STÉPAN RETURNS
At daybreak the next morning Karl Steinmetz was awakened by the familiar
cry of the wolf beneath his window. He rose and dressed hastily. The
eastern sky was faintly pink; a rosy twilight moved among the pines. He
went down stairs and opened the little door at the back of the castle.
It was, of course, the starosta, shivering and bleached in the chilly
dawn.
"They have watched my cottage, Excellency, all night. It was only now
that I could get away. There are two strange sleighs outside Domensky's
hut. There are marks of many sleighs that have been and gone.
Excellency, it is unsafe for any one to venture outside the castle
to-day. You must send to Tver for the soldiers."
"The prince refuses to do that."
"But why, Excellency? We shall be killed!"
"You do not know the effect of platoon firing on a closely packed mob,
starost. The prince does," replied Steinmetz, with his grim smile.
They spoke together in hushed voices for half an hour, while the
daylight crept up the eastern sky. Then the starosta stole away among
the still larches, like the wolf whose cry he imitated so perfectly.
Steinmetz closed the door and went upstairs to his own room, his face
grave and thoughtful, his tread heavy with the weight of anxiety.
The day passed as such days do. Etta was not the woman to plead a
conventional headache and remain hidden. She came down to breakfast, and
during that meal was boldly conversational.
"She has spirit," reflected Karl Steinmetz behind his quiet gray eyes.
He admired her for it, and helped her. He threw back the ball of
conversation with imperturbable good humor.
They were completely shut in. No news from the outer world penetrated to
the little party besieged within their own stone walls. Maggie, fearless
and innocent, announced her intention of snow-shoeing, but was dissuaded
therefrom by Steinmetz with covert warnings.
During the morning each was occupied in individual affairs. At luncheon
time they met again. Etta was now almost defiant. She was on her mettle.
She was so near to loving Paul that a hatred of him welled up within her
breast whenever he repelled her advances with uncompromising reticence.
They did not know--perhaps she hardly knew herself--that the opening of
the side-door depended upon her humor.
In the afternoon Etta and Maggie sat, as was their wont, in the
morning-room looking out over the cliff. Of late their intercourse had
been slightly strained. They had never had much in common, although
circumstances had thrown their lives together. It is one of the ills to
which women are heir that they have frequently to pass their whole lives
in the society of persons with whom they have no real sympathy. Both
these women were conscious of the little rift within the lute, but such
rifts are better treated with silence. That which comes to interfere
with a woman's friendship will not often bear discussion.
At dusk Steinmetz went out. He had an appointment with the starosta.
Paul was sitting in his own room, making a pretence of work, about five
o'clock, when Steinmetz came hurriedly to him.
"A new development," he said shortly. "Come to my room."
Paul rose and followed him through the double doorway built in the
thickness of the wall.
Steinmetz's large room was lighted only by a lamp standing on the table.
All the light was thrown on the desk by a large green shade, leaving the
rest of the room in a semi-darkness.
At the far end of the room a man was standing in an expectant attitude.
There was something furtive about this intruder, and at the same time
familiar to Paul, who peered at him through the gloom.
Then the man came hurriedly forward.
"Ah, Pavlo, Pavlo!" he said in a deep, hollow voice. "I could not expect
you to know me."
He threw his arms around him, and embraced him after the simple manner
of Russia. Then he held him at arm's length.
"Stépan!" said Paul. "No, I did not know you."
Stépan Lanovitch was still holding him at arm's length, examining him
with the large faint blue eyes which so often go with an exaggerated
philanthropy.
"Old," he muttered, "old! Ah, my poor Pavlo! I heard in Kiew--you know
how we outlaws hear such things--that you were in trouble, so I came to
you."
Steinmetz in the background raised his patient eyebrows.
"There are two men in the world," went on the voluble Lanovitch, "who
can manage the moujiks of Tver--you and I; so I came. I will help you,
Pavlo; I will stand by you. Together we can assuredly quell this
revolt."
Paul nodded, and allowed himself to be embraced a second time. He had
long known Stépan Lanovitch of Thors as one of the many who go about the
world doing good with their eyes shut. For the moment he had absolutely
no use for this well-meaning blunderer.
"I am afraid," he said, "that it has got beyond control. We cannot stamp
it out now except by force, and I would rather not do that. Our only
hope is that it may burn itself out. The talkers must get hoarse in
time."
Lanovitch shook his head.
"They have been talking since the days of Ananias," he said, "and they
are not hoarse yet. I fear, Pavlo, there will never be peace in the
world until the talkers are hoarse."
"How did you get here?" asked Paul, who was always businesslike.
"I brought a pack on my back and sold cotton. I made myself known to the
starosta, and he communicated with good Karl here."
"Did you learn any thing in the village?" asked Paul.
"No; they suspected me. They would not talk. But I understand them,
Pavlo, these poor simple fools. A pebble in the stream would turn the
current of their convictions. Tell them who is the Moscow doctor. It is
your only chance."
Steinmetz grunted acquiescence and walked wearily to the window. This
was only an old and futile argument of his own.
"And make it impossible for me to live another day among them," said
Paul. "Do you think St. Petersburg would countenance a prince who works
among his moujiks?"
Stépan Lanovitch's pale blue eyes looked troubled. Steinmetz shrugged
his shoulders.
"They have brought it on themselves," he said.
"As much as a lamb brings the knife upon itself by growing up," replied
Paul.
Lanovitch shook his white head with a tolerant little smile. He loved
these poor helpless peasants with a love as large as and a thousand
times less practical than Paul's.
In the meantime Paul was thinking in his clear, direct way. It was this
man's habit in life and in thought to walk straight past the side
issues.
