loudly and gratuitously into the general conversation. Above
everything I wanted to pick a quarrel with the Frenchman; and,
with that end in view I turned to the General, and exclaimed in
an overbearing sort of way--indeed, I think that I actually
interrupted him--that that summer it had been almost impossible
for a Russian to dine anywhere at tables d'hote. The General
bent upon me a glance of astonishment.
"If one is a man of self-respect," I went on, "one risks abuse
by so doing, and is forced to put up with insults of every kind.
Both at Paris and on the Rhine, and even in Switzerland--there
are so many Poles, with their sympathisers, the French, at these
tables d'hote that one cannot get a word in edgeways if one
happens only to be a Russian."
This I said in French. The General eyed me doubtfully, for he
did not know whether to be angry or merely to feel surprised
that I should so far forget myself.
"Of course, one always learns SOMETHING EVERYWHERE," said the
Frenchman in a careless, contemptuous sort of tone.
"In Paris, too, I had a dispute with a Pole," I continued,
"and then with a French officer who supported him. After that a
section of the Frenchmen present took my part. They did so as
soon as I told them the story of how once I threatened to spit
into Monsignor's coffee."
"To spit into it?" the General inquired with grave disapproval
in his tone, and a stare, of astonishment, while the Frenchman
looked at me unbelievingly.
"Just so," I replied. "You must know that, on one occasion,
when, for two days, I had felt certain that at any moment I
might have to depart for Rome on business, I repaired to the
Embassy of the Holy See in Paris, to have my passport visaed.
There I encountered a sacristan of about fifty, and a man dry
and cold of mien. After listening politely, but with great
reserve, to my account of myself, this sacristan asked me to
wait a little. I was in a great hurry to depart, but of course I
sat down, pulled out a copy of L'Opinion Nationale, and fell to
reading an extraordinary piece of invective against Russia which
it happened to contain. As I was thus engaged I heard some one
enter an adjoining room and ask for Monsignor; after which I saw
the sacristan make a low bow to the visitor, and then another
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