He had barely given this promise when he suddenly caught sight of a startling apparition behind the Empress’s chair. Alexander himself!—no longer the furious being of the previous night, but mild and gracious of aspect: nay, with a half-smile upon his lips. Secreted near he had heard every word freely and spontaneously uttered by the speakers unaware of his presence, and thus had received convincing proof that Wilfrid’s relations with the Czarina had been, from beginning to end, of an honourable character. The Czarina, apprised of strange happenings by Wilfrid’s stare, turned to ascertain the cause and beheld—her husband! Startled, she shrank back, hesitating, shivering, terrified, as she recalled the kiss and the embrace in the garden; then, re-assured by his tender and forgiving look, she gasped— “_Sasha!_” “Marie,” he whispered bending over her, “I have come to take you back to my heart!” Trembling with wild joy she rose to her feet and fell within the arms that opened eagerly to receive her. “Plainly I’m not wanted here,” thought Wilfrid, and he vanished from the apartment. He had not gone far before he met Prince and Princess Sumaroff, to whom he gave an account of his interview and its dramatic termination. They received his tidings with smiles of satisfaction. “So my innocent little artifice has succeeded,” said the Prince. “Early this morning I went to Runö and saw Alexander. The lapse of a few hours had made him more amenable to reason. The Baroness had already half-persuaded him of the Czarina’s innocence. I brought him here and he listened to Nadia’s story and read Baranoff’s confession. That convinced him. ‘If you require further proof,’ said I, ‘why not secrete yourself and watch Lord Courtenay as he takes his farewell of the Empress? You will be able to judge by their language whether their relations have been guilty or not.’ For I knew, Lord Courtenay, that you would say nothing to the Czarina but what would become an honourable man. You have vindicated my opinion of you, with the happiest results. “All’s well that ends well,” remarked Wilfrid philosophically. “But the end has not _quite_ come,” said Princess Sumaroff with a peculiar smile. “You must put the finishing touch to this reconciliation by making it impossible for Alexander’s thoughts ever to wander again towards the Baroness Runö.” “And how can I do that?” The Princess laughed sweetly. “By making her Countess Courtenay, of course!” Wilfrid started. Such an idea had never before occurred to him. How could it, with his mind full of Marie? But now that love had become part of his nature, who more capable of satisfying that sentiment than Pauline, in whom he had always taken an interest bordering on affection? Her recent course of deception, censurable as it was, had done little to diminish his regard for her, seeing that she had not sought her own aggrandisement, but the supposed welfare of France.