“When this plan had been settled upon, the princess regained something of her usual good spirits.  ‘As I never sign my name with my toes,’ she said to me, ’there is no reason why a sprained ankle should interfere with my royal functions, and, for the present, you can be my right hand.’

“This was a very fine plan, but it did not work as she expected it would.  Her wrist became more and more painful, and fever set in, and on the second day, when I called upon her, I found she was in no condition to attend to business.  She was irritable and drowsy.  ’Don’t annoy me with that paper,’ she said.  ’If the wool-dealers ought to have their taxes increased, increase them.  You should not bring these trifles to me; but’ —­and now she regained for a moment her old acuteness—­’remember this:  don’t let my administration stop.’

“I understood her very well, and when I left her I saw my course plain before me.  It was absolutely necessary that the exercise of royal functions by the Princess Sophia should appear to go on in its usual way; any stoppage would be a signal for a revolution.  In order that this plan should be carried out, I must act for the princess regent; I must do what I thought right, and it must be done in her name, exactly as if she had ordered it.  I assumed the responsibilities without hesitation.  While it was supposed I was merely the private secretary of the princess, acting as her agent and mouthpiece, I was in fact the ruler of all the Russias.”

Mrs. Crowder opened her mouth as if she would gasp for breath, but she did not say anything.

“You can scarcely imagine, my dear,” said he, “the delight with which I assumed the powers so suddenly thrust upon me.  I set myself to work without delay, and, as I knew all about the wool-dealers’ business, I issued a royal decree decreasing their taxes.  Poor creatures! they were suffering enough already.”

“Good for thee!” exclaimed Mrs. Crowder.

“I cannot tell you of all the reforms I devised, or even those which I carried out.  I knew that the fever of the princess, aggravated by the inflammation of her dislocated wrist, would continue for some time, and I bent all my energies to the work of doing as much good as I could in the vast empire under my control while I had the opportunity.  And it was a great opportunity, indeed!  I did not want to do anything so radical as to arouse the opposition of the court, and therefore I directed my principal efforts to the amelioration of the condition of the people in the provinces.  It would be a long time before word could get back to the capital of what I had done in those distant regions.  By night and by day my couriers were galloping in every direction, carrying good news to the peasants of Russia.  It was remarked by some of the councilors, when they spoke of the municipal reforms I instituted, that the princess seemed to be in a very humane state of mind; but none of them cared to interfere with what they supposed to be the sick-bed workings of her conscience.  So I ruled with a high hand, astonishing the provincial officials, and causing thousands of downtrodden subjects to begin to believe that perhaps they were really human beings, with some claim on royal justice and kindness.