great effort at a smile.

"I have n't a doubt of it, madam." And then muttered to himself, "And if
childishness mean youth, she will enjoy a perpetual spring!"

"The ceremony," resumed Purvis, very eager to relate his story, "was
dr-droll enough; they cut off a----a----a lock of her hair and tied it
up with one of his."

"A good wig spoiled!" croaked Haggerstone.

"They then brought a b-b-b----"

"A baby, sir?"

"No, not a b-baby, a b-basin--a silver basin--and they poured water over
both their hands."

"A ceremony by no means in accordance with Russian prejudices," chimed
in Haggerstone. "They know far more of train-oil and bears' fat than of
brown Windsor!"

"Not the higher nobility, Colonel,--not the people of rank," objected
Mrs. Ricketts.

"There are none such, madam. I have lived in intimacy with them all,
from Alexander downwards. You may dress them how you please, but
the Cossack is in the blood. Raw beef and red breeches are more than
instincts with them; and, except the Poles, they are the dirtiest nation
of Europe."

"What you say of Polen?" asked Petrolaffsky.

"That if oil could smooth down the acrimony of politics, you ought to be
a happy people yet, sir."

"And we are a great people dis minet. Haven't we Urednfrskioctsch,
de best general in de world; and Krakouventkay, de greatest poet; and
Vladoritski, de most distinguish pianist?"

"Keep them, sir, with all their consonants; and Heaven give you luck
with them," said Haggerstone, turning away.

"On Tuesday--no, We-Wednesday next, they are to set out for St.
P-P-Petersburg. And when the Emperor's leave is gr-granted, then
Midchekoff is to follow; but not before."

"An de tyrant no grant de leave," said the Pole, gnashing his teeth and
grasping an imaginary dagger in his wrath. "More like he send her to
work in shains, wid my beautiful sisters and my faders."

"He'll have more important matters to think of soon, sir," said
Haggerstone, authoritatively. "Europe is on the eve of a great
convulsion. Some kings and kaisers will accept the Chiltern Hundreds
before the year's out."

"Shall we be safe, Colonel, here? Ought Martha and I--"

"Have no fears, madam; age commands respect, even from Huns and Croats.
And were it otherwise, madam, where would you fly to? France will have
her own troubles, England has the income-tax, and Germany will rake up
some old grievance of the Hohenstaufen, or the Emperor Conrad, and make
it a charge again