‘Which means, in plain words, that there is a devil in me for all to see!’ laughed Peter.
And the saying pleased him so well that he went among his friends telling what her Highness said and what he said, and so forth.
As for Olga Panief, she was sent to the Diévitchy monastery, and a pretty handful—I should say—the new Superior there must have found her; indeed, as I happen to know, Olga soon earned for herself the misery of solitary confinement, as a punishment for wildness and foolishness such as the rest of the nuns could not tolerate.
But I was all afire to make sure of my beautiful Vera Kurbatof, and therefore I gave Tsar Peter no peace until he should have redeemed his promise to set this matter in order, if he could do so, to my advantage.
Now Peter was as yet but in his seventeenth year, though a giant in size, and Kurbatof—that wealthy Boyar—had hitherto scarcely given this Prince a thought; for it was clear to all people that Ivan being the elder, and Sophia being full sister to Ivan and but half-sister to Peter, it was probable she would retain the Regency and Ivan the Tsarship. Peter was nil; this joint Tsarship, indeed, had been a concession to the strength of the Naryshkin faction, but the day would come when its influence would die out and disappear in the strength of the Regent’s faction.
Therefore Kurbatof was inclined to think little of Tsar Peter, and though he received him with respect, he was determined to let the youth see that he (Kurbatof) would be no man of his.
Now Vera’s suitor, the fat old Boyar of ten thousand souls, or serfs—for the Russians measure their riches by the number of their serfs—was in the house when Tsar Peter came with me to speak to the Boyar, Vera’s father.
‘Who is this?’ asked Peter, before he had time to salute Kurbatof. ‘Is this the old Boyar who is thy rival, Chelminsky? Go, sir, for shame! You are too old and too fat to have so fair a bride as this Vera! Go, I say, and leave room for thy youngers and betters!’
The Boyar was proud, being rich and powerful, and the young Tsar’s outspoken manner offended him.
‘I am a suitor for her hand, Highness,’ he said; ‘if her father chooses to——’