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152 RY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

lt And I thought she might have been a Nihilistic spy, the victim of some vile conspiracy," said Phil, in a tone of been disappointment. " A Russian Countess ! To ask her to see my sketch would be to insult her ; to sit for that suffering angel she has inspired, an outrage. I don't wish to see her."

" Oh yes, you do ! Here we are."

The cab pulled up at one of the best houses in the square, well-known in art circles, a home of taste and social geniality.

" She is coming here after dinner ; and I have to thank you for the honor," said Dick, as he turned the latch with his key. " I told her all about you, and she shall sit for the medal."

CHAPTER XX.

HOW CHETWYND MET THE COUNTESS.

MRS. CHETWYND was as buxom as her husband was genial. She was a woman of the right sort to help a man on in life. More particularly was she just the woman for Dick. In his early days of journalistic struggles she had not only enabled him to keep up a good appearance in the world, but she had made his home comfortable, if not luxurious, on two pounds a week ; and to-day she made his fifteen hundred a year go as far as most men's five thousand. Often in past days Mrs. Chetwynd had cooked a dinner and left the kitchen to preside over it, and had played the part of both cook and hostess equally well. Nor was she lacking in artistic taste or literary culture. She was a bright, clever woman, not above a woman's duty, not ashamed of her domestic work, and happy because she had made Dick's position a certainty.