“Martha, you must come with me as well,” went on the old lady to her maid.
“No, no, mother!” ejaculated the General. “Really she cannot come. They would not admit even Potapitch to the Casino.”
“Rubbish! Because she is my servant, is that a reason for turning her out? Why, she is only a human being like the rest of us; and as she has been travelling for a week she might like to look about her. With whom else could she go out but myself? She would never dare to show her nose in the street alone.”
“But, mother—”
“Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Stop at home, then, and you will be asked no questions. A pretty General you are, to be sure! I am a general’s widow myself. But, after all, why should I drag the whole party with me? I will go and see the sights with only Alexis Ivanovitch as my escort.”
De Griers strongly insisted that everyone ought to accompany her. Indeed, he launched out into a perfect shower of charming phrases concerning the pleasure of acting as her cicerone, and so forth. Everyone was touched with his words.
“ Mais elle est tombée en enfance ,” he added aside to the General. “ Seule, elle fera des bêtises. ” More than this I could not overhear, but he seemed to have got some plan in his mind, or even to be feeling a slight return of his hopes.
The distance to the Casino was about half a verst, and our route led us through the Chestnut Avenue until we reached the square directly fronting the building. The General, I could see, was a trifle reassured by the fact that, though our progress was distinctly eccentric in its nature, it