placed in front of the stage. The sun has just set. JACOB and some other
workmen are heard hammering and coughing on the stage behind the lowered
curtain_.

MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO come in from the left, returning from a walk.

MEDVIEDENKO. Why do you always wear mourning?

MASHA. I dress in black to match my life. I am unhappy.

MEDVIEDENKO. Why should you be unhappy? [Thinking it over] I don't
understand it. You are healthy, and though your father is not rich, he
has a good competency. My life is far harder than yours. I only have
twenty-three roubles a month to live on, but I don't wear mourning.
[They sit down].

MASHA. Happiness does not depend on riches; poor men are often happy.

MEDVIEDENKO. In theory, yes, but not in reality. Take my case, for
instance; my mother, my two sisters, my little brother and I must all
live somehow on my salary of twenty-three roubles a month. We have to
eat and drink, I take it. You wouldn't have us go without tea and sugar,
would you? Or tobacco? Answer me that, if you can.

MASHA. [Looking in the direction of the stage] The play will soon begin.

MEDVIEDENKO. Yes, Nina Zarietchnaya is going to act in Treplieff's play.
They love one another, and their two souls will unite to-night in the
effort to interpret the same idea by different means. There is no ground
on which your soul and mine can meet. I love you. Too restless and sad