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BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 191

CHAPTER XXV.

THE PATIENCE, HOPE, AND PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

OF SAM SELWYN.

EARLY spring sunshine was making pretty lacelike sha- dows upon the dusty roadway, as the Milbanke brougham emerged into the picturesque thoroughfare by the Zoo. Presently it drew aside to permit a royal cavalcade to pass. Her Majesty was paying her usual visit to her old friend, mentioned by Mrs. Milbanke in her defence of St. John's Wood. No sooner was the Queen in town for a day or two than her carriage with its escort was seen in Regent's Park and St. John's Wood.

It was a bright, inspiring day. Philip with the remem- brance of Dolly and that strong determination of duty in his mind felt the influence of the Russian shadow slipping away from him ; though if he had cared to be perfectly frank with himself he would have had to acknowledge that his sudden realization of the claims of duty had something to do with exorcism of the pale face and the red-gold hair.

When he arrived at Westbury Lodge he found Dolly waiting for him in the little morning room. How lovely she looked ! You might have asked Philip how she was dressed and he could not have told you. She seemed to him like the embodiment of the day, floral, fresh, sunny and sweet. Whether she wore a bonnet or a hat, what was the color of her gown, would have been questions as diffi- cult to him as abstruse points in Algebra ; but the general effect Was a dream of English girlhood, sunny hair, soft, glowing cheeks, red lips, arched like Cupid's bow, and