upposed that she was a Russian,
and she was undoubtedly a highly gifted musician, but there was something
oddly disagreeable and repellent about her personality. Whenever Diana
had thought about her at all, she had mentally likened her to Ishmael,
whose hand was against every man and every man's hand against his. And
now she found herself involved with this strange woman in the rather
close intimacy of daily life consequent upon becoming fellow-boarders in
the same house.

Seen amidst so many strange faces, the familiarity of Olga Lermontof's
clever but rather forbidding visage bred a certain new sense of
comradeship, and Diana made several tentative efforts to draw her into
conversation. The results were meagre, however, the Russian confining
herself to monosyllabic answers until some one--one of the musical
students--chanced to mention that she had recently been to the Premier
Theatre to see Adrienne de Gervais in a new play, "The Grey Gown," which
had just been produced there.

It was then that Miss Lermontof apparently awoke to the fact that the
English language contains further possibilities than a bare "yes" or "no."

"I consider Adrienne de Gervais a most overrated actress," she remarked
succinctly.

A chorus of disagreement greeted this announcement.

"Why, only think how quickly she's got on," argued Miss Jones. "No one
three years ago--and to-day Max Errington writes all his plays round her."

"Precisely. And it's easy enough to 'create a part' successfully if that
part has been previously written specially to suit you," retorted Miss
Lermontof unmoved.

The discussion of Adrienne de Gervais' merits, or demerits, threatened to
develop into a violent disagreement, and Diana was struck by a certain
personal acrimony that seemed to flavour Miss Lermontof's criticism of
the popular actress. Finally, with the idea of averting a quarrel
between the disputants, she mentioned that the actress, accompanied by
her chaperon, had been staying in the neighbourhood of her own home.

"Mr. Errington was with them also," she added.

"He usually is," commented Miss Lermontof disagreeably.

"He's a remarkably fine pianist," said Diana. "Do you know him
personally at all?"

"I've met him," replied Olga. Her green eyes narrowed suddenly, and she
regarded Diana with a rather curious expression on her face.

"Is he a professional pianist?" pursued Diana. She was conscious of an
intense curiosity concerning Err