e conclusion that a woman calling
upon a chief of police was regarded as a suspicious character; and
rightly, after various shooting incidents in St. Petersburg. My
suspicions were confirmed by my memory of the fact that I had been told
that the prefect of St. Petersburg was "not at home" in business hours,
though his gray lambskin cap--the only one in town--was lying before
me at the time. But I also recollected that when I had made use of that
cap as a desk, on which to write my request, to the horror of the
orderly, and had gone home, the prefect had sent a gendarme to do what I
wanted. Accordingly, I told this orderly my business in a loud, clear
voice. The crack of the door widened as I proceeded, and at my last word
I was invited into the chief's study by the orderly, who had been
signaled to.

The chief turned out to be a polished and amiable baron, with a German
name, who was eager to render any service, but who had never come into
collision with that post-office regulation before. I remarked that I
regretted not being able to certify to ourselves with our passports, as
they had not been returned to us. He declared that the passports were
quite unnecessary as a means of identification; my word was sufficient.
But he flew into a rage over the detention of the passports. That
something decidedly vigorous took place over those papers, and that the
landlord of our hotel was to blame, it was easy enough to gather from
the meek air and the apologies with which they were handed to us, a
couple of hours later. The chief dispatched his orderly on the spot with
my post-office petition. During the man's absence, the chief brought in
and introduced to me his wife, his children, and his dogs, and showed me
over his house and garden. We were on very good terms by the time the
orderly returned with the signature of the prefect (who had never seen
us) certifying to our signatures, on faith. The baron sealed the
petition for me with his biggest coat of arms, and posted it, and the
letters came promptly and regularly. Thereafter, for the space of our
four months' stay in the place, the baron and I saluted when we met. We
even exchanged "shakehands," as foreigners call the operation, and the
compliments of the day, in church, when the baron escorted royalty. I
think he was a Lutheran, and went to that church when etiquette did not
require his presence at the Russian services, where I was always to be
found.

As, during those fou