t the dear little beasts of the good God
spin between the trees and that..."

"Exactly. You understand me and you will understand further when you
know that in the garden the first thing that struck me across the face
as I went into it was these watchers of the Virgin spun by the dear
little spiders of the good God. At first when I felt them on my face I
said to myself, 'Hold on, no one has passed this way,' and so I went to
search other places. The webs stopped me everywhere in the garden. But,
outside the garden, they kept out of the way and let me pass undisturbed
down a pathway which led to the Neva. So then I said to myself, 'Now,
has the Virgin by accident overlooked her work in this pathway? Surely
not. Someone has ruined it.' I found the shreds of them hanging to the
bushes, and so I reached the river."

"And you threw yourself into the river, my dear angel. You swim like a
little god."

"And I landed where the other landed. Yes, there were the reeds all
freshly broken. And I slipped in among the bushes."

"Where to?"

"Up to the Villa Krestowsky, madame--where they both live."

"Ah, it was from there someone came?"

There was a silence between them.

She questioned:

"Boris?"

"Someone who came from the villa and who returned there. Boris or
Michael, or another. They went and returned through the reeds. But in
coming they used a boat; they returned by swimming."

Her customary agitation reasserted itself.

She demanded ardently:

"And you are sure that he came here and that he left here?"

"Yes, I am sure of it."

"How?"

"By the sitting-room window."

"It is impossible, for we found it locked."

"It is possible, if someone closed it behind him."

"Ah!"

She commenced to tremble again, and, falling back into her nightmarish
horror, she no longer wasted fond expletives on her domovoi as on a dear
little angel who had just rendered a service ten times more precious to
her than life. While he listened patiently, she said brutally:

"Why did you keep me from throwing myself on him, from rushing upon him
as he opened the door? Ah, I would have, I would have... we would know."

"No. At the least noise he would have closed the door. A turn of the key
and he would have escaped forever. And he would have been warned."

"Careless boy! Why then, if you knew he was going to come, didn't you
leave me in the bedroom and you watch below yourself?"

"Because so long as I was below he would not h