Act 1, Part 2 Summary

Shpigelsky comes in and greets everyone. Conversation reveals that he's the local doctor. He thinks Natalya is physically well but emotionally uneasy, and Shpigelsky thinks she just doesn't laugh or walk enough. Natalya asks him to tell her a funny story. He speaks at length about a neighbor with a wealthy daughter whose equally wealthy aunt left a will in the daughter's favor. Several suitors for the daughter's hand in marriage turned up, and she liked one in particular. She was won over by the manipulations of another man, a dashing young officer in the military, and when he proposed marriage, she became extremely upset and cried all the time because she loved both men and couldn't choose between them. After he talks about how upset and frustrated the father is, Natalya comments that it's possible to love two people at...