She took his silence as a wish for something further before he answered. “If you will be with us I can arrange for you to meet our active leaders at once, and take part in their secret plannings. I can see from your face that you are wondering what, in return for all this, will be your reward. You would have a life-long sense of having helped a struggling nation to win the light.” She hesitated--a soft red tinged her cheeks--her eyes fluttered down. “And if the--the gratitude of a simple woman will mean anything--that gratitude you would ever have.” There was no mistaking what she meant. Here was a situation, indeed, for a man newly in love! In his embarrassment Drexel knew not what to say that would carry him swiftly and safely by this delicate crisis in a manner to give no offense to the countess, whom he liked and admired. He was floundering about in his mind for the proper phrase when she raised her bright, flushed face and met his gaze frankly. “If you decide to be with us,” she went on, “I have a definite plan to suggest--one calling for immediate action. A plan I, personally, am trying to carry through. I am sure we could make it succeed--you and I.” All her warm, excited beauty, all her fascination, were directed at him. He hardly knew how to parry. “Before I decide,” he temporized, “I should want to know what the plan is.” “Lean nearer. It is this. I am trying--s-s-sh! Some one is coming! I’ll tell you later, when the person goes.” Her voice and face were all disappointment, but when Mr. Howard walked into the compartment, she greeted him with an easy, good-humoured smile. However, her plan Drexel was not then to know, for the journey ended without giving her an opportunity to finish what she had begun. At the station were waiting four two-seated sleighs, each with three splendid blacks hitched abreast. It fell out that Drexel, the countess, Sonya and Berloff got into one sleigh, Sonya and Berloff in the front seat. As they flashed over the flat white country, tucked away in frozen sleep, Drexel involuntarily compared these two women, the one he did not love and felt sure he could have, and the one he did love and knew he could not have--both beautiful, both clever, both so different from what they seemed to the world--both involved in the dangerous underground struggle against the Czar.