To F. O. Shekhtel, 16 December 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 16 December 1888 to Franz (Fyodor) Osipovich Shekhtel, the architect and stage designer who was one of Chekhov’s closest Moscow friends throughout the 1880s. This note continues the same thread as those two: the ongoing anxiety over Chekhov’s brother Nikolai, who had gone missing from his usual haunts.

2 Chekhov has just returned from a trip to Petersburg and reports that, by chance, through his brother Alexander, he has finally learned Nikolai’s exact address – a room at the Bogomolov house on Kalanchevskaya Street, rented in the name of Nikolai’s landlady, Apollinaria Stepanovna Malchenko, for delivery to "N. P. Chekhov." Chekhov urges Shekhtel to go there in person rather than write, since letters accomplish nothing, and offers to do anything he can to help, adding that he himself feels pained and ashamed over the situation. He reports that he is sending Nikolai a letter of a kind that is bound to provoke a reply, and promises to bring or send Shekhtel that answer once it comes. He closes with a wish for Shekhtel’s health, regards to Shekhtel’s wife, his signature, and a final line noting that Golike sends his own regards.