"I
most humbly apologize. I--I did not know. You told me nothing!"
"Perhaps you will kindly mend my passport, and give it a proper vise."
In an instant he was up from his chair, and having gathered the torn
paper from the floor, proceeded to paste it together. On the back he
endorsed that it had been torn by accident, and then gave it the proper
vise, affixing the stamps.
"I trust, Excellency," he said, bowing low as he handed it to me, "I
trust that this affair will not trouble you further. I assure you I had
no intention of insulting you."
"Yes, you had!" I said. "You insulted me merely because I am English.
But recollect in future that the man who insults an Englishman generally
pays for it, and I do not intend to let this pass. There is a higher
power in Finland than even the Governor-General."
"But, Excellency," whined the fellow who only ten minutes ago had been
such an insulting bully, "I shall lose my position. I have a wife and
six children--my wife is delicate, and my pay here is not a large one.
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