Princess Zara

quiet section of the city, where I established myself under the name of Dubravnik; and it was generally understood by those who came in contact with

perience that I could trust; and there was not one Russian among them. The Russian may be trusted always wherever his heart is involved

an, Tom Coyle, who looked like a Russian, established a cab stand on the English plan, and he had a small army of men under him who worked in the same way as Malet's servants. A Frenchman and his wife-their names were St. Cyr-ran a high class intelligence office, and furnished valets, maids, cooks, coachmen, etc., for the best families at the Russian capitol. I had one assistant who taught singing to the nobility, and another who was a master at arms and gave lessons in the science of handling all kinds of weapons. In the less pretentious quarters of the city I had proprietors of f

vnik to be their chief; and it is a perfectly safe statement to say that in all St. Petersburg, nay in all the world at that time, there were but nine persons living who had the least knowledge or ev

ord or two in reference to these

danger that might present itself. By opening the café described, patronized by the elite of the Russian capital he merely followed out a plan long before undertaken in Paris for a like purpose and through the workings of his waiters and other employees he possessed sources of information and facilities for investigation unprecedented in their far reaching possibilities. There is many a whispered word and undertoned conversation carried on at a supper table over the coffee or a bottle of wine which finds its way

ery driver was a minion of his and served him precisely as O'Malley's waiters did their chief; and it may readily be determined that the power thus exerted for making reports, for knowing the distinction and the

o be, you will understand how an employment agency operated for the purposes of espionage can discover and reveal secrets which otherwise might never find their way outside the family circle. There is no written document, no locked bureau drawer, no hidden pocket, no secret hidin

s employees working as spies, it was a comparatively easy matter to intercept letters and m

to detail respecting the sources of the information I made use of, but it will

a noble family then extinct and half forgotten ornamenting my cards and stationery, and introduced by Prince Michael, who was known to be high in favor with the czar, palace doors were thrown wide open to receive

ny times during the months that followed I fell under suspicion. My power was so much greater than theirs that I possessed one abundant advantage, that of knowing their spies; an

epressible leaders of the nihilists were quietly arrested and sent where they would be rendered harmless, and others who were less violent, I left undisturbed and in seeming security, knowing that they would ultimately lead me to the point I wished to atta

a function of more than ordinary prominence. He had stopped at my rooms for a smok

incess?"

rope." He was smiling now, and seemed to take it f

having heard it somewhere before that day. But evide

Russians. Her title is given her by courtesy, from her moth

ui

ly just returned. I paid my respects to her yesterday, and took the liberty of suggesting tha

to discussing her. The rhapsodies concerning her in which the prince

at you were in love

t he was visibly confused, but at last,

aware of it herself; and so, I think, is the whole city. I am a bachelor,

rk was an ill timed pleasantry which yo

nty-

to-morrow-or rather, to-nig

? I will then have the pl

k you

presently made our way among the massed guests to the point where Zara de Echeveria was receiving her friends. On our way to greet her, Prince Michael encountered many

have spent a long time abroad, and prefer to speak English. I am also fond of conversing in that tong

incess

nd Fate brings us sometimes in contact with personalities which at once appeal to a sixth sense which is unexplainable and indefinable, but which seems to comprehend more than the combined five educated and tra

ely an outward and visible sign, and with the Princess Zara, although her beauty was striking, it was the least of her attractions. I had thought that I was born and had lived, devoid of that form of self consciousness which is called diffidence, although it is only an expression of eg

cess

dwell upon or even to speak about; which they preserve jealously, as secrets in their own hearts, selfishly indisposed to acquaint others with them lest some of the magic of the actual moment, reinduced by retrospection, may be lost in the telling. But I could not rec

e beyond visible ken, was the assurance of unspeakable promise; and there seemed to emanat

re. One may be fascinated, attracted, by any one of many qualities, or by all of them combined; one may discover perfection of form or feature, and may accept these suggestions as comprising all that is necessary to en

its reality. He sees and feels and knows. There is no denying the absoluteness of it. It is a perfect knowledge brought home to him with an a

ted frequently as it was quite natural we should be, we two were yet as utterly alone as if we had been s

f it was that we both seemed to realize the truth, although neither o

o at the Russian capitol; but having passed the portals of Zara's palace, and being taken into her presence, made the whole world appear

ing force emanating from her, like the energy of radium, unseen but all powerful, whic

t event. The meeting itself was the event. We had come together from different parts of the world. We were born of different nationalities. We had been nurtured differently, and every i

nd parted then, if we were to be judged from the standpoint and observation of others. To

e many others who were waiting to claim

r. Dubravni

I cannot take to myself all

ill re

en you are l

conversing with a knot of men, and as I glanced backward towards the princess with each pause I made, I always met her eyes f

nged and so suggestive of all things sentimental as to be indescribable. The garden was an Oriental paradise, blooming in the midst of a Russian winter; and I thought with a smile, a dangerous place for a bachelor even though he were alone-for it set him to thinking. As if to render the contrast even greater there was a furious snowstorm raging outside, and I could hear the wind howling and shrieking past the house, and the rattle of the snow as it hurled itself into fragments against the glass covering of the enclosure. I wandered on down the path I had taken as far as the extremity of the garden, and then turned into other paths. I paused once to light a cigar,

question concerning me. She uttered my name in a manne

efore a friend of the czar's. It would be a

ss it another time, Iva

doubtless-they passed on a few steps, and entered another of the Turkish bowers which was the counterpart of the one that concealed me, and they seated themselves so near to me that I could have reached out one hand and touched them had it not been for the intervening screen of tapestry which partitioned the two enclosures.