give up his beautiful, proud-natured sweetheart as a mere
matter of expediency, as the conclusion of a clever bit of argument.

When he entered Mr. Lind's room he found Heinrich Reitzei its sole
occupant. Lind had not yet arrived: the pallid-faced young man with the
_pince-nez_ was in possession of his chair. And no sooner had George
Brand made his appearance than Reitzei rose, and, with a significant
smile, motioned the new-comer to take the vacant seat he had just
quitted.

"What do you mean?" Brand said, naturally taking another chair, which
was much nearer him.

"Will you not soon be occupying this seat _en permanence_?" Reitzei
said, with affected nonchalance.

"Lind has abdicated, then, I presume," said Brand, coldly: this young
man's manner had never been very grateful to him.

Reitzei sunk into the seat again, and twirled at his little black waxed
mustache.

"Abdicated? No; not yet," he said with an air of indifference. "But if
one were to be translated to a higher sphere?--there is a vacancy in the
Council."

"Then he would have to live abroad," said Brand, quickly.

The younger man did not fail to observe his eagerness, and no doubt
attributed it to a wrong cause. It was no sudden hope of succeeding to
Lind's position that prompted the exclamation; it was the possibility of
Natalie being carried away from England.

"He would have to live in the place called nowhere," said Reitzei, with
a calm smile. "He would have to live in the dark--in the middle of the
night--everywhere and nowhere at the same moment."

Brand was on the point of asking what would then become of Natalie, but
he forbore. He changed the subject altogether.

"How is that mad Russian fellow getting on--Kirski? Still working?"

"Yes; at another kind of work. Calabressa has undertaken to turn his
vehemence into a proper channel--to let off the steam, as it were, in
another direction."

"Calabressa?"

"Kirski has become the humble disciple of Calabressa, and has gone to
Genoa with him."

"What folly is this!" Brand said. "Have you admitted that maniac?"

"Certainly; such force was not to be wasted."

"A pretty disciple! How much Russian does Calabressa know?"

"Gathorne Edwards is with them; it is some special business. Both
Calabressa and Kirski will be capital linguists before it is over."

"But how has Edwards got leave again from the British Museum?"

Reitzei shrugged his shoulders.

"I believe Lind wants to buy him o