passed larger and better built towns, which the dome of
some cathedral lighted up for miles.

"The road was enlivened, too, by another peculiarity. The restaurants
were all adorned by flags of all colors, and festooned by vines. At one
place the green arches ran across the road, and we passed under a bower
of evergreens. I accepted this, at first, as a Russian peculiarity, and
was surprised that so much attention was paid to travellers; but I
learned that it was not for us at all. The Duke of Edinboro' had passed
over the road a few days before, on his way to St. Petersburg, for his
betrothal to the only daughter of the czar, and the decorations were for
him; and so we felt that we were of the party, although we had not been
asked.

"We approached St. Petersburg just at night, and caught the play of the
sunlight on the domes. It is a city of domes--blue domes, green domes,
white domes, and, above all, the golden dome of the Cathedral of St.
Isaac's.

"It is almost never a single dome. St. Isaac's central, gilded dome
looms up above its fellow domes, but four smaller ones surround it.

"It was summer; the temperature was delightful, about like our October.
The showers were frequent, there was no dust and no sultry air.

"There must be a great deal of nice mechanical work required in St.
Petersburg, for on the Nevsky Perspective, the principal street, there
were a great many shops in which graduating and measuring instruments of
very nice workmanship were for sale. Especially I noticed the excellence
of the thermometers, and I naturally stopped to read them. Figures are a
common language, but it was clear that I was in another planet; I could
not read the thermometers! I judged that the weather was warm enough for
the thermometer to be at 68. I read, say, 16. And then I remembered that
the Russians do not put their freezing point at 32, as we do, and I was
obliged to go through a troublesome calculation before I could tell how
warm it was.

"But I came to a still stranger experience. I dated my letters August 3,
and went to my banker's, before I sealed them, to see if there were
letters for me. The banker's little calendar was hanging by his desk,
and the day of the month was on exhibition, in large figures. I read,
July 22! This was distressing! Was I like Alice in Wonderland? Did time
go backward? Surely, I had dated August 3. Could I be in error twelve
days? And then I perceived that twelve days was just the dif