,' said I.

"'I have been watching the fellow since the last stage, and confound me
if he has ever tightened a trace; and you see he is a right active one,
notwithstanding. He capers along gayly enough. I 'll touch him up a
bit.' And with that he gave a flourish of his knouted whip, and came
down on him with a smarting cut. Lord, how he jumped! Five feet off the
ground at one spring! And, hang me, if he didn't tear off his beard!
There it was, hanging to the pole! A very shocking sight, I must
confess; though Dru did n't seem to mind it. However, we were obliged to
pull up, and get out the team. Well, you would not believe what we saw
when we got down. You 'd never guess who was the off-leader. It was the
Princess Odoznovskoi! Poor thing! the last time I saw her, before that,
she was dancing in the Amber Palace with Prince Alexander. She and her
husband had been banished to Chitepsk, and as he was ill, she had put on
a false beard and was taking a short stage in his place."

I did not venture to wait for more; but, leaving Duchesne to make the
most of the general, passed onwards towards the _salon_, which already
was rapidly filling with visitors.

The countess received me with more than wonted kindness of manner, and
mademoiselle assumed a tone of actual cordiality I had never perceived
before; while, as she exchanged greetings with me, she said, in a low
voice,--

"Let me speak with you, in the picture-gallery, in half an hour."

Before I could utter my assent she had passed on, and was speaking to
another.

Somewhat curious to conceive what Mademoiselle de Lacostellerie might
mean by her appointment in the gallery, I avoided the groups where I
perceived my acquaintances were, and strolled negligently on towards the
place of meeting. The gallery was but half lighted, as was customary on
mere nights of visiting, and I found it quite deserted. I was sauntering
slowly along, musing on the strange effects of the half-seen pictures,
where all, save the most forcible and striking tints, were sombred down
to blackness, when I heard a step behind me. I turned my head, and saw
mademoiselle herself. She was alone, and, though she evidently had seen
me, continued to walk onward, without speaking, towards a small boudoir,
which occupied one angle of the gallery. I followed, and we entered it
together.

There was something in the secret interview which, while it excited my
curiosity, served at once to convince me that had