"I have come to you," she faltered, "because I could not remain away. I have come to you that I may beg of you that wretched man's life. Doctor Nikola, I implore you to spare him!"
"My dear young lady," said Nikola, with a softness in his voice that reminded me of that I had heard in the death-chamber a few hours before, "you cannot understand what you are doing. You must let me take you back to your friends. You should not be here at this hour of the night."
"But I was bound to come—don't I tell you I could not remain away? Spare him! Oh! for God's sake, spare him!"
"You do not know what you are asking. You are not yourself to-night."
"I only know that I am thinking of you," she answered. "You must not do it! You are so great, so powerful, that you can afford to forgive. Take my life rather than harm him. I will yield it gladly to save you from this sin."
"To—save—me," I heard him mutter to himself. "She would save me!"
"God would never forgive," she continued, still in the same dreamy voice.
He moved away from her, and from where I stood I could see how agitated he was. For some moments she knelt, looking up at him, with arms outstretched in supplication; then he said something to her in a low voice, which I could not catch. Her answer, however, was plain to me.
"Yes, I have known it always in my dreams," she said.
"And knowing that, you would still wish me to pardon him?"