be quite correct to say
that she was the cause of that letter being written. Of course, I had
no clue; the note was left by a young woman whom the porter took very
little notice of: he was not at all sure that he would remember her.
That night I was dining with the Count--of course, treating the note
as a genuine one, I had already acted upon it and despatched the
police to Pavlovsk. Just as I was about to leave, a sudden idea
occurred to me to show it to Golitzine and ask him if he could help
me. His Excellency is a very wonderful man. Above all men that I have
met, he possesses, in the highest degree, the qualities of genius and
intuition."

Beilski was not a man who underrated himself, but he was not mean or
petty. In this particular matter he was disposed to give to the Count
all the credit that was his due, even although it compelled him to
play second fiddle.

"With the rapidity of lightning, he jumped at the conclusion that you
were the person threatened. We made sure that you were neither at the
Zouroff Palace, where you had told him you were going to play, nor at
your hotel. Surmise, under such circumstances, became certainty. The
rest you can guess almost yourself."

"All the same, I would like you to tell me, General," said Corsini.

"The letter served its purpose admirably," pursued General Beilski.
"You were rescued and brought back to St. Petersburg. One significant
fact you revealed to us was that La Belle Quero had strongly dissuaded
you from playing at the Palace. Another one, equally significant in
our eyes, was that the Princess Nada had urged you not to walk home
that night. We put two and two together."

"The letter, then, might have been sent by either of the two women?
That, I take it, is your Excellency's meaning?" commented Nello.

"Precisely. I had the two maids brought before me. The singer's I soon
dismissed. She did not correspond in the slightest degree to my
porter's rather hazy recollections of the young woman who had brought
the note. The second shot was more successful."

"The maid of the Princess Nada, of course?"

"Yes, a slim young thing--I forgot to say the other was short and
plump--frightened out of her wits by the sudden turn of events.
Terrified by myself, the forbidding aspect of her surroundings, the
unknown terrors of the law, she made no pretence of a fight. She fell
upon her knees, imploring my clemency."

"So it was the Princess Nada who sent that note with the