Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/96

 CHAPTER VIII.

AN IMPERIAL CHRISTENING.

January 17.

HEN I told Alice of my long walk with her brother-in-law, she looked somewhat scandalized, and said she wished I would be more careful.

"Even a maid," she went on to explain, "is not considered sufficient protection by the Russian ladies; there must be a married woman or a governess to make walking perfectly proper. Many girls are not allowed to go out alone in their own carriages. That, of course, is absurd."

"I should think so!" I exclaimed indignantly.

"Russians are very particular with their daughters," Alice continued. "A gentleman never, under any circumstances, asks for a young lady at the door, and never leaves his card for her. The girls are not visible except on their mamma's reception days, when they preside at the tea-table."

"What a stupid time they must have!" said Judith. "But how well they speak French! Monsieur d'Echaud told me that the only way in which he could distinguish Russian French from Parisian was by a slight drawl in the former."