‘Look higher!’ the Princess said, smiling.
Then it occurred to me to glance at the two Tsars, seated upon their twin throne, and to my wonder I perceived that the eyes of Ivan were riveted upon Vera. His pale, puffed face was somewhat flushed and animated—more so than I had yet seen it—and he seemed for once interested and absorbed, instead of listless and weary and worried.
‘It will be desirable and most necessary that my brother should one day choose for himself a wife,’ said Sophia, ‘and in a year, or at most two years, his marriage may be arranged. It would be a matter for which to praise God if he should show any desire to enter the wedded state, and a mercy for which we have scarcely dared to hope.’
Being somewhat slow of wit, especially when in conversation with great people, for at such moments a certain shyness often assails me, I did not at once comprehend why her Highness favoured me with this communication.
‘Your friend Mazeppa should be warned,’ she continued, ‘that he treads on dangerous ground.’
Then I understood, and laughed together with her Highness.
‘My friend does not take seriously the affairs of the heart,’ I said. ‘In two days he will leave Moscow, and in three he will forget that he has seen this lady.’
‘And she? That is also important. My poor brother should have, if possible, a heart that is untainted. Mazeppa is a handsome man.’
‘As to that, Highness,’ I said, ‘I cannot judge, for I have neither spoken to Mazeppa of the matter nor yet watched it for myself. But at any rate I will warn my friend.’
‘Do so,’ said her Highness, ‘but not as from me.’