"Let me be the first to enjoy your secret."
"The lady's hero, Pushkin, is about to be despatched to Uralsk."
"Do you think the girl will desert St. Petersburg and follow him?"
"Either that, or she will commit some greater folly. Anyway, it will compel her to unmask."
The Czar, after thanking and praising Zeneida, now began to make the round of the gentlemen; while the ladies to whom the Czarina desired to speak were called up to her.
The Czar entered into conversation with some of the ambassadors, exchanged a few words with Miloradovics; then, passing over a number of the circle, looked about him, and, perceiving Pushkin, signed him to approach.
All deferentially drew back. From the Czar and a culprit it is well to keep one's distance. All the same, every eye was fixed on the two.
At this critical moment Pushkin felt himself singularly calm. He stood, in fact, as cold bloodedly before his imperial master as he would have done before any ordinary man.
"So I hear you are not satisfied with your Censor?" asked the Czar.
The very form of question he had addressed to Jakuskin!