“If there are no other obstacles but your feelings,” said he, “what have I to say? Decide yourself. The house will be empty here without the haiduk. Were it not for my age and the hard road, I would go myself, for there is no life without her.”
“But you see there is really no hindrance: the weather is a little frosty, that is all; for the rest, it is quiet, there are commands along the road everywhere.”
“In that case decide for yourself.”
After that conversation Pan Michael began to hesitate again, and to weigh two things. He was sorry for Eva. He paused also over this,—is it proper to send the girl alone with Azya on such a long road? and still more over another point,—is it proper to withhold help from devoted people when the opportunity to give it is so easy? For what was the real difficulty? Basia’s absence for two or three weeks. Even if it were only a question of pleasing Basia, by letting her see Mohiloff, Yampol, and Rashkoff, why not please her? Azya, in one event or another, must go with his squadron to Rashkoff; hence there would be a strong and even a superfluous guard in view of the destruction of the robbers, and the quiet during winter from the horde.
The little knight yielded more and more, seeing which the ladies renewed their insistence,—one representing the affair as a good deed and a duty, the other weeping and lamenting. Finally Azya bowed down before the commandant. He knew, he said, that he was unworthy of such a favor, but still he had shown so much devotion and attachment to the Volodyovskis that he made bold to beg for it. He owed much gratitude to both, since they did not permit men to insult him, even when he was not known as the son of Tugai Bey. He would never forget that the wife of the commandant had dressed his wounds, and had been to him not only a gracious lady, but as it were a mother. He had given proofs of his gratitude recently in the battle with Azba Bey, and with God’s help in future he would lay down his head and shed the last drop of his blood for the life of the lady, if need be.
Then he began to tell of his old and unfortunate love for Eva. He could not live without that maiden; he had loved her through whole years of separation, though without hope, and he would never cease to love her. But between him and old Pan Novoveski there was an ancient hatred, and the previous relation of servant and master separated them, as it were, by a broad ravine. The lady alone could reconcile them to each other; and if she could not do that, she could at least shelter the dear girl from her father’s tyranny, from confinement and the lash.
Pan Michael would have preferred, perhaps, that Basia had not interfered in the matter; but as he himself loved to do good to people, he did not wonder at his wife’s heart. Still, he did not answer Azya affirmatively yet; he resisted even additional tears from Eva; but he locked himself up in the chancery and fell to thinking.
At last he came out to supper on a certain evening with an agreeable expression of face, and after supper he asked Azya suddenly, “Azya, when is it time for you to go?”
“In a week, your great mightiness,” answered the Tartar, unquietly. “Halim, it must be, will have concluded negotiations with Krychinski by that time.”
“Give orders to repair the great sleigh, for you must take two ladies to Rashkoff.”