t will make you
my wife."

Etta allowed this statement to pass unchallenged. Her courage and energy
were not exhausted. She was learning to nurse her forces.

"Your husband," went on De Chauxville, after he had sufficiently enjoyed
the savor of his own words, "is a brave man. To frighten him it is
necessary to resort to strong measures. The last and the strongest
measure in the diplomat's scale is the People. The People, madame, will
take no denial. It is a game I have played before--a dangerous game, but
I am not afraid."

"You need not trouble to be theatrical with me," put in Etta scornfully.
She was sitting with a patch of color in either cheek. At times this man
had the power of moving her, and she was afraid of allowing him to
exercise it. She knew her own weakness--her inordinate vanity; for
vanity is the weakness of strong women. She was ever open to flattery,
and Claude de Chauxville flattered her in every word he spoke; for by
act and speech he made it manifest that she was the motive power of his
existence.

"A man who plays for a high stake," went on the Frenchman, in a quieter
voice, "must be content to throw his all on the table time after time. A
week to-night--Thursday, the 5th of April--I will throw down my all on
the turn of a card. For the People are like that. It is rouge or
noir--one never knows. We only know that there is no third color, no
compromise."

Etta was listening now with ill-disguised interest. At last he had given
her something definite--a date.

"On Thursday," he went on, "the peasants will make a demonstration. You
know as well as I do--as well as Prince Pavlo does, despite his
imperturbable face--that the whole country is a volcano which may break
forth at any moment. But the control is strong, and therefore there is
never a large eruption--a grumble here, a gleam of fire there, a sullen
heat everywhere! But it is held in check by the impossibility of
communication. It seems strange, but Russia stands because she has no
penny postage. The great crash will come, not by force of arms, but by
ways of peace. The signal will be a postal system, the standard of the
revolution will be a postage-stamp. All over this country there are
millions waiting and burning to rise up and crush despotism, but they
are held in check by the simple fact that they are far apart and they
cannot write to each other. When, at last, they are brought together,
there will be no fight at all, because they