an assassin who is in danger of arrest? My own
life?" she laughed again. "Ivan, were it not that I honestly believe
that I can, by myself accomplish some great good in this undertaking, I
would destroy that life with my own hands; for I tell you that it would
be much easier to drive a poniard through my own heart, or to swallow a
cup of poison, than it is for me to make sport of the affections of
such men as the stately, generous Prince Michael, or that poor
love-sick fool, Moret. Hush! don't say another word to me on the
subject of warning, for it only angers me, and fills me with a contempt
which I find it difficult to master."

"But, Zara, you must not talk so. I cannot listen."

"Then leave me. Go. I wish to be alone for a time before I return to
the salon. Deliver my message, and also the order I gave you."

I heard no more after that, but I knew that he had gone, although there
was no sound of his departure. Then I listened for the rustle of the
princess' dress when she should move away. Presently it came. She
sighed, then rose from the couch where she had been sitting, and I knew
that she had stepped out upon the path. I closed my eyes, the better to
think upon the remarkable revelations that had come to me as a result
of that conversation. One, two, five, perhaps ten minutes I remained
thus, turning the extraordinary incident over in my mind. But presently
I opened them again, lazily and slowly at first, and then with a sudden
start, for they encountered the form of the princess where she stood as
motionless as a statue but with one arm extended holding back a palm
leaf which half filled the entrance to my place of concealment.

God knows what impulse it was that had impelled her, in parting with
her recent companion, to pause at the Turkish bower in which I was
concealed, and so, to discover me. I had heard no sound whatever. I had
supposed that both were gone. The shock induced by the revelations I
had just overheard, the disillusionment I had experienced in regard to
Princess Zara, had affected me more than I realized, and the act of
closing my eyes and thinking it over had been the result of the same
impulse which sends a frightened woman to her own room, to close the
door behind her in order that she may be alone. By the act of closing
my eyes, I shut out the world by which I was surrounded--that world
which had now become so hateful to me because of the work I had to do.
But nevertheless I looked up st