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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Hour, by Elinor Glyn
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+Title: His Hour
+
+Author: Elinor Glyn
+
+Release Date: December, 2005  [EBook #9470]
+[This file was first posted on October 3, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HIS HOUR ***
+
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+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Anuradha Valsa Raj, and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
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+
+His Hour
+
+By
+
+Elinor Glyn
+
+Author of "Three Weeks"
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A miniature of Prince Milaslávski in the uniform of one
+of his ancestors, in which he appeared at the famous fancy ball at the
+Winter Palace some years ago. He was about twenty-three at the time. I
+have selected this likeness of him in preference to a later photograph,
+as the artist has happily caught him in one of his rarely soft moods,
+and also, the face being clean shaven, the characteristic chiselling of
+the lips can be seen. THE AUTHOR.]
+
+
+
+
+
+"His Hour" is called in England and Russia "When the Hour Came."
+
+
+
+
+With grateful homage and devotion I dedicate this book to
+
+Her Imperial Highness
+The Grand Duchess Vladimir
+Of Russia
+
+In memory of the happy evenings spent in her gracious presence when
+reading to her these pages, which her sympathetic aid, in facilitating
+my opportunities for studying the Russian character, enabled me to
+write. Her kind appreciation of the finished work is a source of the
+deepest gratification to me.
+
+Elinor Glyn
+
+
+St. Petersburg, May, 1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The Sphinx was smiling its eternal smile. It was two o'clock in the
+morning. The tourists had returned to Cairo, and only an Arab or two
+lingered near the boy who held Tamara's camel, and then gradually slunk
+away; thus, but for Hafis, she was alone--alone with her thoughts and
+the Sphinx.
+
+The strange, mystical face looked straight at her from the elevation
+where she sat. Its sensual mocking calm penetrated her brain. The
+creature seemed to be laughing at all humanity--and saying--"There is
+no beyond--live and enjoy the things of the present--Eat, drink, and be
+merry, for to-morrow you die, and I--I who sit here and know, tell you
+there is no beyond. The things you can touch and hold to your bodies
+are the only ones worth grasping."
+
+"No, no!" said Tamara, half aloud, "I will not--I will not believe it."
+
+"Fool," said the Sphinx. "What is your soul? And if you have one, what
+have you done with it hitherto? Are you any light in the world?--No,
+you have lived upon the orders of others, you have let your
+individuality be crushed these twenty-four years--since the day you
+could speak. Just an echo it is--that fine thing, your soul! Show it
+then, if you have one! Do you possess an opinion? Not a bit of it. You
+simply announce platitudes that you have been taught were the right
+answers to all questions! Believe me, you have no soul. So take what
+you can--a body! You certainly have that, one can see it--well, snatch
+what it can bring you, since you have not enough will to try for higher
+things. Grasp what you may, poor weakling. That is the wisdom sitting
+here for eternity has taught me."
+
+Tamara stirred her hands in protest--but she knew the indictment was
+true. Yes, her life had been one long commonplace vista of following
+leads--like a sheep.
+
+But was it too late to change? Had she the courage? Dared she think for
+herself? If not, the mystic message of the Sphinx's smile were better
+followed: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow you die."
+
+The blue of the sky seemed to soothe her, and speak of hope. Could any
+other country produce a sky of so deep a sapphire as the night sky of
+Egypt? All around was intense sensuous warmth and stillness almost as
+light as day.
+
+How wise she had been to break through the conventionality which
+surrounded her--and it had required some nerve--so as to be able to
+come here alone, on this one of her last nights in Egypt.
+
+She half smiled when she thought of Millicent Hardcastle's face when
+she had first suggested it.
+
+"My dear Tamara, what--what an extraordinary thing for a woman to do!
+Go to the Sphinx all alone at two o'clock in the morning. Would not
+people think it very strange?"
+
+Tamara felt a qualm for a second, but was rebellious.
+
+"Well, perhaps--but do you know, Millicent, I believe I don't care.
+That carven block of stone has had a curious effect upon me. It has
+made me think as I have never done before. I want to take the clearest
+picture away with me--I must go."
+
+And even Mrs. Hardcastle's mild assertion that it could equally well be
+viewed and studied at a more reasonable hour did not move Tamara, and
+while her friend slumbered comfortably in her bed at Mena House, she
+had set off, a self-conscious feeling of a truant schoolboy exalting
+and yet frightening her.
+
+Tamara was a widow. James Loraine had been everything that a thoroughly
+respectable English husband ought to be. He had treated her with
+kindness, he had given her a comfortable home--he had only asked her to
+spend ten months of the year in the country, and he had never caused
+her a moment's jealousy.
+
+She could not remember her heart having beaten an atom faster--or
+slower--for his coming or going. She had loved him, and her sisters and
+brother, and father, all in the same devoted way, and when pneumonia
+had carried him off nearly two years before, she had grieved with the
+measure the loss of any one of them would have caused her--that was
+sincerely and tenderly.
+
+They were such a nice family, Tamara's!
+
+For hundreds of years they had lived on the same land, doing their duty
+to their neighbors and helping to form that backbone of England of
+which we hear so much nowadays, in its passing away.
+
+They had been members of Parliament, of solid Whig, and later of
+Unionist, views. They had been staunch Generals, Chairmen of
+Quarter-Sessions, riders to hounds, subscribers to charities, rigid
+church-goers, disciplined, orthodox, worthy members of society.
+
+Underdown was their name, and Underwood their home.
+
+That Tamara should have been given that Russian appellation, in a group
+of Gladys, Mabels and Dorothys, must have surely indicated that fate
+meant her to follow a line not quite so mapped out as that of her
+sisters'. The very manner of her entry into the world was not in
+accordance with the Underdown plan.
+
+Her mother, Lady Gertrude Underdown, had contracted a friendship with
+the wife of the First Secretary of the Russian Embassy.
+
+Foreigners were not looked upon with favor in the home circle, and
+instead of staying only the two months of May and June, as she was
+fully entitled to, in London, she had insisted upon remaining for July
+as well that year--to be near her friend Vera and enjoy the gay world.
+
+The Squire had grumbled, but acquiesced, though when afterward a fourth
+daughter was presented to him with a request that she might have
+Princess Vera for a godmother and a Russian name to be called by, he
+felt himself justified in carping at fate.
+
+"Foreign fandangoes," he designated such ideas. However, Lady Gertrude
+was very ill, and had to be humored, so the affair took place, and
+Tamara the baby was christened, with due state.
+
+There were no more Russian suggestions in the family; the son and heir
+who arrived a year later became plain Tom, and then Lady Gertrude
+Underdown made her bow to the world and retired to the family vault in
+Underwood Church.
+
+They were all estimably brought up by an aunt, and hardly ever left the
+country until each one came up in turn to be presented at Court, and go
+through a fairly dull season among country neighbors on the same bent.
+
+Two of them, including Tamara, had secured suitable husbands, and at
+the age of twenty-three years the latter had been left a well-dowered
+widow.
+
+She had worn mourning for just the right period, had looked after her
+affairs--handed James' place over with a good grace to James' brother
+and an unliked sister-in-law, and finally, when she was wearing grays
+and mauves, two years almost after her loss, she had allowed herself to
+be persuaded into taking a trip to Egypt with her friend, Millicent
+Hardcastle, who was recovering from influenza.
+
+It had caused the greatest flutter at Underwood, this journey abroad!
+None of them had been further than Dresden, where each girl had learned
+German for a year or so before her presentation.
+
+And what had Egypt done for Tamara? Lifted just one pretty white
+eyelid, perhaps. Stirred something which only once or twice in her life
+she had been dimly conscious of. Everything had been a kind of shock to
+her. A shock of an agreeable description. And once driving at night in
+the orange groves of Ghezireh, after some open-air fête, the heavy
+scent and intoxicating atmosphere had made her blood tingle. She felt
+it was almost wrong that things should so appeal to her senses.
+Anything which appealed deliberately to the senses had always been
+considered as more than almost wrong at Underwood Chase.
+
+The senses were improper things which Aunt Clara for her part never
+quite understood why the Almighty should have had the bad taste to
+permit in human beings.
+
+But the Sphinx was again talking to Tamara--only this time in the voice
+of a young man--who without a word of warning had risen from a bank of
+sand where he had been stretched motionless and unperceived.
+
+"A fine goddess, is she not, Madame," he said. And to add to the
+impertinence of a stranger's addressing her at all, Tamara was further
+incensed by the voice being that of a foreigner!
+
+But it was an extraordinarily pleasant voice, deep and tuneful, and the
+"_Insolent_" stood over six feet high and was as slender as Tamara
+herself almost--in spite of his shoulders and air of strength.
+
+She hardly knew what to answer, he had spoken with such ease and
+assurance, almost with the tone of one who hails a fellow worshiper and
+has a right to exchange sympathy.
+
+Tamara had been startled, too, by the sudden rising of the man when she
+thought she was alone, but at last she answered slowly, "Yes."
+
+"I often come here at night," he went on, "when those devils of
+tourists have gone back in their devil of a tramway. Then you get her
+alone--and she says things to you. You think so, too, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," again said Tamara, convulsed with wonder at herself for speaking
+at all.
+
+"At first I was angry when I saw your camel against the sky and saw you
+come and dismount and sit and look, I like to have her all to myself.
+But afterwards when I watched you I saw you meant no harm--you aren't a
+tourist, and so you did not matter."
+
+"Indeed," said Tamara, the fine in her grasping the situation, the
+Underdown training resenting its unconventionality.
+
+"Yes," he continued, unconcerned. "You can't look at that face and feel
+we any of us matter much--can you?"
+
+"No," said Tamara.
+
+"How many thousand years has she been telling people that? But it
+drives me mad, angry, furious, to see the tourists! I want to strangle
+them all!"
+
+He clenched his hand and his eyes flashed.
+
+Tamara peeped up at him--he was not looking at her--but at the Sphinx.
+She saw that he was extremely attractive in spite of having un-English
+clothes, which were not worn with ease. Gray flannel of unspeakable
+cut, and boots which would have made her brother Tom shriek with
+laughter. The Underdown part of her whispered, could he be quite a
+gentleman? But when he turned his face full upon her in the moonlight,
+that doubt vanished completely. He might even be a very great
+gentleman, she thought.
+
+"Would you like to see a bit of the Arabian Nights?" he asked her.
+
+Tamara rose. This really ought not to go on, this conversation--and
+yet--
+
+"Yes, I would," she said.
+
+"Well, the spell is broken of the Sphinx," he continued. "She can't
+talk to me with you there, and she can't talk to you with me near, so
+let us go and see something else that is interesting together."
+
+"What?" asked Tamara.
+
+"The Sheikh's village down below. Half the people who come don't
+realize it is there, and the other half would be afraid to ride through
+it at night--but they know me and I will take care of you."
+
+Without the least further hesitation he called Hafis and the camel,
+spoke to them in Arabic, and then stood ready to help Tamara up. She
+seemed hypnotized, when she was settled in the high saddle. She began
+to realize that she was going into the unknown with a perfect stranger,
+but she did not think of turning back.
+
+"What do you ride?" she asked.
+
+"See," he said, and he made a strange low whistle, which was instantly
+answered by an equally strange low whinny of a horse, and a beautiful
+Arab appeared from the foot of the rocks--where all things were in
+shadow--led by a little brown boy.
+
+"I am taking him back with me," he said, "Isn't he a beauty. I only
+bought him a week ago, and he already knows me."
+
+Then he was in the saddle with the lightest bound, and Tamara, who had
+always admired Tom on a horse, knew that she had never seen anyone who
+seemed so much a part of his mount as this quaint foreigner. "I suppose
+he is an Austrian," she said to herself, and then added with English
+insular arrogance, "Only Austrians are like us."
+
+The young man appeared quite indifferent to anything she thought. He
+prepared to lead the way down beyond the Sphinx, apparently into the
+desert.
+
+Now that he was in front of her, Tamara could not help admiring the
+lines of his figure. He was certainly a very decent shape, and
+certainly knew how to ride.
+
+Then it came to her that this was a most singular adventure, and the
+faint pink mounted to her clear cheeks when she remembered how
+dreadfully shocked Millicent would be--or any of the family! But it was
+her night of rebellion, so things must take their course.
+
+The young man rode in front until they were on the flat desert, then he
+drew rein and waited for her.
+
+"You see," he said, "we skirt these rocks and then we shall ride
+through the village. One can very well imagine it has been the same
+always."
+
+They entered the little town. The streets were extremely narrow and the
+dark houses gave an air of mystery--a speculation--what could be going
+on behind those closed shutters? Here and there a straight blue-clad
+figure slunk away round a corner. There was a deep silence and the
+moonlight made the shadows sharp as a knife. Then a shaft of red light
+would shoot from some strange low hovel as they passed, and they could
+see inside a circle of Arab Bedouins crouching over a fire. There
+seemed no hilarity, their faces were solemn as the grave.
+
+Presently, in the narrowest and darkest street, there was a sound of
+tom-toms, strains of weird music and voices, and through the chinks of
+the half-opened shutters light streamed across the road--while a small
+crowd of Arabs were grouped about the gate in the wall holding donkeys
+and a camel.
+
+"A wedding," said the young man. "They have escorted the bride. What
+pleasure to raise a veil and see a black face! But each one to his
+taste."
+
+Tamara looked up at the window. She wondered what could be happening
+within--were the other wives there as well? She would have liked to
+have asked.
+
+The young man saw her hesitation and said laconically--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"They are having a party," Tamara replied, with lame obviousness.
+
+"Of course," said the young man. "Weddings and funerals--equally good
+occasions for company. They are so wise they leave all to fate; they do
+not tear their eyes out for something they cannot have--and fight after
+disappointment. They are philosophers, these Arabs."
+
+The little crowd round the gate now barred the road, half good
+humoredly, half with menace.
+
+"So, so," said the young man, riding in front. Then he laughed, and
+putting his hand in his pocket, brought out a quantity of silver and
+flung it among them with merry words in Arabic, while he pointed to the
+windows of the house.
+
+Then he seized the bridle of Tamara's camel and started his horse
+forward. The crowd smiled now and began scrambling for the baksheesh,
+and so they got through in peace.
+
+Neither spoke until they were in a silent lane again.
+
+"Sometimes they can be quite disagreeable," he said, "but it is amusing
+to see it all. The Sheikh lives here--he fancies the pyramids belong to
+him, just as the Khedive fancies all Egypt is his--life is mostly
+imagination."
+
+Now Tamara could see his face better as he looked up to her superior
+height on the camel. He had a little moustache and peculiarly chiseled
+lips--too chiseled for a man, she thought for a moment, until she
+noticed the firm jaw. His eyes were sleepy--slightly Oriental in their
+setting, and looked very dark, and yet something made her think that in
+daylight they might be blue or gray.
+
+He did not smile at all; as he spoke his face was grave, but when
+something made him laugh as they turned the next corner, it transformed
+him. It was the rippling spontaneous gaiety of a child.
+
+Two goats had got loose from opposite hovels and were butting at one
+another in the middle of the road.
+
+He pulled up his horse and watched.
+
+"I like any fight," he said.
+
+But the goats fled in fear of him, so they went on.
+
+Tamara was wondering why she felt so stupid. She wanted to ask her
+strange companion a number of questions. Who he was? What he was doing
+at the Sphinx?--and indeed in Egypt. Why he had spoken to her at
+all?--and yet appeared absolutely indifferent as they rode along! He
+had not asked her a single question or expressed the least curiosity.
+For some reason she felt piqued.
+
+Presently they emerged at the end of the village where there was a
+small lake left by the retirement of the Nile. The moon, almost full,
+was mirrored in it. The scene was one of extreme beauty. The pyramids
+appeared an old rose pink, and everything else in tones of
+sapphire--not the green-blue of moonlight in other countries. All was
+breathlessly still and lifeless. Only they two, and the camel boys,
+alone in the night.
+
+The dark line of trees which border the road faced them, and they rode
+slowly in that direction.
+
+"You are going to the hotel, I suppose?" he said. "I will see you
+safely to it."
+
+And they climbed the bank on to the avenue from Cairo.
+
+"And you?" Tamara could not prevent herself from asking. "Where do you
+go?"
+
+"To hell, sometimes," he answered, and his eyes were full of mist, "but
+tonight I shall go to bed for a change."
+
+Tamara was nonplussed. She felt intensely commonplace. She was even a
+little cross with herself. Why had she asked a question?
+
+The Arab horse now took it into his head to curvet and bound in the air
+for no apparent reason, but the young man did not stir an inch--he
+laughed.
+
+"Go on, my beauty," he said. "I like you to be so. It shows you are
+alive."
+
+As they approached the hotel, Tamara began to hope no one would see
+them. No one who could tell Millicent that she had a companion. She
+bent down and said rather primly to the young man who was again at her
+side:
+
+"I am quite safe now, thank you. I need not trouble you any further.
+Good-bye! and I am so obliged to you for showing me a new way home."
+
+He looked up at her, and his whole face was lit with a whimsical smile.
+
+"Yes, at the gate," he said. "Don't be nervous. I will go at the gate."
+
+Tamara did not speak, and presently they came to the turning into the
+hotel. Then he stopped.
+
+"I suppose we shall meet again some day," he said. "They have a proverb
+here, 'Meet before dawn--part not till dawn.' They see into the future
+in a few drops of water in any hollow thing. Well, good-night"--and
+before she could answer he was off beyond the hotel up the road and
+then turning to the right on a sand-path, galloped out of sight into
+what must be the vast desert.
+
+Where on earth could he be going to?--possibly the devil--if one knew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+When Tamara woke in the morning the recollection of her camel ride
+seemed like a dream. She sat for a long time at the window of her room
+looking out toward the green world and Cairo. She was trying to adjust
+things in her mind. This stranger had certainly produced an effect upon
+her.
+
+She wondered who he was, and how he would look in daylight--and above
+all whither he had galloped into the desert. Then she wondered at
+herself. The whole thing was so out of her line--so bizarre--in a life
+of carefully balanced proprieties. And were the thoughts the Sphinx had
+awaked in her brain true? Yes, certainly she had been ruled by others
+always--and had never developed her own soul.
+
+She was very sensitive--that last whimsical smile of the unknown had
+humiliated her. She felt he had laughed at her prim propriety in
+wishing to get rid of him before the gate. Indeed, she suddenly felt he
+might laugh at a good many of the things she did. And this ruffled her
+serenity. She put up her slender hands and pushed the thick hair back
+from her forehead with an impatient gesture. It all made her
+dissatisfied with herself and full of unrest.
+
+"You don't tell me a thing about your Sphinx excursion last night,
+Tamara," Millicent Hardcastle said at breakfast, rather peevishly. They
+were sipping coffee together in the latter's room in dressing-gowns.
+"Was it nice, and had the tourists quite departed?"
+
+"It was wonderful!" and Tamara leant back and looked into distance.
+"There were no tourists, and it made me think a number of new
+things--we seem such ordinary people, Millicent."
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle glanced up surprised, not to say offended, with coffee
+cup poised in the air.
+
+"Yes--you may wonder, but it is true, Milly--we do the same things
+every day, and think the same thoughts, and are just thoroughly
+commonplace and uninteresting."
+
+"And you came to these conclusions from gazing at the Sphinx?" Mrs.
+Hardcastle asked.
+
+"Yes," said Tamara, the pink deepening for a moment in her cheeks. In
+her whole life she hardly ever had had a secret. "I sat there,
+Millicent, in the sand opposite the strange image, and it seemed to
+smile and mock at all little things; it appeared perfectly ridiculous
+that we pay so much attention to what the world says or thinks. I could
+not help looking back to the time when you and I were at Dresden
+together. What dull lives we have both led since! Yours perhaps more
+filled than mine has been, because you have children; but really we
+have both been browsing like sheep."
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle now was almost irritated.
+
+"I cannot agree with you," she said. "Our lives have been full of good
+and pleasant things--and I hope, dear, we have both done our duty."
+
+This, of course, ended the matter! It was so undoubtedly true--each had
+done her duty.
+
+After breakfast they started for a last donkey-ride, as they must
+return to Cairo in time for the Khedive's ball that night, which, as
+distinguished English ladies, they were being taken to by their
+compatriots at the Agency. Then on the morrow they were to start for
+Europe. Mrs. Hardcastle could not spare more time away from her babies.
+Their visit had only been of four short weeks, and now it was December
+27, and home and husband called her.
+
+For Tamara's part, she could do as she pleased; indeed, for two pins
+she would have stayed on in Egypt.
+
+But that was not the intention of fate!
+
+"Do let us go up that sand-path, Millicent," she said, when they turned
+out of the hotel gate. "We have never been there, and I would like to
+see where it leads to--perhaps we shall get quite a new vista from the
+top----"
+
+And so they went.
+
+What she expected to find she did not ask herself. In any case they
+rode on, eventually coming out at a small enclosure where stood a sort
+of bungalow in those days--it is probably pulled down now, but then it
+stood with a wonderful view over the desert, and over the green world.
+Tamara had vaguely observed it in the distance before, but imagined it
+to be some water-tower of the hotel, it was so bare and gaunt. It had
+been built by some mad Italian, they heard afterward, for rest and
+quiet.
+
+It was a quaint place with tiny windows high up, evidently to light a
+studio, and there was a veranda to look at the view towards the Nile.
+
+When they got fairly close they could see that on this veranda a young
+man was stretched at full length. A long wicker chair supported him,
+while he read a French novel. They--at least Tamara--could see the
+yellow back of the book, and also, one regrets to add, she was
+conscious that the young man was only clothed in blue and white striped
+silk pyjamas!--the jacket of which was open and showed his chest--and
+one foot, stretched out and hanging over the back of another low chair,
+was--actually bare!
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle touched her donkey and hurried past--the path went so
+very near this unseemly sight! And Tamara followed, but not before the
+young man had time to raise himself and frown with fury. She almost
+imagined she heard him saying "Those devils of tourists!" Then with the
+corner of her eye ere they got out of sight, she perceived that a
+blue-clad Arab brought coffee on a little tray.
+
+She glowed with annoyance. Did he think she had come to look at him?
+Did he--he certainly was quite uninterested, for he must have
+recognized her; but perhaps not; people look so different in large
+straw hats to what they appear with scarves of chiffon tied over their
+heads. But why had she come this way at all? She wished a thousand
+times she had suggested going round the pyramids instead.
+
+"Tamara," said Mrs. Hardcastle, when they were safely descending the
+further sand-path, with no unclothed young giant in view, "did you see
+there was a _man_ in that chair? What a dreadful person to be lying on
+the balcony--undressed!"
+
+"I never noticed," said Tamara, without a blush. "I am surprised at you
+having looked, Millie--when this view is so fine."
+
+"But, my dear child, I could not possibly help seeing him. How you did
+not notice, I can't think; he had pyjamas on, Tamara--and _bare feet!"_
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle almost whispered the last terrible words.
+
+"I suppose he felt hot," said Tamara; "it is a grilling day."
+
+"But really, dear, no nice people, in any weather, remain--er--
+undressed at twelve o'clock in the day for passers-by to look at--do
+they?"
+
+"Well, perhaps he isn't a nice person," allowed Tamara. "He may be mad.
+What was he like, since you saw so much, Millicent?"
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle glanced over her shoulder reproachfully. "You really
+speak as though I had looked on purpose," she said. "He seemed very
+long--and not fat. I suppose, as his hair was not very dark, he must be
+an Englishman."
+
+"Oh, dear, no!" exclaimed Tamara. "Not an Englishman." Then seeing her
+friend's expression of surprise, "I mean, it isn't likely an Englishman
+would lie on his balcony in pyjamas--at least not the ones we see in
+Cairo; they--they are too busy, aren't they?"
+
+This miserably lame explanation seemed to satisfy Millicent. It was too
+hot and too disagreeable, she felt, clinging to the donkey while it
+descended the steep path, to continue the subject further, having to
+turn one's head over the shoulder like that; but when they got on the
+broad level she began again:
+
+"Possibly it was a madman, Tamara, sent here with a keeper--in that
+out-of-the-way place. How fortunate we had the donkey boys with us!"
+
+Tamara laughed.
+
+"You dear goose, Millie, he couldn't have eaten us up, you know; and he
+was not doing the least harm, poor thing. We should not have gone that
+way; it may have been his private path."
+
+"Still, no one should lie about undressed," Mrs. Hardcastle protested.
+"It is not at all nice. Girls might have been riding with us, and how
+dreadful it would have been then."
+
+"Let us forget it, pet!" Tamara laughed, "and trot on and get some real
+exercise."
+
+So off they started.
+
+Just as they were turning out of the hotel gate, late in the same
+afternoon, a young man on an Arab horse passed the carriage. He was in
+ordinary riding dress, and looked a slim, graceful sight as he trotted
+ahead.
+
+He never glanced their way. But while Tamara felt a sudden emotion of
+sorts, Mrs. Hardcastle exclaimed:
+
+"Look, look! I am sure that is he--the mad man who wore those pyjamas."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The Khedive's ball was a fairly fine sight, Tamara thought, but driving
+through the streets took such a ridiculously long time, the crowd was
+so great. The palace itself was, and probably is still, like all other
+palaces that are decorated in that nondescript style of Third Empire
+France--not a thing of beauty. But the levée uniforms of the officers
+gave an air of brilliance contrasted with the civilians of the
+Government of Egypt. Tamara thought their dress very ugly, it reminded
+her of a clergyman's at a children's party, where he has been decorated
+with caps and sham orders from the crackers to amuse the little guests.
+It seemed strange to see the English faces beneath the fez. She and
+Millicent Hardcastle walked about and talked to their friends. There
+were many smart young gallants in the regiments then quartered in
+Cairo, who enjoyed dancing with the slender, youthful widow with the
+good jewels and pretty dress, and soon Tamara found herself whirling
+with a gay hussar.
+
+"Let us stop near the Royalties and look at the Russians," he said.
+"You know, a Grand Duke arrived to-day, and must be here to-night."
+
+They came to a standstill close to the little group surrounding the
+Khedive, and amid the splendid uniforms of the Grand Duke's suite there
+was one of scarlet, the like of which Tamara had never seen before.
+
+Afterward she learned it was a Cossack of the Emperor's escort, but at
+the moment it seemed like a gorgeous fancy dress. The high boots and
+long, strangely graceful coat, cut with an Eastern hang, the white
+under-dress, the way the loose scarlet sleeves fell at the wrist,
+showing the white tight ones, the gold and silver trimmings and the
+arms, stuck in the quaint belt, all pleased her eye extremely; and then
+she recognized its wearer as the young man of the Sphinx.
+
+How dress changes a person! she thought. He looked at ease now in this
+gorgeous garment, and a very prince for a fairy tale. That accounted
+for the dreadful gray flannel--he was a soldier and unaccustomed to
+wearing ordinary clothes. She had heard that in foreign countries even
+the officers wore their uniforms habitually; not as the English do,
+merely as an irksome duty.
+
+He did not appear to see her, but when she began dancing again, and
+paused once more for breath, she was close to him as he stood some way
+apart and alone.
+
+Their eyes met. His had the same whimsical provoking smile in them
+which angered and yet attracted her. He made no move to bow to her, nor
+did he take any steps to be introduced. She burnt with annoyance.
+
+"He might at least have been presented; it is too impertinent
+otherwise!" she thought.
+
+She knew she was looking her best: a fair, distinguished woman as young
+and fresh as a girl. Hardly a man in the room was unconscious of her
+presence. Anger lent an extra brightness to her eyes and cheeks. She
+went on dancing wildly.
+
+The next time she was near the stranger was some half an hour later,
+although not once was she able to banish the scarlet form from her
+view. He did not dance. He talked now and then to his Prince, and then
+he was presented to the official ladies, with the rest of the suite. He
+looked bored.
+
+Tamara would not ask his name, which she could have done with ease, as
+every one was interested in the Russians and glad to talk about them.
+She avoided the English group of bigwigs where they were standing, and
+where she had her place--And when they passed the tall Cossack again
+she turned upon him a witheringly unconscious glance.
+
+However, this was not to continue the whole night, for presently she
+was requested by one of the attachés to come and be presented to the
+Grand Duke, and when she had made her curtsey the suite came up in
+turn.
+
+"Prince Milaslávski," and she heard one of his friends call him
+"Gritzko." The name fell pleasantly on her ears--"Gritzko"! Why was he
+such a wretch as to humiliate her so? She felt horribly small. She
+ought never to have let him speak to her at the Sphinx. She was being
+thoroughly punished for her unconventionality now!
+
+She said a few words in French to each of the others, and then, as he
+still stood there with that provoking smile in his splendid eyes, she
+turned away almost biting her lip with shame and rage.
+
+Before she knew it she was dancing with a fierce count in green and
+silver. Their conversation was interesting.
+
+"You are here since long, Madame?"
+
+"No, Monsieur, only a few weeks, and I go to-morrow."
+
+"Ah! you dance beautifully!"
+
+"Do I? I am glad----"
+
+The Russian Count held her very tightly, and they stopped quite out of
+breath, where the screened windows half-hid the poor ladies of the
+harem, who watched the throng from their safe retreat.
+
+The Count bowed--and Tamara bowed. A section, not the whole dance, was
+evidently the Russian custom.
+
+Then a voice said close to her ear:
+
+"May I, too, have the honor of a turn, Madame?" and she looked up into
+the eyes of the Prince.
+
+For a second she hesitated. Her first impulse was to scornfully say no,
+but she quickly realized that would be undignified and absurd; so she
+said yes, coldly, and let him place his arm about her. The band was
+playing a particularly sensuous valse, which drove all young people mad
+that year, and--if the Count had danced well--this man's movements were
+heaven. Tamara did not speak a word. She purposely did not look at him,
+but drooped her proud head so that the flashing diamonds of her tiara
+were all he could have seen of her.
+
+He put no special meaning into the way he held her; he just danced
+divinely; but there was something in the creature himself of a
+perfectly annoying attractiveness--or so it seemed to Tamara.
+
+They at last paused for a moment, and then he spoke. He made not the
+slightest allusion to the Sphinx incident. He spoke gravely of Cairo,
+and the polo, and the races, and said that his Grand Duke had arrived
+that day. He was not on his staff, but was indeed travelling in Egypt
+for his own amusement and delectation, he said.
+
+He had been there since November, it seemed, and had been up the Nile,
+and had fortunately been able to secure a little bungalow at Mena,
+where he could spend some hours of peace.
+
+Then Tamara laughed. She remembered Millicent Hardcastle's
+consternation over those unfortunate pyjamas. She wondered if Millicent
+would realize that she--Tamara--was dancing with their wearer now! When
+she laughed he put his arm around her once more and began dancing. This
+time he held her rather closely, and suddenly as she laughed again to
+herself provokingly, he clasped her tight.
+
+"If you laugh like that I will kiss you--here in the room," he said.
+
+Tamara stopped dead short. She blazed with anger.
+
+"How dare you be so impertinent?" she said.
+
+They were up in a corner; everyone's back was turned to them happily,
+for in one second he had bent and kissed her neck. It was done with
+such incredible swiftness and audacity that even had they been observed
+it must only have looked as though he bent to pick up something she had
+dropped. But the kiss burned into Tamara's flesh.
+
+She could hardly keep the tears of outraged pride from her eyes.
+
+"How dare you! How dare you!" she hissed. "Truly you are making me
+ashamed of having let you speak to me last night!"
+
+"Last night?" he said, while he forcibly drew her hand within his arm
+and began walking toward the group of her friends. "Last night you were
+afraid some should see me from the hotel, and to-night you dare me. Do
+it once more and I will kiss your lips!"
+
+Tamara went dead white; she felt as if the ground were sinking beneath
+her feet; her knees trembled. In all her smooth, conventionally ordered
+life she had never experienced such a strong emotion.
+
+The Prince glanced at her, and the fierceness went out of his eyes. He
+bowed gravely with the most courtly homage, and left her standing by
+Millicent's side.
+
+Then Tamara remembered she was a lady, and that tenue was expected of
+her; so she turned to her friend gaily and said how she was enjoying
+the ball; but her fine nostrils quivered at intervals for the rest of
+the night.
+
+"Thank God!" she said to herself, when a few hours later she got into
+bed--"Thank God! we are going tomorrow. I shall never see him again,
+and no one shall ever know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Next day they started, escorted to the station by a troup of gushing
+friends. Their compartment was a bower of flowers, and as each moment
+went by Tamara's equanimity was restored by the thought that she would
+soon be out of the land of her disgrace.
+
+It is a tiresome journey to Alexandria--dusty and glaring and not of
+great interest. They hurried on board the ship when they arrived,
+without even glancing at their fellow passengers following in the
+gangway. Neither woman was a perfect sailor and both were quite
+overcome with fatigue. It promised to be a disagreeable night, too, so
+they retired at once to their cabins, and were soon asleep.
+
+The next day, which was Sunday, the wind blew, but by the afternoon
+calmed down again, and Tamara decided to dress and go on deck.
+
+"Mrs. Hardcastle went up some hours ago; she was ready for luncheon,
+ma'am," her maid told her.
+
+"She left a message for you to join her when you woke."
+
+The ship was the usual sort of ship that goes from Alexandria to
+Trieste, and the two English ladies had secured places for their chairs
+in the most protected spot. Tamara rather looked forward to being able
+to sit there in the moonlight and enjoy the Mediterranean.
+
+Her maid preceded her with her rug and cushion and book, and it was not
+until she was quite settled that she took cognizance of an empty chair
+at her other side.
+
+"You lazy child!" Millicent Hardcastle said. "To sleep all day like
+this! It has been quite beautiful since luncheon, and I have had a most
+agreeable time. That extremely polite nice young Russian Prince we met
+at the Khedive's ball is here, dear; indeed, that is his chair next
+you. He is with Stephen Strong. We have been talking for hours."
+
+Tamara felt suddenly almost cold.
+
+"I never saw him in the train or coming on board," she said, with
+almost a gasp.
