poor little soul was
punished!--Yes, little one, you may well weep! Why, my own eyes are full
of tears. Well, so it had to be and so it was. You and I and the Lord
Almighty and the Hosts of Heaven--who can do anything against us?--So
you see that even a poor fool like me can understand how it all came
about; and I do not accuse you, nor have I anything to forgive. It was
just a dreadful misfortune. But it has come to a good end, thank God I
and I can forget it entirely and for ever, if only you can say: 'It is
all over and done with and buried like the dead!'"

Before he could hinder her, she snatched his hand, to her lips with
passionate affection and sobbed out:

"You are so good! Oh! Rustem, there is not another man on earth so good
as you are, and my mother will bless you for it. Do what you will with
me! And I declare to you, once for all that all that is past and gone,
and only to think of it gives me horror. And it was exactly as you say:
my mother dead, no one to warn me or protect me,--I was hardly sixteen,
a simple, ignorant creature, and he called me, and it all came over me
like a dream in my sleep; and when I awoke...."

"There we are," he interrupted and he tried to laugh as he wiped his
eyes. "Both laid up with holes in our heads.--And when I am in my
own country I always think the prettiest time is just when the hard
winter-frost is over, and the snow melted, and all the flowers in the
valleys rush into bloom--and so I feel now, my little girl. Everything
will be well now, we shall be so wonderfully happy. The day before
yesterday, do you know, I still was not quite clear about it all. Your
trouble gave me no peace, and it went against the grain-well, you can
understand. But then, later, when I was lying in my room and the moon
shone down on my bed..." and a rapt expression came into his face
that strangely beautified his harsh features, "I could not help asking
myself: 'Although the moon went down into the sea this morning, does
that prevent its shining as brightly as ever to-night, and bringing a
cooler breeze?' And if a human soul has gone under in the same way, may
it not rise up again, bright and shining, when it has bathed and rested?
And such a heart--of course every man would like to have its love all
to himself, but it may have enough to give more than once. For, as I
remembered, my mother, though she loved me dearly, when another child
came and yet another gave them the best she had to give;