His Hour

Chapter 16

The whole day of the sight-seeing passed with comparative smoothness,

Tamara persistently remained with Sonia's husband or Stephen Strong,

when any moment came that she should be alone with any man.

She was apparently indifferent to Gritzko,--considering that she was

throbbing with interest in his every movement and inwardly longing to

talk to him--she kept up the _rle_ she had set herself to play

very well. It was not an agreeable one, and but for the inward feverish

excitement she would have suffered much pain.

Gritzko for his part seemed whimsically indifferent for most of the

time, but once now and then the Princess, who watched things as the god

in the car, experienced a sense of uneasiness. And yet she could not

suggest any other line of conduct for Tamara to pursue. But on the

whole the day was a success.

The two young English guests had both been extremely interested in

what they saw. Stephen Strong was an old hand and knew it intimately,

and the whole party was so merry and gay. The snow fortunately had

held, and they rushed about in little sleighs seeing the quaint

buildings and picturesque streets and the churches with their bright

gilt domes. Moscow was really Russian, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin told

them, unlike Petersburg, which at a first glance might be Berlin or

Vienna, or anywhere else; but Moscow is like no other city in the

world.

"How extremely good you Russians must be," Tamara said. "The quantities

of churches you have, and everywhere the people seem so devout. Look at

them kissing that Ikon in the street! Such faith is beautiful to see."

"Our faith is our safeguard," her companion said. "When the people

become sufficiently educated to have doubts then, indeed, a sad day

will come."

"They have such grave patient faces, don't you think?" said Stephen

Strong. "It is not exactly a hopeless expression, it is more one of

resignation. Whenever I come here I feel of what use is strife, and

yet after a while they make one melancholy."

They were waiting by the house of the Romanoffs, for their guide to

open the door, and just then a batch of beggars passed, their wild hair

and terribly ragged sheepskins making them a queer gruesome sight. They

craved alms with the same patient smile with which they thanked when

money was given. Misery seemed to stalk about a good deal.

"How could a great family have lived in this tiny house?" Tamara asked.

"Really, people in olden times seem to have been able to double up

anywhere. Pray look at this bedroom and this ridiculous bed!"

"It will prepare you for what you are coming to at Milaslv," Gritzko

said. "A row of tent stretchers for everyone together in the hall!"

Tamara made no answer, she contrived to move on directly he spoke, and

her reply now was to the general company, as it had been all day.

If she had looked back then she would have seen a gleam in his eyes

which boded no peace. She thought she was doing everything for the

best, but each rebuff was adding fuel to that wild fire in his blood.

By the end of the day, after walks through the Treasury and museums,

and what not, and never having been able to speak to Tamara, his temper

was at boiling point. But he controlled it, and his face wore a mask,

which disarmed even the Princess' fears.

Their dinner was very gay, and the Russians asked Lord Courtray what

had impressed him most.

"I like the story of Ivan the Terrible putting his jolly old alpenstock

through the fellow's foot on the stairs when he came with the letter,"

Jack said. "Sensible sort of thing to do. Kept the messenger in place."

Meanwhile Tamara was conversing in a lower voice with Stephen Strong.

"The more you stay in this country, the more it fascinates you," he

said. "And you feel you have got back to some of the fierce primitive

passions of nature. Here, in Moscow, the whole earth must be stained

with wild orgies and blood, and yet they are full of poetry and

romance. Even Ivan the Terrible had his religious side, and every

creature of them believes in the saints and the priests. It is said the

impostor who posed as Ivan's son might have succeeded had he not been

too kind, he showed clemency to Shuisky and his enemies and did not

have them torn to pieces, so the people would not believe he could be

the Terrible's son! And they chased him to that window you remember we

saw in the old palace of the Kremlin and there he had to throw himself

out."

"It makes one wonder what can arise from a history of such horrible

crimes," Tamara said.

"You must not forget that the country is practically three hundred

years behind the times, though," Stephen Strong went on. "No doubt

quite as great horrors marked others if we look at them at an

equivalent stage of development. It is missing this point which makes

most strangers, and many foreign historians, so unjust to Russia and

her people. The national qualities are immeasurably great, but as a

civilized nation they are so very young."

"I believe one could grow to love them," Tamara said. "I have never had

the feeling that I am among strangers since I have been here."

Then she wondered vaguely why Stephen Strong smiled softly to himself.

