ain't it?"

"Well, yes--it IS a little different from the idea I had--but I
thought I might go around and get acquainted with the grandees,
anyway--not exactly splice the main-brace with them, you know, but
shake hands and pass the time of day."

"Could Tom, Dick and Harry call on the Cabinet of Russia and do
that?--on Prince Gortschakoff, for instance?"

"I reckon not, Sandy."

"Well, this is Russia--only more so. There's not the shadow of a
republic about it anywhere. There are ranks, here. There are
viceroys, princes, governors, sub-governors, sub-sub-governors, and
a hundred orders of nobility, grading along down from grand-ducal
archangels, stage by stage, till the general level is struck, where
there ain't any titles. Do you know what a prince of the blood is,
on earth?"

"No."

"Well, a prince of the blood don't belong to the royal family
exactly, and he don't belong to the mere nobility of the kingdom;
he is lower than the one, and higher than t'other. That's about
the position of the patriarchs and prophets here. There's some
mighty high nobility here--people that you and I ain't worthy to
polish sandals for--and THEY ain't worthy to polish sandals for the
patriarchs and prophets. That gives you a kind of an idea of their
rank, don't it? You begin to see how high up they are, don't you?