‘“Do not kill her, Mazeppa,” cried I. “Do you not see that she has been duped as well as you?”
‘“Let the shrieking fool keep her distance then and be quiet,” he said, furious with rage, “or by all the devils I will spit her as she deserves. Are you mad that you have played this trick upon me, you she-devil?” he cried—never was man so furious—“Who bade you put your pestilent self in place of the other wench?”
‘“What other wench?” she shrieked back. “It is you that shall be spitted, you cheat and liar, for playing me this trick: be not deceived, your sword shall not for ever protect you, as now!”
‘Then Mazeppa turned upon me. “What in the devil’s name does this mean, Shedrine?” he said. “How did this she-devil come here? Is it a trick of Chelminsky’s?”
‘“I know nothing,” said I. “I have not seen Chelminsky, and know not what he may have or may not have to do with it.”
‘Then both cursed, and she shrieked, and the horrors of death and judgment were heaped by both upon your head; and Olga Panief grew so mad in her rage that I was obliged with Mazeppa’s help to gag her—no easy matter, be sure: after which Mazeppa procured a kibitka and had her carried away, Heaven knows where. It is not for me to interfere between man and wife, therefore I have not been near him since; and indeed I am not anxious to meet either of them unless they shall have calmed down into reasonable human beings. Olga will certainly kill you if she can, my friend; and as for Mazeppa, you are rash to make an enemy of him, as I thought you should have known!’
‘That is my affair, Shedrine: I am not afraid of Mazeppa. For the rest, I do but pay old scores upon both. Thanks for the warning, however: I shall go with open eyes and ears!’
This I did for several days, but ran into no danger that I knew of, and at the end of the third day I saw her for whose sake I lingered in Moscow, and ran unknown risks for the great desire to catch sight of her face and to hear her voice—Vera.
I saw her come from the house in the charge of her old nurse; and when Vera at the same instant caught sight of me she sent the old woman back within doors upon some pretext, and while she was absent my beloved took the opportunity to walk with me down the street, for, she said, ‘I have much to say.’
Then Vera told me that she was in great trouble both with the old Boyar and with Mazeppa, who, for the last three days, had been constantly in the house proffering his suit against that of the rich Boyar Astashof.