iful one, built of mahogany, and the pair of
horses wore real silver mountings on their harness.

A driver, in the Imperial livery, sat upon the front seat with a man
beside him, who acted as a private guard for General Alexis, although he
wore citizen's clothes. There was far less danger of anarchy in Russia
during war times; nevertheless, men in public positions in Russia were
always watchful of trouble from fanatics.

Therefore, General Alexis and Mildred were together in the middle seat,
while Nona and Lieutenant Orlaff occupied the one back of them.

Then the sleigh started off so quickly that it had disappeared before
Barbara realized it. Afterwards, with feminine inconsistency, she turned
back into their small sitting room, frowning and sighing.

"I do wish I had gone along, after all. There wasn't any place for me,
except to sit either between Mildred and General Alexis, or Nona and her
Russian lieutenant. Then nobody would have had a good time. Still,
perhaps I should have stuck close to Mildred; she is almost my sister.
And though Mrs. Thornton might be pleased, Judge Thornton and Dick would
be wretched. Russia is so far away and so cold."

Then Barbara made no further explanation, even to herself, of her
enigmatic state of mind, but fell to writing letters as she had planned.
Some thought she devoted to what she should write Dick about his
sister's friend, the distinguished Russian general. But whatever she
planned sounded either too pointed or else had no point at all. So she
merely closed her letter by explaining that the others had gone for a
ride and that General Alexis appeared extremely grateful to Mildred for
her care of him in his illness. She also mentioned that she personally
liked the distinguished soldier very much and that he was not nearly so
foreign as one might expect.

This was not a sensible statement, for General Alexis could scarcely
have been more of a Russian than he was. A foreigner, of course, simply
is an individual who belongs to another country than one's own.
Presumably an American is equally a foreigner to a European. What
Barbara actually meant was that General Alexis was not unlike the men to
whom she had been accustomed in the United States. He had the courtesy
and quiet dignity of the most distinguished of her own countrymen. There
was nothing particularly oriental about him or his attitude to women.
The truth is that Barbara did not appreciate the fact that General
Alex