A sufficiently commonplace remark! Imagine talking about the weather! Prince Ghedimin acquiesced. "And I fear we shall have a very unpleasant winter if we 'too' do not go to the Crimea or the Caucasus to luxuriate in a second summer." A very ordinary speech! But that little word "too" had electrified the Prince. He seemed a changed man. His face brightened, his figure grew elastic; surely a miracle had happened to him! "Come, my love," he said to the Princess, and, to her amazement, began humming an air from the overture of the _Czarenwalzers_ as they went down the stairs. That woman is surely the devil in person! She says the most commonplace nothings, and, doing so, brings a dead man back to life. And yet the Princess has carefully weighed every word spoken by Zeneida. Which can have been the magical one? There was none. The little word "too" had escaped her attention. And it was from that one word that the Prince knew that the Czarina would go to the Crimea, and with her the Czar. His breast was relieved of a heavy load. Chevalier Galban escorted the ladies to their carriage, and Bethsaba, leaning out of the carriage-window, looked back at him. "I have caught her!" thought Chevalier Galban to himself. CHAPTER XLIII UNDER THE COMETS In the summer of the year 1825 no oil was needed for the streets of St. Petersburg, the nights were so light. The first lighting of the lamps falls on the day the court leaves Peterhof for the Winter Palace. The lighting of the lamps, on this occasion, was looked forward to by many. A great plan was in course of operation among the lower strata of society, which they had imparted neither to the _matadores_ of the _Szojusz Blagodenztoiga_ nor to the _Szojusz Spacinia_. A succession of gloomy, rainy days came with the new moon. When on the fourth day a keen north wind blew away the clouds from the sky, people were astonished to see near the silver sickle of the moon yet another wonder, like a fiery sword--a comet. So quickly had it come that it was only perceived when in its full blaze of glory. What is a comet? Scientific men themselves do not know; how, then, can poor ordinary mortals? A comet is the herald of pest, of war, of downfall! Let him who does not believe this show reason why he is unbelieving. In wine-growing countries it is true that a comet year is said to promise a good wine year. But that does not affect the people of St. Petersburg, where they only make brandy. And a comet has no influence upon the increase of brandy. On the contrary, when there is any trouble brewing in the empire there is always but little brandy consumed. It is a peculiarity of the Russian that he does not drink when in great trouble. When the head of the police learns that in St. Petersburg, instead of a daily consumption of five thousand casks of brandy, only two thousand are being consumed, he redoubles the patrols.