real _muzhik_ ("boots")
and the waiter, who were peering round corners in disapproval. Our
appearance at the door effected a miracle. I could not believe my ears,
but not one of the numerous cabbies standing in front of the hotel
opened his lips to offer his services. Ordinarily, we had to run the
gauntlet of offers. On this occasion the men simply ranged themselves in
a silent, gaping row, and let us pass in peace. I had not supposed that
anything could quell a Russian cabby's tongue. Did they recognize the
count? I doubt it. I had been told that every one in Moscow knew him and
his costume; but diligent inquiry of my cabbies always elicited a
negative. In one single instance the man added: "But the count's a good
gentleman and a very intimate friend of a chum of mine!"

"Are you a good walker?" asked the count, as he plied his thick stick,
evidently recently cut in the grove adjoining his house. "I walk
everywhere myself. I never ride; I can't, for I never have any money."

I announced myself as a crack pedestrian,--but not when burdened with
Russian coat and galoshes. And I added: "I hope that you do not expect
us to walk all those versts to church, because we must stand through the
whole service afterward; they would be too strict to allow us chairs."

"We will go in the horse-cars, then," he replied. "But this constant use
of horses is a relic of barbarism. As we are growing more civilized, in
ten years from now horses will have gone out of use entirely. But I am
sure that, in enlightened America, you do not ride so much as we do
here."

Familiar as I am with Count Tolstoy's theories, this was a brand-new one
to me. I thought of several answers. Bicycles I rejected as a
suggestion, because the physical labor seems to be counterbalanced by
the cost of the steel steed. I also restrained myself from saying that
we were coming to look upon horses as a rather antiquated, slow, and
unreliable mode of locomotion. I did not care to destroy the count's
admiration for American ways too suddenly and ruthlessly, so I said:--

"I think that people ride more and more, with us, every year. If they do
not ride even more than they do, it is because we have not these
thousands of delightful and cheap carriages and sledges. And how are
people to get about, how are burdens to be carried, how is the day long
enough, if one goes everywhere on foot? Are the horses to be left to
people the earth, along with the animals which we now e