His Hour by Elinor Glyn
CHAPTER XVI
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 wasthrobbing with interest in his every movement and inwardly longing totalk to him--she kept up the _role_ she had set herself to play verywell. It was not an agreeable one, and but for the inward feverishexcitement she would have suffered much pain.
Gritzko for his part seemed whimsically indifferent for most of thetime, but once now and then the Princess, who watched things as the godin the car, experienced a sense of uneasiness. And yet she could notsuggest any other line of conduct for Tamara to pursue. But on thewhole the day was a success.
The two young English guests had both been extremely interested in whatthey saw. Stephen Strong was an old hand and knew it intimately, andthe whole party was so merry and gay. The snow fortunately had held,and they rushed about in little sleighs seeing the quaint buildings andpicturesque streets and the churches with their bright gilt domes.Moscow was really Russian, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin told them, unlikePetersburg, which at a first glance might be Berlin or Vienna, oranywhere else; but Moscow is like no other city in the world.
"How extremely good you Russians must be," Tamara said. "The quantitiesof churches you have, and everywhere the people seem so devout. Look atthem kissing that Ikon in the street! Such faith is beautiful to see."
"Our faith is our safeguard," her companion said. "When the peoplebecome sufficiently educated to have doubts then, indeed, a sad daywill come."
"They have such grave patient faces, don't you think?" said StephenStrong. "It is not exactly a hopeless expression, it is more one ofresignation. Whenever I come here I feel of what use is strife, and yetafter a while they make one melancholy."
They were waiting by the house of the Romanoffs, for their guide toopen the door, and just then a batch of beggars passed, their wild hairand terribly ragged sheepskins making them a queer gruesome sight. Theycraved alms with the same patient smile with which they thanked whenmoney 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 upanywhere. Pray look at this bedroom and this ridiculous bed!"
"It will prepare you for what you are coming to at Milaslav," Gritzkosaid. "A row of tent stretchers for everyone together in the hall!"
Tamara made no answer, she contrived to move on directly he spoke, andher 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 eyeswhich boded no peace. She thought she was doing everything for thebest, 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 temperwas 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 whathad impressed him most.
"I like the story of Ivan the Terrible putting his jolly old alpenstockthrough 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," hesaid. "And you feel you have got back to some of the fierce primitivepassions of nature. Here, in Moscow, the whole earth must be stainedwith wild orgies and blood, and yet they are full of poetry andromance. Even Ivan the Terrible had his religious side, and everycreature of them believes in the saints and the priests. It is said theimpostor who posed as Ivan's son might have succeeded had he not beentoo kind, he showed clemency to Shuisky and his enemies and did nothave them torn to pieces, so the people would not believe he could bethe Terrible's son! And they chased him to that window you remember wesaw in the old palace of the Kremlin and there he had to throw himselfout."
"It makes one wonder what can arise from a history of such horriblecrimes," Tamara said.
"You must not forget that the country is practically three hundredyears behind the times, though," Stephen Strong went on. "No doubtquite as great horrors marked others if we look at them at anequivalent stage of development. It is missing this point which makesmost strangers, and many foreign historians, so unjust to Russia andher people. The national qualities are immeasurably great, but as acivilized nation they are so very young."
"I believe one could grow to love them," Tamara said. "I have never hadthe 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 suggestedevery sort of astonishing way to spend the night. But PrincessArdacheff, as the doyenne of the party, prudently put her foot down,and insisted upon bed. For had they not a whole morning of sight-seeingstill to do on the morrow, and then their thirty versts in troikas toarrive at Milaslav. 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 onenever can tell."
Next day the whole sky was leaden with unfallen snow. Nothing morestrange and gloomy and barbaric than Moscow looked could have beenimagined, Tamara thought. It brought out the gilt domes and the unusualcolors of things in a lurid way.
Their first visit was to the Church of the Assumption, where theemperors are crowned. Its great beauty and rich colors pleased the eye.The totally different arrangement of things from any other sort ofchurch--the shape and the absence of chairs or seats--the hidden altarbehind the doors of the sanctuary--the numerous pictures and frescoedwalls--all gave it a mysterious, wonderful charm, and here again thetwo English were struck by the people's simple faith.
"We would catch every sort of disease kissing those Ikons after filthyulcerated beggars," Stephen Strong said to Tamara. "But the belief thatonly good can come to them brings only good. The study of these peoplemakes one less materialistic and full of common sense. One puts morecredence in things occult."
A service was just beginning, it was some high saint's day, and thebeautiful singing, the boys' angel voices and the deep bass of thepriests, unaccompanied by any instruments or organ, impressed Tamarafar more in this old temple than the services had done in any of theSt. Petersburg churches.
