ention of a stranger who saw at once I was blind, although the other person had not noticed it. He shepherded me away from the danger and apologized. He said he sup

ndon. Did I know them? I told him they were staying at the hotel; not at the hotel proper, but at the annexe, which was a separate building. I described to him where it was. The man's voice struck me. I

rning: Captain Canning they called him. Mrs. Summer and Princess Kouragine were sitting with them. The

the Galeries the postman went by with the letters. There was a letter for Kranitski, and he asked me if I minded his reading it. He read it. There was a silence and then suddenly he laughed: a short rather mirthless chuckle. We neither of us said anything for a mome

. Rudd read out a short story to us from a magazine. After luncheon Rudd

ur book?

said. "It's all simmering in my mind. I

young man who had once been engaged to Miss Brandon, so Mrs. Lennox h

d he come he

He was going away in a few days' time. That was one reason. There was another. Donna Maria Alberti, the beautiful Ita

ught Canning no longer

if he did he would pr

oney,"

quite well off. He could marry if he wanted to. He

he?" I

to what he was, but she is t

she love a

tha

her story

rent story," h

England. He had come here to see a special doctor who was supposed to know all about malaria. But he had found this doctor was no longer here. He had meant to have a holiday, as he liked watering-places-they amused

nless I settle in Africa altogether. It is a wonderful place. I have been so much away that I hardly feel at home in

like to come to Italy. He had several Italian friends. One of them, Donna Maria Alberti, had

o had got a headache, and Kranitski who was playing in the Ca

There were races going on not far off, and I h

room at ten o'clock in the morning, and asked whether he could

probably to South Africa at the end of the month. I have been making

he sea voya

time. I am Europamüde, if you kno

Russia?"

l of Russia

ons. I want you not to misjudge. You may be thinking the obstacle has come back. It hasn't. I am free as air, as empty air. That is what I have been wanting to tell you. If you are understanding, wel

ike letters. I said I wro

etters being read out. My sister generally read my letters to me. She

the year in Italy, and very seldom saw anyone, so that I should have little news t

o for him. He said, "Yes, send me any books

Then he said "Good-bye." He went

The next morning I learnt

e, but I told Henry I was not wel

ragine at the door of the hotel. She was

They are going to Munich and then to Bayreuth. Jean asked me to say

one with th

r. He does not love Mozart. And the

fter Miss

he lamp was lit for a moment, but they put

l more. But the motor-bus drove up to the door. She said "Good-bye"

sent me a lot of messages, and I wanted to ask her what had happened and how things stoo

sage from her, saying she had been obliged

d both go back to Italy together. So I decided to do this. I saw Rudd once before I left. He dined with me on my last night. H

eping Beaut

have to be a real book, even if only a short one, a nouvelle. The idea is a fascinating one. The Sleeping Beauty awake and changed in an alien world. Perhaps I may do it some day. If I do, I

yet. But it may come to something. In any case I must do some regular work at once. I have had a long enough holiday. I have been wasting my time. I have enjoyed it, it has done me good, and conversations are never wasted, as they are the b

nd met my sister in Paris. We t

RLO

RT

APERS OF A

the season. There was nobody left of the old group I had known during my first visit. Mrs. Lennox and her n

was not yet married. Princess Kouragine I had not seen again. Rudd I had neither heard from nor of. Apparently he had published one book since he had been to Haréville and several short stories in magazines. The bo

counting on a dreary three weeks of unrelieved dullness when my doctor here intro

widely travelled man of great experience and European culture, had a differ

ed him; and still more, the quainter facts of human nature, psychological puzzles, mysterious episodes, unvisited by-ways, and baffling and unsolved problems

o invite me to his house. I often dined with him, and we would remain talking in his sitting-room till late in the night, while he would tell

him as strange that a writer could be as intelligent as Rudd and yet, at the same time, so o

what made hi

t book in the Tauchnitz edition, a book of stories, not short stories: n

rom Rudd, sending me a privately printed story (one of 500 signed copies) called Overlooked, which, he said, com

rest me greatly, and I made Henry hurry through them; but the privately printed story Overloo

racters of our old group were in it. Miss Brandon was the centre, and Kranitski appe

t group of people during their stay at Haréville two years ago, but the deductions he dre

