“Just — er — an expression,” he laughed, in his jerky, nervous way as he followed her. “I wish we were in London — then I would give you a lunch!”
“’Ow! You do not like Moskawa?” she asked, with “a quick frown, as he held a chair for her at a small table near the window.
He saw at once that he was on delicate ground. “Oh, yes,” he prevaricated, hastily; “wonderful city!”
“Ah, wonderful indeed,” she cried, earnestly, and he saw a gleam of fanaticism leap into her dark eyes. “It ees marvellous what ’as been done in Russia these last years; you must see Stalingrad, and the Dnieprestroy; work created for thousands of people, electric light for ’alf a kopeck an ’our, and the workpeople ’appy, with good food and good apartments.”
“I’d like to see the Dnieprestroy,” he agreed; “after Niagara it will be the biggest electric plant in the world, I believe.”
“The biggest!” she said, proudly, “and the great dam shall raise the water thirty feet in the air over all the baddest part of the river, so that ships can sail all the seven hundred versts from Kiev to Odessa!”
Simon knew quite well that Niagara was the bigger hydro-electric station, but tact was more essential than truth at the moment, so he nodded solemnly. “Marvellous!” he agreed, looking at her sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks. “I must see that.”
“And the great factory of tractors at Stalingrad,” she continued, enthusiastically; “you must see that also and the great palace of Industry at Karkov — all these things you must see to understand our new Russia!”
“Well — I’ll tell you — it’s really your acting I want to see!” Simon smiled at her over the plate of excellent Bœuf Strognoff he was eating.
“Ah, that ees nothing,” she shrugged; “my art ees good, in that it gives pleasure to many, but it ees a thing which passes; these others, they will remain; they are the steps by which Russia will rise to dominate the world!”