et him; yet I fear for your sake. Would you not tremble to encounter a
maddened and brutal mujik?--then how much more to meet Alexis Pavlovitch
of Kinesma!"

"I do not and shall not tremble," she replied. "It is not your marriage
that has estranged your father, but your marriage with ME. Having been,
unconsciously, the cause of the trouble, I shall deliberately, and as
a sacred duty, attempt to remove it. Let us go to Kinesma, as humble,
penitent children, and cast ourselves upon your father's mercy. At the
worst, he can but reject us; and you will have given me the consolation
of knowing that I have tried, as your wife, to annul the sacrifice you
have made for my sake."

"Be it so, then!" cried Boris, with a mingled feeling of relief and
anxiety.

He was not unwilling that the attempt should be made, especially since
it was his wife's desire; but he knew his father too well to anticipate
immediate success. All threatening POSSIBILITIES suggested themselves to
his mind; all forms of insult and outrage which he had seen perpetrated
at Kinesma filled his memory. The suspense became at last worse than any
probable reality. He wrote to his father, announcing a speedy visit
from himself and his wife; and two days afterwards the pair left St.
Petersburg in a large travelling kibitka.

X.

When Prince Alexis received his son's letter, an expression of fierce,
cruel delight crept over his face, and there remained, horribly
illuminating its haggard features. The orders given for swimming
horses in the Volga--one of his summer diversions--were immediately
countermanded; he paced around the parapet of the castle-wall until near
midnight, followed by Sasha with a stone jug of vodki. The latter had
the useful habit, notwithstanding his stupid face, of picking up the
fragments of soliloquy which the Prince dropped, and answering them as
if talking to himself. Thus he improved upon and perfected many a hint
of cruelty, and was too discreet ever to dispute his master's claim to
the invention.

Sasha, we may be sure, was busy with his devil's work that night.
The next morning the stewards and agents of Prince Alexis, in castle,
village, and field, were summoned to his presence.

"Hark ye!" said he; "Borka and his trumpery wife send me word that they
will be here to-morrow. See to it that every man, woman, and child, for
ten versts out on the Moskovskoi road, knows of their coming. Let it be
known that whoever uncovers his