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I had hit on the right words first time, and Yossof, evidently relieved, nodded, and repeated them after me, giving a queer inflection to the French. "And where is she, the gracious lady herself?" I asked. It was with an effort that I forced myself to speak quietly; for my heart was thumping against my ribs, and my throat felt dry as bone dust.
"I had quite a good time, and met an old acquaintance." "Who gave you much interesting news?" he asked, with a sardonic inflection of his deep voice that made me guess Yossof had told him what passed at our interview. "Why, no; I can't say that he did that," I confessed.
Just when all hope seemed lost the deliverance came; and the wreck that remains of the Countess Anna Pendennis was brought here, less than three months ago; and " He broke off as the woman servant Yossof had spoken of as Natalya hurried into the room and unceremoniously beckoned him out. He rose at once and followed her, but turned at the door.
I have been thanking God in my heart ever since. She never knew me; she knew none of us, but Yossof; and that only because he had been near her in that dreadful place. You saw her just for a moment; you saw something of what those long years had made of her, and we my God, we had thought her dead all that time!"
"Yossof is here, Excellency," he announced, so he evidently knew my man. I nodded and motioned him out of the room, for he hovered around as if he wanted to stay.
"The Countess Anna she was Grand Duchess then, though we never addressed her so made her plan speedily, as she ever did. She slipped away, with only her cousin Stepán and I. My master did not know. He thought she was in her cabin after dinner. "We rowed swiftly up the river, the tide was near flood, and I waited in the boat while they went to Selinski's; Yossof had given them the key.
On the weed-grown path beside him lay a revolver, as if he had dropped it out of his hand when he started to unbar the gates. "What has happened, Yossof?" Anne asked urgently. "Nothing; all is well, Excellency," he answered. "I rode and gave the word as the order was, and when I reached the town the madness had begun, so I did not enter, but came on hither.
"No, it was Stepán Vassilitzi who killed him, and he deserved it, the hound! I had somewhat to do with it also; for I had come to London in advance, and was to rejoin the yacht that night. Near the bridge at Westminster whom should I meet but Yossof, whom I thought to be in Russia; and he told me that which made me bundle him into a cab and drive straight to Greenwich.
"It is Yossof," Anne exclaimed. "How comes he here alone? Where is my mother, Yossof?" I started as I heard that. Her mother was alive, then, though Anne had said she could not remember her, and Treherne had told me she died soon after her arrest, more than twenty years back. "She is within and safe; Natalya is with her," came Yossof's quavering voice, as he labored to unbar the gates.
Mishka glanced sharply at me, muttered something about returning soon, and followed Yossof, closing the door behind him and shooting the outer bolt. "Will you never learn wisdom?" demanded Mishka, when, after a few minutes, he returned. "Why could you not rest here in safety?" "Because I wanted to walk some of my stiffness off," I replied coolly.
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