“I will go to her,” Daria said quietly; “I know her—and I will speak with her.”
I helped her to dismount and would have supported her, but she slipped away from me and went to the door.
“’Tis I, Mother Vera,” she said gently; “I, Daria Kirilovna, and I pray you let me in to rest and give me bread—for I am hungry. The great city yonder, our holy mother, Moscow, is torn with riot and murder and robbery; the Streltsi have risen, and I have barely escaped with my life.”
As soon as she spoke the old woman opened the door and fell on her knees, kissing Daria’s hand and pressing it to her forehead, and when the princess ceased speaking, she rose and beckoned to her to enter.
“Now is my house honoured, O dear lady,” she said, in a thin old voice; “now is my roof lighted as with daylight, by the eyes of Daria Kirilovna. Enter, O my princess, all that is there is thine.”
She spoke with a strong accent of the north country, but more clearly than I had expected, and she showed every evidence of joy at the sight of Daria.
I watched her usher in the princess, and then I took the precaution of leading the horses to the rear of the cabin, and tethering them where they were least likely to be observed from the highroad. Having seen to their comfort and security, I returned to the hut and was admitted by the old woman, who courtesied profoundly, and called me “excellency.” I found that she had spread a simple meal before the princess of rice bread and milk, and though the place was bare and poor in aspect, and the food coarse, it was clean, no common thing in the house of a moujik. In the corner the old man nodded, only stirring at my entrance, to murmur something about the oil for the lamp at the shrine, and then falling asleep again. His wife, seeing my glance at him, touched her forehead significantly, and shook her head.
“He’s not all here any more, your excellency,” she said, casting a melancholy glance at her ancient spouse, “and his arm is weak, too; he is not even able to beat me,” and she wiped her eyes at the thought.
The princess, who had laid aside her hood, looked up at me shyly, and coloured deeply, signing to me to sit down at the table, which was only a board laid upon two trestles.
“You also must be hungry,” she said, in a very low voice.