The Proposal

You know, I get up at five o'clock in the morning, and I work from morning till night; and I've always got money, my own and other people's, and I see what the people around me are like. One only has to begin to do anything to see how few honest, decent people there are. Sometimes, when I can't sleep at night, I think: "Oh Lord, you gave us huge forests, boundless fields, the widest horizons, and living here we ourselves should be real giants."

You want giants! They are only good in fairy tales; otherwise they're terrifying.

There's one way out of this. You must take my advice. Listen, listen carefully! Your estate is only twenty miles from town. The railway runs close to it. If the cherry orchard and the land along the river were cut up into building lots and leased for summer cottages, you'd have a yearly income of at least twenty-five thousand rubles.

Summer cottages and summer residents—forgive me, but it's so vulgar.

I don't quite understand you, Lyubov Andreyevna.

Cut it down? My dear fellow, forgive me, but you don't understand anything. If there is one thing in the whole province that's interesting, remarkable even, it's our cherry orchard.