CHAPTER XVII 



Death of his father- and mother-in-law — ^Management of country estates 

 — Agitation and difficulties — Departure for Messina with young 

 brothers- and sisters-in-law. 



In the spring of 1881, Metchnikofi having recovered 

 from relapsing fever, we went to stay with my parents 

 at Kiefi and found my father dying. He entrusted 

 Elie with the care of the family, and they came to 

 live with us at Odessa. But, the following year, we 

 had the misfortune to lose my mother also. From 

 that moment my husband took upon himself the 

 responsibiUty of the whole family. 



Our resources came from landed property, and he, 

 who had never concerned himself with rural questions, 

 had to make himself acquainted with them. In this 

 he was greatly helped by a neighbour, Count Bobrinsky, 

 through whose influence he came to abandon the purely 

 theoretical opinions he had hitherto held concerning 

 agrarian questions. He had considered communal pro- 

 perty as a desirable agrarian system : Count Bobrinsky 

 showed him that it was not so, at any rate in Little 

 Russia. 



Metchnikofi came to the country with the keenest 

 desire to make himself useful. First of all he devoted 

 the gratuity which he had received on leaving the 

 University, to a school which my sister and myself 

 desired to open in our family property. But we were 



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