CHILDREN OF THE SOIL
 
 WORKS OF 
 
 Henrpk 
 
 IN DESERT AND WILDERNESS 
 
 WITH FIRE AND SWORD 
 
 THE DELUGE. 2 vols. 
 
 PAN MICHAEL 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL 
 
 "Quo VADIS" 
 
 SIELANKA, A FOREST PICTURE 
 
 THE KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS 
 
 WITHOUT DOGMA 
 
 WHIRLPOOLS 
 
 ON THE FIELD OF GLORY 
 LET Us FOLLOW HIM
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "WITH FIRE AND SWORD," "THE DELUGE," " PAN MICHAEL," 
 
 "WITHOUT DOGMA," "YANKO THE MUSICIAN," 
 
 "ULLIAN MOEKIS," ETC. 
 
 AUTHORIZED AND UNABRIDGED TRANSLATION FROM 
 THE POLISH BY 
 
 JEREMIAH CURTIN. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1917
 
 Copyright, 1895, 
 BY JEREMIAH CCRTIH. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 8. J. PAJULHILL & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.
 
 TO HIS EXCELLENCY, 
 
 HON. FREDERIC T. GREENHALGE, 
 
 ffiobmtor of Sassad)usetts. 
 
 SIR, You are at the head of a Commonwealth renowned for 
 mental culture; you esteem the Slav Race and delight in good 
 literature; to you I beg to dedicate this volume, in the hope 
 that it will give pleasure to you and to others in that State which 
 yon govern so acceptably. 
 
 JEREMIAH CURTIN. 
 
 WARREN, VERMONT, 
 
 April 19, 1895.
 
 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 THE title of this book in the original is Rodzina Pola- 
 nieckich (The Family of the Polanyetskis) ; " Children 
 of the Soil " has been substituted, because of the difficulty 
 of the Polish title for American and English readers, 
 because the Polanyetskis are called children of the soil in 
 the text of the volume, and because all the other char- 
 acters are children of the soil in the same sense. 
 
 For most readers this book will have a double interest, 
 the interest attaching to a picture of Polish life, and 
 the general human interest inseparable from characters 
 like those presented in the narrative of Pan Stanislav's 
 fortunes. 
 
 The Poles form a part of the great Slav race, which has 
 played so important a role in the world's history already, 
 and which is destined to play a far more important one 
 yet in the future. 
 
 The argument involved in the career and meditations 
 of Pan Stanislav is of interest to every person in civil- 
 ized society ; it is an argument presented so clearly, and 
 reinforced with such pointed examples, that neither com- 
 ment nor explanation is needed. 
 
 Were it not for the change of title, I might escape even 
 this brief statement ; but now I may add that the follow- 
 ing translation was made in many places, in different 
 countries, at various intervals, and at moments snatched
 
 X INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 
 
 from other work. I began "Children of the Soil" in 
 Cahirciveen, Ireland, .and continued it in London, Edin- 
 burgh, Fort William near the foot of Ben Nevis, Rome, 
 Naples, and Florence, Tsarskoe Selo, Eussia, and South 
 Uist, an island of the Outer Hebrides. From the Outer 
 Hebrides I was called home before I wished to come, and 
 left that little granite kingdom in the Atlantic with 
 sincere regret. 
 
 The translation was finished in Warren, Vermont, and 
 revised carefully. To new readers of Sienkiewicz I may 
 state that Pan, Pani, and Panna, when prefixed to names, 
 mean Mr., Mrs., and Miss respectively. 
 
 JEREMIAH CURTIN.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT was the first hour after midnight when Pan Stauislav 
 Polanyetski was approaching the residence in Kremen. 
 During years of childhood he had been twice in that village, 
 when his mother, a distant relative of the present owner 
 of Kremen, was taking him home for vacation. Pan Stan- 
 islav tried to remember the place, but to do so was difficult. 
 At night, by the light of the moon, everything took on an 
 uncertain form. Over the bushes, fields, and meadows, a 
 white mist was lying low, changing the whole region about 
 into a shoreless lake, as it were, an illusion increased by 
 choruses of frogs in the mist. 
 
 It was a July night, very calm and perfectly bright. At 
 moments, when the frogs became silent, landrails were 
 heard playing in the dew ; and at times, from afar, from 
 muddy ponds, hidden behind reeds, the call of the bittern 
 sounded as if coming from under the earth. 
 
 Pan Stanislav could not resist the charm of that night. 
 It seemed to him familiar in some way; and that familiarity 
 he felt all the more, since he had returned only the previous 
 year from abroad, where he had spent his first youth and 
 had become engaged afterward in mercantile matters. Now, 
 while entering that sleeping village, he recalled his child- 
 hood, memorable through his mother, now five years dead, 
 and because the bitterness and cares of that childhood, 
 compared with the present, seemed perfect bliss to him. 
 
 At last the brichka rolled up toward the village, which 
 began with a cross standing on a sand mound. The cross, 
 inclining greatly, seemed ready to fall. Pan Stanislav 
 remembered it because in his time under that mound had 
 been buried a man found hanging from a limb in the 
 
 1
 
 2 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 neighboring forest, and afterward people were afraid to 
 pass by that spot in the night-time. 
 
 Beyond the cross were the first cottages, but the people 
 were sleeping ; there was no light in any window. As far 
 as the eye could reach, only roofs of cottages were gleaming 
 on the night background of the sky, lighted up by the moon, 
 and the roofs appeared silvery and blue. Some cottages 
 were washed with lime and seemed bright green ; others, 
 hidden in plum orchards, in thickets of sunflowers or pole 
 beans, barely came out of the shadow. In the yards, dogs 
 barked, but in their sleep, as it were, accompanying the 
 croaking of frogs, the calling of landrails and bitterns, and 
 all those sounds with which a summer night speaks, and 
 which strengthen the impression of silence still more. 
 
 The brichka, moving slowly along the soft sandy road, 
 entered at last a dark alley, spotted only here and there 
 by the moonlight, which pushed in between the leaves. 
 Beyond the alley, night watches whistled ; and in the open 
 was. seen a white dwelling, in which some windows were 
 lighted. When the brichka rattled up to the entrance, a 
 serving-man hurried out of the house and began to assist 
 Pan Stanislav to alight ; but in addition the night watch 
 appeared and two white dogs, evidently very young and 
 friendly, for, instead of barking, they began to fawn and 
 to spring on the guest, showing such delight at his coming 
 that the watch had to moderate their effusiveness with a 
 stick. 
 
 The man took Pan Stanislav's things from the brichka, 
 and after a moment the guest found himself in a dining- 
 room where tea was waiting. Nothing had changed from 
 the time of his childhood. At one wall was a sideboard in 
 walnut ; at one end of this a clock with heavy weights and 
 a cuckoo ; at the other were two badly painted portraits of 
 women in robes of the eighteenth century ; in the centre 
 of the room stood a table with a white cloth, and surrounded 
 by chairs with high arms. That room, lighted brightly, full 
 of steam rising from a samovar, seemed rather hospitable 
 and gladsome. 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to walk along the side of the table ; 
 but the squeaking of his boots struck him in that silence, 
 therefore he went to the window and looked through the 
 panes at the yard filled with moonlight. Over this yard the 
 two white dogs, which had greeted him so effusively, were 
 chasing each other.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 3 
 
 After a time the door of the next room opened, and a 
 young lady entered in whom Pan Stauislav divined the 
 daughter of the master of Kremen by his second wife ; at 
 sight of her he stepped from the window curtains, and, ap- 
 proaching the table in his squeaking boots, bowed, and 
 announced his name. The young lady extended her hand, 
 and said, 
 
 " We learned of your arrival from the despatch. Father 
 is a trifle ill, and was obliged to lie down ; but he will be 
 glad to see you in the morning." 
 
 " I am not to blame for coming so late," answered Pan 
 Stanislav ; " the train reaches Chernyov only at eleven." 
 
 " And from Chernyov it is ten miles to Kremen. Father 
 tells me that this is not your first visit." 
 
 " I came here with my mother when you were not in the 
 world yet." 
 
 " I know. You are a relative of my father." 
 
 "I am a relative of Pan Plavitski's first wife." 
 
 " Father esteems family connections very highly, even 
 the most distant," said the young lady : and she began to 
 pour out tea, pushing aside from time to time the steam, 
 which, rising from the samovar, veiled her eyes. When 
 conversation halted, only the tick of the clock was heard. 
 Pan Stanislav, who was interested by young ladies, looked 
 at Panna Plavitski carefully. She was a person of medium 
 height, rather slender ; she had dark hair, a face calm, but 
 subdued, as it were, a complexion sunburnt somewhat, blue 
 eyes, and a most shapely mouth. Altogether it was the 
 face of a self-possessed and delicate woman. Pan Stanislav, 
 to whom she seemed not ill-looking, but also not beautiful, 
 thought that she was rather attractive ; that she might be 
 good ; and that under that exterior, not too brilliant, she 
 might have many of those various qualities which young 
 ladies in the country have usually. Though he was young, 
 life had taught him one truth, that in general women gain 
 on near acquaintance, while in general men lose. He had 
 heard also touching Panna Plavitski, that the whole manage- 
 ment in Kremen a place, by the way, almost ruined lay 
 on her mind, and that she was one of the most overworked 
 persons on earth. With reference to those cares, which 
 must weigh on her, she seemed calm and unmoved ; still 
 he thought that surely she must wish to sleep. This was 
 evident, indeed, by her eyes, which blinked in spite of her, 
 under the light of the hanging lamp.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 The examination would have come out on the whole in 
 her favor, were it not that conversation dragged somewhat. 
 This was explained by the fact that they saw each other 
 for the first time in life ; besides, she received him alone, 
 which might be awkward for a young lady. Finally, she 
 knew that Pan Stanislav had not come to make a visit, but 
 to ask for money. Such was the case in reality. His mother 
 had given, a very long time before, twelve thousand and some 
 rubles for a mortgage on Kremen, which Fan Stanislav 
 wished to have redeemed, first, because there were enor- 
 mous arrears of interest, and second, since lie was a part- 
 ner in a mercantile house in Warsaw, he had entered into 
 various transactions and needed capital. He had promised 
 himself beforehand to make no compromise, and to exact 
 his own absolutely. In affairs of that sort, it was a point 
 with him always to appear unyielding. He was not such 
 by nature, perhaps ; but he had made inflexibility a prin- 
 ciple, and therewith a question of self-love. In conse- 
 quence of this, he overshot the mark frequently, as people 
 do who argue something into themselves. Hence, while 
 looking at that agreeable, but evidently drowsy young lady, 
 he repeated to himself, in spite of the sympathy which was 
 roused in him, 
 
 " That is all well, but you must pay." 
 
 After a while he said, " I have heard that you busy your- 
 self with everything ; do you like land management ? " 
 
 " I love Kremen greatly," answered she. 
 
 " I too loved Kremen when I was a boy ; but I should 
 not like to manage the place, the conditions are so 
 difficult." 
 
 " Difficult, difficult. We do what we can." 
 
 " That is it, you do what you can." 
 
 " I assist father, who is often in poor health." 
 
 " I am not skilled in those matters, but, from what I see 
 and hear, I infer that the greater number of agriculturists 
 cannot count on a future." 
 
 " We count on Providence." 
 
 "Of course, but people cannot send creditors to Provi- 
 dence." 
 
 Panna Plavitski's face was covered with a blush; ;; 
 moment of awkward silence followed ; and Pan Stanislav 
 said to himself, 
 
 " Since thou hast begun, proceed farther ; " and h*- 
 said,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 5 
 
 "You will permit me to explain the object of my 
 coming." 
 
 The young lady looked at him with a glance in which he 
 might read, " Thou hast come just now ; the hour is late. I 
 am barely alive from fatigue : even the slightest delicacy 
 might have restrained thee from beginning such a conver- 
 sation." She answered aloud, 
 
 " I know why you have come ; but it may be better if you 
 will speak about that with my father." 
 
 "I beg your pardon." 
 
 "But I beg pardon of you. People have a right to 
 mention what belongs to them, and I am accustomed to 
 that ; but to-day is Saturday, and on Saturday there is so 
 much work. Moreover, in affairs of this sort, you will un- 
 derstand sometimes, when Jews come, I bargain with 
 them ; but this time I should prefer if you would speak 
 with my father. It would be easier for both." 
 
 "Then till to-morrow," said Pan Stanislav, who lacked 
 the boldness to say that in questions of money he preferred 
 to be treated like a Jew. 
 
 "Perhaps you would permit me to pour you more 
 tea ? " 
 
 "No, I thank you. Good-night." And, rising, he ex- 
 tended his hand ; but the young lady gave hers far less 
 cordially than at the greeting, so that he touched barely the 
 ends of her fingers. In going, she said, 
 
 " The servant will show you the chamber." 
 
 And Pan Stanislav was left alone. He felt a certain dis- 
 content, and was dissatisfied with himself, though he did 
 not wish to acknowledge that fact in his heart. He began 
 even to persuade himself that he had done well, since he 
 had come hither, not to talk politely, but to get money. 
 What was Panna Plavitski to him ? She neither warmed 
 nor chilled him. If she considered him a churl, so much 
 the better ; for it happens generally that the more disagree- 
 able a creditor, the more people hasten to pay him. 
 
 But his discontent was increased by that reasoning; fora 
 certain voice whispered to him that this time it was not 
 merely a question of good-breeding, but also in some degree 
 of compassion for a wearied woman. He felt, besides, that 
 by acting so urgently he was satisfying his pose, not his 
 heart, all the more because she pleased him. As in that 
 sleeping village and in that moonlight night he had found 
 something special, so in that young lady he found some-
 
 6 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 thing which he had looked for in vain in foreign women, 
 and which moved him more than he expected. But people 
 are often ashamed of feelings which are very good. Pan 
 Stanislav was ashamed of emotions, especially ; hence he 
 determined to be inexorable, and on the morrow to squeeze 
 old Plavitski without mercy. 
 
 Meanwhile the servant conducted him to the bed-chamber. 
 Pan Stauislav dismissed him at once, and was alone. That 
 was the same chamber which they gave him, when, during 
 the life of Plavitski's first wife, he came to Kremen witli 
 his mother ; and remembrances beset him again. The 
 windows looked out on a garden, beyond which lay a pond ; 
 the moon was looking into the water, and the pond could 
 be seen more easily than in former times, for it was hidden 
 then by a great aged ash-tree, which must have been broken 
 down by a storm, since on that spot there was sticking up 
 merely a stump with a freshly broken piece at the top. The 
 light of the moon seemed to centre on that fragment, which 
 was gleaming very brightly. All this produced an impres- 
 sion of great calm. Pan Stanislav, who lived in the city 
 amid mercantile labors, therefore in continual tension of 
 his physical and mental powers, and at the same time in 
 continual unquiet, felt that condition of the country around 
 him as he would a warm bath after great toil. He was 
 penetrated by relief. He tried to reflect on business trans- 
 actions, how were they turning, would they give loss or 
 profit, finally on Bigiel, his partner, and how Bigiel would 
 manage various interests in his absence, but he could not 
 continue. 
 
 Then he began to think of Panna Plavitski. Her person, 
 though it had made a good impression, was indifferent to 
 him, even for this reason, that he saw her for the first 
 time ; but she interested him as a type. He was thirty 
 years old and something more, therefore of tl\e age in 
 which instinct, with a force almost invincible, urges a man 
 to establish a domestic hearth, take a wife, and have a 
 family. The greatest pessimism is powerless against this 
 instinct; neither art nor any calling in life protects a man 
 against it. In consequence of this, misanthropes marry in 
 spite of their philosophy, artists in spite of their art, as do 
 all those men who declare that they give to their objects 
 not a half, but a whole soul. Exceptions confirm the prin- 
 ciple that, in general, men cannot live a conventional lie and 
 swim against the currents of nature. For the great part.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 7 
 
 only those do not marry for whom the same power that 
 creates marriage stands in the way of it; that is, those 
 whom love has deceived. Hence, celibacy in advanced life, 
 if not always, is most frequently a hidden tragedy. 
 
 Stanislav Polanyetski was neither a misanthrope nor an 
 artist; neither was he a man proclaiming theories against 
 marriage. On the contrary, he wanted to marry, and he 
 was convinced that he ought to marry. He felt that for 
 him the time had arrived ; hence he looked around for the 
 woman. From that came the immense interest which 
 women roused in him, especially unmarried ones. Though 
 he had spent some years in France and Belgium, he had not 
 sought love among married women, even among those who 
 were over giddy. He was an active and occupied person, who 
 contended that only idle men can romance with married 
 women, and in general that besieging other men's wives is 
 possible only where men have very much money, little 
 honor, and nothing to do, consequently in a society where 
 there is a whole class long since enriched, sunk in elegant 
 idleness, and of dishonest life. He was himself, in truth, 
 greatly occupied, hence he wished to love in order to 
 marry ; therefore only unmarried women roused in him 
 curiosity of soul and body. When he met a young lady, 
 the first question he asked himself was, " Is she not the 
 woman ? " or at least, " Is she not the kind of woman ? " 
 At present his thoughts were circling around Panna 
 Plavitski in this manner. To begin with, he had heard 
 much of her from her relative living in Warsaw; and he 
 had heard things that were good and even touching. Her 
 calm, mild face was before his eyes now. He recalled her 
 hands, very shapely, with long fingers, though somewhat 
 sunburnt, her dark blue eyes, then the slight shadow over 
 her mouth. Her voice too pleased him. Notwithstanding 
 all this, he repeated his promise that he would make no 
 compromise and must have his own ; still he was angry at 
 the fate which had brought him to Kremen as a creditor. 
 Speaking to himself in mercantile language, he repeated in 
 spirit, "The quality is good, but I will not 'reflect,' as I 
 did not come for it." 
 
 Still he " reflected," and that to such a degree that after 
 he had undressed and lain down, he could not sleep for a 
 long time. The cocks began to crow, the window panes 
 were growing pale and green; but under his closed eyelids 
 he saw yet the calm forehead of Panna Plavitski, the
 
 8 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 shadow over her mouth, and her hands pouring out the tea. 
 Then, when sleep became overpowering, it seemed to him 
 as though he were holding those hands in his own and 
 drawing her toward him, and she was pulling back and 
 turning her head aside, as if to escape a kiss. In the 
 morning he woke late, and remembering Panna Plavitski, 
 thought, "Ah, she will look like that!"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HE was roused by the servant, who brought coffee and 
 took his clothes to be brushed. When the servant brought 
 them back, Pan Stanislav asked if it were not the custom 
 of the house to meet in the dining-room for coffee. 
 
 " No," answered the servant ; " because the young lady 
 rises early, and the old gentleman sleeps late." 
 
 " And has the young lady risen ? " 
 
 " The young lady is at church." 
 
 " True, to-day is Sunday. But does not the young lady 
 go to church with the old gentleman ? " 
 
 " No ; the old gentleman goes to high Mass, and then 
 goes to visit the canon, so the young lady prefers early 
 Mass." 
 
 " What do they do here on Sunday ? " 
 
 " They sit at home ; Pan Gantovski comes to dinner." 
 
 Pan Stanislav knew this Gantovski as a small boy. In 
 those times they nicknamed him " Little Bear," for he was 
 a thick little fellow, awkward and surly. The servant 
 explained that Pan Gantovski's father had died about five 
 years before, and that the young man was managing his 
 estate in the neighboring Yalbrykov. 
 
 "And does he come here every Sunday?" 
 
 " Sometimes he comes on a week day in the evening." 
 
 " A rival ! " thought Pan Stanislav. After a while he 
 inquired, 
 
 " Has the old gentleman risen ? " 
 
 " It must be that he has rung the bell, for Yozef has 
 gone to him." 
 
 " Who is Yozef ? " 
 
 " The valet." 
 
 " And who art thou ? " 
 
 " I am his assistant." 
 
 " Go and inquire when it will be possible to see the old 
 gentleman." 
 
 The servant went out and returned soon. 
 
 " The old gentleman sends to say that when he dresses 
 he will beg you to come." 
 
 "Very well."
 
 10 CHILDREN OF THE 
 
 The servant went out; Fan Stanislav mmiinrd alone and 
 waited. or rataer was bored, a good while. Fatienee began 
 to fail him at last; and he was about to stroll to the garden, 
 when Yorcf eame with the aimouncement that the old gen- 
 tleman begged him to cone. 
 
 Yoaef conducted him then to a chamber at the other end 
 of the house. Fan StanislaT entered, and at the firs* 
 moment did not recognize Fan FlavitskL He remembered 
 him as a person in the bloom of life and very good-looking ; 
 now an old man stood before him, with a face as wrinkled 
 as a baked apple, a face to which small blackened mus- 
 taches strove in rain to lead the appearance of youth. Hair 
 as black as the mustaches, and parted low at the side of the 
 head, indicated also pretensions as jet unextinguished. 
 
 Bat Piavitski opened his arms: ^Stas! how ait thou, 
 dear boy? Come hither! 9 And, pointing to his white 
 shirt, he embraced the head of Fan Stanislav, and pressed 
 it to his bosom, which moved with quick breathing. 
 
 The embrace continued a long time, and for Fan Stanis- 
 lav, much too long. Piaritski said at last, 
 
 - Let me look at thee, Anna, drop for drop ! My poor 
 beloved Anna ! ** and Piavitski sobbed; then he wiped with 
 his heart finger l his right eyelid, on which, however, there 
 was not a tear, and repeated, 
 
 " As like Anna as one drop is fike another! Thy mother 
 was always for me the best and the most loving relative.*" 
 
 Fan Stouustar stood before him confused, also somewhat 
 stunned by a reception such as be had not expected, and 
 by the odor of was, powder, and various perfumes, which 
 came from the face, mustaches, and shirt of the old man. 
 
 - How is my dear uncle ?** asked he at last, judging that 
 this title, which moreover he had given in years of child- 
 hood to Piavitski, would answer best to the solemn manner 
 
 How am I ? n repeated PlavitekL "Not long for me 
 now, not long! But just for this reason I greet thee in my 
 house with the greater affection, I greet thee as a father. 
 And if the blessing of a man standing over the grave, and 
 who at the same time is the eldest member of the family, 
 has in thy eyes any value, I give it thee.* 
 
 And seizing Flan Stanislaus head a second time, he kissed 
 it and blessed him. The young man changed still more. 
 and constraint was expressed on his face. His mother was
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 11 
 
 a relative and friend of Plavitski's first wife : to Plavitski 
 himself no affectionate feelings had ever attracted her, so 
 far as he could remember ; hence the solemnity of the recep- 
 tion, to which he was forced to yield, was immensely dis- 
 agreeable to him. Pan Stariislav had not the least family 
 feeling for Plavitski. " This monkey," thought he, " is 
 blessing me instead of talking money ; " and he was seized 
 by a certain indignation, which might help him to explain 
 matters clearly. 
 
 "Now sit down, dear boy," said Plavitski, "and be as 
 if in thy own house." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took a seat, and began, " Dear uncle, for 
 me it is very pleasant to visit uncle. I should have done 
 so surely, even without business; but uncle knows that I 
 have come also on that affair which my mother " 
 
 Here the old man laid his hand on Pan Stanislav's knee 
 suddenly. "But hast thou drunk coffee?" asked he. 
 
 "I have," answered Pan Stanislav, driven from his 
 track. 
 
 "Marynia goes to church early. I beg pardon, too, 
 that I have not given thee my room; but I am old, I 
 am accustomed to sleep here. This is my nest." Then, 
 with a circular sweep of the hand, he directed attention 
 to the chamber. 
 
 Unconsciously Pan Stanislav let his eyes follow the 
 motion of the hand. On a time this chamber had been to 
 him a ceaseless temptation, for in it had hung the arms of 
 Plavitski. The only change in it was the wall, which 
 in the old time was rose-colored, and represented, on an 
 endless number of squares, young shepherdesses, dressed 
 a la Watteau, and catching fish with hooks. At the 
 window stood a toilet-table with a white cover, and a 
 mirror in a silver frame. On the table was a multitude 
 of little pots, vials, boxes, brushes, combs, nail files, etc. 
 At one side, in the corner, was a table with pipes and 
 pipe-stems with amber mouth-pieces; on the wall, above 
 the sofa, was the head of a wild boar, and under it two 
 double-barrelled guns, a hunting-bag, horns, and, in 
 general, the weapons of hunting; in the depth was a table 
 with papers, open shelves with a certain number of books. 
 Everywhere the place was full of old furniture more or loss 
 needed and ornamental, but indicating that the occupant 
 of the chamber was the centre around which everything 
 turned in that house, and that he cared greatly for him-
 
 12 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 self. In one word, it was the chamber of an old single 
 man, an egotist full of petty anxiety for his personal 
 comfort, and full of pretensions. Pan Stanislav did not 
 need long reflection to divine that Plavitski would not 
 give up his chamber for anything, nor to an}' man. 
 
 But the hospitable host inquired further, " Was it comfor- 
 table enough for thee? How didst thou spend the night?" 
 
 "Perfectly; I rose late." 
 
 "But thou wilt stay a week or so with me?" 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who was very impulsive, sprang up from 
 his chair. 
 
 "Doesn't uncle know that I have business in Warsaw, 
 and a partner, who at present is doing all our work alone? 
 I must go at the earliest; and to-day I should like to finish 
 the business on which I have come." 
 
 To this Plavitski answered with a certain cordial dignity, 
 "No, my boy. To-day is Sunday; and besides, family 
 feeling should go before business. To-day I greet thee, 
 and receive thee as a blood relative; to-morrow, if thou 
 wish, appear as a creditor. That is it. To-day my Stas 
 has come to me, the son of my Anna. Thus will it be 
 till to-morrow; thus should it be, Stas. This is said to 
 thee by thy eldest relative, who loves thee, and for whom 
 thou shouldst do this." 
 
 Pan Stanislav frowned a little, but after a while he 
 answered, "Let it be so till to-morrow." 
 
 "Anna spoke through thee then. Dost smoke a pipe?" 
 
 "No, only cigarettes." 
 
 "Believe me, thou doest ill. But I have cigarettes for 
 guests." 
 
 Further conversation was interrupted by the rattle of an 
 equipage at the entrance. 
 
 "That is Marynia, who has come from early Mass," said 
 Plavitski. 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked out through the window, and saw 
 a young lady in a straw hat stepping out of the equipage. 
 
 "Hast made the acquaintance of Marynia?" asked 
 Plavitski. 
 
 "I had the pleasure yesterday." 
 
 " She is a dear child. I need not tell thee that I live 
 only for her " 
 
 At that moment the door opened, and a youthful voice 
 asked, " May I come in?" 
 
 "Come in, come in; Stas is here! " answered Plavitski.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 13 
 
 Marynia entered the chamber quickly, with her hat 
 hanging by ribUons over her shoulder; and when she had 
 embraced her father, she gave her hand to Pan Stanislav. 
 In her rose-colored muslin, she looked exceedingly graceful 
 and pretty. There was about her something of the char- 
 acter of Sunday, and with it the freshness of that morning, 
 which was bright and calm. Her hair had been ruffled a 
 little by her hat; her cheeks were blooming; and youth 
 ivas breathing from her person. To Pan Stanislav, she 
 seemed more joyous and more shapely than the previous 
 evening. 
 
 "High Mass will be a little later to-day," said she to 
 her father ; " for immediately after Mass the canon went to 
 the mill to prepare Pani Siatkovski; she is very ill. Papa 
 will have half an hour yet." 
 
 "That is well," said Plavitski; "during that time thou 
 wilt become more nearly acquainted with Stas. I tell 
 thee, drop for drop like Anna! But thou hast never seen 
 her. Remember, too, Marynia, that he will be our creditor 
 to-morrow, if he wishes; but to-day he is only our relative 
 and guest." 
 
 "Very well," answered the young lady; "we shall have 
 a pleasant Sunday." 
 
 " You went to sleep so late yesterday," said Pan Stanislav, 
 "and to-day you were at early Mass." 
 
 She answered merrily, " The cook and I go to early Mass 
 that we may have time afterward to think of dinner." 
 
 "I forgot to mention," said Pan Stanislav, "that I bring 
 you salutations from Pani Emilia Hvastovski." 
 
 " I have not seen Emilia for a year and a half, but we 
 write to each other often. She is about to visit Reichen- 
 hall, for the sake of her little daughter." 
 
 "She was ready to start when I saw her." 
 
 "But how is the little girl?" 
 
 "She is in her twelfth year; she has grown beyond 
 measure, and is pale. It does not seem that she is very 
 healthy." 
 
 "Do you visit Emilia often?" 
 
 "Rather often. She is almost my only acquaintance in 
 Warsaw. Besides, I like Pani Emilia very much." 
 
 "Tell me, my boy," inquired Plavitski, taking a pair of
 
 14 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 sion house in company with a certain Bigiel. I speculate 
 in wheat and sugar, sometimes in timber; in any thing that 
 gives profit." 
 
 " I have heard that thou art an engineer ? " 
 
 "I have my specialty. But on my return I could not 
 find occupation at any factory, and I began at mercantile 
 transactions, all the more readily that I had some idea of 
 them. But my specialty is dyeing." 
 
 "How dost thou say?" inquired Plavitski. 
 
 "Dyeing." 
 
 "The times are such now that one must take up any- 
 thing," said Plavitski, with dignity. "I am not the man 
 to take that ill of thee. If thou wilt only retain the 
 honorable old traditions of the family, no occupation 
 brings shame to a man." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, to whom the appearance of the young 
 lady had brought back his good nature, and who was 
 amused by the sudden "grandezza" of the old man, showed 
 his sound teeth in a smile, and answered, 
 
 "Praise God for that!" 
 
 Panna Plavitski smiled in like manner, and said, 
 "Emilia, who likes' you very much, wrote to me once 
 that you conduct your business perfectly." 
 
 "The only difficulty in this country is with Jews; still 
 competition is easy. And with Jews it is possible to 
 get on by abstaining from anti-Semitic manifestoes. As 
 to Pani Emilia, however, she knows as much about busi- 
 ness as does her little Litka." 
 
 " Yes ; she has never been practical. Had it not been 
 for her husband's brother, Pan Teofil Hvastovski, she 
 would have lost all she has. But Pan Teofil loves Litka 
 greatly." . 
 
 "Who doesn't love Litka? I, to begin with, am dying 
 about her. She is such a marvellous child, and such a 
 favorite; I tell you that I have a real weakness for her." 
 
 Panna Marynia looked attentively at his honest, viva- 
 cious face, and thought, "He must be a little whimsical, 
 but he has a good heart." 
 
 Plavitski remarked, meanwhile, that it was time for 
 Mass, and he began to take farewell of Marynia in such 
 fashion as if he were going on a journey of some mouths ; 
 then he made the sign of the cross on her head, and took 
 his hat. The young lady pressed Pan Stanislav's hand 
 with more life than at the morning greeting; he, when
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 15 
 
 sitting in the little equipage, repeated in his mind, "Oh, 
 she is very nice, very sympathetic." 
 
 Beyond the alley, by which Pan Stanislav had come the 
 night before, the equipage rolled over a road which was 
 beset here and there with old and decayed birches stand- 
 ing at unequal distances from one another. On one side 
 stretched a potato-field, on the other an enormous plain 
 of wheat, with heavy bent heads, which seemed to sleep 
 in the still air and in the full light of the sun. Before 
 the carriage, magpies and hoopoes flew among the birches. 
 Moving along paths through the yellow sea of wheat, and 
 hidden in it to their shoulders, went village maidens with 
 red kerchiefs on their heads, which resembled blooming 
 poppies. 
 
 "Good wheat," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "Not bad. What is in man's power is done, and what 
 God gives He gives. Thou art young, my dear, so I give 
 thee a precept, which in future will be of service to thee 
 more than once, ' Do always that which pertains to thee, 
 and leave the rest to the Lord God.' He knows best what 
 we need. The harvest will be good this year; I know 
 that beforehand, for when God is going to touch me with 
 anything, He sends a sign." 
 
 "What is it?" asked Pan Stanislav, with astonishment. 
 
 "Behind ray pipe-table I do not know whether thou 
 hast noted where it stands a mouse shows himself to me 
 a number of days in succession when any evil is coming." 
 
 "There must be a hole in the floor." 
 
 "There is no hole," said Plavitski, closing his eyes, and 
 shaking his head mysteriously. 
 
 "One might bring in a cat." 
 
 "I will not bring in a cat, for if it is the will of God 
 that that mouse should be a sign to me, or forewarning, I 
 shall not go against that will. Nothing has appeared to 
 me this year. I mentioned this to Marynia; maybe God 
 desires in some way to show that He is watching over our 
 family. Listen, my dear; people will say, I know, that 
 we are ruined, or at least in a very bad state. Here it is; 
 judge for thyself: Kremen and Skoki, Magyerovka and 
 Suhotsin, contain about two hundred and fifty vlokas of 
 land; on that there is a debt of thirty thousand rubles to 
 the society, not more, and about a hundred thousand mort- 
 gage, including thy sum. Therefore we have about a 
 hundred and thirty thousand. Let us estimate only three
 
 16 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 thousand rubles a vloka; that will make seven hundred 
 and h'fty thousand, altogether eight hundred and eighty 
 thousand " 
 
 "How is that?" asked Pan Stanislav, with astonish- 
 ment; "uncle is including the debt with the property." 
 
 " If the property were worth nothing, no one would give 
 me a copper for it, so I add the debt to the value of the 
 property." 
 
 Pan Stanislav thought, "He is a lunatic, with whom it 
 is useless to talk ; " and he listened further in silence. 
 
 "I intend to parcel out Magyerovka. The mill I will 
 sell; but in Skoki and Suhotsin I have marl, and knowest 
 thou at how much I have estimated it? At tjwo million 
 rubles." 
 
 " Has uncle a purchaser? " 
 
 "Two years ago a certain Shaum came and looked at the 
 fields. He went away, it is true, without speaking of the 
 business; but I am sure that he will come again, otherwise 
 the mouse would have appeared behind the pipe-table." 
 
 "Ha! let him come again." 
 
 "Knowest thou another thing that comes to my head? 
 Since thou art an ' affairist,' take up this business. Find 
 thyself partners, that is all." 
 
 "The business is too large for me." 
 
 "Then find me a purchaser; I will give ten per cent of 
 the proceeds." 
 
 " What (toes Panna Marynia think of this marl?" 
 
 "Marynia, how Marynia? She is a golden child, but 
 still a child ! She believes that Providence watches over 
 our family." 
 
 "I heard that from her yesterday." 
 
 Meanwhile they had drawn near Vantory and the church, 
 on a hill among linden-trees. Under the hill stood a 
 number of peasant- wagons with ladder-like boxes, and 
 some brichkas and carriages. Pan Plavitski made the 
 sign of the cross, and said, "This is our little church, 
 which thou must remember. All the Plavitskis lie here, 
 and I, too, shall be lying here soon. I never pray better 
 than in this place." 
 
 "There will be many people, I see," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "Gantovski's brichka, Zazimski's coach, Yamish's car- 
 riage, and a number of others are there. Thou must 
 remember the Yamishes. She is an uncommon woman; 
 he pretends to be a great agriculturist and a councillor,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 17 
 
 but he is an old dotard, who never did understand 
 her." 
 
 At that moment the bell began to sound in the church 
 tower. 
 
 "They have seen us, and are ringing the bell," said 
 Plavitski; "Mass will begin this moment. I will take 
 thee, after Mass, to the grave of my first wife; pray for 
 her, since she was thy aunt. She was an honest woman; 
 the Lord light her." 
 
 Here Flavitski raised his finger again to rub his right 
 eye. Pan Stauislav therefore asked, wishing to change 
 the conversation, 
 
 "But was not Pani Yamish once very beautiful? or is 
 this the same one?" 
 
 Plavitski's face gleamed suddenly. He thrust out for 
 one moment the end of his tongue from his blackened 
 little mustaches, and patting Pan Stanislav on the thigh, 
 said, 
 
 "She is worth a sin yet, she is, she is." 
 
 Meanwhile they drove in, and after walking around the 
 church, entered the sacristy at the side; not wishing to push 
 through the crowd, they sat on side seats near the altar. 
 Plavitski occupied the collator's place, in which were also 
 the Yamishes. Yamish was a man very old in appear- 
 ance, with an intelligent face, but weighed down; she was 
 a woman well toward sixty, dressed almost like Panna 
 Marynia, that is, in a muslin robe and a straw hat. The 
 bows, full of politeness, which Pan Plavitski made to her, 
 and the kind smiles with which she returned them, showed 
 that between those two reigned intimate relations founded 
 on mutual adoration. After a while the lady, raising her 
 glasses to her eyes, began to observe Pan Stanislav, not 
 understanding apparently who could have come with Pan 
 Plavitski. In the seat behind them one of the neighbors, 
 taking advantage of the fact that Mass had not begun yet, 
 was finishing some narrative about hunting, and repeated a 
 number of times to another neighbor, "My dogs, well- 
 then both stopped their conversation, and began to speak to 
 Plavitski and Pani Yamish so audibly that every word 
 reached the ears of Pan Stanislav. The priest came out 
 to the altar then. 
 
 At sight of the Mass and that little church. Pan Stanis- 
 lav's mem6ry went back to the years of his childhood, 
 when he was there with his mother. Wonder rose in him 
 
 2
 
 18 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 involuntarily when he thought how little anything changes 
 in the country, except people. Some are -placed away in 
 consecrated earth; others are born. But the new life puts 
 itself into the old forms; and to him who comes from afar, 
 after a long absence, all that he saw long ago seems of 
 yesterday. The church was the same; the nave was filled, 
 as of old, with flaxen -colored heads of peasants, gray coats, 
 red and yellow kerchiefs with flowers on the heads of the 
 maidens; it had precisely the same kind of odor of incense, 
 of sweet flag, and the exhalations of people. Outside one 
 of the windows grew the same birch-tree, whose slender 
 branches, thrown against the panes by the wind as it rose, 
 cast shade which gave a green tinge to light in the church. 
 But the people were not the same : some of the former 
 ones were crumbling quietly into dust, or had made their 
 way from beneath the earth in the form of grass; those 
 who were left yet were somehow bent, as if going under 
 ground gradually. Pan Stanislav, who plumed himself on 
 avoiding all generalizing theories, but who in reality had a 
 Slav head, which, as it were, had not emerged yet from 
 universal existence, occupied himself with them involun- 
 tarily; and all the time he was thinking that there is still 
 a terrible precipice between that passion for life innate in 
 people and the absoluteness of death. He thought, also, 
 that perhaps for this reason all systems of philosophy 
 vanish, like shadows; but Mass is celebrated, as of old, 
 because it alone promises further and unbroken continuity. 
 Beared abroad, he did not believe in it greatly ; at least, 
 he was not certain of it. He felt in himself, as do all 
 people of to-day, the very newest people, an irrestrainable 
 repugnance to materialism ; but from it he had not found 
 an escape yet, and, what is more, it seemed to him that 
 he was not seeking it. He was an unconscious pessimist, 
 like those who are looking for something which they can- 
 not find. He stunned himself with occupations to which 
 he was habituated ; and only in moments of great excess in 
 that pessimism did he ask himself, What is this all for ? 
 Of what use is it to gain property, labor, marry, beget 
 children, if everything ends in an abyss ? But that was 
 at times, and did not become a fixed principle. Youth 
 saved him from this, not the first youth, but also not a 
 youth nearing its end, a certain mental and physical 
 strength, the instinct of self-preservation, the habit of 
 work, vivacity of character, and finally that elemental
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 19 
 
 force, which pushes a man into the arms of a woman. And 
 now from the recollections of childhood, from thoughts 
 of death, from doubts as to the fitness of marriage, he 
 came to this special thought, that he had no one to whom 
 he could give what was best in him ; and then he came to 
 Panna Marynia Plavitski, whose muslin robe, covering a 
 young and shapely body, did not leave his eyes. He re- 
 membered that when he was leaving Warsaw, Pani Emilia, 
 a great friend of his and of Panna Marynia's, had said 
 laughingly, 
 
 " If you, after being in Kremeu, do not fall in love with 
 Marynia, I shall close my doors against you." He an- 
 swered her with great courage that he was going only to 
 squeeze out money, not to fall in love, but that was not 
 true. If Panna Plavitski had not been in Kremen, he 
 would surely have throttled Plavitski by letter, or by 
 legal methods. On the way he had been thinking of 
 Panna Marynia and of how she would look, and he was 
 angry because he was going for money, too. Having 
 talked into himself great decision in such matters, he de- 
 termined above all to obtain what belonged to him, and 
 was ready rather to go beyond the mark than not to reach 
 it. He promised this to himself, especially the first even- 
 ing, when Marynia, though she had pleased him well 
 enough, had not produced such a great impression as he 
 had expected, or rather hud produced a different one ; but 
 that morning she had taken his eye greatly. " She is like 
 the morning herself," thought he ; " she is nice and knows 
 that she is nice, women always know that." 
 
 This last discovery made him somewhat impatient, for 
 he wished to return as soon as possible to Kremen, to 
 observe the young woman further. In fact, Mass was over 
 soon. Plavitski went out immediately after the blessing, 
 for he had two duties before him, the first, to pray on the 
 graves of his two wives who were lying under the church ; 
 the second, to conduct Pani Yamish to her carriage. Since 
 he wished to neglect neither of these, he had to count with 
 time. Pan Stanislav went with him ; and soon they found 
 themselves before the stone slabs, erected side by side in 
 the church wall. Plavitski kneeled and prayed awhile 
 with attention ; then he rose, and wiping away a tear, 
 which was hanging really on his lids, took Pan Stan- 
 islav by the arm, and said, " Yes, I lost both ; still I must 
 live."
 
 20 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Meanwhile Pani Yamish appeared before the church door 
 in the company of her husband, of those two neighbors 
 who had spoken to her before Mass, and of young Gantovski. 
 At sight of her Pan Plavitski bent to Pan Stanislav's ear 
 and said, 
 
 "When she enters the carriage, take notice what a foot 
 she has yet." 
 
 After a while both joined the company ; bows and greet- 
 ings began. Pan Plavitski presented Pan Polanyetski ; then, 
 turning to Pani Yamish, he added, with the smile of a man 
 convinced that he says something which no common person 
 could have hit upon, 
 
 "My relative, who has come to embrace his uncle, and 
 squeeze him." 
 
 " We will permit only the first ; otherwise he will have 
 an affair with us," said the lady. 
 
 " But Kremen l is hard," continued Plavitski ; " he will 
 break his teeth on it, though he is young." 
 
 Pani Yamish half closed her eyes. " That ease," said 
 she, "with which you scatter sparks, c'est inoui! How is 
 your health to-day ? " 
 
 "At this moment I feel healthy and young." 
 
 " And Marynia ? " 
 
 " She was at early Mass. We wait for you both at five. 
 My little housekeeper is breaking her head over supper. A 
 beautiful day." 
 
 "We shall come if neiiralgia lets me, and my lord hus- 
 band is willing." 
 
 " How is it, neighbor ? " asked Plavitski. 
 
 " I am always glad to go," answered the neighbor, with 
 the voice of a crushed man. 
 
 " Then, an revoir." 
 
 " Au revoir" answered the lady; and turning to Pan 
 Stanislav, she reached her hand to him. " It was a pleas- 
 ure for me to make your acquaintance." 
 
 Plavitski gave his arm to the lady, and conducted her to 
 the carriage. The two neighbors went away also. Pan 
 Stanislav remained a while with Gantovski, who looked at 
 him without much good-will. Pan Stanislav remembered 
 him as an awkward boy ; from the " Little Bear," he had 
 grown to be a stalwart man, somewhat heavy perhaps in 
 his movements, but rather presentable, with a very shapely, 
 
 1 Kremen means flint in Polish.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 21 
 
 light-colored mustache. Pan Stanislav did not begin con- 
 versation, waiting till the other should speak first ; but he 
 thrust his hands into his pockets, and maintained a stubborn 
 silence. 
 
 " His former manners have remained with him," thought 
 Pan Stanislav, who felt now an aversion to that surly fellow. 
 
 Meanwhile Plavitski returned from Yamish's carriage. 
 
 "Hast taken notice ? " asked he of Pan Stanislav, first of 
 all. " Well, Gantos," said he then, " thou wilt go in thy 
 brichka, for in the carriage there are only two places." 
 
 " I will go in the brichka, for I am taking a dog to Panna 
 Marynia," answered the young man, who bowed and walked 
 off. 
 
 After a while Pan Plavitski and Pan Stanislav found 
 themselves on the road to Kremen. 
 
 "This Gantovski is uncle's relative, I suppose?" asked 
 Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " The tenth water after a jelly. They are very much 
 fallen. This Adolph has one little farm and emptiness in 
 his pocket." 
 
 " But in his heart there is surely no emptiness ?" 
 
 Pan Plavitski pouted. " So much the worse for him, if 
 he imagines anything. He may be good, but he is simple. 
 No breeding, no education, no property. Marynia likes 
 him, or rather she endures him." 
 
 " Ah, does she endure him ?" 
 
 " See thou how it is : I sacrifice myself for her and stay 
 in the country ; she sacrifices herself for me and stays in 
 the country. There is no one here ; Pani Yamish is con- 
 siderably older than Marynia; in general, there are no 
 young people ; life here is tedious : but what 's to be done ? 
 Remember, my boy, that life is a series of sacrifices. There 
 is need for thee to carry that principle in thy heart and thy 
 head. Those especially who belong to honorable and more 
 prominent families should not forget this. But Gantovski 
 is with us always on Sunday for dinner ; and to-day, as 
 thou hast heard, he is bringing a dog." 
 
 They dropped into silence, and drove along the sand 
 slowly. The magpies flew before them from birch to birch, 
 this time in the direction of Kremen. Behind Plavitski's 
 little carriage rode in his brichka Pan Gantovski, who, 
 thinking of Pan Stanislav, said to himself, 
 
 " If he comes as a creditor to squeeze them, I '11 break 
 his neck ; if he comes as a rival, I '11 break it too."
 
 22 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 From childhood, he had cherished hostile feelings toward 
 Polanyetski. In those days they met once in a while. 
 Polanyetski used to laugh at him ; and, being a couple 
 of years older, he even beat him. 
 
 Plavitski and his guest arrived at last, and. half an hour 
 later, all found themselves at table in the dining-room, with 
 Panna Marynia. The young dog, brought by Gantovski, 
 taking advantage of his privilege of guest, moved about 
 under the table, and sometimes got on the knees of those 
 present with great confidence and with delight, expressed 
 by wagging his tail. 
 
 " That is a Gordon setter," said Gantovski. " He is simple 
 yet; but those dogs are clever, and become wonderfully 
 attached." 
 
 " He is beautiful, and I am very grateful to you," answered 
 Marynia, looking at the shining black hair and the yellow 
 spots over the eyes of the dog. 
 
 "Too friendly," added Plavitski, covering his knees with 
 a napkin. 
 
 " In the field, too, they are better than common setters." 
 
 " Do you hunt ? " asked Pan Stanislav of the young 
 lady. 
 
 ''No; I have never had any desire to do so. And 
 you ? " 
 
 "Sometimes. But I live in the city." 
 
 "Art thou much in society ?" inquired Plavitski. 
 
 " Almost never. My visits are to Pani Emilia, my part- 
 ner Bigiel, and Vaskovski, my former professor, an oddity 
 now, those are all. Of course I go sometimes to people 
 with whom I have business." 
 
