When Tamara reached Underwood and saw a letter from her Russian
godmother among the pile which awaited her, she felt it was the finger
of fate, and when she read it and found it contained not only New
Year's wishes, but an invitation couched in affectionate and persuasive
terms that she should visit St. Petersburg, she suddenly, and without
consulting her family, decided she would go.
"There is something drawing me to Russia," she said to herself. "One
gets into the current of things. I felt it in the air. And why should I
hesitate now I am free? Why should I not accept, just because one
Russian man has horrified me. It is, I suppose, a big city, and perhaps
I shall never see him there."
So she announced her decision to the dumfounded household, and in less
than a week took the Nord Express.
"The Court, alas! is in mourning,"--her godmother had written,--"so you
will see no splendid Court balls, but I daresay we can divert you
otherwise, Tamara, and I am so anxious to make the acquaintance of my
godchild."
The morning after she left them Aunt Clara expressed herself thus at
breakfast:
"I see a great and most unwelcome change in dear Tamara since she
returned from Egypt, I had hoped Millicent Hardcastle would be all that
was steadying and well-balanced as a companion for her, but it seems
this modern restlessness has got into her blood. I tremble to think
what ideas she will bring from Russia. Almost savages they are
there!--She may be sent to Siberia or something dreadful, and we may
never see her again."
"Oh! come Aunt Clara!" Tom Underdown protested, as he buttered his
toast. "I think you are a little behind the times. There is a Russian
at Oxford with me and he is the decentest chap in the world. You speak
as though they almost lived on raw fish!"
"My dear Tom," said Miss Underdown, severely. "I was reading only
yesterday, in the 'Christian Clarion,' how one of their Emperors cut
off everyone's head. Dreadful customs they have, it seems; and one of
their Empresses--Catherine, I think; her name was. Well, dear, it is
too shocking to speak of--and most people were sent to the mines!"
"Oh! hang it all, Aunt Clara, you can't have looked at the date! You
can hunt up just those jolly kind of stories about our Henry VIII. if
you want to, you know, and our Elizabeth wasn't the saint they made
out. And as for Siberia, I am going there myself some day, on the
Trans-Siberian Railway. Tamara will be all right. I wish to heavens she
had taken me with her. We have got dry rot in this house, that is what
is the matter with us!"
"Tom!" almost gasped Miss Underdown. "Your manners are extremely
displeasing, and the tone of your remarks is far from what one could
wish!"
Meanwhile Tamara was speeding on her way to the North, her interest and
excitement in her journey deepening with each mile.
The snow and the vast forests impressed her from the train windows.
Every smallest shade made its effect upon her brain. Tamara was
sensitive to all form and color. She was a person who apprehended
things, and from the habit of keeping all her observations to herself
perhaps the faculty of perception had grown the keener.
The silence seemed to be the first thing she remarked on reaching the
frontier. The porters were so grave and quiet, with their bearded
kindly faces, many of them like the saints and Biblical characters in
Sunday-school picture books at home.
And finally she arrived at St. Petersburg, and found her godmother
waiting for her on the platform. They recognized each other
immediately. Tamara had several photographs of the Princess Ardácheff.
"Welcome, _ma filleule_," that lady cried, while she shook her hand.
"After all these years I can have you in my house."
They said all sorts of mutually agreeable things on their way thither,
and they looked at each other shyly.
"She is not beautiful," ran the Princess' comments. "Though she has a
superb air of breeding--that is from her poor mother--but her eyes are
her father's eyes. She is very sweet, and what a lovely skin--yes, and
eyelashes--and probably a figure when one can see beneath the
furs--tall and very slender in any case. Yes, I am far from
disappointed--far."
And Tamara thought:
"My godmother is a splendid-looking lady! I like her bright brown eyes
and that white hair; and what a queer black mole upon her left cheek,
like an early eighteenth-century beauty spot. Where have I heard lately
of someone with a mole------?
