_ 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 have no money.... I am afraid to submit myself to be sounded by my colleagues. I am inclined to think it is not so much my lungs as my throat that is at fault.... I have no fever. _