Then Tamara remembered their conversation during their night ride from
the Sphinx, and she felt again the humiliating certainty of how
commonplace he must have found her.

Presently the Princess took her to see the house. Every room filled
with relics of the grand owners who had gone before. There were
portraits of Peter the Great, and the splendid Catherine, in almost
every room.

"An Empress so much misjudged in your country, Tamara," her godmother
said. "She had the soul and the necessities of a man, but she was truly
great."

Tamara gazed up at the proud _débonnaire_ face, and she thought how at
home they would think of the most unconventional part of her character,
to the obliteration of all other aspects, and each moment she was
realizing how ridiculous and narrow was the view from the standpoint
from which she had been made to look at life.

For luncheon quite a number of guests arrived, the Princess, she found
afterward, was hardly ever alone.

"I don't care to go out, Tamara, as a rule, to déjeuner," she said,
"but I love my house to be filled with young people and mirth."

The names were very difficult for Tamara to catch, especially as they
all called each other by their _petits noms_--all having been friends
since babyhood, if not, as often was the case, related by ties of
blood; but at last she began to know that "Olga" was the Countess