"You fortunately see our city with a fresh mantle of snow, Tamara," the
Princess said, glancing from the automobile window as they sped along.
"It is not, alas! always so white as this."
It appeared wonderful to Tamara--so quite unlike anything she had
imagined. The tiny sleighs seemingly too ridiculously small for the
enormously padded coachmen on the boxes--the good horses with their
sweeping tails--the unusual harness. And, above all, again the silence
caused by the snow.
Her first remark was almost a childish one of glee and appreciation,
and then she stopped short. What would her godmother think of such an
outburst! She must return to the contained self-repression of the time
before her visit to the Sphinx--surely in this strange land!
The Princess Ardácheff's frank face was illuminated with a smile.
"She is extremely young," she thought, "in spite of her widowhood, but
I like her, and I know we shall be friends."
Just then they arrived at her house in the Serguiefskaia. It had not
appeared to Tamara that they were approaching any particularly
fashionable quarter. A fine habitation seemed the neighbor of quite a
humble one, and here there was even a shop a few doors down, and except
for the very tall windows there was nothing exceptionally imposing on
the outside. But when they entered the first hall and the
gaily-liveried suisse and two footmen had removed their furs, and the
Princess' snow boots, then Tamara perceived she was indeed in a
glorious home.
Princess Ardácheff's house was, and is, perhaps the most stately in all
Petersburg.
As they ascended the enormous staircase dividing on the first landing,
and reaching the surrounding galleries above in two sweeps, a grave
major-domo and more footmen met them, and opened wide the doors of a
lofty room. It was full of fine pictures and objets d'art, and though
the furniture dated from the time of Alexander II., and even a little
earlier--when a flood of frightful taste pervaded all Europe--still the
stuffs and the colors were beautiful and rich, and time had softened
their crudity into a harmonious whole.
Be the decorations of a house what they will, it is the mistress of it
who gives the rooms their soul. If hers is vulgar, so will the rooms
be, even though Monsieur Nelson himself has but just designed them in
purest Louis XVI. But the worst of all are those which look as though
their owner constantly attended bazaars, and brought the superfluous
horrors she secured there back with her. Then there are vapid rooms,
and anaemic rooms, and fiddly, and messy rooms, and there are monuments
of wealth with no individuality at all.
Tamara felt all these _nuances_ directly, and she knew that here dwelt
a woman of natural refinement and a broad outlook.
She sank into an old-fashioned sofa, covered with silk a quarter of an
inch thick, and the atmosphere seemed to breathe life and completeness.
Tea and quantities of different little _bonnes bouches_ awaited them.
But if there was a samovar she did not recognize it as such; in fact,
she had seen nothing which many writers describe as "Russian."
The Princess talked on in a fashion of perfect simplicity and
directness. She told her that her friends would all welcome her and be
glad that an Englishwoman should really see their country, and find it
was not at all the grotesque place which fancy painted it.
"We are so far away that you do not even imagine us," she said. "You
English have read that there was an Ivan the Terrible and a Peter the
Great, who crushed through your Evelyn's hedges, and was a giant of
seven foot high! Many of you believe wolves prowl in the streets at
night, and that among the highest society Nihilists stalk, disguised as
heaven knows what! While the sudden disappearance of a member of any
great or small family can be accounted for by a nocturnal visit of
police, and a transportation in chains to Siberian mines! Is it not so,
Tamara?"
Tamara laughed. "Yes, indeed," she said. "I am sure that is what Aunt
Clara thinks now! Are we not a ridiculously insular people, Marraine?"
She said the last word timidly and put out her hand. "May I call you
Marraine, Princess?" she asked. "I never knew my mother, and it sounds
nice."
"Indeed, yes!" the Princess said, and she rose and kissed Tamara. "Your
mother was very dear to me, long ago, before you were born, we spent a
wild season together of youth and happiness. You shall take the place
of my child Tamara, if she had lived."
Before they had finished drinking their tea, other guests came in--a
tall old General in a beautiful uniform, and two ladies, one young and
the other old. They all spoke English perfectly, and were so agreeable
and _sans façon_, Tamara's first impression was distinctly good.
