ave who is
not? My brother gets drunk less than most, and is therefore more to be
trusted than the others. Besides, in the position in which we are we
must risk something."

"You are right," said Vaninka, recovering her usual resolution, which
always grew in the presence of danger. "Go and seek your brother."

"We can do nothing this morning," said Annouschka, drawing back the
window curtains. "Look, the dawn is breaking."

"But what can we do with the body of this unhappy man?" cried Vaninka.

"It must remain hidden where it is all day, and this evening, while you
are at the Court entertainment, my brother shall remove it."

"True," murmured Vaninka in a strange tone, "I must go to Court this
evening; to stay away would arouse suspicion. Oh, my God! my God!"

"Help me, my lady," said Annouschka; "I am not strong enough alone."

Vaninka turned deadly pale, but, spurred on by the danger, she went
resolutely up to the body of her lover; then, lifting it by the
shoulders, while her maid raised it by the legs, she laid it once more in
the chest. Then Annouschka shut down the lid, locked the chest, and put
the key into her breast. Then both threw back the linen which had hidden
it from the eyes of the general. Day dawned, as might be expected, ere
sleep visited the eyes of Vaninka.

She went down, however, at the breakfast hour; for she did not wish to
arouse the slightest suspicion in her father's mind. Only it might have
been thought from her pallor that she had risen from the grave, but the
general attributed this to the nocturnal disturbance of which he had been
the cause.

Luck had served Vaninka wonderfully in prompting her to say that Foedor
had already gone; for not only did the general feel no surprise when he
did not appear, but his very absence was a proof of his daughter's
innocence. The general gave a pretext for his aide-de-camp's absence by
saying that he had sent him on a mission. As for Vaninka, she remained
out of her room till it was time to dress. A week before, she had been at
the Court entertainment with Foedor.

Vaninka might have excused herself from accompanying her father by
feigning some slight indisposition, but two considerations made her fear
to act thus: the first was the fear of making the general anxious, and
perhaps of making him remain at home himself, which would make the
removal of the corpse more difficult; the second was the fear of meeting
Ivan and having to blush