imagined. The tiny sleighs seemingly too ridiculously small for the
enormously padded coachman on the boxes--the good horses with their
sweeping tails--the unusual harness. And, above all, again the silence
caused by the snow.

Her first remark was almost a childish one of glee and appreciation,
and then she stopped short. What would her godmother think of such an
outburst! She must return to the contained self-repression of the time
before her visit to the Sphinx--surely in this strange land!

The Princess Ardácheff's frank face was illuminated with a smile.

"She is extremely young," she thought, "in spite of her widowhood, but
I like her, and I know we shall be friends."

Just then they arrived at her house in the Serguiefskaia. It had not
appeared to Tamara that they were approaching any particularly
fashionable quarter. A fine habitation seemed the neighbor of quite a
humble one, and here there was even a shop a few doors down, and except
for the very tall windows there was nothing exceptionally imposing on
the outside. But when they entered the first hall and the gaily-
liveried suisse and two footmen had removed their furs, and the
Princess' snow boots, then Tamara perceived she was indeed in a
glorious home.

Princess Ardácheff's house was, and is, perhaps the most stately in all
Petersburg.

As they ascended the enormous staircase dividing on the first landing,
and reaching the surrounding galleries above in two sweeps, a grave