notion
into your head?"

"What puts notions into anybody's head?" Browne inquired. "I have
often wanted to have a look at the Japanese Sea and the islands to the
north of it. How do you know that I don't aspire to the honour of
reading a paper on the subject before the Geographical Society--eh?"

"Geographical fiddlesticks!" replied the other; and, when he had shaken
Browne by the hand, he bade him "good-bye," and went down the steps,
saying to himself as he did so, "Madame Bernstein, her adopted
daughter, and the islands to the north of Japan. It seems to me, my
dear Browne, that when you start upon this wonderful cruise your old
friend Maas will have to accompany you."

CHAPTER XIII

It may very safely be taken for granted, I think, that the happiness or
unhappiness, success or non-success, of one's life is brought about not
so much by deliberate education or design, if I may so express it, as
by some small event, the proper importance of which is far from being
recognisable at the time. For instance, had Browne not undertaken that
yachting cruise to Norway when he did, it is scarcely probable he would
ever have met Katherine Petrovitch. In that case he would very
possibly have married the daughter of some impecunious peer, have
bolstered up a falling house with his wealth, have gone into
Parliament, received a title in due course, and would eventually have
descended to the family vault, in most respects a mediocre man. But,
as Fate willed, he _did_ go to Norway--met Katherine, fell in love with
her, and now---- But there, with such a long story before me, it will
scarcely do for me to risk an anti-climax by anticipating. Let it
suffice that, after he had said "good-bye" to Maas, he lunched at the
club, deriving a certain amount of pleasure meanwhile from the
knowledge that he was engaged in a business which, should it become
known, would undoubtedly plunge him into a considerable amount of hot
water! And when you come to think of it, how strange is the pleasure
the human mind finds in the possession of a secret! In our childhood
it is a joy second only to the delight of a new toy. Anarchism,
Nihilism, Fenianism, and indeed the fundamental principle of every
order of secret society, is the same thing, only on a larger and more
dangerous scale, carried out by perverted imaginations and in the wrong
direction. The fact, however, remains, that Browne, as I have said,
derived a considerable amount o