ired.

"Not at all. She has a black mole under her left bosom."

"You saw that?"

"How could I help it? Russian Grand-dukes never allow a girl to wear
corsets at supper. Kyril says it interferes with digestion."

How considerate of His Russian Imperial Highness!

Well, they had a good time and I guess the Dolores earned her diamonds.
A fair exchange is no robbery. "But in St. Petersburg," said Frederick
Augustus, "they do these things better." And he gave an elaborate
description of a famous restaurant there, where the princes of the
imperial family hold high carnival occasionally.

"The upper tier of dining rooms is reserved at night for any Grand-duke
who promises his visit," quoted my husband, "and the broad marble stairs
leading to them must not be used by others. Well, one fine evening
Grand-duke Vladimir and a crowd of nobles and officers supped at the
'_Ermitaj_' and when they were all good and drunk, one of Vladimir's
guests, Prince Galitzin, bet the host the price of the supper and a
champagne bath for all, that he could induce the famous _danseuse_
Mshinskaya to descend the stairs stark naked and walk among the tables
below without anyone offering her insult.

"The bet was accepted and the girl sent for. She was found in a near-by
theatre and rushed to the '_Ermitaj_'. Of course, seeing that His
Imperial Highness wished it, she consented to pull off the trick
and--her clothes, but she made a condition."

"She demanded tights," I suggested.

"Pshaw, she is a sport, says Kyril." This in a tone of disgust from
Frederick Augustus. He continued: "She merely begged his Imperial
Highness to have it announced that she, Mshinskaya, was acting under the
Grand-duke's orders. Done. 'By His Imperial Highness's leave,' shouted
the _Maitre d'Hotel_ from the top of the stairs, as _Mademoiselle_
descended in her birthday suit. And the Mshinskaya made the tour of the
restaurant as unconcernedly and as little subject to protests, or
remarks, as if she had been muffled up to her ears.

"That's what I call freedom--discipline," concluded Frederick Augustus.
"Think of doing anything like that in a Dresden restaurant."

"I would gladly give a year's allowance to the poor if you could manage
it here while Prince George was masticating a Hamburg steak at a table
opposite the grand staircase," said I.

CHAPTER XV

ROYALTY NOT PRETTY, AND WHY

Fecundity royal women's greatest charm--How to have beautiful