+
+"Nor did I, and yet he must have been just behind us. Our places at
+meals are next him, too. So fortunate he was introduced, because one
+could not talk to a strange man, even on a boat. I never can understand
+those people who pick up acquaintances promiscuously; can you, dear?"
+
+"No," said Tamara, feebly.
+
+She was pondering what to do. She could not decline to know the Prince
+without making some explanation to Millicent. She also could not
+flatter him so much. She must just be icily cold, and if he should be
+further impertinent she could remain in her cabin.
+
+But what an annoying contretemps! And she had thought she should never
+see him again!--and here until Wednesday afternoon, she would be
+constantly reminded of the most disgraceful incident in her career. All
+brought upon herself, too, by her own action in having lapsed from the
+rigid rules in which Aunt Clara had brought her up.
+
+If she had not answered him at the Sphinx--he could not have--but she
+refused to dwell upon the shame of this recollection.
+
+She had quite half an hour to grow calm before the cause of her unrest
+came even into sight, and when he did, it was to walk past in the
+company of their old friend, Stephen Strong.
+
+The Prince raised his cap gravely, and Tamara comforted herself by
+noticing again how badly his clothes fitted him! How unsuitable, and
+even ridiculous, they were to English eyes--That gave her pleasure!
+Also she must have a little fun with Millicent.
+
+"Has it struck you, Millie, the Prince is the same young man we saw in
+the pyjamas on the veranda? I am surprised at your speaking to such a
+person, even if he has been introduced!"
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle raised an aggrieved head.
+
+"Really, Tamara," she said, "I had altogether forgotten that unpleasant
+incident. I wish you had not reminded me of it. He is a most
+respectful, modest, unassuming young man. I am sure he would be
+dreadfully uncomfortable if he were aware we had seen him so."
+
+"I think he looked better like that than he does now," Tamara rejoined,
+spitefully. "Did you ever see such clothes?"
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle whisked right round in her chair and stared at her
+friend. She was shocked, in the first place, that Tamara should speak
+so lightly of a breach of decorum; and, secondly, she was astonished at
+another aspect of the case.
+
+"I thought you never saw him at all that morning!" she exclaimed.
+
+Tamara was nettled.
+
+"Your description was so vivid; besides, I looked back!"
+
+"You _looked back!_ Tamara! after I had told you he wasn't dressed! My
+dear, how could you?"
+
+"Well, I did.--Hush! he is coming toward us," and Tamara hurriedly
+opened a book and looked down.
+
+"At last Mrs. Loraine has arrived on deck," she heard Millicent say;
+and then, for convention's sake she was obliged to glance up and bow
+coldly.
+
+The young man did not seem the least impressed; he sat down and pulled
+his rug round his knees and gazed out at the sea. The sun had set, and
+the moon would soon rise in all her full glory.
+
+There was hardly twilight and the ship's electric lights were already
+being lit. The old Englishman, Stephen Strong, greeted her and took the
+chair at Mrs. Hardcastle's other side. That lady was in one of her
+chatty moods, when each nicely expressed sentence fell from her lips
+directly after the other--all so pleasant and easy to understand. No
+one ever felt with Millicent he need use an atom of brain. These are
+the women men like.
+
+Tamara pretended to read her book, but she was conscious of the near
+proximity of the Prince. Nothing so magnetic in the way of a
+personality had ever crossed her path as yet.
+
+He sat as still as a statue gazing at the sea. An uncontrollable desire
+to look at him shook Tamara, but she dominated it. The discomfort at
+last grew so great that she almost trembled.
+
+Then he spoke:
+
+"Have you cat's eyes?" he asked.
+
+Now, when there was a legitimate chance to look at him, she found her
+orbs glued to her book.
+
+"Of course not!" she said, icily.
+
+"Then of what use to pretend you are reading in this gloom? The
+miserable lantern is not good for a gleam."
+
+Tamara was silent. She even turned a page. She would be irritating,
+too!
+
+"That ball was a sight," he continued. "Did you see the harem ladies
+peeping from their cage? They looked fat and ugly enough to be wisely
+kept there. What a lot of fools they must have thought us, cavorting
+for their amusement."
+
+"Poor women!" said Tamara. Her voice was the primmest thing in voices
+she had ever heard.
+
+"Why poor women?" he asked. "They have all the pleasures of the body,
+and no anxieties; nothing but the little excitement of trying now and
+then to poison their rivals! It is the poor Khedive!--Think of his
+having to wade through all that fat mass to find one pretty one!"
+
+The tone of this conversation displeased Tamara. She did not wish to
+enter into the ethics of the harem. She wished he would be silent
+again, only that deep voice of his was so pleasant! His English was
+wonderful, too, with hardly the least accent; and when she did allow
+herself to look at him she could not help admiring the way his hair
+grew, back from a forehead purely Greek. His nose was short and rather
+square, while those too beautifully chiseled lips of his had an
+expression of extraordinary charm. His whole personality breathed
+attraction, every human being who approached him was conscious of it.
+As for his eyes, they were enormous, with broad full lids, mystical,
+passionate, and yet unconcerned. Always they suggested something
+Eastern, though on the whole he was fair. Tamara's own soft brown hair
+was only a shade lighter than his.
+
+She was not sure yet, but now thought his eyes were gray.
+
+She could have asked him a number of questions she wanted answered, but
+she refrained. He suddenly turned and looked at her full in the face.
+He had been gazing fixedly at the sea, and these movements of quickness
+were disconcerting, especially as Tamara found herself caught in the
+act of studying his features.
+
+"What on earth made you go to the Sphinx?" he asked.
+
+Anger rose in Tamara; the inference was not flattering, in his speech,
+or the tone in which he uttered it.
+
+"To count the number of stones the creature is made of, of course," she
+said. "Those technical things are what one would go for at that time of
+night."
+
+And now her companion rippled with laughter, infectious, joyous
+laughter.
+
+"Ah, you are not so stupid as I thought!" he said, frankly. "You looked
+poetic and fine with that gauze scarf around your head sitting there--
+and then afterwards. Wheugh! It was like a pretty wax doll. I regretted
+having wasted the village on you. All that is full of meaning for me."
+
+Tamara was interested in spite of her will to remain reserved, although
+she resented the wax-doll part.
+
+"Yes?"--he faltered.
+
+"You can learn all the lessons you want in life from the Sphinx," he
+went on. "What paltry atoms you and I are, and how little we matter to
+anyone but ourselves! She is cruel, too, and does not hesitate to tear
+one in pieces if she wishes and she could make one ready to get drunk
+on blood."
+
+Tamara rounded her sweet eyes.
+
+"Then the village there, full of men with the passions of animals,
+living from father to son forever the same, wailing for a death,
+rejoicing at a birth, taking strong physical pleasure in their marriage
+rights and their women, and beating them when they are tired; but you
+are too civilized in your country to understand any of these things."
+
+Tamara was stirred; she felt she ought to be shocked.
+
+Contrary to her determination, she asked a question:
+
+"Then you are not civilized in yours?"
+
+"Not nearly so badly," he said. "The primitive forces of life still
+give us emotions, when we are not wild; when we are then it is the
+jolliest hell."
+
+Tamara was almost repulsed. How could one be so odd as this man? she
+thought. Was he a type, or was he mad, or just only most annoyingly
+attractive and different from any one else? She found herself thrilled.
+Then with a subtle change he turned and almost tenderly wrapped the
+rug, which had blown a little down, more securely round her.
+
+"You have such a small white face," he said, the words a caress. "One
+must see that you are warm and the naughty winds do not blow you away."
+
+Tamara shivered; she could not have told why.
+
+After this the conversation became general.
+
+Millicent joined in with her obvious remarks. The sea was much
+smoother; they would be able to eat some dinner; she had heard there
+was a gipsy troupe on board in the third-class, and how nice it would
+be to have some music!
+
+And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all
+this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest
+politeness, while his grave face betrayed him not even by a twinkle in
+the eye. Only when he caught hers; then he laughed a sudden short
+laugh, and he whispered:
+
+"What a perfect woman! everything in the right place. Heaven! at the
+best times she would do her knitting, and hand one a child every year!
+I'll marry when I can find a wife like that!"
+
+Tamara was furious. She resented his ridicule of Millicent, and she was
+horrified at the whole speech; so, gathering her rug together, she said
+she was cold, and asked Mr. Strong to pace the deck with her. Nor would
+she take the faintest further notice of the Prince, until they all went
+below to the evening meal.
+
+At dinner he seemed to be practically a stranger again. He was Tamara's
+neighbor, but he risked no startling speeches; in fact, he hardly spoke
+to her, contenting himself with discussing seafaring matters with the
+captain, and an occasional remark to Stephen Strong, who sat beyond
+Mrs. Hardcastle. It was unnecessary for her to have decided beforehand
+to snub him; he did not give her the chance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+On Monday they heard they would arrive at Brindisi on the Tuesday
+morning, and Tamara persuaded Mrs. Hardcastle to agree to disembarking
+there instead of going on to Trieste.
+
+"We shall be home all the sooner," she said. And so it was settled. But
+there was still all Monday to be got through.
+
+It was a perfect day, the blue Mediterranean was not belying its name.
+Tamara felt in great spirits, as she came on deck at about eleven
+o'clock, to find Millicent taking a vigorous walk round and round with
+the Russian Prince. They seemed to be laughing and chattering like old
+friends. Again Tamara resented it.
+
+"He is only making fun of poor Millie," she thought, "who never sees a
+thing," and she settled herself in her chair and let her eyes feast on
+the blue sea----
+
+What should she do with her life? This taste of change and foreign
+skies had unsettled her. How could she return to Underwood and the
+humdrum everyday existence there? She seemed to see it mapped out on a
+plain as one who stood on a mountain. She seemed to realize that always
+there had been dormant in her some difference from the others. She
+remembered now how often she perceived things that none of them saw,
+and she knew it was because of this that it had grown into a habit with
+her from early childhood to suppress the expression of her thoughts,
+and keep them to herself--until outwardly, at all events, she was of
+the same stolid mould as her family. The dears! they could not help it.
+
+But about one point she was determined. She would think and act for
+herself in future. Aunt Clara's frown should not prohibit any book or
+any action. The world should teach her what it could.
+
+Tamara had received a solid education; now she would profit by it, and
+instead of letting all her knowledge lie like a bulb in a root-house,
+she would plant it and tend it, and would hope to see sweet flowers
+springing forth.
+
+"Next summer I shall be twenty-five years old," she said to herself,
+"and the whole thing has been a waste."
+
+Each time the energetic promenaders passed her chair she heard a few
+words of their conversation, on hunting often, and the dogs, and the
+children, Bertie's cleverness, and Muriel's chickenpox, but always the
+Prince seemed interested and polite.
+
+Presently the old man, Stephen Strong, came up and took Mrs.
+Hardcastle's chair.
+
+"May I disturb your meditations?" he said. "You look so wise."
+
+"No, I am foolish," Tamara answered. "Now you who know the world must
+come and talk and teach me its meaning."
+
+He was rather a wonderful old man, Stephen Strong, purely English to
+look at, and purely cosmopolitan in habits and life. He had been in the
+diplomatic service years ago, and had been in Egypt in the gorgeous
+Ismail time; then a fortune came his way, and he traveled the earth
+over. There were years spent in Vienna and Petersburg and Paris, and
+always the early winter back in the land of the Sphinx.
+
+"The world," he said, as he arranged himself in the chair, "is an
+extremely pleasant place if one takes it as it is, and does not quarrel
+with it. One must not be intolerant, and one must not be hypercritical.
+See it all and make allowances for the weakness of the human beings who
+inhabit it."
+
+"Yes," said Tamara, "I know you are right; but so many of us belong to
+a tribe who think their point of view the only one. I do, for instance;
+that is why I say I am foolish."
+
+The walkers passed again.
+
+"There is a type for you to study," Stephen Strong said. "Prince
+Milaslávski. I have known him for many years, since he was a child
+almost; he is about twenty-nine or thirty now, and really a rather
+interesting personality."
+
+"Yes," said Tamara, honestly, "I feel that. Tell me about him?"
+
+Stephen Strong lit a cigar and puffed for a few seconds, then he
+settled himself with the air of a person beginning a narrative.
+
+"He came into his vast fortune rather too young, and lived rather
+fiercely. His mother was a Basmanoff; that means a kind of Croesus in
+Russia. He is a great favorite with the powers that be, and is in the
+Cossacks of the Escort. Something in their wild freedom appealed to him
+more than any other corps. He is a Cossack himself on the mother's side,
+and the blood is all rather wild, you know."
+
+Tamara looked as she felt--interested.
+
+"They tell the most tremendous stories about him," the old man went on,
+"hugely exaggerated, of course; but the fact remains, he is a
+fascinating, restless, dauntless character."
+
+"What sort of stories?" asked Tamara, timidly.
+
+"Not all fit for your ears, gentle lady," laughed Stephen Strong.
+"Sheer devilment, mostly. It was the amusement in the beginning to dare
+him to anything, the maddest feats. He ran off with a nun once, it is
+said, for a bet, and deposited her in the house of the man she had
+loved before her vows were taken. That was in Poland. Then he has
+orgies sometimes at his country place, when every one is mad for three
+days on end. It causes terrible scandal. Then he comes back like a
+lamb, and purrs to all the old ladies. They say he obeys neither God
+nor the Devil--only the Emperor on this earth."
+
+"How dreadful!" force of habit made Tamara say, while her thoughts
+unconsciously ran into interested fascination.
+
+"He is absolutely fearless, and as cool as an Englishman, and there are
+not any mean things told about him, though," Steven Strong continued,
+"and indeed sometimes he lives the simplest country life with his
+horses and dogs, and his own people worship him, I believe. But there
+is no wildest prank he is incapable of if his blood is up."
+
+"I think he looks like it," said Tamara. "Is it because he habitually
+wears uniform that his ordinary clothes fit so badly? To our eyes he
+seems dressed like some commis voyageur."
+
+"Of course," said Stephen Strong. "And even in Paris I don't suppose
+you would approve of him in that respect, but if you could see him in
+Petersburg, then I believe you would be like all the rest."
+
+"All which rest?" asked Tamara.
+
+"Women. They simply adore him. Bohemians, great ladies, actresses,
+dancers, and----"
+
+He was just going to mention those of another world, when he felt
+Tamara would hardly understand him, so he stopped short.
+
+Something in her rose up in arms.
+
+"It shows how foolish they are," she said.
+
+Stephen Strong glanced at her sideways, and if she could have read his
+thoughts they were:
+
+"This sweet Englishwoman is under Gritzko's spell already, and how she
+is battling against it! She won't have a chance, though, if he makes up
+his mind to win."
+
+But Tamara, for all her gentle features, was no weakling; only her life
+had been a long hibernation; and now the spring had come, and soon the
+time of the finding of honey and a new life.
+
+"What can he be talking about to my friend, Mr. Strong?" she asked, as
+the two passed again. "Millicent is one of the last women he can have
+anything in common with; she would simply die of horror if she heard
+any of these stories--and he can't be interested in a word she says."
+
+"He always does the unexpected," and Stephen Strong laughed as he said
+it. He himself was amused at this ill-matched pair.
+
+"Mrs. Hardcastle is agreeable to look at, too," he continued.
+
+Tamara smiled scornfully.
+
+"That is the lowest view to take. One should be above material
+appearance."
+
+"Charming lady!" said Stephen Strong. "Yes, indeed you do not know the
+world."
+
+Tamara was not angry. She looked at him and smiled, showing her
+beautiful teeth.
+
+"Of course you think me a goose," she said, "but I warned you I was
+one. Tell me, shall I ever grow out of it--tell me, you who know?"
+
+"If the teacher is young and handsome enough to make your heart beat,"
+said her old companion. And then Millicent and the Prince joined them.
+
+Mrs. Hardcastle's round blue eyes were flashing brightly, and her fresh
+face was aglow with exercise and enjoyment.
+
+"Tamara dear, you are too incorrigibly lazy. Why do you sit here
+instead of taking exercise? and you have no idea of the interesting
+things the Prince has been telling me. All about a Russian poet
+called--oh, I can't pronounce the name, but who wrote of a devil--not
+exactly Faust, you know, though something like it."
+
+Tamara noticed that amused, whimsical, mocking gleam in the Cossack's
+great eyes, but Millicent went gaily on, unconscious of anything but
+herself.
+
+"I mean those mythical, strange sort of devils who come to earth, you
+know, and--and--make love to ladies--a sort of Satan like in Marie
+Corelli's lovely book. You remember, Tamara, the one you were so funny
+about, laughing when you read it."
+
+"You mean 'The Demon' of Lermontoff, probably, Millicent, don't you?"
+Tamara said. "A friend of my mother's translated it into English, and I
+have known it since I was a child. I think it must be very fine in the
+original," and she looked at the Prince.
+
+In one moment his face became serious and sympathetic.
+
+"You know our great poet's work, then?" he said, surprised. "One would
+not have thought it!"
+
+Then again Tamara's anger rose. There was always the insinuation in his
+remarks, seemingly unconscious, and therefore the more irritating, that
+she was a commonplace fool.
+
+"Her name--the heroine's--is the same as my own," she said, gravely;
+but there was a challenge in her eyes.
+
+"Tamara!" he said. "Well--it could be--a devil might come your way, but
+you would kneel and pray, and eat bonbons, and not listen to him."
+
+"It would depend upon the devil," she said.
+
+"Those who live the longest will see the most," and the Prince put back
+his head and laughed with real enjoyment at his thoughts, just as he
+had done when the two goats had butted at one another in the road.
+
+Tamara felt her cheeks blaze with rage, but she would not enter the
+lists, in spite of the late challenge in her eyes.
+
+Mr. Strong had vacated Millicent's chair and taken his own. The party
+soon settled into their legitimate places, and Tamara again took up her
+book.
+
+"No, don't read," the Prince said. "You get angry at once with me when
+we talk, and the red comes into your cheeks, and I like it."
+
+Exasperation was almost uncontrollable in Tamara. She remained silent,
+only the little ear next the Prince burned scarlet.
+
+"Some day you will come to Russia," he said, "and then you will learn
+many things."
+
+"I have no desire to go there," said Tamara, lying frankly, as it had
+always been her great wish, and indeed her godmother, who never forgot
+her, had often begged her to visit that northern clime; but Russia!--as
+well have suggested the moon at Underwood.
+
+"It would freeze you, perhaps, or burn you--who can tell?" the Prince
+said. "One would see when you got there. I have an old lady, a dear
+friend, with white hair and a mole on her cheek--someone who sees
+straight. She would be good for your education."
+
+Tamara thought it would be wiser not to show any further annoyance, so
+she said lightly:
+
+"Yes, I am only sixteen, and have never left the schoolroom; it would
+be delightful to be taught how to live."
+
+He turned and smiled at her.
+
+"You hardly look any more--twenty, perhaps, and--never kissed!"
+
+A memory rose up of a scorched neck, and suddenly Tamara's long
+eyelashes rested on her cheek.
+
+Then into his splendid eyes came a fierce, savage, passionate gleam,
+which she did not see, but dimly felt, and he said in a low voice a
+little thick:
+
+"And--as--yet--never really kissed."
+
+"Milly," said Tamara, as calmly as she could, "what time do we get into
+Brindisi to-morrow morning? And think of it, on Thursday night we shall
+be at home."
+
+Home seemed so very safe!
+
+The Prince did not come in to luncheon, something was the matter with
+his Arab horse, and he had gone to see to it just before--a concern on
+his face as of the news of illness to his nearest kin.
+
+Tamara was gay and charming, and laughed with Stephen Strong and the
+captain in quite an unusual way for her. They both thought her an
+adorable woman. Poor Tamara! and so she really was.
+
+About tea-time Prince Milaslávski turned up again.
+
+"He is all right now," he said, sure that his listeners were in perfect
+sympathy with him. "It was those fools down there. I have made them
+suffer, I can say," and then he turned to Stephen Strong. "Among the
+steerage there is an Alexandrian gipsy troupe. I have ordered them up
+to sing to us to-night, since Madame wished it," and he turned upon
+Millicent an air of deep devotion.
+
+"Common ragged creatures, but one with some ankles and one with a voice.
+In any case, we must celebrate these ladies' last night."
+
+And thus the terrible present end to their acquaintance fell about!
+
+Nothing could have been more charming than the Prince was until
+dinner-time, and indeed through that meal, only he made Stephen Strong
+change places with him, so that he might be next Mrs. Hardcastle, much
+to that lady's delight.
+
+"He is really too fascinating," she said, as she came into Tamara's
+cabin to fetch her for the evening meal. "I hardly think Henry would
+like his devotion to me. What do you think, dear?"
+
+"I am sure he would be awfully jealous, Milly darling; you really must
+be careful," Tamara said. And with a conscious air of complacent
+pleasantly tickled virtue Mrs. Hardcastle led the way to the saloon.
+
+It was not possible, Tamara thought, that anything so terribly
+unpleasant as the Prince's having too much champagne at dinner, could
+have accounted for his simply scandalous behavior after; and yet surely
+that would have been the kindest thing to say. But, no, it was not
+that.
+
+This was, in brief, the scene which was enacted on the upper deck:
+
+With the permission of the captain, the gipsy troupe were brought, and
+began their performance, tame enough at the commencement until the
+Prince gave orders for them to be supplied with unlimited champagne,
+and then the wildest dancing began. They writhed and gesticulated and
+undulated in a manner which made Millicent cling on to her chair, grow
+crimson in the face, and finally start to her feet.
+
+But the worst happened when the Prince rose and, taking a tambourine,
+began, with a weird shriek, to beat it wildly, his eyes ablaze and his
+lips apart.
+
+Then, seizing the chief dancer and banging it upon her head, he held
+his arm about her heaving breast, as she turned to him with a
+serpentine movement of voluptuous delight.
+
+In a second he had caught hold of her, and had lifted and swung her far
+out over the dark blue waters, then, with a swirl to the side, held her
+suspended in the air above the open deck below.
+
+"Ha, ha!" yelled the troupe, in frenzied pleasure, and, nimble as a
+cat, one rough dark man rushed down the ladder and caught the hanging
+woman in his arms. Then they all clapped and cheered and shrieked with
+joy, while the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets, pulled out
+heaps of gold and flung it among them.
+
+"Back to hell, rats!" he shouted, laughing. "See, you have frightened
+the ladies. You should all be killed!"
+
+For Tamara and Millicent had risen, and with stately steps had quitted
+the scene.
+
+It was all too terrible and too vulgarly melodramatic, Tamara thought,
+especially that touching of the woman and that flinging of the gold,
+the latter caused by the same barbaric instinct which made him throw
+the silver in the Sheikh's village by the moonlit Sphinx, only this was
+worse a thousandfold.
+
+The next morning the two ladies left the ship at Brindisi before
+either the Prince or Stephen Strong was awake. Both were silent upon
+the subject of the night before, until Millicent at last said when they
+were in the train:
+
+"Tamara--you won't tell Henry or your family, will you, dear? Because
+really, last night he was so fascinating--but that dancing! I am sure
+you feel, with me, we could have died of shame."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+When Tamara reached Underwood and saw a letter from her Russian
+godmother among the pile which awaited her, she felt it was the finger
+of fate, and when she read it and found it contained not only New
+Year's wishes, but an invitation couched in affectionate and persuasive
+terms that she should visit St. Petersburg, she suddenly, and without
+consulting her family, decided she would go.
+
+"There is something drawing me to Russia," she said to herself. "One
+gets into the current of things. I felt it in the air. And why should I
+hesitate now I am free? Why should I not accept, just because one
+Russian man has horrified me. It is, I suppose, a big city, and perhaps
+I shall never see him there."
+
+So she announced her decision to the dumfounded household, and in less
+than a week took the Nord Express.
+
+"The Court, alas! is in mourning,"--her godmother had written,--
+"so you will see no splendid Court balls, but I daresay we can divert
+you otherwise, Tamara, and I am so anxious to make the acquaintance of
+my godchild."
+
+The morning after she left them Aunt Clara expressed herself thus at
+breakfast:
+
+"I see a great and most unwelcome change in dear Tamara since she
+returned from Egypt, I had hoped Millicent Hardcastle would be all that
+was steadying and well-balanced as a companion for her, but it seems
+this modern restlessness has got into her blood. I tremble to think
+what ideas she will bring from Russia. Almost savages they are there!--
+She may be sent to Siberia or something dreadful, and we may never see
+her again."
+
+"Oh! come Aunt Clara!" Tom Underdown protested, as he buttered his
+toast. "I think you are a little behind the times. There is a Russian
+at Oxford with me and he is the decentest chap in the world. You speak
+as though they almost lived on raw fish!"
+
+"My dear Tom," said Miss Underdown, severely. "I was reading only
+yesterday, in the 'Christian Clarion,' how one of their Emperors cut
+off everyone's head. Dreadful customs they have, it seems; and one of
+their Empresses--Catherine, I think; her name was. Well, dear, it is
+too shocking to speak of--and most people were sent to the mines!"
+
+"Oh! hang it all, Aunt Clara, you can't have looked at the date! You
+can hunt up just those jolly kind of stories about our Henry VIII. if
+you want to, you know, and our Elizabeth wasn't the saint they made
+out. And as for Siberia, I am going there myself some day, on the
+Trans-Siberian Railway. Tamara will be all right. I wish to heavens she
+had taken me with her. We have got dry rot in this house, that is what
+is the matter with us!"
+
+"Tom!" almost gasped Miss Underdown. "Your manners are extremely
+displeasing, and the tone of your remarks is far from what one could
+wish!"
+
+Meanwhile Tamara was speeding on her way to the North, her interest and
+excitement in her journey deepening with each mile.
+
+The snow and the vast forests impressed her from the train windows.
+Every smallest shade made its effect upon her brain. Tamara was
+sensitive to all form and color. She was a person who apprehended
+things, and from the habit of keeping all her observations to herself
+perhaps the faculty of perception had grown the keener.
+
+The silence seemed to be the first thing she remarked on reaching the
+frontier. The porters were so grave and quiet, with their bearded
+kindly faces, many of them like the saints and Biblical characters in
+Sunday-school picture books at home.
+
+And finally she arrived at St. Petersburg, and found her godmother
+waiting for her on the platform. They recognized each other
+immediately. Tamara had several photographs of the Princess Ardácheff.
+
+"Welcome, _ma filleule_," that lady cried, while she shook her hand.
+"After all these years I can have you in my house."
+
+They said all sorts of mutually agreeable things on their way thither,
+and they looked at each other shyly.
+
+"She is not beautiful," ran the Princess' comments. "Though she has a
+superb air of breeding--that is from her poor mother--but her eyes are
+her father's eyes. She is very sweet, and what a lovely skin--yes, and
+eyelashes--and probably a figure when one can see beneath the furs--
+tall and very slender in any case. Yes, I am far from disappointed--
+far."
+
+And Tamara thought:
+
+"My godmother is a splendid looking lady! I like her bright brown eyes
+and that white hair; and what a queer black mole upon her left cheek,
+like an early eighteenth-century beauty spot. Where have I heard lately
+of someone with a mole------?
+
+"You fortunately see our city with a fresh mantle of snow, Tamara," the
+Princess said, glancing from the automobile window as they sped along.
+"It is not, alas! always so white as this."
+
+It appeared wonderful to Tamara--so quite unlike anything she had
+imagined. The tiny sleighs seemingly too ridiculously small for the
+enormously padded coachman on the boxes--the good horses with their
+sweeping tails--the unusual harness. And, above all, again the silence
+caused by the snow.
+
+Her first remark was almost a childish one of glee and appreciation,
+and then she stopped short. What would her godmother think of such an
+outburst! She must return to the contained self-repression of the time
+before her visit to the Sphinx--surely in this strange land!
+
+The Princess Ardácheff's frank face was illuminated with a smile.
+
+"She is extremely young," she thought, "in spite of her widowhood, but
+I like her, and I know we shall be friends."
+
+Just then they arrived at her house in the Serguiefskaia. It had not
+appeared to Tamara that they were approaching any particularly
+fashionable quarter. A fine habitation seemed the neighbor of quite a
+humble one, and here there was even a shop a few doors down, and except
+for the very tall windows there was nothing exceptionally imposing on
+the outside. But when they entered the first hall and the gaily-
+liveried suisse and two footmen had removed their furs, and the
+Princess' snow boots, then Tamara perceived she was indeed in a
+glorious home.
+
+Princess Ardácheff's house was, and is, perhaps the most stately in all
+Petersburg.
+
+As they ascended the enormous staircase dividing on the first landing,
+and reaching the surrounding galleries above in two sweeps, a grave
+major-domo and more footmen met them, and opened wide the doors of a
+lofty room. It was full of fine pictures and objets d'art, and though
+the furniture dated from the time of Alexander II., and even a little
+earlier--when a flood of frightful taste pervaded all Europe--still the
+stuffs and the colors were beautiful and rich, and time had softened
+their crudity into a harmonious whole.
+
+Be the decorations of a house what they will, it is the mistress of it
+who gives the rooms their soul. If hers is vulgar, so will the rooms
+be, even though Monsieur Nelson himself has but just designed them in
+purest Louis XVI. But the worst of all are those which look as though
+their owner constantly attended bazaars, and brought the superfluous
+horrors she secured there back with her. Then there are vapid rooms,
+and anaemic rooms, and fiddly, and messy rooms, and there are monuments
+of wealth with no individuality at all.
+
+Tamara felt all these _nuances_ directly, and she knew that here dwelt
+a woman of natural refinement and a broad outlook.
+
+She sank into an old-fashioned sofa, covered with silk a quarter of an
+inch thick, and the atmosphere seemed to breathe life and completeness.
+
+Tea and quantities of different little _bonnes bouches_ awaited them.
+But if there was a samovar she did not recognize it as such; in fact,
+she had seen nothing which many writers describe as "Russian."
+
+The Princess talked on in a fashion of perfect simplicity and
+directness. She told her that her friends would all welcome her and be
+glad that an Englishwoman should really see their country, and find it
+was not at all the grotesque place which fancy painted it.
+
+"We are so far away that you do not even imagine us," she said. "You
+English have read that there was an Ivan the Terrible and a Peter the
+Great, who crushed through your Evelyn's hedges, and was a giant of
+seven foot high! Many of you believe wolves prowl in the streets at
+night, and that among the highest society Nihilists stalk, disguised as
+heaven knows what! While the sudden disappearance of a member of any
+great or small family can be accounted for by a nocturnal visit of
+police, and a transportation in chains to Siberian mines! Is it not so,
+Tamara?"
+
+Tamara laughed. "Yes, indeed," she said. "I am sure that is what Aunt
+Clara thinks now! Are we not a ridiculously insular people, Marraine?"
+
+She said the last word timidly and put out her hand. "May I call you
+Marraine, Princess?" she asked. "I never knew my mother, and it sounds
+nice."
+
+"Indeed, yes!" the Princess said, and she rose and kissed Tamara. "Your
+mother was very dear to me, long ago, before you were born, we spent a
+wild season together of youth and happiness. You shall take the place
+of my child Tamara, if she had lived."
+
+Before they had finished drinking their tea, other guests came in--a
+tall old General in a beautiful uniform, and two ladies, one young and
+the other old. They all spoke English perfectly, and were so agreeable
+and _sans façon_, Tamara's first impression was distinctly good.
+
+Presently she heard the elder lady say to her godmother:
+
+"Have you seen Gritzko since his return, Vera? One hears he has a wild
+fit on and is at Milasláv with------" the rest of the words were almost
+whispered. Tamara found herself unpleasantly on the alert--how
+ridiculous, though, she thought--Gritzko!--there might be a dozen
+Gritzkos in Petersburg.
+
+"No, he returns tonight," Princess Ardácheff said; "but I never listen
+to these tales, and as no matter what he does we all forgive him, and
+let him fly back into our good graces as soon as he purses up that
+handsome mouth of his--it is superfluous to make critiques upon his
+conduct--it seems to me!"
+
+The lady appeared to agree to this, for she laughed, and they talked of
+other things, and soon all left.
+
+And when they were gone--"Tonight I have one or two of my nicest
+friends dining," the Princess said, "whom I wish you to know, so I
+thought if you rested now you would not be too tired for a little
+society," and she carried Tamara off to her warm comfortable bedroom,
+an immense apartment in gorgeous Empire taste, and here was a great
+bunch of roses to greet her, and her maid could be seen unpacking in
+the anti-chamber beyond.
+
+The company, ten or twelve of them, were all assembled when Tamara
+reached one of the great salons, which opened from the galleries
+surrounding the marble hall. She came in--a slender willowy creature,
+with a gentle smile of contrition--was she late?
+
+And then the presentations took place. What struck her first was that
+dark or fair, fat-faced or thin, high foreheads or low, all the ladies
+wore _coiffées_ exactly the same--the hair brushed up from the forehead
+and tightly _ondulés_. It gave a look of universal distinction, but in
+some cases was not very becoming. They were beautifully dressed in
+mourning, and no one seemed to have much of a complexion, from an
+English point of view, but before the end of the evening Tamara felt
+she had never met women with such charm. Surely no other country could
+produce the same types, perfectly simple in manner--perfectly at ease.
+Extremely highly educated, with a wide range of subjects, and a
+knowledge of European literature which must be unsurpassed. Afterwards
+when she knew them better she realized that here was one place left in
+Europe where there were no _parvenues_ and no snobs--or if there were
+any, they were beautifully concealed. Such absolute simplicity and
+charm can only stay in a society where no one is trying "to arrive,"
+all being there naturally by birth. There could be no room for the
+_métier_ adopted by several impecunious English ladies of title--that
+of foisting anyone, however unsuitable, upon society and their friends
+for a well-gilded consideration.
+
+In Russia, at least, it is the round peg in the round hole. No square
+peg would have a chance of admission. Thus there are the ease and
+elegance of one large and interesting family.
+
+It seemed to Tamara that each one was endowed with natural fascination.
+They made no "frais" for her. There were no compliments or gushing
+welcomes. They were just casual and delightful and made her feel at
+home and happy with them all.
