Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO I. L. SHTCHEGLOV.MOSCOW, April 18, 1888.… In any case I am more often merry than sad, though if onecomes to think of it I am bound hand and foot …. You, my dearman, have a flat, but I have a whole house which, though a poorspecimen, is still a house, and one of two storeys, too! You have awife who will forgive your having no money, and I have a wholeorganization which will collapse if I don’t earn a sufficient numberof roubles a month—collapse and fall on my shoulders like a heavystone.75