The Mission of Poubalov — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

06 A DANGEROUS MAN. The dining-room door was softly opened, and Mrs. White put in her head. ‘Has he gone?’’ she whispered. | ‘‘Yes,’’ replied Clara, starting ‘up as if she had been aroused from sleep. ‘‘Come in.’ | Louise approached her cousin solicitously. ‘We have had such a fright!’ she said taking Clara in her arms; ‘‘I didn’t know whether to be more alarmed when we could hear his deep voice than after the sound of it had ceased altogether.”’ ‘‘Why should you have feared?’’ asked Clara; “you couldn’t suppose that I was in any danger in Mrs, White’s | house, could you?’’ ‘‘No,’? answered Louise, ‘‘but the air is fulll of excite- ment; and while Mr. Poubalov was talking, another Rus_ sian came in who is friendly to Ivan. Mrs. White says he isa tailor, a very poor man whom Ivan befriended, and an exile like himself. He recognized Poubalov’s voice, and delcared positively that his presence here explained lyan’s fate. He was terribly agitated and refused to stay, say- ing that he must follow Poubalov. We couldn’t tell what to make of it.’’ This little narration came as a new shock to Clara. She had told Poubalov that among all of Ivan’s friends there was but one Russian, and she had in mind, of course, Paul Palovna. She had never heard of this tailor, and al- though it might not follow that Ivan would count among his friends a poor man whom he might have befriended, was it not a reasonable inference that this poor man was & Nihilist? and that if there were one brought to light, that - there might be many others whose identity would ever re- main unknown to her? Had she not heard how the great body of the nihilistic society was made up of the poor? and this man had recognized Poubalov! That was signifi- cant, surely; but just what inference of value she should draw from it was anything put clear. While these: thoughts and questions were chasing through her brain, Litizki and Paul Paloyna arrived at