Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/177

Rh Having stated the business, you invite the man to smoke (everybody smokes in Russia), and then you hand him the cigar-case and turn your back to the window, or look intently at something on the table. He helps himself to a cigar, and also to the money, and then the affair goes on easily.

"What a rascally business!" exclaimed both the youths in a breath. Doctor Bronson fully echoed their sentiment, and said he earnestly hoped the condition of things was not as bad as it is portrayed. "Alexander II. made a considerable improvement in many things during his reign," the Doctor continued, "and it is to be hoped that he reformed the official system of the Empire in this particular feature."