culiar property of Saint
Inakentief, the only saint who belongs especially to Siberia.
Everybody kept the occasion in full earnest, the services commencing
the previous evening when nearly everybody got drunk. I had a variety
of preparations in the shape of mending, making bags, tying up bundles
and the like, but though I offered liberal compensation neither
man-servant nor maid-servant would lend assistance. Labor was not to
be had on any terms, and I was obliged to do my own packing. There are
certain saints' days in the year when a Russian peasant will no more
work than would a Puritan on Sunday. All who could do so on the day
above mentioned visited the church four miles from Irkutsk, where
Saint Inakentief lies buried.

I occupied the fashionable hours of the two days before my departure
in making farewell visits according to Russian etiquette. Not
satisfied with their previous courtesy my friends arranged a dinner at
the club rooms for the last evening of my stay at Irkutsk. The other
public dinners were of a masculine character, but the farewell
entertainment possessed the charm of the presence of fifteen or twenty
ladies. General Shelashnikoff, Governor of Irkutsk, and acting
Governor General during the absence of General Korsackoff, presided at
the table. We dined directly before the portraits of the last and
present emperors of Russia, and as I looked at the likeness of
Nicholas I thought I had never seen it half as amiable.

After the dinner the tables disappeared with magical rapidity and a
dance began. While I was talking in a corner behind a table, a large
album containing views of Irkutsk was presented to me as a souvenir of
my visit. The _golovah_ was prominent in the presentation, and when it
was ended he urged me to be his _vis a vis_ in a quadrille. Had he
asked me to walk a tight rope or interpret a passage of Sanscrit, I
should have been about as able to comply. My education in 'the light
fantastic' has been extremely limited, and my acquaintances will
testify that nature has not adapted me to achievements in the
Terpsichorean art.

I resisted all entreaties to join the dance up to that evening. I
urged that I never attempted it a dozen times in my life, and not at
all within ten years. The golovah declared he had not danced in
twenty-five years, and knew as little of the art as I did. There was
no more to be said. I resigned myself to the pleasures awaiting me,
and ventured on the floor very mu