monsieur," said
she, stiffly. "It is somewhat cruel to remind me that my claims in this
respect have grown antiquated."

"I fancied myself the soul of punctuality, my dear Princess," said
he, adjusting the embroidered pelisse he wore over his shoulder. "You
mentioned four as the hour--"

"I said three o'clock," replied she, coldly.

"Three, or four, or even five,--what does it signify?" said he,
carelessly. "We have not either of us, I suspect, much occupation to
engage us; and if I have interfered with your other plans--if you have
plans--A thousand pardons!" cried he, suddenly, as the deep color of her
face and her flashing eye warned him that he had gone too far; "but the
fact is, I was detained at the riding-school. They have sent me some
young horses from the Banat, and I went over to look at them."

"The Count de Wahnsdorf knows that he need make no apologies to Madame
de Sabloukoff," said she, calmly; "but it were just as graceful,
perhaps, to affect them. My dear Count," continued she, but in a tone
perfectly free from all touch of irritation, "I have asked to see and
speak with you on matters purely your own--"

"You want to dissuade me from this marriage," said he, interrupting;
"but I fancy that I have already listened to everything that can be
urged on that affair. If you have any argument other than the old one
about misalliance and the rest of it, I 'll hear it patiently; though I
tell you beforehand that I should like to learn that a connection with
an imperial house had some advantage besides that of a continual barrier
to one's wishes."

"I understand," said she, quietly, "that you named the terms on which
you would abandon this project,--is it not so?"

"Who told _you_ that?" cried he, angrily. "Is this another specimen of
the delicacy with which ministers treat a person of my station?"

"To discuss that point, Count, would lead us wide of our mark. Am I to
conclude that my informant was correct?"

"How can I tell what may have been reported to you?" said he, almost
rudely.

"You shall hear and judge for yourself," was the calm answer. "Count
Kollorath informed me that you offered to abandon this marriage on
condition that you were appointed to the command of the Pahlen Hussars."

The young man's face became scarlet with shame, and he tried twice to
speak, but unavailingly.

With a merciless slowness of utterance, and a manner of the most unmoved
sternness, she went on: "I did not deem