178 THE HOESE AND HIS RIDER. 



yet I am sure I loved her like a father. Well, God 

 forgive her for it ! And indeed for that matter, who 

 am I, that she should think of me in her last moments ? 



L. How did Petchorin bear it ? 



M. Petchorin was a long time ill; he wasted 

 away, poor fellow: we never spoke again of Bela, from 

 that time forth. Three months afterwards he was 

 transferred to another regiment, and left Georgia ; we 

 have never met since. 



L. Did you never hear what became afterwards 

 of Kasbitch ? 



M. Of Kasbitch ? I really do not know. I am 

 told indeed that there is among the Shapsooks, on our 

 right flank, a certain Kasbitch, a wild dare devil, that 

 rides at a foot-pace in his red beshmet, in front of our 

 artillery, and bows politely when a cannon ball 

 whizzes past him ; but it can hardly be the same. 



