Paul Patoff

room. He looked less anxious than on the previous nigh

the station and meet those

d road through the park. The hoar-frost was on the trees and on the blue-green frozen grass beneath them, and on the reeds and sedges beside the pond, which was overspread with a sheet of black ice. The bre

not inquisitive, but it is easy to see that there is something going on in your house whi

he turned a shade paler as he spoke. "I would

. I merely thought you might prefer to

been so intimate that you are almost like one of the family. Besides, you know this young nephew of my wife'

all events, I can give

would," an

minent nose. He is angular in his movements and rather tall. He has a remarkable talent for languages, and is regarded as a very promising diplomatist. His temper is violent and

scription. Is there a

Persia,-a chance acquaintance. P

?" asked J

ee nobody unless the minister sent for him. He used to beat his native servan

rk, "and you must help us to amuse him and keep him out of mischief. Those Russians are the very devil, sometimes, as I have no doubt you know, and just at present our relations with them are not of the best

mon," I answered. "Macaulay can hardly have much sympathy for Pa

entricity for genius and bad temper for boldness. We shall see,-we shall see very soon. They will both hate Cutter,

o me, he represents what I

with him, if you c

that of another man, if he had the chance. He only wishes to adorn what he most admires in himself with those things which, in his neighbor, excite the admiration of

"At all events, the professor has

ay Carvel and Patoff waved their hats from the carriage win

nd grasped mine readily enough, but seemed nerveless and lacking in vitality, a contrast to Paul Patoff's grip. The Russian was as angular as ever, and his wiry fingers seemed to discharge an electric shock as they touched mine. I realized that he was a very tall man, and that he was far from ugly. His prominent nose and high cheek-bones

arvel of his father. "We shall have

Persia, that we should meet again in my uncle's house, did you? You will har

be taken for a foreigner

language. The difficulty for me will lie in learning the customs. The

You kn

een my mother's phys

g the road, and in half an hour were deposited at Carvel Place, where the ladies came out to meet us, and the new cousin was introduced to every one. He seemed to make himself at home very easily, and I think the first impression he produced was favorable. Mrs. Carvel held his hand for several seconds, and looked up into his cold blue eyes as though searching for some resemblance to his mother, and he met her gentle look frankly enough. Chrysophrasia eyed him and eyed him again, trying to discover in him the attributes she had bestowed upon him in her imagination; he was certainly a bold-looking fellow, and she was not altogether disappointed. She allowed her hand to linger in his, and her sentimental eyes turned upwards towards him with a look that was i

er I had ever heard anything more of the lady with whom I

ds into his pockets, gazing upon me through the large round lens

have you hea

s Paul Patoff's m

ing e

thi

y the information, if y

enstein affair to our friend Carvel; that was natural enough, since the lady was his sister-in-law. She did not look at all like Paul, it is true, but you are not

ned doct

l Patoff is a silly fellow enough, or he would not have spok

ted in the lady, and that you had better be i

y cost me my reputation, as well as my life. I assure you I have rarely had to do with such a case, nor h

I never saw a braver thing mo

ured than if I had broken my neck in the attempt. I was responsible for her. What would have become of the 'great neurologist,' the celebrated 'mad-doctor,' as they call me, if one of the

ou leaning over the parapet, as if you meant to scramble down the face of the cliff after her. I had a hundred feet of manilla rope which I was taking with me to Switzerland for a special expedition, and I let it down to you. The people of the inn came to my a

and slowly over his thick gray hair

f for a moment. She was standing on a low balcony outside the window, and she must have thrown herself over. Luckily she was dresse

But why did she want to ki

kill themselves?" asked the professor

they are. I supp

Scotch deerhound in the possession of a friend was told that the man had a 'dog:' I should be justified in doubting whether the deerhound was a dog at all in the sense in which the tiny spaniel-the only dog I had ever seen-represented the canine race in my mind and experience. The biblical 'devil,' which 'possessed' men, took as many shapes and characteristics as the genus 'dog' does: there was the devil that dwelt in tombs, the devil that tore its victim, the devil that enter

lustrations," I said,

, Madame Patoff were sane or not. I do not know. I have known many persons to attempt to take their lives when, according to all their other actions, they were perfectly sane. The question of their sanity could be decided by placing a large number of sensible people in similar circumstances, in order

you were still trea

ent," answered my companion. "I must go and see Paul, however, since he was good enough to mention me to you."

