Nor had it flared into flame when she had spoken to him in a way that in the past would have made him vibrate irresistibly towards her.
As the sun was sweeping away the last stars from the sky, the Prince made up his mind, and, as the valet left with his evening clothes over his arm and with a respectful ‘goodnight’, he drew back the curtains over the window.
Giving the man just time to pass down the passage into the shadows at the end of it the Prince opened the door and went from the room.
He had stayed so often in The Winter Palace that he knew it well.
He was aware that on this floor there were a number of bedrooms usually allotted to the Czar’s guests who were Royal enough to be housed in State Rooms, but who did not require very spacious accommodation if they had come without the
