It was certainly her son whom she had just seen; and if he had not recognized her it was because he would not, it was because he ought not, it was because he had some cogent reasons for acting thus! And then, her mother's feelings arising within her, she had only one thought--"Can I, unwittingly, have ruined him ?" "I am mad," she said to her interrogators.

"My eyes have deceived me! This young man is not my child.

He had not his voice.

Let us think no more of it; if we do I shall end by finding him everywhere." Less than ten minutes afterwards a Tartar officer appeared in the posting-house.

"Marfa Strogoff ?" he asked.
"It is I," replied the old woman, in a tone so calm, and with a face so tranquil, that those who had witnessed the meeting with her son would not have known her.
"Come," said the officer.
Marfa Strogoff, with firm step, followed the Tartar.