.

"Oh, yes, in a way it was amusing. But did it ever occur to you that it
wasn't very flattering for those two unmarried officers to select the
two married women in our party for their attentions when you, being
unmarried, were the only legitimate object of their interest?"

I said nothing. To tell the truth I had _not_ thought of it.

"No, these officers need just a few kinks taken out of their brains
concerning women, and I propose to do it. I told Jimmie to-day that if
he would be handsome about to-night, I would start to-morrow for Moscow.
Mrs. Jimmie is perfectly willing, and I know you are dying to get on to
Tolstoy. I've only stayed over for to-night. I knew this was coming when
we were in Ischl, and I wanted them to see how lightly we viewed their
risking dismissal from his Majesty's service for us. We have paid up all
our indebtedness to everybody else, so nothing but farewell calls need
detain us."

"And the officers?" I stammered. "How will they know?"

"I'll get Jimmie to send them a wire saying we have gone. They won't
know where. Hurry up and turn out the lights. They hurt my eyes."

CHAPTER XI

MY FIRST INTERVIEW WITH TOLSTOY

At the critical point of relating the difficulty attending my first
audience with Tolstoy, I am constrained to mention a few of the
obstacles encountered by a person bearing indifferent letters of
introduction, and if by so doing I persuade any man or woman to write
one worthy letter introducing one strange man or woman in a foreign
country to a foreign host, I shall feel that I have not lived in vain.

No one, who has not travelled abroad unknown and depending for all
society upon written introductions, can form any idea of the utter
inadequacy of the ordinary letter of introduction. When I first
announced my intention of several years' travel in Europe, I accepted
the generously offered letters of friends and acquaintances, and, in
some instances, of kind persons who were almost total strangers to me,
careless of the wording of these letters and only grateful for the
goodness of heart they evinced.

In one instance, a man who had lived in Berlin sent me a dozen of his
visiting-cards, on the reverse side of which were written the names of
his German friends and under them the scanty words, "Introducing Miss
So-and-So." He took pains also to call upon me several times, and to ask
as a special favour that I would present these letters. Forgetful of the
fact that