\Ve are having remarkable weather here, with warmth and a brightly shining sun, and the apricots and almond trees are in bloom. I shall expect you during Holy Week, my poor abused little actress, and shall continue to wait for you, bear that in mind.
Between the twentieth and twenty-eighth of February I sent you five letters and eight telegrams; I asked you to telegraph me, but haven't had a word in reply. . . .
Tell me how long you are all staying in St. Pete. Write, little actress.
I am well—cross my heart.
I press you tenderly to me.
Your Holy Hermit
To OLGA KNIPPER
April 22, /90/, YaZ<a
My swee<, de/ight/uZ Knippjchitz,
I didn't detain you because I found Yalta revolting and had the idea we would soon be seeing each other anyway as free souls. Be that as it may, your anger is groundless, my darling. I haven't any concealed thoughts of any kind, and tell you every- thing that comes to mind.
I shall be arriving in Moscow early in May, and if it is pos- sible we'll get married and take a trip along the Volga, or we can take the trip first and then get married—whichever you find more convenient. \Ve can board the boat at Yaroslavl or Rybinsk and head for Astrakhan, thence to Baku, and from Baku to Batum. Or maybe you don't care for that route? We might take
1 "The Moscow Art Theatre opened its St. Petersburg repertory with Haupt- mann's Lonely Lives. Sanin, apparently, was the only actor in the company who was praised by the critics.
one along the northern Dvina to Archangel, on the Solovka. We'll go wherever you decide. After that we can live in a Moscow apartment for all or the greater part of the winter. If only I keep my strength and stay well! My cough deprives me of every bit of energy, I take a dim view of the future and work quite without enthusiasm. Please think about the future for me, be my little manager, and I'll do whatever you say; other- wise we shan't really live, but gulp down a tablespoonful of life once every hour.
So you are left without a part now? That's very pleasant. Today I was sent a review of "The Three Sisters" from the "Revue Blanche." I also received a copy of the Tolstoy reply to the Synod's resolution.1 Then there was a copy of the almanac called "Northern Flowers" with my story in it. I had a letter from my brother Ivan saying he was ill. I also had a telegram from the Olympia acting company in St. Petersburg asking per- mission to perform "The Three Sisters." Today we have rain and a desperate wind, but out of doors the air is warm and pleasant. My dog, Chestnut, whom you call Redhead, had her leg stepped on by a horse, and now I have to fuss over her and put on bandages; I am quite permeated with iodoform. . . .
What plays will I find on at your theatre? What rehearsals are under way? Rehearsals of "Mikhail Kramer"? "The Wild Duck"? At moments I experience an overwhelming desire to write a four-act farce or comedy for the Art Theatre. And I'm going to do so, if nothing interferes, except that I won't let the theatre have it before the end of 1903.
I will telegraph you, but don't tell anyone and come to the station alone. Do you hear? So long for now, my precious, my charming little girl. Don't go around moping and imagining God only knows what; honest to goodness, I haven't the slightest secret I would keep from you even for a moment. Be a good little creature, don't be cross.
Your Antoine
1 The Synod had excommunicated Tolstoy from the Church.
To EVGENIA CHEKHOVA [Telegram]
May 25, /90/, Moscow DEAR MA:\lA GI\'E ME YOUR BLESSING AM GETTING MARRIED EVERYTHING WILL REMAIN AS IT WAS LEAVING TO TAKE KUMISS CURE ADDRESS AKSEN0\'0 SAMARA ZLATOUST HEALTH IS BETTER
ANTON
To MARIA CHEKHOVA
June 2, /90/, Aksenovo
Greetings, dear Masha,
I have been intending to write you and have not got around to it; I have lots of business to take care of, trivial matters, of course. You already know I am married. I believe this action of mine will in no wise change my life or the surroundings I have always been in. Mother most likely is already saying God knows what, but you tell her there will be absolutely no changes, everything will continue as it has until now. I will keep on going along as I have hitherto, and Mother as well; my relations with you will remain as unalterably warm and good as they always have been.
Here in Ufa Province life is dull and uninteresting; I am drinking kumiss, which, apparently, agrees with me pretty well. It is an acid drink similar to kvass. . . .
If your funds are running low send me a blank check, which you can get out of my desk. I have put the receipts from the government bank into one packet, have added another one for 3,700 rubles and have marked it "For M. P. Chekhova." The packet is at Knipper's, and they will tum it over to you. Take care of it, please, or I may lose it.
My health is tolerable at the moment, you might even say good, and I hardly cough any more. I will be in Yalta at the end of July and will stay there until October, then live in Moscow until December and then back again to Yalta. It looks as though my wife and I must live apart—a situation to which, by the way, I am already accustomed. . . .
I shall write you again soon, and in the meantime keep well. I send my deepest respects to Mama. Her telegram was for- warded to me by mail from Moscow. . . .
There is no bathing here. It would be nice to go fishing, but the place is at some distance. Christ be with you.
Your Antoine
T0 VASILI SOBOLEVSKI
June 9, 1901, Aksen0v0
Dear Vasili Mikhaihvich,
. . . Well, sir, I suddenly up and got married. I have already become accustomed, or practically so, to my new state, i.e., to deprivation of certain rights and privileges, and feel fine. My wife is a very decent person, and far from stupid, and a kindly soul.
And so, permit me to await a letter from you, my dear chap. We have a sanatorium here, and kumiss is drunk in quantity; at first life here seems tiresome and pallid, but then you don't mind it so much. Good luck and good health, give my regards to Varvara Alexeyevna and the children; and with all my heart I wish you the best of everything.
Yours,
A. Chekhov
T0 MARIA CHEKHOVN
August 1901, Yalta
Dear Masha,
I will to you for possession during your lifetime my home in Yalta, the money and royalties from my dramatic productions, and to my wife Olga Leonardovna the country home in Gurzuf
! Olga Knipper Chekhova delivered this letter to Maria Chekhova, after Chekhov died.
and five thousand rubles. If you wish, you may sell the real estate. Give our brother Alexander three thousand. Ivan is to get five thousand and Mikhail three thousand. One thousand rubles are to be given to Alexei Dolzhenko2 and one thousand to Elena Chekhova2 upon her marriage. After your death and Mother's death, everything that remains, except for the royalties from the plays, reverts to the Taganrog city administration for public education; royalties from the plays are for brother Ivan, and after Ivan's death are to be assigned to the Taganrog city administration for the same purpose mentioned above. I prom- ised the peasants of Melikhovo Village one hundred rubles to pay for the highway; I also promised Gabriel Alexeyevich Khar- chenko (private house, Moskalevka Street, Kharkov) to pay for his older daughter's secondary school education. . . . Help the poor. Take care of Mother. Live together peaceably.