“The apparition did not finish,” said the count. “I still did not understand what it was. At last I looked up and turned giddy; before me, in the full moonlight, stood my grandfather, Peter the Great, just as I remembered him. I recognised directly his caressing look of love, fixed on me. I wanted to ask him … but he disappeared, and I remained leaning against the bare, cold wall.” Saying these last words, Pavel again raised his mask, and wiped his face with his handkerchief; he was pale and very much embarrassed. It seemed as though before his eyes there again rose, the dear, sad apparition.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
A MYRTLE LEAF.
“What do you think, Signor?” asked the count, after a short pause. “Was it a dream, or did I really see the spirit of my grandfather?”
“It was his spirit,” answered his companion.
“What did his words mean, and why did he not finish them?”
“Would you like to know?”
“Of course.”
“Some one disturbed him.”