To Ye. M. Shavrova, 22 February 1892. Moscow.

the dateline, a short-form repeat of the date, the body (three short paragraphs), the closing wish, the signature, and a postscript. Dated 22 February 1892, from Moscow. and distinct from the two neighboring Shavrova letters of the same week: (1 February, the Suvorin introduction) and (24 or 25 February, correcting the society’s name and dismissing a servant girl named Shura).

Chekhov writes to Elena Mikhailovna Shavrova about a visit from Prince A. I. Urusov, an official (he believes chairman) of a Musical-Dramatic Society, with whom he discussed the shortage of good actresses for good roles. Convinced of Shavrova’s talent, Chekhov recommended her to Urusov, who seized eagerly on the idea, and he lays out the terms of membership – a 15-ruble fee – half-encouraging, half self-deprecating about the society’s supposed high-mindedness. A second paragraph vouches for Urusov as an interesting man and a well-known barrister, and reports that rehearsals will begin during Lent. A third turns to an unrelated piece of business, the legal progress of "The Little Young Lady," and to a certain Zilbergrosh, whom Chekhov is sending to her, with a stray, characteristically concrete memory of a good rassolnik with giblets eaten at Zilbergrosh’s lady’s house. The letter closes with good wishes and a postscript softening the membership fee as negotiable.