Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

ENGLISH ODDITIES.221

nobleness allied to the reserve of sentiments and to coldness of manners.

" I have for a long time, my lord," I said, " desired an opportunity of becoming acquainted with you, and í thank you for having given it me. We are, I think, destined frequently to meet this year; I hope for the future to profit better by the chance than I have done hitherto." ■

" I am very sorry to leave you," replied the Englishman, " but I set out directly."

" We shall meet again at Moscow ?"

£¢ No; I am going to Poland ; my carriage is at the door, and I shall not leave it until I reach Wilna."

An inclination to laugh almost over-mastered me,

when I saw in the face of M. that he thought

with me, that after having done without each other for three months, at the court, at Peterhoff, at Moscow, in short, every where where we met without speaking, the young lord might have dispensed with uselessly imposing upon three persons the tiresomeness of a formal introduction, without any object either for himself or me. It appeared to us that, after having dined together, if his wish had been to talk with us for a quarter of an hour, nothing need have prevented his joining in our conversation. The scrupulous and formal Englishman left us stupified by his tardy, troublesome, and superfluous politeness ; while he himself appeared equally satisfied with having made acquaintance with me, and with having made no use of this advantage, if advantage it be.

This gaucherie reminds me of another, of which a Polish lady was the object.

It occurred in London. The lady, who possesses a l 3