462 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE I 



One day the minister, returning in his carriage from 

 making sundry official visits, summoned the housekeeper, 

 a Baltic-province woman who had been admirably brought 

 up in an English family, and said to her : i Annette I insist 

 that you discharge Ivan, the coachman, at once; I can t 

 stand him any longer. This afternoon he raced, with me in 

 the carriage, up and down the Nevsky,from end to end, with 

 the carriages of grand dukes and ministers, and, do my 

 best, I could not stop him. He simply looked back at me, 

 grinned like an idiot, and drove on with all his might. 

 It is the third time he has done this. I have pardoned 

 him twice on his solemn pledge that he would do better; 

 but now he must go. Annette assented, and in the even 

 ing after dinner came in to tell the minister that Ivan was 

 going, but wished to beg his pardon and say farewell. 



The minister went out rather reluctantly, the rest of us 

 following; but he had hardly reached the anteroom when 

 Ivan, a great burly creature with a long flowing beard and 

 caftan, rushed forward, groveled before him, embraced 

 his ankles, laid his head upon his feet, and there remained 

 mumbling and moaning. The minister was greatly em 

 barrassed and nervously ejaculated: &quot;Take him away I 

 Take him away!&quot; But all to no purpose. Ivan could 

 not be induced to relax his hold. At last the minister 

 relented and told Annette to inform Ivan that he would 

 receive just one more trial, and that if he failed again he 

 would be sent away to his owner without having any 

 opportunity to apologize or to say good-bye. 



Very interesting to me were the houses of some of the 

 British residents, and especially that of Mr. Baird, the 

 head of the iron-works which bore his name, and which, 

 at that time, were considered among the wonders of Rus 

 sia. He was an interesting character. Noticing, among 

 the three very large and handsome vases in his dining- 

 room, the middle one made up of the bodies of three 

 large eagles in oxidized silver with crowns of gold, 

 I was told its history. When the Grand Duke Alexander 

 who afterward became the second emperor of that 



