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 said appealingly, "Remember, I told you it was not idle curiosity which prompted me. I have a reason for asking."

"Whatever your reason may be," I responded haughtily, "you can hardly expect me to go into a discussion of my cousin's feelings and character with you."

"True," he answered most humbly. "I had no right to ask it, and I see my presumption now most clearly. I should not have come to you. I will seek my information from Miss Judith herself."

Sacha, having finished his performance on the piano, strolled over to us at this moment. "I am thinking," he said to George, "of the contrast between this scene and the one which was before us a year ago."

"Yes; there was some excitement in those days," responded the other.

"Were you both fighting Turks then?" I cried.

"I was fighting a fever," returned George; "but Sacha here was showing his valor in the face of the enemy."

"I wish you would tell me about it," I exclaimed, with awakened enthusiasm.

George laughed, with a nonchalant air. "The pleasantest part of those days was the coming home. Eh, Sacha?"

"Yes, indeed! That was a glorious day when we entered Petersburg. Picture it, mademoiselle. At the gate of the city there were about four thousand people. The grand-dukes and their staffs met us there; and a kind of pavilion had been erected, where all the