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bottles of koumiss daily made him twelve pounds heavier by mid-June. Fermented mares' milk was easily digestible. It was also thought to raise the body's defences against tuberculosis, encouraging the growth of benign flora at the expense of tubercular bacilli in the gut. Olga, although she found her own ten stone excessive, tried it herself. Koumiss made them drowsy, drunk and lascivious.
Letters were Anton's lifeline, but they soon became disagreeable. After she had been informed of her brother's marriage Masha, feeling deceived and jealous, turned on Olga: You managed to trap my brother! Suppose you're like Natasha in Three Sistersl I'll strangle you with my own hands. I shan't bite your throat, just strangle you. You know I love you and must have got strongly attached to you in the last two years. How odd mat you're a Chekhov.3 The whole family was in turmoil. Vania went to Petersburg to tell Misha of the marriage, and Misha closed ranks with Masha against the intruder. By 8 June Vania was in Yalta, trying to reconcile Masha and Evgenia to what had happened. On 6 June Masha wrote bitterly to Bunin: Dear Ivan, My mood is suicidal, I sense the pointlessness of my existence. The reason is my brother's marriage… why did Olga need all this disturbance for a sick man… I'm afraid my relations with Knipschitz will change… dear Bouquichon, find me a rich generous groom.4 It took Olga a week to seek a reconciliation: she invited Masha to join their honeymoon. Masha dithered, then declined. She doubted if she and Olga could live together even in Moscow, as they planned: she would sell her flat and live with a family. 'Anton keeps writing everything will stay the same,' Masha wrote to Bunin, 'like hell it will, I want the reality, not a pretence.' Masha feared, as did Dr Altshuller, that Olga would lure Anton to live in Moscow and wreck his health. Evgenia, Masha told Misha, 'dislikes Antosha's spouse and Olga knows that.' On 20 June Olga wrote to Evgenia: 'I thought I'd explain everything… when we met… I know how you love Anton, so we've tried to make everything good and friendly at home [the Moscow fiat], so that Anton will feel good among his womenfolk.'5 Others were disturbed by
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Anton's marriage. Maria Drozdova wrote from Yalta to tell him of her feelings at the news: I was painting at die time and all my brushes and palette flew to hell. Right to the last minute I didn't lose hope of marrying you myself. I thought the others were just jokes, while God would give me happiness for my modesty. How I hate Olga, my jealousy is frantic, I can't bear to see you, I hate her and you too, always and for ever.6 Suvorin, hurt not to have been even informed of the marriage, wrote to Misha: Anton has astounded me. Where is he now? I mean, what is his address? His getting married was the last thing I thought would happen after last November when I met him… It's fine if he knows what he needs. But suppose he doesn't! It's a lottery.7 Others' congratulations were lukewarm: Professor Korotniov talked of the Rubicon; Sobolevsky of 'the other shore so rarely attainable to people like me and you'. Bunin expressed polite amazement.
Anton could not bear to remain at Aksionovo for the two months prescribed. After one month he was determined to leave. Worry about what was happening at Yalta and irritation with his tedious fellow patients drove him away. In vain Dr Varavka promised health and offered improvements; on i July 1901 Anton signed ôå towel that Dr Varavka kept for distinguished patients, to have the signatures embroidered later, and abandoned Aksionovo. He was in such a hurry that he left his passport behind. On 6 July the Chekhovs arrived back in Yalta. 'I'm now asking for a divorce,' Anton wrote to Bunin, inviting him to join them at Autka.
