question. "You have to be in, you know, to get out. So there you are already with your relation. It's the end of your goodness."

had found him rude or crude, Maud replied-though not immediatelythat she had feared showing only too much that she found him charming.

show it too much"?"

"Because I always feel that that's my only way of showing anything. It's absurd, if you like," Mrs. Blessingbourne pursued, “but I never know, in such intense discussions, what strange impression I may give." Her companion looked amused. "Was it intense?"

"I was," Maud frankly confessed.

"Then it's a pity you were SO wrong. Colonel Voyt, you know, is right." Mrs. Blessingbourne, at this, gave one of the slow, soft, silent headshakes to which she often resorted and which, mostly accompanied by the light of cheer, had, somehow, in spite of the small obstinacy that smiled in them, a special grace. With this grace, for a moment, her friend, looking her up and down, appeared impressed; yet not too much so to take, the next minute, a decision. "Oh, my dear, I'm sorry to differ from any one so lovely -for you're awfully beautiful tonight, and your frock's the very nicest I've ever seen you wear. But he's as right as he can be."

Maud repeated her motion. "Not so right, at all events, as he thinks he is. Or perhaps I can say," she went on after an instant, "that I'm not so wrong. I do know a little what I'm talking about."

Mrs. Dyott continued to study her. "You are vexed. You naturally don't like it such destruction."

Mrs. Blessingbourne still wore her smile, and she now, with a light gesture that matched it, just touched the region of her heart. "There!"

Her companion admiringly marveled. "A lovely place for it, no doubt!—but not quite a place, that I can see, to make the sentiment a relation."

66

'Why not?

What more is re

quired for a relation for me?"

"Oh, all sorts of things, I should say! And many more, added to those, to make it one for the person you mention."

"Ah, that I don't pretend it either should or can be. I only speak for myself."

It was said in a manner that made Mrs. Dyott, with a visible mixture of impressions, suddenly turn away. She indulged in a vague movement or two, as if to look for something, then again. found herself near her friend, on whom, with the same abruptness, in fact with a strange sharpness, she conferred a kiss that might have represented either her tribute to exalted consistency or her idea of a graceful close of the discussion. "You deserve that one should speak for you! 1!" Her companion looked cheerful and "How can you, without

secure.

ing; an interval during which, as the return of fine weather was confirmed by the Sunday, the two ladies found a wider range of action. There were drives to be taken, calls made, objects of interest seen, at a distance, with the effect of much easy talk and still more easy silence. There had been a question of Colonel Voyt's probable return on the Sunday, but the whole time passed without a sign from him, and it was merely mentioned by Mrs. Dyott, in explanation, that he must have been suddenly called, as he was so liable to be, to town. That this, in fact, was what had happened he made clear to her on Thursday afternoon, when, walking over again late, he found her alone. The consequence of his Sunday letters had been his taking, that day, the 4.15. Mrs. Voyt had gone back on Thursday, and he now, to settle on the spot the question of a piece of work begun at his place, had rushed down for a few hours in anticipation of the usual collective move for the week's end. He was to go up again by the late train, and had to count a little-a fact accepted by his hostess with the hard pliancy of practice his present happy moments. Too few as these were, however, he found time to make of her an inquiry or two not directly bearing on their situation. The first was a recall of the question for which Mrs. Blessingbourne's entrance on the previous Saturday had arrested her answer. Did that lady know of anything between them?

"No. I'm sure. There's one thing she does know," Mrs. Dyott went on; "but it's quite different and not so very wonderful."

"I see," Voyt after a moment returned. "Your real calculation is that my interest will be sacrificed to my vanity so that, if your other idea is just, the flame will, in fact, and thanks to her morbid conscience, expire by her taking fright at seeing me so pleased. But I promise you," he declared, "that she sha'n't see it. So there you are!" She kept her eyes on him and had evidently to admit, after a little, that there she was. Distinct as he had made the case, however, he was not yet quite satisfied. "Why are you so sure that I'm the man ?"

"From the way she denies you."
"You put it to her?"

"Straight. If you hadn't been she would of course have confessed to you -to keep me in the dark about the real one."

Poor Voyt laughed out again. “Oh, you dear souls!"

there was just enough in it-in the theory for them to allow that she had not shown herself, on the occasion of their talk, wholly bereft of sense. Her consciousness, if they let it alone -as they, of course, after this, mercifully must-was, in the last analysis, a kind of shy romance. Not a romance like their own, a thing to make the fortune of any author up to the mark-one who should have the invention or who could have the courage; but a small scared, starved subjective satisfaction that would do her no harm and nobody else any good. Who but a duffer-he stuck to his contention would see the shadow of a "story" in it?

THE

HE recent action of France in regard to Turkey has again fanned into flame the smoldering embers of the Near Eastern Question; the death of the Ameer of Afghanistan and the refusal of a British manof-war to permit Turkish troops to land upon the shores of the Persian Gulf have revived interest in the problem in Central Asia; the death of Li Hung Chang has increased. the speculation concerning the states in the Far East. Thus by a rapid succession of events interest has been awakened all along the line. And this interest is intensified by the fact of England's preoccupation in South Africa; for England

is, and for years has been, an interested party in the Eastern Question in all its phases. Hence, the moves upon the checkerboard of diplomacy have again become the subject of speculation throughout the political world, and the number of possible combinations, together with the value of the stakes to be played for, have made the game so interesting that novices. as well as professionals cannot refrain from taking a hand. As usual, those who know least about the game can play it the quickest; so that one least conversant with the situation can solve the whole problem with ease in two minutes.

66

Of the solutions which have been submitted to the public, at once the most surprising and, to my mind, the least promising is that class of solutions which has for its basis an Anglo-Russian entente. The most elaborate of the solutions of this genus which have thus far appeared can be found in the November number of of the National Review. And lest I do the writer an injustice by simply quoting fragments, I shall relieve myself of all suspicion of garbling by quoting the essential part of his article in full. In advocating an entente between Great Britain and Russia he says: Russian statesmen have to make up their minds whether in the present condition of Russian industries, Russian agriculture, and Russian finance, a friendly understanding with England which would relieve her anxieties in the Far East and which might result in her being able to continue her Trans-Caucasian and Siberian railways to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and which, last but not least, might enable her to carry out her historic mission in the Balkans, is not worth a high price. Whether our readers agree with the view propounded in this paper or not, we do not think that

those who adopt a purely negative attitude by denying the existence of any basis for an entente between the Russian and the British Empires, are entitled to be heard. If others have a positive policy opposed to that which we are setting forth, by all means let them

produce it, and induce the British Government to adopt it and execute it. But, in the interval, we venture to sketch in outline some suggestions for a comprehensive settlement between the two powers with the object of demonstrating to the skeptics that at any rate the raw material for an AngloRussian agreement abounds-whatever may be the case as regards the good will and statesmanship requisite to evolve the finished article. We would invite the reader to note that these suggestions are calculated to compromise neither the relations between Russia and France nor those between Great Britain and Japan."

After this introductory the lamb is laid upon the altar. According to the writer, an Anglo- Russian understanding "would naturally fall under three different heads:

"I. THE NEAR EAST.

"With regard to the Near East the basis would be that whilst Russia abstained from any attempts to interfere with the status quo in Egypt, we should frankly recognize that the fulfillment of what Russia regards as her historic mission in the Balkan Peninsula conflicts with no vital British interest, and that in Asiatic Tur

key we should abstain from favoring the development of German schemes of expansion.

"II. PERSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.

"With regard to Persia and Central Asia we might offer Russia our cooperation in the development of railway communication between the