Still, times are changed.
There are forces now which were non-existent in the eighteenth century.
I should not be surprised if she were more dangerous than an Englishman
would be willing to believe. And what's more, she is looked upon as
really dangerous by certain people--_chez nous_."
_Chez nous_ in this connexion meant Russia in general, and the Russian
political police in particular. The object of my digression from the
straight course of Miss Haldin's relation (in my own words) of her visit
to the Chateau Borel, was to bring forward that statement of my friend,
the professor's wife. I wanted to bring it forward simply to make what I
have to say presently of Mr. Razumov's presence in Geneva, a little more
credible--for this is a Russian story for Western ears, which, as I
have observed already, are not attuned to certain tones of cynicism and
cruelty, of moral negation, and even of moral distress already silenced
at our end of Europe. And this I state as my excuse for having left Miss
Haldin standing, one of the little group of two women and two men who
had come together below the terrace of the Chateau Borel.
The knowledge which I have just stated was in my mind when, as I have
said, I interrupted Miss Haldin. I interrupted her with the cry of
profound satisfaction--
"So you never saw Madame de S--, after all?"
Miss Haldin shook her head.
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