I had been a witness the preceding night, and had
also listened to the one that followed it, between Zara and me.

The thrill of alarm that convulsed me, when the full realization of
this aspect of the affair came home to me, was startling and
paralyzing. Whatever the friends of nihilism might do to me now, would
have its crushing effect upon her, also. Nothing could touch me, that
would not injure her. We had become one, indeed, in the sense of being
so absorbed in each other, so blended in soul and in thought, that
whatever affected one, must act with redoubled power upon the other.

Judged from the standpoint of the nihilists themselves, there was no
doubt that they were logical enough in their determination to kill
_me_. From their view of the case, I was merely a spy, or at least
a prospective one, who had overheard a confidence delivered by the
Princess Zara de Echeveria, which placed her so absolutely in my power
that I held her life, as the saying goes, in the hollow of my hand; and
they could not know, would never guess, that now we had learned to love
each other, and that she was dearer and sweeter to me than all else in
the world.

They would regard me--they must now regard me, as being like other men
of their knowledge, who would see in Zara only a beautiful and
attractive woman, young and gorgeous, who was suddenly fallen into my
power, almost as absolutely as if she were made my slave. What personal
sacrifices could I not demand of her, if I were indeed like those other
men I have mentioned? What indignities could I not visit upon her,
claiming my right to do so as the possessor of her secret, and
threatening, not alone her own undoing, but the death of her cause, if
she should dare to deny me?

Somewhere out there in the snow, Zara's brother Ivan was waiting and
watching, and although I did not now feel that his affection for her
included many of the self sacrificing qualities that a brother should
have for a sister, he was nevertheless her blood kin, and without doubt
he had loaded his pistol with a bullet for the man whom he believed
would have it in his power to crush that beautiful sister to the earth,
even to the point of literal seduction. For judged from the nihilists'
standpoint again, they understood Zara to be one who would not hesitate
at any sacrifice, in defense of the cause she served.

"It does not look as if danger, and even death, lurked somewhere yonder
in the bright sunshine, Dubr