Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/228

 "I suppose, however," he remarked, with a quizzical expression, "that you will not insist upon my joining the giddy young people unless I choose?"

"I should never think of insisting, because I should not expect you to obey, and a failure would be humiliating."

The ambassador came up at this moment. "Are you talking about failures?"

"I was telling Count Piloff," I responded, "that my efforts to enjoy myself at balls were generally failures. No,—" I broke off suddenly, seeing that George did not approve of this, and thinking myself that the falsehood was unnecessary,—"that is not what I was saying, but it was nothing of consequence. Do you know who that lady is in the amber-colored dress?"

George left me as my companion replied, and we began comparing notes about Rome, which interesting occupation we continued until the doors into the supper-room were thrown open.

"Oh!" I cried, clasping George's arm and starting forward. "From the heart of an arctic winter we are transported to the tropics!"

It was really like a glimpse into a southern clime, and I could not realize that there was a temperature outside of ten degrees below zero. We looked into a grove of tall, waving palm-trees, through the green foliage of which a softened light was shed from thousands of wax candles on a quantity of small tables, glittering with glass and silver. A larger table, raised slightly above the others, was set with gold dishes for the imperial