last glow of a stormy sunset. Anne and Loris stood
there, looking out, and as I moved and spoke she broke off her sentence
and came towards me.

"You have slept long, Maurice; that is well," she said, also in English,
with the pretty, deliberate accent I had always thought so charming.
"There is no need for apologies; we should have roused you if necessary,
but all is quiet so far. Will you come to my boudoir presently? I will
give you tea there. We have scarcely had one word together as yet,--and
there is so much to say! I will send lights now; some of the servants
have returned and will get you all you need."

Loris opened the door for her, and crossed back to his former post by
the window, while I scrambled up, as a scared-looking, shamefaced man
servant entered with a lamp, and slunk out again.

"Those wretches! They deserve the knout!" Loris said grimly, when we
were alone. "They were all well armed, and yet, at the first hint of
danger, they took themselves into hiding, leaving those two women
defenceless here. Well, they will have to take care of themselves in
future, the curs! The countess is dead," he added abruptly.

"Dead!" I exclaimed.

"Yes. Always, even in her madness, she remembered all she had suffered,
and her terror of being arrested again killed her. It is God's mercy for
her that she is at peace,--and for us, too, for we could not have taken
her with us, nor have left her in charge of Natalya and these hounds, as
we had intended. We shall bury her out in the courtyard yonder. It is
the only way, and later, if nothing prevents, we start for the
railroad."

"Where is Pendennis?" I asked. "Is he not here?"

"No; he may join us later; I cannot say," he answered, staring out of
the window. I felt that he was embarrassed in some way; that there was
something he wished to say, but hesitated at saying it. That wasn't a
bit like him, for he had always been the personification of frankness.

"I wonder if there's a bath to be had in the house," I said inanely,
looking at my grimy hands.

"Yes, in Vassilitzi's dressing-room; the servant will take you up," he
answered abstractedly, and as I moved towards the wide old-fashioned
bell-pull by the stove, he turned and strode after me.

"Wait one moment!" he said hurriedly. "Are you still determined to go
through with us? There is still time to turn back, or rather to go back
to England. It would not be easy perhaps, but it would be quite possible
for you