And now it suddenly dawned upon Heinrich why Tatiana's papa, Nicholas Eskimov, was placed next to the Bishop. Truly he was a great potentate!
A far-seeing idea popped into Heinrich's brain. He went to the credenz-table, where refreshments were being distributed, and where also the Governor was delighting his eyes with the spectacle of the pretty girls dancing, and at the same time sipping a glass of iced sherbet.
He bowed deeply before him, and saluted him in Russian—
"Zdorovuyte!"[21] he said.
[21] "Your health!"
The Governor tapped the doctor on the shoulder.
"So you have come home! And got an appointment too, I hear?" said he.
"But I don't want to keep it."
"Then what do you want?" asked Eskimov, regarding the youth through his glass.
"A wider career. Here at Bialystok there is no scope for a doctor, especially if he be a homœopathist. Here, if anybody is ill he wants the doctor to drink the medicine with him in whacking tumblers, and won't accept a recipe unless it covers a whole sheet of foolscap. True there will be no end of bleedings and cataplasms, but the whole of modern medical science is absolutely thrown away upon them. There is no getting on here. The Pole lives in his traditions. I want to go to St. Petersburg. There there is a fine open career for an enterprising doctor. St. Petersburg is the new Rome. Every road leads to it. I beg your Excellency to give me letters of introduction to your acquaintances in the Tsar's capital, that beneath their protection I may go on to prosper."