Ruth cast a glance at the private secretary. She had all along been more afraid of him than of his pompous master. She saw at once that the blow had struck home, and that the private secretary had ceased to take the acute interest in the matter that he had hitherto done.

Ruth followed up the blow with this telling remark. She said that she thought that it might not be a breach of the bargain, between the St. Petersburg manager and herself, if she were to sing at a private party some of the songs in her part in the opera of with the proper cos

tume for her character in that opera.

The Governor murmured something about the honour that it would be for him if his salon were favoured by this exhibition of the great singer's talents. He was beginning to be completely deceived; and, if Boris Bauer had been in the room, the Governor would probably have informed that astute functionary, that he was a busy, meddling fool. The Governor's only thought now was whether he should not have to pay too much for this favour.

Ruth saw his hesitation, and divined the cause. She began delicately to hint about remuneration: not that, as she said, this was a matter of any moment to her, but she was afraid that she should have to account for it to her manager. "Your Excellency knows," said Ruth, with one of her most gracious smiles, "that we poor artistes are more completely bound to our master for the time being, than even official persons are to theirs. My father," she added, "will talk to your Excellency upon this part of the business. I assure you, it is with extreme regret, and only from a sense of duty to my master at St. Petersburg, that I venture to name the subject."

His Excellency, not over pleased at the turn which affairs had taken, withdrew into a corner with the Count, and shortly afterwards returned into the circle looking very radiant; for the Count, unversed in such matters, and not having had time or opportunity to say a word to Ruth, had named the comparatively insignificant sum of 1500 roubles.

All was now settled. The Professor had strutted about the room with his usual look of dignity and self-importance; and the secretary had set to work at other business, secretly thinking what an ass his master was, to expend a sum equal to a quarter of his, the private secretary's, hard-earned salary, for the services during one evening of this English prima donna. The secretary had been once at Berlin, and had not there imbibed any exalted notion of the musical powers of the British nation.

Before leaving the room, and commending the party to the good offices of a heyduc who was to accompany them to the hotel, the Governor shot, unconsciously, a Parthian shaft, which was to deprive poor Ruth of many hours of her rest that night. He said, "Our English governess, know how we Russians affect your language (I cannot speak it, but all my children can), has had the advantage of hearing you in London, and she has prepared us for the great treat which we shall have to-morrow."

you

In what part of the world, or in what part

is

above or under the earth, poor Ruth wished that this governess might have been placed, rather than in the house of the Governor of not to be told. Suffice it to say, that the thought of having to encounter this governess took away all sense of triumph from what might otherwise have been accounted a most successful interview.

CHAPTER XXVII.

RUTH AS A PRIMA DONNA.

T was with a heavy heart that, on the ensuing morning, Ruth made her preparations to appear in the proper

costume, to sing the chief songs in the part which Miss Danvers would have had to sing in the opera in which she was recognized to be the most effective prima donna.

of

Lord Lochawe, though perfectly aware Ruth's great gift for music, had never made a show of it. A relative, a near relative of the Lochawes, was not to be exhibited as if she were an ordinary person. Ruth, therefore, had never had an opportunity of singing, what might be called in public, but she did not doubt her