erpretation of their motives were, in the cases in which I had the power of

ars ago, and I begged the doctor to read what I had written and to let me know when he had done so,

thony Kay's Papers, follows the stor

RLO

AMES

re the trim park with its kiosk, where a scanty orchestra played rag-time in the morning and in the evenings; the florid Casino, which denoted the third of the three styles of architecture that distinguished the appendages of the H?tel de La Source, whe

erary articles, and which you would find on her table side by side with newspapers and journals of a widely different and so

to regret missing any of the receptions, race-meetings, garden-parties, and other social events which she was idly skimming the record of. For it was now the height of

sted her attention. It began thus: "The death has

ad left the army some years ago. He was at present abroad, performing some kind of secretarial duties to the Govern

ad always been so bald, almost formal, ever since their brief engagement six years before had been broken off. Ever since that memorable night in Ireland when she confessed to her father, who was more than usually violent and had drunk an extra glass of old Madeira, that she had refused to marry Lancelot. At first she had asked him not to write, and he had dutifully accepted the restriction. But later, when her father died, he had written to her and

at her aunt's villa at Bordighera, sometimes a week or two at Florence, the summer at Saint-Yves-les-Bains, where they lived in the hotel, on special terms, as Mrs. Knolles was such a constant client. Never a new note, always the same gang of people round them; the fashionable cosm

cept him this time." Why had she refused him? Their financial situation-her poverty and his own very small income had had nothing to do with it, because Lancelot had sai

e when his series of formal letters began, she realized that she had made a mistake, and she had never ceased to repent her action. The fact was, she said to herself, I was too young to make such a decision. I did not know my own mind. If onl

features and her appearance, hers was a face you could not fail to observe and which it was difficult to forget. It was a face that appealed to artists. They would have liked to try and paint that clear white, delicate skin, and those extraordinarily haunting round eyes which looked violet in some lights and a deep sea-blue in others, and to try and render the romantic childish glamour of her person, that wistful, fairy-tale-like expression. It was extraordinary that

though she had lived a great deal in Ireland, she was not Irish, and she had been cast for a continental part. She was mat

omance, or even of suitors, was to be found in her unconquerabl

at she would give her a piece of good advice unasked, and that was, not to go to sleep in the forest on the Eve of St. John, for if she did she would never wake. She paid no attention to this, and she dozed off to sleep and slept for about half-an-hour. She was an obstinate child, and not at all superstitious. When she got home, she asked the housekeeper when was the Eve of St. John. It happened to fall on that very day. She said to herself that this proved what nonsense the gipsies talked, as she had s

metimes hunted. All this she had enjoyed. It was only after she dismissed Lancelot, who had known her ever since she was sixteen, that the mist of apathy had descended on her. After her father's death, this mist had increased in thickness, and when her continental life with he

usic tedious and noisy, although she listened to it without complaining, and when her aunt suggested going there another year, she agreed to the suggestion with alacrity. The only thing which ever roused her interest was horse-racing.

oped, more than ever she had hoped before, that he would come back, and come back unchanged and faithful, and that she would be the same for him

ame mistake," she said to hersel

n the last month become an accepted and established factor in their small group of hotel acquaintances. Kat

ng her thoughts, she registered the fact that she knew him, not only bett

he patients. It consisted in throwing a small ring, attached to a post by a string, on to hooks which were

ng for Aunt Elsie. I must see what she is go

ft, unerring comprehension of the small and superficial shades of the mind, the minor

d him. She had accepted him as part of the place, and she had not noticed the easiness of relations with him. It came upon her now with a slight shock that these relations were almost peculiar from their ease and naturalnes

about her Parisian hats, her jewels, and her cloaks; and there was something rich, daring and exotic about her sumptuous sombre hair, with its sudden gold-copper glints and her soft

g? That newspaper is ten days old.

nt a thought flashed through her: "Then, surely, Lancel

r letters," said her

ected to see, she hoped, at least, to see, Lancelot's rath

re dining with us," said h

n said

mind?" sa

ourse

you liked C

I do," sai

m frequently, and as she had forgotten who Count Tilsit was, this was difficult for her. Arkright was an English author, who was a friend of her aunt's, and had sufficient penetration to realize that M

ence?" said Mrs. Knolles,

, the No

rling, not a

s the same thing

e of news for you,

. She was determined that it should reveal

n. "He came back just in time to see his uncle b

ll a long time?"

