ly. Please
forgive me for saying so. [Pause.]

MASHA. I want to make a confession, dear sisters. My soul is in pain.
I will confess to you, and never again to anybody... I'll tell you this
minute. [Softly] It's my secret but you must know everything... I can't
be silent.... [Pause] I love, I love... I love that man.... You saw him
only just now.... Why don't I say it... in one word. I love Vershinin.

OLGA. [Goes behind her screen] Stop that, I don't hear you in any case.

MASHA. What am I to do? [Takes her head in her hands] First he seemed
queer to me, then I was sorry for him... then I fell in love with
him... fell in love with his voice, his words, his misfortunes, his two
daughters.

OLGA. [Behind the screen] I'm not listening. You may talk any nonsense
you like, it will be all the same, I shan't hear.

MASHA. Oh, Olga, you are foolish. I am in love--that means that is to be
my fate. It means that is to be my lot.... And he loves me.... It is all
awful. Yes; it isn't good, is it? [Takes IRINA'S hand and draws her to
her] Oh, my dear.... How are we going to live through our lives, what is
to become of us.... When you read a novel it all seems so old and easy,
but when you fall in love yourself, then you learn that nobody knows
anything, and each must decide for himself.... My dear ones, my
sisters... I've confessed, now I shall keep silence.... Like the
lunatics in Gogol's story, I'm going to be silent... silent...

[ANDREY enters, followed by FERAPONT.]

ANDREY. [Angrily] What do you want? I don't understand.

FERAPONT. [At the door, impatiently] I've already told you ten times,
Andrey Sergeyevitch.

ANDREY. In the first place I'm not Andrey Sergeyevitch, but sir. [Note:
Quite literally, "your high honour," to correspond to Andrey's rank as a
civil servant.]

FERAPONT. The firemen, sir, ask if they can go across your garden to the
river. Else they go right round, right round; it's a nuisance.

ANDREY. All right. Tell them it's all right. [Exit FERAPONT] I'm tired
of them. Where is Olga? [OLGA comes out from behind the screen] I came
to you for the key of the cupboard. I lost my own. You've got a little
key. [OLGA gives him the key; IRINA goes behind her screen; pause] What
a huge fire! It's going down now. Hang it all, that Ferapont made me so
angry that I talked nonsense to him.... Sir, indeed.... [A pause] Why
are you so silent, Olga? [Pause] It's time you stopped all that nonsense
and behaved as if