e, living her recluse life in the city, did not know the names of
one of these ministers, nor, in the apathy of her grief, did she care to
inquire.

On the evening appointed for the entertainment, she went to the hotel of
the British Legation, escorted by her husband.

Dressed in her rich and elegant mourning of jet on crape, glimmering
light on blackest darkness, and looking herself paler and fairer by its
contrast, she entered the grand drawing-room, leaning on the arm of her
husband. She heard their names announced:

"The Duke and Duchess of Hereward."

Then she found herself in a room sparsely occupied by a very brilliant
company, and stood--not, as she had expected to stand, among
strangers--but in the midst of her own familiar friends, whom she had
known in her girlhood at the court of St. Petersburg, or met, in her
womanhood, in the drawing-rooms of London.

It was while she was still leaning on her husband's arm and receiving the
courteous salutations of her old friends, that their host, Lord C--n,
approached with a gentleman.

Valerie looked up and saw standing before her the young husband of her
girlish love!

CHAPTER XXXIV.

RISEN FROM THE GRAVE.

Waldemar de Volaski, left as dead upon the duelling ground by his
antagonist, the Baron de la Motte, was tenderly lifted by his second and
the surgeon in attendance, laid upon a stretcher, and conveyed to the
infirmary of a neighboring monastery, where he was charitably received by
the brethren.

When he was laid upon a bed, undressed, and examined, it was discovered
that he was not dead, but only swooning from the loss of blood.

When his wound was probed, it was found that the bullet had passed the
right lobe of the lungs, and lodged in the flesh below the right shoulder
blade. To extract it, under the circumstances, or to leave it there,
seemed equally dangerous, threatening, on the one hand, inflammation
and mortification, and, on the other, fatal hemorrhage. Therefore, the
surgeon in charge of the case sent off to the nearest town to summon
other medical aid, and meanwhile kept up the strength of the patient
by stimulants. In the consultation that ensued on the arrival of the
other surgeons, it was decided that the extraction of the bullet would be
difficult and dangerous; but that in it lay the only chance of the
patient's life.

On the next morning, therefore, Waldemar de Volaski was put under the
influence of chloroform, and the opera