sophistry, or English stupidity. Believe me, one of these would offer many points of interest which should interest and engage your attention." 

 "Why not Russian cruelty?" I asked. "That seems to be the only important nationality you have omitted." 

 "Why not?" he repeated after me. 

 "You seem to have tired of it yourself, Saberevski." 

 He shrugged his shoulders, leaning back in his chair, and the suggestion of a shadow passed across his handsome face. 

 "Dan," he said with an entire change of tone that startled me into renewed interest, "I haven't any doubt that you have always regarded me as a queer sort of chap, more or less shrouded by a mystery you could not fathom. And you were right." 

 "I have never——" I began. But he raised a hand to arrest me. 

 "I know it," he said. "You do not need to assure me of that. You are too much of a man, and your character is too broad and deep, for you ever to attempt an intimacy which was not invited. But it is my pleasure just now, old man, to give you a little bit of my history. It may interest you. And it may lead to a change in your views; not regarding you, but in connection with myself. I am a much older man than you are; fifteen years and more, I should say. All my life, up to the time we last parted, has been passed in the personal service of his majesty, the czar. I have been as close to him as any man can ever obtain, and I am probably the only one who has enjoyed his confidence to the extent of retaining it in the face of studied opposition on the part of the greatest nobles of the empire. But I have retained it, Dan, and to such an extent that I suppose myself to be the only man living to-day, against whom Alexander would not permit himself to be influenced. There is a reason for it and a good one, but I need not go into that." 

 "No," I said. "You need not tell me this at all, Alexis. I am quite glad enough to see you and to have you here, without explanation." 

 He made a gesture of impatience. 

 "As if I did not know that," he added; "but as I said a moment ago, it is my pleasure to recite some of these things to you, because since I came into this room and grasped your hand I have been impressed by the idea that there is a great work for you to do; a great duty for you to perform. A stupendous obstacle to human development 

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