d. "But if
I could bring myself to think that for a single day I would rather be
dead."

The good Matrena Petrovna lifted her beautiful eyes to Rouletabille,
brimming with the tears she held back.

She added quickly:

"But eat now, my dear guest; eat. My dear child, you must forget what
Koupriane has said to you, when you are back in France."

"I promise you that, madame."

"It is the Emperor who has caused you this long journey. For me, I
did not wish it. Has he, indeed, so much confidence in you?" she asked
naively, gazing at him fixedly through her tears.

"Madame, I was just about to tell you. I have been active in some
important matters that have been reported to him, and then sometimes
your Emperor is allowed to see the papers. He has heard talk, too (for
everybody talked of them, madame), about the Mystery of the Yellow Room
and the Perfume of the Lady in Black."

Here Rouletabille watched Madame Trebassof and was much mortified at the
undoubted ignorance that showed in her frank face of either the yellow
room or the black perfume.

"My young friend," said she, in a voice more and more hesitant, "you
must excuse me, but it is a long time since I have had good eyes for
reading."

Tears, at last, ran down her cheeks.

Rouletabille could not restrain himself any further. He saw in one flash
all this heroic woman had suffered in her combat day by day with the
death which hovered. He took her little fat hands, whose fingers were
overloaded with rings, tremulously into his own:

"Madame, do not weep. They wish to kill your husband. Well then, we will
be two at least to defend him, I swear to you."

"Even against the Nihilists!"

"Aye, madame, against all the world. I have eaten all your caviare. I am
your guest. I am your friend."

As he said this he was so excited, so sincere and so droll that Madame
Trebassof could not help smiling through her tears. She made him sit
down beside her.

"The Chief of Police has talked of you a great deal. He came here
abruptly after the last attack and a mysterious happening that I will
tell you about. He cried, 'Ah, we need Rouletabille to unravel this!'
The next day he came here again. He had gone to the Court. There,
everybody, it appears, was talking of you. The Emperor wished to know
you. That is why steps were taken through the ambassador at Paris."

"Yes, yes. And naturally all the world has learned of it. That makes it
so lively. The Nihilists warned me im