LUBOV. [Shudders] It’s unpleasant, somehow. [A pause.] FIERS. Before the misfortune the same thing happened. An owl screamed and the samovar hummed without stopping. GAEV. Before what misfortune? FIERS. Before the Emancipation. [A pause.] LUBOV. You know, my friends, let’s go in; it’s evening now. [To ANYA] You’ve tears in your eyes.... What is it, little girl? [Embraces her.] ANYA. It’s nothing, mother. TROFIMOV. Some one’s coming. [Enter a TRAMP in an old white peaked cap and overcoat. He is a little drunk.] TRAMP. Excuse me, may I go this way straight through to the station? GAEV. You may. Go along this path. TRAMP. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. [Hiccups] Lovely weather.... [Declaims] My brother, my suffering brother.... Come out on the Volga, you whose groans... [To VARYA] Mademoiselle, please give a hungry Russian thirty copecks.... [VARYA screams, frightened.] LOPAKHIN. [Angrily] There’s manners everybody’s got to keep! LUBOV. [With a start] Take this... here you are.... [Feels in her purse] There’s no silver.... It doesn’t matter, here’s gold. TRAMP. I am deeply grateful to you! [Exit. Laughter.] VARYA. [Frightened] I’m going, I’m going.... Oh, little mother, at home there’s nothing for the servants to eat, and you gave him gold. LUBOV. What is to be done with such a fool as I am! At home I’ll give you everything I’ve got. Ermolai Alexeyevitch, lend me some more!... LOPAKHIN. Very well. LUBOV. Let’s go, it’s time. And Varya, we’ve settled your affair; I congratulate you. VARYA. [Crying] You shouldn’t joke about this, mother. LOPAKHIN. Oh, feel me, get thee to a nunnery. GAEV. My hands are all trembling; I haven’t played billiards for a long time. LOPAKHIN. Oh, feel me, nymph, remember me in thine orisons. LUBOV. Come along; it’ll soon be supper-time. VARYA. He did frighten me. My heart is beating hard. LOPAKHIN. Let me remind you, ladies and gentlemen, on August 22 the cherry orchard will be sold. Think of that!... Think of that!... [All go out except TROFIMOV and ANYA.] ANYA. [Laughs] Thanks to the tramp who frightened Barbara, we’re alone now. TROFIMOV. Varya’s afraid we may fall in love with each other and won’t get away from us for days on end. Her narrow mind won’t allow her to understand that we are above love. To escape all the petty and deceptive things which prevent our being happy and free, that is the aim and meaning of our lives. Forward! We go irresistibly on to that bright star which burns there, in the distance! Don’t lag behind, friends! ANYA. [Clapping her hands] How beautifully you talk! [Pause] It is glorious here to-day! TROFIMOV. Yes, the weather is wonderful. ANYA. What have you done to me, Peter? I don’t love the cherry orchard as I used to. I loved it so tenderly, I thought there was no better place in the world than our orchard.