"You think Europe will be blazing soon, Stepan? I have wondered myself in the last month if this hectic peace could continue." "It cannot. I am here upon business with great issues, but I must not speak of facts, and what I say now is not from my knowledge of current events, but from my study of etheric currents which the thoughts and actions of over-civilised generations have engendered. You do not cram a shell with high explosives and leave it among matches with impunity." The two men looked at one another significantly, and then Denzil said: "I think I will not retire from the old regiment yet--I shall wait another year." "Yes--I would if I were you." They smoked silently for a moment--Verisschenzko's Calmuck face fixed and inscrutable and Denzil's debonnaire English one usually grave. "Some one told me that your friend, Madame Boleski, was having a tremendous success in London. I wish I could have got leave, I should like to have seen the whole thing." "Harietta is enjoying her luck-moment; she is in her zenith. She has baffled me as to where she receives her information from--she is capable of betraying both sides to gain some material, and possibly trivial, end. She is worth studying if you do come up, for she is unique. Most criminals have some stable point in immorality; Harietta is troubled by nothing fixed, no law of God or man means anything to her, she is only ruled by her sense of self-preservation. Her career is picturesque." "Had she ever any children?" Verisschenzko crossed himself. "Heaven forbid! Think of watching Harietta's instincts coming out in a child! Poor Stanislass is at least saved that!" "What a terrible thought that would be to one! But no man thinks of such things in selecting a wife!" "You will not marry yet--no?" "Certainly not, there is no necessity that I should. Marriage is only an obligation for the heads of families, not for the younger branches." "But if Sir John Ardayre has no son, you are--in blood--the next direct heir." "And Ferdinand is the next direct heir-in-law--that makes one sick--" Verisschenzko poured his friend out a whisky and soda and said smiling: "Then let us drink once more to the Ardayre son!" CHAPTER VII Lady de la Paule really felt proud of her niece; the party at Ardayre was progressing so perfectly. The guests had all arrived in time for the ball at Bridgeborough Castle on the twenty-third of July and had assisted next day at the garden party, and then a large dinner at Ardayre, and now on the last night of their stay Amaryllis' own ball was to take place. All the other big country houses round were filled also, and nothing could have been gayer or more splendidly done than the whole thing. John Ardayre had been quite enthusiastic about all the arrangements, taking the greatest pride in settling everything which could add lustre to his Amaryllis' success as a hostess.