le. It is, of course, a mere
rumour that a plot was discovered at the Opera-house. Probably there
were an unusual number of police at all the entrances, and a very little
thing gives rise to talk and conjecture. People think that the police
would not have been there had they not had suspicion that something or
other was going to take place, and as everything in our days is put down
to the Nihilists, it was naturally reported that the police had
discovered some plot; and as two of the grand-dukes were there, people
made sure it was in some way connected with them.

"As nothing came of it, and no one was, as far as was known, arrested,
it would be supposed that the culprit, whoever he was, managed to evade
the police. Such rumours as these are of very common occurrence, and it
is quite possible that there is not much more truth in them this time
than there is generally; however, of one thing you may be sure, the
police are not fonder than other people of being outwitted, and whether
the man for whom they were in search was a Nihilist or a criminal of
some other sort you certainly aided him to escape. You are sure to be
watched for some time, and it will be known to the police in a very few
hours if you repeat this story to your acquaintances; if they find you
keep silence about it, they will give you credit for discretion, while
it would certainly do you a good deal of harm, and might even now lead
to your being promptly sent across the frontier, were it known that you
made a boast of having outwitted them.

"There is another reason. You will find that for a time most of your
friends here will be a little shy of you. People are not fond of having
as their intimates persons about whom the police are inquiring, and you
will certainly find for a time that you will receive very few
invitations to enter the houses of any Russians. It would be different,
however, if it were known that the trouble was about something that had
no connection with politics; therefore, I should advise you, when you
are asked questions, to turn it off with a laugh. Say you got mixed up
in an affair between a young lady and her lover, and that, like many
other people, you found that those who mingle in such matters often get
left in the lurch. You need not say much more than that. You might do
anything here without your friends troubling much about it provided it
had nothing to do with politics. Rob a bank, perpetrate a big swindle,
run away with a c