Stepan Stepanovitch started forward, and caught his daughter in his arms as she fell. He carried her to a couch and hung over her in some alarm. She had fainted quite away. After a minute or two of fruitless effort to rouse her, her father departed in search of Miss Forester; and Felix was left alone in charge. For a while he gazed, with a troubled face, upon the strongly marked brows, the olive complexion, and night-black hair of the young beauty. How different from the girl whose memory he carried with him from England--the pale, appealing face, in its chestnut halo, the expressive mouth, and eyes of deepest blue. Nadia stirred and awoke. Felix bent over her, fanning her with a screen of feathers. Her large, eloquent eyes rested intently upon his face. He felt himself coloring under her scrutiny. Abruptly she sat up. "I fainted," she said, as if angry that she should so have given way. "How weak of me! Because I heard you say that my father was in danger. I--I--when I was a child, I heard terrific tales of the inhuman conduct of Nihilists. I used to lie awake in my bed at Moscow, fearing to hear the shrieks of murder, the call of Revolution, in the streets at night. And when I grew up, my father said he was going to a province where such things never happened. All my old nightmares were swept away. We live secure from day to day; the peasants here are kind and faithful, and not surly and treacherous. I have grown to look upon all those terrors as past, like a dark night when it is morning. And the shock of hearing you say those words--of hearing you tell my father that his life was in danger--was too great. It seemed to stop my heart." "I would have given much to keep such knowledge from you," said Felix, remorsefully. "Forgive me. I had no idea that you were there." "It is true?" she asked, fixing her eyes upon his face, as if to compel him to deny his former words. "It was true," said Felix; "but it is not serious, for the man who has devised the scheme is a criminal, and he will be brought to justice and put out of the way. I have with me the proof of his guilt, and upon that your father will proceed at once to take steps against him." "Where is he?" gasped Nadia. "I do not know. But I think not within a hundred miles of this place." Miss Forester and the Governor then entered, and there was much petting and consoling of the girl, who was completely reassured by what they told her. "How came my good friend Vronsky to know of this traitor, Cravatz?" asked the Governor, when they were all seated and talking the thing over.