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BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 223


 * I think so."

"Why?"

" For many reasons."

" Tell me one."

" Because I thought you were more interested in your model than in your picture."

She looked at him steadily, but with a softness, he thought, of expression in her eyes. His heart beat violently, and she felt a strange desire to give herself over to the spirit of memory which Philip was once more stir- ring within her. In a navy-blue serge suit, with a white silk handkerchief tied loosely about his neck, his deep, black eyes ablaze with his unconcealed passion, his black hair hanging about his temples., Anna saw again her love of Czarovna, could have sworn she heard his voice ; and in Philip's trembling accents she felt the thrill of an old love. She had experienced so much suffering in the world that Fate seemed to be whispering in her ear, " Why suffer always, why cast aside this chance of happiness ? Remem- ber of the past only that which is pleasant." And she leaned back on the soft cushions, and gazed at the flashing eyes of the young painter, who at that moment forgot everything, everybody, but the woman who sat before him, to his mind a living dream of beauty.


 * ' My dear countess ! " he exclaimed.

She smiled and gazed at him. A blush seemed to steal into her pale cheeks. Her lips parted as if she were about to speak.

" My love 1 " he said, encouraged by her tender looks, and stealing to her side he took her hand.

She neither moved nor spoke. He pressed her hand to his lips. She turned her face towards him. There were tears in her eyes.

" I love you, I love you ! " he exclaimed.

She withdrew her hand from his and shuddered.