i-doukh appear in flesh and
blood. When she was little she was always afraid that she would come
upon him around a turn of the path in her father's garden. She always
thought of him as no higher than that, seated back on his haunches and
smoking his pipe. Then, after she was married, she had suddenly run
across him at a turning in the bazaar at Moscow. He was just as she
had imagined him, and she had immediately bought him, carried him
home herself and placed him, with many precautions, for he was of very
delicate porcelain, in the vestibule of the palace. And in leaving
Moscow she had been careful not to leave him there. She had carried him
herself in a case and had placed him herself on the lawn of the datcha
des Iles, that he might continue to watch over her happiness and over
the life of her Feodor. And in order that he should not be bored,
eternally smoking his pipe all alone, she had surrounded him with a
group of little porcelain genii, after the fashion of the Jardins des
Iles. Lord! how that young Frenchman had frightened her, rising suddenly
like that, without warning, on the lawn. She had believed for a moment
that it was the domovoi-doukh himself rising to stretch his legs.
Happily he had spoken at once and she had recognized his voice. And
besides, her domovoi surely would not speak French. Ah! Matrena Petrovna
breathed freely now. It seemed to her, this night, that there were two
little familiar genii watching over the house. And that was worth more
than all the police in the world, surely. How wily that little fellow
was to order all those men away. There was something it was necessary
to know; it was necessary therefore that nothing should be in the way
of learning it. As things were now, the mystery could operate without
suspicion or interference. Only one man watched it, and he had not the
air of watching. Certainly Rouletabille had not the air of constantly
watching anything. He had the manner, out in the night, of an easy
little man in porcelain, neither more nor less, yet he could
see everything--if anything were there to see--and he could hear
everything--if there were anything to hear. One passed beside him
without suspecting him, and men might talk to each other without an idea
that he heard them, and even talk to themselves according to the habit
people have sometimes when they think themselves quite alone. All the
guests had departed thus, passing close by him, almost brushing him,
had exchanged