* * * * * What a lot of idiots there are among ladies. People get so used to it that they do not notice it. * * * * * They often go to the theatre and read serious magazines--and yet are spiteful and immoral. * * * * * _Nat_: "I never have fits of hysterics. I am not a pampered darling."[1] [Footnote 1: This and the following few passages are from the rough draft of Chekhov's play _Three Sisters_.] * * * * * _Nat_: (continually to her sisters): "O, how ugly you have grown. O, how old you do look!" * * * * * To live one must have something to hang on to.... In the provinces only the body works, not the spirit. * * * * * You won't become a saint through other people's sins. * * * * * _Koulyguin_: "I am a jolly fellow, I infect every one with my mood." * * * * * _Koul_. Gives lessons at rich houses. * * * * * _Koul_. In Act IV without mustaches. * * * * * The wife implores the husband: "Don't get fat." * * * * * O if there were a life in which every one grew younger and more beautiful. * * * * * _Irene_: "It is hard to live without a father, without a mother."--"And without a husband."--"Yes, without a husband. Whom could one confide in? To whom could one complain? With whom could one share ones's joy? One must love some one strongly." * * * * * _Koulyguin_ (to his wife): "I am so happy to be married to you, that I consider it ungentlemanly and improper to speak of or even mention a dowry. Hush, don't say anything...." * * * * * The doctor enjoys being at the duel. * * * * * It is difficult to live without orderlies. You cannot make the servants answer your bell. * * * * * The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th companies left at 4, and we leave at 12 sharp.[1] [Footnote 1: Here the fragments from the rough draft of _Three Sisters_ end.] * * * * * In the daytime conversations about the loose manners of the girls in secondary schools, in the evening a lecture on degeneration and the decline of everything, and at night, after all this, one longs to shoot oneself. * * * * * In the life of our towns there is no pessimism, no Marxism, and no movements, but there is stagnation, stupidity, mediocrity. * * * * * He had a thirst for life, but it seemed to him to mean that he wanted a drink--and he drank wine. * * * * *