"She will be down directly," said the Countess Lanovitch to De
Chauxville, whom she found smoking a cigarette in the hall. "She
naturally--he! he!--wishes to make a careful toilet."
De Chauxville bowed gravely, without committing himself to any
observation, and offered her a cigarette, which she accepted. Having
achieved his purpose, he did not now propose to convey the impression
that he admired Catrina.
In a few moments the girl appeared, drawing on her fur gloves. Before
the door was opened the countess discreetly retired to the enervating
warmth of her own apartments.
Catrina gathered up the reins and gave a little cry, at which the ponies
leaped forward, and in a whirl of driven snow the sleigh glided off
between the pines.
At first there was no opportunity of conversation, for the ponies were
fresh and troublesome. The road over which they were passing had not
been beaten down by the passage of previous sleighs, so that the powdery
snow rose up like dust, and filled the eyes and mouth.
"It will be better presently," gasped Catrina, wrestling with her
fractious little Tartar thoroughbreds, "when we get out on to the
high-road."
De Chauxville sat quite still. If he felt any misgiving as to her power
of mastering her team he kept it to himself. There was a subtle
difference in his manner toward Catrina when they were alone together, a
suggestion of camaraderie, of a common interest and a common desire, of
which she was conscious without being able to put definite meaning to
it.
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