ate of his death. Count Abel Larinski still lives. It is
true that he is so changed by all his sufferings that his oldest friends
would never recognise him. His hair used to be black, it is now brown;
his blue eyes have become golden green; moreover he has grown
considerably taller. But what does it matter? He is still a handsome
man, with a noble air and charming manner."

"Very well," said Count Larinski. "I must take the risk of meeting in
Paris anyone who used to know me before my transformation. I will pack
up and depart."

It was indeed a terrible ordeal which he had to face. By a strange irony
of fate, all his skilfully conceived plans were imperilled at the very
moment when his success seemed absolutely certain. As he had foreseen,
M. Moriaz was not at first inclined to consent to the marriage; but
Antoinette soon won her father over, and when Count Larinski called at
their charming villa at Cormeilles, on the outskirts of Paris, he had as
warm a welcome as the most ardent of suitors could desire.

"We must introduce you, my dear Count, to all our friends," said M.
Moriaz. "We are giving a party to-morrow evening for the purpose. Of
course you will be able to attend?"

"Naturally," said Larinski, "I am looking forward with the greatest
eagerness to making the acquaintance of all Antoinette's friends. The
only thing I regret is that none of my old comrades in the great
struggle against Russia can be at my side at the happiest moment of my
life. Alas! many are working in fetters in the mines of Siberia, and the
rest are scattered over the face of the globe."

_III.--Samuel Brohl Comes to Life_

But, though none of Count Larinski's friends was able to appear at
Cormeilles, one of Samuel Brohl's old acquaintances came to the party.

On entering the drawing-room, he saw an old, ugly, sharp-faced woman,
talking in a corner with Camille Langis. It was Princess Gulof. It
seemed to him as if the four walls of the room were rocking to and fro,
and that the floor was slipping from under his feet like the deck of a
ship in a wild storm. By a great effort of will, he recovered himself.

"Never mind, Samuel Brohl," he said to himself. "Let us see the game
through. After all she is very shortsighted, and you may have changed in
the last four years."

Antoinette presented him to the Princess, who examined him with her
little, blinking eyes, and smiled on him kindly and calmly.

"What luck! What amazing luck!" he