She stopped and smiled to me before resuming. Then with a shudder she continued:—
"Then a most strange thing happened, Borlas came to me just at dusk; and he looked so strange that at first I thought he had been drinking. Saying he had a message from you he waited until I had sent the servant away.
"'What is it?' I asked.
"For answer he gave me a sign that made my heart sink. I knew it too well, and I looked at him with the keenest scrutiny. Had the Nihilists put a spy on you even in your own servant? Then I saw—that it was not Borlas, but a man so cleverly made up to resemble him that I had been at first deceived.
"'What do you want here?' I asked, now with every nerve in my body at full tension.
"'Do you know?' and the light in his eyes seemed to flash into mine.
"'Do I know what?' I could see there was something behind all this.
"He bent close to me, though we were of course alone, and spoke his reply in a fierce whisper.
"'Tell your brother that after this proof our hearts beat but for him; our plans shall all wait on him; every man of us will go to his death silently and cheerfully at his mere bidding. He leads, we follow. He has nobly kept his pledge for the cause of God and Freedom.'
"As I heard this my heart seemed to stop in pain. I had to hold to the table to save myself from falling."