To M. P. Chekhova, 9–10 January 1891. Petersburg.

A short, breezy letter of 9 or 10 January 1891, from Petersburg, to Chekhov’s sister Maria Pavlovna ("Masha"), addressed with the mock-grand nickname "Cecilia Archimandritova." Chekhov was in Petersburg that winter making the rounds of society calls and fundraising conversation on behalf of the Sakhalin schools, staying near the Suvorins; the letter’s tone is the familiar family-joking register of his letters home, packed with running gags rather than news.

He reports himself well but broke, complains of the tedium of having to recount his Sakhalin and India travels at every social call and dinner, and relays a bit of Petersburg gossip (an unnamed prosecutor’s drunken visit, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina’s good nature, Suvorin’s talkativeness). A running joke follows about a charity "calico ball" that lost money rather than raising it, which Chekhov treats as comic vindication for his own boredom at such events, and he asks Masha to alert him if any actual fundraising for the Sakhalin schools materializes. He closes with greetings to the family and a roll call of household acquaintances, inquiries after his pet mongoose (a souvenir of his journey home from Sakhalin, a running character in letters of this period) and after "Ivan" – likely his brother Ivan Pavlovich, also named among the greetings in – and a short sign-off.