"I will pay them, my lord; but you will do one thing for me in return."
"You, you!"
"I," Sasha quietly answered, "I will free you, and you will free me!"
"Ha!" the baron cried, springing to his feet. His pride was touched. He was fond of boasting that he also had a serf who was a rich merchant, and the fact had many a time helped his credit when he wanted to borrow money. Unconsciously he shook his head.
"You have not the money," he said.
Sasha, who understood what was passing through the mind of the baron, suffered so much from his cruel uncertainty that he turned deadly pale.
"I am well known," he answered, "and can procure the money in an hour. How much is my serfdom worth to you? My annual payment is hardly one-tenth of the usurious interest which your debt wrings from you: I offer to release you from all trouble, and thus add not less than eight thousand roubles a year to your income. And my freedom, which you can now sell back to me at such a price, may be mine without buying in a few years more!"
The emperor, Alexander II. (who was assassinated in 1881), had at that time just succeeded to the throne, and his intention to emancipate the serfs was already suspected by the people. Sasha knew that he was running a great risk in what he said; but his clasped hands, his trembling voice, his eyes filled with tears, affected the baron more powerfully than his words.
There was a long silence. The master turned away to the window, and weighed the offer rapidly in his mind; the serf waited in breathless anxiety in the centre of the room.
Suddenly the baron turned and struck his clenched fist on the table. Then he stretched out his hand and said: