Everything that the idle crowd usually does to kill time was done now for the benefit of the Slavonic States.

Balls, concerts, dinners, matchboxes, ladies' dresses, beer, restaurants-- everything testified to sympathy with the Slavonic peoples.

From much of what was spoken and written on the subject, Sergey Ivanovitch differed on various points.

He saw that the Slavonic question had become one of those fashionable distractions which succeed one another in providing society with an object and an occupation.