No, I am not joking; it is true.

I was given a commission, or, rather, knowing the danger there was in it, I begged that the commission might be given me.

It was merely to take a letter from St.Petersburg to London.

I have failed, and when that is said, all is said." "But surely," cried the girl, blushing guiltily as she realized that this was the man she had been sent to rob, "you could not be expected to ward off such a lawless attempt at murder as you have been the victim of ?" "That is just what I expected, and what I supposed I could ward off.

In my profession--which, after all has a great similarity to yours, except that I think we have to do more lying in ours--there must be no such word as fail.