d
grace. She was wearing a black dress of some rough material, but it
seemed to Nona Davis that she had never seen a more beautiful woman.
Sonya was like a white lily found growing in some underground dungeon.

She put her hands through the bars and took hold of Nona's cold ones.

"This is wonderfully kind of you, Nona?" she said with the simplicity
of manner that had always distinguished her. "I have wanted to know what
had become of you and your friends. Somehow information sifts even
inside a prison in war times, and I have learned that General Alexis
gave up trying to hold Grovno. You are on your way back home, I trust."

Nona could scarcely reply. It seemed so strange that Sonya could be
talking in such an everyday fashion, as if her visit were being made
under ordinary circumstances. Not a word did she say of her own sorrow
or the tragedy that lay ahead of her.

Nona could only fight back the tears. "We are returning to France as
soon as Mildred Thornton joins us in Petrograd," she answered, and then
explained that Mildred had stayed behind at Grovno.

"But isn't there anything I can do for you, Sonya?" Nona added. "I shall
certainly not leave Petrograd until after your trial, and then if you
are released you must come away with me."

The older woman only shook her head.

"I shall not be released, Nona, so don't make yourself unhappy with
false hopes. This is not my first offense against the government of
Russia. I have never believed in the things in which they believe, not
since I was a little girl. I suppose I am a troublesome character. But
after all, in going to Siberia I am only following the footsteps of
greater men and women than I can hope to resemble."

Sonya let go Nona's hands and stepped back into her little room. From
under her pillow she drew a small folded paper.

"In going to Siberia I forfeit all my estates, Nona," Sonya Valesky
explained when she came back. "But I have a small amount of money in
the United States, as well as in my own country. Perhaps the government
may be willing to allow me to dispose of my property, although of course
I can't tell. But I have made a will and had it witnessed here in the
prison. If it is possible I want you to have half of the little I have
left and Katja and Nika the rest. There would be no chance to leave it
to the cause of peace in these days."

Nona received the little paper.

"You won't be in Siberia all your life, Sonya, that I won't believe,