te that a lady
outside the tent wished to speak to the Captain.

Full of blissful hope that it was Edith he jumped up and hurried out.
But his longing eyes sought in vain for Captain Irwin's widow. Instead
of her whom he sought he perceived a tall female form in the short
jacket and short-cut coloured dress which he had seen on his journeys
among the inhabitants of the Georgian mountains. The hair and the face
of the girl were almost entirely hidden by a scarf wound round the head.
Only when, at his approach, she pushed it back somewhat he perceived who
stood before him.

"Georgi--you here!" he exclaimed with surprise. "And in this dress?"

He had indeed reason to be surprised, for he had not again seen the
handsome, blonde page, to whom he chiefly owed his life, since their
meeting on the way to the place of execution.

When on the evening of that for him so eventful day he asked Prince
Tchajawadse about Georgi he had received only a short, evasive reply,
and the Prince's knitted brows showed such evident anger that he well
perceived that something must have taken place between them, and so it
appeared to him to be best to him not to mention again the name of the
Circassian girl.

When the detachment started he had in vain looked for the page who had
hitherto been inseparable from "his master," and only the anxiety for
Edith, which was so much nearer his heart, was the cause that he had not
thought much about the inexplicable disappearance of the disguised girl.

He had certainly least of all expected to find her here, so far from the
Russian headquarters, and in woman's dress to boot. But the Circassian
did not seem inclined to give him detailed information.

"I have begged you to come out to see me, sir," she said, "because I did
not want the Prince to see me. I met your Indian servant. And he told me
about the English lady whom the Maharajah of Chanidigot has carried off
from you."

"He did not carry her off from me, Georgi, for I have no claim upon her.
She only placed herself under my protection, and therefore it is my duty
to do all that I can to set her free."

The girl looked at him, and there was a glance as of suppressed passion
in her beautiful eyes.

"Why do you not speak the truth, sir? Say that you love her! Tell
me that you love her and I will bring her back to you--and this very
evening."

"You, Georgi, how in all the world will you be able to manage that? Do
you know then where the lady i