Not
as coachman, I think. Good-bye, Anna Nicolaevna," he said, turning to the
insignificant girl, who was at last too much awed to giggle.
Then he came to Vjera's place. The girl was leaning forward, hiding her
face in her hands, and resting her small, pointed elbows on the table.
"Vjera, dear," he said, bending down to her, "will you come with me, now?"
She looked up, suddenly, and her face was very white and drawn, and wet
with tears.
"Oh no, no!" she said in a low voice. "How can I ever be worthy of you,
since it is really true?"
But the Count put his arm round the poor little shell-maker's waist, and
made her stand beside him in the midst of them all.
"Gentlemen," he said, in his calmly dignified manner, "let me present to
you the Countess Skariatine. She will bear that name to-morrow. I owe you
a confession before leaving you, in her honour and to my humiliation. I
had contracted a debt of honour, and I had nothing wherewith to pay it.
There was but an hour left--an hour, and then my life and my honour would
have been gone together."
Vjera looked up into his face with a pitiful entreaty, but he would go on.
"She saved me, gentlemen," he continued. "She cut off her beautiful hair
from her head, and sold it for me. But that is not the reason why she is
to be my wife. There is a better reason than that. I love her, gentlemen,
with all my heart and soul, and she has told me that she loves me."
He felt her weight upon him, and, looking down, he saw that she had
fainted in his arms, with a look of joy upon her poor wan face which none
there had ever seen in the face of man or woman.
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