"The letter served its purpose admirably," pursued General Beilski. "You were rescued and brought back to St. Petersburg. One significant fact you revealed to us was that La Belle Quéro had strongly dissuaded you from playing at the Palace. Another one, equally significant in our eyes, was that the Princess Nada had urged you not to walk home that night. We put two and two together." "The letter, then, might have been sent by either of the two women? That, I take it, is your Excellency's meaning?" commented Nello. "Precisely. I had the two maids brought before me. The singer's I soon dismissed. She did not correspond in the slightest degree to my porter's rather hazy recollections of the young woman who had brought the note. The second shot was more successful." "The maid of the Princess Nada, of course?" "Yes, a slim young thing--I forgot to say the other was short and plump--frightened out of her wits by the sudden turn of events. Terrified by myself, the forbidding aspect of her surroundings, the unknown terrors of the law, she made no pretence of a fight. She fell upon her knees, imploring my clemency." "So it was the Princess Nada who sent that note with the object of saving me?" asked Nello. There was a very tender look in his eyes as he spoke her name. "I have known the Princess Nada from her childhood," said Beilski, speaking with some emotion. "Her mother, father, and I were of the same generation. The Princess Zouroff is a sweet woman--generous, kind-hearted, charitable; the daughter is the same. The old Prince was a ruffian in every sense of the word--drunken, dissolute, vicious. The son is a ruffian also, but he has missed a few of the paternal vices. He is not a confirmed drunkard, although he takes more than is good for him, as is well known to his family and his intimates. And he is only moderately dissolute. He has one superiority over his father: he has got brains and ambition." "How did such a fair flower spring from such a contaminated soil?" asked Corsini wonderingly. Beilski shrugged his shoulders. "Who can tell? A freak of nature, I suppose. But remember the mother is pure, and comes from a family without a taint. Well, to resume. When the maid had stammered forth her confession, for an instant a horrible suspicion assailed my mind. We know Zouroff to be a traitor whom we have not yet succeeded in unmasking. Was his innocent-looking sister involved in his schemes?" Nello leaned forward in a state of agitation. For an instant, on hearing that it was the Princess and not La Belle Quéro who had sent that letter, a similar doubt had occurred to him. "I took the bull by the horns. I sent a message by the maid that I would call upon her mistress that same day, that she was to inform her of what she had confessed." "And you went and interviewed the Princess?" asked Corsini.