s an example or two of this art, if
they can afford it.

I thought of these things as I saw K---- trifle with that watch and
scrutinise it more and more closely. He looked at it for a last time
longingly, and then, without a word, suddenly placed it in his pocket.
That was cool. But at once the Russian officer started forward
protesting; we were breaking our words; we had begun looting; he would
be forced to arrest us. As he spoke, the man became so red and
excited, that K----, who pretended at first merely to smile
indulgently, became more and more alarmed, and finally replaced the
watch without a word. But still he continued this curious search, and
coming across other things, I noticed vaguely that he seemed to be
placing them all together in little collections, so that he could
easily get at them again....

Then we wandered away to other great buildings, and we came on a
beautiful set of princely rooms, full of ticking clocks and rich
tapestries, and with such things as solid gold _bonbonnieres_, studded
with coarse, uncut stones, lying on the secretaires and small tables.
These, I believe, were the Emperor's apartments in normal times. There
were lots of beautiful things here--vases, enamels, jade, cloisonne,
and much wondrous porcelain; and although everyone had been saying
that Peking was not as rich as in 1860, when those strings of
beautiful black pearls had been brought home for the Empress Eugenie,
still it was clear that these Palaces contained a wealth undreamed of
outside. Indeed, there were magnificent things....

Round the corners, as we walked, we saw the eunuchs looking and
lurking, and finally disappearing whenever they thought that they were
seen. There were more of them now, too, and, seeing us quite alone,
they were beginning to pluck up courage and wished once more to
interfere. I thought for an instant as I looked at their evil faces of
tearing down some rich embroidery and fashioning from it a sack just
as I had seen those Indian troopers do so few days before; then of
setting to work and piling everything I fancied into it and making as
if I intended to go off.

Yet such a comedy would not be worth the candle; the officer and the
sergeant would have to go through the formality of arresting me, and
the eunuchs would not even be noticed....

Engrossed with such thoughts, and no longer amused by my surroundings,
I must have forgotten myself for a moment in a brown study; for when I
came to,