t matched the momentary shade of her eyes. Behind her a young
serf, Anitchka, a foolish and romantic creature, bobbed and grinned with
pleased excitement.

Instantly Ivan saw his opportunity. A moment later Nathalie's attendant,
with a piece of gold in her hand, was forcing her way to a place near
the altar, whence prayers for her benefactor would presently rise.
Meantime Ivan had turned, eagerly, tremulously, to the young girl.

"Natusha!--The saints have heard me at last!--Oh Natusha,--Natusha!" It
seemed as if that endearing diminutive could not leave his lips, so did
he linger over it, while he pressed her small, gloved hands passionately
between his bare ones.

"Oh Ivan--I am glad!--But I am afraid, too! I must tell you--everything.
And then we will say good-bye!"

"No!" She started at the fierceness of that monosyllable. "Not
'good-bye.'--Not yet!--Not yet!"

"Yes, Ivan. I am too unhappy. I must--I have _got_ to stop thinking
about you.--It is too hard, too miserable, the other way.--And I know
they will never let you see me again."

Ivan's reply was a tightening of his clasp on her hands. Then he bent
his head, while his brows were knitted, anxiously. It seemed as if he
could not speak. And she had opened her lips to comfort him a little
when he burst forth, huskily:

"Nathalie, I love you better than life! Will you marry me?"

"Oh!--Ivan!" The child trembled. She would have drawn away, but that he
held her tightly and strove to look into her face. Then, suddenly, she
grew braver, and let her eyes meet his. In the rose-red of her fair
face he read, ecstatically, his answer. But he was to have yet more.
Unknowing that he had read her thought, she found her voice and
whispered: "Yes!"

And then, in a second, he had kissed her, upon the mouth, there in the
dusk of the little, empty chapel. Whereafter, indeed, she would have
torn herself from him, had he not drawn her arm through his, and started
forward, saying, in her ear:

"Come, my dear! We are betrothed. You belong to me, henceforth. And we
are in a church. Let us go and see if they will marry us, here, now.--I
believe God gave you to me just now for this very thing. And--"

But Ivan had at last got beyond her courage. It was a daring thing he
had proposed; and he had not paused to reflect that, considering the
laws of their stern faith, so hasty an affair would be impossible.
Perhaps, then, Ivan had some right to be bitterly disappointed at her
ve