‘Ah, but how different is this one from the rest, only see, Ivashka—what eyes, what hair! had ever maiden such a form?—mark it well! She should sit at thy side when foreigners come, and should speak to them instead of thee! A fair thing to have for ever about one! Happy the man who may, if he will, possess her to gaze upon and to fondle for his own. Come, take her hand, Ivashka, and kiss it. She shall be thine own if thou wilt have her.’
The Tsar’s face had flushed during this speech. At the end of it he actually took the girl’s hand in his own, smiling in her face, or leering, as perhaps it might more accurately be called. He even began to raise her fingers as though to bring them to his lips, but at his touch Vera paled, staggered, and would have fallen fainting to the ground or into the Tsar’s arms, but that Galitsin caught her and laid her senseless form upon a divan.
‘See!’ said Sophia triumphantly: ‘she is overcome, brother, by the honour and the happiness thou hast done her in thus noticing her beauty above the others. Thou hast chosen well, my soul——’
‘I have not chosen her—I have not, I say,’ cried Ivan, stamping his foot and turning upon the Regent. ‘Why do you speak foolishness? I want no woman. She is afraid of me; do you think I do not see it? She might have suited, if I must marry, but she is afraid of me and hates me.’
‘Not so, not so, brother: only think, for a maiden to be chosen Tsaritsa is no small thing; no wonder that she has fainted in the sudden joy—— ’
‘Sister, you are sometimes a fool, though generally very wise,’ said Ivan. ‘Be silent, I say, and speak no more foolishness!’ With which words he turned and left the room, glancing back for a moment at Vera lying unconscious upon her divan.
Thereupon Sophia stamped and swore first, and then laughed, while Galitsin only laughed, and the two other witnesses—being courtiers—knew not whether to laugh or to look grave, and so the comedy ended.
A sight indeed to make angels weep!
CHAPTER X
One would suppose that with so comprehensive an order published throughout Russia, namely, that the fairest maidens from every part should be despatched to the city for the convenience of the Tsar in his choice of a bride, the whole of Moscow would be full of young women. And so, doubtless, would it have been but that a wise discretion had been left in the hands of those agents in each district to whom had been entrusted the duty of selecting and despatching the maidens. Not all who would fain have come were permitted to make the journey. Many were first weeded out as unfit before the final few, the very cream and perfection of Russian maidenhood, were despatched to the capital.