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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
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