BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 353
It was borne in upon his mind that it lacked even the tragic beauty that belonged to the despairing, defiant face he had seen at the opera and conveyed to his canvas.
" Welcome, brother," said the confederates, one after the other, as they shook him by the hand.
" Be seated," said Ivan, " and we will pledge you to our better acquaintance;" whereupon, turning to the little bookcase and opening a cupboard beneath, Ivan brought forward a couple of bottles of red wine, opened them, and placed glasses upon the table.
Philip drank in a mechanical half-decided way, conscious, as if by instinct, that something was about to take place, hardly in keeping with those heroic aspirations with which he had credited the countess and her confederates. Not that he had expected anything like a rose-leaf council, or a carpet conspiracy ; but there was something in the change from the bright, clean, cheerful saloon of the little Parisian Cabaret, to the half-lighted, dull, prosaic, double-locked apartment, and its heavy-browed, ill-dressed occupants that chilled his spirits, and, for a moment, recalled to him his unnatural exile from his mother and friends, who were at that moment, so close to him and yet so far away. But presently, when, unintentionally, Ferrari had moved the lamp from before the face of Anna Klosstock, in such a way that when she rose it illuminated her entire figure, the old strange infatuation took possession of him, and he listened as one in a dream.
" Brethren," said Anna, rising and laying down the cigar- ette which she had still held between her fingers, " I have to report to you the result of the brotherhood's mission at Venice ; and for the information of our visitor, who seeks for weal or woe to be our comrade in the great cause to which we are pledged, I beg you to permit that I shall mention one of the motives which brought us originally together. When I was a voung girl I lived happy and con-
' n
