"Faith, the boy has eyes!" the old Prince constantly repeated, as he
turned away from a new stare of admiration, down the table.

The guests noticed a change in the character of the entertainment. The
idiot, in his tow shirt, had been crammed to repletion in the kitchen,
and was now asleep in the stable. Razboi, the new bear,--the successor
of the slaughtered Mishka,--was chained up out of hearing. The jugglers,
tumblers, and Calmucks still occupied their old place under the gallery,
but their performances were of a highly decorous character. At the least
sign of a relapse into certain old tricks, more grotesque than refined,
the brows of Prince Alexis would grow dark, and a sharp glance at Sasha
was sufficient to correct the indiscretion. Every one found this natural
enough; for they were equally impressed with the elegance and purity of
the young wife. After the healths had been drunk and the slumber-flag
was raised over the castle, Boris led her into the splendid apartments
of his mother,--now her own,--and knelt at her feet.

"Have I done my part, my Boris?" she asked.

"You are an angel!" he cried. "It was a miracle! My life was not worth a
_copek_, and I feared for yours. If it will only last!--if it will only
last!

"It _will_," said she. "You have taken me from poverty, and given me
rank, wealth, and a proud place in the world: let it be my work to keep
the peace which God has permitted me to establish between you and your
father!"

The change in the old Prince, in fact, was more radical than any one who
knew his former ways of life would have considered possible. He stormed
and swore occasionally, flourished his whip to some purpose, and rode
home from the chase, not outside of a brandy-cask, as once, but with too
much of its contents inside of him: but these mild excesses were
comparative virtues. His accesses of blind rage seemed to be at an end.
A powerful, unaccustomed feeling of content subdued his strong nature,
and left its impress on his voice and features. He joked and sang with
his "children," but not with the wild recklessness of the days of
_reisaks_ and indiscriminate floggings. Both his exactions and his
favors diminished in quantity. Week after week passed by, and there was
no sign of any return to his savage courses.

Nothing annoyed him so much as a reference to his former way of life, in
the presence of the Princess Helena. If her gentle, questioning eyes
happened to rest on him at such