to a
monarch, and above all, a monarch in petticoats?

The czarina turned from me to speak to M. Bezkoi, who had just come up,
and as M. Panin left the garden I did so too, delighted with the honour I
had had.

The empress, who was a woman of moderate height and yet of a majestic
appearance, thoroughly understood the art of making herself loved. She
was not beautiful, but yet she was sure of pleasing by her geniality and
her wit, and also by that exquisite tact which made one forget the
awfulness of the sovereign in the gentleness of the woman. A few days
after, Count Partin told me that the empress had twice asked after me,
and that this was a sure sign I had pleased her. He advised me to look
out for another opportunity of meeting her, and said that for the future
she would always tell me to approach whenever she saw me, and that if I
wanted some employment she might possible do something for me.

Though I did not know what employ I could ask for in that disagreeable
country, I was glad to hear that I could have easy access to the Court.
With that idea I walked in the garden every day, and here follows my
second conversation with the empress She saw me at a distance and sent an
officer to fetch me into her presence. As everybody was talking of the
tournament, which had to be postponed on account of the bad weather, she
asked me if this kind of entertainment could be given at Venice. I told
her some amusing stories on the subject of shows and spectacles, and in
this relation I remarked that the Venetian climate was more pleasant than
the Russian, for at Venice fine days were the rule, while at St.
Petersburg they were the exception, though the year is younger there than
anywhere else.

"Yes," she said, "in your country it is eleven days older."

"Would it not be worthy of your majesty to put Russia on an equality with
the rest of the world in this respect, by adopting the Gregorian
calendar? All the Protestants have done so, and England, who adopted it
fourteen years ago, has already gained several millions. All Europe is
astonished that the old style should be suffered to exist in a country
where the sovereign is the head of the Church, and whose capital contains
an academy of science. It is thought that Peter the Great, who made the
year begin in January, would have also abolished the old style if he had
not been afraid of offending England, which then kept trade and commerce
alive throughout your vast empire."