Part 6 (1/2)
”Ah, sir, I see that sleep has fled your eyelids,” said the officer in very good English
”Oh, yes; but I can do very ithout it,” replied Evergreen, delighted to have some one to talk to; ”there is always so e country”
”Your first visit here, I presuland before,” replied Evergreen
”What do you think of affairs in general in this country?” asked the stranger
”Very large country--very fine country--inhabitants very polite Big city Saint Petersburg People may not say exactly what they think, I hear; but that's nothing to me, you know,” observed our friend
”Oh, that's quite a er; ”people may say exactly what they think, I assure you: no one interferes with them Now, for instance, in the friendly way in which we are talking, one hts, and no harm could come to him”
”Very pleasant state of society; exactly what I like,” said Evergreen, who thereupon, taking the hint, launched forth on several little bits of his own fa any casual acquaintance
The strange officer appeared to be listening attentively, and finally offered to call upon Evergreen and to show him the lions of Moscow
Cousin Giles ahile the conversation was going on, and was exceedingly amused at what he overheard, especially with the ay in which Evergreen accepted the stranger's offer After the latter had made nuot up and went into another carriage
”Wonderfully polite ht,”
observed Evergreen in the ers had rubbed their eyes and stretched themselves ”I wonder who he can be Athe passengers were some merchants from the north, who had never before been at Moscow They had for so their heads out of the s, and as they caught sight of a few gilt doaily-coloured roofs, and some convents scattered about, which was all that was visible of the holy city, they began crossing theorously This ceree was handed out as each person presented his ticket, and Mr Evergreen found, to his delight, that his hat-box was safe A vast number of ishvoshtsticks presented their tickets, and offered their droskies for hire, and, two being selected, away the whole party rattled through broadish streets, paved with pebbles, up and down hill, areen-roofed houses, and pink, and yellow, and grey, and blue walls, till they reached their hotel
They had been recoo to that of Monsieur Chollet, in the Grand Lubianka, and they had no reason to regret their choice Nowhere could a e seeue He would be talking to three or four custo his wife in French, and scolding his servants in their native Russian, answering fifty questions, giving advice, and receiving accounts, all in one breath He did all sorts of things better than any one else He went to market, came back and cooked the dinner, mixed the salad, and in another instant appeared dressed as if for a ball, and took his place at the head of the table His dinners were very good, somewhat in the German fashi+on; and his rooms were very comfortable, and excessively clean for Russia
As soon as our friends had dressed and breakfasted, they sallied forth to gain a general view of the city Evergreen said he thought he ought to wait for his new acquaintance, who had prolish merchant, who happened to overhear him, assured him that he must not be delicate on the subject, as the person in question was siuards of the train, and that he was employed by the police to pick up any inforht you a suspicious character, you would certainly have been honoured by a visit fro treasonable, I should have been whirled off to a dungeon to a certainty,” exclaier he had escaped
Moscow is one of the most romantic cities in Europe--indeed, there is no other to be compared with it; but our friends had entered it in so ordinary, every-day a manner that at first they could hardly persuade themselves that they had reached a considerable way towards the centre of Russia, and were really and truly in that far-famed city
”Now, my boys, ill steer a course for the Kres of their hotel as they walked along the street called the Grand Lubianka
Their course was nearly a straight one In a little ti an open space, they found theateway, such as they ht have expected to see in a picture of China or Tartary, with strange-looking eastern turrets, and do within them
”This must be the Chinese city we have heard of,” said Cousin Giles
So it was It is a city within a city It has three sides, the walls of the Kreateway and found thes on either side of the a still more Chinese appearance On the left was a little church, with numerous parti-coloured do nowhere, and railings, and balconies, and little excrescences of roofs, altogether for an edifice much more like a Chinese than a Christian te open space, just inside the walls, croith people of the lowest order, with booths on either side This hatfair of Moscow The booths or shops contain all the articles either for dress or household purposes used by the hing, and haggling and chattering away as if the affairs of the nation depended on what they were about, and yet probably a few kopecks would have paid for any one of the articles bought or sold At the end of the street the travellers careat bazaar of Moscow, and as they looked down its nulazed over at the top, they saw lines of little shops,--jewellers, and silverses, and hatters, and shoemakers, and tinmen, and trunk-makers, and other workers in leather, and head-dress makers, and blacksmiths, and toy sellers,-- indeed, it would be difficult to enumerate all the various trades and handicrafts there represented, each trade being in a row by itself
Each shop was little more than a recess, with a counter in front of it, before which the shop passers-by to stop and inspect them No time, however, was spent at the bazaar, for across a wide open space appeared a high pinnacled wall, with a line of curious green-pointed roofed towers, with golden crescents surateways up a steep slope Over the walls appeared a confused olden and blue-and-silver doreen roofs, and crescents, and crosses, and gold and silver chains, glittering in the sun, altogether forhts Entertainments_ or other Oriental roht days' easy journey of sober-land
”That must be the Kremlin,” exclaimed Fred ”Well, it is a curious place!”
”There can be no doubt about it,” observed Cousin Giles ”And that gate to the left, under the high toith the lao through it It leads us at once, I see by thethe river” As they went down the place towards the river, they found theh pedestal
”Oh, those eneral who drove away the Tartars, and Minin, the merchant who devoted his fortune to the support of the army hich the victory on