To Ye. P. Yegorov, 5 October 1891. Moscow.
Е. П. ЕГОРОВУ, 5 октября 1891 г. Москва.
Headnote
Dated 5 October 1891, from Moscow (Malaya Dmitrovka, in Firgang’s house), to Yevgraf Petrovich Yegorov, whom Chekhov addresses as "land captain" (zemsky nachalnik), a rural administrative office newly created in 1889 with judicial and supervisory authority over the peasantry.
Chekhov writes on the chance the letter will reach Yegorov in time, asking him to telegraph back promptly with word of where in Nizhny Novgorod province he might be found around 12 October – Chekhov is about to travel there himself and means to call on him in person if he can track him down. He gives his own Moscow address for the reply, closes with the same formal courtesy as his other business notes of this period, and adds a postscript confirming his own itinerary: he will be in Nizhny Novgorod on the 12th and will set out to find Yegorov that same day if he can.
The tone is brisk and practical, a letter arranging a meeting rather than a literary one.