“Well, ‘snub’ is forbidden.”
“Heavens! what treason lurks in that simple word?”
“It will be taken as a reflection on the Czar, whose nose has a skyward tendency.”
“Anything more?”
“Beware of the word ‘bald.’”
“Ah!”
“Because if the Czar were to swear by the hair of his head the oath would not be binding. Do you know he once had a soldier knouted to death for speaking of him as the ‘baldhead?’”
To the truth of Nadia’s remarks history can bear witness. The last of them was not very encouraging to Wilfrid, for if the Czar could put a man to death far an offence so slight, he would surely do the like with one who had defeated his envoy at Berlin. And Wilfrid’s coming to St Petersburg would quickly become known to Baranoff’s underlings, since it was required of every stranger that he should report himself at the Police Bureau. Was it likely, then, that Count Baranoff would neglect the opportunity of exposing him to the vengeance of the Czar? But though Wilfrid began to realize more vividly than before the dangerous character of his enterprise, he was still resolute to go on with it, trusting that as he had emerged triumphantly from previous perils, so, too, he would from this.
He sought to turn the conversation from politics by making inquiries as to the other guests in the house.
The innkeeper, with a shake of his head, gave it as his opinion that there was something mysterious about them, since one and all had declined to disclose their names, a statement that did but serve to stimulate Wilfrid’s curiosity.