ning, and his evident annoyance when I proposed to leave. He knew me well enough to say, "All right, if you don't mind, run up to town for a day or two," but he had not said it. He had manifested the strongest desire that I should stay, and I had determined to comply with his request. At the same time I was left entirely in the dark as to what was going on in the family, and whispered words, conversations that ceased abruptly on my approach, and many other little signs told me beyond all doubt that something was occurring of which I had no knowledge. Without being inquisitive, it is hard to live in such surroundings without having one's curiosity roused, and the circumstance of my former meeting with the professor, now so suddenly illuminated by the discovery that the lady whose life he had saved was the sister-in-law of our host, led me to believe, almost intuitively, that the mystery, if mystery there were, was connected in some way with Madame Patoff. As I thought

t last, "Paul Griggs, thou art an ass for thy pains, and an inquisitive idiot for thy curiosity." I, who am rarely out of conceit with myself, was disgusted at my lack of dignity at actually desiring to find out things that were in no way my business, nor ever concerned me. So I took a book and fell to reading. Far off in the house I could hear voices now and then, the voices of the family making the acquaintance of their new-found relation. The great fire blazed upon the broad hearth within, and the wintry sun shone brightly without, and there came gradually upon me the delight of comfort that reigns within a luxurious library when the frost is biting without, and there is no scent upon the frozen fields,-the comfort

ams, reveling in my imagination at the idea of what I should do if I possessed such a place.

ed by her mother and aunt and Paul; John Carvel brought up the rear, quietly l

discovered me in the deep easy-chair. "This is the celebrated Mr. Griggs. His name is Paul, like yours

everybody there, from the Shah to the Greek consul. What a splendid room! It must have taken you years of thou

he household. He praised John's pictures and Mrs. Carvel's engravings; he admired Chrysophrasia's stained-glass window, and her pots, and plates, and bits of drapery, he glanced reverently at Mrs. Carvel's religious books, and stopped now and then to smell the flowers Hermione loved. He noted the view upon the park from the south windows, and thought t

you things," said Hermione

ish understood luxury so well. You know that with us Continental people you have the reputation of being extravagant, even magnificent, in your ideas, but of being also ascetics in some measure,-loving to make yourse

English!" exclaimed Mrs. Ca

ld, that you have more taste than any people I have ever known, and that if I had had the least idea how charming my relations w

made this speech, and there wa

e first place, there was no Hermione then, to do the honors and s

fference in the place, thou

on reflection, that I would have postponed my visit, af

from her nephew, and he appeared to understand that he had already made a conquest of the ?sthetic old maid, for he took her admiration for granted, and addre

zation; and, to make it all perfection, you have at every turn the lingering romance of the glorious medi?val life," with a glance at Miss Dabstreak, "that middle age which in beauty was the prime of age, from which began and spread a

ow," said J

ist; he was an astrologer, and there are the ruins of his tower in the park. There are some old books up-stairs, u

s somebody of that

ite ceremonies, with all the dress described that you must wear, and the ph

ne. "I have it all filled with flowers in summer, and the

his comfortable chair, and inserted a single eyeglass in the angle between his heavy brow and his aquiline nose; his bony fingers were spotless, long, and white, and as he sat there he had the appearance of a personage receiving the respectful homage of a body of

licity of his dress, in the smoothness of his fair hair and well-trimmed mustache; he appeared thoroughly at home among his new-found relations, and anxious to please them all alike; he was modest and unassuming, for he did not speak of himself, and he gave no opinion saving such as should be pleasing to his audience. He had all this, and yet in the cold stare of his stony eyes, in the ungai

left me on the pretense of going to see Paul, and Macaulay Carvel was resting from his journey in his own rooms, in a remote part of the house; but I judged that the latter had already fallen under the spell of Patoff'

te supremacy at first, but he interested her, for she had seen little of the world, and nothing of such men as her cousin Paul, who was thirty years of age, and had been to most of the courts of the world in the course of twelve years in the diplomatic service. She was not inclined to admit that knowledge of the world was superiority of itself, nor that an easy manner and an irreproachable appearance constituted the ideal of a man; but she was barely twenty, and had seen little

girl sees one man after another, hopes in each one to find those qualities which she has elected to admire, and finally submits to be satisfied with far less than she had at first supposed could satisfy her. As for young men, they are mostly fools, and they talk of love with a vast deal of swagger and bravery

ly only the faint, unformulated hope that in her cousin Paul she might find s

and mother were gone. "Aunt Chrysophrasia believes that you are the most ext

e are rather

cating glance at Paul. "I only said the Russians were such a young and manly race, so interes

civilized than you, and perhaps, as you are so good as to believe, we are the more interesting. I suppose the un

ess!" ejaculated Chrysophrasia, a faint, sa

o remarkably use

imed Hermione, "what an

answered, "for where there is no truth, there is no wit. I maintain that us

han for usefulness," replied the

f Chrysophrasia's accent, "and it should be sought in everything. But tha

econd portion of the sentiment. I do not like to be made game of, because I am aware that I am naturally pedantic. It is an old

both sides of a question at onc

man may perfectly appreciate and approve of the opinions of two persons who take diametricall

n the man who takes both sides has no

t all interfere with each other. As for the compliment my aunt Chrysophrasia has paid to us Russians, I do not think we can be said to have gone very far in either direction as yet." After which diplomatic spee