GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. 155 



nicer thaa that delicious beverage to help the genial flow 

 of conversation. We chatted and sipped our tea, she asking 

 a great many questions about our English customs, church 

 holidays, &c. ; begged that I would repeat the visit now that 

 we were no longer strangers ; professed a great admiration 

 for the English; believes them to be a religious, philan- 

 thropic, and missionary people; knows all about our 

 various societies and voluntary contributions, &c., &c. I 

 then took my leave, thinking I had seen the last of the 

 abbess of Ekaterineburg till next Easter; but most 

 wonderful to say before the holidays are over up comes 

 driving to my door a carriage and four, with out riders, when 

 Mother Matrony is announced. Of course "at home." I 

 was quite a lion after, as she never returns the visit of 

 any but the Bishop, though all the nobility and gentry of 

 the town consider themselves bound to pay court at the 

 palace of the lady abbess. She has the highest rank of 

 any bishop or general in Ekaterineburg, and is always 

 visited by any of the Imperial family passing through 

 Ekaterineburg. I shortly accepted the invitation to go 

 and see the monastery ; when she personally conducted me 

 through the whole establishment. I was much struck 

 with the order, cleanliness, and industry that pervaded the 

 whole place. She conducts a very large and profitable 

 business in wax candles, from the tall and highly em- 

 bellished church mould to the tiniest taper. I thought — 

 this is a business I could dispense with ; then I thought 

 these poor girls had better be making church candies than 

 doing nothing, or worse ; and I thought if I can't worship 

 with a candle what right have I to quarrel with those 

 that can't worship without. I thought much better have 

 too much ritual than none at all. A shrewd, clever old 

 lady that ! She pointed with great pride to the church 

 paintings and decorations, all done by her own daughters, 

 and when she asked me what I thought about them I 

 was rather in a fix. " Well," I said, " they are not from 

 the pencil of Rosa Bonheur nor Angilicia Kaufman, but 

 they are very fair, considering who have done them— a 



