She looked as if no longer
belonging to this world."
Miss Haldin gave signs of profound distress. Her voice faltered. "You
don't know how bad it has come to be. She expects now to see _him_!" The
veil dropped from her fingers and she clasped her hands in anguish. "It
shall end by her seeing him," she cried.
Razumov raised his head sharply and attached on her a prolonged
thoughtful glance.
"H'm. That's very possible," he muttered in a peculiar tone, as if
giving his opinion on a matter of fact. "I wonder what...." He
checked himself.
"That would be the end. Her mind shall be gone then, and her spirit will
follow."
Miss Haldin unclasped her hands and let them fall by her side.
"You think so?" he queried profoundly. Miss Haldin's lips were slightly
parted. Something unexpected and unfathomable in that young man's
character had fascinated her from the first. "No! There's neither truth
nor consolation to be got from the phantoms of the dead," he added after
a weighty pause. "I might have told her something true; for instance,
that your brother meant to save his life--to escape. There can be no
doubt of that. But I did not."
"You did not! But why?"
"I don't know. Other thoughts came into my head," he answered. He seemed
to me to be watching himself inwardly, as though he were trying to count
his own heart-beats, while his eyes never for a moment left the face
of the girl.
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