 "That is not well, my boy. A young man should have 
 ind preserve good social relations, especially when he has a 
 tight to them. If a man has to force his way, the question 
 is different ; but as Polanyetski, thou hast the right to go 
 anywhere. I have the same story, too, with Marynia. The 
 winter before last, when she had finished her eighteenth 
 year, I took her to Warsaw. Thou 'It understand that the 
 trip was not without cost, and that for me it required cer-, 
 tain sacrifices. Well, and what came of it ? She sat for 
 whole days with Pani Emilia, and they read books. She is 
 born a recluse, and will remain one. Thou and she might 
 join hands." 
 
 "Let us join hands !" cried Pan Stanislav, joyously. 
 
 "I cannot, with a clear conscience," answered Mary n in ;
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 23 
 
 " for it was not altogether as papa describes. I read books 
 with Emilia, it is true ; but I was much in society with 
 papa, and I danced enough for a lifetime." 
 
 " You have no fault to find ? " 
 
 " No ; but I am not yearning." 
 
 " Then you did not bring away memories, it seems ? " 
 
 " Evidently there remained with me only recollections, 
 which are something different." 
 
 "I do not understand the difference." 
 
 " Memory is a magazine, in which the past lies stored 
 away, and recollection appears when we go to the magazine 
 to take something." 
 
 Here Panna Marynia was alarmed somewhat at that 
 special daring with which she had allowed herself this 
 philosophical deduction as to the difference between mem- 
 ory and recollection ; therefore she blushed rather deeply. 
 
 "Not stupid, and pretty/'' thought Pan Stanislav; aloud 
 he said, "That would not have come to my head, and it is 
 so appropriate." 
 
 He surveyed her with eyes full of sympathy. She was 
 in fact very pretty ; for she was laughing, somewhat con- 
 fused by the praise, and also delighted sincerely with it. 
 She blushed still more when the daring young man 
 said, 
 
 " To-morrow, before parting, I shall beg for a place, 
 even in the magazine." 
 
 ]>ut he said this with such joyousness that it was impos- 
 sible to be angry with him ; and Marynia answered, not 
 without a certain coquetry, 
 
 "Very well; and I ask reciprocity." 
 
 " In such case, I should have to go so often to the maga- 
 zine that I might prefer straightway to live in it." 
 
 This seemed to Marynia somewhat too bold on such short 
 acquaintance ; but Plavitski broke in now and said, 
 
 "This Stanislav pleases me. I prefer him to Gantos, 
 who sits like a misanthrope." 
 
 " Because I can talk only of what may be taken in hand," 
 answered the young man, with a certain sadness. 
 
 " Then take your fork, and eat." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed. Marynia did not laugh : she 
 was sorry for Gantovski ; therefore she turned the conversa- 
 tion to things which were tangible. 
 
 " She is either a coquette, or has a good heart," thought 
 Pan Stanislav again.
 
 24 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But Pan Plavitski, who recalled evidently his last winter 
 visit in Warsaw, continued, " Tell me, Stas, dost thou 
 know Bukatski ? " 
 
 "Of course. By the way, he is a nearer relative to me 
 than to uncle." 
 
 " We are related to the whole world, to the whole world 
 literally. Bukatski was Marynia's most devoted dancer. 
 He danced with her at all the parties." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to laugh again : " And for all his 
 reward he went to the magazine, to the dust-bin. But at 
 least it is not necessary to dust him, for he is as careful 
 of his person as uncle, for instance. He is the greatest 
 dandy in Warsaw. What does he do ? He is manager of 
 fresh air, which means that when there is fair weather 
 he walks out or rides. Besides, he is an original, who has 
 peculiar little closets in his brain. He observes various 
 things of such kind as no other would notice. Once, after 
 his return from Venice, I met him and asked what he had 
 seen there. ' I saw,' said he, l while on the Riva del 
 Schiavoni, half an egg-shell and half a lemon-rind floating : 
 they met, they struck, they were driven apart, they came 
 together ; at last, paf ! the half lemon fell into the half egg- 
 shell, and away they went sailing together. In this see the 
 meaning of harmony.' Such is Bukatski's occupation, 
 though he knows much, and in art, for instance, he is an 
 authority." 
 
 " But they say that he is very capable." 
 
 " Perhaps he is, but capable of nothing. He eats bread, 
 and that is the end of his service. If at least he were 
 joyous, but at bottom he is melancholy. I forgot to say 
 that besides he is in love with Pani Emilia." 
 
 "Does Emilia receive many people ? " inquired Marynia. 
 
 "No. Vaskovski, Bukatski, and Mashko, an advocate, 
 the man who buys and sells estates, are her only visitors. 
 
 " Of course she cannot receive many people ; she has to 
 give much time to Litka." 
 
 " Dear little girl," said Pan Stanislav, " may God grant at 
 least that Reichenhall may help her." 
 
 And his joyous countenance was covered in one moment 
 with genuine sadness. Marynia looked at him with eyes 
 full of sympathy, and in her turn thought a second time, 
 " Still he must be kind really." 
 
 But Plavitski began to talk as if to himself. " Mashko, 
 Mashko he too was circling about Marynia. But she
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 25 
 
 did not like him. As to estates, the price now is such that 
 God pity us." 
 
 " Mashko is the man who declares that under such con- 
 ditions it is well to buy them." 
 
 Dinner came to an end, and they passed into the drawing- 
 room for coffee ; while at coffee Pan Plavitski, as his wont 
 was in moments of good-humor, began to make a butt of 
 Gantovski. The young man endured patiently, out of regard 
 for Marynia, but with a mien that seemed to say, " Ei ! but 
 for her, I would shake all the bones out of thee." After 
 coffee Marynia sat down at the piano, while her father was 
 occupied with patience. She played not particularly well, 
 but her clear and calm face was outlined pleasantly over 
 the music-board. About five Pan Plavitski looked at the 
 clock and said, 
 
 " The Yamishes are not coming." 
 
 ''They will come yet," answered Marynia. 
 
 But from that moment on he looked continually at the 
 clock, and announced every moment that the Yamishes 
 would not come. At last, about six, he said with a sepul- 
 chral voice, 
 
 " Some misfortune must have happened." 
 
 Pan Stanislav at that moment was near Marynia, who in 
 an undertone said, 
 
 " Here is a trouble ! Nothing has happened, of course ; 
 but papa will be in bad humor till supper." 
 
 At first Pan Stanislav wished to answer that to make 
 up he would be in good-humor to-morrow after sleeping; 
 but, seeing genuine anxiety on the young lady's face, he 
 answered, 
 
 "As I remember, it is not very far ; send some one to 
 inquire what has happened." 
 
 " Why not send some one over there, papa ? " 
 
 But he answered with vexation, " Too much kindness ; I 
 will go myself ; " and ringing for a servant, he ordered the 
 horses, then stopping for a moment he said, 
 
 " JSnftn, anything may happen in the country ; some per- 
 son might come and find my daughter alone. This is not 
 a city. Besides, you are relatives. Thou, Gantovski, may 
 be necessary for me, so have the kindness to come with 
 me." 
 
 An expression of the greatest unwillingness and dissatis- 
 faction was evident on the young man's face. He stretched 
 his hand to his yellow hair and said,
 
 26 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Drawn up at the pond is a boat, which the gardener 
 could not launch. I promised Panna Marynia to launch it ; 
 but last Sunday she would not let ine, for rain was pouring, 
 as if from a bucket." 
 
 " Then run and try. It is thirty yards to the pond ; thou 
 wilt be back in two minutes." 
 
 Gautovski went to the garden in spite of himself. Pla- 
 vitski, without noticing his daughter or Pan Stanislav, re- 
 peated as he walked through the room, 
 
 " Neuralgia in the head ; I would bet that it is neuralgia 
 in the head ; Gantovski in case of need could gallop for the 
 doctor. That old mope, that councillor without a council, 
 would not send for him surely." And needing evidently to 
 pour out his ill humor on some one, he added, turning 
 to Pan Staiiislav, " Thou 'It not believe what a booby that 
 man is." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " Yamish." 
 
 " But, papa ! " interrupted Marynia. 
 
 Plavitski did not let her finish, however, and said with 
 increasing ill humor, " It does not please thee, I know, 
 that she shows me a little friendship and attention. Read 
 Pan Yamish's articles on agriculture, do him homage, raise 
 statues to him ; but let me have my sympathies." 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav might admire the real sweetness of 
 Marynia, who, instead of being impatient, ran to her father, 
 and putting her forehead under his blackened mustaches, 
 said, 
 
 "They will bring the horses right away, right away, 
 right away ! Maybe I ought to go ; but let ugly father not 
 be angry, for he will hurt himself." 
 
 Plavitski, who was really much attached to his daughter, 
 kissed her on the forehead and said, " I know thou hast a 
 good heart. But what is Gantovski doing ? " 
 
 And he called through the open gate of the garden 
 to the young man, who returned soon, wearied out, and 
 said, 
 
 " There is water in the boat, and it is drawn up too far ; 
 I have tried, and I cannot " 
 
 " Then take thy cap and let 's be off, for I hear the horses 
 have come." 
 
 A moment later the young people were alone. 
 
 " Papa is accustomed to society a little more elegant than 
 that in the country," said Marynia; "therefore he likes
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 27 
 
 Pani Yaraish, but Pan Yamish is a very honorable and 
 sensible man." 
 
 " I saw him in the church ; to me he seemed as if 
 crushed." 
 
 " Yes ; for he is sickly, and besides has much care." 
 
 " Like you.'' 
 
 " No, Pan Yamish manages his work perfectly ; besides, 
 he writes much on agriculture. He is really the light of 
 these parts. Such a worthy man ! She too is a good 
 woman, only to me she seems rather pretentious." 
 
 " An ex-beauty." 
 
 "Yes. And this unbroken country life, through which 
 she has become rather rusty, increases her oddness. I 
 think that in cities oddities of character and their ridicu- 
 lous sides efface one another ; but in the country, people 
 turn into originals more easily, they grow disused to society 
 gradually, a certain old-fashioned way is preserved in inter- 
 course, and it goes to excess. .We must all seem rusty to 
 people from great cities, and somewhat ridiculous." 
 
 " Not all," answered Pan Stanislav; "you, for example." 
 
 " It will come to me in time," answered Marynia, witli a 
 smile. 
 
 " Time may bring changes too." 
 
 " With us there is so little change, and that most fre- 
 quently for the worse." 
 
 "But in the lives of young ladies in general changes are 
 expected." 
 
 " I should wish first that papa and I might come to an 
 agreement about Kremen." 
 
 " Then your father and Kremen are the main, the only 
 objects in life for you ? " 
 
 " True. But I can help little, since I know little of any- 
 thing." 
 
 " Your father, Kremen, and nothing more," repeated Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 A moment of silence came, after which Marynia asked 
 Pan Stanislav if he would go to the garden. They went, 
 and soon found themselves at the edge of the pond. Pan 
 Stanislav, who, while abroad, had been a member of various 
 sporting clubs, pushed to the water's edge the boat, which 
 Gantovski could not manage; but it turned out that the 
 boat was leaky, and that they could not row in it. 
 
 "This is a case of my management," said Marynia, 
 laughing; "there is a leak everywhere. And I know not
 
 28 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 how to find an excuse, since the pond and the garden 
 belong to nie only. But before it is launched I will have 
 the boat mended." 
 
 " As I live, it is the same boat in which I was forbidden 
 to sail when a boy." 
 
 " Quite possibly. Have you not noticed that things 
 change less by far, and last longer than people? At times 
 it is sad to think of this." 
 
 " Let us hope to last longer than this moss-covered boat, 
 which is as water-soaked as a sponge. If this is the boat 
 of my childhood, I have no luck with it. In old times I 
 was not permitted to sail in it, and now I have hurt my 
 hand with some rusty nail." 
 
 Saying this, he drew out his handkerchief and began to 
 wind it around a finger of his right hand, with his left 
 hand, but so awkwardly that Marynia said, 
 
 " You cannot manage it ; you need help ; " and she began to 
 bind up his hand, which he twisted a little so as to increase 
 the difficulty of her task, since it was pleasant for him to 
 feel her delicate fingers touching his. She saw that he was 
 hindering her, and glanced at him ; but the moment their 
 eyes met, she understood the reason, and, blushing, bent 
 down as if tying more carefully. Pan Stanislav felt her 
 near him, he felt the warmth coming from her, and his 
 heart beat more quickly. 
 
 " I have wonderfully pleasant memories," said he, " of 
 my former vacations here ; but this time I shall take away 
 still pleasanter ones. You are very kind, and besides ex- 
 actly like some flower in this Kremen. On my word, I do 
 not exaggerate." 
 
 Marynia understood that the young man said that 
 sincerely, a little too daringly perhaps, but more through 
 innate vivacity than because they were alone ; she was not 
 offended, therefore, but she began to make playful threats 
 with her pleasant low voice, 
 
 " I beg you not to say pretty things to me ; if you do, I 
 shall bind your hand badly, and then run away." 
 
 " You may bind the hand badly, but stay. The evening 
 is so beautiful." 
 
 Marynia finished her work with the handkerchief, and 
 they walked farther. The evening was really beautiful. 
 The sun was setting; the pond, not wrinkled with a breath 
 of wind, shone like fire and gold. In the distance, beyond 
 the water, the alders were dozing quietly ; the nearer trees
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 29 
 
 were outlined with wonderful distinctness in the ruddy air. 
 In the yard beyond the house, storks were chattering. 
 
 " Kremen is charming, very charming ! " said Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 " Very," answered Marynia. 
 
 " I understand your attachment to this place. Besides, 
 when one puts labor into anything, one is attached to it 
 still more. I understand too that in the country it is possible 
 to have pleasant moments like this ; but, besides, it is 
 agreeable here. In the city weariness seizes men some- 
 times, especially those who, like me, are plunged to their 
 ears in accounts, and who, besides, are alone. Pan Bigiel, 
 my partner, has a wife, he has children, that is pleasant. 
 But how is it with me ? I say to myself often : I am at 
 work, but what do I get for it ? Grant that I shall have a 
 little money, but what then ? nothing. To-morrow ever 
 the same as to-day : Work and work. You know, Panna 
 Plavitski, when a man devotes himself to something, when 
 he moves with the impetus of making money, for example, 
 money seems to him an object. But moments come in 
 which I think that Vaskovski, my original, is right, and 
 that no one whose name ends in ski or vich can ever put his 
 whole soul into such an object and rest in it exclusively. 
 He declares that there is in us yet the fresh memory 
 of a previous existence, and that in general the Slavs 
 have a separate mission. He is a great original, a philoso- 
 pher, and a mystic. I argue with him, and make money 
 as I can ; but now, for example, when I am walking with 
 you in this garden, it seems to me in truth that he is 
 right." 
 
 For a time they walked on without speaking. The light 
 became ruddier every instant, and their faces were sunk, as 
 it were, in that gleam. Friendly, reciprocal feelings rose 
 in them each moment. They felt pleasant and calm in each 
 other's society. Of this Pan Stanislav was sensible seem- 
 ingly, for, after a while, he remarked, 
 
 " That is true, too, which Pani Emilia told me. She said 
 that one has more confidence, and feels nearer to you in an 
 hour than to another in a month. I have verified this. It 
 seems to me that I have known you for a long time. I 
 think that only persons unusually kind can produce this 
 impression." 
 
 ''Emilia loves me much," answered Marynia, with sim- 
 plicity ; " that is why she praises me. Even if what she
 
 30 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 says were true, I will add that I have not the power to be 
 such with all persons." 
 
 " You made on me, yesterday, another impression, indeed ; 
 but you were tired then and drowsy." 
 
 " I was, in some degree." 
 
 "And why did you not go to bed ? The servants might 
 have made tea for me, or I might have done without it." 
 
 " No ; we are not so inhospitable as that. Papa said that 
 one of us should receive you. I was afraid that he would 
 wait himself for you, and that would have injured him ; so 
 I preferred to take his place." 
 
 " In that regard thou mightst have been at ease," thought 
 Pan Stanislav ; " but thou art an honest maiden to defend 
 the old egotist." Then he said, "I beg your pardon for 
 having begun to speak of business at once. That is a mer- 
 cantile habit. But I reproached mj'self afterward. ' Thou 
 art this and that kind of man,' thought I ; and with shame 
 do I beg your pardon." 
 
 " There is no cause for pardon, since there is no fault. 
 They told }~ou that I occupy myself with everything; hence 
 you turned to me." 
 
 Twilight spread more deeply by degrees. After a certain 
 time they returned to the house, and, as the evening was 
 beautiful, they sat down on the garden veranda. Pan 
 Stanislav entered the drawing-room for a moment, returned 
 with a footstool, and, bending down, pushed it under Ma- 
 rynia's feet. 
 
 " I thank you, I thank you much," said she, inclining, 
 and taking her skirt with her hand ; " how kind of you ! I 
 thank you much." 
 
 "I am inattentive by nature," said he; "but do you 
 know who taught me a little carefulness ? Litka. There 
 is need of care with her ; and Pani Emilia has to remember 
 this." 
 
 "She remembers it," answered Marynia, "and we will 
 all help her. If she had not gone to Reichenhall, I should 
 have invited her here." 
 
 "And I should have followed Litka without invitation." 
 
 " Then I beg you in papa's name, once and for all." 
 
 "Do not say that lightly, for I am ready to abuse jour 
 kindness. For me it is very pleasant here ; and as often as 
 I feel out of sorts in Warsaw, I '11 take refuge in Kremen." 
 
 Pan Stanislav knew this time that his words were in- 
 tended to bring them nearer, to establish sympathy betweew
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 31 
 
 them ; and he spoke with design, and sincerely. While 
 speaking, he looked on that mild young face, which, in the 
 light of the setting sun, seemed calmer than usual. Marynia 
 raised to him her blue eyes, in which was the question, 
 " Art speaking by chance, or of purpose ? " and she an- 
 swered in a somewhat lower voice, 
 
 "Do so." 
 
 And both were silent, feeling that really a connection 
 between them was beginning. 
 
 " I am astonished that papa is not returning," said she, at 
 last. 
 
 The sun had gone down ; in the ruddy gloaming, an owl 
 had begun to circle about iu slow flight, and frogs were 
 croaking in the pond. 
 
 Pan Stanislav made no answer to the young lady's re- 
 mark, but said, as if sunk in his own thoughts : " I do not 
 analyze life ; I have no time. When I enjoy myself, as at 
 this moment, for instance, I feel that I enjoy myself ; when 
 I suffer, I suffer, that is all. But five or six years ago it 
 was different. A whole' party of us used to meet for dis- 
 cussions on the meaning of life, a number of scholars, and 
 one writer, rather well known in Belgium at present. We 
 put to ourselves these questions : Whither are we going ? 
 What sense has everything, what value, what end ? We 
 read the pessimists, and lost ourselves in various baseless 
 inquiries, like one of my acquaintances, an assistant in the 
 chair of astronomy, who, when he began to lose himself in 
 interplanetary spaces, lost his reason ; and, after that, it 
 seemed to him that his head was moving in a parabola 
 through infinity. Afterward he recovered, and became a 
 priest. We, in like manner, could come to nothing, rest on 
 nothing, just like birds flying over the sea without a 
 place to light on. But at last I saw two things : first, that 
 my Belgians were taking all this to heart less than I, we are 
 more nai've ; second, that my desire for labor would be 
 injured, and that I should become an incompetent. I 
 seized myself, then, by the ears, and began to color cottons 
 with all my might. After that, I said in my mind : Life is 
 among the rights of nature ; whether wise or foolish, never 
 mind, it is a right. We must live, then ; hence it is neces- 
 sary to get from life what is possible. And I wish to get 
 something. Vaskovski says, it is true, that we Slavs are 
 not able to stop there ; but that is mere talk. That we 
 cannot be satisfied with money alone, we will admit. But
 
 32 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 I said to myself, besides money there are two things : peace 
 and do you know what, Panna Plavitski ? woman. 
 For a man should have some one with whom to share what 
 he has. Later, there must be death. Granted. But where 
 death begins, man's wit ends. ' That is not my business,' 
 as the English say. Meanwhile, it is needful to have some 
 one to whom a man can give that which he has or acquires, 
 whether money or service or fame. If they are diamonds 
 on the moon, it is all the same, for there is no one to learn 
 what their value is. So a man must have some one to know 
 him. And I think to myself, who will know me, if not a 
 woman, if she is only wonderfully good and wonderfully 
 reliable, greatly mine and greatly beloved ? This is all that 
 it is possible to desire ; for from this comes repose, and 
 repose is the one thing that has sense. I say this, not as a 
 poet, but as a practical man and a merchant. To have near 
 me a dear one, that is an object. And let come then what 
 may. Here you have my philosophy." 
 
 Pan Stauislav insisted that he was speaking like a mer- 
 chant; but he spoke like a dreamer; for that summer even- 
 ing had acted on him, as had also the presence of that 
 youthful woman, who in so many regards answered to the 
 views announced a moment earlier. This must have come 
 to Pan Stanislav's head, for, turning directly to her, he 
 said, 
 
 " This is my thought, but I do not talk of it before people 
 usually. I was brought to this somehow to-day; for I 
 repeat that Pani Emilia is right. She says that one 
 becomes more intimate with you in a day than with others 
 in a year. You must be fabulously kind. I should have 
 committed a folly if I had not came to Kremen ; and I 
 shall come as often as you permit me." 
 
 " Come, often." 
 
 "I thank you." He extended his hand, and Maryuia 
 gave him hers, as if in sign of agreement. 
 
 Oh, how he pleased her with his sincere, manly face, with 
 his dark hair, and a certain vigor in his whole bearing and 
 in his animated eyes ! He brought, besides, so many of 
 those inspirations which were lacking in Kremen, certain 
 new horizons, running out far beyond the pond and the 
 alders which hemmed in the horizon at Kremen. They had 
 opened in one day as many roads as it was possible to open. 
 They sat again a certain time in silence, and their minds 
 wandered on farther in silence as hastily as they had during
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 33 
 
 speech. Marynia pointed at last to the light, which was in- 
 creasing behind the alders, and said, " The moon." 
 
 " Aha ! the moon," repeated Pan Stanislav. 
 
 The moon was, in fact, rising slowly from behind the 
 alders, ruddy, and as large as a wheel. Now the dogs 
 began to bark ; a carriage rattled on the other side of the 
 house ; and, after a while, Plavitski appeared in the draw- 
 ing-room, into which lamps had been brought. Marynia 
 went in, Pan Stanislav following. 
 
 "Nothing was the matter," said Plavitski. " Pani Hro- 
 metski called. Thinking that she would go soon, they did 
 not let us know. Yamish is a trifle ill, but is going to 
 Warsaw in the morning. She promised to come to-morrow." 
 
 " Then is all well ? " asked Marynia. 
 
 " Well ; but what have you been doing here ? " 
 
 "Listening to the frogs," answered Pan Stanislav; "and 
 it was pleasant." 
 
 "The Lord God knows why He made frogs. Though 
 they don't let me sleep at night, I make no complaint. 
 But, Marynia, let the tea be brought." 
 
 Tea was waiting already in another room. While they 
 were drinking it, Plavitski described his visit at the Ta- 
 rnishes. The young people were silent ; but from time 
 to time they looked at each other with eyes full of light, 
 and at parting they pressed each other's hands very 
 warmly. Marynia felt a certain heaviness seizing her, as 
 if that day had wearied her; but it was a wonderful and 
 pleasant kind of weariness. Afterward, when her head was 
 resting on the pillow, she did not think that the day follow- 
 ing would be Monday, that a new week of common toil 
 would begin ; she thought only of Pan Stanislav, and his 
 words were sounding in her ears : " Who will know me, 
 if not a woman, if she is only wonderfully good and wonder- 
 fully reliable, greatly mine and greatly beloved ? " 
 Pan Stanislav, on his part, was saying to himself, while 
 lighting a cigarette in bed, "She is kind and shapely, 
 charming; where is there such another?"
 
 34 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BUT the following day was a gray one, and Fauna Pla- 
 vitski woke with reproaches. It seemed to her that, the 
 day before, she had let herself be borne away on some cur- 
 rent farther than was proper, and that she had been simply 
 coquetting with Pan Stanislav. She was penetrated with 
 special dissatisfaction, for this reason principally: that 
 Pan Stanislav had only come as a creditor. She had for- 
 gotten that yesterday; but to-day she said to herself, 
 " Undoubtedly it will come to his head that I wanted to 
 win him, or to soften him ; " and at this thought the blood 
 flowed to her cheeks and her forehead. She had an honest 
 nature and much ambition, which revolted at every idea 
 that she might be suspected of calculation. Believing now 
 in the possibility of such a suspicion, she felt in advance 
 as if offended by Pan Stanislav. Withal, there was one 
 thought which was bitter beyond every expression : she 
 knew that, as a rule, a copper could not overtake a copper 
 in the treasury of Kremen ; that there was no money ; and 
 that if, in view of the proposed parcelling of Magyerovka, 
 there were hopes of having some in future, her father 
 would make evasions, for he- considered other debts more 
 urgent than Pan Stanislav's. She promised herself, it is 
 true, to do all in her power to see him paid absolutely, and 
 before others ; but she knew that she was not able to effect 
 much. Her father assisted her willingly in management; 
 but in money matters he had his own way; and it was 
 rarely that he regarded her opinion. His role consisted 
 really in evading everything by all means, by promises 
 never kept, by delays, by presenting imaginary calcula- 
 tions and hopes, instead of reality. As the collection of 
 debts secured by mortgage on land is difficult and tedious, 
 and defence may be kept up almost as long as one wishes, 
 Plavitski held on to Kremen, thanks to his system. In the 
 end, all this threatened ruin inexorable, as well as com- 
 plete; but, meanwhile, the old man considered himself "the 
 head of affairs," and listened the more unwillingly to the 
 opinions and coiinsels of his daughter, since he suspected
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 35 
 
 at once that she doubted his "head." This offended his 
 self-esteem to the utmost. Marynia had passed, because of 
 this "head" and its methods, through more than one hu- 
 miliation. Her country life was only an apparent ideal of 
 work and household occupations. There was wanting to it 
 neither bitterness nor pain ; and her calm countenance indi- 
 cated, not only the sweetness of her character, but its 
 strength, and a great education of spirit. The humiliation 
 which threatened her this time, however, seemed harder to 
 bear than the others. 
 
 "At least, let him not suspect me," said she to herself. 
 But how could she prevent his suspicion ? Her first 
 thought was to see Pan Stanislav before he met her father, 
 and describe the whole state of affairs to him ; treat him 
 as a man in whom she had confidence. It occurred to her 
 then that such a description would be merely a prayer for 
 forbearance, for compassion ; and hence a humiliation. Were 
 it not for this thought, Marynia would have sent for him. 
 She, as a woman noting keenly every quiver of her own 
 heart and the hearts of others, felt half consciously, half 
 instinctively, that between her and that young man some- 
 thing was foreshadowed ; that something had begun, as iit 
 were ; and, above all, that something might and must be 
 inevitable in the future, if she chose that it should be ; but, 
 as affairs stood, it did not seem to her that she could choose. 
 Only one thing remained, to see Pan Stanislav. and efface 
 by her demeanor yesterday's impressions; to break the 
 threads which had been fastened between them, and to 
 give him full freedom of action. Such a method seemed 
 best to her. 
 
 Learning from the servants that Pan Stanislav not only 
 had risen, but had drunk tea and gone out to the road, she 
 decided to find him. This was not difficult, since he had 
 returned from his morning walk, and, standing at the side 
 wall of the entrance, which was grown over with wild grape- 
 vines, was talking with those two dogs which had fawned 
 on him so effusively at his arrival. He did not see her at 
 once; and Marynia, standing on the steps, heard him 
 saying to the dogs, 
 
 " These big dogs take pay for watching the house ? They 
 eat? They don't bark at strangers, but fawn on them. 
 Ei ! stupid dogs, lazy fellows ! " 
 
 And he patted their white heads. Then, seeing her 
 through the openings of the grape-vines, he sprang up as
 
 36 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 quickly as if thrown from a sling, and stood before her, glad 
 and bright-faced. 
 
 "Good-morning. I have been talking with the dogs- 
 How did you rest ? " 
 
 " Thank you." And she extended her hand to him 
 coldly ; but he was looking at her with eyes in which was 
 to be seen most clearly how great and deep a pleasure the 
 sight of her caused him. And he pleased poor Marynia not 
 less; he simply pleased her whole soul. Her heart was 
 oppressed with regret that she had to answer his cordial 
 good-morning so ceremoniously and coldly. 
 
 " Perhaps yon were going out to look after affairs ? In 
 that case, if you permit, I will go with you. I must return 
 to the city to-day ; hence one moment more in your com- 
 pany will be agreeable. God knows if I could I would 
 remain longer. But now I know the road to Kremen." 
 
 "We beg you to come, whenever time may permit." 
 
 Pan Stanislav noticed now the coolness of her words, of 
 her face ; and began to look at her with astonishment. 
 But if Marynia thought that he would do as people do 
 usually, accommodate himself to her tone readily and in 
 silence, she was mistaken. Pan Stanislav was too viva- 
 cious and daring not to seek at once for the cause ; so, 
 looking her steadfastly in the eye, he said, 
 
 " Something is troubling you." 
 
 Marynia was confused. 
 
 "You are mistaken," replied she. 
 
 "I see. well; and you know that I am not mistaken. 
 You act toward me as you did the first evening. But then 
 I made a blunder : I began to speak of money at a wrong 
 time. Yesterday I begged your pardon, and it was pleas- 
 ant, how pleasant ! To-day, again, it is different. Tell 
 me why ! " 
 
 Not the most adroit diplomacy could have beaten Ma- 
 rynia from her path. It seemed to her that she could chill 
 him and keep him at a distance by this demeanor ; but he, 
 by inquiring so directly, rather brought himself nearer, and 
 he continued to speak in the tone of a man on whom an 
 injustice had been wrought : 
 
 " Tell me what is the matter ; tell me ! Your father said 
 I was to be a guest yesterday, and a creditor to-day. But 
 that is fol that is nothing ! I do not understand such 
 distinctions; and I shall never be your creditor, rather 
 your debtor. For I am already indebted to you, and grate-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 37 
 
 ful for yesterday's kindness ; and God knows how much I 
 wish to be indebted to you always." 
 
 He looked into her eyes again, observing carefully 
 whether there would not appear in them yesterday's smile ; 
 but Marynia, whose heart was oppressed more and more, 
 went on by the way which she had chosen : first, because 
 she had chosen it; and second, lest by acknowledging that 
 to-day she was different, she might be forced to explain 
 why she was so. 
 
 "I assure you," said she, at last, with a certain effort, 
 " that either you were mistaken yesterday, or you are mis- 
 taken to-day. I am always the same, and it will always be 
 agreeable to me if you bear away pleasant memories." 
 
 The words were polite, but uttered by a young woman so 
 unlike her of yesterday that on Pan Stanislav's face 
 impatience and anger began to appear. 
 
 " If it is important for you that I should feign to believe 
 this, let it be as you wish. I shall go away, however, with 
 the conviction that in the country Monday is very different 
 from Sunday." 
 
 These words touched Marynia ; for from them it seemed 
 as if Pan Stanislav had assumed certain rights by reason of 
 her conduct with him yesterday. But she answered rather 
 with sadness than with anger, 
 
 " How can I help that ? " 
 
 And after a while she went away, saying that she had to 
 go and wish good-day to her father. Pan Stanislav remained 
 alone. He drove away the dogs, which had tried to fawn 
 on him anew, and began to be angry. 
 
 "What does this mean ? " asked he in his mind. "Yes- 
 terday, kind ; to-day, surly, altogether a different woman. 
 How stupid all this is, and useless ! Yesterday, a relative ; 
 to-day, a creditor ! What is that to her ? Why does she 
 treat me like a dog ? Have I i-obbed any one ? She knew 
 yesterday, too, why I came. Very well ! If you want^ to 
 have me as a creditor not Polanyetski all right. May 
 thunderbolts crush the whole business ! " 
 
 Meanwhile Marynia ran into her father's chamber. Pla- 
 vitski had risen, and was sitting, attired in his dressing- 
 gown, before a desk covered with papers. For a while he 
 turned to answer the good-day of his daughter, then occu- 
 pied himself again with reading the papers. 
 
 "Papa," said Marynia, "I have come to speak of Pan 
 Stanislav. Does papa "
 
 38 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But he interrupted her without ceasing to look at the 
 papers, 
 
 "I will bend thy Pan Stanislav in my hand like wax." 
 
 "I doubt if that will be easy. Finally, I should wish 
 that he were paid before others, even with the greatest loss 
 to us." 
 
 Plavitski, turning from the desk, gazed at her, and asked 
 coolly, 
 
 " Is this, I pray, a guardianship over him, or over me ? " 
 
 " It is a question of our honor." 
 
 " In which, as thou thinkest, I need thy assistance ? " 
 
 " No, papa ; but " 
 
 "What pathetic day has come on us? What is the 
 matter with thee ? " 
 
 " I merely beg, papa, by all " 
 
 "And I beg thee also to leave me. Thou hast set me 
 aside from the land management. I yielded ; for, during 
 the couple of years that remain to me in life, I have no 
 wish to be quarrelling with my own child. But leave me 
 even this corner in the house, even this one room, and 
 permit me to transact such affairs as it is possible to 
 transact here." 
 
 " Dear papa, I only beg " 
 
 " That I should move out into a cottage, which, for the 
 fourth time, thou art choosing for me ? " 
 
 Evidently the old man, in speaking of the "pathetic 
 day," wished merely that no one should divide this mo- 
 nopoly with him. He rose now, in his Persian dressing- 
 gown, like King Lear, and grasped at the arm of his chair ; 
 thus giving his heartless daughter to understand that, if he 
 had not done this, he should have fallen his whole length 
 on the floor, stricken down by her cruelty. But tears came 
 to her eyes, and a bitter feeling of her own helplessness 
 flowed to her heart. For a while she stood in silence, 
 struggling with sorrow and a wish to cry ; then she said 
 quietly, "I beg pardon of papa," and went out of the 
 room. 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, Pan Stanislav entered, at the 
 request of Plavitski, but ill-humored, irritated through 
 striving to master himself. 
 
 Plavitski, after he had greeted his visitor, seated him at 
 his side in an armchair prepared previously, and, putting 
 his palm on the young man's knee, said, 
 
 " Stas, but thou wilt not burn this house ? Thou wilt not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 39 
 
 kill me, who opened my arms to thee as a relative ; thou 
 wilt not make iny child an orphan ? " 
 
 "No," answered Pan Stanislav; "I will not burn the 
 house, I will not cut uncle's throat, and I will not make any 
 child an orphan. I beg uncle not to talk in this manner, 
 for it leads to nothing, and to me it is unendurable." 
 
 "Very well," said Plavitski, somewhat offended, however, 
 that his style and manner of expression had found such 
 slight recognition ; " but remember that thou didst come 
 to me and to this house when thou wert still a child." 
 
 " I came because my mother came ; and my mother, 
 after the death of Aunt Helen, came because uncle did not 
 pay interest. All this is neither here nor there. The money 
 rests on a mortgage of twenty-one years. With the unpaid 
 interest, it amounts to about twenty-four thousand rubles. 
 For the sake of round numbers, let it be twenty thousand ; 
 but I must have those twenty, since I came for them." 
 
 Plavitski inclined his head with resignation. " Thou 
 didst come for that. True. But why wert thou so dif- 
 ferent yesterday, Stas ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who half an hour earlier had put that 
 same question to Marynia, just sprang up in his chair, but 
 restrained himself and said, 
 
 " I beg you to come to business." 
 
 " I do not draw back before business ; only permit me to 
 say a couple of words first, and do not interrupt me. Thou 
 hast said that I have not paid the interest. True. But 
 knowest thou why ? Thy mother did not give me all her 
 property, and could not without permission of a family coun- 
 cil. Perhaps it was worse for you that the permission was 
 not given, but never mind. When I took those few thousand 
 rubles, I said to myself: The woman is alone in the world 
 with one child ; it is unknown how she will manage, un- 
 known what may happen. Let the money which she has 
 with me be her iron foundation ; let it increase, so that 
 at a given moment she may have something for her hands 
 to seize hold on. And since then I have been in some 
 fashion thy savings bank. Thy mother gave me twelve 
 thousand rubles ; to-day thou hast in my hands almost 
 twenty-four thousand. That is the result. And wilt thou 
 repay me now with ingratitude ? " 
 
 " Beloved uncle," answered Pan Stanislav, " do not take 
 me, I pray, for a greater dunce than I am, nor for a mad- 
 man. I say simply that I am not caught with such chaff; it
 
 40 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 is too coarse. Uncle says that I have twenty-four thou- 
 sand rubles ; where are they ? I am asking for them, with- 
 out talk, and moreover such talk." 
 
 " But be patient, I pray thee, and restrain thyself, even 
 for this reason, that I am older," answered Plavitski, of' 
 fended and with dignity. 
 
 " I have a partner, who in a month will contribute 
 twelve thousand rubles to a certain business. I must pay 
 the same amount. I say clearly and declare that, after 
 two years of annoyance with letters, I cannot and will 
 not endure any longer." 
 
 Plavitski rested his arm on the desk, his forehead on 
 his palm, and was silent. Pan Stanislav looked at him, 
 waiting for an answer; he gazed with increasing displeasure, 
 and in his mind gave himself this question : " Is he a 
 trickster or a lunatic ; is he an egotist, so blinded to him- 
 self that he measures good and evil by his own comfort 
 merely ; or is he all these together ? " 
 
 Meanwhile Plavitski held his face hidden on his palm, 
 and was silent. 
 
 "I should like to say something," began Pan Stanislav, 
 at last. 
 
 But the old man waved his hand, indicating that he 
 wished to be alone with his thoughts for a time yet. On 
 a sudden he raised his face, which had grown radiant, 
 
 " Stas," said he, " why are we disputing, when there is 
 such a simple way out of it ? " 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " Take the marl." 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 "Bring thy partner, bring some specialist; we will set 
 a price on my marl, and form a company of three. Thy 
 what 's his name ? Bigiel, is n't it ? will pay me so much, 
 whatever falls to him; thou wilt either add something or 
 not; and we'll all go on together. The profits may be 
 colossal." 
 
 Pan Stanislav rose. " I assure you," said he, " that 
 there is one thing to which I am not accustomed, that is to 
 be made sport of. I do not want your marl; I want only 
 my money; and what you tell me I regard simply as an 
 unworthy or stupid evasion." 
 
 A moment of oppressive silence followed. Jove's anger 
 began to gather on the brows and forehead of Plavitski. 
 For a while he threatened boldly with his eyes, then, mov-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 41 
 
 ing quickly to the hooks on which his weapons were hang- 
 ing, he took down a hunter's knife, and, offering it to Pan 
 Stauislav, said, 
 
 "But there is another way, strike!" and he opened his 
 dressing-gown widely ; but Pan Stanislav, mastering himself 
 no longer, pushed away the hand with the knife, and began 
 to speak in a loud v.oice, 
 
 " This is a paltry comedy, nothing more ! It is a pity to 
 lose words and time with you. I am going away, for I 
 have had enough of you and your Kremen ; but I say that 
 I will sell my debt, even for half its value, to the first Jew 
 I meet. He will be able to settle with you." 
 
 Then the right hand of Plavitski was stretched forth in 
 solemnity. 
 
 "Go," said he, "sell. Let the Jew into the family nest; 
 but know this, that the curse, both of me and of those who 
 have lived here, will find thee wherever thou art." 
 
 Pan Stanislav rushed out of the room, white with rage. 
 In the drawing-room he cursed as much as he could, look- 
 ing for his hat ; finding it at last, he was going out to see if 
 the brichka had come, when Marynia 'appeared. At sight 
 of her he restrained himself somewhat ; but, remembering 
 that she it was, precisely, who was occupied with every- 
 thing in Kremen, he said, 
 
 " I bid farewell to you. I have finished with your father. 
 I came for what belonged to me ; but he gave me first a 
 blessing, then marl, and finally a curse. A nice way to pay 
 debts ! " 
 
 There was a moment in which Marynia wished to extend 
 her hand to him and say, 
 
 "I understand your anger. A while ago I was with 
 father also, and begged him to pay you before all others. 
 Deal with us and with Kremen as may please you ; but do 
 not accuse me, do not think that I belong to a conspiracy 
 against you, and retain even a little esteem for me." 
 
 Her hand was already extending, the words were on her 
 lips, when Pan Stanislav, rousing himself internally, and 
 losing his balance still more, added, 
 
 " I say this because, when I spoke to you the first even- 
 ing, you were offended, and sent me to your father. I give 
 thanks for the effective advice ; but, as it was better for 
 you than for me, I will follow my own judgment here- 
 after." 
 
 Marynia's lips grew pale ; in her eyes were tears of
 
 42 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 indignation, and, at the same time, of deep offence. She 
 raised her head, and said, 
 
 " You may utter what injuries you like, since there is no 
 one to take my part ; " then she turned to the door, with her 
 soul full of humiliation and almost despair, because those 
 were the only returns she had received for that labor in 
 which she had put her whole strength .and all the zeal of 
 her honest young soul. Pan Stanislav saw, too, that he 
 had exceeded the measure. Having very lively feelings, 
 he passed in one instant to compassion, and wished to 
 hurry after her to beg her pardon ; but it was late : she had 
 vanished. 
 
 This roused a new attack of rage. This time, how- 
 ever, the rage included himself. Without taking fare- 
 well of any one, he sat in the brichka, which came up just 
 then, and drove out of Kremen. In his soul such anger was 
 seething that for a time he could think of nothing but ven- 
 geance. "I will sell it, even for a third of the value," said 
 he to himself, "and let others distrain you. I give my 
 word of an honest man that I will sell. Even without 
 need, I will sell out of spite ! " 
 
 In this way his intention was changed into a stubborn 
 and sworn resolve. Pan Stanislav was not of those who 
 break promises given to others or themselves. It was now 
 a mere question of finding a man to buy a claim so difficult 
 of collection ; for to receive the amount of it was, without 
 exaggeration, to crack a flint with one's teeth. 
 
 Meanwhile the brichka rolled out of the alley to the road 
 in the open field. Pan Stanislav, recovering somewhat, 
 began to think of Marynia in a form of mind which was a 
 mosaic composed of the impressions which her face and 
 form had made on him, of recollections of the Sunday con- 
 versation ; of repulsion, of pity, of offence, animosity ; and, 
 finally, dissatisfaction with himself, which strengthened 
 his animosity against her. Each of these feelings in turn 
 conquered the others, and cast on them its color. At times 
 he recalled the stately figure of Marynia, her eyes, her 
 dark hair, her mouth, pleasing, though too large, perhaps ; 
 finally, her expression ; and an outburst of sympathy for 
 her mastered him. He thought that she was very girlish ; 
 but in her mouth, in her arms, in the lines of her whole 
 figure, there was something womanly, something that at- 
 tracted with irresistible force. He recalled her mild voice, 
 her calm expression, and her very evident goodness. Then,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 43 
 
 at thought of how harsh he had been to her before going, 
 
 at thought of the tone with which he had spoken to 
 her, he began to curse himself. " If the father is an old 
 comedian, a trickster, and a fool," said he to himself ; " and 
 if she feels all this, she is the uuhappier. But what then ? 
 Every man with a bit of heart would have understood the 
 position, taken compassion on her, instead of attacking the 
 poor overworked child. I attacked her. I ! " Then he 
 wanted to slap his own face ; for at once he imagined what 
 might have been, what an immeasurable approach, what an 
 exceptional tenderness would have arisen, if, after all the 
 quarrels with her father, he had treated her as was proper, 
 
 that is, with the utmost delicacy. She would have given 
 him both hands when he was leaving; he would have kissed 
 them ; and he and she would have parted like two persons 
 near to each other. " May the devils take the money ! " 
 repeated he to himself ; " and may they take me ! " And he 
 felt that he had done things which could not be corrected. 
 This feeling took away the remnant of his equilibrium, and 
 pushed him all the more along that road, the error of which 
 he recognized. And he began a monologue again, more or 
 less like the following, 
 
 "Since all is lost, let all burn. I will sell the claim to 
 any Jew ; let him collect. Let them fly out on to the pave- 
 ment; let the old man find some office; let her go as a 
 governess, or marry Gantovski." Then he felt that he 
 would agree to anything rather than the last thought. He 
 would twist Gantovski's neck. Let any one take her, only 
 not such a wooden head, such a bear, such a dolt. Beautu 
 ful epithets began to fall on the hapless Gantovski ; and all 
 the venom passed over on to him, as if he had been really 
 the cause of whatever had happened. 
 
 Arriving in such a man-eating temper at Chernyov, Pan 
 Stanislav might, perhaps, like another Ugolino, have gnawed 
 at once into Gantovski with his teeth, "where the skull 
 meets the neck," if he had seen him at the station. For- 
 tunately, instead of Gantovski's " skull," he saw only some 
 officials, some peasants, a number of Jews, and the sad, but 
 intelligent face of Councillor Yamish, who recognized him, 
 and who, when the train arrived soon, invited him thanks 
 to good relations with the station-master to a separate 
 compartment. 
 
 " I knew your father," said he ; " and I knew him in his 
 brilliant days. I found a wife in that neighborhood. I
 
 44 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 remember he had then Zvihov, Brenchantsa, Motsare, Roz- 
 vady in Lubelsk, a fine fortune. Your grandfather \vus 
 one of the largest landowners in that region ; but now the 
 estate must have passed into other hands." 
 
 "Not now, but long since. My father lost all his prop- 
 erty during his life. He was sickly ; he lived at Nice, did 
 not take care of what he had, and it went. Had it not 
 been for the inheritance which, after his death, fell to my 
 mother, it would have been difficult." 
 
 " But you are well able to help yourself. I know your 
 house ; I have had business in hops with you through 
 Abdulski." 
 
 " Then Abdulski did business with you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and I must confess that I was perfectly satisfied 
 with our relations.. You have treated me well, and I see 
 that you manage affairs properly." 
 
 "No man can succeed otherwise. My partner, Bigiel, is 
 an honest man, and I am not Flavitski." 
 
 " How is that ? " asked Yamish, with roused curiosity. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, with the remnant of his anger un- 
 quenched, told the whole story. 
 
 "H'm"! " said Yamish; "since you speak of him without 
 circumlocution, permit me to speak in like manner, though 
 he is your relative." 
 
 " He is no relative of mine : his first wife was a relative 
 and friend of my mother, that is all; he himself is no 
 relative." 
 
 "I know him from childhood. He is rather a spoiled 
 than a bad man. He was an only son, hence, to begin with, 
 his parents petted him ; later on his two wives did the same. 
 Both were quiet, mild women ; for both he was an idol. 
 During whole years matters so arranged themselves that 
 he was the sun around which other planets circled; and at 
 last he came to the conviction that everything from others 
 was due to him, and nothing to others from him. When 
 conditions are such that evil and good are measured by 
 one's own comfort solely, nothing is easier than to lose 
 moral sense. Plavitski is a mixture of poinpousness and 
 indulgence : of pompousness, for he himself is ever cele- 
 brating his own glory ; and indulgence, for he permits him- 
 self everything. This has become almost his nature. 
 Difficult circumstances came on him. These only a man 
 of character can meet ; character he never had. He began 
 to evade, and in the end grew accustomed to evasion. Land
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 45 
 
 ennobles, but land also spoils us. An acquaintance of mine, 
 a bankrupt, said once to me, ' It is not I who evade, but my 
 property, and I am only talking for it.' And this is some- 
 what true, truer in our position than in any other." 
 
 " Imagine to yourself," answered Pan Stanislav, " that I, 
 who am a descendant of the country, have no inclination 
 for agriculture. I know that agriculture will exist always, 
 for it must ; but in the form in which it exists to-day I see 
 no future for it. You must perish, all of you." 
 
