Highness the Tsarevna, is nevertheless for her Highness' true happiness.' Now sign it, Elsa."

I did so, and gave the document to Olga Naryshkin-arch deceptress that she was, and arch fool I! She would see, she said, that this, together with the necessary appeal on my behalf, should be placed at the proper moment in the hands of her Majesty, who should be approached in this matter, if needful, by one whom the Empress would be sure to hear.

CHAPTER XXX.

Another day and another night passed and I was still in darkness. Her Highness betrayed no suspicion whatever, and I came and went as usual in attendance upon her.

Oh, why was I left in ignorance and uncertainty? What was Douglas doing? Had the Prince blundered in some way, as Olga declared that he always must blunder? Could anything have happened to my Douglas? It was hard indeed to sit in darkness and trust that all was well, yet what else could I do? Douglas I might not see; Olga knew nothing; Von Amberg did not come near me these days, and if he had I could not have confided my grief to him. Douglas must be elaborating some plan of escape, Well, that was wise, of course, and I must not rebel against prudence; but it was hard to sit and hear nothing, and know nothing.

Then on the evening of the second day-or it may have been the third, for my memory of the events of that particular period has suffered in consequence of certain events immediately succeeding my marriageher Highness sent for me at an hour during which I was not expected to be in attendance.

The Grand Duchess was alone. She looked somewhat agitated, but not so angry as to make me anxious lest she should have learned my secret, as I had feared might be the case in the first shock of a summons at this unusual hour.

The first words of her Highness surprised me very much.

"I have sent for you, Elsa," she said, "in order to warn you to prepare your mind for events which may be unpalatable to you."

"I shall be prepared to accept events as they come, madam," I faltered, unable to think of anything wiser to say, yet bound to say something.

"That is well," she replied, "for I have to tell you, first, that this game in which you and I play against one another, I look to win. Destiny has dealt me a good hand at her last deal."

"What of the honours, madam?" I asked.

The Grand Duchess reddened a little but smiled, and said: "I hold many trumps; the king is mine, or will be; you must prepare for defeat, little one.'

"I shall hope till the end, Highness," I said; "who can tell how the game will go till the finish?"

"Play on if you will, but in the end you must lose. I do not desire

you to cherish false hopes, and therefore I have sent for you to warn you."

'Maybe your Highness is mistaken. You who have never lost when hearts are trumps may believe your chance of winning to be better than it really is; I, too, hold good cards!"

"You held good cards, but you have played them away. Do not trust to that which has been; the cards which must win are those now in play, and mine, I say, are the stronger."

"I am content with my holding, Highness," I said.

"That is well indeed, and I would for your sake it were a better one; shall we compare hands?"

This suggestion took me aback. Did the Grand Duchess suspect that I held the winning card up my sleeve, and expect me to reveal it in confession? If so, she should be disappointed.

"Those who wish to win do not show their cards," I said.

"Yet they may show their cards and also win," she laughed. "Shall I lead off-very well, then, here is my first card; your secret is no secret; a week ago you had this great advantage over me that you were single, now we play even, for you are married."

My head reeled and my knees quaked; her Highness obviously knew all; to what then, was this the prelude?. Did she play with me, like a cat with a mouse, before falling upon me and eating me up? I tried to maintain a bold front and to answer the Grand Duchess without betraying the terror I really felt. She did not appear to be particularly angry, and this helped me to be brave.

"It is true that I am married, Highness," I faltered, "though God only knows how you have discovered it."

"Oh, never mind the means, I know it, you married women we stand upon the same plane. the object of your marriage, but married you is in my favour. That is why I say that I am card."

see; therefore, as two I do not understand are, and this point leading with a strong

"Does not your Highness understand," I began, angered by her last sentence, "that when I am married my husband is safe from the fascinations of other women? If he married me he loves me, and the fact should prove to others that his love is not for them and that their flattery is undesired."

"That might be good philosophy and it might not, my innocent," said the Grand Duchess, "but in the present case it has no bearing upon the matter in hand, for, indeed, I have no desire to seduce your husband's affections from you."

