"
"Then, nothing of your heart remains there?"
"Nothing, brother."
"Then, Nadia," said Michael, "I think that God, in allowing
us to meet, and to go through so many severe trials together,
must have meant us to be united forever."
"Ah!" said Nadia, falling into Michael's arms. Then turning
towards Wassili Fedor, "My father," said she, blushing.
"Nadia," said Captain Fedor, "it will be my joy to call you
both my children!"
The marriage ceremony took place in Irkutsk cathedral.
Jolivet and Blount very naturally assisted at this marriage,
of which they wished to give an account to their readers.
"And doesn't it make you wish to imitate them?" asked Alcide
of his friend.
"Pooh!" said Blount. "Now if I had a cousin like you--"
"My cousin isn't to be married!" answered Alcide, laughing.
"So much the better," returned Blount, "for they speak of difficulties
arising between London and Pekin. Have you no wish to go and see
what is going on there?"
"By Jove, my dear Blount!" exclaimed Alcide Jolivet, "I was just going
to make the same proposal to you."
And that was how the two inseparables set off for China.
A few days after the ceremony, Michael and Nadia Strogoff,
accompanied by Wassili Fedor, took the route to Europe. The road
so full of suffering when going, was a road of joy in returning.
They traveled swiftly, in one of those sleighs which glide
like an express train across the frozen steppes of Siberia.
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