She forgot for the moment all the dangers
that surrounded them; the hopelessness of their love, the thousand
reasons why they should not meet. She forgot that a whole nation stood
between them. But it was only for a moment--a moment borrowed from
eternity.
"Is that the only reason?" she asked, remembering with a sort of shock
that this world of glittering snow and still pine-trees was not their
real world at all.
"Yes," he answered.
"But you cannot stay in Poland! You must go away again at once! You do
not know--" And she stopped short, for their respective positions were
such that they always arrived at a point where only silence was left to
them.
"Oh, yes," he answered with a short laugh. "I know. I am going away
to-night--to St. Petersburg."
He did not explain that his immediate departure was not due to the fears
that she had half expressed.
"I am so glad." She broke off, and looked at him with a little smile. "I
am so glad you are going away."
She turned away from him with a sharp sigh. For she had now a new
anxiety, which, however, like Aaron's rod, had swallowed all the rest.
"I would rather know that you were safe in England," she said, "even
if I were never to see you again.
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