"And how did you get here?" I asked.
"By sledge. It was terribly exciting and illegal, of course, and
dangerous. Petersburg's awful. All the pipes have burst and there are
no Russians there."
"No Russians!" I exclaimed.
"Because the best people--I mean, of course, the people who won't
work--have all adopted other nationalities. We are--what are we,
Mother?"
"I think it's Adgans, my dear," the old lady chimed in.
"Adgans," I repeated.
"Something of that sort," said the Princess. "It doesn't matter about
the name, but it's more convenient. You are under the protection of
your Government and then your property benefits."
"Do you mean Azerbaijans?" I asked.
"Oh, I daresay."
"But what claim have you to become Azerbaijans?"
"Every claim," she answered with asperity. "Somebody had a property
there once--either one of our family or a friend. Why don't your
family become Esthonians? You'd find it much more convenient. Your
father could leave Petersburg."
"But he's never been to Esthonia."
"That's nonsense," said Tatiana; "he must have travelled through Reval
at some time, and besides I remember he went to Riga once to fight a
case for the Government."
"But Riga's in Latvia," I protested.
"What does that matter? Anyhow we escaped with two hundred thousand
roubles and one small trunk. The first few weeks we had a great time
here and spent all our money, but after that we had to 'put our teeth
on the shelf.'"
"But how did you manage without money?"
"Well, we sell our things--jewellery and clothes. I think you might at
least have come back through Paris; I can't understand how you forgot
about the soap. You've no idea what bad manicurists the Finns are;
they've torn my fingernails to bits."
"But when you've sold all your clothes and jewellery what do you
intend to do?" I asked.
Tatiana laughed. "Then there's the house in Petersburg that will fetch
quite a lot of money, and there are a number of people here who want
it."
"How can you sell a house to people who can't get to it?" I asked.
Tatiana shrugged her shoulders. "Of course I can sell it all the
better because they don't know the state it's in. I think England must
have made you rather silly. You wrote and asked me to lunch without my
husband and you know it's not done in Petersburg; you've become quite
English."
"But last time we met you were just divorcing the Count and I wasn't
quite sure of your relations with your new husband."
Tatiana kissed the tips of her fingers. "He's lovely!" she cried
enthusiastically. "A real Cossack officer. Why, there he is! Dmitre,
this is Monsieur Anatole, our family lawyer. He'll sell the house for
us, and he's promised me some Savon Ideal from Paris. You'll go to
Paris, won't you?" she said, putting a very seductive face close to
mine.