her soul rejoice. "Chekhov belongs to the generation which has perceptibly
begun to turn away from the West and concentrate more closely on their own
world...." "Venice and Florence are nothing else than dull towns for a man
of any intelligence...." _Merci_, but I don't understand persons of such
intelligence. One would have to be a bull to "turn away from the West" on
arriving for the first time in Venice or Florence. There is very little
intelligence in doing so. But I should like to know who is taking the
trouble to announce to the whole universe that I did not like foreign
parts. Good Lord! I never let drop one word about it. I liked even Bologna.
Whatever ought I to have done? Howled with rapture? Broken the windows?
Embraced Frenchmen? Do they say I gained no ideas? But I fancy I did....

We must see each other--or more correctly, I must see you. I am missing you
already, although to-day I caught two hundred and fifty-two carp and one
crayfish.




BOGIMOVO,
June 4, 1891.


Why did you go away so soon? I was very dull, and could not get back into
my usual petty routine very quickly afterwards. As luck would have it,
after you went away the weather became warm and magnificent, and the fish
began to bite.

... The mongoose has been found. A sportsman with dogs found him on this
side of the Oka in a quarry; if there had not been a crevice in the quarry