Читать книгу When I Was Czar онлайн

40 страница из 105

I winced and my face clouded, and I wished my Imperial character at the bottom of the Black Sea. She was quick to notice the change.

“I have offended you. How?” There was eagerness in her eyes.

“No. I have offended myself, that’s all,” I returned with a little sigh of vexation.

“You are hard to understand,” she murmured softly.

“Without the key to the riddle, yes;” and once more we lapsed into silence. During the pause she resumed her seat.

“M. Boreski should be here now, monsieur,” she said at length, a notable difference in her tone. “You are going to grant his request?”

“I have come to obtain the papers he holds.”

“I fear you will find him difficult to deal with after the police incident to-night. Police spies are to him an abomination. You had none yesterday. Why do you run such risks as to travel quite unattended?”

“I ran no risk. No one knew me,” I answered, rather embarrassed.

“I knew you.”

“Against what were you warning me?”

She read suspicion in the question.

“I am not a Nihilist; but Russia is Russia.”