waiting till the attorneys should find me out. They
had not found me out yet, and I had plenty of
spare time. This circumstance probably induced
ray senior partners to fix their eyes upon me, when
a trustworthy messenger was required to convey
a large sum of money to a correspondent in
Russia.

As Mr. Lowndes, who managed most of the
affairs of the house since Mr. Hutchmere had
grown so very old and frail, confidentially
informed me, we had been long on terms of
business intimacy with one of the oldest and
most respected of the English firms in St.
Petersburg: that of Druce, Gray, and Druce,
in the tallow trade, whose signature was
known and honoured on every exchange in
Europe. But Druce, Gray, and Druce, who were
truly reported to have amassed great wealth in
forty years' experience of the gainful Russian
traffic, had imprudently invested in other securities
than tallow. They had lent great sums to
the half-ruined Russian nobility, sums duly
secured on mortgage of their estates; but the
estates were now of little more than nominal
value, since the proprietors had neither serfs
nor tenants, neither rent nor obrok. In
consequence of this partial collapse of the social
system, the St. Petersburg firm that I have spoken
of, found itself sorely straitened, and
bankruptcy began to threaten the long-prosperous
establishment. In this emergency, our house
was applied to for aid, and we agreed to come
to the rescue, on condition that valuable
securities, for the realisation of which we could
afford to wait, should be lodged in our hands.
These securities were transmitted to London,
and but one thing remained—to forward the
money urgently needed.

This, however, was not easy. Under
ordinary circumstances, a draft on a St. Petersburg
bank, or a parcel of bills of exchange, would
have answered the purpose; but not then. The
credit of a commercial house is as delicate a
thing as the white coat of the ermine, and as
easily tarnished; and Druce, Gray, and Druce
had stipulated that every conceivable precaution
should be taken to keep the affair a profound
secret. They had weightier reasons for this
mercantile prudery than mere pride; they knew
too well that while their capital was chiefly locked
up in mortgages upon the unproductive lands of
insolvent barons and princes, their sound credit
and good name could alone keep them afloat, and
that the lightest whisper might occasion a panic
among their creditors,and overwhelm them. Time,
on the other hand, was money: it was more than
money, it was salvation.

"Now, clerks," observed Mr. Lowndes, as we
talked the matter over, after dinner, at his house
at Wimbledon, " clerks are given to tattle: that
is, the younger clerks are. The cashier is discretion
itself, but of course he can't be spared, and
Mr. Rogers, who is as close as wax, cannot be
spared either. My going is of course out of the
question; too many irons in the fire to leave the
City for a day : so, unless you, my dear
Bainbridge, will oblige us——"

I was startled, and at first refused to go; but
Mr. Lowndes had made a hit in reminding me of
my character of habitual wayfarer on the
Continent.

"I have never been to Russia," I said,
irresolutely.

"So much the more reason for going now,"
returned Lowndes, refilling my glass; and the
bargain was speedily clenched. It was agreed
that I should visit Moscow and Novgorod, as well
as St. Petersburg, and, in fact, " do" Northern
Russia in the course of a six weeks' visit, without
the cost of a shilling to myself.

Thus it fell out that I found myself on the
Russo-Prussian frontier, on a grey and moist
afternoon in autumn, bound for St. Petersburg.

I found the custom-house officials at
Eydtkuhnen much less troublesome than I had
expected. Some of the Jewish passengers, to be
sure, appeared to undergo an endless round of
formalities, but in my case there was little to
complain of. My passport was perfectly en
regle, duly emblazoned with the British arms,
and stamped with red and black eagles in
every absurd attitude—to say nothing of the
Belgian lion thereon imprinted at Ostend—I
was pleased to escape the worry which their
own parsimony inflicted on some of my more
needy or stingy fellow-travellers; for I bribed
freely.

In the first-class carriage of the Russian train
I had no companion to Kowno; but there, a
gentleman got in. He was a well-dressed well-
looking man of thirty-five: dark, wiry, and active,
with lively hazel eyes and superb teeth. With
him he brought a heap of fur coats and pelisses,
as well as a portmanteau closely resembling
that which I kept under my feet, and which
contained, in gold and notes, the large sum to
be advanced by our house to the firm of Druce,
Gray, and Druce. The new arrival took off
his hat on getting into the carriage, according
to the polite fashion abroad, and, as he settled
himself in his seat, eyed me with a quick sidelong
glance that seemed to take my measure in
a moment.

We were soon engaged in conversation, our talk
beginning in French, and gliding imperceptibly
into English. My new acquaintance spoke both
languages with perfect fluency, and with no
perceptibly foreign accent. He was very chatty
and agreeable, full of anecdote and information,
and told me as much about the country and
people of the district we were traversing, as if
his life had been spent in the neighbourhood. I
set him down inwardly for a Russian nobleman,
till by some chance remark he changed the
current of my ideas, and he afterwards frankly
owned that he was a Dutch engineer, and named
Van Marum.

I presently gathered from M. Van Marum's
discourse that he was in the employ, for the
time being, of the imperial government, and
was preparing estimates for an extensive system
of drainage and embankment to be carried into
effect on the crown estates. I was equally
communicative: not that I thought it prudent