+
+They took "Zacouska" in an ante-room. Such quantities of strange
+dishes! There seemed enough for a whole meal, and Tamara wondered how
+it would be possible to eat anything further! At dinner she sat between
+a tall old Prince and a diplomat. The uniforms pleased her and the
+glorious pearls of the ladies. Such pearls--worth a king's ransom!
+
+Then she was interested to see the many different sorts of wine, and
+the extreme richness of the food, and finally the shortness of the
+meal.
+
+The pretty custom of the men kissing the hostess' hand as they all left
+the dining-room together, she found delightful.
+
+They were drinking coffee in the blue salon, and most of the party had
+retired to the bridge tables laid out, and Tamara, who played too
+badly, sat by the fire with her godmother and another lady, when
+suddenly the door opened and, with an air of complete insouciance and
+assurance, Prince Milaslávski came in.
+
+"I want some coffee, Tantine," he said, kissing the Princess' hand,
+while he nodded to everyone else. "I was passing and so came in to get
+it."
+
+"Gritzko--back again!" the whole company cried, and the Princess,
+beaming upon him fond smiles, gave him the coffee, while she murmured
+her glad welcome.
+
+The society now began to chaff him as to his doings, which he took with
+the utmost _sang froid_.
+
+"That old cat of a Marianne Mariuski sets about as usual one of her
+stories. I am having an orgie at Milasláv, and this time with a
+seraglio of Egyptian houris--the truth being I only brought back by
+the merest chance one small troupe of Alexandrian dancers, and two
+performing bears. They made us laugh for three days, Serge, Sasha, and
+the rest!"
+
+"Gritzko, will you never learn wisdom," said one lady, the Princess
+Shébanoff, plaintively, while the others all laughed. "Were they
+pretty, and what were they like?" they asked.
+
+"The bears?--little angels, especially Fatima,--and with the manners of
+Princesses," and he bowed to an old lady who was surveying him severely
+through her pince-nez, while she held her cards awry. "Which reminds me
+we are failing in ours, Tantine, you have not presented me to the
+English lady, who is, I perceive, a stranger."
+
+During all this Tamara had sat cold and silent. She was angry with
+herself that this man's entrance should cause her such emotion--or
+rather commotion and sensation. Why should he make her feel nervous and
+stupid, unsure of herself, and uncertain what to do. Invariably he
+placed her at some disadvantage, and left the settling of their
+relations to himself. Whereas all such regulations ought to have been
+in her hands. Now she was without choice again, she could only bow
+stiffly as her godmother said his name and her name, and Prince
+Milaslávski took a chair by her side and began making politenesses as
+though he were really a stranger.
+
+Had she just arrived? Did she find Russia very cold? Was she going to
+stay long? etc., etc.
+
+To all of which Tamara answered in monosyllables, while two bright
+spots of rose color burned in her cheeks.
+
+The Prince was astonishingly good looking in his Cossack's uniform, and
+his eyes had a laugh in them, but a shadow round as if bed had not seen
+him for several nights.
+
+His whole manner to Tamara was different from any shade it had formerly
+worn. It was as if a courtly Russian were welcoming an honored guest
+in his aunt's house.
+
+He did not mock or tease, or announce startling truths; he was pleasant
+and ordinary and serene.
+
+He and the Princess Ardácheff were no real blood relations; the first
+wife of her late husband had been his mother's sister, but the
+tradition of aunt had gone on in the family and the Princess loved him
+almost as a son. He had always called her "Tantine" as though she had
+been his real aunt.
+
+"What did you think of Gritzko Milaslávski, Tamara?" she asked, when
+all the guests were gone, and the two had retired to Tamara's room. "He
+is one of the dearest characters when you know him--but a terrible
+tease."
+
+"He seemed very pleasant," Tamara said blankly, while she picked up a
+book. Even to speak of him caused her unease.
+
+"He is not at all the type of an ordinary Russian," the Princess
+continued. "He has traveled so much, he is so _fin_ there is almost a
+French touch in him. I am afraid you will find our young men rather
+dull as a rule. They are very hard worked at their military duties,
+and have not much time for _les dames du monde_."
+
+"No?" said Tamara. "Well, the women seem to make up for it. I have
+never met so many clever delightful ones."
+
+"It is our education," the Princess said. "You see from babyhood we
+learn many languages, and thus the literatures of countries are open to
+us before we begin to analyze anything, and English especially we know
+well, because in that language there are so many books for young
+girls."
+
+"In England," said Tamara, "what may be given to young girls seems to
+rule everything, no one is allowed a thought for herself, every idea
+almost is brought down to that dead level--one rebels after a while--
+but tell me, Marraine, if I may ask, what makes them all so tired and
+gray looking, the people I have seen tonight I mean. Do they sit up
+very late at parties, or what is it?"
+
+"In the season, yes, but it is not that, it is our climate and our hot
+closed-up rooms, and the impossibility of taking proper exercise. In
+the summer you will not know them for the same faces."
+
+And then she kissed her goddaughter good-night, but just at the door
+she paused. "You were not shocked about the Alexandrian dancers, I
+hope, child?" she said. "If one knew the truth, they were poor people
+who were starving, probably, and Gritzko paid them money and helped
+them out of the kindness of his heart--those are the sort of things he
+generally does I find when I investigate, so I never pay attention to
+what he says."
+
+Tamara, left to herself, gazed into the glowing embers of her wood
+fire.
+
+"I wonder--I wonder," she said. But what she wondered she hardly dared
+admit--even to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The next day was the last of the Russian old year--the 13th of January
+new style--and when Tamara appeared about ten o'clock in her
+godmother's own sitting-room, a charming apartment full of the most
+interesting miniatures and bibelots collected by the great Ardácheff,
+friend of Catherine II., she found the Princess already busy at her
+writing table.
+
+"Good-morning, my child," she said. "You behold me up and working at a
+time when most of my countrywomen are not yet in their baths. We keep
+late hours here in the winter, while it is dark and cold. You will get
+quite accustomed to going to bed at two and rising at ten; but
+to-night, if it pleases you to fall in with what is on the tapis for
+you, I fear it will be even four in the morning before you sleep.
+Prince Milaslávski has telephoned that he gives a party at his house on
+the Fontonka, to dine first and then go on to a café to hear the
+Bohemians sing. It is a peculiarity of the place these Bohemians--we
+shall drink in the New Year and then go. It will not bore you. No? Then
+it is decided," and she pressed a lovely little Faberger enamel bell
+which lay on the table near, and one of the innumerable servants, who
+seemed to be always waiting in the galleries, appeared. She spoke to
+him in Russian, and then took up the telephone by her side, and
+presently was in communication with the person she had called.
+
+"It is thou, Gritzko? Awake? Of course she is awake, and here in the
+room. Yes, it is arranged--we dine--not until nine o'clock?--you cannot
+be in before. Bon. Now promise you will be good.--Indeed, yes.--Of
+course any English lady would be shocked at you--So!--I tell you she is
+in the room--pray be more discreet," and she smiled at Tamara, and then
+continued her conversation. "No, I will not talk in Russian, it is very
+rude.--If you are not completely _sage_ at dinner we shall not go on.--
+I am serious! Well, good-bye,"--and with a laugh the Princess put the
+receiver down.
+
+"He says nothing would shock you--he is sure you understand the world!
+Well, we must amuse ourselves, and try and restrain him if he grows
+too wild."
+
+"He is often wild, then?" Tamara said.
+
+The Princess rose and stood by the window looking out on the thickly
+falling snow.
+
+"I am afraid--a little--yes, though never in the wrong situation; above
+all things Gritzko is a gentleman; but sometimes I wish he would take
+life less as a game. One cannot help speculating how it can end."
+
+"Has he no family?" Tamara asked.
+
+"No, everyone is dead. His mother worshipped him, but she died when he
+was scarcely eighteen, and his father before that. His mother is his
+adored memory. In all the mad scenes which he and his companions, I am
+afraid, have enacted in the Fontonka house, there is one set of rooms
+no one has dared to enter--her rooms--and he keeps flowers there, and
+an ever-burning lamp. There is a strange touch of sentiment and
+melancholy in Gritzko, and of religion too. Sometimes I think he is
+unhappy, and then he goes off to his castle in the Caucasus or to
+Milasláv, and no one sees him for weeks. Last year we hoped he would
+marry a charming Polish girl--he quite paid her attention for several
+nights; but he said she laughed one day when he felt sad, and answered
+seriously when he was gay, and made crunching noises with her teeth
+when she eat biscuits!--and her mother was fat and she might grow so
+too! And for these serious reasons he could not face her at breakfast
+for the rest of his life! Thus that came to an end. No one has any
+influence upon him. I have given up trying. One must accept him as he
+is, or leave him alone--he will go his own way."
+
+Tamara had ceased fighting with herself about the interest she took in
+conversations relating to the Prince. She could not restrain her desire
+to hear of him, but she explained it now by telling herself he was a
+rather lurid and unusual foreign character, which must naturally be an
+interesting study for a stranger.
+
+"It was an escape for the girl at least, perhaps," she said, when the
+Princess paused.
+
+"Of that I am not sure; he is so tender to children and animals, and
+his soul is full of generosity and poetry--and justice too. Poor
+Gritzko," and the Princess sighed.
+
+Then Tamara remembered their conversation during their night ride from
+the Sphinx, and she felt again the humiliating certainty of how
+commonplace he must have found her.
+
+Presently the Princess took her to see the house. Every room filled
+with relics of the grand owners who had gone before. There were
+portraits of Peter the Great, and the splendid Catherine, in almost
+every room.
+
+"An Empress so much misjudged in your country, Tamara," her godmother
+said. "She had the soul and the necessities of a man, but she was truly
+great."
+
+Tamara gazed up at the proud _débonnaire_ face, and she thought how at
+home they would think of the most unconventional part of her character,
+to the obliteration of all other aspects, and each moment she was
+realizing how ridiculous and narrow was the view from the standpoint
+from which she had been made to look at life.
+
+For luncheon quite a number of guests arrived, the Princess, she found
+afterward, was hardly ever alone.
+
+"I don't care to go out, Tamara, as a rule, to déjeuner," she said,
+"but I love my house to be filled with young people and mirth."
+
+The names were very difficult for Tamara to catch, especially as they
+all called each other by their _petits noms_--all having been friends
+since babyhood, if not, as often was the case, related by ties of
+blood; but at last she began to know that "Olga" was the Countess
+Gléboff, and "Sonia," the Princess Solentzeff-Zasiekin--both young,
+under thirty, and both attractive and quite _sans gêne_.
+
+"Olga" was little and plump, with an oval face and rather prominent
+eyes, but with a way of saying things which enchanted Tamara's ear. Her
+manner was casualness itself, and had a wonderful charm; and another
+thing struck her now that she saw them in daylight, not a single woman
+present--and there were six or seven at least--had even the slightest
+powder on her face. They were as nature made them, not the faintest aid
+from art in any way. "They cannot be at all coquette like the French,"
+she thought, "or even like us in England, or they could not all do
+their hair like that whether it suits them or no! But what charm they
+have--much more than we, or the French, or any one I know."
+
+They were all so amusing and gay at lunch and talked of teeny scandals
+with a whimsical humor at themselves for being so small, which was
+delightful, and no one said anything spiteful or mean. Quantities of
+pleasant things were planned, and Tamara found her days arranged for a
+week ahead.
+
+That night, as they drove to Prince Milaslávski's dinner, an annoying
+sense of excitement possessed Tamara. She refused to ask herself why.
+Curiosity to see the house of this strange man--most likely--in any
+case, emotion enough to make her eyes bright.
+
+It was one of the oldest houses in Petersburg, built in the time of
+Catherine, about 1768, and although in a highly florid rococo style of
+decoration, as though something gorgeous and barbaric had amalgamated
+with the Louis XV., still it had escaped the terrible wave of 1850
+vandalism, and stood, except for a few Empire rooms, a monument of its
+time.
+
+Everything about it interested Tamara. The strange Cossack servants in
+the hall; the splendid staircase of stone and marble, and then finally
+they reached the salons above.
+
+"One can see no woman lives here," she thought, though the one they
+entered was comfortable enough. Huge English leather armchairs elbowed
+some massively gilt seats of the time of Nicholas I., and an ugly
+English high fender with its padded seat, surrounded the blazing log
+fire.
+
+The guests were all assembled, but host, there was not!
+
+"What an impertinence to keep them waiting like this," Tamara thought!
+However, no one seemed to mind but herself, and they all stood laughing
+or sitting on the fender in the best of spirits.
+
+"I will bet you," said Olga Gléboff, in her attractive voice, "that
+Gritzko comes in with no apology, and that we shall none of us be able
+to drag from him where he has been!"
+
+As she spoke he entered the room.
+
+"Ah! you are all very early," he said, shaking their hands in frank
+welcome. "So good of you, dear friends. Perhaps I am a little late, you
+will forgive me, I know; and now for Zacouska, a wolf is tearing at my
+vitals, I feel, and yours too. It is nine o'clock!"
+
+Then the dining-room doors at the side opened and they all went in _en
+bande_, and gathered round the high table, where they began to eat like
+hungry natural people, selecting the dishes they wanted. Some of the
+men taking immense spoonfuls of caviare, and spreading them on bread,
+like children with jam. All were so joyous and so perfectly without
+ceremony. Nothing could be more agreeable than this society, Tamara
+thought.
+
+Some of the men were elderly, and a number the husbands of the various
+ladies; there were a few young officers and several diplomats from the
+Embassies, too. But young or old, all were gay and ready to enjoy life.
+
+"You must taste some vodka, Madame," Prince Milaslávski said, pouring a
+small glass at Tamara's side. "You will not like it, but it is Russian,
+and you must learn. See I take some, too, and drink your health!"
+
+Tamara bowed and sipped the stuff, which she found very nasty, with a
+whiff of ether in it. And then they all trouped to the large table in
+this huge dining-hall.
+
+Tamara sat on her host's right hand, and Princess Sonia on his left.
+
+To-night his coat was brown and the underdress black, it was quite as
+becoming as the others she had seen him in, with the strange belt and
+gold and silver trimmings and the Eastern hang of it all, and his great
+dark gray-blue eyes blazed at Tamara now and then with a challenge in
+them she could hardly withstand.
+
+"Now tell us, Gritzko, what did you do in Egypt this year?" Princess
+Sonia said. "It is the first time that no histories of your ways have
+come to our ears--were you ill?--or bored? We feared you were dead."
+
+"On the contrary, I was greatly alive," he answered gravely. "I was
+studying mummies and falling in love with the Sphinx. And just at the
+end I had a most interesting kind of experience; I came upon what
+looked like a woman, but turned out to be a mummy and later froze into
+a block of ice!"
+
+"Gritzko!" they called in chorus. "Can anyone invent such impossible
+stories as you!"
+
+"I assure you I am speaking the truth. Is it not so, Madame?" And he
+looked at Tamara and smiled with fleeting merry mockery in his eyes.
+"See," and he again turned to his guests, "Madame has been in Egypt she
+tells me, and should be able to vouch for my truth."
+
+Tamara pulled herself together.
+
+"I think the Sphinx must have cast a spell over you, Prince," she said,
+"so that you could not distinguish the real from the false. I saw no
+women who were mummies and then turned into ice!"
+
+Some one distracted Princess Sonia's attention for a moment, and the
+Prince whispered, "One can melt ice!"
+
+"To find a mummy?" Tamara asked with grave innocence. "That would be
+the inverse rotation."
+
+"And lastly a woman--in one's arms," the Prince said.
+
+Tamara turned to her neighbor and became engrossed in his conversation
+for the rest of the repast.
+
+All the women, and nearly all the men, spoke English perfectly, and
+their good manners were such that even this large party talked in the
+strange guest's language among themselves.
+
+"One must converse now as long as one can," her neighbor told her,
+"because the moment we have had coffee everyone will play bridge, and
+no further sense will be got out of them. We are a little behind the
+rest of the world always in Petersburg, and while in England and Paris
+this game has had its day, here we are still in its claws to a point of
+madness, as Madame will see."
+
+And thus it fell about.
+
+Prince Milaslávski gave Tamara his arm and they found coffee awaiting
+them in the salon when they returned there, and at once the rubbers
+were made up. And with faces of grave pre-occupation this lately merry
+company sat down to their game, leaving only the Prince and one lady
+and Tamara unprovided for.
+
+"Yes, I can play," she had said, when she was asked, "but it bores me
+so, and I do it so badly; may I not watch you instead?"
+
+The lady who made the third had not these ideas, and she sat down near
+a table ready to cut in. Thus the host and his English guest were left
+practically alone.
+
+"I did not mean you to play," he said, "I knew you couldn't--I arranged
+it like this."
+
+"Why did you know I couldn't?" Tamara asked. "I am too stupid perhaps
+you think!"
+
+"Yes--too stupid and--too sweet."
+
+"I am neither stupid--nor sweet!" and her eyes flashed.
+
+"Probably not, but you seem so to me.--Now don't get angry at once, it
+makes our acquaintance so fatiguing, I have each time to be presented
+over again."
+
+Then Tamara laughed.
+
+"It really is all very funny," she said.
+
+"And how is the estimable Mrs. Hardcastle?" he asked, when he had
+laughed too--his joyous laugh. "This is a safe subject and we can sit
+on the fender without your wanting to push me into the fire over it."
+
+"I am not at all sure of that," answered Tamara. She could not resist
+his charm, she could not continue quarrelling with him; somehow it
+seemed too difficult here in his own house, so she smiled as she went
+on. "If you laugh at my Millicent, I shall get very angry indeed."
+
+"Laugh at your Millicent! The idea is miles from my brain--did not I
+tell you when I could find a wife like that I would marry--what more
+can I say!" and the Prince looked at her with supreme gravity. "Did she
+tell 'Henry' that a devil of a Russian bear had got drunk and flung a
+gipsy into the sea?"
+
+"Possibly. Why were you so--horrible that night?"
+
+"Was I horrible?"
+
+"Probably not, but you seemed so to me," Tamara quoted his late words.
+
+"I seem horrible--and you seem sweet."
+
+"Surely the stupid comes in too!"
+
+"Undoubtedly, but Russia will cure that, you will not go away for a
+long time."
+
+"In less than four weeks."
+
+"We shall see," and the Prince got up and lit another cigarette. "You
+do not smoke either? What a little good prude!"
+
+"I am not a prude!" Tamara's ire rose again. "I have tried often with
+my brother Tom, and it always makes me sick. I would be a fool, not a
+prude, to go on, would not I?"
+
+"I am not forcing you to smoke. I like your pretty teeth best as they
+are!"
+
+Rebellion shook Tamara. It was his attitude toward her--one of supreme
+unconcerned command--as though he had a perfect right to take his
+pleasure out of her conversation, and play upon her emotions, according
+to his mood. She could have boxed his ears.
+
+"How long ago is it since we danced in Egypt--a fortnight, or more? You
+move well, but you don't know anything about dancing," he went on.
+"Dancing is either a ridiculous jumping about of fools, who have no
+more understanding of its meaning than a parcel of marionettes. Or it
+is an expression of some sort of emotion. The Greeks understood that in
+their Orchiesis, each feeling had its corresponding movement. For me it
+means a number of things. When a woman is slender and pliant and smooth
+of step, and if she pleases me otherwise, then it is not waste of
+time!--Tonight I shall probably get drunk again," and he flicked the
+ash off his cigarette with his little finger; and even though Tamara
+was again annoyed with him, she could not help noticing that his hands
+were fine and strong.
+
+"But you were not drunk on the ship--you could not even plead that,"
+she said, almost shocked at herself for speaking of anything so
+horrible.
+
+"It is the same thing. I feel a mad supercharge of life--an
+intoxication of the senses, perhaps. It has only one advantage over the
+champagne result. I am steady on my feet, and my voice is not thick!"
+
+Tamara did not speak.
+
+"I wonder what this music we shall hear will say to you. Will it make
+the milk and water you call blood in your veins race?--it will amuse me
+to see."
+
+"I am not made for your amusement, Prince. How dare you always treat me
+as you do?" And Tamara drew herself up haughtily. "And if my veins
+contain milk and water, it is at least my own."
+
+"You dared me once before, Madame," he said, smiling provokingly. "Do
+you think it is quite wise of you to try it again?"
+
+"I do not care if it is wise or no. I hate you!" almost hissed poor
+Tamara.
+
+Then his eyes blazed, as she had never seen them yet. He moved nearer
+to her, and spoke in a low concentrated voice.
+
+"It is a challenge. Good. Now listen to what I say. In a little short
+time you shall love me. That haughty little head shall lie here on my
+breast without a struggle, and I shall kiss your lips until you cannot
+breathe."
+
+For the second time in her life Tamara went dead white--he saw her pale
+even to her lips. And since the moment was not yet, and since his mood
+was not now to make her suffer, he bent over with contrition and asked
+her to forgive him in a tender voice.
+
+"Madame--I am only joking--but I am a brute," he said.
+
+Tamara rose and walked to the bridge tables, furious with herself that
+he could have seen his power over her, even though it were only to
+cause rage.
+
+He came up behind her and sat down and began to talk nicely again--
+about the sights to be seen in the capital, and the interesting
+museums and collections of pictures and arms. Nothing could be more
+correct than his manner, and the bridge players who were within earshot
+smiled, while Countess Olga thought.
+
+"Either Gritzko has just been making love to the Englishwoman, or he is
+immensely bored--The latter from his face."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The company stopped their game about a quarter to twelve, and tables
+and champagne and glasses were brought in, and hand in hand they made a
+circle and drank in the New Year.
+
+Tamara took care to stand by Princess Ardácheff, but her host looked at
+her as he raised his glass. Then they descended to the hall, and were
+wrapped in their furs again to go to the café where the Bohemians were
+to sing.
+
+Tamara and the Princess were already in the latter's coupé when Prince
+Milaslávski called out: "Tantine--! take me too--I am slim and can sit
+between you, and I want to arrive soon, I have sent my motor on with
+Serge and Valonne."
+
+And without waiting he got in.
+
+They had to sit very close, and Tamara became incensed with herself,
+because in spite of all her late rage with the Prince, she experienced
+a sensation which was disturbing and unknown. The magnetic personality
+of the man was so strong. He bent and whispered something to the
+Princess, and then as though sharing a secret, he leaned the other way,
+and whispered to Tamara, too. The words were nothing, only some
+ordinary nonsense, of which she took no heed. But as he spoke his lips
+touched her ear. A wild thrill ran through her, she almost trembled, so
+violent was the emotion the little seemingly accidental caress caused.
+A feeling she had never realized in the whole of her life before. Why
+did he tease her so. Why did he always behave in this maddening manner!
+and choose moments when she was defenseless and could make no move. Of
+one thing she was certain, if she should stay on in Russia she must
+come to some understanding with him if possible, and prevent any more
+of these ways--absolutely insulting to her self-respect.
+
+So she shrunk back in her corner and gave no reply.
+
+"Are you angry with me?" he whispered. "It was the shaking of the
+automobile which caused me to come too near you. Forgive me, I will try
+not to sin again,"--but as he spoke he repeated his offense!
+
+Tamara clasped her hands together, tightly, and answered in the coldest
+voice--
+
+"I did not notice anything, Prince, it must be a guilty conscience
+which causes you to apologize."
+
+"In that case then all is well!" and he laughed softly.
+
+The Princess now joined in the conversation.
+
+"Gritzko, you must tell Mrs. Loraine how these gipsies are, and what
+she will hear--she will think it otherwise so strange."
+
+He turned to Tamara at once.
+
+"They are a queer people who dwell in a clan. They sing like the
+fiend--one hates it or loves it, but it gets on the nerves, and if a
+man should fancy one of them, he must pay the chief, not the girl. Then
+they are faithful and money won't tempt them away. But if the man makes
+them jealous, they run a knife into his back."
+
+"It sounds exciting at all events," Tamara said.
+
+"It is an acquired taste, and if you have a particularly sensitive ear
+the music will make you feel inclined to scream. It drives me mad."
+
+"Gritzko," the Princess whispered to him. "You promise to be _sage_,
+dear boy, do you not? Sometimes you alarm me when you go too far."
+
+"Tantine!" and he kissed her hand. "Your words are law!"
+
+"Alas! if that were only true," she said with a sigh.
+
+"Tonight all shall be suited to the eleven thousand virgins!" and he
+laughed. "Or shall I say suited to an English _grande dame_--which is
+the same!"
+
+They had crossed the Neva by now, and presently arrived at a building
+with a gloomy looking door, and so to a dingy hall, in which a few
+waiters were scurrying about. They seemed to go through endless shabby
+passages, like those of a lunatic asylum, and finally arrived at a
+large and empty room--empty so far as people were concerned--for at the
+end there were sofas and a long narrow table, and a few smaller ones
+with chairs.
+
+The tables were already laid, with dishes of raw ham and salted almonds
+and various _bonnes bouches_, while brilliant candelabra shone amidst
+numerous bottles of champagne.
+
+The company seemed to have forgotten the gloom that playing bridge had
+brought over them, and were as gay again as one could wish, while
+divesting themselves of their furs and snow-boots.
+
+And soon Tamara found herself seated on the middle sofa behind the long
+table, Count Gléboff on her right, and the French Secretary, Count
+Valonne, at her left, while beyond him was Princess Sonia, and near by
+all the rest.
+
+Their host stood up in front, a brimming glass in his hand.
+
+Then there filed in about twenty-five of the most unattractive
+animal-looking females, dressed in ordinary hideous clothes, who all
+took their seats on a row of chairs at the farther end. They wore no
+national costume nor anything to attract the eye, but were simply
+garbed as concierges or shop-girls might have been; and some were old,
+gray-haired women, and one had even a swollen face tied up in a black
+scarf! How could it be possible that any of these could be the "fancy"
+of a man!
+
+They were followed by about ten dark, beetle-browed males, who carried
+guitars.
+
+These were the famous Bohemians! Their appearance at all events was
+disillusioning enough. Tamara's disappointment was immense.
+
+But presently when they began to sing she realized that there was
+something--something in their music--even though it was of an intense
+unrest.
+
+She found it was the custom for them to sing a weird chant song on the
+name of each guest, and every one must drink to this guest's health,
+all standing, and quaffing the glasses of champagne down at one
+draught.
+
+That they all remained sober at the end of the evening seemed to do
+great credit to their heads, for Tamara, completely unaccustomed to the
+smoke and the warm room, feared even to sip at her glass.
+
+The toasting over, every one sat down, Prince Milaslávski and a Pole
+being the only two in front of the table, and they with immense spirit
+chaffed the company, and called the tunes.
+
+The music was of the most wild, a queer metallic sound, and the airs
+were full of unexpected harmonies and nerve-racking chords. It fired
+the sense, in spite of the hideous singers.
+
+They all sat there with perfectly immovable faces and entirely still
+hands,--singing without gesticulations what were evidently passionate
+love-songs! Nothing could have been more incongruous or grotesque!
+
+But the fascination of it grew and grew. Every one of their ugly faces
+remained printed on Tamara's brain. Long afterward she would see them
+in dreams.
+
+How little we yet know of the force of sounds! How little we know of
+any of the great currents which affect the world and human life!
+
+And music above any other art stirs the sense. Probably the Greek myth
+of Orpheus and his lute was not a myth after all; perhaps Orpheus had
+mastered the occult knowledge of this great power. Surely it would be
+worth some learned scientist's while to investigate from a
+psychological point of view how it is, and why it is, that certain
+chords cause certain emotions, and give base or elevating visions to
+human souls.
+
+The music of these gipsies was of the devil, it seemed to Tamara, and
+she was not surprised at the wild look in Prince Milaslávski's eyes,
+for she herself--she, well brought up, conventionally crushed English
+Tamara,--felt a strange quickening of the pulse.
+
+After an hour or so of this music, two of the younger Bohemian women
+began to dance, not in the least with the movements that had shocked
+Mrs. Hardcastle in the Alexandrian troupe on the ship, but a foolish
+valsing, while the shoulders rose and fell and quivered like the
+flapping wings of some bird. The shoulders seemed the talented part,
+not the body or hips.
+
+And then about three o'clock the entire troupe filed out of the room
+for refreshment and rest. The atmosphere was thick with smoke, and
+heated to an incredible extent. Some one started to play the piano, and
+every one began to dance a wild round--a mazurka, perhaps--and Tamara
+found herself clasped tightly in the arms of her Prince.
+
+She did not know the step, but they valsed to the tune, and all the
+time he was whispering mad things in Russian in her ear. She could not
+correct him, because she did not know what they might mean.
+
+"Doushka," he said at last. "So you are awake; so it is not milk and
+water after all in those pretty blue veins! God! I will teach you to
+live!"
+
+And Tamara was not angry; she felt nothing except an unreasoning
+pleasure and exultation.
+
+The amateur bandsman came to a stop, and another took his place; but
+the spell fortunately was broken, and she could pull herself together
+and return to sane ways.
+
+"I am tired," she said, when the Prince would have gone on, "and I am
+almost faint for want of air." So he opened a window and left her for a
+moment in peace.
+
+She danced again with the first man who asked her, going quickly from
+one to another so as to avoid having to be too often held by the
+Prince. But each time she felt his arm round her, back again would
+steal the delicious mad thrill.
+
+"I hope you are amusing yourself, dear child," her godmother said.
+"This is a Russian scene; you would not see it in any other land."
+
+And indeed Tamara was happy, in spite of her agitation and unrest.
+
+She sat down now with Olga Gléboff, and they watched the others while
+they took breath. The Prince was dancing with Princess Shébanoff, and
+her charming face was turned up to him with an adoring smile.
+
+"Poor Tatiane,--" Countess Olga said low to herself.
+
+When the gipsies returned, their music grew wilder than ever, and some
+of the solos seemed to touch responsive chords in Tamara's very bones.
+
+The Prince sat next her on the sofa now, and every few moments he would
+bend over to take an almond, or light a cigarette, so that he touched
+her apparently without intention, but nevertheless with intent. And the
+same new and intoxicating sensation would steal through her, and she
+would draw her slender figure away and try to be stiff and severe, but
+with no effect.
+
+It was long after five o'clock before it was all done, and they began
+to wrap up and say "Goodnight." And the troupe, bowing, went out to
+another engagement they had.
+
+"They sing all night and sleep in the day," Count Gléboff told Tamara,
+as they descended the stairs. "At this time of the year they never see
+daylight, only sometimes the dawn."
+
+"Tantine," said the Prince, "order your motor to go back. I sent for my
+troika, and it is here. We must show Madame Loraine what a sleigh feels
+like."
+
+And the Princess agreed.
+
+Oh! the pleasure Tamara found when presently they were flying over the
+snow, the side horses galloping with swift, sure feet. And under the
+furs she and her godmother felt no cold, while Gritzko, this wild
+Prince, sat facing them, his splendid eyes ablaze.
+
+Presently they stopped and looked out on the Gulf of Finland and a vast
+view. Above were countless stars and a young, rising moon.
+
+It was striking seven as they went to their rooms.
+
+Such was Tamara's first outing in this land of the North.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Six days went past before Tamara again saw the Prince. Whether he was
+busy or kept away because he wished to, she did not know--and would not
+ask--but a piqued sensation gradually began to rise as she thought of
+him.
+
+"I must arrange for you to go to Tsarsköi-Sélo to see the ceremony of
+the Emperor blessing the waters on the 6th of our January, Tamara," her
+godmother said, a day or two after the Bohemian feast. "I have seen it
+so often, and I do not wish to stand about in the cold, but Sonia's
+husband is one of the aides-de-camp, and, as you know, she lives at
+Tsarsköi. Olga is going out there, and will take you with her, and you
+three can go on; it will interest you, I am sure."
+
+And Tamara had gladly acquiesced.
+
+Tsarsköi-Sélo, which they reached after half an hour's train, seemed
+such a quaint place to her. Like some summer resort made up of wooden
+villas, only now they were all covered with snow. She and Countess
+Olga had gone together to Princess Sonia's house, and from there to the
+palace grounds, where they followed snow-cleared paths to a sort of
+little temple near the lake, where they were allowed to stand just
+outside the line of Cossacks and watch for the coming procession.
+
+The sky was heavy, and soon the snow began to fall intermittently in
+big, fluffy flakes. This background of white showed up the brilliant
+scarlet uniforms of the escort. Standing in long rows, they were an
+imposing sight. And Tamara admired their attractive faces, many so much
+more finely cut than the guards further on. They wore fierce beards,
+and they all seemed to be extremely tall and slim, with waists which
+would not have disgraced a girl. And, at the end of the line at the
+corner where they stood, she suddenly saw the Prince. He was talking to
+some other officers, and apparently did not see them. Tamara grew angry
+with herself at finding how the very sight of him moved her. The
+procession, soon seen advancing, was as a lesser interest, her whole
+real concentration being upon one scarlet form.
+
+From the time the signal was given that the Emperor had started from
+the palace all the heads were bare--bare in a temperature many degrees
+below freezing and in falling snow! It was the Prince who gave the word
+of command, and while he stood at attention she watched his face. It
+was severe and rigid, like the face of a statue. On duty he was
+evidently a different creature from the wild Gritzko of gipsy suppers.
+But there was no use arguing with herself--he attracted her in every
+case.
+
+Then the procession advanced, and she looked at it with growing
+amazement. This wonderful nation! so full of superstition and yet of
+common sense. It seemed astonishing that grown-up people should
+seriously assist at this ceremony of sentiment.
+
+First came the choir-boys with thick coats covering their scarlet
+gowns; then a company of singing men; then the priests in their
+magnificent robes of gold and silver, and then the Emperor, alone and
+bareheaded. Afterward followed the Grand Dukes and the standard of
+every guard regiment and finally all the aides-de-camps.
+
+When the Emperor passed she glanced again at the Prince. The setness of
+his face had given place to a look of devotion. There was evidently a
+great love for his master in his strange soul. When the last figure had
+moved beyond the little temple corner, the tension of all was relaxed,
+and they stood at ease again, and Gritzko appeared to perceive the
+party of ladies, and smiled.
