To N. N. Obolonsky, 9 March 1890. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 9 March 1890 to Dr. Nikolai Nikolayevich Obolonsky, the Moscow physician and family friend established throughout this corpus. A short, brisk social note negotiating the logistics of a shared dinner, written a little over a year before Chekhov’s departure for Sakhalin.

2 The letter opens with a double dateline (1-2) and then, in a single sentence, relays a counter-proposal from Chekhov’s sister Maria Pavlovna (3): she cannot make it to the restaurant "Hermitage" for dinner because her lessons (she worked as a teacher) do not end until 4 o’clock and leave her too tired afterward; she suggests instead either a private dinner at the Chekhovs’ or at Obolonsky’s, or, if Obolonsky insists on a restaurant, that they sup there rather than dine. Chekhov then closes with a courtesy to Obolonsky’s wife (4), a warm valediction invoking the saints (5), and his signature (6).

4 No corrupted or garbled text was found in this letter; no editorial gap markers appear in the source. a double dateline, one sentence of social negotiation conveyed on behalf of Chekhov’s sister, a courtesy to the addressee’s wife, a valediction, and a signature, all addressed to the same correspondent throughout. It is brief but not elliptical or telegraphic in construction: articles, prepositions, and full clause structure are present exactly as expected in ordinary Russian prose, and the letter carries a full salutation ("Милый докторе" / "Dear doctor") and a signed closing ("Ваш А. Чехов" / "Yours, A. Chekhov"), unlike this corpus’s identified telegrams (bare surname-only signature, no salutation/closing, elliptical wire-style phrasing). There is no sign of archival concatenation with an unrelated document.