Next morning the governor came hurrying to me, and said that the colonel of gendarmerie was coming to visit me. This was Novìtsky; I did not know him personally, but many amusing stories were told about him in our circles. He arrived, accompanied by his adjutant, put the usual question—“Have you any complaint to make?”—and then began to chat. It was pure curiosity that had brought him. I remember he wanted to know if, when abroad, I had come across Debagòrio-Makriyèvitch, who had been imprisoned at Kiëv in 1879 and condemned to penal servitude; but on his way to Siberia had “swopped” with one of the ordinary criminals, and so escaped. When I said I had seen him in Switzerland, Novìtsky overwhelmed me with questions: “Now tell me, how is Vladimir Kàrpovitch? What is he doing over there?” One would have thought Makriyèvitch was at least one of his relations; he spoke of him familiarly by his Christian name and his father’s name.[46] Like Colonel Ivànov in Petersburg, who had known my old companions, he too went off into praises of them; though all the while he was doing what he could to bring two of Makriyèvitch’s comrades to the scaffold.[47] They are easy-going people, these ornaments of officialdom! Footnote 46: It should be remembered that in private intercourse Russians do not use their family names, but the Christian name combined with the Christian name of the father, _e.g._ Vladimir Kàrpovitch—Vladimir, son of Kàrpo, the same man’s family name being Debagòrio-Makriyèvitch. Footnote 47: Antònov and Brantner, besides Ossìnsky and some of the others whose names I have mentioned above. CHAPTER XII NEW ACQUAINTANCES—THE GIRL—CONSPIRATORS OF ROMNY—ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW—COMPANIONS IN DESTINY—A LIBERAL-MINDED GOVERNOR Next morning I was taken to the office, where arrangements were being made for the continuation of our journey. When formalities were over the governor said to me that I had better go into the next room: “You will find company there—comrades of yours who are to travel to Moscow with you.” In my conversation with the two ladies they had told me that two exiles, banished by “administrative methods,” Vladimir Malyòvany and Anna Ptshèlkina, were to travel with me; and I was very glad to make acquaintance with my future companions. I had known Malyòvany by name for some time past. He had once been secretary to the Town Council of Odessa, had been exiled to Siberia by “administrative methods” in the end of the seventies, after some years had made his escape, and was now being sent back to Siberia again for five years.[48] Footnote 48: This sentence was renewed later, and in 1892 he died in hospital at Tomsk.