YATS. I implore you to sing! Just one note! Have pity! Just one note! ZMEYUKINA. I’m tired of you.... [Sits and fans herself.] YATS. No, you’re simply heartless! To be so cruel--if I may express myself--and to have such a beautiful, beautiful voice! With such a voice, if you will forgive my using the word, you shouldn’t be a midwife, but sing at concerts, at public gatherings! For example, how divinely you do that _fioritura_... that... [Sings] “I loved you; love was vain then....” Exquisite! ZMEYUKINA. [Sings] “I loved you, and may love again.” Is that it? YATS. That’s it! Beautiful! ZMEYUKINA. No, I’ve no voice to-day.... There, wave this fan for me... it’s hot! [To APLOMBOV] Epaminond Maximovitch, why are you so melancholy? A bridegroom shouldn’t be! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, you wretch? Well, what are you so thoughtful about? APLOMBOV. Marriage is a serious step! Everything must be considered from all sides, thoroughly. ZMEYUKINA. What beastly sceptics you all are! I feel quite suffocated with you all around.... Give me atmosphere! Do you hear? Give me atmosphere! [Sings a few notes.] YATS. Beautiful! Beautiful! ZMEYUKINA. Fan me, fan me, or I feel I shall have a heart attack in a minute. Tell me, please, why do I feel so suffocated? YATS. It’s because you’re sweating.... ZMEYUKINA. Foo, how vulgar you are! Don’t dare to use such words! YATS. Beg pardon! Of course, you’re used, if I may say so, to aristocratic society and.... ZMEYUKINA. Oh, leave me alone! Give me poetry, delight! Fan me, fan me! ZHIGALOV. [To DIMBA] Let’s have another, what? [Pours out] One can always drink. So long only, Harlampi Spiridonovitch, as one doesn’t forget one’s business. Drink and be merry.... And if you can drink at somebody else’s expense, then why not drink? You can drink.... Your health! [They drink] And do you have tigers in Greece? DIMBA. Yes. ZHIGALOV. And lions? DIMBA. And lions too. In Russia zere’s nussing, and in Greece zere’s everysing--my fazer and uncle and brozeres--and here zere’s nussing. ZHIGALOV. H’m.... And are there whales in Greece? DIMBA. Yes, everysing. NASTASYA TIMOFEYEVNA. [To her husband] What are they all eating and drinking like that for? It’s time for everybody to sit down to supper. Don’t keep on shoving your fork into the lobsters.... They’re for the general. He may come yet.... ZHIGALOV. And are there lobsters in Greece? DIMBA. Yes... zere is everysing. ZHIGALOV. Hm.... And Civil Servants. ZMEYUKINA. I can imagine what the atmosphere is like in Greece! ZHIGALOV. There must be a lot of swindling. The Greeks are just like the Armenians or gipsies. They sell you a sponge or a goldfish and all the time they are looking out for a chance of getting something extra out of you. Let’s have another, what? NASTASYA TIMOFEYEVNA. What do you want to go on having another for? It’s time everybody sat down to supper. It’s past eleven.