Sophy of Kravonia

ons came. But they came slow, vague, fitful, tantalizing. Something was wrong, Pharos confessed ruefully-what could it be? For surely Lady Meg by he

Mademoiselle Sophie-he advanced to that pleasant informality of description-quite ravishing and entirely devoted to Lady Meg, only, unhappily, so irresponsive to the Unseen-a trifle unsympathetic, it might be. But wha

e said, plainly. "Pharos feared her power over my lady, and that my lady might leave her all the money. Pharos hated the young lady because she would have nothing to say to him, and told him plainly that she thought him a charlatan. She had courage, yes! But if she would have joined in with him-why, then into the streets w

herwise becoming in Sophy Grouch transmuted to Sophie de Gruche. Yet the gratitude remained; she fought for Lady Meg-for her sanity and some return of sanity in her proceedings. In so fighting she fought against herself-for Lady Meg was very mad now. For herself she did not fight;

full of reminiscences of their meetings and talks, are shaded with doubt and eloquent of insecurity. She was no more than a girl in years; but in some ways her mind was precociously developed-her ambition was spreading its still growing wings. Casimir's constant tone of deference-almost of adulation-marks in part the man, in part the convention in which he had been bred; but it marks, too, the suppliant: to the last he is the wooer, not the lover, and at the end of his ecstasy lies the risk of despair. For her part she often speaks of him afterwards, and always with the tenderest affecti

Madame Mantis with impertinent and intrusive archness; by Marie Zerkovitch in the sheer impossibility of containing within herself any secret which had the bad

had left behind sipping beer at a restaurant facing the chateau. On the eminence which commands the white little town dropped amid the old forest, over against the red roofs of the palace vying in richness

ling and touching her hand. "Ah, well, good or bad

it was terribl

e voice on eart

and tightly. Never before had it occurred to her

avity, not too grave. "I wish that they may rise

sted over the palace and city; the forest turned to a frame of smoky,

old as Scripture! It has seen old masters-and great mistresses

?" she laughed.

vil, neither!

hink, though," ans

vice. You don't niggle! Neithe

m to be-Mar

he laughed. "Mad

u think?" She turned to

rose now like gloomy interrogation-marks to an unresponsive, darkened sky. "He is there now

in the air, as

my s

e misses

he second. And the second

ou wou

Lady of the Red Star-alas! I can'

ith a laugh. "Wouldn't you rat

e cried, springing to

have no fear. What is it, C

on! You!

woman's pa

she allowed his clasp. But she gr

a fine evening at Fontainebleau!" she murmured

tn't

d with what d

nd his sigh

I'm Sophy Grouch, and my father was as m

ck. A single star sombrely

h as the hopes that b

smiled Sophy Grouch-simple Essex in

e my wife

working hard-so Marie Zerkovitch declares. I should

ou lo

save one thing-or when all is wrong save one thing-then it is hard to answer, and may have been hard to ask. With Casimir there was no doubt, save t

you," he cried. "The

mperor's man

moment serious, the next he kissed her hand merrily. "Or for anybody

ascinating," S

ll from his exaltation. "It's n

ht make it love. Oh, how

ts? Impossible! M

am of the white houses dropped among the trees, to the dull mass of the ancient h

stop?" sa

om his head and stoo

he-"in the warmth of life

usly!" The hour carried her awa

e filled his reply: "

nt you to ki

alute th

's no p

s be

-I'm very f

t's

ht! What's he thin

he's there, really. Somebody said he h

d he's

cept how many men di

w many wo

ight to his passion.

The answer was half

e than the slightest dimn

ime? Oh, Casimir, if I were worthy, if I were sure! What's ahead of us? Must we go back? To-night, up here, it all seems so simple! Does he mean war? He

erwise?"

n't know-but-but Pharos makes me afrai

hed. "That leaves him

o be forgotten only when all is. Yet she went from him unpledged, and to

of the silent trees. When she rose, he was gone-and the student, t

man as Lord Dunstanbur

?" aske

ee. "As the man who first saw me,"

ovitch bit

nt was Armand. He, too, let it be recorded, ha

glimpse of th