I accepted this, at first, as a Russian peculiarity, and was surprised that so much attention was paid to travellers; but I learned that it was not for us at all.

The Duke of Edinboro' had passed over the road a few days before, on his way to St.Petersburg, for his betrothal to the only daughter of the czar, and the decorations were for him; and so we felt that we were of the party, although we had not been asked.
"We approached St.Petersburg just at night, and caught the play of the sunlight on the domes.

It is a city of domes--blue domes, green domes, white domes, and, above all, the golden dome of the Cathedral of St.
Isaac's.
"It is almost never a single dome.

St.Isaac's central, gilded dome looms up above its fellow domes, but four smaller ones surround it.
"It was summer; the temperature was delightful, about like our October.
The showers were frequent, there was no dust and no sultry air.
"There must be a great deal of nice mechanical work required in St.
Petersburg, for on the Nevsky Perspective, the principal street, there were a great many shops in which graduating and measuring instruments of very nice workmanship were for sale.

Especially I noticed the excellence of the thermometers, and I naturally stopped to read them.