CHAPTER III.

TWO GOOD FRIENDS.

In a splendid hall formed entirely of malachite--its slender columns hewn each from a single block and resembling tropical tree-trunks, its niches filled with rare exotic plants, its centre occupied by a mammoth aquarium, and its arched doorways each affording a glimpse into a seemingly endless series of other magnificent apartments--was gathered a brilliant company. Among the gold-trimmed and order-bedecked costumes of the men was occasionally seen the plain black attire of an attachA(C) to some embassy, and not infrequently these soberly clad young men received quite as much attention from the ladies as did the cavaliers in gaudier array.

One such black-clothed figure seemed to be the object of unusual interest. His handsome face showed at once youth, high birth, and an air of modesty and refinement. A woman might well have envied him his large blue eyes, shaded by their long lashes; but his noble profile, finely cut lips, and tall and slender, although muscular and elastic, form betokened the early maturity of vigorous manhood.

A gentleman in a dazzling military uniform, with a diamond order on his breast and a silk sash extending over his shoulder and down to his hip, addressed the young man and linked his arm in his. He had known the youthful attachA(C)'s father, whom he esteemed as an able and highly gifted man, and he prophesied a yet more brilliant career for the son. As he drew him forth in his promenade, he told him to prepare to be presented to the grand-duchess.

It was a formidable ordeal for a young and unknown man, who had not even a uniform to brace his courage, to be summoned before one of the greatest ladies of the vast empire, in the presence of so many august dignitaries, and to be called upon to frame, on the instant, suitable replies to her questions, and perhaps to repay her gracious words with an improvised compliment or two.

But he stood the test, and many more beside. Dancing began, and on his arm floated one charming partner after another, each a type of beauty and grace. The lovely Princess Alexandra, only daughter of a Russian noble, a blonde beauty whose golden locks seemed to have been spun out of sunbeams, had whirled around the room twice on his arm when, as they again reached her seat, she gave him a stealthy pressure of the hand, as much as to say, "Once more!"--and so they danced around the hall a third time. It was a piece of boldness on her part that is seldom committed except out of wantonness or--love.

The youth bowed, and left his partner, feeling neither weariness nor any undue quickening of the pulse. There was a charm about him which lay in his calm, passionless bearing, and his unfailing self-control where other young men would have shown excitement. Royal pomp and splendour did not appeal to him, nor did beautiful eyes, sweet words, or the secret pressure of a fair hand rob him of his self-possession.

When midnight had struck and the orchestras in the various rooms were all playing national airs, as a signal that the grand-duchess was about to retire to her private apartments, the black-clothed young man hurried into the malachite hall, and reached for a glass of sherbet from the tray which a servant was bearing around the room. Suddenly, however, some one pulled his hand away, and said: "Don't drink that!"

The young man turned, and for the first time that evening a smile of genuine pleasure lighted up his face.

"Ah, is it you, Leonin?" he exclaimed.

Leonin was a young officer of the guard in tightly fitting uniform, a muscular young fellow with full face, carefully kept blond mustache and side-whiskers, and thick blond eyebrows which went well with his keen and animated gray eyes.

"I thought I had lost you in the dancing-hall," said he, with friendly reproach in his tone.

"I was dancing with your betrothed. Didn't you see me? She is a charming girl."

"Charming indeed; but how does that help matters for me? I can't marry her till I am of age and wear rosettes on my epaulets; and that won't be for two years yet. A man can't live all that time on a pair of beautiful eyes. Come with me."

The other hesitated. "I am not sure whether we ought to run away so early," said he.

"But don't you hear the bands playing the national hymns?" asked his companion. "Besides, we can slip out through the rear door; a sleigh is waiting for me there with my furs. Surely you haven't any more engagements with the wax dolls here?"

"Yes, I have," was the reply; "I am down for a quadrille with the Princess N----, to whom I was just now presented."

"Oh, I beg you, have nothing to do with her," urged the young officer. "She will only make sport of you, as she does of all the others. Come with me."

"Whither do you wish to take me?"

"To the infernal regions. Are you afraid to follow?"

"Not at all."

"Will you come with me to paradise, too, if I ask you?"

