Ivanoff, Ivanoff, and always Ivanoff has grown insufferable, and
yet you never speak of anything else. [She goes toward the door,
then stops and comes back] I am surprised, [To the young men] and
utterly astonished at your patience, young men! How can you sit
there like that? Aren't you bored? Why, the very air is as dull
as ditchwater! Do, for heaven's sake say something; try to amuse
the girls a little, move about! Or if you can't talk of anything
except Ivanoff, you might laugh or sing or dance---

LEBEDIEFF. [Laughing] That's right, Sasha! Give them a good
scolding.

SASHA. Look here, will you do me a favour? If you refuse to dance
or sing or laugh, if all that is tedious, then let me beg you,
implore you, to summon all your powers, if only for this once,
and make one witty or clever remark. Let it be as impertinent and
malicious as you like, so long as it is funny and original. Won't
you perform this miracle, just once, to surprise us and make us
laugh? Or else you might think of some little thing which you
could all do together, something to make you stir about. Let the
girls admire you for once in their lives! Listen to me! I suppose
you want them to like you? Then why don't try to make them do it?
Oh, dear! There is something wrong with you all! You are a lot of
sleepy stick-in-the-muds! I have told you so a thousand times and
shall always go on repeating it; there is something wrong with
every one of you; something wrong, wrong, wrong!

Enter IVANOFF and SHABELSKI through the door on the right.

SHABELSKI. Who is making a speech here? Is it you, Sasha? [He