The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 1 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

94 BY RIGHT OF SWORD. what had passed ; and when I came to that part of the interview that imme- diately concerned herself, she was very bitter and angry. | “You think I am a pawn to be moved where you like in your game: of no account and the meanest thing on the board. You and he are both alike in that—but wait. Your life is mine, Alexis. I have told you.’’ ‘But you must surely see that the first consideration must be all our lives—to say nothing of our safety,’’ I answered rather roughly, I fear, and very unsympathetically. Her heroics rasped me. ‘‘ What good is your living going to do me if your husband shuts me up ina dungeon, or sends mie dancing to Siberia, or causes a dagger to let out my life blood ?”’ ‘“ You mean to keep the word you gave him? ’’ ‘* Certainly, so long as he keeps his.’’ She fixed her large, lustrous eyes on me, and let them rest on me during a long silence. ‘“You and he together will drive me to some desperate deed,’’ she said at length, very slowly. ‘‘’Then perhaps you will learn what a love like mine will dare for your sake. I cannot and will not bear this separation.”’ She wearied me with these protests, but I said nothing, and went on fo question her as to whether there was any power behind her husband influ- encing him in regard to me. She knew nothing, but admitted that she had her suspicions. I next told her that while he was trying to assassinate me, she might find the tables turned on him, as there was a Nihilist plot on foot to murder him. She paid little heed to it at first, saying that there had been many such schemes formed, all of which had proved abortive, because he was most carefully and continuously guarded. A moment later, however, her manner changed a little, and she questioned me somewhat closely concerning the matter. : ‘“They don’t choose their agents shrewdly in these things,’’ she said, ‘‘and we hear too soon of their designs. ‘They should choose a man like you, Alexis.’’ She seemed to speak with a hidden meaning, and I was doubtful whether she knew anything; but I kept my doubts to myself. ‘“ Tf they had done that, I had a rare chance tonight,’’ I answered. ‘A bold man or a reckless woman makes the chance,’’ she retorted in the same manner. ‘‘I am going, Alexis,’’ she added, and then forced on me caresses which were vastly repulsive. But I could not reveal my true feelings until I had at any rate placed Olga in safety. My indifference and coldness were apparent to the woman, and she upbraided me with a burst of angry passion till I had to patch up a sort of peace. We went back to Olga and soon afterwards drove away, Olga and I set- ting the other down at her door. So long as Madame Tueski was with us, Olga maintained the part of the impatient sister; but as soon as we were alone her manner changed altogether. ‘‘T had to send for you this evening,’’.I said, ‘‘and you saved me from a situation of great difficulty and hazard by Sieh so promptly. I thank you for having done so.’’ Eomichbooks (S@)