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392 wise discretion of Mrs. Milbanke, the pleasant lively conversation of Walter, and the rare capacity of Dolly Swinford for talking about everything that was far away from Philip's thoughts, and her charming facility for translating pleasant ideas into music. She played and sang divinely snatches of this opera and the other, never for one moment dropping into any suggestion of "Carmen," and always keeping clear of anything calculated to stir the emotions. It was altogether on one side a most agreeable plot to make Philip ignore anything in the past that could unpleasantly influence the present, and he and his mother were sympathetically receptive of these pleasant efforts of social friendship.

With all his influence Dick Chetwynd has not been able to learn anything of the fate of Ferrari, Petroski, and the President of the meeting at the French Cabaret in Soho. The Italian and his comrades must therefore pass out of this history as many other men in Russia have passed out of all knowledge of their friends and associates, some to die lingering deaths in stifling prisons, others to grow grey in Siberian wilds. It may, however, be said for Ferrari and his comrades of the Brotherhood that they were always prepared for the martyrdom which they knew they might at any moment be called upon to endure. Moreover, Ferrari, if he had not lived to realize his best hopes, had at least enjoyed the sweets of revenge on most of his personal enemies. Whether his passion was a righteous one or not, it was the chief motor of his life, sanctified in his mind by the name of patriotism. So let the memory of him be kept green at least for his courage and devotion to the unhappy Queen of the Ghetto.