s too much history behind him, which is a state of things
never quite understood in your country, mademoiselle. Moreover, he has
not got it in him. He is not stable enough for the domestic felicities,
and Siberia--his certain destination--is not a good mise-en-scene for
your dream. No, you must not hope to do good to your fellow-beings
here, though it is natural that you should seek the ever-evasive
remedy--another privilege of youth."

"You talk as if you were so very old," said Netty, reproachfully.

"I am very, very old," he replied, with a laugh. "And there is no remedy
for that. Even your kind heart can supply no cure for old age."

"I reserve my charity and my cures for really deserving cases," answered
Netty, lightly. "I think you are quite capable of taking care of
yourself."

"And of evolving my own dreams?" he inquired. But she made no answer,
and did not appear to notice the glance of his tired, dark eyes.

"I know so little," she said, after a pause, "so very little of Poland
or Polish history. I suppose you know everything--you and Mr. Cartoner?"

"Oh, Cartoner! Yes, he knows a great deal. He is a regular magazine
of knowledge, while I--I am only a little stall in Vanity Fair, with
everything displayed to the best advantage in the sunshine. Now, there
is a life for you to exercise your charity upon. He is brilliantly
successful, and yet there is something wanting in his life. Can you not
prescribe for him?"

Netty smiled gravely.

"I hardly know him sufficiently well," she said. "Besides, he requires
no sympathy if it is true that he is the heir to a baronetcy and a
fortune."

Deulin's eyebrows went up into his hat, and he made, for his own
satisfaction, a little grimace of surprise.

"Ah! is that so?" he inquired. "Who told you that?"

But Netty could not remember where she had heard what she was ready to
believe was a mere piece of gossip. Neither did she appear to be very
interested in the matter.

XVIII

JOSEPH'S STORY

Mr. Mangles gave a dinner-party the same evening. "It is well," he
had said, "to show the nations that the great powers are in perfect
harmony." He made this remark to Deulin and Cartoner, whom he met at
the Cukiernia Lourse--a large confectioner's shop and tea-house in the
Cracow Faubourg--which is the principal cafe in Warsaw. And he then and
there had arranged that they should dine with him.

"I always accept the good Mangles' invitations. Firstly, I am in lov