"
"A spy is standing at our gate. We won't be able to get such a big
mass of papers out of the way unnoticed. There's no place to hide
them in and I think they'll come again to-night. I don't want you
to be arrested. So, however sorry we may be for the lost labor,
let's burn the papers."
"What?"
"Everything in the valise!"
She finally understood; and though sad, her pride in her success
brought a complacent smile to her face.
"There's nothing in it--no leaflets." With gradually increasing
animation she told how she had placed them in the hands of sympathetic
peasants after Rybin's departure. Nikolay listened, at first with
an uneasy frown, then in surprise, and finally exclaimed, interrupting
her story:
"Say, that's capital! Nilovna, do you know--" He stammered,
embarrassed, and pressing her hand, exclaimed quietly: "You touch
me so by your faith in people, by your faith in the cause of their
emancipation! You have such a good soul! I simply love you as I
didn't love my own mother!"
Embracing his neck, she burst into happy sobs, and pressed his head
to her lips.
"Maybe," he muttered, agitated and embarrassed by the newness of
his feeling, "maybe I'm speaking nonsense; but, upon my honest word,
you are a beautiful person, Nilovna--yes!"
"My darling, I love you, too; and I love you all with my whole soul,
every drop of my blood!" she said, choking with a wave of hot joy.
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