ehave than the young women of mine."

"Thank you," she replied, "I am never interested in the doings of a
democracy. Your country makes no appeal to me at all."

"Come," he protested, "that's a little too bad. Why, Russia may be a
democracy some day, you know. You very nearly had a republic foisted
upon you after the Japanese war."

"You are quite mistaken," she assured him. "Russia would never tolerate
a republic."

"Russia will some day have to do like many other countries," he answered
firmly,--"obey the will of the people."

"Russia has nothing in common with other countries," she asserted.
"There was never a nation yet in which the aristocracy was so powerful."

"It's only a matter of time," he declared, nonchalantly.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"You represent ideas of which I do not approve," she told him.

"I don't care a fig about any ideas," he replied. "I don't care much
about anything in the world except you."

She turned her head slowly and looked at him. Its angle was
supercilious, her tone frigid.

"That sort of a speech may pass for polite conversation in your country,
Mr. Lane. We do not understand it in mine."

"Don't your men ever tell your women that they love them?" he asked
bluntly.

"If they are of the same order," she said, "if the thing is at all
possible, it may sometimes be done. Marriage, however, is more a matter
of alliance with us. Our servants, I believe, are quite promiscuous in
their love-making."

He was silent for a moment. She may, perhaps, have felt some
compunction. She spoke to him a little more kindly.

"We cannot help the ideas of the country in which we are brought up, you
know, Mr. Lane."

"Of course not," he agreed. "I understand that perfectly. I was just
thinking, though, what a lot I shall have to teach you."

She was momentarily aghast. She recovered herself quickly, however.

"Are all the men of your nation so self-confident?"

"We have to be," he told her. "It's the only way we can get what we
want."

"And do you always succeed in getting what you want?"

"Always!"

"Then unless you wish to be an exception," she advised, "let me beg you
not to try for anything beyond your reach."

"There is nothing," he declared firmly, "beyond my reach. You are trying
to discourage me. It isn't any use. I am not a prince or a duke or
anything like that, although my ancestors were honest enough, I believe.
I haven't any trappings of that sort to offer you.