To N. M. Lintvareva, 25 October 1891. Moscow.

Dated 25 October 1891, from Moscow, to Natalya Mikhailovna Lintvaryova, a member of the Lintvaryov family who hosted Chekhov at their Luka (Sumy) estate.

Chekhov reports he did not travel to Nizhny Novgorod as planned; he is kept in Moscow by a pile-up of troubles – illness, lack of money, a mass of work, and the death that day of his aunt – and has pushed his departure back to 1 December, after which he means to move to the provinces for a time and then head to Nizhny. He describes shutting himself away from visitors since the Persian shah’s departure left Moscow duller, complains good-humoredly about Gilyarovsky’s frequent visits and rambling talk (offering to auction off both a pet mongoose and, if he could, Gilyarovsky himself), mentions a benefit "Miscellany" being printed in "Russkiye Vedomosti" for famine relief that he offers to send her, and closes with family news: the household is well but subdued after the aunt’s death, a plan to visit Lintvaryova’s part of the country in April, and greetings to "the great martyr Ivanenko."

The tone is wry and affectionate throughout – complaints about seclusion and money troubles sit beside genuine grief over the aunt’s death and warm, joking asides about Gilyarovsky and Ivanenko.