By the end of dinner, Gritzko's eyes were blazing, and he suggested

every sort of astonishing way to spend the night. But Princess

Ardcheff, as the doyenne of the party, prudently put her foot down,

and insisted upon bed. For had they not a whole morning of sight-seeing

still to do on the morrow, and then their thirty versts in troikas to

arrive at Milaslv. So the ladies all trouped off to rest.

"Leave your door open into my room, Tamara dear, if you do not mind,"

her godmother said. "I am always nervous in hotels--"

"I trust everything is going quietly," she added to herself, "but one

never can tell."

Next day the whole sky was leaden with unfallen snow. Nothing more

strange and gloomy and barbaric than Moscow looked could have been

imagined, Tamara thought. It brought out the gilt domes and the unusual

colors of things in a lurid way.

Their first visit was to the Church of the Assumption, where the

emperors are crowned. Its great beauty and rich colors pleased the

eye. The totally different arrangement of things from any other sort of

church--the shape and the absence of chairs or seats--the hidden altar

behind the doors of the sanctuary--the numerous pictures and frescoed

walls--all gave it a mysterious, wonderful charm, and here again the

two English were struck by the people's simple faith.

"We would catch every sort of disease kissing those Ikons after filthy

ulcerated beggars," Stephen Strong said to Tamara. "But the belief that

only good can come to them brings only good. The study of these people

makes one less materialistic and full of common sense. One puts more

credence in things occult."

A service was just beginning, it was some high saint's day, and the

beautiful singing, the boys' angel voices and the deep bass of the

priests, unaccompanied by any instruments or organ, impressed Tamara

far more in this old temple than the services had done in any of the

St. Petersburg churches.

A peace fell on her soul, and just as the gipsies' music had been of

the devil, so this seemed to come from heaven itself. She felt calmed

and happier when they came out.

After an early lunch they saw from the hotel windows three troikas

drawn up. Two of them Gritzko's, and one belonging to Prince

Solentzeff Zasiekin, who had also a country place in the neighbourhood.

The two, which had come a day or so before from Milaslv, were indeed

wonderful turn-outs. The Prince prided himself upon his horses, which

were renowned throughout Europe.

The graceful shaped sleighs, with the drivers in their quaint liveries

standing up to drive, always unconsciously suggest that their origin

must have been some chariot from Rome.

Gritzko's colors were a rich greenish-blue, while the reins and velvet

caps and belts of the drivers were a dull cerise; the caps were braided

with silver, while they and the coats and the blue velvet rugs were

lined and bordered with sable. One set of horses was coal black, and

the others a dark gray. Everything seemed in keeping with the

buildings, and the semi-Byzantine scene with its Oriental note of

picturesque grace.

"Which will you choose to go in, Madame?" Gritzko asked. "Shall you be

drawn by the blacks or the grays?"

"I would prefer the blacks," Tamara replied. "I always love black

horses, and these are such beautiful ones." And so it was arranged.

"If you will come with Stephen and me, Tantino," the Prince said, "we

shall be the lighter load and get there first. Madame Loraine and Olga

can go with Serge and Lord Courtray, they will take the blacks; that

leaves Valonne for Sonia and her husband. Will this please everyone?"

Apparently it did, for thus they started. It was an enchanting drive

over the snow. They seemed to fly along, once they had left the town,

and the weird bleak country, unmarked by any boundaries, impressed both

Tamara and Jack. And while Tamara was speculating upon its mystical

side, Lord Courtray was gauging its possibilities for sport.

They at last skirted a dark forest, which seemed to stretch for miles,

and then after nearly three hours' drive arrived at the entrance to

Milaslv.

They went through a wild, rough sort of park, and then came in view of

the house--a great place with tall Ionic pillars supporting the front,

and wings on each side--while beyond, stretching in an irregular mass,

was a wooden structure of a much earlier date.

It all appeared delightfully incongruous and a trifle makeshift to

Tamara and Jack when they got out of their sleigh and were welcomed by

their host.

A bare hall, at one side showing discolored marks of mould on the wall,

decorated in what was the Russian Empire style, a beautiful conception

retaining the classic lines of the French and yet with an added

richness of its own. Then on up to a first floor above a low _rez de

chausse_ by wide stairs. These connecting portions of the house

seemed unfurnished and barren,--walls of stone or plaster with here and

there a dilapidated decoration. It almost would appear as if they were

meant to be shut off from the living rooms, like the hall of a block of

flats. The whole thing struck a strange note. There were quantities of

servants in their quaint liveries about, and when finally they arrived

in a great saloon it was bright and warm, though there was no open

fireplace, only the huge porcelain stove.

