Page:The Berkeleys and their neighbors.djvu/178

 home-like and pleasant—Olivia and himself keeping up a desultory conversation while they sipped tea and listened half-amused to the two youngsters on the other side of the round table. Olivia glanced at the clock over the mantel—it was half-past six.

"I must go," she said. "I shall just have time for my dinner and for an hour's rest before I dress for the ball."

Mrs. De Peyster and Helena urged her to remain and dine, but Olivia declined, and the servant announced her carriage. Pembroke put her white burnous around her in the hall, and handed her to her carriage. They were all to meet at the Russian Legation at half-past ten.

At that hour the broad street in front of the Legation was packed with carriages. An awning for the waiting footmen extended on each side of the broad porte cochére. Half a dozen policemen kept the carriages in line and the coachmen in order—for this was the great ball of the season, a royal grand duke was to be present, and the fame of Madame Volkonsky's beauty had gone far and wide. The vast house blazed with lights, and amid the rolling of wheels, and the hubbub of many voices could be heard the strains of an orchestra floating out.

Almost at the same moment the carriages containing Olivia and her father, Pembroke and the De Peysters drove up, and the party vanished up-*stairs.

"How beautiful you are!" cried Helena delightedly, up in the dressing room, as Olivia dropped her