CHAPTER IV.
DON QUIXOTE Paul had been five months in England when he met Mrs.Sydney Bamborough.
Since his hurried departure from Tver a winter had come and gone, leaving its mark as winters do.

It left a very distinct mark on Russia.
It was a famine winter.

From the snow-ridden plains that lie to the north of Moscow, Karl Steinmetz had written piteous descriptions of an existence which seemed hardly worth the living.

But each letter had terminated with a prayer, remarkably near to a command, that he, Paul Howard Alexis, should remain in England.

So Paul stayed in London, where he indulged to the full a sadly mistaken hobby.