e was," said

ack to Malta," said Kathleen, wit

He will be very well off. Would you like to drive to Bavigny this afternoon? Prince

want me to,"

ing to devise something that would amuse or distract her niece, but whenever she suggested anything to her or arranged any ex

would rather not," she said with

een, greatly to her aunt's surprise. It was t

ng well, darling?

hleen said smiling, "but I said I would

ordered to take the waters at Saint-Y

h us to-night, and don't wear your grey. It's too shabby." One of Miss Farrel's practices, which irritated her aunt, was t

nt lef

wanted to be alone. If Lancelot had been in England when Sir James died, then he must have started home at least a fortnight ago, as the news that she had read was ten days old.

she thought, "it

a friendly voic

oing all by you

ifferent nature. Mrs. Roseleigh was one of those women whom her friends talked of with pity, saying "Poor Eva!" But "Poor Eva" had a large income, a comfortable house in Upper Brook Street. She was slight, and elegant; as graceful as a Tanagra figure, fair, delicate-looking, appealing and plaintive to look at,

. She was never tired of saying that Eva was "wond

kely is plead,

some time ago. I thought yo

o know. I read the newspap

Lancelot wil

s come

ou kno

w wh

is comi

imson. "Coming here

in the hall of the hotel, and I asked if he had arr

splendid as a Titian, no longer young, but still more than beautiful, walked p

at?" asked

ra Bartolini. She is still very beautiful,

e is very striking-looking. B

ecially desi

u know

s, at heart, matter-of-fact, and domestic, but she dress

er

ut she worship

he h

think he

her a long time ago. I thi

usband is an archae

have been devoted? If so, it wasn't true. She was sure it wasn't true.

Swede to dinner. Count T

to him yesterday

u like

s nice-looking and has good mann

had sent him to Saint-Yves. He had suffered from attacks of Malta fever several times. Saint-Yves was good for malaria. There was a well-known malaria specialist on the medical staff. He might be coming to consult him. What did she want to be the truth? What did she feel? She scarcely knew herself. She felt exhilarated, as if life had suddenly become different, more interesting and strangely irridescent. What would Lancelot be like? Would he be the same? Or would he be someone quite different? She couldn't talk about it, not even to Eva, although Eva had known all ab

e ring board, and at five o'clock she had a talk with Asham to quiet her conscience. She stayed out late, until, in fact, the motor-bus, which met the evening express, arrived from the station at seven o'clock. She watched its arrival from a distance, from the galleries, while she si

pstairs to dress for dinner, and even her Aunt Elsie was satisfied with her appearance

not to make the best of oneself when it needs so very little trouble." But Mrs. Knolles had the untaught and unlearnable gift of looking her best at any season, at

origin and education were made manifest by her mauve chiffon shawl, her buckled shoes, and the tortoise-shell comb in her glossy black hair. Nothing could have been more unpretentious than her clothes, and nothing more common to hundreds of her kind, than her single row of pearls and her little platinum wrist-watch, but the manner i

ty, since he had died too soon after inheriting a third fortune to squander it, as he had managed to squander two former inheritances, and her at one time prolonged soj

ight, whom you would never have taken for an author, since his motto was what a Frenchman once said to a young painter who affected long hair and eccentric clothes: "Ne savez-vous pas qu'il faut s'habiller c

g at a table with a party of people just opposite to them on the other side of the room. There was nothing more remarkable about Lancelot Stukely's front view than about his back view, and that, in spite of a certain military squareness of shoulder, had a slight

r mask, and in the effort to conceal any embarrassment, or preoccupation, she flushed and became unusually liv

in front of them, and these told her that Lancelot was sitting next to Donna Laura Bartolini. The yo

trying to interest Princess Oulchikov in Japanese art. But the Princess had lived too long in Russia not to catch the Slav microbe of indifference, and she was a woman who only li

sed at her niece's behaviour. Never

arily well to-night," Arkright sai

, and Arkright was puzzled, for Kathleen never took the waters, but he knew the Princess well enough not to ask her to explain. P

