has been here four weeks," answered his nurse.

"Great Heaven! then I have exceeded my month's leave by two weeks! I
shall be court-martialed and degraded!" cried the patient, starting up
in great excitement, and instantly swooning away from the reaction.

In this manner the recovery of the wounded man became a matter of
difficulty and delay; for as often as he rallied sufficiently to look
into his affairs, their threatening aspect threw him back prostrated.

He recovered, however, by slow degrees.

As soon as he was able to sustain the continued exertion of talking, he
requested one of the brothers on duty in the infirmary to write two
letters at his dictation. The first was addressed to the colonel of his
regiment, informing that officer of the long and severe illness of
Captain de Volaski, and petitioning for the invalid an extended leave of
absence. The other was to the Count de Volaski, apprising that nobleman
of the condition of his son, and imploring him to hasten at once to the
bedside of the patient.

The next morning Waldemar de Volaski sat up in bed and asked for
stationery, and wrote with his own weak and trembling hand a short letter
to his youthful bride--telling her that he had been very ill, but was now
convalescent, and that as soon as he should be able to travel he would
hasten to Paris and claim his wife in the face of all the fathers,
priests and judges in Paris, or in the world. He addressed her as his
well beloved wife, signed himself her ever-devoted husband, and had the
temerity to direct his letter to Madame Waldemar de Volaski, Hotel de la
Motte, Rue Faubourg St. Honore, Paris.

The mail left St. Vito only twice a week, so that the three letters left
the post office on the same day to their respective destinations; one
went to St. Petersburg, to the Colonel of the Royal Guards; one to
Warsaw, to the Count de Volaski; and one to Paris, to Madame de Volaski.

In the course of the next week the writer received answers from all three
letters. The first came from the colonel of his regiment, enclosing an
extension of his leave of absence to three months; the second was
answered in person by the Count de Volaski; the third was only an
envelope, enclosing his letter to Valerie, crossed with this line:

_"No such person to be found."_

The meeting between the Count de Volaski and his reckless son was not in
all respects a pleasant one. There was an explanation to be demanded by
the father a co