I saw no
women who were mummies and then turned into ice!"
Some one distracted Princess Sonia's attention for a moment, and the
Prince whispered, "One can melt ice!"
"To find a mummy?" Tamara asked with grave innocence. "That would be
the inverse rotation."
"And lastly a woman--in one's arms," the Prince said.
Tamara turned to her neighbor and became engrossed in his conversation
for the rest of the repast.
All the women, and nearly all the men, spoke English perfectly, and
their good manners were such that even this large party talked in the
strange guest's language among themselves.
"One must converse now as long as one can," her neighbor told her,
"because the moment we have had coffee everyone will play bridge, and
no further sense will be got out of them. We are a little behind the
rest of the world always in Petersburg, and while in England and Paris
this game has had its day, here we are still in its claws to a point of
madness, as Madame will see."
And thus it fell about.
Prince Milasl?vski gave Tamara his arm and they found coffee awaiting
them in the salon when they returned there, and at once the rubbers
were made up. And with faces of grave pre-occupation this lately merry
company sat down to their game, leaving only the Prince and one lady
and Tamara unprovided for.
"Yes, I can play," she had said, when she was asked, "but it bores me
so, and I do it so badly; may I not watch you instead?"
The lady who made the third had not these ideas, and she sat down near
a table ready to cut in.
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