‘I know not whether to believe you or not,’ I said, and Mazeppa replied with a laugh that in that case I had better go to Moscow and ask the lady for myself. ‘She is a saucy minx,’ he said, ‘and will not withhold the truth to save your feelings. As the agent of her Highness in this matter I am bound to be in Moscow on the day appointed, in order to see that the maidens from my district are duly assembled. The day appointed is but a week hence: travel with me if you will. I shall be glad of your company, and perhaps also of your assistance in——”
Mazeppa did not finish his speech, but relapsed into thoughtful silence. I did not think twice upon his broken sentence, imagining that he meant he would need help in collecting and marshalling the army of Cossack maidens, which would be his duty.
As for me, I felt aggrieved and angry that Olga Panief should have spoken and acted thus. I suppose my love for the girl could have been no more strong or real than hers for myself, however, for certainly I was more offended than heartbroken; and if any one feeling predominated in my mind over the rest it was an ardent hope that she might be disappointed of her ambition, and that the Tsar would not so much as glance at her.
Nevertheless, I determined to travel to Moscow with Mazeppa. The ceremony of choosing a bride for the Tsar—and especially such a Tsar as this one—must be of overwhelming interest. Moreover, I felt certain that the Tsar would choose Vera Kurbatof, and I was curious to see what would then happen; what Vera would do or say, and what Mazeppa would do. I even found out now, for the first time, that I myself began to feel a strange interest in this girl, and in the crisis which might now be before her.
CHAPTER IX
Meanwhile a significant thing happened with regard to her who was generally believed to be as good as chosen beforehand to be Tsaritsa.
A sight to make angels weep and devils smile was it, men said, when Vera Kurbatof—before the great choosing, and I think before the assemblage even of the maidens—was summoned to the palace in order that the bridegroom Tsar (forsooth!) might first see her at his leisure and without the excitement of a throng around him.
There were two or three other maidens besides Vera who were thus, like her, subjected to a preliminary and private inspection by Ivan. These were the daughters of Boyars whose position at Court brought them constantly into the presence of the Tsar, and whom he therefore knew well and could meet and speak to without overmuch timidity and shyness. These Boyars, by Sophia’s decree, should have the first chance for their daughters; for it was hoped that Ivan might more readily take a fancy to the child of one whom he already knew than to some stranger.
‘He will never take a fancy,’ some said, laughing, ‘for there is nothing of a man in him.’
But others declared that he had gazed twice at this maiden or that, and some knew—among whom was I—that his eyes had rested in a peculiar manner upon the face of Vera on a certain occasion—in a manner, indeed, which would seem to indicate more of the man in Ivan that some believed to exist.