To A. I. Smagin, 10 December 1891. Moscow.
А. И. СМАГИНУ, 10 декабря 1891 г. Москва.
Headnote
A short, eleven-section letter, dated 10 December 1891, from Moscow, to Alexander Ivanovich Smagin – the same Poltava-province landowner and family friend addressed in the companion run of letters from autumn/winter 1891, through whom the Chekhov family was pursuing purchase of a small country property (the "khutor") in the south.
Content: Chekhov opens with an exasperated, joking outburst – "What are You doing to us?!?!" – over twenty days of silence from Smagin, during which the family has already packed up furniture and sold off what won’t be needed for the khutor, in anticipation of the purchase going through. He sets an ultimatum, half in jest, that if no answer arrives by 15 December they will conclude the deal is dead ("smoke"). He passes on regards from the household, presses again for a rough pencil sketch of the property rather than a formal architect’s plan, and teases that he dreamt of Smagin shaking a fist at him from afar for all the trouble he’s caused. He reports that "Ivan" holds out hope Smagin will be in Moscow by 5 April, in which case they might travel south together, then closes with an affectionate, urgent sign-off and the same joking epithet-signature ("Geographer") he uses elsewhere in this correspondence.
Tone: high-energy, affectionately exasperated – multiple exclamation points and interrobangs, a mock-solemn ultimatum ("our affairs are – smoke!"), self-deprecating humor about the dream of Smagin’s shaken fist, and a warm, urgent close, consistent with the rest of the Smagin correspondence.