. They discussed the races, the troupe at

ly is here," sa

h great calm, "dining wit

. What fun we shall all have together. Yes. There she is, looking lovel

kin said he did not admire her at all, and as for the clothes, she was the last person who should dare those kind of clothes; her beauty was conventional, she was made for less fantastic fashions. He looked at Kathleen. He was thinking that her ty

id Princess Oulchikov. "I remembe

e is over fifty?

it, I am sure,"

wonderful," s

beautiful then

ss. "People stood on chairs to look at her one night at the

n at Donna Laura. It was inconceivable to his young Scandinavian mind that this radiant a

said Arkright. "In fact, I admire her more now th

s, "but not of a long enough past, as I do. When you first saw her you were y

ry beautiful now,"

n. "I could understand anyo

er," said the Princess, "and young people. She h

in, pensively, "

with a lot of Italian intermixed with it, was going up from the table like fireworks. Kathleen turned to Count Tilsit and made conversation to him, while Anikin and the Princess began to talk in a passionately argumentat

nary dignity of Donna Laura's carriage struck the whole room. Whatever anyone might think of her looks now, there was no doubt

aid Princess Oulchikov, voicing

s were fetched and coffee was served ju

grey about the temples, a little bit thinner, and slightly more tanned-his face had been burnt in the tropics-but the

s asked him

ntly," he said, "but

wn next t

did not ask him how long he was going to stay, but he explain

a Laura Bartolini," said Mrs. Kno

an old friend of mine. I

stay long?" ask

through on her way to Italy. She l

beautiful," sa

she is very beaut

he go

n to-morrow," he said to K

ing on?" aske

e doctor. I have got to go back to England

"We will see you to-morrow. Will

would be busy all day to-morrow. He had an app

then said good-night, and went back to his part

. She saw quite plainly that as far as Lancelot was concerned, the past was completely forgotten. She meant nothing to him at all. He was the same Lancelot, but he belonged to a different world. There were gulfs and gulfs between them now. He had come here to see Donna Lau

was that, instead of feeling her life was over, as she had expected to

e, and now I see that he was not the fairy Prince, after all. But this does no

ld all walk in the garden. It was still daylight. They got up. The Princess, Arkright, M

alked on some way, and then she sai

e. It is quieter. We can

of detached park. They climbed up the hill and passed two deserted and unused lawn-tennis courts and a dusty track once used for skittles, and emerged from a screen of thick trees on to a little plateau. Behind them was a row of trees and a green corn-field, beneath them a steep slope of grass. They c

take on in the twilight, as if they had been dyed by the

e like black diamonds. Anikin had never seen her look like that. And then it came to him that this was the moment of moments. Perhaps the moon had risen. The

ng straight in front of her out into the west, where

ust had asked for even at the price of his soul, but which mortal love had always denied him.

will mar

elt that she was being moved by some alien spirit separate from herself and that it was not she herself that was giving herself to him. She was obeying some exterior and foreign control which came neither from him nor from her-some mysterious outside influence. She seemed to be looking on at herself as she was whirled over the e

better g

and then Kathleen and Anikin walked slowly down the hill in silence. It had grown darker and a little chilly. There was no more magic in the sky. It was as if someone had somewhere turned off the light on which all the illusion of the scene had depended. They walked back into the park. The band was playing an und

chikov and Count Tilsit were all of the party. When they reached the first lake, they separated into groups,

tate of mind affected Anikin. It began to affect him from the moment he had held her in his arms on the hill and that the spell had so abruptly been broken. He had thought this had been due to the sudden interruption and the untimely intervention

h Kathleen had experienced. He said to himself: "This is the Fairy Princess I have been seeking all my lif

he had been before the decisive evening, only if anything still more aloof. He began to feel that she was eluding him and that he was pursuing a shadow. Just as he was thinking this ever so vaguely and tentati

ce more. When they separated, Anikin found himself with Mrs.

