11. They See Each Other Again

“It is not necessary either that she should look like a beggar,” he said to himself. He had just thrown back on the heap a costume

all in rags, which could only have belonged to some unfortunate little girl, begging her bread from the charity of strangers. Maroussia picked it up again.

“It is necessary for me to look like a beggar,” she said. “It will be necessary, perhaps, for me to be a beggar. I choose this dress. These rags suit me.”

She ran to a dark corner, stripped herself of her pretty dress, and in a few moments, the rich farmer’s little daughter came back dressed like a beggar-girl. But what a noble mien she still had under her rags, how radiant were her glances, and what joy was in her heart!

“Ah! little girl,” Knich said to her, “you look like a princess in disguise, you must change your eyes also. The eyes of a beggar, where will you get them?”

“Poverty will give them to me,” she said. “Who knows if we are not going to suffer a little from hunger?”

During this time the transformation of the child was completed.

“What a handsome old man!” said Knich. “He is your grandfather, Maroussia.”

“He is the friend of Ukraine,” said the child; “ let us go.”

Already she saw herself in Tchigurine, begging at the palace door of the great Ataman, and watching while her friend was attending to business.

The two men withdrew into a corner. They were giving each other information of the state of affairs. Knich, interrogated, answered the short, laconic questions of Tchetchevik. His answers were not very reassuring.

“Things are unsettled,” he said, “in short, division is everywhere and destroys any united action. People do not agree as to the means to be employed, still less on the men. Selflove is in the way. The women are worth more than we, in truth. You will find them everywhere ready to say: Give back Ukraine to the Ukrainians, and quarrel afterward if you wish, but not before. That is what our women say to us. They are a hundred times right. We have two Atamans, the one a great lord, the other a friend of the people. They are jealous of each other; distrust makes them rivals. It seems as if they wished to destroy each other. The Russians, Poles and Tartars excite these jealousies, which are useful to themselves only. Blessed be he who can put concord in the place of these unbridled passions!”