nd came here. But
I have waited ten days, and it was only last night I saw in the papers
that you had arrived yesterday morning. And here I am."

Margaret rose, from a feeling that she must move about--the restless
fiend that seizes energetic people in their trouble. Nicholas thought it
was a sign for him to go. He took his hat.

"Believe me--" he began, about to take his leave.

"You are not going?" said Margaret. "Oh no. Wait, and we will think of
some expedient. Besides you have not told me half what I want to know.
The money is of no consequence; but what had you done to lead to such a
sentence? Are you really a Nihilist?"

"Dieu m'en garde!" said the Count devoutly. "I am a Republican, that is
all. Seulement, our Holy Russia does not distinguish."

"Is not the distinction very subtle?"

"The difference between salvation by education and salvation by
dynamite; the difference between building up and tearing down, between
Robespierre and Monsieur Washington."

"You must have been indiscreet. How could they have found it out?"

"I was bete enough to write an article in the _Russki Mir_--the mildest
of articles. And then some of the Nihilist agents thought I was in their
interests and wanted to see me, and the police observed them, and I was
at once classed as a Nihilist myself, and there was a perquisition in my
house. They found some notes and a few manuscripts of mine, quite enough
to suit their purpose, and so the game was up."

"But they did not arrest you?"

"No. As luck would have it, I was in Berlin at the time, on leave from
my regiment, for I was never suspected before in the least. And the
Nihilists, who, to tell the truth, are well organised and take good care
of their brethren, succeeded in passing word to me not to come back. A
few days afterwards the Russian Embassy were hunting for me in Berlin.
But I had got away. Sentence was passed in contempt, and I read the news
in the papers on my way to Paris. There is the whole history."

"Have you any money?" inquired Margaret after a pause.

"Mon Dieu! I have still a hundred napoleons. After that the deluge."

"By that time we shall be ready for the deluge," said Margaret
cheerfully. "I have many friends, and something may yet be done.
Meanwhile do not distress yourself about me; you know I have something
of my own."

"How can I thank you for your kindness? You ought to hate me, and
instead you console!"

"My dear friend, if I did not like you