nothing. It would only humiliate him."

"I wasn't goin' to--but it served him right----"

"And if you think people will talk about your coming to the Cabin, I
thought perhaps I ought to give you your lessons here."

"Here!" she said, and he didn't miss the note of disappointment in her
tone.

"If your cousin Shad disapproves, perhaps there are others."

She was silent for a moment and then she looked up at him shyly.

"If it's just the same to you--I--I'd rather come to the Cabin," she
said quietly. "It's like--like a different world--with your playin' an'
all----" And then scornfully, "What do I care what they think!"

"Of course--I'm delighted. I thought I ought to consult you, that's all.
And you'll come to-morrow?"

"Yes--of course."

He said nothing about the meeting that was to take place that night with
the mysterious "Hawk" at the maple tree. He meant to find out, if
possible, how Beth could be concerned (if she was concerned) in the
fortunes of the mysterious gentleman of the placard, but until he
learned something definite he thought it wiser not to take Beth further
into his confidence.

CHAPTER X

"HAWK"

Three months ago it would have been difficult for His Highness, Grand
Duke Peter Nicholaevitch, to imagine himself in his present situation as
sponsor for Beth Cameron. He had been no saint. Saintly attributes were
not usually to be found in young men of his class, and Peter's training
had been in the larger school of the world as represented in the
Continental capitals. He had tasted life under the tutelage of a father
who believed that women, bad as well as good, were a necessary part of a
gentleman's education, and Peter had learned many things.... Had it not
been for his music and his English love of fair play, he would have
stood an excellent chance of going to the devil along the precipitous
road that had led the Grand Duke Nicholas Petrovitch there.

But Peter had discovered that he had a mind, the needs of which were
more urgent than those of his love of pleasure. Many women he had known,
Parisian, Viennese, Russian--and one, Vera Davydov, a musician, had
enchained him until he had discovered that it was her violin and not her
soul that had sung to him ... Anastasie Galitzin ... a dancer in Moscow
... and then--the War.

In that terrible alembic the spiritual ingredients which made Peter's
soul had been stirred until only the essential remained. But that
essence was the r