Scenes and Portraits

Wounded in her inmost being and her feminine honor, tired of the eternal
pin-prickings with which Elizabeth tormented her, Catharine retreated
into her most retired apartment, there in quiet to reflect upon her
dishonorable greatness, and yearningly to dream of a splendid future.
"For the future," said she, with sparkling eyes to her confidante,
Princess Daschkow, "the future is mine, they cannot deprive me of it.
For that I labor and think and study. Ah, when my future shall have
become the present, then will I encircle my brows with a splendid
imperial diadem, and astonish you with all my greatness and
magnificence."

"But you forget your husband!" smilingly interposed Princess Daschkow.
"He will a little obscure the splendor of your imperial crown, as he
will always be the first in the realm. He is the all-powerful emperor,
and you will be powerless, although an empress!"

Catharine proudly tossed her head, and her eyes flashed.

"I shall one day remember all the mortifications he has inflicted upon
me," said she, "and an hour will come when I shall have a reckoning with
him, and full retribution! Ah, talk not to me of my husband--Russian
emperors have never been immortal, and why should he be so?"

"Catharine!" exclaimed the Princess Daschkow, turning pale, "you cannot
think--"

"I think," interposed Catharine, with an unnatural smile, "I think the
Russian emperors are not immortal, and that this good Empress Elizabeth
is very fortunate in having no emperor who presumes to stand over her
and have a will more potent than her own!"