Nona’s father had insisted that his young wife give up her views of life. She was to read no books, write no letters, have nothing to do with any human being who thought as she did. Above all, she was to make him a written and sacred promise that she would never reveal her ideas of life to her daughter. This Nona’s mother had refused to do and so had gone away, expecting to come back some day when her husband relented.
Within a year she had died. But here Sonya Valesky’s letter ended, for she enclosed another written by Nona’s mother to her friend.
If Nona had needed proof of the truth of the other woman’s statement she could find it here. The letter was yellow with age and very short. It merely asked that if Sonya Valesky should ever find it possible to know her daughter, Nona Davis, would she be her friend?
Then Sonya had also enclosed another proof, if proof were needed. This was a small picture of Nona’s mother which was exactly like the one the girl had found concealed in the back of her father’s watch. It was the same watch with the same picture that she now wore always inside her dress.
Then for nearly an hour the young American girl sat dreaming almost without a movement of her body.
Little by little she recalled stray memories in her life which made her mother’s history appear not so impossible as she had at first conceived. Always she had thought of her as foreign. She had only believed her to be French because she spoke French so perfectly and had married in New Orleans. But then she herself was beginning to learn that educated Russians are among the most accomplished linguists in the world. What else was she to find out about this strange country before her work as a nurse was over? Could she ever feel so entirely an American again?
All at once Nona Davis jumped hastily to her feet. There were hundreds of questions she yearned to ask. Fortunately for her she was near the one person who might be able to answer them. Sonya Valesky had never said why she had not sought to find her friend’s daughter until their accidental meeting on shipboard. Even then she had not recognized Nona’s connection with the past. Was it because she was too engrossed in her own life and her own mysterious mission?
Although she was at this instant engaged in putting on her coat and cap to go to her, Nona again hesitated. How little the Russian woman had said of herself! What was she doing here near the Russian line of fortifications, living like a peasant with only two old peasants in attendance upon her? And why should the young Russian officer have warned her against his own friend?
“Michael Orlaff.” Automatically Nona Davis repeated the name of her new acquaintance. “Orlaff.” The name was the same as her mother’s. Was there a chance that the young Russian lieutenant might be a possible connection?
However, the girl recognized that she was stupid to continue to ask herself questions. Moreover, she had now made up her mind that she must not distrust Sonya Valesky unless she had a more definite cause. Doubtless Sonya shared the same views of life that her mother had cherished! But in any case it was wonderful to have found a woman who had been her mother’s friend and who might still be hers.