"It sounds a kind of Utopia," and Lord Courtray laughed. And just then
the Prince came into the room again, and over to them and they got up
and the two men went off together to examine the foils.
Presently the band arrived and more guests, and soon the contre-danse
was begun. That grown-up people could seriously take pleasure in this
amazing romp was a new and delightful idea to Tamara.
It was a sort of enormous quadrille with numerous figures and
farandole, while one sat on a chair between the figures, as at a
cotillon. And toward the end the company stamped and cried, and the
band sang, and nothing could have been more gay and exciting and wild.
Before they began, the Prince came up to Tamara and said: "I want you to dance this with me. I have had it on purpose to show you
a real Russian sight."
They had moved into the ballroom by then, which was now a blaze of
light, while as if by magic the sheet coverings had been removed from
the chairs.
And the Prince exerted himself to amuse and please his partner, and did
not again clasp her too tight, only whenever she had turns with her
countryman, his eyes would flame, and he would immediately interrupt
them and carry her off.
Tamara felt perfectly happy, she was no longer analyzing and
questioning, and she was no longer fighting against her inclination.
She abandoned herself to the rushing stream of life.
It was about five o'clock when some one suggested supper at the Islands
was now the proper thing. This was the delightful part about them--on
no occasion was there ever a halt for the consideration of ways and
means. They wanted some particular amusement and--had it! Convention,
from an English point of view, remained an unknown quantity.--Now those
who decided to continue the feasting all got into their waiting
conveyances.
With the thermometer at fifteen degrees Reaumur, a coachman's life is
not one altogether to be envied in Russia, but apparently custom will
make anything endurable.
"I know you like the troika, Tamara," Princess Ardácheff said. "So you
go with Olga and Gritzko and your friend--only be sure you wrap up your
head."
And when they were all getting in, the Countess Gléboff said: "It is so terribly cold tonight, Gritzko. I am going to sit with my
back to the horses, so as not to get the wind in my face."
When they were tucked in under the furs this arrangement seemed to Jack
Courtray one of real worth, for he instantly proceeded to take Countess
Olga's hand, while he whispered that he was cold and she could not be
so inhuman as to let a poor stranger freeze!