Princess Zara

All this time I had forgotten Ivan, whom I had left, bound and

helpless, at my rooms, and who, I knew, must be suffering untold

tortures of doubt and dread, concerning the happenings of the night. So

now I hastened to him with all speed. Poor chap, he was nearly done for

by the strained position he had been compelled to maintain for so long

a time, but I have always believed that it did him good, and that

without it he might have been less tractable, when the time came for a

reconciliation with his sister. It gave him an opportunity for the

right sort of meditation, which, perhaps, he had never enjoyed before.

Every time the temptation came to him to break his bonds and make his

escape, he remembered that he must remain where he was, for the sake of

the sister he loved so well, whose life would be forfeited so easily,

if he should carry to his nihilistic friends the knowledge he

possessed. I found him weak, and worn, but still firm in the

determination to await my coming. I unbound him, gave him food and wine

and as soon as he was sufficiently recovered ordered my droshka and

took him to Zara's house.

I made him wait until I had gone to her, and told her of my last

interview with the emperor, and I succeeded in securing her reluctant

consent to go to the palace with me that day. Then I called to Ivan,

and when I saw the brother and sister clasped in each other's arms, I

left them alone together. What passed between them, I have never been

told, and I never thought it necessary to ask. I only know that when I

was presently called into the consultation, Ivan offered me his hand,

tenderly, and I grasped it, warmly.

"You are to be my brother," he said; "and Zara tells me that you two

are going to America, to live. May I go with you, Dubravnik? Will you

take me, also, out of this hell of plotting and scheming, and this

chaos of exile and death? Will you make an American of me, and let me

be your brother, indeed?"

After that, we three passed a very happy hour together, after which I

hurried away, with the assurance that Zara would accompany me into the

presence of the czar, that evening. I had not told her of the death of

Prince Michael, for the knowledge of it, and why he had killed himself,

could only cast a shadow over the great joy she was now experiencing;

afterward, there would be a time and place for the telling, and I did

not want the knowledge of it to come upon her with a shock, just now.