Then Paul told her of the disturbance of the night before, and of his encounter with the woman that very morning. Natalie clasped Paul's hand--he thrilled beneath the sudden tightening of her fingers. "Ah!" she breathed, in sudden agitation, "they must in some way have known your mission all the time. I tremble when I think of the peril you were in. Boris is hot-headed, and it must have angered him almost beyond endurance when he knew that he entertained a rival beneath his own roof. Some men, it is said, have entered that evil house never to be seen more by mortal eyes." Paul tried to quiet her fears. But, though she soon grew calmer, he saw that a great dread still lay upon her. And even when they returned to the house, she started apprehensively at every sudden sound. Paul found brother Peter to be indeed a most gracious host. He had been educated in England, it appeared, and like Paul was an Oxford man. Indeed, the two found many things to talk about, for Peter well remembered the stories he had heard of Paul's record as an oarsman on the 'Varsity eight--traditions of the sort that are handed down from year to year unto succeeding classes. But as they talked, Paul noticed that Peter's eyes often rested with a troubled look upon his sister. In fact, it seemed to Paul that a black shadow of direful portent hung over them throughout the meal. CHAPTER XXII That afternoon Paul and his love--for a day, as she had told him--walked down the long avenue of pine-trees. And pacing back and forth beneath the shade he told her many things, some of which she knew already. She could not repress a smile as he recounted to her the manner in which he had walked up and down the terrace at Lucerne, while--though he knew it not--she saw him from her window. "And now," he said at last, pausing to look down into her dear face, "forsake, I beg of you, this scene of trouble. Leave this strange land, half West, half East, and come away with me to England. There I will try to make you happy, and the day will come, I hope, when you will forget that this threatening evil ever came into your life. I do not know even yet the reasons that seem to demand this marriage with your cousin. Come! it shall not be, even though the Tsar demands it. By marrying me, you will become a British subject, and we then can laugh at any human will that would take you from me." And then he saw a tear upon her lovely cheek. Like a pearl upon the snow it was. Paul took her in his arms, and her beautiful weary head sank upon his shoulder. "You weep, dear heart!" he said to her, for she was sobbing softly. "Surely this dreadful union must not be. Come--early to-morrow we will start for Kieff, and then--in a few days more--England and freedom!" She recovered quickly and shook her head.