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BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 181

" Jenny, let us drop the subject."

" I will not, Dolly. I know exactly what you feel, and what distresses me is that you should try to conceal it from me."

" Then, dearest, if you know all you say, why not act upon it, without making all this fuss ? "

" Fuss ! " exclaimed Jenny. " With all your determi- nation to be happy whatever may occur, Dolly, it will be a sad day for both of us that casts a shadow upon my love for you and your love for me ! "

Jenny's voice had tears in it ; and Dolly could fight no longer. She flung herself sobbing into her sister's arms ; which Jenny afterwards explained to Walter, fully endorsed all she (Jenny) had said about the serious character of the situation between Dolly and Philip a situation which was more or less modified, soon after this unusual scene between the sisters, by a call from Philip himself.

CHAPTER XXIV.

DOLLY AND DUTY.

THE candidate for the Academy's Gold Medal, and the affianced of Dolly Norcott, was received by Mrs. Mil- banke in her afternoon warpaint, just ready to go out, her brougham at the door, in her hand one of those formidably mounted parasols that an American satirist had named " the husband queller." It was a Paris purchase by Walter, the handle of solid gold, with a jewelled rim that suggested some regal symbol of high office, or at least a civic mace ; a detail to be noted as one glances back a season or two upon tall hats, dress-improvers, and other inventions of Fashion. Mrs. Milbanke herself must have had in her mind the ostentatious importance of that formidable parasol ; for she told Walter that when Philip was announced she felt