_The Winter Palace_
The next day Nona found opportunity for confiding to Mildred the fate of
Sonya Valesky. She found Mildred more deeply concerned than Barbara had
been. This was true because Mildred had a different nature; it was
easier for her to understand a temperament that would sacrifice
everything to its dream, than for the more practical and sensible
Barbara. Moreover, Barbara was so much in love these days that she
found it difficult to give a great deal of thought to other people.
She struggled against the tendency, but it is ever the vice of lovers.
Finally, on Thursday, Mildred Thornton received a note from General
Alexis inviting her and her two friends to come that afternoon at four
o'clock to the Winter Palace. And although the three girls were
Americans, they understood that such an invitation was not in reality
an invitation, but a command. For the Czar and Czarina had announced
that they would be pleased to meet the three American Red Cross nurses.
The meeting was to be informal, as these were war times and there were
no court levees. Indeed, the Czar was only staying for a brief time at
his palace before going to take command of his own troops. Owing to the
frequent Russian defeats in the past few months, the Czar had concluded
that he must command his men in person in order to give them greater
courage and steadfastness. The munitions of war, of which they had been
sadly in need for several months, were now pouring in from Japan and the
United States.
Of course, in the excitement and nervousness due to such an important
and unexpected occasion, the three Red Cross girls had the same problem
to settle that attacks all women at critical moments:
"What on earth should they wear to the presentation?"
Fortunately, under the circumstances there was but one answer to this
question. They were invited to the Palace as Red Cross nurses, they must
therefore wear their Red Cross uniforms. Since the three girls had
almost nothing else left in their wardrobes, this was just as well.
Constant moving from place to place, with little opportunity for
transportation, had reduced their luggage to the most limited amounts.
Yet assuredly they were as handsome and far more dignified on the
afternoon of their appearance at the Winter Palace in the costumes of
American Red Cross nurses, than if they had been appareled in the court
trains and feathers of more gala occasions.
Mildred always looked especially well in her uniform. She was less
pretty than the other two girls. But for this very reason her dignity
and the sense of serenity that her personality suggested showed to best
advantage in the simple toilette of white with the Red Cross insignia on
the arm. However, over her uniform Mildred wore the magnificent sable
coat in which she had appeared at her friends' lodgings in Petrograd.
This afternoon, in spite of her excitement over what lay ahead of them,
Barbara did not allow the coat to pass unnoticed a second time.
"For goodness' sake, Mildred, where did you get that magnificent
garment?" she demanded, just as they were about to go downstairs to get
into their sleigh. "You owned a very nice coat when we left you behind
in Grovno, but some fairy wand must have changed it. This is the most
wonderful sable I ever saw."
Mildred flushed and then laid her cheek against the beautiful, soft
brown warmth of her furs. "It is time you and Nona were speaking of
my grandeur," she declared. "You see, in getting away from the fort
at the last I stupidly left my own furs behind; indeed, I don't know
what became of them. General Alexis noticed that I was cold almost
immediately. Somehow, after he began to get stronger, he managed to
have this coat brought to the country house where we were staying.
Then just before we started to Petrograd he presented it to me. Of
course, I did not feel that I ought to accept it and insisted I
could not. But General Alexis said that he had received so much
kindness from me, he thought it very ungenerous of me to make him
altogether my debtor. I didn't know what to do. Do you think it
wrong to accept it, Bab? Somehow I did not know how to continue
to refuse."
As Barbara was just going into her bedroom at this moment, she made
no reply. Nona was more reassuring.
"Of course it was all right, Mildred, or at least I suppose it was if
General Alexis insisted, and you had done a great deal for him."
Then Nona followed Barbara. Barbara was standing perfectly still in the
center of the room and apparently thinking with all the concentration
possible.
"I wonder if this General Alexis is more fond of Mildred than he would
be of any nurse who might have cared for him?" Barbara murmured. Then
she shook her head. "That was an absurd suggestion on my part and
Mildred would not like it. I am sorry," she said.
At the door of the Winter Palace, after the girls had passed beyond the
servants and the detectives who watch every human being permitted to
approach their Imperial Majesties, the three American girls were ushered
into a reception room. Except for the fact that there were more
paintings on the walls, the room resembled other similar chambers now
left on exhibition at Versailles or the Louvre in Paris.