"Oh, Highness," I said, flushing over with sudden hope, which however died as soon as born, "would it were indeed so!"

"So indeed it is-you are welcome to him!" she continued, to my great and immeasurable surprise; "what have I to do with him, good man? Do you think, because I am unfortunate enough, or fortunate enough, to love Douglas, that I must of necessity love every other man besides?"

"But wilderment.

we spoke of Douglas, madam," I said, now in utter be

"Stay, did we?" said her Highness, who was looking among the papers in her desk. "Oh," she continued, "here it is; 'I have married

"Highness!" I cried, "you are torturing me-you intend to ruin me; strike at once, if strike you must! it is cruel to treat me thus!"

"Nay, child, I shall not strike, I mean you no harm; you have deceived me, admitted, but I love you well in spite of all.”

"To what does all this tend, madam?" I cried, in desperation; "you have obtained my confession, I perceive, which was not intended for your eyes but for the Empress; Olga is a deceiver and a liar-but you have it, and you are also aware that it is a true confession; I deceived you because it was necessary to my happiness and my husband's; forgive me or punish me, but jest no longer with my misery."

"My poor child, I forgive you gladly," said the Grand Duchess; "that you have deceived me is but a small matter in comparison with the greater, which is the splendid service you have rendered me in marrying your husband and in confessing that you love him; do not blame Olga— she was right to tell me of this, knowing what great happiness you had prepared for me-happiness as great as unexpected; for you will admit that up to this time you have given me all too plainly to understand that you loved another and not this man."

Was I losing my reason? Why could I not follow the meaning of her Highness this day? She seemed to speak plainly, yet from beginning to end of the interview bewilderment had followed bewilderment, and here, at the end of half-an-hour of talking I had no idea of the drift of the conversation.

"Pardon, Highness!" I said. "If have led you to believe that I loved any but my dear husband it was unconscious dissembling."

"So much the better for all, and as you have rightly declared it in your confession here, certainly to my advantage and that of the State. You have shown consideration, Elsa, and I am grateful."

“Oh, Highness-do I understand that you forgive me fully?" I exclaimed, making as though I would fall at her feet.

"I forgive your deception because of its happy outcome."

"And you leave me Douglas?" I continued, a rush of joy beginning

to flood back into my heart.

What! are

"Leave you Douglas!" repeated her Highness, coldly; "what has Douglas to do with it? That is quite a different matter. you to have all the lovers and I none?"

"Then what signifies all this forgiveness, and the service I have done you-and-and all?" I faltered; alas! were the bewilderments of the day never to end?

"That is easily answered," said the Grand Duchess. "I have forgiven you your deception, though I might have punished you for it. And as for the service which you have done me, that I should have thoughtyou could name for yourself; for you could scarcely have done me a

greater, than to clear the way by removing the chief obstacle between myself and the man I love, though I should have gone my own way in any event."

I stamped my foot with vexation-an impertinence at which her Highness frowned, but I took no notice of her frowning.

"Do I clear the way to him, madam, by marrying him? I think not."

"By marrying him? What mean you, child? Do you rave? "God help me, perhaps I am mad, Highness," I said; "do you now deny that I have married Douglas?"

The Grand Duchess laughed outright, flushing red.

"You rave, indeed!" she said, "I do deny, as I have never affirmed, that you have married Douglas!"

"Dear God in heaven!" I exclaimed, holding my head which swam and felt like to split in two pieces. "What do you mean, madam? Was the marriage a dream or a pretended ceremony-oh, whose accursed device was this to show me paradise and leave me in hell?"

"Neither dream nor pretence," said Catherine. "Of which behold the proof; here is the registered record of the rite, as performed by Pastor Bekker at the Lutheran Church last Tuesday evening; there is no mistake!"

I seized the book from her Highness' hands, glancing at the page indicated. There was my signature, and

"It is a mistake," I gasped, "this is not the right page, this is the marriage of some other woman, not mine!"

"Not so!" said the Grand Duchess; "see, here is your signature, Elsa Adlerberg, and there is your husband's, Leopold von Amberg."