The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-05

his interlocutor as they cross the path and
cend the steps leading to the terrace.
"She is not, apparently, self-conscious
| enough for an American lady, and she may be
so much so as to play at indifference with per
| lection equaling reality"
'Ah-you original-Mourariefi I sometimes
wonder what you really are, with your avowed
aristocratc. autocratlc tenets. l sometimes
| fancy you light your lamp on dark nights for
/ socialism. vandalism"
"Nihilism ehp the Russian laughs. "Ah,
/ your ladyship fiatters me. With my own peo-
/ pie I have not communicated, save by way of
| letter, for seven years; you know, am sure that
| have been in London almost always since IL
| But whyP
| Mourarief's further speech is suddenly cut
short by sharp, low cry, fall, suppressed ex
| CARNATIONS from a dozen voices and Lord Elk
| mouth and he both dart forward to raise the
| lady they have had so lately under discussion.
Ascending the steps, she has caught her foot
IN her robe. tMpped and fallen. The two men
| lift her in their arms, and, as she is so stunned
as to be speeches., Lady Exmouth, elated and
delighted at the prospect of at possessing
herself of new protege, bids them carry their
| fair burden at once to her own brougham, and,
getting in herself, aud carefully supporting the
still unconscious stranger she gives orders to be
at once driven home.
Lord Exmouth and Lof Mourarief follow in
| cab
Restoratives being applied by the nearest sur
! ~ from purely mental shock, as TO traceable
sprain confusion can be discovered, the patient
| finally opens her large and darkly fringed light
eyes, and listens to the excited and IDLY utter
| ances OF her hostess.
She speaks-a few soft-spoken words-not in
| English she gazes vacantly about and lady
| Exmouth, more exctedly pleased than ever,
rushes to the library to tell her husband and Lof
all about it.
'Liof you are so clever you speak so many
| languages-like all Russians; do do come and
| tell me what the poor child is saying|
Mourarief, nothing 10th, follows, and soon is
standing beside the lounge on which the stranger
reclines. Soon, too, he speaks to her, and with
smiles and gestures of pleasure in a few mo-
ments he turns to Lady Exmouth TO explain.
IA country woman of mine; Madame Kalitzin,
the wife of General Kalitzin. now stationed in
the East. She is stunned by her fall; see. even
now she RECEIVERS herself and will speak to you
in English as well as l.
Madame Kalitzn found in Lady Exmouth
devoted friend and partisan ere long; not single
charming house in the West End of London
but opened its portals wide to this singularly
charming woman. Her own modest house in
Bessborough Gardens assumed the air of
a rendezvous for all the brightest clevereSt
han6somest, best-known people in the town
| Lady Exmeuth was delighted; in the whole of
| her meandering course she had never launched
SO successful candidates. and, to her credit, be
| it said, her patronage contrived to give to Mad
anne Kalitzns little salon quite the Tory air that
she herself. in virtue of her husbands seat, felt
| it her duty to inculcate in all her proteges.
Not one, among the many, was more assidu-
| ously at the home of Madame Katzin than Liof
Mourarief. With strong though well governed
nature: with burning ambitions; with hot
heart and cold brain; Mourarief, hitherto in
sensible to the charms of women, was shortly at
the feet of his compatriot. Whatever his secrets
were as to affairs of state, they were, before
| very long, in the possession of the being whom
he loved.
To be brief, to-day Fila knew precisely the ex
tent of the detection of the London Agent"
there was no apparent reason why she did not at
once proceed to certain measurers to which she
had pledged herself willingly and fearlessly
and yet, Madame Kalitzin, having already in
daily dispatches sent to Geneva minute report
of the success of her mission and of the facts
she had elected from Leof Mourarief relative to
his tamperings with the party of power and
arstocracy-suddenly ceased mailing dispatches
| to overwhelmingly found that she
had turned of those sharp fatal corners in the
journey of life which sometimes breaks the heart
| that runs against them.
"Filian Iiof Mourarief had said to her last
night standing before her when the last of her
guests had gone. and only the last candles shone
on the splendid light masses of her hair-'tlia,
| suppose you know it-women clever you
are know a mans heart long before ne can
count its beats himself"
know what9" she asks, closing her eyes with
that intensity on her face which greedlly parted
with sight to the more keeny hear the words
| that should answer her question.
THAT" Leof kneels beside her. his large full
eyes drinking in with unquenchable thirst the
| ever-languishing beauty of the creature whose
| quick breath he hears rise and fall so near him.
"That love you."-He reaches out his large
| strong hands to smooth her white bent throat
where the curling hair grows childishly short at
| the back.
| Fila is still.
II love you," Liof whispers, his rich, deep
| voice full of luscious tenderness; there is no
| impetuosity; the man is so young, so powerful,
that he feels he has an eternity of time to prove
| himself to her.
| She shudders as she throws her bare arms
above her head, and he, bending nearer to her,
| takes her to his heart.
"Do you not know what it ls-love-loveY" he
ooh Liof Mourariefw she springs up and away
from him. II know; yes; it is life sunshine, air,
| rapture-but-"
''Ah-your husband-yes, yes-that is bad
thing"
"Yes-my husband" she falters. 'Let me
tell you something He is not alive any more
| he"
''Kalitzin has fallen" cries the young man.
| "Well, he was old-not your mate-you do not
| care-eh?" tentatively.
! Fila chances at her hands; they are twisting
uervouslv together; she sees in a flash, although
| she looks merely at that Pickering candle yonder
| the whole of her life-the past, the present,
| the future; and then, with loud cry, like that
| of some wounded thing, she puts out her fingers
TREMENDOUSLY, as one freezing would spread them
| to the wa, NTH, and in an instant is gathered in
| the arms of man who loves her and whom she
! indeed loves
The next day he would dine with her, and not
/ couple of hours earlier than o'clock Madame
| Kalitzin was intruded upon somewhat summarily
| by an earlier Notwithstanding Tricoupis.
| 'Wen, he says, ''are you not glad to see meg
| without saying" she replies "What brings
youq"
''To write your dispatches; we have heard
nothing from you for nine days"
| $50 The mails irregular"
| 'They say Mourarief loves you"
| "Oh, of counsel"
/ tTNhau y continues thA Grank with rising