the Embassy in Paris, in order to be near his daughter as well as his married sister. Vera's presence in St.

ed as a child, and from whom he did not attempt to conceal the fact that he had on hand more than one affaire de c?ur and that he thought but little, if any

whether she would have it so or no her interest in him grew, and with it the recognition that the young man was undoubtedly very good-looking and had a certain attractiveness about him. Before Vera returned to Paris Sasha Maximof had quite made up his mind that he was far too good to waste himself upon th

" the Countess thought, "surely no o

er point of view; I don't suppose there's much harm done yet, in a personal way, I mean, for we

with her," suggested the Countess, and

e had taken for granted that the girl could scarcely have fallen in love with him yet, Sasha, in the secret realms of his inner consciousness, was

attitude; on the contrary, he was not at all sure that she was not as anxious as him

for amusement that they invented this as a pastime; it would be interesting, they thought, to watch our affection bud and blossom and so on; but of course, as you know, my father died and neither my

urst out laughi

far from being so conceited as to suppose you could ever have learned to admire me. Is this, then, your theory: that if, for instance, a man and a woman were thrown together up

ome way being attacked. "I meant that if we had seen more of one another than we have, it might have been quite a differ

ot the case as any one mig

ng that it is; I c

I am a mere c

made my meaning clear; I do not love you-indeed, I may tell you that I have fallen in love elsewhere, for which you can scarcely blame me, since you have never given me the opp

of us had fallen in love and the other not! If it had been I, I must have sacrificed my heart's happiness,

over. "And since we are agreed that the betrothal was a mistake and that we shall both be happier if we annul the agreement and go upon

id Vera; "tear it

ave turned out as they have; neither of us is to blame.

ngerous thing for me, is that what yo

eightened colour lending a wonderful charm to her somewhat pallid Russian

r of us," he said; "for though you are

; "destroy it by all means, Alexander Petrovitch. You will now have a free hand with the lady whose name y

laughs at it. Two persons thus bound, they say, would be sure to loathe one

flattering to both of us than the other. We will leave it at this, that I might have stood well in your regard, one day, but for the fact that another lady stands better, having supplant

whether to feel elated or angry. "It is time I departed; until the

al agreement. Farewell, Alexander Petrovit

he strode away; "but what a little tigress she looked more than

document. "Why not keep it in case of accidents? A year or two hence I may be heart f

in his desk a

," he said presently; "it was pique, simply pi

he had been accustomed lifelong to look upon this man as her husband-to-be, and now the air-castle had

certainly good-looking," was the conclusion she now arrived at; "but, as Co