e," she said. "I had to look
round, because there was no money and nothing whatever in the house."

Laverick was suddenly conscious of an absurd mistiness before his
eyes.

"Poor little woman!" he murmured. "I think she'd sooner have starved
than ask for help."

The nurse smiled.

"I thought at first that she was rather a vain young lady," she
remarked. "An empty larder and a pile of pawn tickets, and a new
hat with a receipted bill for thirty shillings," she added, pointing
to the sofa.

Laverick placed some notes in her hands.

"Please keep these," he begged, "and see that she has everything she
wants. I shall be here again later in the day. There is not the
slightest need for all this. She will be quite well off for the rest
of her life. Will you try and engage some one for a day or two to
come in until she is able to be moved?"

"I'll look after her," the nurse promised.

Laverick went reluctantly away. The events of the last few days were
becoming more and more like a dream to him. He went to his club
almost from habit. Presently the excitement which all London seemed
to be sharing drove his own personal feelings a little into the
background. The air was full of rumors. The Prime Minister and the
Foreign Secretary were spoken of as one speaks of heroes. Nothing
was definitely known, but there was a splendid feeling of confidence
that for once in her history England was preparing to justify her
existence as a great Power.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE PLOT THAT FAILED

The progress of the Czar from Buckingham Palace to the Mansion
House, where he had, after all, consented to lunch with the Lord
Mayor, witnessed a popular outburst of enthusiasm absolutely
inexplicable to the general public. It was known that affairs in
Central Europe were in a dangerously precarious state, and it was
felt that the Czar's visit here, and the urgent summons which had
brought from St. Petersburg his Foreign Minister, were indications
that the long wished-for entente between Russia and this country
was now actually at hand. There was in the Press a curious
reticence with regard to the development of the political situation.
One felt everywhere that it was the calm before the storm--that at
any moment the great black headlines might tell of some startling
stroke of diplomacy, some dangerous peril averted or defied. The
circumstances themselves of the Czar's visit had been a little
peculiar. On his arrival