thought of; the common people spent their leisure in drink-shops. The
"People's Palace" in Moscow was designed on broad principles; there was to
be a library, a reading-room, lecture-rooms, a museum, a theatre. It was
proposed to run it by a company of shareholders with a capital of half a
million roubles. Owing to various causes in no way connected with Chekhov,
this scheme came to nothing.

In March he paid a visit to Moscow, where Suvorin was expecting him. He had
hardly sat down to dinner at The Hermitage when he had a sudden haemorrhage
from the lungs. He was taken to a private hospital, where he remained till
the 10th of April. When his sister, who knew nothing of his illness,
arrived in Moscow, she was met by her brother Ivany who gave her a card of
admission to visit the invalid at the hospital. On the card were the words:
"Please don't tell father or mother." His sister went to the hospital.
There casting a casual glance at a little table, she saw on it a diagram of
the lungs, in which the upper part of the left lung was marked with a red
pencil. She guessed at once that this was what was affected in Chekhov's
case. This and the sight of her brother alarmed her. Chekhov, who had
always been so gay, so full of spirits and vitality, looked terribly ill;
he was forbidden to move or to talk, and had hardly the strength to do so.

He was declared to be suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs, and it was
essential to try and ward it off at all costs, and to escape the
unwholesome northern spring. He recognized himself that this was essential.

When he left the hospital he returned to Melihovo and prepared to go
abroad. He went first to Biarritz, but there he was met by bad weather. A
fashionable, extravagant way of living did not suit his tastes, and
although he was delighted with the sea and the life led (especially by the
children) on the beach, he soon moved on to Nice. Here he stayed for a