Meanwhile, having full confidence in her, Prince Olsdorf, who had gone back to Pampeln, was hunting the wolf and the boar, stopping occasionally at Elva, the home of his tenant Soublaieff, the father of the pretty Vera.
CHAPTER VI.
PARIS AND ST. PETERSBURG.
The first care of the princess was to leave the Baden Hotel where she dreaded not being free to live according to her fantasy. She had found very comfortable furnished rooms in the Rue Lafitte, a few yards from the boulevard where she had taken up her residence after hiring the necessary servants, a cook, a lady's-maid, and a steward.
She next hired from one of the livery places in the Champs Elysées a well-appointed and well-horsed carriage, together with coachman and footman; and, having done this, she said to Paul one morning:
"Now, dear, that my life is arranged as I wished it to be, you must present me to your family. They already know me by name, so that it will be quite simple."
"Certainly," said the painter, who also thought this wish of his mistress a very natural one.
"Mesdames Meyrin must not know what I am toward you."
"My brother rather suspects the truth."
"Your brother? Well, what does it matter? When shall the introduction take place?"
"The best way, I think, would be for me to bring Frantz and present him to you."