The Genius

by Margaret Horton Potter

"If you are sure that your case is as serious as this, you will not refuse me the pleasure you can give—"

"Monsieur!" Irina sprang to her feet, her eyes brilliant with anger.

"You misunderstand me, mademoiselle, entirely!" cried Ivan, horrified at her interpretation of his words. "What I mean is this. Your father is in debt, on your account, to a man who has proved himself dishonorable. I propose to free you from persecution by transferring that debt to one who will take nothing but honorable payment—at any convenient time, in amounts of any size that you or your father find yourselves able to pay. Here, at once, Mademoiselle Irina, I will give you five thousand roubles in notes, with which you can discharge your obligations to Brodsky, and repay me at your leisure."

The ensuing five minutes proved even more distressing than Ivan, anticipating them, had feared. The young lady was of a temperament both emotional and dramatic. And her behavior, to a man to whom scenes were abhorrent, proved trying in the extreme. In the end, after the amount of protestation and rather affected timidity which she evidently thought proper, Ivan's offer was accepted; and the expression of her gratitude that followed, caused Ivan to terminate the business somewhat brusquely by calling the lady's attention to the time, and then escorting her to within a hundred yards of the station. That her relief was genuine and deep she proved, by persisting in explanations of what Ivan's act must mean to her; but he regained a certain amount of his usual unconsciousness, upon perceiving that she was really talking as much to herself as to him, as she laid out her plans of payment and magnificent schemes for her own subsequent career. It was to his own astonishment that her benefactor, finally bidding her good-bye, found himself asking for her Petersburg address—which proved to be a humble street on Vassily Island—and found himself thinking with some pleasure of seeing her again.

Upon his return to his quarters, moreover, Ivan might have gone further than he did in his little analysis of the adventures of the evening. A man more versed in feminine ways than he, might have read much in the manner of the lady's farewell to him. For her attitude was ingenuous enough to have suggested the fact that had Lieutenant Gregoriev and not Colonel Brodsky been the original holder of her debt, the damsel's attitude might have been less unyielding. But Ivan had still his boyish belief in the perfection of all woman nature. And certainly that part of Mademoiselle Petrovna's career which he knew best, was of a nature to increase the strength of his faith.

It was nearly morning before the young officer could banish the subject from his thoughts—thoughts which had now returned to the disagreeable certainty of an approaching scene with his redoubtable Colonel. But when de Windt, agog with curiosity, re-entered his own quarters, his comrade was sleeping so peacefully that he could not find it in his heart to disturb Ivan till the reveille roused the camp.

While Ivan dressed, he and de Windt held a hurried conversation. A few words sufficed to inform the other of the mission of the lady; but Ivan was as amazed as he was displeased at de Windt's frankly expressed surprise at the undeniable uprightness of the young lady's attitude. There followed a consultation as to any possible retaliation on the part of Brodsky. On this point de Windt, ignorant of the nature of Ivan's power, was not sanguine. Thus it was that as he hurried off to review, Ivan's courage was at low ebb; and for the first time he began, in his secret heart, to doubt the possible efficacy of his father's knowledge.

As it happened, that doubt proved unfounded. Once again, as a hundred times before, the powers of Prince Gregoriev were put to the test and not found wanting. Perfect knowledge of the universal corruption, the gigantic systems of graft which, then as now, ate into the very foundation of that ill-arranged bureaucracy which governed the country, was at the finger-ends of Gregoriev, himself so besmirched by that black evil by which he had risen to power. And in his notes of the deeds of possible victims, the writing below the name of Brodsky—who, though his official position was not high, was a man of large fortune and, therefore, valuable to Gregoriev's purpose—occupied a surprising amount of space.

The second interview between the Colonel and his Lieutenant took place three days after that first one, in which the unexpected presence of a lady had prevented Ivan from giving his opponent so much as a suggestion of his vantage-point. It came about thus. When Brodsky, already in a state of impotent wrath at the audacity of his officer's reproof, received from Ivan's orderly the full sum of Petrovna's debt, together with a highly imprudent letter from Mademoiselle Irina, who did not scruple to mention the name of her benefactor, the man's rage became physically dangerous to himself. It did not however prevent him from realizing the certainty of exposure of his own criminal folly which must follow any attempt of his to disgrace Ivan on a trumped-up charge. But an interview with the Lieutenant in which he could vent some of his spleen in abusive threats, would be perfectly safe, and also a source of relief. Wherefore, a half-hour after the receipt of the foolish woman's letter, Lieutenant Gregoriev and Colonel Brodsky stood face to face in the Colonel's tent.

It was an hour before Ivan emerged, his figure erect, his face calm, save for a rather bitter little smile which played round the corners of his mouth. At some yards from the closed tent, he paused to speak to Grigory, Brodsky's orderly, who stood, as usual, on guard, but at a prescribed distance.