They would regard me--they must now regard me, as being like other men
of their knowledge, who would see in Zara only a beautiful and
attractive woman, young and gorgeous, who was suddenly fallen into my
power, almost as absolutely as if she were made my slave. What personal
sacrifices could I not demand of her, if I were indeed like those other
men I have mentioned? What indignities could I not visit upon her,
claiming my right to do so as the possessor of her secret, and
threatening, not alone her own undoing, but the death of her cause, if
she should dare to deny me?
Somewhere out there in the snow, Zara's brother Ivan was waiting and
watching, and although I did not now feel that his affection for her
included many of the self sacrificing qualities that a brother should
have for a sister, he was nevertheless her blood kin, and without doubt
he had loaded his pistol with a bullet for the man whom he believed
would have it in his power to crush that beautiful sister to the earth,
even to the point of literal seduction. For judged from the nihilists'
standpoint again, they understood Zara to be one who would not hesitate
at any sacrifice, in defense of the cause she served.
"It does not look as if danger, and even death, lurked somewhere yonder
in the bright sunshine, Dubravnik," she said to me in a low tone, after
we had stood for a long time in utter silence, together.
"No," I replied.
"It is a peaceful scene," she went on in a dreamy sort of manner,
staring into the street, and with a half smile upon her lips. "It looks
as if we might put on our furs and wraps, and go abroad together,
without the least thought of danger, does it not?"
"Yes, Zara."
"And yet----" she raised one hand and pointed--"probably just around
that corner, yonder, or behind one of the others, there are waiting
men, who are intent upon your destruction, no matter what the
consequences to themselves may be. It is awful to contemplate." She
shuddered. "I cannot bring myself to believe that it is really true;
and yet I know it to be so."
She turned to me with a swift gesture, and continued.
"Oh, Dubravnik, what shall we do? What shall be done to escape the
death that threatens you and me? Tell me! Tell me what can be done? The
condition is not the same, now, as it was. Everything is different
since you kissed me. This world in which we live, is a new world, but
we must nevertheless face the conditions of that old one we have
deserted. What shall we do? What shall be done?"
I was silent, not because I hesitated to answer her, not because I
really at that moment had no answer to give her, but because I was,
myself, intently thinking upon the very problem she had suggested.