The Argosy — page 298: what you’re looking at

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

The Missing Rubies. 279 intensely bright, were fixed on Madame Valerot with a look that seemed to freeze the blood in her veins. For some time she stared at that face with a fascinated gaze, haunted by a terrible sense of its familiarity. Who was thisman? Would he never speak? Was he a human being, or a dreadful apparition, summoned back, by her fear-stricken conscience, from the far-past ? ‘ Paulina Lorenski,” said the man, in a deep, stern voice, “do you know who I am? Can you utter my name ?” ‘Oh, no, no!” she cried, suddenly rising, and retreating to the very wall of the room. “It cannot be you! Let me go! Let me pil: 4 ; She turned towards the wall, and tried to cling to it in wild terror, uttering piteous cries for help all the while. The other man stepped up to her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. “If you cry out again, you are a dead woman,” he said, hissing the words into her ear. ‘‘No help is near. Long before anyone can get to this room we shall have killed you. Silence, if you do not want to die without a moment’s preparation.” ) An agonised sob burst from her white lips ; and then came a word that sounded lke ‘‘ Mercy.” Mercy !” echoed the first speaker, scornfully. ‘‘ What mercy did you show to the old man, who welcomed you to his house with a warm heart? What mercy did you show to the poor girls who believed in you as a sister, and trusted you with the secrets of their father and lover? What mercy did you show to the young man, whose letter you stole? You, the traitress, the paid spy of the accursed Muscovite—do you dare to speak of mercy ?” At these words, which seemed to leave her no hope, Madame Valerot raised herself, and looked pleadingly at her judges with wild brown eyes. “Oh, forgive me!” she panted. ‘‘I was forced by Count Gradi- zoff to do all that I did! It was not of my own free will that I betrayed my friends. And I did not—I swear that I did not know —how severely they would be dealt with. You are so changed, John Wouriski, that I did not recognise you at first. But now that I look at your face, I remember all your kindness in the past. I loved you all—I call God and his saints to witness that I loved you all—and I hated, from my very soul, the part that I was made to play.” ‘‘ How is it, then, that one who hated the part so much should play it still?” demanded Stavieski, with a bitter laugh. ‘‘ How long is it since you have taken the pay of the Muscovite, Paulina ?” “TI do not know you—lI cannot recollect you,” said Madame Valerot, with a confused glance at him. ‘What harm have I done you, that you should be so harsh to me? ” “Have you forgotten that Paul Stavieski had a brother?” asked Michael, with a terrible look. ‘I am that brother; and I have lived to avenge him.” COM () NOOKS an