Presently she heard the elder lady say to her godmother:
"Have you seen Gritzko since his return, Vera? One hears he has a wild
fit on and is at Milasláv with------" the rest of the words were almost
whispered. Tamara found herself unpleasantly on the alert--how
ridiculous, though, she thought--Gritzko!--there might be a dozen
Gritzkos in Petersburg.
"No, he returns tonight," Princess Ardácheff said; "but I never listen
to these tales, and as no matter what he does we all forgive him, and
let him fly back into our good graces as soon as he purses up that
handsome mouth of his--it is superfluous to make critiques upon his
conduct--it seems to me!"
The lady appeared to agree to this, for she laughed, and they talked of
other things, and soon all left.
And when they were gone--"Tonight I have one or two of my nicest
friends dining," the Princess said, "whom I wish you to know, so I
thought if you rested now you would not be too tired for a little
society," and she carried Tamara off to her warm comfortable bedroom,
an immense apartment in gorgeous Empire taste, and here was a great
bunch of roses to greet her, and her maid could be seen unpacking in
the ante-chamber beyond.
The company, ten or twelve of them, were all assembled when Tamara
reached one of the great salons, which opened from the galleries
surrounding the marble hall. She came in--a slender willowy creature,
with a gentle smile of contrition--was she late?
And then the presentations took place. What struck her first was that
dark or fair, fat-faced or thin, high foreheads or low, all the ladies
wore _coiffées_ exactly the same--the hair brushed up from the forehead
and tightly _ondulés_. It gave a look of universal distinction, but in
some cases was not very becoming. They were beautifully dressed in
mourning, and no one seemed to have much of a complexion, from an
English point of view, but before the end of the evening Tamara felt
she had never met women with such charm. Surely no other country could
produce the same types, perfectly simple in manner--perfectly at ease.
Extremely highly educated, with a wide range of subjects, and a
knowledge of European literature which must be unsurpassed. Afterwards
when she knew them better she realized that here was one place left in
Europe where there were no _parvenues_ and no snobs--or if there were
any, they were beautifully concealed. Such absolute simplicity and
charm can only stay in a society where no one is trying "to arrive,"
all being there naturally by birth. There could be no room for the
_métier_ adopted by several impecunious English ladies of title--that
of foisting anyone, however unsuitable, upon society and their friends
for a well-gilded consideration.
In Russia, at least, it is the round peg in the round hole. No square
peg would have a chance of admission. Thus there are the ease and
elegance of one large and interesting family.
It seemed to Tamara that each one was endowed with natural fascination.
They made no "frais" for her. There were no compliments or gushing
welcomes. They were just casual and delightful and made her feel at
home and happy with them all.
They took "Zacouska" in an ante-room. Such quantities of strange
dishes! There seemed enough for a whole meal, and Tamara wondered how
it would be possible to eat anything further! At dinner she sat between
a tall old Prince and a diplomat. The uniforms pleased her and the
glorious pearls of the ladies. Such pearls--worth a king's ransom!
Then she was interested to see the many different sorts of wine, and
the extreme richness of the food, and finally the shortness of the meal.
The pretty custom of the men kissing the hostess' hand as they all left
the dining-room together, she found delightful.
They were drinking coffee in the blue salon, and most of the party had
retired to the bridge tables laid out, and Tamara, who played too
badly, sat by the fire with her godmother and another lady, when
suddenly the door opened and, with an air of complete insouciance and
assurance, Prince Milaslávski came in.
"I want some coffee, Tantine," he said, kissing the Princess' hand,
while he nodded to everyone else. "I was passing and so came in to get
it."
"Gritzko--back again!" the whole company cried, and the Princess,
beaming upon him fond smiles, gave him the coffee, while she murmured
her glad welcome.
The society now began to chaff him as to his doings, which he took with
the utmost _sang froid_.
