"And these tidings, Excellency?"
"Are to the effect that your friends, the two subalterns, have both deserted, with several soldiers, all of whom are natives of the Ukraine."
"Deserted!"
"And are nowhere to be found, though pursued by a whole sotnia of Cossacks."
"Deserted!" reiterated Balgonie with real concern.
"Yes—the cursed Asiatics!" replied Bernikoff, expectorating with great vehemence, and thoroughly believing that each time he did so, he cast out a devil.
For some moments intense anxiety and alarm bewildered Balgonie, and he felt himself grow pale at a time when six searching eyes were bent with a doubtful expression upon him. He remembered the hostility, the threatening and mysterious words of Natalie, and grew almost sick with apprehension of he knew not what, as he muttered inaudibly—
"Basil deserted—and his cousin too! The whole family will be inculpated and degraded. Oh, Natalie, my hapless love! Did General Weymarn state this in his dispatch?" he asked aloud.
"He did, and at its end referred to you."
"To me, Excellency?"