etings were exchanged, and Catrina saw Etta look anxiously
toward the door through which she had just come. She thought that she
was looking for her husband. But it was Claude de Chauxville for whose
appearance Etta was waiting.

Paul and Steinmetz entered at the same moment by another door, and
Catrina, who was talking to Maggie in English, suddenly stopped.

"Ah, Catrina," said Paul, "we have broken new ground for you. There was
no track from here to Osterno through the forest. I made one this
afternoon, so you have no excuse for remaining away, now."

"Thank you," answered Catrina, withdrawing her cold hand hurriedly from
his friendly grasp.

"Miss Delafield," went on Paul, "admires our country as much as you do."

"I was just telling mademoiselle," said Maggie, speaking French with an
honest English accent.

Paul nodded, and left them together.

"Yes," the countess was saying at the other end of the gloomy room;
"yes, we are greatly attached to Thors: Catrina, perhaps, more than I. I
have some happy associations, and many sorrowful ones. But then--mon
Dieu!--how isolated we are!"

"It is rather far from--anywhere," acceded Etta, who was not attending,
although she appeared to be interested.

"Far! Princess, I often wonder how Paris and Thors can be in the same
world! Before our--our troubles we used to live in Paris a portion of
the year. At least I did, while my poor husband travelled about. He had
a hobby, you know, poor man! Humanity was his hobby. I have always found
that men who seek to do good to their fellows are never thanked. Have
you noticed that? The human race is not grateful en gros. There is a
little gratitude in the individual, but none in the race."

"None," answered Etta absently.

"It was so with the Charity League," went on the countess volubly. She
paused and looked round with her feeble eyes.

"We are all friends," she went on; "so it is safe to mention the Charity
League, is it not?"

"No," answered Steinmetz from the fire-place; "no, madame. There is only
one friend to whom you may safely mention that."

"Ah! Bad example!" exclaimed the countess playfully. "You are there! I
did not see you enter. And who is that friend?"

"The fair lady who looks at you from your mirror," replied Steinmetz,
with a face of stone.

The countess laughed and shook her cap to one side.

"Well," she said, "I can do no harm in talking of such things, as I know
nothing of them. My poor husband--my