Here the really beautiful, though rather florid Alexander I. style

struggled from the walls with an appalling set of furniture of the

period of Alexander II. But the whole thing had an odd unfinished look,

and a fine portrait of the Prince's grandfather in one panel was

entirely riddled with shot!

Some splendid skins of bears and wolves were on the floor, and there

was a general air of the room being lived in--though magnificence and

dilapidation mingled everywhere. The very rich brocade on one of the

sofas had the traces of great rents. And while one table held cigarette

cases and cigar boxes in the most exquisitely fine enamel set with

jewels, on another would be things of the roughest wood. And a cabinet

at the side filled with a priceless collection of snuff boxes and

_bon-bonnires_ of Catherine's time had the glass of one door

cracked into a star of splinters.

Tamara had a sudden sensation of being a million miles away from

England and her family: it all came as a breath of some other life. She

felt strangely nervous, she had not the least notion why. There was a

reckless look about things which caused a weird thrill.

"If it were only arranged, what capabilities it all has," she thought;

"but as it is, it seems to speak of Gritzko and fierce strife."

Tea and the usual quantities of _bonnes bouches_ and vodka waited

them and a bowl of hot punch.

And all three English people, Stephen Strong, Tamara and Jack, admired

their host's gracious welcome, and his courtly manners. Not a trace of

the wild Gritzko seemed left.

Tamara wondered secretly what their sleeping accommodation would be

like.

"Tantine, you must act hostess for me. Will you show these ladies their

rooms," the Prince said. "Dinner is at eight o'clock, but you have lots

of time before for a little bridge if you want."

He took them through the usual amount of reception-rooms--a

billiard-room and library, and small boudoir--and then they came out on

another staircase which led to the floor above. Here he left them and

returned to the men.

"This was done up by the late Princess, Tamara," her godmother said.

"Even twenty years ago the taste was perfectly awful, as you can see.

The whole house could be made beautiful if only there was someone who

cared--though I expect we shall be comfortable enough."

The top passage proved to be wide, but only distempered in two colors,

like the walls of a station waiting-room. Not the slightest attempt to

beautify or furnish with carved chairs, and cabinets of china, and

portraits and tapestry on the walls, as in an English house. In the

passage all was as plain as a barrack.

Tamara's room and the Princess' joined. They were both gorgeously

upholstered in crude blue satin brocade, and full of gilt heavy

furniture, but in each there was a modern brass bed.

They were immense apartments, and warm and bright, monuments of the

taste of 1878.

"Is it not incredible, Marraine, that with the beautiful models of the

eighteenth century in front of them, people could have perpetrated

this? Waves of awful taste seem to come, and artists lose their sense

of beauty and produce the grotesque."

"This is a paradise compared to some," the Princess laughed. "You

should see my sister-in-law's place!"

One bridge table was made up already when they got back to the saloon,

and Sonia, Serge Grekoff and Valonne, only waited the Princess' advent

to begin their game.

It seemed to be an understood thing that Gritzko and his English guest

should be left out, and so practically alone.

"I feel it is my duty to learn to play better," Tamara said, "so I am

going to watch."

He put down his hand and seized her wrist. "You shall certainly not,"

he said. "You cannot be so rude as deliberately to controvert your

host. It is my pleasure that you shall sit here and talk."

His eyes were flashing, and Tamara's spirit rose.

"What a savage you are, Prince," she laughed. "Everything must be only

as you wish! That I want to watch the bridge does not enter into your

consideration."

"Not a bit."

"Well, then, since I must stay here I shall be disagreeable and not say

a word."

And she sat down primly and folded her hands.

He lit a cigarette, and she noticed his hand trembled a little, but his

voice was quite steady, and in fact low as he said:

"I tell you frankly, if you go on treating me as you have done today,

whatever happens is on your head."

"Do you mean to strangle me then?--or have me torn up by dogs?" and

Tamara smiled provokingly. With all the others in the room, and almost

within earshot, she felt perfectly safe.

She had suffered so much, it seemed good to oppose him a little, when

it could not entail a duel with some unoffending man!

"I do not know yet what I shall be impelled to do, only I warn you, if

you tease me, you will pay the price." And he puffed a cloud of smoke.

"He can do nothing tonight," Tamara thought, "and tomorrow we are going

back to Moscow, and then I am returning home." A spirit of devilment

was in her. Nearly always it had been he who regulated things, and now

it was her turn. She had been so very unhappy, and had only the outlook

of dullness and regret. Tonight she would retaliate, she would do as

she felt inclined.

