LUBOV. Grandmother sent fifteen thousand roubles from Yaroslav to buy the property in her name—she won’t trust us—and that wasn’t even enough to pay the interest. [Covers her face with her hands] My fate will be settled to-day, my fate....
TROFIMOV. [Teasing VARYA] Madame Lopakhin!
VARYA. [Angry] Eternal student! He’s already been expelled twice from the university.
LUBOV. Why are you getting angry, Varya? He’s teasing you about Lopakhin, well what of it? You can marry Lopakhin if you want to, he’s a good, interesting man.... You needn’t if you don’t want to; nobody wants to force you against your will, my darling.
VARYA. I do look at the matter seriously, little mother, to be quite frank. He’s a good man, and I like him.
LUBOV. Then marry him. I don’t understand what you’re waiting for.
VARYA. I can’t propose to him myself, little mother. People have been talking about him to me for two years now, but he either says nothing, or jokes about it. I understand. He’s getting rich, he’s busy, he can’t bother about me. If I had some money, even a little, even only a hundred roubles, I’d throw up everything and go away. I’d go into a convent.
TROFIMOV. How nice!
VARYA. [To TROFIMOV] A student ought to have sense! [Gently, in tears] How ugly you are now, Peter, how old you’ve grown! [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA, no longer crying] But I can’t go on without working, little mother. I want to be doing something every minute.
[Enter YASHA.]