quaintance with Mrs. Roseleigh that he had ever had a real conversation with her. He all at once became aware that they had been talking for a long time and talking intimately. His conscience pricked him; but, so far from wanting to stop, he wanted to go on; a

elf up to the enchantment of understanding and being understood so easily, so lightl

ft to Kathleen. Was it actually disappointment he was feeling? Surely not; and yet he could not reach her. She was further off than ever and in their ta

ver given him a glimpse of what was happening behind her beautiful mask, and no unspoken messages had passed between them. But just now during that last walk with Mrs. Roseleigh, he recognized only too clearly that n

Fairy Princess?" And then there came another more insidious whisper which said: "Your Fairy Princess

t a wayside hotel, came to an end a

h of them seemed to be fitted with an invisible aerial between which soundless mess

can never love her. It was an illusion: the spell and intoxication of a moment." And then before his eyes the picture of Mrs. Roseleigh stood out in startling de

your heart, your instincts that cannot go wrong. Tell her before it is too late. And she, she does not love you. She never will love you. She was spellbound, too, for the moment. But you have only to look at her now to see that the spell is broken and it will never come back, at least you will never bring it back. She is English, English to the core, although she looks like the illustration to some strange fairy-tale, and you are a Slav. You cannot do without Russian comfort, t

d-up face of Mrs. Rosele

elf. She had by her presence and her conversation given him the true perspective of things and let him see them in their true light, and in that perspective and in that light he saw clearl

ould find that everything was as it had been before; but he did not sleep, and in

l her at once? It sounded so easy. It was in reality-it would be t

the necessary determination to make the effort of will to snap it? Nothing would be easier. She would probably understand. She would perhaps help h

was sitting in a chair under the trees. His servant was reading out the Times to him. Anikin smiled rather bitterly to himself as he reflected how many little dramas, comedies and tragedies mig

the Casino. Then he went back to the park. One thought possessed him, and one only. How was he to do it? Should he say it, or write? And what should he say or write? He caught sight of Arkright who was in the park by himself. He strolled

ikin. "My plans are chang

a?" asked

ca, perhaps,

t as one feels inclined, to start at a moment's notice for Rome or Moscow and to leave the day after one h

which he would give worlds to see-Rome, Venice, Russia, the East, Spain, Seville; he thought of what all that would mean to him, of the unbounded wealth which was there waiting for him like ore in quarries in which he would never be allowed to dig; he reflected that he had worked for ten years before ever being able to go abroad at all, and that his furthest and fullest adventure had been a fortn

ink-that strong violet ink which nothing rubs out and which runs in the wet but never fades. The past is like a creditor who is always turning up with some old bill that one has forgotten. Perhaps the bill was paid, or one thought it was paid, but it wasn't paid-wasn't fully paid, and there the interest has gone on accumulating for years. And so, just as one thinks one is free, one f

that the Russian had served him up this neat discourse on the past he knew full well that he was not being told the truth. Anikin was suddenly going away. A week ago he had been perfectly happy and obviously in an intimate relation to Miss Farrel. Now he was suddenly leaving, possibly to Africa. What had happened? What was the cause of this sudden change of plan? He wanted to get out of whatever situation he found himself bound by. But

t in Anikin's life, but what Anikin did not know was t

Arkright, "when the past

d very awkward when one

id aloud, "has said, 'de deux devoirs, il faut choisir le plus désagréab

emained

right reason for doing a thing, but one can't use it because the

said Arkright. "Is

the duty happens to be the same as one's inclinations, and if one took a certain course it would not

can cancel the word duty altogether. It is simply

qui pourrait même avoir l'excuse du devoir)" he lapsed into French, which was his habit when he found it d

and a duty?" asked Arkright. He wished to pi

tween them?" asked Anikin. "In practical

rooted in di

ithful made hi

end that he is in the position of Lancelot to Elaine, and

nnot help remaining 'falsely true.'" Tha

to say, disregard t

as if he had entirely accepted t

ive him a hint that he was not qu

p to that moment when they no longer wish to face an obligation in the present, like a man who in order to avoid meeting a new debt

n lau

laughing?" as

tion," said Anikin. "You nov

't mind. I think that all this elaborate romance was perhaps only meant for me. He will choose some simpler means of breaking off his engagement with Miss Farrel than by pleading

egan to talk to Arkright. He had begun with fact and had involuntarily embroidered the fact with fiction. It was Wahrheit und Dichtung and the Dichtung had got the better of the Wahrheit. His passion for make-belief and self-analysis had carried him away, and he had said things which might easily

