"I am very glad if I have been anything to you," she said. "I would I
might have been more."

"More? I do not see--you have been gentle, forbearing, respecting my
misfortunes and trying to make others respect them. What more could you
have done, or what more could you have been?"

Vjera was silent, but she softly withdrew her hand from his and gazed at
the people in the distance. The Count smoked without speaking, for several
minutes, closing his eyes as though revolving a great problem in his mind,
then glancing sidelong at his companion's face, hesitating as though about
to speak, checking himself and shutting his eyes again in meditation.
Holding his cigarette between his teeth he clasped his fingers together
tightly, unclasped them again and let his arms fall on each side of him.
At last he turned sharply, as though resolved what to do.

He believed that he was on the very eve of recovering a vast fortune and
of resuming a high position in the world. It was no wonder that there was
a struggle in his soul, when at that moment a new complication seemed to
present itself. He was indeed sure that he did not love Vjera, and in the
brilliant dreams which floated before his half-closed eyes, visions of
beautiful and high-born women dazzled him with their smiles and enchanted
him by the perfect grace of their movements. To-morrow he might choose his
wife among such as they. But to-day Vjera was by his side, poor Vjera, who
alone of those he had known during the years of his captivity had stood by
him, had felt for him, had given him a sense of reliance in her perfect
sincerity and honest affection. And her affection had grown into something
more; it had developed into love during the last months. He had seen it,
had known it and had done nothing to arrest the growth. Nay, he had done