"I
addressed her as we sat down, and she made no reply. I began to
wonder if I had offended."
"The man next me," she went on, "is Mr. Millson Gray. He is an
American millionaire, over here to study our Y.M.C.A. methods. He
can talk of nothing else in the world but Y.M.C.A. huts and
American investments, and he is very hungry."
"The conditions," the Baron observed, "seem favourable for a
tete-a-tete."
Catherine smiled up into his imperturbable face. The wine had
brought a faint colour to her cheeks, and the young man sighed
regretfully at the idea of her prospective engagement. He had
always been one of Catherine's most pronounced admirers.
"But what are we to talk about?" she asked. "On the really
interesting subjects your lips are always closed. You are a
marvel of discretion, you know, Baron--even to me."
"That is perhaps because you hide your real personality under so
many aliases."
"I must think that over," she murmured.
"You," he continued, "are an aristocrat of the aristocrats. I can
quite conceive that you found your position in Russia incompatible
with modern ideas. The Russian aristocracy, if you will forgive
my saying so, is in for a bad time which it has done its best to
thoroughly deserve. But in England your position is scarcely so
comprehensible. Here you come to a sanely governed country, which
is, to all effects and purposes, a country governed by the people
for the people. Yet here, within two years, you have made
yourself one of the champions of democracy.
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