“I should like to use, not a plough, but a pencil and pair of compasses. At Vilna I lodged in the house of an architect, and spent much of my leisure over his books. I was always fond of mathematics, which are useful in that line. Prince Ivan, if you want to build a palace on your new estate, I shall be most happy to design it for you.” Ivan made him a profound bow, then turned and laid his hand on his shoulder. “Come to Russia with us,” he said warmly. “Never was there a better opening for your genius. Think of all Moscow to be rebuilt! Russia ought to be the El Dorado of architects for twenty years to come.” “Are you jesting, Prince Ivan?” “Never was I more in earnest. The Czar will give you a welcome; and the rather because he shares your tastes himself. In his brief moments of leisure he often amuses himself by taking up a pencil and drawing a design for a public building. So he knows how to appreciate what is good.” “But--my mother. Already her heart is torn by the thought of parting with Clémence.” “Why need there be any parting? I think we could make her happy at Nicolofsky or St. Petersburg. I have often thought about this, and what you have said to me now gives me the courage to propose it.” “Do you intend to leave the army?” Henri asked in his turn, perhaps with some desire to change a subject upon which he was conscious of having said more than he intended. “I do, as soon as peace is thoroughly settled. Of course, until then it cannot be thought of. At the Congress things sometimes looked doubtful enough.” “That affair of the kingdom of Poland seems to be causing a great deal of trouble,” said Henri. “More than it is worth, _I_ should say; but the Czar does not seem to think so.” “When did _not_ an old wrong cause an infinity of trouble to the man who tries to repair it? By some strange fatality, it is upon him the punishment generally comes, not upon the man who did it,” Ivan answered. “Those ‘designs’ upon Poland, for which many who ought to know better are now loudly blaming the Czar, simply mean two things--to Russia an assured peace, guaranteed by a strong, well-defended frontier; and to Poland the longed-for ‘unity,’ with as much of the longed-for ‘independence’ as she is fit to have and capable of using.”[59] “It seems a strange way of repaying the Poles for having gone away _en masse_ after Napoleon,” said Henri.