she went on with her work. And
then, all her duties for the morning finished, she sat down in her
rocking chair by the window, the envelope in her idle fingers, a victim
of temptation. She looked out at the pine woods, her gaze afar, her
guilty fingers slipping the letter out of its covering an inch, two
inches. And then Beth opened Peter's heliotrope note and read it. At
least, she read as much of it as she could understand,--the parts that
were written in English--with growing amazement and incertitude. A good
deal of the English part even was Greek to her, but she could understand
enough to know that a mystery of some sort hung about the letter and
about Peter, that he was apparently a person of some importance to the
heliotrope lady who addressed him in affectionate terms and with the
utmost freedom. Beth had learned in the French ballads which Peter had
taught her that _ami_ meant friend and that _bel_ meant beautiful. And
as the whole of the paragraph containing those words was written in
English, Beth had little difficulty in understanding it. What had Peter
to do with the cause of Holy Russia? And what was this danger to him
from hidden enemies, which could make necessary this discretion and
watchfulness in Black Rock? And the last sentence of all danced before
Beth's eyes as though it had been written in letters of fire. "There is
at least one heart in London that ever beats fondly in memory of the
dear dead days at Galitzin and Zukovo."

What right had the heliotrope lady's heart to beat fondly in memory of
dear dead days with Peter Nichols at Galitzin or Zukovo or anywhere
else? Who was she? Was she young? Was she beautiful? And what right had
Peter given her to address him in terms of such affection? Anastasie!

And now for the first time in her life, though to all outward appearance
calm, Beth felt the pangs of jealousy. This letter, most of it in the
queer-looking script (probably Russian) that she could not even read, in
its strange references in English to things beyond her knowledge, seemed
suddenly to erect a barrier between her and Peter that could never be
passed, or even to indicate a barrier between them that had always
existed without her knowledge. And if all of the parts of the letter
that she could not understand contained sentiments like the English part
that she _could_ understand, it was a very terrible letter indeed and
indicated that this heliotrope woman (she was no longer "lady" now) ha