for conscience sake; but that an officer should join with robbers and
felons! Shame on our race for ever!"

In vain my mother endeavoured to comfort him by talking of the injustice
of the verdict. My father was inconsolable.


_IV.--The Captain's Daughter to the Rescue_


From the first Marya had been received with the warm-hearted hospitality
that belonged to old-fashioned country people. The opportunity of giving
a home to a poor orphan seemed to them a favour from God. In a very
short time they were sincerely attached to her, for no one could know
Marya without loving her, and both my father and my mother looked
forward to the union of their son Peter with the captain's daughter.

My trial and condemnation plunged all three into misery; and Marya,
believing that I could have justified myself had I chosen, and
suspecting the motive which had kept me silent, and holding herself the
sole cause of my misfortune, determined to save me.

All at once she informed my parents that she was obliged to start for
Petersburg, and begged them to give her the means to do so.

"Why must you go to Petersburg?" said my mother, in distress. "You,
too--are you also going to forsake us?"

Marya answered that she was going to seek help from people in high
position for the daughter of a man who had fallen a victim to his