Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.Ill

happy by procuring his marriage: he obeyed, but this compliance only served to increase his wretchedness; for the man who seeks to become virtuous by taking upon himself additional duties, does but lay open new sources of i·emorse.

The unhappy Fedor felt when it was too late, that, notwithstanding her friendship, Xenie had done nothing for him. Unable to bear life in the scenes that had witnessed his degradation, he abandoned his native village, his wife, and his guardian angel.

His wife felt herself humbled, but from another cause. A wife blushes for shame when her husband is not happy. Under this feeling she forebore telling him that she was enceinte. She did not wish to employ such a means for retaining near her, a husband to whose happiness she could not minister,

At length, after a year's absence, he returned. He

again beheld his mother and his wife, and found also

an infant in the cradle, a little angel who resembled

him, but who could not cure the sorrow which preyed

upon his heart. He remained motionless and silent

even before his sister Xenie, whom now he only

dared to call mademoiselle. **

Their noble forms, which, according to the saying of the nurse, had, as well as their characters, some traits of resemblance, shone in the morning sun among the scattered groups of animals, of whom they schemed the sovereigns. One might have imagined the picture, an Adam and Eve, painted by Albert Durer. Xenie was calm, though joyful; but the countenance of the young man betrayed violent emotions, ill-disguised under an affected impassibility.

Xenie, in spite „of her unerring womanly instinct,