+
+"I am coming to get some hot coffee after lunch, Sonia," he called out.
+"I promised Marie."
+
+"Does it not give them cold?" Tamara asked, as she looked at the
+Cossacks' almost shaven bare heads. "And they have no great-coats on!
+What can they be made of, poor things?"
+
+"They get accustomed to it, and it is not at all cold to-day,
+fortunately," Countess Olga said. "They would have their furs on if it
+were. Don't you think they are splendid men? I love to see them in
+their scarlet; they only wear it on special occasions and when they are
+with the Emperor, or at Court balls or birthdays. I am so glad you see
+Gritzko in his."
+
+Tamara did not say she had already seen the Prince in the scarlet coat;
+none of her new friends were aware that they had met before in Egypt.
+
+All this time the guns were firing, and soon the ceremony of dipping
+the cross in the water was over, and the procession started back again.
+
+It was the same as when it came, only the priests were wiping the cross
+in a napkin, and presently all passed out of sight toward the palace,
+and the three ladies walked quickly back to the waiting sleigh,
+half-frozen with cold.
+
+About ten minutes after they had finished lunch, and were sitting at
+coffee in Princess Sonia's cosy salon--so fresh and charming and like
+an English country house--they heard a good deal of noise in the
+passage, and the Prince came in. He was followed by a sturdy boy of
+eight, and carried in his arms a tiny girl, whose poor small body
+looked wizened, while in her little arms she held a crutch.
+
+"We met in the hall--my friend Marie and I," he said, as he bent to
+kiss Princess Sonia's hand, and then the other two ladies', "and we
+have a great deal to say to one another."
+
+"These are my children, Mrs. Loraine," Princess Sonia said. "They were
+coming down to see you; but now Gritzko has appeared we shall receive
+no attention, I fear," and she laughed happily, while the little boy
+came forward, and with beautiful manners kissed Tamara's hand.
+
+"You are an English lady," he said, without the slightest accent. "Have
+you a little boy, too?"
+
+Tamara was obliged to own she had no children, which he seemed to think
+very unfortunate.
+
+"Marie always has to have her own way, but while she is with Gritzko
+she is generally good," he announced.
+
+"How splendidly you speak English!" Tamara said. "And only eight years
+old! I suppose you can talk French, too, as well as Russian?"
+
+"Naturally, of course," he replied, with fine contempt. "But I'll tell
+you something--German I do very badly. We have a German governess, and
+I hate her. Her mouth is too full of teeth."
+
+"That certainly is a disadvantage," Tamara agreed.
+
+"When Gritzko gets up with us he makes her in a fine rage! She
+spluttered so at him last week the bottom row fell out. We were glad!"
+
+Princess Sonia now interrupted: "What are you saying, Peter?" she
+said. "Poor Fräulein! You know I shall have to forbid Gritzko from
+going to tea with you. You are all so naughty when you get together!"
+
+There was at once a fierce scream from the other side of the room.
+
+"Maman! we will have Gritzko to tea! I love him!--Je l'aime!" and the
+poor crippled tiny Marie nearly strangled her friend with a frantic
+embrace.
+
+"You see, Maman, we defy you!" the Prince said, when he could speak.
+
+The little boy now joined his sister, and both soon shrieked with
+laughter over some impossible tale which was being poured into their
+ears; and Princess Sonia said softly to Tamara:
+
+"He is too wonderful with children--Gritzko--when he happens to like
+them--isn't he, Olga? All of ours simply adore him, and I can never
+tell you of his goodness and gentleness to Marie last year when she had
+her dreadful accident. The poor little one will be well some day, we
+hope, and so I do not allow myself to be sad about it; but it was a
+terrible grief."
+
+Tamara looked her sympathy, while she murmured a few words. Princess
+Sonia was such a sweet and charming lady.
+
+More visitors now came in, and they all drank their coffee and tea, but
+the Prince paid no attention to any one beyond casual greetings; he
+continued his absorbing conversation with his small friends.
+
+Tamara was surprised at this new side of him. It touched her. And he
+was such a gloriously good-looking picture as he sat there in his
+scarlet coat, while Marie played with the silver cartridges across his
+breast, and Peter with his dagger.
+
+When she and Countess Olga left to catch an early afternoon train he
+came too. He had to be back in Petersburg, he said. Nothing could look
+more desolate than the tracts of country seen from the train windows,
+so near the capital and yet wild, uncultivated spaces, part almost like
+a marsh. There seemed to be nothing living but the lonely soldiers who
+guarded the Royal line a hundred yards or so off. It depressed Tamara
+as she gazed out, and she unconsciously sighed, while a sad look came
+into her eyes.
+
+The Prince and Countess Olga and another officer, who had joined them,
+were all chaffing gaily while they smoked their cigarettes, but Gritzko
+appeared to be aware of everything that was passing, for he suddenly
+bent over and whispered to Tamara:
+
+"Madame, when you have been here long enough you will learn never to
+see what you do not wish." Then he turned back to the others, and
+laughed again.
+
+What did he mean? she wondered. Were there many things then to which
+one must shut one's eyes?
+
+She now caught part of the conversation that was going on.
+
+"But why won't you come, Gritzko?" Countess Olga was saying. "It will
+be most amusing--and the prizes are lovely, Tatiane, who has seen them,
+says."
+
+"I?--to be glued to a bridge table for three solid evenings. Mon Dieu!"
+the Prince cried. "Having to take what partner falls to one's lot! No
+choice! My heavens! nothing would drag me. Whatever game I play in
+life, I will select my lady myself."
+
+"You _are_ tiresome!" Countess Olga said. When they got to the station
+the Princess's coupé was waiting, as well as the Gléboff sleigh.
+
+"Good-bye, and a thousand thanks for taking me," Tamara said, and they
+waved as Countess Olga drove off. And then the Prince handed her into
+the coupé and asked her if she would drop him on the way.
+
+For some time after they were settled under the furs and rushing along,
+he seemed very silent, and when Tamara ventured a few remarks he
+answered mechanically. At last after a while:
+
+"You are going to this bridge tournament at the Varishkine's, I
+suppose?" he suddenly said. "It ought to be just your affair."
+
+"Why my affair?" Tamara asked, annoyed. "I hate bridge."
+
+"So you do. I forgot. But Tantine will take you, all the same. Perhaps,
+if nothing more amusing turns up, I will drop in one night and see;
+but--wheugh!" and he stretched himself and spread out his hands--"I
+have been impossibly _sage_ for over a fortnight. I believe I must soon
+break out."
+
+"What does that mean, Prince--to 'break out'?"
+
+"It means to throw off civilized things and be as mad as one is
+inclined," and he smiled mockingly while some queer, restless spirit
+dwelt in his eyes. "I always break out when things make me think, and
+just now--in the train--when you looked at the sad country----"
+
+"That made you think?" said Tamara, surprised.
+
+"Well--never mind, good little angel. And now good-bye," and he kissed
+her hand lightly and jumped out; they had arrived at his house.
+
+Tamara drove on to the Serguiefskaia with a great desire to see him
+again in her heart.
+
+    *    *    *    *    *
+
+And so the days passed and the hours flew. Tamara had been in Russia
+almost three weeks; and since the blessing of the waters the time had
+been taken up with a continual round of small entertainments. The Court
+mourning prevented as yet any great balls; but there were receptions,
+and "bridges" and dinners, and night after night they saw the same
+people, and Tamara got to know them fairly well. But after the
+excursion to Tsarsköi-Sélo for several days she did not see the
+Prince. His military duties took up his whole time, her godmother said.
+And when at last he did come it was among a crowd, and there was no
+possible chance of speech.
+
+"This bores me," he announced when he found the room full of people,
+and he left in ten minutes, and they did not see him again for a week,
+when they met him at a dinner at the English Embassy.
+
+Then he seemed cool and respectful and almost commonplace, and Tamara
+felt none of the satisfaction she should have done from this changed
+order of things.
+
+At the bridge tournament he made no appearance whatever.
+
+"Why do we see Prince Milaslávski so seldom when we go out, Marraine?"
+she asked her godmother one day. "I thought all these people were his
+intimate friends!"
+
+"So they are, dear; but Gritzko is an odd creature," the Princess said.
+"He asked me once if I thought he was an _imbécile_ or a performing
+monkey, when I reproached him for not being at the balls. He only goes
+out when he is so disposed. If some one person amuses him, or if he
+suddenly wants to see us all. It is merely by fits and starts--always
+from the point of view of if he feels inclined, never from the
+observance of any social law, or from obligation."
+
+"Why on earth do you put up with such manners?" Tamara exclaimed with
+irritation.
+
+"I do not know. We might not in any one else, but Gritzko is a
+privileged person," the Princess said. "You can't imagine, of course,
+dear, because you do not know him well enough, but he has ways and
+_façons_ of coaxing. He will do the most outrageous things, and make me
+very angry, and then he will come and put his head in my lap like a
+child, and kiss my hands, and call me 'Tantine,' and, old woman as I
+am, I cannot resist him. And if one is unhappy or ill, no one can be
+more tender and devoted." Then she added dreamily:--"While as a lover I
+should think he must be quite divine."
+
+Tamara took another cup of tea and looked into the fire. She was
+ashamed to show how this conversation interested her.
+
+"Tatiane Shébanoff is madly in love with him, poor thing, and I do not
+believe he has ever given her any real encouragement," the Princess
+continued. "I have seen him come to a ball, and when all the young
+women are longing for him to ask them to dance, he will go off with me,
+or old Countess Nivenska, and sit talking half the night, apparently
+unaware of any one else's presence."
+
+"It seems he must be the most exasperating, tiresome person one has
+ever heard of, Marraine," Tamara exclaimed. "He rides over you all, and
+you cannot even be angry, and continually forgive him."
+
+"But then he has his serious side," the Princess went on, eager to
+defend her favorite. "He is now probably studying some deep military
+problem all this time, and that is why we have not seen him,"--and then
+noticing the scornful pose of Tamara's head she laughed. "Don't be so
+contemptuous, dear child," she--said. "Perhaps you too will understand
+some day."
+
+"That is not very likely," Tamara said.
+
+But alas! for the Princess' optimistic surmises as to the Prince's
+occupations, a rumor spread toward the end of the week of the maddest
+orgie which had taken place at the Fontonka house. It sounded like a
+phantasmagoria in which unclothed dancers, and wild beasts, and
+unheard-of feats seemed to float about. And the Princess sighed as she
+refuted the gossip it caused.
+
+"Oh, my poor Gritzko! if he might only even for a while remain in a
+state of grace," she said.
+
+And Tamara's interest in him, in spite of her shocked contempt, did not
+decrease.
+
+And so the time went on.
+
+She was gradually growing to know the society better, and to get a peep
+at the national point of view. They were a wonderfully uncomplex
+people, with the perfect ease which only those at the bottom of the
+social ladder who have not started to climb at all, and those who have
+reached the top, like these, can have. They were casually friendly when
+the strangers pleased them, and completely unimpressed with their
+intrinsic worth if they did not. They seemed to see in a moment the
+shades in people, and only to select the best. And when Tamara came to
+talk seriously with even the most apparently frivolous, she found they
+all had the same trace of vague melancholy and mystery, as though they
+were grasping in the dark for something spiritual they wished to seize.
+Their views and boundaries of principles in action seemed to be
+limitless, just as their vast country seems to have no landmarks for
+miles. One could imagine the unexpected happening in any of their
+lives. And the charm and fascination of them continued to increase.
+
+It was late one afternoon when Prince Milaslávski again came
+prominently into view on Tamara's horizon.
+
+She was sitting alone reading in the blue salon when he walked
+unceremoniously in.
+
+"Give me some tea, Madame," he said. "The Princess met me in the hall,
+and told me I should find you here; so now let us begin by this."
+
+Tamara poured it out and leaned back in the sofa below the beautiful
+Falconet group, which made--and makes--the glory of the blue salon in
+the Ardácheff House. She felt serene. These two weeks of unawakened
+emotions and just pleasant entertainments since the day at Tsarsköi had
+given her fresh poise.
+
+"And what do you think of us by now, Madame?" he asked.
+
+"I think you are a strange band," she said. "You are extremely
+intellectual, you are brilliant, and yet in five minutes all
+intelligence can fade out of your faces, and all interest from your
+talks, and you fly to bridge."
+
+"It is because we are primitive and unspoilt; this is our new toy, and
+we must play with it; the excitement will wane, and a fresh one
+come----" he paused and then went on in another tone--
+
+"You in England have many outlets for your supervitality--you cannot
+judge of other nations who have not. You had a magnificent system of
+government. It took you about eight hundred years to build up, and it
+was the admiration of the world--and now you are allowing your
+Socialists and ignorant plebeian place hunters to pull it all to pieces
+and throw it away. That is more foolish surely, than even to go crazy
+over bridge!"
+
+Tamara sighed.
+
+"Have you ever been in England, Prince?" she asked.
+
+He sat down on the sofa beside her.
+
+"No--but one day I shall go, Paris is as far as I have got on the road
+as yet."
+
+"You would think us all very dull, I expect, and calculating and
+restrained," Tamara said softly. "You might like the hunting, but
+somehow I do not see you in the picture there--"
+
+He got up and moved restlessly to the mantlepiece, where he leaned,
+while he stirred his tea absently. There was almost an air of bravado
+in the insouciant tone of his next remark--
+
+"Do you know, I did a dreadful thing," he said. "And it has grieved me
+terribly, and I must have your sympathy. I hurt my Arab horse. You
+remember him, Suliman, at the Sphinx?"
+
+"Yes," said Tamara.
+
+"I had a little party to some of my friends, and we were rather gay--
+not a party you would have approved of, but one which pleased us all
+the same--and they dared me to ride Suliman from the stables to the big
+saloon."
+
+"And I suppose you did?" Tamara's voice was full of contempt.
+
+He noticed the tone, and went on defiantly:
+
+"Of course; that was easy; only the devil of a carpet made him trip at
+the bottom again, and he has strained two of his beautiful feet. But
+you should have seen him!" he went on proudly. "As dainty as the finest
+gentleman in and out the chairs, and his great success was putting his
+forelegs on the fender seat!"
+
+"How you have missed your metiér!" Tamara said, and she leant back in
+her sofa and surveyed him as he stood, a graceful tall figure in his
+blue long coat. "Think of the triumph you would have in a Hippodrome!"
+
+He straightened himself suddenly, his great eyes flashed, and over his
+face came a fierceness she had not guessed.
+
+"I thought you had melted a little--here in our snow, but I see it is
+the mummy there all the same," he said.
+
+Tamara laughed. For the first time it was she who held the reins.
+
+"Even to the wrappings,"--and she gently kicked out the soft gray folds
+of her skirt.
+
+He took a step nearer her, and then he stood still, and while the
+fierceness remained in his face, his eyes were full of pain.
+
+She glanced up at him, and over her came almost a sense of indignation
+that he should so unworthily pass his time.
+
+"How you waste your life!" she said. "Oh! think to be a man, and free,
+and a great landowner. To have thousands of peasants dependent upon
+one's frown. To have the opportunity of lifting them into something
+useful and good. And to spend one's hours and find one's pleasure in
+such things as this! Riding one's favorite horse at the risk of its and
+one's own neck, up and down the stairs. Ah! I congratulate you,
+Prince!"
+
+He drew himself up again, as if she had hit him, and the pain in his
+eyes turned to flame.
+
+"I allow no one to criticize my conduct," he said. "If it amused me to
+ride a bear into this room and let it eat you up, I would not
+hesitate."
+
+"I do not doubt it," and Tamara laughed scornfully. "It would be in a
+piece with all the rest."
+
+He raised his head with an angry toss, and then they looked at each
+other like two fighting cats, when fortunately the door opened, and the
+Princess came in.
+
+In a moment he had laughed, and resumed his habitually insouciant mien.
+
+"Madame has been reading me a lecture," he said. "She thinks I am
+wasted in the Emperor's escort, and a circus is my place."
+
+Tamara did not speak.
+
+"Why do you seem always to quarrel so, Gritzko?" the Princess said,
+plaintively. "It really quite upsets me, dear boy."
+
+"You must not worry, Tantine," and he kissed the Princess' hand. "We
+don't quarrel; we are the best of friends; only we tell one another
+home truths. I came this afternoon to ask you if you will come to
+Milasláv next week. I think Madame ought to see Moscow, and we might
+make an excursion from there just for a night," and he looked at Tamara
+with a lifting of the brows.
+
+"Then, Tantine, she could see how I cow my peasants with a knout, and
+grind them to starvation. It would be an interesting picture for her to
+take back to England."
+
+"I should enjoy all that immensely, of course," Tamara said,
+pleasantly. "Many thanks, Prince."
+
+"I shall be so honored," and he bowed politely; then, turning to the
+Princess: "You will settle it, won't you, Tantine?"
+
+"I will look at our engagements, dear boy. We will try to arrange it. I
+can tell you at the ballet," and the Princess smiled encouragingly up
+at him. "My godchild has not seen our national dancing yet, so we go
+to-night with Prince Miklefski and Valonne."
+
+"Then it is au revoir," he said, and kissing their hands he left them.
+
+When the door was shut and they were alone.
+
+"Tamara, what had you said to Gritzko to move him so?" the Princess
+asked. "I, who know every line of his face, tell you I have not seen
+him so moved since his mother's death."
+
+So Tamara told her, describing the scene.
+
+"My dear, you touched him in a tender spot," her godmother said. "His
+mother was a saint almost to those people at Milasláv; they worshipped
+her. She was very beautiful and very sweet, and after her husband's
+death she spent nearly all her life there. She started schools to teach
+the peasants useful things, and she encouraged them and cared for their
+health; and her great wish was that Gritzko should carry out her
+schemes. She was no advanced Liberal, the late Princess, but she had
+such a tender heart, she longed to bring happiness to those in her
+keeping, and teach them to find happiness themselves."
+
+"And he has let it all slide, I suppose," Tamara said.
+
+"Well, not exactly that," and the Princess sighed deeply; "but I dare
+say these over gay companions of his do not leave him much time for the
+arrangement such things require. Ah! if you knew, Tamara," she went on,
+"how fond I am of that boy, and how I feel the great and noble parts of
+his character are running to waste, you would understand my grief."
+
+"You are so kind, dear Marraine," Tamara said. "But surely he must be
+very weak."
+
+"No, he is not weak; it is a dare-devil wild strain in him that seems
+as if it must out. He has a will of iron, and never breaks his word;
+only to get him to be serious, or give his word, is as yet an
+unaccomplished task. I sometimes think if a great love could come into
+his life it would save him--his whole soul could wake to that."
+
+Tamara looked down and clasped her hands.
+
+"But it does not seem likely to happen, does it, Marraine?"
+
+The Princess sighed again.
+
+"I would like him to love you, dear child," she said; and then as
+Tamara did not answer she went on softly almost to herself: "My brother
+Alexis was just such another as Gritzko. That season he spent with me
+in London, when your mother and I were young, he played all sorts of
+wild pranks. We three were always together. He was killed in a duel
+after, you know. It was all very sad."
+
+Tamara stroked her godmother's hand.
+
+"Dear, dear Marraine," she said.
+
+Then they checked sentiment and went to dress for dinner, arm in arm.
+They had grown real friends in these three short weeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The scene at the ballet was most brilliant, as it is always on a Sunday
+night. The great auditorium, with its blue silk-curtained boxes, the
+mass of glittering uniforms, and the ladies in evening-dress, although
+they were all in black, made a gay spectacle almost like a gala night.
+Then it is so delightful to have one's eyes pleased with what is on the
+stage and yet be able to talk.
+
+But Tamara, as she sat and looked at it, was not enjoying herself. She
+was overcome with a vague feeling of unrest. She hated having to admit
+that the Prince was the cause of it. She could not look ahead; she was
+full of fear. She knew now that when he was near her she experienced
+certain emotion, that he absorbed far too much of her thoughts. He did
+not really care for her probably, and if he did, how could one hope to
+be happy with such a wild, fierce man? No, she must control herself;
+she must conquer his influence over her, and if she could not she
+could at least go away. England seemed very uninteresting and calm--and
+safe!
+
+Filled with these sage resolutions she tried to fix her eyes on the
+stage, but unconsciously they continually strayed to a tall blue figure
+which was seated in the front row of the stalls with a number of
+officers of the Chevaliers Gardes. And when the curtain went down,--and
+instead of the Prince joining them in the box, as she fully expected he
+would do, he calmly leaned against the orchestra division and surveyed
+the house with his glasses--she felt a sudden pang, and talked as best
+she might to the many friends who thronged to pay the Princess court.
+
+Gritzko did not even glance their way! he stood laughing with his
+comrades, and it would have been impossible to imagine anything more
+insouciant and attractive and provoking than the creature looked.
+
+"No wonder Tatiane Shébanoff is in love with him--or that actress--or--
+the rest!" Tamara thought.
+
+And then a wave of rage swept over her. She at least would not give in
+and join this throng! To be his plaything. _She would_ be mistress of
+herself and her thoughts!
+
+But alas! all these emotions not unmixed with pique, spoilt the
+ballet's second act!
+
+For the interval after it, the two ladies got up and went into the
+little ante-chamber beyond the box. Tamara was glad. There she could
+not see what this annoying Prince would do.
+
+What he did do was to open the door in a few minutes and saunter in. He
+greeted Tamara with polite indifference, and having calmly displaced
+Count Valonne, sat down by the Princess' side.
+
+Valonne was a charming person, and he and Tamara were great friends. He
+chatted on now, and she smiled at him, but with ears preternaturally
+sharpened she heard the conversation of the other pair.
+
+It was this.
+
+"Tantine, I am feeling the absolute devil tonight. Will you come and
+have supper with me after this infernal ballet is over?"
+
+"Gritzko--what is it? Something has disturbed you!"
+
+He leant forward and rested his chin on his hands. "Well, your haughty
+guest touched me with too sharp a spur, perhaps," he said, "but she was
+right. I do waste my life. I have been thinking of my mother. I believe
+she might not be pleased with me sometimes. And then I felt mad, and
+now I must do something to forget. So if you won't sup--"
+
+"Oh! Gritzko!" the Princess said.
+
+"I telephoned home and ordered things to be ready. I know you don't
+like a restaurant. Say you will come," and he kissed her hand. "I have
+asked all the rest." And the Princess had to consent!
+
+"You must promise not to quarrel any more with my godchild if we do. I
+am sure you frighten and upset her, Gritzko--promise me," she said. He
+laughed.
+
+"I upset her! She is too cold and good to be upset!"
+
+Tamara still continued to talk to Valonne, and presently they all moved
+into the box, and the Prince sat down beside her, and again as he
+leaned over in the shaded light that nameless physical thrill crept
+over her. Was she really cold, she asked herself. If so, why should she
+shiver as she was shivering now?
+
+"I wonder if you have any heart at all, Madame?" he said. "If under the
+mummy's wrappings there is some flesh and blood?"
+
+Then she turned and answered him with passion. "Of course there is,"
+she said.
+
+He bent over still nearer. "Just for to-night, shall we not quarrel or
+spar?" he whispered. "See, I will treat you as a sister and friend. I
+want to be petted and spoilt--I am sad."
+
+Tamara, of course, melted at once! His extraordinarily attractive voice
+was very deep and had a note in it which touched her heart.
+
+"Please don't be sad," she said softly. "Perhaps you think I was unkind
+to-day, but indeed it was only because--Oh! because it seemed to me
+such waste that you--you should be like that."
+
+"It hurt like the fiend, you know," he said, "the thought of the damned
+circus. I think we are particularly sensitive as a race to those sort
+of things. If you had been a man I would have killed you."
+
+"I hated to hear what you told me," and Tamara looked down. "It seemed
+so dreadful--so barbaric--and so childish for a man who really has a
+brain. If you were just an animal person like some of the others are,
+it would not have mattered; but you--please I would like you never to
+do any of these mad things again--"
+
+Then she stopped suddenly and grew tenderly pink. She realized the
+inference he must read in her words.
+
+He did not speak for a moment, only devoured her with his great
+blue-gray eyes. Of what he was thinking she did not know. It made her
+uncomfortable and a little ashamed. Why had she melted, it was never
+any use. So she drew herself up stiffly and leaned back in her seat.
+
+Then down at the side by the folds of her dress he caught her hand
+while he said quite low:
+
+"Madame, I must know--do you mean that?"
+
+"Yes," she said, and tried to take away her hand. "Yes, I mean that I
+think it dreadful for any human being to throw things away--and Oh! I
+would like you to be very great."
+
+He did not let go her hand, indeed he held it the more tightly.
+
+"You are a dear after all, and I will try," he said. "And when I have
+pleased you you must give me a reward."
+
+"Alas! What reward could I give you, Prince," she sighed.
+
+"That I will tell you when the time comes."
+
+Thus peace seemed to be restored, and soon the curtain fell for the
+interval before the last act, and the Prince got up and went out of the
+box.
+
+He did not reappear again, but was waiting for them to start for his
+house.
+
+"I met Stephen Strong, Tantine," he said. "He left me at Trieste, you
+know, and only arrived in Petersburg to-day. He has got a cousin with
+him, Lord something, so I have asked them both to come along. They will
+be a little late they said."
+
+"It is not Jack Courtray by chance--is it?" Tamara asked, in an
+interested voice, as they went. "Mr. Strong has a cousin who lives near
+us in the country and he is always traveling about."
+
+"Yes, I think that is the name--Courtray. So you know him then!" and
+the Prince leant forward from the seat which faced them. "An ami
+d'enfance?"
+
+"We used to play cricket and fish and bird's-nest," she said. "Tom--my
+brother Tom--was his fag at Eton--he is one of my oldest friends--dear
+old Jack."
+
+"How fortunate I met him to-night!"
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+Then her attention was diverted, as it always was each time she saw the
+blazing braziers and heaped up flaming piles of wood at the corners of
+the streets, since she had been in Russia. "How glad I am there is
+something to make the poor people warm," she said.
+
+"When it gets below twelve degrees it is difficult to enjoy life,
+certainly," the Prince agreed. "And, indeed, it is hard sometimes not
+to freeze."
+
+It was a strange lurid picture, the Isvostchiks drawn round, while the
+patient horses with their sleighs stood quiet some little distance off.
+
+How hard must existence be to these poor things.
+
+Supper could not be ready for half an hour, the Prince told them when
+they got to the Fontonka House, and as they all arrived more or less
+together, they soon paired off for bridge.
+
+"I am going to show Mrs. Loraine my pictures," the host said. "She
+admires our Catherine and Peter the Great."
+
+And in the salon where they all sat, he began pointing out this one and
+that, making comments in a distrait voice. But when they came to the
+double doors at the end he opened them wide, and led Tamara into
+another great room.
+
+"This is the ballroom," he said. "It is like all ballrooms, so we shall
+not linger over that. I have two Rembrandts in my own apartment beyond
+which it may interest you to see, and a few other relics of the past."
+
+He was perfectly matter of fact, his manner had not a shade of
+gallantry in it, and Tamara accepted this new situation and followed
+him without a backward thought.
+
+They seemed to go through several sheet-shrouded salons and came out
+into a thoroughly comfortable room. Its general aspect of decoration
+had a Byzantine look, and on the floor were several magnificent bear
+skins, while around the walls low bookcases with quantities of books
+stood. And above them many arms were crossed. Over the mantlepiece a
+famous Rembrandt frowned, and another from the opposite wall. But it
+was strange there were no photographs of dancers or actresses about as
+Tamara would have thought.
+
+The Prince talked intelligently. He seemed to know of such things as
+pictures, and understood their technique. And if he had been an elderly
+art critic he could not have been more aloof.
+
+Presently Tamara noticed underneath the first picture there was hung a
+quaint sword. Something in its shape and workmanship attracted her
+attention, and she asked its history.
+
+The Prince took it down and placed it in her hand.
+
+"That sword belonged to a famous person," he said--"a Cossack--Stenko
+Razin was his name--a robber and a brigand and a great chief. He loved
+a lady, a Persian Princess whom he had captured, and one day when out
+on his yacht on the Volga, being drunk from a present of brandy some
+Dutch travellers had brought him, he clasped her in his arms. She was
+very beautiful and gentle and full of exquisite caresses, and he loved
+her more than all his wealth. But mad thoughts mounted to his brain,
+and after making an oration to the Volga for all the riches and plunder
+she had brought him, he reproached himself that he had never given this
+river anything really valuable in return, and then exclaiming he would
+repair his fault, unclasped the clinging arms of his mistress and flung
+her overboard."
+
+"What a horrible brute!" exclaimed Tamara, and she put down the sword.
+
+The Prince took it up and drew it from its sheath.
+
+"The Cossacks had a wild strain in them even in those days," he said.
+"You must not be too hard on me for merely riding my horse!"
+
+"Would you be cruel like that, too, Prince?" Tamara asked; and she sat
+down for a second on the arm of a carved chair. And when he had put the
+sword back in its place, he bent forward and leaned on the back of it.
+
+"Yes, I could be cruel, I expect," he said. "I could be even brutal if
+I were jealous, or the woman I loved played me false, but I would not
+be cruel to her while it hurt myself. Razin lost his pleasure for days
+through one mad personal act. It would have been more sensible to have
+kept her until he was tired of her, or she had grown cold to him. Don't
+you agree with me about that?"
+
+"It is a horrible history and I hate it," Tamara said. "Such ways I do
+not understand. For me love means something tender and true which could
+never want to injure the thing it loved."
+
+He looked at her gravely.
+
+"Lately I have wondered what love could mean for me. Tell me what you
+think, Madame," he said.
+
+She resolved not to allow any emotion to master her, though she was
+conscious of a sudden beating of her heart.
+
+"You would torture sometimes, and then you would caress."
+
+"I would certainly caress."
+
+He moved from his position and walked across the room, while he talked
+as though the words burst from him.
+
+"Yes, I should demand unquestioning surrender, and if it were refused
+me, then I might be cruel. And if my love were cold or capricious,
+_then_ I would leave her. But if she loved me truly--my God, it would
+be bliss."
+
+"Think how it would hurt her when you did those foolish things though,"
+Tamara said.
+
+He stopped short in his restless walk.
+
+"No one does foolish things when he is happy, Madame. All such
+outbursts are the froth of a soul in its seething. But if one were
+satisfied--" he paused, and then he went on again. "Oh! If you knew!--
+In the desert in Egypt I used to think I had found rest, sometimes. I
+am sated with this life here. A quoi bon, Madame!--the same thing year
+after year!--and then since I have known you. I have wondered if
+perhaps you in your country could teach me peace."
+
+"So many of you are so déséquilibrés," Tamara said. "You seem to be so
+polished and sensible and even great, and then in a moment you are off
+at a tangent, displaying that want of discipline that we at home would
+not permit in a child."
+
+"Yes it is true."
+
+"It seems that you love, and must have, or you hate and must kill.
+There are storms and passions, and the gaiety of children and their
+irresponsibility, and all on the top is good manners and smiles, but
+underneath--I have a feeling I know not what volcano may burst."
+
+"Tonight I feel one could flame with me." He came up close now and
+looked into her eyes, as if he were going to say something, and then he
+restrained himself.
+
+Tamara did not move, she looked at him gravely.
+
+"You all seem as if you had no aim," she said. "You are not interested
+in the politics of your country. You don't seem to do anything but kill
+time--Why?"
+
+"Our country!" he said, and he flung himself into a seat near. "It
+would be difficult to make you understand about that. In the old days
+of the serfs, it was all very well. One could be a good landlord and
+father to them all, but now----" Then he got up restlessly and paced
+the room. "Now there are so many questions. If one would think it would
+drive one mad, but I am a soldier, Madame, so I do not permit myself to
+speculate at all."
+
+"Things are not then as you would wish?" she asked.
+
+"As I would wish--no, not as I would wish--but as I told you, I do not
+mix myself up with them. I only obey the Emperor and shall to the end
+of my life."
+
+Tamara saw she had stirred too deep waters. His face wore a look of
+profound melancholy. She had never felt so drawn toward him. She let
+her eyes take in the picture he made. There was something very noble
+about his brow and the set of his head. Who could tell what thoughts
+were working in his brain. Presently he got up again and knelt by her
+side--his movements had the grace and agility of a cat. He took her
+hand and kissed it.
+
+"Madame, please don't make me think," he said. "The question is too
+great for one man to help. I do not go with the Liberals or any of the
+revolt. Indeed I am far on the other side. Good to this country should
+all have come in a different, finer way, and now it must work out its
+own salvation as best it may. For me, my only duty is to my master.
+Nothing else could count." His eyes which looked into hers seemed
+great sombre pools of unrest and pain.
+
+She did not take away her hand and he kissed it again.
+
+Then the clock on the mantlepiece chimed one, and she started to her
+feet.
+
+"Oh! Prince, should we not be thinking of supper," she said. "Come, let
+us forget we have been serious and go back and eat!"
+
+He rose.
+
+"They have probably gone in without us, they know me so well," he said;
+"but as you say, we will no more be serious, we will laugh."
+
+Then he took her hand, and merrily, like two children, they ran through
+all the big empty rooms to find exactly what he had predicted had
+occurred. The party were at supper quite unconcerned!
+
+It was such a gay scene. Princess Sonia and Serge Grekoff were busily
+cutting raw ham, by their places; while others drank tea or vodka or
+champagne, or helped themselves from various dishes the servants had
+brought up. There was no ceremony or stiffness, each one did as he
+pleased.
+
+And there sitting by Olga Gléboff, already perfectly at home, was Lord
+Courtray; and further down the Princess Ardácheff sat by Stephen
+Strong.
+
+"Gritzko--we could not wait!" Countess Olga said.
+
+Then both the Englishmen got up and greeted Tamara.
+
+"Fancy seeing you here, Tamara! What a bit of luck!" Jack Courtray
+said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Jack Courtray was a thoroughly good all-around sportsman, and had an
+immense success with women as a rule. His methods were primitive and
+direct. When not hunting or shooting, he went straight to the point
+with a beautiful simplicity unhampered by sentiment, and then when
+wearied with one woman, moved on to the next.
