TREPLIEFF.  No, but we must have it under a new form.  If we can’t do that, let us rather not have it at all. [Looking at his watch] I love my mother, I love her devotedly, but I think she leads a stupid life.  She always has this man of letters of hers on her mind, and the newspapers are always frightening her to death, and I am tired of it.  Plain, human egoism sometimes speaks in my heart, and I regret that my mother is a famous actress.  If she were an ordinary woman I think I should be a happier man.  What could be more intolerable and foolish than my position, Uncle, when I find myself the only nonentity among a crowd of her guests, all celebrated authors and artists?  I feel that they only endure me because I am her son.  Personally I am nothing, nobody.  I pulled through my third year at college by the skin of my teeth, as they say.  I have neither money nor brains, and on my passport you may read that I am simply a citizen of Kiev.  So was my father, but he was a well-known actor.  When the celebrities that frequent my mother’s drawing-room deign to notice me at all, I know they only look at me to measure my insignificance; I read their thoughts, and suffer from humiliation.

Sorin.  Tell me, by the way, what is Trigorin like?  I can’t understand him, he is always so silent.

TREPLIEFF.  Trigorin is clever, simple, well-mannered, and a little, I might say, melancholic in disposition.  Though still under forty, he is surfeited with praise.  As for his stories, they are—­how shall I put it?—­pleasing, full of talent, but if you have read Tolstoi or Zola you somehow don’t enjoy Trigorin.

Sorin.  Do you know, my boy, I like literary men.  I once passionately desired two things:  to marry, and to become an author.  I have succeeded in neither.  It must be pleasant to be even an insignificant author.

TREPLIEFF. [Listening] I hear footsteps! [He embraces his uncle] I cannot live without her; even the sound of her footsteps is music to me.  I am madly happy. [He goes quickly to meet Nina, who comes in at that moment] My enchantress!  My girl of dreams!

Nina. [Excitedly] It can’t be that I am late?  No, I am not late.

TREPLIEFF. [Kissing her hands] No, no, no!

Nina.  I have been in a fever all day, I was so afraid my father would prevent my coming, but he and my stepmother have just gone driving.  The sky is clear, the moon is rising.  How I hurried to get here!  How I urged my horse to go faster and faster! [Laughing] I am so glad to see you! [She shakes hands with Sorin.]

Sorin.  Oho!  Your eyes look as if you had been crying.  You mustn’t do that.

Nina.  It is nothing, nothing.  Do let us hurry.  I must go in half an hour.  No, no, for heaven’s sake do not urge me to stay.  My father doesn’t know I am here.

TREPLIEFF.  As a matter of fact, it is time to begin now.  I must call the audience.