He rose from the bench. I could see that he was very much agitated. Crossing his hands behind his back, and with his head hanging down, he began walking backwards and forwards on the garden path. I respectfully followed him at a little distance.
“Konsov, you are now no longer a boy!” said Alexis Gregorevitch, turning his keen eagle eyes upon me. “This is a most important State affair. Be careful, not only of your actions and your words, but even of your very thoughts. Can you swear to be silent on everything?”
“Your Grace, I give you my oath.”
“Well, then, listen, and—remember—you answer me with your head.”[27]
The count stopped, and his thoughtful gaze seemed to pierce my very soul; then he added, “Don’t forget; you know me of old—your head!…”
We crossed the garden, and sat on an isolated bench.
“Of course it will not be very difficult to catch this calumniated person,” said the count; “you’re obliged to do a great deal sometimes, when you are ordered to do it. But would it be honest now? What do you think about it?—Mysteriously—deceitfully? Ah! and especially with a woman.—It would be a pity now, wouldn’t it?”
“Of course it would,” answered I, in my simplicity; “of course we must conquer our enemies; but then openly—otherwise everybody will have the right to call us traitors, soul-killers.”
At this minute the eyes of the count twinkled very curiously. He closed them quickly, as though something had blown into them.