of the gilding lavished everywhere. He was delighted by the
singing, which was unaccompanied by instruments, the bass voices
predominating, and which certainly struck him as being much finer than
anything he had ever heard in an English cathedral. There was no lack of
amusement in the evening. Some of his English friends at once put
Godfrey up as a member of the Skating Club. This club possessed a large
garden well planted with trees. In this was an artificial lake of
considerable extent, broken by wooded islets. This was always lit up of
an evening by coloured lights, and twice in the week was thrown open
upon a small payment to the public, when a military band played, and the
grounds were brilliantly illuminated.

The scene was an exceedingly gay one, and the gardens were frequented by
the rank and fashion of St. Petersburg. The innumerable lights were
reflected by the snow that covered the ground and by the white masses
that clung to the boughs of the leafless trees. The ice was covered with
skaters, male and female, the latter in gay dresses, tight-fitting
jackets trimmed with fur, and dainty little fur caps. Many of the former
were in uniform, and the air was filled with merry laughter and the
ringing sound of innumerable skates. Sometimes parties of acquaintances
executed figures, but for the most part they moved about in couples, the
gentleman holding the lady's hand, or sometimes placing his arm round
her waist as if dancing. Very often Godfrey spent the evening at the
houses of one or other of his Russian or English friends, and
occasionally went to the theatre. Sometimes he spent a quiet evening at
home. He liked Catharine Petrovytch. She was an excellent housewife,
and devoted to the comfort of her husband; but when not engaged in
household cares she seldom cared to go out, and passed her time for the
most part on the sofa. She was, like most other Russian ladies when at
home and without visitors, very careless and untidy in her dress.

Among the acquaintances of whom Godfrey saw most were two young
students. One of them was the son of a trader in Moscow, the other of a
small landed proprietor. He had met them for the first time at a fair
held on the surface of the Neva, and had been introduced to them by a
fellow-student of theirs, a member of a family with whom Godfrey was
intimate. Having met another acquaintance he had left the party, and
Godfrey had spent the afternoon on the ice with Akim Soushiloff an