2 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



The house is arranged inside in a commonplace 

 manner, with no claim to beauty or comfort. The 

 furniture, devoid of style or elegance, neither com- 

 fortable nor fashionable, is distributed quite inartistic- 

 ally. On the other hand, great care is evident in 

 everything that pertains to the table : the cellars 

 and larders are full of provisions, and obviously con- 

 stitute the principal preoccupation of the masters of 

 the house. And indeed the hospitable table of Panas- 

 sovka is renowned throughout the neighbourhood. 



According to a very fine portrait, painted in 1835, 

 Ilia Ivanovitch was at that time a handsome young 

 man with regular features, tender blue eyes, and curly 

 fair hair. He was very intelligent, but his mind had 

 that sceptical turn which prevents men from taking life 

 seriously and which paralyses activity. Moreover, he 

 had an Epicurean temperament and was in the army. 



He had married, when very young, Emilia Lvovna 

 Nevahovna, sister of one of his brother officers in 

 the Imperial Guard, a very attractive and unusually 

 intelligent girl. Her beauty was of the Jewish type, 

 with splendid dark eyes, and she had a bright and 

 lively disposition as well as a kind and tender heart. 

 Her friends called her " Milotchka," which, in Russian, 

 means " charming " ; in her old age she loved to 

 relate that the great Russian poet, Pushkin, once said 

 to her at a ball, " How well your name suits you, 

 Mademoiselle ! " 



After his marriage, Ilia Ivanovitch remained in 

 Petersburg, leading a merry life with his brothers-in- 

 law, and giving no thought to the future ; it took 

 him but a few years at that rate to spend the whole 

 of his wife's inheritance. And three children were 

 growing up whose future had to be thought of. It was 



