“And we come under that term?”
“I believe so. At any rate, we may go forth without fear of arrest. I have received this assurance from—from an authoritative source.”
“Good. The Czar is not such a bad fellow, after all.”
“No, indeed he is not,” said Pauline, with a laugh, perplexing in its merriment; “though you spoke somewhat hardly of him yesterday.”
In his own opinion, Wilfrid had not spoken half so hardly as had Pauline.
“What has caused this sudden change in him?”
“Come with me, and you shall learn,” said Pauline, with a charming air of mystery. “I could tell you now, but I prefer to be dramatic with you. The Czar himself shall proclaim what the Czar will do.”
And Pauline, having ordered her carriage, retired to put on her hat and mantle, while Wilfrid, attracted by an unusual hubbub outside the Embassy, went to the door.
The Nevski Prospekt was alive with a throng of men and women, all moving in one direction, all animated by the same impulse.
The crowd was composed mainly of the lower orders, but now and again there appeared the stately equipage of some lordly boyar.