"You are an English lady," he said, without the slightest accent. "Have you a little boy, too?"
Tamara was obliged to own she had no children, which he seemed to think very unfortunate.
"Marie always has to have her own way, but while she is with Gritzko she is generally good," he announced.
"How splendidly you speak English!" Tamara said. "And only eight years old! I suppose you can talk French, too, as well as Russian?"
"Naturally, of course," he replied, with fine contempt. "But I'll tell you something—German I do very badly. We have a German governess, and I hate her. Her mouth is too full of teeth."
"That certainly is a disadvantage," Tamara agreed.
"When Gritzko gets up with us he makes her in a fine rage! She spluttered so at him last week the bottom row fell out. We were glad!"
Princess Sonia now interrupted: "What are you saying, Peter?" she said. "Poor Fräulein! You know I shall have to forbid Gritzko from going to tea with you. You are all so naughty when you get together!"
There was at once a fierce scream from the other side of the room.
"Maman! we will have Gritzko to tea! I love him!—Je l'aime!" and the poor crippled tiny Marie nearly strangled her friend with a frantic embrace.