LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 17 



who also had to be taken into account. Ilia did not 

 welcome this discovery. 



The flat occupied by the Metchnikoffs was on the 

 first floor, above that of the owner of the house. 

 One day when the children were running about, 

 making a fearful noise, some one came up to say that 

 the landlady was ill and begged that the noise should 

 cease. Ilia, interrupted in the midst of a game, 

 became furiously angry ; in his rage he seized a 

 whistle, and stooping to a crack in the floor, whistled 

 with all his might. It was only with much difficulty 

 that he was induced to stop and to calm himself.^ 



The children's horizon soon widened ; Dmitri 

 Ivanovitch took them to the theatre and a new 

 and fantastic world opened out to them. The very 

 next day they attempted a performance of the play 

 they had seen ; soon, on Kolia's suggestion, they 

 began to compose plays for themselves. Kolia wrote 

 a drama entitled " Burning Tea," in which the hero 

 having offered his friend tea that was too hot, the 

 latter burnt his tongue ; a duel ensued, etc., etc. 

 Ilia hastened to follow his brother's example. He 

 composed something in the same style, but even more 

 absurd. Having realised that it was so, he gave up 

 literature. That period was for him a series, of dis- 

 appointments which perhaps helped to lead him to 

 the path he was ultimately to follow. His brother, 

 following the " grown-ups' " example, played cards 

 with other boys or with the maids. Ilia attempted 

 to do the same, but his nervousness left him no self- 

 control ; he lost continually and games generally ended 

 in quarrels and tears ; he became disgusted with 



^ MetchnikofE himself insisted upon the recital of this episode, for which 

 he had felt some remorse. He considered that, in a biography, disagree- 

 able traits were not to be omitted. 



