For on the heels of education socialism ever treads. When at last
education makes a foothold in Russia, that foothold will be on the very
step of the autocratic throne. The Charity League had, as Steinmetz put
it, the primary object of preparing the peasant for education, and
thereafter placing education within his reach. Such proceedings were
naturally held by those in high places to be only second to Nihilism.
All this, and more which shall transpire in the course of this
narration, was known to Paul. In face of the fact that his name was
prominently before the Russian Ministry of the Interior, he proceeded
all through the winter to ship road-making tools, agricultural
implements, seeds, and food.
"The prince," said Steinmetz to those who were interested in the matter,
"is mad. He thinks that a Russian principality is to be worked on the
same system as an English estate."
He would laugh and shrug his shoulders, and then he would sit down and
send a list of further requirements to Paul Howard Alexis, Esquire, in
London.
Paul had met Mrs. Sydney Bamborough on one or two occasions, and had
been interested in her. From the first he had come under the influence
of her beauty. But she was then a married woman. He met her again toward
the end of the terrible winter to which reference has been made, and
found that a mere acquaintanceship had in the meantime developed into
friendship.
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