Her customary agitation reasserted itself.

She demanded ardently: 

“And you are sure that he came here and that he left here?”

“Yes, I am sure of it.”

“How?”

“By the sitting-room window.”

“It is impossible, for we found it locked.”

“It is possible, if someone closed it behind him.”

“Ah!”

She commenced to tremble again, and, falling back into her nightmarish horror, she no longer wasted fond expletives on her domovoi as on a dear little angel who had just rendered a service ten times more precious to her than life.  While he listened patiently, she said brutally: 

“Why did you keep me from throwing myself on him, from rushing upon him as he opened the door?  Ah, I would have, I would have ... we would know.”

“No.  At the least noise he would have closed the door.  A turn of the key and he would have escaped forever.  And he would have been warned.”

“Careless boy!  Why then, if you knew he was going to come, didn’t you leave me in the bedroom and you watch below yourself?”

“Because so long as I was below he would not have come.  He only comes when there is no one downstairs.”

“Ah, Saints Peter and Paul pity a poor woman.  Who do you think it is, then?  Who do you think it is?  I can’t think any more.  Tell me, tell me that.  You ought to know — you know everything.  Come - who?  I demand the truth.  Who?  Still some agent of the Committee, of the Central Committee?  Still the Nihilists?”

“If it was only that!” said Rouletabille quietly.

“You have sworn to drive me mad!  What do you mean by your ’if it was only that’?”

Rouletabille, imperturbable, did not reply.

“What have you done with the potion?” said he.

“The potion?  The glass of the crime!  I have locked it in my room, in the cupboard — safe, safe!”

“Ah, but, madame, it is necessary to replace it where you took it from.”

“What!”

“Yes, after having poured the poison into a phial, to wash the glass and fill it with another potion.”

“You are right.  You think of everything.  If the general wakes and wants his potion, he must not be suspicious of anything, and he must be able to have his drink.”

“It is not necessary that he should drink.”

“Well, then, why have the drink there?”

“So that the person can be sure, madame, that if he has not drunk it is simply because he has not wished to.  A pure chance, madame, that he is not poisoned.  You understand me this time?”

“Yes, yes.  O Christ!  But how now, if the general wakes and wishes to drink his narcotic?”

“Tell him I forbid it.  And here is another thing you must do.  When — Someone — comes into the general’s chamber, in the morning, you must quite openly and naturally throw out the potion, useless and vapid, you see, and so Someone will have no right to be astonished that the general continues to enjoy excellent health.”