Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/36

 rooms are to be let. I know we don't discover half the vacant ones that are to be had. Why don't they advertise in large letters, as we do at home? And this fashion of living on the second floor is very uncomfortable: it is tiresome to go up stairs so often. I am sure," she went on, without awaiting a response from me, "that the servants will cheat us abominably when we begin housekeeping."

"Grace! Grace!" I cried, "don't paint everything in such dark colors."

She smiled faintly, and left me to my own thoughts for a few minutes. Then I heard a carriage stop, heard the Suisse (I wonder why he is called the Suisse when he is always a Russian) run out, open the front door, and ring the bell which summons the servant to the door of Alice's apartment. Presently they were in the room, and Grace and I were kissing Judith, and declaring she had changed so that we should not have recognized her.

She is changed, but for the better in every respect. I had plenty of time to observe her at dinner, and I think she is the loveliest girl that I ever saw. I wonder what it is that constitutes her charm. Her figure is round and graceful, but not remarkable; her head is well shaped, but the masses of yellow hair are too heavy for it; her eyes are dark-blue, but not particularly large or brilliant; her black lashes are neither long nor curling; and her nose certainly turns up. The only undeniable beauties she has are her teeth and her complexion, which is more like a rose-leaf than any skin I ever saw. Perhaps