 " I do not look at it in rose-colors either. . I do not men- 
 tion that the general condition of agriculture throughout 
 Europe is bad, for that is known. Just consider. A noble 
 has four sous ; hence each of these will inherit only one- 
 fourth of his father's land. Meanwhile, what happens ? 
 Each, accustomed to his father's mode of living, wishes 
 to live like the father ; the end is foreseen easily. Another 
 case : A noble has four sons ; the more capable choose vari- 
 ous careers ; you may wager that the least capable remains 
 on the land. A third case : what a whole series of genera- 
 tions have acquired, have toiled for, one light head 
 suins. Fourth, we are not bad agriculturists, but bad ad- 
 ministrators. Good administration means more than good 
 cultivation of land ; what is the inference, then ? The land 
 will remain ; but we, who represent it at present under the 
 form of large ownership, must leave it most likely. Then, 
 do you see, when we have gone, we may return in time." 
 
 " How is that ? " 
 
 " To begin with, you say that nothing attracts you to 
 land ; that is a deception. Land attracts, and attracts with 
 such force that each man, after he has come to certain 
 years, to a certain well-being, is unable to resist the desire 
 of possessing even a small piece of land. That will come 
 to you too, and it is natural. Finally, every kind of wealth 
 may be considered as fictitious, except land. Everything 
 comes out of land ; everything exists for it. As a banknote 
 is a receipt for metallic money in the State Bank, so in- 
 dustry and commerce and whatever else you please is land 
 turned into another form ; and as to you personally, who 
 have come from it, you must return to it." 
 
 " I at least do not think so." 
 
 " How do you know ? To-day you are making property ; 
 but how will you succeed ? And that, too, is a question of 
 the future. The Polanyetskis were agriculturists ; now one 
 of them has chosen another career. The majority of sons
 
 46 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 of agriculturists must choose other careers also, even be- 
 cause they cannot do otherwise. Some of them will fail ; 
 some will succeed and return but return, not only with 
 capital, but with new energy, and with that knowledge of 
 exact administration which is developed by special careers. 
 They will return because of the attraction which land 
 exercises, and finally through a feeling of duty, which 1 
 need not explain to you." 
 
 " What you say has this good side, that then my such-an- 
 uncle-not-an-uncle Plavitski will belong to a type that has 
 perished.'*' 
 
 Pan Yamish thought a while and said, 
 
 " A thread stretches and stretches till it breaks, but at last 
 it must break. To my thinking, they cannot hold out in Kre- 
 men, even though they parcel Magyerovka. But do you 
 see whom I pity ? Marynia. She is an uncommonly hon- 
 est girl. For you do not know that the old man wanted to 
 sell Kremen two years ago ; and that that did not take place 
 partly through the prayers of Marynia. Whether this was 
 done out of regard to the memory of her mother, who lies 
 buried there, or because so much is said and written about 
 the duty of holding to the soil, it is sufficient that the 
 girl did what she could to prevent the sale. She imagined, 
 poor thing, that if she would betake herself with all power 
 to work, she could do everything. She abandoned the 
 whole world for Kremen. For her it will be a blow when 
 the thread breaks at last, and break it must. A pity for 
 the years of the girl ! " 
 
 "You are a kind person, councillor!" cried Pan Stanis- 
 lav, with his accustomed vivacity. 
 
 The old man smiled. " I love that girl : besides, she is 
 my pupil in agriculture ; of a truth it will be sad when she 
 is gone from us." 
 
 Pan Stanislav fell to biting his mustaches, and said at 
 last, " Let her marry some man in the neighborhood, and 
 remain." 
 
 "Marry, marry! As if that were easy for a girl with- 
 out property. Who is there among us ? Gantovski. He 
 would take her. He is a good man, and not at all so 
 limited as they say. But she has no feeling for him, and 
 she will not marry without feeling. Yalbrykov is a small 
 estate. Besides, it seems to the old man that the Gantov- 
 skis are something inferior to the Plavitskis, and Gan- 
 tovski too believes this. With us, as vou know, that man
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 47 
 
 passes for a person of great family who is pleased to boast 
 himself such. Though people laugh at Plavitski, they have 
 grown used to his claim. Moreover, one man raises his 
 nose because he is making property, another because he is 
 losing it, and nothing else remains to him. But let that 
 pass. I know one thing, whoever gets Marynia will get 
 a pearl." 
 
 Fan Stanislav had in his mind at that moment the same 
 conviction and feeling. Sinking, therefore, into meditation, 
 he began again to muse about Marynia, or, rather, to call 
 her to mind and depict her to himself. All at once it even 
 seemed to him that he would be sad without her ; but he 
 remembered that similar things had seemed so to him 
 more than once, and that time had swept away the illusion. 
 Still lie thought of her, even when they were approaching 
 the city ; and when he got out at Warsaw, he muttered 
 through his teeth, 
 
 "How stupidly it happened! how stupidly! "
 
 48 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON his return to Warsaw, Pan Stanislav passed the first 
 evening at the house of his partner, Bigiel, with whom, 
 as a former schoolmate, he was connected by personal 
 intimacy. 
 
 Bigiel, a Cheh by descent, but of a family settled in the 
 country for a number of generations, had managed a small 
 commercial bank before his partnership with Pan Stanislav, 
 and had won the reputation of a man not over-enterprising, 
 it is true, but honorable and uncommonly reliable in busi- 
 ness. When Pan Stanislav entered into company with 
 him, the house extended its activity, and became an im- 
 portant firm. The partners complemented each other per- 
 fectly. Pan Stanislav was incomparably more clever and 
 enterprising; he had more ideas and took in a whole affair 
 with greater ease; but Bigiel watched its execution more 
 carefully. When there was need of energy, or of pushing 
 any one to the wall, Pan Stanislav was the man ; but when 
 it was a question of careful thought, of examining interests 
 from ten sides, and of patience, Bigiel's role began. Their 
 temperaments were directly opposite; and for that reason, 
 perhaps, they had sincere friendship for each other. Prepon- 
 derance was relatively on the side of Pan Stanislav. Bigiel 
 believed in his partner's uncommon capacity ; and a num- 
 ber of ideas really happy for the house, which Pan Stanislav 
 had given, confirmed this belief. The dream of both was to 
 acquire in time capital sufficient to build cotton-mills, 
 which Bigiel would manage, and Pan Stanislav direct. 
 But, though both might count themselves among men 
 almost wealthy, the mills were in a remote future. Less 
 patient, and having many relatives, Pan Stanislav tried, it 
 is true, immediately after his return from abroad, to direct 
 to this object local, so-called " our own," capital ; he was met, 
 however, with a general want of confidence. He noticed 
 at the same time a wonderful thing: his name opened 
 all doors to him, but rather injured than helped him in 
 business. It might be that those people who invited him 
 to their houses could not get it into their heads that one of 
 themselves, hence a man of good family and with a name
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 49 
 
 ending in ski, could conduct any business successfully. 
 This angered Polanyetski to such a degree that the clever 
 Bigiel had to quench his outburst by stating that such 
 want of confidence was in fact caused by years of expe- 
 rience. Knowing well the history of different industrial 
 undertakings, he cited to Pan Stauislav a whole series of 
 cases, beginning with Tyzenhaus, the treasurer, and ending 
 with various provincial and land banks, which had nothing 
 of the country about them except their names, in other 
 words, they were devoid of every home basis. 
 
 " The time has not come yet," said Bigiel; ""but it will 
 come, or, rather, it is in sight. Hitherto there have been 
 only amateurs and dilettanti ; now for the first time are 
 appearing here and there trained specialists." 
 
 Pan Stanislav who, in spite of his temperament, hau 
 powers of observation rather well developed, began to make 
 strange discoveries in those spheres to which his rela- 
 tives gave him access. He was met by a general recog- 
 nition for having done something. This recognition was 
 offered with emphasis even ; but in it there was something 
 like condescension. Each man let it be known too readily 
 that he approved Polanyetski's activity, that he considered 
 it necessary ; but no one bore himself as if he considered 
 the fact that Polanyetski was working at some occupation 
 as a thing perfectly common and natural. " They all pro- 
 tect me," said he ; and that was true. He came also to the 
 conclusion that if, for example, he aspired to the hand of 
 any of the young ladies of so-called " society," his commer- 
 cial house and his title of " affairist " would, notwithstand- 
 ing the above recognition, have injured more than helped 
 him. They would rather give him any of those maidens 
 if, instead of a lucrative business, he had some encumbered 
 estate, or if, while living as a great lord, he was merely 
 spending the interest of his capital, or even the capital 
 itself. 
 
 When he had made dozens of observations of this kind, 
 Pan Stanislav began to neglect his relatives, and at last 
 abandoned them altogether. He restricted himself to the 
 houses of Bigiel and Pani Emilia Hvastovski, and to those 
 male acquaintances who were a necessity of his single life. 
 He took his meals at Francois's with Kukatski, old Vas- 
 kovski, and the advocate Mashko, with whom he discussed 
 and argued various questions ; he was often at the theatre 
 and at public amusements of all kinds. For the rest, he led 
 
 4.
 
 50 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 rather a secluded life ; hence he was unmarried yet, though 
 he had great and fixed willingness to marry, and, besides, 
 sufficient property. 
 
 Having gone after his return from Kremen almost directly 
 to Bigiel's, he poured out all his gall on " uncle " Plavitski, 
 thinking that he would find a ready and sympathetic 
 listener ; but Bigiel was moved little by his narrative, and 
 said, 
 
 " I know such types. But, in truth, where is Plavitski 
 to find money, since he has none ? If a man holds mort- 
 gages, he should have a saint's patience. Landed property 
 swallows money easily, but returns it with the greatest 
 difficulty." 
 
 " Listen, to me, Bigiel," said Pan Stanislav ; " since thou 
 hast begun to grow fat and sleep after dinner, one must 
 have a saint's patience with thee." 
 
 " But is it true," asked the unmoved Bigiel, " that thou 
 art in absolute need of this money ? Hast thou not at thy 
 disposal the money that each of us is bound to furnish ? " 
 
 " I am curious to know what that is to thee, or Plavitski. 
 I have money with him ; I must get it, and that is the end 
 of the matter." 
 
 The entrance of Pani Bigiel, with a whole flock of 
 children, put a curb on the quarrel. She was young yet> 
 dark-haired, blue-eyed, very kind, and greatly taken up with 
 her children, six in number, children liked by Pan Stanis- 
 lav uncommonly ; she was for this reason his sincere friend, 
 and also Pani Emilia's. Both these ladies, knowing and 
 loving Marynia Plavitski, had made up their minds to 
 marry her to Pan Stanislav; both had urged him very 
 earnestly to go to Kremen for the money. Hence Pani 
 Bigiel was burning with curiosity to know what impression 
 the visit had made on him. But as the children were 
 present, it was impossible to speak. Yas, the youngest, who 
 was walking on his own feet already, embraced Pan Stan- 
 islav's leg and began to pull it, calling "Pan, Pan ! " which 
 in his speech sounded, "Pam, Pam !" two little girls, Evka 
 and Yoasia, climbed up without ceremony on the" knees of 
 the young man ; but Edzio and Yozio explained to him their 
 business. They were reading the "Conquest of Mexico," 
 and were playing at this " Conquest." Edzio, raising his 
 brows and stretching his hands upwards, spoke excitedly, 
 
 "I will be Cortez, and Yozio a knight on horseback; but 
 as neither Evka nor Yoasia wants to be Montezuma, what
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 01 
 
 can we do ? We can't play that way, can we ? Som-ebody 
 must be Montezuma ; if not, who will lead the Mexicans ? " 
 
 " But where are the Mexicans ? " asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Oh," said Yozio, " the chairs are the Mexicans, and the 
 Spaniards too." 
 
 "Then wait, I '11 be Montezuma; now take Mexico ! " 
 
 An indescribable uproar began. Pan Stanislav's vivacity 
 permitted him to become a child sometimes. He offered 
 such a stubborn resistance to Cortez that Cortez fell to 
 denying him the right to such resistance, exclaiming, not 
 without historic justice, that since Montezuma was beaten, 
 he must let himself be beaten. To which Montezuma 
 answered that he cared little for that ; and he fought on. 
 In this way the amusement continued a good while. And 
 Pani Bigiel, unable to wait for the end, asked her husband 
 at last, 
 
 " How was the visit to Kremen ? " 
 
 " He did what he is doing now," answered Bigiel, phleg- 
 matically : " he overturned all the chairs, and went away." 
 
 " Did he tell thee that ? " 
 
 " I had no time to ask him about the young lady ; but he 
 parted with Plavitski in a way that could not be worse. He 
 wants to sell his claim ; this will cause evidently a complete 
 severance of relations." 
 
 "That is a pity," answered Pani Bigiel. 
 
 At tea, when the children had gone to bed, she questioned 
 Pan Stanislav plainly concerning Marynia. 
 
 "I do not know," said he; "perhaps she is pretty, per- 
 haps she is not. I did not linger long over the question." 
 
 "That is not true," said Pani Bigiel. 
 
 " Then it is not true ; and she is lovable and pretty, and 
 whatever you like. It is possible to fall in love with her, 
 and to marry her ; but a foot of mine will never be in their 
 house again. I know perfectly why you sent me there ; 
 but it would have been better to tell me what sort of a man 
 her father is, for she must be like him in character, and if 
 that be true, then thanks for the humiliation." 
 
 " But think over what you say : ' She is pretty, she is 
 lovable, it is possible to marry her,' and then again : 'She 
 must be like her father.' These statements do not hold 
 together." 
 
 " Maybe not ; it is all one to me ! I have no luck, and 
 that is enough." 
 
 " But I will tell you two things : first, you have come
 
 52 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 back deeply impressed by Marynia ; second, that she is one 
 of the best young ladies whom I have seen in life, and he 
 will be happy who gets her." 
 
 " Why has not some one taken her before now ? " 
 
 " She is twenty-one years old, and entered society not 
 long since. Besides, don't think that she has no suitors." 
 
 " Let some other man take her." 
 
 But Pan Stanislav said this insincerely, for the thought 
 that some other man might take her was tremendously bitter 
 for him. In his soul, too, he felt grateful to Pani Bigiel for 
 her praises of Marynia. 
 
 " Let that rest," said he ; " but you are a good friend." 
 
 "Not only to Marynia, but to you. I only ask for a 
 sincere, a really sincere, answer. Are you impressed or 
 not ? " 
 
 " I impressed ? to tell the truth, immensely." 
 
 " Well, do you see ? " said Pani Bigiel, whose face was 
 radiant with pleasure. 
 
 " See what ? I see nothing. She pleased me immensely, 
 true ! You have no idea what a sympathetic and attractive 
 person she is ; and she must be good. But what of that ? 
 I cannot go a second time to Krernen, I came away in such 
 anger. I said such bitter things, not only to Plavitski, but 
 to her, that it is impossible." 
 
 " Have you complicated matters much ? " 
 
 " Rather too much than too little." 
 
 "Then a letter might soften them." 
 
 " I write a letter to Plavitski, and beg his pardon ! For 
 nothing on earth ! Moreover, he has cursed me." 
 
 " How, cursed ? " 
 
 "As patriarch of the family; in his own name and the 
 names of all ancestors. I feel toward him such a repulsion 
 that I could not write down two words. He is an old 
 pathetic comedian. I would sooner beg her pardon; but 
 what would that effect ? She must take her father's part ; 
 even I understand that. In the most favorable event, she 
 would answer that my letter is very agreeable to her ; and 
 with that relations would cease." 
 
 "When Emilia returns from Reichenhall we will bring 
 Marynia here under the first plausible pretext, and then it 
 will be your work to let misunderstandings vanish." 
 
 "Too late, too late !" repeated Pan Stanislav; "I have 
 promised myself to sell the claim, and I will sell it." 
 
 " That is just what may be for the best."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 53 
 
 "No, that Avould be for the worst," put in Bigiel; "but I 
 will persuade him iiot to sell. I hope, too, that a purchaser 
 will not be found." 
 
 " Meanwhile Emilia will finish Litka's cure." Here Pani 
 Bigiel turned to Pan Stauislav : " You will learn now how 
 other young ladies will seem to you after Marynia. I am 
 not so intimate with her as Emilia is, but I will try to find 
 the first convenient pretext to write to her and find out what 
 she thinks of you." 
 
 The conversation ended here. On the way home, Pan 
 Stanislav saw that Marynia had taken by no means the last 
 place in his soul. To tell the truth, he could hardly think 
 of aught else. But he had at the same time the feeling that 
 this acquaintance had begun under unfavorable conditions, 
 and that it would be better to drive the maiden from 
 his mind while there was time yet. As a mail rather 
 strong than weak mentally, and not accustomed to yield 
 himself to dreams simply because they were pleasant, he 
 resolved to estimate the position soberly, and weigh it on 
 all sides. The young lady possessed, it is true, almost 
 every quality which he demanded in his future wife, and also 
 she was near his heart personally. But at the same time she 
 had a father whom he could not endure ; and, besides the 
 father, a real burden in the form of Kremen and its 
 connections. 
 
 "With that pompous old monkey I should never live in 
 peace ; T could not," thought Pan Stanislav. " For relations 
 with him are possible only in two ways: it is 'necessary 
 either to yield to him (to do this I am absolutely unable), 
 or to shake him up every day, as I did in Kremen. In the 
 first case, I, an independent man, would enter into unendur- 
 able slavery to an old egotist ; in the second, the position of 
 my wife would be difficult, and our peace might be ruined. 
 
 " I hope that this is sober, logical reasoning. It would be 
 faulty only if I were in love with the maiden already. But 
 I judge that this is not the case. I am occupied with her, 
 not in love with her. These two are different. Ergo, it is 
 necessary to stop thinking of Marynia, and let some other 
 man take her." 
 
 At this last idea, a feeling of bitterness burned him 
 vividly, but he thought, "I am so occupied with her that 
 this is natural. Finally, I have chewed more than one bitter 
 thing in life ; I will chew this one as well. I suppose also 
 that it will be less bitter each day."
 
 54 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But soon he discovered that besides bitterness there re- 
 mained in him also a feeling of sorrow because the prospects 
 had vanished which had been opening before him. It 
 seemed to him that a curtain of the future had been raised, 
 and something had shown him what might be ; then the 
 curtain had fallen on a sudden, and his life had returned to 
 its former career, which led finally to nothing, or rather led 
 to a desert. Pan Stanislav felt in every case that the old 
 philosopher Vaskovski was right, and that the making of 
 money is only a means. Beyond that, we must solve life's 
 riddle in some fashion. There must be an object, an im- 
 portant task, which, accomplished in a manner straight- 
 forward and honorable, leads to mental peace. That peace 
 is the soul of life ; without it life has, speaking briefly, no 
 meaning. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was in some sense a child of the age ; that is, 
 he bore in himself a part of that immense unrest which in 
 the present declining epoch is the nightmare of mankind. 
 In him, too, the bases on which life had rested hitherto were 
 crumbling. He too doubted whether rationalism, stumbling 
 against every stone at the wayside, could take the place of 
 faith ; and faith he had not found yet. He differed, how- 
 ever, from contemporary " decadents " in this, that he had 
 not become disenchanted with himself, his nerves, his doubts, 
 his mental drama, and had not given himself a dispensation 
 to be an imbecile and an idler. On the contrary, he had the 
 feeling, more or less conscious, that life as it is, mysterious 
 or not mysterious, must be accomplished through a series of 
 toils and exploits. He judged that if it is impossible to 
 answer the various " whys," still it behooves a man to do 
 something because action itself may, to a certain degree, be 
 an answer. It may be inconclusive, it is true ; but the man 
 who answers in that way casts from himself at least respon- 
 sibility. What remains then ? The founding of a family 
 and social ties. These must, to a certain degree, be a right 
 of human nature and its predestination, for otherwise people 
 would neither marry nor associate in societies. A philosophy 
 of this kind, resting on Pan Stanislav's logical male instinct, 
 indicated marriage to him as one of the main objects of life. 
 His will had for a long time been turned and directed to 
 this object. A while before, Panna Marynia seemed to 
 him the pier "for which his ship was making in that 
 gloomy night." But when he understood that the lamp on 
 that pier had not been lighted for him, that he must sail
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 55 
 
 farther, begin a new voyage over unknown seas, a feeling of 
 weariness and regret seized him. But his reasoning seemed 
 to him logical, and he went home with an almost settled 
 conviction that " it was not yet that one," and " not yet this 
 time." 
 
 Next day, when he went to dine, he found Vaskovski 
 and Bukatski at the restaurant. After a while Mashko 
 also came in, with his arrogant, freckled face and long 
 side whiskers, a monocle on his eye, and wearing a white 
 waistcoat. After the greeting, all began to inquire of Pan 
 Stanislav touching his journey, for they knew partly why 
 the ladies had insisted on his personal visit, and, besides, 
 they knew Marynia through Pani Emilia. 
 
 After they had heard the narrative, Bukatski, transparent 
 as Sevres porcelain, said with that phlegm special to 
 him, 
 
 " It is war, then ? That is a young lady who acts on the 
 nerves, and now would be the time to strike for her. A 
 woman will accept more readily the arm offered on a stony 
 path than on a smooth road." 
 
 " Then offer an arm to her," said Pan Stanislav, with a 
 certain impatience. 
 
 " See thou, my beloved, there are three hindrances. 
 First, Pani Emilia acts on my nerves still more ; second, 
 I have a pain in my neclc every morning, and in the back 
 of my head, which indicates brain disease; third, I am 
 naked." 
 
 " Thou naked ? " 
 
 "At least now. I have bought a number of Falks, all 
 avant la lettre. I have plucked myself for a month, and if 
 I receive from Italy a certain Massaccio, for which I have 
 been bargaining, I shall ruin myself for a year." 
 
 Vaskovski, who from his features, or rather from the 
 freckles on his face, was somewhat like Mashko, though 
 much older, and with a face full of sweetness, fixed his 
 blue eyes on Bukatski, and said, 
 
 " And that too is a disease of the age, collecting and 
 collecting on all sides ! " 
 
 " Oh, ho ! there will be a dispute," remarked Mashko. 
 
 " We have nothing better to do," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 And Bukatski took up the gauntlet. 
 
 " What have you against collecting ? " 
 
 "Nothing," answered Vaskovski. "It is a kind of old- 
 womanish method of loving art, worthy of our age. Do
 
 56 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 you not think there is something decrepit about it ? To 
 my thinking, it is very characteristic. Once people bore 
 within them enthusiasm for high art : they loved it where 
 it was, in museums, in churches; to-day they take it to 
 their own private cabinets. Long ago people ended with 
 collecting ; to-day they begin with it, and begin at oddities. 
 I am not talking at Bukatski ; but to-day the youngest boy, 
 if he has a little money, will begin to collect and what ? 
 Not objects of art, but its oddities, or in every case its 
 trifles. You see, my dear friend, it has seemed to me 
 always that love and amateurism are two different things ; 
 and I insist that a great amateur of women, for example, 
 is not a man capable of lofty feeling." 
 
 "Perhaps so. There is something in that," said Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 " How can this concern me ? " inquired Mashko, passing 
 his fingers through his English side whiskers. " It con- 
 tains, to begin with, the decree of an ancient pedagogue 
 about modern times." 
 
 " Of a pedagogue ? " repeated Vaskovski. " Why, since 
 a morsel of bread fell to me, as from heaven, 1 1 renounced 
 the slaughter of innocents and the role of Herod ; secondly, 
 you are mistaken in saying that I utter a decree. Almost 
 with joy I see and note new proofs every hour that we are 
 at the end of an epoch, and that a new one will begin 
 shortly." 
 
 "We are in the open sea, and will not turn to shore 
 soon," muttered Mashko. 
 
 " Give us peace," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But the unconquered Vaskovski continued, 
 
 " Amateurism leads to refinement ; in refinement great 
 ideals perish, and yield to desire for enjoyment. All this 
 is nothing but paganism. No one can realize to what a 
 degree we are paganized. But is there something ? There 
 is the Aryan spirit, which does not ossify, which never 
 grows cold, a spirit which has within it the divine afflatus, 
 hence creative power; and this spirit feels hampered in 
 pagan fetters. The reaction has set in already, and a 
 rebirth in Christ will begin in this field, as in others. 
 That is undoubted." 
 
 Vaskovski, who had eyes like a child, that is, reflecting 
 only external objects and ever fixed, as it were, on infinity, 
 
 1 He had received an inheritance some time before-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 57 
 
 fixed them on the window, through which were visible 
 gray clouds pierced here and there by sun-rays. 
 
 " It is a pity that my head aches, for that will be a 
 curious epoch," said Bukatski. 
 
 But Mashko, who called Vaskovski " a saw," and was 
 annoyed by his discussions, begun from any cause or with- 
 out cause, took from the side-pocket of his coat a cigar, 
 bit off the end, and, turning to Pan Stanislav, said, 
 
 " Here, Stas, wouldst thou really sell that claim on 
 Kremen ? " 
 
 " Decidedly. Why dost thou ask ? " 
 
 " Because I might consider it." 
 
 " Thou ? " 
 
 '' Yes. Thou knowest that I consider this kind of busi- 
 ness frequently. We can talk about it. I cannot say any- 
 thing certain to-day ; but to-morrow I will ask thee to send 
 me the mortgage on Kremen, and I will tell thee whether 
 the thing is possible. Perhaps after dinner to-morrow 
 thou wilt come to me to drink coffee ; we may settle some- 
 thing then." 
 
 "Well. If anything is to be done, I should prefer it 
 done quickly ; for the moment I finish with Bigiel, I wish 
 to go abroad." 
 
 ""Whither art thou going ? " asked Bukatski. 
 
 " I do not know. It is too hot in the city. Somewhere 
 to trees and water." 
 
 " Another old prejudice," said Bukatski. " In the city 
 there is always shade on one side of the street, which there 
 is not in the country. I walk on the shady side quietly 
 <md feel well; therefore I never go out of the city in 
 summer. 
 
 " But Professor, art thou not going somewhere ? " asked 
 Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Of course. Pani Emilia has been urging me to go to 
 Reichenhall. Perhaps I shall go." 
 
 "Then let us go together. It is all one to me where I 
 go. I like Salzburg, and, besides, it will be pleasant to see 
 Pani Emilia and Litka." 
 
 Bukatski stretched forth his transparent hand, took a 
 tooth-pick from a glass, and, picking his teeth, began to 
 speak in his cool and careless voice, 
 
 " There is such a mad storm of jealousy raging within 
 me that I am ready to go with you. Have a care, Pola- 
 nyetski, lest I explode, like dynamite."
 
 58 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 There was something so amusingly contradictory between 
 the words and the tone of Bukatski that Fan Stanislav 
 laughed, but after a while he answered, 
 
 " It had not occurred to me that it is possible to fall in 
 love with Pani Emilia. Thank thee for the idea." 
 
 " Woe to you both !" said Bukatski.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 NEXT day, after an early dinner at Bigiel's, Pan Stanislav 
 betook himself to Mashko's at the appointed hour. The 
 host was waiting for him evidently; for in the study he 
 found an exquisite coffee service ready, and glasses for 
 liqueurs. Mashko himself did not appear at once, how- 
 ever ; for, as the servant said, he was receiving some lady. 
 In fact, his voice and the words of a woman came through 
 the door from the drawing-room. 
 
 Meanwhile, Pan Stauislav fell to examining Mashko's 
 ancestors, a number of whose portraits were hanging on 
 the walls. The authenticity of these the friends of the 
 young advocate doubted. A certain cross-eyed prelate 
 afforded Bukatski a special subject for witticisms; but 
 Mashko was not offended. He had determined, cost what 
 it might, to force on the world himself, his ancestors, his 
 genius for business, knowing that, in the society in which 
 he moved, people would ridicule him, but no one would 
 have energy to attack his pretensions. Possessing energy, 
 limitless insolence, and a real turn for business besides, he 
 determined to force himself upward by those qualities. 
 People who did not like him called him shameless ; and he 
 was, but with calculation. Coming from a family uncer- 
 tain even as to its nobility, he treated people of undoubted 
 ancient families as if he were of incomparably better birth 
 than they, people who were of undoubted wealth, as if he 
 were wealthier than they. And this succeeded : those tactics 
 of his were effective. He was careful not to fa,ll into com- 
 plete ridicule; but he had marked out for himself in this 
 procedure uncommonly wide margins. At last he reached 
 the point which he sought : he was received everywhere, 
 and had established hisWedit firmly. Certain transactions 
 brought him really generous profits ; but he did not hoard 
 money. He judged that the time for that had not come yet, 
 and that he must invest more in the future, with the intent 
 that it would repay him in the way which he wanted. He 
 did not squander money, and was not over liberal, for he 
 looked on those as marks of a parvenu; but, when the 
 need came, he showed himself, to use his own phrase,
 
 60 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " solidly munificent." He passed for a very smooth man 
 in business, and, above all, a man of his word. His word 
 rested on credit, it is true; but it kept him in a high posi- 
 tion, which in turn permitted him to make really important 
 transactions. He did not draw back before trifles. He 
 possessed daring, and a certain energy which excluded long 
 hesitation ; he had faith, too, in his own fortune. Success 
 strengthened that faith. He did not know, in fact, how 
 much property he had; but he handled large sums of 
 money, and people considered him wealthy. 
 
 Finally, Mashko's life motive was vanity, rather than 
 greed. He wanted to be rich, it is true 5 but, beyond all, 
 he wanted to pass for a great lord in English fashion. He 
 went so far as to adapt his exterior thereto, and was almost 
 proud of his personal ugliness: it seemed to him even 
 aristocratic. There was, indeed, a certain something, which, 
 if not uncommon, was at least peculiar, in his pouting 
 mouth, in his broad nostrils, and the red freckles on his 
 face. There was a certain power and brutality, such as 
 the English have sometimes, and that expression was in- 
 creased by his monocle. To wear this, he had to rear his 
 head somewhat; and when he passed his fingers through 
 his light side whiskers, he reared it still more. 
 
 Pan Stanislav could not endure the man at first, and 
 concealed his dislike even too slightly. Later on he became 
 accustomed to him, especially since Mashko treated him 
 differently from others, perhaps through secret regard; 
 perhaps because, wishing to gain in advance a man so 
 demanding, to act otherwise would be to expose himself to 
 an immediate account, disagreeable in the best case. At 
 last, the young men, by meeting often, grew used to each 
 other's weaknesses, and endured each other perfectly. On 
 this occasion, for example, when Mashko had conducted 
 the lady to the door, he showed himself in the study, set 
 aside for the moment his greatness, and, greeting Pan 
 Stanislav, began to speak like an ordinary mortal, not like 
 a great lord or an Englishman. 
 
 "With women! with women! c'est toujours une mer a 
 boire (there is always a sea to drink). I have invested 
 their little capital, and I pay them the interest most regu- 
 larly. Not enough ! They come at least once a week to 
 inquire if there has not been some earthquake." 
 
 "What wilt thou say to me ?" asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 u First of all, drink some coffee."
 
 CHILDREN OF inE SOIL. 61 
 
 And, igniting the alcohol under the lamp, he added, 
 
 " With thee there will be no delay. 1 have seen the mort- 
 gage. The money is not easy of recovery ; but \ve need 
 not look on it as lost. Evidently the collection will involve 
 costs, journeys, etc. Hence I cannot give thee what the 
 face of the mortgage indicates ; but I will give two-thirds, 
 and pay in three instalments in the course of a year." 
 
 "Since I have said to myself that. I would sell the claim, 
 even for less than the face of it, I agree. When will the 
 first instalment be paid ? " 
 
 "In three months." 
 
 "Then I will leave my power of attorney with Bigiel in 
 case I must go on a journey." 
 
 " But art thou going to Reichenhall ? " 
 
 "Possibly." 
 
 " Ai ! Who knows but Bukatski has given thee an idea ? " 
 
 "Every one has his own thoughts. Thou, for example. 
 Why art thou buying this claim on Kremen ? The busi- 
 ness is too small for thee, is it not ? " 
 
 " Among great affairs small ones too are transacted. But 
 I will be outspoken. Thou knowest that neither my posi- 
 tion nor my credit belongs to the lowest ; both one and the 
 other will increase when I have behind me a piece of land, 
 and that such a large one. I have heard myself from 
 Plavitski that he would sell Kremen. I will suppose that 
 he is still more inclined now, and that it will be possible 
 to acquire all that property cheaply, even very cheaply, for 
 some payments, for some unimportant ready money, with 
 a life annuity in addition ; I shall see ! Afterward, when 
 it is put in order a little, like a horse for the market, it 
 may be sold ; meanwhile I shall have the position of a land- 
 holder, which, entre nous, concerns me very greatly." 
 
 Pan Stanislav listened to Mashko's words with a certain 
 constraint, and said, 
 
 " I must tell thee plainly that the purchase will not be 
 easy. Panna Plavitski is very much opposed to selling. 
 She, in woman fashion, is in love with her Kremen, and 
 will do all she can to retain it in the hands of herself 
 and her father." 
 
 Then in the worst case I shall be Plavitski's creditor, 
 and I do not think that the money will be lost to me. 
 First, I may sell it, as thou hast ; second, as an advocate. 
 I can dispose of it with far greater ease. I may myself 
 find means of paying, and indicate them to Plavitski."
 
 62 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Thou canst foreclose too, and buy it at auction." 
 
 " I might if I were some one else, but to foreclose would 
 be devilishly unbecoming in Mashko. Xo ; other means 
 will be found, to which ready consent may be given by 
 Panna Plavitski herself, for whom, by the way, I have 
 great esteem and regard." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who at that moment was finishing his 
 coffee, put his cup suddenly on the table. " Ah," said he, 
 " and it is possible in that way to get at the property." 
 Again a feeling of great anger and bitterness seized him. 
 At the first moment he wished to rise, say to Mashko, " 1 
 will not sell the claim ! " and go out. He restrained him- 
 self, however, and Mashko, passing his fingers through his 
 side whiskers, answered, 
 
 " But if ? I can assure thee, on my word, that at this 
 moment I have no such plan ; at least I have not placed it 
 before myself definitely. But if ? I made the acquaintance 
 of Pauna Plavitski once in Warsaw, in the winter, and she 
 pleased me much. The family is good, the property ruined, 
 but large, and can be saved. Who knows ? Well, that is 
 an idea like any other. I am perfectly loyal with thee, as, 
 for that matter, I have been always. Thou didst go there 
 as if for money, but I knew why those ladies sent thee. 
 Thou hast returned, however, as angry as the devil ; there- 
 fore I take it that thou hast no intentions. Say that I am 
 mistaken, and I will withdraw at once, not from the plan, 
 for, as I have assured thee, I have no plan yet, but even 
 from thinking over it as something possible. I give thee 
 my word on that. In the opposite case, however, do not 
 hold to the position, * Not for me, not for any one,' and do 
 not bar the lady's way. But now I listen to thee." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, recalling his reasonings of yesterday, 
 thought also that Mashko was right when he said that in 
 such a case he ought not to bar any one's road to the lady, 
 and after a certain time he said, 
 
 " Xo, Mashko, I have no intentions touching Panna Pla- 
 vitski. Thou art free to marry her or not. I will say, 
 nevertheless, openly, there is one thing which does not 
 please me, though for me it is profitable ; namely ^ that 
 thou art buying this claim. I believe that thou h^st no 
 plaii yet ; but in case thou shouldst have one, it will seem 
 somewhat strange But any pressure, any trap this, 
 however, is thy affair." 
 
 " It is so much my affair that if some one else, and not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 63 
 
 thou, had said this, I should have been quick to remind 
 him. I may tell thee, however, that should I form such a 
 plan, which I doubt, I shall not ask the hand of Panna 
 Plavitski as interest for my money. Since I can say to 
 myself conscientiously that I would buy the debt in any 
 case, I have the right to buy it. Above all, as matters 
 stand to-day, I wish to buy Kremen, for I need it ; hence I 
 am free to use all honorable means which may lead to that 
 end." 
 
 " Very well ; I will sell. Give directions to write the 
 contract, and send it, or bring it thyself to me." 
 
 " I have directed my assistant. It is ready, and needs 
 only the signatures." 
 
 In fact, the contract was signed a quarter of an hour 
 later. Pan Stauislav, who spent the evening of that day 
 at Bigiel's, was in such anger as he had never been before ; 
 Pani Bigiel could not hide her vexation ; and Bigiel, think- 
 ing the whole over carefully said, toward the end of the 
 evening, with his usual balance and deliberation, 
 
 " That Mashko has a plan is beyond doubt. The question 
 is merely whether he is deceiving thee by saying that he 
 has no plan, or is deceiving himself! " 
 
 " God preserve her from Mashko ! " answered Pani Bigiel. 
 " We all saw that she pleased him greatly." 
 
 "I supposed," said Bigiel, "that a man like Mashko 
 would look for property, but I may be mistaken. It may 
 be also that he wants to find a wife of good stock, 
 strengthen thereby his social position, become related to 
 numerous families, and at last take into his hands the busi- 
 ness of a certain whole sphere of society. That also is not 
 badly calculated, especially since, if he uses his credit, 
 which n-ill be increased by Kremen, it may with his clev- 
 erness clear him in time." 
 
 "And as you say," remarked Pan Stanislav, "Panna 
 Plavitski pleases him really. I remember now that Pla- 
 vitski said something too on this subject." 
 
 " What then ? " asked Pani Bigiel ; " what will happen 
 then ? " 
 
 " Panna Plavitski will marry Pan Mashko if she wishes, 
 said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " But you ? " 
 
 " Oh 1 am going to Reicheuhall straightway.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN fact, Pan Stanislav went a week later to Reichenhall ; 
 but before that he received a letter from Pani Emilia in- 
 quiring about his journey to Kremen. He did not write 
 in return, for he intended to answer the letter orally. He 
 heard too, but only "on the eve of his departure, that 
 Mashko had gone to Kremen the day before ; and that news 
 touched him more than he thought it would. He said to 
 himself, it is true, that he would forget the affair when no 
 farther away than Vienna ; but he could not forget it, and 
 he had his head so occupied with thinking whether Panna 
 Plavitski would marry Mashko or not, that he wrote to 
 Bigiel from Salzburg, as it were on business, but really ask- 
 ing him to send news of Mashko. He listened without 
 attention to the discussions of his travelling companion, 
 Vaskovski, about the mutual relations of nationalities in 
 Austria, and the mission of modern nations in general. 
 More than once he was so occupied with thinking about Ma- 
 rynia that he simply did not answer questions. It aston- 
 ished him, too, that at times he saw her as clearly as if she 
 had been standing before him, not only as an exact image, 
 but as a living person. He saw her pleasant, mild face, 
 with shapely mouth, and the little ensign on the upper lip ; 
 the calm gaze of her eyes, in which were visible the atten- 
 tion and concentration with which she listened to his 
 words; he saw her whole posture, lithe, supple, from 
 which came the warmtji of great and genuine maiden 
 youthfuluess. He remembered her bright robe, the tips of 
 her feet, peeping from under it, her hands, delicate, though 
 slightly sunburnt, ^and her dark hair, moved by the breeze 
 in the garden. He had never thought that there could be 
 a memory almost palpable, and that the memory of a per- 
 son seen during such a brief time. But he understood this 
 to be a proof of how deep an impression she had, in truth, 
 made on him ; and when at moments it passed through his 
 head that all this, which had fixed itself thus in his mem- 
 ory, might be possessed by Mashko, he could hardly believe 
 it. In those moments his first feeling, which was, more-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 65 
 
 over, in accord with his active nature, was an irresistible 
 impulse to hinder it. He had to remember then that the 
 affair was decided already, and that he had resolved to drop 
 Panna Plavitski. 
 
 He and Vaskovski reached Eeichenhall early in the 
 morning ; and that very day, before they had learned the 
 address of Pani Emilia, they met her and Litka in the 
 park. She had not expected to see either, especially Pan 
 Stanislav, and was sincerely delighted when she met them ; 
 her delight was darkened only by this, that Litka, a child 
 exceptionally sensitive, and ailing with asthma and heart- 
 disease, was still more delighted, so much delighted, indeed, 
 that she had a violent palpitation of the heart, with sti- 
 fling and almost a swoon. 
 
 Such attacks were frequent with her ; and, when this one 
 passed, calmness came back to all faces. On the way to 
 the house, the child held " Pan Stas " by the hand, and in 
 her eyes, usually pensive, there shone deep delight. From 
 time to time she pressed his hand, as if to convince herself 
 that he had come really to Reichenhall and was near her. 
 Pan Stanislav had simply no time to speak to Pani Emilia, 
 or to make an inquiry, for Litka was showing him Reichen- 
 hall, and chattering unceasingly; she wanted to show him 
 all the nice places at once. Every moment she said, 
 
 " This is nothing yet. Thumsee is prettier ; but we will 
 go there to-morrow." 
 
 Then turning to her mother, " Mamma will let me go, 
 is n't it true ? I can walk much now. It is not far. 
 Mamma will let me go, will she not?" 
 
 At moments again she pushed away from Pan Stanislav, 
 and, without dropping his hand, looked at him with her 
 great eyes, repeating, 
 
 "Pan Stas, Pan Stas!" 
 
 Pan Stanislav showed her the greatest tenderness, or 
 tenderness ^s great as an elder brother might show ; time 
 after time he chided her good-naturedly, 
 
 "Let the kitten not run so; she will choke." 
 
 And she nestled up to him, pouted, and answered, as if 
 in anger, 
 
 "Hush, Pan Stas!" 
 
 Pan Stanislav glanced, however, frequently at the serene 
 face of Pani Emilia, as if desiring to let her know that 
 he wished to converse wit.j. her. But there was no oppor- 
 tunity, since she did \ct like to destroy Litka's joyous-
 
 66 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 ness, and preferred to leave their mutual friend in her pos- 
 session exclusively. Only after dinner, which they ate in 
 the garden together, amid foliage and the twittering of 
 sparrows, when Vaskovski had begun to tell Litka about 
 birds, and the love which Saint Francis Assisi had felt for 
 them, and the child, with her head on her hand, was lost 
 completely in listening, did Pan Stanislav turn to Pani 
 Emilia and ask, 
 
 " Do you not wish to walk to the end of the garden ? " 
 
 " I do," answered she. " Litka, stay here a minute with 
 Pan Vaskovski ; we will come back in that time." 
 
 They walked along, and Pani Emilia asked immediately, 
 
 " Well, what ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to tell ; but whether it was that he 
 wished to appear better before Pani Emilia, or that he 
 determined to reckon with that delicate nature, or, finally, 
 that the last thoughts concerning Marynia had attuned 
 him to a note more sensitive than usual, it is sufficient that 
 he changed the affair altogether. He confessed, it is true, 
 to a quarrel with Plavitski, but he was silent touching this, 
 that before his departure from Kremen he had answered 
 Marynia almost with harshness ; besides, he did not spare 
 praises on her in his story, and finally he finished, 
 
 "Since that debt became a cause of misunderstanding at 
 once between me and Plavitski, a thing which must be re- 
 flected on Panna Marynia, I chose to sell it ; and just 
 before I left Warsaw, I sold it to Mashko." 
 
 Pani Emilia, who had not the slightest conception of 
 business, and, besides, was of a simplicity truly angelic, 
 remarked, 
 
 " You did well. There should be no such thing as 
 money between you." 
 
 Ashamed to deceive such a simple soul, he answered, 
 
 " True ! Or rather the contrary, I think I did badly. 
 Bigiel, too. is of the opinion that it was not well. Mashko 
 may press them ; he may put various demands before them ; 
 he may offer Kremen for sale. No, that was not a delicate 
 act, nor one to bring us nearer ; and I should not have com- 
 mitted it, were it not that I came to the conviction that it 
 was necessary to drive all that out of my head." 
 
 " But no ; do not say so. I believe that there is predes- 
 tination in everything; and I believe, too, that Providence 
 designed you for each other." 
 
 " I do not understand that. If that be true, then T need
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 67 
 
 not do anything, for in every case I must inarry Panna 
 Plavitski." 
 
 " I have a woman's head, and say stupid things, perhaps ; 
 but it seems to me that Providence wills and arranges every- 
 thing for the best, but leaves people freedom. Frequently 
 they do not wish to follow that which is predestined, and 
 this is why so many are unhappy." 
 
 " Maybe. It is difficult, however, to follow anything but 
 one's own convictions. Reason is like a lantern, which 
 God puts in our hands. Who will assure me meanwhile 
 that Panna Marynia will marry me ? " 
 
 " I ought to have news from her of your visit to Kremen, 
 and I wonder that so far I have none. I think that a 
 letter will come to-morrow at latest, for we write every 
 week to each other. Does she know of your departure for 
 Eeichenhall ? " 
 
 " She does not. I did not know myself when in Kremen 
 where I should go." 
 
 "That is well; for she will be outspoken, though she 
 would be so in any case." 
 
 The first day's conversation ended here. In the evening 
 it was decided at Litka's request to walk to Thumsee, and 
 go in the morning so as to dine at the lake, return in a 
 carriage, or on foot, if Litka was not tired and they could 
 return before sunset. The two men presented themselves 
 at the lady's villa before nine in the morning. Pani 
 Emilia and Litka were dressed and waiting on the veranda ; 
 both were so like visions that Vaskovski, the old peda- 
 gogue, was astonished at sight of them. 
 
 " The Lord God makes perfect flowers of people some- 
 times," said he, pointing at mother and daughter from a 
 distance. 
 
 Indeed, Pani Emilia and Litka were admired by all 
 Eeichenhall. The first, with her spiritualized, angelic face, 
 appeared the incarnation of love, motherly tenderness, and 
 exaltation ; the other, with her great pensive eyes, yellow 
 hair, and features that Avere almost too delicate, seemed 
 rather the idea of an artist than a living little girl. Bu- 
 katski, the decadent, said that she was formed of mist made 
 just a trifle rosy by light. Indeed, there was something in 
 the little maiden, as it were, not of earth, which impression 
 was heightened by her illness and exceeding sensitiveness. 
 Her mother loved her blindly; those who surrounded be- 
 loved her also; but attention did not spoil this child, ex- 
 ceptionally sweet by nature.
 
 68 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who visited Pani Emilia in Warsaw a 
 number of times every week, was sincerely attached to both 
 mother and daughter. In a city where woman's reputation 
 is less respected than anywhere else in the world, scandal 
 was created by this, without the least cause, of course ; for 
 Pani Emilia was as pure as an infant, and simply carried her 
 exalted head in the sky as if she knew not that evil existed. 
 She was even so pure that she did not understand the 
 necessity of paying attention to appearances. She received 
 gladly those whom Litka loved ; but she refused a number 
 of good offers of marriage, declaring that she needed nothing 
 on earth except Litka. Bukatski alone insisted that Pani 
 Emilia acted on his nerves. Pan Stauislav adapted him- 
 self to those azure heights surrounding that crystal woman, 
 so that he never approached her with a thought dimmed 
 by temptation. 
 
 Now he answered with simplicity Vaskovski's remark, 
 
 "In truth, they both seem marvellous." 
 
 And, greeting them, he repeated more or less the same 
 thing to Pani Emilia, as something that in the given case 
 had attracted his attention. She smiled with pleasure, 
 likely because the praise included Litka, and, gathering 
 up her skirt for the road, she said, 
 
 " I received a letter to-day, and have brought it to you." 
 
 " May I read it right away ? " 
 
 " You may ; I beg you to do so." 
 