A peace fell on her soul, and just as the gipsies' music had been ofthe devil, so this seemed to come from heaven itself. She felt calmedand happier when they came out.
After an early lunch they saw from the hotel windows three troikasdrawn up. Two of them Gritzko's, and one belonging to Prince SolentzeffZasiekin, who had also a country place in the neighbourhood.
The two, which had come a day or so before from Milaslav, were indeedwonderful turn-outs. The Prince prided himself upon his horses, whichwere renowned throughout Europe.
The graceful shaped sleighs, with the drivers in their quaint liveriesstanding up to drive, always unconsciously suggest that their originmust have been some chariot from Rome.
Gritzko's colors were a rich greenish-blue, while the reins and velvetcaps and belts of the drivers were a dull cerise; the caps were braidedwith silver, while they and the coats and the blue velvet rugs werelined and bordered with sable. One set of horses was coal black, andthe others a dark gray. Everything seemed in keeping with thebuildings, and the semi-Byzantine scene with its Oriental note ofpicturesque grace.
"Which will you choose to go in, Madame?" Gritzko asked. "Shall you bedrawn by the blacks or the grays?"
"I would prefer the blacks," Tamara replied. "I always love blackhorses, an
"If you will come with Stephen and me, Tantine," the Prince said, "weshall be the lighter load and get there first. Madame Loraine and Olgacan go with Serge and Lord Courtray, they will take the blacks; thatleaves Valonne for Sonia and her husband. Will this please everyone?"
Apparently it did, for thus they started. It was an enchanting driveover the snow. They seemed to fly along, once they had left the town,and the weird bleak country, unmarked by any boundaries, impressed bothTamara and Jack. And while Tamara was speculating upon its mysticalside, 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 toMilaslav.
They went through a wild, rough sort of park, and then came in view ofthe 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 toTamara and Jack when they got out of their sleigh and were welcomed bytheir 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 conceptionretaining the classic lines of the French and yet with an addedrichness of its own. Then on up to a first floor above a low _rez dechaussee_ by wide stairs. These connecting portions of the house seemedunfurnished and barren,--walls of stone or plaster with here and therea dilapidated decoration. It almost would appear as if they were meantto be shut off from the living rooms, like the hall of a block offlats. The whole thing struck a strange note. There were quantities ofservants in their quaint liveries about, and when finally they arrivedin a great saloon it was bright and warm, though there was no openfireplace, only the huge porcelain stove.
Here the really beautiful, though rather florid Alexander I. stylestruggled from the walls with an appalling set of furniture of theperiod of Alexander II. But the whole thing had an odd unfinished look,and a fine portrait of the Prince's grandfather in one panel wasentirely riddled with shot!
Some splendid skins of bears and wolves were on the floor, and therewas a general air of the room being lived in--though magnificence anddilapidation mingled everywhere. The very rich brocade on one of thesofas had the traces of great rents. And while one table held cigarettecases and cigar boxes in the most exquisitely fine enamel set withjewels, on another would be things of the roughest wood. And a cabinetat the side filled with a priceless collection of snuff boxes and_bon-bonnieres_ of Catherine's time had the glass of one door crackedinto a star of splinters.
Tamara had a sudden sensation of being a million miles away fromEngland and her family: it all came as a breath of some other life. Shefelt strangely nervous, she had not the least notion why. There was areckless 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 awaited them,and a bowl of hot punch.
And all three English people, Stephen Strong, Tamara and Jack, admiredtheir host's gracious welcome, and his courtly manners. Not a trace ofthe wild Gritzko seemed left.
Tamara wondered secretly what their sleeping accommodation would belike.
"Tantine, you must act hostess for me. Will you show these ladies theirrooms," the Prince said. "Dinner is at eight o'clock, but you have lotsof time before for a little bridge if you want."
He took them through the usual amount of reception-rooms--abilliard-room and library, and small boudoir--and then they came out onanother staircase which led to the floor above. Here he left them andreturned 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 whocared--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 tobeautify or furnish with carved chairs, and cabinets of china, andportraits and tapestry on the walls, as in an English house. In thepassage all was as plain as a barrack.
Tamara's room and the Princess' joined. They were both gorgeouslyupholstered in crude blue satin brocade, and full of gilt heavyfurniture, but in each there was a modern brass bed.
They were immense apartments, and warm and bright, monuments of thetaste of 1878.
