"How can I ever forget the ingenuity and deep cunning with which you deceived me," I said. "I cannot but recollect how, on that night at Chesham House, Grodekoff congratulated you upon your marriage, yet how careful he was not to disclose to me your identity. Again, even my friend Verblioudovitch must have known who you really were. Why did he not tell me?" "Because the staff of the Embassy had already received strict orders from St Petersburg not to acknowledge me," she exclaimed, with a smile. "Lord Warnham fancied he recognised me, and spoke to the Ambassador; but the latter succeeded in assuring him that before marriage I was Ella Laing, and that the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Nicolayevna was at that moment with the Tzarina at Tzarskoie-Selo. He believed it, and afterwards M'sieur Grodekoff assured me that was the first occasion he had been enabled to successfully deceive your lynx-eyed Foreign Minister." "You feared that the Earl might recognise you," I exclaimed, surprised, for I now remembered the effect produced on my chief when his eyes had first fallen upon my wife. "You knew him, then?" "Ah, no," she faltered; "well, we were not exactly acquainted," and she appeared rather confused, I thought, for her cheeks were suffused by the faintest suspicion of a blush. "Did you expect he would be there?" "No; you told me distinctly that he was not going, otherwise I should never have accompanied you," she said frankly. "Why?" "Because I did not desire to meet him," she replied, adding, with a laugh, "As it was, however, he was satisfied, and went away marvelling, no doubt, at the striking resemblance." "Yet you told me nothing," I observed reproachfully. "No; I was afraid," she replied, in a serious voice. "With you I lived on from day to day, fearing detection, dreading lest you should discover some facts regarding my past, and by their light believe me to be an adventuress. Yet, at the same time, I worked on to achieve my freedom from a yoke which had become so galling that, now I loved you, I could endure it no longer." "And did you not succeed in breaking asunder this mysterious bond?" I inquired, half doubtfully. "No," she answered, shaking her head sorrowfully. "By an untoward circumstance, against which I had not provided, I was prevented, and compelled to flee." "If you will divulge absolutely nothing regarding the manner in which you became possessed of the stolen convention, or the reason you have masqueraded as my wife, you can at least tell me why you received so many communications regarding clandestine meetings, and explain who was your mysterious correspondent who signed himself `X.'" Her heart beat quickly; she sighed, and lowered her gaze. She strove to preserve a demeanour of calm hauteur as befitted her station, but in vain. "You have also found those letters," she remarked, her voice trembling. "Yes. Tell me the truth and put my mind at ease."