as on his boots
nearly to the knee. The ice hung from his mustache and glistened on his
eyebrows. He held his coarse blue handkerchief in his hand, and wiped
his face from time to time as the ice melted.

"No," he answered, "I have had nothing to eat. But the servants do not
know I am here. I saw the lights in their windows at the other end of
the house. I would rather go hungry than let them know that I am here."

"You will not go hungry from this house," said the prince, with his
rather fierce laugh.

"I will get you what you want," said Wanda, lighting a candle. "There
are no servants, however, so you need not think of that. There are only
the farmer and his wife--and my maid, who is English, and silent."

So, before telling his news, Kosmaroff sat down and ate, while Wanda
waited on him, and Prince Bukaty poured out wine for this rough man in
the homespun clothing and heavy boots of the Vistula raftsman, who yet
had the manner of a gentleman and that quiet air of self-possession in
all societies which is not to be learned in schools nor yet acquired at
any academy.

"When you have finished," said Wanda, "you can talk of your affairs. I
shall leave you to yourselves."

"Oh, there is not much to say," answered Kosmaroff. "I have done no good
on my journey. Things make no progress."

"You expect too much," said the prince. He had helped himself to a glass
of wine, and fingered the glass reflectively as he spoke. "You expect
the world to move more quickly than it can. It is old and heavy,
remember that. I have a fellow-feeling for it, with my two sticks.
You would never make a diplomatist. I have heard of negotiations going
forward for five years, and then falling through, after all."

Kosmaroff smiled, his odd, one-sided smile, and cut himself a piece of
bread. There was a faint suggestion of the river-side in his manner at
table. This was a man into whose life the ceremony of sit-down meals had
never entered largely. He ate because he was hungry--not, as many do, to
pass the time.

"One thing I came to tell you I can tell you now," he said. "In fact, it
is better that the princess should hear it; for in a way it concerns her
also. But, please, do not stand," he added, turning to her. "I have
all I want. It is kind of you to wait on me as if I were a king--or a
beggar."

His laugh had rather a cruel ring in it as he continued his meal.

"It is," he said, after a pause, "about that Englishman, Cartoner."