Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/43

 Tom appealed to Mr. Thurber, showing him how, by the aid of screens and curtains, one could make quite a pretty series of rooms out of it. The latter assented, and even made some suggestions himself; and Grace finally said, in a resigned voice,—

"As we cannot do any better, I am willing to endure some discomforts; but I warn you, Tom, that you will have to search that balcony every night, for I am sure burglars could conceal themselves there."

"One never hears of burglars here," Mr. Thurber remarked consolingly.

"What is this?" I suddenly exclaimed, examining a small iron door in the wall. "A safe, perhaps." They all crowded about me, and gazed at the mysterious door.

"Have n't you seen those stoves before?" our English friend inquired. "If you search you will discover them all through the houses here. They impart warmth to the walls, and in that way keep the temperature even. The system of heating in Russia is the most perfect in the world. The double windows are put in and sealed in October, and fires are lighted early in that month, and are kept burning all winter."

"I see that you can tell me exactly what I want to know," said Tom, taking our new friend aside and talking to him in a confidential way, while Judith tried the piano, which was standing in the large drawing-room, and Grace blew the dust off some alabaster vases.

"Do you suppose," said she, tapping a table with a lapis-lazuli top, "that all these ornaments go with the furniture?"