+
+He was a tremendously good fellow every man said. Just a natural animal
+creature, whom grooming and polishing in the family for some hundred or
+so of years had made into a gentleman.
+
+He was as ignorant as he could well be. To him the geography of the
+world meant different places for sport. India represented tigers and
+elephants. It had no towns or histories that mattered, it had jungles
+and forests. Africa said lions. Austria, chamois--and Russia, bears!
+
+Women were either sisters, or old friends and jolly comrades--like
+Tamara. Or they came under the category of sport. A lesser sport, to be
+indulged in when the rarer beasts were not obtainable for his gun--but
+still sport!
+
+He found himself in a delightful milieu. The prospect of certain bears
+in the near future--a dear old friend to frolic with in the immediate
+present, and the problematic joys of a possible affair to be indulged
+in meanwhile. No wonder he was in the best of spirits, and when Tamara,
+without _arrière pensée_, took the empty place at his side, he
+bent over her and filled her plate with the thinnest ham he had been
+able to cut, with all the apparent air of a devoted lover. And if she
+had looked up she would have seen that the Prince suddenly had begun to
+watch her with a fierceness in his eyes.
+
+"This is a jolly place," Jack Courtray said. He had just the faintest
+lisp, which sounded rather attractive, and Tamara, after the storms and
+emotions of the past few days, found a distinct pleasure and rest in
+his obviousness.
+
+It is an ill wind which blows no one any good, for presently the Prince
+turned and devoted himself to Tatiane Shébanoff.
+
+She was quite the prettiest of all this little clique, petite and fair
+and sweet. Divorced from a brute of a husband a year or so ago, and now
+married to an elderly Prince.
+
+And she loved Gritzko with passion, and while she was silent about it,
+her many friends told him so.
+
+For his part he remained unconcerned, and sometimes troubled himself
+about her, and sometimes not.
+
+And so the evening wore on, and apparently it had no distinct sign that
+it was to be one of the finger-posts of fate.
+
+When all had finished supper, they moved back into another great room.
+
+"You must notice this, Tamara, it is very Russian," her godmother said.
+
+It was an immense apartment with a great porcelain stove at one corner,
+and panelled with wood, and it suggested to Tamara, for no sane reason,
+something of an orthodox church! One end was bare, and the other
+carpeted with great Persian rugs, had huge divans spread about; there
+was an electric piano and an organ, and there were also crossed foils,
+and masks, and everything for a fencing bout.
+
+The Prince went to the piano and started a valse. Then he came up to
+Tamara and asked her to dance.
+
+There was no trace left of his respectful friendliness! His sleepy eyes
+were blazing, he had never looked more oriental, or more savage, or
+more intense.
+
+It was almost with a thrill of fear that Tamara yielded herself to his
+request. He clasped her so tightly she could hardly breathe, all she
+knew was she seemed to be floating in the air, and to be crushed
+against his breast.
+
+"Prince, please, I am suffocating!" she cried at last.
+
+Then he swung her off her feet, and stopped by an armchair, and Tamara
+subsided into it, panting, not able to speak. And all across her
+milk-white chest there were a row of red marks from the heavy silver
+cartridges, which cross in two rows in the Cossack dress.
+
+"I would like those brands of me to last forever," the Prince said.
+
+
+Tamara lay back in the chair a prey to tumultuous emotions. She ought
+to be disgusted she supposed, and of course she was--such an
+uncivilized horrible thought! but at the same time every nerve was
+tingling and her pulse was beating with the strange thrills she had
+only lately begun to dream of.
+
+"Tamara! By jove! What have you done to your neck?" Jack Courtray said,
+as he came up.
+
+And Tamara was glad she had a gauze scarf over her arm, which she
+wrapped around carelessly as she said:
+
+"Nothing, Jack--let's dance!"
+
+"What an awfully decent chap our host is, isn't he!" Lord Courtray
+said, as they ambled along in their valse. "And jolly good-looking
+too--for a foreigner. These Russians are men after my own heart!"
+
+"Yes, he is good-looking," admitted Tamara. "If he weren't so wild; but
+don't you think he has a frightfully savage expression, Jack?"
+
+"If you are intending to play with him, old girl, take my advice, you
+had better look out," and he laughed his merry laugh as they stopped
+because the piano stopped.
+
+Meanwhile the Prince had left the room.
+
+"Gritzko has gone to telephone for a Tzigane band," Princess Sonia
+said. "And to the club and to the reception at Madame Sueboffs, and
+soon we shall have enough people for a contre-danse--and some real
+fun."
+
+That it was almost three o'clock in the morning never seemed to have
+struck anyone!
+
+"Now, tell me everything, Tamara," Lord Courtray said, as they sat down
+on one of the big divans. "Give me a few wrinkles. I can see one wants
+to comprehend these tent ropes."
+
+"Well, first they are the nicest people you could possibly meet, Jack,"
+Tamara said. "And don't imagine because they skylark like this, and sit
+up all night, that they aren't most dignified when they have to be.
+That is their charm, this sense of the fitness of things. They have not
+got to have any pretence like some of us have. Not one of them has a
+scrap of pose. They are nice to you because they like you, or they
+leave you entirely alone if they do not. And some days when they are
+all together they will whisper and titter and have jokes among
+themselves, leaving you completely out in the cold--what would really
+be fearful ill-manners with us, but it is not in the least, it is just
+they have forgotten you are there, and as likely as not you will be the
+center of the whispering in the next minute. They are all like
+volcanoes with the most beautiful Faberger enamel on the top."
+
+"And the men? I suppose they make awful love?"
+
+"I don't think so," went on Tamara, while she stupidly blushed. "They
+all seem to be just merry friends, and the young ones don't go out very
+much. I don't mean the quite, quite young who dance with girls, but the
+young men. My godmother says they are very hard worked, and in their
+leisure they like to have dinners in their regiments--or at
+restaurants--with, with other sort of ladies, where they can do what
+they please. It seems a little elementary--don't you think so?"
+
+"Jolly common-sense!" said Jack Courtray.
+
+"And then, you see, if by chance, when they are in the world, if they
+do fall in love, it is possible for the lady to get a divorce here
+without any scandal and fuss, and the whole clan stick to their own
+member, no matter how much in the wrong she may be, and so all is
+arranged, and life seems much simpler and apparently happier than it is
+with us. If it is really so I cannot say, I have not been here long
+enough to judge."
+
+"It sounds a kind of Utopia," and Lord Courtray laughed. And just then
+the Prince came into the room again, and over to them and they got up
+and the two men went off together to examine the foils.
+
+Presently the band arrived and more guests, and soon the contre-danse
+was begun. That grown-up people could seriously take pleasure in this
+amazing romp was a new and delightful idea to Tamara.
+
+It was a sort of enormous quadrille with numerous figures and
+farandole, while one sat on a chair between the figures, as at a
+cotillon. And toward the end the company stamped and cried, and the
+band sang, and nothing could have been more gay and exciting and wild.
+
+Before they began, the Prince came up to Tamara and said:
+
+"I want you to dance this with me. I have had it on purpose to show you
+a real Russian sight."
+
+They had moved into the ballroom by then, which was now a blaze of
+light, while as if by magic the sheet coverings had been removed from
+the chairs.
+
+And the Prince exerted himself to amuse and please his partner, and did
+not again clasp her too tight, only whenever she had turns with her
+countryman, his eyes would flame, and he would immediately interrupt
+them and carry her off.
+
+Tamara felt perfectly happy, she was no longer analyzing and
+questioning, and she was no longer fighting against her inclination.
+She abandoned herself to the rushing stream of life.
+
+It was about five o'clock when some one suggested supper at the Islands
+was now the proper thing. This was the delightful part about them--on
+no occasion was there ever a halt for the consideration of ways and
+means. They wanted some particular amusement and--had it! Convention,
+from an English point of view, remained an unknown quantity.--Now those
+who decided to continue the feasting all got into their waiting
+conveyances.
+
+With the thermometer at fifteen degrees Reaumur, a coachman's life is
+not one altogether to be envied in Russia, but apparently custom will
+make anything endurable.
+
+"I know you like the troika, Tamara," Princess Ardácheff said. "So you
+go with Olga and Gritzko and your friend--only be sure you wrap up your
+head."
+
+And when they were all getting in, the Countess Gléboff said:
+
+"It is so terribly cold tonight, Gritzko. I am going to sit with my
+back to the horses, so as not to get the wind in my face."
+
+When they were tucked in under the furs this arrangement seemed to Jack
+Courtray one of real worth, for he instantly proceeded to take Countess
+Olga's hand, while he whispered that he was cold and she could not be
+so inhuman as to let a poor stranger freeze!
+
+It seemed amusing to look from the windows of a private room, down upon
+a gay supping throng, in the general salle at the restaurant on the
+Islands, while Tziganes played and their supper was being prepared.
+
+"Who could think it was five o'clock in the morning! What a lesson for
+our rotten old County Council in London," Jack Courtray said. "By Jove!
+this is the place for me!" and he proceeded to make violent love to
+Olga Gléboff, to who's side he remained persistently glued.
+
+And then the gayest repast began; nothing could have been more
+entertaining or full of wild _entrain_, and yet no one over-did
+it, or was vulgar or coarse.
+
+At the last moment, when they were all starting for home about seven
+o'clock, Countess Olga decided she could not face the cold of the open
+sleigh, and Lord Courtray and she got into her motor instead.
+
+It was done so quickly, Tamara was already packed into the troika, and
+the outside steeds were prancing in their desire to be off.
+
+"The horses won't stand," the Prince said, and he jumped in beside her
+and gave the order to go. Thus Tamara found herself alone with him
+flying over the snow under the stars.
+
+There was a delicious feeling of excitement in her veins. They neither
+of them spoke for a while, but the Prince drew nearer and yet nearer,
+and presently his arm slipped round her, and he folded her close.
+
+"Doushka," he whispered. "I hate the Englishman--and life is so short.
+Let us taste it while we may," and then he bent and kissed her lips!
+
+Tamara struggled against the intense intoxicating emotion she was
+experiencing. What frightful tide was this which had swept into her
+well-ordered life! She vainly put up her arms and tried to push him
+away, but with each sign of revolt he held her the tighter.
+
+"Darling," he said softly in her ear. "My little white soul. Do not
+fight, it is perfectly useless, because I _will_ do what I wish.
+See, I will be gentle and just caress you, if you do not madden me by
+trying to resist!"
+
+Then he gathered her right into his arms, and again bent and most
+tenderly kissed her. All power of movement seemed to desert Tamara. She
+only knew that she was wildly happy, that this was heaven, and she
+would wish it never to end.
+
+She ceased struggling and closed her eyes, then he whispered all sorts
+of cooing love words in Russian and French, and rubbed his velvet
+eyelids against her cheek, and every few seconds his lips would come to
+meet her lips.
+
+At last, when they had crossed the Troitzka bridge, he permitted her to
+release herself, and only held her hands under the furs, because dawn
+was breaking and they could be observed.
+
+But when they turned into the wide Serguiefskaia, which seemed
+deserted, he bent once more and this time with wildest passion he
+seemed to draw her very soul through her lips.
+
+Then ere she could speak, they drew up at the door, and he lifted her
+out, and before the Suisse and the waiting footmen.
+
+"Good-night, Madame--sleep well," he calmly said.
+
+But Tamara, trembling with mad emotion, rushed quickly to her room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+In life there comes sometimes a tidal wave in the ebb of which all old
+landmarks are washed out. And so it was with Tamara. She had fallen
+into bed half dead with fatigue and emotion, but when she woke the
+sickly gray light of a Russian winter mid-day pouring into her room,
+and saw her maid's stolid face, back rushed the events of the night,
+and she drew in her breath with almost a hiss. Yes, nothing could ever
+be the same again. "Leave me, Johnson," she said, "I am too tired, I
+cannot get up yet."
+
+And the respectful maid crept from the room.
+
+Then she lay back in her pillows and forced herself to face the
+position, and review what she had done, and what she must now do.
+
+First of all, she loved Gritzko, that she could no longer argue with
+herself about. Secondly, she was an English lady, and could not let
+herself be kissed by a man whose habit it was to play with whom he
+chose, and then pass on. She was free, and he was free, it followed his
+caressing then--divine as it had been--was an absolute insult. If he
+wanted her so much he should have asked her to marry him. He had not
+done so, therefore the only thing which remained for her to do, was to
+go away. The sooner the better.
+
+Then she thought of all the past.
+
+From the moment of the good-bye at the Sphinx it had been a humiliation
+for her. Always, always, he had been victor of the situation. Had she
+been ridiculously weak? What was this fate which had fallen upon her?
+What had she done to draw such circumstances? Then even as she lay
+there, communing sternly with herself, a thrill swept over her, as her
+thoughts went back to that last passionate kiss. And her slender hands
+clenched under the clothes.
+
+"If he really loved me," she sighed, "I would face the uncertain
+happiness with him. I know now he causes me emotions of which I never
+dreamed and for which I would pay that price. But I have no single
+proof that he does really love me. He may be playing in the same way
+with Tatiane Shébanoff--and the rest." And at this picture her pride
+rose in wild revolt.
+
+Never, never! should he play with her again at least!
+
+Then she thought of all her stupid ways, perhaps if she had been
+different, not so hampered by prejudice, but natural like all these
+women here, perhaps she could have made him really love her.--Ah!--if
+so.
+
+This possibility, however, brought no comfort, only increased regret.
+
+The first thing now to be done was to restrain herself in an iron
+control. To meet him casually. To announce to her godmother that she
+must go home, and as soon as the visit to Moscow should be over, she
+would return to England. She must not be too sudden, he would think she
+was afraid. She would be just stiff and polite and serene, and show him
+he was a matter of indifference to her, and that she had no intention
+to be trifled with again!
+
+At last, aching in mind and body, she lay still. Meanwhile, below in
+the blue salon, the Princess Ardácheff was conversing with Stephen
+Strong.
+
+"Yes, mon ami," she was saying. "You must come--we go in a week--the
+day after my ball, to show Tamara Moscow, and from there to spend a
+night at Milasláv. Olga and Sonia and her husband and the Englishman,
+and Serge Grekoff and Valonne are coming, and it will be quite
+amusing."
+
+"Think of the travelling and my old bones!" And Stephen Strong smiled.
+"But since it is your wish, dear Princess, of course I must come."
+
+They were old and very intimate friends these two, and with him the
+Princess was accustomed to talk over most of her plans.
+
+He got up and lit a cigarette, then he walked across the room and came
+back again, while his hostess surveyed him with surprise. At last he
+sat down.
+
+"Vera, tell me the truth," he said. "How are things going? I confess
+last night gave me qualms."
+
+The Princess gazed at him inquiringly.
+
+"Why qualms?"
+
+"You see, Gritzko is quite an exceptional person, he is no type of a
+Russian or any other nation that one can reckon with, he is himself,
+and he has the most attractive magnetic personality a man could have."
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"And if you knew the simple unsophisticated atmosphere in which your
+godchild has been brought up----."
+
+"Stephen, really,"--and the Princess tapped her foot impatiently.
+"Please speak out. Say what you mean."
+
+"She is no more fitted to cope with him than a baby, that is what I
+mean."
+
+"But why should she cope with him? Are not men tiresome!" and the
+Princess sighed. "Can't you see I want them to love one another. It is
+just that--if she would not snub and resist him--all would be well."
+
+"It did not look much like resistance last night," said Stephen Strong.
+"And if Gritzko is only playing the fool, and means nothing serious,
+then I think it is a shame."
+
+"You don't suggest, surely, that I should interfere with fate?"
+
+"Only to the extent of not giving him unlimited opportunities. You
+remember that season in London--and your brother Alexis--and her
+mother, and what came of that!"
+
+The Princess put her hands up with a sudden gesture and covered her
+eyes.
+
+"Oh! Stephen! how cruel of you to bring it back to me," she said; "but
+this is quite different--they are free--and it is my dearest wish that
+Tamara and Gritzko should be united." Then she continued in another
+tone. "I think you are quite wrong in any case. My plan is to throw
+them together as much as possible--he will see her real worth and
+delicate sweetness--and they will get over their quarrelling. It is her
+reserve and resistance which drives him mad. Sometimes I do not know
+how he will act."
+
+"No, one can never count upon how he will act!" and Stephen Strong
+smiled. "But since you are satisfied I will say no more, only between
+you don't break my gentle little countrywoman's heart."
+
+"You hurt me very much, Stephen!" the Princess said. "You--you--of all
+people, who know the tie there is between Tamara and me. You to suggest
+even that I would aid in breaking her heart."
+
+"Dear Vera, forgive me," and he kissed her plump white hand. "I will
+suggest nothing, and will leave it all to you, but do not forget a
+man's passions, and Gritzko, as we know, is not made of snow!"
+
+"You all misjudge him, my poor Gritzko," the Princess said, hardly
+mollified. "He has the noblest nature underneath, but some day you will
+know."
+
+It was late in the afternoon when Tamara appeared, to find a room full
+of guests having tea. Her mind was made up, and she had regained her
+calm.
+
+She would use the whole of her intelligence and play the game. She
+would be completely at ease and indifferent to Gritzko and would be
+incidentally as nice as possible to Jack. And so get through the short
+time before she must go home. "For," she had reasoned with herself
+sadly, "If he had loved me really he would never have behaved as he has
+done."
+
+So when the Prince and Lord Courtray came in together presently, her
+greeting to both was naturalness itself, and she took Jack off to a
+distant sofa with friendly familiarity, and conversed with him upon
+their home affairs.
+
+"By Jove! you know, Tamara, you are awfully improved, my child," Lord
+Courtray said, presently. "You've acquired some kind of a look in your
+eye! If I wasn't so taken with that darling little Countess Olga I
+should feel inclined to make love to you myself."
+
+"You dear silly old Jack!" Tamara said.
+
+It was Lord Courtray's fashion, when talking to any woman, even his own
+mother, to lean over her with rather a devoted look. And Tamara
+glancing up caught sight of Prince Milaslávski's face. It wore an
+expression which almost filled her with fear. Of all things she must
+provoke no quarrel between him and dear old Jack, who was quite
+blameless in the affair.
+
+At the same time there was a consolation in the knowledge that she
+could make him feel.
+
+She thought it wiser soon to rise and return to the general group,
+while Jack, on his own amusement bent, now took his leave.
+
+She sat down by Stephen Strong, she was in a most gracious mood it
+seemed.
+
+"You have heard of our excursion to Moscow, Mr. Strong," she said. "The
+Princess says you must come too, I am looking forward to it immensely."
+
+"We ought to have a most promising time in front of us," that old cynic
+replied, while he puffed rings of smoke. "It all should be as full of
+adventure as an egg is full of meat!"
+
+"I have been reading up the guide books, so as to be thoroughly learned
+and teach Jack--he is so terribly ignorant always, worse than Tom!" and
+she laughed.
+
+"We must try and see the whole show, and if the snow lasts, as it
+promises to do, we should have a delightful time."
+
+"Gritzko," Princess Ardácheff said. "How many versts is it from Moscow
+to Milasláv?"
+
+The Prince had been leaning on the mantlepiece without speaking for
+some moments, listening to Tamara's conversation, but now he joined in,
+and sinking into a chair beside her, answered from there.
+
+"Thirty versts, Tantine--we shall go in troikas--but you must send your
+servants on the night before."
+
+Then he turned to Tamara, who seemed wonderfully absorbed, almost
+whispering to Stephen Strong. "Did you sleep well, Madame?" he said.
+There was an expression of mocking defiance in his glance, which
+angered Tamara. However, faithful to her resolutions, she kept herself
+calm.
+
+"Never better, thank you, Prince. It was a most interesting evening,
+and I am learning the customs of the country," she said. "The thing
+which strikes me most is your wonderful chivalry to women--especially
+strange women."
+
+They looked into one another's eyes and measured swords, and if she had
+known it she had never so deeply attracted him before.
+
+She had broached the subject of her return to England to her godmother,
+who had laughed the idea to scorn, but now she spoke to Gritzko as if
+it were an established fact.
+
+"I go home from Moscow, you know," she said.
+
+"You find our country too cold?" he asked.
+
+"It is too full of contrasts, freezing one moment and thawing the next,
+and while outside one is turned to ice, indoors one is consumed with
+heat; it is upsetting to the equilibrium."
+
+"All the same, you will not go," and he leaned back in the chair with
+his provoking lazy smile.
+
+"Indeed, I shall."
+
+"We shall see. There are a number of things for you to learn yet."
+
+"What things?"
+
+The Prince lit a cigarette. "The possibilities of the unknown fires you
+have lit," he said. "You remember the night at the Sphinx, when we said
+good-bye. I told you a proverb they have there about meeting before
+dawn, and not parting until dawn. Well, that dawn has not arrived yet.
+And I have no intention--for the moment--that it shall arrive."
+
+Tamara felt excited, and as ever his tone of
+complete omnipotence annoyed her. At the same time to see him sitting
+there, his eyes fixed with deep interest on her face, thrilled and
+exalted her. Oh! she certainly loved him! Alas! and it would be
+dreadfully difficult to say good-bye. But those three words in his
+sentence stung her pride--"for the moment." Yes, there was always this
+hint of caprice. Always he gave her the sensation of instability, there
+was no way to hold him. She must ever guard her emotions and ever be
+ready to fence.
+
+And now that she had taken a resolve to go home, to linger no more, she
+was free to tease him as much as she could. To feel that she could,
+gave her a fillip, and added a fresh charm to her face.
+
+"You think you can rule the whole world to your will, Prince," she
+said.
+
+"I can rule the part of it I want, as you will find," he retorted
+fiercely. She made a pouting moue and tapped her little foot, then she
+laughed.
+
+"How amusing it would be if you happened to be mistaken this time," she
+cooed. Then she rapidly turned to the Princess Sonia, who had just come
+in, and they all talked of the great ball which was to take place in
+the house in a week. The first after the period of the deep mourning.
+
+"We cannot yet wear colors, but whites and grays and mauves--and won't
+it be a relief from all this black," Princess Sonia said.
+
+When they had all gone and Tamara was dressing for dinner, she felt
+decidedly less depressed. She had succeeded better than she had hoped.
+She had contrived to outwit the Prince, when he had plainly shown his
+intention was to continue talking to her, she had turned from one to
+another, and finally sat down by a handsome Chevalier Garde. In
+companies she had a chance, but when they were alone!--however, that
+was simple, because she must arrange that they should never be alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+It was perhaps a fortunate thing that for three days after this the
+Prince was kept at his military duties at Tsarsköi-Sélo, and could not
+come to Petersburg, for he was in a mood that could easily mean
+mischief. Tamara also was inclined to take things in no docile spirit.
+
+She felt very unhappy, underneath her gay exterior. It was not
+agreeable to her self-respect to realize she was fleeing from a place
+because she loved a man whose actions showed he did not entertain the
+same degree of feeling for her. No amount of attention from any other
+quite salved that ever-constant inward hurt.
+
+She went often through strange moments. In the middle of a casual
+conversation suddenly back would come a wave of remembrance of the dawn
+drive in the troika, and she would actually quiver with physical
+emotion as the vivid recollection of the bliss of it would sweep over
+her.
+
+Then she would clench her hands and determine more fiercely than ever
+to banish such memories. But with all her will, hardly for ten minutes
+at a time could she keep Gritzko from her thoughts. His influence over
+her was growing into an obsession.
+
+She wondered why he did not come. She would not ask her godmother. The
+three days passed in a feverish, gnawing unrest; and on the third
+evening they went to the ballet again.
+
+Opposite them, in a box, a very dark young woman was seated. She had a
+hard, determined face, and she was well dressed, and not too covered
+with jewels.
+
+"That is a celebrated lady," Count Valonne said. "You must look at her,
+Madame Loraine; she was one of the best dancers at the ballet, and last
+year she tried to commit suicide in a charmingly dramatic way at one of
+Gritzko's parties. She was at the time perhaps his _chère amie_--
+one never knows, but in all cases violently in love with him--and is
+still, for the matter of that--or so it is said--and in the middle of
+rather a wild feast he was giving for her, she suddenly drank off some
+poison, after making the terrifying announcement of her intention! We
+were all petrified with horror, but he remained quite calm, and,
+seizing her, he poured a whole bottle of salad oil down her throat, and
+then sent for a doctor!--Of course the poor lady recovered, and the
+romantic end was quite _raté!_--She was perfectly furious, one
+heard--and married a rich slate merchant the week after. Wasn't it like
+Gritzko? He said the affair was vulgar, and he sent her a large diamond
+bracelet, and never spoke to her again!"
+
+Tamara felt her cheeks burn--and her pride galled her more than ever.
+So she and the ex-dancer were in the same boat?--but she at least would
+not try to commit suicide and be restored by--salad oil!
+
+"How perfectly ridiculous!" she said, with rather a bitter little
+laugh. "What complete bathos!"
+
+"It was unfortunate, was it not?" Valonne went on, and he glanced at
+Tamara sideways.
+
+He guessed that she was interested in the Prince; but Valonne was a
+charming creature with an understanding eye, and in their set was in
+great request. He knew exactly the right thing to talk about to each
+different person, as a perfect diplomat should, and he was too tactful
+and sympathetic to tease poor Tamara. On the contrary, he told her
+casually that Gritzko had been on some duty these three days, in case
+she did not know it.
+
+From the beginning Tamara always had liked Valonne.
+
+Then into the box came the same good-looking Chevalier Garde, Count
+Varishkine, whom she had talked to on the last occasion of Gritzko's
+visit, and the spirit of hurt pride caused her to be most gracious with
+him. Meanwhile the Princess Ardácheff watched her with a faint
+sensation of uneasiness, and at last whispered to Stephen Strong:
+
+"Does not my godchild seem to be developing new characteristics,
+Stephen? She is so very stately and quiet; and yet to-night it would
+almost seem she is being flirtatious with Boris Varishkine.--I trust we
+shall have no complications. What do you think?"
+
+Mr. Strong laughed.
+
+"It will depend upon how much it angers Gritzko. It could come to mean
+anything--bloodshed, a scandal, or merely bringing things to a crisis
+between them.--Let us hope, for the latter."
+
+"Indeed, yes"
+
+"You must remember, for an Englishwoman it would be very difficult to
+grasp all the possibilities in the character of Gritzko. We are not
+accustomed to these tempestuous headlong natures in our calm country."
+
+"Fortunately Boris and Gritzko are very great friends."
+
+"I never heard that the warmest friendship prevented jealousy between
+men," Stephen Strong said, a little cynically--he had suffered a good
+deal in his youth.
+
+"I am delighted we are going to Moscow. There will be no Boris, and I
+shall arrange for my two children to be together as much as possible. I
+feel that is the surest way," the Princess answered; and they talked of
+other things.
+
+After the ballet was over the party went on to supper at Cubat's in a
+private room, contrary to the Princess' custom. But it was Stephen
+Strong's entertainment, and he had no house to invite them to.
+
+As they passed down the passage to their salon the door of another
+opened as a waiter came out, and loud laughter and clatter of glass
+burst forth, and above the din one shrill girl's treble screamed:
+
+"Gritzko! Oh, Gritzko!"
+
+The food nearly choked Tamara when they reached their room, and supper
+began. It was not, of course, a heinous crime for the Prince to be
+entertaining ladies of another world. But on the top of everything else
+it raised a wild revolt in her heart, and a raging disgust with
+herself. Never, never should she unbend to him again. She _would
+not_ love him.
+
+Alas! for the impotency of human wills! Only the demonstrations of love
+can be controlled, the emotion itself comes from heaven--or hell, and
+is omnipotent. Poor Tamara might as well have determined to keep the
+sun from rising as to keep herself from loving Gritzko.
+
+She was quite aware that men--even the nicest men--like Jack and her
+brother Tom, sometimes went out with people she would not care to know;
+but to have the fact brought under her very observation disgusted her
+fine senses. To realize that the man she loved was at the moment
+perhaps kissing some ordinary woman, revolted and galled her
+immeasurably. But if she had known it this night, at least, the Prince
+was innocent. He had strolled into that room with some brother
+officers, and was not the giver of the feast. And a few minutes after
+Mr. Strong's party had begun their repast he opened the door.
+
+"May I come in, Stephen?" he asked. "I heard you were all here, Serge
+saw you. I have just arrived from Tsarsköi, and must eat."
+
+And of course he was warmly welcomed and pressed to take a seat, while
+Valonne chaffed him in an undertone about the joys he had precipitately
+left.
+
+Tamara's face was the picture of disdain. But the Prince sat beside her
+godmother, apparently unconcerned. He did not trouble to address her
+specially, and before the end of supper, in spite of rage and disgust
+and anger--and shame, she was longing for him to talk to her.
+
+The only consolation she had was once when they went out, as she looked
+up sweetly at Count Varishkine she caught a fierce expression stealing
+over Gritzko's face.
+
+So even though he did not love her really he could still feel jealous;
+that was something, at all events!
+
+Thus in these paltry rages and irritations, these two human beings
+passed the next three days--when their real souls were capable of
+something great.
+
+Prince Milaslávski, to every one's surprise, appeared continuously in
+the world.
+
+Tamara and the Princess met him everywhere, and while the Princess did
+her best to throw them together, Tamara maneuvered so that not once
+could he speak to her alone, while she was assiduously charming to
+every one else. Now it was old Prince Miklefski or Stephen Strong, now
+one of the husbands, or Jack, and just often enough to give things a
+zest she was bewitching to the handsome Chevalier Garde.
+
+And the strange, fierce light in Gritzko's eyes did not decrease.
+
+The night before the Ardácheff ball they were going to a reception at
+one of the Embassies for a foreign King and Queen, who were paying a
+visit to the Court, and Tamara dressed with unusual care, and fastened
+her high tiara in her soft brown hair.
+
+The Prince should see her especially attractive, she thought.
+
+But when they arrived at the great house and walked among the brilliant
+throng no Prince was to be seen!--It might be he had no intention to
+come.
+
+Presently Tamara went off to the refreshment room with her friend
+Valonne.
+
+The conversation turned to Gritzko with an easy swing.
+
+He seemed on the brink of one of his maddest fits. Valonne had seen him
+in the club just before dinner.
+
+"If you really go to England I think he will follow you, Madame," he
+said.
+
+"How ridiculous!" and Tamara laughed. "How can it make a difference to
+him whether I go or no? We do not exist for one another," and she
+fanned herself rather rapidly, while Valonne smiled a fine smile.
+
+"I should not be quite sure of that," he said. "If I might predict, I
+should say you will be lucky if you get away from here without being
+the cause of a duel of some sort."
+
+"A duel!" Tamara was startled. "How dreadful, and how silly! But why? I
+thought dueling had quite gone out in all civilized countries; and in
+any case, why fight about me? And who should fight? Surely you are only
+teasing me, Count Valonne."
+
+"Duels are real facts here, I am afraid," he said. "Gritzko has already
+engaged in two of them. He is not quarrelsome, but just never permits
+any one to cross his wishes or interfere with his game."
+
+"But what _is_ his game? You speak as though it were some kind of
+cards or plot. What do you mean?" and Tamara, with heightened color,
+lifted her head.
+
+"The game of Gritzko?" and Count Valonne laughed. "Frankly, I think he
+is very much in love with you, Madame," he said. "So by that you can
+guess what would be any man's game."
+
+"You have a vivid imagination, and are talking perfect nonsense."
+Tamara laughed nervously. "I refuse to be the least upset by such
+ideas!"
+
+At the moment up came Count Boris Varishkine, and after a while she
+went off with him to a sofa by the window, and there was seated in deep
+converse when the Prince came in.
+
+He looked at them for a second and then made straight for the Princess
+Ardácheff, who was just about to arrange her rubber of bridge.
+
+"Tantine, I want to talk to you," he said.
+
+And the Princess at once left the cardroom and returned with him. They
+found a quiet corner opposite Tamara and her Garde, and there sat down.
+
+"Tantine, I brought you here to look over there.--What does that mean?"
+
+The Princess put up her glasses to gain time.
+
+"Nothing, dear boy. Tamara is merely amusing herself like all the rest
+of us at a party. Are you jealous, Gritzko?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her sharply, and for a moment unconsciously fingered the
+dagger in his belt.
+
+"Yes, I believe I am jealous. I am not at all sure that I do not love
+your charming friend," he said.
+
+"Well, why don't you marry her then?" suggested the Princess.
+
+"Perhaps I shall--if she does not drive me to doing something mad
+first. I don't know what I intend. It may be to go off to the Caucasus,
+or to stay and make her love me so deeply that she will forgive me--no
+matter what I do."
+
+He paused a moment, and his great eyes filled with mist, and then the
+wild light grew.
+
+"If ever she becomes my Princess, she shall be entirely for me. I will
+not let her have a look or thought for any other man. All must be
+mine--unshared, and then she shall be my queen."
+
+Princess Ardácheff leant back and looked at him. He was in his blue
+uniform with the scarlet underdress; and even she--old woman and fond
+friend--could not help picturing the gorgeous joy such a fate would
+give--to have him for a lover! to see his fierce, proud head bent in
+devotion, to feel his tender caress. Tamara must be an unutterable fool
+if she should hesitate.
+
+But what he had said was not reassuring in its prospect of calm. She
+felt she must put in some small word of admonition.
+
+"You will be careful won't you, Gritzko?" she ventured to suggest.
+"Remember, Tamara is an Englishwoman, and not accustomed to your ways."
+
+"It will depend upon herself," he said. "If she goes on teasing me I do
+not know what I shall do. If she does not--"
+
+"You will be good?"
+
+"Possibly. But one thing, Tantine, I will not be interfered with either
+by her friend the Englishman or Boris Varishkine."
+
+At this moment Tamara looked up and caught the two pairs of eyes fixed
+upon her. And into her spirit flowed a devilment.--Duels! They were all
+nonsense. She should certainly play a little with her new friend.
