With grateful homage and devotion I dedicate this book to

Her Imperial Highness
The Grand Duchess Vladimir
Of Russia

In memory of the happy evenings spent in her gracious presence when
reading to her these pages, which her sympathetic aid, in facilitating
my opportunities for studying the Russian character, enabled me to
write. Her kind appreciation of the finished work is a source of the
deepest gratification to me.

Elinor Glyn


St. Petersburg, May, 1910






CHAPTER I


The Sphinx was smiling its eternal smile. It was two o'clock in the
morning. The tourists had returned to Cairo, and only an Arab or two