he evening
paper. I will purchase one and read you the latest news."

He did so, and searched the columns for what he wanted. Though I was
able to speak German, I was unable to read it; Pharos accordingly
translated for me.

"The outbreak of the plague which has caused so much alarm in Turkey,"
he read, "is, we regret having to inform our readers, increasing instead
of diminishing, and to-day fresh cases to the number of seven hundred
and thirty-three, have been notified. For the twenty-four hours ending
at noon the death-rate has equalled eighty per cent. of those attacked.
The malady has now penetrated into Russia, and three deaths were
registered as resulting from it in Moscow, two in Odessa, and one in
Kiev yesterday. The medical experts are still unable to assign a
definite name to it, but incline to the belief that it is of Asiatic
origin, and will disappear with the break up of the present phenomenally
hot weather."

"I do not like the look of it at all," he said when he had finished
reading. "I have seen several of these outbreaks in my time, and I shall
be very careful to keep well out of this one's reach."

"I agree with you," I answered, and then bade him good-bye and went
upstairs to my room, more than ever convinced that it behooved me to get
the woman I loved out of the place without loss of time.

The concert at the palace that night was a brilliant success in every
way, and never in her career had Valerie looked more beautiful, or
played so exquisitely as on that occasion. Of the many handsome women
present that evening, she was undoubtedly the queen. And when, after her
performance, she was led up and presented to the Emperor by Count de
Schelyani, an old friend of her father's, a murmur of such admiration
ran through the room as those walls had seldom heard before. I, also,
had the honour of being presented by the same nobleman, whereupon his
Majesty was kind enough to express his appreciation of my work. It was
not until a late hour that we reached our hotel again. When we did
Pharos, whom the admiration Valerie had excited seemed to have placed in
a thoroughly good humour, congratulated us both upon our success, and
then, to my delight, bade us good night and took himself off to his bed.
As soon as I heard the door of his room close behind him, and not until
then, I took Valerie's hand.

"I have made all the arrangements for our escape to-morrow," I
whispered, "or rather I should say to-day, s