"Gritzko!" they called in chorus. "Can anyone invent such impossible stories as you!"
"I a.s.sure you I am speaking the truth. Is it not so, Madame?" And he looked at Tamara and smiled with fleeting merry mockery in his eyes.
"See," and he again turned to his guests, "Madame has been in Egypt she tells me, and should be able to vouch for my truth."
Tamara pulled herself together.
"I think the Sphinx must have cast a spell over you, Prince," she said, "so that you could not distinguish the real from the false. I saw no women who were mummies and then turned into ice!"
Some one distracted Princess Sonia"s attention for a moment, and the Prince whispered, "One can melt ice!"
"To find a mummy?" Tamara asked with grave innocence. "That would be the inverse rotation."
"And lastly a woman--in one"s arms," the Prince said.
Tamara turned to her neighbor and became engrossed in his conversation for the rest of the repast.
All the women, and nearly all the men, spoke English perfectly, and their good manners were such that even this large party talked in the strange guest"s language among themselves.
"One must converse now as long as one can," her neighbor told her, "because the moment we have had coffee everyone will play bridge, and no further sense will be got out of them. We are a little behind the rest of the world always in Petersburg, and while in England and Paris this game has had its day, here we are still in its claws to a point of madness, as Madame will see."
And thus it fell about.
Prince Milaslavski gave Tamara his arm and they found coffee awaiting them in the salon when they returned there, and at once the rubbers were made up. And with faces of grave pre-occupation this lately merry company sat down to their game, leaving only the Prince and one lady and Tamara unprovided for.
"Yes, I can play," she had said, when she was asked, "but it bores me so, and I do it so badly; may I not watch you instead?"
The lady who made the third had not these ideas, and she sat down near a table ready to cut in. Thus the host and his English guest were left practically alone.
"I did not mean you to play," he said, "I knew you couldn"t--I arranged it like this."
"Why did you know I couldn"t?" Tamara asked. "I am too stupid perhaps you think!"
"Yes--too stupid and--too sweet."
"I am neither stupid--nor sweet!" and her eyes flashed.
"Probably not, but you seem so to me.--Now don"t get angry at once, it makes our acquaintance so fatiguing, I have each time to be presented over again."
Then Tamara laughed.
"It really is all very funny," she said.
"And how is the estimable Mrs. Hardcastle?" he asked, when he had laughed too--his joyous laugh. "This is a safe subject and we can sit on the fender without your wanting to push me into the fire over it."
"I am not at all sure of that," answered Tamara. She could not resist his charm, she could not continue quarrelling with him; somehow it seemed too difficult here in his own house, so she smiled as she went on. "If you laugh at my Millicent, I shall get very angry indeed."
"Laugh at your Millicent! The idea is miles from my brain--did not I tell you when I could find a wife like that I would marry--what more can I say!" and the Prince looked at her with supreme gravity. "Did she tell "Henry" that a devil of a Russian bear had got drunk and flung a gipsy into the sea?"
"Possibly. Why were you so--horrible that night?"
"Was I horrible?"
"Probably not, but you seemed so to me," Tamara quoted his late words.
"I seem horrible--and you seem sweet."
"Surely the stupid comes in too!"
"Undoubtedly, but Russia will cure that, you will not go away for a long time."
"In less than four weeks."
"We shall see," and the Prince got up and lit another cigarette. "You do not smoke either? What a little good prude!"
"I am not a prude!" Tamara"s ire rose again. "I have tried often with my brother Tom, and it always makes me sick. I would be a fool, not a prude, to go on, would not I?"
"I am not forcing you to smoke. I like your pretty teeth best as they are!"
Rebellion shook Tamara. It was his att.i.tude toward her--one of supreme unconcerned command--as though he had a perfect right to take his pleasure out of her conversation, and play upon her emotions, according to his mood. She could have boxed his ears.
"How long ago is it since we danced in Egypt--a fortnight, or more? You move well, but you don"t know anything about dancing," he went on.
"Dancing is either a ridiculous jumping about of fools, who have no more understanding of its meaning than a parcel of marionettes. Or it is an expression of some sort of emotion. The Greeks understood that in their Orchiesis, each feeling had its corresponding movement. For me it means a number of things. When a woman is slender and pliant and smooth of step, and if she pleases me otherwise, then it is not waste of time!--Tonight I shall probably get drunk again," and he flicked the ash off his cigarette with his little finger; and even though Tamara was again annoyed with him, she could not help noticing that his hands were fine and strong.
"But you were not drunk on the ship--you could not even plead that,"
she said, almost shocked at herself for speaking of anything so horrible.
"It is the same thing. I feel a mad supercharge of life--an intoxication of the senses, perhaps. It has only one advantage over the champagne result. I am steady on my feet, and my voice is not thick!"
Tamara did not speak.
"I wonder what this music we shall hear will say to you. Will it make the milk and water you call blood in your veins race?--it will amuse me to see."
"I am not made for your amus.e.m.e.nt, Prince. How dare you always treat me as you do?" And Tamara drew herself up haughtily. "And if my veins contain milk and water, it is at least my own."
"You dared me once before, Madame," he said, smiling provokingly. "Do you think it is quite wise of you to try it again?"
"I do not care if it is wise or no. I hate you!" almost hissed poor Tamara.
Then his eyes blazed, as she had never seen them yet. He moved nearer to her, and spoke in a low concentrated voice.
"It is a challenge. Good. Now listen to what I say. In a little short time you shall love me. That haughty little head shall lie here on my breast without a struggle, and I shall kiss your lips until you cannot breathe."
For the second time in her life Tamara went dead white--he saw her pale even to her lips. And since the moment was not yet, and since his mood was not now to make her suffer, he bent over with contrition and asked her to forgive him in a tender voice.
"Madame--I am only joking--but I am a brute," he said.
Tamara rose and walked to the bridge tables, furious with herself that he could have seen his power over her, even though it were only to cause rage.