What virtues Victor Vassilyevski perceived in the man passed comprehension.
But so did most of Victor's whims and ways. What riddle more obscure than
that portentous business which permeated the atmosphere of the
establishment with the taint of stealth and terror?--the famous "research
work" that kept Victor closeted with Sturm in his study daily for hours at
a time, often in confabulation with others of like ilk, men of furtive and
unprepossessing cast who came and went by appointment at all hours, but as
a rule late at night!

Into these conferences, Sofia observed, Karslake was never summoned. She
wondered why. He was, as she saw him, so unquestionably the better man,
everything that Sturm was not, open of countenance, fair of temper and
tongue, well-bred and well-mannered, light of heart and high spirited, and
at the same time dependable, with metal of sincerity and earnestness like
tempered steel in his character--or Sofia misread him woefully.

She had been quick to see the man behind the misleading little moustache.
And already she was beginning to count that amusement tame which Karslake
did not share.

Mrs. Waring was undeniably a dear. Sofia could hardly be grateful enough to
the happy chance which had cast that lady for the role of her chaperone;
lacking her guidance the girl must have been innocently guilty of many a
gaucherie in ways new and strange to untried, faltering feet. And it was to
her alone that Sofia owed the slow but constant widening of her social
horizon. For Sybil Waring, it seemed, quite literally "knew everybody"; and
Sofia soon learned to count it an off day when Sybil failed to present her
protegee to the notice of somebody of position and influence.

Most of these persons were women with sounding names and the solid backing
of much money conspicuously in evidence--matrons of the younger and more
giddy generation which was just then so busily engaged in providing
material for the most hectic chapters of London's post-war social history.
But Sofia was scarcely qualified to be critical or to guess that they were
climbers equally with herself, and that if their footing had been of older
establishment the name of Vassilyevski would have rung sinister echoes in
their memories, deafening them to the rich allure inherent in the title of
princess.

So she was fain to accept them all at their own valuation, and thought most
of them entirely charming. And though she had hardly had time as yet