"With all my heart."

"And if I invite you to a stuffy little inn on Kamennoi Island, where the sailors are having a dance, will you come?"

"Yes, anywhere you please; it's all one to me."

"Good! That's what I like." And Leonin embraced his friend, after which he led him forth from the marble palace by passages known to himself. Once in the open air, they ran in their light ball-room costumes to the bank of the Neva, where a sleigh awaited their coming, wrapped themselves in warm furs, and in a moment were speeding across the ice behind two fleet horses, to the silvery music of tinkling bells.

These two young men were the Russian noble, Leonin Ramiroff, and A-dAśn, eldest son of the house of Baradlay.

As the sleigh glided along the moonlit row of palaces, A-dAśn remarked to his companion that they were not going in the direction of Kamennoi Island.

"Nor do we wish to," returned Leonin.

"Why, then, did you say we were going thither?"

"So that no one should by any possibility overhear our real destination."

"And what, pray, may that be?"

"You can see for yourself: we are on the Petrofski Prospect, headed straight for Petrofski Island."

"But there's nothing there except hemp factories and sugar refineries."

"You are right; and we are going to call on a sugar-boiler."

"I have no objection," returned A-dAśn, wrapping his mantle more closely about him, and leaning back in his seat. Possibly he even went to sleep.

Half an hour later the sleigh crossed the Neva again, and drew up before a red building at the end of a long park. Leonin aroused his companion.

"Here we are," said he.

All the windows of the long factory were lighted up, and as the two young men entered, they were greeted by that unsavoury odour peculiar to sugar refineries, and suggestive of anything but sugar. A smooth-faced man of sleek appearance advanced to meet them, and asked them in French what they wished.

"To see the sugar works," answered Leonin.

"Only the factory, or the refinery as well?" asked the Frenchman.

"Only the refinery," whispered the other, pressing a bank-note into the hand of his questioner.

"_Bien_," replied the latter, and pocketed the money. It was a hundred-ruble note. "Is this gentleman going with you?" he asked, indicating A-dAśn.

"To be sure," answered Leonin. "Give him a hundred rubles, A-dAśn: that is the entrance fee. You won't regret it."

A-dAśn complied, and the Frenchman then conducted them through various passages and past doors from which issued hot blasts of air, stifling odours, and a fierce hissing of steam. Coming at last to a low iron portal which their guide opened to them by pressing a hidden spring, they passed into a dimly lighted passage and were directed to go on, as they could now find their way unaided.

Leonin, as one well acquainted with the place, took his friend's arm and led him forward. They descended a winding stairway, and as they went downward the clanking of machinery and hissing of steam gave place to the sound of distant music. At the foot of the stairs there sat at a little table an old woman dressed in the latest mode. Leonin threw down a gold coin.

"Is my box open?" he asked.

She bowed and smiled, whereupon he advanced to one of a row of tapestry portiA"res and held it aside for A-dAśn to enter. They passed through another door and found themselves in a sort of opera-box whose front was screened by a light grating. The music was now distinctly audible.

"Is this a theatre or a circus?" asked A-dAśn, adding, as he peeped through the grating, "or is it a steam bath?"

Leonin laughed. "Anything you will," said he, throwing himself down on a divan and taking up a printed sheet that lay on the railing. It proved to be a programme, prepared in due form. He read it while the other looked over his shoulder.

"'_Don Juan au SA(C)rail._' That is a fine piece; too bad we missed it. '_Tableaux Vivants_'--awfully tiresome. '_Les BayadA"res du Khan Almollah_'--exceedingly amusing; I have seen it once before. '_La Lutte des Amazones._' '_La RA"ve d'Ariane_'--charming, only I don't know whether Persida is at her best to-night."

The door of the box opened and a servant looked in.

"Waiter, serve us some refreshments," ordered Leonin.

"For how many?"

"Three."

"Who is the third?" asked A-dAśn.

"You will soon see," replied Leonin.

The waiter spread the table and brought a roast, side dishes, and champagne in a cooler; then he left the gentlemen to themselves. Leonin bolted the door after him.

