One story that circulated about (U.S. Minister to Russia Charles S.) Todd concerned his conversation with a lady-in-waiting at an Imperial reception in the Winter Palace. In his bad French with a Kentucky accent, he mispronounced the word for year, so that an explanation of his travels came out: I was an ass in Paris, part of an ass in London, almost an ass in Germany, and I am two asses here. To which the lady reportedly responded, And you will be an ass wherever you go.