Chtcherbinisa

A young Russian man whom Marie meets again at Spa in September 1874; the diary spells his name Chtcherbinisa once and Chtcherbinine once.

Diary

• 1874-09-01 (023.0441): «Le petit Chtcherbinisa m'a été présenté. Mais nous nous reconnûmes, en effet nous nous connaissons depuis Krement-strang. Il a peu changé, toujours les mêmes yeux baissés et effarés.» The place name is printed «Krement-strang» (garbled in the edition).
• 1874-09-05 (023.0510): among her dancing partners at the Spa balls, «Foster, Chtcherbinine et Merjeewsky» (italics as printed).

The Mon Journal t.4 index has two separate lines, «Chtcherbinisa (M.), 123» and «Chtcherbinine, 130» (Mon Journal, tome 4 index; pages 123 and 130 are 023.0441 and 023.0510).

Identity uncertain

We are not sure who this is. «Le petit» and the long acquaintance suggest a boy of Marie's own age whom she had known earlier; the preface of the diary mentions a «petit Chtcherbine» placed in Dr. Hactius's boarding school at Geneva in 1870, stepson of M. Bachmakoff, a former vice-governor of Poltava (see #Chtcherbine), and he is a possible candidate, but nothing in the two Spa paragraphs ties them together, and the Mon Journal index lists «Chtcherbine (M.)» (t.1, p.24) apart from these two spellings. The two spellings here may be one person or two. If you can identify this person, we would be glad to hear from you.