Then, as we stood, I turned and saw Alexis Alexovitch striding towards us through the grass.

How tall and soldierly he looked!  And the thought flashed through my mind that if Otto killed him he would be lying there a dead, inanimate thing.

“Go, Otto,” I cried, “go, if you stay you will kill him.”

Otto looked and saw Alexis coming.  He turned one glance at me:  his face was full of infinite meaning.

Then, for my sake, he ran.  How noble he looked as he ran.  Brave heart! he dared not stay and risk the outburst of his anger.

But Alexis overtook him.

Then beside the river-bank they fought.  Ah! but it was terrible to see them fight.  Is it not awful when men fight together?

I could only stand and wring my hands and look on in agony!

First, Alexis seized Otto by the waistband of his trousers and swung him round and round in the air.  I could see Otto’s face as he went round:  the same mute courage was written on it as when he turned to run.  Alexis swung Otto round and round until his waistband broke, and he was thrown into the grass.

That was the first part of the fight.

Then Alexis stood beside Otto and kicked him from behind as he lay in the grass, and they fought like that for some time.  That was the second part of the fight.  Then came the third and last part.  Alexis picked up the easel and smashed the picture over Otto’s head.  It fastened itself like a collar about his neck.  Then Alexis picked Otto up with the picture round his neck and threw him into the stream.

He floated!

My paladin!

He floated!

I could see his upturned face as he floated onwards down the stream, through the meadow!  It was full of deep resignation.

Then Alexis Alexovitch came to me and gathered me up in his arms and carried me thus across the meadow—­he is so tall and strong—­ and whispered that he loved me, and that to-morrow he would shield me from the world.  He carried me thus to the house in his arms among the grass and flowers; and there was my father, Ivan Ivanovitch, and my mother, Katoosha Katooshavitch.  And to-morrow I am to marry Alexis.  He had brought back from the inn my jewels and my money, and he gave me again the diamond clasp that Otto had taken from my waist.

How can I bear it?  Alexis is to take me to Petersburg, and he has bought a beautiful house in the Prospekt, and I am to live in it with him, and we are to be rich, and I am to be presented at the Court of Nicholas Romanoff and his wife.  Ah!  Is it not dreadful?

And I can only think of Otto floating down the stream with the easel about his neck.  From the little river he will float into the Dnieper, and from the Dnieper into the Bug, and from the Bug he will float down the Volga, and from the Volga into the Caspian Sea.  And from the Caspian Sea there is no outlet, and Otto will float round and round it for ever.