Sharp County record., 1879-05-08

alarm. " hSllOuISlue! hOLD
Kamoutsine!" "Have you seen Ka-
moutsine?" became the general cry.
81 saw him waltzing with the Count
ess Damerof," f" said somebody.
They sought out the Countess.
"Msdame, you were waltzing with
Kamoutsine. The Emperor is raging!
Who brought him here?"
81 didn't; bless the Emperor's heart,
and as for dancing, the only living
being have danced with tonight was
the Governors nephew, a young gen
tleman from Odessa. Oh, here is the
Governor! General, didn't you intro
duce your nephew to me?"
Certainly, but it isn't my nephew
we're talking about-it'S Kamoutsine l
want to find. The Emperor is fairly
beside himself. Who brought him
here?"
The Countess shrugged her white
shoulders and turned away, tapping her
forehead with Der fan to intimate her
doubts of the Generals sanity. At the
same instant the Minister of Police
swooped down on the unhappy host.
"The Emperor is furious"
81 know he isl know he IS. .
"And YOU are not ashamed OF your
self to lend yourself to this aOomlnaoly
bad pleasantry?"
"But, Your Excellency, l don't un-
derSt -" r4
~ tell YOU the Emperor is wild about
itln cried the Minister with witherlng
look as he bounced away. :,
Finally young A. D. c., taking pity
on his chief, whispered to him: Your
Excellencp it was you that brought
Kan --n
"IP You impertinent young jacka-
napes, what do you meanP' shouted the
General, who thought this was little
too much, especially from a subaltern'
"You presented him to the Countess
Damerof," the young officer insisted.
"Nothing of the sort. The only per,
son presented to her was my nephew"
"But don't you see that wasn't
your nephew at all? That was Ka-
moutsine. So you can understand that
the Emperor is furious"
"Triple idiot, that l was!" said the
General, sinking down upon bench
and clasping his head in his hands; ut
struck me at the time that there wasn't
particle of resemblance" ;"
Thus it became known how Kamout-
sine got into the ballroom, but 1t was
not so easy to find how he got out OF
it. He had evaporated, with the new
dress suit, but had had the generosity
to leave on the table of the room he had
occupied letter exonerating the Cen
eral. 1t was speedily discovered and
carried TO the Emperor, who conde-
scended to laugh, to restore the Cen
eral to favor and to remark that the trick
had been very neatly played.
But the imperial pardon did not eX-
tend to the audacious perpetrator OF the
tsfFso Ehs 99fsa ana TsEs TfoH f0r h, 6t no
trace of him was to be found, and it was
not for "a hours that it occurred to them
to look for Kamoutsine at his country
seat. On arriving there they found him
surrounded by his family portraits, sip
ping his coffee and reading foreign re-
view.
"You have been guilty of grave dis
respect to the Emperor" said the po-
lice official.
81? How? In what?"
"In going to the Governors ball"
go, come now, don't make fun OF an
unhappy exile. l have been here these
last two days in compliance with the
terms Of my severe and unmerited sem
tence."
"You got your gendarmeg drunk"
"My gendarmes got themselves
drunk"
"You got them intoxicated and gave
them the slip"
Calumny-nothing but calumny!
When saw that they were too drunk
to travel l came on alone. 1t was hu-
initiating for an officer and noble to
be escorted like common thief"
"In spite of your baniShment from
the capital, you presented yourself at
the Governors"
"Who stuffed you with all this?"
"StuffedP Nobody! Thirty people
saw and recognized you"
"Thirty people saw me? Then Prov
idence, to rebuke the growing scepticism
of the age, has worked a miracle. They
must have been the victims of some ex-
traordinary illusion, for as all my people
can testify, l have not been outside of
these doors for the last two days"
"Well, well, perhaps they were," said
the officer, whose own confidence began
to be shaken; "but my orders are to
bring you back to St. Petersburg"
Kamoutsine looked coldly at his stupe-
fed interlocutor.
"This is pleasantly, SIR" he said
sternly "and tits in the worst of taste,
but | see nothing for it but to submit. "
Il %hnx> 10 Ir1nf han n