"It is like you, Stépan," he said at length, "to come to us at this
time. We feel it, and we recognize the generosity of it, for Steinmetz
and I know the danger you are running in coming back to this country.
But we cannot let you do it--No, do not protest. It is quite out of the
question. We might quell the revolt; no doubt we should--the two of us
together. But what would happen afterward? You would be sent back to
Siberia, and I should probably follow you for harboring an escaped
convict."
The face of the impulsive philanthropist dropped pathetically. He had
come to his friend's assistance on the spur of the moment. He was
destined, as some men are, to plunge about the world seeking to do good.
And it has been decreed that good must be done by stealth and after
deliberation only. He who does good on the spur of the moment usually
sows a seed of dissension in the trench of time.
"Also," went on Paul, with that deliberate grasp of the situation which
never failed to astonish the ready-witted Steinmetz; "also, you have
other calls upon your energy. You have other work to do."
Lanovitch's broad face lightened up; his benevolent brow beamed. His
capacity for work had brought him to the shoemaker's last in Tomsk. It
is a vice that grows with indulgence.
"It has pleased the Authorities," went on Paul, who was shy of religious
turns of phrase, "to give us all our own troubles. Mine--such as they
are, Stépan--must be managed by myself. Yours can be faced by no one but
you. You have come at the right moment. You do not quite realize what
your coming means to Catrina."
"Catrina! Ah!"
The weak blue eyes looked into the strong face and read nothing there.
"I doubt," said Paul, "whether it is right for you to continue
sacrificing Catrina for the sake of the little good that you are able to
do. You are hampered in your good work to such an extent that the result
is very small, while the pain you give is very great."
"But is that so, Pavlo? Is my child unhappy?"
"I fear so," replied Paul gravely, with his baffling self-restraint.
"She has not much in common with her mother, you understand."
"Ah, yes!"
"It is you to whom she is attached. Sometimes it is so with children and
parents. One cannot tell why."
Steinmetz looked as if he could supply information upon the subject: but
he remained silent, standing, as it were, in an acquiescent attitude.
"You have fought your fight," said Paul. "A good fight, too. You have
struck your blow for the country. You have sown your seed, but the
harvest is not yet. Now it is time to think of your own safety, of the
happiness of your own child."
Stépan Lanovitch turned away and sat heavily down. He leaned his two
arms on the table, and his chin upon his clenched hands.
"Why not leave the country now; at all events for a few years?" went on
Paul, and when a man who is accustomed to command stoops to persuade, it
is strong persuasion that he wields. "You can take Catrina with you. You
will be assuring her happiness, which, at all events, is something
tangible--a present harvest! I will drive over to Thors now and bring
her back. You can leave to-night and go to America."
Stépan Lanovitch raised his head and looked hard into Paul's face.
"You wish it?"
"I think," answered Paul steadily, "that it is for Catrina's happiness."
Then Lanovitch rose up and took Paul's hand in his work-stained grip.
"Go, my son! It will be a great happiness to me. I will wait here," he
said.
Paul went straight to the door. He was a man with a capacity for prompt
action, which seemed to rise to demand. Steinmetz followed him out into
the passage and took him by the arm.
"You cannot do it," he said.
"Yes, I can," replied Paul. "I can find my way through the forest. No
one will venture to follow me there in the dark."
Steinmetz hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, and went back into the
room.
The ladies at Thors were dressed for dinner--were, indeed, awaiting the
announcement of that meal--when Paul broke in upon their solitude. He
did not pause to lay aside his furs, but went into the long, low room,
withdrawing his seal gloves painfully, for it was freezing as it only
can freeze in March.
The countess assailed him with many questions, more or less sensible,
which he endured patiently until the servant had left the room. Catrina,
with flushed cheeks, stood looking at him, but said nothing.
Paul withdrew his gloves and submitted to the countess' futile tugs at
his fur coat. Then Catrina spoke.
"The Baron de Chauxville has left us," she said, without knowing exactly
why.
For the moment Paul had forgotten Claude de Chauxville's existence.
"I have news for you," he said; and he gently pushed the chattering
countess aside. "Stépan Lanovitch is at Osterno. He arrived to-night."
"Ah, they have set him free, poor man! Does he wear chains on his
ankles--is his hair long? My poor Stépan! Ah, but what a stupid man!"
The countess collapsed into a soft chair. She chose a soft one,
obviously. It has to be recorded here that she did not receive the news
with unmitigated joy.
"When he was in Siberia," she gasped, "one knew at all events where he
was; and now, mon Dieu! what an anxiety!"
"I have come over to see whether you will join him to-night and go with
him to America," said Paul, looking at her.
"To--America--to-night! My dear Paul, are you mad? One cannot do such
things as that. America! that is across the sea."
"Yes," answered Paul.
"And I am such a bad sailor. Now, if it had been Paris----"
"But it cannot be," interrupted Paul. "Will you join your father
to-night?" he added, turning to Catrina.
The girl was looking at him with something in her eyes that he did not
care to meet.
"And go to America?" she asked, in a lifeless voice.
Paul nodded.
Catrina turned suddenly away from him and walked to the fire, where she
stood with her back toward him--a small, uncouth figure in black and
green, the lamplight gleaming on her wonderful hair. She turned suddenly
again, and, coming back, stood looking into his face.
"I will go," she said. "You think it best?"
"Yes," he answered; "I think it best."
She drew a sharp breath and was about to speak when the countess
interrupted her.
"What!" she cried. "You are going away to-night like this, without any
luggage! And pray what is to become of me?"
"You can join them in America," said Paul, in his quietest tone. "Or you
can live in Paris, at last."