whom the woman before me had led
to his doom, though she had not struck the blow.

In spite of myself, a momentary shudder went through me.

The sensitive woman saw or felt it, and shook in her turn.

"Believe me or not, as you will," she exclaimed desperately. "I
swear to you that I have never knowingly been guilty of taking life.

"Never for one moment did I anticipate that that poor man would do
what he did," the Princess went on with passionate earnestness. "I
tempted him to give me the Czar's letter, and I destroyed it--I
confess that. Are not such things done every day in secret politics?
Have you never intercepted a despatch?"

It was a suggestive question. I thought of more than one incident in
my own career which might be harshly received by a strict moralist.
It is true that I have always been engaged on what I believed was a
lawful task; but the due execution of that task had sometimes
involved actions which I should have shrunk from in private life.

"I will not excuse myself, Madame," I answered slowly. "Neither have
I accused you."

"Your tone is an accusation," she returned with a touch of
bitterness. "Oh, I know well that men are ready to pardon many things
in one another which they will not pardon in us."

"I am sorry if I have wounded you," I said with real compunction.
"Let us say no more about the tragedy that is past. Am I right in
thinking that you have come to me for aid?"

"I do not know. I do not know why I am here. Perhaps it is because I
am mad."

I gazed at her flushed face and trembling hands, unable to resist the
feeling of compassion which was creeping over me.

What was I to think? What was this woman's real purpose in coming to
me?

Had her employers, had the unscrupulous Petrovitch, or the ruthless
Minister of Police, indeed charged her to remove me from their path;
and had her courage broken down under the hideous burden?

Or was this merely a ruse to win my confidence; or, perhaps, to
frighten me into resigning my task and leaving the Russian capital?

Did she wish to save my life, or her own?

I sat regarding her, bewildered by these conjectures.

I saw that I must get her to say more.

"At least you have come to aid me," I protested. "You have given me a
warning for which I cannot be sufficiently grateful."

"If you believe it is a genuine one," she retorted. Already she had
divined my difficulties and doubts.

"I do not doubt that you mean it genuinely," I h