Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1935, Page 83

THIS WEEK Sonia A clever actress forgets her role, and the honors of the evening go to the (ommissar by MAURICE RENARD Illustration by A. N. Simpkin Vassili Somenef was mad about her. For two years she was a sort of red tzarina in his house. Small, graceful in a feline way, with long seductive eyes, she had charmed the terrible Commissar of the People to a point where it might be said he was a slave to her caresses. 1 have dined often at his home with Sonia and his friends. The dining room was a former chapel of Catherine the Great. White bearskins were strewn profusely over the mosaics. A veritable constellation of electric bulbs in the dome shed a brilliant light over a lace-covered table laden with gleaming crystal and gold. Gypsies sang and played their instruments behind screens. Whenever the service door was opened, we could see in the shadow of the corridor the immense silhouette of a sentinel in a fur bonnet. Vassili did not regard late comers kindly. For that reason we often assembled near his ONIA MANIEWSKA? Ah yes, an actress S from Esthonia. I knew her well. grasped the chair. slowly home so that we might enter at the exact hour. To be late — the mere idea made us tremble. Sonia, however, did as she pleased, she arrived whenever it suited her con- venience. Vassili tolerated her tardiness with an uneasy disapproval that revealed better than anything else the place that she held in his ferocious heart. One evening in early winter, Vassili, in an unusually gay mood, decided to give Sonia a lesson in punctuality, and to amuse himself at her expense. We had just arrived — six of us. Dimitri Raseski, Olga Bolevna, Gregor Levidis, Mar- oussia Goudoutzeva, my friend Nathalia, and myself. Sonia, of course, was not yet there. I have said that Vassili was in a pleasant humor, in a mood to joke. There was nothing about that to reassure us. We all knew the savage beast with which we had to deal. The claws of a tiger are always ready. In blood and terror alonc does he find pleasure. Even as we smiled obediently, fear tortured us. Vassili’s nostrils tightened. His claw-like fingers “Spy! Traitress!”” he said “Listen, my friends,” he said gaily. ‘‘We are going to have a good laugh. That Sonia! Today I am going to teach her respect i for her duties as mistress of this house . Oh! Oh! I know of ways to frighten people' ‘We are going to laugh, you will see!” We were already laughing. Too loudly. And the gypsies, now standing silent, eyes upon their master, watched with expressions of fear or assumed gayety. ‘‘Hide the table,” Vassili commanded. *“You, my guests will hide behind the screens with the gypsies. You may puncture tiny holes to look through, for it will be well worth seeing. Afterwards, naturally, we shall be very gay. The poor little one will need it. It is very amusing, very amusing!" lshallneverforgethupalefaoe with its wicked grin, nor his eyes shining with a lustful fire, his trembling hands, and the impatience that seized him at the thought of mixing a little savagery with his love. . * We could not possibly know what cruel trick he had deviged. Crowded behind the screens, we kept our thoughts to ourselves. Nathalia, alone, spoke. “I'm afraid,”’ she whispered. But I glared at her so fiercely that she said no more. To all appearances Vassili was alone in the room. He made certain that the table, now pushed into a deep niche where once the altar had been, was well screened by draperies. Then he summoned four red guards and ordered them to place a massive, throne-like chair in the very center of the room. In this he seated himself, with two guards standing at his left, and two at his right. Not long after this, Sonia came in, as usual alert and gay. She stopped abruptly, stupefied at what she saw. For a moment she searched Vassili's face, as he looked down upon her with the stern attitude of a judge. We watched her. In an instant she had turned deathly pale, her hand pressed tightly over her heart. Vassili's nostrils tightened, and his claw- like fingers grasped the arms of the chair. Without any effort he played his role of terrorist. Sonia, faltering, stammered a few unintel- ligible words. “Spy! Traitress!” the Commmar of the People spoke slowly “At last, you have been caught . lundentoodhlm. I could tell by the tone of his voice and the puckering of his mouth that he felt the lesson had been sufficient and thatthe)okehadgonehrmuzh I felt that he was about to burst into laughter. A half-second only, and without doubt life would have resumed its usual course. But Sonia suddenly drew herself very erect, and her voice when she spoke was strong and “So someone has sold me out. All right, yes, it is true. 1 hate you, Vassili Somenef. Fortwoyunlhavedonenothmbm make a fool of you, fight you, and plot against you. For my country I have worked against you. Tomorrow 1 would have killed you . . . I am not afraid. lamnotashamed I have done my duty. Now do yours.’” The man stood up, his face drawn and haggard. “I only wanted to play a joke on you, Sonia 2 The silence was so great that one could hear the snow falling on the balconies. Then Sonia, very calm, replied: ““I, too. Am I not a clever actress, Vassili?’’ she inquired. I lifted up Nathalia. She had fainted. We dined, after that, to the sound of gypsy music. Everyone drank heavily. Very late that mght we left the lovers to their happiness . But no one ever saw Sonia Maniewska agaimn.