. Then she shrugged her
pretty shoulders and broke into a careless laugh.

"Oh, well, Dimitri will forgive me when I tell him how sorry I am," she
thought to herself, as she tripped up the stone steps into the house.

In the brilliantly lighted hall she was met by her husband, Count
Dimitri Drentell, and she clasped her arms around his neck in a
transport of conjugal affection.

"So you have come back, my dear, from those horrid barracks!" she
cried. "I am so glad! But why didn't you send word you were coming, that
I might have been at home to meet you? But it is just like you to keep
the matter a perfect secret and give me no chance to prepare for your
reception."

The Count's brow contracted. Before he had an opportunity to reply, his
wife continued:

"Indeed, I'm glad you've come. If I had known that I was marrying a son
of Mars who would be away in the army for eight months of the year, I
doubt whether I should have left my happy Tiflis."

The Countess paused for want of breath.

"The Czar places duty to country higher than domestic comfort," answered
her husband, curtly. "But how could you leave your home and your child
for so long a time? It is now three days since I arrived here, expecting
to be lovingly received by you and little Loris; but you had gone away,
no one knew whither, leaving Loris in charge of an ignorant woman, who
has been sadly neglecting the child."

"Poor fellow," laughed the Countess, in mock grief. "I suppose he will
be happy to see his mamma again. But, my dear, you must not scold me for
having gone away. It was so dull at home without you, so lonesome, that
I could bear it no longer, and I took a trip to Valki, to visit the
Abbess of the convent there."

The cloud upon the Count's face darkened.

"I have repeatedly told you that I do not approve of your excursions
into the country," he answered, gloomily; "and I am especially opposed
to your locking yourself up in a convent. You pay no heed to my
requests, nor do you seem to realize the dangers you incur in travelling
about in that manner."

"Then let us live in our town house. I am too dull here, all alone,"
answered the Countess, nestling closer to her husband and kissing him.

"It was at your desire that I bought this place, immediately after our
marriage. You were enchanted with it and said it reminded you of your
Caucasian country. Now you are already tired of it."

"I would not be if you were here to share its delights