E
ZOBRASKA.

Paul leaned back in his chair, twiddling the letter between his
fingers, and looked smilingly out on the grey autumn rack of clouds.
There was a pleasant and flattering intimacy in the invitation:
pleasant because it came from a pretty woman; flattering because the
woman was a princess, widow of a younger son of a Royal Balkan house.
She lived at Chetwood. Park, on the other side of Morebury, and was one
of the great ones of those latitudes. A real princess.

Paul's glance, travelling back from the sky, fell upon the brass date
indicator on the table. It marked the 2nd of October. On that day five
years ago he had entered on his duties at Drane's Court. He laughed
softly. Five years ago he was a homeless wanderer. Now princesses were
begging him to rescue them from Egyptologists. With glorious sureness
all his dreams were coming true.

Thus we see our Fortunate Youth at eight-and-twenty in the heyday of
success. If he had strutted about under Jane's admiring eyes, like a
peacock among daws, he now walked serene, a peacock among peacocks. He
wore the raiment, frequented the clubs, ate the dinners of the
undeservingly rich and the deservingly great. His charm and his
self-confidence, which a genius of tact saved from self-assertion,
carried him pleasantly through the social world; his sympathetic
intelligence dealt largely and strongly with the public affairs under
his control. He loved organizing, persuading, casting skilful nets. His
appeal for subscriptions was irresistible. He had the magical gift of
wringing a hundred pounds from a plutocrat with the air of conferring a
graceful favour. In aid of the Mission to Convert the Jews he could
have fleeced a synagogue. The societies and institutions in which the
Colonel and Ursula Winwood were interested flourished amazingly beneath
his touch. The Girls' Club in the Isle of Dogs, long since abandoned in
despair by the young Guardsman, grew into a popular and sweetly
mannered nunnery. The Central London Home for the Indigent Blind, which
had been languishing for support, in spite of Miss Winwood's efforts,
found itself now in a position to build a much-needed wing. There was
also, most wonderful and, important thing of all, the Young England
League, which was covering him with steadily increasing glory. Of this
much hereafter. But it must be remembered. Ursula complained that he
left her nothing to do save attend dreary committee meetings; and even
for the