going, but I am still groping in a chaos of phantoms and dreams, not
knowing whom and what end I am serving by it all. I do not believe in
anything, and I do not know what my calling is.

NINA. [Listening] Hush! I must go. Good-bye. When I have become a
famous actress you must come and see me. Will you promise to come? But
now--[She takes his hand] it is late. I can hardly stand. I am fainting.
I am hungry.

TREPLIEFF. Stay, and let me bring you some supper.

NINA. No, no--and don't come out, I can find the way alone. My carriage
is not far away. So she brought him back with her? However, what
difference can that make to me? Don't tell Trigorin anything when you
see him. I love him--I love him even more than I used to. It is an idea
for a short story. I love him--I love him passionately--I love him to
despair. Have you forgotten, Constantine, how pleasant the old times
were? What a gay, bright, gentle, pure life we led? How a feeling as
sweet and tender as a flower blossomed in our hearts? Do you remember,
[She recites] "All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned
stags, geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from
the sea, and creatures invisible to the eye--in one word, life--all, all
life, completing the dreary round set before it, has died out at last.
A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature
on its breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No
longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of
beetles in the groves of limes----"

She embraces TREPLIEFF impetuously and runs out onto the terrace.