BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 207

" Probably."

" Why did Lady Marchmount say she was not in her box when she was ? "

" Don't ask me conundrums : at the same time, my dear boy, let me tell you that I would not believe Lady Marchmount on her oath j they are a self-seeking lot, the Marchmounts ; they could make nothing of loyalty and Toryism and that kind of business, so they came over to us, and now they out-Herod Herod in their intrigues and pro- fessed ambitions."

" Then they might be taking hand in a Nihilist plot ? "

" They would not mind engaging their dirty hands in anything," said Lady Forsyth, with a tone of unsup- pressed contempt.

" But the countess is a staunch Russian of the old regime

" Is she ? " asked Lady Forsyth.

" Is she not? " was Philip's rejoinder.

"What is it to you or me, Philip dear, what she is? For the moment she is interesting, has had a romantic career, is beautiful, has sat to you ; for heaven's sake, let us be content. If you ask me what sort of a woman it is who has such a secretary as Ferrari, I should say she might be anything a Nihilistic adventuress, or a duchess who loves curiosities."

" Whatever she is, mother, depend upon it she is a high-minded and noble- woman, and if she had devoted herself to some great act of national duty that might involve her life, I should not be surprised."

" I hope she has not inspired my dear boy with some romantic fancy," said Lady Forsyth. " In the first place, she is ten years your elder ; in the next place, she has been married twice ; how often she may have been divorced, who can say ? "

Philip felt the color come into his checks at the sug-