Though I greatly doubt if--" Here a flood of music broke upon our ears like the sound of a distant orchestra.

Zara looked at me and smiled.

"Dinner is ready!" she announced; "but you must not imagine that we keep a band to play us to our table in triumph.

It is simply a musical instrument worked by electricity that imitates the orchestra; both Casimir and I prefer it to a gong!" And slipping her arm affectionately through mine, she drew me from the studio into the passage, and together we went down the staircase into a large dining-room, rich with oil-paintings and carved oak, where Heliobas awaited us.

Close by him stood another gentleman, who was introduced to me as Prince Ivan Petroffsky.