do anything to Kathleen that could possibly seem slighting. He was far too gentle and far too easy-going, far too weak, if you will, to dream of doing anything of the kind. With her, infinite delicacy would be needed. He did

ut, but difficult to act on." Anikin was once more amazed at the novelis

cated questions of conflicting duties, divided consci

asked

estions of this kind which is so complete and so transparent th

n. "I assure you I wa

help taking momentary enjoyment in Arkright's acute diagnosis of the case when it was put to him, and at his swift deciphering of the hieroglyphics and his skilful diagnosis, and he had not been able to help conveying the impression t

o take the situation in hand, to say what she wanted to say to him before he would have time to say anything to her. After he had heard what she had to say he would no longe

," he said, "I par

ning," she said. "I wanted to talk to you

it," sa

going

of Donn

t's no

he was devo

very good sort. So she is, but

sn't kn

oesn't kn

arry Kathleen Farrel?" she s

in, "I heard a l

mpossible

se of

n left money," she explained. "He's qu

e doesn't

nt to, that

ause Miss Farrel d

really; at least she wou

n anxious note into her voice, slightly lowering it, and pressing d

one misunderstanding has reacted on the ot

he sensation of coasting or free-wheeling do

, didn't come back and didn't write. He didn't dare, poor man! It was very silly of him. He thought he was too poor to offer her to share his poverty, but she wouldn't have minded. Anyhow he waited and time passed, and then the other day his uncle died and l

had a shock and disappointment. She was not, you see, herself. She was susceptible to all influences. She was magnetic for the moment, ready for an electric disturbance; she was

Anikin, "sh

gh gently, "it wasn't anyone

e be demagnetize

all try and help her. We must all try to show her t

aking on a full knowledge of the case, or whet

have always known what ha

nd. And now I can judge just as well from what she doesn't say, as from what she says. She always tells me enough for

id Anikin, "that she

yes; but n

Stukely's conduc

hat since he has been he

said, "He saw that it was

d of man, that

rectly; directly he saw her, and he di

the more difficult because he wanted to believe

ng back to Af

ou know?"

Asham, and

either. I am going soon to London, too, and I shall see Lancelot St

re he

, perhaps you could help too, not by saying an

said Anikin, "of s

y understand without her having to explain to us, or without our having to explain to her. She wants to be spared all that. She has already been through such a lot. Sh

ndon," he asked, "will

s," sh

ake it all right? I mean with

ut she knew perfectly well that he

her, and that she will marry

d, "not at once, of course, but

e did not feel quite su

ined his uncertain

complicated. She knows that ever since Lanc

ows?" h

to get back to h

was thinking of going to London myself," he added. "Do you think that w

oseleigh, "would be

ctified, there was every chance of Stukely marrying Kathleen, but she had no reason to suppose that her explanation of his conduct was the true one. She thought Stukely had forgotten all about Kathleen, but there was no reason that he should not be brought back into the old groove. A little management would do it. He would have to marry now. He would

with him, and she did not think he was in love with her; she was not a dynamo deranging a watch; she was a magnet attracting a piece of steel; but she had not done it on purpose. She had done it because she couldn't help it. Her consc

ted by the arrival first of Kat

r hands the copy o

ed, Kathleen and Arkright sat dow

to give you back this. She is not coming down yet

"Did the article on N

een, "but I liked the story best

tory, wasn't it?

t about?" a

ll it you better than

remember it well en

, it had small interest for him; but he saw that Miss Farrel had some reason for wa

ot, a brass ring, which he wears round his neck, falls on to the floor of the cell. The ring had been given him by a queen whom he had loved, a long time ago, at a distance and without telling her or anyone, and who had been d

aid Anikin, with the incomparable Slav facility for "catching

" said

entails?" A

entails," s

away your brass ring?

