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!