other rare and curious woods having been employed.

But the rarest treasure there was the mistress of all this luxury.
The inmate of the sumptuous prison, for such it truly was, lay back
on a leopard-skin couch, set in the frame of a great silver
sea-shell.

She had dressed for my coming in the quaint but gorgeous costume of
ancient Russia, the costume worn by imperial usage at high State
functions like coronations, weddings and christenings.

The high coif above her forehead flamed with jewels, and big, sleepy
pearls slid and fell over her neck and bosom.

At my entrance she gave a soft cry, and raised herself on one white
arm. I stepped forward as though I were a courtier saluting a queen,
and pressed my lips to her extended hand.

"I expected you, Andreas."

Only two women in my life have I ever allowed to call me by my
Christian name. One was the ill-starred lady who perished in the
Konak in Belgrade. The other--but of her I may not speak.

But it was not for me to stand on ceremony with the woman who had
interposed herself as a shield between me and the enemies who sought
my death.

"You knew that I should come to thank you," I said.

"I do not wish for thanks," she answered, with a look that was more
expressive than words. "I wish only that you should regard me as a
friend."

"And in what other light is it possible for me to regard you, dear
Princess?" I returned. "Only this friendship must not be all on one
side. You, too, must consent to think of me as something more than a
stranger whose life you have saved."

"Can you doubt that I have done so for a long time?"

It needed the pressure of the locket against my neck to keep me from
replying to this tenderly-spoken sentiment in a way which might have
led to consequences, for the Russian Empire as well as for the
Princess and myself, very different to those which have actually
flowed from our conjunction.

Conquering my impulses as I best could, I sought for a reply which
would not wear the appearance of a repulse.

"You misunderstand me," I said, putting on an expression of pride.
"You little know the character of Andreas V---- if you think he can
accept the humiliating position of the man who is under obligation to
a woman--an obligation which he has done nothing to discharge. Not
until I can tell myself that I have done something to place me on a
higher level in your eyes, can my thoughts concerning you be happy
ones."

A shade of disappoi