A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 263 



and so prevent tlie arrival of the English steamers. 

 Thus we all felt unsettled, even Vassilli, who had 

 begun to hanker for the fleshpots of Egypt, and said 

 daily that he was anxious to return to his " morning 

 cup of chocolate and his daughter at Krasnoyarsk." 



But during this week of waiting, we were able to 

 greet some old friends who had returned in the Lena, 

 Chief of these were Anastasia Ivanowna, and, more 

 welcome still, Michael Petrovitch. One evening, kind 

 Madame Antonoff, who guessed perhaps that our larder 

 was getting low, asked us to dinner to enjoy the good 

 things that her husband had brought from town. It 

 was characteristic of those people always to share a 

 delicacy with their neighbours. Dinner was at six 

 o'clock, and on arrival we found the little room so full 

 of guests that a kind of overflow meeting had to be held 

 in the bedroom. First there was Michael Petrovitch 

 himself, as stout and jolly as ever. With him he had 

 brought a pale shy student from the Petersburg uni- 

 versity. This luckless young man had got into trouble 

 owing to his political opinions, and had been exiled to 

 the Yenesei for three years. This winter, the last of his 

 banishment, he had obtained leave to stay at Golchika, 

 in order to study the language and customs of the 

 Samoyedes. There was also a young cousin of Madame 

 Antonoff, who, with his wife and child, had just 

 travelled all the way from Little Russia. In time he 

 was to take HachenkofFs place at the Och Marino 

 fishery. The third guest was an elderly priest, who had 

 come from Dudinka in order to hold the annual services 

 at Golchika. The dinner was a very grand one of three 



