often found hotter than Italy. We dined on this same terrace,
and the dinner was magnificent; at dessert gorgeous fruits were
served, and remarkably fine melons, which seemed to me a great luxury.
As soon as we sat down at table delightful instrumental music was
heard, and continued throughout the dinner. The overture to
"Iphigenia" was executed entrancingly. I was greatly surprised when
Count Strogonoff informed me that each of the musicians played but one
note; it was impossible for me to conceive how all these individual
sounds could form into such a perfect whole, and how any expression
could grow out of such a mechanical performance.

After dinner we took a delightful walk in the park; then, toward
evening, we went back to the terrace, whence, at nightfall, we
witnessed a very fine display of fireworks which the Count had had in
store for us. Reflected in the waters of the Neva, these fireworks
were of beautiful effect. Finally, by way of concluding the pleasures
of the day, there arrived in two very narrow little boats some
Indians, who danced before us. Their dances consisted in going through
light movements without stirring from their places, and entertained us
considerably.

Count Strogonoff's house was far from being the only one kept with
such splendour. At St. Petersburg, as at Moscow, a number of noblemen
owning enormous fortunes were in the habit of setting an open table,
so that a well-recommended stranger was never under the necessity of
having recourse to an inn. There was a dinner or a supper everywhere;
nothing was embarrassing but your choice. I remember, toward the end
of my stay in St. Petersburg, how Prince Narischkin, the Grand
Equerry, always held open table to the extent of twenty-five or thirty
covers for strangers who were recommended to him. These hospitable
customs exist in the interior of Russia, whither modern civilisation
has not yet penetrated. When Russian noblemen go upon visits to their
estates, which are usually situated at great distances from the
capital, they stop on the way in the houses of their countrymen,
where, without being personally known by the host, they, their
servants and their horses are taken in and treated as handsomely as
possible, even should they remain a month.

I once saw a traveller who had journeyed across this vast country with
two friends. All three had traversed those distant provinces as they
might have done during the Golden Age, in the days of the p