He scouts the idea that he is
being watched, and all-in-all is quite humorous at my expense, saying
that my state of mind is more fitting for a schoolgirl than for a
stalwart man over six feet in height. One consolation is that Jack now
has become as keen for America as I am. I expect that the interview
arranged for me to-morrow with a great government official will settle
my own business finally one way or another. A while ago I was
confident of success, but the repeated delays have made me less
optimistic now, although the gentle courtesy of those in high places
remains undiminished.
"Dear Miss Amhurst, I cannot afford to fall lower in your estimation
than perhaps I deserve, so I must say that this fear which has
overcome me is all on account of my friend, and not on my own behalf
at all. I am perfectly safe in Russia, being a British subject. My
cold and formal Cousin Thaxted is a member of the British Embassy
here, and my cold and formal uncle is a Cabinet Minister in England,
facts which must be well known to these spy-informed people of St.
Petersburg; so I am immune. The worst they could do would be to order
me out of the country, but even that is unthinkable. If any one
attempted to interfere with me, I have only to act the hero of the
penny novelette, draw myself up to my full height, which, as you know,
is not that of a pigmy, fold my arms across my manly chest, cry, 'Ha,
ha!' and sing 'Rule Britannia,' whereupon the villains would wilt and
withdraw.
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