"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 fa?on_, 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 Milasl?v 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 Ard?cheff 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.
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