To M. P. Chekhova, 16 March 1891. Petersburg.
М. П. ЧЕХОВОЙ, 16 марта 1891 г. Петербург.
Headnote
A brief follow-up note of 16 March 1891, from Petersburg, to Chekhov’s sister Maria Pavlovna ("Masha"), sent the same day as a longer registered letter to her and evidently dispatched to correct an omission in it. Chekhov was about to leave for a tour of Western Europe – Vienna, Venice, and on through Italy – and here supplies the poste restante addresses in Rome and Naples where mail should reach him before and after 25 March.
The remainder is a quick aside asking Masha to lean on "Likisha" – Lidia (Lika) Stakhiyevna Mizinova, the family friend and object of Chekhov’s long teasing flirtation – to use her influence on behalf of Ivanenko, a family acquaintance apparently in need of a position; the joking "you are all-powerful" suggests Chekhov is ribbing Mizinova about some real or imagined pull she has, rather than reporting an actual official capacity. The note closes with the sign-off and the envelope’s reverse address, unchanged from the pattern of his other letters to Masha at the Moscow family apartment.