His English education had educed a strict sense of
discipline, and as in England, and, indeed, all through his life, so in
Russia did he attempt to do his duty.
The carriage rattled up to the brilliantly lighted door, which stood
open, and within, on either side of the broad entrance-hall, the
servants stood to welcome their master. A strange, picturesque, motley
crew: the majordomo, in his black coat, and beside him the other
house-servants--tall, upright fellows, in their bright livery. Beyond
them the stable-men and keepers, a little army, in red cloth tunics,
with wide trousers tucked into high boots, all holding their fur caps in
their hands, standing stiffly at attention, clean, honest, and not too
intelligent.
The castle of Osterno is built on the lines of many Russian country
seats, and not a few palaces in Moscow. The Royal Palace in the Kremlin
is an example. A broad entrance-hall, at the back of which a staircase
as broad stretches up to a gallery, around which the dwelling-rooms are
situated. At the head of the staircase, directly facing the
entrance-hall, high folding doors disclose the drawing-room, which is
almost a throne room. All gorgeous, lofty, spacious, as only Russian
houses are. Truly this northern empire, this great white land, is a
country in which it is good to be an emperor, a prince, a noble, but not
a poor man.
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