"Oh, I beg you, have nothing to do with her," urged the young officer. "She will only make sport of you, as she does of all the others. Come with me."
"Whither do you wish to take me?"
"To the infernal regions. Are you afraid to follow?"
"Will you come with me to paradise, too, if I ask you?"
"With all my heart."
"And if I invite you to a stuffy little inn on Kamennoi Island, where the sailors are having a dance, will you come?"
"Yes, anywhere you please; it's all one to me."
"Good! That's what I like." And Leonin embraced his friend, after which he led him forth from the marble palace by passages known to himself. Once in the open air, they ran in their light ball-room costumes to the bank of the Neva, where a sleigh awaited their coming, wrapped themselves in warm furs, and in a moment were speeding across the ice behind two fleet horses, to the silvery music of tinkling bells.
These two young men were the Russian noble, Leonin Ramiroff, and Ödön, eldest son of the house of Baradlay.