+
+In her whole life before she came to Russia she had never been really
+flirtatious. She was in no way a coquette, rather a simple creature who
+recked little of men. But the simplest woman develops feline qualities
+under certain provocation; and her pride was deeply hurt.
+
+Count Boris Varishkine asked nothing better than to fall in with her
+views. He was, however, like most of his countrymen, sincere, and not
+merely passing the time.
+
+Jack Courtray came up, too, and joined them, his Countess Olga had sent
+him temporarily from her side. And Tamara scintillated and sparkled as
+she talked to them both in a way which surprised herself.
+
+This society was very diplomatic, and it amused her to watch the
+representatives of the different nations--the English and the Russians
+standing out as so much the finest men.
+
+Presently the little group was joined by Stephen Strong.
+
+"Isn't this an amusing party, Mrs. Loraine?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Tamara. "And I am beginning to be able to place the members
+of the different countries. Don't you think the Russians look much the
+most like us, Mr. Strong?"
+
+"The Russians, dear lady? When you have traveled a little more you will
+see that term covers half the types of the earth--but I agree. What we
+see here in Petersburg are very much like us--a trifling difference in
+the way the eyes are set, and the way the hair is brushed; and, given
+the same uniforms, half these smart young men might be our English
+Guards."
+
+"We do not resemble you in character, though," said Count Varishkine.
+"You can feel just what you like, or not at all, whereas we are
+storm-tossed, and have not yet learnt the arts of pretence."
+
+"We're a deuced cold-blooded race, aren't we, Tamara?" Jack Courtray
+said, and he grinned his happy grin.
+
+The little party looked so merry and content Princess Ardácheff hardly
+liked to disturb them, but was impelled to by a look in Gritzko's face.
+
+"Tamara, dear," she said, as she joined them, "I am so very tired after
+last night, for once shall we go home reasonably early?"
+
+And Tamara rose gladly to her feet.
+
+"Of course, Marraine, I too am dropping with fatigue," she said.
+
+The Prince spoke a few words to Stephen Strong, and Jack joined in; so
+that the three were a pace or so to one side when the two ladies wished
+them goodnight.
+
+"Come and see me early tomorrow, Jack," Tamara said. "I want to show
+you Tom's letter from home," and she looked up with an alluring smile,
+feeling the Prince was watching her; then, turning to Count Boris, "I am
+sure you will regret your bargain in having asked me to dance the Mazurka
+tomorrow night," she said. "I do not know a single figure or a step--but I
+hope we shall have some fun. I am looking forward to it."
+
+"More than fun!" the young man said, with devotion, as he kissed her
+hand.
+
+Then they walked to say goodnight to the hostess, and Gritzko seemed to
+disappear. But when they got down into the hall they saw him already in
+his furs.
+
+The Princess' footman began to hand Tamara her snowboots and cloak, but
+Gritzko almost snatched them from the man's hand. She made no protest,
+but let him help her to put them on and wrap her up, while her
+godmother thought it advisable to walk toward the door.
+
+"Tonight was your moment, Madame," he said, in a low voice. "But the
+gods are often kind to me, and my hour will come!"
+
+Tamara summoned everything she knew of provokingness into her face as
+she looked up and answered:
+
+"Tant pis! et bon soir! Monsieur le démon de Lermontoff!"
+
+Then she felt it prudent to run quickly after the Princess and get into
+the automobile!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+It was twenty-four hours later. The night of the Ardácheff ball had
+come. The glorious house made the background of a festive scene. The
+company waited all round the galleries for the arrival of the Grand
+Dukes and the foreign King and Queen.
+
+And Tamara stood by her godmother's side at the top of the stairs, a
+strange excitement flooding her veins.
+
+Since the night before they had heard nothing of the Prince. And as
+each guest came in view, past the splendid footmen grouped like statues
+on every six steps, both women watched with quickening pulses for one
+insouciant Cossack face.
+
+The Royalties arrived in a gorgeous train, and yet neither Gritzko nor
+Count Varishkine.
+
+It might mean nothing, but it was curious all the same. The opening
+_contre-danse_ was in full swing, and still they never came, and
+by the time of the second valse after it Tamara was a prey to a vague
+fear. While the Princess' uneasiness grew more than vague.
+
+Tamara could not enjoy herself. She talked at random, she made her
+partners continually promenade through the salons, and her eyes
+constantly scanned the doors.
+
+The immense ballroom, quite two stories high, presented a brilliant
+sight with its stately decorations of the time of Alexander I. And all
+the magnificent jewels and uniforms, and the flowers. Somehow a riot of
+roses takes an extra charm when outside the thermometer measures zero.
+And no one would have believed, looking at this dignified throng, that
+they could be the same people who could frolic wildly at a Bohemian
+supper.
+
+There is a great deal in breeding, after all, and the knowledge of the
+fitness of things which follows in its train.
+
+Tamara was valsing with Jack Courtray, and they stopped to look at the
+world.
+
+"Are they not a wonderful people, Jack? Could anything be more decorous
+and dignified than they are tonight? And yet if you watch, in the
+_contre-danse_ their eyes have the same excited look as when we
+wildly capered after supper in Prince Milaslávski's house."
+
+"Which reminds me--why is he not here?" asked Jack.
+
+"I wish I knew," Tamara said. "Jack, be a dear and go and forage about
+and get hold of Serge Grekoff, if you can see him, or Mr. Strong, or
+Sasha Basmanoff, or some one who might know--but it seems as if none of
+them are here."
+
+"As interested as that?" and Lord Courtray laughed. "Well, my child,
+I'll do my best," so he relinquished her for the next turn and left her
+with Valonne, who had just arrived.
+
+"Apparently I shall have to go partnerless for the Mazurka," Tamara
+carelessly said while she watched the Frenchman's face with the corner
+of her eye. "I was engaged for it to Count Varishkine, and he has never
+turned up. I do wonder what has happened to him. Do you know?"
+
+"I told you you would be lucky if you got away from here without some
+row of sorts, Madame," and Valonne smiled enigmatically.
+
+"What do you mean? Please tell me?" and Tamara turned pale.
+
+"I mean nothing; only I fancy you will only see one of them tonight;
+which it will be is still on the cards."
+
+A cold, sick feeling came over Tamara.
+
+"You are not insinuating that they have been fighting?" she asked, with
+a tremble in her voice which she could not control.
+
+But Valonne reassured her.
+
+"I am insinuating nothing," he said, with a calm smile. "Let us have
+one more turn before this charming valse stops."
+
+And, limp and nerveless, Tamara allowed herself to be whirled around
+the room; nor could she get anything further out of Valonne.
+
+When it was over she sought in vain for her godmother or Jack or
+Stephen Strong. The Princess was engaged with the Royalties and could
+not be approached, and neither of the men were to be seen.
+
+The next half-hour was agony, in which, with a white face and fixed
+smile, Tamara played her part, and then just before the Mazurka was
+going to begin Gritzko came in.
+
+It seemed as if her knees gave way under her for a moment, and she sat
+down in a seat. The relief was so great. Whatever had happened he at
+least was safe.
+
+She watched him securing two chairs in the best place, and then he
+crossed over to where she sat by the door to the refreshment room.
+
+"Bon soir, Madame," he said. "Will you take me as a substitute for your
+partner, Count Varishkine?" and he bowed with a courtly grace which
+seemed suited to the scene. "He is, I regret to say, slightly
+indisposed, and has asked me to crave your indulgence for him, and let
+me fill his place."
+
+For a moment Tamara hesitated; she seemed to have lost the power of
+speech; she felt she must control her anxiety and curiosity, so at last
+she answered gravely:
+
+"I am so very sorry! I hope it is nothing serious. He is so charming,
+Count Varishkine."
+
+"Nothing serious. Shall we take our places? I have two chairs there not
+far from Olga and your friend," and the Prince prepared to lead the
+way. Tamara, now that the tension was over, almost thought she would
+refuse, but the great relief and joy she felt in his presence overcame
+her pride, and she meekly followed him across the room.
+
+They passed the Princess on the way, and as she apparently gave some
+laughing reply to the Ambassador she was with, she hurriedly whispered
+in Tamara's ear:
+
+"Pour l'amour de Dieu! Be careful with Gritzko tonight, my child."
+
+When they were seated waiting for the dance to begin Tamara noticed
+that the Prince was very pale, and that his eyes, circled with blue
+shadows, seemed to flame.
+
+The certainty grew upon her that some mysterious tragic thing had taken
+place; but, frightened by the Princess' words, she did not question
+him.
+
+She hardly spoke, and he was silent, too. It seemed as though now he
+had gained his end and secured her as a partner it was all he meant to
+do.
+
+Presently he turned to her and asked lazily:
+
+"Have you been amused since the Moravian reception? How have you passed
+the time? I have been at Tsarsköi again, and could not come to see
+Tantine."
+
+"We have been quite happy, thanks, Prince," Tamara said. "Jack Courtray
+and I have spent the day studying the lovely things in the Hermitage. We
+must see what we can before we both go home."
+
+Gritzko looked at her.
+
+"I like him--he is a good fellow--your friend," and then he added
+reflectively: "But if he spends too much time with you I hope the bears
+will eat him!"
+
+This charitable wish was delivered in a grave, quiet voice, as though
+it had been a blessing.
+
+"How horrible you are!" Tamara flashed. "Jack to be eaten by bears!
+Poor dear old Jack! What has he done?"
+
+"Nothing, I hope,--as yet; but time will tell. Now we must begin to
+dance."
+
+And they rose, called to the center by the Master of the Ceremonies to
+assist in a figure.
+
+While the Prince was doing his part she noticed his movements seemed
+languid and not full of his usual wild _entrain_, and her feeling
+of unease and dread of she knew not what increased.
+
+Tamara was very popular, and was hardly left for a moment on her chair
+when the flower figures began, so their conversations were disjointed,
+and at last almost ceased, and unconsciously a stiff silence grew up
+between them, caused, if she had known it, on his side, by severe
+physical pain.
+
+She was surprised that he handed all his flowers to her but did not ask
+her to dance, nor did he rise to seek any other woman. He just sat
+still, though presently, when magnificent red roses were brought in in
+a huge trophy, and Serge Grekoff was seen advancing with a sheaf of
+them to claim Tamara, he suddenly asked her to have a turn, and got up
+to begin.
+
+She placed her hand on his arm, and she noticed he drew in his breath
+sharply and winced in the slightest degree. But when she asked him if
+something hurt him, and what it was, he only laughed and said he was
+well, and they must dance; so away they whirled.
+
+A feverish anxiety and excitement convulsed Tamara. What in heaven's
+name had occurred?
+
+When they had finished and were seated again she plucked up courage to
+ask him:
+
+"Prince, I feel sure Count Varishkine is not really ill. Something has
+happened. Tell me what it is."
+
+"I never intended you to dance the Mazurka with him," was all Gritzko
+said.
+
+"And how have you prevented it?" Tamara asked, and grew pale to her
+lips.
+
+"What does it matter to you?" he said. "Are you nervous about Boris?"
+
+And now he turned and fully looked at her, and she was deeply moved by
+the expression in his face.
+
+He was suffering extremely, she could distinguish that, but underneath
+the pain there was a wild triumph, too. Her whole being was wrung. Love
+and fear and solicitude, and, yes, rebellion also had its place. And at
+last she said:
+
+"I am nervous, not for Count Varishkine, but for what you may have
+done."
+
+He leaned back and laughed with almost his old irresponsible mirth.
+
+"I can take care of my own deeds, thanks, Madame," he said.
+
+And then anger rose in Tamara beyond sympathy for pain.
+
+She sat silent, staring in front of her, the strain of the evening was
+beginning to tell. She hardly knew what he said, or she said, until
+the Mazurka was at an end, all the impression it left with her was one
+of tension and fear. Then the polonaise formed, and they went in to
+supper.
+
+Here they were soon seated next their own special friends, and Gritzko
+seemed to throw off all restraint. He drank a great deal, and then
+poured out a glass of brandy and mixed it with the champagne.
+
+He had never been more brilliant, and kept the table in a roar, while
+much of his conversation was addressed to Tatiane Shébanoff, who sat on
+his left hand.
+
+Tamara appeared as though she were turned into stone.
+
+And so the night wore on. It was now four o'clock in the morning. The
+company all went to the galleries again to watch the departure of the
+King and Queen. And, leaning on the marble balustrade next the Prince,
+Tamara suddenly noticed a thin crimson stream trickle from under his
+sleeve to his glove.
+
+He saw it, too, and with an impatient exclamation of annoyance he moved
+back and disappeared in the crowd. The rest of the ball for Tamara was
+a ghastly blank, although they kept it up with immense spirit until
+very late.
+
+She seemed unable to get near the Princess, she was always surrounded,
+and when at last she did come upon her in deep converse with Valonne.
+
+"Tamara, dear," she said, "you must be so dreadfully tired. Slip off to
+bed. They will go on until daylight," and there was something in her
+face which prevented any questions.
+
+So, cold and sick with apprehension, poor Tamara crept to her room,
+and, dismissing her weary maid, sat and rocked herself over her fire.
+
+What horrible thing had occurred?
+
+What was the meaning of that thin stream of blood?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Tamara and her godmother did not meet until nearly lunchtime next day.
+A little before that meal the Princess came into her room. Tamara was
+still in bed, perfectly exhausted with the strain of the night. The
+Princess wore an anxious look of care, as she walked from the window to
+the dressing table and then back again. Finally she sat down and took
+up a glove which was lying on a cushion near.
+
+"Tamara, you saw I talked last night with Valonne, and this morning I
+sent for Serge Grekoff, but he would not come, so I got Valonne again."
+She paused an instant. "I was extremely worried last night about
+Gritzko. I dare say you were not to blame, dear, but--"
+
+"Please tell me, Marraine," and poor Tamara sat up and pushed her hair
+back.
+
+"It appears, as far at I can gather, they all dined at the Fontonka
+house--Boris Varishkine and Gritzko have always been great friends--and
+at the end of dinner--Valonne imagines, because no one is sure what
+took place between them at this stage--Gritzko, it is supposed, said to
+Boris in quite an amiable way that he did not wish him to dance the
+Mazurka with you, but to relinquish his right in his--Gritzko's--
+favor."
+
+She paused again, and Tamara's eyes fixed themselves in fascinated fear
+on her face. The Princess, after smoothing out the glove in her hand
+with a nervous energy, went on:
+
+"They had all had quite enough champagne, of course, and apparently
+Boris refused, and suggested that they should toss up, and whoever won
+the toss should have first shot in the dark."
+
+"Yes," said Tamara faintly.
+
+"You know, dear, our boys are often very wild, and they have a game
+they play when they are at the end of their tether for something to do
+when quartered in some hopeless outpost--a kind of blind-man's-buff--
+only it is all in the dark, and the blind man stands in the middle of
+the room and the rest clap hands and then dodge, and he fires his
+revolver at the point the sound seems to come from, and the object is
+not to get shot. You may have noticed Sasha Basmanoff has no left
+thumb? He lost it last year on just such a night."
+
+"Oh! Marraine, how dreadful!" Tamara said.
+
+"It is perhaps not a very civilized game," the Princess continued, "but
+we are not discussing that, I am telling you what occurred. Well, from
+this point Valonne and the rest were eyewitnesses. Gritzko and Boris,
+still laughing in rather a strained way, said they had some slight
+difference of opinion to settle, and had decided to do it in the
+ballroom, in the dark. I won't go into details of how many steps to the
+right or left, the impromptu seconds arranged, only it was settled when
+Sasha at one end and Serge at the other should shut the doors they
+should both fire, and if in three times neither was shot, both should
+give up their claim."
+
+"It is too horrible! and for such a trifle," Tamara said, clutching the
+bedclothes, and the Princess went on.
+
+"Valonne said they were both hit in the first round, and all the
+company burst into the room. Nothing seemed very serious, and they
+laughed and shook hands. So Valonne left to be in time for the ball,
+but this morning, he told me, he found Boris Varishkine had had a
+shoulder wound which bled very badly and quite prevented his coming,
+while Gritzko was shot through the flesh of the right arm, and as soon
+as they could bind it up decently, as you know, he came on."
+
+Tamara's face was as white as her pillow. She clasped her hands with a
+movement of anguish.
+
+"Oh! Marraine, I am too unhappy," she wailed. "Indeed, indeed, I did
+nothing to cause this. You heard me, I only said to Count Varishkine I
+was looking forward to the dance. He is impossible, Gritzko. Oh! let me
+go home!"
+
+"Alas! my child, what would be the good of that? If you went off
+tonight instead of coming to Moscow, it might create a talk; what we
+want is to prevent a scandal, to hush everything up. None of these men
+will tell, and your name will not be dragged into it. And if we go on
+our trip amicably as was arranged it will discountenance rumor. Gritzko
+and Boris are quite friends again. And if anything about the shooting
+does leak out, if no one has further cause for connecting you with it,
+they will generally think it merely one of Gritzko's mad parties. For
+heaven's sake let it all blow over, and after Moscow and a reasonable
+time, not to appear too hurried, you shall go home."
+
+"But meanwhile, how can I know that he won't shoot at Jack? or do some
+other awful thing! He does not love me really a bit, Marraine. It is
+all out of pride and devilment because he wants to win and conquer me
+and add me to his scalps, and I won't be conquered. I tell you I
+won't!" and Tamara clenched her hands.
+
+The Princess did not know what to say, she was not perfectly sure in
+her own mind as to Gritzko's feelings, and she was too thoroughly
+acquainted with his ways to hazard any theory as to his possible acts.
+She felt it might not be fair to assure her godchild that he truly
+loved her. She could only think of tiding over matters for the time
+being.
+
+"Tamara, dearest, could you at least try to keep the peace on our
+trip?" she asked. "Be gentle with him, and do not excite him in any
+way."
+
+Tamara buried her face in her pillows, she was too English to be
+dramatic and sob; but when she spoke her soft voice trembled a little
+and her eyes glistened with tears.
+
+"He is horribly cruel, Marraine," she said.
+
+"Why should he treat me as he does. I won't--I won't bear it."
+
+The Princess sighed.
+
+"Tamara, forgive me for asking you, but I must, I feel I must. Do you--
+love him, child?"
+
+Then passion flamed up in Tamara's white face, her secret was her own,
+and she would defend it even from this kind friend--so--"I believe I
+hate him!" she said.
+
+After a while the Princess left her, they having come to the agreement
+that Tamara should do all that she could to keep the peace; but when
+she was alone she decided to speak to Gritzko as little as possible
+herself, and to ignore him completely. There would be no Boris and no
+one to make him jealous. She would occupy herself with Stephen Strong,
+and the sight-seeing, and even Sonia's husband, who was a bore and old,
+too; but the prospect held out no charms for her. She knew that she
+loved him deeply--this wild, fierce Gritzko--more deeply than ever
+today, and the tears, one after another, trickled down her pale cheeks.
+
+If there was not a chance of any happiness, at least she must go home
+keeping some rag of self-respect. She firmly determined that he should
+not see the slightest feeling on her side, it should be restrained or
+perhaps capricious even, as his own.
+
+Their train for Moscow started at nine o'clock, and the whole party had
+arranged to dine at the Ardácheff house at seven and then go to the
+station.
+
+Nothing of the scandal of the night seemed to have transpired, for no
+one even hinted at anything about it.
+
+Gritzko was still very pale, but appeared none the worse, and the
+atmosphere seemed to have resumed a peaceful note.
+
+The five sleeping compartments reserved for this party of ten were all
+in a row in one carriage, and Tamara and the Princess, on the plea of
+fatigue, immediately retired to their berths for the night, Tamara not
+having addressed a single direct word to Gritzko. So far, so well. But
+when she was comfortably tucked into the top berth, and an hour or so
+later was just falling off to sleep, he knocked at the door, and the
+Princess believing it to be the ticket-collector opened it, and he put
+his head in. The shade was drawn over the lamp and the compartment was
+in a blue gloom. Tamara was startled by hearing her godmother say:
+
+"Gritzko! Thou! What do you want, dear boy, disturbing us like this?"
+
+"I came to ask you to tie up my arm," he said. "I was practising with a
+pistol yesterday, and it went off and the bullet grazed the skin, and
+the damned thing has begun bleeding again. I know you are a trained
+nurse, Tantine. Serge, who is with me, has tried and made a ridiculous
+mess of it, so I brought the bandage to you."
+
+He now pulled back the shade and they saw he was standing there quite
+_sans gêne_ in the same kind of blue silk pyjamas Tamara
+remembered to have seen once before, and his eyes, far from being
+tragic or serious, had the naughtiest, most mischievous twinkle in
+them, while he whispered to the Princess and enlisted her sympathy for
+his pain.
+
+"Gritzko, dearest child, but you are suffering! But let me see! only
+wait in the passage until I have my dressing-gown, and then come in
+again."
+
+Tamara now thought it prudent to crouch down in the clothes and
+pretend to be asleep, while the kind Princess got up and arranged
+herself.
+
+Then with a gentle tap this poor wounded one came in.
+
+Tamara was conscious that her godmother was murmuring horrified and
+affectionate solicitations, as she busily set to work. She was also
+conscious that Gritzko was standing with his shoulder leant against her
+berth. He was so tall he could look at her, in spite of her retirement
+to the farthest side, and she was horribly conscious of the magnetic
+power exercised by his eyes. She longed quite to open hers, she longed
+really to look. She felt so nervous she almost gave a silly little
+laugh, but her will won, and her long eyelashes remained resting on her
+cheek.
+
+"You darling. You are doing it beautifully!" he presently said, and
+then more softly, "I had no idea how pretty your friend is! and how
+soundly she sleeps! Do you think I might kiss her, Tantino? I have
+always wanted to, only she is of such a severity I have been too
+frightened. May I, Tantine?" And his voice sounded coaxing and sweet,
+and Tamara felt sure he was caressing the Princess' hair with his free
+hand, for that lady kept murmuring.
+
+"Tais toi!--Gritzko--have done! How can I bind your arm if you conduct
+yourself so! Not a moment of stillness! Truly what a naughty child--
+keep still!" Then she spoke more severely to him in Russian, and he
+laughed while he answered, and then presently the bandage was done, and
+standing on tip-toe he looked full at Tamara.
+
+"And you think I must not kiss her? Oh! you are a most cruel Tantine!
+She is sound asleep and would never know, and it would be just one of
+the things which could cool my fever and help my arm."
+
+But the Princess interposed, sternly, and getting really annoyed with
+him, he was forced to go. But first he kissed her hand and thanked her
+and purred affection and gratitude with his astonishing charm, and the
+Princess' voice grew more and more mollified as she said: "There--
+there--what a boy! Gritzko, dear child, begone!"
+
+And all this while, with her long eyelashes resting upon her cheek,
+Tamara apparently slept peacefully on.
+
+But when the door was safely shut and bolted, the Princess addressed
+her.
+
+"You are not really asleep, Tamara, I suppose," she said. "You have
+heard? Is he not difficult. What is one to do with him? I can never
+remain angry long. Those caresses! Mon Dieu! I wish you would love each
+other and marry and go and live at Milasláv, and then we others might
+have a little peace and calm!"
+
+"Marry him," and Tamara raised herself in bed. "One might as well marry
+a panther in a jungle, it would be quite as safe!" she said.
+
+But the Princess shook her head. "There you are altogether wrong," she
+replied. "Once there were no continuous obstacles to his will, he would
+be gentle and adoring, he would be as tender and thoughtful as he is to
+me when I am ill."
+
+Then into Tamara's brain there rushed visions of the unutterable
+pleasure this tenderness would mean, and she said:
+
+"Don't let us talk;--I want to sleep, Marraine."
+
+And in the morning they arrived at Moscow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+The whole day of the sight-seeing passed with comparative smoothness,
+Tamara persistently remained with Sonia's husband or Stephen Strong,
+when any moment came that she should be alone with any man.
+
+She was apparently indifferent to Gritzko,--considering that she was
+throbbing with interest in his every movement and inwardly longing to
+talk to him--she kept up the _rôle_ she had set herself to play
+very well. It was not an agreeable one, and but for the inward feverish
+excitement she would have suffered much pain.
+
+Gritzko for his part seemed whimsically indifferent for most of the
+time, but once now and then the Princess, who watched things as the god
+in the car, experienced a sense of uneasiness. And yet she could not
+suggest any other line of conduct for Tamara to pursue. But on the
+whole the day was a success.
+
+The two young English guests had both been extremely interested in
+what they saw. Stephen Strong was an old hand and knew it intimately,
+and the whole party was so merry and gay. The snow fortunately had
+held, and they rushed about in little sleighs seeing the quaint
+buildings and picturesque streets and the churches with their bright
+gilt domes. Moscow was really Russian, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin told
+them, unlike Petersburg, which at a first glance might be Berlin or
+Vienna, or anywhere else; but Moscow is like no other city in the
+world.
+
+"How extremely good you Russians must be," Tamara said. "The quantities
+of churches you have, and everywhere the people seem so devout. Look at
+them kissing that Ikon in the street! Such faith is beautiful to see."
+
+"Our faith is our safeguard," her companion said. "When the people
+become sufficiently educated to have doubts then, indeed, a sad day
+will come."
+
+"They have such grave patient faces, don't you think?" said Stephen
+Strong. "It is not exactly a hopeless expression, it is more one of
+resignation. Whenever I come here I feel of what use is strife, and
+yet after a while they make one melancholy."
+
+They were waiting by the house of the Romanoffs, for their guide to
+open the door, and just then a batch of beggars passed, their wild hair
+and terribly ragged sheepskins making them a queer gruesome sight. They
+craved alms with the same patient smile with which they thanked when
+money was given. Misery seemed to stalk about a good deal.
+
+"How could a great family have lived in this tiny house?" Tamara asked.
+"Really, people in olden times seem to have been able to double up
+anywhere. Pray look at this bedroom and this ridiculous bed!"
+
+"It will prepare you for what you are coming to at Milasláv," Gritzko
+said. "A row of tent stretchers for everyone together in the hall!"
+
+Tamara made no answer, she contrived to move on directly he spoke, and
+her reply now was to the general company, as it had been all day.
+
+If she had looked back then she would have seen a gleam in his eyes
+which boded no peace. She thought she was doing everything for the
+best, but each rebuff was adding fuel to that wild fire in his blood.
+
+By the end of the day, after walks through the Treasury and museums,
+and what not, and never having been able to speak to Tamara, his temper
+was at boiling point. But he controlled it, and his face wore a mask,
+which disarmed even the Princess' fears.
+
+Their dinner was very gay, and the Russians asked Lord Courtray what
+had impressed him most.
+
+"I like the story of Ivan the Terrible putting his jolly old alpenstock
+through the fellow's foot on the stairs when he came with the letter,"
+Jack said. "Sensible sort of thing to do. Kept the messenger in place."
+
+Meanwhile Tamara was conversing in a lower voice with Stephen Strong.
+
+"The more you stay in this country, the more it fascinates you," he
+said. "And you feel you have got back to some of the fierce primitive
+passions of nature. Here, in Moscow, the whole earth must be stained
+with wild orgies and blood, and yet they are full of poetry and
+romance. Even Ivan the Terrible had his religious side, and every
+creature of them believes in the saints and the priests. It is said the
+impostor who posed as Ivan's son might have succeeded had he not been
+too kind, he showed clemency to Shuisky and his enemies and did not
+have them torn to pieces, so the people would not believe he could be
+the Terrible's son! And they chased him to that window you remember we
+saw in the old palace of the Kremlin and there he had to throw himself
+out."
+
+"It makes one wonder what can arise from a history of such horrible
+crimes," Tamara said.
+
+"You must not forget that the country is practically three hundred
+years behind the times, though," Stephen Strong went on. "No doubt
+quite as great horrors marked others if we look at them at an
+equivalent stage of development. It is missing this point which makes
+most strangers, and many foreign historians, so unjust to Russia and
+her people. The national qualities are immeasurably great, but as a
+civilized nation they are so very young."
+
+"I believe one could grow to love them," Tamara said. "I have never had
+the feeling that I am among strangers since I have been here."
+
+Then she wondered vaguely why Stephen Strong smiled softly to himself.
+
+By the end of dinner, Gritzko's eyes were blazing, and he suggested
+every sort of astonishing way to spend the night. But Princess
+Ardácheff, as the doyenne of the party, prudently put her foot down,
+and insisted upon bed. For had they not a whole morning of sight-seeing
+still to do on the morrow, and then their thirty versts in troikas to
+arrive at Milasláv. So the ladies all trouped off to rest.
+
+"Leave your door open into my room, Tamara dear, if you do not mind,"
+her godmother said. "I am always nervous in hotels--"
+
+"I trust everything is going quietly," she added to herself, "but one
+never can tell."
+
+Next day the whole sky was leaden with unfallen snow. Nothing more
+strange and gloomy and barbaric than Moscow looked could have been
+imagined, Tamara thought. It brought out the gilt domes and the unusual
+colors of things in a lurid way.
+
+Their first visit was to the Church of the Assumption, where the
+emperors are crowned. Its great beauty and rich colors pleased the
+eye. The totally different arrangement of things from any other sort of
+church--the shape and the absence of chairs or seats--the hidden altar
+behind the doors of the sanctuary--the numerous pictures and frescoed
+walls--all gave it a mysterious, wonderful charm, and here again the
+two English were struck by the people's simple faith.
+
+"We would catch every sort of disease kissing those Ikons after filthy
+ulcerated beggars," Stephen Strong said to Tamara. "But the belief that
+only good can come to them brings only good. The study of these people
+makes one less materialistic and full of common sense. One puts more
+credence in things occult."
+
+A service was just beginning, it was some high saint's day, and the
+beautiful singing, the boys' angel voices and the deep bass of the
+priests, unaccompanied by any instruments or organ, impressed Tamara
+far more in this old temple than the services had done in any of the
+St. Petersburg churches.
+
+A peace fell on her soul, and just as the gipsies' music had been of
+the devil, so this seemed to come from heaven itself. She felt calmed
+and happier when they came out.
+
+After an early lunch they saw from the hotel windows three troikas
+drawn up. Two of them Gritzko's, and one belonging to Prince
+Solentzeff Zasiekin, who had also a country place in the neighbourhood.
+
+The two, which had come a day or so before from Milasláv, were indeed
+wonderful turn-outs. The Prince prided himself upon his horses, which
+were renowned throughout Europe.
+
+The graceful shaped sleighs, with the drivers in their quaint liveries
+standing up to drive, always unconsciously suggest that their origin
+must have been some chariot from Rome.
+
+Gritzko's colors were a rich greenish-blue, while the reins and velvet
+caps and belts of the drivers were a dull cerise; the caps were braided
+with silver, while they and the coats and the blue velvet rugs were
+lined and bordered with sable. One set of horses was coal black, and
+the others a dark gray. Everything seemed in keeping with the
+buildings, and the semi-Byzantine scene with its Oriental note of
+picturesque grace.
+
+"Which will you choose to go in, Madame?" Gritzko asked. "Shall you be
+drawn by the blacks or the grays?"
+
+"I would prefer the blacks," Tamara replied. "I always love black
+horses, and these are such beautiful ones." And so it was arranged.
+
+"If you will come with Stephen and me, Tantino," the Prince said, "we
+shall be the lighter load and get there first. Madame Loraine and Olga
+can go with Serge and Lord Courtray, they will take the blacks; that
+leaves Valonne for Sonia and her husband. Will this please everyone?"
+
+Apparently it did, for thus they started. It was an enchanting drive
+over the snow. They seemed to fly along, once they had left the town,
+and the weird bleak country, unmarked by any boundaries, impressed both
+Tamara and Jack. And while Tamara was speculating upon its mystical
+side, Lord Courtray was gauging its possibilities for sport.
+
+They at last skirted a dark forest, which seemed to stretch for miles,
+and then after nearly three hours' drive arrived at the entrance to
+Milasláv.
+
+They went through a wild, rough sort of park, and then came in view of
+the house--a great place with tall Ionic pillars supporting the front,
+and wings on each side--while beyond, stretching in an irregular mass,
+was a wooden structure of a much earlier date.
+
+It all appeared delightfully incongruous and a trifle makeshift to
+Tamara and Jack when they got out of their sleigh and were welcomed by
+their host.
+
+A bare hall, at one side showing discolored marks of mould on the wall,
+decorated in what was the Russian Empire style, a beautiful conception
+retaining the classic lines of the French and yet with an added
+richness of its own. Then on up to a first floor above a low _rez de
+chaussée_ by wide stairs. These connecting portions of the house
+seemed unfurnished and barren,--walls of stone or plaster with here and
+there a dilapidated decoration. It almost would appear as if they were
+meant to be shut off from the living rooms, like the hall of a block of
+flats. The whole thing struck a strange note. There were quantities of
+servants in their quaint liveries about, and when finally they arrived
+in a great saloon it was bright and warm, though there was no open
+fireplace, only the huge porcelain stove.
+
+Here the really beautiful, though rather florid Alexander I. style
+struggled from the walls with an appalling set of furniture of the
+period of Alexander II. But the whole thing had an odd unfinished look,
+and a fine portrait of the Prince's grandfather in one panel was
+entirely riddled with shot!
+
+Some splendid skins of bears and wolves were on the floor, and there
+was a general air of the room being lived in--though magnificence and
+dilapidation mingled everywhere. The very rich brocade on one of the
+sofas had the traces of great rents. And while one table held cigarette
+cases and cigar boxes in the most exquisitely fine enamel set with
+jewels, on another would be things of the roughest wood. And a cabinet
+at the side filled with a priceless collection of snuff boxes and
+_bon-bonnières_ of Catherine's time had the glass of one door
+cracked into a star of splinters.
+
+Tamara had a sudden sensation of being a million miles away from
+England and her family: it all came as a breath of some other life. She
+felt strangely nervous, she had not the least notion why. There was a
+reckless look about things which caused a weird thrill.
+
+"If it were only arranged, what capabilities it all has," she thought;
+"but as it is, it seems to speak of Gritzko and fierce strife."
