"I was not mistaken, chief," replied Ivor, quietly. "I saw Adèle Lallovich with my own eyes. Hers is not a face to be easily mistaken, and I would rather trust to my own instincts, than to Count Mellikoff's written assertions. Answer me one question, chief: has Vladimir Mellikoff ever, to your knowledge, seen Adèle Lallovich?"
"Really, Tolskoi, that is a strange question," answered Patouchki; "frankly, I have never had occasion to ask him. The woman's face was common property to all Petersburg, at one time, through the photographers, and considering how well Count Vladimir knew Stevan Lallovich, it is but natural to suppose his opportunities for seeing his mistress were numerous."
"Pardon me, chief, if I differ from you on one or two points," replied Ivor, with unwonted gravity. "In the first place, you must admit that Stevan Lallovich did not for some time regard Adèle Lamien in the light of a mistress. He married her, remember, according to the ceremonies of the Church of Rome, and it was not until his passion for her grew cold, that he sought Imperial interference. He kept her exclusively at his villa across the Neva, and so long as he upheld her position as his wife was over-scrupulous in his care of her. I have reason to believe that not one of Count Stevan's boon companions, even Vladimir Mellikoff, was ever admitted to her presence. The marriage was secret and kept so, and as long as the infatuation lasted Lallovich showed nothing but respect to her. We know how sudden was the Imperial ukase, and how little prepared she must have been for it, was shown by the tragic vengeance that overtook him. You understand then, chief, why I prefer to trust to my own instincts rather than to Count Mellikoff's assertions. I did once see Adèle Lallovich in her happier days, and I am not likely to mistake her face now, even though disfigured by shame and crime."
Patouchki had listened attentively to Tolskoi's remarks; he replied to them by a slight gesture and the words:
"Granted all that you say is true, Ivor, I fail to see how not knowing personally this unfortunate woman is any real disadvantage to Count Mellikoff. He has every facility for tracing her, and we know by experience that the last evidence to build upon in such a quest is personal appearance. It needs but the adjuncts of paint, powder, and a wig, to deceive even Lucifer himself. No, no, that troubles me but little; what is more of an anxiety is my inability to trace in any way the accomplice who first assisted Adèle Lamien out of Russia, and who now—placing credence upon your words—has accomplished her return. Could I but put my hand on that accomplice, I would soon unearth the criminal."
Ivor made no reply save by a significant smile, and the slightest possible shrug. Patouchki noticed both, and felt irritated at the implied dissension expressed by them.
"You have doubtless some theory to advance upon this also," he said, sharply; "perhaps you will have the goodness to impart it to me."
"I do not know if my deductions may be dignified by so specific a title as theory, chief," Ivor replied, imperturbably; "I was but working out a small sum of calculation, which is at your service. In December last, Stevan Lallovich was murdered, and the woman calling herself his wife—though a suspect, and closely watched as such—disappeared, vanished absolutely. In the following January, Count Mellikoff, at the request of the Chancellerie, undertook a mission of discovery in the United States, whither the woman, according to trustworthy evidence, was supposed to have flown. Two months elapse, and nothing is discovered or revealed; meantime, you receive satisfactory, if vague, reports from Count Mellikoff, and the Chancellerie is lulled to inaction for the time being. At the end of March, I meet Adèle Lallovich face to face in the heart of Petersburg, where she has arrived without the knowledge of the Chancellerie, or its agents. That is my problem, chief; now to its solution. The same powerful influence—whose word was law, whose will was coercion—that got this woman out of Russia at a critical moment, has again been successful in sending her back to Petersburg, at a time when suspicion was thrown off its guard, and when Petersburg was a safer hiding-place than New York. That is my theory, chief, so far as I have worked it out."
Patouchki did not speak for several moments. He sat looking straight before him, the furrows wrought by anxiety and care plainly visible on his sallow, stern, set face.
The shadow of Ivor's veiled meaning was not lost to his quick perceptions; but he put it from him as unworthy of debate, and turning again to the young man said, even more sternly than before: