Near the hotel there was a small garden and my mother sent Arseny there for a walk. Soon my brother began to disappear somewhere from the garden. When Mother asked him where he had been, he would answer that he had gone to see some person who told him very interesting stories and drew horses for him.
Mother said that she did not like my brother’s ‘visits’ to some unknown person.
Soon my brother went for a walk again and quickly returned accompanied by an embarrassed, smiling man.
- Look, Mom, you wanted to see whom I was visiting. Here is this person!
After a minute of awkward silence, everyone laughed merrily, and the stranger said:
- I am Surikov. Vasily Ivanovich Surikov. I’m a painter.
This was how Vasily Ivanovich entered our life.

Vasily Ivanovich was good at listening and liked listening to her. Moreover, he willingly listened to all my and my sister’s stories about gymnasium life. Asya was two years younger than me, and in 1911, when I became a student of the Higher women’s courses, she was still studying at the gymnasium. Surikov listened to me telling about my professors, he read and criticized my essays. In the evenings, we all gathered at the tea table, where we shared our impressions of the day or read aloud.