Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-10-11
IN BLACK RUSSIA.
All the Year Round.

Ali Inc ear Round. 20
Why, it is MusgrAve! ce cher Az
| thur! L thought you, mon ami, to be
| il Spain still. What good wind, what
! W nd # fortune, has blown you to US
here, in Russia?' ut -'.i-
! Such were the words that reached
my ears, as gioved grasp was sudden
ly laid upon my arm, while was ira.
I versing the railway platform at Minsk.
+ turned TO find myself confronted by
+ the smiling face OF DemetriHs Vassali,
! Rus, ian hom had known for some
three or four year at st. Petersburg,
Paris, and wherever diplomatists aud
birds of passage cOngregate. He, this
well-whiskered, glibtongued VaSsili,
b lJnged to both categOries, since,
When l first knew him in the Cars
capital, he WAS professor of the uni
ver5ity, while in Paris he WAS under
ling of the Russian embassy, and at
Madrid a gentleman at large.
1 confess that l did not much like
Dameuius Vassili, though was more
than half ashamed of my prejudice, for
The man was friendly, almost too os-
tentatiously 50; WAS polite, genial, and
one of those amiable persons who are
always taking our good opinion by
storm, as it were, by the graceful rem
dering of some little service or other.
,Vassili, " hen | was raw lad, new to
the continent, had been kind to me
once or twice, and l had repaid his
goOu 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
anyrate, and evidently delighted to
see me. .-.
BY the byn abruptly put in an ole
acquaintance, linking his armin mine,
Il nave to congratulate you, have I
not? Is it true that you are about 10
marry the beautiful Mile. Ma
t., daughter of couIt Constantine
Orlotf, Tic young lady who at Madrid,
when l was there, breke ell hearts?'
1t was true that l was be :rotht to
Marie OrlOfr; indeed, l was on my
way then to her fathers mansion, at
which it was arranged that should be
a guest until after the wedding should
take place, according to lot the En-
glish and Russo-Greek forms at ST.
Petersburg Our engagement mad come
about in this wise: /, Arthur Mus
grave, as an atiache of our legation at
Madrid, had been thrown much into |
the society of the daughter of the Rus
sian envoy, had learned to love her,
aud had been lucky enough to teach |
her to love me. My chief difficulty |
was with the Count, who was at first |
very much annoyed and displeased.
Ru.sia-yOungest of natiOns-has an |
aristocracy that in pride and preten-
toins rivals the blue hood of Spain, |
ard every Muscovite noble is convin-
ced that the English are, as Napoleon
called us, nation of shop-keepers,
quite unfit to mate with their own up
per classes. Fortunately for me, how
ever, I was heir to an entailed proper |
ty, small, Indeed, but the rent-roll of
which seemed respectable in continen-
tai eyes; while was able to convince
CUNT Orloff that my border an
cps,ry had driven Scottish cattle, and |
ridden in warden raids, at time when
his own forefathers were probably un-
baptized Tartars, for it is curious fact |
that the titled families of Russia are
Georgian, Tartar, German, Swedish,
anything but Russian.
All this WAS happily settled, and, as
/ have said, / was on my way to my
future fat her in-law's country chateau, |
trict of OstaschkOi, near Tyer on the
Upper VOlga. The Counts estates Law
had chiefly in that neighbOrhOod,a and he
lately been appointed, by one of those
abrupt transitions from one service to
another, which are common under the
Cars rule, Governor of the province.
But what chance, NJ. Vassili, brings
you here" asked, when we had sha-
ken hands. Il heard of you last in
Rome
Here today, there Tomorrow an
swerd Vassili, airily. / have been in
Asia lately, shall be at wilma to NOR
row, and in st. Petersburg next week.
serve master who has dealings in
many places
'YGu mean the Emperor inquired,
and the Russian nodded with look of
good -humored mystery. At this mo-
ment up came porter TO tell me,
criDgingly, that my eXcellency must,
he feared, be content to wait six hours
or more for train. There had been y
of troops toward Poland,
disordering the conpany's arrange