person
Kopfer
also: Копфер
A chemist/pharmacist (аптекарь) in Kineshma where Chekhov stopped to buy chlorate of potash for his tongue; recognized and greeted warmly by Olga Kundasova, evidently an old acquaintance of hers from strolls in the ravines near the town. Named only by surname and occupation; not otherwise identified.
Reading notes
- To the Chekhovs, 23 April 1890. Volga, parokhod "Aleksandr Nevsky". §7 the chemist, catching sight of Olga Petrovna, was delighted
The punchline of the Kineshma digression: Chekhov sets up the "local dandies" (шпаки) he claims to have observed on the boulevard, then reveals that the real dandy-in-question is a small-town pharmacist who turns out to be an old acquaintance -- evidently more -- of Kundasova's, given away by his reaction and by their shared history of walks in the ravines outside town, the same ravines mentioned in \S6 as the site of Kundasova's mysterious rendezvous. The joke folds two running threads (Kundasova's secretive errand, the mock-anthropological "dandy" survey) into a single reveal within a few sentences.