"This is a queer kind of a sugar refinery," remarked A-dAśn, glancing through the grating.

The other laughed. "You thought we only knew how to sing psalms, I suppose," said he.

"But such a resort here in a government building!" exclaimed A-dAśn.

Leonin smiled and put his finger on his lips.

"Aren't you afraid of being discovered?" asked the other.

"If we were we should all take a trip to Siberia."

"Don't you fear the musicians may betray you?"

"They can't see. Every member of the orchestra is blind. But don't listen to the music. That is well enough for old gentlemen: something better is in store for us."

Leonin knocked twice on the partition wall separating them from the next box, the signal was repeated above, and in a few minutes a door opened in the partition and a woman's form appeared.

A more beautiful creature could not have stepped out of the pages of the "Arabian Nights." She wore a long Persian caftan that reached to her ankles and defined rather than veiled her shapely figure. Her slim waist was encircled by a golden girdle, while around her neck and on her bosom hung strings of pearls. The long, flowing sleeves of her caftan were slit up in front and gathered only at the shoulder, thus exposing to view the most perfect pair of arms ever dreamt of by sculptor. The face was of a noble Caucasian type, with finely shaped nose, full lips, arched eyebrows, and bright eyes of the deepest black. The sole ornament of her head was furnished by two magnificent braids of hair that fairly touched the wearer's heels.

She paused in surprise on the threshold. "You are not alone," said she.

"Come in, JA(C)za," returned Leonin. "This young gentleman is one half of my soul, of which you are the other half." So saying, with a quick movement he embraced the two and pressed them to his breast, after which he seated them side by side on another divan opposite his own.

"There, A-dAśn," he exclaimed, "isn't she different from those cold beauties of the upper world? Don't you find it more interesting here in the lower regions?"

JA(C)za met A-dAśn's unmoved inspection of her charms with a sort of timid wonder.

"Did you ever see such eyes as those?" asked Leonin, "or a mouth like that, which can smile, pout, tease, laugh, beg, and scold, so that you don't know which best becomes it?"

"Do you wish to sell me?" asked the Circassian girl.

"The purchaser would have to give me a new world in exchange," was the answer. "But if you should fall in love with one who is my friend and brother, he should receive you as a present."

JA(C)za sank back in a corner of the divan, lowered her eyelids and let her hands fall into her lap.

"A-dAśn, you really ought to have been an animal-tamer," said Leonin, as he took in both his hands one of the Circassian girl's dainty little red-slippered feet. "This young creature is naturally wild, impulsive, talkative, and full of whims; but as soon as she meets the severe glance of your _mal occhio_, she subsides and sits there like one of the novices in the Smolna nunnery. JA(C)za, you are lost. All of those beautiful wild beasts known as women become mute and helpless the moment this lion-tamer looks at them."

The Circassian girl tossed her head and turned a defiant look upon A-dAśn; but no sooner did she meet his eye than she blushed in spite of herself--perhaps for the first time since the slave-dealer at Yekaterinograd had severed her girdle.

"Come, let us drink, my children," cried Leonin, striking off the head of one of the champagne bottles. Filling three glasses, he handed one to A-dAśn and one to JA(C)za; and when they had half emptied them he exchanged and refilled them.

"Drink to the bottom this time," he said. "That is right. Now you have drunk love to each other."

The wine loosed the girl's tongue and she began to chatter in the liveliest fashion. From the hall the notes of the orchestra reached them, and she sang an accompaniment. A-dAśn sat with his back against the grating and did not once turn around to see any of the pieces that were being presented. Leonin, on the other hand, looked through the grating at every new number and indulged in various random comments.

"Well, JA(C)za," he asked at length, "haven't you any number to-night?"

"No, I am having a holiday," she replied.

"But couldn't you oblige my friend by giving one of your productions?"

JA(C)za sat upright and stole a look at A-dAśn. "If he wishes it," she answered.

"What shall I ask for?" asked A-dAśn, turning to Leonin.

"Oh, I forgot," replied the latter; "you didn't know that JA(C)za was an _artiste_, and above all things unexcelled as a rider. Her number is always given the place of honour,--at the end of the programme. Choose any of her rA'les."

