Then the hurried meal over--always much too hurried to agree with Blount,
who was a methodical eater--they started, and were driven as eagles,
for they paid like princes.
It need scarcely be said that Blount did not trouble himself
about the girl at table. That gentleman was not in the habit
of doing two things at once. She was also one of the few
subjects of conversation which he did not care to discuss
with his companion.
Alcide having asked him, on one occasion, how old he thought the girl,
"What girl?" he replied, quite seriously.
"Why, Nicholas Korpanoff's sister."
"Is she his sister?"
"No; his grandmother!" replied Alcide, angry at his indifference.
"What age should you consider her?"
"Had I been present at her birth I might have known."
Very few of the Siberian peasants were to be seen in the fields.
These peasants are remarkable for their pale, grave faces,
which a celebrated traveler has compared to those of the Castilians,
without the haughtiness of the latter. Here and there some villages
already deserted indicated the approach of the Tartar hordes.
The inhabitants, having driven off their flocks of sheep, their camels,
and their horses, were taking refuge in the plains of the north.
Some tribes of the wandering Kirghiz, who remained faithful,
had transported their tents beyond the Irtych, to escape the depredations
of the invaders.
Happily, post traveling was as yet uninterrupted; and telegraphic
communication could still be effected between places connected with
the wire.
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