Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/301

Rh "You speak rightly and with courage, Paul," the woman answered in a low voice.

Silence prevailed for a time, while both of them were evidently immersed in thought. I had, however, the feeling that the conversation was far from finished and that it needed only a word or two to decide the future that was trembling in the hearts of these two people.

"Katerina," finally came in the subdued voice of the man.

"I am here, Paul."

"Listen to what I have to say. Life crushed us and threw us into prison. We have suffered the great torture of crime, trial and punishment. It is possible and was very likely that we should have remained lost souls for our whole life, forced by the mark of the prison to become habitual criminals; but God ordained that we should meet, and now everything is changed. Now we can help each other, return to the life of freedom and live down the memory of our torture. Do you long for this as I do?"

The woman did not answer for a long time and then only with a hesitating, hardly audible:

"How?"

"Be my wife, Katerina!" the man answered in a low voice, full of evident emotion, solemn as though he were speaking in church. "Do you understand? When I leave the prison, I shall ask permission to marry you."

"But I shall only be free after two years," the woman whispered despairingly.

"That is nothing," came back from the man in buoyant, joyous tones. "I shall wait and work, preparing our home for your coming. Will you say 'yes'?"

"I thank you, Paul. I thank you in the name of God," the woman whispered—and in a moment tears were