be tossed lightly
about in conversation.

"Then--" he began, speaking rather quickly, as if afraid that Steinmetz
was going to say more. "If," he amended, "you think she will find out,
she must not see me, that is all."

Steinmetz reflected again. He was unusually grave over this matter. One
would scarcely have taken this stout German for a person of any
sentiment whatever. Nevertheless he would have liked Paul to marry
Catrina Lanovitch in preference to Etta Sydney Bamborough, merely
because he thought that the former loved him, while he felt sure that
the latter did not. So much for the sentimental point of view--a
starting-point, by the way, which usually makes all the difference in a
man's life. For a man needs to be loved as much as a woman needs it.
From the practical point of view, Karl Steinmetz knew too much about
Etta to place entire reliance on the goodness of her motives. He keenly
suspected that she was marrying Paul for his money--for the position he
could give her in the world.

"We must be careful," he said. "We must place clearly before ourselves
the risks that we are running before we come to any decision. For you
the risk is simply that of unofficial banishment. They can hardly send
you to Siberia because you are half an Englishman; and that impertinent
country has a habit of getting up and shouting when her sons are
interfered with. But they can easily make Russia impossible for you.
They can do you more harm than you think. They can do these poor devils
of peasants of yours more harm than we can comfortably contemplate. As
for me," he paused and shrugged his great shoulders, "it means Siberia.
Already I am a suspect--a persona non grata."

"I do not see how we can refuse to help Catrina," said Paul, in a voice
which Steinmetz seemed to know, for he suddenly gave in.

"As you will," he said.

He sat up, and, drawing a small table toward him, took up a pen
reflectively. Paul watched him in silence.

When the letter was finished, Steinmetz read it aloud:

"My Dear Catrina:

"The Moscow doctor and your obedient servant will be (D.V.) in Thors by
seven o'clock to-night. We propose spending about an hour in the
village, if you will kindly advise the starosta to be ready for us. As
our time is limited, and we are much needed in Osterno, we shall have to
deprive ourselves of the pleasure of calling at the castle. The prince
sends kind remembrances, and proposes riding over to Thors to avail
hims