less in Paris. Can she find no one but yoii to
ride with her ? '
- Has Wanda been complaining to you ? '
' My dear Marquis/ replied Mdme. Ottilie, with dignity. * Your wife is not a person to complain ; you musf understand her singularly httie after all, if you suppose that. But I think, if you would calculate the hours you háve of late passed in Mdme. Brancka's society, you would be surprised to see how large a suni they make up of your time. It is not for me to presume to dictate to you ; you are your own master, of course : only I do not think that Olga Brancka, whom I háve known from her childhood, is worth a single half-hour's annoy- ance to Wanda/
Sabran rose, and his lips parted to speak, but he hesitated what to say, and the Princess, who was not without tact, left him to receive her- self some sisters of S. Vincent de Paul. His con- science was not whoUy clear. He was conscious of a pungent, irresistible, even whilst undesired, attraction that this Eussian woman possessed for him ; it was something of the samé potent yet detestable influence which Cochonette had exercised over him. Olga Brancka had the secret of amusing men and of exciting their baser natures ; she had a trick of talk which sparkled like wine, and, without beiug actually