one to throw

rom London, I am going ther

" he said to himself, "no

y for her to bear had been lifted from her, as though after having forced herself to keep awake in an alien

om London," as if there were nothing sur

lt no regret. She asked for no explanation. Anikin's words gave her no pang; nothing but a joyless relief; but it was with the sligh

ty in the wood; and wondered whether a Fairy Prince would one day awaken her to life. He did not know her ful

the forest was taking its revenge on the intruder

en Farrel had in more sense

OF ANTHONY

d them, and the following evening he asked me to dinner, and after d

n the world. I do not know his heroine, nor her aunt, even by sight, because I only arrived at Haréville two years ago after they had left, and

incess Koura

o invent a Slav microbe to explain her in

oroughly

id Sabran, "what happened? What happened then

frica, stayed out his time, and had then come back to England last year; and that I had heard from Kran

ng, I want you to tell me what you

engaged to be married and that the engagement was broken off. But I also understood from your MS. that the man Canning was for nothing

f all, that he was for a long time attached to a Russian lady wh

t Haréville, he tells you that the obstacle to his practising his religion no longer exists. Kranitski makes the acquaintance of Miss Brandon, or rather renews his old acquaintance with her, and becomes intimate with her. Princess Kouragine finds she is becoming a different being. You go away for a month, and when you

a. He also gives you to understand that the obstacle has not come back into his life. What obstacle? It c

o we learn f

ys that just as he found himself, as he thought, free, an old debt or tie or obligation rises up from the past which has to be paid or regarded or met. Rudd, in the person of Arkright, thinks he is inventing. They talk of conflicts and divided duties and the choice between two duties. The R

esn't seem to me like the kind of fantasy the novelist would have invented had he be

rrupted, "we don't kno

er he said anything

ther hand, he may have invented the whole thing, as Rudd says that the novelist in his story knew about the Russian's former entanglement, and lays

happened so. I think he spoke about the past and said that thing about the blotting

'You novelists are terrible people.' Only he was laughing

ssian did say what he was reported to have said to the n

of choosing between a pleasure, that is to say, somethi

n excuse," said Sabran, quoting the very w

ts to do. He could say it was his duty to do it. And there is something he doesn't want to do, and he can say it

ld liaison,"

I said, "why did

stay there at any rate such a lon

d the country and the life, but he said little about ei

is the obligation. He took the trouble to come and see you before he went away and to tell you that the obstacle which had prevented his practising his

to do with Canning. What are your t

he said. "I heard

elieve she ever talked to him about Canning; but he knew her ideas on the subject, through Mrs. Lennox. I believe that Canning arrived at Haréville on purpose to see Miss Brandon. I know that the Italian lady had played no part in his life and that it was just a chance that they met at Haréville. I believe he arrived full of hope, and that when he saw Miss Brandon he realized the situation as soon as he had s

being the 'Princess without dreams,' without passion, being muffled and

t perfectly baseless fiction. I reminded him of w

atisfactory solution. I am convinced of one thing only, and that is that the noveli

n some cases; Sabran's deductions were right, I thought, as far as they went; but we ei

his, Sabran inter

he was with you we should have the key of the enigma. It was from the

happened afterwards proved th

an have been in that

think we should

ncident about the story of the Brass Ring. Do

ctly what had happened wit

d about the middle of the day, after the band had stopped playing, shortly before déjeuner, that Ru

ey discussed it, and I asked what it was about. Rudd was asked to read it aloud to us, and he did. Miss Brandon and Kranitski made no comments; and

the brass ring was

she was glad the man had not thrown the ring away. Then Rudd as

and changed the subject. Then they al

understand the methods of the novelist. But we are still no nearer a s

OF ANTHONY

I

rather than simplified by a letter which I received from Kranitski from Africa, in which he expres

donnée, some probably quite simple fact which would be the clue of the whole si

moral Sherlock Holmes, to ded

nd was taking the waters. He had only lately made her acquaintance himself, but she was dining with him and he wanted to ask a few people to meet her. I asked him what she

usband for years and lived gener

f Italy, when she astonished me by saying she had not been there for some time. Later on she astonished me still more by talking of her husband in the most natural way in the world. But I had heard cases of Russians being divorced and yet continuing to be good friends. I longed to ask her if she knew Kranitski, but I could not bring his nam

d her a book. He lent her Rudd's Unfinished Dramas, and asked me if he might lend her Overlook

park. She asked me if I had read Rudd's

, isn't it?" she said. "And are

was, I belie

ppened?" she said. "Did it happen li

ry, and a great deal of fancy, but I really didn't know.

great deal on a very slender

said. "He was here w

aintance here, but that I had

f man is he?

less, but favourabl

she said, "Miss-I've

roine?"

