for the crowd of toadies and flatterers also, who will push on swiftly after you and jostle you on all sides; be strong of heart and merry of countenance!  Gather the roses; press the luscious grapes into warm, red wine that, as you quaff it, shall make your blood dance a mad waltz in your veins, and fair women’s faces shall seem fairer to you than ever, their embraces more tender, their kisses more tempting!  Spin the ball of Society like a toy in the palm of your hand!  I see your life stretching before me like a brilliant, thread-like ephemeral ray of light!  But in the far distance across it looms a shadow—­a shadow that your power alone can never lift.  Mark me, Ivan!  When the first dread chill of that shadow makes itself felt, come to me—­I shall yet be living.  Come; for then no wealth can aid you—­at that dark hour no boon companions can comfort.  Come; and by our friendship so lately sworn—­by Zara’s pure soul—­by God’s existence, I will not die till I have changed that darkness over you into light eternal!—­ Fare you well!”

He caught the Prince’s hand, and wrung it hard; then, without further word, look, or gesture, turned and disappeared again within the chapel.

His words had evidently made a deep impression on the young nobleman, who gazed after his retreating figure with a certain awe not unmingled with fear.

I held out my hand in silent farewell.  Ivan took it gently, and kissed it with graceful courtesy.

“Casimir told me that your intercession saved my life, mademoiselle,” he said.  “Accept my poor thanks.  If his present prophet-like utterances be true—–­”

“Why should you doubt him?” I asked, with some impatience.  “Can you believe in nothing?”

The Prince, still holding my hand, looked at me in a sort of grave perplexity.

“I think you have hit it,” he observed quietly.  “I doubt everything except the fact of my own existence, and there are times when I am not even sure of that.  But if, as I said before, the prophecy of my Chaldean friend, whom I cannot help admiring with all my heart, turns out to be correct, then my life is more valuable to me than ever with such wealth to balance it, and I thank you doubly for having saved it by a word in time.”

I withdrew my hand gently from his.

“You think the worth of your life increased by wealth?” Tasked.

“Naturally!  Money is power.”

“And what of the shadow also foretold as inseparable from your fate?”

A faint smile crossed his features.

“Ah, pardon me!  That is the only portion of Casimir’s fortune-telling that I am inclined to disbelieve thoroughly.”

“But,” I said, “if you are willing to accept the pleasant part of his prophecy, why not admit the possibility of the unpleasant occurring also?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“In these enlightened times, mademoiselle, we only believe what is agreeable to us, and what suits our own wishes, tastes, and opinions.  Ca va sans dire.  We cannot be forced to accept a Deity against our reason.  That is a grand result of modern education.”