 They set out by the forest road for Thumsee, Pani 
 Emilia, Vaskovski, and Litka in advance, Pan Stanislav a 
 little behind them, his head bent over the letter, which was 
 as follows : 
 
 MY DEAR EMILKA, To-day I have received thy litany of 
 questions, and will answer at once, for I am in haste to share my 
 thoughts with thee. Pan Stanislav Polanyetski went from here on 
 Monday; hence, two days ago. The first evening 1 received him as 
 I receive every one, and nothing whatever came to my head ; but the 
 next day was Sunday. 1 had time to spare ; and almost the entire after- 
 noon we were not only together, but alone, for papa went to the Ta- 
 rnishes. What shall I say? Such a sympathetic, sincere, and. at ilic 1 
 same time, honest man ! From what he said of Litka and of thee, 1 
 saw at once that he has a good heart. We walked a long time 1>\ ih<> 
 pond in the garden. I bound up his hand, for he cut himself with 
 the boat. He spoke so wisely that I forgot myself in listening to 
 his words. Ah, ray Kmilka, I am ashamed to confess it, but my 
 poor head was turned a little by that evening. Thou knowest, more- 
 over, how alone I am and overworked, and how rarely I see men
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 69 
 
 like him. It seemed to me that a guest had come from another 
 world, and a better one. He not only pleased, but captivated me 
 with his heartiness, so that I could not sleep, and was thinkinc all 
 the time of him. It is true that in the morning he quarrelled with 
 papa, and even I received a little; though God sees how much I 
 would give that there might be no question of that kind between us. 
 At the first moment it touched me greatly ; and if that ugly man had 
 known how much I cried in my chamber, he would have pitied me. 
 But, afterward, I thought that he must be very sensitive; that 
 papa was not right; and I am not angry now. I will say, also, in 
 thy ear, that a certain voice whispers to me continually that he will 
 not sell to any one the claim which he has on Kremen* if only to be 
 able to come here again. That he parted in such anger with papa 
 is nothing. Papa himself does not take it to heart ; for those are 
 his ways, not his convictions or feelings. Pan Stanislav has in me a 
 true friend, who, after the sale of Magyerovka, will do everything to 
 end all causes of misunderstanding, and in general all those nasty 
 money questions. He will have to come then, even to take what 
 belongs to him, is it not true ? It may be also that I please him a 
 little. That a man as quick as he is should say something bitter 
 gives no cause for wonder. Speak not of this when thou seest him, 
 and do not scold him ; God keep thee from that. I know not why 
 I feel a certain confidence that he will do no injustice to me, or papa, 
 or my beloved Kremen ; and I think it would be well in the world if 
 all were like him. 
 
 My dear, I embrace thee and Litka most heartily. Write to 
 me of her health minutely, and love me as I do thee. 
 
 When he had finished reading, Pan Stanislav put the 
 letter in the side-pocket of his coat, which he buttoned. 
 Then he pushed his hat down to the back of his head, and 
 felt a certain intense desire to break his cane into small 
 bits and throw them into the river: he did not do this, 
 however; he only began to mutter, while gritting his 
 teeth, 
 
 " Yes ; very well. Thou knowest Polanyetski ! Be con- 
 fident that he will not injure thee ! Thou wilt come out in 
 safety." 
 
 Then he addressed himself as follows, 
 
 "Thou hast thy deserts ; for she is an angel, and thou 
 art not worthy of her." And again a desire seized him to 
 break his cane into bits. Now he saw clearly that the soul 
 of that maiden had been ready to give itself with all faith and 
 trust to him ; and he prepared for her one of those painful 
 and wounding disillusions, the memory of which, fixed 
 once and forever, pains eternally. To sell the_ claim was 
 nothing ; but to sell it to a man wishing to buy it with the
 
 70 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 intention which Mashko had, was to say to the woman, " I do 
 not want thee ; marry him, if it please thee." What a bitter 
 disillusion for her, after all that he had said to her on that 
 Sunday, after 'those words friendly, open, and at the same 
 time intended to enter her heart ! They were chosen for 
 that purpose, and he felt that she had taken them in that 
 sense. He might repeat as often as he pleased that they 
 bound him to nothing; that in the. first meeting and in the 
 first conversation which a man has with a woman, he 
 merely pushes out horns, like a snail, and tries the ground 
 to which he has come. That would be no consolation to 
 him now. Besides, he was not merely not in humor for 
 self-justification, but wished rather to give himself a slap 
 on the face. He saw for the first time so definitely that he 
 might have received Marynia's heart and hand ; and the 
 more real that possibility was to him, the more the loss 
 seemed irreparable. Moreover, from the moment of read- 
 ing that letter, a new change appeared in him. His own 
 reasoning that now he ought to let Marynia go, seemed 
 pitiful and paltry. With all his faults, Pan Stanislav had 
 a grateful heart; and that letter moved him to a high 
 degree, by the kindness and understanding, by the readiness 
 to love, which were revealed in it. Hence the remem- 
 brance of Marynia became rosy in his heart and mind all 
 at once, became rosy even with such power that he 
 thought, 
 
 " As God is in heaven, I shall fall in love with her now ! " 
 And such a tenderness seized him that in presence of it 
 even anger at himself had to yield. He joined the company 
 after a while, and, pushing forward a little with Pani Emilia, 
 said, 
 
 " Give me this letter." 
 
 "With the greatest pleasure. Such an honest letter, 
 is it not ? And you did not confess to me that she 
 suffered somewhat at parting; but I will not reprove, 
 since she herself takes you under her protection." 
 
 " If it would help, I would beg you to beat me ; but 
 there is nothing to be said, for those are things incurable." 
 
 Pani Emilia did not share this opinion ; on the contrary, 
 seeing Pan Stanislav's emotion, she felt sure that an affair 
 in which both sides had such vivid feelings was in the 
 best state and must end satisfactorily. At that very 
 thought her sweet face became radiant. 
 
 " We shall see after some months," said she.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 71 
 
 " You do not even divine what we may see," said Pan 
 Stanislav, thinking of Mashko. 
 
 " Remember," continued Pani Emilia, " that he who 
 once wins Marynia's heart will never be disappointed." 
 
 " I am certain of that," answered he, gloomily ; " but also 
 such hearts, when once wounded, do not return again." 
 
 They could not speak further, for Litka and Pan Vaskovski 
 caught up with them. After a while the little girl took Pan 
 Stanislav, as usual, for her own exclusive property. The 
 forest, sunk in the mild morning light of a fair day, occu- 
 pied her uncommonly; she began to inquire about various 
 trees ; every little while she cried out with pleasure, 
 
 " Mushrooms ! " 
 
 But he answered mechanically, thinking of something 
 else, 
 
 " Mushrooms, kitten, mushrooms." 
 
 At last the road descended, and they beheld Thumsee 
 under their feet. In the course of half an hour they came 
 down to a beaten path, stretching along the shore, on 
 which were visible here and there wooden foot-piers, ex- 
 tending a few yards into the lake. Litka wished to look 
 from near by at big fish which were visible in the clear 
 water. Pan Stanislav, taking her by the hand, led her out 
 on to one of the piers. 
 
 The fish, accustomed to crumbs thrown by visitors, in- 
 stead of fleeing, approached still nearer, and soon a whole 
 circle surrounded Litka's feet. In the blue water were 
 visible the golden-brown backs of the carp, and the gray 
 spotted scales of the salmon trout, while the round eyes of 
 these creatures were fixed on the little girl as if with an 
 expression of entreaty. 
 
 " Coming back, we will bring lots of bread," said Litka. 
 " How strangely they look at us! What are they think- 
 ing of ? " 
 
 "They are thinking very slowly," said Pan Stanislav; 
 " and only after an hour or two will they say : ' Ah ! here 
 is some little girl with yellow hair and rosy dress and 
 black stockings.' " 
 
 "And what will they think of Pan Stas ? " 
 
 " They will think that I am some gypsy, for I have not 
 yellow hair." 
 
 " No. Gypsies have no houses." 
 
 " And I have no house, Litka. I had the chance of one, 
 but I sold it."
 
 72 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 He uttered this last phrase in a certain unusual manner, 
 and in general there was sadness in his voice. The little 
 girl looked at him carefully ; and all at once her sensitive 
 face reflected his sadness, just as that water reflected her 
 form. When they joined the rest of the company, from 
 time to time she raised her sad eyes with an inquiring 
 and disturbed expression. At last, pressing more firmly 
 his hand, which she held, she asked, 
 
 " What troubles Pan Stas ? " 
 
 "Nothing, little child; I am looking around at the lake, 
 and that is why I do not talk." 
 
 "I was pleasing myself yesterday, thinking to show 
 Pan Stas Thumsee." 
 
 "Though there are no rocks here, it is very beautiful. 
 But what house is that on the other side ? " 
 
 " We will take dinner there." 
 
 Pani Emilia was talking merrily with Vaskovski, who, 
 carrying his hat in his hand, and seeking in his pockets 
 for a handkerchief to wipe his bald head, gave his opinions 
 about Bukatski, 
 
 "He is an Aryan," concluded he ; " and therefore in con- 
 tinual unrest, he is seeking peace. He is buying pictures 
 and engravings at present, thinking that thus he will fill 
 a void. But what do I see ? This, those children of the 
 century bear in their souls an abyss like this lake, for 
 example ; besides, the abyss in them is bottomless, and 
 they think to fill it with pictures, strong waters, amateur- 
 ship, dilettantism, Baudelaire, Ibsen, Maeterlinck, finally 
 dilettante science. Poor birds, they are beating their 
 heads against the sides of their cages ! It is just as if I 
 tried to fill this lake by throwing in a pebble." 
 
 "And what can fill life ?" 
 
 " Every sincere idea, all great feelings, but only on 
 condition that they begin in Christ. Had Bukatski loved 
 art in the Christian way, it would have given him the 
 peace which he is forced to seek." 
 
 " Have you told him that ? " 
 
 " Yes, that and many other things. I urge him and Pan 
 Stanislav always to read the Life of Saint Francis of 
 Assisi. They are not willing to do so, and laugh at me. 
 Yet he was the greatest man and the greatest saint of the 
 Middle Ages, a saint who renewed the world. If such a 
 man were to come now, a renewal in Christ would follow, 
 still more sincerely and with greater completeness."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 73 
 
 Midday approached, and with it heat. The forest began 
 to have the odor of resin ; the lake became perfectly smooth 
 in the calm air full of glitter, and, while reflecting the 
 spotless blue of the sky, seemed to slumber. 
 
 At last they reached the house and the garden, in which 
 there was a restaurant, and sat under a beech-tree at a 
 table already laid. Pan Stanislav called a waiter in a 
 soiled coat, ordered dinner, then looked about silently at 
 the lake and the mountains around it. A couple of yards 
 from the table grew a whole bunch of iris, moistened by a 
 fountain fixed among stones. Paui Emilia, looking at the 
 flowers, said, - 
 
 " When I am at a lake and see irises, I think that I am 
 in Italy." 
 
 " For nowhere else are there so many lakes or so many 
 irises," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Or so much delight for every man," added Vaskovski. 
 " For many years I go there in the autumn to find a refuge 
 for the last days. I hesitated long between Perugia and 
 Assisi, but last year Rome gained the day. Rome seems 
 the anteroom to another life, in which anteroom light 
 from the next world is visible already. I will go there 
 in October." 
 
 " I envy you sincerely," said Pani Emilia. 
 
 " Litka is twelve years old," began Vaskovski. 
 
 " And three months," interrupted Litka. 
 
 "And three months: therefore for her age she is very 
 small and a great little giddy-head ; it is time to show her 
 various things in Rome," continued Vaskovski. " Nothing 
 is so remembered as that which is seen in childhood. And 
 though childhood does not feel many things completely, 
 nor understand them, that comes later, and comes very 
 agreeably, for it is as if some one were to illuminate on a 
 sudden impressions sunk in shadow. Come with me to 
 Italy in October." 
 
 " In October I cannot ; I have my woman's reasons, which 
 detain me in Warsaw." 
 
 " What are they ? " 
 
 Pani Emilia began to laugh. 
 
 " The first and most important, but purely womanly, rea- 
 son, is to marry that gentleman sitting there so gloomy," 
 said she, pointing to Pan Stanislav, "but really so much in 
 love. 1 ' 
 
 He woke from thoughtfulness, and waved his hand. But 
 Vaskovski inquired with his usual naivete of a child,
 
 74 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Always with Marynia Plavitski ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Paiii Emilia. " He has been in Kremen, 
 and it would be vain for him to deny that she took his 
 heart greafly." 
 
 " I cannot deny," answered Pan Stauislav. 
 
 But further conversation was interrupted in an unpleas- 
 ant manner, for Litka grew weak on a sudden. In a mo- 
 ment she was choking, and had one of her attacks of 
 palpitation of the heart, which alarmed even doctors. The 
 mother seized her at once in her arms ; Pan Stanislav ran 
 to the restaurant for ice ; Vaskovski began to "draw the gar- 
 den bench with effort toward the table, so that she might 
 stretcK on it and breathe with more freedom. 
 
 " Thou art wearied, my child, art thou not ? " asked Pani 
 Emilia, with pale lips. "See, my love, it was too far 
 Still the doctor permitted. So anxious! But this is 
 nothing ; it will pass, it will pass ! My treasure, my love ! " 
 And she began to kiss the damp face of the little girl. 
 
 Meanwhile Pan Stanislav came with ice, and after him 
 the mistress of the place hurried out with a pillow in her 
 hand. They laid the little girl on the bench, and while 
 Pani Emilia was wrapping the ice in a napkin, Pan Stanis- 
 lav bent over the child and asked, 
 
 " How art thou, kitten ? " 
 
 " I was only choking a little ; but I am better," answered 
 she, opening her mouth, like a fish to catch breath. 
 
 She was not much better, however, for even through her 
 dress bne could see how violently the little sick heart was 
 beating in her breast. But under the influence of ice, the 
 attack decreased gradually, and at last ceased altogether, 
 leaving behind only weariness. Litka began again to smile 
 at her mother, who also recovered from her alarm soine- 
 what. It was needful to strengthen the child before they 
 returned home. Pan Stanislav ordered dinner, which was 
 scarcely touched by any one except Litka, for all looked at 
 her from moment to moment with secret fear lest the chok- 
 ing might seize her a second time. An hour passed in this 
 way. Guests began now to enter the restaurant. Pani 
 Emilia wished to go home, but she had to wait for the car- 
 riage, which Pan Stanislav had sent for to Reichenhall. 
 
 The carriage came at last, but new alarm was in wait for 
 them. On the road, though they moved at a walk and the 
 road was very smooth, even light jolting troubled Litka, so 
 that when they were just near Reichenhall, a choking at-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 76 
 
 tacked her again. She begged permission to get out of the 
 carriage ; but it appeared that walking wearied her. Then 
 Pani Emilia decided to carry the child. But Pan Stan- 
 islav, anticipating that motherly devotion, which moreover 
 was not at all in proportion to the woman's strength, 
 said, 
 
 " Come, Litus, I will carry thee. If not, mamma will 
 weary herself and be sick." 
 
 And without asking further, he lifted her lightly from 
 the ground, and carried her with perfect ease on one arm 
 only ; to assure both her and Pani Emilia that it did not 
 trouble him in the least, he said playfully, 
 
 "When such a kitten is walking on the ground, she 
 seems not at all heavy ; but now, see where those great 
 feet are hanging. Hold on by my neck; thou wilt be 
 steadier." 
 
 And he went on, as firmly as he could, and quickly, for 
 he wished the doctor to attend her as soon as possible ; as 
 he went, he felt her heart beating against his shoulder, and 
 she, while grasping him with her thin, meagre arms, 
 repeated, 
 
 " Let me down ; I cannot Let me down! " 
 
 But he said, 
 
 " I will not. Thou seest how bad it is to be tired out 
 from walking. In future we will take a big easy armchair 
 on wheels ; and when the child is wearied, we will seat her 
 in it, and I will push her." 
 
 " Xo, no ! " said Litka, with tears in her voice. 
 
 He carried her with the tenderness of an elder brother 
 or a father ; and his heart was overflowing : first, because 
 really he loved that little maid ; and second, because this 
 came to his head of which he had never thought before, 
 or, at least, had never felt clearly, that marriage opens 
 the way to fatherhood and to all its treasures of happiness. 
 While carrying that little girl, who was dear to him, 
 though a stranger, he understood that God had created him 
 for a family ; not only to be a husband, but a father ; also 
 that the main object and meaning of life were found spe- 
 cially in the family. And all his thoughts flew to Marynia. 
 He felt now with redoubled force that of women whom he 
 had met so far he. would have chosen her for a wife before 
 all, and would wish her to be the mother of his children.
 
 76 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DURING some days that succeeded the choking, Litka 
 was not ill, but she felt weak ; she went out, however, to 
 walk, because the doctor not only ordered her to go, but recom- 
 mended very urgently moderate exercise up hill. Vaskov- 
 ski went to the doctor to learn the condition of her health. 
 Pan Stanislav awaited the old man's return in the reading- 
 room, and knew at once from his face that he was not a 
 bearer of good tidings. 
 
 " The doctor sees no immediate danger," said Vaskovski ; 
 " but he condemns the child to an early death, and in gen- 
 eral gives directions to watch over her, for it is impossible, 
 he says, to foresee the day or the hour." 
 
 " What a misfortune, what a blow ! " said Pan Stanislav, 
 covering his eyes with his hand. " Her mother will not be 
 able to survive her. One is unwilling to believe in the 
 death of such a child." 
 
 Vaskovski had tears in his eyes. " I asked whether she 
 must suffer greatly. 'Not necessarily,' said the doctor; 
 'she may die as easily as if falling asleep.' " 
 
 "Did he tell the mother anything about her condition ? " 
 
 " He did not. He said, it is true, that there was a defect 
 of the heart; but he added that with children such things 
 often disappear without a trace. He has no hope himself." 
 
 Pan Stanislav did not yield to misfortune easily. 
 
 " What is one doctor! " said he. " We must struggle to 
 save the child while there is a spark of hope. The doctor 
 may be mistaken. We must take her to a specialist at 
 Monachium, or bring him here. That will alarm Pani 
 Emilia, but it is difficult to avoid it. Wait; we can avoid 
 it. I will bring him, and that immediately. We will tell 
 Pani Emilia that such and such a celebrated doctor has 
 come here to see some one, and that there is a chance of 
 taking counsel concerning Litka. We must not leave the 
 child without aid. We need merely to write to him, so 
 that he may know how to talk to the mother." 
 
 " But to whom will you write ? " 
 
 " To whom ? Do I know ? The local doctor here will in- 
 dicate a specialist. Let us go to him at once, and lose no 
 time."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 77 
 
 The matter was arranged that very day. In the evening 
 the two men went to Pani Emilia. Litka was well, but 
 silent and gloomy. She smiled, it is true, at her mother and 
 her friend ; she showed gratitude for the tenderness with 
 which they surrounded her; but Pan Stauislav had not 
 power to amuse her. Having his head filled with thoughts 
 of the danger which threatened the child, he considered her 
 gloom a sign of increasing sickness and an early premoni- 
 tion of near death, and with terror he said in his soul that 
 she was not such as she had been ; it seemed as if certain 
 threads binding her to life had been broken. His fear in- 
 creased still more when Pani Emilia said, 
 
 " Litka feels well, but do you know what she begged of 
 me to-day ? To go back to Warsaw." 
 
 Pan Stanislav with an effort of will put down his alarm, 
 and, turning to the little one, said while feigning joyful- 
 ness, 
 
 " Ah, thou good-for-nothing ! Art thou not sorry for 
 Thumsee ? " 
 
 The little maid shook her yellow hair. 
 
 " No ! " answered she, after a time, and in her eyes tears 
 appeared ; but she covered these quickly with her lids, 
 lest some one might see them. 
 
 " What is the matter with her ? " thought Pan Stanislav. 
 
 A very simple thing was the matter. In Thumsee she 
 had learned that her friend, her "Pan Stas," her dearest 
 comrade, was to be taken from her. She had heard that he 
 loved Marynia Plavitski ; until then she had felt sure that 
 he loved only her and mamma. She had heard that mamma 
 wanted him to marry Marynia ; but up to that time she, 
 Litka, had looked on him as her own exclusive property. 
 Without knowing clearly what threatened her, she felt that 
 this "Pan Stas " would go, and that a wrong would be done 
 her, the first which she had experienced in life. She would 
 have suffered less if some one else had inflicted the wrong; 
 but, just think, her mamma and " Pan Stas " were _ wrong- 
 ing her ! That seemed a vicious circle out of which the 
 child knew not how to escape and could not. How could 
 she complain to thorn of what they were doing! Evi- 
 dently they wanted this, wished it ; it was necessary for 
 them, and they would be happy if it happened. Mamma 
 said that "Pan Stas" loved Fauna Marynia, and he did 
 not deny ; therefore Litka must yield, must swallow her 
 tears, and be silent in presence of her mamma even.
 
 78 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 And she hid in herself her first disappointment in life. Yes, 
 she had to yield ; but because grief is a bad medicine for a 
 heart sick already, this yielding might be more thoroughly 
 and terribly tragic than any one around her could imagine. 
 
 The specialist came two days later from Monachium, and 
 remaining two days, confirmed fully the opinion of the 
 doctor in Thmnsee. He set Pani Emilia at rest, though 
 he told Fan Stauislav that the life of the child might con- 
 tinue months and years, but would be always as if hanging 
 on a thread which might break from any cause. He gave 
 directions to spare the little girl every emotion, as well joy- 
 ous as sad, and to watch over her with the greatest alertness. 
 
 They surrounded her therefore with care and attention. 
 They spared her even the slightest emotion, but they did 
 not spare her the greatest, which was caused by Marynia's 
 letters. The echo of the one which came a week later struck 
 her ears, which were listening then diligently. True, it 
 might dispel her fears touching " Pan Stas," but it was a 
 great shock to her. Pani Emilia had hesitated all day 
 about showing Pan Stanislav that letter. He had been 
 asking daily for news from Kremen ; she had to lie simply 
 to conceal the arrival of the letter. Finally, she felt bound 
 to tell the truth, so that he might know the difficulties 
 which he had to encounter. 
 
 The next evening after receiving the letter, when she 
 had put Litka to sleep, she began conversation herself on 
 this subject. 
 
 " Marynia has taken it greatly to heart that you sold the 
 claim on Kremen." 
 
 " Then you have received a letter? " 
 
 "I have." 
 
 " Can you show it to me ? " 
 
 " No ; I can only read you extracts from it. Maryuia is 
 crushed." 
 
 " Does she know that I am here ? " 
 
 " It must be that she has not received ray letter yet ; but 
 it astonishes me that Pan Mashko, who is in Kremen, has 
 not mentioned it to her." 
 
 " Mashko went to Kremen before I left Warsaw ; and he 
 was not sure that I would come here, especially as I told 
 him that doubtless I should change my plan." 
 
 Pani Emilia went to her bureau for the package of 
 letters. Returning to the table, she trimmed the lamp, and, 
 sitting opposite Pan Stanislav, took the letter from the 
 envelope.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 79 
 
 " You see," said she, " that for Marynia it is not a ques- 
 tion of the sale alone. You know that her head was a 
 little imaginative, therefore this sale had for her another 
 meaning. A great disenchantment has met her indeed ! " 
 
 " I should not confess to any other person," said Pan 
 Stanislav, "but I will to you. I have committed one of 
 the greatest follies of my life, but I have never been so 
 punished." 
 
 Pani Emilia raised her pale blue eyes to him with 
 sympathy. 
 
 " Poor man, are you so captivated, then, by Marynia ? I do 
 not ask through curiosity, but friendship, for I should like 
 to mend everything, but wish to be certain." 
 
 " Do you know what conquered me ? " broke in Pan Stan- 
 islav, excitedly, " that first letter. In Kremen she pleased 
 me ; I began to think about her. I said to myself that she 
 would be more agreeable and better than others. She is 
 such precisely as I have been seeking. But what next ? 
 Long before, I had said to myself that I would not be a 
 soft man, and yield what belongs to me. You understand 
 that when a man makes a principle of anything, he holds 
 to it even for pride's sake. Besides, in each one of us there 
 are, as it were, two distinct persons ; the second of these 
 criticises whatever is done by the first one. This second 
 man began to say to me : ' Drop this affair ; you cannot live 
 with the father.' In truth, he is unendurable. I resolved 
 to drop the affair. I got rid of the claim. That is how it 
 happened. Only later did I find that I could not dismiss 
 the thought of Panna Plavitski; I had always this same 
 impression : ( She is such as thou art seeking.' I saw that 
 I had committed a folly, and was sorry. When that letter 
 came, and I convinced myself that on her side there was 
 a feeling that she could love me and be mine, I loved her. 
 And I give you my word that either I am losing my head, 
 or this is true. It is nothing while a man is fancying 
 something ; but when he sees that there were open arms 
 before him, what a difference ! That letter conquered me ; 
 I cannot help myself." 
 
 "I prefer not to read you all this letter," said Pani 
 Emilia, after a while. " Naturally she writes that the brief 
 dream ended by an awakening more sudden than she had 
 looked for. She writes that Pan Mashko is very considerate 
 in money questions, though he wishes them to turn to his 
 profit."
 
 80 CHILDREN OP THE SOiL. 
 
 " She will marry him, as God is in heaven !" 
 
 " You do not know her. But of Kremen she writes : 
 'Papa has a wish to dispose of his property, and settle in 
 Warsaw. Thou knowest how I love Kremen, how I grew 
 up with it ; but in view of what has happened, I doubt 
 whether my work can be of service. I shall make one 
 more struggle to defend the dear bit of land. Still papa 
 says that his conscience will not let him imprison me in 
 the country, and this is all the more bitter, since it is as if 
 I were the question. Indeed, life seems at times to be 
 touching on irony. Pan Mashko offers papa three thou- 
 sand life annuity, and the whole amount for the parcelling 
 of Magyerovka. I do not wonder that he seeks his own 
 profit, but through such a bargain he would get the property 
 for almost nothing. Papa himself said to him, " In this 
 way, if I live one year I shall get from Kremen three thou- 
 sand, for Magyerovka is mine anyhow." Pan Mashko 
 answered that in the present state of affairs the creditors 
 would take the money for Magyerovka; but if papa agrees 
 to the conditions proposed he will receive ready money and 
 may live thirty years, perhaps longer. Which is true also. 
 I know that this project pleases papa in principle ; the only 
 question with him is to get as much as he can. In all this 
 there is one consolation, that if we live in Warsaw, I shall 
 see thee, dear Emilia, and Litka oftener. Sincerely and 
 from my whole soul do I love you both, and know that on 
 your hearts at least I can count always.' ' 
 
 " So then I deprived her of Kremen, but sent her a 
 suitor," said Pan Stanislav, after a moment of silence. 
 
 While saying this, he did not know that Marynia had put 
 almost the same words into the letter. Pani Emilia had 
 omitted them purposely, not wishing to wound him. 
 
 During the last visit of the Plavitskis in Warsaw, Mashko 
 had made some advances for the hand of Marynia ; she had 
 no heed, therefore, of great keenness to divine his reason for 
 buying the claim and coming to Kremen. Just in this was 
 the bitterness that filled her heart, and the deep offence 
 which she felt that Polanyetski had inflicted on her. 
 
 " It is absolutely needful to explain all this," said Pani 
 Emilia. 
 
 " I have sent her a suitor! " repeated Pan Stanislav. " I 
 cannot even make the excuse that I did not know of 
 Mashko's designs." 
 
 Pani Emilia turned Marynia's letter in her delicate 
 fingers some time, and then said suddenly,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 81 
 
 "It cannot rest this way. I wanted to unite you with 
 her because of my friendship for both of you, but now there 
 is a motive the more ; to wit, your suffering. It would be a 
 reproach for me to leave you as you are, and I cannot. Do 
 not lose hope. There is a pretty French proverb, and a 
 very ugly Polish one, 'about woman's strength and will. In 
 truth, I wish greatly to help you." 
 
 Pan Stanislav seized her hand and raised it to his lips. 
 
 " You are the best and most honorable person that I have 
 met in the world." 
 
 "I have been very happy," answered Pani Emilia; "and 
 since I think that there is only one road to happiness, I 
 wish those who are near me to go by it." 
 
 " You are right. That road, or none ! Since I have life, 
 I wish that life to be of use to some one else and to me." 
 
 " As to me," said Pani Emilia, laughing, "since I have 
 undertaken the role of matchmaker for the first time in 
 life, I wish to be of service. But it is necessary to think 
 what must be done now." 
 
 Saying this, she raised her eyes. The light of the lamp 
 fell directly on her delicate face, which was still very 
 youthful ; on her light hair, which was somewhat disarranged 
 above her forehead. There was somethingin her so bewitching 
 and at the same time so virginal that Pan Stanislav, though 
 he had a head occupied with other things, recalled the 
 name, "maiden widow," which Bukatski had given her. 
 
 "Marynia is very candid," said she, after a moment's 
 thought, "and will itnderstand better if I write the pure 
 truth to her. I will tell her what you told me : that you 
 went away much pleased with her ; that what you have done 
 was done without reckoning with yourself, purely under the 
 influence of the thought that you could not come to an 
 agreement with her father ; but at present you regret this 
 most sincerely, you beg her not to take it ill, and not to 
 take away the hope that she will yield to entreaty." 
 
 " And I will write to Mashko that I will purchase the 
 debt of him at whatever profit he likes." 
 
 " See," said Paui Emilia, smiling, "that sober, calculating 
 Pan Stanislav, who boasts that he has freed himself from 
 the Polish character and from Polish fickleness." 
 
 "Yes, yes!" cried Pan Stanislav, with a more joyous 
 tone. " Calculation consists in this, to spare nothing on an 
 object that is worth it." At that moment, however, he grew 
 gloomy and said, " But if she answers tliat she is Mashko's 
 betrothed ? " 6
 
 82 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " I will not admit that. Pan Mashko may be the most 
 honorable of men, bnt he is not for her. She will not marry 
 without affection. 1 know that Mashko did not please her 
 at all. That will never take place ; you do not know 
 Marynia. Only do, on your part, what you can, and be at rest 
 as to Mashko.' 
 
 " Then, instead of writing, I will telegraph to him to-day. 
 He cannot stop in Kremen long at one time, and must re- 
 ceive my despatch in Warsaw."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MASHKO'S answer, which Pan Stanislav received two days 
 later, was, " I bought Kremen yesterday." 
 
 Though it might have been foreseen from Marynia's 
 letter that affairs would take this and no other turn, and 
 the young man was bound to be prepared for it, the news 
 produced the impression of a thunder-clap. It seemed to 
 him that a misfortune had happened, as sudden as it was 
 incurable, a misfortune for which the whole responsibility 
 fell on him. Pani Emilia, knowing better than anyone else 
 Marynia's attachment to Kremen, had also a presentiment 
 which she could not conceal, that by this sale the difficulty 
 of bringing these two young people nearer each other would 
 be increased greatly. 
 
 " If Mashko does not marry Marynia," said Pan Stan- 
 islav, " he will strip old Plavitski in such fashion as to save 
 himself and leave the old man without a copper. If I had 
 sold my claim to the first usurer I met, Plavitski would 
 have wriggled out, paid something, promised more ; and 
 the ruin of Kremen would have been deferred for whole 
 years, in the course of which something favorable might 
 have happened ; in every case there would have been time to 
 sell Kremen on satisfactory conditions. Now, if they are 
 left without a copper, the fault will be mine." 
 
 But Pani Emilia looked on the affair from another side : 
 "The evil is not in this alone," said she, "that Kremen 
 is sold. You have caused this sale, and that immediately 
 after seeing Marynia. If some one else had done so, the affair 
 would not have such a significance'; but the worst is just 
 this, that Marynia was greatly confident that you would not 
 act thus." 
 
 Pan Stanislav felt this as vividly as she ; and since he was 
 accustomed to give himself a clear account of every position, 
 he understood also that Marynia was the same as lost to 
 him. In view of this, one thing remained, to acknowledge 
 ihe fact and seek another wife. But Pan Stanislav's 
 whole soul revolted against this. First, his feeling for 
 Marynia, though sudden, strengthened neither by time nor 
 nearer acquaintance, though resting mainly on the charm.
 
 84 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 almost exclusively physical, which her form had wrought 
 on him, had grown considerably in recent days. Her letter 
 effected this, and the conviction that he had inflicted a 
 wrong on her. Compassion for her seized him now, and he 
 could not think of her without emotion ; in consequence of 
 this, the feeling itself increased through two causes, which 
 play a very important role in each masculine heart. First, 
 that energetic, muscular man could never yield passively to 
 the course of events. His nature simply could not endure 
 this. The sight of difficulty roused him to action particu- 
 larly. Finally, his self-love also was opposed to letting 
 Marynia go. The thought which he must acknowledge 
 to himself sometimes, that he was only a springe in the 
 hand of that Mashko and one of the means to his objects ; 
 that he had let himself be abused, or at least used by the 
 advocate, filled him with rage. Though Mashko should 
 not receive Marynia's hand, though the affair should end 
 with Kremen, even that was more than Pan Stanislav could 
 suffer. Now an irrestrainable desire seized him to go and 
 take the field against Mashko, to throw a stone under his 
 feet, to cross his further plans, at least, and show him that 
 his keenness of an advocate was not enough in a meeting 
 with real manly energy. All these, as well as the more 
 noble motives, urged Pan Stanislav with irresistible force 
 to undertake something, to do something. Meanwhile the 
 position was such that there remained well-nigh nothing 
 to do. Precisely in this contradiction was hidden the 
 tragedy. To remain in Reichenhall, let Mashko carry out 
 his plans, extend his nets, work for the hand of Panna 
 Plavitski no ! not for anything ! But what was he to 
 do ? To this last question there was no answer. For the 
 first time in life Pan Stanislav felt as if he were chained ; 
 and the less he was accustomed to such a position, the more 
 did he bear it .with difficulty. He learned too, for the first 
 time, what sleeplessness means, what excited nerves are. 
 Since Litka, during the days just preceding, felt worse again, 
 there hung over the whole society a leaden atmosphere in 
 which life was becoming unendurable. 
 
 After a week another letter came from Marynia. This 
 time there was no mention either of Pan Stanislav or 
 Mashko. Marynia wrote only about the sale of Kremen, 
 without complaint, and without explanation of how* the 
 affair had taken place. But from this alone he might infer 
 how deeply the sale had wounded her.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 85 
 
 It would have pleased Pan Stanislav more had she com- 
 plained. He understood clearly, too, that silence in the letter 
 touching him showed how far he had been excluded from 
 the heart of that lady, while silence touching Mashko might 
 show directly the opposite. Finally, if she valued that 
 Kreinen so much, she might return to it by giving her hand 
 to its present owner; perhaps she had become reconciled by 
 that thought. Old Plavitski had his prejudices of a noble, 
 it is true, and Pan Stanislav counted on them ; but, con- 
 sidering the man as an egotist above all, he admitted that 
 in the present case he would sacrifice his daughter and his 
 prejudices. 
 
 In the end of ends, to remain with folded arms at Reich- 
 enhall, and wait for news as to whether Pan Mashko would 
 be pleased to offer his hand to Panna Plavitski, became for 
 Pan Stanislav simply impossible. Litka, too, from time to 
 time begged her mother to return to Warsaw. Pan Stanislav 
 determined, therefore, to return, all the more as the time 
 was approaching when he and Bigiel had to begin a new 
 affair. 
 
 This decision brought him great solace at once. He 
 would return ; he would examine the position with his own 
 eyes, and perhaps undertake something. In every case it 
 would be better than sitting at Reichenhall. Both Pani 
 Emilia and Litka heard the news of his departure without 
 surprise. They knew that he had come only for a few 
 weeks, and they hoped to see him soon in Warsaw. Pani 
 Emilia was to go in the middle of August. For the rest of 
 the month she decided to remain with Vaskovski in Salz- 
 burg, and return then to Warsaw. Meanwhile she promised 
 to inform Pan Stanislav of Litka's health frequently, and 
 besides correspond with Marynia and learn what her 
 thoughts really were touching Mashko. 
 
 On the day of his departure, Pani Emilia and Litka, with 
 Vaskovski, took farewell of him at the station. When in 
 the compartment, he was rather sorry to go. Happen what 
 might, he knew not how things would turn out at Warsaw ; 
 here he was surrounded by persons who were the sincerest 
 well-wishers that he had in the world. Looking out through 
 the window, he beheld the sad eyes of Litka raised toward 
 him, and the friendly face of Pani Emilia, with the same 
 feeling as if they had been his own family. And again 
 that uncommon beauty of the young widow struck him, her 
 features, delicate to the verge of excess, her angelic expres-
 
 86 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 sion of face, and her form perfectly maidenlike, dressed in 
 black. 
 
 "Farewell," said Pani Emilia, "and write to us from 
 Warsaw ; we shall see each other in three weeks or sooner." 
 
 " In three weeks," repeated Pan Stanislav. " I will write 
 certainly. Till we meet again, Litus ! " 
 
 " Till we meet again ! Bow from me to Evka and Yoasia." 
 
 "I will do so." 
 
 And he stretched out his hand through the window again : 
 
 " Till our next meeting ! Remember your friend." 
 
 " We will not forget ; we will not forget. Do you wish 
 me to repeat a novena for your intention?" asked Pani 
 Emilia, smiling. 
 
 " Thank you for that too. Do so. Till we meet again, 
 Professor." 
 
 The train moved that moment. Pani Emilia and Litka 
 waved their parasols till the more frequent puffing of the 
 engine hid, with rolls of steam and smoke, the window 
 through which Pan Stanislav was looking. 
 
 " Mamma," asked Litka, " is it really necessary to say a 
 novena for Pan Stas ? " 
 
 " Yes, Litus. He is so kind to us, we must pray to 
 God to make him happy." 
 
 " But is he unhappy ? " 
 
 "No that is seest thou, every one has trouble, and 
 he has his." 
 
 " I know ; I heard in Thumsee," said the little girl. And 
 after a while she added in a low voice, 
 
 " I will say a novena." 
 
 But Professor Vaskovski, who was so honest that he 
 could not hold his tongue, said after a time to Pani Emilia, 
 when Litka had gone forward, 
 
 " That is a golden heart, and he loves you both as a 
 brother. Now that the specialist has assured us that there 
 is not the least fear, I can tell everything. Pan Stanislav 
 brought him here purposely, for he was alarmed about the 
 little girl in Thumsee." 
 
 "Did he bring him?" asked Pani Emilia. "What a 
 man ! " And tears of gratitude came to her eyes. After a 
 while she said, "But I will reward him, for I will give 
 him Marynia." 
 
 Pan Stanislav went away with a heart full of good wishes 
 and gratitude to Pani Emilia, for the man who has failed 
 and for that reason falls into trouble, feels the friendship
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 87 
 
 of people more keenly than others. Sitting in the corner 
 of the compartment, with the image of Pani Emilia fresh in 
 his mind, he said to himself, 
 
 " If I had fallen in love with her ! What rest, what cer- 
 tainty of happiness! An object in life would have been 
 found ; I should know for whom I am working, I should 
 know whose I am, I should know that my existence has 
 some meaning. She says, it is true, that she will not marry, 
 but me ! she might, who knows ? That other is perfec- 
 tion, perhaps, but she may have a very dry heart." 
 
 Here he feels suddenly : " Still I can think calmly about 
 Paui Emilia ; while at every recollection of that other a 
 certain unquiet seizes me, which is at once both bitter and 
 agreeable. I am drawn by something toward that other. I 
 have just pressed Pani Emilia's hand, and that pressure has 
 left no sensation ; while even now 1 remember the warm 
 palm of Maryuia, and feel a certain species of quiver at the 
 very thought of it." 
 
 As far as Salzburg, Pan Stanislav thought only of " that 
 other." This time his thoughts began to take the form, if 
 not of resolves, at least of questions, how is he to act 
 toward her, and what in this state of affairs is his duty ? 
 
 " It is not to be denied that I caused the sale of Kremen," 
 said he to himself. " Kremen had for her not only the 
 money value, which might perhaps have been drawn from 
 it had the sale not been hastened, but also the value with 
 which her heart was bound to the place. I have deprived 
 her of both. Briefly speaking, I have wronged her. I 
 have acted legally ; but for a conscience made up of some- 
 thing more than paragraphs, that is not sufficient. I have 
 offended her, I confess, and I must correct my fault in 
 some way. But how? Buy Kremen from Mashko? I 
 am not rich enough. I might perhaps do so by dissolving 
 partnership with Bigiel and withdrawing all my capital; 
 but that is materially impossible. Bigiel might fail, should 
 I do that ; hence I will not do it. There is one other way, 
 to keep up relations as best I can with Plavitski, and 
 propose later on for the hand of his daughter. If rejected, 
 I shall have done at least what behooves me." 
 
 But here that second internal man, of whom Pan Stanis- 
 lav made mention, raised his voice and began, 
 
 "Do not shield thyself with a question of conscience. 
 If Panna Plavitski were ten years older and ugly, thou 
 mightst have caused in the same way the sale of Kremen,
 
 88 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 and taken from her everything which thou hast taken, and 
 still it would not have coine to thy head to ask for her 
 hand. Tell thyself straightway that Panna Plavitski draws 
 thee, as with nippers, by her face, her eyes, her lips, her 
 arms, her whole person, and do not tempt thyself." 
 
 But, in general, Pan Stanislav held that second internal 
 man firmly, and treated him sometimes with very slight 
 ceremony. Following this method, he said to him, 
 
 " First, thou knowest not, fool, that even in that case I 
 should not try to make good the injury. That at present 
 I wish to make it good by proposing for the lady is natural. 
 Men always ask to marry women who please them, not 
 those for whom they feel repulsion. If thou hast nothing 
 better to say, then be silent." 
 
 The internal man ventured a few more timid remarks, as, 
 for instance, that Plavitski might give command to throw 
 Pan Stanislav downstairs ; that in the best case he might 
 not permit him to cross the threshold. But somehow Pan 
 Stanislav was not afraid of this. "People," thought he, 
 " do not use such means now ; and if the Plavitskis do not 
 receive me, so much the worse for them." 
 
 He admitted, however, that if they had even a little 
 tact they would receive him. He knew that he would see 
 Marynia at Pani Emilia's. 
 
 Meditating in this way, he arrived at Salzburg. There 
 was one hour till the arrival of the train from Monachium, 
 by which he was to go to Vienna; hence he decided 
 to walk about the town. That moment he saw in the 
 restaurant the bright-colored pea-jacket of Bukatski, his 
 monocle, and his small head, covered with a still smaller 
 soft cap. 
 
 " Bukatski or his spirit ! " cried he. 
 
 "Calm thyself, Pan Stanislav," answered Bukatski, 
 phlegmatically, greeting him as if they had parted an hour 
 before. " How art thou ? " 
 
 " What art thou doing here ? " 
 
 " Eating a cutlet." 
 
 "ToReichenhall?" 
 
 " Yes. But thou art homeward ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Thou hast proposed to Pani Emilia ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " Then I forgive thee. Thou mayst go." 
 
 " Keep thy conceits for a fitter season. Litka is in very 
 great danger."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 89 
 
 Bukatski grew serious, and said, raising his brows, 
 
 " Ai, ai ! Is that perfectly certain ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav told briefly the opinion of the doctor. 
 Bukatski listened for a while ; then he said, 
 
 " And is a man not to be a pessimist in this case ? Poor 
 child and poor mother ! In the event of misfortune, I can- 
 not imagine in any way how she will endure it." 
 
 "She is very religious; but it is terrible to think of 
 this." 
 
 " Let us walk through the town a little," said Bukatski ; 
 " one might stifle here." 
 
 They went out. 
 
 " And a man in such straits is not to be a pessimist ! " 
 exclaimed Bukatski. " What is Litka ? Simply a dove ! 
 Every one would spare her ; but death will not spare her." 
 
 Pan Stanislav was silent. 
 
 " I know not myself now," continued Bukatski, " whether 
 to go to Reichenhall or not. In Warsaw, when Pani Emilia 
 is there, even I can hold out. Once a month I propose to 
 her, once a month I receive a refusal ; and thus I live from 
 the first of one month to the first of the next. The first 
 of the month has just passed, and I am anxious for my pen- 
 sion. Is the mother aware of the little girl's condition ? " 
 
 "No. The child is in danger; but perhaps a couple of 
 years remain yet to her." 
 
 "Ah! perhaps no more remain to any of us. Tell me, 
 dost thou think of death often ? " 
 
 "'No. How would that help me ? I know that I must 
 lose the case ; therefore I do not break my head over it, 
 especially before the time." 
 
 " In tliis is the point, we must lose, but still we keep up 
 the trial to the end. This is the whole sense of life, which 
 otherwise would be simply a dreary farce, but now it is a 
 dull tragedy as well. As to me, I have three things at 
 present to choose from : to hang myself, go to Reichenhall, 
 or go to Monachium to see Boecklin's pictures once more. 
 If I were logical, I should choose the first ; since I am not, 
 I '11 choose Keichenhall. Pani Emilia is worth the Boeck- 
 lins, both as to outline and color." 
 
 " What is to be heard in Warsaw ? " asked on a sudden 
 Pan Stanislav, who had had that question on his lips from 
 the first of the conversation. " Hast thou seen Mashko ? 
 
 " I have. He has bought Kremen, he is a great landholder, 
 and, since he has wit, he is using all his power not to seem
 
 90 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 too great. He is polite, sensible, flattering, accessible ; he 
 is changed, not to my advantage, it is true, for what do I 
 care ? but surely to his own." 
 
 " Is n't he going to marry Panna Plavitski ? " 
 
 "I hear that he wants to. Thy partner, Bigiel, said 
 something of this, also that Mashko bought Kremen on 
 conditions more than favorable. Thou wilt find clearer 
 news in the city." 
 
 " Where are the Plavitskis at present ? " 
 
 " In Warsaw. They are living in the Hotel Rome. 
 The young woman is not at all ugly. I called on them as 
 a cousin, and talked about thee." 
 
 " Thou mightst have chosen a more agreeable subject for 
 them." 
 
 "Plavitski, who is glad of what has happened, told me 
 that thou haclst done them a service, without wishing it 
 certainly, but thou hadst done it. I asked the young lady 
 how it was that she saw thee in Kremen for the first time. 
 She answered that during her visit in Warsaw thou must 
 have been in foreign countries." 
 
 " In fact, I was gone then on business of the firm to 
 Berlin, and I remained there some time." 
 
 " Indeed, I did not observe that they were offended at 
 thee. I heard so much, however, of the young lady's love 
 of country life, that she must, I admit, be a little angry at 
 thee for having taken Kremen from her. In every case, 
 she does not show any anger." 
 
 " Perhaps she will show it only to me ; and the oppor- 
 tunity will not be lacking, for I shall visit them immedi- 
 ately after my return." 
 
 " In that case do me one little, service : marry the lady, 
 for of two evils I prefer to be thy cousin rather than 
 Mashko's." 
 
 " Very well," replied Pan Stanislav, curtly.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 91 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AFTER his return to Warsaw, Fan Staiiislav went first of 
 all to Bigiel, who told him minutely the conditions on which 
 Kremen was sold. Those conditions were very profitable 
 for Mashko. He bound himself to pay at the end of a 
 year thirty-five thousand rubles, which were to come from 
 the parcelling of Magyerovka, and besides to pay three 
 thousand yearly till the death of Pan Plavitski. To Pan 
 Stanislav the bargain did not seem at first too unfavorable 
 for Plavitski ; but Bigiel was of another opinion. 
 
