th shortened days and
cool evenings the tide suddenly took a reflux and the Nevskoi became a
suggestion of Broadway, (which, of all individual streets, it most
nearly resembles,) we found an indescribable charm in the solitude of
the fading groves and the waves whose lamenting murmur foretold their
speedy imprisonment. We had the whole superb drive to ourselves. It is
true that Ivan, upon the box, lifted his brows in amazement, and sighed
that his jaunty cap of green velvet should be wasted upon the desert
air, whenever I said, "_Na Ostrowa_," but he was too genuine a Russian
to utter a word of remonstrance.

Thus, day by day, unfashionable, but highly satisfied, we repeated the
lonely drive, until the last day came, as it always will. I don't think
I shall ever forget it. It was the first day of November. For a
fortnight the temperature had been a little below the freezing-point,
and the leaves of the alder-thickets, frozen suddenly and preserved as
in a great out-door refrigerator, maintained their green. A pale-blue
mist rose from the Gulf and hung over the islands, the low sun showing
an orange disk, which touched the shores with the loveliest color, but
gave no warmth to the windless air. The parks and gardens were wholly
deserted, and came and went, on either side, phantom-like in their soft,
gray, faded tints. Under every bridge flashed and foamed the clear
beryl-green waters. And nobody in St. Petersburg, except ourselves, saw
this last and sunniest flicker of the dying season!

The very next day was cold and dark, and so the weather remained, with
brief interruptions, for months. On the evening of the 6th, as we drove
over the Nikolai Bridge to dine with a friend on Vassili Ostrow, we
noticed fragments of ice floating down the Neva. Looking up the stream,
we were struck by the fact that the remaining bridges had been detached
from the St. Petersburg side, floated over, and anchored along the
opposite shore. This seemed a needless precaution, for the pieces of
drift-ice were hardly large enough to have crushed a skiff. How
surprised were we, then, on returning home, four hours later, to find
the noble river gone, not a green wave to be seen, and, as far as the
eye could reach, a solid floor of ice, over which people were already
crossing to and fro!

Winter, having thus suddenly taken possession of the world, lost no time
in setting up the signs of his rule. The leaves, whether green or brown,
disappeared at