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.