ent, who had been victimized by an unscrupulous
minister of police, by means of a false charge, and who genuinely
loathed the tasks she was too feeble to refuse.

I had not been back in Petersburg very long when one afternoon the
hotel waiter came to tell me that a lady desired to see me privately.
The lady, he added, declined to give her name, but declared that she
was well known to me.

I had come back to the hotel, I should mention, in the character of
Mr. Sterling, the self-appointed agent of the fraternity of British
peace-makers. It was necessary for me to have some excuse for
residing in Petersburg during the war, and under this convenient
shelter I could from time to time prepare more effectual disguises.

I was not altogether surprised when my mysterious visitor raised her
veil and disclosed the features of the Princess herself.

But I was both surprised and shocked by the frightened,
grief-stricken look on the face of this woman whom I had come to
dread as my most formidable opponent in the Russian Court.

"Mr. Sterling!--Monsieur V----?" she cried in an agitated voice that
seemed ready to break down into a sob. "Can you forgive me for
intruding on you? I dare not speak to you freely in my own house. I
am beset by spies."

"Sit down, Princess," I said soothingly, as I rolled forward a
comfortable chair. "Of course I am both charmed and flattered by your
visit, whatever be its cause."

With feminine intuition she marked the reserve in my response to her
appeal.

"Ah! You distrust me, and you are quite right!" she exclaimed,
casting herself into the chair.

She fixed her luminous eyes on me in a deep look, half-imploring,
half-reproachful.

"It is true, then, what they have been telling me? You were the man,
dressed as an inspector of the Third Section who traveled on the
train with me? And you saw the death"--her words were interrupted by
a shudder--"of that unhappy man?"

It was not very easy to preserve my composure in the face of her
emotion. Nevertheless, at the risk of appearing callous, I replied:

"I cannot pretend to understand your question. However, even if I did
it would make no difference.

"Since you know my name is A. V----, you must know also that I never
allow myself to talk about my work."

The Princess winced under these cold words almost as though she had
been physically rebuffed. She clasped her delicately-gloved hands
together, and murmured as though to herself:

"He wi