“Then order me—­am I not your slave?” cried the young soldier.

“You must stay here,” said Vaninka.

“Stay here?”

“Yes; only women and children will thus confess themselves beaten at the first blow:  a man, if he be worthy of the name, fights.”

“Fight!—­against whom?—­against your father?  Never!”

“Who suggested that you should contend against my father?  It is against events that you must strive; for the generality of men do not govern events, but are carried away by them.  Appear to my father as though you were fighting against your love, and he will think that you have mastered yourself.  As I am supposed to be ignorant of your proposal, I shall not be suspected.  I will demand two years’ more freedom, and I shall obtain them.  Who knows what may happen in the course of two years?  The emperor may die, my betrothed may die, my father—­may God protect him!—­my father himself may die—!”

“But if they force you to marry?”

“Force me!” interrupted Vaninka, and a deep flush rose to her cheek and immediately disappeared again.  “And who will force me to do anything?  Father?  He loves me too well.  The emperor?  He has enough worries in his own family, without introducing them into another’s.  Besides, there is always a last resource when every other expedient fails:  the Neva only flows a few paces from here, and its waters are deep.”

Foedor uttered a cry, for in the young girl’s knit brows and tightly compressed lips there was so much resolution that he understood that they might break this child but that they would not bend her.  But Foedor’s heart was too much in harmony with the plan Vaninka had proposed; his objections once removed, he did not seek fresh ones.  Besides, had he had the courage to do so; Vaninka’s promise to make up in secret to him for the dissimulation she was obliged to practise in public would have conquered his last scruples.

Vaninka, whose determined character had been accentuated by her education, had an unbounded influence over all who came in contact with her; even the general, without knowing why, obeyed her.  Foedor submitted like a child to everything she wished, and the young girl’s love was increased by the wishes she opposed and by a feeling of gratified pride.

It was some days after this nocturnal decision that the knouting had taken place at which our readers have assisted.  It was for some slight fault, and Gregory had been the victim; Vaninka having complained to her father about him.  Foedor, who as aide-de-camp had been obliged to preside over Gregory’s punishment, had paid no more attention to the threats the serf had uttered on retiring.