“Oh, Marraine, I have so longed to see you!” she cried.
“Not more than I to see you, dear child,” returned the Princess, patting Nadia’s shoulder affectionately. “You have been out into the world since we parted. How has it used you?”
“Oh, I have so much to tell you, to ask you,” said Nadia, with a sigh that was almost a sob, but her godmother stilled her eagerness with a gesture.
“When we reach home, my child—not now. Come, we attract attention. My good Marie, I am rejoiced to see you. You are ready? The carriage is waiting.”
“They have not been taking care of you while I have been away, Marraine,” said Nadia, when she was seated in the carriage by the Princess’s side. “You want me to choose your dresses and bonnets for you again.”
“Very well, my child,” smiled her godmother. “Marie Karlovna has looked after my clothes since you went to join your parents, and she said that it was no use getting expensive things for me, because I always gave them away.” Marie Karlovna made a deprecating gesture of assent, and Nadia smiled, remembering that she had seen the Princess take a sable-lined cloak from her own shoulders and give it to a beggar-woman. “But this bonnet,” Princess Soudaroff went on, “I chose for myself, and I think you must like it, dear child. I saw Olga Ivanovna, the Bible-woman, wearing one, and it pleased me so much that I asked her to have one made for me exactly like it. And she did, and this is the bonnet.”
“Oh, Marraine, I shan’t rest until I have taken you out shopping, and made you get some fresh clothes,” said Nadia, laughing; and then it suddenly struck her what a mockery it was to come back and take up her old duties as if she had scarcely been away a week, after the scenes through which she had passed in the interval. The tears rose into her eyes again, and her godmother laid a sympathising hand upon her arm.
“Have patience, my child; you shall tell me everything as soon as we reach home,” and Nadia dried her eyes resolutely, and tried to assume an interest in the changes that had taken place during her absence in the streets through which they were passing. When they arrived at the large house of which the Princess occupied a part, she had regained her calmness sufficiently to be able to reply with a smile and a kind word to the greetings of the servants who crowded to welcome her, and who formed a motley group, owing to the Princess’s fondness for taking her friends’ failures into her household and giving them another trial.
“I see that the house is as full as ever,” said Nadia, as her godmother led her up the stairs, after bestowing upon her a kiss of welcome at the door.
“Yes, you will find many old friends, although some have succeeded in obtaining other situations. Ah, do you remember my maid Katinka, the pretty girl who married the handsome young carpenter on my country estate? He has deserted her most cruelly, poor thing! and she came to me almost in despair. I could not take her back as maid, for I am trying to train little Vera, a protégée, as you may remember my telling you, of Countess Wratisloff’s. She was serving in a little shop, amid very undesirable surroundings, and she was not a success as Countess Wratisloff’s kitchen-maid, so I offered to take her. It was a little trying at first, but she has done better lately. Of course I cannot turn her out and give Katinka her place, so Katinka is sempstress now, and I can scarcely find her work enough to do.”