e man's pardon. See if it doesn't.

PAULINA. He has sent the carriage horses into the fields too. These
misunderstandings occur every day. If you only knew how they excite me!
I am ill; see! I am trembling all over! I cannot endure his rough ways.
[Imploringly] Eugene, my darling, my beloved, take me to you. Our time
is short; we are no longer young; let us end deception and concealment,
even though it is only at the end of our lives. [A pause.]

DORN. I am fifty-five years old. It is too late now for me to change my
ways of living.

PAULINA. I know that you refuse me because there are other women who are
near to you, and you cannot take everybody. I understand. Excuse me--I
see I am only bothering you.

NINA is seen near the house picking a bunch of flowers.

DORN. No, it is all right.

PAULINA. I am tortured by jealousy. Of course you are a doctor and
cannot escape from women. I understand.

DORN. [TO NINA, who comes toward him] How are things in there?

NINA. Madame Arkadina is crying, and Sorin is having an attack of
asthma.

DORN. Let us go and give them both some camomile tea.

NINA. [Hands him the bunch of flowers] Here are some flowers for you.

DORN. Thank you. [He goes into the house.]

PAULINA. [Following him] What pretty flowers! [As they reach the house
she says in a low voice] Give me those flowers! Give them to me!

DORN hands her the flowers; she tears them to pieces and flings them
away. They both go into the house.

NINA. [Alone] How strange to see a famous actress weeping, and for
such a trifle! Is it not strange, too, that a famous author should sit
fishing all day? He is the idol of the public, the papers are full
of him, his photograph is for sale everywhere, his works have been
translated into many foreign languages, and yet he is overjoyed if he
catches a couple of minnows. I always thought famous people were distant
and proud; I thought they despised the common crowd which exalts
riches and birth, and avenged themselves on it by dazzling it with the
inextinguishable honour and glory of their fame. But here I see them
weeping and playing cards and flying into passions like everybody else.

TREPLIEFF comes in without a hat on, carrying a gun and a dead seagull.

TREPLIEFF. Are you alone here?

NINA. Yes.

TREPLIEFF lays the sea-gull at her feet.

NINA. What do you mean by this?

TREPLIEFF. I was base enough to-day to kill this gull. I lay it at your
feet.

NINA. What is