Masha felt depressed by the new status quo. She complained to Misha: I am a nothing. I'm neither an artist nor a teacher, but I think I am working hard to build someone else's nest… My relations with my sister-in-law are still pretty bad… Mother has turned out better, she is being handled well and has calmed down. My mood is nasty, I can't adapt to this new life at all, I pine, I cry a lot and I have to hide it all, and I don't always succeed… In Moscow there is a lot of gossip about me, everybody is sorry for me and there are rumours
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that I've run away… Anton is poorly, die koumiss didn't do him much good." Anton coughed, bled and fretted. Dr Varavka asked him to send a portrait of himself for the chalet where he had stayed. A student doctor at Aksionovo promised good cuisine, fountains, running water, a conservatory and fresh vegetables for next year,9 but Anton had finished with koumiss. On 3 August 1901, he drew up a will and had it witnessed. Addressed to Masha, it was entrusted to Olga: I leave you for your lifespan my Yalta house, the money and the income from my plays; my wife is to have the cottage in Gurzuf and 5000 roubles. You can sell the real estate if you wish. A few thousand roubles went to his brothers, the residue to Taganrog's schools. The will ended: 'Help the poor. Look after mother. All of you live in peace.'
Anton's inspiration had run dry; now his only income came from the theatres. His plight worried Gorky and his editor Piatnitsky, who asked to see Adolf Marx's contract. By suing or shaming Marx they thought tbey might be able to break the contract that offered Anton next to nothing for a life's work, but made Marx a fortune. Anton, horrified at the thought of reneging on his agreement, demurred, but sent copies of the contract for Gorky's lawyers. Gorky boasted: How I'd love to tear Sergeenko's famous block off for dragging you into this mess. And I'd bash Marx on his bald patch too… We'll pawn our wives and children, but we'll tear Chekhov out of Marx's thrall.10 Anton read the proofs for Marx's final volumes: revising later work was easier than the earlier work in which he found so many imperfections. He busied himself with the problems of others. His cousin Aleksei Dolzhenko asked for 800 roubles to build a cottage: Anton arranged for Olga to hand the money over in Moscow, warning her twice to be polite and gentle to her poor relation. In Taganrog Gavriil Selivanov, after twenty years' silence, was again causing trouble: he threatened to pull down Uncle Mitrofan's sheds unless the Chekhovs ceded terrain. Georgi sought Anton's advice. Olga Vasilieva still wanted help to convert her wealth into a clinic. A Jewish boy needed a letter of support to get into school at Yalta.
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Olga felt unwanted. On 20 August 1901, after just six weeks, she left Autka, alone, for Moscow and the theatre. Evgenia refused to bless her as she stepped into the carriage. Anton sailed with her to the railhead. Weeping in the train, Olga wrote to Masha. She posted the letter in Kharkov: Do you feel better now I'm gone? You know, I want to shake off all our misunderstandings in the summer months like a vile nightmare… We do love each other. Nobody met Olga in Moscow. She sought out a five-room apartment, a wooden house in a courtyard, for herself and - she hoped - Masha. Her unease persisted. She asked Anton: In your house nobody ever mentions me, do they? I shall always stand between you and her. And I fancy that she will never get used to me as your wife, and will thus turn you off me. I am avoided like a sore." Anton deplored her jealousy: 'What rubbish! Just be silent for a year… all life's comforts are to be found in nonresistance for the time being.' In Yalta Masha resigned herself to her new situation, telling Misha on 30 August: Recendy Antosha has been so gentle and kind that I wouldn't have the strengm to abandon him, anyway his health is no better. The sister-in-law has rented a flat in Moscow where I shall live and Antosha will come for a time… bad though I feel, I still want to stay with him. The young poet Lazarevsky, who had become a 'Person from Porlock' in the Autka house, recorded Masha as 'the first and last of old maids, more likeable than the most beautiful ladies… a charming, suffering face'. On 31 August 1901 Masha left for Moscow; she stayed first with the Knippers and then with the Konovitsers until the new quarters were ready. Sharing was bearable, for Masha spent days at school, Olga evenings at the theatre, and servants, notably Masha Shakina who became pregnant every year, ran the household. Olga's passport listed her as the wife of a Yalta doctor. She bore her colleagues' teasing that Chekhov's latest play was Two Sisters, as the author had taken one (Masha, played by Olga) away for himself. The day he was left alone with his mother, Anton took the draft