CHAPTER XV.
IN A WINTER CITY St.Petersburg under snow is the most picturesque city in the world.

The town is at its best when a high wind has come from the north to blow all the snow from the cupola of St.Isaac's, leaving that golden dome, in all its brilliancy, to gleam and flash over the whitened sepulchre of a city.
In winter the Neva is a broad, silent thoroughfare between the Vassili Ostrow and the Admiralty Gardens.

In the winter the pestilential rattle of the cobble-stones in the side streets is at last silent, and the merry music of sleigh-bells takes its place.

In the winter the depressing damp of this northern Venice is crystallized and harmless.
On the English Quay a tall, narrow house stands looking glumly across the river.

It is a suspected house, and watched; for here dwelt Stepan Lanovitch, secretary and organizer of the Charity League.
Although the outward appearance of the house is uninviting, the interior is warm and dainty.