To M. M. Dyukovsky, 10 January 1886. Moscow.

1 A brief, breezy note from Chekhov, written in Moscow around 10 January 1886, to Mikhail Mikhailovich Dyukovsky, a childhood friend from Taganrog whom Chekhov addresses by the joking nickname "Bank." Chekhov is due to serve as best man ("шафер") at a wedding on the 12th and scrambles to borrow formal dress – a tailcoat and matching waistcoat – while also asking to touch his friend for a 25-ruble loan, promised back with a mock-solemn oath.

2 The letter is a small, characteristic specimen of Chekhov’s private comic voice: rapid-fire requests, self-mocking exaggeration (the vow to repay 30,000 rubles interest-free "when I become Zakharyin," i.e. when he becomes as famous and wealthy as the celebrated Moscow physician Grigory Zakharyin), and an easy, joshing intimacy with an old friend far removed from the literary persona of his published work.