ou will believe me ere I have done," he declared, with an evil
grin, stroking his ragged beard, and fixing his eyes upon her.

"You insult me," she cried angrily. "Why should you speak to me like
this?"

"Because you have been an associate of Felix Lachkarioff--a traitor and a
spy," he declared in that deep, hard voice of his. "Oh! you cannot deny
it. Your husband has no knowledge that you were an intimate friend of the
man who has fled from Russia after causing that frightful disaster at
Obukhov. Is not that so?"

The handsome, dark-haired woman whom the spy had so grossly betrayed
turned pale, and sat utterly staggered that her secret was out. She had
never dreamed that the handsome, polite man who had one day been
presented to her in the lounge of the Hotel d'Europe was a German agent,
that he was engaged in committing outrages on behalf of the enemy, or
that he was friendly with the monk.

"Your husband does not know that spy? Answer me?" demanded Rasputin
roughly.

"I have told my husband nothing," was her faltering reply.

"That is not surprising, Madame," laughed the "saint," leaning back in
the chair where he had seated himself, "especially when you have told
that spy certain secrets of our Government, which you obtained by
examining the dossiers which have been passing through your husband's
hands."

"What do you mean?" she cried, starting up in indignation.

"Ah, no," he said; "it is useless to pretend ignorance, Madame. Read
this!"

And he handed her a copy of what the German agent had written, saying: "I
have the original, which I am passing to the authorities, so that they
may take what action they deem best against you as a traitor and against
your husband for negligence!"

The unfortunate woman, when she scanned the statement, went pale to the
lips, fully realising the extreme seriousness of the nature of her
offence, now that her admirer was known to be a spy of Germany.

"But you won't do that?" she gasped. "Think, Father, what it would mean
both to my husband and myself! Think!" she cried hoarsely.

"You have revealed the contents of certain highly confidential documents
to the Germans," the monk said. "You do not deny it. You, Madame
Doukhovski, are a traitor to Russia, and evidence of your treachery is
contained in that confession of a German spy whom you assisted and whom
you----"

"I looked at the dossiers on my husband's table because Monsieur
Lachkarioff asked me to do so," she d