"Is it not incredible, Marraine, that with the beautiful models of theeighteenth century in front of them, people could have perpetratedthis? Waves of awful taste seem to come, and artists lose their senseof beauty and produce the grotesque."
"This is a paradise compared to some," the Princess laughed. "Youshould 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' adventto begin their game.
It seemed to be an understood thing that Gritzko and his English guestshould be left out, and so practically alone.
"I feel it is my duty to learn to play better," Tamara said, "so I amgoing 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 yourhost. 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 onlyas you wish! That I want to watch the bridge does not enter into yourconsideration."
"Not a bit."
"Well, then, since I must stay here I shall be disagreeable and not saya word."
And she sat down primly and folded her hands.
He lit a cigarette, and she noticed his hand trembled a little, but hisvoice 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?" andTamara smiled provokingly. With all the others in the room, and almostwithin earshot, she felt perfectly safe.
She had suffered so much, it seemed good to oppose him a little, whenit 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, ifyou 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 goingback to Moscow, and then I am returning home." A spirit of devilmentwas in her. Nearly always it had been he who regulated things, and nowit was her turn. She had been so very unhappy, and had only the outlookof dullness and regret. Tonight she would retaliate, she would do asshe felt inclined.
So she leaned back in her chair and smiled, making a tantalizing moueat him, while she said, mockingly:
"Aren't you a barbarian, Prince! Only the days of Ivan the Terrible areover, thank goodness!"
He took a chair and sat down quietly, but the tone of his voice shouldhave warned her as he said:
"You are counting upon the unknown."
She peeped at him now through half-closed alluring lids, and shenoticed he was very pale.
In her quiet, well-ordered life she had never come in contact with realpassion. She had not the faintest idea of the vast depths she wasstirring. All she knew was she loved him very much, and the whole thinggalled her pride horribly. It seemed a satisfaction, a salve to herwounded vanity, to be able to make him feel, to punish him a little forall her pain.
"Think! This time next week. I shall be safe in peaceful England, wherewe have not to combat the unknown."
"No?"
"No. Marraine and I have settled everything. I take the Wednesday'sNord Express after we get back t
"And tomorrow is Friday, and there are yet five days. Well, we mustcontrive to show you some more scenes of our uncivilized country, andperhaps after all you won't go."
Tamara laughed with gay scorn. She put out her little foot and tappedthe 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 likesome panther watching its prey. Tamara's blood was up. She would not bedominated! She continued mocking and defying him until she drove himgradually mad.
But on one thing she had counted rightly, he could do nothing with themall in the room.
First one and then another left their game, and joined them for a fewminutes, and then went back.
And so in this fashion the late afternoon passed and they went up todress.
No one was down in the great saloon when Tamara and the Princessdescended for dinner, but as they entered, Stephen Strong and Valonnecame in from the opposite door and joined them near the stove, andTamara and Valonne talked, while the other two wandered to a distantcouch.
"Have you ever been to any of these wonderful parties one hears havetaken place, Count Valonne?" she asked.
Valonne smiled his enigmatic smile. "Yes," he said. "I have once ortwice--perhaps you think this room shows traces of some rather violentamusements, and really on looking round, I believe it does!"
Tamara shivered slightly. She had the feeling known as a goose walkingover 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 cannothelp reflecting upon what caused those holes. One's imagination canconjure up extraordinary things."
"Not more extraordinary than the probable facts," and Valonne laughedas if at some astonishing recollection. "You have not yet seen ourhost'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 isfull of books, and a few good pictures, and leads into his bedroom anddressing-room; and as for the bathroom it is as perfect as any the bestAmerican plumber could invent!"
Valonne had spent years at Washington, and in England too, and spokeEnglish almost as a native.
"He is the most remarkable contrast of wildness and civilization I haveever met."
"It always seems to me as though he were trying to crush something--tobanish something in himself," said Tamara. "As though he did these wildthings to forget."
"It is the limitless nature warring against an impossible bar. If hewere an Englishman he would soar to be one of the greatest of yourcountry, Madame," Valonne said. "You have not perhaps talked to himseriously; he is extraordinarily well read; and then on some point thatwe of the Occident have known as children, he will be completelyignorant, but he never bores one! Nothing he does makes one feel heavylike lead!"
Tamara looked so interested, Valonne went on.
"These servants down here absolutely idolize him; they have all been inthe house since he or they were born. For them he can do no wrong. Hehas a gymnasium, and he keeps two or three of them to exercise him, andwrestle with him, and last year Basil, the second one, put his master'sshoulder out of joint, and then tried to commit suicide with remorse.You can't, until you have been here a long time, understand theirstrange natures. So easily moved to passion, so fierce and barbaric,and yet so full of sentiment and fidelity. I firmly believe if he wereto order them to set fire to us all in our beds tonight, they would doit without a word! He is their personal 'Little Father.' For them thereis a trinity to worship and respect--the Emperor, God, and theirMaster."
