LYÚBA [excitedly] Don't speak of him to me! I wish to blame him, to blame him whilst he is suffering; and I know it is because I feel guilty towards him. All I know is that I feel there is a kind of love—and I think a more real love than I ever felt for him.
STARKÓVSKY. Lyúba, is that true?
LYÚBA. You wish me to say that I love you with that real love—but I won't say it. I do love you with a different kind of love; but it is not the real thing either! Neither the one nor the other is the real thing—if only they could be mixed together!
STARKÓVSKY. No, no, I am satisfied with mine. [Kisses her hand] Lyúba!
LYÚBA [pushes him away] No, let us sort these things. They are beginning to arrive.
Enter Princess with Tónya and a little girl.
LYÚBA. Mamma will be here in a moment.
PRINCESS. Are we the first?
STARKÓVSKY. Some one must be! I have suggested making a gutta-percha dummy to be the first arrival!
Enter Styópa, also Ványa carrying the gum and pin-cushion.