Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/124

 ordered some wood the other day, and they brought me hot water."

"I fancied that you had learned words enough to make your wants known."

"So I have, two or three times over, and forgotten them again. I never knew anything so easy to forget as Russian."

"Housekeeping among a people whose language you do not understand must be difficult."

"It would be, except that my sister lets the house keep itself. I doubt if she knows how many servants she has, and I am sure she is in a blissful state of ignorance as to where they eat and sleep. The moujiks are supposed to 'keep themselves,' but I never pass the butler's pantry that I don't see one of them eating, or drinking tea. To be sure, they get very small wages, so I don't blame them for picking up all they can."

"There is such an infinite number of them in every house which I enter," said my companion. "They seem to be employed to wait on the other servants."

"So they are. We have one for the butler, one for the cook, one to trim the lamps and take care of the fires, and one to polish the floors. I don't know the exact number, but I am continually coming upon long-haired and bearded figures, in high boots and gay-colored shirts, who draw themselves up against the wall and murmur 'Zdrasty' as I pass. I feel as if I were in a theatre all the time."

"On the whole, you would not fancy housekeeping in this country?" looking at me sharply.