Lucy Harding by Mary Jane Holmes

The next day the hotel, which was full of guests of various nationalities, was humming with excitement. A man dressed in woman's clothes had been arrested on the ice the previous night, and was lodged in the fortress, waiting examination. This was the first piece of gossip which came to my ears as I sat, with Jack, taking my breakfast at a small table a little apart from the others. Katy had a violent headache, and could not come down, and I was glad, as she thus escaped the scrutiny of the many eyes turned toward us as the talk flowed on in low tones, but not so low that I did not catch much of it.

The man arrested was Ivan Scholaskie, masquerading as his sister, and a noted nihilist and head of every plot which had been hatched in Russia for the last twenty years, one would suppose, to hear the remarks made in Russian, German and Italian, all of which I understood, but was glad Jack did not, especially when, in lowered tones and gestures, we were indicated as the Americans who had been with Ivan-three of them, they said, and one a young lady, who had fainted and been carried off the ice. Hurrying through my breakfast, I went to Katy, whose face was very white and whose eyes were red with weeping.