第38章

"In any case, it is necessary, you must understand, that she should attach no more importance to what you have done to-night than to the things she knows of your doing other nights.It is not the first time, is it, that you have wandered in the sitting-room?

You understand me? And to-morrow, madame, embrace her as you always have.""No, not that," she moaned."Never that.I could not.""Why not?"

Matrena did not reply.She wept.He took her in his arms like a child consoling its mother.

"Don't cry.Don't cry.All is not lost.Someone did leave the villa this morning.""Oh, little domovoi! How is that? How is that? How did you find that out?""Since we didn't find anything inside, it was certainly necessary to find something outside.""And you have found it?"

"Certainly."

"The Virgin protect you!"

"SHE is with us.She will not desert us.I will even say that Ibelieve she has a special guardianship over the Isles.She watches over them from evening to morning.""What are you saying?"

"Certainly.You don't know what we call in France 'the watchers of the Virgin'?""Oh, yes, they are the webs that 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 have come.He only comes when there is no one downstairs.""Ah, Saints Peter and Paul pity a poor woman.Who do you think it is, then? Who do you think it is? I can't think any more.Tell me, tell me that.You ought to know - you know everything.Come - who? I demand the truth.Who? Still some agent of the Committee, of the Central Committee? Still the Nihilists?""If it was only that!" said Rouletabille quietly.

"You have sworn to drive me mad! What do you mean by your 'if it was only that'?"Rouletabille, imperturbable, did not reply.

"What have you done with the potion?" said he.

"The potion? The glass of the crime! I have locked it in my room, in the cupboard - safe, safe!""Ah, but, madame, it is necessary to replace it where you took it from.""What!"

"Yes, after having poured the poison into a phial, to wash the glass and fill it with another potion.""You are right.You think of everything.If the general wakes and wants his potion, he must not be suspicious of anything, and he must be able to have his drink.""It is not necessary that he should drink.""Well, then, why have the drink there?"

"So that the person can be sure, madame, that if he has not drunk it is simply because he has not wished to.A pure chance, madame, that he is not poisoned.You understand me this time?""Yes, yes.0 Christ! But how now, if the general wakes and wishes to drink his narcotic?""Tell him I forbid it.And here is another thing you must do.

When - Someone - comes into the general's chamber, in the morning, you must quite openly and naturally throw out the potion, useless and vapid, you see, and so Someone will have no right to be astonished that the general continues to enjoy excellent health.""Yes, yes, little one; you are wiser than King Solomon.And what will I do with the phial of poison?""Bring it to me."

"Right away."

She went for it and returned five minutes later.

"He is still asleep.I have put the glass on the table, out of his reach.He will have to call me.""Very good.Then push the door to, close it; we have to talk things over.""But if someone goes back up the servants' staircase?""Be easy about that.They think the general is poisoned already.

It is the first care-free moment I have been able to enjoy in this house.""When will you stop making me shake with horror, little demon! You keep your secret well, I must say.The general is sleeping better than if he 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."