The following year was to be spent at Kharkoff. Katia was now seventeen and her marriage had to be contemplated. The boys' life was still quite a childish one, made up chiefly of games and mischief. Kolia had been taught to read by the great-aunt; Ilia had learnt by himself, asking people now and then for the name of some letter. He was able to read fluently quite early. The departure for Kharkoff was a great event, prepared long beforehand. The children, delighted at the prospect of a change, impatiently waited for the moment to start. At last every one was seated in the coaches and, saying to the coachman, "Off! God keep us," they started to drive along the high road through the steppes. Life at Kharkoff was very much the same as at Panassovka, with social elements added. Moreover, the children's liberty was somewhat restricted. Already on the journey they were given to understand that, in a town, they could not go out alone, nor shout in the streets, nor point at people and things with their finger, and that they should have to make less noise, even in the house. For the first time they unconsciously realised that their family was not the centre of the universe, that there were many others 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.[4] [4] Metchnikoff himself insisted upon the recital of this episode, for which he had felt some remorse. He considered that, in a biography, disagreeable traits were not to be omitted.