by Boris Akunin
For the sake of the imperial audience I had decked myself out in the green livery with gold braid. For the last time, as it turned out. Something was weighing down the side pocket. I absentmindedly stuck my hand in and felt a book. Ah yes, the Russian– English lexicon, a present from Mr Freyby.
I wondered what the perspicacious Englishman thought of the Russian tsar.
I leafed though the pages and put together a question: ‘Vot yu sink ebaut nyu tsar?’
Mr Freyby watched the gilded landau with footmen of the chamber on the monkey boards as it drove away. He shook his head and said: ‘The last of the Romanovs, I’m afraid.’
He also took out a dictionary – English–Russian – and muttered to himself: ‘The article is out . . . “Last” is posledny. Right . . . “of” is iz . . .’ And with unassailable confidence he declared, clearly enunciating each word: ‘Posledny – iz – Romanov.’
1 Emotional paralysis.