A NOMINAL IMPRISONMENT The evening passed pleasantly.

There was some music, and the three girls and their mother sang together, and Jack (who had learnt part-singing at home, for his family were very musical, and every night were accustomed to sing glees and catches) also, at their request, joined in, taking the part which their brother, when at home, had been accustomed to fill.
In the course of the evening the boys explained that they had said nothing to the commandant about their having picked up a little Russian, as they had thought that it was better to allow him to remain in ignorance of it, as they had had some idea of making their escape.
"Why, you foolish boys," Paulina said, "where would you escape to?
However, perhaps it is as well that you said nothing about it, for he only sent you here because he thought it would annoy mamma; and if he had thought you had known any Russian, he might have lodged you somewhere else." "We don't want to escape now, you know," Jack said in his broken Russian.

"We are much more comfortable here than we should be in the cold before Sebastopol." The next few days passed pleasantly; sometimes the countess was not present, and then the girls would devote themselves to improving the boys' Russian.
Sometimes two sledges would come to the door, and two of the girls accompanied the boys on their drive.

On the fourth evening, Count Smerskoff called, and a cloud fell upon the atmosphere.
The countess received him ceremoniously, and maintained the conversation in frigid tones.

The girls scarcely opened their lips, and the midshipmen sat apart, as silent as if they understood no word of what was passing.
"I am sorry, countess," the commandant said, "that I was obliged to quarter these two English boys upon you, but every house in the town is full of sick and wounded; and as they were given over to me as officers, though they look to me more like ship-boys, I could not put them in prison with the twenty or thirty soldiers whom we captured at the victory on the heights above Inkerman." "It is my duty to receive them," the countess said very coldly, "and it therefore matters little whether it is pleasant or otherwise.
Fortunately one of them speaks a few words of French, and my daughters can therefore communicate with them.