Part 22 (2/2)
I uttered one of the phrases which everybody must have ready for such an occasion.
The quadrilles dragged on a dreadfully long time.
At last the music struck up from the gallery, Princess Mary and I took up our places.
I did not once allude to the drunken gentleman, or to my previous behaviour, or to Grushnitski. The impression produced upon her by the unpleasant scene was gradually dispelled; her face brightened up; she jested very charmingly; her conversation was witty, without pretensions to wit, vivacious and spontaneous; her observations were sometimes profound... In a very involved sentence I gave her to understand that I had liked her for a long time. She bent her head and blushed slightly.
”You are a strange man!” she said, with a forced laugh, lifting her velvet eyes upon me.
”I did not wish to make your acquaintance,” I continued, ”because you are surrounded by too dense a throng of adorers, in which I was afraid of being lost to sight altogether.”
”You need not have been afraid; they are all very tiresome”...
”All? Not all, surely?”
She looked fixedly at me as if endeavouring to recollect something, then blushed slightly again and finally p.r.o.nounced with decision:
”All!”
”Even my friend, Grushnitski?”
”But is he your friend?” she said, manifesting some doubt.
”Yes.”
”He, of course, does not come into the category of the tiresome”...
”But into that of the unfortunate!” I said, laughing.
”Of course! But do you consider that funny? I should like you to be in his place”...
”Well? I was once a cadet myself, and, in truth, it was the best time of my life!”
”Is he a cadet, then?”... she said rapidly, and then added: ”But I thought”...
”What did you think?”...
”Nothing! Who is that lady?”
Thereupon the conversation took a different direction, and it did not return to the former subject.
And now the mazurka came to an end and we separated--until we should meet again. The ladies drove off in different directions. I went to get some supper, and met Werner.
”Aha!” he said: ”so it is you! And yet you did not wish to make the acquaintance of Princess Mary otherwise than by saving her from certain death.”
”I have done better,” I replied. ”I have saved her from fainting at the ball”...
”How was that? Tell me.”
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