was anything to do against Russia, I was always glad, because my dear
father was a Pole, and you know how Poles feel towards Russia. Russia
ruined his life, and stripped it of everything worth having, not only
money, but--oh, well, that's not in this story of mine! I won't trouble
you or waste time in the telling. Only, when I was a very young girl, I
was already the enemy of all that's Russian, with a big debt of revenge
to pay. And I've been paying it, slowly. Don't think that the money I've
had for my work--hateful work often--has been used for myself. It's been
for my father's country--poor, sad country--every shilling of English
coin. As an actress I've supported myself, and, as an actress, it has
been easier for me to do the other secret work than it would have been
for a woman leading a more sheltered life, mingling less with
distinguished persons of different countries, or unable to be eccentric
without causing scandal. As for France, she's the friend of Russia, and
I haven't a drop of French blood in my veins, so, at least, I've never
been treacherous to my own people. Oh, I have made some great _coups_ in
the last eight or nine years, Ivor!... for I began before I was sixteen,
and now I'm twenty-six. Once or twice England has had to thank me for
giving her news of the most vital importance. You're shocked to hear
what my inner life has been?"

"If I were shocked, no doubt the feeling would be more than half
conventional. One hardly knows how conventional one's opinions are until
one stops to think," said I.

"Once, I gloried in the work," Maxine went on. "But that was before I
fell in love. You and I have played a little at being in love, but that
was to pass the time. Both of us were flirting. I'd never met Raoul
then, and I've never really loved any man except him. It came at first
sight, for me: and when he told me that he cared, he said it had begun