affairs; but I am going to Court. Explain to me the object of your
request; perhaps I may be able to help you."

Marya rose, and respectfully saluted her. Everything in the unknown lady
involuntarily attracted her, and inspired trust. Marya took from her
pocket a folded paper; she offered it to her protectress, who ran over
it in a low voice.

When she began she looked kind and interested, but all at once her face
changed, and Marya, who followed with her eyes her every movement, was
alarmed by the hard expression of the face lately so calm and gracious.

"You plead for Grineff," said the lady, in an icy tone. "The Tzarina
cannot grant him grace. He passed over to the usurper, not as an
ignorant and credulous man, but as a depraved and dangerous
good-for-nothing."

"It's not true!" cried Marya.

"What! it's not true?" retorted the lady, flushing up to her eyes.

"It is not true, before God it is not true," exclaimed Marya. "I know
all; I will tell you all. It is for me only that he exposed himself to
all the misfortunes which have overtaken him. And if he did not
vindicate himself before the judges, it is because he did not wish me to
be mixed up in the affair."

And Marya eagerly related all the reader already knows.

The lady listened with deep attention.

"Where do you lodge?" she asked, when the young girl concluded her
story. And when she heard that it was with Anna Vlassiefna, she added,
with a smile: "Ah! I know! Good-bye! Do not tell anyone of our meeting.
I hope you will not have to wait long for an answer to your letter."

Having said these words, she rose and went away by a covered walk.

Marya returned home full of joyful hope.

Her hostess scolded her for her early morning walk--bad, she said, in
the autumn for the health of a young girl. She brought the "_samovar_,"
and over a cup of tea she was about to resume her endless discussion of
the Court, when a carriage with a coat-of-arms stopped before the door.

A lackey in the Imperial livery entered the room, announcing that the
Tzarina deigned to call to her presence the daughter of Captain
Mironoff.

Anna Vlassiefna was quite upset by this news.

"Oh, good heavens!" cried she; "the Tzarina summons you to Court! How
did she know of your arrival? And how will you acquit yourself before
the Tzarina, my little mother? I think you do not even know how to walk
Court fashion. I ought to take you; or, stay, should I not send for the
midwife, that