“What?” replied the young girl softly.

“My having brought you here to die, far away from your native hills?”

“Kolina cares little for herself,” said the Yakouta maiden, rising and speaking perhaps a little wildly; “let her father escape, and she is willing to lie near the tombs of the old people on the borders of the icy sea.”

“But Ivan had hoped to see for Kolina many bright, happy days; for Ivan would have made her father rich, and Kolina would have been the richest unmarried girl in the plain of Mioure!”

“And would riches make Kolina happy?” said she sadly.

“Young girl of the Yakouta, hearken to me!  Let Ivan live or die this hour; Ivan is a fool.  He left home and comfort to cross the icy seas in search of wealth, and to gain happiness; but if he had only had eyes, he would have stopped at Mioure.  There he saw a girl, lively as the heaven-fire in the north, good, generous, kind; and she was an old friend, and might have loved Ivan; but the man of Yakoutsk was blind, and told her of his passion for a selfish widow, and the Yakouta maiden never thought of Ivan but as a brother!”

“What means Ivan?” asked Kolina, trembling with emotion.

“Ivan has long meant, when he came to the yourte of Sakalar, to lay his wealth at his feet, and beg of his old friend to give him his child:  but Ivan now fears that he may die, and wishes to know what would have been the answer of Kolina?”

“But Maria Vorotinska?” urged the girl, who seemed dreaming.

“Has long been forgotten.  How could I not love my old playmate and friend!  Kolina—­Kolina, listen to Ivan!  Forget his love for the widow of Yakoutsk, and Ivan will stay in the plain of Vchivaya and die.”

“Kolina is very proud,” whispered the girl, sitting down on a log near the fire, and speaking in a low tone; “and Kolina thinks yet that the friend of her father has forgotten himself.  But if he be not wild, if the sufferings of the journey have not made him say that which is not, Kolina would be very happy.”

“Be plain, girl of Mioure—­maiden of the Yakouta tribe! and play not with the heart of a man.  Can Kolina take Ivan as her husband?”

A frank and happy reply gave the Yakoutsk merchant all the satisfaction he could wish; and then followed several hours of those sweet and delightful explanations which never end between young lovers when first they have acknowledged their mutual affection.  They had hitherto concealed so much, that there was much to tell; and Ivan and Kolina, who for nearly three years had lived together, with a bar between their deep but concealed affection, seemed to have no end of words.  Ivan had begun to find his feelings change from the very hour Sakalar’s daughter volunteered to accompany him, but it was only in the cave of New Siberia that his heart had been completely won.