 "I do not judge people too hastily," said he; "but 
 Plavitski is an incurable old egotist who has sacrificed the 
 future of his child to his own comfort, and, besides, he is 
 frivolous. In this case the annuity is placed as it were on 
 Kremen; but Kremen, as a ruined estate, on which there 
 is need to spend money, has a fictitious value. If Mashko 
 puts it in order, very well ; if not, in the most favorable 
 event he will fall behind in payment, and Plavitski may 
 not see a copper for years. What will he do then ? He 
 will take Kremen back. But before that time Mashko will 
 contract new debts, even to pay the old ones ; and, in 
 case of his bankruptcy, God knows how many creditors 
 will stretch their hands after Kremen. Finally, all depends 
 on the honesty of Mashko, who may be a correct man, 
 but he is carrying on business riskily; if he takes one false 
 step, it may ruin him. Who knows if this very purchase 
 of Kremen be not such a step ? for, wishing to bring the 
 estate into order, he must draw on his credit to the utmost. 
 I have seen men who succeeded a long time until they 
 turned to buying great estates." 
 
 "The ready money for Magyerovka will remain with the 
 Plavitskis always," said Pan Stanislav, as if wishing to 
 quiet his own fears for their future. 
 
 " If old Plavitski does not eat it up, or play it away, or 
 waste it." 
 
 " I must think of something. I caused the sale ; T must 
 help." 
 
 " Thou ? " asked Bigiel, with astonishment. " I thought 
 that thy relations were broken forever."
 
 92 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " I shall try to renew them. I will visit the Plavitskis 
 to-morrow." 
 
 " I do not know that they will be glad to see thee." 
 
 " And I myself do not know." 
 
 " Dost wish I will go with thee ? For it is a question 
 of breaking the ice. They may not receive thee alone. It 
 is a pity that my wife is not here. I sit by myself whole 
 evenings and play on the violoncello. During the day I 
 have time enough too ; I can go with thee." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, however, refused, and next day he dressed 
 himself with great care and went alone. He knew that rie 
 was a presentable man ; and though usually he did not 
 think much of this, he resolved now to omit nothing which 
 might speak in his favor. On the way he had his head 
 full of thoughts as to what he should say, what he snould 
 do in this case or that one, and he tried to foresee how they 
 would receive him. 
 
 " I will be as simple and outspoken as possible," said he 
 to himself; "that is the best method absolutely." 
 
 And, before he noted it, he found himself at the Hotel 
 Home. His heart began to beat then more quickly. 
 
 " It would not be bad," thought he, " if I should not find 
 them at home. I could leave a card and see later on if 
 Plavitski would acknowledge my visit." 
 
 But straightway he said to himself, "Don't be a coward," 
 and went forward. Learning from the servant that Pla- 
 vitski was at home, he sent in his card, and after a while 
 was invited to enter. 
 
 Plavitski was sitting at a table writing letters, drawing 
 at intervals smoke from a pipe with a great amber mouth- 
 piece. At sight of Pan Stanislav he raised his head, and, 
 looking at him through gold-rimmed glasses, said, 
 
 " I beg, I beg ! " 
 
 "I learned from Bigiel that you and Panna Plavitski 
 were in Warsaw," said Pan Stanislav, " and I came to pay 
 my respects." 
 
 " That was very pretty on thy part," answered Plavitski, 
 " and, to tell the truth, I did not expect it. We parted in 
 a bitter manner and through thy fault. But since thou 
 hast felt it thy duty to visit me, I, as the older, open my 
 arms to thee a second time." 
 
 The opening of the arms, however, was confined to reach- 
 ing across the table a hand, which Pan Stanislav pressed, 
 saying in his own mind,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 93 
 
 " May the Evil One take ine, if I come here to thee, and 
 if I feel toward thee any obligation ! " After a while he 
 asked, "You and your daughter are coming to live in 
 Warsaw ? " 
 
 " Yes. I am an old man of the country, accustomed to 
 rise with the sun and to work in the fields; it will be 
 grievous for me in your Warsaw. But it was not right to 
 imprison my child; hence I made one sacrifice more for 
 her." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who had spent two nights in Kreraen, 
 remembered that Plavitski rose about eleven in the forenoon, 
 and that he labored specially about the business of Kremen, 
 not its fields; he passed this, however, in silence, for he had 
 a head occupied with something else at that moment. From 
 the chamber which Plavitski occupied, an open door led to 
 another, which must be Marynia's. It occurred to Pan 
 Stanislav, who was looking in the direction of that door 
 from the time of his entrance, that perhaps she did not 
 wish to come out ; therefore he inquired, 
 
 " But shall I not have the pleasure of seeing Panna 
 Marynia ? " 
 
 "Marynia has gone to look at lodgings which I found 
 this morning. She will come directly, for they are only a 
 couple of steps distant. Imagine to thyself a plaything, 
 not lodgings. I shall have a cabinet and a sleeping-room ; 
 Marynia also a very nice little chamber, the dining-room 
 is a trifle dark, it is true ; but the drawing-room is a candy- 
 box." 
 
 Here Plavitski passed into a narrative concerning his 
 lodgings, with the volubility of a child amused by some- 
 thing, or of an old lover of comfort, who smiles at every 
 improvement. At last he said, 
 
 " I had barely looked around when I found myself at 
 home. Dear Warsaw is my old friend; I know her well." 
 
 But at that moment some one entered the adjoining room. 
 
 "That is Marynia, surely," said Plavitski. "Marynia, 
 art thou there ? " called he. 
 
 "I am," answered a youthful voice. 
 
 " Come here ; we have a guest." 
 
 Marynia appeared in the door. At sight of Pan Stanis- 
 lav, astonishment shone on her face. He, rising, bowed ; 
 and when she approached the table, he stretched out his 
 hand in greeting. She gave him her own with as much 
 coldness as politeness. Then she turned to her father, as 
 if no one else were present in the room,
 
 04 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " I have seen the lodgings ; they are neat and comfort- 
 able, but I am not sure that the street is not too noisy." 
 
 " All streets are noisy," answered Plavitski. " Warsaw 
 is not a village." 
 
 " Pardon me ; I will go to remove my hat," said Ma- 
 rynia. And, returning to her room, she did not appear 
 for some time. 
 
 " She will not show herself again," thought Pan Stan- 
 islav. 
 
 But evidently she was only arranging her hair before 
 the mirror, after removing her hat ; she entered a second 
 time, and asked, 
 
 " Am I interrupting ? " 
 
 "No," said Plavitski, "we have no business now, for 
 which, speaking in parenthesis, I am very glad. Pan Po- 
 lanyetski has come only through politeness." 
 
 Pan Stanislav blushed a little, and, wishing to change 
 the subject, said, 
 
 " I am returning from Reichenhall ; I bring you greetings 
 from Pani Emilia and Litka, and that is one reason why I 
 made bold to come." 
 
 For a moment the cool self-possession on Marynia's face 
 vanished. 
 
 " Emilia wrote to me of Litka's heart attack," said she. 
 " How is she now ? " 
 
 " There has not been a second attack." 
 
 " I expect another letter, and it may have come ; but I 
 have not received it, for Emilia addressed it very likely to 
 Kremen." 
 
 " They will send it," said Plavitski ; " I gave directions 
 to send all the mail here." 
 
 " You will not go back to the country, then ? " asked 
 Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " No ; we will not," answered Marynia, whose eyes recov- 
 ered their expression of cool self-possession. 
 
 A moment of silence followed. Pan Stanislav looked at 
 the young lady, and seemed to be struggling with himself. 
 Her face attracted him with new power. He felt now 
 more clearly that in such a person precisely he would find 
 most to please him, that he could love such a one, that she 
 is the type of his chosen woman, and all the more her cold- 
 ness became unendurable. He would give now, God knows 
 what, to find again in those features the expression which 
 he saw in Kremen, the interest in his words, and the atten-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 95 
 
 tion, the transparency in those eyes full of smiles and 
 roused cariosity. He would give, God knows what, to have 
 all this return, and he knew not by what method to make it 
 return, by a slow or a quick one ; for this cause he hesitated. 
 He chose at last that which agreed best with his nature. 
 
 "I knew," said he, suddenly, "how you loved Kreinen, 
 and in spite of that, perhaps, it is I who caused its sale. 
 If that be the case, I tell you openly that I regret the act 
 acutely, and shall never cease to regret it. In my defence 
 I cannot even say that I did it while excited, and without 
 intent. Nay, I had an intent; only it was malicious and 
 irrational. All the greater is my fault, and all the more 
 do I entreat your forgiveness." 
 
 When he had said this, he rose. His cheeks were flushed, 
 and from his eyes shone truth and sincerity ; but his words 
 remained without effect. Pan Stanislav went by a false 
 road. He knew women in general too slightly to render 
 account to himself of how far their judgments, especially 
 their judgments touching men, are dependent on their feel- 
 ings, both transient and permanent. In virtue of these 
 feelings, anything may be taken as good or bad money; 
 anything interpreted for evil or good, recognized as true or 
 false ; stupidity may be counted reason, reason stupidity, 
 egotism devotion, devotion egotism, rudeness sincerity, 
 sincerity lack of delicacy. The man who in a given mo- 
 ment rouses dislike, cannot be right with a woman, cannot 
 be sincere, cannot be just, cannot be well-bred. So Marynia, 
 feeling deep aversion and resentment toward Pan Stanislav 
 from the time of Mashko's coming to Kremen, took sincerity 
 simply ill of him. Her first thought was : " What kind of 
 man is this who recognizes as unreasonable and bad that 
 which a few days ago he did with calculation ? " Then Kre- 
 men, the sale of the place, Mashko's visit and the meaning 
 of that visit, which she divined, were for her like a wound 
 festering more and more. And now it seemed to her that 
 Pan Stanislav was opening that wound with all the unspar- 
 ingness of a man of rough nature and rude nerves. 
 
 He rose, and with eyes fixed on her face, waited to see if 
 a friendly and forgiving hand would not be extended to 
 him, with a clear feeling that one such stretching forth of 
 a hand might decide his fate ; but her eyes grew dark for a 
 moment, as if from pain and anger, and her face became 
 still colder. 
 
 " Let not that annoy you," said she, with icy politeness.
 
 96 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "On the contrary, papa is very much satisfied with the 
 bargain and with the whole arrangement with Pan 
 Mashko." 
 
 She rose then, as if understanding that Pan Stanislav 
 wished to take leave. He stood a moment stricken, disap- 
 pointed, full of resentment and suppressed anger, full of 
 that feeling of mortification which a man has when he is 
 rejected. 
 
 " If that is true, I desire nothing more." 
 
 " It is, it is ! I did a good business," concluded Plavitski. 
 
 Pan Stanislav went out, and, descending a number of steps 
 at a time with hat pressed down on his head, he repeated 
 mentally, 
 
 " A foot of mine will not be in your house again." 
 
 He felt, however, that, if he were to go home, anger would 
 stifle him ; he walked on, therefore, not thinking whither 
 his feet were bearing him. It seemed to him at that 
 moment that he did not love Marynia, that he even hated 
 her ; but still he thought about her, and if he had thought 
 more calmly he would have told himself that the mere 
 sight of her had affected him deeply. He had seen her 
 now a second time, had looked on her, had compared 
 that image of her which he had borne in his memory with 
 the reality ; the image became thereby still more definite, 
 more really attractive, and acted the more powerfully on 
 him. And, in spite of the anger, in the depth of his soul an 
 immense liking for her raised its head, and a delight in the 
 woman. There existed, as it were, for him two Marynias, 
 one the mild, friendly Marynia of Kremen, listening and 
 ready to love ; the other that icy young lady of Warsaw, 
 who had rejected him. A woman often becomes dual in 
 this way in the heart of a man, which is then most fre- 
 quently ready to forgive this unfriendly one for the sake of 
 that loved one. Pan Stanislav did not even admit that 
 Marynia could be such as she had shown herself that day ; 
 hence there was in his anger a certain surprise. Knowing 
 his own undeniable worth, and being conceited enough, he 
 carried within him a conviction, which he would not 
 acknowledge to himself, that it was enough for him to 
 extend his hand to have it seized. This time it turned out 
 differently. That mild Marynia appeared suddenly, not 
 only in the role of a judge, who utters sentences and con- 
 demns, but also in the role, as it were, of a queen, with whom 
 it is possible to be in favor or disfavor. Pan Stanislav
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 97 
 
 could not accustom himself to this thought, and he struggled 
 with it; but such is human nature that, when he learned that 
 for that lady he was not so much desired as he had thought, 
 that she not only did not over-value him, but esteemed 
 him lower than herself, in spite of his displeasure, offence, 
 and anger, her value increased in his eyes. His self-love was 
 wounded ; but, on the other hand, his will, in reality strong, 
 was ready to rush to the struggle with difficulties, and crush 
 them. All these thoughts were circling chaotically in his 
 head, or, instead of thoughts, they were rather feelings torn 
 and tearing themselves. He repeated a hundred times to 
 himself that he would drop the whole matter, that he must 
 and wished to do so; and at the same time he was so weak 
 and small that somewhere in the most secret corner of his 
 soul he was counting that very moment on the arrival of 
 Pani Emilia, and on the aid which her arrival would bring 
 him. Sunk in this mental struggle, he did not recollect 
 himself till he was halfway on the Zyazd, when he asked, 
 " Why the misery have I gone to Praga ? " He halted. 
 The day was fine and was inclining toward evening. Lower 
 down, the Vistula was flowing in the gleam of the sun; and 
 beyond it, and beyond the nearer clumps of green, a broad 
 country was visible, covered on the horizon with a rosy and 
 blue haze. Far away, beyond that haze, was Kremen, which 
 Marynia had loved and which she had lost. Pan Stanislav, 
 fixing his eyes on the haze, said to himself, 
 
 " I am curious to know what she would have done had I 
 given Kremen to her." 
 
 He could not imagine that to himself definitely ; but he 
 thought that the loss of that land was for her a great bitter- 
 ness really, and he regretted it. In this sorrow his anger 
 began to scatter and vanish as mist. His conscience 
 whispered that he had received what he earned. Return- 
 ing, he said to himself, "But I am thinking of all this 
 continually." 
 
 And really he was. Never had he experienced, in th 
 most important money questions, even half the disquiet, 
 never had he been absorbed so deeply. And again he 
 remembered what Yaskovski had said of himself, that his 
 nature, like Pan Stanislav's, could not fix its whole power on 
 the acquisition of money. Never had he felt with such 
 clearness that there ini^ht be questions more important 
 than those of wealth, ar.rl simply more positive. For the 
 second time a certain astonishm, nt seized him.
 
 98 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 It was nearly nine when he went to Bigiel's. Bigiel was 
 sitting in a spacious, empty house with doors opening on 
 the garden veranda; he was playing on a violoncello in such 
 fashion that everything through the house was quivering. 
 When he saw Fan Stanislav he broke off a certain tremolo 
 and inquired, 
 
 " Hast thou been at the Plavitskis' to-day ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " How was the young lady ? " 
 
 " Like a decanter of chilled water. On such a hot day 
 that is agreeable. They are polite people, however." 
 
 "I foresaw this." 
 
 " Play on." 
 
 Bigiel began to play " Traumerei," and while playing 
 closed his eyes, or turned them to the inoon. In the still- 
 ness the music seemed to fill with sweetness the house, the 
 garden, and the night itself. When he had finished, he was 
 silent for a time, and then said, 
 
 " Knowest what ? When Pani Emilia comes, my wife 
 will ask her to the county, and with her Marynia. Maybe 
 those ices will thaw then between you." 
 
 " Play the ' Traumerei' once more." 
 
 The sounds were given out a second time, with calmness 
 and imagination. Pan Stanislav was too young not to be 
 somewhat of a dreamer ; hence he imagined tha.t Marynia 
 was listening with him to the " Traumerei," with her hand 
 in his hands, with her head on his bosom, loving much, and 
 beloved above all in the world.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAN PLAVITSKI was what is called a well-bred man, for he 
 returned Pan Stanislav's visit on the third day. He did 
 not return it on the second, for such haste would have 
 indicated a wish to maintain intimate relations ; and not on 
 the fourth nor the fifth, for that would have shown a want 
 of acquaintance with the habits of society, but only 
 within the period most specially and exclusively indicated 
 by command of sdvoir vivre. Plavitski prided himself all 
 his life on a knowledge of those commands, and esteemed 
 them as his own ; the observances of them he considered 
 as the highest human wisdom. It is true that, as a man of 
 sense, he permitted other branches of knowledge to exist, 
 on condition, however, that they should not be overesti- 
 mated ; and especially, that they should not have the claim 
 to force themselves on to people who were truly well-bred. 
 
 Pan Stanislav for whom everything was desirable that 
 would strengthen in any way the thread of further rela- 
 tions with Marynia was hardly able to conceal his delight 
 at the arrival of Plavitski. That delight was evident in 
 his agreeable reception, full of good-humor. He must have 
 been astonished, besides, at Plavitski, and the influence 
 which the city had exercised on him. His hair shone like 
 the wing of a raven ; his little mustaches were sticking up, 
 vying with the color of his hair ; his white shirt covered a 
 slender form ; his scarf-pin and black vest gave a certain 
 holiday brilliancy to his whole figure. 
 
 " On my word, I did not recognize my uncle at the first 
 moment ! " cried Pan Stanislas " I thought that some 
 youngster was coming." 
 
 "Bon jour, Ion jour /" answered Plavitski. " The day 
 is cloudy ; a little dark here. It must be for that reason 
 that thou didst mistake me for a stripling." 
 
 " Cloudy or clear, what a figure ! " answered Pan Stanis- 
 lav. 
 
 And seizing Plavitski by the side, without ceremony, he 
 began to turn him around and say, 
 
 " A waist just like a young lady's ! Would that I might 
 have such a one ! "
 
 100 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Plavitski, offended greatly by such an unceremonious 
 greeting, but still more delighted at the admiration roused 
 by his person, said, defending himself, 
 
 " Voyons ! Thou art a lunatic. I might be angry. Thou 
 art a lunatic ! " 
 
 " But uncle will turn as many heads as he pleases." 
 
 " "What dost thou say ? " asked Plavitski, sitting down in 
 an armchair. 
 
 " I say that uncle has come here for conquest." 
 
 "I have no thought whatever of that. Thou art a 
 lunatic ! " 
 
 "But Pani Yamish? or haven't I seen with my own 
 eyes " 
 
 What ? " 
 
 Here Plavitski shut one eye and thrust out the point of 
 his tongue ; but that lasted only an instant, then he raised 
 his brows, and said, 
 
 "Well, as to Pani Yamish? She is well enough in 
 Kremen. Between thee and me, I cannot endure affecta- 
 tion, it savors of the country. May the Lord God not 
 remember, for Pani Yamish, how much she has tortured me 
 with her affectation : a woman should have courage to 
 grow old, then a relation would end in friendship ; other- 
 wise it becomes slavery." 
 
 "And my dear uncle felt like a butterfly in bonds ? " 
 
 " But don't talk in that way," answered Plavitski, with 
 dignity, "and do not imagine that there was anything 
 between us. Even if there had been, thou wouldst not 
 have heard a word about it from me. Believe me, there is 
 a great difference between you of this and us of the preced- 
 ing generation. We were not saints, perhaps; but we 
 knew how to be silent, and that is a great virtue, without 
 which what is called true nobility cannot exist." 
 
 " From this I infer that uncle will not confess to me 
 where he is going, with this carnation in his buttonhole ?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, yes ! Mashko invited me to-day to dine with 
 a number of other persons. At first I refused, not wishing to 
 leave Marynia alone. But I have sat so many years in the 
 country for her sake that in truth a little recreation is due 
 to me. But art thou not invited ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " That astonishes me : thou art, as thou sayest, an ' affair- 
 ist ' ; but thou bearest a good family name. For that 
 matter, Mashko is an advocate himself. But, in general, I
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 101 
 
 confess that I did not suspect in Mashko the power to 
 place himself as he has." 
 
 " Mashko could place himself even on his head " 
 
 "He goes everywhere; all receive him. Once I had a 
 prejudice against him." 
 
 "And has uncle none now ?" 
 
 " I must acknowledge that he has acted with me in all 
 that business of Kremen like a gentleman." 
 
 "Is Panna Marynia of the same opinion ?" 
 
 " Certainly ; though I think that Kremen lies on her 
 heart. I got rid of it for her sake, but youth cannot 
 understand everything. I knew about her views, however, 
 and am ready to endure every bitterness with calm. As 
 to Mashko, in truth, she cannot cast reproach at him for 
 anything. He bought Kremen, it is true, but " 
 
 " But he is ready to give it back ? " 
 
 " Thou art of the family, so, speaking between us, I think 
 that that is true. Marynia occupied him greatly, even 
 during our former visit to Warsaw ; but somehow the affair 
 did not move. The maiden was too young ; he did not please 
 her sufficiently ; I was a little opposed myself, for I was 
 prejudiced as to his family. Bukatski sharpened his teeth 
 at him, so it ended in nothing." 
 
 "It did not end, since it is beginning again." 
 
 " It is, for I am convinced that he comes of a very good 
 family, once Italian and formerly called Masco. They 
 came here with Queen Bona, and settled in White Eussia 
 at that time. He, if thou hast noticed it, has a face some- 
 what Italian." 
 
 " No ; he has a Portuguese face." 
 
 " That is all one, however. But the plan to sell Kremen 
 and still to keep it no common head could have worked 
 that out. As to Mashko yes I think that such is his 
 plan. Marynia is a strange girl, though. It is bitter to say 
 this, that a man understands a stranger sooner than his 
 own child. But if she will only say as Talleyrand did, 
 * Paris vaut la messe' " 
 
 "Ah, I thought that it was Henry IV. who said that." 
 
 " Thou didst, for thou art an ' affairist,' a man of recent 
 times. History and ancient deeds are not to the taste of 
 you young men, ye prefer to make money. Everything 
 depends, then, on Marynia ; but I will not hurry her. I will 
 not, for, finally, with our connections, a better match may 
 be found. It is necessary to go out a little among people
 
 102 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 and find old acquaintances. That is only toil and torment ; 
 but what is necessary, is necessary. Thou thinkest that 
 I go to this dinner with pleasure. No ! but I must receive 
 young people sometimes. I hope too that thou wilt not 
 forget us." 
 
 " No, no ; I will not." 
 
 "Dost know what they say of thee? that thou art 
 making money infernally. Well, well, I don't know whom 
 thou art like not like thy father ! lu every case, I am 
 not the man to blame thee, no, no ! Thou didst throttle 
 me without mercy, didst treat me as the wolf did the lamb ; 
 but there is in thee something which pleases me, I have 
 for thee a kind of weakness." 
 
 " The feeling is mutual," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 In fact, Plavitski did not lie. He had an instinctive 
 respect for property, and that young man, who was gaining 
 it, roused in him a certain admiration, bordering on sym- 
 pathy. He was not some poor relative who might ask for 
 assistance ; and therefore Plavitski, though for the moment 
 he had no calculations in regard to Pan Stanislav, resolved 
 to keep up relations with him. At the end of the visit he 
 began to look around on the apartments. 
 
 "Thou hast fine lodgings! " said he. 
 
 That, too, was true. Pan Stanislav had a dwelling 
 furnished as if he were about to marry. The furnishing 
 itself caused him pleasure, for it gave a certain show of 
 reality to his wishes. 
 
 Plavitski, looking around at the drawing-room, beyond 
 which was another smaller apartment furnished very 
 elegantly, inquired, 
 
 " Why not marry ? " 
 
 " I will when I can." 
 
 Plavitski smiled cunningly, and, patting Pan Stanislav 
 on the knee, began to repeat, 
 
 " I know whom ; I know whom." 
 
 " Wit is needed in this case ! " cried Pan Stanislav ; " try 
 to keep a secret from such a diplomat." 
 
 "Ah ha! whom ? The widow, the widow whom ?" 
 
 " Dear uncle ! " 
 
 "Well? May God bless thee, as I bless thee! But 
 now I am going, for it is time to dine, and in the evening 
 there will be a concert in Doliua." 
 
 "In company with Mashko ? " 
 
 " No, with Marynia ; but Mashko too will be there."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 103 
 
 " I will go also, with Bigiel." 
 
 "Then we shall see each other. A mountain cannot 
 meet a mountain, but a man may meet a man any time." 
 
 " As Talleyrand said." 
 
 " Till our next meeting, then ! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav liked music at times ; he had had no 
 thought, though, of going to this concert ; but when 
 Plavitski mentioned it, a desire of seeing Mashko seized 
 him. After Plavitski had gone, he thought some time 
 yet whether to go or not; but it might be said that he did 
 this for form's sake, since he knew in advance that he 
 would not hold out and would go. Bigiel, who came to 
 him for a business consultation in the afternoon, let him- 
 self be persuaded easily, and about four o'clock they were 
 in Dolina. 
 
 The day, though in September, was so warm and pleasant 
 that people had assembled numerously ; the whole audience 
 had a summer look. On all sides were bright-colored 
 dresses, parasols, and youthful women, who had swarmed 
 forth like many-colored butterflies, warmed by the sun. In 
 this swarm, predestined for love, or already the object of 
 that feeling and entertaining it, and assembled there for the 
 pursuit of love and for music, Marynia also was to appear. 
 Pan Stanislav remembered his student years, when he was 
 enamoured of unknown maidens whom he sought in throngs 
 of people, and made mistakes every moment, through simi- 
 larity of hat, hair, and general appearance. And it hap- 
 pened now to him, to mistake at a distance a number of 
 persons for Marynia, persons more or less like her ; and 
 now, as before, whenever he said to himself, " This is 
 she ! " he felt those quivers at the heart, that disquiet 
 which he had felt formerly. To-day, however, anger came 
 on him, for this seemed to him ridiculous ; and, besides, 
 he felt that such eagerness for meetings and interviews, by 
 occupying a man, and fixing his attention on one woman, 
 increases the interest which she excites, and binds him all 
 the more to her. 
 
 Meanwhile the orchestra began to play before he could 
 find her for whom he was looking. It was necessary to sit 
 down and listen, which he did unwillingly, secretly impa- 
 tient with Bigiel, who listened with closed eyes. After the 
 piece was ended, he saw at last Plavitski's shining cylinder, 
 and his black mustaches ; beyond him the profile of Marynia. 
 Mashko sat third, calm, full of distinction, with the mien of
 
 104 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 an English lord. At times he talked to Marynia, and she 
 turned to him, nodding slightly. 
 
 " The Plavitskis are there," said Pan Stanislav. "We 
 must greet them." 
 
 " Where dost thou see them ? " 
 
 " Over there, with Mashko." 
 
 " True. Let us go." 
 
 And they went. 
 
 Marynia, who liked Pani Bigiel, greeted Bigiel very 
 cordially. She bowed to Pan Stanislav not with such cool- 
 ness as to. arrest attention ; but she talked with Bigiel, in- 
 quiring for the health of his wife and children. In answer, 
 he invited her and her father very earnestly to visit them 
 on the following week, at his place in the country. 
 
 " My wife will be happy, very happy ! " repeated he. 
 "Pani Emilia too will come." 
 
 Marynia tried to refuse ; but Plavitski, who sought enter- 
 tainment, and who knew from his former stay in Warsaw 
 that Bigiel lived well, accepted. It was settled that they 
 would dine, and return in the evening. The trip was an 
 easy one, for Bigiel's villa was only one station distant 
 from Warsaw. 
 
 "Meanwhile sit near us," said Plavitski; "right here a 
 number of seats are unoccupied." 
 
 Pan Stanislav had turned already to Marynia, 
 
 " Have you news from Pani Emilia ? " 
 
 "I wished to ask if you had," answered she. 
 
 " I have not ; but to-morrow I shall inquire about Litka 
 by telegram." 
 
 Here the conversation stopped. Bigiel took the seat 
 next to Plavitski, Pan Stanislav on the outside. Marynia 
 turned to Mashko again, so that Pan Stanislav could see 
 only her profile, and that not completely. It seemed to 
 him that she had grown somewhat thin, or at least her 
 complexion had become paler and more delicate during her 
 stay of a few weeks in Warsaw ; hence her long eyelashes 
 were more sharply defined and seemed to cast more shade. 
 Her whole form had become more exquisite, as it were. 
 The effect was heightened by a careful toilet and equally 
 careful arrangement of hair, the style of which was different 
 from what it had been. Formerly she wore her hair bound 
 lower down, now it was dressed more in fashion ; that is, 
 high under her hat. Pan Stanislav noted her elegant form 
 at a glance, and admired with his whole soul the charm of it.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 105 
 
 which was evident iu everything, even in the way in which 
 she held her hands on her knees. She seemed very beauti- 
 ful to him. He felt again with great force that if every 
 man bears within him his own type of female charm, which 
 is the measure of the impression that a given woman makes 
 on him, Marynia is for him so near his type that she 
 and it are almost identical, and, looking at her, he said to 
 himself, 
 
 " Oh to have such a wife, to have such a wife ! " 
 
 But she turned to Mashko. Perhaps she turned even too 
 often; and if Pan Stanislav had preserved all his coolness of 
 blood, he might have thought that she did so to annoy him, 
 and that was the case, perhaps. Their conversation must 
 have been animated, however, for, from time to time, a 
 bright blush flashed over her face. 
 
 " But she is simply playing the coquette with him," 
 thought Pan Stanislav, gritting his teeth. And he wanted 
 absolutely to hear what they were saying; that was difficult, 
 however. The audience, during the long intervals, was 
 noisy enough. Separated by two persons from Marynia, 
 Pan Stanislav could not hear what she said ; but after a 
 new piece of music had been finished, he heard single 
 words and opinions from Mashko, who had the habit 
 of speaking with emphasis, so as to give greater weight 
 to each word. 
 
 "I like him," said Mashko. "Every man has a weak- 
 ness ; his weakness is money I am grateful to him, for 
 he persuaded me to Kremen I think, besides, that he 
 is a sincere well-wisher of yours, for he has not spared 
 I confess, too, that he roused my curiosity." 
 
 Marynia answered something with great vivacity ; then 
 Pan Stanislav heard again the end of Mashko's answer, 
 
 "A character not formed yet, and intelligence perhaps 
 loss than energy, but a nature rather good." 
 
 Pan Stanislav understood perfectly that they were talk- 
 ing of him, and recognized Mashko's tactics equally well. 
 To judge, as it were, with reason and impartially, rather, to 
 praise, or at least to recognize various qualities, and at 
 the same time to strip them of every charm, was a method 
 well known to the young advocate. Through this he 
 raised himself to the exceptional, and, as it were, higher 
 position of a judge. Pan Stanislav knew, too, that Mashko 
 spoke not so much with intent to lower him, as to exalt 
 himself, and that likely he would have said the same thing
 
 106 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 of every other young man in whom he might suspect a 
 possible rival. 
 
 They were finally the tactics which Pan Stanislav him- 
 self might have used in a similar case ; this did not hinder 
 him, however, from considering them in Mashko as the 
 acme of perversity, and he determined to pay him if the 
 opportunity offered. 
 
 Toward the end of the concert he was able to see how 
 far Mashko was assuming the role of suitor. When Ma- 
 rynia, wishing to tie her veil, had removed her gloves and 
 they had fallen from her knees, Mashko raised them and held 
 them, together with her parasol ; at the same time he took 
 her wrap from the side of the chair and placed it across his 
 arm, so as to give it to her when they were leaving the 
 garden, in a word, he was entirely occupied with the lady, 
 though he preserved the coolness and tact of a genuine 
 man of society. He seemed also sure of himself and happy. 
 In fact, Marynia, beyond the brief conversation with Bigiel, 
 talked only with Mashko during the time when she was 
 not listening to the music. When they moved toward the 
 gate, she went with him and before her father. Again Pan 
 Stanislav saw her smiling profile turning to Mashko. 
 While talking, they looked into each other's eyes. Her face 
 was vivacious, and her attention directed exclusively to 
 what he was saying. She was, in fact, coquetting with 
 Mashko, who saw it himself, without admitting, hbwever, 
 for a moment, in spite of his cleverness, that she could do 
 so merely to worry Pan Stanislav. 
 
 Before the gate a carriage was waiting in which Mashko 
 seated her and her father. He began then to take leave of 
 them ; but Marynia, inclining toward him, said, 
 
 " How is this ? Papa has invited you ; is it not true, 
 papa ? " 
 
 " He was to come with us," said Plavitski. 
 
 Mashko took his seat in the carriage, and they drove 
 away, exchanging bows with Bigiel and Pan Stanislav. 
 The two friends walked on a good while in silence ; at last 
 Pan Stanislav said, feigning calmness in his voice, 
 
 " I am curious to know if they are betrothed." 
 
 " I do not think they are," said Bigiel ; " but it is 
 tending that way." 
 
 " I too see that." 
 
 " I thought that Mashko would seek property. But he is 
 in love, and that may happen even to a man who is think-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 107 
 
 ing only of a career. Mashko is in love. Besides, by tak- 
 ing her he will free himself from paying for Kremen. 
 No, the business is not so bad as it seems, and the lady is 
 very pretty ; what is true, is true." 
 
 And they were silent again. But Pan Stauislav felt so 
 oppressed that he could not control himself. 
 
 " This thought that she will marry him is simply a tor- 
 ment to me. And this helplessness ! I should prefer anv- 
 thing to such helplessness. I speak to thee openly. What 
 a stupid and ridiculous role I have played in the whole 
 affair ! " 
 
 "Thou hast gone too far, that may happen to any one; 
 that thou wert her father's creditor is the fault of remark- 
 able circumstances. Thy understanding of such matters 
 differs utterly from his : thou and he are men from two 
 different planets, hence the misunderstanding. Perhaps 
 the affair was too sharply put by thee ; but when I think it 
 all over, too great mildness was not proper, even out of 
 regard to Panna Marynia. By making too great abate- 
 ments thou wouldst have made them for her, is it not 
 true ? What would have resulted ? This, that she helped 
 her father in exploiting thee. No ; it was for thee to finish 
 the matter." 
 
 Here the prudent Bigiel checked himself, thought a 
 moment, and said, 
 
 " And as to thy role, there is one escape : to withdraw 
 completely, leave events to their course, and tell thyself 
 that all is going according to thy idea." 
 
 " How will it help me," cried Pan Stanislav, violently, 
 " to say that, when all is going against my idea ? and since 
 I feel foolish, there is no help for it. How could there be? 
 To begin with, I did all this myself, and now I want to 
 undo it. All my life I have known what I wanted, but 
 this time I have acted as if I didn't know." 
 
 " There are passages in life to be forgotten." 
 
 "That may be, my dear man, but meanwhile interest in 
 life falls away. Is the question whether I am well or ill, 
 rich or naked, the same to me now as it once was ? I feel 
 sick at the very thought of the future. Thou art estab- 
 lished and connected with life ; but what am I ? There 
 was a prospect ; now there is none. That gives a great 
 distaste for things." 
 
 " But surely Panna Marynia is not the only woman on 
 earth."
 
 108 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Why say that ? She is the only one now ; were there 
 another, I should think of that other. What is the use of 
 such talk ? In this lies the question, in this the whole 
 ev il ; that she is the only one. A year from now a tile may 
 fall on my head, or I may find another woman : what will 
 happen to-morrow I know not ; but that the deuce is tak- 
 ing me to-day, I do know. This is connected in me with 
 other things too, of which to-day I do not care to speak. 
 In external life it is necessary to eat bread in peace, is 
 not that true ? In internal life it is the same. And this is 
 an urgent affair ; but I defer internal life till after marriage, 
 for I understand that new conditions work out a new way 
 of thinking, and moreover, I wish to finish one thing before 
 beginning another. But everything grows involved, not 
 only involved, but vanishes. Barely has something ap- 
 peared when it is gone. This is the case now. I live in 
 uncertainty. I would prefer if they were already betrothed, 
 for then all would end of itself." 
 
 " I tell thee only this," said Bigiel : " when I was a boy, I 
 got a thorn in me sometimes ; it pained much less to draw 
 the thorn out myself than to let some one else draw it." 
 
 "In that thou art right," said Pan Stanislav, who added 
 after a while, "The thorn may be drawn if it has not gone 
 in too deeply, and one can seize it. But what are compari- 
 sons ! When a thorn is drawn out, nothing is lost ; but my 
 hope of the future is ruined." 
 
 " That may be true ; but if there is no help for it ? " 
 
 "To accept that view is just what grieves the man who 
 is not an imbecile." 
 
 The conversation stopped here. At the moment of 
 parting Pan Stanislav said, 
 
 "By the way, I should prefer not to be with you on 
 Sunday." 
 
 " Maybe thou wilt do well to stay away."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 109 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A SURPRISE was waiting at home for Pan Stanislav ; he 
 found the following despatch from Pani Emilia, " I leave 
 here for home to-morrow evening; Litka is well." This 
 return was unexpected, or at least uncommonly hurried; 
 but since the despatch contained an assurance as to Litka's 
 health, Pan Stanislav understood that Pani Emilia was 
 returning for the sole purpose of occupying herself with 
 his affair, and his heart rose in gratitude. " There is an 
 honest nature," said he to himself ; "that is a friend." And 
 with thankfulness there rose in his heart such hope, as if 
 Pani Emilia had the ring of an enchantress, or a magic 
 rod, with which she could change the heart of Panna 
 Marynia in an instant. Pan Stanislav did not know clearly 
 how this could be done ; but he knew that one person at 
 least wished him well with deep sincerity, would speak for 
 him, would justify him, would exalt his heart and character 
 and diminish prejudices, which the course of events had 
 accumulated against him. He calculated that Pani Emilia 
 would be very persevering, and that for her this would be 
 a question of duty. A man who is troubled by something 
 is glad to find a person on whom to put responsibility. So 
 in moments of rising bitterness, especially, it seemed to 
 Pan Stanislav that Pani Emilia was responsible for his 
 relations with Marynia; for if she had not shown that 
 letter from which Marynia's readiness to love him was evi- 
 dent, he would have been able to take his mind and heart 
 from her. Perhaps this was true, since in the history of . 
 his feelings this letter did in fact play a leading part. Tt 
 showed him how near happiness had been, almost secured ; 
 to what extent in her own mind Marynia had given him heart 
 and soul. It is more difficult to throw away happiness which 
 is not only desired, but begun ; and, had it not been for 
 that letter, Pan Stanislav might have regretted the past less, 
 forgotten it more easily, and reconciled himself to the 
 position more readily. At present he thought it even her 
 duty to help him with all her power. Finally, he under- 
 stood that the affair would move, as it were, of itself ; he 
 hoped to see Marynia often, and in conditions most favor-
 
 HO CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 able, since he would see her in a house where he was loved 
 and esteemed, and where like feelings must be communi- 
 cated to each guest. All this strengthened Pan Stanislav's 
 hope ; but it added new links to those which bound his 
 thoughts to Marynia. Previously he had promised himself 
 not to go to Bigiel's (on Sunday) ; now he changed his 
 decision, thinking that, if only health permitted, Pani Emilia 
 too would take part in the trip. Aside from reasons con- 
 nected with Marynia, he rejoiced from his whole soul to 
 see the beloved faces of Pani Emilia and Litka, who were 
 his greatest attachments in life so far. 
 
 That same evening he wrote a few words to Plavitski 
 touching the arrival, supposing that Marynia woul'd be 
 thankful for that information ; he gave notice at Pani 
 Emilia's, so that servants would be waiting i the morning 
 with tea ; and he hired a commodious carriage to take her 
 and Litka to their home. 
 
 Xext morning at five he was at the station ; while wait- 
 ing for the train, he began to run briskly along the plat- 
 form to warm himself somewhat, since the morning was 
 cool. Remote objects, the station buildings, and the cars 
 standing on the near rails, were sunk in fog, which, very 
 dense near the ground, became rose-colored and shining 
 higher up, announcing that the day would be pleasant. 
 Except officials and servants, there was no one on the plat- 
 form yet, because of the early hour ; gradually, however, 
 people began to arrive. All at once two forms came out 
 of the fog; in one of these Pan Stanislav, with beating 
 heart, recognized Marynia, who was hastening, with her 
 maid, to greet Pani Emilia. As he had not expected the 
 meeting, he was greatly confused at the first moment. 
 She stopped short, as if astonished or troubled. After a 
 while, however, he approached and extended his hand to 
 her, 
 
 "Good-day!" said he. "And truly it will be a good 
 day for us both if our travellers arrive." 
 
 "Then is it not certain ? " asked Marynia. 
 
 " Of course it is certain, unless something unlocked for 
 prevents. I received a despatch yesterday, and sent the 
 news to Pan Plavitski, thinking that you would be glad to 
 hear it." 
 
 " Thank you. The surprise was so pleasant ! " 
 
 "The best proof of that is that you have risen so early." 
 
 " I have not lost the habit of early rising yet."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. Ill 
 
 " We came too soon. The train will arrive only in half 
 an hour. Meanwhile I advise you to walk, for the morn- 
 ing is cool, though the day promises to be tine." 
 
 "The fog is clearing," said Marynia, raising her blue 
 eyes, which to Pan Stanislav seemed violet in the light of 
 the morning. 
 
 " Do you wish to walk along the platform ? " 
 
 " Thank you ; I prefer to sit in the waiting-room." 
 
 And, nodding, she went away. Pan Stanislav began to 
 fly with hurried steps along the platform. It was some- 
 what bitter to think that she would not remain ; but he 
 explained to himself that perhaps this was not proper, 
 and, besides, the bitterness was overcome by the pleasant 
 thought of how the coining of Pani Emilia would bring 
 them nearer, and how many meetings it would cause. 
 A certain wonderful solace and good-humor continued to 
 rise in him. He thought of the violet eyes of Marynia, 
 and her face made rosy by the coolness of the morning; 
 he rushed past the windows of the hall in which she was 
 sitting, and said to himself almost joyfully, 
 
 " Ah, ha ! sit there, hide thyself! I will find thee." And 
 he felt with greater force than ever how dear she might 
 become to him, if she would be kind even in a small degree. 
 
 Meanwhile bells sounded ; and a few minutes later, in the 
 fog, still dense at the earth, though the sky above was blue, 
 appeared the dim outlines of the train, which, as it ap- 
 proached, became more clearly defined. The engine, puffing 
 interrupted clumps of smoke, rolled in with decreasing 
 movement, and, stopping, began with noise and hissing to 
 belch forth under its front wheels the useless remnant of 
 steam. 
 
 Pan Stanislav sprang to the sleeping-car ; the first face 
 at the window was Litka's, which at sight of him grew as 
 radiant as if a sudden sunbeam had fallen on it. The little 
 girl's hands began to move joyously, beckoning to Pan 
 Stanislav, who was -in the car in one moment. 
 
 " My dearest little kitten ! " cried he, seizing Litka's 
 hand, " and hast thou slept ; art thou well ? " 
 
 " I am well ; and we have come home. And we '11 be 
 together and good-day, Pan Stas ! " 
 
 Right behind the little girl stood Pani Emilia, whose 
 hand "Pan Stas "kissed very cordially; and he began to 
 speak quickly, as people do at time of greeting, 
 
 " Good day to the dear lady. J have a carriage. You
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL 
 
 can go at once. My servant will take your baggage ; L ask 
 only for the check. They are waiting for you at home 
 with tea. Pray give the check. Panna Plavitski is here too." 
 
 Panna Plavitski was waiting, in fact, outside the car ; 
 and she and Pani Emilia shook hands, with faces full of 
 smiles. Litka looked for a moment at Marynia, as if hesi- 
 tating ; after a while, however, she threw herself on her 
 neckwith her usual cordiality. 
 
 " Marynia, thou wilt go with us to tea," said Pani Emilia. 
 " It is ready, and thou art fasting, of course." 
 
 " Thou art tired, travelling all night." 
 
 " From the boundary we slept as if killed ; and when we 
 woke, we had time to wash and dress. Iii every case we 
 must drink tea. Thou wilt go with us ? " 
 
 " I will, with the greatest pleasure." 
 
 But Litka began to pull at her mother's dress. 
 
 "Mamma, and Pan Stas." 
 
 "But, naturally, Pan Stas too, he thought of every- 
 thing. Thanks to him, everything is ready. He must go 
 with us, of course." 
 
 " He must ; he must ! " cried Litka, turning to Pan Stan- 
 islav, who answered, smiling, 
 
 " Not he must ; but he wants to." 
 
 And after a moment all four took their places in the car- 
 riage. Pan Stanislav was in excellent humor. Marynia 
 was before him, and at his side little Litka. It seemed to 
 him that the morning brightness was entering him, and 
 that better days were beginning. He felt that henceforth 
 he would belong to an intimate circle of beings bound 
 together by comradeship and friendship, and in that circle 
 would be Marynia. Now she was sitting there before him, 
 near his eye, and near the friendship which both felt for 
 Pani Emilia and Litka. Meanwhile all four were talking 
 joyously. 
 
 "What has happened, Emilka," asked Marynia, "that 
 thou hast come so soon ? " 
 
 " Litka begged so every day to come home." 
 
 " Dost not like to live abroad ? " asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Homesick for Warsaw ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And for me ? Now tell quickly, or it will be bad." 
 
 Litka looked at her mother, at Marynia, and then at Pan 
 Stanislav ; and at last sha said,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 113 
 
 " And for Pan Stas too." 
 
 " Take this for that ! " said Pan Stanislav, and he seized 
 her little hand to kiss it ; but she defended herself as she 
 could. At last she hid her hand. He, turning to Marynia, 
 and showing his sound white teeth, said, 
 
 "As you see, we are always quarrelling; -but we love 
 each other." 
 
 " That is the way generally," answered Marynia. 
 
 And he, looking her straight and honestly in the eyes, 
 said, 
 
 1 ' Oh that it were the way generally ! " 
 
 Marynia blushed slightly and grew more serious, but 
 said nothing, and began to converse with Pani Emilia. 
 
 Pan Stanislav turned to Litka. 
 
 " But where is Professor Vaskovski ? Has he gone to 
 Italy ? " 
 
 "No. He stopped at Chenstohova, and will come the 
 day after to-morrow." 
 
 "Is he well?" 
 
 " He is." 
 
 Here the little girl looked at her friend, and said, 
 
 "But Pan Stas has grown thin ; has n't he, mamma ?." 
 
 "Indeed he has," answered Pani Emilia. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was changed somewhat, for he had been 
 sleeping badly, and the cause of that sleeplessness was 
 sitting before him in the carriage. But he laid the blame 
 on cares and labor in his business. Meanwhile they 
 arrived at Pani Emilia's. 
 
 When the lady went to greet her servants, Litka ran 
 after her. Pan Stanislav and Marynia remained alone in 
 the dining-room. 
 
 " You have no nearer acquaintance here, I suppose, than 
 Pani Emilia ? " said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " None nearer ; none so beloved." 
 
 "In life kindness is needed, and she is very kind and 
 well-wishing. I, for example, who have no family, can 
 look on this as the house of a relative. Warsaw seems dif- 
 ferent to me when they are here." Then he added, with a 
 voice less firm, "This time I comfort myself also with their 
 arrival, because there will be at last something mutual and 
 harmonious between us." 
 
 Here he looked at her, with a prayer in his eyes, as if he 
 wished to say, "Give me a hand in conciliation; be kind to 
 me, too, since a pleasant day has come to us." 
 
 I
 
 114 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But she, just because she could not be for him altogether 
 indifferent, went always farther in the direction of dislike. 
 The more he showed cordial kindness, the more sympathetic 
 he was, the more his action seemed to her unheard of, and 
 the more offended she felt at heart. 
 
 Having a delicate nature, and being, besides, rather timid, 
 and feeling really that a reply, if too ill-natured, might 
 spoil the day's harmony, she preferred to be silent ; but he 
 did not need an answer in words, for he read in her eyes as 
 follows : The less you try to improve our relations, the bet- 
 ter they will be ; and they will be best if most distant. His 
 joy was quenched in one moment; anger took its place, 
 and regret, still stronger than anger, for it rose from that 
 charm which nothing could conquer, and to which Pan 
 Stanislav yielded himself with the conviction, too, that the 
 gulf between him and Marynia was in reality growing 
 deeper each day. And now, looking on her sweet and kind 
 face, he felt that she was as dear as she was lost irrecover- 
 ably. 
 
