Suddenly, through it all, she became conscious that some
one was watching her. Instinctively she knew that it was
the same gaze which so often had alarmed her. Fear
routed every other passion. She realized that she was
unprotected, a mile from the Fort, out of the line of its
vision. The brutal head of the miller's son seemed to
thrust itself before her face. Overwhelmed with terror,
she turned swiftly and ran, striking blindly among the low
bushes, her glance darting from right to left No one
was to be seen for a moment ; then she turned the corner
of a boulder and came upon a man. She shrieked and
covered her face with her hands, now too frightened to
move. The man neither stirred nor spoke ; and, despite
this alarming circumstance, her disordered brain, in the
course of a moment, conceived the thought that no subject
of Rotscheff would dare to harm her.
Moreover, her brief glance had informed her that this
was not the miller's son; which fact, illogically, somewhat
tempered her fear. She removed her hands and com-



350 THE SPLENDID IDLE FORTIES

pelled herself to look sternly at the creature who 1
dared to raise his eyes to the Countess Natalie Ivanhoff
She was puzzled to find something familiar about him.
His grizzled hair was long, but not unkempt The lower
part of his face was covered by a beard. He was aln
fieshless ; but in his sunken eyes burned unquenchable
fire, and there was a determined vigour in his gaunt figure.
