and, of course, all of this would have been quite possible and might have
been realized if he had not been slowly dying. His dreams remained dreams,
and Kutchuka stands uninhabited to this day.

The winter of 1898 was extremely severe in the Crimea. The cold, the snow,
the stormy sea, and the complete lack of people akin to him in spirit and
of "interesting women" wearied Chekhov; he began to be depressed. He was
irresistibly drawn to the north, and began to fancy that if he moved for
the winter to Moscow, where his plays were being acted with such success
and where everything was so full of interest for him, it would be no worse
for his health than staying in Yalta, and he began dreaming of buying a
house in Moscow. He wanted at one moment to get something small and snug in
the neighbourhood of Kursk Station, where it might be possible to stay the
three winter months in every comfort; but when such a house was found his
mood changed and he resigned himself to life at Yalta.

The January and February of 1899 were particularly irksome to Chekhov: he
suffered from an intestinal trouble which poisoned his existence. Moreover
consumptive patients from all over Russia began appealing to him to assist
them to come to Yalta. These invalids were almost always poor, and on
reaching Yalta mostly ended their lives in miserable conditions, pining for
their native place. Chekhov exerted himself on behalf of everyone, printed
appeals in the papers, collected money, and did his utmost to alleviate
their condition.

After the unfavourable winter came an exquisite warm spring, and on the
12th of April Chekhov was in Moscow and by May in Melihovo. His father had
died the previous October, and with his death a great link with the place
was broken. The consciousness of having to go away early in the autumn
gradually brought Chekhov to decide to sell the place.