Arrayed in a kimono which would have evoked the envy of the empress of
Japan, supposing such a gorgeous raiment--peacocks and pine-trees,
brilliant greens and olives and blues and purples--fell under the gaze of
that lady's slanting eyes, she sat opposite the Slavonic Jove and smoked
her cigarette between sips of coffee. Frequently she smiled. The short
powerful hand of the man stroked his beard and he beamed out of his
cunning eyes, eyes a trifle too porcine to suggest a keen intellect above
them.
"I am like a gorilla," he said; "but you are like a sleek tigress. I am
stronger, more powerful than you; but I am always in fear of your claws.
Especially when you smile like that. What mischief are you plotting now?"
She drew in a cloud of smoke, held it in her puffed cheeks as she glided
round the table and leaned over his shoulders. She let the smoke drift
over his head and down his beard. In that moment he was truly Jovian.
"Would you like me if I were a tame cat?" she purred.
"I have never seen you in that rôle. Perhaps I might. You told me that you
would give up everything but the Paris season."
"I have changed my mind." She ran one hand through his hair and the other
she entangled in his beard. "You'd change your mind, too, if you were a
woman."
"I don't have to change my mind; you are always doing it for me. But I do
not want to go to America next winter." He drew her down so that he might
look into her face. It was something to see.
"Bah!" She released herself and returned to her chair. "When the season is
over I want to go to Capri."
"Capri! Too hot."
"I want to go."
"My dear, a dozen exiles are there, waiting to blow me up." He spoke
Italian well. "You do not wish to see me spattered over the beautiful
isle?"
"Tch! tch! That is merely your usual excuse. You never had anything to do
with the police."
"No?" He eyed the end of his cigarette gravely. "One does not have to be
affiliated with the police. There is class prejudice. We Russians are very
fond of Egypt in the winter. Capri seems to be the half-way place. They
wait for us, going and coming. Poor fools!"
"I shall go alone, then."