OLGA. Don't whistle, Masha. How can you! [Pause] I'm always having
headaches from having to go to the High School every day and then teach
till evening. Strange thoughts come to me, as if I were already an old
woman. And really, during these four years that I have been working
here, I have been feeling as if every day my strength and youth have
been squeezed out of me, drop by drop. And only one desire grows and
gains in strength...

IRINA. To go away to Moscow. To sell the house, drop everything here,
and go to Moscow...

OLGA. Yes! To Moscow, and as soon as possible.

[CHEBUTIKIN and TUZENBACH laugh.]

IRINA. I expect Andrey will become a professor, but still, he won't want
to live here. Only poor Masha must go on living here.

OLGA. Masha can come to Moscow every year, for the whole summer.

[MASHA is whistling gently.]

IRINA. Everything will be arranged, please God. [Looks out of the
window] It's nice out to-day. I don't know why I'm so happy: I
remembered this morning that it was my name-day, and I suddenly felt
glad and remembered my childhood, when mother was still with us. What
beautiful thoughts I had, what thoughts!

OLGA. You're all radiance to-day, I've never seen you look so lovely.
And Masha is pretty, too. Andrey wouldn't be bad-looking, if he wasn't
so stout; it does spoil his appearance. But I've grown old and very
thin, I suppose it's because I get angry with the girls at school.
To-day I'm free. I'm at home. I haven't got a headache, and I feel
younger than I was yesterday. I'm only twenty-eight.... All's well, God
is everywhere, but it seems to me that if only I were married and could
stay at home all day, it would be even better. [Pause] I should love my
husband.

TUZENBACH. [To SOLENI] I'm tired of listening to the rot you talk.
[Entering the sitting-room] I forgot to say that Vershinin, our new
lieutenant-colonel of artillery, is coming to see us to-day. [Sits down
to the piano.]

OLGA. That's good. I'm glad.

IRINA. Is he old?

TUZENBACH. Oh, no. Forty or forty-five, at the very outside. [Plays
softly] He seems rather a good sort. He's certainly no fool, only he
likes to hear himself speak.

IRINA. Is he interesting?

TUZENBACH. Oh, he's all right, but there's his wife, his mother-in-law,
and two daughters. This is his second wife. He pays calls and tells
everybody that he's got a wife and two daughters. He'll tell you so
here. The wife isn't all there, she does her hair li