"That old cat of a Marianne Mariuski sets about as usual one of her
stories. I am having an orgie at Milasláv, and this time with a
seraglio of Egyptian houris--the truth being I only brought back by the
merest chance one small troupe of Alexandrian dancers, and two
performing bears. They made us laugh for three days, Serge, Sasha, and
the rest!"
"Gritzko, will you never learn wisdom," said one lady, the Princess
Shébanoff, plaintively, while the others all laughed. "Were they
pretty, and what were they like?" they asked.
"The bears?--little angels, especially Fatima,--and with the manners of
Princesses," and he bowed to an old lady who was surveying him severely
through her pince-nez, while she held her cards awry. "Which reminds me
we are failing in ours, Tantine, you have not presented me to the
English lady, who is, I perceive, a stranger."
During all this Tamara had sat cold and silent. She was angry with
herself that this man's entrance should cause her such emotion--or
rather commotion and sensation. Why should he make her feel nervous and
stupid, unsure of herself, and uncertain what to do. Invariably he
placed her at some disadvantage, and left the settling of their
relations to himself. Whereas all such regulations ought to have been
in her hands. Now she was without choice again, she could only bow
stiffly as her godmother said his name and her name, and Prince
Milaslávski took a chair by her side and began making politenesses as
though he were really a stranger.
Had she just arrived? Did she find Russia very cold? Was she going to
stay long? etc., etc.
To all of which Tamara answered in monosyllables, while two bright
spots of rose color burned in her cheeks.
The Prince was astonishingly good looking in his Cossack's uniform, and
his eyes had a laugh in them, but a shadow round as if bed had not seen
him for several nights.
His whole manner to Tamara was different from any shade it had formerly
worn. It was as if a courtly Russian were welcoming an honored guest in
his aunt's house.
He did not mock or tease, or announce startling truths; he was pleasant
and ordinary and serene.
He and the Princess Ardácheff were no real blood relations; the first
wife of her late husband had been his mother's sister, but the
tradition of aunt had gone on in the family and the Princess loved him
almost as a son. He had always called her "Tantine" as though she had
been his real aunt.
"What did you think of Gritzko Milaslávski, Tamara?" she asked, when
all the guests were gone, and the two had retired to Tamara's room. "He
is one of the dearest characters when you know him--but a terrible
tease."
"He seemed very pleasant," Tamara said blankly, while she picked up a
book. Even to speak of him caused her unease.
"He is not at all the type of an ordinary Russian," the Princess
continued. "He has traveled so much, he is so _fin_ there is almost a
French touch in him. I am afraid you will find our young men rather
dull as a rule. They are very hard worked at their military duties, and
have not much time for _les dames du monde_."
"No?" said Tamara. "Well, the women seem to make up for it. I have
never met so many clever delightful ones."
"It is our education," the Princess said. "You see from babyhood we
learn many languages, and thus the literatures of countries are open to
us before we begin to analyze anything, and English especially we know
well, because in that language there are so many books for young girls."
"In England," said Tamara, "what may be given to young girls seems to
rule everything, no one is allowed a thought for herself, every idea
almost is brought down to that dead level--one rebels after a
while--but tell me, Marraine, if I may ask, what makes them all so
tired and gray looking, the people I have seen tonight I mean. Do they
sit up very late at parties, or what is it?"
"In the season, yes, but it is not that, it is our climate and our hot
closed-up rooms, and the impossibility of taking proper exercise. In
the summer you will not know them for the same faces."
And then she kissed her goddaughter good-night, but just at the door
she paused. "You were not shocked about the Alexandrian dancers, I
hope, child?" she said. "If one knew the truth, they were poor people
who were starving, probably, and Gritzko paid them money and helped
them out of the kindness of his heart--those are the sort of things he
generally does I find when I investigate, so I never pay attention to
what he says."
Tamara, left to herself, gazed into the glowing embers of her wood fire.
"I wonder--I wonder," she said. But what she wondered she hardly dared
admit--even to herself.