"Waiter, serve us some refreshments," ordered Leonin.
"For how many?"
"Three."
"Who is the third?" asked odon.
"You will soon see," replied Leonin.
The waiter spread the table and brought a roast, side dishes, and champagne in a cooler; then he left the gentlemen to themselves.
Leonin bolted the door after him.
"This is a queer kind of a sugar refinery," remarked odon, glancing through the grating.
The other laughed. "You thought we only knew how to sing psalms, I suppose," said he.
"But such a resort here in a government building!" exclaimed odon.
Leonin smiled and put his finger on his lips.
"Aren"t you afraid of being discovered?" asked the other.
"If we were we should all take a trip to Siberia."
"Don"t you fear the musicians may betray you?"
"They can"t see. Every member of the orchestra is blind. But don"t listen to the music. That is well enough for old gentlemen: something better is in store for us."
Leonin knocked twice on the part.i.tion wall separating them from the next box, the signal was repeated above, and in a few minutes a door opened in the part.i.tion and a woman"s form appeared.
A more beautiful creature could not have stepped out of the pages of the "Arabian Nights." She wore a long Persian caftan that reached to her ankles and defined rather than veiled her shapely figure. Her slim waist was encircled by a golden girdle, while around her neck and on her bosom hung strings of pearls. The long, flowing sleeves of her caftan were slit up in front and gathered only at the shoulder, thus exposing to view the most perfect pair of arms ever dreamt of by sculptor. The face was of a n.o.ble Caucasian type, with finely shaped nose, full lips, arched eyebrows, and bright eyes of the deepest black. The sole ornament of her head was furnished by two magnificent braids of hair that fairly touched the wearer"s heels.
She paused in surprise on the threshold. "You are not alone," said she.
"Come in, Jeza," returned Leonin. "This young gentleman is one half of my soul, of which you are the other half." So saying, with a quick movement he embraced the two and pressed them to his breast, after which he seated them side by side on another divan opposite his own.
"There, odon," he exclaimed, "isn"t she different from those cold beauties of the upper world? Don"t you find it more interesting here in the lower regions?"
Jeza met odon"s unmoved inspection of her charms with a sort of timid wonder.
"Did you ever see such eyes as those?" asked Leonin, "or a mouth like that, which can smile, pout, tease, laugh, beg, and scold, so that you don"t know which best becomes it?"
"Do you wish to sell me?" asked the Circa.s.sian girl.
"The purchaser would have to give me a new world in exchange," was the answer. "But if you should fall in love with one who is my friend and brother, he should receive you as a present."
Jeza sank back in a corner of the divan, lowered her eyelids and let her hands fall into her lap.
"odon, you really ought to have been an animal-tamer," said Leonin, as he took in both his hands one of the Circa.s.sian girl"s dainty little red-slippered feet. "This young creature is naturally wild, impulsive, talkative, and full of whims; but as soon as she meets the severe glance of your _mal occhio_, she subsides and sits there like one of the novices in the Smolna nunnery. Jeza, you are lost. All of those beautiful wild beasts known as women become mute and helpless the moment this lion-tamer looks at them."
The Circa.s.sian girl tossed her head and turned a defiant look upon odon; but no sooner did she meet his eye than she blushed in spite of herself--perhaps for the first time since the slave-dealer at Yekaterinograd had severed her girdle.
"Come, let us drink, my children," cried Leonin, striking off the head of one of the champagne bottles. Filling three gla.s.ses, he handed one to odon and one to Jeza; and when they had half emptied them he exchanged and refilled them.
"Drink to the bottom this time," he said. "That is right. Now you have drunk love to each other."
The wine loosed the girl"s tongue and she began to chatter in the liveliest fashion. From the hall the notes of the orchestra reached them, and she sang an accompaniment. odon sat with his back against the grating and did not once turn around to see any of the pieces that were being presented. Leonin, on the other hand, looked through the grating at every new number and indulged in various random comments.
"Well, Jeza," he asked at length, "haven"t you any number to-night?"
"No, I am having a holiday," she replied.
"But couldn"t you oblige my friend by giving one of your productions?"
Jeza sat upright and stole a look at odon. "If he wishes it," she answered.
"What shall I ask for?" asked odon, turning to Leonin.
"Oh, I forgot," replied the latter; "you didn"t know that Jeza was an _artiste_, and above all things unexcelled as a rider. Her number is always given the place of honour,--at the end of the programme. Choose any of her roles."
"But I am not acquainted with the young lady"s repertoire," returned the other.
"Barbarian! not to know Jeza"s masterpieces after living for half a year in a civilised country. Well, I"ll name the best ones to you.
"_La Reine Amalasunthe_;" "_La Diablesse_;" "_etoile qui File_;" "_La Bayadere_;" "_La Nymphe Triomphante_;" "_Diane qui Cha.s.se Actaeon_;"
"_Mazeppa_"--"
"No, that is not among them!" cried the girl, interrupting the speaker.
"odon, don"t let her fool you," said Leonin; "choose Ma--"
But he was stopped by Jeza, who had sprung from her seat and was holding her hand over his mouth. He struggled to free himself, but meanwhile odon ended the contest by making his choice.
"Mazeppa!" he called, and Jeza turned her back to them both in a pet and leaned against the wall. Leonin, however, gained his point.
"You have always refused me that," said he; "but I told you the time would come when you would have to yield."
The girl threw a look at odon. "Very well, then; it shall be done."
And therewith she disappeared.
odon now turned his attention for the first time to the arena, a vaulted s.p.a.ce of sixty yards in diameter, half enclosed by a semicircle of grated boxes. No spectators were to be seen, but the cigar-smoke that, made its way through the gratings betrayed their presence. The side of the arena unenclosed by boxes was draped with hangings on which were depicted various mythological scenes, while an occasional door broke up the wall-s.p.a.ce and relieved the monotony.
For a few minutes after Jeza"s exit from Leonin"s box the arena was quite empty, save that two Moorish girls in Turkish costume were busy smoothing the sand,--a sign that an equestrian act was to follow.
A knock was heard at the door of Leonin"s box, and he went to open it. A servant stood without, bearing a letter on a silver tray.
"What have you there?" asked Leonin.
"A letter for the other gentleman, sir."