CHAPTER XXXIX
THE FLIGHT FROM ZOSTROVAt dinner I heard that the Grand Duke was indisposed, and was dining alone, instead, as usual, with the Count Stravensky, Commandant of the Castle--by courtesy the chief member of his suite, but in reality his custodian--and two or three other officers of high birth, who, with their wives, formed as it were, the inner circle of this small Court in the wilderness. There were a good many ladies in residence,--the great castle was like a world in little,--but I scarcely saw any of them, as I preferred to keep to the safe seclusion of the officers' mess, when I was not in my own room; and there was, of course, no lack of bachelors much more attractive than myself. I gathered from Grodwitz and others that they managed to enliven their exile with plenty of f
