looked earnestly into those wonderfully brilliant eyes of
hers. She turned away laughing, a slight flush rising to her cheeks in
her confusion. Then she led me to a chair, and motioned me to be
seated.

Ours was a silent meeting, but her gestures and the expression of her
eyes were surely more eloquent than mere words. I knew well what
pleasure that re-encounter caused her--equal pleasure with that it gave
to me.

Until that moment I had never really loved. I had admired and flirted
with women. What man has not? Indeed, I had admired Muriel Leithcourt.
But never until now had I experienced in my heart the real flame of true
burning affection. The sweetness of her expression, the tender caress of
those soft, tapering hands, the deep mysterious look in those
magnificent eyes, and the incomparable grace of all her movements,
combined to render her the most perfect woman I had ever met--perfect in
all, alas! save speech and hearing, of which, with such dastard
wantonness, she had been deprived.

She touched her red lips with the tip of her forefinger, opened her
hands, and shrugged her shoulders with a sad gesture of regret. Then
turning quickly to some paper on the little table at her side she wrote
something with a gold pencil and handed to me. It read--

"Surely Providence has sent you here! Mr. Woodroffe must have followed
you from England. He is my enemy. You must take me from here and hide
me. They intend to send me into exile. Have you ever been in Petersburg
before? Do you know anyone here?"

Then when I had read, she handed me her pencil and below I wrote--

"I will do my best, dear friend. I have been once in Petersburg. But is
it not best that we should escape at once from Russia?"

"Impossible at present," she wrote. "We should both be arrested at the
frontier. It would be best to go into hiding here in Petersburg. I
believed Woodroffe to be my friend, but I have found only this day that
he is my enemy. He knew that I was in Kajana, and was in Abo when he
learned of my escape. He went with two other men in search of us, and
discovered us that night when we sought shelter at the wood-cutter's
hut. Without making his presence known he waited outside until you were
asleep, and then he came and looked in at my window. At first I was
alarmed, but quickly I saw that he was a friend. He told me that the
police were in the vicinity and intended to raid the hut, therefore I
fled with him, first down to Tammerfor