vations to de Windt which sent that
sophisticated young man into tempests of mirth. But guileless Ivan, who
had used no names, never realized that he himself was responsible, by
his insensibility, for the failure of Madame Dravikine's latest
attempted flirtation, which took the drawing-rooms of Petersburg by
storm that December, and set men and women alike laughing cruelly over
the fall of Countess Caroline's carefully constructed age, which was
announced, _en haute voix_, by her nephew, at a ball. At the same time,
it was also, in all probability, this same incident, that saved poor
Nathalie another year of seclusion and prayers. For, had not the world
already found her out, it is scarcely probable that the gay Countess,
arrived at the actual hour of abdication, would have had the courage to
bid her youth good-bye, and take up her place behind an exquisite
debutante.

It was odd, perhaps, that Ivan was not at once banished from the
sunshine of his aunt's favor. But, for some reason, she chose to retain
him among her circle of devotees, sore as was his heart and disabused
his mind, of all illusion concerning the woman whom he had hitherto
looked up to as the single true companion, gay counsellor, gentle
philosopher, of his unhappy mother; and whom he now saw, perhaps rather
unjustly, as a mere, deceptive, heartless _mondaine_.

There were, however, in the society of the Russian capital into which
Ivan had been so swiftly drawn, an infinite variety of other types who
amused, pleased, occasionally interested, their new companion and
observer. Petersburg was still under the stimulus of its changed rule.
Nicholas, the Iron Czar, a man stern, unlovable and unsocial, was dead.
With him had ended alike the horrors of a dreadful war and the lifeless
formalities which, throughout his reign, had served as the only court
functions. Just now a young Emperor, delight of his people and his
court, husband, moreover, of the most charming of Princesses, was
manifesting as much interest in evening gayeties as he did during the
daytime in those gigantic, newly projected reforms to which his wife and
his favorite minister were so ardently urging him. The six months' court
mourning, now thrown back, had revealed a lining of glowing rose. St.
Petersburg, from humblest serf to Czarevitch, was filled with life and
joy. And the society of the capital had plunged into a fever of gayety
unknown for twenty years. Amusements began at noon and ende