?" cried Vaninka.

"It must remain hidden where it is all day, and this evening, while you
are at the Court entertainment, my brother shall remove it."

"True," murmured Vaninka in a strange tone, "I must go to Court this
evening; to stay away would arouse suspicion. Oh, my God! my God!"

"Help me, my lady," said Annouschka; "I am not strong enough alone."

Vaninka turned deadly pale, but, spurred on by the danger, she went
resolutely up to the body of her lover; then, lifting it by the
shoulders, while her maid raised it by the legs, she laid it once more
in the chest. Then Annouschka shut down the lid, locked the chest, and
put the key into her breast. Then both threw back the linen which
had hidden it from the eyes of the general. Day dawned, as might be
expected, ere sleep visited the eyes of Vaninka.

She went down, however, at the breakfast hour; for she did not wish to
arouse the slightest suspicion in her father's mind. Only it might have
been thought from her pallor that she had risen from the grave, but the
general attributed this to the nocturnal disturbance of which he had
been the cause.

Luck had served Vaninka wonderfully in prompting her to say that Foedor
had already gone; for not only did the general feel no surprise when
he did not appear, but his very absence was a proof of his daughter's
innocence. The general gave a pretext for his aide-de-camp's absence by
saying that he had sent him on a mission. As for Vaninka, she remained
out of her room till it was time to dress. A week before, she had been
at the Court entertainment with Foedor.

Vaninka might have excused herself from accompanying her father by
feigning some slight indisposition, but two considerations made her fear
to act thus: the first was the fear of making the general anxious,
and perhaps of making him remain at home himself, which would make the
removal of the corpse more difficult; the second was the fear of meeting
Ivan and having to blush before a slave. She preferred, therefore, to
make a superhuman effort to control herself; and, going up again into
her room, accompanied by her faithful Annouschka, she began to dress
with as much care as if her heart were full of joy. When this cruel
business was finished, she ordered Annouschka to shut the door; for she
wished to see Foedor once more, and to bid a last farewell to him who
had been her lover. Annouschka obeyed; and Vaninka, with flowers in her
hair and her breast covered w