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Reginald in Russia [1]
The Reticence of Lady Anne [7]
The Lost Sanjak [13]
The Sex that Doesn’t Shop [25]
The Blood-Feud of Toad-Water [31]
A Young Turkish Catastrophe [38]
Judkin of the Parcels [42]
Gabriel-Ernest [47]
The Saint and the Goblin [60]
The Soul of Laploshka [66]
The Bag [75]
The Strategist [85]
Cross Currents [94]
The Baker’s Dozen (A Playlet) [106]
The Mouse [116]

The Baker’s Dozenoriginally appeared inThe Journal of the Leinster Regiment.” The other sketches have appeared from time to time in theWestminster Gazette.” To the Editors of these publications I am indebted for courteous permission to reproduce the stories in their present form.

REGINALD IN RUSSIA

Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II.

He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens in the rain.

Her name was Olga; she kept what she hoped and believed to be a fox-terrier, and professed what she thought were Socialist opinions. It is not necessary to be called Olga if you are a Russian Princess; in fact, Reginald knew quite a number who were called Vera; but the fox-terrier and the Socialism are essential.

“The Countess Lomshen keeps a bull-dog,” said the Princess suddenly. “In England is it more chic to have a bull-dog than a fox-terrier?”

Reginald threw his mind back over the canine fashions of the last ten years and gave an evasive answer.

“Do you think her handsome, the Countess Lomshen?” asked the Princess.

Reginald thought the Countess’s complexion suggested an exclusive diet of macaroons and pale sherry. He said so.