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358 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

11 Philip Forsyth," said Ferrari, it will be against the wish of Anna Klosstock if you take the oath that will make you, body and soul, one of us. What have you to say ? "

" Nothing," he replied. " Petronovitch is dead."

CHAPTER XLVI.

ONLY A WOMAN.

PHILIP FORSYTH'S mad infatuation would have confirmed him, as Ferrari put it, body and soul a member of the Bro- therhood, but for the persistent opposition of the Countess Stravensky. If Philip did not take the final oath he was, nevertheless, accepted as an auxiliary of the association. It was only for conscience sake that the countess resisted this last act of the young artist's wild devotion. As she put it to her comrades, lie was sufficiently their ally with- out completing the treaty of secrecy and service.

Ferrari saw in this act of friendship, not to say love, the first sign of weakness in Anna's character. It did not occur to him that she had achieved the work of vengeance which had stimulated and held together her alliance with the Brotherhood.

Since the Ghost of the Lagoon had cast its lurid shadow upon Russian despotism, the Countess Stravensky had found little room in her heart for thoughts and feelings which hitherto had been engrossed in the one idea of her resurrection from death and torment in the Czarovna hospital.

Oi} the eve of that supreme act of vengeance in the Ve- netian palace, Anna had been strangely moved, as we have already seen, by the infatuation of Philip Forsyth ; not so much on his account, as for the memories which it revived of her happy girlhood. She had in lonely mo-