And the Countess clasped her hands together dramatically, letting them fall with effect upon her plush tea-gown; against the ruby folds the diamonds and rubies of her rings flashed triumphantly.
Tolskoi laughed, his full-hearted boyish laugh, as he took the English tea-cup she held out to him.
"You have the courage of your opinions, Countess," he said; "it is well you are protected by Imperial favour. I know some houses in Petersburg, where were such frank expressions of Anglo-mania indulged in, they would be followed by a swift and emphatic caution from the Chancellerie."
The Countess shrugged her shoulders.
"Ma foi, I am no politician, no intriguer. I am but a silly moth of fashion, I do not even pose as a butterfly; but it appeals to my sense of bien-etre to be on good terms with England; and certainly it is more politic, since through our Grand Duchess, and our Tsarina, our dynasty is doubly allied with that country. But there, I see your eyes are wandering after your thoughts; I regret your disappointment, mon cher, for you will not see her here to-day."
Tolskoi acknowledged the raillery with another laugh. "Ah, Countess, you are the fairy of the story books! And why does not Mdlle. Naundorff honour your salon to-day?"
"Because she is indisposed," answered Countess Vera, looking up at him sharply; "she is obliged to keep her own apartments. I fear you took but poor care of the future Countess Mellikoff, monsieur, for she returned from the Petropavlovsk inspection looking like a ghost, and scarcely able to render her light services to the Tsarina, during the evening. Were the horrors of the Fortress so very pronounced, mon cher? You will have to answer to Count Vladimir, you know, if on his return he finds his fiancée changed. Already Petersburg rings with your openly displayed admiration for her cold beauty."
She laughed as she concluded, and got up slowly from her low chair. Ivor rose also.
"I shall be only too happy to answer any charge of Count Mellikoff's," he said, deliberately, "when he returns."
Then the Countess Vera glided away from him, and with a word here, a whisper there, a smile, a nod, a gesture, set afloat the rumour that society might look for another highly-spiced scandal, as soon as Count Mellikoff returned, for Ivor Tolskoi, not content with stealing away his fiancée's allegiance, intended to challenge him as well.