[68]. This was Natálya Zakhárin, Herzen’s cousin, who afterwards became his wife.
This is the first time that a woman figures in my narrative; and it is practically true that only one woman figures in my life.
My young heart had been set beating before by fleeting fancies of youth; but these vanished like the shapes of cloudland before this figure, and no new fancies ever came.
Our meeting was in a churchyard. She leant on a grave-stone and spoke of Ogaryóv, till my sorrow grew calm.
“We shall meet to-morrow,” she said, and gave me her hand, smiling through her tears.
“To-morrow,” I repeated, and looked long after her retreating figure.
The date was July 19, 1834.
CHAPTER II
Arrest—The Independent Witness—A Police-Station—Patriarchal Justice.