Tamara and her godmother did not meet until nearly lunchtime next day.
A little before that meal the Princess came into her room. Tamara was
still in bed, perfectly exhausted with the strain of the night. The
Princess wore an anxious look of care, as she walked from the window to
the dressing table and then back again. Finally she sat down and took
up a glove which was lying on a cushion near.
"Tamara, you saw I talked last night with Valonne, and this morning I
sent for Serge Grekoff, but he would not come, so I got Valonne again."
She paused an instant. "I was extremely worried last night about
Gritzko. I dare say you were not to blame, dear, but--"
"Please tell me, Marraine," and poor Tamara sat up and pushed her hair
back.
"It appears, as far at I can gather, they all dined at the Fontonka
house--Boris Varishkine and Gritzko have always been great friends--and
at the end of dinner--Valonne imagines, because no one is sure what
took place between them at this stage--Gritzko, it is supposed, said to
Boris in quite an amiable way that he did not wish him to dance the
Mazurka with you, but to relinquish his right in his--Gritzko's--
favor."
She paused again, and Tamara's eyes fixed themselves in fascinated fear
on her face. The Princess, after smoothing out the glove in her hand
with a nervous energy, went on: "They had all had quite enough champagne, of course, and apparently
Boris refused, and suggested that they should toss up, and whoever won
the toss should have first shot in the dark."
"Yes," said Tamara faintly.
"You know, dear, our boys are often very wild, and they have a game
they play when they are at the end of their tether for something to do
when quartered in some hopeless outpost--a kind of blind-man's-buff--
only it is all in the dark, and the blind man stands in the middle of
the room and the rest clap hands and then dodge, and he fires his
revolver at the point the sound seems to come from, and the object is
not to get shot. You may have noticed Sasha Basmanoff has no left
thumb? He lost it last year on just such a night."
"Oh! Marraine, how dreadful!" Tamara said.
"It is perhaps not a very civilized game," the Princess continued, "but
we are not discussing that, I am telling you what occurred. Well, from
this point Valonne and the rest were eyewitnesses. Gritzko and Boris,
still laughing in rather a strained way, said they had some slight
difference of opinion to settle, and had decided to do it in the
ballroom, in the dark. I won't go into details of how many steps to the
right or left, the impromptu seconds arranged, only it was settled when
Sasha at one end and Serge at the other should shut the doors they
should both fire, and if in three times neither was shot, both should
give up their claim."