weeks the capital would be deserted.

"Shall we go to Germany with your father?" asked Boris, as he sat
at a window with Helena, enjoying the long twilight.

"No, my Boris," she answered; "we will go to Kinesma."
"But--Helena,--golubchik, mon ange,--are you in earnest?"

"Yes, my Boris. The last letter from your--our cousin Nadejda
convinces me that the step must be taken. Prince Alexis has grown

much older since your mother's death; he is lonely and unhappy. He
may not welcome us, but he will surely suffer us to come to him;

and we must then begin the work of reconciliation. Reflect, my
Boris, that you have keenly wounded him in the tenderest part,--his

pride,--and you must therefore cast away your own pride, and humbly
and respectfully, as becomes a son, solicit his pardon."

"Yes," said he, hesitatingly, "you are right. But I know his
violence and recklessness, as you do not. For myself, alone, I am

willing to meet him; yet I fear for your sake. Would you not
tremble to encounter a maddened and brutal mujik?--then how much

more to meet Alexis Pavlovitch of Kinesma!"
"I do not and shall not tremble," she replied. "It is not your

marriage that has estranged your father, but your marriage with
ME. Having been, unconsciously, the cause of the trouble, I

shall deliberately, and as a sacred duty, attempt to remove it.
Let us go to Kinesma, as humble, penitent children, and cast

ourselves upon your father's mercy. At the worst, he can but
reject us; and you will have given me the consolation of knowing

that I have tried, as your wife, to annul the sacrifice you have
made for my sake."

"Be it so, then!" cried Boris, with a mingled feeling of relief and
anxiety.

He was not unwilling that the attempt should be made, especially
since it was his wife's desire; but he knew his father too well to

anticipate immediate success. All threatening POSSIBILITIES
suggested themselves to his mind; all forms of insult and outrage

which he had seen perpetrated at Kinesma filled his memory. The
suspense became at last worse than any probablereality. He wrote

to his father, announcing a speedy visit from himself and his wife;
and two days afterwards the pair left St. Petersburg in a large

travelling kibitka.
X.

When Prince Alexis received his son's letter, an expression of
fierce, cruel delight crept over his face, and there remained,

horribly illuminating its haggard features. The orders given for
swimming horses in the Volga--one of his summer diversions--were

immediately countermanded; he paced around the parapet of the
castle-wall until near midnight, followed by Sasha with a stone jug

of vodki. The latter had the useful habit, notwithstanding his
stupid face, of picking up the fragments of soliloquy which the

Prince dropped, and answering them as if talking to himself.
Thus he improved upon and perfected many a hint of cruelty, and was

too discreet ever to dispute his master's claim to the invention.
Sasha, we may be sure, was busy with his devil's work that night.

The next morning the stewards and agents of Prince Alexis, in
castle, village, and field, were summoned to his presence.

"Hark ye!" said he; "Borka and his trumpery wife send me word that
they will be here to-morrow. See to it that every man, woman, and

child, for ten versts out on the Moskovskoi road, knows of their
coming. Let it be known that whoeveruncovers his head before them

shall uncover his back for a hundred lashes. Whomsoever they greet
may bark like a dog, meeouw like a cat, or bray like an ass, as

much as he chooses; but if he speaks a decent word, his tongue
shall be silenced with stripes. Whoever shall insult them has my

pardon in advance. Oh, let them come!--ay, let them come! Come
they may: but how they go away again"----

The Prince Alexis suddenly stopped, shook his head, and walked up
and down the hall, muttering to himself. His eyes were bloodshot,

and sparkled with a strange light. What the stewards had heard was
plain enough; but that something more terrible than insult was yet

held in reserve they did not doubt. It was safe, therefore, not
only to fulfil, but to exceed, the letter of their instructions.

Before night the whole population were acquainted with their
duties; and an unusual mood of expectancy, not unmixed with brutish

glee, fell upon Kinesma.
By the middle of the next forenoon, Boris and his wife, seated in

the open kibitka, drawn by post-horses, reached the boundaries of
the estate, a few versts from the village. They were both silent

and slightly pale at first, but now began to exchange mechanical
remarks, to divert each other's thoughts from the coming reception.

"Here are the fields of Kinesma at last!" exclaimed Prince Boris.
"We shall see the church and castle from the top of that hill in

the distance. And there is Peter, my playmate, herding the cattle!
Peter! Good-day, brotherkin!"

Peter looked, saw the carriage close upon him, and, after a moment
of hesitation, let his arms drop stiffly by his sides, and began

howling like a mastiff by moonlight. Helena laughed heartily at
this singularresponse to the greeting; but Boris, after the first

astonishment was over, looked terrified.
"That was done by order," said he, with a bitter smile. "The old

bear stretches his claws out. Dare you try his hug?"
"I do not fear," she answered, her face was calm.

Every serf they passed obeyed the order of Prince Alexis according
to his own idea of disrespect. One turned his back; another made

contemptuous grimaces and noises; another sang a vulgar song;
another spat upon the ground or held his nostrils. Nowhere was a

cap raised, or the stealthy welcome of a friendly glance given.
The Princess Helena met these insults with a calm, proud

indifference. Boris felt them more keenly; for the fields and
hills were prospectively his property, and so also were the brutish

peasants. It was a form of chastisement which he had never before
experienced, and knew not how to resist. The affront of an entire

community was an offence against which he felt himself to be
helpless.

As they approached the town, the demonstrations of insolence were
redoubled. About two hundred boys, between the ages of ten and

fourteen, awaited them on the hill below the church, forming
themselves into files on either side of the road. These imps had

been instructed to stick out their tongues in derision, and howl,
as the carriage passed between them. At the entrance of the long

main street of Kinesma, they were obliged to pass under a mock
triumphal arch, hung with dead dogs and drowned cats; and from this

point the reception assumed an outrageouscharacter. Howls,
hootings, and hisses were heard on all sides; bouquets of nettles

and vile weeds were flung to them; even wreaths of spoiled fish
dropped from the windows. The women were the most eager and

uproarious in this carnival of insult: they beat their saucepans,
threw pails of dirty water upon the horses, pelted the coachman

with rotten cabbages, and filled the air with screeching and foul
words.

It was impossible to pass through this ordeal with indifference.
Boris, finding that his kindly greetings were thrown away,--that

even his old acquaintances in the bazaar howled like the rest,--sat
with head bowed and despair in his heart. The beautiful eyes

of Helena were heavy with tears; but she no longer trembled, for
she knew the crisis was yet to come.

As the kibitka slowly climbed the hill on its way to the castle-
gate, Prince Alexis, who had heard and enjoyed the noises in the

village from a balcony on the western tower, made his appearance on
the head of the steps which led from the court-yard to the state

apartments. The dreaded whip was in his hand; his eyes seemed
about to start from their sockets, in their wild, eager, hungry

gaze; the veins stood out like cords on his forehead; and his lips,
twitching involuntarily, revealed the glare of his set teeth. A

frightened hush filled the castle. Some of the domestics were on
their knees; others watching, pale and breathless, from the

windows: for all felt that a greater storm than they had ever
experienced was about to burst. Sasha and the castle-steward had