Page:By order of the Czar.djvu/160



148 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

longed to visit, and which he was now to see for the first time in loving company, with blue eyes that would return his admiring gaze, with soft hands that would respond to the tender pressure of his own, his love and hers set to glorious music, and basking in Italian sunshine. And so the time passed away. The sun had gone down, and the mists had fallen all over Primrose Hill when he awoke, his fire out, and only a faint glimmer of the gaslight from without showing him where he was, the half waking sleep of his first hour having changed into a dreamless time, out of which he rose, however, cold, and feeling the prosaic sensations of hunger.

At about the same time that he woke up Dick Chetwynd arrived at the Lodge. " Out " was the answer.

" But * In ' and working," said Chetwynd.

" Well, yes, sir," said the porter's wife, " and what we considers a little odd, he have had nothing to eat all day ; not rung his bell for nothing, and come ever so early."

" Sure he has not gone out ? "

"Quite sure."

" Then I think I might break the rules and see what he is about, eh ? "

" Well, sir, you might, being his most intimate friend, and exonerating me and my husband."

" Quite so," said Dick, passing through the barrier and going straight to Philip's quarters, which had a separate porch or passage-way and were especially private and secluded. It was now too dark to see the legend " Out " upon the wicket, the gas lamp at the entrance only seem- ing to cast the floor in darker shadow."

" What the mischief can he be at? " Dick said to himself as he performed a stirring fantasia upon Philip's knocker.

The door was almost immediately opened, but the studio was in darkness, every blind down, the only light being a faint gleam from some outside lamp. " Hello ! " said Dick. " What's going on here ? "