e was not going to discuss Miss Verney's
opinion of himself with his companion. Accordingly he changed the
subject abruptly by inquiring whether Maas had made any plans for the
ensuing winter.

"I am a methodical man," replied the latter, with a smile at his
companion's naive handling of the situation, "and all my movements are
arranged some months ahead. When this charming voyage is at an end,
and I have thanked you for your delightful hospitality, I shall hope to
spend a fortnight with our dear Duchess in the Midlands; after that I
am due in Paris for a week or ten days; then, like the swallow, I fly
south; shall dawdle along the Mediterranean for three or four months,
probably cross to Cairo, and then work my way slowly back to England in
time for the spring. What do you propose doing?"

"Goodness knows," Browne replied lugubriously. "At first I thought of
Rajputana; but I seem to have done, and to be tired of doing,
everything. They tell me tigers are scarce in India. This morning I
felt almost inclined to take a run out to the Cape and have three
months with the big game."

"You said as much in the smoking-room last night, I remember," Maas
replied. "Pray, what has occurred since then to make you change your
mind?"

"I do not know, myself," said Browne. "I feel restless and unsettled
to-night, that is all. Do you think I should care for Russia?"

"For Russia?" cried his companion in complete surprise. "What on earth
makes you think of Russia?"

Browne shook his head.

"It's a notion I have," he answered; though, for my own part, I am
certain that, until that moment, he had never thought of it. "Do you
remember Demetrovitch, that handsome fellow with the enormous moustache
who stayed with me last year at Newmarket?"

"I remember him perfectly," Maas replied; and had Browne been watching
his face, instead of looking at the little hotel ashore, he would in
all probability have noticed that a peculiar smile played round the
corners of his mouth as he said it. "But what has Demetrovitch to do
with your proposed trip to Russia? I had an idea that he was ordered
by the Czar to spend two years upon his estates."

"Exactly! so he was. That accounts for my notion. He has often asked
me to pay him a visit. Besides, I have never seen Petersburg in the
winter, and I'm told it's rather good fun."

"You will be bored to death," the other answered. "If you go, I'll
give you a month in which to be back