Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/238

 asked to join the party. Tom's face became radiant, and he added, "Thurber told me he would come to Moscow for a day or two while we were there, if I would let him know. He is not far off, and can get away from his hunting for a day at least."

The more Tom talked about it, the more pleased he was with the idea of asking George; and the latter consented to go with us without any hesitation. We started last night.

It is fortunate that George came, for so far he has done everything which has been done, and Tom has dropped quietly into the background.

What a city this is! A mixture of barbaric splendor and civilized squalor, and so utterly unlike any place in the world that one who has not been here cannot get the faintest idea of what it is like.

I do not think we lost much by coming in the night. The country is a vast wilderness, for the railroad is built in a direct line, without regard to cities which it might easily have been made to pass through. I distinguished various collections of low, shed-like structures when I awoke this morning. The only signs of life about them were some smoking chimneys. The snow was drifting about aimlessly in the air, as if loath to settle in so melancholy a spot.

We partook of tea at all hours of the night, as on our first journey in Russia. The sleeping-car was wonderfully comfortable. Grace, Alice, and I occupied a large compartment at one end. The former was wakeful, and, finding the night cold, in the goodness of her heart