234 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
which in good sooth he possessed, thanks chiefly to an equable temper and a generous heart. Walking or driving in the Bois, he looked very proud of his wife and friends. Mrs. Milbanke changed her dress twice or three times a day, and was up to date in the matter of fashion, a trifle ahead of it indeed ; for she carried almost the first of the husband quellers, as the club-like parasol handle has been ironically called, and her hat was the tallest and prettiest, too, in all Paris, not even excepting Dolly's, which soared amidst ribbon and flowers, and gave an added piquancy by contrast to the retrousse suggestion, the pretty tilt, as Sam Selwyn would have said, of her incomparably piquant little nose. But, oh her complexion ! It was the envy of every Frenchwoman who looked upon it ; so pink and white, so peach-like, and so real : and her large grey eyes and rich yellow hair ! Mrs. Milbanke was quite justified in admiring her, though she was her sister.
Philip kept by Dolly's side everywhere, with a quiet appearance of devotion that might have deceived even a cynic; and it did entirely deceive Mrs. Milbanke and Dolly ; indeed, it deceived Philip himself. In the picture galleries, in the shops of the Palais Royal, at the Comedie Francaise, on a river trip at Versailles, he was a gallant chevalier and devoted lover. He was at his best in every way. He talked well, was a most entertaining companion for all of them ; knew the histories of the great pictures ; moralized eloquently at Versailles; talked of the war, interspersing the incidents of the entry into Paris with appropriate reminiscences of his young life in Russia.
And at night, after the light, elegant supper, which Walter insisted upon as the proper finale to the play, Philip would take a hand at loo, or whist, or poker, for an hour, and win and lose with a pleasant grace that had not been suspected as one of his special charms.
" You never know a fellow until you have traveled with
