“How can you speak so!” he blushingly replied to Princess Márya’s expressions of gratitude for her deliverance, as she termed what had occurred.
“Any police officer would have done as much! If we had had only peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far,” said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject.
“I am only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance. Goodbye, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation and hope to meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don’t want to make me blush, please don’t thank me!”
But the princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, radiant with gratitude and tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing to thank him for. On