So she leaned back in her chair and smiled, making a tantalizing moue

at him, while she said, mockingly:

"Aren't you a barbarian, Prince! Only the days of Ivan the Terrible are

over, thank goodness!"

He took a chair and sat down quietly, but the tone of his voice should

have warned her as he said:

"You are counting upon the unknown."

She peeped at him now through half-closed alluring lids, and she

noticed he was very pale.

In her quiet, well-ordered life she had never come in contact with real

passion. She had not the faintest idea of the vast depths she was

stirring. All she knew was she loved him very much, and the whole thing

galled her pride horribly. It seemed a satisfaction, a salve to her

wounded vanity, to be able to make him feel, to punish him a little for

all her pain.

"Think! This time next week. I shall be safe in peaceful England, where

we have not to combat the unknown."

"No?"

"No. Marraine and I have settled everything. I take the Wednesday's Nord

Express after we get back to Petersburg."

"And tomorrow is Friday, and there are yet five days. Well, we must

contrive to show you some more scenes of our uncivilized country, and

perhaps after all you won't go."

Tamara laughed with gay scorn. She put out her little foot and tapped

the edge of the great stove.

"For once I shall do as I please, Prince. I shall not ask your leave!"

His eyes seemed to gleam, and he lay perfectly still in his chair like

some panther watching its prey. Tamara's blood was up. She would not be

dominated! She continued mocking and defying him until she drove him

gradually mad.

But on one thing she had counted rightly, he could do nothing with them

all in the room.

First one and then another left their game, and joined them for a few

minutes, and then went back.

And so in this fashion the late afternoon passed and they went up to

dress.

No one was down in the great saloon when Tamara and the Princess

descended for dinner, but as they entered, Stephen Strong and Valonne

came in from the opposite door and joined them near the stove, and

Tamara and Valonne talked, while the other two wandered to a distant

couch.

"Have you ever been to any of these wonderful parties one hears have

taken place, Count Valonne?" she asked.

Valonne smiled his enigmatic smile. "Yes," he said. "I have once or

twice--perhaps you think this room shows traces of some rather violent

amusements, and really on looking round, I believe it does!"

Tamara shivered slightly. She had the feeling known as a goose walking

over her grave.

"It is as if wild animals played here--hardly human beings," she said.

"Look at that cabinet, and the sofa, and--and--that picture! One cannot

help reflecting upon what caused those holes. One's imagination can

conjure up extraordinary things."

"Not more extraordinary than the probable facts," and Valonne laughed

as if at some astonishing recollection. "You have not yet seen our

host's own rooms though, I expect?"

"Why?" asked Tamara. "But can they possibly be worse than this?"

"No, that is just it. He had them done up by one of your English firms,

and they are beautifully comfortable and correct. His sitting-room is

full of books, and a few good pictures, and leads into his bedroom and

dressing-room; and as for the bathroom it is as perfect as any the best

American plumber could invent!"

Valonne had spent years at Washington, and in England too, and spoke

English almost as a native.

"He is the most remarkable contrast of wildness and civilization I have

ever met."

"It always seems to me as though he were trying to crush something--to

banish something in himself," said Tamara. "As though he did these wild

things to forget."

"It is the limitless nature warring against an impossible bar. If he

were an Englishman he would soar to be one of the greatest of your

country, Madame," Valonne said. "You have not perhaps talked to him

seriously; he is extraordinarily well read; and then on some point that

we of the Occident have known as children, he will be completely

ignorant, but he never bores one! Nothing he does makes one feel heavy

like lead!"

Tamara looked so interested, Valonne went on.

"These servants down here absolutely idolize him; they have all been in

the house since he or they were born. For them he can do no wrong. He

has a gymnasium, and he keeps two or three of them to exercise him, and

wrestle with him, and last year Basil, the second one, put his master's

shoulder out of joint, and then tried to commit suicide with remorse.

You can't, until you have been here a long time, understand their

strange natures. So easily moved to passion, so fierce and barbaric,

and yet so full of sentiment and fidelity. I firmly believe if he were

to order them to set fire to us all in our beds tonight, they would do

it without a word! He is their personal 'Little Father.' For them there

is a trinity to worship and respect--the Emperor, God, and their

Master."

Tamara felt extremely moved. A passionate wild regret swept over her.

Oh! why might not fate let him love her really, so that they could be

happy. How she would adore to soothe him, and be tender and gentle and

obedient, and bring him peace!

