Part 74 (2/2)
Like all Russians and some Cossacks, Prince Alak ate and drank as though it were the most delightful experience in life; and he did it with a whole-souled heartiness and satisfaction that was flattering to any hostess and almost fascinating to anybody observing him.
His teeth were even and very white; his appet.i.te splendid: when he did his goblet the honour of noticing it at all, it was to drain it; when he resumed knife and fork he used them as gaily, as gracefully, and as thoroughly as he used his sabre on various occasions.
He had taken an instant liking to Neeland, who seemed entirely inclined to return it; and he talked a great deal to the American but with a nice division of attention for the two ladies on either side.
”You know, Alak,” said the Princess, ”you need not torture yourself by trying to converse with discretion; because Mr. Neeland knows about many matters which concern us all.”
”Ah! That is delightful! And indeed I was already quite a.s.sured of Mr.
Neeland's intelligent sympathy in the present state of European affairs.”
”He's done a little more than express sympathy,” remarked the Princess; and she gave a humorous outline of Neeland's part in the affair of the olive-wood box.
”Fancy!” exclaimed Captain Sengoun. ”That impudent _canaille_! Yes; I heard at the Emba.s.sy what happened to that accursed box this morning.
Of course it is a misfortune, but as for me, personally, I don't care----”
”It doesn't happen to concern you personally, Prince Erlik,” said Princess Naa dryly.
”No,” he admitted, unabashed by the snub, ”it does not touch me.
Cavalry cannot operate on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Therefore, G.o.d be thanked, I shall be elsewhere when the snow boils.”
Rue tuned to Neeland:
”His one idea of diplomacy and war is a thousand Kuban Cossacks at full speed.”
”And that is an excellent idea, is it not, Kazatchka?” he said, smiling impudently at the Princess, who only laughed at the familiarity.
”I hope,” added Captain Sengoun, ”that I may live to gallop through a few miles of diplomacy at full speed before they consign me to the Opolchina.” Turning to Neeland, ”The reserve--the old man's home, you know. G.o.d forbid!” And he drained his goblet and looked defiantly at Rue Carew.
”A Cossack is a Cossack,” said the Princess, ”be he Terek or Kuban, Don or Astrachan, and they all know as much about diplomacy as Prince Erlik--or Izzet Bey's nose.... James, you are unusually silent, dear friend. Are you regretting those papers?”
”It's a pity,” he said. But he had not been thinking of the lost papers; Rue Carew's beauty preoccupied him. The girl was in black, which made her skin dazzling, and reddened the chestnut colour of her hair.
Her superb young figure revealed an unsuspected loveliness where the snowy symmetry of neck and shoulders and arms was delicately accented by the filmy black of her gown.
He had never seen such a beautiful girl; she seemed more wonderful, more strange, more aloof than ever. And this was what preoccupied and entirely engaged his mind, and troubled it, so that his smile had a tendency to become indefinite and his conversation mechanical at times.
Captain Sengoun drained one more of numerous goblets; gazed sentimentally at the Princess, then with equal sentiment at Rue Carew.
”As for me,” he said, with a carelessly happy gesture toward the infinite, ”plans are plans, and if they're stolen, _tant pis_! But there are always Tartars in Tartary and Turks in Turkey. And, while there are, there's hope for a poor devil of a Cossack who wants to say a prayer in St. Sophia before he's gathered to his ancestors.”
”Have any measures been taken at your Emba.s.sy to trace the plans?”
asked Neeland of the Princess.
”Of course,” she said simply.
<script>