ourse; we must
allow for race; but it's how one has to think of Russia."

Again Mrs. Borisoff scrutinised him as he spoke, averting her eyes at
length with an absent smile.

"Here comes my tutelary teapot," she said, as a pretty maid-servant
entered with a tray. "A phrase I got from Irene, by the bye--from Miss
Derwent, who laughs at my carrying the thing about in my luggage. She
has clever little phrases of that sort, as you know."

"Yes," fell from Piers, dreamily. "But it's so long since I heard her
talk."

When he had received his cup of tea, and sipped from it, he asked with
a serious look:

"Will you tell me about her?"

"Of course I will. But you must first tell me about yourself. You were
in business in London, I believe?"

"For about a year. Then I found myself with enough to live upon, and
came back to Russia. I had lived at Odessa----"

"You may presuppose a knowledge of what came before," interrupted Mrs.
Borisoff, with a friendly nod.

"I lived for several months with Korolevitch, on his estate near
Poltava. We used to talk--heavens! how we talked! Sometimes eight hours
at a stretch. I learnt a great deal. Then I wandered up and down
Russia, still learning."

"Writing, too?"

"The time hadn't come for writing. Korolevitch gave me no end of useful
introductions. I've had great luck on my travels."

"Pray, when did you make your studies of English women?"

Piers tried to laugh; declared he did not know.

"I shouldn't wonder if you generalise from one or two?" said his
hostess, letting her eyelids droop as she observed him lazily. "Do you
know Russian women as well?"

By begging for another cup of tea, and adding a remark on some other
subject, Piers evaded this question.

"And what are you going to do?" asked Mrs. Borisoff "Stay here, and
write more articles?"

"I'm going to England in a few days for the summer."

"That's what I think I shall do. But I don't know what part to go to.
Advise me, can you? Seaside--no; I don't like the seaside. Do you
notice how people--our kind of people, I mean--are losing their taste
for it in England? It's partly, I suppose, because of the excursion
train. One doesn't grudge the crowd its excursion train, but it's so
much nicer to imagine their blessedness than to see it. Or are you for
the other point of view?"

Otway gave an expressive look.

"That's right. Oh, the sham philanthropic talk that goes on in England!
How it relieves one to say flatly