Zara's intensity of passion during her dramatic recital, had imparted
itself to me, so that when she ceased speaking for a moment, I felt
myself glowing and throbbing with all the excitement that absorbed her.
It seemed almost as if I were, indeed, the person who was concerned in
the story she had related, and my nerves were strung to the point where
I felt that I could go out and kill the czar for the wrongs that had
been committed in his name; if not at his connivance, certainly with
his permission, and with the presumption of his approval. She withdrew
from me and crossed to the window, where she stood looking out upon the
snow clad street; suddenly she started, and turned to me. How beautiful
she was and how I loved her at that moment!
"Come here, Dubravnik," she said. I obeyed, and in an instant was at
her side at the window.
"What is it?" I asked.
"There; look yonder. Do you see that karetta, just beyond the
corner?"
"Yes. I see it."
"It has all the appearance of waiting for a passenger who is supposedly
within one of the adjacent houses, has it not?"
"It certainly has," I replied, smiling.
"My love, I recognize that karetta, and the man in charge of it. It
belongs to--never mind whom. That does not matter. But the man incased
in fur, who seems to be the driver, is a nihilist; within the
enclosure, there is certainly one, and possibly there are two more men.
Each of them has sworn to take your life at the cost of his own, if
need be. They will wait there until you leave me. Then they will do
their work. Do you still doubt that you have been sentenced to death?"
"I have not doubted it, sweetheart."
"But do you doubt their ability to carry out the decree?"
"I do."
"Ah, Dubravnik, you little know the men with whom we have to deal."
How sweet it was to hear her include herself with me, against them.
"They are like bloodhounds on a trail. They never leave it, nor tire.
They are indefatigable. When one falls, another takes his place. They
number thousands, and you are one."
"WE are one," I corrected her, smiling. "I do not doubt their
intentions, but I have not lived till now, and found you, to be killed
by the nihilists."
She gazed at me a moment in silence, and then, slowly, she added: "Do not think that I sought to frighten you by what I just said. I
already know you much too well for that. My intention was to warn you."
"I understood you, dear, perfectly."
She turned away from the window again and faced me, and her eyes were
glowing with the light of love. Again for the moment we were face to
face with the perils that menaced us from the outside, and before that
consideration, all else faded to nothingness with Zara. A little while
ago she had repudiated me, but all-conquering Love had stepped in
again, had overpowered her, enthralled her, and I could see that she
was more than ever mine own, now.