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As we drew near, the stern look vanished, and he sprang forward with a glad smile to seize and shake my hand. At the same moment Ivanka's black eyes seemed to blaze with delight, as she ran towards me, and clasped one of my legs. Little Dobri, bereft of speech, stood with legs and arms apart, and mouth and eyes wide open, gazing at me. "All well?" I asked anxiously.
You had no right, my dear boy, to bring that child away from her home in such a hurry." "But," said I remonstratively, "her home at the time I carried her off was destroyed indeed, most of the village was a smoking ruin, and liable at any moment to be replundered by the irregular troops of both sides, while Ivanka's parents were reported dead what could I do?"
The man laid his great hand tenderly on Ivanka's head, while he was speaking in his deep earnest voice; and Nicholas, who was well aware of the truth of his remarks about the Cossacks and the waggon-drivers of the army, expressed such genuine feeling and regret for the sufferings with which the household had been visited, that Petroff was somewhat appeased. "But how came your forge to be burned?"
"Yes, yes," returned Marika, with a look and tone of despair, "I know that Dobri is dead; I saw my darling boy slain before my eyes, and heard Ivanka's dying scream; no wonder that my brain has reeled so long. But I am strong now. I feel as if the Lord were calling on me to go forth and work for Himself since I have no one else to care for. Had Giuana lived I would have stayed to nurse her, but "
Were you deaf when Ivanka's death-shriek pierced my ears like . Oh! God forgive me, Dobri, I did not mean to " She stopped in the torrent of her wrath, stretched both arms convulsively towards heaven, and, with a piercing cry for "Mercy!" fell dead at our feet. Still the scout did not move. He stood in the same half-shrinking attitude of intense agony, glaring at the ruin around him.
"What child is that?" added my mother quickly, observing Ivanka. "It is the daughter of Dobri Petroff. Let me introduce you, Ivanka, to my mother, and to my sister Bella you know Bella?" I had of course written to them a good deal about the poor child, and Bella had already formed an attachment to her in imagination. She started up on hearing Ivanka's name, and held out both hands.
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