 The arrival of Litka put an end to that interval, grievous 
 to him beyond description. The little girl ran in with great 
 delight, her hair in disorder, a smile on her lips ; but see- 
 ing them, she stopped suddenly, and looked now at one, 
 now at the other, with her dark eyes. At last she sat 
 down quietly at a table with tea. Her joyousness had van- 
 ished too, though Pan Stanislav, confining the pain in his 
 heart, strove to talk and be gladsome. 
 
 But he turned scarcely any attention to Marynia; he 
 occupied himself only with Pani Emilia and Litka; and, 
 wonderful thing ! Marynia felt that as an additional bitter- 
 ness. To the series of offences still another was added. 
 
 On the following day Pani Emilia and Litka were invited 
 to tea in the evening at the Plavitskis'. Plavitski invited 
 Pan Stanislav too, but he did not go. And such is human 
 nature that this again touched Marynia. Dislike, as well 
 as love, demands an object. Involuntarily Marynia looked 
 toward the door all the evening, till the hour struck in 
 which it was certain that Pan Stanislav would not come ; 
 then she began to coquet so with Mashko that .she transfixed 
 Pani Emilia with amazement.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. Ho 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MASHKO was a very clever man, but full of self-love; he 
 had no reason, however, not to take the kindness which 
 Marynia showed him in good earnest. The unequal degree 
 of it he attributed a little to coquetting, a little to the 
 changing disposition of the young lady ; and though the 
 latter filled him with a certain alarm, this alarm was not 
 great enough to restrain him from taking a decisive step. 
 
 Bigiel divined the true state of affairs when he declared 
 that Mashko was in love. Such was the case really. At 
 first Panna Plavitski pleased him in a high degree ; after- 
 ward, when he had thought the pros and cons over, he came 
 to the conviction that the pros had prevailed. The young 
 advocate valued property, it is true ; but, gifted with great 
 sobriety of mind, and understanding perfectly the condi- 
 tions in which he found himself, he concluded that a very 
 wealthy lady he could not find and would not get. Eichly 
 dowered young ladies were found either among the aris- 
 tocracy of descent, and for him their thresholds were too 
 lofty, or among the world of financiers, who sought con- 
 nections with families bearing names more or less famous. 
 Mashko knew perfectly that his painted bishops and armored 
 men, whom Bukatski ridiculed, would not open bankers' 
 safes to him. He understood that even if they had been 
 less fantastic, his profession of advocate would itself be 
 a certain diminutio cap'dis in the eyes of great financial 
 whales. On the other hand, he had, in truth, a certain 
 racial repugnance to that kind of connection ; while maidens 
 of good descent had the uncommon attraction which they 
 have for parvenus generally. 
 
 Panna Plavitski had no dower, or at least a very insig- 
 nificant one. In taking her, however, he would free himself 
 from all obligations to the Plavitskis created by the pur- 
 chase of Kremen. Secondly, by connecting himself with a 
 good family, he would endeavor to bring in a whole group 
 of noble clients, and this might be a very real profit; finally, 
 through the family relations of Marynia, he might in time 
 manage the business of a number, or a number of tens, of 
 really wealthy families, a thing which had long been the 
 object of his efforts.
 
 J16 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 The Plavitskis, like all who are a little above middling 
 country families, had indeed relatives whom they did not 
 greatly recognize ; they had also others who did not greatly 
 recognize them. This, however, was done not so much from 
 reasons of pride as involuntarily, by virtue of a certain social 
 selection, through which people seek in society persons who 
 are more or less in the same conditions of life as they them- 
 selves are. Great family festivals united such separated 
 relatives temporarily ; and Mashko not only found it agree- 
 able to think that at his wedding there would be perfectly 
 well-sounding names, but he foresaw various possible profits. 
 The question would be merely one of cleverness to give 
 people of this kind an idea that it would be well on their 
 part, good and safe, to intrust their business to a man 
 noted for energy, and, more than all, one of their own class, 
 since he is a relative. That would be something like a 
 dower given to a poor cousin. Mashko, taking note of his 
 own qualities, hoped to force himself on them, and in time 
 tower above them. He knew that this man or that would 
 come at first to him for such counsel as he might find in 
 conversation with an acquaintance, or a distant relative, 
 who happened to understand various questions ; later on, as 
 the counsels proved good, he would come oftener, and at 
 last put everything into the hands of the counsellor. Help- 
 ing others in this fashion, he could himself sail out into 
 broad waters, clear Kremen in time, advance to consider- 
 able property, throw aside at last legal pursuits, which he 
 did not like, and which he considered only as a means of 
 reaching his object, and fix himself finally in lofty spheres 
 of society as an independent man, and at the same time a 
 representative of superior landed property resting on a firm 
 basis. He had foreseen all this, calculated and counted, 
 before he determined to try for the hand of Panna Plavitski. 
 
 He had not foreseen, however, one thing ; to wit, that he 
 would fall in love to such a degree as he had. For the 
 time this made him angry, for he judged that too strong 
 a feeling was something opposed to the balance which a 
 man of high society should preserve at all times. That 
 balance was one of his illusions. If he had had no need 
 of forcing himself into that society, or had been born in 
 it, he might have permitted himself to love to his heart's 
 satisfaction. 
 
 In spite of all his keenness, he had not understood that 
 one of the chief privileges of this society, which considers
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 117 
 
 itself privileged, is freedom. For this reason he was not 
 altogether content when his heart melted too much in 
 presence of Marynia. But, on the other hand, the object 
 toward which he strove grew identified the more in him 
 with that personal happiness which was verging almost 
 on intoxication. 
 
 These were new things for him, so new that the bright- 
 ness of those unknown horizons blinded him. Mashko had 
 arrived at thirty and some years of his life without know- 
 ing what rapture is. Now he understood what happiness 
 and charms were described by that word, for he was en- 
 raptured with Marynia to the depth of his soul. Whenever 
 Plavitski received him in his room, and she was in the 
 adjoining one, Mashko was with her in thought to such a 
 degree that hardly could he understand what the old man 
 was saying. 
 
 When she entered, there rose in his heart feelings utterly 
 unknown to him hitherto, feelings tender and delicate, 
 which made him a better man than he was usually. His 
 blue eyes changed their ordinary steel and cold gleam to 
 an expression of sweetness and delight; the freckles on his 
 face, by which he called to mind Professor Vaskovski, 
 became still more distinct ; his whole form lost its marks 
 of formality, and he passed his fingers through his light 
 side whiskers, not like an English lord, but an ordinary 
 love-stricken mortal. He rose at last so high that he 
 wished not only his own good, but her good, evidently not 
 understanding it otherwise than through him and in him. 
 
 He was so much in love that, if rejected, he might be- 
 come dangerous, especially in view of his want of moral 
 development, his great real energy, and lack of scruples. 
 Till then he had not loved, and Marynia roused first in 
 him all that was capable of loving. She was not a brilliant 
 beauty ; but she possessed in the highest degree the charm 
 of womanliness, and that womanliness was the reason that 
 she attracted energetic natures specially. In her delicate 
 form there was something in common with a climbing 
 plant ; she had a calm face, clear eyes, and a mouth some- 
 what thoughtful, all this, taken together, did not produce 
 a mighty impression at the first glance, but after a time 
 every man, even the most indifferent, saw that there was 
 in her something peculiar, which made him remember that 
 he had in his presence a woman who might be loved. 
 
 In so far as Mashko felt himself better than usual, and
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 in reality was so during that epoch of his life, in that far 
 had the spiritual level of Marynia sunk since the Pla- 
 vitskis came to Warsaw. The sale of Kremen had de- 
 prived her of occupation and a moral basis of life. She 
 lacked a lofty object. Besides, the course of events had 
 accumulated in her bitterness and dissatisfaction, which 
 turn always to the injury of the heart. Marynia felt this 
 herself distinctly ; and a few days after that evening when 
 Pan Stanislav did not come to them, she began first to 
 speak of this to Pani Emilia, when at twilight they were 
 left by themselves in the drawing-room adjoining Litka's 
 chamber. 
 
 " T see," said she, " that we are not so outspoken with 
 each other as we used to be. I have wished to speak with 
 thee openly, and I cannot bring myself to do so, for it has 
 seemed to me that I am not worthy of thy friendship." 
 
 Pani Emilia brought her sweet face up to Marynia's 
 head, and began to kiss her on the temples. 
 
 " Ai, thou Marynia, Marynia ! What art thou saying, 
 thou, always calm and thoughtful ? " 
 
 " I say so, for in Kremen I was more worthy than I am 
 now. Thou wilt not believe how attached I was to that 
 corner. I had all my days occupied, and had some sort of 
 wonderful hope that in time something very happy would 
 come to me. To-day all that has passed ; and I cannot find 
 myself in this Warsaw, and, what is worse, I cannot find 
 my former honesty. I saw how astonished thou wert be- 
 cause I was coquetting with Pan Mashko. Do not tell me 
 that thou didst not see it. And dost thou think that I 
 myself know why I acted so ? It must be because I am 
 worse, or from some anger at myself, at Pan Stanislav, at 
 the whole world. I do not love Mashko ; I will not marry 
 him. Therefore I act dishonestly, and with shame I con- 
 fess it; but moments come in which I should like to do an 
 intended injustice to some one. Thou shouldst break thy 
 old friendship with me, for in truth I am other than I 
 have been." 
 
 Here tears began to roll down Marynia's face, and Pani 
 Emilia fell to quieting her and fondling her all the more ; 
 at last she said, 
 
 " Pan Mashko is striving for thee most evidently ; and I 
 thought, I confess, that thou hadst the intention of accept- 
 ing him. I tell thee now sincerely that that pained me, 
 for he is not the man for thee ; but, knowing thy love for
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 119 
 
 Kremen, I admitted thy wish to return to it in this 
 way." 
 
 " At first I had such thoughts, it is true. I wished to 
 persuade myself that Pan Mashko pleased me ; I did not 
 like to repulse him. It was a question with me of some- 
 thing else too, but it was a question also of Kremen. But 
 I could not convince myself. I do not want even Kremen 
 at such a price ; but precisely in this lies the evil. For, in 
 such a case, why am I leading Pan Mashko into error, why 
 am I deluding him ? Through simple dishonesty." 
 
 "It is not well that thou art deluding him ; but it seems 
 to me that I understand whence that flows. From repug- 
 nance to some one else, and from the offence given by him 
 Is it not true ? Console thyself, however, with this, 
 that the evil is not beyond remedy ; for thou mayst change 
 thy action with Pan Mashko to-morrow. And, Marynia, it is 
 needful to change it while there is time yet, while nothing 
 is promised." 
 
 " I know, Emilia ; I understand that. But see, when I am 
 with thee I feel as formerly, like an upright and honest 
 woman ; I understand, that not only a word binds, but con- 
 duct. And he may say that to me." 
 
 " Then tell him that thou hast tried to convince thyself 
 that thou wert in love with him, but could not. In every 
 case, that is the only way." 
 
 Silence followed ; but both Marynia and Pani Emilia felt 
 that they had not begun yet to talk of that which, if it did 
 not concern both, concerned Pani Emilia most seriously. 
 So, taking Marynia's hands, she said, 
 
 "Xow confess, Marynia, thou art coquetting with Mashko 
 because thou art offended by Pan Stanislav ? " 
 
 " That is true," answered Marynia, in a low voice. 
 
 " But does not this mean that the impression of his visit 
 to Kremen, and of thy first conversations with him, are not 
 effaced yet ? " 
 
 "Better if it were." 
 
 Pani Emilia began to stroke her dark hair. "Thou wilt 
 not believe how good, clever, and noble a man he is. For us 
 he has some friendship. He has liked Litka always ; this 
 makes me grateful from my whole soul to him. But thou 
 knowest what an unardent and lukewarm feeling friendship 
 is usually. He in this regard even is exceptional. When 
 Litka was sick in Reichenhall, wilt thou believe it, he 
 brought a celebrated doctor from Monachium ; but, not
 
 120 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 wishing to alarm us, he said that the doctor had come to 
 another patient, and that we should take advantage of his 
 presence. Think what care and kindness ! He is extremely 
 reliable, a man to be trusted ; and he is energetic and just. 
 There are intelligent men, but without energy ; others have 
 energy, but lack delicacy of heart. He unites one to the 
 other. I forgot to tell thee that when Litka's property was 
 in danger, and when my husband's brother set about saving 
 it, he found the greatest aid in Pan Stanislav. If Litka 
 were grown up, I would give her to no one in the world with 
 such confidence as to him. I could not even recount to you 
 how much kindness we have experienced from him." 
 " If as much as I have of evil, then very much." 
 " Marynia, he did not intend that. If thou conldst but 
 know how he suffers for his rashness, and how sincerely he 
 acknowledges his fault touching thee." 
 
 " He told me that himself," answered Marynia. " I, ray 
 Einilka, have pondered much over this, to tell the truth, I 
 have not thought of another thing ; and I cannot find that 
 he is to blame. In Kremen he was so pleasant that it 
 seemed to me to thee alone will I say this ; for to thee 
 I have written it already that on the Sunday evening 
 which he passed in our house I went to sleep with my head 
 and heart so filled with him that I am ashamed to speak of it 
 now. And I felt that one day longer, one friendly word 
 more on his part, and I should love him for my lifetime. 
 It seemed to me that he also The next day he went away 
 in anger. The fault was my father's ; it was mine also. I 
 was able to understand that ; and dost remember the letter 
 I wrote thee at Reichenhall ? Precisely the same trust 
 which thou hast in him, I too had. He went away ; I my- 
 self do not know why I thought, that he would return, or 
 would write to me. He did not return ; he did not write. 
 Something told me that he would not take away Kremen ; 
 he took it. And afterward I know that Pan Mashko 
 talked with him openly, and he urged Pan Mashko, and 
 assured him that he was thinking of nothing himself. Oh, 
 my Emilia ! If it please thee, he is not to blame ; but how 
 much harm has he done to me ! Through him I have lost 
 not only a beloved corner in which I was working ; but 
 more, I have lost faith in life, in people, in this, that better 
 and nobler things in this world conquer the low and the 
 evil. I have become worse. I tell thee sincerely that I 
 cannot find myself. He had the right to act as he has acted.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 121 
 
 I admit that ; I say so, and do not say that he is guilty. 
 But he has broken some vital spring in me. There is no 
 cure for that ; it cannot be mended. How can it ? What is 
 it to me that a change rose in him afterward ; that he regrets 
 what he did ; that he would be ready even to marry me ? 
 What is that to me, if I, who almost loved him, not only do 
 not love him now, but must guard against repugnance ? 
 That is worse than if I did not care for him. I know what 
 thy wish is; but life must be built on love, not on re- 
 pugnance. How can 1 give my hand to him with that 
 feeling of otfence in my soul and with that regret, that 
 through him, guilty or not guilty, so much has beeu lost 
 to me ? Thou thinkest that I do not see his charm ; but 
 what can I do, when the more I see him, the more I am 
 repulsed, and if I had to choose I should choose Pan 
 Mashko, though he is less worthy ? To everything good 
 which thou canst say of him I agree ; but to everything I 
 answer : I do not love him ; I never will love him." 
 
 Pani Emilia's eyes were filled with tears. "Poor Pan 
 Stas," said she, as if to herself. And after a moment of 
 silence she asked, "And art thou not sorry for him?" 
 
 "I am sorry for him when I think of him as he was in 
 Kremen ; I am sorry for him when I do not see him. But 
 from the moment that I see him, I feel nothing but 
 repulsion." 
 
 " Yes ; because thou knowest not how unhappy he was in 
 Reichenhall, and now he is still more unhappy. He has no 
 one in the world." 
 
 " He has thy friendship, and he loves Litka." 
 
 "My Marynia, that is something different. I am thank- 
 ful to him from my whole soul for his attachment to Litka; 
 but that is something different altogether, and thou knowest 
 thyself that he loves thee a hundred times more than 
 Litka." 
 
 In the chamber it had grown dark already ; but soon the 
 servant brought in a lamp, and, placing it on the table, 
 went out. By the lamplight Pani Emilia beheld a whitish 
 form crouched on the sofa near the door which led to Litka's 
 room. 
 
 " Who is there ? Is that Litka ? " 
 
 " I, mamma." 
 
 In her voice there was something ; Pani Emilia rose and 
 went hurriedly toward her. 
 
 "When didst thou come out ? What is the matter ? "
 
 122 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "I feel so ill in some way." 
 
 Pani Emilia sat down on the sofa, and, drawing the little 
 girl up to her, saw tears in her eyes. 
 
 " Art thou crying, Litus ? What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Oh, so sad, so sad ! " 
 
 And, inclining her head to her mother's shoulder, she 
 began to cry. She was in reality sad, for she had learned 
 that " Pan Stas " was more unhappy than in Keichenhall, 
 and that he loves Marynia a hundred times more than her. 
 That evening, when going to sleep and in her nightdress, 
 she nestled up to her mother's ear and whispered, 
 
 "Mamma, mamma, I have one very great sin on my 
 conscience." 
 
 " My poor little girl, what is troubling thee ? " 
 
 She whispered in a still lower voice, " I do not like 
 Pauna Maryuia."
 
 CHILDREN Otf THE SOIL. 123 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PANI EMILIA, with Litka and Marynia, and with them 
 Plavitski, were going to the Bigiels to dine at their country 
 house, which stood in a forest at the distance of one hour 
 and a half from the city. It was a fine day in September ; 
 there were myriads of glittering spider-webs in the air and 
 on the stubbles. Leaves still fresh and green adhered to 
 the trees yet ; here and there, through leafy openings, were 
 visible as it were fountains and bouquets of red and yellow. 
 That pale and faded autumn brought to Marynia's mind her 
 occupations in the country, the odor of grain in the barns, 
 the fields with stacks, and the clear extent of the meadows, 
 bounded way off somewhere on the horizon by stretches of 
 alder. She felt a yearning for that life and that compos- 
 ure, in comparison with which the city, notwithstanding 
 the labor which seethed in its every-day existence, but 
 which Marynia was unable to appreciate, seemed to her 
 idle and empty. She felt now that that life in which she 
 had found her own worth and merit was lost beyond return 
 to her, and on the other hand there was not outlined before 
 her anything that could take its place and redeem it. She 
 might, it is true, return by becoming Pani Mashko ; but her 
 heart was filled with bitterness at that thought alone, and 
 Mashko, with his Warsaw self-confidence, with his freckles 
 and his side whiskers, with his aping an English lord, 
 seemed to her simply repulsive. Never had she felt withal 
 a deeper feeling against Pan Stanislav, who had taken 
 Kremen from her, and put Mashko in place of. it. She was 
 disgusted with Mashko at that moment, and it seemed to her 
 that she hated Pan Stanislav. She saw before her life with 
 her father on the pavement of Warsaw, without an object, 
 without occupation, without an ideal, with regret for the 
 past and in view of the past, and with emptiness in the 
 future. For this reason that calm autumn day, instead of 
 quieting her, filled her with bitterness and sorrow. On 
 the whole, the journey was not joyous. Litka sat in gloom 
 because "Pan Stas" was not with them. Pani Emilia gave 
 all attention to her, fearing lest that gloomy feeling might 
 be connected with her health. Plavitski alone was in
 
 124 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 genuine good-humor, especially at the beginning of the 
 tourney. In his buttoned frock-coat, with a red flower in 
 the buttonhole, with a light-colored overcoat, and with 
 mustaches as pointed as needles, he thought himself beauti- 
 ful, and was sprightly, since rheumatism, which he felt at 
 times, was not troubling him, by reason of the good weather ; 
 secondly, before him sat one of the most presentable women 
 in Warsaw, who, as he supposed, would not remain indiffer- 
 ent to so many charms, or in any case would esteem them 
 in so far as she would be able to note them. Let her say 
 at least to herself, " Oh, what a charming man that must 
 have been ! " In the worst event, Plavitski would have been 
 satisfied with such a retrospective recognition. In this 
 hope he was really enchanting ; for at one time he was lofty 
 and fatherly, at another sportive, setting out with the 
 theory that young men of the present do not know how to 
 act politely with ladies. In politeness, as he told Pani 
 Emilia, he went as far as mythology, which was true under 
 a certain aspect, for he looked at her as would a satyr. 
 
 But all this was received with a faint smile and with too 
 little attention, hence he grew offended at last and began 
 to speak of something else ; namely, that, thanks to the rela- 
 tions of his daughter, he would become acquainted with the 
 bourgeoisie, of which he was glad, however, for hitherto he 
 had seen that society only on the stage, but it is necessary 
 in life to meet the most varied kinds of people, for it is 
 possible to learn something from each of them. He added 
 finally, that it is the duty of certain circles not to estrange 
 the commonalty, but on the contrary to gather them in, and 
 thus plant in them sound principles ; therefore he who had 
 striven always to fulfil his social duties did not halt 
 before that mission. Here the noble expression of his face 
 took on a certain style of pensiveness, and in that state of 
 feeling they drove up to the villa of the Bigiels. 
 
 It stood in a forest of unmixed pines, in the neighborhood 
 of other villas, among old trees, which in places were felled, 
 in places standing in groups of a few, or of a few tens. 
 They seemed to wonder a little what such a new house was 
 doing among them in the old forest stillness; but they 
 hospitably shielded it from the wind ; on fine days they sur- 
 rounded it with balsamic air, permeated with the odor of 
 gum and resin. 
 
 The Bigiels, with a row of children, came out to meet the 
 guests. Pani Bigiel, who liked Marynia much, greeted her
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 125 
 
 very cordially, desiring, besides, to prepossess her thereby 
 for Pan Stanislav ; she considered that the better Marynia 
 understood how pleasant it might be for her among them, 
 the less difficulty would she make. 
 
 Plavitski, who, during his previous stay with Marynia in 
 Warsaw, had made the acquaintance of the Bigiels at Pani 
 Emilia's, but had limited himself to leaving cards with them 
 simply, showed himself now such a gracious prince as was 
 possible only to the most refined man, who at the same time 
 was fulfilling his mission of gathering in the "bourgeoisie." 
 
 " At the present day it is agreeable for any man to find 
 himself under the roof of a person like you ; but all the 
 more for me, since my cousin, Polanyetski, has entered the 
 career of commerce and is your partner." 
 
 " Polanyetski is a strong man," answered Bigiel, with 
 directness, pressing the gloved hand of Plavitski. 
 
 The ladies retired for a moment to remove their hats ; 
 then, the air being quite warm, they returned to the 
 veranda. 
 
 " Is Pan Stanislav not here yet ? " inquired Pani Emilia. 
 
 " He has been here since morning," answered Bigiel ; 
 "but now he is visiting Pani Kraslavski. The place is 
 near by," added he, turning to Marynia ; " not even half a 
 verst distant. There are summer residences everywhere 
 about, and those ladies are our nearest neighbors." 
 
 "I remember Panna Terka Kraslavski since the time of 
 the carnival," said Marvnia. " She was always very 
 pale." 
 
 " Oh, she is very pale yet. The past winter she spent in 
 Pau." 
 
 Meanwhile the little Bigiels, who loved Litka wonderfully, 
 drew her out to play in front of the house. The little girls 
 showed her their gardens, made in the sand among the 
 pines, in which gardens, to tell the truth, nothing would 
 grow. These surveys were interrupted every little while 
 by the girls, who stood on their toes and kissed Litka's 
 cheeks; she, bending her beautiful flaxen head, returned 
 these kisses with tenderness. 
 
 But the boys wanted their share as well. First, they 
 stripped to the stalk the georgina at the house, gathering 
 for Litka the most beautiful blossoms ; then they disputed 
 about this, what play does Litka like ; and they went to 
 Pani Emilia for information. Edzio, who had the habit of 
 speaking in a very loud voice, and closing his eyes at the 
 same time, called out,
 
 126 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Please, Pani, I say that she likes ball better, only I 
 don't know that you will let her play ball." 
 
 " Yes ; if she will not run, for that hurts her." 
 
 " Oh, she will not, Pani ; we will throw the ball so that 
 it will go straight to her every time, then she will not run 
 any. And if Yozio does n't know how to throw that way, 
 let her throw the ball." 
 
 " I want to play with her," said Yozio, pitifully. And 
 at the very thought that he might be deprived of that 
 pleasure, his niouth took the form of a horseshoe and began 
 to quiver; but Litka anticipated his outburst of sorrow, 
 saying, 
 
 " I will throw to thee, Yozio ; I '11 throw to thee very 
 often." 
 
 Yozio's eyes, already moist, began to smile at once. 
 
 "They will not hurt her," said Bigiel to Pani Emilia. 
 " This is remarkable : the boys are what is called regular 
 tearers ; but with her they are wonderfully careful. It is 
 Pan Stanislav who has trained them in this devotion to 
 her." 
 
 " Such lovely children ! there are few in the world like 
 them," remarked Pani Emilia. 
 
 In a moment the children gathered in a group to arrange 
 the play. In the middle of the group stood Litka, the 
 oldest and the tallest ; and though the little Bigiels were 
 well-behaved children, she, with her sweet, poetic face 
 and features, almost over-refined, seemed, among those 
 ruddy, round faces, like a being from another planet. Pani 
 Bigiel turned attention to that first of all. 
 
 " Is she not a real queen ? " asked she. " I say truly 
 that never can I look at her sufficiently." 
 
 " She is so noble in appearance," added Bigiel. 
 
 And Pani Emilia looked at her only one with a glance 
 in which there was a sea of love. The children ran apart 
 now, and stood in a great circle forming, on the gray back- 
 ground of fallen pine needles, parti-colored spots, which 
 seemed as small under the immense pines as colored 
 mushrooms. 
 
 Marynia went from the veranda and stood near Litka, to 
 assist her in catching the ball, for which it was necessary 
 to run, and in that way save her from exertion. 
 
 On the broad forest road leading to the villa, Pan Stanis- 
 lav appeared at that moment. The children did not notice 
 him at once ; but he took in with a glance the veranda, as
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 127 
 
 well as the space in front; and, seeing the bright robe of 
 Marynia under a pine, he hastened his steps. Litka, know- 
 ing her mamma's alarm at every more animated movement 
 which she made, and, not wishing to disquiet her for any- 
 thing, stood almost without stirring from her place, and 
 caught on her club only those balls which came directly 
 toward her. Marynia ran after all that went farther. By 
 reason of that running, her hair was loosened so that she 
 had to arrange it ; and, at the moment when Pan Stanislav 
 was coming in at the gate, she stood bent backward some- 
 what and with arms raised to her head. 
 
 He did not take his eyes from her, and saw no one save 
 her. She seemed to him on that broad space younger and 
 smaller than usual, and therewith so maidenlike, so unap- 
 proachably attractive, so created for this, that a man should 
 put his arms around her and press her to his bosom ; she 
 was so feminine, so much the dearest creature on earth, 
 that never till that moment had he felt with such force 
 how he loved her. 
 
 At sight of him, the children threw down their balls and 
 clubs, and ran with a cry to meet him. The amusement 
 was stopped. Litka at the first instant sprang also toward 
 Pan Stas, but restrained herself on a sudden, and looked 
 with her great eyes, now toward him, now toward Marynia. 
 
 "But thou art not rushing to meet Pan Polanyetski," 
 said Marynia. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Why, Litus ? " 
 
 " Because " 
 
 And her cheeks flushed somewhat, though the child did 
 not know and did not dare to express her thought, which 
 might be expressed in the words: "Because he does not love 
 me any more ; he loves only thee, and looks only at thee." 
 
 But he approached, freeing himself from the children, 
 and repeating, 
 
 " Do not hang on, little rogues, or I '11 throw you." 
 
 And he extended his hand to Marynia, looking at her in 
 the eyes, with an entreaty for a pleasant smile and a greet- 
 ing even a whit less indifferent than usual ; then he turned 
 to Litka, 
 
 " But is the dearest kitten well ? " 
 
 At sight of him, and under the influence of his voice, she, 
 forgetting all the suffering of her little heart, gave him 
 both hands, saying,
 
 128 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Oh, yes, well ; but yesterday Pan Stas did not come to 
 us, and it was sad. To-day I '11 take Pan Stas to mamma to 
 give account." 
 
 After a while all were on the veranda. 
 
 " How are Paui Kraslavski and her daughter ? " asked 
 Pani Emilia. 
 
 " They are well, and are coming here after dinner," 
 answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 Just before dinner Professor Vaskovski came, bringing 
 Bukatski, who had returned to Warsaw the evening before. 
 His intimacy with the Bigiels permitted him to come with- 
 out being invited ; and the presence of Pani Emilia was too 
 great a temptation to be resisted. He met her, however, 
 without a trace of seutiment, in his usual jesting fashion ; 
 she was glad to see him, for he amused her with his 
 strange and original way of uttering ideas. 
 
 " Were you not going to Mouachium and Italy ? " asked 
 she, when they had sat down to dinner. 
 
 " Yes ; but I forgot a card-knife in Warsaw, and came 
 back to get it." 
 
 " Oh, that was a weighty reason." 
 
 "It always makes me impatient that people do every- 
 thing from weighty reasons. What privilege have weighty 
 reasons, that every man must accommodate himself to 
 them ? Besides, I gave, without wishing it, the last ser- 
 vices to a friend, for yesterday I was at the funeral of 
 Lisovich." 
 
 " What! that thin little sportsman ?" inquired Bigiel. 
 
 " The same. And imagine that to this moment I can- 
 not escape astonishment that a man who played the jester 
 all his life could bring himself to such a serious thing as 
 death. Simply I cannot recognize my Lisovich. At every 
 step a man meets disappointment." 
 
 "But," said Pan Stanislav, "Pani Kraslavski told me 
 that Ploshovski, he with whom all the women of Warsaw 
 were in love, shot himself in Rome." 
 
 " He was a relative of mine," said Plavitski. 
 
 This news affected Pani Emilia mainly. She scarcely 
 knew Ploshovski himself, but she had often seen his 
 aunt, for whom her husband's elder brother was agent. 
 She knew also how blindly this aunt loved her sister's 
 son. 
 
 " My God, what a misfortune ! " said she. " But is it 
 true ? A young man so capable, so wealthy poor Panna 
 Ploshovski I "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 129 
 
 " And such a great estate will be without an heir," added 
 Bigiel. "I know their property, for it is near Warsaw. 
 Old Pauna Ploshovski had two relatives : Pani Krovitski, 
 though she was distant, and Leo Ploshovski, who was 
 nearer. Neither are living now." 
 
 These words moved Plavitski again. He was indeed 
 some sort of a distant relative of Panna Ploshovski, and 
 even had seen her two or three times in his life ; but there 
 remained to him merely the remembrance of fear, for she 
 had told him the bitter truth each time without circumlo- 
 cution, or rather, speaking simply, had scolded him as 
 much as he could hold. For this reason, in the further 
 course of his life he avoided her most carefully, and all 
 communication between them was stopped, though on occa- 
 sions he liked to say a word in society of his relationship 
 with a family so well known and important. He belonged 
 to that category of people, numerous in our country, who 
 are convinced that the Lord God created for their special 
 use an easy road to fortune through inheritance, and who 
 consider every hope of that kind as certain. He cast a 
 solemn glance, therefore, on the assembly, and said, 
 
 " Perhaps, too, Providence decided that those properties 
 should pass to other hands, which are able to make better 
 use of them." 
 
 " I met Ploshovski abroad once," said Pan Stanislav ; 
 "and on me he made the impression of a man altogether 
 uncommon. I remember him perfectly." 
 
 "He was so brilliant and sympathetic," added Pani 
 Bigiel. 
 
 " May God show him mercy ! " said Professor Vaskovski. 
 " I too knew him ; he was a genuine Aryan." 
 
 "Azoryan," said Plavitski. 
 
 " Aryan," repeated the professor. 
 
 " Azoryan," corrected Plavitski, with emphasis and dig- 
 nity. 
 
 And the two old men looked at each other with astonish- 
 ment, neither knowing what the other wanted, and this to 
 the great delight of Bukatski, who, raising his monocle, 
 said, 
 
 " How is that, Aryan or Azoryan ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav put an end to the misunderstanding by 
 explaining that Azorya was the name of the family escut- 
 cheon of the Ploshovskis, that therefore it was possible to 
 be at once an Aryan and an Azoryan ; to which Plavitski 
 
 a
 
 130 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 
 
 agreed unwillingly, making the parenthetical remark that 
 whoso bears a decent name, need not be ashamed of it, nor 
 
 modify it. 
 
 Bukatski, turning to Pani Emilia, began to converse m 
 
 his usual frigid tone, 
 
 "One kind of suicide alone do I consider justifiable, 
 suicide for love; therefore I am persuading myself for a 
 number of years to it, but always in vain." 
 
 " They say that suicide is cowardice," put in Marynia. 
 
 " This is a reason too why I do not take my life : I am 
 excessively brave." 
 
 " Let us not speak of death, but of life," said Bigiel, 
 " and of that which is best in it, health. To the health of 
 Paui Emilia ! " 
 
 " And Litka," added Pan Stanislav. 
 
 Then he turned to Marynia and said, " To the health of 
 our mutual friends ! " 
 
 " Most willingly," answered Marynia. 
 
 Then he lowered his voice and continued, " For see, I 
 consider them not only as friends of mine, but also how 
 is it to be expressed ? as advocates. Litka is a child yet, 
 but Pani Emilia knows to whom friendship may be offered. 
 Therefore if a certain person had a prejudice against me, 
 even justly ; if I had acted with that person not precisely 
 as I should, or simply ill, and if that person knew me to be 
 suffering from my act, that person ought to think that I 
 am not the worst of men, since Pani Emilia has sincere 
 good-will for me." 
 
 Marynia was confused at once ; she was sorry for him. 
 He finished in a still lower voice, 
 
 " But in truth I am suffering. This is a great question 
 for me." 
 
 Before she had answered, Plavitski raised a health to Pani 
 Bigiel, and made a whole speech, the substance of which 
 was that the Queen of Creation is no other than woman ; 
 therefore all heads should incline before woman, as the 
 queen, and, for this reason, he had bowed down all his life 
 before woman in general, and at present he bowed before 
 Pani Bigiel in particular. 
 
 Pan Stanislav from his soul wished him to choke, for he 
 felt that he might have received some kind word from 
 Marynia, and he felt that the moment had passed. In fact, 
 Marynia went to embrace Pani Bigiel ; on her return she 
 did not resume the interrupted conversation, and he dared 
 not ask her directly for an answer.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 131 
 
 Immediately after dinner came Pani and Panna Kraslav- 
 ski : the mother, a woman about fifty years old, animated, 
 self-confident, talkative ; the daughter, the complete oppo- 
 site of her mother, formal, dry, cold, pronouncing "tek," 
 instead of " tak," but for the rest with a full, though pale 
 face, reminding one somewhat of the faces of Holbein's 
 Madonnas. 
 
 Pan Stauislav began out of malice to entertain her ; but, 
 looking from time to time at the fresh face and blue eyes 
 of Marynia, he said to himself, " If thou hadst given even 
 one kind word ! thou, thou, the pitiless." And he grew 
 more and more angry, so that when Panna Kraslavski said 
 " memme " instead of " mamma," he inquired harshly, 
 
 " Who is that ? " 
 
 " Memme," however, displayed her whole supply of facts, 
 or rather suppositions, concerning the suicide of Ploshovski. 
 
 " Imagine," said she, with warmth, " it came to my head at 
 once that he shot himself because of the death of Pani 
 Krovitski. Lord light her soul ! she was a coquette, and 
 I never liked her. She coquetted with him so that I was 
 afraid to take Terka to any place where they were together, 
 because her conduct was simply a bad example for such a 
 young girl. What is true, is true ! Lord light her soul ! 
 Terka, too, had no sympathy for her." 
 
 "Ah, Pani," said Pani Emilia, "I have always heard 
 that she was an angel." 
 
 And Bukatski, who had never seen Pani Krovitski in his 
 life, turned to Pani Kraslavski and said phlegmatically, 
 
 "Madame, ^'e vous donne ma parole d'honneur that she 
 was an archangel." 
 
 Pani Kraslavski was silent a moment, not knowing what 
 to answer ; then, flushing up, she would have answered some- 
 thing sharp, were it not that Bukatski, as a man of wealth, 
 might in a given event be a good match for Terka. Pan 
 Stanislav enjoyed the same consideration in her eyes ; and 
 for these two exclusively she kept up summer relations 
 with the Bigiels, whom she did not recognize when they met 
 her by chance on the street. 
 
 " With gentlemen," said she, " every presentable woman 
 is an angel or an archangel. I do not like this, even when 
 they say it to me about Terka. Pani Krovitski might be a 
 good person, but she had no tact ; that is the whole 
 question." 
 
 In this way conversation about Ploshovski dropped, the
 
 132 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 more since the attention of Pani Kraslavski was turned 
 exclusively to Pan Stanislav, who was entertaining Panna 
 Terka. He was entertaining her a little out of anger at 
 himself, a little out of anger at Marynia, and he tried to 
 convince himself that it was pleasant for him near her ; 
 he tried even to find in her a charm, and discovered that 
 her neck was too slender and her eyes as it were quenched 
 eyes, which grew lively and turned inquiringly at him 
 when there was no place for a question. He observed, too, 
 that she might be a quiet despot, for when the mother 
 began to talk too loudly, Panna Terka put her glasses to 
 her eyes and looked at her attentively ; and under the in- 
 fluence of that look the mother lowered her voice, or grew 
 silent altogether. In general, Panna Terka annoyed him 
 immensely ; and if he occupied himself more with her than 
 he ever had before, he did so from sheer desperation, to 
 rouse at least a shade of jealousy in Marynia. Even 
 people of sound sense grasp at such vain methods when 
 the misery of their feelings presses them too keenly. 
 These methods produce usually results opposite to those 
 intended, for they increase the difficulty of subsequent 
 approach and explanations; besides, they merely strengthen 
 the feeling cherished in the heart of the person using 
 them. Toward the end Pan Stanislav longed so much for 
 Marynia that he would have agreed to listen even to an 
 unpleasant word from her, if he could only approach her 
 and speak; and still it seemed to him more difficult now 
 than an hour before. He drew a deep breath when the 
 visit was over, and the guests were preparing to go. Be- 
 fore that, however, Litka approached her mother, and, 
 putting her arms around her neck, whispered. Pani Emilia 
 nodded, and then approached Pan Stanislav, 
 
 "Pan Stanislav," said she, "if you do not think of 
 spending the night here, ride with us. Marynia and I will 
 take Litka between us, and there will be room enough." 
 
 " Very well. I cannot pass the night here ; and I am very 
 thankful," answered he ; and, divining easily who the author 
 of this plan was, he turned to Litka and said, 
 
 " Thou, my best little kitten, thou." 
 
 She, holding to her mother's dress, raised to him her 
 eyes, half sad, half delighted, asking quietly, 
 
 " Is that good, Pan Stas ? " 
 
 A few minutes later they started. After a fine day 
 there came a night still finer, a little cool, but all bright
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 133 
 
 and silvery from the moon. Pan Stanislav, for whom the 
 day had passed grievously and in vain, breathed now with 
 full breast, and felt almost happy, having before him two 
 beings whom he loved very deeply, and one whom he 
 loved beyond everything on earth. By the light of the 
 moon he saw her face, and it seemed to him mild and 
 peaceful. He thought that Marynia's feelings must be 
 like her face in that moment; that perhaps her dislike of 
 him was softening amid that general quiet. 
 
 Litka dropped into the depth of the seat, and appeared to 
 be sleeping. -Pan Stauislav threw a shawl, taken from 
 Pani Emilia, over her feet, and they rode on a while in 
 silence. 
 
 Pani Emilia began to speak of Ploshovski, the news of 
 whose death had impressed her deeply. 
 
 " There is hidden in all that some unusually sad drama," 
 said Pan Stanislav ; " and Pani Kraslavski may be right in 
 some small degree when she insists that these two deaths 
 are connected." 
 
 "There is in Suicide." said Mary ilia, "this ghastly thing, 
 that one feels bound to condemn it ; and while condemning 
 there is an impression that there should be no sympathy 
 for the misfortune." 
 
 " Sympathy," answered Pan Stanislav, " should be had 
 for those who have feeling yet, hence for the living." 
 
 The conversation ceased, and they went on again for 
 some time in silence. After a while Pan Stanislav pointed 
 to the lights in the windows of a house standing in the 
 depth of a forest park, and said, 
 
 " That is Pani Kraslavski's villa." 
 
 " I cannot forgive her for what she said of that unfortu- 
 nate Pani Krovitski," said Pani Emilia. 
 
 " That is simply a cruel woman, " added Pan Stanislav ; 
 " but do you know why ? It is because of her daughter. 
 She looks on the whole world as a background which she 
 would like to make as black as possible, so that Panna 
 Terka might be reflected on it the more brightly. Perhaps 
 the mother had designs sometime on Ploshovski; per- 
 haps she considered Pani Krovitski a hindrance, hence 
 her hatred." 
 
 " That is a nice young lady," said Marynia. 
 
 " There are persons for whom behind the world of social 
 forms begins another and far wider world; for her nothing 
 begins there, or rather everything ends. She is simply an
 
 134 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 automaton, in whom the heart beats only when her uiothei 
 winds it with a key. For that matter, there are in society 
 very many such young ladies ; and even those who give 
 themselves out for something different are in reality just 
 like her. It is the eternal history of Galatea. Would you 
 believe, ladies, that a couple of years since an acquaintance 
 of mine, a young doctor, fell in love to distraction with 
 that puppet, that quenched candle. Twice he proposed, and 
 twice he was rejected ; for those ladies looked higher. He 
 joined the Holland service afterwards, and died there some- 
 where, with the fever doubtless ; for at first he wrote to me 
 inquiring about his automaton, and later on those letters 
 ceased to come." 
 
 " Does she know of this ? " 
 
 " She does ; for as often as 1 see her, I speak of him. 
 And what is characteristic is this, that the memory 
 of him does not ruffle her composure for an instant. She 
 speaks of him as of any one else. If he expected from her 
 even a posthumous sorrow, he was deceived in that also. I 
 must show you, ladies, sometime, one 'of his letters. 
 I strove to explain to him her feeling; he answered me, 
 4 1 estimate her coolly, but I cannot tear my soul from her.' 
 He was a sceptic, a positive man, a child of the age ; but 
 it seems that feeling makes sport of all philosophies and 
 tendencies. Everything passes ; but feeling was, is. and 
 will be. Besides, he said to me once, 'I would rather be 
 unhappy with her than happy with another.' What is to be 
 said in this case ? The man looked at things soundly, but 
 could not tear his soul awav, and that was the end 
 of it." 
 
 This conversation ended also. They came out now on 
 to a road planted with chestnut-trees, the trunks of which 
 seemed rosy in the light of the carriage lamps. 
 
 " But if any one has misfortune, he must endure it," said 
 Pan Stanislav, following evidently the course of his own 
 thoughts. 
 
 Meanwhile Pani Emilia bent over Litka, 
 
 < Art sleeping, child ? " inquired she. 
 
 " No, mamma," answered Litka.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 135 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " I HAVE never run after wealth," said Plavitski ; " but 
 if Providence in its inscrutable decrees has directed that 
 even a part of that great fortune should come to our hands, 
 I shall not cross its path. Of this not much will come to 
 ine. Soou I shall need four planks and the silent tear of 
 my child, for whom I have lived ; but here it is a question 
 of Maryuia." 
 
 "I would turn your attention to this," said Mashko, 
 floldly, " that, first of all, those expectations are very 
 uncertain." 
 
 " But is it right not to take them into consideration ? " 
 
 " Secondly, that Panna Ploshovski is living yet." 
 
 " But sawdust is dropping out of the old woman. She is 
 as shrivelled as a mushroom ! " 
 
 "Thirdly, she may leave her property for public pur- 
 poses." 
 
 "But is it not possible to dispute such a will ? " 
 
 " Fourthly, your relationship is immensely distant. In 
 the same way all people in Poland are related to one another." 
 
 " She has no nearer relatives." 
 
 " But Polanyetski is your relative." 
 
 "No. God knows he is not ! He is a relative of my first 
 wife, not mine." 
 
 " And Bukatski ? " 
 
 " Give me peace ! Bukatski is a cousin of my brother-in- 
 law's wife." 
 
 " Have you no other relatives ? " 
 
 "The Gantovskis claim us, as you know. People say 
 that which flatters them. But there is no need of reckoning 
 with the Gantovskis." 
 
 Mashko presented difficulties purposely, so as to show 
 afterward a small margin of hope, therefore he said, 
 
 " With us people are very greedy for inheritances ; and 
 let any inheritance be in sight, they fly together from all 
 sides, as sparrows fly to wheat. Everything in such cases 
 depends on this : who claims first, what he claims, and 
 finally through whom he claims. Remember that an ener- 
 getic man, acquainted with affairs, may make something
 
 136 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 out of nothing ; while, on the other hand, a man without 
 energy or acquaintance with business, even if he has a good 
 basis of action, may effect nothing." 
 
 " I know this from experience. All my life I have had 
 business up to this." Here Plavitski drew his hand across 
 his throat. 
 
 " Besides, you may become the plaything of advocates," 
 added Mashko, " and be exploited without limit." 
 
 " In such a case I could count on your personal friend- 
 ship for us." 
 
 " And you would not be deceived," answered Mashko, 
 with importance. " Both for you and Panna Marynia I have 
 friendship as profound as if you belonged to my family." 
 
 "I thank you in the name of the orphan," answered Pla- 
 vitski ; and emotion did not let him speak further. 
 
 Mashko put on dignity, and said, " But if you wish me to 
 defend your rights, both in this matter, which, as I said, 
 may prove illusive, and in other matters, then give me 
 those rights." Here the young advocate seized Plavitski's 
 hand, 
 
 " Kespected sir," continued he, " you will divine that ot 
 which I wish to speak; therefore hear me to the end 
 patiently." 
 
 He lowered his voice ; and although there was no one in 
 the room, he began to speak almost in a whisper. He 
 spoke with force, with dignity, and at the same time with 
 great self-command, as befitted a man who never forgot 
 who he was nor what he offered. Plavitski closed his eyes 
 at moments ; at moments he pressed Mashko's hand ; finally, 
 at the end of the conference, he said, 
 
 " Come to the drawing-room ; I will send in Marynia. I 
 know not what she will say to you ; in every case, let that 
 come which God wills. I have at all times known your 
 value ; now I esteem you still more and here ! " 
 
 The arms of Plavitski opened wide, and Mashko bent 
 toward them, repeating, not without emotion, but always 
 with lofty dignity, 
 
 "I thank, I thank " 
 
 After a while he found himself in the drawing-room. 
 
 Marynia appeared with a face which had grown very 
 pale; but she was calm. Mashko pushed a chair toward 
 her, seated himself in another, and began, 
 
 " I am here by the approval of your father. My words 
 can tell you nothing beyond what my silence has told
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 137 
 
 already, and which you have divined. But since the mo- 
 ment has come in which I should mention my feelings 
 explicitly, I do this then with all confidence in your heart 
 and character. I am a man who loves you, on whom you 
 may lean ; therefore I put in your hands my life, and I beg 
 you from the bottom of my heart to consent to go with 
 me." 
 
 Marynia was silent for a moment, as if seeking words, 
 then she said, 
 
 " I ought to answer you clearly and sincerely. This con- 
 fession is for me very difficult ; but I do not wish such a 
 man as you to deceive himself. I have not loved you ; I 
 do not love you, and I will not be your wife, even should it 
 come to me never to be any one's." 
 
