You must apply to him, but let me first warn you that it is a long business.

No"-- after a pause--"no; were I in your place I would go to Persia.

It is a country replete with interest." I know, from bitter experience of Russian officials, that further parley is useless.

Making my bow with as good a grace as possible under the circumstances, I take leave of the governor and am escorted by an aide-de-camp, resplendent in white and gold, through innumerable vestibules, and down the great marble staircase, to where my sleigh awaits me in the cutting north-easter and whirling snow.

Gliding swiftly homewards along the now brilliantly lit boulevards, I realize for the first time that mine has been but a wild-goose chase after all; that, if India is to be reached by land, it is not _via_ Merv and Cabul, but by way of Persia and Baluchistan.
The original scheme was a bold one, and I derive some consolation in the thought that the journey would most probably have ended in defeat.
This was the idea.