+
+Tea and the usual quantities of _bonnes bouches_ and vodka waited
+them and a bowl of hot punch.
+
+And all three English people, Stephen Strong, Tamara and Jack, admired
+their host's gracious welcome, and his courtly manners. Not a trace of
+the wild Gritzko seemed left.
+
+Tamara wondered secretly what their sleeping accommodation would be
+like.
+
+"Tantine, you must act hostess for me. Will you show these ladies their
+rooms," the Prince said. "Dinner is at eight o'clock, but you have lots
+of time before for a little bridge if you want."
+
+He took them through the usual amount of reception-rooms--a
+billiard-room and library, and small boudoir--and then they came out on
+another staircase which led to the floor above. Here he left them and
+returned to the men.
+
+"This was done up by the late Princess, Tamara," her godmother said.
+"Even twenty years ago the taste was perfectly awful, as you can see.
+The whole house could be made beautiful if only there was someone who
+cared--though I expect we shall be comfortable enough."
+
+The top passage proved to be wide, but only distempered in two colors,
+like the walls of a station waiting-room. Not the slightest attempt to
+beautify or furnish with carved chairs, and cabinets of china, and
+portraits and tapestry on the walls, as in an English house. In the
+passage all was as plain as a barrack.
+
+Tamara's room and the Princess' joined. They were both gorgeously
+upholstered in crude blue satin brocade, and full of gilt heavy
+furniture, but in each there was a modern brass bed.
+
+They were immense apartments, and warm and bright, monuments of the
+taste of 1878.
+
+"Is it not incredible, Marraine, that with the beautiful models of the
+eighteenth century in front of them, people could have perpetrated
+this? Waves of awful taste seem to come, and artists lose their sense
+of beauty and produce the grotesque."
+
+"This is a paradise compared to some," the Princess laughed. "You
+should see my sister-in-law's place!"
+
+One bridge table was made up already when they got back to the saloon,
+and Sonia, Serge Grekoff and Valonne, only waited the Princess' advent
+to begin their game.
+
+It seemed to be an understood thing that Gritzko and his English guest
+should be left out, and so practically alone.
+
+"I feel it is my duty to learn to play better," Tamara said, "so I am
+going to watch."
+
+He put down his hand and seized her wrist. "You shall certainly not,"
+he said. "You cannot be so rude as deliberately to controvert your
+host. It is my pleasure that you shall sit here and talk."
+
+His eyes were flashing, and Tamara's spirit rose.
+
+"What a savage you are, Prince," she laughed. "Everything must be only
+as you wish! That I want to watch the bridge does not enter into your
+consideration."
+
+"Not a bit."
+
+"Well, then, since I must stay here I shall be disagreeable and not say
+a word."
+
+And she sat down primly and folded her hands.
+
+He lit a cigarette, and she noticed his hand trembled a little, but his
+voice was quite steady, and in fact low as he said:
+
+"I tell you frankly, if you go on treating me as you have done today,
+whatever happens is on your head."
+
+"Do you mean to strangle me then?--or have me torn up by dogs?" and
+Tamara smiled provokingly. With all the others in the room, and almost
+within earshot, she felt perfectly safe.
+
+She had suffered so much, it seemed good to oppose him a little, when
+it could not entail a duel with some unoffending man!
+
+"I do not know yet what I shall be impelled to do, only I warn you, if
+you tease me, you will pay the price." And he puffed a cloud of smoke.
+
+"He can do nothing tonight," Tamara thought, "and tomorrow we are going
+back to Moscow, and then I am returning home." A spirit of devilment
+was in her. Nearly always it had been he who regulated things, and now
+it was her turn. She had been so very unhappy, and had only the outlook
+of dullness and regret. Tonight she would retaliate, she would do as
+she felt inclined.
+
+So she leaned back in her chair and smiled, making a tantalizing moue
+at him, while she said, mockingly:
+
+"Aren't you a barbarian, Prince! Only the days of Ivan the Terrible are
+over, thank goodness!"
+
+He took a chair and sat down quietly, but the tone of his voice should
+have warned her as he said:
+
+"You are counting upon the unknown."
+
+She peeped at him now through half-closed alluring lids, and she
+noticed he was very pale.
+
+In her quiet, well-ordered life she had never come in contact with real
+passion. She had not the faintest idea of the vast depths she was
+stirring. All she knew was she loved him very much, and the whole thing
+galled her pride horribly. It seemed a satisfaction, a salve to her
+wounded vanity, to be able to make him feel, to punish him a little for
+all her pain.
+
+"Think! This time next week. I shall be safe in peaceful England, where
+we have not to combat the unknown."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. Marraine and I have settled everything. I take the Wednesday's Nord
+Express after we get back to Petersburg."
+
+"And tomorrow is Friday, and there are yet five days. Well, we must
+contrive to show you some more scenes of our uncivilized country, and
+perhaps after all you won't go."
+
+Tamara laughed with gay scorn. She put out her little foot and tapped
+the edge of the great stove.
+
+"For once I shall do as I please, Prince. I shall not ask your leave!"
+
+His eyes seemed to gleam, and he lay perfectly still in his chair like
+some panther watching its prey. Tamara's blood was up. She would not be
+dominated! She continued mocking and defying him until she drove him
+gradually mad.
+
+But on one thing she had counted rightly, he could do nothing with them
+all in the room.
+
+First one and then another left their game, and joined them for a few
+minutes, and then went back.
+
+And so in this fashion the late afternoon passed and they went up to
+dress.
+
+No one was down in the great saloon when Tamara and the Princess
+descended for dinner, but as they entered, Stephen Strong and Valonne
+came in from the opposite door and joined them near the stove, and
+Tamara and Valonne talked, while the other two wandered to a distant
+couch.
+
+"Have you ever been to any of these wonderful parties one hears have
+taken place, Count Valonne?" she asked.
+
+Valonne smiled his enigmatic smile. "Yes," he said. "I have once or
+twice--perhaps you think this room shows traces of some rather violent
+amusements, and really on looking round, I believe it does!"
+
+Tamara shivered slightly. She had the feeling known as a goose walking
+over her grave.
+
+"It is as if wild animals played here--hardly human beings," she said.
+"Look at that cabinet, and the sofa, and--and--that picture! One cannot
+help reflecting upon what caused those holes. One's imagination can
+conjure up extraordinary things."
+
+"Not more extraordinary than the probable facts," and Valonne laughed
+as if at some astonishing recollection. "You have not yet seen our
+host's own rooms though, I expect?"
+
+"Why?" asked Tamara. "But can they possibly be worse than this?"
+
+"No, that is just it. He had them done up by one of your English firms,
+and they are beautifully comfortable and correct. His sitting-room is
+full of books, and a few good pictures, and leads into his bedroom and
+dressing-room; and as for the bathroom it is as perfect as any the best
+American plumber could invent!"
+
+Valonne had spent years at Washington, and in England too, and spoke
+English almost as a native.
+
+"He is the most remarkable contrast of wildness and civilization I have
+ever met."
+
+"It always seems to me as though he were trying to crush something--to
+banish something in himself," said Tamara. "As though he did these wild
+things to forget."
+
+"It is the limitless nature warring against an impossible bar. If he
+were an Englishman he would soar to be one of the greatest of your
+country, Madame," Valonne said. "You have not perhaps talked to him
+seriously; he is extraordinarily well read; and then on some point that
+we of the Occident have known as children, he will be completely
+ignorant, but he never bores one! Nothing he does makes one feel heavy
+like lead!"
+
+Tamara looked so interested, Valonne went on.
+
+"These servants down here absolutely idolize him; they have all been in
+the house since he or they were born. For them he can do no wrong. He
+has a gymnasium, and he keeps two or three of them to exercise him, and
+wrestle with him, and last year Basil, the second one, put his master's
+shoulder out of joint, and then tried to commit suicide with remorse.
+You can't, until you have been here a long time, understand their
+strange natures. So easily moved to passion, so fierce and barbaric,
+and yet so full of sentiment and fidelity. I firmly believe if he were
+to order them to set fire to us all in our beds tonight, they would do
+it without a word! He is their personal 'Little Father.' For them there
+is a trinity to worship and respect--the Emperor, God, and their
+Master."
+
+Tamara felt extremely moved. A passionate wild regret swept over her.
+Oh! why might not fate let him love her really, so that they could be
+happy. How she would adore to soothe him, and be tender and gentle and
+obedient, and bring him peace!
+
+But just at that moment, with an air of exasperating insouciant
+insolence, he came into the room and began chaffing with Valonne, and
+turning to her said something which set her wounded pride again all
+aflame, and burning with impotence and indignation she, as the strange
+guest, put her hand on his arm to go in to dinner.
+
+Zacouska was partaken of, and then the serious repast began. Every one
+was in the highest spirits. Countess Olga and Lord Courtray looked as
+though they were getting on with giant strides. Jack had got to the
+whispering stage, which Tamara knew to be a serious one with him. The
+whole party became worked up to a point of extra gaiety. On her other
+hand sat Sonia's husband, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin. But Gritzko
+sparkled with brilliancy and seemed to lead the entire table.
+
+There was something so extremely attractive about him in his character
+of host that Tamara felt she dared hardly look at him or she could not
+possibly keep up this cold reserve if she did!
+
+So she turned and talked, and apparently listened, with scarcely a
+pause to her right-hand neighbor's endless dissertations upon Moscow,
+and while she answered interestedly, her thoughts grew more and more
+full of rebellion and unrest.
+
+It was as if a needle had an independent will, and yet was being drawn
+by a magnet against itself. She had to use every bit of her force to
+keep her head turned to Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin, and when Gritzko
+did address her, only to answer him in monosyllables, stiffly, but
+politely, as a stranger guest should.
+
+By the end of dinner he was again wild with rage and exasperation.
+
+When they got back to the great saloon, they found the end of it had
+been cleared and a semicircle of chairs arranged for them to sit in and
+watch some performance. It proved to be a troupe of Russian dancers and
+some Cossacks who made a remarkable display with swords, while
+musicians, in their national dress, accompanied the performance.
+
+Tamara and Lord Courtray had seen this same sort of dancing in London
+when Russian troupes gave their "turns," but never executed with such
+wonderful fire and passion as this they witnessed now. The feats were
+quite extraordinary, and one or two of the women were attractive-looking
+creatures.
+
+Gritzko's attitude toward them was that of the benevolent master to
+highly trained valued hounds. Indeed this feeling seemed to be mutual,
+the hounds adoring their master with blind devotion, as all his
+belongings did.
+
+During most of the time he sat behind the Princess, and whispered
+whatever conversation he had in her ear; but every now and then he
+would move to Princess Sonia or Countess Olga, and lastly subsided
+close to Tamara, and bending over leaned on the back of her chair.
+
+He did not speak, but his close proximity caused her to experience the
+exquisite physical thrill she feared and dreaded. When her heart beat
+like that, and her body tingled with sensation, it was almost
+impossible to keep her head.
+
+His fierceness frightened her, but when he was gentle, she knew she
+melted at once, and only longed to be in his arms. So she drew herself
+up and shrank forward away from him, and began an excited conversation
+with Stephen Strong.
+
+Gritzko got up abruptly and strode back to the Princess. And soon
+tables and supper were brought in, and there was a general move.
+
+Tamara contrived to outwit him once more when he came up to speak. It
+was the only way, she felt. No half-measures would do now. She loved
+him too much to be able to unbend an inch with safety. Otherwise it
+would be all over with her, and she could not resist.
+
+They had been standing alone for an instant, and he said, looking
+passionately into her eyes:
+
+"Tamara, do you know you are driving me crazy--do you think it wise?"
+
+"I really don't care whether my conduct is wise or not, Prince," she
+replied. "As I told you, tonight, and from now onward, I shall do as I
+please." And she gathered all her forces together to put an indifferent
+look on her face.
+
+"So be it then," he said, and turned instantly away, and for the rest
+of the time never addressed her again.
+
+The long drive in the cold had made every one sleepy, and contrary to
+their usual custom, they were all ready for bed soon after one o'clock,
+and to their great surprise Gritzko made no protest, but let the
+ladies quietly go.
+
+Tamara's last thoughts before she closed her weary eyes were, what a
+failure it all had been! She had succeeded in nothing. She loved him
+madly, and she was going back home. And if she had made him suffer, it
+was no consolation! She would much rather have been happy in his arms!
+
+Meanwhile, Gritzko had summoned Ivan, his major domo, and the substance
+of his orders to that humble slave was this. That early on the morrow
+the stove was to be lit in the hut by the lake, where at the time when
+the woodcock came in quantities he sometimes spent the night waiting
+for the dawn.
+
+"And see that there is fodder for the horses," he added. "And that
+Stépan drives my troika with the blacks, and let the brown team be
+ready, too, but neither of these to come round until the grays have
+gone. And in the hut put food--cold food--and some brandy and
+champagne."
+
+The servant bowed in obedience and was preparing to leave the room.
+
+"Oil the locks and put the key in my overcoat pocket," his master
+called again. And then he lit another cigarette and drawing back the
+heavy curtains looked out on the night.
+
+It was inky black, the snow had not yet begun to fall.
+
+All promised well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Tamara had just begun to dress when her godmother came into her room
+next day.
+
+"There is going to be a terrible snow storm, dear," she said. "I think
+we should get down fairly early and suggest to Gritzko that we start
+back to Moscow before lunch. It is no joke to be caught in this wild
+country. I will send you in Katia."
+
+Tamara's maid had been left in Petersburg, and indeed her godmother's,
+an elderly Russian accustomed to these excursions, had been the only
+one brought.
+
+"I won't be more than half an hour dressing," she said. "Don't go down
+without me, Marraine."
+
+And the Princess promised and returned to her room.
+
+"It has been a real success, our little outing, has it not?" she said,
+when later they were descending the stairs. "Gritzko has been so quiet
+and nice. I am so happy, dear child, that you can go away now without
+that uncomfortable feeling of quarreling. There was one moment when he
+got up from behind your chair last night I feared you had angered him
+about something, but afterward he was so gentle and charming when we
+talked I felt quite reassured."
+
+"Yes, indeed," feebly responded Tamara. "The party has been positively
+tame!"
+
+They found their host had gone with Jack and the rest of the men to the
+stables to inspect his famous teams. But Princess Sonia and Countess
+Olga were already down. They were smoking lazily, and had almost
+suggested a double dummy of their favorite game.
+
+They hailed the two with delight, and soon the four began a rubber, and
+Tamara, who hated it, had to keep the whole of her attention to try and
+avoid making some mistake.
+
+Thus an hour past, and first Stephen Strong and then the other men came
+in.
+
+Jack Courtray was enthusiastic about the horses, and indeed the whole
+thing. He and Gritzko had arranged to go on a bear-hunt the following
+week, and everything looked _couleur de rose_--except the sky,
+that continued covered with an inky pall.
+
+The Princess beckoned to Gritzko and took him aside. She explained her
+fears about the storm, and the necessity of an earlier start, to which
+he agreed.
+
+"I am going to ask you to let us take Katia with us, we have only the
+one maid, and must have her in Moscow when we arrive," she said.
+
+So thus it was arranged. The Princess and Stephen Strong and Katia were
+to start first, and Sonia and her husband would take both Serge and
+Valonne, leaving Gritzko to bring Tamara, Olga and Lord Courtray last.
+
+All through the early lunch, which was now brought in, nothing could
+have been more lamblike than their host. He exerted himself to be
+sweetly agreeable to every one, and the Princess, generally so alert,
+felt tranquil and content, while Tamara almost experienced a sense of
+regret.
+
+Only Count Valonne, if he had been asked, would have suggested--but he
+was not officious and kept his ideas to himself.
+
+The snow now began to fall, just a few thin flakes, but it made them
+hurry their departure.
+
+In the general chatter and chaff no one noticed that Gritzko had never
+once spoken directly to Tamara, but she was conscious of it, and
+instead of its relieving her, she felt a sudden depression.
+
+"You will be quite safe with Olga and your friend, dearest," the
+Princess whispered to her as she got into the first troika which came
+round. "And we shall be only just in front of you."
+
+So they waved adieu.
+
+Then Princess Sonia's party started. The cold was intense, and as the
+team of blacks had not yet appeared, the host suggested the two ladies
+should go back and wait in the saloon.
+
+"Don't you think our way of herding in parties here is quite
+ridiculous," he said to Jack, when Olga and Tamara were gone. "After
+the rest get some way on, I'll have round the brown team too. It is
+going to be a frightful storm, and we shall go much better with only
+two in each sleigh."
+
+Jack was entirely of his opinion, from his English point of view, a
+party of four made two of them superfluous. Countess Olga and himself
+were quite enough. So he expressed his hearty approval of this
+arrangement, and presently as they smoked on the steps, the three brown
+horses trotted up.
+
+"I'll go and fetch Olga," Gritzko said, and as luck would have it he
+met her at the saloon door.
+
+"I had forgotten my muff," she said, "and had just run up to fetch it."
+
+Then he explained to her about the storm and the load, and since it was
+a question of duty to the poor horses, Countess Olga was delighted to
+let pleasure go with it hand in hand. And she allowed herself to be
+settled under the furs, with Jack, without going back to speak to
+Tamara. Indeed, Gritzko was so matter of fact she started without a
+qualm.
+
+"We shall overtake you in ten minutes," he said. "The blacks are much
+the faster team." And they gaily waved as they disappeared beyond the
+bend of the trees. Then he spoke to his faithful Ivan. "In a quarter of
+an hour let the blacks come round." And there was again the gleam of a
+panther in his eyes as he glanced at the snow.
+
+All this while Tamara, seated by the saloon stove, was almost growing
+uneasy at being left so long alone. What could Olga be doing to stay
+such a time?
+
+Then the door opened, and the Prince came in.
+
+"We must start now," he said, in a coldly polite tone. "The storm is
+coming, and four persons made too heavy a load; so Lord Courtray and
+Olga have gone on."
+
+Tamara's heart gave a great bound, but his face expressed nothing, and
+her sudden fear calmed.
+
+He was ceremoniously polite as he helped her in. Nor did he sit too
+near her or change his manner one atom as they went along. He hardly
+spoke; indeed they both had to crouch down in the furs to shelter from
+the blinding snow. And if Tamara had not been so preoccupied with
+keeping her woollen scarf tight over her head she would have noticed
+that when they left the park gate they turned to the right, in the full
+storm, not to the left, where it was clearer and which was the way they
+had come.
+
+At last the Prince said something to the coachman in Russian, and the
+man shook his head--the going was terribly heavy. They seemed to be
+making tracks for themselves through untrodden snow.
+
+"Stépan says we cannot possibly go much further, and we must shelter
+in the shooting hut," Gritzko announced, gravely; and again Tamara
+felt a twinge of fear.
+
+"But what has become of the others?" she asked. "Why do we not see
+their tracks?"
+
+"They are obliterated in five minutes. You do not understand the
+Russian storm," he said.
+
+Tamara's heart now began to beat again rather wildly, but she reasoned
+with herself; she was no coward, and indeed why had she any cause for
+alarm? No one could be more aloof than her companion seemed. She was
+already numb with cold too, and her common sense told her shelter of
+any sort would be acceptable.
+
+They had turned into the forest by now, and the road--if road it could
+be called--was rather more distinct.
+
+It was a weird scene. The great giant pine trees, and the fine falling
+flakes penetrating through, the quickly vanishing daylight, and the
+mist rising from the steaming horses as they galloped along; while
+Stépan stood there urging them on like some northern pirate at a ship's
+prow.
+
+At last the view showed the white frozen lake, and by it a rough log
+hut. They came upon it suddenly, so that Tamara could only realize it
+was not large and rather low, when they drew up at the porch.
+
+At the time she was too frozen and miserable to notice that the Prince
+unlocked the door, but afterward she remembered she should have been
+struck by the strangeness of his having a key.
+
+He helped her out, and she almost fell she was so stiff with cold, and
+then she found herself, after passing through a little passage, in a
+warm, large room. It had a stove at one end, and the walls, distempered
+green, had antlers hung round. There was one plain oak table and a
+bench behind it, a couple of wooden armchairs, a corner cupboard, and
+an immense couch with leather cushions, which evidently did for a bed,
+and on the floor were several wolf skins.
+
+The Prince made no explanation as to why there was a fire, he just
+helped her off with her furs without a word; he hung them up on a peg
+and then divested himself of his own.
+
+He wore the brown coat to-day, and was handsome as a god. Then, after
+he had examined the stove and looked from the window, he quietly left
+the room.
+
+The contrast of the heat after the intense cold without made a tingling
+and singing in Tamara's ears. She was not sure, but thought she heard
+the key turn in the lock. She started to her feet from the chair where
+she sat and rushed to try the door, and this time her heart again gave
+a terrible bound, and she stood sick with apprehension.
+
+The door was fastened from without.
+
+For a few awful moments which seemed an eternity, she was conscious of
+nothing but an agonized terror. She could not reason or decide how to
+act. And then her fine courage came back, and she grew more calm.
+
+She turned to the window, but that was double, and tightly shut and
+fastened up. There was no other exit, only this one door. Finding
+escape hopeless, she sat down and waited the turn of events. Perhaps he
+only meant to frighten her, perhaps there was some reason why the door
+must be barred; perhaps there were bears in this terribly lonely place.
+
+She sat there reasoning with herself and controlling her nerves for
+moments which appeared like hours, and then she heard footsteps in the
+passage, breaking the awful silence, and the door opened, and Gritzko
+strode into the room.
+
+He locked it after him, and pocketed the key; then he faced her. What
+she saw in his passionate eyes turned her lips gray with fear.
+
+And now everything of that subtle thing in womankind which resists
+capture, came uppermost in Tamara's spirit. She loved him--but even so
+she would not be taken.
+
+She stood holding on to the rough oak table like a deer at bay, her
+face deadly white, and her eyes wide and staring.
+
+Then stealthily the Prince drew nearer, and with a spring seized her
+and clasped her in his arms.
+
+"Now, now, you shall belong to me," he cried. "You are mine at last,
+and you shall pay for the hours of pain you have made me suffer!" and
+he rained mad kisses on her trembling lips.
+
+A ghastly terror shook Tamara. This man whom she loved, to whom in
+happier circumstances she might have ceded all that he asked, now only
+filled her with frantic fear. But she would not give in, she would
+rather die than be conquered.
+
+"Gritzko--oh, Gritzko! please--please don't!" she cried, almost
+suffocated.
+
+But she knew as she looked at him that he was beyond all hearing.
+
+His splendid eyes blazed with the passion of a wild beast. She knew if
+she resisted him he would kill her. Well, better death than this
+hideous disgrace.
+
+He held her from him for a second, and then lifted her in his arms.
+
+But with the strength of terrified madness she grasped his wounded arm,
+and in the second in which he made a sudden wince, she gave an eel-like
+twist and slipped from his grasp, and as she did so she seized the
+pistol in his belt and stood erect while she placed the muzzle to her
+own white forehead.
+
+"Touch me again, and I will shoot!" she gasped, and sank down on the
+bench almost exhausted behind the rough wooden table.
+
+He made a step forward, but she lifted the pistol again to her head
+and leant her arm on the board to steady herself. And thus they glared
+at one another, the hunter and the hunted.
+
+"This is very clever of you, Madame," he said; "but do you think it
+will avail you anything? You can sit like that all night, if you wish,
+but before dawn I will take you."
+
+Tamara did not answer.
+
+Then he flung himself on the couch and lit a cigarette, and all that
+was savage and cruel in him flamed from his eyes.
+
+"My God! what do you think it has been like since the beginning?" he
+said. "Your silly prudish fears and airs. And still I loved you--madly
+loved you. And since the night when I kissed your sweet lips you have
+made me go through hell--cold and provoking and disdainful, and last
+night when you defied me, then I determined you should belong to me by
+force; and now it is only a question of time. No power in heaven or
+earth can save you--Ah! if you had been different, how happy we might
+have been! But it is too late; the devil has won, and soon I will do
+what I please."
+
+Tamara never stirred, and the strain of keeping the pistol to her head
+made her wrist ache.
+
+For a long time there was silence, and the great heat caused a mist to
+swim before her eyes, and an overpowering drowsiness--Oh, heaven!--if
+unconsciousness should come upon her!
+
+Then the daylight faded quite, and the Prince got up and lit a small
+oil lamp and set it on the shelf. He opened the stove and let the glow
+from the door flood through the room.
+
+Then he sat down again.
+
+A benumbing agony crept over Tamara; her brain grew confused in the
+hot, airless room. It seemed as if everything swam round her. All she
+saw clearly were Gritzko's eyes.
+
+There was a deathly silence, but for an occasional moan of the wind in
+the pine trees. The drift of snow without showed white as it gradually
+blocked the window.
+
+Were they buried here--under the snow? Ah! she must fight against this
+horrible lethargy.
+
+It was a strange picture. The rough hut room with its skins and
+antlers; the fair, civilized woman, delicate and dainty in her soft
+silk blouse, sitting there with the grim Cossack pistol at her
+head--and opposite her, still as marble, the conquering savage man,
+handsome and splendid in his picturesque uniform; and just the dull
+glow of the stove and the one oil lamp, and outside the moaning wind
+and the snow.
+
+Presently Tamara's elbow slipped and the pistol jerked forward. In a
+second the Prince had sprung into an alert position, but she
+straightened herself, and put it back in its place, and he relaxed the
+tension, and once more reclined on the couch.
+
+And now there floated through Tamara's confused brain the thought that
+perhaps it would be better to shoot in any case--shoot and have done
+with it. But the instinct of her youth stopped her--suicide was a sin,
+and while she did not reason, the habit of this belief kept its hold
+upon her.
+
+So an hour passed in silence, then the agonizing certainty came upon
+her that there must be an end. Her arm had grown numb.
+
+Strange lights seemed to flash before her eyes--Yes,--surely--that was
+Gritzko coming toward her--!
+
+She gave a gasping cry and tried to pull the trigger, but it was
+stiff, her fingers had gone to sleep and refused to obey her. The
+pistol dropped from her nerveless grasp.
+
+So this was the end! He would win.
+
+She gave one moan--and fell forward unconscious upon the table.
+
+With a bound Gritzko leaped up, and seizing her in his arms carried her
+into the middle of the room. Then he paused a moment to exult in his
+triumph.
+
+Her little head, with its soft brown hair from which the fur cap had
+fallen, lay helpless on his breast. The pathetic white face, with its
+childish curves and long eyelashes, resting on her cheek, made no
+movement. The faint, sweet scent of a great bunch of violets crushed in
+her belt came up to him.
+
+And as he fiercely bent to kiss her white, unconscious lips, suddenly
+he drew back and all the savage exultation went out of him.
+
+He gazed at her for a moment, and then carried her tenderly to the
+couch and laid her down. She never stirred. Was she dead? Oh, God!
+
+In frightful anguish he put his ear to her heart; it did not seem to
+beat.
+
+In wild fear he tore open her blouse and wrenched apart her fine
+underclothing, the better to listen. Yes, now through only the bare
+soft skin he heard a faint sound. Ah! saints in heaven! she was not
+dead.
+
+Then he took off her boots and rubbed her cold little silk-stockinged
+feet, and her cold damp hands, and presently as he watched, it seemed
+as if some color came back to her cheeks, and at last she gave a sigh
+and moved her head without opening her eyes--and then he saw that she
+was not unconscious now, but sleeping.
+
+Then the bounds of all his mad passion burst, and as he knelt beside
+the couch, great tears suffused his eyes and trickled down his cheeks.
+
+"My Doushka! my love!" he whispered, brokenly. "Oh, God! and I would
+have hurt you!"
+
+He rose quickly, and going to the window opened the ventilator at the
+top, picked up the pistol from the table and replaced it in his belt,
+and then he knelt once more beside Tamara, and with deepest reverence
+bent down and kissed her feet.
+
+"Sleep, sleep, my sweet Princess," he said softly, and then crept
+stealthily from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The light was gray when Tamara awoke, though the lamp still burned--
+more than three parts of the window was darkened by snow--only a peep
+of daylight flickered in at the top.
+
+Where was she! What had happened? Something ghastly--but what?
+
+Then she perceived her torn blouse, and with a terrible pang
+remembrance came back to her.
+
+She started up, and as she did so realized she was only in her
+stockinged feet.
+
+For a moment she staggered a little and then fell back on the couch.
+
+The awful certainty--or so it seemed to her--of what had occurred came
+upon her, Gritzko had won--she was utterly disgraced.
+
+The whole training of her youth thundered at her. Of all sins, none had
+been thought so great as this which had happened to her.
+
+She was an outcast. She was no better than poor Mary Gibson whom Aunt
+Clara had with harshness turned from her house.
+
+She--a lady!--a proud English lady! She covered her face with her
+hands. What had her anguish of mind been before, when compared with
+this! She had suffered hurt to her pride the day after he had kissed
+her, but now that seemed as nothing balanced with such hideous
+disgrace.
+
+She moaned and rocked herself to and fro. Wild thoughts came--where was
+the pistol? She would end her life.
+
+She looked everywhere, but it was gone.
+
+Presently she crouched down in a corner like a cowed dog, too utterly
+overcome with shame and despair to move.
+
+And there she still was when Gritzko entered the room.
+
+She looked up at him piteously, and with unconscious instinct tried to
+pull together her torn blouse.
+
+In a flash he saw what she thought, and one of those strange shades in
+his character made him come to a resolve. Not until she should lie
+willingly in his arms--herself given by love--should he tell her her
+belief was false.
+
+He advanced up the room with a grave quiet face. His expression was
+inscrutable. She could read nothing from his look. Her sick imagination
+told her he was thus serene because he had won, and she covered her
+face with her hands, while her cheeks flamed, and she sobbed.
+
+Her weeping hurt him--he nearly relented--but
+as he came near she looked up.
+
+No! Not in this mood would he win her! and his resolve held.
+
+She did not make him any reproaches; she just sat there, a crumpled,
+pitiful figure in a corner on the floor.
+
+"The snowstorm is over," he said in a restrained voice; "we can get on
+now. Some of my Moujiks got here this morning, and I have been able to
+send word to the Princess that she should not be alarmed."
+
+Then, as Tamara did not move, he put out his hand and helped her up.
+She shuddered when he touched her, and her tears burst out afresh.
+Where was all her pride gone--it lay trampled in the dust.
+
+"You are tired and hungry, Madame," he said, "and here is a looking-glass
+and a comb and brush," and he opened a door of the tall cupboard
+which filled the corner opposite the stove, and took the things out for
+her. "Perhaps you might like to arrange yourself while I bring you some
+food."
+
+"How can I face the others,--with this blouse!" she exclaimed
+miserably, and then her cheeks crimsoned again, and she looked down.
+
+He did not make any explanation of how it had got torn--the moment was
+a wonderful one between them.
+
+Over Tamara crept some strange emotion, and he walked to the door
+quickly to prevent himself from clasping her in his arms, and kissing
+away her fears.
+
+When she was alone the cunning of all Eve's daughters filled her. Above
+all things she must now use her ingenuity to efface these startling
+proofs. She darted to the cupboard and searched among the things there,
+and eventually found a rough housewife, and chose out a needle and
+coarse thread. It was better than nothing, so she hurriedly drew off
+the blouse, then she saw her torn underthings--and another convulsive
+pang went through her--but she set to work. She knew that however she
+might make even the blouse look to the casual eyes of her godmother,
+she could never deceive her maid. Then the thought came that
+fortunately Johnson was in Petersburg, and all these things could be
+left behind at Moscow. Yes, no one need ever know.
+
+With feverish haste she cobbled up the holes, glancing nervously every
+few moments to the door in case Gritzko should come in. Then she put
+the garment on again--refastened her brooch and brushed and recoiled
+her hair. What she saw in the small looking-glass helped to restore her
+nerve. Except that her eyes were red, and she was very pale, she was
+tidy and properly clothed.
+
+She sat down by the table and tried to think. These outside things
+could still look right, but nothing could restore her untarnished
+pride.
+
+How could she ever take her blameless place in the world again.
+
+Once more it hurt Gritzko terribly to see the woebegone, humbled,
+hopeless look on her face as he came in and put some food on the table.
+He cut up some tempting bits and put them on her plate, while he told
+her she must eat--and she obeyed mechanically. Then he poured out a
+tumbler of champagne and made her drink it down. It revived her, and
+she said she was ready to start. But as she stood he noticed that all
+her proud carriage of head was gone.
+
+"My God! what should I feel like now?" he said to himself, "if it were
+really true!"
+
+He wrapped her in her furs with cold politeness, his manner had resumed
+the stiffness of their yesterday's drive.
+
+Suddenly she felt it was not possible there could be this frightful
+secret between them. It must surely be all a dreadful dream.
+
+She began to speak, and he waited gravely for what she would say; but
+the words froze on her lips when she saw the pistol in his belt--that
+brought back the reality. She shuddered convulsively and clenched her
+hands. He put on his furs quietly and then opened the door.
+
+He lifted her into the troika which was waiting outside. Stépan's face,
+as he stood holding the reins, was as stolid as though nothing unusual
+had occurred.
+
+So they started.
+
+"I told the messenger to tell Tantine that we were caught in the snow,"
+he said, "and had to take shelter at the farm.--There is a farm a verst
+to the right after one passes the forest. It contains a comfortable
+farmer's wife and large family, and though you found it too
+confoundedly warm in their kitchen you passed a possible night.
+
+"Very well," said Tamara with grim meekness.
+
+Then there was silence.
+
+Her thoughts became a little confused with the intense cold and the
+effect of the champagne, and once or twice she dozed off; and when he
+saw this he drew her close to him and let her sleep with her head
+against his arm, while he wrapped the furs round her so that she felt
+no cold. Then he kept watch over her tenderly, fondest love in his
+eyes. She would wake sometimes with a start and draw herself away, but
+soon fell off again, and in this fashion, neither speaking, the hours
+passed and they gradually drew near Moscow.
+
+Then she woke completely with a shudder and sat up straight, and so
+they came to the hotel and found the Princess and the others anxiously
+waiting for them.
