Alexyéi Petróvitch!
I have received your letter, and really, I do not know what to say to
you. I would even not have answered you at all had it not seemed to me
that beneath your jests was concealed a decidedly-friendly sentiment.
Your letter has produced an unpleasant impression on me. In reply to
your “idle chatter,” as you put it, permit me also to propound to you
one question: To what end? What have you to do with me, what have I to
do with you? I do not assume any evil intentions on your part, ... on
the contrary, I am grateful to you for your sympathy, ... but we are
strangers to each other, and I now, at all events, feel not the
slightest desire to become intimate with any one whomsoever.
With sincere respects I remain, and so forth,