By October, when Sobolevsky left, Anton had been befriended by two men. One was Professor Maxim Kovalevsky, biologist and revolutionary, who lectured at the Sorbonne, but whose base was the marine biology station at Villefranche. Kovalevsky was the widower of the mathematician and dramatist Sofia Kovalevskaia, who had perished of ÒÂ six years earlier. Kovalevsky, a life-enhancing companion, was very afraid of further endangering Anton's health. Anton was also looked after by Nikolai Iurasov, the Russian vice-consul at Menton, who lived in Nice: his son worked at the Credit Lyonnais. (This eased Anton's transfers of money from Moscow to Nice and back.) Iurasov, a man 'of exemplary kindness and inexhaustible energy', so bald that the seams of his skull were visible, offered teas, suppers, New Year and Easter parties to his countrymen. Iurasov, Kovalevsky and Anton were often joined by a decrepit professor of art, Valerian Iakobi, and by Doctor Aleksei Liubimov, dying of lung cancer.
Warmed by male companionship, Anton got over Margot's desertion. She had followed him but vanished, perhaps to a healthier protector. Margot's replacement, to judge by Anton's letters to Masha, was, apart from her physique, a good teacher of French, adept at correcting the mistakes that Russians make in the language. Thanks to her, he read and spoke French far better. She did not visit La Pension Russe, however, and Anton found climbing her stairs too tiring.
Reading Maupassant had prepared Anton for the Riviera: Maupassant's travel book Sur I'eau, written when the writer was cruising the Cote d'Azur on his yacht Bel-Ami, had provided quotations for The Seagull and an appreciation of this 'flowering cemetery of Europe' where so many hoped to elude death. The flowers and trees left Chekhov unmoved, but he valued the politeness and the cleanliness of the French. He played safe: as autumn approached he forbade
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FLOW ÑÈ I N«. i I M I II 1(11. S himself excursions after sunset, so that,I fellow guest, N. Maksheev, tempted him in vain to gamble at the casino: 'Dear Doctor! Being of sound mind, I assert that I possess a method of turning 2000 francs into a large sum of money at roulette. If you still have a desire to take part, then we must come to terms and act…'23 Vasili Nemirovich-Danchenko (the elder brother of Vladimir) spent his time in Monte Carlo; Anton merely watched him gamble. Ignati Potapenko was, however, more Mephistophelean: 'Antonio!… I'll soon find a reliable system of winning in Monte Carlo and then I'll come and enrich you and myself.'24
The inmates of La Pension Russe interested Anton little: they used him as a doctor. One Russian resident in Nice prompted Anton to take his first political stand: Rozanov, a Jew who rented apartments, sold Russian journals and published he Messager franco-russe, fervently stood up for Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer convicted of treason. Anton knew Rozanov not through buying newspapers, but by treating Rozanov's wife. Rozanov's 'enchanting smile' and 'very delicate and sensitive soul' began to turn Anton into a Dreyfusard. Despite this radical transformation, Anton still hoped to see Suvorin. Suvorin recorded that his doctor advised him to go to Nice: 'Chekhov is also calling me. I want to go but I fear the theatre will be even worse in my absence.' Then Aleksandr told Anton that he had seen Suvorin and his servant Vasili on a tram, off to buy a ticket abroad. On 15 October, with his son Mikhail, Suvorin set off for Paris again.
One hundred roubles a month went a long way. Anton bought all the newspapers,25 had his shirts laundered and drank all the wine and coffee he wanted. He enjoyed piquet with Kovalevsky and going to concerts, when not confined indoors. The Maecenas Morozov tactfully offered 2000 roubles; Barskov, the children's magazine editor, at Kun-dasova's prompting, proffered 500 roubles a month. Anton spurned the money and berated Levitan and Kundasova for embarrassing him. Levitan cursed the touchy Anton as 'a striped hyena, pagan crocodile, spineless wood-demon'. Anton had published nothing for six months: his money came from Suvorin's editions and from stagings of Ivanov in Petersburg, and from The Seagull and Uncle Vania which were being staged only in the provinces.
Only news of Melikhovo distressed Anton. Masha's letters showed that she detested the irksome responsibility. She forgot how to collect
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the monthly payments from Petersburg that Anton had arranged for her. Anton belittled her worries: 'If it's hard, put up with it - what can you do? I shall be sending you rewards for your labours,' he wrote on 6 October. An estate made no sense if the owner was away eight months of the year. Pavel became unbridled, as he told Misha: 'Mama and I will sit alone like recluses in the house, worried, and then arguing to exhaustion about trifles, and we each stick to our opinion.'26 In the same letter Evgenia complained: 'The authorities [Pavel] are pretty unkind to me… Masha is pestered for money, she hasn't got any, she is vexed, I have nothing but woe.'
The servants suffered. Aniuta Naryshkina, married off by her relatives in exchange for vodka, and Masha Tsyplakova, pregnant by Aleksandr Kretov, were in hospital. Infected by the midwives, Aniuta died of puerperal fever. When Masha Tsyplakova gave birth, Pavel made her leave the baby in an orphanage. Anton insisted that the baby be taken into the household, ordered the mother to receive seven roubles I month, and paid for her foundling foster-brother, who had no fingers on one hand, to go to school. Until Tsyplakova was back at work, Pavel, Evgenia and Masha were left with the elderly Mariushka and the indefatigable Aniuta Chufarova. Worse nearly happened: Mariushka and Tsyplakova, overcome by fumes in the bathhouse, had to be revived by Masha. Roman still ran the stables, but his wife Olimpiada, in Pavel's view, infected the estate with genteel idleness. The village elder retired. The peasants and authorities could not find I new elder, to settle disputes and govern the village. One had his linger bitten off by a horse, and was barred by the authorities. Another had, like many Melikhovo peasants, typhoid.
The family tried to refurbish the guest cottage so that Anton could live in it all year: again, stove-makers were called to Melikhovo, but, Evgenia reported, 'The stove in the cottage is still unfinished. The stove-maker fell and smashed himself in the stable.' Masha complained: 'All the Melikhovo inhabitants complain of your absence… build up your health, if not for yourself, then for others, for very many of these others need you. Forgive me for moralizing, but it's true.' After the stove was finished, the Talezh schoolteacher Mikhailov papered the cottage (as well as the drawing room); Semenkovich, who was an engineer, supervised the insulation of the walls with Swedish board and of the doors with double felt and heavy curtains. Now
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FLOW I Ff INI, i I ì I | | It ll'S the temperature was much higher inside the cottage than out, which presented a predicament, as Pavel explained to Misha on 5 December 1897: God alone knows how much his health has improved,… to come here when it is cold is to endanger himself. The cottage is his favourite summer residence, he likes solitude and quiet, but things are not suited for winter, firstly to leave +18 for minus2 5 degrees and reach our house, you have to wrap up against the cold, breathe and swallow whatever God sends. Secondly: he has to come in the morning for coffee, at 11 for lunch, at 3 for tea, at 7 for supper and above all to go and sit on the throne. Constant war raged between the farm dogs, the laikas and the dachshunds: the human inhabitants of Melikhovo were kept awake, robbed of food, even bitten, and the flower beds were ravaged. As Pavel put it, the dogs behaved like mongooses. Anna Petrovna, the old mare the Chekhovs had bought with the estate, died ten weeks after she had her last foal. Pavel was pitiless - 'the highest authority was strict today', Evgenia lamented to Misha.27 He searched high and low for someone to flay the horse and buy the skin for 3 roubles.