ve presents!

[The orderly goes into the dining-room with the samovar.]

ANFISA. [Enters and crosses stage] My dear, there's a strange Colonel
come! He's taken off his coat already. Children, he's coming here. Irina
darling, you'll be a nice and polite little girl, won't you.... Should
have lunched a long time ago.... Oh, Lord.... [Exit.]

TUZENBACH. It must be Vershinin. [Enter VERSHININ] Lieutenant-Colonel
Vershinin!

VERSHININ. [To MASHA and IRINA] I have the honour to introduce myself,
my name is Vershinin. I am very glad indeed to be able to come at last.
How you've grown! Oh! oh!

IRINA. Please sit down. We're very glad you've come.

VERSHININ. [Gaily] I am glad, very glad! But there are three sisters,
surely. I remember--three little girls. I forget your faces, but your
father, Colonel Prosorov, used to have three little girls, I remember
that perfectly, I saw them with my own eyes. How time does fly! Oh,
dear, how it flies!

TUZENBACH. Alexander Ignateyevitch comes from Moscow.

IRINA. From Moscow? Are you from Moscow?

VERSHININ. Yes, that's so. Your father used to be in charge of a battery
there, and I was an officer in the same brigade. [To MASHA] I seem to
remember your face a little.

MASHA. I don't remember you.

IRINA. Olga! Olga! [Shouts into the dining-room] Olga! Come along! [OLGA
enters from the dining-room] Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin comes from
Moscow, as it happens.

VERSHININ. I take it that you are Olga Sergeyevna, the eldest, and that
you are Maria... and you are Irina, the youngest....

OLGA. So you come from Moscow?

VERSHININ. Yes. I went to school in Moscow and began my service there; I
was there for a long time until at last I got my battery and moved over
here, as you see. I don't really remember you, I only remember that
there used to be three sisters. I remember your father well; I have only
to shut my eyes to see him as he was. I used to come to your house in
Moscow....

OLGA. I used to think I remembered everybody, but...

VERSHININ. My name is Alexander Ignateyevitch.

IRINA. Alexander Ignateyevitch, you've come from Moscow. That is really
quite a surprise!

OLGA. We are going to live there, you see.

IRINA. We think we may be there this autumn. It's our native town, we
were born there. In Old Basmanni Road.... [They both laugh for joy.]

MASHA. We've unexpectedly met a fellow countryman. [Briskly] I remember:
Do you remember, Olga, they used to speak at hom