“What, Natacha!  So it is.  So it is.  Natacha!  Natacha!” said the others.  “And with Boris Mourazoff’s parents.”

“But Boris is not there,” sniggered Thaddeus Tehitchnikoff.

“Oh, he can’t be far away.  If he was there we would see Michael Korsakoff too.  They keep close on each other’s heels.”

“How has she happened to leave the general?  She said she couldn’t bear to be away from him.”

“Except to see Annouchka,” replied Ivan.  “She wanted to see her, and talked so about it when I was there that even Feodor Feodorovitch was rather scandalized at her and Matrena Petrovna reproved her downright rudely.  But what a girl wishes the gods bring about.  That’s the way.”

“That’s so, I know,” put in Athanase.  “Ivan Petrovitch is right.  Natacha hasn’t been able to hold herself in since she read that Annouchka was going to make her debut at Krestowsky.  She said she wasn’t going to die without having seen the great artist.”

“Her father had almost drawn her away from that crowd,” affirmed Ivan, “and that was as it should be.  She must have fixed up this affair with Boris and his parents.”

“Yes, Feodor certainly isn’t aware that his daughter’s idea was to applaud the heroine of Kasan station.  She is certainly made of stern stuff, my word,” said Athanase.

“Natacha, you must remember, is a student,” said Thaddeus, shaking his head; “a true student.  They have misfortunes like that now in so many families.  I recall, apropos of what Ivan said just now, how today she asked Michael Korsakoff, before me, to let her know where Annouchka would sing.  More yet, she said she wished to speak to that artist if it were possible.  Michael frowned on that idea, even before me.  But Michael couldn’t refuse her, any more than the others.  He can reach Annouchka easier than anyone else.  You remember it was he who rode hard and arrived in time with the pardon for that beautiful witch; she ought not to forget him if she cared for her life.”

“Anyone who knows Michael Nikolaievitch knows that he did his duty promptly,” announced Athanase Georgevitch crisply.  “But he would not have gone a step further to save Annouchka.  Even now he won’t compromise his career by being seen at the home of a woman who is never from under the eyes of Gounsovski’s agents and who hasn’t been nicknamed ‘Stool-pigeon’ for nothing.”

“Then why do we go to supper tonight with Annouchka?” asked Ivan.

“That’s not the same thing.  We are invited by Gounsovski himself.  Don’t forget that, if stories concerning it drift about some day, my friends,” said Thaddeus.

“For that matter, Thaddeus, I accept the invitation of the honorable chief of our admirable Secret Service because I don’t wish to slight him.  I have dined at his house already.  By sitting opposite him at a public table here I feel that I return that politeness.  What do you say to that?”