He thinks that a Russian principality is to be worked on the same system as an English estate." He would laugh and shrug his shoulders, and then he would sit down and send a list of further requirements to Paul Howard Alexis, Esquire, in London.
Paul had met Mrs.Sydney Bamborough on one or two occasions, and had been interested in her.

From the first he had come under the influence of her beauty.

But she was then a married woman.

He met her again toward the end of the terrible winter to which reference has been made, and found that a mere acquaintanceship had in the meantime developed into friendship.

He could not have told when and where the great social barrier had been surmounted and left behind.