you say?"

"And that is natural enough in a Russian," she took me up. "In a young
Russian; so many of them are unfit for action, and yet unable to rest."

"And you think he is that sort of man?"

"No, I do not judge him. How could I, so suddenly? You asked for my
impression--I explain my impression. I--I--don't know the world, nor yet
the people in it; I have been too solitary--I am too young to trust my
own opinions."

"Trust your instinct," I advised her. "Most women trust to that, and
make no worse mistakes than men. In this case you have your brother's
letter to help you."

She drew a deep breath like a light sigh. "Unstained, lofty, and
solitary existences," she quoted as if to herself. But I caught the
wistful murmur distinctly.

"High praise," I whispered to her.

"The highest possible."

"So high that, like the award of happiness, it is more fit to come
only at the end of a life. But still no common or altogether unworthy
personality could have suggested such a confident exaggeration of praise
and..."

"Ah!" She interrupted me ardently. "And if you had only known the heart
from which that judgment has come!"

She ceased on that note, and for a space I reflected on the character of
the words which I perceived very well must tip the scale of the girl's
feelings in that young man's favour. They had not the sound of a
casual utterance. Vague they were to my Western mind and to my Western
sentiment, but I could not forget that, standing by Miss Haldin's side,
I was like a traveller in a strange country. It had also become clear to
me that Miss Haldin was unwilling to enter into the details of the only
material part of their visit to the Chateau Borel. But I was not hurt.
Somehow I didn't feel it to be a want of confidence. It was some other
difficulty--a difficulty I could not resent. And it was without the
slightest resentment that I said--

"Very well. But on that high ground, which I will not dispute, you, like
anyone else in such circumstances, you must have made for yourself
a representation of that exceptional friend, a mental image of him,
and--please tell me--you were not disappointed?"

"What do you mean? His personal appearance?"

"I don't mean precisely his good looks, or otherwise."

We turned at the end of the alley and made a few steps without looking
at each other.

"His appearance is not ordinary," said Miss Haldin at last.

"No, I should have thought not--from the little you've s