room. Natasha What are you doing, Andrey? Are you reading? It’s nothing, only I.⁠ ⁠… She opens another door, and looks in, then closes it. Isn’t there any fire.⁠ ⁠… Andrey Enters with book in hand. What are you doing, Natasha? Natasha I was looking to see if there wasn’t a fire. It’s Shrovetide, and the servant is simply beside herself; I must look out that something doesn’t happen. When I came through the dining-room yesterday midnight, there was a candle burning. I couldn’t get her to tell me who had lighted it. Puts down her candle. What’s the time? Andrey Looks at his watch. A quarter past eight. Natasha And Olga and Irina aren’t in yet. The poor things are still at work. Olga at the teacher’s council, Irina at the telegraph office.⁠ ⁠… Sighs. I said to your sister this morning, “Irina, darling, you must take care of yourself.” But she pays no attention. Did you say it was a quarter past eight? I am afraid little Bobby is quite ill. Why is he so cold? He was feverish yesterday, but today he is quite cold⁠ ⁠… I am so frightened! Andrey It’s all right, Natasha. The boy is well. Natasha Still, I think we ought to put him on a diet. I am so afraid. And the entertainers were to be here after nine; they had better not come, Audrey. Andrey I don’t know. After all, they were asked. Natasha This morning, when the little boy woke up and saw me he suddenly smiled; that means he knew me. “Good morning, Bobby!” I said, “good morning, darling.” And he laughed. Children understand, they understand very well. So I’ll tell them, Andrey dear, not to receive the entertainers. Andrey Hesitatingly. But what about my sisters. This is their flat. Natasha They’ll do as I want them. They are so kind.⁠ ⁠… Going. I ordered sour milk for supper. The doctor says you must eat sour milk and nothing else, or you won’t get thin. Stops. Bobby is so cold. I’m afraid his room is too cold for him. It would be nice to put him into another room till the warm weather comes. Irina’s room, for instance, is just right for a child: it’s dry and has the sun all day. I must tell her, she can share Olga’s room. It isn’t as if she was at home in the daytime, she only sleeps here.⁠ ⁠… A pause. Andrey, darling, why are you so silent? Andrey I was just thinking.⁠ ⁠… There is really nothing to say.⁠ ⁠… Natasha Yes⁠ ⁠… there was something I wanted to tell you.⁠ ⁠… Oh, yes. Ferapont has come from the Council offices, he wants to see you. Andrey Yawns. Call him here. Natasha goes out; Andrey reads his book, stooping over the candle she has left behind. Ferapont enters; he wears a tattered old coat with the collar up. His ears are muffled. Andrey Good morning, grandfather. What have you to say? Ferapont The Chairman sends a book and some documents or other. Here.⁠ ⁠… Hands him a book and a packet. Andrey Thank you. It’s all right. Why couldn’t you come earlier? It’s past eight now. Ferapont What? Andrey Louder. I say you’ve come late, it’s past eight. Ferapont Yes, yes. I came when it was still light, but they wouldn’t let me in. They said you were busy. Well, what was I to do. If you’re busy, you’re busy, and I’m in no hurry. He thinks that Andrey is asking him something. What? Andrey Nothing. Looks through the book. Tomorrow’s Friday. I’m not supposed to go to work, but I’ll come⁠—all the same⁠ ⁠… and do some work. It’s dull at home. Pause. Oh, my dear old man, how strangely life changes, and how it deceives! Today, out of sheer boredom, I took up this book⁠—old university lectures, and I couldn’t help laughing. My God, I’m secretary of the local district council, the council which has Protopopov for its chairman, yes, I’m the secretary, and the summit of my ambitions is⁠—to become a member of the council! I to be a member of the local district council, I, who dream every night that I’m a professor of Moscow University, a famous scholar of whom all Russia is proud! Ferapont I can’t tell⁠ ⁠… I’m hard of hearing.⁠ ⁠… Andrey If you weren’t, I don’t suppose I should talk to you. I’ve got to talk to somebody, and my wife doesn’t understand me, and I’m a bit afraid of my sisters⁠—I don’t know why unless it is that they may make fun of me and make me feel ashamed⁠ ⁠… I don’t drink, I don’t like public-houses, but how I should like to be sitting just now in Tyestov’s place in Moscow, or at the Great Moscow, old fellow! Ferapont Moscow? That’s where a contractor was once telling that some merchants or other were eating pancakes; one ate forty pancakes and he went and died, he was saying. Either forty or fifty, I forget which. Andrey In Moscow you can sit in an enormous restaurant