lass with brandy,
some of that choice old cognac which the Empress sent him regularly, and
turning to me, said:

"Feodor, the man Doukhovski is wealthy, I understand. Protopopoff has
been making inquiry, and finds that he is owner of a large estate near
Ryazhsk, and that from an uncle quite recently he inherited nearly a
million roubles. He only retains his office because he does not regard it
as patriotic to retire while the war is in progress. What will he think
of his wife's betrayal when he knows of it?"

"But you will not inform him," I exclaimed.

"Not if Madame is reasonable. She is wealthy in her own right," replied
the monk. "If women err they must be compelled to pay the price," he went
on in a hard voice. "Felix Lachkarioff evidently deceived her very
cleverly. But there--he is one of the most expert agents that the
Koeniggraetzerstrasse possesses, and is so essentially a ladies' man."

After a pause Rasputin, lighting a cigarette, laughed lightly to himself,
and said:

"The report furnished to me yesterday shows that Madame was one of the
Plechkoffs of Lublin, and her balance at the Azov Bank is a very
considerable one. The price of my silence is the money she has there. And
I shall obtain it, Feodor--you will see," he added with confidence.

So ruthlessly did he treat the unfortunate woman that, by dint of threats
to place the original of that statement of Lachkarioff before the
Minister Protopopoff, he had before a week had passed every rouble she
possessed.

I was present on the night when she came to him to make the offer, the
negotiations having been opened and carried on by a man named Zouieff,
one of the several professional blackmailers whom Rasputin employed from
time to time under the guise of "lawyers." She was beside herself in
terror and despair, and carried with her a cheque-book.

The interview was a strikingly dramatic one. She penitent, submissive,
and full of hatred of the spy under whose influence she had fallen; the
monk cold, brutal, and unforgiving.

"Yes," he said at last, when she offered him a monetary consideration in
exchange for his silence. "But I am not content with a few paltry
roubles. I am collecting for my new monastery at Kertch, and what you
give will atone to God for your crime."

Within ten minutes she had written out a cheque for the whole of her
private fortune, while at the monk's dictation I wrote out a declaration
that his allegations were false, a docum