The Secret of the Night | Page 4

lowered her trembling voice - " of the opinion His Majesty holds. It is
better for me to tell you at once, so that you may not regret intervening
in an affair where there are - where there are - risks - terrible risks to
run. No, this is not a family drama. The family is small, very small: the
general, his daughter Natacha (by his former marriage), and myself.
There could not be a family drama among us three. It is simply about
my husband, monsieur, who did his duty as a soldier in defending the
throne of his sovereign, my husband whom they mean to assassinate!
There is nothing else, no other situation, my dear little guest."
To hide her distress she started to carve a slice of jellied veal and

carrot.
"You have not eaten, you are hungry. It is dreadful, my dear young man.
See, you must dine with us, and then - you will say adieu. Yes, you will
leave me all alone. I will undertake to save him all alone. Certainly, I
will undertake it."
A tear fell on the slice she was cutting. Rouletabille, who felt the brave
woman's emotion affecting him also, braced himself to keep from
showing it.
"I am able to help you a little all the same," he said. "Monsieur
Koupriane has told me that there is a deep mystery. It is my vocation to
get to the bottom of mysteries."
"I know what Koupriane thinks," she said, shaking her head. "But if I
could bring myself to think that for a single day I would rather be
dead."
The good Matrena Petrovna lifted her beautiful eyes to Rouletabille,
brimming with the tears she held back.
She added quickly:
"But eat now, my dear guest; eat. My dear child, you must forget what
Koupriane has said to you, when you are back in France."
"I promise you that, madame."
"It is the Emperor who has caused you this long journey. For me, I did
not wish it. Has he, indeed, so much confidence in you?" she asked
naively, gazing at him fixedly through her tears.
"Madame, I was just about to tell you. I have been active in some
important matters that have been reported to him, and then sometimes
your Emperor is allowed to see the papers. He has heard talk, too (for
everybody talked of them, madame), about the Mystery of the Yellow
Room and the Perfume of the Lady in Black."

Here Rouletabille watched Madame Trebassof and was much mortified
at the undoubted ignorance that showed in her frank face of either the
yellow room or the black perfume.
"My young friend," said she, in a voice more and more hesitant, "you
must excuse me, but it is a long time since I have had good eyes for
reading."
Tears, at last, ran down her cheeks.
Rouletabille could not restrain himself any further. He saw in one flash
all this heroic woman had suffered in her combat day by day with the
death which hovered. He took her little fat hands, whose fingers were
overloaded with rings, tremulously into his own:
"Madame, do not weep. They wish to kill your husband. Well then, we
will be two at least to defend him, I swear to you."
"Even against the Nihilists!"
"Aye, madame, against all the world. I have eaten all your caviare. I am
your guest. I am your friend."
As he said this he was so excited, so sincere and so droll that Madame
Trebassof could not help smiling through her tears. She made him sit
down beside her.
"The Chief of Police has talked of you a great deal. He came here
abruptly after the last attack and a mysterious happening that I will tell
you about. He cried, 'Ah, we need Rouletabille to unravel this!' The
next day he came here again. He had gone to the Court. There,
everybody, it appears, was talking of you. The Emperor wished to
know you. That is why steps were taken through the ambassador at
Paris."
"Yes, yes. And naturally all the world has learned of it. That makes it
so lively. The Nihilists warned me immediately that I would not reach
Russia alive. That, finally, was what decided me on coming. I am

naturally very contrary."
"And how did you get through the journey?"
"Not badly. I discovered at once in the train a young Slav assigned to
kill me, and I reached an understanding with him. He was a charming
youth, so it was easily arranged."
Rouletabille was eating away now at strange viands that it would have
been difficult for him to name. Matrena Petrovna laid her fat little hand
on his arm:
"You speak seriously?"
"Very seriously."
"A small glass of vodka?"
"No alcohol."
Madame