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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text
Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1898 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER in. YOU ARE IN RUSSIA NOW! The leaden morning mists still clung to the shallows of Hapsal Bay when Max von Dornberg was roused, for the tide began to run seaward. The song of the lark resounded in the superb park which fenced off the antique manor house from the village clustered around the stately keep of the warrior knights. Von Dornberg, an early riser, was wandering under Nadine''s window when her sweet face and merry laugh greeted her new champion. The carriage was already in waiting at the door, and the courtly Bellegarde bestowed a hasty benediction and all the spoils of his greenhouse upon the still sleepy beauties. Max eyed the strange scene in Hapsal Square with wonderment. There was all the clatter of the early market going on. Where once the Porte Glaives and Teutonic Knights mustered their retainers of the TeteNoires, and their banded Letts and Esthonians, scores of ark-like, little, open market-wagons were now drawn up. Shock-headed Oestlanders, sturdy Swedes, and a sprinkling of Russians and Finns chaffered with the matronly haus-fraus, bent on bargains. A bevy of bright-eyed serving-maids were already flirting with the tall young soldiers clad in hunting green and booted to the knee, whose headgear was still marked with the three crowns, the last legacy of the vanished Swedish conquerors. On past the silent villas, the carriage sped along, followed by the wagonette, where the sullen Olga Luboff dominated the Intendant, rapt in a secret contemplation of Tatiana Pashkof, Baroness Valdor''s winsome St. Petersburg maid. The white curtains were still dropped in the windows of the long one-story villas, raised up a half-story on heavy masonry to avoid the dampness of the winter snows. In every window were clustered flowering plants, and ...
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