op to reach his lips. Then, with a gentle hand,
she led him back to the door. The boy moved reluctantly, and, ere he
left the room, caught his mother round the neck and whispered in her ear
a question which was answered by a determined shake of the head.

When he had gone, the Princess stood for an instant looking after him,
all her heart in her unconscious eyes. Then, her eyes shining with a
softened light, she turned again to her sister, saying, with a smile:

"Come, Katrelka, let us go down. The opera must be over by this time;
and I must see the rooms before the first arrival."

"Just one moment more, then, Moussia." Madame Dravikine rose, crossed
the room, and laid her hand caressingly on the other's arm. "If Michael
Petrovitch should be out of temper when we meet him, do not be
disturbed. Do not, for the sake of our family, Sophie, betray yourself
by--by your face--to-night. Remember, if the scene should grow
unbearable I can always--"

"Yes, yes, Kasha. Thank you. But let us not speak of it further--just
now."

A moment's silence. Then suddenly, by a common impulse, the two women
threw themselves into each other's arms and kissed fervently. When they
had separated again, the eyes of the Countess were no less suspiciously
wet than those of her sister, the wife of Michael Gregoriev.

It was a pity that functions of formal magnificence were affairs of such
rarity in the Gregoriev palace; for no private dwelling in Russia was
better adapted to the purpose. The grand entrance opened into a hall of
royal dimensions, at the back of which rose a massive staircase, which,
ascending to a broad marble landing, separated there into two parts, one
of which wound upward to the right, the other to the left, to the upper
floor. Upon this landing, facing the hall below, stood the figure of a
Diana carved from Carrara marble, its exquisite Greek curves wreathed
to-night in smilax and white roses, brought up from the southern estates
of the Prince.

As the sisters descended the stairs together, each critically surveying
the decorations of the rooms below, Prince Michael himself appeared from
the direction of the great dining-room, accompanied by his major-domo, to
whom he was giving some final orders concerning the reception of his
Imperial Majesty.

A remarkable man was Michael Petrovitch, Prince Gregoriev; nominally a
chief of the Third Section under Ryeleff; actually head of the secret
police of the whole Moscow distric