“Surely.  But Natacha was not here that night.  It was a Saturday.  She had been invited to the soiree du ‘Michel’ by the parents of Boris Nikolaievitch, and she slept at their house, after supper at the Ours, as had been planned.  The next day, when she learned the danger the general had escaped, she trembled in every limb.  She threw herself in her father’s arms, weeping, which was natural enough, and declared that she never would go away from him again.  The general told her how I had managed.  Then she pressed me to her heart, saying that she never would forget such an action, and that she loved me more than if I were truly her mother.  It was all in vain that during the days following we sought to understand how the infernal machine had been placed in the bouquet of wild flowers.  Only the general’s friends that you saw this evening, Natacha and I had entered the general’s chamber during the day or in the evening.  No servant, no chamber-maid, had been on that floor.  In the day-time as well as all night long that entire floor is closed and I have the keys.  The door of the servants’ staircase which opens onto that floor, directly into the general’s chamber, is always locked and barred on the inside with iron.  Natacha and I do the chamber work.  There is no way of taking greater precautions.  Three police agents watched over us night and day.  The night of the bouquet two had spent their time watching around the house, and the third lay on the sofa in the veranda.  Then, too, we found all the doors and windows of the villa shut tight.  In such circumstances you can judge whether my anguish was not deeper than any I had known hitherto.  Because to whom, henceforth, could we trust ourselves? what and whom could we believe? what and whom could we watch?  From that day, no other person but Natacha and me have the right to go to the first floor.  The general’s chamber was forbidden to his friends.  Anyway, the general improved, and soon had the pleasure of receiving them himself at his table.  I carry the general down and take him to his room again on my back.  I do not wish anyone to help.  I am strong enough for that.  I feel that I could carry him to the end of the world if that would save him.  Instead of three police, we had ten; five outside, five inside.  The days went well enough, but the nights were frightful, because the shadows of the police that I encountered always made me fear that I was face to face with the Nihilists.  One night I almost strangled one with my hand.  It was after that incident that we arranged with Koupriane that the agents who watched at night, inside, should stay placed in the veranda, after having, at the end of the evening, made complete examination of everything.  They were not to leave the veranda unless they heard a suspicious noise or I called to them.  And it was after that arrangement that the incident of the floor happened, that has puzzled so both Koupriane and me.”