The Dickinson press., 1892-11-26
CHAPTER XIX,
THE BONDS ARE STRENGTHENED.

CHAPTER XIX,
| THE BONDS ARE STRENGTHENED
Between Catherine Petrovna and Rachel
Arama the intimacy grew and strengthen.
ed; it became a knit friendship, beyotten of
mon hope What that hope was neither
would have cared to have shaped into def
| mite words. But when Catherine watched
with hungry. anxious eyes tho pale, melan-
choly face OF her husband, as wearly
he marched along with his fellow
for it was so uncertain-g her
courage; and when she listened to the
| clanking OF his chains, her heart beat mad
ly with q fierce dcsire-a desire to make a
desperate bid for liberty. But how it was
to be done she could iorm do idea. She
could only watch silently and patiently for
thcIi-wel, then it would be liberty or
death. But she cared not :or death if she
could die with Paul.
Such were her thoughts; they came and
went like phantoms, at times filling her
with feeling that all would he we'll, that
anon, hope was changed to despair until
she lelt as il her heart was bursting and her
brain was on fire. and she was tempted to
Curse God ana de- So these fits OF hope
and despair alternated and days wore on
The weeks grew into months, and the terri
bic journey was coming to an end.
Two women could hardly have beenmore
dissmilar than Gather lie and Rachci.
The one was rugged, coarse, rough by ma.
ture. lacking the finer sentiments
and the high intellectual qualities
which suhduc and, in some cases, almost
entirely crush out the mere animal facul-
ties. And yet Catl. crime loved Paul with
love that was capable of swaying her to do
the most desperate deeds, to dare danger
and de y death tor his sake. There was no
poetry in her love that is, there were
none OF those fine and subtle shades of SEN
tim"nt in 1t which characterized the love
OF Evangeline as she wandered through
the primeval forests in search OF her lost
Gabriel.
GATHERINGS love was passion tho pas
sion of the igress for her lord and this
ass on was daily kept alive by the sight OF
Paul and the presence OF Paul; and by the
OCCASIONAL pressure of his hand and lips.
tives were allowed to minsle with them for
briet time.
How different was it with Ra-
chei-the delicate gentle refined
woman whose lite, up to little
while ago, had been as q dream of
aO"S-s AAAS1 oAnS! lAAS iOSeS Ildl Juuctl, ana
the dream had become realty OF thorns;
q sense OF unntteruble lionel ness tortu ed
her, while the suspense she had to endure
was almost maddening. For, alter all,
might not be when the weary thou ands
OF miles had been truver>ed, anu the desc.
III ght it not he that she would find herself
sIill lonelier in The world. il the sorrows of
th'>e she loved were ended in the grave2
But still, mngling with suspen was a
hope that grew siron. and feeb bv turns,
and her gre wrong upheld her. and in the
rough triend-lli llir of Catherine she .ound
llras.ire of conso alton that tended to make
her sense OF Loneliness less keen.
AS there was striking contrast between
Catherine and Rachel, so there was between
Cat crime and her husband. Paul $ Q
physically weak man. though strongly
in cellectnal one. He had had am
b lion, but his ambition had been
killed: lie had looked upward TO ue
stars, but had been beaten down to the
earth, and the. opes lie had cherished had
turned to a. bitter and vain regret. He
brnoded ON his WRONGS; q dark melancholy
Lad taken possession of him. and he seemed
capable OF shaking it off. He alpreciat.
ed he devotion OF his wife. He found COM
voice often lifted him out OF the gloom that
enwrappad him. But no such thous hit and
hope as that which sustained her upheld
him She dreamed OF liberty again; but he
believed that the only freedom he would
know would be that which death would
bring.
AT first he showed no disposition to be
friendly with, or even courteousto, Rachel.
He had been imbued with the dislike, SO
| general amongst his countrymen, for peo-
,le OF the Jewi' Il persuasion. His dislike.
| however, had been rather of a passive
character. Hit found expression at all, it
,pt,,
ing. towards them. Perhaps his pre-.
| JUDGE, like that of good many
more. Was unreasoning: that is, he never
troubled himself to inquire why he dis
liked the Jews In so .ar as Rachel was
concerned, however, his prejudice gave
ak his wife wi'o Rachel was. and Cath
crime had answered him thus
she is going to her father and her lover.
They are in sakhalin. She is voluntary
exile, exii. She may clip rs"
surprise.
81 am q woman and she is woman, ("
was GATHERINGS strange answer. 1.-TWO
| desperate women may do much" As
Catherine uttered this little speech. Paul
saw in the future some great possibilities
Two DESPERATE women may DO much {"
VI ey will dare much and suffer much, and
for sweet loves sake they may finally
H ,pondered on these worls. They af-
forded him iood for reflection for many
and many day. And he SHAPED them
this way. and he shaped them that; and,
finally. he came to the conclusion that two
desperate women. actuated by common
cause. might find a means to circumyent
even the vigilance OF mercenary sentries,
and If they did-there was an ''if' in the
ca>e-who could tell what might happen?
III that ''it" he found ,omething thai en-.
conraged him to fuster faint hope.
Except in the winter months. when snow
and ice render navigation impossible, the
convict route from Iiumen j. BY coEvici
bargr down the great river Irish. and then
ur OBJ TO the TOWN OF Tomsk, distance Of
seven hundred miles.
During the day the exiles, who are neve,
freed from their chains, are allow d to
promenade about on the up,.el
deck in a sort OF huge cage which
is su' divided by wire partition
sci Iarating the men from the women
though through the me-hes of the wire
they ca" converse with each other. Blu: a.
sentries are constantly patrolling up and
down. the conversation has to be guarded
Nevertheless Ca'her.ne occasionally
find opportunity to speak cheering word!
to her husband; she told him us much 4.
she 'ad learnt from ,achel, and spok,
highly of her. and by the time Tomsk wa.
reached he looked OH the Jewess with con
siderably less prejudice.
Now up to this point Paul had in a Ger
tain sense heen sullenly indifferent to hi
D {.ntpr E~k~