"
"Ah, sir," the young countess said, holding out her hand after
Charlie had given his name, "what do we not owe you? I shall never
forget it all, never."
"We will talk when we have started, Feodora. Let us get out of this
forest as soon as we can."
He took his place beside his wife, and set the child on his knees;
his brother and Charlie sitting opposite to him. The servants
spread a bearskin rug over their knees, and then jumped into their
places, as the driver cracked his whip, and the horses started.
"You must think us almost mad to be driving through the forest, at
this time of the year," the count said to Charlie. "But the
countess is a Russian. We have been staying two months at her
father's place, a hundred miles to the east. My two youngest
children are at home, and two days since a message arrived, saying
that one of them was dangerously ill. We had heard, of course, many
tales of the numbers and fierceness of the wolves, but we hoped
that, by travelling only by day and with excellent horses, there
was not much to fear, especially as we were five armed men.
"We fell in with a few wolves yesterday, but beat them off easily
enough. Last night, we stopped at a little village in the forest.
They certainly made me feel uneasy there, with their tales about
the wolves, but there was no help for it.
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