To Ye. M. Shavrova, 1 February 1892. Moscow.

the dateline, a short-form repeat of the date, the body (three short paragraphs), the closing formula, the signature, a postscript-like aside about a concert, and the envelope inscription broken into its four conventional lines (heading, honorific, name, address). Dated 1 February 1892, from Moscow.

Chekhov writes to Elena Mikhailovna Shavrova to say he has read her latest manuscript with pleasure, then turns to the letter’s real business: brokering an introduction between her and Suvorin, who is in Moscow and wants to meet her. Chekhov lays out the etiquette in mock-solemn detail – as publisher, Suvorin cannot properly call on his contributor first, so he proposes she come to him instead, at the "Slavyansky Bazaar" that same evening, and urges her, half-teasing, to set aside her usual chaperoned propriety ("forget... that you have a strict maman") for one evening as a fellow professional. He asks for a quick answer by telegram or messenger and notes that he and Suvorin leave for Voronezh province the next day – the trip, datable alongside (2 February, to Lazarev-Gruzinsky), on which Chekhov had just begun negotiating the purchase of the Melikhovo estate; this letter is the first indication in the corpus that Suvorin was to travel with him. The closing aside recommends she skip a symphony concert that evening in favor of the supper, and the envelope is addressed to her at the Lachinova house on Afanasyevsky Lane.