Page:Maud, Renée - One year at the Russian court 1904-1905.djvu/182

156 than ever his long pigtail, the antics of which testified to his gratitude.

All the winter that same pigtail, a sort of bellrope, inspired me with a wild desire to pull it; a desire that I repressed, as one of the secretaries, to whom I had confided my temptation, exclaimed breathlessly: "On no account do that, it would be a casus belli!"

This same little Minister always arrived dressed in the most beautifully embroidered robes imaginable. I have never considered the yellow race outwardly beautiful, but I grant one point of beauty to the Chinese soul, since this same little man told me that the Chinese always wore embroidered on their garments a flower of the season. A pretty idea, and I congratulate them on having retained the custom; it seems to belong to another age.

Among the Russians who attended assiduously at the Mondays of our Ambassadress was Princess X… She would never have discovered gunpowder, and her husband even less; but he at least was only to be seen when he dined there, and then he took his departure very early, to go no doubt to more amusing resorts. She, dark, tall and stout in proportion, immensely amused the men by her heavy stupidity, which caused her to say the silliest things. One evening, speaking in a mincing voice, and assuming the air ingénu which she particularly affected, she asked them in a foolish way what it meant to say to some one: "Vous êtes une tourte." The little circle began to laugh