The next was easier to write.
"Dearest,—My mother and I leave England to-night. Do not ask why we go, or why I have not sent for you to come and say good-bye. We shall be away perhaps only a
few days; in any case you must not go until we return. Do not forget that I must see you again."
Natalie."
She felt happier when she had written these two notes. She rose from the table and went over to her mother.
"Now, mother, tell me how much money you have," she said, with a highly practical air. "What, have I startled you, poor little mother? I believe your head is full of all kinds of strange forebodings; and yet they used to say that the Berezolyis were all of them very courageous."
"Natalushka, you do not know what danger you are rushing into," the mother said, absently.
"I again ask you, mother, a simple question: how much money have you?"
"I? I have thirty pounds or thereabout, Natalie; that is my capital, as it were; but next month my cousins will send me—"
"Never mind about next month, mother dear. You must let me rob you of all your thirty pounds; and, just to make sure, I will go and borrow ten pounds more from Madame Potecki. Madame is not so very poor; she has savings; she would give me every farthing if I asked her. And do you think, little mother, if we come back successful—do you think there will be a great difficulty about paying back the loan to Madame Potecki?"