moved away with tingling ears. A glance at
Sophie's face, as she sat in the centre of a
blooming group of girls of her own age, prattling
of dances and their partners, made me ashamed
of my suspicion. If ever candour sat enthroned
on a fair forehead, surely, surely it was manifest
on hers. I approached, and she greeted me
with a bright smile, as I asked if she had
been charitable enough to keep an early dance
for me.

"You are too late, M. Charles; my poor little
book is terribly full of names! I have promised
to dance wilh Rogamoff, and Oginski, and your
great friend Baron Galitzin of the Guard, and O,
so many more!"

"And with your cousin, Chevalier Gliska?"
I asked the question in apparent playfulness, but
I suppose there was something harsh and hostile
in my tone, in spite of myself, which grated on
the quick ear of a woman, for Sophie glanced
rapidly at me with the look of a frightened
fawn.

"No!" she said, and her lip trembled slightly
as she spoke.

Vexed with myself for my own unjust peevishness,
I tried to make amends, and so far
succeeded that Sophie recovered her cheerful
composure, and accorded me a waltz. It was in
one of the pauses in that giddy whirl, in the
midst of light and glitter, the sparkle and gleam
of gold epaulettes and jewelled head-gear, and
the dying fall of the music, that Sophie suddenly
turned her eyes on mine, and said, with abrupt
frankness:

"M. Charles, avow that you are jealous of
my poor cousin Demetrius, and that you hate
him."

I forget what I answered in my surprise, but
I know that Sophie contrived to convey to me
the impression that she had a sisterly affection
for the companion of her childhood; that she
regretted his misfortunes, and admired his
patriotism; that she was only anxious to see
him safe from future perils, and once more
in the good graces of the Russian government.

"Poor Demetrius! I cannot forget, dear M.
Charles, how good and patient he was to me
when I was a spoiled sickly child, full of fancies
and hard to please. Poor Demetrius has
suffered so much for our afflicted country. I, as
you know, am a rebel at heart; I hate the
Muscovites—hope that frightful Colonel Annenkoff
heard that last remark—but I can do so safely,
because I am too young and weak to be dangerous
to the czar. It is different for a man. You
should not be jealous or cross, M. Charles,
because I wish to prevent poor Demetrius from
ending his days in Siberia."

I said something about her cousin's security,
since his pardon, unless he were rash enough to
enter into fresh intrigues against the emperor.
I spoke with more constraint and coldness than
would otherwise have been the case, because I
saw Gliska leaning against a pillar, at a distance,
and regarding us with a peculiar look of watchful
interest. When his eyes met mine, he seemed
to shrink back, and was soon lost in the glittering
crowd of guests.

That night, as our sledges went whirling over
the hard beaten snow of the streets, there was
a great bustle and confusion, and the startled
horses were sharply checked by the rein and
thrown on their haunches in front of a double
rank of soldiers drawn up across the principal
thoroughfares. A harsh voice bade the drivers
halt, and a number of policemen, accompanied by
several officers muffled in grey watch-coats, went
round from carriage to carriage, throwing the
red glare of a lantern on the faces of the belated
guests of the prince-minister, and asking with
polished but imperious courtesy the names of
those present, which were entered hastily in a
book. There was much shouting and lashing
of whips, plunging of frightened horses, and
screaming of terrified ladies, as the mass of
vehicles came to an abrupt halt, but some
of the old residents took the matter very
coolly.

"The first time this year!" said the senior
attaché, who had taken a seat in my carriage;
"I began to wonder if the police had gone to
sleep. Two years ago I remember four such
stoppages in a single winter. I wonder if they'll
make many captions to-night?"

And I, who had been but eight months in St.
Petersburg, learned with some surprise that the
favourite time for the secret police to select for
a razzia against the innumerable plotters,
Russian or Polish, was that of some great
festivity or public reception. Half the
conspiracies of the empire were hatched, my
informant said, in the saloons of the higher
aristocracy, under the very noses of the emperor
and his ministers; and the best paid and most
valuable spies were those who from their rank
and position could enter such assemblies without
provoking remark or distrust. No doubt
something had transpired at the prince-minister's
ball which had aroused the vigilance of the lynx-
eyed prefect of police, and hence the impediment
to our progress homewards.

The explanation had got to this point, when
a plotnik said civilly to our driver that he
might "go on as fast as he liked," at the same
time taking off his hat and extending his open
palm significantly. My companion dropped a
few copecks into it, and the man bowed low as
he suffered us to pass by him and strike off by
a side-street to the Admiralty quay.

"They have caught their birds, no doubt!"
said the more experienced senior attaché, treating
the whole affair as a thing of course.

The next day we heard vague rumours of
detections and arrests, some said of many, others
of only one or two persons. "When I called,
next morning, at the Leczinzka palace, I found
the old prince nervous and irritable, the princess
agitated, and Sophie not to be seen. She
had a frightful headache, her grandmother said,
and was too unwell to leave her chamber. No
doubt the heat and crush of the Gortschakoff
assembly—those official people gave such shocking
balls, where you were squeezed and elbowed by