utely awed at the splendour of the house, which vastly surpassed
anything they had ever imagined, and were glad to make an excuse to
leave the room and so avoid seeing the count until his daughter had
explained the reason of their presence there. Julian guessed their
reason for leaving and was about to follow them when Stephanie took him
by the hand.

"No," she said, "you are not to go, Julian. It is you who saved my life,
and it is you who must give me back to papa." A few minutes elapsed,
then the door was suddenly thrown open and the count ran in.

"My Stephanie! my little Stephanie!" he cried, as he caught her up. "Oh,
my little girl! we never thought to see you again--it seems a miracle
from heaven. Do not cry, darling," he said presently, as she lay sobbing
with her head on his shoulder. "It is all over now, and you will come to
think of it in time as a bad dream."

"Not a _very_ bad one, papa. It has been funny and strange, but not bad.
Oh, and I meant this gentleman--he is an English gentleman, papa--to
have put me into your arms, only somehow I forgot all about it when you
came in. I call him Nurse Julian, papa, because he has been my nurse. He
has carried me for days and days on his back under his warm cloak, and I
have slept curled up in his arms; and sometimes there were battles. Oh,
such a noise they made! When it was a big battle he stowed me away in a
waggon, but sometimes when it was a small one, and he had not time to
take me to the waggon, he carried me on his back, and I used to jump at
first when he fired his gun, but I soon got accustomed to it, and he
always got me plenty of food, though it was not very nice. But he didn't
often get enough, and he became very thin and pale, and then I used
sometimes to run along by his side for a bit, and I only let him carry
me when I was very tired, and at last we were in a little hut by
ourselves, and some peasants came. They looked very wicked at first, but
I told them who I was, and that you would give them money if they
brought me back to you, and so we went to their village and stayed
there, and it was warm and nice, and there was plenty of food, and dear
Julian got strong again, and then they brought us here in a
post-carriage, and two of them came with me. They are out in the hall
now."

The count set his little daughter down, and coming up to Julian threw
his arms round his neck and kissed him in Russian fashion. "My
benefactor!" he exclaimed, "I don'