ment, the Prince and
Princess Mirski came up with chill good-nights that were passively
accepted. They were immediately followed by the Osinin, who barely
looked towards Michael, but had the grace to murmur some excuse to his
wife. On their heels hastened the Apukhtin, who played the few seconds
of farce with angry hauteur. Then, injury to insult, Alderberg himself
approached, having been in the rooms a bare five minutes. And, as he
disappeared into the royal alcove, the throng in the rooms began to fly
the house as from a spot plague-smitten.

At the instant of Alderberg's appearance in the hall, word of the
defection of the Czar had swept like wildfire through the rooms. The
Minister of the Imperial Household was nearly as unpopular among the
court circle of Moscow as he was among the peasant class; and nothing
could have been more unfortunate than the choice of him as the proxy of
his Majesty. Within five minutes, whispers were everywhere. The drawing,
dining, and dressing rooms were full of the rippling hiss of talk which
in every case preceded either frowns or angry laughter. Ivan, from his
hiding-place on the stairway, caught many phrases the significance of
which he could not fathom; but which filled him with prescience of evil.
His troubled eyes sought the face of his mother in the hall below; and
he found there what he had feared. From his vantage-point he had a clear
view of the quickening rush of departure. Crowds were pouring up-stairs
to re-don their furs; though many of these people had not yet recovered
from the chill of their long drive from the Grand Theatre. Soon the
great staircase was so crowded that many who were still below made no
effort to ascend, deputing the bringing of their wraps to friends who
had forced an upward passage. For so bitter was the night that few had
pursued the usual custom of leaving their sables outside, on the arms of
patient footmen.

Ivan watched the good-nights to his father and mother; and noted also
the lack of them. He beheld the drooping, weary figure of the Princess,
in her blaze of gems, forcing piteous smiles of farewell. And he was
glad that there were so many who, under cover of the throng, evaded the
ordeal of the good-night, and slipped away from the brilliant rooms as
from a dwelling haunted with evil.

There was but one consolation for this misery--it was very brief. The
crowd that had taken a long hour to assemble, dispersed and melted away
into the darkn