the greatest art museums in the world and
contains one of the finest collections of paintings in Europe. Although
the two Red Cross girls had now been in Petrograd several weeks, neither
of them had yet been inside the famous gallery.

"Suppose we go in now and see the pictures," Barbara proposed. "We might
as well take advantage of our opportunities, even if we are miserable,"
she added with the characteristic wrinkling of her small nose. "Besides,
I'm frozen, and you must be more so, Nona. How I have adored my squirrel
coat and cap ever since we came to this arctic zone! Thank fortune, our
Countess has loaned you some furs, Nona! Do you know, I really am not so
surprised that your mother was a Russian noble woman. You look like my
idea of a Russian princess, with your pale gold hair showing against
that brown fur. Who knows, maybe you'll turn into a Russian princess
some day! But shall I tell our driver to stop?"

Nona Davis shook her head, smiling and yet rather pathetic, in spite of
her lovely appearance in borrowed finery.

"I don't want to be a Russian princess, Bab, or a Russian anything, I am
afraid, in spite of my heritage. I think it a good deal nicer to be
engaged to an American like Dick Thornton. If you don't mind, let's
don't try to see the pictures today. I am tired and we ought to be fresh
for such an experience. If you are cold, suppose we go back into the
center of the town and walk about for a while. Then we can send the
sleigh home to the Countess. I don't feel that we should keep it for
our use the entire afternoon, and if we stop to look at the pictures it
would take the rest of the day. There are some queer side streets that
join the Nevski Prospect I should like to see."

The Countess Sergius lived about two miles away from the Winter Palace.
When the girls were within a quarter of a mile of the house where they
were guests, they finally got out of the sleigh. Their driver was an old
man with a long beard and not the character of servant the American
Countess would have employed under ordinary conditions. But her former
young men servants were in the army, and like other wealthy families in
Russia at this time, she was glad to employ any one possible.

However, Nona undertook to make the man understand that they would not
need his services again that afternoon. She had more of a gift for
languages than the western girl and her knowledge of French was always
useful. So after a little hesitati