To Al. P. Chekhov, 29 October 1887. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 29 October 1887 to Chekhov’s elder brother Alexander in Petersburg – here addressed by the nickname "Gusev" ("Goose"), one of the many joking names the brothers used for each other – this short note is a piece of routine business correspondence. Chekhov explains that a separate letter, written at the request of the Wernher brothers (publishers of his book), is enclosed, and makes clear that any favor Alexander does for them is his own choice, not something Anton is pressing on him.

2 The letter’s real concern is money: Chekhov has not received a fee owed him from the "Peterburgskaya Gazeta" and worries that his account, or a promissory note connected to a man named Volkov, has gone missing in the post. He closes with a brief, weary self-portrait – lazy, dulled, sunk again into melancholy ("хандра"), doing no work but still seeing patients – before a terse sign-off with no news to report.