I flung myself into an easy-chair, and she came and stood beside me. Her hand smoothed my forehead with a tender caress, yet somehow I could not trust her; the ironic and brutal strokes of Fate had paralysed me, and I felt myself wholly stupefied. "Sometimes, Frank, an unforeseen incident, a chance, an exterior influence, may bring on a disastrous crisis. It has unfortunately been so in my case," she said, in a deep, earnest voice. "Begin at the beginning. Let me know what is this strange mystery which has shadowed your life," I urged, taking her hand in mine. "Hush! we must not be overheard," she replied, glancing apprehensively at the door. "I--I fully recognise how painful all these complications must have been to you, dear, but I assure you it is not my fault that I have not divulged. I had taken an oath--" "An oath!" "Yes. I know it was purely from love that you married me, enveloped in mystery as I was; and, then, when you saw me in the Dene, and--and-- thought me untrue--ah--you surely should have known me better than that. You know how I love you; and yet you suspected me!" she cried passionately. "Don't let's talk of that," I said, impatiently. "When I have told you," she continued, her eyes filling with tears, "you will no longer believe me false, even though I--your wife--have stained my hands with crime!" "What!" I cried, in amazement, "you?" "Ah, no," she answered, "and yet mine is a horrible crime. Listen! Years ago, when I was a little child, my father, Count Nicholas, held a responsible position at the Court of the Czar at Petersburg. His closest friend was Sergius Orselska--the man you know as Hertzen--his half-brother. His son, Demetrius, and I were playmates." "But what of Boris. The man who gave evidence to-day?" "He is my brother. When the Russo-Turkish war broke out, my father, who was an officer, was placed in command of a troop, Boris having in the meantime joined the Cossacks. The Count served with distinction throughout the campaign; but, alas! after the fall of Plevna, he received news that my brother had been killed in an engagement with some insurgents in Georgia.