:N T ORTHEBN EUSSIA. 



CHAPTER III. 



ST. PETERSBURG. 



SIGHT-SEEING in a new country is a necessity, a 

 doom: the city must be "done." Yet I maintain 

 that it is a serious bore to do it in hot weather, and such 

 weather we experienced in Russia when the air was at 

 what seemed the boiling-point, with the pavement like a 

 furnace, not a cloud in the sky, and the sun fierce and 

 intolerable. 



Where is the man who, in such circumstances, has not 

 felt a nervous shiver, in spite of all his curiosity, as he 

 stood at the hotel door, " Murray " in hand, about to pace 

 it till dinner time through palaces, museums, churches, 

 streets, and squares ? After all is finished with a late 

 dinner, the irresistible doom still remains to spend the 

 evening at Tivoli, the " gardens," or some of those places 



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