“I have had grave news from Petersburg this morning, Katinka.”
“Oh, are you going to run away?”
“Of course not.”
“Then how can Volna go?” She was a past master in the art of insinuation.
“I have induced my friend here to consent to take her.”
Her large eyes opened as if in profound astonishment as she looked first at him and then turned them slowly upon me, and coughed most suggestively. “You have done this?” Had she put the thought in blunt words she could not have expressed more plainly her conviction that I had concocted the plan for my own ends and that Ladislas must be blind and mad to consent to it.
“Yes, I have; Mr. Anstruther understands precisely the relationship that exists between Volna and me.”
“You mean which should but does not exist between you,” she corrected, significantly.
“Anstruther is my loyal friend, Katinka.”
“Have I expressed any doubt on that point?”