"But you spoke of Prince Ughtred," she remarked, "as your friend."

He smiled.

"In England," he explained, "all these things are regarded very
differently. We are a very democratic nation, and Prince Ughtred, you
must remember, is half an Englishman."

She was silent. He had an absurd fancy that she was disappointed--that
her momentary interest in him was gone. He was angry with himself for
the idea, angry with himself also for the effort which his little
speech had cost him. In England he counted himself a Radical, almost a
Socialist, and would have laughed to scorn the idea that the slightest
possible barrier could exist between men and women of unequal birth.
But out here, in the presence of this girl who spoke her mind so
simply, yet with such absolute conviction, he seemed to have come into
touch with a new order! The aristocracy which was to her as a creed
was a real and a live thing! He almost justified her in his mind. What
was surely a fallacy in England might be truth here.

The silence was prolonged. Then he glanced up to find her watching him
with a slight smile curving her lips.

"To you," she said, "I must seem very old-fashioned. Oh, yes, I can
understand your point of view. If I have not travelled I have at least
read, and your English books make these things clear enough. But here
we are surrounded with the old customs. It is not possible to escape
from them. We are almost mediaeval."

"I am looking forward to studying your country closely," he said.
"What I have seen of it has charmed me. So far I have come across but
one thing which I would gladly change."

"And that?" she asked.

"Is the uniform of the Thetian Guards," he answered, turning slightly
in his chair. "I must confess that my body was never made for such
gorgeousness."

She laughed and struck the gong.

"Basil will show you to my brother's room," she said. "Wear any of his
clothes you choose."

He rose with alacrity.

"You will be safe--alone?" he asked, with a doubtful glance towards
the door.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Domiloff has courage, I believe, of a sort," she answered, "but not
enough to bring him uninvited across the threshold of this house in my
brother's absence."

He followed the servant from the room, and was shown into a bedchamber
of huge proportions. He changed his clothes as quickly as possible for
those which were tendered to him, and returned to the room where he
had left the Countess. She