His Hour

"Why on earth do you put up with such manners?" Tamara exclaimed with

irritation.

"I do not know. We might not in any one else, but Gritzko is a

privileged person," the Princess said. "You can't imagine, of course,

dear, because you do not know him well enough, but he has ways and

façons of coaxing. He will do the most outrageous things, and make me

very angry, and then he will come and put his head in my lap like a

child, and kiss my hands, and call me 'Tantine,' and, old woman as I

am, I cannot resist him. And if one is unhappy or ill, no one can be

more tender and devoted." Then she added dreamily:--"While as a lover I

should think he must be quite divine."

Tamara took another cup of tea and looked into the fire. She was

ashamed to show how this conversation interested her.

"Tatiane Shébanoff is madly in love with him, poor thing, and I do not

believe he has ever given her any real encouragement," the Princess

continued. "I have seen him come to a ball, and when all the young

women are longing for him to ask them to dance, he will go off with me,

or old Countess Nivenska, and sit talking half the night, apparently

unaware of any one else's presence."

"It seems he must be the most exasperating, tiresome person one has

ever heard of, Marraine," Tamara exclaimed. "He rides over you all, and

you cannot even be angry, and continually forgive him."

"But then he has his serious side," the Princess went on, eager to

defend her favorite. "He is now probably studying some deep military

problem all this time, and that is why we have not seen him,"--and then

noticing the scornful pose of Tamara's head she laughed. "Don't be so

contemptuous, dear child," she--said. "Perhaps you too will understand

some day."

"That is not very likely," Tamara said.

But alas! for the Princess' optimistic surmises as to the Prince's

occupations, a rumor spread toward the end of the week of the maddest

orgie which had taken place at the Fontonka house. It sounded like a

phantasmagoria in which unclothed dancers, and wild beasts, and

unheard-of feats seemed to float about. And the Princess sighed as she

refuted the gossip it caused.

"Oh, my poor Gritzko! if he might only even for a while remain in a

state of grace," she said.