Читать книгу When I Was Czar онлайн

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I was brooding over the problem with my coffee untasted when she came in, looking positively radiant. Her eyes were shining with excitement, her face was coloured with the glow of the ride; and she had gowned herself simply, but with exquisite taste, in subdued tones that set off her magnificent beauty of face and form to perfection.

Every action and gesture were full of grace, and as she moved across the room I followed her with a glance that she must have felt expressed my intense admiration. I was hopelessly bewitched by her ravishing beauty; and that is the truth.

“Are you still the American—as to ceremonial?” she asked.

“Oh, please;” and I motioned to a lounge, feeling abominably mean. She sank into it with a smile.

“Fresh coffee for—M. Denver,” she said to the servant, pausing on the threshold of the name, and glancing at me she pointed to my untouched cup. “And cigarettes.”

She lighted a cigarette and I did the same.

“You wished it all to be informal,” she said when the servant had left the room. “It is also very extraordinary.”