Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/167

 honestly trying to win Judith, he stands back with the air of a martyr, and glowers at all rivals in the field. George is undoubtedly the most dangerous of these. I sneered when Sacha pronounced him fascinating, but I see now what he meant. George is fascinating. Notwithstanding my conviction of his insincerity, I find that in his presence I forget it, and am conscious of the attraction which seems to draw all women towards him. There is in him a peculiar quality of tenderness, which makes me feel that if I were ill, or suffering in any way, I could go to him for sympathy. This may be his true character, which occasionally pierces through the outside polish. I hope, for Judith's sake, that it is so. I never had so many contradictory opinions about a man before.

Judith came to my room last night, when I was making preparations to arrange my hair for the palace ball. This is an important operation with me; it consists in the transportation of an immense lamp from the parlor to my room, and the construction of a pile of books on my dressing-table, on which the lamp is posed at the proper height to illumine my head. After all my efforts, I generally trust very much to luck for my back hair.

Judith made her appearance in a hideous pink wrapper, with her blond hair all twisted up into one tight knot, as if she had just stepped out of her bath.

"Dorris," she cried abruptly, putting down her candle, and closing unceremoniously the little pane in my window which I had opened to air the room, "Dorris,