it pleases me to reflect that if I
had been content to be presented to you in the ordinary way, in one or
other of the many drawing-rooms we both frequent, you would certainly
have taken much less notice of me than you have taken to-night; from the
persistence of your gaze I can see that from this day onwards, not a
single feature of my face will be unfamiliar to you, and I am convinced
that, whatever happens, you will remember it for a very long time."

Princess Sonia tried to force a smile. She had recovered her
self-possession, and was wondering what kind of man she had to deal
with. If she was still not quite persuaded that this was not a vulgar
thief, and if she had but little faith in his professions of admiration
of herself, she was considerably exercised by the idea that she was
alone with a lunatic. The man seemed to read her thoughts for he, too,
smiled a little.

"I am glad to see, Princess, that you have a little more confidence now:
we shall be able to arrange things ever so much better. You are
certainly much more calm, much less uneasy now. Oh, yes, you are!" he
added, checking her protest. "Why, it is quite five minutes since you
last tried to ring for help. We are getting on. Besides, I somehow can't
picture the Princess Sonia Danidoff, wife of the Grand Chamberlain and
cousin of His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias, allowing herself
to be surprised alone with a man whom she did not know. If she were to
ring, and someone came, how would the Princess account for the gentleman
to whom she had accorded an audience in the most delightful, but
certainly the most private of all her apartments?"

"But tell me," pleaded the unhappy woman, "how did you get in here?"

"That is not the question," the stranger replied. "The problem actually
before us is, how am I to get out? For, of course, Princess, I shall not
be so indelicate as to prolong my visit unduly, too happy only if you
will permit me to repeat it on some other evening soon." He turned his
head, and plunging his hand into the bath in the most natural manner
possible, took out the thermometer which was floating on the perfumed
water. "Thirty degrees, centigrade, Princess! Your bath is getting cold:
you must get out!"

In her blank astonishment Princess Sonia did not know whether to laugh
or cry. Was she alone with a monster who, after having played with her
as a cat plays with a mouse, would suddenly turn and kill her? Or was
this merely some