“We went all the way, and Dora has gone through all sorts of terrible adventures with no end of pluck,” asserted Sergius.
“It’s just wonderful! After the news of that horrible assassination reached England, I felt sure you were both doomed,” said Nina, with a shudder, accompanied by another hug. “But how did you escape so easily?”
“Perhaps we had better defer explicit particulars for a little while,” interposed Prince Michaelow. “I am thinking that one never knows what may happen, and that it will be as well not to betray the fact of your having been in Russia again to any one. I suppose you were in St. Petersburg?”
This was said so significantly that I knew what awful thing he was hinting at, and at once exclaimed: “No, thank Heaven! Sergius has been no further than Moscow. That was done without him.”
“I am so thankful!” chimed in Nina. “Of course, I feel for the people. But it is an immense relief to me to know that none of my friends have killed the poor, misguided man.”
“You see,” said the prince, “we shall never be able to make true patriots of our wives. They are too English for that. But how will this affect your future?”
“I am just as much absolved from further duty as if mine had been the hand which threw the bomb. Our Society is disbanded, and will never be reorganized on the same lines. While still a member of it, I was resolved to fulfill the terms of my oath to the letter. But that sort of work does not suit me, and though I long for the regeneration of my country, I am now convinced that violence on the part of secret societies can never cure the evils we deplore.”
“Then you are not likely to join another secret society?”
“Never! My political career is over. I cannot sympathize with the government. I may not work openly in the interests of the people. And I will not lend myself again to secret plotting. This much I have already told Dora. But she does not know yet that I have resolved never to return to Russia. Henceforth my life is devoted to her happiness and comfort.”
This was indeed glorious news, which helped me to throw off the last talon of the incubus of dread, and speedily recover the happiest spirits imaginable. We decided to adopt the prince’s advice, and to say nothing to any one about having been elsewhere than on our originally projected wedding-tour. We had returned within the time expected, and I for one would not have put it in Belle’s power to betray the fact that Sergius was in Russia when the czar was assassinated.