"Why should I?"

"I am going to set off."

"So am I."

"You!"

"Certainly. You recollect the Persian fable--the pebble that was not the
rose, but had caught some of its fragrance by living near it."

"Well?"

"Well, I have caught some of your devotedness, and I shall go with you
to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe and sound to the Count, and then
come back again."

Louise looked me earnestly in the face. "I have no right," said she, "to
prevent your doing a good action--come."

The Countess and her daughters were in tears. "My child! my child!"
cried Louise, who had remained firm up to this moment, but burst into a
passion of weeping as she clasped her infant for the last time in her
arms.

"Adieu! Adieu!" The whip cracked; the wheels rattled over the pavement.
We were off to Siberia. On we went, day and night. Pokrow, Vladimir,
Nijni-Novogorod, Casan. "_Pascare! Pascare!_" Quicker! Quicker! was
Ivan's cry to each new postilion. The snow had not yet begun to fall,