ends.

Among the women there were two who had attracted his attention and
roused his interest far more than any of the other members of the
Circle. One of these was a tall and beautifully-shaped woman, whose
face and figure were those of a woman in the early twenties, but
whose long, thick hair was as white as though the snows of seventy
winters had drifted over it. As he returned her warm, firm
hand-clasp, and looked upon her dark, resolute, and yet perfectly
womanly features, the young engineer gave a slight start of
recognition. She noticed this at once and said, with a smile and a
quick flash from her splendid grey eyes--

"Ah! I see you recognise me. No, I am not ashamed of my portrait. I
am proud of the wounds that I have received in the war with tyranny,
so you need not fear to confess your recognition."

It was true that Arnold had recognised her. She was the original of
the central figure of the painting which depicted the woman being
flogged by the Russian soldiers.

Arnold flushed hotly at the words with the sudden passionate anger
that they roused within him, and replied in a low, steady voice--

"Those who would sanction such a crime as that are not fit to live. I
will not leave one stone of that prison standing upon another. It is
a blot on the face of the earth, and I will wipe it out utterly!"

"There are thousands of blots as black as that on earth, and I think
you will find nobler game than an obscure Russian provincial prison.
Russia has cities and palaces and fortresses that will make far
grander ruins than that--ruins that will be worthy monuments of
fallen despotism," replied the girl, who had been introduced by the
President as Radna Michaelis. "But here is some one else waiting to
make your acquaintance. This is Natasha. She has no other name among
us, but you will soon learn why she needs none."

Natasha was the other woman who had so keenly roused Arnold's
interest. Woman, however, she hardly was, for she was seemingly still
in her teens, and certainly could not have been more than twenty.

He had mixed but little with women, and during the past few years not
at all, and therefore the marvellous beauty of the girl who came
forward as Radna spoke seemed almost unearthly to him, and confused
his senses for the moment as some potent drug might have done. He
took her outstretched hand in awkward silence, and for an instant so
far forgot himself as to gaze blankly at her in speechless
admi