Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/130

 "I don't care how you seat the people," I said quietly, as I reached the door; then, turning towards them to give full effect to my words, "but if you put me beside Mr. Thurber, I will never show myself at another of your dinner parties." So saying, I left the room abruptly, and waited in the sledge for Judith.

There was a little pout on her face when she appeared. We were muffled up so that we could not move our heads; and my cousin's voice was almost lost in her capacious fur collar when she began to speak to me.

"You are ruining the dinner," were the words which at last reached my ears. "Russians do not like the English; and if you put him beside either of those Russian ladies, they will not speak to him" (the rest was lost).

"If you mean Mr. Thurber," I responded, "I don't know why he should have been asked at all. I did not want him; and I don't see why he cannot be put between you and Grace. You are not Russians, and you don't dislike Englishmen."

"But, dear Dorris! (earnestly) I have to sit next Prince Tucheff. Grace is on your side of the table, and will be on Mr. Thurber's right; and if he sits by me, George must go between you and Grace, and that will make things all wrong."

"Oh!" I cried, with some asperity, "let him sit next me, by all means. I prefer him to George, if I must have a choice of evils."

"I think," said my companion, "that you might have confessed your preference for Mr. Thurber at once,