"But I am not acquainted with the young lady's repertoire," returned the other.

"Barbarian! not to know JA(C)za's masterpieces after living for half a year in a civilised country. Well, I'll name the best ones to you. '_La Reine Amalasunthe_;' '_La Diablesse_;' '_A%toile qui File_;' '_La BayadA"re_;' '_La Nymphe Triomphante_;' '_Diane qui Chasse ActA|on_;' '_Mazeppa_'--"

"No, that is not among them!" cried the girl, interrupting the speaker.

"A-dAśn, don't let her fool you," said Leonin; "choose Ma--"

But he was stopped by JA(C)za, who had sprung from her seat and was holding her hand over his mouth. He struggled to free himself, but meanwhile A-dAśn ended the contest by making his choice.

"Mazeppa!" he called, and JA(C)za turned her back to them both in a pet and leaned against the wall. Leonin, however, gained his point.

"You have always refused me that," said he; "but I told you the time would come when you would have to yield."

The girl threw a look at A-dAśn. "Very well, then; it shall be done." And therewith she disappeared.

A-dAśn now turned his attention for the first time to the arena, a vaulted space of sixty yards in diameter, half enclosed by a semicircle of grated boxes. No spectators were to be seen, but the cigar-smoke that, made its way through the gratings betrayed their presence. The side of the arena unenclosed by boxes was draped with hangings on which were depicted various mythological scenes, while an occasional door broke up the wall-space and relieved the monotony.

For a few minutes after JA(C)za's exit from Leonin's box the arena was quite empty, save that two Moorish girls in Turkish costume were busy smoothing the sand,--a sign that an equestrian act was to follow.

A knock was heard at the door of Leonin's box, and he went to open it. A servant stood without, bearing a letter on a silver tray.

"What have you there?" asked Leonin.

"A letter for the other gentleman, sir."

"How did it come?"

"A courier brought it, sir, with instructions to find the gentleman without delay, wherever he might be."

"Fee the courier and send him away."

Leonin took the letter and fingered it a moment. Its seal was black and its address was in a woman's hand.

"Here is a billet-doux for you," said he, as he handed the letter to A-dAśn. "The Princess N---- sends you word that she has taken arsenic because you failed to claim her hand for the quadrille." With that he turned to the grating and drew out his opera-glass, as if resolved not to lose a moment of JA(C)za's impersonation of Mazeppa; but he added, over his shoulder, to A-dAśn: "You see, in spite of my precautions, we failed to cover our tracks. Oh, these women have a thousand-eyed police in their service, I verily believe. They have us watched at every turn."

The overture began. At the ringing of a bell the blind musicians struck up the Mazeppa galop. Behind the scenes could be heard the barking of the dogs which, as a substitute for wolves, were to pursue Mazeppa as he was borne away, fast bound upon a wild horse's back; and the cracking of whips also sounded, arousing the horse to a livelier display of his mettle. Finally the beating of the animal's hoofs was heard, a loud outcry was raised, and Mazeppa's wild ride began amid cheers and hand-clapping from behind the gratings.

"Oh, beautiful! Infernally beautiful!" exclaimed Leonin. "Look, A-dAśn, look! See there!" But what did he behold as he turned his head for an instant toward his friend?

A-dAśn's hand was over his eyes and he was weeping.

"What is the matter?" cried the other in amazement. A-dAśn handed him the letter without a word, and he read its brief contents, which were in French.

"Your father is dead. Come at once.

"Your affectionate MOTHER."

Leonin's first impulse was one of resentment. "I'd like to get hold of that blockhead of a courier who brought you this letter. Couldn't he have waited till morning?"

But A-dAśn arose without a word and left the box. Leonin followed him.

"Poor fellow!" he exclaimed, seizing his friend's hand. "This letter came very _mal A propos_."

"Excuse me," returned the other; "I must go home."

"I'll go with you," was the hearty response. "Let those stay and see Mazeppa who care to. We promised that we would go with each other to hell, to heaven--and home. So I shall go with you."

"But I am going home to Hungary," said A-dAśn.

Leonin started. "Oh, to Hungary!"

