iage,
about poverty which could always knock at the door of any mansion,
remarks that I was able to overhear between Natacha and Boris Mourazoff,
which to him meant nothing, put me definitely on the right road. And I
was not long in ascertaining that the negotiations in this formidable
affair were taking place in the very house of Trebassof! Pursued without
by the incessant spying of Koupriane, who sought to surprise her
in company with the Nihilists, watched closely, too, by the jealous
supervision of Boris, who was jealous of Michael Nikolaievitch, she
had to seize the only opportunities possible for such negotiations, at
night, in her own home, the sole place where, by the very audacity of
it, she was able to play her part in any security.

"Michael Nikolaievitch knew Annouchka. There was certainly the point of
departure for the negotiations which that felon-officer, traitor to
all sides, worked at will toward the realization of his own infamous
project. I do not think that Michael ever confided to Natacha that
he was, from the very first, the instrument of the revolutionaries.
Natacha, who sought to get in touch with the revolutionary party, had
to entrust him with a correspondence for Annouchka, following which he
assumed direction of the affair, deceiving the Nihilists, who, in
their absolute penury, following the revolt, had been seduced by the
proposition of General Trebassof's daughter, and deceiving Natacha,
whom he pretended to love and by whom he believed himself loved. At this
point in the affair Natacha came to understand that it was necessary to
propitiate Michael Nikolaievitch, her indispensable intermediary, and
she managed to do it so well that Boris Mourazoff felt the blackest
jealousy. On his side, Michael came to believe that Natacha would
have no other husband than himself, but he did not propose to marry a
penniless girl! And, fatally, it followed that Natacha, in that infernal
intrigue, negotiated for the life of her father through the agency of a
man who, underhandedly, sought to strike at the general himself, because
the immediate death of her father before the negotiation was completed
would enrich Natacha, who had given Michael so much to hope. That
frightful tragedy, Sire, in which we have lived our most painful hours,
appeared to me, confident of Natacha's innocence, as absolutely simple
as for the others it seemed complicated. Natacha believed she had in
Michael Nikolaievitch a man who wor