y a messenger
at five o'clock." He made each syllable explicit. "Very important and
requiring an immediate reply."

These notes of Rouletabille's are not followed by any commentary.

After luncheon the gentlemen played poker until half-past four, which
is the "chic" hour for the promenade to the head of the island.
Rouletabille had directed Matrena to start exactly at a quarter to five.
He appeared in the meantime, announcing that he had just interviewed
the mayor of St. Petersburg, which made Athanase laugh, who could not
understand that anyone would come clear from Paris to talk with men like
that. Natacha came from her chamber to join them for the promenade. Her
father told her she looked too worried.

They left the villa. Rouletabille noted that the dvornicks were before
the gate and that the schwitzar was at his post, from which he could
detect everyone who might enter or leave the villa. Matrena pushed the
rolling-chair herself. The general was radiant. He had Natacha at his
right and at his left Athanase and Thaddeus. The two orderlies followed,
talking with Rouletabille, who had monopolized them. The conversation
turned on the devotion of Matrena Petrovna, which they placed above the
finest heroic traits in the women of antiquity, and also on Natacha's
love for her father. Rouletabille made them talk.

Boris Mourazoff explained that this exceptional love was accounted for
by the fact that Natacha's own mother, the general's first wife, died in
giving birth to their daughter, and accordingly Feodor Feodorovitch had
been both father and mother to his daughter. He had raised her with the
most touching care, not permitting anyone else, when she was sick, to
have the care of passing the nights by her bedside.

Natacha was seven years old when Feodor Feodorovitch was appointed
governor of Orel. In the country near Orel, during the summer, the
general and his daughter lived on neighborly terms near the family of
old Petroff, one of the richest fur merchants in Russia. Old Petroff
had a daughter, Matrena, who was magnificent to see, like a beautiful
field-flower. She was always in excellent humor, never spoke ill of
anyone in the neighborhood, and not only had the fine manners of a
city dame but a great, simple heart, which she lavished on the little
Natacha.

The child returned the affection of the beautiful Matrena, and it was
on seeing them always happy to find themselves together that Trebassof
dreamed of ree