clinched the matter to all intents and purposes. But, as things are, I
shouldn't build too much on the hope that she is your daughter. It may
turn out to be the girl adopted by Countess Romaninov."

"I hope not, I hope not," said Lord Ashiel earnestly. "I have got her to
promise to come to Scotland, and in a few days I may get some definite
clue as to which of them it is. It is a very odd coincidence that both
the girls bear names so much like that of my poor wife's." He paused
reflectively, and then added, "In the meantime you will go on with your
inquiries, will you not?"

"I will," said Gimblet. "And I hope for better luck."

A silence followed. Lord Ashiel half rose to go, then sat down again.
Evidently he had something more to say, but hesitated to say it. At
last he spoke:

"When I was at St. Petersburg, twenty years ago, I was aroused to a
state of excitement and indignation by the social and political evils
which were then so much in evidence to the foreigner who sojourned in the
country of the Czars. I was young and impressionable, impulsive and
unbalanced in my judgments, I am afraid; at all events I resented certain
seeming injustices which came to my notice, and my resentment took a
practical and most foolish form. To be short, I was so ill-advised as to
join a secret society, and have done nothing but regret it ever since."

"I can well understand your regretting it," said the detective. "People
who join those societies are apt to find themselves let in for a good
deal more than they bargained for."