gets into the current of things. I felt it in the air. And why should I
hesitate now I am free? Why should I not accept, just because one
Russian man has horrified me. It is, I suppose, a big city, and perhaps
I shall never see him there."

So she announced her decision to the dumfounded household, and in less
than a week took the Nord Express.

"The Court, alas! is in mourning,"--her godmother had written,--
"so you will see no splendid Court balls, but I daresay we can divert
you otherwise, Tamara, and I am so anxious to make the acquaintance of
my godchild."

The morning after she left them Aunt Clara expressed herself thus at
breakfast:

"I see a great and most unwelcome change in dear Tamara since she
returned from Egypt, I had hoped Millicent Hardcastle would be all that
was steadying and well-balanced as a companion for her, but it seems
this modern restlessness has got into her blood. I tremble to think
what ideas she will bring from Russia. Almost savages they are there!--
She may be sent to Siberia or something dreadful, and we may never see
her again."

"Oh! come Aunt Clara!" Tom Underdown protested, as he buttered his
toast. "I think you are a little behind the times. There is a Russian
at Oxford with me and he is the decentest chap in the world. You speak
as though they almost lived on raw fish!"

"My dear Tom," said Miss Underdown, severely. "I was reading only