"`Oh, give me some of it!' shrieked the wretched hag, stretching out her
withered arms. `I'll try it!--I'll try it! What do you demand, girl?--
say quickly!'

"`Try it first, and as you prove its effects, then you shall reward me
accordingly,' said Minetta, producing a bottle with a colourless liquid
from under her cloak. She poured out some of the liquid on a sponge,
and held it to the mouth of the hag. In a few moments its effects were
indeed perceptible; her eyes closed, her arms hung down, and she was in
a state of stupor.

"`What have you been about?' I exclaimed, afraid that some injury might
have been done the old woman.

"`No harm whatever,' she answered, laughing. `Do you go in, and bring
out your Aneouta. I will watch here, and then the sooner we are away
the better.'

"With a beating heart, I sprang into the house. There were but five or
six rooms. In the last I found a female, sitting with her hands crossed
on her knees, looking on vacancy. She started on hearing a person
enter, and gazed up at my countenance. I knew her by her figure; but,
alas! Grief and anxiety had sadly changed her features. Still she was
my Aneouta. Of that I was certain. Eagerly, inquiringly, she looked at
me. Her eyes ran over my gipsy costume, then she once more gazed into
my eyes, and springing up, threw herself into my arms.

"`It is you--you, my Steffanoff!' she exclaimed, in a voice that went to
my heart. `Tell me not that it is any one else. It is you--it is you.
I know you through your disguise. The dark skin--the Zingari dress--the
white hair cannot deceive me. You have come to save me from this--to
take me away--to carry me to your home. Tell me that I do not dream.
Tell me that it is a reality I enjoy. Tell me that it is you yourself I
hold in my arms!'

"`Oh, my Aneouta, it is indeed your Steffanoff who has found you out--
who has come to carry you from this place,' I exclaimed, pressing her to
my heart. `But there is no time to delay--I will tell you all by and
by. We must be away at once, or we may be pursued.'

"`Yes, yes, I come. Take me with you at once, my beloved,' she cried,
pressing closer to me. `But ah!--old Scratchichna, where is she? She
will give the alarm, and clutch us with her claws, till some one comes
to stop us!'

"`Fear not about her,' I answered, as I led her out of the room and into
the porch. `See, she will not stop us.'

"The old woman was sitting as I had lef