Ivor Tolskoi did not see Mdlle. Naundorff again for several weeks.

On leaving her at the private entrance of the Palace, he had walked away with Patouchki, towards the Chancellerie, where he was kept busily at work until late in the afternoon. He purposely avoided the Court circle in the evening, his presence not being officially demanded, for he felt he could not so soon again meet Olga's reproachful eyes, and pale suffering face; a longer interval must elapse before he could greet her in his accustomed manner.

The next day he heard of her sudden indisposition through that same Countess Vera, whose trivial words had first set alight the fire of vindictiveness in his heart. Ivor was a great favourite in all the Petersburg salons, and his appearance in Countess Vera's drawing-rooms at the magic tea-hour was hailed with delight.

A considerable number of the best known beau-mondaines were already gathered there, to whom the Countess—who was a pronounced follower of all customs English—was dispensing tea from out a most un-English-looking samovar. She welcomed Ivor with effusion, and bade him take the vacant chair beside her low gipsy-table, which with its dainty tea-cloth and royal Worcester tea-service, looked distinctly out of place in the large, formal, mirror-hung apartment.

"It is delightful to see you, mon cher," lisped the Countess in her high voice, looking at him languishingly; "it is ages, eternities, centuries, since you last honoured one of my thÉs anglais with your presence. Positively I believe you have not before seen my newest importation from that land of fogs and delights. Behold, this is my very last!" and she pointed gaily to the little table. "I assure you it is quite correct, quite comme il faut, cloth and all. I have it direct from my dear friend, the Duchess of Hever; it is an exact copy of the one used by the Princess at Sandringham. The dear English! one quite grows to love them."

And the Countess clasped her hands together dramatically, letting them fall with effect upon her plush tea-gown; against the ruby folds the diamonds and rubies of her rings flashed triumphantly.

Tolskoi laughed, his full-hearted boyish laugh, as he took the English tea-cup she held out to him.

"You have the courage of your opinions, Countess," he said; "it is well you are protected by Imperial favour. I know some houses in Petersburg, where were such frank expressions of Anglo-mania indulged in, they would be followed by a swift and emphatic caution from the Chancellerie."

The Countess shrugged her shoulders.

"Ma foi, I am no politician, no intriguer. I am but a silly moth of fashion, I do not even pose as a butterfly; but it appeals to my sense of bien-etre to be on good terms with England; and certainly it is more politic, since through our Grand Duchess, and our Tsarina, our dynasty is doubly allied with that country. But there, I see your eyes are wandering after your thoughts; I regret your disappointment, mon cher, for you will not see her here to-day."

Tolskoi acknowledged the raillery with another laugh. "Ah, Countess, you are the fairy of the story books! And why does not Mdlle. Naundorff honour your salon to-day?"

"Because she is indisposed," answered Countess Vera, looking up at him sharply; "she is obliged to keep her own apartments. I fear you took but poor care of the future Countess Mellikoff, monsieur, for she returned from the Petropavlovsk inspection looking like a ghost, and scarcely able to render her light services to the Tsarina, during the evening. Were the horrors of the Fortress so very pronounced, mon cher? You will have to answer to Count Vladimir, you know, if on his return he finds his fiancÉe changed. Already Petersburg rings with your openly displayed admiration for her cold beauty."

She laughed as she concluded, and got up slowly from her low chair. Ivor rose also.

"I shall be only too happy to answer any charge of Count Mellikoff's," he said, deliberately, "when he returns."

Then the Countess Vera glided away from him, and with a word here, a whisper there, a smile, a nod, a gesture, set afloat the rumour that society might look for another highly-spiced scandal, as soon as Count Mellikoff returned, for Ivor Tolskoi, not content with stealing away his fiancÉe's allegiance, intended to challenge him as well.

Wasn't it quite dreadful? Ah, yes, but very romantic! added the little Countess, to whom intrigue and scandal were as the breath of her nostrils.

The conversation now became general, and of course the favourite topic under discussion was the Imperial visit of yesterday to Petropavlovsk. Ivor found himself in constant requisition, and his ingenuity not a little put to the test in replying vaguely yet satisfactorily to the eager questions poured upon him.

All interest in the reunion had, however, flown for him directly he heard the cause of Olga Naundorff's non-appearance, and he managed as soon as possible to make his adieux to the Countess.

"Ah," said that little lady, lifting her eyebrows in mock despair. "So we are to lose you already! We cannot offer you a sufficient attraction, mon cher, to keep you in the absence of the Court favourite. Let me warn you again, Count Mellikoff is not a man to be trifled with."