"My mother calls me," explained the other, with the simple brevity of one overcome with grief.

"When do you start?"

"Immediately."

Leonin shook his head incredulously. "That is simply madness," he declared. "Do you wish to freeze to death? Here in the city it is twenty degrees below zero, and out in the open country it is at least twenty-five. Between Smolensk and Moscow the roads are impassable, so much snow has fallen. In Russia no one travels in winter except mail-carriers and tradesmen."

"Nevertheless I shall start at once," was the calm rejoinder.

"Surely your mother wouldn't have you attempt the impossible. Where you live they have no conception what it means to travel in midwinter from St. Petersburg to the Carpathians. Wait at least till the roads are open."

"No, Leonin," returned A-dAśn, sadly; "every hour that I waited would be a reproach to my conscience. You don't understand how I feel."

"Well, then," replied the other, "let us go to your rooms."

Reaching his quarters, A-dAśn first awakened his valet and bade him pack his master's trunk and pay whatever accounts were owing. Then, so great was the young man's haste, he proceeded to build a fire with his own hands rather than wait for his servant to do it. Meanwhile Leonin had thrown himself into an easy chair and was watching his friend's movements.

"Are you really in earnest about starting this very day?" he asked.

"You see I am," was the reply.

"And won't you delay your departure to please me, or even at the Czar's request?"

"I love you and respect the Czar, but my mother's wishes take precedence of all else."

"Very well; so that appeal will not serve. But I have a secret to tell you. My betrothed, Princess Alexandra, is desperately in love with you. She is the only daughter of a magnate who is ten times as rich as you. She is beautiful, and she is good, but she does not care for me, because she loves you. She has confessed as much to me. Were it any one else that stood in my way, I would challenge him; but I love you more than my own brother. Marry her and remain here with us."

A-dAśn shook his head sadly. "I am going home to my mother."

"Then, Heaven help me! I am going with you," declared the young Russian. "I shall not let you set out on such a journey alone."

The two embraced each other warmly, and Leonin hastened away to make preparations for the journey. He despatched couriers to order relays of horses, together with drivers, at all the stations; he loaded his travelling-sledge with all kinds of provisions,--smoked meat, smoked fish, biscuits, caviare, and brandy; a tea-kettle and a spirit-lamp were provided; two good polar-bear skins, foot-bags, and fur caps for himself and his friend were procured; and he also included in their equipment two good rifles, as well as a brace of pistols and a Greek dagger for each of them,--since all these things were likely to prove useful on the way. He even had the forethought to pack two pairs of skates, that they might, when they came to a stream, race with each other over the ice and thus warm their benumbed feet. The space under the front seat he filled with cigars enough to last them throughout their twenty days' journey. When at length, as twilight was falling, he drove up with a merry jingle of bells before A-dAśn's lodging, he felt himself thoroughly equipped for the journey. But first he had to dress his friend from top to toe, knowing well from experience how one should be attired for a winter journey in Russia.

The Russian sledge stood ready at the door, its runners well shod, its body covered with buffalo-hide, the front sheltered by a leather hood, and the rear protected by a curtain of yet thicker leather. Three horses were harnessed abreast, the middle one standing between the thills, which were hung with bells. The driver stood with his short-handled, long-lashed whip before the horses.

The young Russian stopped his friend a moment before they took their places in the sledge. "Here, take this amulet," said he; "my mother gave it to me on her death-bed, assuring me it would shield the wearer from every danger."

The trinket was a small round cameo cut out of mother-of-pearl and set in gold; it represented St. George and the dragon. A-dAśn felt unwilling to accept the gift.

"Thank you," said he, "but I have no faith in charms. I only trust to my stars, and they are--loving woman's eyes."

Leonin grasped his friend's hands. "Answer me one question: do you see two eyes or four among your stars?"

A-dAśn paused a moment, then pressed his comrade's hand and answered, "Four!"

"Good!" exclaimed Leonin, and he helped his companion into the sledge.

The driver pulled each of his horses by the forelock, kissed all three on the cheek, crossed himself, and then took his place on the front seat. In a moment more the sledge was flying through the snow-covered streets on its way southward.