as hesitating, for I knew that
he really liked me. But I also knew that he loved the princess, and
that he was jealous, for I had done an unprecedented thing in taking
her to his house under the circumstances. For a woman to commit herself
to the care of a man in the way the princess had trusted herself to me,
meant much more in Russia than it does in New York. The prince could
find no excuse for the act; still less for my delay in following him
when he left his own house in our possession. Presently he spoke. His
words came slowly and with careful deliberation.

"What I say now, Mr. Derrington, you may accept in whatsoever spirit
you please, but upon my soul _I do not believe you_!"

I bowed, and we entered the cabinet together.

CHAPTER XX

IN DEFIANCE OF THE CZAR

In all the interviews I had had with the czar during the many months of
my association with him he had maintained the condition that he had
himself made at the beginning, which was that we should meet on the
basis of friends and equals. Whenever we were alone together he
commanded me to forget that we were other than two friends who were
enjoying an opportunity for a chat with each other, and as at such
times we invariably conversed in French, he always insisted that I
should address him by the simple term "monsieur." When the prince was
with us, as was nearly always the case, the degree of familiarity was
slightly, though hardly perceptibly modified, and I must say that I had
learned to enjoy such occasions exceedingly.

For Alexander I had begun to feel a sincere affection. I doubt if there
was any other man in Russia who understood him so thoroughly as I did.
During these familiar hours we had passed together he had told me many
things concerning himself, his ideas, and his hopes; and these
confidences had revealed the real man--that is, the man behind the
czar--to me, and I knew that of the thousands of crimes attributed to
him only a few had ever come to his knowledge until it was too late for
him to interfere, or too impolitic for him to do so. Intellectually, he
was not preponderant; indeed he was rather deficient in this respect;
but he was naturally a kindly disposed man, and at the beginning of his
reign, and indeed through more than half of it, he proved that fact to
the people. It was just before the time of my arrival in St. Petersburg
that he allowed himself to fall more and more into the power of the
nobles who in reality ruled