+
+"What an unfortunate contretemps, Tamara, dear child," her godmother
+said, "that wicked storm! We only just arrived safely, and poor Olga
+and your friend fared no better than you! Imagine! they, too, had to
+take shelter in that second village in a most horrible hovel, which
+they shared with the cows. It has been too miserable for you all four I
+am afraid."
+
+But Gritzko was obliged to turn quickly away to hide the irrepressible
+smile in his eyes--really, sometimes, fate seemed very kind.
+
+So there was no scandal, only commiseration, and both Countess Olga and
+Tamara were petted and spoilt--while, if there was a roguish note in
+Valonne's sympathetic condolences, none of them appeared to notice it.
+
+However, no petting seemed to revive Tamara.
+
+"You have caught a thorough chill, I fear, dearest,"
+the Princess said; and as they had missed their sleeping berths engaged
+for the night before, and were unable to get accommodation on the train
+again for the night, they were forced to remain in Moscow until the
+next day, so the Princess insisted upon her godchild going immediately
+to bed, while the rest of the party settled down to bridge.
+
+"It is a jolly thing, a snowstorm!" Lord Courtray said to Gritzko.
+"Isn't it? 'Pon my soul I have never enjoyed the smell of cows and hay
+so much in my life!"
+
+But upstairs in the stiff hotel bedroom Tamara sobbed herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The journey back to Petersburg passed in a numb, hopeless dream for
+Tamara. She did her best to be natural and gay, but her white face,
+pinched and drawn, caused her godmother to feel anxious about her.
+
+Gritzko had bidden them goodbye at the train--he was going back to
+Milasláv to arrange for his and Jack's bear-hunt--and would not be in
+the capital for two more days. That would be the Tuesday, and Tamara
+was to leave on Wednesday evening by the Nord Express.
+
+He had kissed her hand with respectful reverence as he said farewell,
+and the last she saw of him was standing there in his gray overcoat and
+high fur collar, a light in his eyes as they peered from beneath his
+Astrakhan cap.
+
+The Princess sent for the doctor next day--they arrived late at night
+at the Ardácheff house.
+
+"Your friend has got a chill, and seems to have had a severe shock,"
+he said when he came from Tamara's room. "Make her rest in bed today,
+and then distract her with cheerful society."
+
+And the Princess pondered as she sat in the blue salon alone. A
+shock--what had happened? Could fear of the storm have caused a shock?
+She felt very worried.
+
+And poor Tamara lay limp in her bed; but every now and then she would
+clench her hands in anguish as some fresh aspect of things struck her.
+The most ghastly moment of all came when she remembered the eventual
+fate of Mary Gibson.
+
+What if she also should have--
+
+"No! Oh, no!" she unconsciously screamed aloud; and her godmother,
+coming into the room, was really alarmed.
+
+From this moment onward the horror of this thought took root in her
+brain, and she knew no peace. But her will and her breeding came to her
+rescue. She would not lie there like an invalid; she would get up and
+dress and go down to tea. She would chaff with the others who would all
+swarm to see her. No one should pity or speculate about her. And she
+made Johnson garb her in her loveliest teagown, and then she went to
+the blue salon.
+
+And amidst the laughter and fun they had talking of their adventure, no
+one but Stephen Strong remarked the feverish unrest in her eyes, or the
+bright, hectic flush in her cheeks.
+
+When night came and she was alone again, her thoughts made a hell; she
+could not sleep; she paced her room. If Gritzko should not return on
+Tuesday. If she should never see him again. What--what would happen--
+if--she--too--like poor Mary Gibson--
+
+Next day--the Tuesday--at about eleven o'clock, a servant in the
+Milaslávski livery arrived with a letter, a stiff-looking, large,
+sealed letter. She had never seen Gritzko's writing before and she
+looked at it critically as she tremblingly broke it open.
+
+It was written from Milasláv the day they had left Moscow. It was short
+and to the point, and her eyes dilated as she read.
+
+It began thus:
+
+"To Madame Loraine,
+
+"Madame,--I write to ask you graciously to accord me the honor of your
+hand. If you will grant me this favor I will endeavor to make you
+happy.
+
+"I have the honor, Madame, to remain,
+
+"Your humble and devoted serviteur,
+
+"Gregoir[Footnote 1: "Gritzko" is the diminutive of "Gregoir."]
+Milaslávski."
+
+And as once before in her life Tamara's knees gave way under her, and
+she sat down hurriedly on the bed--all power of thought had left her.
+
+"The messenger waits, ma'am," her maid said, stolidly, from the door.
+
+Then she pulled herself together and went to the writing-table. Her
+hand trembled, but she steadied it, and wrote her answer.
+
+"To Prince Milaslávski,--
+
+"Monsieur,--I have no choice. I consent
+
+"Yours truly,
+
+"Tamara Loraine."
+
+And she folded it, and placing it in the envelope, she sealed it with
+her own little monogram seal, in tender blue wax, and handed it to her
+maid, who left the room.
+
+Then she stared in front of her--her arms crossed on the table--but
+she could not have analyzed the emotions which were flooding her being.
+
+Her godmother found her there still as an image when presently she came
+to ask after her health.
+
+"Tamara! dearest child. You worry me dreadfully. Confide in me, little
+one. Tell me what has happened?" and she placed her kind arms around
+her goddaughter's shoulders and caressed and comforted her.
+
+Tamara shivered, and then stood up. "I am going to marry Gritzko,
+Marraine," she said. "I have just sent him my answer."
+
+And the Princess had too much tact to do more than embrace her, and
+express her joy, and give her her blessing. All as if the news
+contained no flaw, and had come in the most delightful manner.
+
+Then she left her alone in her room.
+
+Yes, this was the only thing to be done, and the sooner the ceremony
+should be over the better. Lent would come on in a few short weeks;
+that would be the excuse to hasten matters, and this idea was all
+Tamara was conscious of as she finished dressing.
+
+At twelve o'clock, with formal ceremony, Prince Milaslávski sent to
+ask if the Princess Ardácheff could receive him--and soon after he was
+shown up into the first salon, where the hostess awaited him.
+
+He was dressed in his blue and scarlet uniform, and was groomed with
+even extra care, she noticed, as he advanced with none of his habitual
+easy familiarity to greet her.
+
+"I come to ask your consent to my marriage with your goddaughter,
+Tantine," he said, with grave courtesy, as he kissed her hand. "She has
+graciously promised to become my wife, and I have only to secure your
+consent to complete my felicity."
+
+"Gritzko! my dear boy!" was all the Princess could murmur. "If--if--you
+are sure it is for the happiness of you both nothing of course could
+give me greater joy; but--"
+
+"It will be for our happiness," he answered, letting the hinted doubt
+pass.
+
+Then his ceremonious manner melted a little, and he again kissed his
+old friend's hand. "Dear Tantine, have no fears. I promise you it shall
+be for our happiness."
+
+The Princess was deeply moved. She knew there must be something
+underneath all this, but she was accustomed to believe Gritzko blindly,
+and she felt that if he gave his word, things must be right. She would
+ask no questions.
+
+"Will you go and fetch my fiancée like the darling you are," he said
+presently, "I want you to give her to me."
+
+And the Princess, quite overcome with emotion, left the room.
+
+It was not like a triumphant prospective Princess and bride that Tamara
+followed her godmother, when they returned together. She looked a
+slender drooping girl, in a clinging dove-colored gown, and she hardly
+raised her eyes from the carpet. Her trembling hand was cold as death
+when the Princess took it and placed it in Gritzko's, and as they stood
+receiving her blessing she kissed them both, and then hurriedly made
+her exit.
+
+When they were alone Tamara remained limp and still, her eyes fixed on
+the ground. It was he who broke the silence--as he took her left hand,
+and touched it with his lips.
+
+He drew from her finger her wedding ring and carelessly put it on a
+table--while he still held her hand--then he placed his gift in the
+wedding ring's place, a glittering thing of an immense diamond and
+ruby.
+
+Tamara shivered. She looked down at her hand, it seemed as if all safe
+and solid things were slipping from her with the removal of that plain
+gold band. She made no remark as to the beauty of the token of her
+engagement, she did not thank him, she remained inert and nerveless.
+
+"I thank you, Madame, for your consent," he said stiffly, "I will try
+to make you not regret it." He used no word of love, nor did he attempt
+any caresses, although if she had looked up she would have seen the
+passionate tenderness brimming in his eyes, which he could not conceal.
+But she did not raise her head, and it all seemed to her part of the
+same thing--he knew he had sinned against her, and was making the only
+reparation a gentleman could offer.
+
+And even now with her hand in his, and the knowledge that soon she
+would be his Princess, there was no triumph or joy, only the sick sense
+of humiliation she felt. Passion, and its result--necessity--not love,
+had brought about this situation.
+
+So she stood there in silence. It required the whole force of Gritzko's
+will to prevent him from folding her shrinking pitiful figure in his
+strong arms, and raining down kisses and love words upon her. But the
+stubborn twist in his nature retained its hold. No, that glorious
+moment should come with a blaze of sunlight when all was won, when he
+had made her love him in spite of everything.
+
+Meanwhile nothing but reserved homage, and a settling of details.
+
+"You will let the marriage take place before Lent, won't you?" he said,
+dropping her hand.
+
+And Tamara answered dully.
+
+"I will marry you as soon as you wish," and she turned and sat down.
+
+He leant on the mantlepiece and looked at her. He understood perfectly
+the reason which made her consent to any date--and he smiled with some
+strange powerful emotion--and yet his eye had a whimsical gleam.
+
+"You are afraid that something can happen--isn't it?" he said. "Well,
+I shall be most pleased when that day comes."
+
+But poor Tamara could not bear this--the crystalizing of her fears!
+With a stifled cry, she buried her face in the cushions. He did not
+attempt to comfort her--though he could hardly control his longing to
+do so. Instead of which he said gravely, "I suppose you must
+communicate with your family? They will come here perhaps for the
+wedding? You have not to ask any one's consent by the laws of your
+country, have you?--being a widow."
+
+Tamara with a shamed crimson face half raised her head.
+
+"I am free to do as I choose," she said, and she looked down in crushed
+wretchedness. "Yes, I suppose they will come to the wedding."
+
+"Lent is such an excellent excuse," he went on. "And all this society
+is accustomed to my doing as I please, so there will be no great wonder
+over the haste--only I am sorry if it inconveniences you--such hurried
+preparation."
+
+"How long is it before Lent?" Tamara asked without interest.
+
+"Just under a month--almost four weeks--shall the wedding take place in
+about a fortnight? Then we can go south to the sun to spend our
+honeymoon."
+
+"Just as you will;" Tamara agreed in a deadly resigned voice. "I am
+always confused with the dates--the difference between the English and
+Russian--will you write down what it will be that I may send it to my
+father?"
+
+He picked up a calendar which lay upon the table, and made the
+calculations, then he jotted it all down on a card and handed it to
+her.
+
+She took it and never looking at him rose and made a step toward the
+door, and as she passed the table where he had put her wedding ring she
+surreptitiously secured it.
+
+"I suppose you are staying for lunch?" she said in the same monotonous
+voice. "Can I go now?--do you want to say any more?"
+
+"Tamara!" he exclaimed, with entreaty in his tone, and then with quick
+repression he bowed gravely and once more touched her hand with his
+lips--ere he held open the door for her.
+
+"I will be here when you return--I will await your pleasure."
+
+So she left the room quietly. And when she was gone he walked wildly up
+and down for a moment--then he bent and passionately kissed the cushion
+she had leant on.
+
+Tamara would learn what his love meant--when the day should come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The lunch passed off with quiet reserve--there was no one present but
+Stephen Strong. Tamara endeavored to behave naturally and answered
+Gritzko whenever he spoke to her. He, too, played his part, but the
+tone of things did not impose upon Stephen Strong.
+
+As they were leaving the diningroom, on the plea of finding something,
+Tamara went to her room, and Gritzko took his leave.
+
+"I will fetch you for the French plays tonight, Tantine," he said, "and
+probably will come back to tea--tell Tamara," and so he left, and the
+two old friends were alone.
+
+They stirred their coffee and then lit cigarettes--there was an awkward
+silence for a moment, and then the Princess said:
+
+"Stephen, I count upon you to help us all over this. I do not, and will
+not, even guess what has happened, but of course something has. Only
+tell me, do you think he loves her? I cannot bear the idea of Tamara's
+being unhappy."
+
+The old Englishman puffed rings of smoke.
+
+"If she is prepared never to cross his will, but let him be absolute
+master of her body and soul, while he makes continuous love to her, I
+should think she will be the happiest woman in the world. She is madly
+infatuated with him. She has been ever since we came from Egypt--I saw
+the beginning on the boat--and I warned you, as you know, when I
+thought he was only fooling."
+
+"In Egypt!--they had met before then!" the Princess exclaimed,
+surprised; "how like Gritzko to pretend he did not know her,--and be
+introduced all over again! They had already quarreled, I suppose, and
+that accounts for the cat and dog like tone there has always been
+between them."
+
+"Probably," said Stephen Strong; but now I think we can leave it to
+chance. You may be certain that to marry her is what he wishes most to
+do,--or he would not have asked her."
+
+"Not even if--he thought he ought to?"
+
+"No--dear friend. No! I believe I know Gritzko even better than you do.
+If there was a sense of obligation, and no desire in the case, he
+would simply shoot her and himself, rather than submit to a fate
+against his inclination. You may rest in peace about that. Whatever
+strain there is between them, it is not of that sort. I believe he
+adores her in his odd sort of way, just let them alone now and all will
+be well."
+
+And greatly comforted the Princess was able to go out calling.
+
+The news was received with every sort of emotion,--surprise, chagrin,
+joy, excitement, speculation, and there were even those among them who
+averred they had predicted this marriage all along.
+
+"Fortunately we like her," Countess Olga said. "She is a good sort, and
+perhaps she will keep Gritzko quiet, and he may be faithful to her."
+
+But this idea was laughed to scorn, until Valonne joined in with his
+understanding smile.
+
+"I will make you a bet," he said; "in five years' time they will still
+be love-birds. She will be the only one among this party who won't have
+been divorced and have moved on to another husband."
+
+"You horribly spiteful cat!" Princess Sonia laughed. "But I am sure we
+all hope they will be happy."
+
+Meanwhile Jack Courtray had come in at once to see Tamara.
+
+"Well, upon my word! fancy you marrying a foreigner, old girl!" he
+said; "but you have got just about the best chap I have ever met, and I
+believe you'll be jolly happy."
+
+And Tamara bent down so that he should not see the tears which gathered
+in her eyes, while she answered softly, "Thank you very much, Jack; but
+no one is ever sure of being happy."
+
+And even though Lord Courtray's perceptions were rather thick he
+wondered at her speech--it upset him.
+
+"Look here, Tamara," he said, "don't you do it then if it is a chancy
+sort of thing. Don't go and tie yourself up if you aren't sure you love
+him."
+
+Love him!--good God!--
+
+Pent-up feeling overcame Tamara. She answered in a voice her old
+playmate had never dreamed she possessed--so concentrated and full of
+passion. In their English lives they were so accustomed to controlling
+every feeling into a level commonplace that if they had had time to
+think, both would have considered this outburst melodramatic.
+
+"Jack," Tamara said, "you don't know what love is. I tell you I know
+now--I love Gritzko so that I would rather be unhappy with him than
+happy with any one else on earth. And if they ask you at home, say I
+would not care if he were a Greek, or a Turk, or an African nigger, I
+would follow him to perdition.--There!"--and she suddenly burst into
+tears and buried her face in her hands.
+
+Yes, it was true. In spite of shame and disgrace, and fear, she loved
+him--passionately loved him.
+
+Of course Jack, who was the kindest-hearted creature, at once put his
+arm around her and took out his handkerchief and wiped her eyes, while
+he said soothingly:
+
+"I say, my child--there! there!--this will never do," and he continued
+to pet and try to comfort her, but all she could reply was to ask him
+to go, and to promise her not to say anything about her outburst of
+tears to any one.
+
+And, horribly distressed, Jack did what she wished, running against
+Gritzko in the passage as he went out; but they had met before that
+day, so he did not stop, but, nodding in his friendly way, passed down
+the stairs.
+
+Tamara sat where he had left her, the tears still trickling over her
+cheeks, while she stared into the fire. The vision she saw there of her
+future did not console her.
+
+To be married to a man whom she knew she would daily grow to love
+more--every moment of her time conscious that the tie was one of
+sufferance, her pride and self respect in the dust--it was a miserable
+picture.
+
+Gritzko came in so quietly through the anteroom that, lost in her
+troubled thoughts, she did not hear him until he was quite close. She
+gave a little startled exclamation and then looked at him defiantly--
+she was angry that he saw her tears.
+
+His face went white and his voice grew hoarse with overmastering
+emotion.
+
+"What has happened between you and your friend, Madame? Tell me the
+truth. No man should see you cry! Tell me everything, or I will kill
+him."
+
+And he stood there his eyes blazing.
+
+Then Tamara rose and drew herself to her full height, while a flash of
+her vanished pride returned to her mien, and with great haughtiness she
+answered in a cold voice:
+
+"I beg you to understand one thing, Prince, I will not be insulted by
+suspicions and threats against my friends. Lord Courtray and I have
+been brought up as brother and sister. We spoke of my home, which I may
+never see again, and I told him what he was to say to them there when
+they asked about me. If I have cried I am ashamed of my tears, and when
+you speak and act as you have just done, it makes me ashamed of the
+feeling which caused them."
+
+He took a step nearer, he admired her courage.
+
+"What was the feeling which caused them? Tell me, I must know,--" he
+said; but as he spoke he chanced to notice she had replaced her wedding
+ring, it shone below his glittering ruby.
+
+"That I will not bear!" he exclaimed, and with almost violence he
+seized her wrist and forcibly drew both rings from her finger, and then
+replaced his own.
+
+"There shall be no token of another! No gold band there but mine, and
+until then, no jewel but this ruby!"
+
+Then he dropped her hand and turning, threw the wedding ring with
+passion in the fire!
+
+Tamara made a step forward in protest, and then she stood petrified
+while her eyes flashed with anger.
+
+"Indeed, yes, I am ashamed I cried!" she said at last between her
+teeth.
+
+He made some restless paces, he was very much moved.
+
+"I must know--" he began. But at that moment the servants came in with
+the tea, and Tamara seized the opportunity while they were settling the
+tray to get nearer the door, and then fled from the room, leaving
+Gritzko extremely disturbed.
+
+What could she mean? He knew in his calmer moments he had not the least
+cause to be jealous of Jack. What was the inference in her words? Two
+weeks seemed a long time to wait before he could have all clouds
+dispersed, all things explained--as she lay in his arms. And this
+thought--to hold her in his arms--drove him wild. He felt inclined to
+rush after her, to ask her to forgive him for his anger, to kiss and
+caress her, to tell her he loved her madly and was jealous of even the
+air she breathed until he should hear her say she loved him.
+
+He went as far as to write a note.
+
+"Madame," he began--He determined to keep to the severest formality or
+he knew he would never be able to play his part until the end.--"I
+regret my passion just now. The situation seemed peculiar as I came in.
+I understand there was nothing for me to have been angry about,--please
+forgive me. Rest now. I will come and fetch you at quarter to eight.
+
+"Gritzko."
+
+And as he went away he had it sent to her room.
+
+And when Tamara read it the first gleam of comfort she had known since
+the night at the hut illumined her thoughts. If he should love her--
+after all!--But no, this could not be so; his behavior was not the
+behavior of love. But in spite of the abiding undercurrent of
+humiliation and shame, the situation was intensely exciting. She
+feverishly looked forward to the evening. Her tears seemed to have
+unlocked her heart--she was no longer numb. She was perfectly aware
+that no matter what he had done she wildly loved him. He had taken
+everything from her, dragged her down from her pedestal, but that last
+remnant of self-respect she would keep. He should not know of this
+crowning humiliation--that she still loved him. So her manner was like
+ice when he came into the room, and the chill of it communicated itself
+to him. They hardly spoke on the way to the Théâtre Michel, and when
+they entered the box she pretended great interest in the stage, while,
+between the acts, all their friends came in to give their
+congratulations.
+
+Tamara asked to be excused from going on to supper and the ball which
+was taking place. And she kept close to her godmother while going out,
+and so contrived that she did not say a word alone with Gritzko. It was
+because he acquiesced fully in this line of conduct that she was able
+to carry it through, otherwise he would not have permitted it for a
+moment.
+
+He realized from this night that the situation could only be made
+possible if he saw her rarely and before people--alone with her, human
+nature would be too strong. So with the most frigid courtesy and
+ceremony between them the days wore on, and toward the beginning of the
+following week Gritzko went off with Jack Courtray on the bear-hunt. He
+could stand no more.
+
+But after he was gone Tamara loathed the moments. She was overwrought
+and overstrung. Harassed by the wailing and expostulations of her
+family for what they termed her "rash act," worried by dressmakers and
+dozens of letters to write, troubled always with the one dominating
+fear, at last she collapsed and for two days lay really ill in a
+darkened room.
+
+Then Gritzko returned, and there were only five days before the
+wedding. He had sent her flowers each morning as a lover should, and he
+had loaded her with presents,--all of which she received in the same
+crushed spirit. With the fixed idea in her brain that he was only
+marrying her because as a gentleman he must, none of his gifts gave her
+any pleasure. And he, with immense control of passion had played his
+part, only his time of probation was illumined by the knowledge of
+coming joy. Whereas poor Tamara, as the time wore on, lost all hope,
+and grew daily paler and more fragile-looking.
+
+Her father had a bad attack of the gout, and could not possibly move;
+but her brother Tom and her sister, Lady Newbridge, and Millicent
+Hardcastle were to arrive three days before the wedding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The night of the bear-hunter's return there was to be a small dinner at
+the Ardácheff house. The Princess had arranged that there should be a
+party of six; so that while the four played bridge the fiancés might
+talk to one another. She was growing almost nervous, and indeed it had
+required all Stephen Strong's assurance that things eventually would
+come right to prevent her from being actually unhappy.
+
+"Let 'em alone!" the old man said. "Take no notice! you won't regret
+it."
+
+Tamara had only got up from her bed that afternoon and was very pale
+and feeble. She wore a white clinging dress and seemed a mere slip of a
+girl. The great string of beautiful pearls, Gritzko's latest gift,
+which had arrived that morning, was round her neck, and her sweet eyes
+glanced up sadly from the blue shadows which encircled them.
+
+Gritzko was already there when the Princess and Tamara reached the
+first salon, and his eyes swam with passionate concern when he saw how
+Tamara had been suffering. He could not restrain the feeling in his
+voice as he exclaimed:
+
+"You have been ill!--my sweet lady! Oh! Tantine, why did you not send
+for me? How could you let her suffer?"
+
+And a sudden wave of happiness came over Tamara when he kissed her
+hand. She was so weak the least thing could have made her cry.
+
+But her happiness was short-lived, for Gritzko--afraid yet of showing
+what was in his heart--seemed now colder than ever; though he was
+exulting within himself at the thought that the moment would come soon
+when all this pretence should end.
+
+Tamara, knowing nothing of these things, felt a new sinking depression.
+In five days she would be his wife, and then when he had paid the
+honorable price--how would he treat her?--
+
+He was looking wildly attractive tonight, his voice had a thousand
+tones in it when he addressed the others, he was merry and witty and
+gay--and almost made love to the Princess--only to his fiancée did he
+seem reserved.
+
+The food appeared impossible to swallow. She almost felt at last as
+though she were going to faint. The hopeless anguish of the situation
+weighed upon her more than ever; for alas! she felt she loved him now
+beyond any pride, every barrier was broken down. She had no more anger
+or resentment for the night at the hut. All his many sins were forgiven.
+
+Dinner was an impossible penance, and with a feverish excitement she
+waited for the time when they should be alone.
+
+It seemed an eternity before coffee was finished and the four retired
+to their bridge. Then the two passed out of the room and on into the
+blue salon.
+
+It was extremely difficult for both of them. The Prince could scarcely
+control his mad longing to caress her. Only that strange turn in his
+character held him. Also the knowledge that once he were to grant
+himself an inch he could never restrain the whole of his wild passion,
+and there were yet five days before she should be really his--.
+
+Tamara looked a white, frozen shape as she almost fell into the sofa
+below the Falconet group. Cupid with his laughing eyes peeped down and
+mocked her. Gritzko did not sit beside her. He took a chair and leant
+on a table near.
+
+"We had good sport," he said dryly. "Your friend can hit things. We got
+two bears."
+
+"Jack must have been pleased," Tamara answered dully.
+
+"And your family--they arrive on Monday, isn't it?" he asked. "Your
+brother and sister and the estimable Mrs. Hardcastle?" and he laughed
+as he always did at the mention of Millicent. "They will wonder, won't
+they, why you are marrying this savage! but they will not know."
+
+"No!" said Tamara. "They must never know." Gritzko's face became
+whimsical, a disconcerting, mischievous provoking smile stole into his
+eyes.
+
+"Do you know yourself?" he asked.
+
+She looked up at him startled. It was her habit now never to meet his
+eyes. Indeed, the sense of humiliation under which she lived had
+changed all her fearless carriage of head.
+
+"Why do you ask such questions? I might as well ask you why are you
+marrying me. We both know that we cannot help it," and there was a
+break in her voice which touched him profoundly.
+
+"Answer for yourself please, I may have several other reasons," he said
+coldly, and got up and walked across the room picking up a bibelot here
+and there, and replacing it restlessly.
+
+Tamara longed to ask him what these reasons were. She was stirred with
+a faint hope, but she had not the courage, the intensity of her feeling
+made her dumb.
+
+"They--Tantine--or Sonia--have explained to you all the service, I
+suppose," he said at last. "It is different to yours in your country.
+It means much more--"
+
+"And is more easily broken."
+
+"That is so, but we shall not break ours, except by death," and he
+raised his head proudly. "From Wednesday onward the rest of your life
+belongs to me."
+
+Tamara shivered. If she could only overcome this numbness which had
+returned--if she could only let her frozen heart speak; this was surely
+the moment, but she could not, she remained silent and white and
+lifeless.
+
+He came over to the sofa.
+
+"Tamara," he said, and his voice vibrated with suppressed passion.
+"Will you tell me the truth? Do you hate me,--or what do you feel for
+me?"
+
+She thought he meant only to torture her further; she would not answer
+the question.
+
+"Is it not enough that you have conquered me by force? Why should you
+care to know what my feelings are? As you say, after Wednesday I shall
+belong to you--You can strangle me at Milasláv if you wish. My body
+will be yours, but my soul you shall never soil or touch, you have no
+part or lot in that matter, Prince."
+
+His eyes filled with pain.
+
+"I will even have your soul," he said. Then, as though restraining
+further emotion, he went on coldly. "I have arranged that after the
+wedding we go to my house, and do not start for the South until
+Saturday. There are some things I wish to show you there. Will that be
+as you wish?"
+
+"I have no wishes, it is as you please," Tamara answered monotonously.
+
+He gave an impatient shrug, and walked up and down the room, his will
+kept its mastery, but it was a tremendous strain. Her words had stung
+him, her intense quiet and absence of emotion had produced a faint
+doubt. What if after all he should never be able to make her love him.
+For the first time in his life a hand of ice clutched his heart. He
+knew in those moments of agony that she meant the whole world to him.
+
+He glanced at her slender graceful figure so listlessly leaning against
+the blue cushions, at her pale ethereal face, and then he turned
+abruptly away toward the door to the other salon.
+
+"Come," he said, "it is of no avail to talk further, we will say
+goodnight." Tamara rose. The way to her room led from the opposite
+side.
+
+"Goodnight then," she said, "make my adieu to Sonia and the rest. I
+shall go to bed," and she walked that way. The whole floor was between
+them, as she looked back. He stood rigid by the other door.
+
+Then with great strides he was beside her, and
+had taken her in his arms.
+
+"Ah! God!" he said, as he fiercely kissed her, and then almost flung
+her from him, and strode from the room.
+
+And Tamara went on to her own, trembling with excitement.
+
+This was passion truly, but what if some love lurked underneath?--and
+when she reached her great white bed she fell upon her knees, and
+burying her face in her hands she prayed to God.
+
+     *    *    *    *    *
+
+Now of what use to write of the days that followed--the stiff
+restrained days--or of the arrival of Tom Underdown and his sister, and
+Millicent Hardcastle--or of the splendid Russian ceremonies in the
+church or the quieter ones at the Embassy. All that it concerns us to
+know is that Gritzko and Tamara were at last alone on this their
+wedding night. Alone with all their future before them. Both their
+faces had been grave and solemn through all the vows and prayers, but
+afterward his had shone with a wild triumph. And as they had driven to
+his house on the Fontonka he had held Tamara's hand but had not spoken.
+
+It was a strange eventful moment when he led her up the great stairs
+between the rows of bowing servants--up into the salons all decorated
+with flowers. Then, still never speaking, he opened the ballroom doors,
+and when they had walked its great length and came to the rooms
+beyond, he merely said:
+
+"These you must have done by that man in Paris--or how you please," as
+though the matter were aloof, and did not interest him. And then
+instead of turning into his own sitting-room, he opened a door on the
+right, which Tamara did not know, and they entered what had been his
+mother's bedroom. It was warmed and lit, but it wore that strange air
+of gloom and melancholy which untenanted rooms, consecrated to the
+memory of the dead, always have, in spite of blue satin and bright
+gilding.
+
+"Tamara," he said, and he took her hand, "these were my mother's rooms.
+I loved her very much, and I always thought I would never let any
+woman--even my wife--enter them. I have left them just as she used them
+last. But now I know that is not what she would have wished."
+
+His deep voice trembled a little with a note of feeling in it which was
+new, and which touched Tamara's innermost being.
+
+"I want you to see them now with me, and then while we are in the South
+all these things shall be taken away, and they shall be left bare and
+white for you to arrange them when we come back, just as you would
+like. I want my mother's blessing to rest on us--which it will do--"
+
+Then he paused, and there was a wonderful silence, and when he went on,
+his tones were full of a great tenderness.
+
+"Little one, in these rooms, some day I will make you happy."
+
+Tamara trembled so she could hardly stand, the reaction from her misery
+was so immense. She swayed a little and put out her hand to steady
+herself by the back of a chair. He thought she was going to fall,
+seeing her so white, and he put his arm round her as he led her through
+the room and into the sitting-room, and then beyond again to a little
+sanctuary. Here a lamp swung before the Ikon, and the colors were
+subdued and rich, while the virgin's soft eyes looked down upon them.
+There were fresh lilies, too, in a vase below, and their scent perfumed
+the air. He knelt for a second and whispered a prayer, then he rose,
+and they looked into each other's eyes--and their souls met--and all
+shadows rolled away.
+
+"Tamara!" he said, and he held out his arms--and with a little
+inarticulate cry almost of pain Tamara fell into them--and he folded
+her to his heart--while he bent and kissed her hair.
+
+Then he held her from him and looked deep into
+her eyes.
+
+"Sweetheart--am I forgiven?" he asked, and when she could speak she
+answered:
+
+"Yes--you are forgiven."
+
+Then he questioned again.
+
+"Tamara, do you love me?"
+
+But he saw the answer in her sweet face, and did not wait for her to
+speak, but kissed her mouth.
+
+Then he lifted her in his arms like a baby and carried her back through
+the ghostly rooms to his warm human sitting-room, and there he laid her
+tenderly down upon the couch and knelt beside her.
+
+"Oh, my heart," he said. "What this time has been--since you promised
+to marry me!--but I would not change it--I wanted you to love me beyond
+everything--beyond anger with me, beyond--fear--beyond your pride. Now
+tell me you do. My sweet one. Moia Doushka. I must know. I _must_ know.
+You mean my life--tell me?"
+
+And passion overcame Tamara, and she answered
+him in a low voice of vibrating emotion.
+
+"Gritzko! do you think I care for what you have done or will do! You
+know very well I have always loved you!" And she put up her mouth for
+him to kiss her. Then he went quite mad for a few moments with joy--he
+caressed her as even on the dawn-drive she had never dreamed, and
+presently he said with deep earnestness.
+
+"Darling, we must live for one another--in the world of course for
+duty; but our real life shall be alone at Milasláv for only you and me.
+You must teach me to be calm and to banish impossible thoughts. You
+must make yourself my center--Tamara, you must forget all your former
+life, and give yourself to me, sweetheart. My country must be your
+country, my body your body, and my soul your soul. I love you better
+than heaven or earth--and you are mine now till death do us part."
+
+Then the glory of paradise seemed to descend upon Tamara, as he bent
+and kissed her lips.
+
+Oh! what did anything else matter in the world since after all he
+loved her! This beautiful fierce lover!
+
+Visions of enchantment presented themselves--a complete intoxication
+of joy.
+
+He held her in his arms, and all the strange passion and mystic depths
+which had fascinated her always, now dwelt in his eyes, only
+intensified by delirious love.
+
+"Do you remember, Sweetheart, how you defied and resisted me? Darling!
+Heart of mine! but I have conquered you and taken you, in spite of all!
+You cannot struggle any more, you are my own. Only you must tell me
+that you give me, too, your soul. Ah! you said once I should have no
+part or lot in that matter. Tamara, tell me that I have it?"
+
+And Tamara thrilled with ecstasy as she whispered, "Yes, you have it."
+
+She cared not at all about pride--she did not wish to struggle, she
+adored being conquered. Her entire being was merged in his.
+
+He held her from him for a second and the old whimsical smile full of
+tender mischief stole into his eyes.
+
+"That night at the hut--when you dropped the pistol when--well, don't
+you want to know what really did happen?" he said.
+
+She buried her face in his scarlet coat.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" she cried. "It is all forgotten and forgiven."
+
+Then with wild passion he clasped her to his breast.
+
+"Oh! Love!" he said. "My sweet Princess; the gods are very kind to us,
+for all happiness is yet to come--! I did but kiss your little feet."
+
+
+
+
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