is profession, he represented as
large American interests as Corliss did British. Not only had a
cordial friendship sprung up between them, but in a business way they
had already been of large assistance to each other. And it was well
that they should stand together,--a pair who held in grip and could
direct at will the potent capital which two nations had contributed to
the development of the land under the Pole.

The crowded room was thick with tobacco smoke. A hundred men or so,
garbed in furs and warm-colored wools, lined the walls and looked on.
But the mumble of their general conversation destroyed the spectacular
feature of the scene and gave to it the geniality of common
comradeship. For all its _bizarre_ appearance, it was very like the
living-room of the home when the members of the household come together
after the work of the day. Kerosene lamps and tallow candles glimmered
feebly in the murky atmosphere, while large stoves roared their red-hot
and white-hot cheer.

On the floor a score of couples pulsed rhythmically to the swinging
waltz-time music. Starched shirts and frock coats were not. The men
wore their wolf- and beaver-skin caps, with the gay-tasselled ear-flaps
flying free, while on their feet were the moose-skin moccasins and
walrus-hide muclucs of the north. Here and there a woman was in
moccasins, though the majority danced in frail ball-room slippers of
silk and satin. At one end of the hall a great open doorway gave
glimpse of another large room where the crowd was even denser. From
this room, in the lulls in the music, came the pop of corks and the
clink of glasses, and as an undertone the steady click and clatter of
chips and roulette balls.

The small door at the rear opened, and a woman, befurred and muffled,
came in on a wave of frost. The cold rushed in with her to the warmth,
taking form in a misty cloud which hung close to the floor, hiding the
feet of the dancers, and writhing and twisting until vanquished by the
heat.

"A veritable frost queen, my Lucile," Colonel Trethaway addressed her.

She tossed her head and laughed, and, as she removed her capes and
street-moccasins, chatted with him gayly. But of Corliss, though he
stood within a yard of her, she took no notice. Half a dozen dancing
men were waiting patiently at a little distance till she should have
done with the colonel. The piano and violin played the opening bars of
a schottische, and she turned to go; b