"That was a splendid idea of yours, and you have routed the governor completely.
Oh, dear, how cross he did look, and how he fidgeted about as you played on and on without stopping! I thought I must have laughed out-right." "It was a clever thought," the countess said, "and yet the count cannot complain of want of courtesy.

He is a disagreeable man, and a bad man; but he is powerfully connected, and it will not do to offend him.

We have enemies enough, heaven knows." The boys at the time could not gather the drift of the conversation; but a month later, when their knowledge of the language had greatly increased, Olga, when driving in a sledge with Jack, enlightened him as to the position in which they stood.
"Papa," she said, "is a Liberal, that is to say, he wants all sorts of reform to be carried out.

If he had his way, he would free the serfs and would have the affairs of the nation managed by a parliament, as you do in England, instead of by the will of the Czar only.

I don't pretend to know anything about it myself, but papa has perhaps expressed his opinions too openly, and some enemy has carried them to the ears of the Czar.