a means only of accelerating her journey to her father.

"I had," said she, "a permit which authorized me to go to Irkutsk,
but the new order annulled that; and but for you, brother, I should
have been unable to leave the town, in which, without doubt,
I should have perished."

"And dared you, alone, Nadia," said Michael, "attempt to cross
the steppes of Siberia?"

"The Tartar invasion was not known when I left Riga. It was only
at Moscow that I learnt the news."

"And despite it, you continued your journey?"

"It was my duty."

The words showed the character of the brave girl.

She then spoke of her father, Wassili Fedor. He was a much-esteemed
physician at Riga. But his connection with some secret society having
been asserted, he received orders to start for Irkutsk. The police
who brought the order conducted him without delay beyond the frontier.

Wassili Fedor had but time to embrace his sick wife and his daughter,
so soon to be left alone, when, shedding bitter tears, he was led away.
A year and a half after her husband's departure, Madame Fedor died in
the arms of her daughter, who was thus left alone and almost penniless.
Nadia Fedor then asked, and easily obtained from the Russian government,
an authorization to join her father at Irkutsk. She wrote and told him