nd the brief night
had fallen. Ivan, sitting alone in the unwontedly neat little tent, had
ceased to smoke, and had begun, as a matter of fact, to nod, when he was
roused by the hurried entrance of some one whose garments brushed his
knees. He rose, hastily; stared about him in the darkness; and then,
bethinking himself of the probable situation, hurriedly took a
match-safe from his pocket and lighted the night-lamp which stood on the
tiny table. Then he turned to greet the young woman, who had thrown an
enshrouding veil back from her face, and stood before him, waiting.

She was a girl whose face and form were sufficient to excuse the
infatuation of a man of Brodsky's type. Surmounting a figure built on
heroic lines, her noble head seemed as if it must be drawn backward by
the weight of her hair; which she wore without any of the elaborate
side-curls then in fashion, but parted, and coiled low upon her neck, in
unconscious harmony with her classic type. Her creamy skin, her great,
blue eyes, and generously-moulded features, gave one the impression of a
soul similar in size. And, indeed, at this period of her career, there
was little in Irina Petrovna to suggest the sordid, selfish, degraded
woman of later years. To-night she and Ivan, standing close together in
the candle-light, made a noble picture of youth.

Just now, however, appearance was the last thought in either mind. And,
as Ivan remained nervously silent, the girl presently began:

"First of all--let me thank you for doing--what I asked. I have very
little time, now. I must catch the train at one o'clock.--It has just
been put on, you know: and I believe Foma Vassilyitch got it done
for--for me. He doesn't know, of course, that I am in this tent.
Grigory, his orderly, is always sent to Krasnoe with me. But Grigory is
my friend; and has always let me go and come alone.--I cannot endure
the--the stares, the whispers of the men; and the awful scandal! But I
came here, Lieutenant Gregoriev, to tell you the truth about myself."

"Sit down, mademoiselle, I beg of you! And let me take your cloak.--So.
Now may I offer you anything?--A glass of claret?"

"Nothing, thank you! I must tell you--about myself, and ask your advice
before I go. For I have no one in the world to help me. Listen:

"You think, of course, that I am--a dreadful woman. But I swear to you,
by the Virgin, by the spirit of my mother, that I am--as yet---
absolutely innocent of the wrong I am bei