we mustn't let the vershinins go home. little girls can sleep in the drawing room and aleksandr ignatyevich can share the downstairs room with the baron. fedotik can go in with the baron too. maybe he should go into the ballroom. the doctor's gone and got drunk. you'd think he'd done it on purpose? he's so hopelessly drunk that we can't let anyone go into his room. vershinin's wife will have to go into the drawing room too. don't send me away olyaska darling, don't send me away. what nonsense you're talking nanny. no one's sending you away. oh, my dearest girl, i do work, you know. i work as hard as i can. i suppose now i'm getting weaker i'll be told to go. but where can i go? where? i'm 80 years old, i'm over 81. you sit down for a while nanny. you're tired, you poor thing. now just rest a bit. you've turned quite pale. they're saying we ought to start a subscription in aid of the victims of the fire or, you know, form a society or something for the purpose. well, why not? it's an excellent idea. in any case it's up to u

well, what's the good, i love vershinin. don't say it. i don't want to hear it. oh, what's to be done? i thought he was strange at first and then i started to pity him and then i began to love him, love everything about him, his voice, his talk, his misfortunes, his two little girls. nevertheless, i don't want to hear it. you can say any nonsense you'd like, i'm not listening. oh olya, you're stupid. if i love him, that's my fate. that's my destiny. he loves me too. it's all rather frightening, isn't it? it's not a good thing, is it? oh my dear, how are we going to live through the rest of our lives? what's going to become of us? when you read a novel, everything in it seems so old and obvious. but when you fall in love yourself you suddenly discover that you don't know anything and you've got to make your own decisions. oh my dear sisters, my dear sisters, i've confessed it all to you and now i'll be quiet. i'll be like that madman in the story by gogol, silence, silence, silence. well, what do you want? i don't understand you. and i've told you 10 times already