"And I never could understand how you get that exquisite complexion. Do you use violet roots?" Zeneida laughed; the blush which heightened her complexion should have been answer enough--could she have told the truth. But she had come here to lie; therefore answered, in laughing accents: "Oh, Princess, the preservation of this complexion is a perfect science. I have an old book, published in the times of Poppæa, which contains the receipt." "Oh, among other things does that receipt advise laying a slice of beef upon one's face on going to bed?" "Yes, that and other things. I could send you the book; though, in truth, you do not need it. It would be the Graces clothing Anadyomene." "Oh, you are as magnanimous an adversary as that French naval captain who shared his powder with the Englishman and let himself be shot by him. To that I can only answer as did the Persian king to the Armenians: 'What use is it to send me your sword if therewith you do not send me your arm also?' Of what use the secret of the cosmetic if you do not make me an adept in that bewitching smile which none may resist?" "Princess, you are just like Napoleon, who had the art of raising a fallen foe." "This time we are not foes, but allies." The common foe (Bethsaba) here interrupted the amicable warfare by coming up to put the naïve question if she might dance the first polonaise with Chevalier Galban? She was heartily laughed at. "You may do whatever you like. You are a married woman now." What is known as a polonaise in the court balls of St. Petersburg is a promenade round the ballroom in short dance step, performed by the whole company according to the fancy of the first couple. We are therefore not to understand under that appellation the wild mazurka of former days, when the floor groaned under the stamp of the dancers. That was the dance of a period when every Polish nobleman was as good as the king; this is the dance of a time when every Polish nobleman is equal to--a peasant. In former times both Czar and Czarina had headed the dance; and it happened to have been a polonaise in which Alexander had wounded the feelings of Elisabeth for the sake of the beautiful Korynthia Narishkin--an insult the former had never forgotten. The arrivals of the great, greater, and greatest personages put an end to conversation. Once arrived, people formed themselves into a circle and waited for the august couple to make the round of the ballroom, after which the polonaise began.