Enter ZINAIDA and LEBEDIEFF through the door on the right. ZINAIDA. Why do you go off by yourself like a prima donna? Come and sit with our guests! [She sits down in her former place.] LEBEDIEFF. [Yawning] Oh, dear, our sins are heavy! [He catches sight of MARTHA] Why, there is my little sugar-plum! How is your most esteemed highness? MARTHA. Very well, thank you. LEBEDIEFF. Splendid, splendid! [He sits down in an armchair] Quite right--Oh, Gabriel! GABRIEL brings him a glass of vodka and a tumbler of water. He empties the glass of vodka and sips the water. FIRST GUEST. Good health to you! LEBEDIEFF. Good health is too much to ask. I am content to keep death from the door. [To his wife] Where is the heroine of this occasion, Zuzu? KOSICH. [In a plaintive voice] Look here, why haven't we taken any tricks yet? [He jumps up] Yes, why have we lost this game entirely, confound it? AVDOTIA. [Jumps up angrily] Because, friend, you don't know how to play it, and have no right to be sitting here at all. What right had you to lead from another suit? Haven't you the ace left? [They both leave the table and run forward.] KOSICH. [In a tearful voice] Ladies and gentlemen, let me explain! I had the ace, king, queen, and eight of diamonds, the ace of spades and one, just one, little heart, do you understand? Well, she, bad luck to her, she couldn't make a little slam. I said one in no-trumps---- * * The game played is vint, the national card-game of Russia and the direct ancestor of auction bridge, with which it is almost identical. [translator's note] AVDOTIA. [Interrupting him] No, I said one in no-trumps; you said two in no-trumps---- KOSICH. This is unbearable! Allow me--you had--I had--you had--[To LEBEDIEFF] But you shall decide it, Paul: I had the ace, king, queen, and eight of diamonds---- LEBEDIEFF. [Puts his fingers into his ears] Stop, for heaven's sake, stop! AVDOTIA. [Yelling] I said no-trumps, and not he! KOSICH. [Furiously] I'll be damned if I ever sit down to another game of cards with that old cat! He rushes into the garden. The SECOND GUEST follows him. GEORGE is left alone at the table. AVDOTIA. Whew! He makes my blood boil! Old cat, indeed! You're an old cat yourself! MARTHA. How angry you are, aunty! AVDOTIA. [Sees MARTHA and claps her hands] Are you here, my darling? My beauty! And was I blind as a bat, and didn't see you? Darling child! [She kisses her and sits down beside her] How happy this makes me! Let me feast my eyes on you, my milk-white swan! Oh, oh, you have bewitched me! LEBEDIEFF. Why don't you find her a husband instead of singing her praises? AVDOTIA. He shall be found. I shall not go to my grave before I have found a husband for her, and one for Sasha too. I shall not go to my grave--[She sighs] But where to find these husbands nowadays? There sit some possible bridegrooms now, huddled together like a lot of half-drowned rats!