in which they stood.

CHAPTER IV

COUSINS

"So you have seen Mikail Suvaroff!" said Boris. He shook his head. "We
have seen little of him in the last few years. He and my father do not
agree. Mikail is on the side of the men about the Czar who want no
changes, who want to see the people crushed and kept down. My father
wants a new Russia, with all the people happier and stronger."

"Then I should think they wouldn't agree," said Fred, heartily. "Mikail
is like the Russians one reads about, dark and mysterious, and always
sending people to Siberia and that sort of thing."

"It isn't as bad as that, of course," said Boris, with a laugh. "Russia
isn't like other countries, but we're not such barbarians as some people
try to make out. Still, of course, there are a lot of things that ought
to be changed. Russia has been apart from the rest of the world because
she's so big and independent. That's why there are two parties, the
conservatives and the liberals. My father is all for the Czar, but he
wants the Czar to govern through the men the people elect to the Duma.
After this war--well, we shall see! There will be many changes, I think.
You see, this time it is all Russia that fights. Against Japan we were
not united. It is the Russian people who have made this war."

"I only knew there was danger of war the night it began," said Fred. "I
suppose it is on account of Servia, though?"

"Yes. That started it. They are Slavs, like ourselves. It is as it was
when we fought Turkey nearly forty years ago. The Turks were murdering
Slavs in the Balkans, and all our people called on the Czar to fight.
This time we could not let Austria bully a nation that is almost like a
little brother to Russia."

"I can understand that," said Fred. "I suppose there's enough of the
Slav in me, from my mother, to make me feel like that, too."

"Even after the way Mikail treated you? Tell me about that. Why did he
behave so, though I suppose you may not know?"

"I don't, really. My father is dead, you know. I and my mother are
alone. She has always loved Russia, though she calls herself an
American, and is one, and has always made me understand that I am an
American, before all. But she has taught me to love Russia, too. And she
has always told me that there were estates in Russia that belonged to
her, and would belong to me. She and my father were angry and hurt
because of the way her family treated them, but she said that some ti