really were poisoned. But what shall we do about Natacha? I dare ask you
that--you and you alone."

"Nothing at all."

"How--nothing?"

"We will watch her..."

"Ah, yes, yes."

"Still, Matrena, you let me watch her by myself."

"Yes, yes, I promise you. I will not pay any attention to her. That
is promised. That is promised. Do as you please. Why, just now, when I
spoke of the Nihilists to you, did you say, 'If it were only that!'? You
believe, then, that she is not a Nihilist? She reads such things--things
like on the barricades..."

"Madame, madame, you think of nothing but Natacha. You have promised me
not to watch her; promise me not to think about her."

"Why, why did you say, 'If it was only that!'?"

"Because, if there were only Nihilists in your affair, dear madame, it
would be too simple, or, rather, it would have been more simple. Can
you possibly believe, madame, that simply a Nihilist, a Nihilist who was
only a Nihilist, would take pains that his bomb exploded from a vase of
flowers?--that it would have mattered where, so long as it overwhelmed
the general? Do you imagine that the bomb would have had less effect
behind the door than in front of it? And the little cavity under the
floor, do you believe that a genuine revolutionary, such as you have
here in Russia, would amuse himself by penetrating to the villa only
to draw out two nails from a board, when one happens to give him
time between two visits to the dining-room? Do you suppose that a
revolutionary who wished to avenge the dead of Moscow and who could
succeed in getting so far as the door behind which General Trebassof
slept would amuse himself by making a little hole with a pin in order
to draw back the bolt and amuse himself by pouring poison into a glass?
Why, in such a case, he would have thrown his bomb outright, whether it
blew him up along with the villa, or he was arrested on the spot, or had
to submit to the martyrdom of the dungeons in the Fortress of SS. Peter
and Paul, or be hung at Schlusselburg. Isn't that what always happens?
That is the way he would have done, and not have acted like a hotel-rat!
Now, there is someone in your home (or who comes to your home) who acts
like a hotel-rat because he does not wish to be seen, because he does
not wish to be discovered, because he does not wish to be taken in the
act. Now, the moment that he fears nothing so much as to be taken in
the act, so that he plays all these tricks of le