*

At ten o'clock on the following morning Ivan, quiet, self-possessed,
entirely himself again, came down to the small drawing-room for his
morning tea. He knew that a mountain of work lay before him; though
there were people enough to execute his orders. But the only command
which the obsequious Piotr could extract from the young Prince was this:

"Till twelve o'clock I will neither speak to nor see a single person. At
that hour have the whole household assembled in the state drawing-room."
Only this bit of news could the excited valet of the dead Prince carry
out to the kitchen; but the effect of his announcement was to send every
servant, male and female, scudding across the court to their own
building, to prepare themselves for the inspection of the new master.

Ivan, meantime, was occupying himself with the one matter which must be
concealed from all the throng of executors, lawyers and officials of
administration, by which he would presently be surrounded. During the
night he had pondered on what was to be done concerning the affair of
which his father had spoken at such length. And by now his course was
chosen; his way looked clear; his mother, from on high, seemed smiling
down on him in loving approval.

At half-past ten he stood alone in that sanctum which was to know its
grim master no more. Behind him was a locked door; before him, the huge
map, now entirely covered with the minute black figures that
constituted the life-misery of many a respected malefactor;--that map
which Grand-Dukes had prayed to look upon, and which, saving Piotr, and
twice, in his boyhood, Ivan, no human eye but its creator's had ever
seen.

Before this sinister cipher stood Michael's son; and in his hand was the
little slip of parchment by means of which he was to read the strange
secrets of his father's rise and position. For some minutes Ivan stood
debating within himself as to his right to read so much as a fragment of
this condemnatory document. If he began, what great name might not
become forever dishonored in his thoughts?--Bah!--What need to fear for
good men, after all? With a cynical shrug, he advanced to where the
parchment hung; and then, referring each second to his key, began to
read at the top of one of the narrow columns. After fifteen minutes, he
drew the great table across the room, pulled pencil and paper towards
him, and set to work systematically. It was an hour before he had
translated the following disj