The count muttered something between his teeth, which was certainly not a blessing.  Then turning to Katinka, he changed the subject by asking her if she would favor him with some music.

Without a word, the girl seated herself at the piano and played.  When she had finished the piece, she began another without stopping, and continued steadily for an hour.  The countess leaned back in her chair, as if she considered that conversation would be out of place while her daughter was playing.

Count Smerskoff sat quietly for a quarter of an hour.  Then he began to fidget in his chair, but he stoically sat on until, when at the end of an hour Katinka showed no signs whatever of leaving off, he rose, and ceremoniously regretting that his duties prevented him from having the pleasure of hearing the conclusion of the charming little piece which the young countess was playing (for in Russia all children bear the title of their parents) he took his leave.

When the door had closed behind him, and the sound of his footsteps along the corridor ceased, the girls burst into a fit of laughter, in which the midshipmen joined heartily.

“Well done, Katinka!” Olga said, clapping her hands.  “That was a splendid idea of yours, and you have routed the governor completely.  Oh, dear, how cross he did look, and how he fidgeted about as you played on and on without stopping!  I thought I must have laughed out-right.”

“It was a clever thought,” the countess said, “and yet the count cannot complain of want of courtesy.  He is a disagreeable man, and a bad man; but he is powerfully connected, and it will not do to offend him.  We have enemies enough, heaven knows.”

The boys at the time could not gather the drift of the conversation; but a month later, when their knowledge of the language had greatly increased, Olga, when driving in a sledge with Jack, enlightened him as to the position in which they stood.

“Papa,” she said, “is a Liberal, that is to say, he wants all sorts of reform to be carried out.  If he had his way, he would free the serfs and would have the affairs of the nation managed by a parliament, as you do in England, instead of by the will of the Czar only.  I don’t pretend to know anything about it myself, but papa has perhaps expressed his opinions too openly, and some enemy has carried them to the ears of the Czar.  Nicholas is, you know, though it is treason to say so, very autocratic and absolute.  Papa was never in favor, because mamma was a Pole, but these terrible opinions finished it.  Papa was forbidden to appear at court, and ordered to live upon his estates, and it is even possible,” she said anxiously, “that this will not be all.  You don’t know Russia, or how dreadful it is to be looked upon as disaffected here.  Papa is so good and kind!  His serfs all love him so much, and every one says that no estates in Russia are better managed.  But all this will avail nothing, and it is only because we have powerful friends at court that worse things have not happened.”