oile. Though a
very smart staff of servants was reserved for her exclusive use, her
favourite attendant was a pretty Circassian, in whom she had absolute
confidence. This Nadine was a native of Southern Russia. The movement of
city life and civilised manners and customs had at first terrified this
little savage; but she had learned to adapt herself to her changed
surroundings, and was now high in the favour of Princess Sonia. She, and
she alone, was authorised to be present when the beautiful great lady
took her daily baths. For some years past the Princess had insisted on
the presence of a maid when she took her baths: without fail they must
either be in the bathroom itself, or in the room next to it, within
reach or call. But on this particular evening Sonia Danidoff, more
nervous and restless than usual, would not allow Nadine to leave her for
a second. As to the time--well, if she did not know the exact time it
could not be helped! Really it did not matter to her whether she were
half an hour or no, for the ball given in her honour by Thomery, the
millionaire sugar refiner: in fact, it would be much better to make her
appearance after all the guests had assembled--her arrival would give
the crowning touch of brilliancy to this society function.

Sonia Danidoff had pronounced the word "anniversary" in a tone of
anguish so sincere that Nadine was genuinely alarmed. She knew, only too
well, what this fatal word meant to her mistress.

She had not forgotten that five years ago to the day, just when the
Princess was enjoying her evening bath, a mysterious individual had
appeared before her, who, after frightening her, had robbed her of a
large sum of money. The adventure would have been little out of the
ordinary, for hotel robberies are frequent, had not the audacious bandit
been quickly identified as the enigmatic and elusive Fantomas, whose
prodigious reputation had only increased with the passage of the years.

Sonia Danidoff, who was not ignorant of the dramatic adventures imputed
to this legendary hero, could not bear to think of the position she had
been placed in that awful night, when, threatened and robbed by
Fantomas, she had escaped death by a series of unknown and unguessable
circumstances: the tormenting mystery of it all had preyed insistently
upon her mind. Since then Sonia Danidoff had never taken a bath without
thinking of Fantomas; and every year when the anniversary of his
aggression came round she