With which the Boyar left me, beckoning Mazeppa after him, who—I doubt not—flooded him with a torrent of fierce denials in contradiction of my statement, so that I know not whether I should soon have escaped from my prison, but that the door suddenly opened, and who but Vera should appear.
She beckoned me to silence; then she removed my bonds and showed me a way out of the house by a side door. When we stood safely without she explained that she had sent for me because she greatly mistrusted Mazeppa. Her father was inclined to let her marry the rich Russian Boyar rather than the Cossack adventurer, and, said Vera, ‘if he so decides, I do not trust Mazeppa.’
‘What do you fear?’ I asked.
‘He will not take no for an answer. If he cannot have me by fair means, he will secure me by foul.’
Exactly the words Mazeppa himself had once used in speaking of his intention with regard to Vera.
‘Then you would have me keep a watch upon him?’ said I, and Vera begged me with brimming eyes to watch her father’s house as a cat listens at a mouse-hole, closing never an eye.
CHAPTER XXX
The Kurbatof mansion lay in a suburb of the city: it was a large wooden house, horse-shoe shaped, like most of the houses of the richer inhabitants in the outskirts of Moscow. There was a gardener’s room or hut at the great gate, and because it would be difficult to watch Vera’s home from the street, since there was no house opposite, and only a road deep in filth, without pavement to stand upon or any place behind in which to shelter oneself, I thought it better to make a friend, if I could, of the gardener or his wife—for the whole family of brats as well as their parents herded in the little hut at the gate, the atmosphere of which, within doors, was terrible to a Cossack nose and lungs, accustomed to the fresh air and much exposure.
I therefore provided myself with pränniki for the children and presented myself at the gate at dusk. The good folks bowed low as to a Barin, and were for opening the great gate to let me in; but I informed them, to their surprise, that I only desired to see the Barishnya Vera when she should pass this way upon her morning walk. My mission, I said, was so private that I dare not go to the house to see her. ‘You will find, when the Barishnya sets eyes upon me, that I am a welcome guest!’ I added, smiling. ‘I desire her no harm, nor yet anyone, unless it be her enemies.’
The man scratched his head.