"Nor am I," answered Ivor, incautiously; whereat the Countess Vera laughed.

"Ma foi," she said, "if you carry matters with so high a hand we shall have even a more dramatic esclandre than the Stevan Lallovich affair. By the way, Ivor, what news is afloat concerning Count Vladimir, and his search for the missing woman? Oh, yes, you see it is no secret to me, the reason of his departure lÀ-bas."

With which vague and descriptive term and a gesture equally disdainful, the Countess indicated the broad continent of America. To her intelligence and imagination, it was but a land of semi-barbarians and savages, where existence was not worth the price of her smallest luxury.

Tolskoi replied with a little bow.

"Ah, Countess," he said, "who can hope to keep any secret from you, and indeed who would wish to do so? I believe Count Mellikoff is fully satisfied with his advance so far; it remains only for the Chancellerie to express an equal approbation."

Then he bent over the Countess's hand, and with a passing compliment, made his devoirs and left her. She stood for a moment looking after him thoughtfully.

"I would rather not be in Count Mellikoff's shoes," she said to herself, "should he not succeed. Ivor Tolskoi is not likely to prove a light enemy, and Ivor Tolskoi means to steal from him not only his sweetheart, but his reputation."

Then she laughed a little as she turned gaily back to her gipsy-table, and her thÉ À l'anglaise.

Meantime Tolskoi on leaving the Palace Vera, turned his steps towards the Boulevard de Cavalerio, in the direction of his own apartments. His brow was clouded and his lips stern as he walked along the gaily-lighted streets. Evening had already closed in, the long evening of a day late in March, and the boulevard was full of life and movement.

Ivor, however, took but little heed of his surroundings, the news he had just heard concerning Olga, disquieted him not a little, the more so as his love for her was very great, and he felt that he alone was answerable for her mental and physical illness. He would have spared her had it been possible for him to do so, and had he seen any other way out of his difficulties. His first great object was to win her away from Mellikoff, whom he knew to be his only serious rival, and to do this he was willing to descend to any subterfuge.

He knew her nature sufficiently well to be aware that nothing short of falsity to her, on Vladimir's part, would serve to break even the light bonds that held her to him. Mellikoff's greatest power lay in the protested claims of this his first and only love; and she, in listening to his protestations, had been more swayed by the sense of her undivided sovereignty over him, than by any feeling of affection.

His years and his honours gave him the right to pose as a man of fashion, whose experiences of a certain kind were but foregone conclusions; instead, however, of pleading this as a reason for his wish to ranger himself, he actually offered her a virgin heart, that had known no warmer mistress than ambition, until he met her, and fell captive beneath her smile and proud, cold loveliness.

The paradox of his life was unique, especially in Petersburg; and Olga had felt a thrill of pride when she looked upon Vladimir's stern face, and noted the many distinctions of honour that marked his Court dress, and realised that she, and she only, had won his love and his devotion. She was the first woman before whom he had bowed his head in haughty pleading. It was no mean triumph, even for Olga Naundorff, to win and rule him as an accepted suitor.

All this Tolskoi realised to the full, and as his passion grew and strengthened, he determined to hesitate at nothing—no duplicity, no falsehood—if by it he could awaken suspicion in her mind, and so gain time for the perfecting of his own ends. Mellikoff's prolonged absence, and the unexpected meeting with AdÈle Lamien in St. Isaac's, gave him ample basis upon which to work, and furnished him with a plan of attack, with so much of possible truth in it as to carry instant conviction to Olga's mind.

Her heart had always remained untouched, even by Vladimir's devotion; she had not therefore, the divine instinct of love, by which to sift out the false from the true.

And of Ivor it may be said, he believed enough in his allegations to make their fulfilment an easy possibility; it was, however, quite outside his calculations that Olga, by a real or feigned illness, should effectually shut herself off from his personal influence; the more so, as in a few days he was obliged to leave Petersburg, for his own estates in the Ural provinces, and his absence would extend over several weeks. What security had he against adverse circumstances and influences, while separated from her? Was it not even possible that Mellikoff might return triumphant? In which case, of what avail would be his schemes and intrigues?

Fate, however, was against him, for he did not see Mdlle. Naundorff before his departure. He was often at the Palace, frequenting the Court salon with sedulous regularity; but Olga never appeared, and he learned from the Countess Vera that she was still indisposed, "though not in danger of death," that little lady added, sharply, and with a meaning look at Ivor's downcast face.