 Then a still more prolonged silence followed. The spots 
 on Mashko's face assumed a deeper hue, and his eyes cast 
 cold steel gleams. 
 
 " This answer," said he, " is as decided as it is painful 
 to me and unexpected. But will you not give yourself 
 a few days to consider, instead of rejecting me decisively 
 at this moment ? " 
 
 "You have said that I divined your feelings; I had time 
 then to make my decision, and the answer which I gave 
 you, I give after thorough reflection." 
 
 Mashko's voice became dry and sharp now, 
 
 " Do you think that by virtue of your bearing with me, 1 
 had not the right to make such a proposal ? " 
 
 And he was sure in that moment that Marynia would 
 answer that he understood her bearing incorrectly, that 
 there was nothing in it authorizing him to entertain any 
 hope, in one word, that she would seek the crooked road 
 taken usually by coquettes who are forced to redeem their 
 coquetry by lying; but she raised her eyes to him and said, - 
 
 "My conduct with you has not been at times what it 
 should have been ; I confess my fault, and with my whole 
 soul I beg pardon for it." 
 
 Mashko was silent. A woman who evades rouses con- 
 tempt ; a woman who recognizes her fault dashes the wea- 
 pon from the hand of every opponent in whose nature, or 
 even in whose education, there lies the least spark of 
 knightly feeling. Besides this, there is one final method of 
 moving the heart of a woman in such a case, and that is 
 to overlook her fault magnanimously. Mashko, though he 
 saw before him a precipice, understood this, and determined
 
 138 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 to lay everything on this last card. Every nerve in him 
 quivered from anger and offended self-love ; but he mastered 
 himself, took his hat, and, approaching Maryuia, raised her 
 hand to his lips. 
 
 " I knew that you loved Kremen," said he ; " and I 
 bought it for one purpose only, to lay it at your feet. I 
 see that I went by a mistaken road, and I withdraw, though 
 I do so with endless sorrow ; I beg you to remember that. 
 Fault on your part there has not been, and is not. Your 
 peace is dearer to me than my own happiness ; I beg you, 
 therefore, as an only favor, not to reproach yourself. And 
 now farewell." 
 
 And he went out. 
 
 She sat there motionless a long time, with a pale face 
 and a feeling of oppression in her soul. She had not ex- 
 pected to find in him so many noble feelings. Besides, the 
 following thought came to her head, " That one took Kre- 
 men from me to save his own ; this one bought it to re- 
 turn it to me." And never before had Pan Stanislav been 
 so ruined in her thoughts. At that moment she did not 
 remember that Mashko had bought Kremen, not from Pan 
 Stanislav, but from her father ; second, that he had bought 
 it profitably ; third, that though he wished to return it, he 
 intended to take it again with her hand, thus freeing him- 
 self from the payments which weighed on him ; and finally, 
 to take the matter a's it was in reality, neither Pan Stanis- 
 lav nor any one else had taken Kremen from her, Pla- 
 vitski had sold it because he was willing and found a 
 purchaser. But at that moment she looked on the mat- 
 ter in woman fashion, and compared Mashko with Pan 
 Stanislav, exalting the former beyond measure, and con- 
 demning the latter beyond his deserts. Mashko's action 
 touched her so much that if she had not felt for him simply 
 a repulsion, she would have called him back. For a while 
 it seemed to her even that she ought to do so, but strength 
 failed her. 
 
 She did not know either that Mashko went down the 
 stairs with rage and despair in his soul ; in fact, a preci- 
 pice had opened before him. All his calculations had 
 deceived him: the woman whom he loved really did not 
 want him, and rejected him; and though she had striven 
 to spare him in words, he felt humbled as never before. 
 Whatever he had undertaken in life hitherto, he had carried 
 through always with a feeling of his own power and reason,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 139 
 
 with an unshaken certainty of success. Marynia's refusal 
 had taken that certainty from him. For the first time he 
 doubted himself; for the first time he had a feeling that 
 his star was beginning to pale, and that perhaps an epoch 
 of defeats was beginning for him on all fields on which he 
 had acted hitherto. That epoch had begun even. Mashko 
 had bought Kremeu on conditions exceptionally profitable, 
 but it was too large an estate for his means. If Marynia 
 had not rejected him, he would have been able to manage; 
 he would not have needed to think of the life annuity for 
 Plavitski, or the sum which, according to agreement, came 
 to Marynia for Magyerovka. At present he had to pay 
 Marynia, Fan Stanislav, and the debts on Kreinen, which 
 must be paid as soon as possible, for, by reason of usurious 
 interest, they were increasing day by day, and threatening 
 utter ruin. For all this he had only credit, hitherto un- 
 shaken, it is true, but strained like a chord; Mashko felt 
 that, if that chord should ever snap, he would be ruined 
 beyond remedy. 
 
 Hence at moments, besides sorrow for Marynia, besides 
 the pain which a man feels after the loss of happiness, 
 auger measureless, almost mad, bore him away, and also 
 an unbridled desire for revenge. Therefore, when he was 
 entering his residence, he muttered through his set teeth, 
 
 "If thou do not become my wife, I '11 not forgive thee 
 for what thou hast done to me; if thou become my wife, 
 I '11 not forgive thee either." 
 
 Meanwhile Plavitski entered the room in which Marynia 
 was sitting, and said, 
 
 "Thou hast refused him, or he would have come to me 
 before going." 
 
 "I have, papa." 
 
 "Without hope for the future?" 
 
 "Without hope. I respect him as no one in the world, 
 but I gave him no hope." 
 
 "What did he answer?" 
 
 "Everything that such a high-minded person could 
 answer." 
 
 "A new misfortune. Who knows if thou hast not de- 
 prived me of a morsel of bread in my old age ? But I knew 
 that no thought of this would come to thee." 
 
 "I could not act otherwise; I could not." 
 
 "I have no wish to force thee; and I go to offer my suf- 
 ferings there where every tear of an old man is counted."
 
 140 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 And he went to Lour's to look at men playing billiards. 
 He would have consented to Mashko; but at the root of: 
 the matter he did not count him a very brilliant match, and, 
 thinking that Marynia might do better, he did not trouble 
 himself too much over what had happened. 
 
 Half an hour later Marynia ran in to Pani Emilia's. 
 
 "One weight at least has fallen from my heart," began 
 she. "I refused Pan Mashko to-day decisively. I am 
 sorry for him; he acted with me as nobly and delicately 
 as only such a man could act; and if I had for him even a 
 small spark of feeling, I would return to him torday." 
 
 Here she repeated the whole conversation with Mashko. 
 Even Pani Emilia could not reproach him with anything; 
 she could not refuse a certain admiration, though she had 
 blamed Mashko for a violent character, and had not ex- 
 pected that, in such a grievous moment for himself, he 
 would be able to show such moderation and nobleness. 
 But Marynia said, 
 
 "My Em ilka, I know thy friendship for Pan Stanislav, 
 but judge these two men by their acts, not their words, 
 and compare them." 
 
 "Never shall I compare them," answered Pani Emilia 
 "comparison is impossible in this case. For me, Pan 
 Stanislav is a nature a hundred times loftier than Mashko, 
 but thou judgest him unjustly. Thou, Marynia, hast no 
 right to say, ' One tookKremen from me; the other wished 
 to give it back.' Such was not the case. Pan Stanislav 
 did not take it from thee at ?,ny time; but to-day, if he 
 could, he would return it with all his heart. Preposses- 
 sion is talking through thee." 
 
 "Not prepossession, but reality, which nothing can 
 change." 
 
 Pani Emilia seated Marynia before her, and said, "By 
 all means, Marynia, prepossession, and I will tell thee why. 
 Thou art not indifferent to Pan- Stanislav now." 
 
 Marynia quivered as if some one had touched a wound 
 which was paining her; and after a while she replied, with 
 changed voice, 
 
 "Pan Stanislav is not indifferent to me; thou art right. 
 
 Everything which in me could be sympathy for him has 
 
 turned to dislike; and hear, Emilka, what 1 will tell thee. 
 
 f I had to choose between those two men, I should choose 
 
 Mashko without hesitation." 
 
 Pani Emilia dropped her head ; after a while Marynia's 
 arms were around her neck.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 141 
 
 "What suffering for me, that I cause thee such pain! 
 but I must tell truth. I know that in the end thou, too, 
 wilt cease to love me, and I shall be all alone in the 
 world." 
 
 And really something like that had begun. The young 
 women parted with embraces and kisses; but still, when 
 they found themselves far from each other, both felt that 
 something between them had snapped, and that their 
 mutual relations would not be so cordial as hitherto. 
 
 Pani Emilia hesitated for a number of days whether to 
 repeat Marynia's words to Pan Stanislav; but he begged 
 her so urgently for the whole truth that at last she thought 
 it necessary, and that she would better tell it. When all 
 had been told, he said. 
 
 " I thank you. If Pauna Plavitski feels contempt for 
 me, I must endure it; I cannot, however, endure this, 
 that I should begin to despise myself. As it is, I have 
 gone too far. My dear lady, you know that if I have 
 done her a wrong, I have tried to correct it, and gain her 
 forgiveness. I do not feel bound to further duties. I 
 shall have grievous moments; I do not hide that from you. 
 But I have not been an imbecile, and am not; I shall be 
 able to bring myself to this, I shall throw all my feelings 
 for Panna Plavitski through the window, as I would some- 
 thing not needed in my chamber, I promise that sacredly." 
 
 He went home filled with will and energy. It seemed 
 to him that he could take "that feeling and break it as he 
 might break a cane across his knee. This impulse lasted 
 a number of days. During that time he did not show 
 himself anywhere, except at his office, where he talked 
 with Bigiel of business exclusively. He worked from 
 morning till evening and did not permit himself even to 
 think about Marynia in the daytime. 
 
 But he could not guard himself from sleepless nights. 
 Then came to him the clear feeling that Marynia might 
 love him, that she would be the best wife for him, that he 
 would be happy with her as never with any one else, and 
 that he would love her as his highest good. The regret 
 born of these thoughts filled his whole existence, and did 
 not leave him any more, so that sorrow was consuming his 
 life and his health, as rust consumes iron. Pan Stanislav 
 began to grow thin; he saw that the destruction of a feel- 
 ing gives one sure result, the destruction of happiness. 
 Never had he seen such a void before him, and never had
 
 142 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 he felt, with equal force, that nothing would fill it. He 
 saw, too, that it was possible to love a woman not as she 
 is, but as she might be; therefore his heart-sickness was 
 beyond measure. But, having great power over himself, 
 he avoided Maryuia. He knew always when she was to 
 be at Pani Emilia's, and then he confined himself at home. 
 It was only when Litka fell ill again that he began to 
 visit Pani Emilia daily, passing hours with the sick child, 
 whom Marynia attended also.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 BUT poor Litka, after a new attack, which was more 
 terrible than any preceding it, could not recover. She 
 spent days now lying on a long chair in the drawing- 
 room; for at her request the doctor and Pani Emilia had 
 agreed not to keep her in bed the whole time. She liked 
 also to have Pan Stanislav sitting near her; and she spoke 
 to him and her mother about everything that passed through 
 her mind. With Marynia she was silent usually; but at 
 times she looked at her long, and then raised her eyes to 
 the ceiling, as if wishing to think out a thought, and give 
 herself an account of something. More than once these 
 meditations took place when she was left alone with her 
 mother. On a certain afternoon she woke as if from a 
 dream, and turning to her mother, said, 
 
 "Mamma, sit near me here on the sofa." 
 
 Pani Emilia sat down; the child put her arms around 
 her neck, and, resting her head on her shoulder, began to 
 speak in a caressing voice, which was somewhat enfeebled. 
 
 " I wanted to ask mamma one thing, but I do not know 
 how to ask it." 
 
 "What is thy wish, my dear child?" 
 
 Litka was silent a moment, collecting her thoughts; 
 then she said, 
 
 "If we love some one, mamma, what is it?" 
 
 "If we love some one, Litus?" 
 
 Pani Emilia repeated the question, not understanding 
 well at first what the little girl was asking, but she did 
 not know how to inquire more precisely. 
 
 "Then what is it, mamma?" 
 
 "It is this, we wish that one to be well, just as I wish 
 thee to be well." 
 
 "And what more?" 
 
 "And we want that person to be happy, want it to be 
 pleasant in the world for that person, and are glad to 
 suffer for that person when in trouble." 
 
 "And what more?" 
 
 "To have that one always with us, as thou art with me; 
 and we want that one to love us, as thou lovest me."
 
 144 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "I understand now," said Litka, after a moment's 
 thought; "and I think myself that that is true, that it 
 is that way." 
 
 "How, kitten?" 
 
 "See, mamma, when I was in Eeichenhall, mamma re- 
 members? at Thurnsee I heard that Pan Stas loves Panna 
 Marynia; and now I know that he must be unhappy, though 
 he never says so." 
 
 Pani Emilia, fearing emotion for Litka, said, 
 
 "Does not this talk make thee tired, kitten?" 
 
 "Oh, no, not a bit, not a bit! I understand now: he 
 wants her to love him, and she does not love him; and 
 he wants her to be near him always, but she lives with her 
 father, and she will not marry him." 
 
 "Marry him?" 
 
 "Marry him. And he is suffering from that, mamma; 
 isn't it true?" 
 
 "True, my child." 
 
 "Yes, I know all that; and she would marry him if she 
 loved him?" 
 
 "Certainly, kitten; he is such a kind man." 
 
 "Now I know." 
 
 The little girl closed her eyes, and Pani Emilia thought 
 for a while that she was sleeping; but after a time she 
 began to inquire again, 
 
 "And if he married Marynia, would he cease to love 
 us?" 
 
 "No, Litus; he would love us always just the same." 
 
 "But would he love Marynia?" 
 
 "Marynia would be nearer to him than we. Why dost 
 thou ask about this so, thou kitten?" 
 
 "Is it wrong?" 
 
 "No, there is nothing wrong in it, nothing at all; only I 
 am afraid that thou wilt weary thyself." 
 
 "Oh, no! I am always thinking of Pan Stas anyhow. 
 But mamma mustn't tell Marynia about this." 
 
 With these words ended the conversation, after which 
 Litka held silence for a number of days, only she looked 
 more persistently than before at Marynia. Sometimes she 
 took her hand and turned her eyes to the young woman, as 
 if wishing to ask something. Sometimes when Marynia 
 and Pan Stanislav were near by, she gazed now on her, now 
 on him, and then closed her lids. Often they came daily, 
 sometimes a number of times in the day, wishing to relieve
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 145 
 
 Pani Emilia, who permitted no one to take her place in 
 the night at Litka's bedside; for a week she had been 
 without rest at night, sleeping only a little in the day, 
 when Litka herself begged her to do so. Still Pani 
 Emilia was not conscious of the whole danger which 
 threatened the little girl; for the doctor, not knowing what 
 that crisis of the disease would be, whether a step in 
 advance merely, or the end, pacified the mother the more 
 decisively because Pan Stanislav begged him most urgently 
 to do so. 
 
 She had a feeling, however, that Litka's condition was 
 not favorable, and, in spite of assurances from the doctor, 
 her heart sank more than once from alarm. But to Litka 
 she showed always a smiling and joyous face, just as did 
 Pan Stanislav and Marynia; but the little girl had learned 
 already to observe everything, and Pani Emilia's most 
 carefully concealed alarm did not escape her. 
 
 Therefore on a certain morning, when there was no one 
 in her room but Pan Stanislav, who was occupied with 
 inflating for her a great globe of silk, which he had brought 
 as a present, the little girl said, 
 
 " Pan Stas, I see sometimes that mamma is very anxious 
 because I am sick." 
 
 He stopped inflating the globe, and answered, 
 
 "Ai! she doesn't dream of it. What is working under 
 thy hair? But it is natural for her to be anxious; she would 
 rather have thee well." 
 
 "Why are all other children well, and I alone always 
 sick?" 
 
 "Nicely well! Weren't the Bigiel children sick, one 
 after another, with whooping-cough? For whole months 
 the house was like a sheepfold. And did n't Yozio have 
 the measles? All children are eternally sick, and that is 
 the one pleasure with them." 
 
 "Pan Stas only talks that way, for children are sick and 
 get well again." Here she began to shake her head. "No; 
 that is something different. And now I must lie this way 
 all the time, for if I get up my heart beats right away; 
 and the day before yesterday, when they began to sing on 
 the street, and mamma was n't in the room, I went to the 
 window a little while, and saw a funeral. I thought, 'I, 
 too, shall die surely.' ' 
 
 "Nonsense, Litus!" cried Pan Stanislav; and he began 
 to inflate the globe quickly to hide his emotion, and to 
 
 10
 
 146 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 show the child how little her words meant. But she went 
 on with her thought, 
 
 ' It is so stifling for me sometimes, and my heart beats 
 so mamma told me to say then ' Under Thy protection,' 
 and I say it always, for I am terribly afraid to die ! I 
 know that it is nice in heaven, but I shouldn't be with 
 mamma, only alone in the graveyard; yes, in the night." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laid down the globe suddenly, sat near 
 the long chair, and. taking Litka's hand, said, 
 
 "My Litus, if thou love mamma, if thou love me, do not 
 think of such things. Nothing will happen to thee ; but thy 
 mother would suffer if she knew what her little girl's head 
 is filled with. Remember that thou art hurting thyself in 
 this way." 
 
 Litka joined her hands : " My Pan Stas, I ask only one 
 thing, not more." 
 
 He bent his head down to her: "Well, ask, kitten, only 
 something sensible." 
 
 " Would Pan Stas be very sorry for me? " 
 
 "Ah ! but see what a bad girl ! " 
 
 "My Pan Stas, tell me." 
 
 "I? what an evil child, Litus! Know that I love thee, 
 love thee immensely. God preserve us ! there is no one 
 in the world that I should be so sorry for. But be quiet 
 at least for me, thou suffering fly ! thou dearest creature ! " 
 
 " I will be quiet, kind Pan Stas." 
 
 And in the moment when Pani Emilia came, and he was 
 preparing to go, she asked, 
 
 " And Pan Stas is not angry with me ? " 
 
 " No, Litus," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 When he had gone to the antechamber he heard a light 
 knocking at the door ; Pani Emilia had given orders to 
 remove the bell. He opened it and saw Marynia, who came 
 ordinarily in the evening. When she had greeted him, she 
 asked, 
 
 "How is Litka to-day ?" 
 
 "As Tisual." 
 
 "Has the doctor been here ? " 
 
 " Yes. He found nothing new. Let me help you ! " 
 
 Saying this, he wished to take her cloak, but she was 
 unwilling to accept his services, and refused. Having his 
 heart full of the previous talk with Litka, he attacked her 
 most unexpectedly, 
 
 "What I offer you is simple politeness, nothing moro;
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 147 
 
 and even if it were something more, you might leave your 
 repugnance to me outside this threshold, for inside is a 
 sick child, whom not only I, but you, profess to love. Your 
 response lacks not merely kindness, but even courtesy. I 
 would take in the same way the cloak of any other woman, 
 and know that at present I am thinking of Litka, and of 
 nothing else." 
 
 He spoke with great passiouateness, so that, attacked 
 suddenly, Marynia was a little frightened ; indeed, she lost 
 her head somewhat, so that obediently she let her cloak be 
 taken from her, and not only did not find in herself the force 
 to be offended, but she felt that a man sincerely and deeply 
 affected by alarm and suffering might talk so, therefore a 
 man who was really full of feeling and was good at heart. 
 Perhaps, too, that unexpected energy of his spoke to her 
 feminine nature ; it is enough that Pan Stanislav gained on 
 her more in that moment than at any time since their meet- 
 ing at Kremen, and never till then was she so strongly 
 reminded of that active young man whom she had con- 
 ducted once through the garden. The impression, it is true, 
 was a mere passing one, which could not decide their mutual 
 relations ; but she raised at once on him her eyes, somewhat 
 astonished, but not angry, and said, 
 
 "I beg your pardon." 
 
 He had calmed himself, and was abashed now. 
 
 "No ; I beg pardon of you. Just now Litka spoke of her 
 death to me, and I am so excited that I cannot control 
 myself ; pray understand this, and forgive me." 
 
 Then he pressed her hand firmly, and went home.
 
 148 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 ON the following day Marynia offered to stay at Pani 
 Emilia's till Litka should recover perfectly. Litka sup- 
 ported this offer, which Pani Emilia, after a short oppo- 
 sition, was forced to accept. In fact, she was dropping down 
 from weariness; the health of the sick girl demanded 
 unceasing and exceptional watchfulness, for a new attack 
 might come at any instant. It was difficult to calculate or 
 be sure that a servant, even the most faithful, would not 
 doze at the very moment in which speedy assistance might 
 save the child's life ; hence the presence of Marynia was a 
 real aid to the anxious mother, and calmed her. 
 
 As to Plavitski, he preferred to eat at the restaurant, and 
 made no trouble. Marynia, moreover, went in every day 
 to inquire about his health and bring domestic accounts 
 into order ; then she returned to Pani Emilia to sit half the 
 night by the little girl. 
 
 In this way Pan Stanislav, who passed at Pani Emilia's 
 all the time free from occupation, and received, or rather 
 dismissed with thanks, those who came to inquire for 
 Litka's health, saw Marynia daily. And she in truth 
 amazed him ; Pani Emilia herself did not show more anxiety 
 for the child, and could not nurse her more carefully. In a 
 week Marynia's face had grown pale from watching and 
 alarm ; there were dark lines beneath her eyes ; but her 
 strength and energy seemed to grow hourly. There was it) 
 her also so much sweetness and kindness, something so 
 calm and delicate in the services which she rendered Litka, 
 that the child, despite the resentment which she cherished 
 in her little soul, began to be kind to her ; and when she 
 went for some hours to her father, Litka looked for her 
 with yearning. 
 
 Finally the little girl's health seemed to improve in the 
 last hours. The doctor permitted her to walk in the cham- 
 ber and sit in an armchair, which on sunny days was 
 pushed to the door opening on the balcony, so that she 
 might look at the street and amuse herself with the move- 
 ment of people and carriages.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 149 
 
 At such times Pan Stanislav, Pani Emilia, and Marynia 
 stood near her frequently ; their conversation related to 
 what was passing on the street. Sometimes Litka was 
 wearied, and, as it were, thoughtful ; at other times, how- 
 ever, her child nature got the upper hand, and everything 
 amused her, hence the October sun, which covered the 
 roofs, the walls, and the panes of the shop windows with a 
 pale gold ; the dresses of the passers-by ; the calling of the 
 hucksters. It seemed that those strong elements of life, 
 pulsating in the whirl of the city, entered the child and 
 enlivened her. At times wonderful thoughts came to her 
 head ; and once, when before the balcony a heavy wagon 
 was pushing past which carried lemon-trees in tubs, and 
 these, though tied with chains, moved with the motion of 
 the wagon, she said, 
 
 " Their hearts do not palpitate." And then, raising her 
 eyes to Pan Stanislav, she asked, 
 
 " Pan Stas, do trees live long ? " 
 
 " Very long ; some of them live a thousand years." 
 
 " Oh, I would like to be a tree. And which does mamma 
 like best ? " 
 
 The birch." 
 
 "Then I would like to be a little birch; and mamma 
 would be a big birch, and we should grow together. And 
 would Pan Stas like to be a birch ? " 
 
 "If I could grow somewhere not far from the little 
 birch." 
 
 Litka looked at him shaking her head somewhat sadly, 
 said, 
 
 "Oh, no! I know all now; I know near what birch Pan 
 Stas would like to grow." 
 
 Marynia was confused, and dropped her eyes on her 
 work; Pan Stanislav began to stroke lightly with his palm 
 the little blond head, and said, 
 
 ''My dear little kitten, my dear, my my " 
 
 Litka was silent; from under her long eyelids flowed 
 two tears, and rolled down her cheeks. After a while, 
 however, she raised her sweet face, radiant with a smile, 
 
 "I love mamma very much," said she, "and I love Pan 
 Stas, and I love Marynia."
 
 150 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PROFESSOR VASKOVSKI inquired every day about the 
 health of the little one; and though most frequently they 
 did not receive him, he sent her flowers. Pan Stanislav, 
 meeting him somewhere at dinner, began thanking him 
 in Pani Emilia's name. 
 
 "Asters, only asters!" said Vaskovski. "How is she 
 to-day?" 
 
 "To-day not ill, but, in general, not well; worse than in 
 Reichenhall. Fear for each coming day seizes one; and 
 at the thought that the child may be missing " 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav stopped, for further words failed 
 him; at last he burst out, 
 
 "What is the use in looking for mercy? There is noth- 
 ing but logic, which says that whoso has a sick heart must 
 die. And may thunderbolts split such existence ! " 
 
 Now came Bukatski, who, when he had learned what 
 the conversation was, attacked the professor; even he, as 
 he loved Litka, rebelled in his soul at thought of that 
 death which was threatening her. 
 
 "How is it possible to deceive oneself so many years, 
 and proclaim principles which turn into nothing in view 
 of blind predestination?" 
 
 But the old man answered mildly: "How, beloved 
 friends, estimate with your own measure the wisdom of 
 God and His mercy? A man under ground is surrounded 
 by darkness, but he has no right to deny that above him 
 are sky, sun, heat, and light." 
 
 "Here is consolation," interrupted Pan Stanislav; "a 
 fly couldn't live on such doctrines. And what is a mother 
 to do, whose only and beloved child is dying?" 
 
 But the blue eyes of the professor seemed to look beyond 
 the world. For a time he gazed straightforward persist- 
 ently; then he said, like a man who sees something, but 
 is not sure that he sees it distinctly, " It appears to me that 
 this_child has fixed herself too deeplyin people's hearts to 
 j**"_ ***7 sunpiy, and disappear without a trace. There" 
 a sometning in this, something was predestined to her;
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 151 
 
 she must accomplish something, and before that she will 
 not die." 
 
 "Mysticism," said Bukatski. 
 
 But Pan Stan islav interrupted: "Oh, that it were so, 
 mysticism or no mysticism ! Oh, that it were so ! A man 
 in misfortune grasps even at a shadow of hope. It never 
 found place in my head that she had to die." 
 
 But the professor added, "Who knows? she may survive 
 all of us." 
 
 Polanyetski was in that phase of scepticism in which a 
 man recognizes certainty in nothing, but considers every- 
 thing possible, especially that everything which at the 
 given time his heart yearns for; he breathed therefore 
 more easily, and received certain consolation. 
 
 "May God have mercy on her and Pani Emilia!" said 
 he. "I would give money for a hundred Masses if I knew 
 they would help her." 
 
 "Give for one, if the intention be sincere." 
 
 "I will, I will! As to the sincerity of intention, I could 
 not be more sincere if the question involved my own life." 
 
 Vaskovski smiled and said, "Thou art on the good road, 
 for thou knowest how to loveJ' 
 
 And all lelt relieved in some way. Bukatski, if he 
 was thinking of something opposed to what Vaskovski had 
 said, did not dare mention it; for when people in presence 
 of real misfortune seek salvation in faith, scepticism, even 
 when thoroughly rooted, pulls its cap over its ears, and 
 is not only cowardly, but seems weak and small. 
 
 Bigiel, who came in at that moment, saw more cheerful 
 faces, and said, 
 
 "I see by you that the little one is not worse." 
 
 "Xo, no," said Pan Stanislav; "and the professor told 
 us such wholesome things that he might be applied to a 
 wound." 
 
 "Praise be to God! My wife gave money for a Mass 
 to-day, and went then to Pani Emilia's. I will dine with 
 you, for I have leave; and, since Litka is better, I will 
 tell you another glad news." 
 
 " What is it? " 
 
 "Awhile ago I met Mashko, who, by the way, will be 
 here soon ; and when he comes, congratulate him, for he is 
 going to marry." 
 
 "Whom?" asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "My neighbor's daughter."
 
 152 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL, 
 
 "Panna Kraslavski?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I understand," said Bukatski; "he crushed those ladies 
 into dust with his grandeur, his birth, his property, and 
 out of that dust he formed a wife and a uiother-in-law for 
 himself." 
 
 "Tell me one thing," said the professor; "Mashko is a 
 religious man " 
 
 " As a conservative," interrupted Bukatski, "for appear- 
 ance' sake." 
 
 "And those ladies, too," continued Vaskovski. 
 
 "From habit " 
 
 "Why do they never think of a future life?" 
 
 "Mashko, why dost thou never think of a future life?" 
 cried Bukatski, turning to the advocate, who was coming 
 in at that moment. 
 
 Mashko approached them and asked, " What dost thou 
 say?" 
 
 "I will say Tu felix, Mashko, nube! " (Thou, Mashko, 
 art fortunate in marriage !) 
 
 Then all began to offer congratulations, which he received 
 with full weight of dignity ; at the end he said, 
 
 "My dear friends, I thank you from my whole heart; 
 and, since ye all know my betrothed, I have no doubt of 
 the sincerity of your wishes." 
 
 "Do not permit thyself one," said Bukatski. 
 
 "But Kremen came to thee in season," interjected Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 Indeed, Kremen had come to Mashko in season, for with- 
 out it he might not have been accepted. But for that very 
 cause the remark was not agreeable; hence he made a wry 
 face, and answered, 
 
 "Thou didst make that purchase easy; sometimes I am 
 thankful to thee, and sometimes I curse thee." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 "For thy dear Uncle Plavitski is the most annoying, 
 the most unendurable figure on earth, omitting thy cousin, 
 who is a charming young lady; but from morning till 
 evening she rings changes on her never to be sufficiently 
 regretted Kremen, through all the seven notes, adding at 
 each one a tear. Thou art seldom at their house; but, 
 believe me, to be there is uncommonly wearisome." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked into his eyes and answered, " Listen, 
 Mashko: against my uncle I have said everything that
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 153 
 
 could hit him; but it does not follow, therefore, that I am 
 to listen patiently if another attacks Plavitski, especially 
 a man who has made profit by him. As to Panna Marynia, 
 she is sorry, I know, for Kreinen ; but this proves that she 
 is not an empty puppet, or a manikin, but a woman with a 
 heart; dost understand me?" 
 
 A moment of silence followed. Mashko understood per- 
 fectly whom Pan Stanislav had in mind when he mentioned 
 the empty doll and manikin; hence the freckles on his face 
 became brick-colored, and his lips began to quiver. But 
 he restrained himself. He was in no sense a coward ; but 
 even the man who is most daring has usually some one 
 with whom he has no wish to quarrel, and for Mashko 
 Polanyetski was such a one. Therefore, shrugging his 
 shoulders, he said, 
 
 " Why art thou angry? If that is unpleasing to thee " 
 
 But Pan Stanislav interrupted, "I am not angry; but I 
 advise thee to remember my words." And he looked him 
 in the eyes again. 
 
 Mashko thought, " If thou wilt have an adventure any- 
 how, thou canst have it." 
 
 "Thy words," said he, "I can remember; only do thou 
 take counsel also from me. Permit not thyself to speak 
 in that tone to me, else I might forget myself also, and call 
 thee to reckoning." 
 
 "What the deuce " began Bukatski. "What is the 
 matter with thee?'' 
 
 But Pan Stanislav, in whom irritation against Mashko 
 has been gathering for a long time, would beyond doubt 
 have pushed matters to extremes had not Pani Emilia's 
 servant rushed into the room at that moment. 
 
 "I beg," said he, with a panting voice; "the little lady 
 is dying! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav grew pale, and, seizing his hat, sprang to 
 the door. A long, dull silence followed, which Mashko 
 interrupted at last. 
 
 "I forgot," said he, "that everything should be forgiven 
 him at present." 
 
 Vaskovski, covering his eyes with his hands, began t 
 pray. At length he raised his head and said, 
 
 "God alone has bridled death, and has power to restrain 
 
 it " 
 
 'A quarter of an hour later, Bigiel received a note from 
 his wife with the words, " The attack has passed.
 
 154 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PAN STANISLAV hurried to Pani Emilia's, feaiing that 
 he would not find Litka living; for the servant told him 
 on the way that the little lady was in convulsions, and 
 dying. But when he arrived, Pani Emilia ran to meet him, 
 and from the depth of her breast threw out in one breath 
 the words, "Better! better!" 
 
 "Is the doctor here?" 
 
 "He is." 
 
 "But the little one?" 
 
 "Is sleeping." 
 
 On the face of Pani Emilia the remnants of fear were 
 struggling with hope and joy. Pan Stanislav noticed that 
 her lips were almost white, her eyes dry and red, her face 
 in blotches; she was mortally wearied, for she had not 
 slept for twenty-four hours. But the doctor, a young man, 
 and energetic, looked on the danger as passed for the time. 
 Pani Emilia was strengthened by what he told her in 
 presence of Pan Stanislav, especially this: "We should 
 not let it come to a second attack, and we will not." 
 
 There was real consolation in these words, for evidently 
 the doctor considered that they were able to ward off 
 another attack; still there was a warning that another 
 attack might be fatal. But Pani Emilia grasped at every 
 hope, as a man falling over a precipice grasps at the 
 branches of trees growing out on the edge of it. 
 
 "We will not; we will not!" repeated she, pressing the 
 doctor's hand feverishly. 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked into his eyes unobserved, wishing 
 to read in them whether he said this to pacify the mother, 
 or on the basis of medical conviction, and asked as a 
 test, 
 
 " You will not leave her to-day? " 
 
 "I do not see the least need of staying," answered he. 
 "The child is exhausted, and is like to sleep long and 
 soundly. I will come to-morrow, but to-day I can go with 
 perfect safety." Then he turned to Pani Emilia, 
 
 "You must rest, too. All danger has passed; the patient
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 155 
 
 should not see on your face any suffering or alarm, for she 
 might be disturbed, and she is too weak to endure that." 
 
 "I could not fall asleep," said Pani Emilia. 
 
 The doctor turned his pale blue eyes-to her, and, gazing 
 into her face with a certain intensity, said slowly, 
 
 "In an hour you will lie down, and will fall asleep 
 directly; you will sleep unbrokerily for six or eight hours, 
 let us say eight. To-morrow you will be strong and 
 refreshed. And now good-night." 
 
 "But drops to the little one, if she wakes?" asked Pani 
 Emilia. 
 
 "Another will give the drops; you will sleep. Good- 
 night." And he took farewell. 
 
 Pan Stanislav wished to follow him to inquire alone 
 about Litka, but he thought that a longer talk of that kind 
 might alarm Pani Emilia; hence he preferred to omit it, 
 promising himself that in the morning he would go to the 
 doctor's house and talk there with him. After a while, 
 when he was alone with Pani Emilia, he said, 
 
 "Do as the doctor directed; you need rest. I promise 
 to go to Litka's room now, and I will not leave her the 
 whole night." 
 
 But Pani Emilia's thoughts were all with the little girl; 
 so, instead of an answer, she said to him directly, 
 
 "Do you know, after the attack, she asked several times 
 for you before she fell asleep. And for Marynia too. She 
 fell asleep with the question, Where is Pan Stas? ' " 
 
 "My poor beloved child, I should have come anyhow 
 right after dinner. I flew here barely alive. When did 
 the attack begin?" 
 
 "In the forenoon. From the morning she was gloomy, 
 as if foreboding something. You know that in my presence 
 she says always that she is well; but she must have felt 
 ill, for before the attack she sat near me and begged me to 
 hold her hand. Yesterday, I forgot to tell you that she 
 put such strange questions to me: 'Is it true,' inquired 
 she, ' that if a sick child asks for a thing it is never re- 
 fused? ' I answered that it is not refused unless the child 
 asks for something impossible. Some idea was passing 
 through her head evidently, for in the evening, when 
 Marynia ran in for a moment, she put like questions to us. 
 She 'went to sleep in good humor, but this morning early 
 she complained of stifling. It is lucky that I sent for the 
 doctor before the attack, and that he came promptly."
 
 156 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "It is the greatest luck that he went away with such 
 certainty that the attack would not be repeated. I am 
 perfectly sure that that is his conviction," answered Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 Pani Emilia raised her eyes : " The Lord God is so mer- 
 ciful, so good, that " 
 
 In spite of all her efforts, she began to sob, for repressed 
 alarm and despair were changed. to joy in her, and she 
 found relief in tears. In that noble and spiritualized 
 nature, innate exaltation disturbed calm thought; by reason 
 of this, Pani Emilia never gave an account to herself of the 
 real state of affairs; now, for example, she had not the 
 least doubt that Litka's illness had ended once for all with 
 this recent attack, and that thenceforth a time of perfect 
 health would begin for the child. 
 
 Pan Stanislav had neither the wish nor the heart to show 
 her a middle road between delight and despair; his heart 
 rose with great pity for her, and there came to him one of 
 those moments in which he felt more clearly than usually 
 how deeply, though disinterestedly, he was attached to 
 that enthusiastic and idealistic woman. If she had been 
 his sister, he would have embraced her and pressed her to 
 his bosom; as it was, he kissed her delicate, thin hands, 
 and said, 
 
 " Praise be to God ; praise be to God ! Let the dear lady 
 think now of herself, and I will go to the little one and 
 not stir till she wakes." And he went. 
 
 In Litka's chamber there was darkness, for the window- 
 blinds were closed, and the sun was going down. Only 
 through the slats did some reddish rays force their way; 
 these lighted the chamber imperfectly and vanished soon, for 
 the sky began to grow cloudy. Litka was sleeping soundly. 
 Pan Stanislav, sitting near her, looked on her sleeping face, 
 and at the first moment his heart was oppressed painfully. 
 She was lying with her face toward the ceiling; her thin 
 little hands were placed on the coverlid; her eyes were 
 closed, and under them was a deep shadow from the lashes. 
 Her pallor, which seemed waxen in that reddish half- 
 gloom, and her open mouth, finally, the deep sleep, gave 
 her face the seeming of such rest as the faces of the dead 
 have. But the movement of the ruffles on her nightdress 
 showed that she was living and breathing. Her respira- 
 tion was even calm and very regular. Pan Stanislav 
 looked for a long time at that sick face, and felt again,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 157 
 
 with full force, what he had felt often, when he thought 
 of himself, namely, that nature had made him to be a 
 father; that, besides the woman of his choice, children 
 might be the immense love of his life, the chief object and 
 reason of his existence. He understood this, through the 
 pity and love which he felt at that moment for Litka, who, 
 a stranger to him by birth, was as dear to him then as would 
 have been his own child. 
 
 "If she had been given to me," thought he; "if she 
 lacked a mother, I would take her forever, and consider 
 that I had something to live for." 
 
 And he felt also that were it possible to make a bargain 
 with death, he would have given himself without hesita- 
 tion to redeem that little "kitten," over whom death seemed 
 then to be floating like a bird of prey over a dove. Such 
 tenderness seized him as he had not felt till that hour; and 
 that man , of a character rather quick and harsh , was ready 
 to kiss the hands and head of that child, with a tenderness 
 of which not even every woman's heart is capable. 
 
 Meanwhile it had grown dark. Soon Pani Emilia came 
 in, shading with her hand a blue night-lamp. 
 
 " She is sleeping ? " asked she, in a low voice, placing 
 the lamp on the table beyond Litka's head. 
 
 " She is," answered Fan Stanislav, in an equally low 
 voice. 
 
 Pani Emilia looked long at the sleeping child. 
 
 " See," whispered Pan Stanislav, " how regularly and 
 calmly she breathes. To-morrow she will be healthier and 
 stronger." 
 
 " Yes," answered the mother, with a smile. 
 
 " Xow it is your turn. Sleep, sleep! otherwise I shall 
 begin to command without pity." 
 
 Her eyes continued to smile at him thankfully. In the 
 mild blue light of the night-lamp she seemed like an 
 apparition. She had a perfectly angelic face ; and Pan 
 Stanislav thought in spite of himself that she and Litka 
 looked really like forms from beyond the earth, which by 
 pure chance had wandered into this world. 
 
 "Yes," answered she; "I will rest now. Mary ni a has 
 come, and Professor Vaskovski. Marynia wishes absolutely 
 to remain." 
 
 "So much the better. She manages so well near the 
 little girl. Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night."
 
 158 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was alone again, and began to think of 
 Marynia. At the very intelligence that he would see her 
 soon he could not think of aught else ; and now he put the 
 question to himself : " In what lies this wonderful secret_ 
 of nature in virtue of which I, for example, did not fall in" 
 love with Paui Emilia, decidedly more beautiful than 
 Marynia, likely better, sweeter, more capable of loving, 
 but with that girl whom I know incomparably less, and, 
 justly or unjustly, honor less ? " Still with every approach 
 of his to Marynia there rose in him immediately all those 
 impulses which a man may feel at sight of a chosen woman, 
 while a real womanly form, like that of Paui Emilia, made 
 no other impression on him than if she had been a painting 
 or a carving. Why is this, and why, the more culture a 
 man has, the more his nerves become subtile, and his sensi- 
 tiveness keener, the greater difference does he make be- 
 tween woman and woman ? Pan Stanislav had no answer 
 to this save the one which that doctor in love with Panna 
 Kraslavski had given him : " I estimate her coolly, but _I_ 
 cannot tear my soul from her." That was rather the 
 description of a phenomenon tlian an answer, for which, 
 moreover, he had not the time, since Marynia came in at 
 that moment. 
 
 They nodded in salutation ; he raised a chair then, and 
 put it down softly at Litka's bed, letting Marynia know 
 by a sign that she was to sit there. She began to speak 
 first, or rather, to whisper. 
 
 " Go to tea now. Professor Vaskovski is here." 
 
 " And Pani Emilia ? " 
 
 " She could not sit up. She said that it was a wonder 
 to her, but she must sleep." 
 
 " I know why : the doctor hypnotized her, and he did 
 well. The little girl is indeed better." 
 
 Marynia gazed into his eyes ; but he repeated, 
 
 " She is really better if the attack will not return, 
 and there is hope that it will not." 
 
 " Ah ! praise be to God ! But go now and drink tea." 
 
 He preferred, however, to whisper to her near by and 
 confidentially, so he said, 
 
 " I will, I will ; but later. Let us arrange meanwhile so 
 that you may rest. I have heard that your father is ill. 
 Of course you have been watching over him." 
 
 " Father is well now, and I wish to take Emilia's place 
 absolutely. She told me that the servants had not slept
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 159 
 
 either all last night, for the child's condition was alarming 
 before the attack. It is needful now that some one be on 
 the watch always. I should wish, therefore, so to arrange 
 that we that is, I, you, and Emilka should follow in 
 turn." 
 
 " Very well ; but to-day I will remain. If not here, I 
 shall be at call in the next chamber. When did you hear 
 of the attack ? " 
 
 "I did not hear of it. I came as I do usually in the 
 evening to learn what was to be heard." 
 
 " Pani Emilia's servant hurried to me while I was din- 
 ing. You can imagine easily how I flew hither. I was 
 not sure of finding her alive. What wonder, since during 
 dinner I talked almost all the time of Litka with Bukatski 
 and Yaskovski. till Mashko came with the announcement 
 of his marriage." 
 
 " Is Mashko going to marry ? " 
 
 " Yes. The news has not gone around yet ; but he an- 
 nounced it himself. He marries Panna Kraslavski ; you re- 
 member her ? " 
 
 " She who was at the Bigiels that evening. She is a good 
 match for Mashko, Panna Kraslavski." 
 
 There was silence for a moment. Marynia, who, not loving 
 Mashko, had rejected his hand, but who more than once 
 had reproached herself for her conduct with regard to him, 
 thinking that she had exposed him to deception and suffer- 
 ing, could find only comfort in the news that the young 
 advocate had borne the blow so easily. Still the news 
 astonished her for the time, and also wounded her. 
 Women, when they sympathize with some one, wish first 
 that some one to be really unhappy, and, secondly, they 
 wish to alleviate the misfortune themselves; when it 
 turns out that another is able to do that, they undergo a 
 certain disillusion. Marynia's self-love was wounded also 
 doubly. She had not thought that it would be so easy to 
 forget her; hence she had to confess that her idea of 
 Mashko as an exceptional man had no basis. He had been 
 for her hitherto a kind of ace in the game against Pan 
 Stanislav ; now he had ceased to be that. She felt, there- 
 fore, let matters be as they might, somewhat conquered. 
 This did not prevent her, it is true, from informing Pan 
 Stanislav, with a certain accent of truth, that his news 
 caused her sincere and deep joy, but at bottom she felt 
 in some sort offended by him because he had told her.
 
 160 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 For a certain time Pan Stanislav had acted with her 
 very reservedly, and in nothing had he betrayed what was 
 happening within him. He did not feign to be too cool, for 
 they had to meet ; therefore, in meeting her he maintained 
 even a certain kindly freedom, but for this very reason she 
 judged that he had ceased to love her, and such is human 
 nature, that though the old offence was existing yet, and had 
 even increased in the soul of the young woman, though her 
 first disillusion had changed as it were into a spring, giving 
 forth new bitterness continually, still the thought that her 
 repugnance was indifferent to him irritated Marynia. Now 
 it seemed to her that Fan Stanislav must even triumph over 
 her mistake as to Mashko ; and at this, that in every case 
 she, who shortly before had the choice between Mashko and 
 him, has that choice no longer, and will fall, as it were, into 
 a kind of neglect somewhat humiliating. 
 
 But he was far from such thoughts. He was glad, it is 
 true, that Marynia should know that, by exalting Mashko 
 above him, she had been mistaken fundamentally; but he 
 had not dreamed even of taking pleasure in this or triumph- 
 ing because of her isolation, for at every moment and at 
 that time more than any other he was ready to open his 
 arms to her, press her to his bosom, and love her. He 
 was working, it is true, continually and even with stubborn- 
 ness to break in himself those feelings; but he did this only 
 because he saw no hope before him, and considered it an 
 offence against his dignity as a man to put all the powers 
 of his soul and heart into a feeling which was not returned. 
 To use his own expression, he wished to avoid surrender, 
 and he did avoid surrender, to the best of his power ; but he 
 understood perfectly that such a struggle exhausts, and 
 that even if it ends with victory it brings a void, instead of 
 happiness. Besides, he was far yet from victory. After all 
 his efforts he had arrived at this only, that his feeling was 
 mingled with bitterness. Such a ferment dissolves love, it 
 is true, for the simple reason that it poisons it; and in time 
 this bitterness might have dissolved love in Pan Stanislav's 
 heart. But what an empty result! Sitting then near 
 Marynia and looking at her face and head, shone on by the 
 light of the lamp, he said to himself, "If only she wished!" 
 That thought made him angry ; but since he wanted to be 
 sincere with himself, he had to confess that if only she 
 wished he would bend to her feet with the greatest readi- 
 ness. What an empty result, then, and what a position with-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 161 
 
 out escape ! For he felt that the misunderstanding between 
 them had increased so much that even if Marynia de- 
 sired a return of those moments passed in Kremen, self- 
 love and fear of self-contradiction would close her lips. 
 Their relations had become so entangled that they might 
 fall in love more easily a second time than come to an 
 understanding. 
 
 After a short conversation there was silence between 
 them, interrupted only by the breathing of the sick child 
 and the slight, but mournful, sounds of the window-panes, 
 on which fine rain was striking. Outside, the night had 
 grown wet ; it was autumnal, bringing with it oppression, 
 gloom, pessimism, and discontent. Equally gloomy seemed 
 that chamber, in whose dark corners death appeared to be 
 lurking. Hour followed hour more slowly. All at once 
 forebodings seized Pan Stanislav. He looked at Litka on a 
 sudden, and it seemed to him madness to suppose that she 
 could recover. Vain was watching! vain were hopes and 
 illusions! That child must die! she must all the more 
 surely, the dearer she was. Pani Emilia will follow her ; 
 and then there will be a desert really hopeless. What a 
 life ! See, he, Polanyetski, has those two, the only'beings 
 in the world who love him, beings for whom he is some- 
 thing ; therefore it is clear that he must lose them. With 
 them there would be something in life to which he could 
 adhere ; without them there will be only nothingness and a 
 certain kind of future, blind, deaf, unreasoning, with the 
 face of an idiot. 
 
