The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-25
HER THREEFOLD TREASON.
An Incident Of the Nihilist Reign
of Terror in st. Petersburg.

st. Petersburg, pressed a kiss, half ten
der, half mechanical, upon the fair white
forehead of Dounia, and stole away from
the conjugal domicile, while Dounia re-
manned alone and reflected. Where did
Alexis ~Iyanoyitch's nocturnal excursions
take him? The professor wasno longera
young mamie had passed his fiftieth
year-and science and his absorbing du-
ties as director of the Imperial gymna-
sum, where 500 pupils studied under him,
left him no time to devote to amorous
intrigues. And then, was not Dounia
young, robust and beautiful, with her
luxuriant auburn hair, her steel colored
eyes, and her perverse, enigmatical smile?
She was poor, obscure and ignorant
when he married her; he rich, a grand
dignitary of the Slav university, and
councillor to his majesty the z
But love had conquered all obstacles,
and Dounia, daughter of a shepherd Of
the Caucasus, became the idolized wife
of the director of the gymnasium. The
seductive Circassian had indeed often
triumphed in the heart of the savant
over despotic duty. How frequently he
sat by her, admiring her, and listening
as she babbled in French, gently CRITICS.
ing her linguistic errors. Was not her
naive conversation worth a hundred
times as much as the subtle literary and
philosophical discussions in which he n
gagged with the lettered men Of St. Pc
tersburg? Since several months, how
ever, Alexis Ivanovitch's interest in
Dounia's French lessons had tagged.
He permitted her to confound the lenses,
to ignore gender, and to forget the ele-
mentary rules of syntax without COR
recting her, as formerly. Moreover, he
left the house regularly every evening
and did not return until late at night.
Was Alexis Ivanovitch deceiving her2
She had discarded that superstition long
ago. Dounia was too sure Of herself,
too proud of her extraordinary beauty,
to suppose she could have a rival. Still,
how should she explain Alexis absence
every night? He did not gamble, for
the money in the safe was never disturb
ed, and it is not usual to visit the game
with empty pockets.
Once only, a person of unprepossessing
aspect and poorly attired presented him.
self at the door with a letter. Alexis,
having read it, handed the bearer a note
of five hundred rubles without the least
remark, the stranger accepted the same
without even giving thanks. Gambling
debts are not paid in such a manner and
when Alexis was asked about the Incl
dent he merely answered, II am helping
along a good cause" and Dounia did not
dare to question any further.
She was patient and waited, hoping the
inexplicable absences of her husband
would a soon; the thought to follow
her. This evening, however, he had
hardly crossed the threshold when, en-
veloped in heavy furs, her face hidden
by a hood, and her feet incased in stout
boots, Dounia followed rapidly in his
footsteps. She Swallowed him through
the snow covered streets, oppressed and
anxious, the blood mounting to her tenn
Piles, and her heart beating violently.
This conjugal pursuit, in the night and
through the snow, did not have jealousy
for its only motive. In fact, Dounia had
not the right to be jealous. Dounia was
guilty. A young instructor at the gym
nasium, a German named Karl Strueber,
profiting by the directors occupation and
the isolation of his wife, had won her.
And it was the thought of this that tor
tured her; that perhaps she alone was
guilty and that Alexis was not deceiving
her; that he loved her still and might be
able to justify his nightly absence and
convict her of treason, ignoble and un-
pardonable. All, could she but establish
his faithlessness! She would then be K
cusable for her own.
This is why Dounia followed her hus-
band, on that clear and frosty night,
through a strange and labyrinthine III
ter of the city, whose narrow streets
were scarcely illuminated by the mystic
rious moonlight.
Alexis, having arrived at his destina-
ton, was about to rap ON the door of a
house, within which all seemed silent
and dark, when he paused. Retreating
hastily, he hid behind the angle of the
house and listened. Light footsteps were
coming in his direction. 81 am being
followed" he thought. Coolly and reso-
lutely he drew a revolver from his pock-
ct, cooked it, and waited. Some moments
later a dark form showed plainly against
the bright moonlight at the entrance of
the alley. Alexis raised his pistol ready
to fire. just then Dounia, surprised at
seeing no one, and believing she had been
outwitted, threw back her hood in order
to get a better view of the locality. The
moonlight revealed her features plainly,
and Alexis, recognizing her, ran from
his hiding place.
"Dounia." he cried, "what are you
doing here, unfortunate womanY'
"I was following you, Alexis Ivano-
vitch," she answered, with trembling
voice; sit was wrong, know, but I could
not resist the desire. l wanted to know
where you spent your evenings"
Curiosity is very often q bad II
selor, Dounia," said the professor, grave
ly, after a few moments reflection;
heaven grant you may not regret want
ing to know that which l had deter
mined to hide from you. But. perhaps,
I am wrong after all. The wife should
hide nothing from her husband, and the
husband have no secret from his wife,
/ love you, nounia; my o alone caused
me to let you remain ignorant of certain
things, a knowledge of which might