"But none like Zabern," she murmured, yet hardly daring to say the words.
Though the marshal looked upon Katina as the fairest maiden in Czernova after the princess, yet the thought of wooing her had never entered his head; but now, while he contemplated her as she trembled like a leaf, looking the more charming in her confusion, the grim old warrior felt within himself a power unfelt till that moment.
"Katina," he said, and never before had she heard his voice sound so gentle,—"Katina, you may kiss me—if you like."
"It is your place to come and kiss me."
Zabern was making a forward movement, but ere he could take the second step Katina was within his arms, and clinging as if she intended never to release her hold. And it was evident that the marshal found his new experiences far more attractive than the business required of him as a minister; for when a minute afterwards a secretary tapped at the door with the announcement that he was bringing state despatches, Zabern, in a loud voice, bade him begone and carry the despatches to the—well, a certain dark gentleman popularly supposed by the Muscovites of Czernova to be a near relation of Zabern himself.
"And have you never before loved any woman?" asked Katina, as she sat on the marshal's knee, and seeming to be quite at home there, too!
"Never; but now I shall love all women for your sake."
"I had rather you did not," said Katina, opening wide her eyes; and then as she nestled closer within his embrace she murmured, "this is more pleasant than to hang for the slaying of Orloff."
"Much more," remarked Zabern. "To shoot him would have been a very inadequate retribution for what he made you suffer. One swift pang, and all would have been over. Now I will point out a better way of avenging yourself—a way that shall cause Orloff to eat out his heart in vexation of spirit."
"But, Ladislas," answered Katina, for she had begun to call the marshal by his Christian name: "Ladislas," she repeated, with a pressure of his arms, "love has extinguished the desire for vengeance."