enest
observers fancied sometimes that they detected the shadow of a past in
his far from cheerless demeanour. For Douglas held his head high, and
met the world which had turned aside to welcome him with outstretched
hands.

One evening, at a large and crowded reception, a man, whom he knew
slightly, touched him on the shoulder.

"Guest," he said, "there is a lady with whom I have been talking who
wishes to renew her acquaintance with you. May I take you to her?"

Douglas murmured a conventional acquiescence and bowed to the
pleasant-faced, grey-headed old lady with a sense of pleasure.

"I am honoured that you should have remembered me, Duchess," he said.
"It seems quite a long time since I have had the honour of meeting you."

She made room for him by her side.

"I am glad to see you again, Mr. Guest," she said pleasantly, "for your
own sake of course, and also because you were a friend of Emily de
Reuss."

Douglas looked steadily away for a moment. He had not yet come to that
stage when he could speak of her lightly as a casual friend.

"You have not heard from her lately, I suppose?" the Duchess asked. "I
hear that she writes to no one."

"I have not heard from her since before she left England," Douglas
answered.

The Duchess sighed.

"Poor Emily," she said. "You know I am amongst those few who knew her
well--you also, I think, were one of them. There was no one I was more
fond of--no one whom I have missed so much."

Again Douglas was silent. Did this woman understand, he wondered.

"It is a pleasure to me," she continued, "to find some one with whom I
can talk about her--some one who knew and appreciated her."

"Do you know," he asked, "where she is?"

"Yes."

It was amazing what effect the monosyllable had upon him. The mask
which he carried always with him fell suddenly away. He turned upon her
with an abruptness almost disconcerting. His eyes were lit with fire,
and there was a strange flush upon his cheeks.

"Where," he demanded--"where is she?" The Duchess looked at him with
sympathy. She was a kindly woman, and she had probed his secret long
ago.

"She is in a little village some five hundred miles across the frontier,
in Siberia. I had imagined that you might have known."

"Siberia!" He repeated the word in blank amazement. The Duchess nodded.

"Now I have told you something very interesting," she said, "and in
return I am going to ask you something. You quarrelled with her, did