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While* in Nice Chekhov maintained close contacts with home. It took five days for letters to travel to Russia, and though he asserted that he disliked writing them, he carried on a copious correspondence with various people. To Masha, his chief lieutenant at Melikhovo, he wrote very frequently, sending her instructions about renovating the Lodge, changes in the garden, the handling of poplar plants that he had ordered from Riga, or reminding her to give a rouble at Christmas to the worker who took care of the cattle, three roubles to the village priest, and small gifts to the children of the Talezh school.
He had hardly got settled at Nice, however, when he learned the distressing news from Masha, annoyingly supported by a letter from his father, that his financial arrangements for the household had broken down. The monthly two hundred roubles which she was supposed to reccivc from Suvorin's Moscow bookshop, income from the sales of his various works, had not been paid. Chekhov at once wrote to correct this situation, instructing Alexander to forward to Masha the royalty on Ivanov, which the Alexandrinsky Theater had reintroduced into its repertory, and he also advised Masha, in case of a financial crisis, to apply to Russian Thought for an advance against his future writings. To relieve his conscience immediately, he sent her more than three hundred roubles from the sum he had taken with him, but with the stipulation that this should be repaid from income she would receive.
Living seemed so deceptively inexpensive at Nice that he constantly sent presents home, as well as contraband French books which he asked returning Russians to deliver to Alexander. Though the slender margin of funds on which he existed sometimes reached the vanishing point, he firmly declined loans from people who feared that illness had lessened his earning capacity. In October, he kindly rejected an offer of money from Ya. L. Barskov, editor of a children's magazine, who had in the past unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a story from him. Chekhov delicately indicated that he had enough money to live on at Nice, and that even if this were stolen, he was still able to write. There is a rather cryptic reference to this matter in a letter to Lika on November 2. After informing her that Margot had come to Nice from Biarritz and then vanished from sight — Lika had jealously asked him about this young French teacher whom he had mentioned in a previous letter — he continues on a subject which, he writes, must remain confidentiaclass="underline" "I received from Barskov a long registered letter which I had to go five versts to the post office to obtain. He writes that merchants don't give money and he scolds these merchants, tells me what a fine author I am, and promises, if I consent, to send me money every so often for my expenses. Lika, dear Lika, why did I yield to your urgings and write at that time to Kundasova? You have deprived me of my Reinheit; if it hadn't been for your persistent demands, I assure you I would not have written that letter which now lies like a yellow stain on my pride."
Olga Petrovna Kundasova, a mathematician by training, was familiarly known as "the Astronomer" in the Chekhov family, where she was a frequent visitor as an old friend of Masha's. Improvident and thoroughly eccentric, she was much admired for her intellectual ability and independence by Chekhov and Suvorin, both of whom covertly aided her financially. Though Chekhov's reference to her in connection with Barskov's offer is unclear, a possible explanation is that Lika had persuaded him, in the light of his illness and need for funds to go abroad, to write Kundasova of his inability to assist her further, and that she, in turn, alarmed over his financial situation, had conveyed this information to Barskov.
In this same letter to Lika, Chekhov added: "Principally because of Olga Petrovna, I have developed a persecution mania. I had hardly recovered from Barskov's letter when I received two thousand roubles from Levitan's Morozov. I did not ask for this money, don't want it, and I requested Levitan's permission to return it, of course, in a manner that would offend no one. Levitan doesn't desire this. All the same I shall send it back. I'll wait a month or so and return it with a letter of thanks." It seems that Levitan, who had a way with the wealthy, had asked his Maecenas S. T. Morozov to send this sum, while at the same time, for form's sake, he suggested to Chekhov that he should offer a promissory note for the two thousand. "My dear, amiable fellow," he had written Chekhov, "I most earnestly beg of you not to worry about money matters, everything will be arranged so that you can stay in the South for the sake of your health." Potapenko, in his memoirs, tells of a certain millionaire who came to Nice and, taking advantage of a loan he had made to Chekhov, unpleasantly thrust his company upon him. Annoyed by the millionaire's presumptuousness, Chekhov wired his publisher for the money and paid back the loan. Though the account does not correspond in all details with the facts mentioned in the letters of Chekhov and L/evitan about Morozov's offer of money, it is possible that Potapenko has supplied the conclusion to this episode.
In his -letters to Lika, Chekhov, though perhaps for different reasons, seemed as curious about who was courting her as she was about the women in his life —at this time he suspected that the dramatist and theatrical entrepreneur Sumbatov-Yuzhin was pursuing her. But Chekhov liked to get letters from Lika, not only to hear from her about the many friends they had in common, but also to learn of her own activities. In December she wrote to seek his reaction to her plan to open a millinery shop, from the income of which she hoped to pay for her continued musical studies. He began his reply on a light note — an excellent idea, he wrote, for it would enable her to eat and him to pursue the pretty models in the shop. "I shall not read you a moral lesson," he continues in a more serious vein, "I'll only say that work, however modest it may seem, whether it is a millinery shop or a grocery shop, will give you an independent position, peace of mind, and assurance for the future. With satisfaction I myself would also get into anything, in order, like all, to maintain the struggle for existence from day to day. In the last analysis, the privileged position of the idle is hellishly wearying and boring." In the end, however, he reverted to his flippant manner, wishing her a husband with mustaches and a good disposition. "The latter, in the light of your bad temper, is as necessary as air, otherwise the fur and feathers will fly in your millinery shop." (December 27, 1897.)
While in Nice, Chekhov was informed by the editor that the Annals of Surgery had once again got into financial difficulties. And again he sprang to its assistance. Eventually a wealthy benefactor was found, and with some satisfaction Chekhov wrote of this triumph to Suvorin, who had grown cold to the troubles of the Annals, referring to his comment that if this magazine failed, it meant that no one needed it: "But if some among us do not read books and magazines, that does not mean they are unnecessary." (December 16,1897.)
Chekhov occasionally wrote his mother from Nice and ordered flowers to be sent to her on Christmas — he was much worried about her ailing legs, for she now suffered from varicose veins. Although his father wrote and tried to keep him supplied with odd copies of Russian newspapers and periodicals, and regularly sent his Melikhovo diary, Chekhov rarely replied, usually contenting himself with brief messages of thanks for his thoughtfulness in letters to Masha. But Chekhov kept his relatives in Taganrog informed of his health and activities abroad in letters to Cousin Yegorushka, in one of which he asked him to look out for the sister of Elena Shavrova, who had joined a theatrical company in the city.
Despite his desire for anonymity, Chekhov's efforts on behalf of the
Taganrog library and museum appear to have leaked out. Learning of his interest, some citizens persuaded his old teacher, Father Pokrovsky, who was head of the Council on Education, to invite Chekhov to become a trustee of the Taganrog parochial and rural schools. Though in his reply he made a show of being overburdened with educational duties, he was obviously pleased by this recognition, and accepted the honor. He was perhaps more pleased by a glowing letter he received at Nice from N. I. Zabavin, the teacher of the hew Novoselki school. After writing of how wonderful the building was, and especially his own quarters, and how he and the students had already begun to plant trees' to beautify the grounds, he concluded: "As I have said to you a thousand times, esteemed Anton Pavlovich, thanks for the school. Only now have I begun to live as a human being." This was all the reward Chekhov would ever want.