censor and by the editors of comic papers. I am sure that many people will
be disappointed when they read it. Had I known that I had readers and that
you were watching me, I would not have published this book.

I rest all my hopes on the future. I am only twenty-six. Perhaps I shall
succeed in doing something, though time flies fast.

Forgive my long letter and do not blame a man because, for the first time
in his life, he has made bold to treat himself to the pleasure of writing
to Grigorovitch.

Send me your photograph, if possible. I am so overwhelmed with your
kindness that I feel as though I should like to write a whole ream to you.
God grant you health and happiness, and believe in the sincerity of your
deeply respectful and grateful

A. CHEKHOV.




TO N. A. LEIKIN.

MOSCOW,
April 6, 1886.


... I am ill. Spitting of blood and weakness. I am not writing anything....
If I don't sit down to write to-morrow, you must forgive me--I shall not
send you a story for the Easter number. I ought to go to the South but I