Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 183: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HER ROYAL LOVER. 175 “Wouldst thou recognize her? Couldst thou, if necessary, describe her to me?” “'To describe her to you,” said the child, “would be very difficult for me, for all nurses resemble each other.” Dimitri Feodorowitch smiled at this ingenuous re- mark, correct enough, however. “But if thou wast to see this woman?” “Then, I would recognize her, perhaps.” “But what did she say to thee?” “That it was necessary that this note should be given to Monsieur le Ambassadeur without losing a single instant. It was even because she insisted so much that, to arrive more speedily in the vestibule where Vassili generally is, that I had no time to look at her closely.” “Did she appear uneasy—agitated >” “Oh, yes! she came running; she was even so breathless that she could scarcely speak.” “ And when thou hadst taken her letter, what did she do?” “She fled like an arrow; that astonished me very much.” The commencement of this inquiry, of no impor- tance to any one but Bolski, was a good deal to him in informing him how many difficulties he would have to encounter. He had hoped that the bearer of the letter was a porter, the ordinary messenger in such cases; and, then, it would be very easy to dis- cover the author. The number of hired porters, wearing badges, was restricted in the residence; while there were many nurses in the city! But it was all the same, even in this labyrinth of girls of the lower classes, he would attain his object. Then he had not only this string to his bow. The most eomicbooks:com