He has joined the Dukhobortsi; has sold his large
estate, and is devoting all the money to their cause. I'm afraid
he'll go to some new-world colony, and I shall see little of him
henceforth. A great loss to me."
Mrs. Borisoff kept her eyes upon him as he spoke, seeming to reflect
rather than to listen.
"I ought to tell you," she said, "that I don't know Russian. Irene
--Miss Derwent almost shamed me into working at it; but I am so
lazy--ah, so lazy! you are aware, of course, that Miss Derwent has
learnt it?"
"Has learnt Russian?" exclaimed Piers. "I didn't know--I had no
idea----"
"Wonderful girl! I suppose she thinks it a trifle."
"It's so long," said Otway, "since I had any news of Miss Derwent. I
can hardly consider myself one of her friends--at least, I
shouldn't have ventured to do so until this morning, when I was
surprised and delighted to have a letter from her about that
_Nineteenth Century_ article, sent through the publishers. She spoke
of you, and asked me to call--saying she had written an
introduction of me by the same post."
Mrs. Borisoff smiled oddly.
"Oh yes; it came. She didn't speak of the _Vyestnik_?"
"No."
"Yet she has read it--I happen to know. I'm sorry I can't. Tell me
about it, will you?"
The Russian article was called "New Womanhood in England." It began
with a good-tempered notice of certain novels then popular, and
passed on to speculations regarding the new ideals of life set
before English women.
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