LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 21 



On that particular St. Elias's day, so many guests 

 came to Panassovka that there was not enough room 

 in the house to accommodate them all, and the 

 children were transferred to a pavilion outside the 

 house. 



Whilst in the drawing-room people were talking 

 and playing cards, the servants were holding rejoicings 

 of their own. Towards night-time the majority of 

 the coachmen and footmen brought by the guests 

 were completely drunk ; a cigarette imprudently 

 thrown on some hay started a fire. Soon the stables 

 were ablaze and many horses perished in the flames, 

 in spite of every effort to save them. Presently the 

 wind changed in the direction of the pavilion and the 

 thatched roof caught fire. There was a rush to save 

 the children, who were with much difficulty taken out 

 through a window. 



In spite of intense terror, Ilia's first thought was 

 for his baby nephew, the son of his sister, who had 

 then been married a year ; he ran in affright all over 

 the house searching for the child, and only became 

 calm again after he had ascertained that it had been 

 carried out into the garden. 



Katia being married there was now no reason to 

 spend the winter in the town. The father and mother 

 therefore remained at Panassovka and Dmitri Ivano- 

 vitch took the boys to Kharkoff, where they entered the 

 Lycee. They had been well prepared by their tutors, 

 and moreover spoke French and a little German, 

 having had special teachers for these languages. 

 Their French tutor, M. Gamier, was gay, boastful, 

 and pretentious; his idea of teaching them French 

 literature was to memorise Beranger's chansons. He 

 was passionately fond of shooting and gave to that 



