a person of great wealth, but that she was also high
in place and in authority, and one who was accustomed to being obeyed.

Her costume was hidden entirely beneath the magnificent furs which
enveloped her, and even the maid who attended upon her immediate wants
was more elaborately gowned and wrapped than the average feminine
personage of the western world is wont to be.

The immediate party of this distinguished passenger soon took its
departure from the pier, leaving behind only those whose various duties
consisted in caring for the seventy-odd pieces of baggage soon to be
taken from the hold of the vessel; and this immediate party departed
from the pier in carriages, for the hotel where accommodations had
already been secured. The young woman and her maid occupied a
conveyance by themselves; other maids followed in a second one, and a
third contained two footmen, a courier and her official messenger.

At the hotel, where notice of her arrival in the city had been
received, she was assigned to a suite of rooms which occupied the
greater part of one entire floor and which included every convenience
which the most illustrious personage travelling in the United States
could have required, or would have found it possible to obtain.

The courier at once sought the hotel office and registered as follows:

Her Highness Princess Zara de Echeveria
and suite, St. Petersburg.

And when his attention was called to the fact that the names of the
entire party were required, he shrugged his shoulders and announced:

"I regret, sir, that I do not remember the names of all the persons who
comprise her highness' suite, but I will supply you presently with a
list of them."

In the parlor of the apartments occupied by the princess, her maid was
removing the furs and wraps and making her mistress comfortable, for
there is inevitably after a sea voyage, a few hours of fatigue which
nothing but restful quiet and utter idleness will overcome; and
therefore an hour or more later, when a visiting card was taken to the
princess she did not even give herself the trouble to examine it, but
said while she peered through half closed eyelids:

"Whoever it is, Orloff, say that I will not receive until four this
afternoon."

Down below, in the office of the hotel, the gentleman who had sent up
the card and who received this message in reply to it, shrugged his
shoulders, glanced at the face of his wat