im its rights, but has never
possessed the leaders or the training. That has been the subject of my
lectures over here from the beginning. I want to teach the people how to
crush the middleman. I want to show them how to discover and to utilise
their strength."

"Is not that a little dangerous?" he enquired. "You might easily produce
a state of chaos."

"For a time, perhaps," she admitted, "but never for long. You see, the
British have one transcendental quality; they possess common sense. They
are not idealists like the Russians. The men with whom I mix neither
walk with their heads turned to the clouds nor do they grope about
amongst the mud. They just look straight ahead of them, and they ask for
what they see in the path."

"I see," he murmured. "And now, having reached just this stage in our
conversation, let me ask you this. You read the newspapers?"

"Diligently," she assured him.

"Are you aware of a very curious note of unrest during the last few
days--hints at a crisis in the war which nothing in the military
situation seems to justify--vague but rather gloomy suggestions of an
early peace?"

"Every one is talking about it," she agreed. "I think that you and I
have some idea as to what it means."

"Have we?" he asked quietly.

"And somehow," she went on, dropping her voice a little, "I believe that
your knowledge goes farther than mine."

He gave no sign, made no answer. Some question from across the table,
with reference to the action of one of his country's Ministers, was
referred to him. He replied to it and drifted quite naturally into a
general conversation. Without any evident effort, he seemed to desire to
bring his tete-a-tete with Catherine to a close. She showed no sign
of disappointment; indeed she fell into his humour and made vigorous
efforts to attack the subject of Y.M.C.A. huts with her neighbour on the
right. The rest of the meal passed in this manner, and it was not until
they met, an hour later, in the Princess' famous reception room, that
they exchanged more than a casual word. The Princess liked to entertain
her guests in a fashion of her own. The long apartment, with its many
recesses and deep windows, an apartment which took up the whole of one
side of the large house, had all the dignity and even splendour of a
drawing-room, and yet, with its little palm court, its cosy divans, its
bridge tables and roulette board, encouraged an air of freedom which
made it eminently habitab