At school, and later on at the 'Varsity, he had consistently and steadily suppressed a truth from friend and foe alike--namely, that he was in his own country a prince.

No great crime on the face of it; but a constant suppression of a very small truth is as burdensome as any suggestion of falsehood.
It makes one afraid of contemptible foes, and doubtful of the value of one's own friendship.
Paul was a simple-minded man.

He was not afraid of the Russian Government.

Indeed, he cultivated a fine contempt for that august body.
But he was distinctly afraid of being found out, for that discovery could only mean an incontinent cessation of the good work which rendered his life happy.
The fear of being deprived of this interest in existence should certainly have been lessened, if not quite allayed, by the fact that a greater interest had been brought into his life in the pleasant form of a prospective wife.

When he was in London with Etta Sydney Bamborough he did not, however, forget Osterno.