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 me a card from another stranger—Lieutenant Spernow.

The moment he entered I liked his pleasant, cheery looks, and his frank, unrestrained, self-possessed manner impressed me most favourably. With a smile he offered me his hand, and said:

"I have come in a quite unusual way, Count Benderoff. I am sent, in fact, to make your acquaintance. I am assured we shall speedily be friends."

"I am certainly at your service," I answered, unable to resist a smile at his singular introduction.

"It has an odd sound after all, hasn't it; and yet, do you know, I've been thinking how I should put it and rehearsing, all the way. It does sound devilish odd from a stranger, but I do hope—for reasons that weigh infinitely with me, I can assure you—that so odd an introduction will really lead to friendship."

"You say you were sent to me?" I asked, cautiously.

"Yes; I assure you I am frankness itself. They never trust me with important secrets; I blurt them out;" and he laughed, as though that were rather a good trait. "Old Kolfort sent me—Old Kolfort for one."

"I saw General Kolfort last evening," I replied, drily. "But sit down and have a cigar, and then tell me why he is so interested in providing me with friends."

"That's a good straight question, but I'll be hanged if I can answer it. He's such a sly old fox, with fifty secret reasons for every plain one. Thanks, I'll have a cigar. Well, he sent for me this morning—you know, I am on the Russian tack in all this business, and that for a reason which I'm pretty sure to let out