All her sprightliness was gone; the roguish smile had vanished from her lips. Not only her features, but her voice had also changed; it was now so pure, so weak, so silvery in its sound; so veiled withal, like a voice coming from afar and not from the person sitting by you. It was as painful to hear as if it had been a voice from beyond the grave, and it sent a pang to the young man's heart.
As he put his arm around her frail waist, the tears rose to his eyes, and he could hardly find the words, or utter them softly enough, to say to her: "Milena, srce moja," (my heart) "do you still love me?"
"Hush, Uros!" said she, shuddering; "never speak to me of love again."
"Milena!"
"Yes," continued she, sighing, "my sin has found me out. Had I behaved as I should have done, so many people would not have come to grief. Vranic might still have been alive."
"But you never gave him any encouragement, did you?" said Uros, misunderstanding her meaning.
The tears started to her eyes. Weak as she was, she felt everything acutely.
"Do you think I could have done such a thing? And yet you are right; I used to be so light once; but that seems to me so long, so very long ago. But I have grown old since then, terribly old; I have suffered so much."
"I was wrong, dearest; forgive me. I remember how that fiend persecuted you. I was near sending him to hell myself, and it was a pity I didn't; anyhow, I was so glad when I heard that Radonic had——"
"Hush! I was the cause of that man's death. Through it my husband became an outcast, and now your father has been obliged to flee from his home——"