“I do not myself know it. It is written on a piece of paper inside that envelope, and I have to ask you to open the envelope, read the word, and then destroy the paper in my presence.”
I shrugged my shoulders as I proceeded to break the seal. But no sooner did my eyes fall on the word within, and above all on the handwriting in which that word was written, than I experienced a sensation of admiring pleasure.
“Tell the writer, if you please, my lord, that I am grateful for this mark of confidence, which I shall endeavor to deserve.”
I rolled up the paper into a tiny pellet, swallowed it, and left the room and the Palace without uttering another word.
CHAPTER II
THE PRINCESS Y——’S HINT
I never use the same stratagem more than once. It is to this rule that I attribute my success.