SHABELSKI. A fancy? It is lucky for you that you have no
knowledge of the world!

LEBEDIEFF. My knowledge of the world is this: I must sit here
prepared at any moment to have death come knocking at the door.
That is my knowledge of the world. At our age, brother, you and I
can't afford to worry about knowledge of the world. So then-- [He
calls] Oh, Gabriel!

SHABELSKI. You have had quite enough already. Look at your nose.

LEBEDIEFF. No matter, old boy. I am not going to be married
to-day.

ZINAIDA. Doctor Lvoff has not been here for a long time. He seems
to have forgotten us.

SASHA. That man is one of my aversions. I can't stand his icy
sense of honour. He can't ask for a glass of water or smoke a
cigarette without making a display of his remarkable honesty.
Walking and talking, it is written on his brow: "I am an honest
man." He is a great bore.

SHABELSKI. He is a narrow-minded, conceited medico. [Angrily] He
shrieks like a parrot at every step: "Make way for honest
endeavour!" and thinks himself another St. Francis. Everybody is
a rascal who doesn't make as much noise as he does. As for his
penetration, it is simply remarkable! If a peasant is well off
and lives decently, he sees at once that he must be a thief and a