And then about three o'clock the entire troupe filed out of the room
for refreshment and rest. The atmosphere was thick with smoke, and
heated to an incredible extent. Some one started to play the piano, and
every one began to dance a wild round--a mazurka, perhaps--and Tamara
found herself clasped tightly in the arms of her Prince.
She did not know the step, but they valsed to the tune, and all the
time he was whispering mad things in Russian in her ear. She could not
correct him, because she did not know what they might mean.
"Doushka," he said at last. "So you are awake; so it is not milk and
water after all in those pretty blue veins! God! I will teach you to
live!"
And Tamara was not angry; she felt nothing except an unreasoning
pleasure and exultation.
The amateur bandsman came to a stop, and another took his place; but
the spell fortunately was broken, and she could pull herself together
and return to sane ways.
"I am tired," she said, when the Prince would have gone on, "and I am
almost faint for want of air." So he opened a window and left her for a
moment in peace.
She danced again with the first man who asked her, going quickly from
one to another so as to avoid having to be too often held by the
Prince. But each time she felt his arm round her, back again would
steal the delicious mad thrill.
"I hope you are amusing yourself, dear child," her godmother said.
"This is a Russian scene; you would not see it in any other land."
And indeed Tamara was happy, in spite of her agitation and unrest.
She sat down now with Olga Gléboff, and they watched the others while
they took breath. The Prince was dancing with Princess Shébanoff, and
her charming face was turned up to him with an adoring smile.
"Poor Tatiane,--" Countess Olga said low to herself.
When the gipsies returned, their music grew wilder than ever, and some
of the solos seemed to touch responsive chords in Tamara's very bones.
The Prince sat next her on the sofa now, and every few moments he would
bend over to take an almond, or light a cigarette, so that he touched
her apparently without intention, but nevertheless with intent. And the
same new and intoxicating sensation would steal through her, and she
would draw her slender figure away and try to be stiff and severe, but
with no effect.