in the year 1858, in the month of september, the "report of the st. petersburg city police" among the names of "arrivals" included the following:
baroness von doring, hanoverian subject.
ian vladislav karozitch, austrian subject.
the persons above described might have been recognized among the fashionable crowds which thronged the st. petersburg terminus of the warsaw railway a few days before: a lady who looked not more than thirty, though she was really thirty-eight, dressed with simple elegance, tall and slender, admirably developed, with beautifully clear complexion, piercing, intelligent gray eyes, under finely outlined brows, thick chestnut hair, and a firm mouth- -almost a beauty, and with an expression of power, subtlety and decision. "she is either a queen or a criminal," a physiognomist would have said after observing her face. a gentleman with a red beard, whom the lady addressed as "brother," not less elegantly dressed, and with the same expression of subtlety and decision. they left the station in a hired carriage, and drove to demuth's hotel.
before narrating the adventures of these distinguished persons, let us go back twenty years, and ask what became of natasha and bodlevski. when last we saw them the ship that carried them away from russia was gliding across the gulf of bothnia toward the swedish coast. late in the evening it slipped into the port of stockholm, and the worthy finn, winding in and out among the heavy hulls in the harbor—he was well used to the job—landed his passengers on the wharf at a lonely spot near a lonely inn, where the customs officers rarely showed their noses. bodlevski, who had beforehand got ready the very modest sum to pay for their passage, with pitiable looks and gestures and the few russian phrases the good finn could understand, assured him that he was a very poor man, and could not even pay the sum agreed on in full. the deficit was inconsiderable, some two rubles in all, and the good finn was magnanimous; he slapped his passenger on the shoulder, called him a "good comrade," declared that he would not press a poor man, and would always be ready to do him a service. he even found quarters for bodlevski and natasha in the inn, under his protection. the finn was indeed a very honest smuggler. on the next morning, bidding a final farewell to their nautical friend, our couple made their way to the office of the british consul, and asked for an opportunity to speak with him. at this point natasha played the principal role.
'my husband is a pole," said the handsome girl, taking a seat opposite the consul in his private office, "and i myself am russian on the father's side, but my mother was english. my husband is involved in a political enterprise; he was liable to transportation to siberia, but a chance made it possible for us to escape while the police were on their way to arrest him. we are now political fugitives, and we intrust our lives to the protection of english law. be generous, protect us, and send us to england!"
the ruse, skillfully planned and admirably presented, was completely successful, and two or three days later the first passenger ship under the english flag carried the happy couple to london.
bodlevski destroyed his own passport and that of the college assessor's widow, maria solontseva, which natasha had needed as a precaution while still on russian soil. when they got to england, it would be much handier to take new names. but with their new position and these new names a great difficulty presented itself: they could find no suitable outlet for their capital without arousing very dangerous suspicions. the many-sided art of the london rogues is known to all the world; in their club, bodlevski, who had lost no time in making certain pleasant and indispensable acquaintances there, soon succeeded in getting for himself and natasha admirably counterfeited new passports, once more with new names and occupations. with these, in a short time, they found their way to the continent. they both felt the full force of youth and a passionate desire to live and enjoy life; in their hot heads hummed many a golden hope and plan; they wished, to begin with, to invest their main capital somewhere, and then to travel over europe, and to choose a quiet corner somewhere where they could settle down to a happy life.
perhaps all this might have happened if it had not been for cards and roulette and the perpetual desire of increasing their capital— for the worthy couple fell into the hands of a talented company, whose agents robbed them at frascati's in paris, and again in hamburg and various health resorts, so that hardly a year had passed when bodlevski one fine night woke up to the fact that they no longer possessed a ruble. but they had passed a brilliant year, their arrival in the great cities had had its effect, and especially since natasha had become a person of title; in the course of the year she succeeded in purchasing an austrian barony at a very reasonable figure—a barony which, of course, only existed on paper.
when all his money was gone, there was nothing left for bodlevski but to enroll himself a member of the company which had so successfully accomplished the transfer of his funds to their own pockets. natasha's beauty and bodlevski's brains were such strong arguments that the company willingly accepted them as new recruits. the two paid dear for their knowledge, it is true, but their knowledge presently began to bear fruit in considerable abundance. day followed day, and year succeeded year, a long series of horribly anxious nights, violent feelings, mental perturbations, crafty and subtle schemes, a complete cycle of rascalities, an entire science of covering up tracks, and the perpetual shadow of justice, prison, and perhaps the scaffold. bodlevski, with his obstinate, persistent, and concentrated character, reached the highest skill in card-sharping and the allied wiles. all games of "chance" were for him games of skill. at thirty he looked at least ten years older. the life he led, with its ceaseless effort, endless mental work, perpetual anxiety, had made of him a fanatical worshiper at the shrine of trickery. he dried up visibly in body and grew old in mind, mastering all the difficult arts of his profession, and only gained confidence and serenity when he had reached the highest possible skill in every branch of his "work." from that moment he took a new lease of life; he grew younger, he became gay and self-confident, his health even visibly improved, and he assumed the air and manner of a perfect gentleman.
as for natasha, her life and efforts in concert with bodlevski by no means had the same wearing effect on her as on him. her proud, decided nature received all these impressions quite differently. she continued to blossom out, to grow handsomer, to enjoy life, to take hearts captive. all the events which aroused so keen a mental struggle in her companion she met with entire equanimity. the reason was this: when she made up her mind to anything, she always decided at once and with unusual completeness; a very short time given to keen and accurate consideration, a rapid weighing of the gains and losses of the matter in hand, and then she went forward coldly and unswervingly on her chosen path. her first aim in life had been revenge, then a brilliant and luxurious life—and she knew that they would cost dear. therefore, once embarked on her undertaking, natasha remained calm and indifferent, brilliantly distinguished, and ensnaring the just and the unjust alike. her intellect, education, skill, resource, and innate tact made it possible for her everywhere to gain a footing in select aristocratic society, and to play by no means the least role there. many beauties envied her, detested her, spoke evil of her, and yet sought her friendship, because she almost always queened it in society. her friendship and sympathy always seemed so cordial, so sincere and tender, and her epigrams were so pointed and poisonous, that every hostile criticism seemed to shrivel up in that glittering fire, and there seemed to be nothing left but to seek her friendship and good will. for instance, if things went well in baden, one could confidently foretell that at the end of the summer season natasha would be found in nice or geneva, queen of the winter season, the lioness of the day, and the arbiter of fashion. she and bodlevski always behaved with such propriety and watchful care that not a shadow ever fell on natasha's fame. it is true that bodlevski had to change his name once or twice and to seek a new field for his talents, and to make sudden excursions to distant corners of europe—sometimes in pursuit of a promising "job," sometimes to evade the too persistent attentions of the police. so far everything had turned out favorably, and his name "had remained unstained," when suddenly a slight mishap befell. the matter was a trifling one, but the misfortune was that it happened in paris. there was a chance that it might find issue in the courts and the hulks, so that there ensued a more than ordinarily rapid change of passports and a new excursion—this time to russia, back to their native land again, after an absence of twenty years. thus it happened that the papers announced the arrival in st. petersburg of baroness von doring and ian vladislav karozitch.
