“Yes,” he answered, “I am proud and fond of my country and my church.  We Russians do not study them as we should, I am ashamed to say.  There, for instance, is my cousin, Princess——­, who is considered a very well-informed young woman on all necessary points.  She was to make her communion, and so some one brought her to the church while the Hours were being read, as is proper, though she usually comes very much later.  She had not been there ten minutes before she began to ask:  ’When does the Sacrament come?  Is n’t it pretty soon?’ and she kept that up at short intervals, despite all I could do to stop her.  I am quite sure,” he added, “that I need not explain to you, though you are a foreigner, where the Hours and the Sacrament come in the service?”

“No:  the Hours precede the Liturgy, and the administration of the Sacrament comes very nearly at the end of all.”

“Exactly.  You understand what a disgrace such ignorance was on my cousin’s part.”

He was charming, amusingly frank on many points which I had supposed to be rather delicate with members of the “Orthodox” (as I must call it for the lack of a possible English equivalent for pravoslavny) Russian Church, but so well-bred and intelligent, withal, that we were sincerely sorry to say good-by to him at the door of our hotel.

XIII.

THE NIZHNI NOVGOROD FAIR AND THE VOLGA.

The most picturesque and appropriate way of reaching Nizhni Novgorod is by the Volga, with which its life is so intimately connected, and the most characteristic time to see the Volga steamers is on the way upstream during the Fair.

What an assortment of people we had on board!  To begin with, our boat was commanded by a Vice-Admiral in full uniform.  His family was with him, spending the summer on board sailing up and down the river between Nizhni Novgorod and Astrakhan.

The passengers over whom the vice-admiral ruled were delightfully varied.  There were Russians from every quarter of the empire, and of as many races, including Armenians.  One of the latter, an old man with a physiognomy not to be distinguished, even by our Russian friends who were traveling with us, from that of a Jew, seemed to take no interest in anything except in telling over a short rosary of amber beads, and standing guard at all stopping-places over his cabin, which he was determined to occupy alone, though he had paid but one fare.  After he had done this successfully at several landing-places and had consigned several men to the second cabin, an energetic man appealed to the admiral.  It required some vigorous language and a threat to break open the door if the key were not forthcoming, before the admiral could overcome the resistance of the obstinate old Armenian, who protested, in very bad Russian, that he was very ill indeed, and should certainly die if any one entered his cabin.  He was still alive when we reached the end of our voyage, and had cleverly made his cabin-mate pay for all his food.