'overlooked.' Do you th

hat s

fairy-ta

ght that was

aid, "if she marr

ch o

Engli

ot heard of he

a Russian here,

, "his name w

s like a Po

e was a

new hi

a li

nk Rudd makes all the characters more complicated

believed

ht not,"

ed to me a far simpler cha

know all those p

ad not been here wh

poor girl to find herself in a boo

ld probably deny that he had made portraits, and to some extent

aid, pensively. "If she comes here this year you m

she was beaut

ppose James Rudd invented a charact

Miss Brandon, that she was such and such person, and he distorted the facts till th

he psychology of Rudd's Russian. I said she o

evere on the Slavs, don't you? He makes that poor Anikin

Russian with making to himself for breaking off the

those things or that the nove

ad said what he was r

t, he was not l

t that Rudd's explanation of his words was wrong. If

y improbable in that,

ki had finished with whatever there was in the pa

l you that?

n in the way she said the word "he," in that word and that word only, which gave me the curious sensation of a veil be

had anything to do with what R

ossessed the key of the mystery. I suddenly felt she was the woman whom Kranitski had known and loved for seven years, so much so, that I could say nothing further

ing here to fetch me, or whether he wants me to meet him. At any rate I s

was divorced from her husband. I told him what she had said to me about her husband and he

had told a friend of hers about Rudd's story. Her fri

reasons. So they separated. They separated after having known each other a long time. Then the woman changed her mind and she settled she would divorce, and she let Anikin know. She wrote to him and said she was willing, at last, to divorce. My friend says it was complicated by other things as well. She did not tell me the whole story

ad read me the

e said, "of Miss Brandon to a m

"is the Englishm

ng altogether," she

s and with a quiet ease. She talked as if she were relating facts that had no particular personal interest for her. There was not a tremor in her voice, not an intonation, either of satisfaction or pain, nothing but th

conversation, admirably natural as she had been, and although her voice only betrayed her in the intonation of one syllable. I fee

of herself; sure of her part. She wa

cognized her as the missing factor in the drama, and that she had wished me not to have a false impression of Kranitski. But at the time, while she was talking she seemed so natural that for the moment I believed, or almost believed, in the friend. Bu

oo much. Perhaps she had nothing to do with Kranitski,

y with my suppositions, and with what I already knew. Sabran had been right. The clue to the whole thing was the letter. The letter that Kranitski had received when he was talking to me and which had made so sudden a change in him was the letter from her, from Countess Yaskov, saying she was ready to divorce and to

ss Brandon, forwarded from Cadenabbia, telling me of her engagement. She said they were to be married at once,

about Miss Brandon, and I told him what Countess Yasko

es with his obligation, which is to be faithful to his friend of seven years. His inclination coincides with his duty, but his duty is in conflict with his obligation. What does he do? He goes away. Does he explain? Who knows? He was, indeed, in a fichu situation. And now Miss Brandon marries the young man. Either she had loved him all t

he had been divorced years ago, and she lived at Rome. I was puzzled. In that case, why did she try and deceive me, and at the same time if she w

ville after that. A few days before I left, Princess Kouragine arrived. I told her about Miss Brandon's marriage. She said she

e was sorry for K

t could not

her that I had made the acquaint

ch o

lived in Rome and who was

ssia now. The one you mean is Countess Helene Yaskov. She lives at Rome. They are not relations even. You confused the two, because they both at different times lived at

," she said. "On dit

e who mattered, were friends, acquaintances and the London literary world, and now they had all seen it. Besides which, his series of unfinished dramas would be incomplete without it; and he did not think it was fair on his publisher to leave out Overlooked. "Besides which," he said, "it is not as if the characters in the books were portraits. You know better than anyone that this is not so." He ended up, after making it excruciatingly clear that he had irrevocably and finally made up his mind to publish, by asking my advice; that is to say, he wanted me

when I had said good-bye to her two years ago she had said to me, talking of Mis

the oth

call the other

meant by th

and am

which of the two was

know that you know

ad to go. The moto

ne was right and that, after