But just at that moment, with an air of exasperating insouciant

insolence, he came into the room and began chaffing with Valonne, and

turning to her said something which set her wounded pride again all

aflame, and burning with impotence and indignation she, as the strange

guest, put her hand on his arm to go in to dinner.

Zacouska was partaken of, and then the serious repast began. Every one

was in the highest spirits. Countess Olga and Lord Courtray looked as

though they were getting on with giant strides. Jack had got to the

whispering stage, which Tamara knew to be a serious one with him. The

whole party became worked up to a point of extra gaiety. On her other

hand sat Sonia's husband, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin. But Gritzko

sparkled with brilliancy and seemed to lead the entire table.

There was something so extremely attractive about him in his character

of host that Tamara felt she dared hardly look at him or she could not

possibly keep up this cold reserve if she did!

So she turned and talked, and apparently listened, with scarcely a

pause to her right-hand neighbor's endless dissertations upon Moscow,

and while she answered interestedly, her thoughts grew more and more

full of rebellion and unrest.

It was as if a needle had an independent will, and yet was being drawn

by a magnet against itself. She had to use every bit of her force to

keep her head turned to Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin, and when Gritzko

did address her, only to answer him in monosyllables, stiffly, but

politely, as a stranger guest should.

By the end of dinner he was again wild with rage and exasperation.

When they got back to the great saloon, they found the end of it had

been cleared and a semicircle of chairs arranged for them to sit in and

watch some performance. It proved to be a troupe of Russian dancers and

some Cossacks who made a remarkable display with swords, while

musicians, in their national dress, accompanied the performance.

Tamara and Lord Courtray had seen this same sort of dancing in London

when Russian troupes gave their "turns," but never executed with such

wonderful fire and passion as this they witnessed now. The feats were

quite extraordinary, and one or two of the women were attractive-looking

creatures.

Gritzko's attitude toward them was that of the benevolent master to

highly trained valued hounds. Indeed this feeling seemed to be mutual,

the hounds adoring their master with blind devotion, as all his

belongings did.

During most of the time he sat behind the Princess, and whispered

whatever conversation he had in her ear; but every now and then he

would move to Princess Sonia or Countess Olga, and lastly subsided

close to Tamara, and bending over leaned on the back of her chair.

He did not speak, but his close proximity caused her to experience the

exquisite physical thrill she feared and dreaded. When her heart beat

like that, and her body tingled with sensation, it was almost

impossible to keep her head.

His fierceness frightened her, but when he was gentle, she knew she

melted at once, and only longed to be in his arms. So she drew herself

up and shrank forward away from him, and began an excited conversation

with Stephen Strong.

Gritzko got up abruptly and strode back to the Princess. And soon

tables and supper were brought in, and there was a general move.

Tamara contrived to outwit him once more when he came up to speak. It

was the only way, she felt. No half-measures would do now. She loved

him too much to be able to unbend an inch with safety. Otherwise it

would be all over with her, and she could not resist.

They had been standing alone for an instant, and he said, looking

passionately into her eyes:

"Tamara, do you know you are driving me crazy--do you think it wise?"

"I really don't care whether my conduct is wise or not, Prince," she

replied. "As I told you, tonight, and from now onward, I shall do as I

please." And she gathered all her forces together to put an indifferent

look on her face.

"So be it then," he said, and turned instantly away, and for the rest

of the time never addressed her again.

The long drive in the cold had made every one sleepy, and contrary to

their usual custom, they were all ready for bed soon after one o'clock,

and to their great surprise Gritzko made no protest, but let the

ladies quietly go.

Tamara's last thoughts before she closed her weary eyes were, what a

failure it all had been! She had succeeded in nothing. She loved him

madly, and she was going back home. And if she had made him suffer, it

was no consolation! She would much rather have been happy in his arms!

Meanwhile, Gritzko had summoned Ivan, his major domo, and the substance

of his orders to that humble slave was this. That early on the morrow

the stove was to be lit in the hut by the lake, where at the time when

the woodcock came in quantities he sometimes spent the night waiting

for the dawn.

"And see that there is fodder for the horses," he added. "And that

Stpan drives my troika with the blacks, and let the brown team be

ready, too, but neither of these to come round until the grays have

gone. And in the hut put food--cold food--and some brandy and

champagne."

The servant bowed in obedience and was preparing to leave the room.

"Oil the locks and put the key in my overcoat pocket," his master

called again. And then he lit another cigarette and drawing back the

heavy curtains looked out on the night.

It was inky black, the snow had not yet begun to fall.

All promised well.