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But it is insulting neither you nor the dishonored dead whose wife you have not been for years, to tell you what you know: that you carry away with you my soul! Nathalie, Princess of all my life, will you not set forth leaving behind you the promise to come back? You shall wait as long as you will: two years, if it must be. I have endured far longer than that, and without hope.
He was reared at first in strict seclusion behind the silken curtains that guarded the windows of the Térem, where the women lived. Then rebellion broke out after his father's death; for Alexis had children by two marriages, and the offspring of his first wife, Mary Miloslavski, were jealous of the influence acquired by the relatives of Nathalie Naryshkin, Peter's mother.
Caroline, Countess Dravikine, gazing critically at her daughter's finished figure, felt her heart glow within her. Who could reproach her for exploiting such beauty before marriage? For at sight of Nathalie to-night, an Emperor himself could scarce have reproached his son for desiring the hand of so exquisite a creature.
Even Nathalie herself could not guess the anguish with which this secret dread had already filled the mother's heart; nor the struggle she was prepared to make before her motherhood should be dishonored as her wifehood had always been. In time the story of this Princess, told, day by day, in semi-accidental snatches, laid hold of Ivan's imagination.
She sent all who aspired to her hand to her uncle, saying: "Before I give you any hope, I must know my uncle's opinion." It is likely that Nathalie would have answered differently if she had ever felt a real preference for any one; but heretofore she seemed to have preferred her liberty.
It was by finally emerging from it unscathed, and having, at the age of thirteen years and six months, resolved herself into an agreeably normal young person whose quiet manners covered a swift and keenly feminine brain, that Nathalie Dravikine proved herself worthy of her mother's steel. This, indeed, Countess Caroline came herself to perceive.
The ghost started suddenly. "Why, bless my soul! it's the very letter! Where did you get that, Nathalie?" asked Dr. Renton. "I found it on the stairs after dinner, pa." "Yes, I do remember taking it up with me; I must have dropped it," he answered, musingly, gazing at the superscription. The ghost was gazing at it, too, with startled interest.
Marie married the Prince de Beauvau-Craon; Delphine became Countess Potocka, and Nathalie, Marchioness Medici Spada. The last named died young, a victim to the zeal in favor of the cholera-stricken of Rome. The other two sisters went to live in Paris, and became famous for their brilliant elegance.
"That is long ago, Nathalie; and I am not a young man now. But in all my life there has been only one woman. That fact came to me forcibly in that first hour of your first visit to me here: the beginning of our thrice-blessed companionship. "That beautiful dream is ended, now. No doubt, for a time, you must leave this place.
The captain was an excellent hand at backgammon. When the uncle heard this, he proposed a game; and the captain, who understood that it was important to gain the uncle's favor, readily acceded. This did not please Nathalie. She preferred that he should be occupied with herself. When all the company were gone, she turned to her uncle, saying: "You were right, uncle, after all.
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