and bazaars, minarets and towers and churches,
with a thousand gilded domes and slender crosses
glittering in the crystal air and sunlight. If not
another Moscow, then an Irkutsk in his day, at
least.

But he did not give the chosen site of his city a
glance to-day, although in this gray air before
dawn when mystery and imagination most closely
embrace, he might at another time have forgotten
himself in one of those fits of dreaming that slipped
him out of touch with realities, and sometimes pre-
cipitated action in a manner highly gratifying to
his enemies.

But much as he loved Russia, there were times
when he loved his own way more, and since the
arrival of Governor Arrillaga he was beginning to
feel as he had felt in the harbor of Nagasaki. Not
a word since that first interview had been said of
his cargo; nor even of the treaty, although nothing
could have been more natural than the discussion
of details. Whenever he had delicately broached
either subject, he had been met with a polite indif-
ference, that had little in common with the cor-
diality otherwise shown him. He foresaw that he
might be obliged to reveal the more pressing object
of his visit without further diplomacy, and the
thought irritated him beyond endurance.