you so, my little darling," said the woman, fussing
about. "A bride has no luck for thirty years if she puts on her own
stockings."

"Go!" said the girl imperiously, and the woman cringed.

"Certainly, Excellenz," she stammered, and went out without another
word.

The girl changed quickly, and surveyed herself in the pier glass at the
end of the room. It was striking but horrible. There came a tap at the
door and the agitated Maria entered.

"He has sent for you, my little dove," she said. "Come, take my arm. Do
not tremble, my little pretty. Boolba is a good man and the greatest man
in Moscow."

She would have taken the girl's arm, but Irene waved her aside, and
walked swiftly from the drawing-room into the grand saloon. She wanted
the ordeal over as soon as possible.

The room was crowded, and though many of the electric lamps in the great
glass chandelier were not in working order and a broken fuse had put
half the wall brackets in darkness, the light was almost dazzling. This
wonderful saloon, where ten Czars had eaten bread and salt with ten
generations of Yaroslavs, was thick with humanity. Some of the men were
in uniform, some were in a nondescript costume which was the Soviet
compromise between evening-dress and diplomatic uniform. One man wore a
correct evening-jacket and a white waistcoat with a perfectly starched
shirt, over uniform trousers and top-boots. The women were as weirdly
clothed. Some were shabby to the point of rags, a few wore court dresses
of the approved pattern, and there was one woman dressed like a man, who
smoked all the time. The air was blue with tobacco smoke and buzzing
with sound.

As she came into the saloon somebody shouted her name, and there was
vigorous applause, not for her, she knew, nor for the name she bore, but
for the novelty and the "beauty" of her wedding gown.

At the farther end of the room was a table covered with a red cloth, and
behind it sat a man in evening-dress, whom she recognized as one of the
newly-appointed magistrates of the city. Nudged behind by Maria, she
made her way through the press of people, whose admiring comments were
spoken loud enough for her to hear.

"What a little beauty! Too good for a blind man, eh?"

"We have knelt for her many times, now she shall kneel for us."

"Such a dress! This Boolba is a wonderful fellow."

She halted before the table, her hands clasped lightly in front of her.
Her head was high, and she met every gla