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 behappy. How she would adore to soothe him, and be tender and gentle andobedient, and bring him peace!
But just at that moment, with an air of exasperating insouciantinsolence, he came into the room and began chaffing with Valonne, andturning to her said something which set her wounded pride again allaflame, and burning with impotence and indignation she, as the strangeguest, put her hand on his arm to go in to dinner.
Zacouska was partaken of, and then the serious repast began. Every onewas in the highest spirits. Countess Olga and Lord Courtray looked asthough they were getting on with giant strides. Jack had got to thewhispering stage, which Tamara knew to be a serious one with him. Thewhole party became worked up to a point of extra gaiety. On her otherhand sat Sonia's husband, Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin. But Gritzkosparkled with brilliancy and seemed to lead the entire table.
There was something so extremely attractive about him in his characterof host that Tamara felt she dared hardly look at him or she could notpossibly keep up this cold reserve if she did!
So she turned and talked, and apparently listened, with scarcely apause to her right-hand neighbor's endless dissertations upon Moscow,and while she answered interestedly, her thoughts grew more and morefull of rebellion and unrest.
It was as if a needle had an independent will, and yet was being drawnby a magnet against itself. She had to use every bit of her force tokeep her head turned to Prince Solentzeff-Zasiekin, and when Gritzkodid address her, only to answer him in monosyllables, stiffly, butpolitely, 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 hadbeen cleared and a semicircle of chairs arranged for them to sit in andwatch some performance. It proved to be a troupe of Russian dancers andsome Cossacks who made a remarkable display with swords, whilemusicians, in their national dress, accompanied the performance.
Tamara and Lord Courtray had seen this same sort of dancing in Londonwhen Russian troupes gave their "turns," but never executed with suchwonderful fire and passion as this they witnessed now. The feats werequite extraordinary, and one or two of the women wereattractive-looking creatures.
Gritzko's attitude toward them was that of the benevolent master tohighly trained valued hounds. Indeed this feeling seemed to be mutual,the hounds adoring their master with blind devotion, as all hisbelongings did.
During most of the time he sat behind the Princess, and whisperedwhatever conversation he had in her ear; but every now and then hewould move to Princess Sonia or Countess Olga, and lastly subsidedclose to Tamara, and bending over leaned on the back of her chair.
He did not speak, but his close proximity caused her to experience theexquisite physical thrill she feared and dreaded. When her heart beatlike that, and her body tingled with sensation, it was almostimpossible to keep her head.
His fierceness frightened her, but when he was gentle, she knew shemelted at once, and only longed to be in his arms. So she drew herselfup and shrank forward away from him, and began an excited conversationwith Stephen Strong.
Gritzko got up abruptly and strode back to the Princess. And soontables and supper were brought in, and there was a general move.
Tamara contrived to outwit him once more when he came up to speak. Itwas the only way, she felt. No half-measures would do now. She lovedhim too much to be able to unbend an inch with safety. Otherwise itwould be all over with her, and she could not resist.
They had been standing alone for an instant, and he said, lookingpassionately 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," shereplied. "As I told you, tonight, and from now onward, I shall do as Iplease." And she gathered all her forces together to put an indifferentlook on her face.
"So be it then," he said, and turned instantly away, and for the restof the time never addressed her again.
The long drive in the cold had made every one sleepy, and contrary totheir usua
Tamara's last thoughts before she closed her weary eyes were, what afailure it all had been! She had succeeded in nothing. She loved himmadly, and she was going back home. And if she had made him suffer, itwas no consolation! She would much rather have been happy in his arms!
Meanwhile, Gritzko had summoned Ivan, his major domo, and the substanceof his orders to that humble slave was this. That early on the morrowthe stove was to be lit in the hut by the lake, where at the time whenthe woodcock came in quantities he sometimes spent the night waitingfor the dawn.
"And see that there is fodder for the horses," he added. "And thatStepan drives my troika with the blacks, and let the brown team beready, too, but neither of these to come round until the grays havegone. And in the hut put food--cold food--and some brandy andchampagne."
The servant bowed in obedience and was preparing to leave the room.
"Oil the locks and put the key in my overcoat pocket," his mastercalled again. And then he lit another cigarette and drawing back theheavy curtains looked out on the night.
It was inky black, the snow had not yet begun to fall.
All promised well.