Peter instantly flamed into terrible wrath.
“Ah!” he cried. “You sleep while I talk, eh?”
She sat up at once, wide-awake and pale.
“I heard every word you said, Peter Alexievitch,” she stammered.
“You lie,” returned the Czar fiercely, “but what does it matter if you heard or no? It was all beyond your pitiful understanding.”
Katherina began to whimper.
“I have always been faithful,” she murmured, twisting her plump hands together.
Peter looked at her with contempt.
Anger would sometimes give him a clear-sighted vision of the creature who had so long infatuated him; he saw her now as a stupid peasant woman, and despised himself for the dominion she had over him.
His anger dropped to gloom.