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160 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

11 But you did not see her speak to Lady Marchmount? "

" No."

"Therefore, it would be in keeping with the mystery you have managed to surround what after all is not extra- ordinary incident, if the countess, walking along the corri- dor, had mistaken Lady Marchmount's box for her own ; or finding the door open had looked in and availed herself of the opportunity, from behind the curtain, to take a glance at the Russian box."

" I can't say," Philip replied, " but nobody except my- self seems to have seen her in the theatre j that's the puzzle ! "

CHAPTER XXI.

MRS. CHETWYND'S reception began at half-past nine. At ten o'clock there was a fair sprinkling of arrivals. The people who meant to get away early, or who had other places to go during the night, came with something like punctuality. But the lady's intimate friends and the lions of the night did not begin to arrive until eleven, and some of them came after the opera and the theatres.

Dick and his candidate for the gold medal went into the drawing-room at ten o'clock, and found pleasant opportu- nities of assisting the hostess to entertain her guests. Among the early arrivals was Phil's, .mother. Lady Forsyth, who was attired in soft black silk, with handsome jewellery of diamonds and emeralds, among her finest ornaments being her favorite four-leaved shamrock, in gold enamel and emeralds, and an Irish harp for a brooch. She was still a handsome woman, though her hair was almost white, and the roses had long since faded from her cheeks. She