The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-10-20
In BLACK RUSSIA.

In BLACK RUSSIA.
"WHY, it is Musgrave! ce cher Arthur
thought you, mon ami, to be in Spain
still. What good wind, what wind of
fortune, has blown you to US here, in
Russian"
Such were the words which reached
my ears as a gloved grasp was suddenly
laid upon my arm while was travelling
the railway platform at Minsk. l turned
to find myself confronted by the smiling
face Of Demetrius Vassili, a Russian
whom l had known for some three OF
four years at st. Petersburg, Paris, and
wherever diplomatists and birds of pas
sage congregated. He, this we.l-whisk-
cred ,glib-tongued Vassili belonged to both
categories, since, when first knew him
in the Cars capital, he was a professor
of the university, while in Paris he was
an underling of the Russian Embassy,
and at Madrid a gentleman at large.
l confess that | did not much like
Demetrius Vassili, though l was more
than half ashamed of my prejudice, for
the man was friendly, almost ostenta-
tiously so; was polite, genial, and one of
those amiable persons who are always
taking our good opinion by storm, as it
were, by the graceful rendering of some
little service or other. Vassili, when l
was a raw lad new to the Continent, had
been kind to me once or twice, and had
repaid his coed nature by taking his part
when others spoke evil of him, in
vague way, behind his back, for he was
not popular, somehow. There he was, at
any rate, and evidently delighted to see
me.
by the by" abruptly put in my old
acquaintance, linking his arm in niue,
Il have to congratulate you, have not?
1t is true that you are about to marry the
beautiful Mdlle. Marie, daughter of Count
Constantine Orloff, the young lady who
at Madrid, when l was there, broke all
hearts?"
1t was true that I was betrothed to
Marie Orloff; indeed, was on my way
then to her fathers mansion, at which it
had been arranged that l should be a
guest until the wedding should take
place, according to both the English and
Russo Greek forms, at St. Petersburg.
Our engagement had come about in this
wise: |, Arthur Musgrave, as an at
tache of our legation at Madrid, had
been thrown much into the society of the
daughter of the Russian Envoy, had
learned to love her, and had been lucky
enough to teach her to love me. NV
chief difficulty was with the Count, who
was at first very much annoyed and dis
pleased. Russia youngest of nations
has an aristocracy that in pride and pre-
tension rivals the blue blood" of Spain,
and every Muscovite noble is convinced
that the English are, as Napoleon called
us, nation of shopkeepers, quite unfit
to mate with their own upper classes.
Fortunately for me, however, l was heir
to an entailed property, small, indeed,
but the rent-roll of which seemed respect
able in Continental eyes; while l was
able to convince Count Orloff that my
border ancestry had driven off Scottish
cattle, and had ridden in warden raids,
at a time when his own forefathers were
probably unbaptized Tartars, for it is
curious fact that the titled families of
Russia are Georgian, Tartar, German,
Swedish, anything but Russian.
All now was happily settled, and, as l
have said, was on my way to my future
father-in-law's country chateau, sum-
mer residence in the lake district of Os-
tashkoi, near Tver, on the Upper Volga.
The Counts estates lay chiefly in that
neighborhood, and he had lately been
appointed, by one of those abrupt transit
lions from one service il. anQtBer, Wh.ich
1T required immediate action betw,v-
ands of Congress, and touches the L.
topic which is calculated to those;n
ebate. Even with reference der D, .a
Dotted question of increasing to fivn-
asing the army the President alongln
ends that its consideration saws. ",
be deferred until after the hundhy
deficiency bill has been Gals ..
md provision made for the intend,
Of the army for the current tinguoot
the maximum strength of lily t,v
EN-. In the event of a subse- AS the
uction Of the army the excess barter a
preparation could not be ex- field fo1
and if one the other hand Withsn
shoaiu De increased the ruptet
al appropriation required throuo-
voted in due time. 1t would the ocg,
~ TIE troops now In service water,
Sc pay is largely in arrears Furthn
mt to them should be delayed will CIR. !
congress is discussing the the dat
ne
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