“You are right,” Mishka said, in a husky growl, that with him represented a whisper. “It is a prison, and yonder goes the prisoner. You will do well to remember that in your dealings with him, Herr Gould.”
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE PRISONER OF ZOSTROV
The castle stood within a great quadrangle, which we entered through a massive stone gateway guarded by two sentries. Two more were stationed at the top of a steep and wide marble stairway that led up to the entrance hall, and the whole place seemed swarming with soldiers, and servants in handsome liveries. A couple of grooms came to hold our horses, and a third took possession of my valise, containing chiefly a dress suit and some shirts. My other belongings were coming on in the wagon.
Mishka’s manner underwent a decided change from the moment we entered the castle precincts. The bluff and often grumpy air of familiarity was gone, and in its place was the surly deference with which he had treated me at first. As we neared the end of our journey, he had once more warned me to be on my guard, and remember that I must appear as an utter stranger to the Duke and all about him, except Mishka himself.
“You have never been in Russia before,” he repeated. “And you speak only a few words of Russian, which I have taught you on our way. That will matter little, since most here speak French and German.”
He parted from me with a deferential salute, after handing me over to the care of a gorgeously attired functionary, whom I found to be a kind of majordomo or house steward. This imposing person welcomed me very courteously; and I gathered that I was supposed to be a new addition to the Grand Duke’s suite. I had rather wondered on what footing I should be received here, especially since Mishka’s remark, a while back, about the “prisoner.” But some one—Loris himself or Mishka, or both of them—had planned things perfectly, and I am sure that no one beyond ourselves and the elder Pavloff, who was also in the secret, had the slightest suspicion that I was other than I appeared to be.
My new acquaintance himself conducted me to the rooms prepared for me,—a spacious bedroom and sitting-room, with plain, massive furniture, including a big bookcase that occupied the whole of an alcove between the great Russian stove and the outer wall. Facing this was a door leading to a smaller dressing and bath room, where the lackey who had carried up my valise was in waiting.