. It is evening; everything looks dark now. Don't go away
early, I implore you.

NINA. I must.

TREPLIEFF. What if I were to follow you, Nina? I shall stand in your
garden all night with my eyes on your window.

NINA. That would be impossible; the watchman would see you, and Treasure
is not used to you yet, and would bark.

TREPLIEFF. I love you.

NINA. Hush!

TREPLIEFF. [Listening to approaching footsteps] Who is that? Is it you,
Jacob?

JACOB. [On the stage] Yes, sir.

TREPLIEFF. To your places then. The moon is rising; the play must
commence.

NINA. Yes, sir.

TREPLIEFF. Is the alcohol ready? Is the sulphur ready? There must be
fumes of sulphur in the air when the red eyes shine out. [To NINA] Go,
now, everything is ready. Are you nervous?

NINA. Yes, very. I am not so much afraid of your mother as I am of
Trigorin. I am terrified and ashamed to act before him; he is so famous.
Is he young?

TREPLIEFF. Yes.

NINA. What beautiful stories he writes!

TREPLIEFF. [Coldly] I have never read any of them, so I can't say.

NINA. Your play is very hard to act; there are no living characters in
it.

TREPLIEFF. Living characters! Life must be represented not as it is, but
as it ought to be; as it appears in dreams.

NINA. There is so little action; it seems more like a recitation. I
think love should always come into every play.

NINA and TREPLIEFF go up onto the little stage; PAULINA and DORN come
in.

PAULINA. It is getting damp. Go back and put on your goloshes.

DORN. I am quite warm.

PAULINA. You never will take care of yourself; you are quite obstinate
about it, and yet you are a doctor, and know quite well that damp air is
bad for you. You like to see me suffer, that's what it is. You sat out
on the terrace all yesterday evening on purpose.

DORN. [Sings]

"Oh, tell me not that youth is wasted."

PAULINA. You were so enchanted by the conversation of Madame Arkadina
that you did not even notice the cold. Confess that you admire her.

DORN. I am fifty-five years old.

PAULINA. A trifle. That is not old for a man. You have kept your looks
magnificently, and women still like you.

DORN. What are you trying to tell me?

PAULINA. You men are all ready to go down on your knees to an actress,
all of you.

DORN. [Sings]

"Once more I stand before thee."

It is only right that artists should be made much of by society and
treated differently from, let us say, merchants. It is a kind of