"I believe one could grow to love them," Tamara said. "I have never had
the feeling that I am among strangers since I have been here."

Then she wondered vaguely why Stephen Strong smiled softly to himself.

By the end of dinner, Gritzko's eyes were blazing, and he suggested
every sort of astonishing way to spend the night. But Princess
Ardácheff, as the doyenne of the party, prudently put her foot down,
and insisted upon bed. For had they not a whole morning of sight-seeing
still to do on the morrow, and then their thirty versts in troikas to
arrive at Milasláv. So the ladies all trouped off to rest.

"Leave your door open into my room, Tamara dear, if you do not mind,"
her godmother said. "I am always nervous in hotels--"

"I trust everything is going quietly," she added to herself, "but one
never can tell."

Next day the whole sky was leaden with unfallen snow. Nothing more
strange and gloomy and barbaric than Moscow looked could have been
imagined, Tamara thought. It brought out the gilt domes and the unusual
colors of things in a lurid way.

Their first visit was to the Church of the Assumption, where the
emperors are crowned. Its great beauty and rich colors pleased the
eye. The totally different arrangement of things from any other sort of
church--the shape and the absence of chairs or seats--the hidden altar
behind the doors of the sanctuary--the numerous pictures and frescoed
walls--all gave it a mysterious, wonderful charm, and here again the