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

DINNER AT ТПЕ GOVERNOR'S. 219

which, since the peace, have become the only recognised code in the fashionable world. Such is the dreary recollection which. I cannot banish in listening

to the agreeable conversation of M., and in

comparing it with that of liis contemporaries. Of conversation may be said, with even greater justice than of the style of books, that it is the individual himself. People arrange their writings, b\it not their repartees, or if they attempt to arrange them, they, at least, lose more than they gain by it; for, in familiar talk, affectation is no longer a veil, it becomes a signal,

The party that met yesterday at the dinner of the

governor was a singular compound of contrary ele

ments : besides young M., of whom I have just

drawn the portrait, there was another Frenchman, a

Doctor К, who had sailed, I was told, in a govern

ment vessel on an expedition to the Pole, disem

barked, I know not why, in Lapland, and had travelled

straight from Archangel to Nijni, without even pass

ing through Petersburg; a useless and fatiguing

journey, which a man of the iron frame that I ob

served in this traveller could alone support. I am

assured that he is a learned naturalist: his counte

nance is remarkable ; there is something of immobility

and mystery about it which piques the imagination.

As for his conversation, I shall hope to hear it in

France; in Russia he says nothing. The Russians

are more skilful; they always say something, though,

indeed, the contrary often to what is expected from

them; but it is sufficient to prevent their silence being

remarked. There was also, at this dinner, a family of

young English fashionables, of the highest rank, and

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