While Woodroffe was in the hotel I
dared not show myself lest he should recognize me, therefore I was
compelled to sham indisposition and to eat my meals alone in my room.
Both the means by which she had met Martin Woodroffe and the motive were
equally an enigma. By that letter she had written to her schoolfellow it
was apparent that she had some secret of his, for had she not wished to
send him a message of reassurance that she had divulged nothing? This
would seem that they were close friends; yet, on the other hand,
something seemed to tell me that he was acting falsely, and was really
an ally of the Baron's.
Why had he brought her to Petersburg? If he had desired to rescue her he
would have taken her in the opposite direction--to Stockholm, where she
would be free--whereas he took her, an escaped prisoner, into the very
midst of peril. It was true that her passport was in order, yet I
remembered that an order had been issued for her transportation to
Saghalien, and now once arrested she must be lost to me for ever.
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