But they were disappointed, for a quarter of an hour later I dropped
Nikiforovitch's bomb into the Thames from Waterloo Bridge, and next day
an urchin was rewarded with a shilling for bringing to my chambers a
copy of Lamb's works. It was sadly soiled and damaged, but bore on its
fly-leaf my name and address. He said he had found it in the gutter in
Burleigh Street!
Events have occurred rapidly since that memorable evening. The
Tzarevitch, unaware of how near he was to a swift and terrible death, is
now Nicholas II of Russia; while the pretty Sonia Ostroff, still in
ignorance of how her plot was thwarted, is at the present moment toiling
in the gloomy depths of the Savenski mine in Eastern Siberia.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
ONE WOMAN'S SIN.
Frith Street is the centre of the foreign quarter of London. The
narrow, shabby thoroughfare retains, even on the brightest day in
summer, its habitual depressing air of grimy cheerlessness; but
enveloped in the yellow fog of a November evening, its aspect is
unutterably dismal. Its denizens are a very shady colony, mostly the
scum of Continental cities, who, owing to various causes, have been
compelled to flee from the police and seek a safe asylum in the region
between Shaftesbury Avenue and Oxford Street.
In a meagrely furnished sitting-room on the top floor of one of the
dingiest houses in this mean street, a young man sat gazing moodily into
the fire. He was of foreign appearance, about twenty-six years of age--
tall, dark, and rather good-looking. His negligence of attire gave him
a dash of the genial good-for-nothing, yet his pale face wore a grave,
thoughtful expression, as his chin rested upon his hand in an utterly
dejected attitude.
Beside him, with her hand placed tenderly upon his shoulder, stood a
tall, fair-haired woman several years his junior. She was eminently
beautiful, with delicately-moulded features and soft grey eyes that
betrayed an intense anxiety. It was evident that she was not an
inhabitant of that dismal quarter, for the hat she wore was of the
latest French mode, her cloak, which had fallen unheeded to the floor,
was heavily lined with sable, while upon her hand were several fine
rings, that gleamed and sparkled in the feeble rays of the solitary
candle.
"But, Paul, why cannot you remain? Here in London you are safe," she
argued, speaking in French, and bending over him with earnestness.
"Impossible," he replied, shaking his head gloomily. "It is unsafe to
stay here. I must start for America to-morrow."
"And leave me?" she cried. "No, no; we must not part. You know how
madly I love you;" and she smoothed his hair tenderly.
"Ah, Adine," he sighed, "Heaven knows, mine will be a bitter sorrow!"
Taking her hand, he raised it reverently to his lips. In the silence
that followed, the bells of a neighbouring church chimed slowly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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