The wholesale arrests which I had ordered for that night, I had long
had under consideration, and that I had decided to make them a little
sooner than was my first intention, was due in part to the danger
surrounding the princess; in part to my own suddenly formed
determination to complete my business there and return to the United
States; and lastly, to the fact that the last few reports that I had
received so nearly completed the knowledge I had striven to attain,
that I came to the conclusion that my work was about done, and that it
was time to draw the net. My salary was enormous, and already amounted
to a competence, and I knew that if I remained in Russia, sooner or
later somebody would find me out; and then there would be short shrift
for me, between the nihilists on one hand, and the jealous nobility on
the other, for the latter saw in me nothing but an interloper who had
stolen their prerogatives.
My first business on leaving the emperor, was to call upon Jean Morét,
for now his usefulness was past, and the time had come for me to keep
my word with him, and set him free. Somewhere in the world he would be
able to find a safe haven of shelter from the enemies who would claim
vengeance; and now, after my net was drawn this night, there would be
few active nihilists remaining to seek his life.
"Well, Jean," I said, as I entered the room where he was confined,
"would you like to leave prison and Russia?"
"Indeed I would, sir," he replied. "There is nothing that would make me
quite so happy as that. Has the time come to let me go?"
"I think so. Are you quite sure that there is nothing that would make
you as happy as permission and passports to leave the country?"
"Quite."
"Not even----"
"No, not even that to which you refer, or are about to refer. I have
had plenty of time for thought, since you brought me here, and I have
unraveled the fact that I made a consummate fool of myself. I will not
deny that I still love her, or that I probably always will love her,
but I know that she never did, and never will, love me. That ends it,
you see, and so I am glad to get away."
"Was it the princess, Jean?" I asked.
"You have been very good to me, Mr. Derrington, and I ought to deny you
nothing. Still I hope you will not ask me to tell you anything
concerning the woman I was foolish enough to love so madly."
"I honor you for that expression, Jean, and I will ask you only one
question. You can reply to it readily enough. Do you love her still,
and well enough, so that you wish her every happiness? So well that you
cherish no ill will against her for what she did to you?"