However, the girls had little time for investigation, for almost at once
General Alexis entered the room to greet them. He was accompanied by a
lieutenant who was his aide. To Nona Davis' surprise, the young man
proved to be Lieutenant Michael Orlaff, whom she had not seen since the
afternoon when she had walked to the fortress with him and confided the
news of Sonya Valesky's arrest.
After a few moments of general conversation a man servant, wearing an
elaborate uniform, announced that General Alexis and his guests might
walk into the Czar's private sitting room.
Naturally this was a very unusual proceeding, but war times had changed
the manners of courts as well as other places. Moreover, General Alexis
was a personal friend of the Czar's, so far as a Czar may ever have a
friend. In any case, he was one of his most trusted generals. This
reception to the American Red Cross girls was entirely due to the fact
that General Alexis had declared Mildred Thornton's courage and devotion
had saved his life. But of this she was not yet aware.
The Czar and Czarina were not decorating gilded thrones as one sees them
in portraits or paints them in one's own imagination. Indeed, they were
seated in chairs, but rose as any other host and hostess might when
their guests came into the room. They were not alone, however, for
beside the guards stationed outside their door, two of them kept always
within a short distance of the Czar himself.
The Czarina was a beautiful woman, tall and dark, but looking infinitely
sad. The girls could not but remember having heard how frequently she
suffered from a melancholia so severe that it was almost akin to an
unbalanced mind.
She now murmured a few words to the three girls and then reseated
herself. Barbara hoped profoundly that the distinguished audience
would soon be over. Of course, this meeting of the Czar and Czarina was
perhaps the most extraordinary honor that had yet been paid to any
American Red Cross nurses in Europe. But like other honors, it carried
its discomfort. For Barbara had not the faintest idea what she should do
or say, when she should stand up and when sit down. She had never
imagined herself a large person before, but now she felt so awkward that
she might have been a giant. Yet really there was but one thing for her
to do: she must merely keep still and watch what was taking place.
Actually the Czar, Nicholas II, was talking pleasantly with Mildred
Thornton, and Mildred was answering with her usual quiet dignity.
The Czar looked older than Barbara would have supposed from his
pictures. But then the war may have aged him. His close-cropped brown
beard with the tiny point was turning gray. And he had large, full and,
Barbara thought, not particularly intelligent eyes.
At this moment he moved toward a small table and picked up what appeared
like a medal.
Barbara eyed it curiously. She could not hear what the Czar was saying.
But she saw Mildred turn suddenly white and appear to protest. Then the
two men, General Alexis and the Czar, actually smiled at her. The next
moment the Czar pinned a cross on Mildred's white dress.
Without realizing what she was doing, Barbara pressed closer until she
stood in front of Nona and Lieutenant Orlaff. This time she distinctly
heard the Czar say:
"I take pleasure in presenting you, Miss Thornton, with the Cross of St.
George, which is only awarded for special bravery. Only one other woman
has been presented with the Cross of St. George since the outbreak of
this war. She is Madame Kokavtseva, a colonel of the Sixth Ural Cossack
Regiment, who has twice been wounded while leading her men. She is
called our 'Russian Joan of Arc.' But there is a courage as great as
leading troops to battle. This valor, it seems to me, you showed in
remaining to the last at the ancient fortress of Grovno to care for a
great soldier who was not even your countryman. In my own name and in
the name of my country, I wish to thank you for your service to General
Alexis."
Then Barbara observed Mildred flush a beautiful, warm crimson, and
stammer something in response. Almost immediately after they were again
standing outside in the big antechamber.
Afterwards General Alexis and Lieutenant Orlaff and several of the
palace servants showed the three girls over certain portions of the
palace that could be exhibited to visitors. On the desk in the hall was
an ikon, carefully preserved under glass, which was said to have been
painted by St. Luke.
However, in spite of their honors, as soon as possible the three girls
were glad to return to their lodgings. Yet Mildred promised that they
would allow General Alexis to send his sleigh to them the following day.
The great general looked haggard and worn, but appeared to be quickly
recovering his strength. Indeed, Barbara afterwards assured Mildred that
she considered him extremely good looking and not half so old as she had
supposed.