egan to move slowly in a slanting
direction against the current. It is a well-known fact that, in crossing
rapid streamlets, you should never look at the water, because, if you
do, your head begins to whirl directly. I forgot to warn Princess Mary
of that.

We had reached the middle and were right in the vortex, when suddenly
she reeled in her saddle.

"I feel ill!" she said in a faint voice.

I bent over to her rapidly and threw my arm around her supple waist.

"Look up!" I whispered. "It is nothing; just be brave! I am with you."

She grew better; she was about to disengage herself from my arm, but
I clasped her tender, soft figure in a still closer embrace; my cheek
almost touched hers, from which was wafted flame.

"What are you doing to me?... Oh, Heaven!"...

I paid no attention to her alarm and confusion, and my lips touched her
tender cheek. She shuddered, but said nothing. We were riding behind the
others: nobody saw us.

When we made our way out on the bank, the horses were all put to the
trot. Princess Mary kept hers back; I remained beside her. It was
evident that my silence was making her uneasy, but I swore to myself
that I would not speak a single word--out of curiosity. I wanted to see
how she would extricate herself from that embarrassing position.

"Either you despise me, or you love me very much!" she said at length,
and there were tears in her voice. "Perhaps you want to laugh at me, to
excite my soul and then to abandon me... That would be so base, so vile,
that the mere supposition... Oh, no!" she added, in a voice of tender
trustfulness; "there is nothing in me which would preclude respect; is
it not so? Your presumptuous action... I must, I must forgive you
for it, because I permitted it... Answer, speak, I want to hear your
voice!"...

There was such womanly impatience in her last words that, involuntarily,
I smiled; happily it was beginning to grow dusk... I made no answer.

"You are silent!" she continued; "you wish, perhaps, that I should be
the first to tell you that I love you."...

I remained silent.

"Is that what you wish?" she continued, turning rapidly towards me....
There was something terrible in the determination of her glance and
voice.

"Why?" I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

She struck her horse with her riding-whip and set off at full gallop
along the narrow, dangerous road. It all happened so quickly that I was
scarcely able to overtake her, and then only