Of late years he had gradually been losing faith in his second wife’s character.  It went so far that the general felt much more at ease when she was away.  Before the last illness of Iuri Pavlovitch, which, to tell the truth, was almost his first, Olga Vseslavovna had gone abroad with her daughter, intending to travel for a year; but she had hardly been gone two months when the general unexpectedly determined to go to St. Petersburg to seek a divorce, to see his elder daughter, and change his will.  Perhaps he would never have determined on such decisive measures had not something wholly unexpected taken place.

Borisoff was quite mistaken in thinking that he had so carefully destroyed all the letters which the general’s young wife had written to him, before his marriage to Anna, that no material evidence of Olga Vseslavovna’s early design of treachery remained.  Even before she married the general, she had had a confidential servant, who carried out many commissions for the beautiful young woman, whose fame had gone abroad through the three districts along the Volga, the arena of her early triumphs.  Later, the young lady found a new favorite in foreign lands—­the same Rita who was still with her.  Martha, the Russian confidential servant, heartily detested the German girl, and such strife arose between them that not only the general’s wife, but even the general himself, was deprived of peace and tranquillity.  Martha was no fool; Olga Vseslavovna had to be careful with her; she did take care, but she herself did not know to what an extent she was in the woman’s power.  Foreseeing a black day of ingratitude, Martha, with wonderful forethought, had put on one side one or two letters from each series of her mistress’ secret correspondence, which always passed through her hands.  Perhaps she would not have made such a bad use of them but for her mistress’ last, intolerable insult.  Prizing in her servants, next to swift obedience, a knowledge of languages, her mistress did not make use of her when travelling abroad; but hitherto she had taken both servants with her.  But on her last journey she was so heartily tired of Martha, and her perpetual tears and quarrels, that she determined to get on without her, the more so that her daughter’s governess was also traveling with her.  Her company was growing too numerous.

There was no limit to Martha’s wrath when she learned that she was going to be left behind.  Her effrontery was so great that she advised her mistress “for her own sake” not to put such an affront upon her, since she would not submit to it without seeking revenge.  But her mistress never dreamed of what Martha was planning, and what a risk she ran.