The Moment of Vengeance

Zara's intensity of passion during her dramatic recital, had imparted
itself to me, so that when she ceased speaking for a moment, I felt
myself glowing and throbbing with all the excitement that absorbed her.
It seemed almost as if I were, indeed, the person who was concerned in
the story she had related, and my nerves were strung to the point where
I felt that I could go out and kill the czar for the wrongs that had
been committed in his name; if not at his connivance, certainly with
his permission, and with the presumption of his approval. She withdrew
from me and crossed to the window, where she stood looking out upon the
snow clad street; suddenly she started, and turned to me. How beautiful
she was and how I loved her at that moment!

"Come here, Dubravnik," she said. I obeyed, and in an instant was at
her side at the window.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There; look yonder. Do you see that karetta, just beyond the
corner?"

"Yes. I see it."

"It has all the appearance of waiting for a passenger who is supposedly
within one of the adjacent houses, has it not?"

"It certainly has," I replied, smiling.

"My love, I recognize that karetta, and the man in charge of it. It
belongs to--never mind whom. That does not matter. But the man incased
in fur, who seems to be the driver, is a nihilist; within the
enclosure, there is certainly one, and possibly there are two more men.
Each of them has sworn to take your life at the cost of his own, if
need be. They will wait there until you leave me. Then they will do
their work. Do you still doubt that you have been sentenced to death?"