Part 10 (1/2)

”Gritzko!” they called in chorus. ”Can anyone invent such impossible stories as you!”

”I a.s.sure 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 Milaslavski 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?”