“But what can I do?” answered Irena; “I am always seeing such awful prophetic dreams, one especially. Oh! that dream; it came to me not long ago, several nights together.”… Irena was silent.
“What dream was it? Tell me all; confide in me.”
“It seemed to me that he approached my bedside—he was not a bit altered—just as he was the last time I saw him in our village, stately, handsome, amiable; and he said to me, ‘I am still alive, Irenushka. Where the sea murmurs, night and day, I look for you, morning and evening, thinking perhaps you’ll come, find me, and set me free.’… Ah! tell me, where must I look, what must I do, whom must I ask? I dare not trouble the empress another time.…”
“I often thought of you,” said Father Peter. “Here I only see one person, and that is—the Tzarevitch, Pavel Petrovitch;[51] he is Grand-Master and Protector of the Order of Maltese Knights—he alone can help you. If he will only stoop to you, to your petition, he alone can do something for you. In him you’ll find everything—talent, honour, always used in the interest of anything high and noble, secret relations with all the most powerful and celebrated philanthropists. And what goodness, what knightly nobility! No; it is not Tiberius, as his enemies say; it’s the future beneficent Titus.”
“Yes, I have heard that,” answered Irena.
“You have heard? then go to him, find him at his manor house, seek for an audience.”
The priest gave Irena all possible information and advice, as well as a letter to his god-daughter, housekeeper in the household of the Tzarevitch. Rakitina hired a kibitka[52] and started for Pavlovski, the personal property of the grand-duke.
The housekeeper received Rakitina very hospitably. She took her into her own apartment, and then, to amuse her a little, pointed out to her all the curiosities in the garden and park of the grand-duke; the little cottage Cric-Crac, the hut of the hermit, the caverns, lakes, and rustic bridges. It was decided that Irena should first relate everything to the favourite maid of honour of the grand-duchess, Ekaterina Ivanovna Nelidova, who had only just terminated her education at Smolney Institute.[53]
“When shall we go to see Ekaterina Ivanovna?” said Irena, longing for the promised audience.