 The most energetic man needs some one to love him. 
 Otherwise he feels death within, and his energy turns against 
 life. A moment like that had come now to Pan Stanislav. 
 " I do not know absolutely why I should not fire into my 
 forehead," thought he, " not from despair at losing them, but 
 because of the nothing without them. If life must be sense- 
 less, there is no reason to permit this senselessness, unless 
 through curiosity to learn how far it can go." But this 
 thought did not appear in him as a plan ; it was rather the 
 effort of a man writhing at the chain of misfortune, a burst 
 of anger in a man seeking some one against whom to turn. 
 In Pan Stanislav this anger turned suddenly on Marynia. 
 He did not know himself why ; but it seemed to him at 
 once that all the evil which had happened, had happened 
 through her. She had brought into their circle a dislike not 
 there before, suffering not there before, and had thrown, as 
 
 11
 
 162 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 it were, some stone into their smooth water ; and now the 
 wave, which was spreading more and more widely, covered 
 not only him, but Pani Emilia and Litka. As a man govern- 
 ing himself by judgment, not by nerves, he understood how 
 vain were reproaches of this sort ; still he could not put down 
 the remembrance that before Marynia came it was better in 
 every way, and so much better even, that he might consider 
 that as a happy period of his life. He loved then only 
 Litka, with that untroubled, fatherly feeling, which did not 
 and could not bring bitterness for a moment. Who -knows, 
 besides, if in time he might not have been able to love Pani 
 Emilia ? She, it is true, had not for him other feelings than 
 those of friendship, but perhaps only because he did not 
 desire other feelings. High-minded women frequently re- 
 fuse themselves feelings which go beyond the boundary of 
 friendship, so as not to render difficult and involved the life 
 of some one who might, but does not wish to become dear. 
 Meanwhile in the depth of the soul lies a calm secret 
 melancholy ; they find sweetness and consolation in the 
 tenderness permitted by friendship. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, by becoming acquainted with Maryuia, gave 
 her at once the best part of his feelings. Why ? for what 
 purpose ? Only to give himself suffering. Xow, to com- 
 plete the misfortune, that Litka, the one ray of his life, 
 had died, or might die any moment. Pan Stanislav looked 
 again at her, and said in his soul. 
 
 " Remain even, thou dear child ; thou knowst not how 
 needful thou art to me and to thy mother. God guard 
 thee ; what a life there will be without thee ! " 
 
 Suddenly he saw that the eyes of the child were looking 
 at him. For a while he thought himself mistaken, and did 
 not dare to stir ; but the little maiden smiled, and finally 
 she whispered, 
 
 " Pan Stas." 
 
 " It is I, Litus. How dost thou feel ? " 
 
 " Well ; but where is mamma ? " 
 
 " She will come right away. We had a great struggle to 
 make her go to bed to sleep, and we hardly persuaded her." 
 
 Litka turned her head, and, seeing Marynia, said, 
 
 " Ah ! is that Aunt Marynia? " 
 
 For some time she had railed her aunt. 
 
 Marynia rose, and, taking' the vial which stood on the 
 shelf, poured drop after drop into a spoon; then she gave 
 them to Litka, who, when she had finished drinking, 
 pressed her lips tQ Marynia's forehead.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 163 
 
 A moment of silence followed; then the child said, as if 
 to herself, 
 
 "There is no need of waking mamma." 
 
 "No; no one will wake her," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 "All will be as Litus wishes." 
 
 And he began to stroke her hand, which was lying on 
 the coverlid. She looked at him, repeating, as was her 
 wont, ' 
 
 "Pan Stas, Pan Stas!" 
 
 For a while it seemed that she would fall asleep; but 
 evidently the child was thinking of something with great 
 effort, for her brows rose. At last, opening widely her 
 eyes, she looked now at Pan Stanislav, and now at Marynia. 
 In the room nothing was heard save the sound of rain on 
 the windows. 
 
 "What is the matter with the child?" asked Marynia. 
 
 But she, clasping her hands, whispered in a voice barely 
 audible, "I have a great, great prayer to Aunt Marynia, 
 but I am afraid to say it." 
 
 Marynia bent her mild face toward the little girl. 
 
 "Speak, my love; I will do everything for thee." 
 
 Then the little girl, seizing her hand, and pressing it to 
 her lips, whispered, 
 
 "I want Aunt Marynia to love Pan Stas." 
 
 In the silence which followed after these words was to 
 be heard only the somewhat increased breathing of the 
 little girl. At last the calm voice of Marynia was heard, 
 
 "Very well, my love." 
 
 A spasm of weeping seized Pan Stanislav suddenly by 
 the throat; everything, not excluding Marynia, vanished 
 from his eyes before that child, who, at such a moment, 
 sick, powerless, and in the face of death, thought only 
 of him. 
 
 Litka asked further, 
 
 "And will aunt marry Pan Stas?" 
 
 In the light of the blue lamp Marynia's face seemed 
 very pale; her lips quivered, but she answered without 
 hesitation, 
 
 "I will, Litus." 
 
 The little girl raised Marynia's hand to her lips a second 
 time; her head fell on the pillow, and she lay for a while 
 with closed lids; after some time, however, two tears 
 flowed down her cheeks. Then followed a longer silence; 
 the rain was beating against the window-panes. Pan
 
 164 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Stanislav and Marynia were sitting motionless without 
 looking at each other; both felt, however, that their fates 
 had been decided that night, but they were as it aazed 
 by what had happened. In the chaos of thought and reel- 
 ings neither of them knew how to note or indicate what 
 was passing within them. In that silence, which was 
 kept instinctively, lest perchance they might look each 
 other in the eyes, hour followed hour. The clock struck 
 midnight, then one; about two Pani Emilia slipped in like 
 a shadow. 
 
 "Is she sleeping?" inquired she. 
 
 "No, mamma," answered Litka. 
 
 " Art thou well?" 
 
 "Well, mamma." 
 
 And when Pani Emilia sat near her bed, the little one 
 embraced her neck; and, nestling her yellow head at her 
 breast, she said, 
 
 "I know now, mamma, that when a sick child begs for 
 anything, people never refuse." 
 
 And she nestled up to her mother some time yet; then, 
 drawing out each word as sleepy children do, or very 
 tired ones, she said, 
 
 "Pan Stas will not be sad any more; and I will tell 
 mamma why " 
 
 But here her head became heavy on her mother's breast, 
 and Pani Emilia felt the cold sweat coming on the hands 
 of the child, as well as on her temples. 
 
 " Litus ! " exclaimed she, with a suppressed, frightened 
 voice. 
 
 And the child began, 
 
 "I feel so strange, so weak " 
 
 Her thoughts grew dim ; and after a while she continued, 
 
 "Oh, the sea is rolling such a big sea! and we are 
 all sailing on it. Mamma ! mamma ! " 
 
 And a new attack came, dreadful, pitiless. The little 
 girl's body was drawn in convulsions, and her eyesight 
 turned toward the back of her head. There was no chance 
 of illusion this time; death was at hand, and visible in the 
 pale light of the lamp, in the dark corner of the room, in 
 the sound of the window-panes, stricken by the rain, and 
 in the noise of the wind, full of terrified voices and cries. 
 
 Pan Stanislav sprang up and ran for the doctor. In a 
 quarter of an hour both appeared before the closed doors 
 of the room, uncertain whether the child was living yet,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 165 
 
 and they disappeared through it immediately, first Pan 
 Stanislav, then the doctor, who, from the moment that 
 they had pulled him out of bed, kept repeating one phrase, 
 "Is it fear or emotion?" 
 
 Some of the servants, with sleepy and anxious faces, 
 were gathered at the door, listening; and -in the whole 
 house followed a silence, long continued, which weighed 
 down like lead. 
 
 It was broken at last by Marynia, who was the first tc 
 come out of the closed chamber, her face as pale as linen f 
 and she said hurriedly , 
 
 "Water for the lady! the little lady is living no longer."
 
 166 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AUTUMN, in its last days, smiles on people at times with 
 immense sadness, but mildly, like a woman dying of 
 decline. It was on such a mild day that Litka's funeral 
 took place. There is pain mingled with a certain consola- 
 tion in this, that those left behind think of their dead 
 and feel the loss of them. Pan Stanislav, occupied with 
 the funeral, was penetrated by that calm and pensive day 
 with still greater sadness; but, transferring Litka's feelings 
 to himself, he thought that the child would have wished 
 just such a day for her burial, and he found in this thought 
 a certain solace. Till that moment he had not been able 
 simply to measure his sorrow; such knowledge comes later, 
 and begins only when the loved one is left in the grave- 
 yard, and a man returns by himself to his empty house. 
 Besides, preparations for the funeral had consumed Pan 
 Stanislav's whole time. Life has surrounded with arti- 
 ficial forms, and has complicated, such a simple act as death. 
 Pan Stauislav wished to show Litka that last service, 
 which, moreover, there was no one else to perform. All 
 those springs of life through which man thinks, resolves, 
 and acts, were severed in Pani Emilia by the death of her 
 child. This time the wind seemed too keen for the fleece 
 of the lamb. Happily, however, excessive pain either 
 destroys itself, or benumbs the human heart. This hap- 
 pened with Pani Emilia. Pan Stanislav noticed that the 
 predominant expression of her face and eyes was a measure- 
 less, rigid amazement. As in her eyes there were no tears, 
 so in her mouth there were no words, merely a kind of 
 whisper, at once tragic and childish, showing that her 
 thought did not take in the misfortune, but hovered around 
 the minutiae accompanying it; she seized at these, and 
 attended to them with as much carefulness as if her child 
 were alive yet. In the room, now turned into a chamber 
 of mourning, Litka, reposing on a satin cushion amid 
 flowers, could want nothing; meanwhile the heart of the 
 mother, grown childish from pain, turned continually to 
 this: what could be lacking to Litka? When they tried 
 to remove her from the body, she offered no resistance; she
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 167 
 
 merely lost the remnant of her consciousness, and began to 
 groan, as if pained beyond endurance. 
 
 Pan Stanislav and her husband's brother, Pan Hvas- 
 tovski, who had come just before the funeral, strove to 
 lead her away at the moment Litka was covered with the 
 coffin-lid; but when Pani Emilia began to call the little one 
 by name, courage failed the two men. 
 
 The procession moved at last with numerous torches, 
 and drew after it a train of carriages, preceded by priests , 
 chanting gloomily, and surrounded by a crowd of the 
 curious, who in modern cities feed their eyes with the 
 sorrow of others, as in ancient times they fed them in 
 the circus with the blood of people. 
 
 Pani Emilia, attended by her husband's brother, and 
 having Marynia at her side, walked also behind the cara- 
 van with dry and expressionless face. Her eyes saw only 
 one detail, and her mind was occupied with that alone. 
 It had happened that a lock of Litka's flaxen, immensely 
 abundant hair was outside the coffin. Pani Emilia did 
 not take her eyes from it the whole way, repeating again 
 and again, "(_) God, God! they have nailed down the 
 child's hair!" 
 
 In Pan Stanislav's sorrow, weariness, nervous disturb- 
 ance, resulting from sleeplessness, became a feeling of such 
 unendurable oppression that at moments he was seized by 
 an invincible desire to turn back when he had gone half- 
 way, return home, throw himself on a sofa, not think 
 of anything, not wish anything, not love any one, not feel 
 anything. At the same time this revulsion of self-love 
 astounded him, made him indignant at himself: he knew 
 that he would not return ; that he would drain that cup to 
 the bottom, that he would go to the end, not only because 
 it would happen so, but because sorrow for Litka, and 
 attachment to her, would be stronger than his selfishness. 
 He felt, too, at that moment, that all his other feelings 
 were contracted and withered, and that for the whole world 
 he had in his heart merely nothing, at least, at that 
 moment. For that matter his thoughts and feelings had 
 fallen into perfect disorder, composed of external impres- 
 sions received very hastily, observations made, it was 
 unknown why, and mixed all together mechanically with a 
 feeling of sorrow and pain. At times he looked at the 
 houses past which the procession was moving, and he dis- 
 tinguished their colors. At times some shop sign caught
 
 168 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 his eye; this he read, not knowing why he did so. Then 
 again he thought that the priests had ceased to sing, but 
 w'ould begin directly ; and he was waiting for that renewed 
 continuance of sad voices, as if in a kind of dread. At 
 times he reasoned like a man who, waking from sleep, 
 wishes to give himself an account of reality : " Those are 
 houses," said he to himself; "those are signs; that is the 
 odor of pitch from the torches ; and there on the bier lies 
 Litka; and we are going to the graveyard." And all at 
 once there rose in him a wave of sorrow for that sweet, 
 beloved child, for that dear face which had smiled so many 
 times at him. He recalled her from remoter and from 
 recent days; remembered her in Reichenhall, where he 
 carried her when returning from Thumsee; and later at 
 Bigiel's, in the country; and in Pani Emilia's house, when 
 she said that she wanted to be a birch-tree; and finally, 
 when, a few hours before her death, she entreated Marynia 
 to marry him. Pan Stanislav did not say directly to him- 
 self that Litka loved him as a grown woman loves, and 
 that, in betrothing him to Marynia, she had performed an 
 act of sacrifice, for the feelings of the little girl were not 
 known, and could not be defined with precision; he felt 
 perfectly, however, that there was something like that 
 love in her, and that the sacrifice took place, flowed, in 
 fact, from that deep and exceptional attachment which 
 Litka had felt for him. Since the loss of even those who 
 are dearest is felt most of all through the personal loss 
 which we suffer, Pan Stanislav began to repeat to himself: 
 "That was the one soul that loved me truly; I have no 
 one in the whole world now." And, raising his eyes to the 
 coffin, to that tress of blond hair which was waving in the 
 wind, he cried out in spirit to Litka with all those tender 
 expressions with which he had spoken to her while in life. 
 Finally, he felt that tears were choking him, because that 
 was a call without echo. There is something heart-rend- 
 ing in the indifference of the dead. When the one who 
 reflected every word and glance has become indifferent, 
 when the loving one is icy, the one who was near in daily 
 life, and next the heart, is full of solemnity, and far away, 
 it avails not to repeat to one's self: "Death, death ! " In 
 addition to all pain connected with the loss, there is a 
 harrowing deception, as if an injustice to the heart had 
 been wrought by that lifeless body, which remains deaf to 
 our pain and entreaty. Pan Stanislav had, in this manner,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 169 
 
 at the bottom of his soul, a feeling that Litka, by taking 
 herself from him, and going to the region of death, had 
 done an injustice; and from being one who is near, she 
 had become one remote ; from being a confidant, she had 
 become formal, far away, lofty, sacred, and also perfectly 
 indifferent to the despair of her mother and the deep loneli- 
 ness of her nearest friend. There was much selfishness in 
 those feelings of Pan Stanislav; but were it not for that 
 selfishness, which, first of all, has its own loss and loneli- 
 ness in mind, people, especially those who believe in life 
 beyond the grave and its happiness, would feel no grief for 
 the dead. 
 
 The procession passed out at last from the city to clearer 
 and more open spaces, and beyond the barrier advanced 
 along the cemetery wall, which was fronted with a garland 
 of beggars, and with garlands of immortelles and ever- 
 greens intended for grave mounds. The line of priests in 
 white surplices, the funeral procession with torches, the 
 hearse with the coffin, and the people walking behind it, 
 halted before the gate; there they removed Litka. Pan 
 Stanislav, Bukatski, Hvastovski, and Bigiel bore her to 
 the grave of her father. 
 
 That silence, and the void which, after each funeral, is 
 waiting for people at home when they return from fresh 
 graves, seemed this time to begin even at the cemetery. 
 The day was calm, pale, with here and there the last 
 yellowed leaves dropping from the trees without a rustle. 
 The funeral procession was belittled amid these wide, pale 
 spaces, which, studded with crosses, seemed endless, as 
 if, in truth, that cemetery opened into infinity. The black, 
 leafiess trees with tops formed of slender branches, as it 
 were, vanishing in the light, gray and white tombstones 
 resembling apparitions, the withered leaves on the ground, 
 covering long and straight alleys, all these produced at 
 once a genuine impression of Elysian fields of some sort, 
 fields full of deep rest, but full also of deep, dreamy melan- 
 choly, certain " cold and sad places " of which the gloomy 
 head of Caesar dreamed, and to which now was to come one 
 more "animula vagula." 
 
 The coffin stopped at last above the open grave. The pierc- 
 ing "Requiem seternam" was heard, and then "Anima 
 ejus." Pan Stanislav, through the chaos of his thoughts 
 and impressions, and through the veil of his own sorrow, 
 saw, as in a dream, the stony face and glassy eyes of Pam
 
 170 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Emilia, the tears of Marynia, which irritated him at that 
 moment, the pale face of Bukatski, on whose features the 
 expression was evident that his philosophy of life, having 
 no work to do at that graveyard, had left him and Litka's 
 coffin at the gate. When each threw a handful of sand on 
 the coffin-lid, he followed the example of others ; when they 
 lowered the coffin on straps into the depth of the grave, 
 and closed the stone doors, something seized him anew by 
 the throat, so that all of which he had been thinking, and 
 had learned hitherto, was changed into one nothingness. 
 He repeated in his soul the simple words : " Till we meet, 
 Litus ! " words which, when he recalled them afterwards, 
 seemed to have no relation to the torturing mental storm 
 within him. This was the end. The funeral procession 
 began to decrease and melt away. After a time Pan Stan- 
 islav was roused by the wind, which came from afar from be- 
 tween the crosses. He saw now at the grave Paui Emilia 
 with Marynia, Pani Bigiel, Vaskovski, and Litka's uncle; 
 he said to himself that he would go out last, and waited, 
 repeating in his soul, "Till we meet, Litus!" He \vas 
 thinking of death, and of this, that he, too, would come 
 to this place of monuments, and that it is an ocean into 
 which all thoughts, feelings, and efforts are flowing. It 
 seemed to him then as if he and all who were there at 
 the grave, or had returned home, were on a ship sailing 
 straight to the precipice. Of life beyond the grave he had 
 no thought at that moment. 
 
 Meanwhile the short autumn twilight came on; the 
 crosses grew still less distinct. The old professor and 
 Pan Hvastovski conducted Pani Emilia to the cemetery 
 gate without resistance on her part. Pan Stanislav re- 
 peated once more, " Till we meet, dear child ! " and passed 
 out. 
 
 Beyond the gate he thought : " It is fortunate that the 
 mother is unconscious, for what a terrible thought to leave 
 a child there alone. The dead forsake us, but we too for- 
 sake them." 
 
 In fact, he saw from a distance the carriage in which 
 Pani Emilia was riding away, and it seemed to him that 
 such an order of things in the world has in it something 
 revolting. Still when he had sat down alone in his droshky, 
 he felt a moment of selfish relief, flowing from the feeling 
 that a certain torturing and oppressive act had been ended, 
 after which would come rest. On return in sr to his own
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 171 
 
 dwelling, it appeared empty, without a ray of gladness, 
 without consolation or hope ; but when at tea, he stretched 
 himself on the sofa, an animal delight in repose after labor 
 took possession of him, with a feeling of solace, and even 
 as it were of satisfaction, that the funeral was over and 
 Litka was buried. He remembered then the opinion of a 
 certain thinker : " I know no criminals ; I know only honest 
 people, and they are disgusting." Pan Stanislav seemed to 
 himself repulsive at that moment. 
 
 In the evening he remembered that it was needful t:> 
 inquire about Pani Emilia, whom Maryuia was to take for 
 some weeks to her own house. While going out, he saw a 
 photograph of Litka 011 the table, and kissed it. A quarter 
 of an hour later he rang the bell at the Plavitskis'. 
 
 The servant told him that Plavitski had gone out, but 
 that Professor Vaskovski and Father Hylak were there 
 beside Pani Emilia. Marynia received him in the draw- 
 ing-room ; her hair was badly dressed, her eyes red ; she 
 was almost ugly. But her former way of meeting him had 
 changed entirely, as if she had forgotten all offences in 
 view of more unhappy subjects. 
 
 "Emilia is with me," whispered she, "and is in a bad 
 state ; but it seems that at least she understands what is 
 said. Professor Vaskovski is with her. He speaks with 
 such feeling. Do you wish to see Emilia absolutely ? " 
 
 ' Xo. I have come merely to inquire how she feels, and 
 shall go away directly." 
 
 " I do not know she might like to see you. Wait a 
 moment ; I will go and say that you are here. Litka loved 
 you so ; for that reason alone perhaps it would be pleasant 
 for Emilia to see you." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 Marynia went to the next chamber; but evidently did 
 not begin conversation at once, for to Pan Stanislav there 
 came from the door, not her voice, but that of Vaskovski, 
 full of accents of deep conviction, and also, as it were, of 
 effort, striving to break through the armor of insensibility 
 and suffering. 
 
 " It is as if your child had gone to another room after 
 play," said the old professor ; " and as if she were to return 
 at once. She will not return, but you will go to her. My 
 dear lady, look at death, not from the side of this world, 
 but from the side of God. The child lives and is happy ; 
 for, being herself in eternity, she considers this separation
 
 172 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 from you as lasting one twinkle of an eye. Litka is liv- 
 ing," continued he, with emphasis; "she is living and 
 happy. She sees that you are corning to her, and she 
 stretches forth her hands to you; she knows that in a 
 moment you will come, for from God's point of view life 
 and pain are less than the twinkle of an eye, and then 
 eternitv with Litka. Think, dearest lady, with Litka in 
 peace "in joy, without disease, without death. Worlds 
 will pass away, and you will be together." 
 
 " It would be well were that certain," thought Pan Stan- 
 islav, bitterly. But after a while he thought, "If I felt 
 that way, I should have some cause to go in ; otherwise 
 not." 
 
 Still in spite of this thought he went in, not waiting 
 even for Marynia's return ; for it seemed to him that if 
 he had no cause, he had a duty, and he was not free to be 
 cowardly in presence of the suffering of others. Selfishness 
 is '''cotton in the ears against human groans," and excuses 
 itself in its own eyes by saying that nothing can be said to 
 great suffering to relieve it. Pan Stanislav understood 
 that this was the case, and was ashamed to withdraw com- 
 fortably instead of going to meet the sorrow of a mother. 
 When he entered, he saw Pani Emilia sitting on the sofa; 
 above the sofa was a lamp, and lower than the lamp a 
 palm, which cast a shadow on that unhappy head, as if 
 gigantic fingers were opened above it. Near Pani Emilia 
 sat Vaskovski, who was holding her hands and looking into 
 her face. Pan Stauislav took those hands from him, and, 
 bending down, began to press them to his lips in silence. 
 
 Pani Emilia blinked a while, like a person striving to 
 rise out of sleep; then she cried suddenly, with an un- 
 expected outburst, 
 
 " Remember how she " 
 
 And she was borne away by a measureless weeping, 
 during which her hands were clasped, her lips could not 
 catch breath, and her bosom was bursting from sobs. At 
 last strength failed her, and she fainted. When she re- 
 covered, Marynia led her to her own chamber. Pan Stanis- 
 lav and Vaskovski went to the adjoining reception-room, 
 where they were detained by Plavitski, who had come in 
 just that moment. 
 
 " Such a sad person in the house," said he, " it spoils 
 life terribly. A little peace and freedom should be due to 
 me ; but what is to be done, what is to be done ? I must 
 descendto the second place, and I am ready."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 173 
 
 At the end of half an hour Marynia came with the an- 
 nouncement that at her request Pani Emilia had gone to 
 bed, and was a little calmer. Pan Stanislav and Vaskovski 
 took leave, and went out. 
 
 They walked along in a dense fog, which rose from the 
 earth after a calm day, hiding the streets and forming parti- 
 colored circles around the lamps. Both were thinking of 
 Litka, who was passing her first night among the dead, and 
 at a distance from her mother. To Pan Stanislav this 
 seemed simply terrible, not for Litka, but for Pani Emilia, 
 who had to think of it. He meditated also over the words 
 spoken by Vaskovski, and said at last, 
 
 " I heard thy words. If they gave her solace, it is well ; 
 but if that were true, we should make a feast now, and 
 rejoice that Litka is dead." 
 
 " But whence dost thou know that we shall not be happy 
 after death ? " 
 
 " Wilt thou tell me whence thou hast the knowledge that 
 we shall ? " 
 
 " I do not know ; I believe." 
 
 There was no answer to this; therefore Pan Stanislav 
 said, as if to himself, " Mercy, empyrean light, eternity, 
 meeting ; but what is there in fact ? The corpse of a child 
 in the grave, and a mother who is wailing from pain. 
 Grant that death has produced thy faith at least ; yet it 
 brings doubt, because thou art grieving for the child. I am 
 grieving still more ; and this grief casts on me directly the 
 question, ' Why did she die ? Why such cruelty ? ' I know 
 that this question is a foolish one, and that milliards of 
 people have put it to themselves ;' but, if this knowledge is 
 to be my solace, may thunderbolts split it ! I know, too, 
 that I shall not find an answer, and for that very reason I 
 want to gnash my teeth and curse. I do not understand, 
 and I rebel ; that is all. That is the whole result, which 
 thou canst not recognize as the one sought for." 
 
 Vaskovski answered also, as if speaking to himself, 
 " Christ rose from the dead, for He was God ; but He rose 
 as man, and He passed through death. How can I, poor 
 worm, do otherwise than magnify the Divine Will and Wis- 
 dom in death ? " 
 
 To this Pan Stanislav answered, 
 
 " It is impossible to talk with thee ! " 
 
 "It is slippery," answered Vaskovski; "give me thy 
 arm." And, taking Pan Stanislav by the arm, he leaned on
 
 174 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 * 
 
 him, and said, " My dear friend, thou hast an honest and a 
 loving heart; thon didst love that little girl greatly, thou 
 Avert ready to do much for her. Do this one thing now, 
 whether thou believest or not, say for her, 'Eternal 
 rest ! ' If thou think that that will be no good to her, say 
 to thyself, ' I can do no more, but I will do that.' " 
 
 " Give me peace ! " answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " That may not be needful to her, but thy remembrance 
 of her will be dear ; she will be grateful, and will obtain 
 the grace of God for thee." 
 
 Pan Stanislav remembered how Vaskovski, at news of 
 Litka's last attack, said that the life of the child could not 
 be purposeless, and that if she had to die she was pre- 
 destined to do something before death ; and now he wished 
 to attack Vaskovski on this point, when the thought flashed 
 on him that, before her death, Litka had united him with 
 Marynia ; and it occurred to him that perhaps she had lived 
 for this very purpose. But at that moment he rebelled 
 against the thought. Anger at Marynia seized him ; he 
 was full of stubbornness, and almost contempt. 
 
 " I do not want Marynia at such a price ! " thought he, 
 gritting his teeth ; " I do not ! I have suffered enough 
 through her. I would give ten such for one Litka." 
 
 Meanwhile Vaskovski, trotting near him, said, 
 
 "Nothing is to be seen at a step's distance, and the stones 
 are slippery from fog. Without thee I should have fallen 
 long ago." 
 
 Pan Stanislav recovered himself, and answered, 
 
 " Whoso walks on the earth, professor, must look down, 
 not up." 
 
 " Thou hast good legs, my dear friend." 
 
 "And eyes which see clearly, even in a fog like this 
 which surrounds us. And it is needful, for we all live in a 
 fog, and deuce knows what is beyond it. All that thou 
 sayest makes on me such an impression as the words of a 
 man who would break dry twigs, throw them into a torrent, 
 and say, Flowers will come from these. Rottenness will 
 come, nothing more. From me, too, this torrent has torn 
 away something from which I am to think that a flower 
 will rise ? Folly ! But here is thy gate. Good-night ! " 
 
 And they separated. Pan Stanislav returned to his own 
 house barely alive, he was so weary ; and, when he had lain 
 down in bed, he began to torture himself with thoughts fur- 
 ther continued, or rather with visions. To begin with,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 175 
 
 before his eyes appeared the figure of Pani Emilia, power- 
 less from pain ; she was sitting in Marynia's parlor, under 
 the palm-leaf, which was hanging over her head like an 
 immense ill-omened hand, with outspread, grasping fingers, 
 and it cast a shadow on her face. " I might philosophize 
 over that till morning," muttered he. " Everything out of 
 which life is constructed is a hand like that, from which a 
 shadow falls, nothing more. But if there were a little 
 mercy besides, the child would not have died; but with 
 what Vaskovski says, you could n't keep life in a sparrow." 
 
 Here he remembered, however, that Vaskovski not only 
 spoke of death, but begged him also to say "eternal rest" 
 for Litka. Pan Stanislav began now to struggle with him- 
 self. His lips were closed through lack of a deep faith 
 that Litka might hear his "eternal rest," and that it might 
 be of good to her. He felt, besides, a kind of shame to 
 speak words which did not flow from the depth of his con- 
 viction, and felt also the same kind of shame not to say the 
 " eternal rest." " For, finally, what do I know ? " thought 
 he. "Nothing. Around is fog and fog. Likely nothing 
 will come to her from that ; but, let happen what may, that 
 is in truth the only thing that I can do now for my kitten, 
 for that dear child, who was mindful of me on the 
 nighb that she died." 
 
 And he hesitated for a time yet ; at last he knelt and 
 said, "eternal rest." It did not bring him, however, any 
 solace, for it roused only the more sorrow for Litka, and 
 also anger at Vaskovski, because he had pushed him into a 
 position in which he had either to fall into contradiction 
 with himself or be, as it were, a traitor to Litka. He felt, 
 finally, that he had had enough of that kind of torment, and 
 he determined to go early in the morning to his office and 
 occupy himself with Bigiel on the first commercial affair 
 that presented itself, if it were only to tear away his 
 thought from the painful, vicious circle in which for some 
 days he had been turning. 
 
 But in the morning Bigiel anticipated him, and came to 
 his house ; maybe, too, with the intent to occupy him. Pan 
 Stanislav threw himself with a certain interest into the 
 examination of current business ; but he and Bigiel were 
 not long occupied, for an hour later Bukatski came to say 
 farewell to them. 
 
 "I am going to Italy to-day," said he, "and God knows 
 when I shall return. I wish to say to you both, Be in good
 
 176 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 health. The death of that child touched me more than I 
 thought it would." 
 
 " Art thou going far ? " 
 
 " Oh, there would be much talk in the answer. With us, 
 this is how it happens: Be a Buddhist, or whatever may 
 please thee, the kernel of the question is this : one believes 
 a little, trusts a little in some sort of mercy, and thus lives. 
 Meanwhile, what happens ? Reality slaps us daily in the 
 face, and brings us into mental agony and anguish, into 
 moral straits. With us, one is always loving somebody, or 
 is tormented with somebod3 r 's misfortune ; but I do not 
 want this. It tortures me." 
 
 "How will the Italians help thee?" 
 
 "How will they help me? They will, for in Italy I have 
 the sun, which here I have not; I have art, which here I 
 have not, and I feel for it a weakness; I have chianti, 1 
 which does good to the catarrh of my stomach; and finally, 
 I have people for whom I care nothing and nothing, and 
 who may die for themselves in hundreds without causing 
 me any bitterness. 
 
 " I shall look at pictures, buy what I need, nurse my 
 rheumatism, my headache; and I shall be for myself a 
 more or less elegant, a more or less well nourished, a more 
 or less healthy animal, which, believe me, is still the 
 kind and condition of life most desired. Here I cannot 
 be that beast which, from my soul, I wish to be." 
 
 "Thou art right, Bukatski. We, as thou seest, are sit- 
 ting with our accounts, also somewhat for this, to become 
 more idiotic, and not think of aught else. When we 
 acquire such a fortune as thou hast, I don't know how it 
 is with Bigiel, but I will follow in thy steps." 
 
 "Then till we see each other again in time and space ! " 
 said Bukatski. 
 
 A while after his departure, Pan Stanislav said, 
 
 "He is right. How happy I should be, for example, 
 if I had not become attached to that child and Pani Emilia! 
 In this respect we are incurable, and we spoil our lives 
 voluntarily. He is right. In this country one is always 
 loving some person or something; it is an inherited disease. 
 Eternal romanticism, eternal sentimentalism, and eter- 
 nally pins in the heart." 
 
 "Old Plavitski bows to thee," said Bigiel. "That man 
 loves nobody but himself." 
 
 1 An Italian wine.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 177 
 
 "In reality, this is perhaps true; but he lacks the courage 
 to tell himself that that is permissible and necessary. Nay, 
 what is more, he is convinced that it is needful to act 
 otherwise; and through this he is in continual slavery. 
 Here, though a man have a nature like Plavitski's, he 
 must feign even to himself that he loves some one or 
 something." 
 
 "But will you visit Pani Emilia to-day?" asked Bigiel. 
 
 "Of course! If I were to say, for example, 'I have the 
 malaria,' I should not cxire myself by saying so." 
 
 And, in fact, not only was he at Pani Emilia's that day, 
 but he was there twice; for at his first visit he did not find 
 the ladies at home. To the question where his daughter 
 was, Plavitski answered, with due pathos and resignation, 
 "I have no daughter now." Pan Stanislav, not wishing to 
 tell him fables, for which he felt a sudden desire, went 
 away, and returned only in the evening. 
 
 This time Marynia herself received him, and informed 
 him that Pani Emilia had slept for the first time since 
 Litka's funeral. While saying this, she left her hand a 
 certain time in his. Pan Stanislav, in spite of all the dis- 
 order in which his thoughts were, could not avoid noticing 
 this ; and, when he looked at last with an inquiring glance 
 into her eyes, he discovered that the young lady's cheeks 
 flushed deeply. They sat down, and began to converse. 
 
 "We were at Povanzki," said Marynia, "and I promised 
 Emilia to go there with her every day." 
 
 " But is it well for her to remember the child so every 
 day, and open her wounds?" 
 
 "But are they healed?" answered Marynia, "or is it 
 possible to say to her, ' Do not go ' ? I thought myself 
 that it would not be well, but grew convinced of the con- 
 trary. At the graveyard she wept much, but was the 
 better for it. On the way home she remembered what 
 Professor Vaskovski had told her, and the thought is for 
 her the only consolation, the only." 
 
 "Let her have even such a one," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " You see, I did not dare to mention Litka at first, but 
 she speaks of her all the time. Do not fear to speak to 
 her of the child, for it gives her evident solace." 
 
 Here the young lady continued in a lower, and, as it 
 were, an uncertain voice, " She reproaches herself continu- 
 ally for having listened to the assurances of the doctor the 
 last night, and gone to sleep; she is sorry for those last 
 
 12
 
 178 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 moments, which she might have passed with Litka, and 
 that thought tortures her. To-day, when we were return- 
 ing from the graveyard, she asked about the smallest 
 details. She asked how the child looked, how long she 
 slept, whether she took medicine, what she said, whether " 
 she spoke to us; then she implored me to remember every- 
 thing, and not omit a single word." 
 
 "And you did not omit anything?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "How did she receive it?" 
 
 "She cried very, very much." 
 
 Both grew silent, and were silent rather long; ihen 
 Marynia said, 
 
 " I will go and see what is happening to her." 
 
 After a while she returned. 
 
 " She is sleeping," said the young lady. "Praise be to 
 God ! " 
 
 Indeed, Pan Stanislav did not see Pani Emilia that even- 
 ing; she had fallen into a kind of lethargic slumber. At 
 parting, Marynia pressed his hand again long and vigor- 
 ously, and inquired almost with submission, 
 
 "You do not take it ill of me that I repeated to Pani 
 Emilia Litka's last wish?" 
 
 "At such moments," answered Pan Stanislav, "I cannot 
 think of myself: for me it is a question only of Pani 
 Emilia; and if your words caused her solace, I thank you 
 for them." 
 
 " Till to-morrow, then? " 
 
 "Till to-morrow." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took farewell, and went out. While 
 descending the steps, he thought, 
 
 "She considers herself my betrothed." 
 
 And he was not mistaken; Marynia looked on him as 
 her betrothed. She had never been indifferent to him; on 
 the contrary, the greatness of his offence had been for her 
 the measure of that uncommon interest which he had 
 roused in her. And though, during Litka's illness and 
 funeral, he could discover in himself unfathomable stores 
 of selfishness, he seemed to her so good that she was 
 simply unable to compare him with any one. Litka's 
 words did the rest. In real truth, her heart desired love 
 first of all; and now, since before Litka's death she had 
 made her a promise, since she had bound herself to love 
 and to marry, it seemed to her that even if she had not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 179 
 
 loved, it was her duty to command herself, and that she 
 was not free at present not to love. Pan Stauislav had 
 entered the sphere of her duty; she belonged to those 
 straightforward, womanly natures, not at all rare even 
 now, for whom life and duty mean one and the same 
 thing, and who for this reason bring good-will to the ful- 
 filment of duty, and not only good, but persistent will. 
 
 Such a will brings with it love, which lights like the 
 sun, warms like its heat, and cherishes like the blue, mild 
 sky. In this way life does not become a dry, thorny 
 path, which pricks, but a flowery one, which blooms and 
 delights. This country maiden, straightforward in thought, 
 and at once simple and delicate in feelings, possessed that 
 capacity for life and happiness in the highest degree. So, 
 when Pan Stanislav had gone, she, in thinking about him, 
 did not name him in her mind otherwise than "Pan Stas," 
 for he had indeed become her "Pan Stas." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, on his part, when lying down to sleep, 
 repeated to himself somewhat mechanically, "She con- 
 siders herself my betrothed." 
 
 Litka's death, and the events of the last days, had pushed 
 Marynia, not only in his thoughts, but in his heart, to 
 more remote, and even very remote places. Now he began 
 to think of her again, and at the same time of his future. 
 All at once he beheld, as it were, a cloud of countless 
 questions, to which, at that moment, a,t least, he had no 
 answer. But he felt fear in presence of them; he felt that 
 he lacked strength and willingness to undertake this labor. 
 Again he began to live with the former life ; again to fall 
 into that sentimental, vicious circle; again to disquiet 
 himself; again to make efforts, and struggle over things 
 which bring only bitterness, to struggle with himself over 
 questions of feeling. Would it not be better to labor with 
 Bigiel on accounts, make money, so as to go sometime, 
 like Bukatski, to Italy, or some other place where there is 
 sun, art, wine good for the stomach, and, above all, people 
 to whom one is indifferent, whose happiness will not en- 
 liven the heart of a stranger, but in return whose death 
 or misfortune will not press a single tear from him.
 
 180 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DURING all the mental struggles through which Pan 
 Stanislav had passed, the interests of his commercial house 
 were developed favorably. Thanks to Bigiel's sound judg- 
 ment, diligence, and care, current business was transacted 
 with a uniform thoroughness which removed every chance 
 of dissatisfaction or complaint from the patrons of the 
 house. The house gained reputation every day, extended 
 its activity slowly and regularly, and was growing rich. 
 Pan Stanislav, on his part, labored, not indeed with such 
 mental peace as hitherto, but no less than Bigiel. He 
 passed the morning hours daily in the office; and the 
 greater his mental vexation, the deeper his misunderstand- 
 ing with Marynia since her coming to Warsaw, the more 
 earnest was his labor. This labor, often difficult, and at 
 times requiring even much intense thought, but uncon- 
 nected with the question which pained him, and incapable 
 of giving any internal solace, became, at last, a kind of 
 haven, in which he hid from the storm. Pan Stanislav 
 began to love it. "Here, at least, I know what 1 am 
 doing, and whither I am tending; here everything is very 
 clear. If I do not find happiness, I shall find at least 
 that enlargement of life, that freedom, which money gives; 
 and all the better for me if I succeed in stopping at that." 
 Recent events had merely confirmed him in those thoughts ; 
 in fact, nothing but suffering had come to him from his 
 feelings. That sowing had yielded a bitter harvest, while 
 the only successes which he had known, and which in every 
 case strengthen and defend one against misfortune, were 
 given by that mercantile house. Pan Stanislav thought 
 with a certain surprise that this was true; but it was not. 
 He himself felt the narrowness of that satisfaction which 
 the house could give; but he said to himself at the same 
 time, " Since it cannot be otherwise, this must be accepted ; 
 and it is safer to stop here, for it is better to be only a 
 merchant, who succeeds, than a dreamer, who fails in 
 everything." Since Litka's death, then, he resolved all 
 the more to stifle in himself those impulses to which reality 
 did not answer, and which had brought him nothing but 
 regrets. Evidently Bigiel was pleased with a state of
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 181 
 
 mind in his partner which could bring only profit to the 
 house. 
 
 Still Pan Stanislav could not grow wholly indifferent in 
 a few weeks to all that with which, on a time, his heart 
 had been connected. Hence he went sometimes to visit 
 Litka, whose gravestone was covered in the morning with 
 white winter frost. Twice he met Pani Emilia and 
 Marynia in the cemetery. Once he attended them home 
 to the city, and Pani Emilia thanked him for remembering 
 the little girl. Pan Stanislav noticed that she did this 
 with evident calmness; he understood the cause of this 
 calmness when, at parting, she said to him, 
 
 "I keep always in mind now that for her separation 
 from me is as short as one twinkle of an eye; and you 
 know not what comfort it is to me that at least she is not 
 yearning." 
 
 " Well, what I know not, I know not," said Pan Stanislav, 
 in his soul. Still the deep conviction of Pani Emilia's 
 speech struck him. "If these are illusions," thought he, 
 "they are really life-giving, since they are able to draw 
 forth juices for life from the dungeon of the grave." 
 
 Marynia asserted, besides, in her first conversation with 
 Pan Stanislav, that Pani Emilia lived only through that 
 thought, which alone softened her grief. For whole days 
 she mentioned nothing else, and said, with such persist- 
 ence, that from God's point of view death is separation for 
 one twinkle of an eye, that she began to alarm Marynia. 
 
 "She talks, too, of Litka," said Marynia, in conclusion, 
 "as if the child had not died, and as if she should see her 
 to-morrow." 
 
 "That is happy," answered Pan Stanislav. "Vaskovski 
 rendered tangible service; such a nail in the head gives 
 no pain." 
 
 "Still, she is right, for it is so." 
 
 "I will not contradict you." 
 
 Marynia was alarmed, it is true, by the persistence with 
 which Pani Emilia returned to one thought; but on the 
 other hand she herself did not look on death otherwise. 
 Hence that tinge of scepticism, evident in Pan Stanislav's 
 words, touched her a little, and pained her; but, not wish- 
 ing to let this be evident, she changed the conversation. 
 
 "I gave directions to enlarge Litka's photograph," said 
 she. "Yesterday they brought me three copies; one I will 
 give Emilia. I feared at first that it would excite her too
 
 182 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 much, but now I see that I may give it; nay, more, it will 
 be very dear to her." 
 
 She rose then, and went to a bookcase on which were 
 some photographs in a wrapper; these she took, and, sit- 
 ting at Pan Stanislav's side before a small table, opened 
 them. 
 
 " Emilia told me of a certain talk which you had with 
 Litka a short time before her death, when the child wished 
 you three to be birches growing near one another. Do you 
 remember that talk?" 
 
 "I do. Litka wondered that trees live so long; she 
 thought awhile what kind of tree she would like to be, and 
 the birch pleased her most." 
 
 " True ; and you said that you would like to grow near 
 by, therefore, around these photographs I wish to paint 
 birches on a passe-partout. Here I have begun, you 
 see, but I have no great success. I cannot paint from 
 memory." 
 
 Then she took one of the photographs, and showed Pan 
 Stanislav the birches painted in water-colors; but since 
 she was a little near-sighted, she bent over her work, so 
 that her temple for one moment was near Pan Stanislav's 
 face. She was no longer that Marynia of whom he had 
 dreamed when returning evenings from Pani Emilia's, and 
 who at that time had filled his whole soul for him. That 
 period had passed: his thoughts had gone in another direc- 
 tion ; but Marynia had not ceased to be that type of woman 
 which produced on his masculine nerves an impression 
 exceptionally vivid; and now, when her temple almost 
 touched his own, when, with one glance of the eye, he took 
 in her face, her cheeks slightly colored, and her form bent 
 over the picture, he felt the old attraction with its former 
 intensity, and the quick blood sent equally quick thoughts 
 to his brain. " Were I to kiss her eyes and mouth now," 
 thought he, " I am curious to know what she would do ; " 
 and in a twinkle the desire seized him to do so, even were 
 he to offend Marynia mortally. In return for long rejec- 
 tion, for so much fear and suffering, he would like such 
 a moment of recompense, and of revenge, perhaps, with 
 it. Meanwhile, Marynia, while examining the painting, 
 continued, 
 
 "This seems worse to-day than yesterday; unfortunately 
 trees have no leaves now, and I cannot find a model." 
 
 "The group is not bad at all," said Pan Stanislav; "but
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 183 
 
 if these trees are to represent Pani Emilia, Litka, and me, 
 why have you painted four birches?" 
 
 "The fourth represents me," said Marynia, with a cer- 
 tain timidity; "I, too, have a wish sometimes to grow 
 with you." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at her quickly; and she, wrapping 
 the photographs up again, said, as it were, hurriedly, 
 
 "So many things are connected in my mind with the 
 memory of that child. During her last days I was with 
 her and Emilia almost continually. At present Emilia is 
 one of the nearest persons on earth to me. I belong to 
 them as well as you do ; I know not clearly how to explain 
 this. There were four of us, and now there are three, 
 bound together by Litka, for she bound us. When I think 
 of her now, I think also of Emilia and of you. This is 
 why I decided to paint the four birches ; and you see there 
 are three photographs, one for Emilia, one for me, and 
 one for you." 
 
 "I thank you," said Pan Stanislav, extending his hand 
 to her. Maryuia returned the pressure very cordially, and 
 said, 
 
 " For the sake of her memory, too, we should forget all 
 our former resentments." 
 
 "This has happened already," answered Pan Stanislav; 
 " and as for me, I wish that it had happened long before 
 Litka's death." 
 
 " My fault began then ; for this I beg forgiveness," and 
 she extended her hand to him. 
 
 Pan Stanislav hesitated awhile whether to raise it to his 
 lips ; but he did not raise it, he only said, 
 
 " Now there is agreement." 
 
 " And friendship ? " asked Maryuia. 
 
 " And friendship." 
 
 In her eyes a deep, quiet joy was reflected, which 
 enlivened her whole face with a mild radiance. There 
 was in her at the moment so much kindness and trustful- 
 ness that she reminded Pan Stanislav of that first Marynia 
 whom he had seen at Kremen when she was sitting on the 
 garden veranda in the rays of the setting sun. But since 
 Litka's death he had been in such a frame of mind that he 
 considered remembrances like that as unworthy of him ; 
 hence he rose and began to take leave. 
 
 Will you not remain the whole evening ? asked 
 Marynia.
 
 184 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " No, I must return." 
 
 "I will tell Emilia that you are going," said she, ap- 
 proaching the door of the adjoining room. 
 
 " She is either thinking of Litka at present, or is praying ; 
 otherwise she would have come of herself. Better not 
 interrupt her; I will come to-morrow in any case." 
 
 Marynia approached him, and, looking into his eyes, said 
 with great cordiality, " To-morrow and every day. Is it 
 not true ? Remember that you are ' Pan Stas ' for us now." 
 
 Since Litka's death Marynia had named him thus for the 
 second time, so in going home he thought, " Her relations to 
 me are changed thoroughly. She feels herself simply as 
 belonging to me, for she bound herself to that by the 
 promise given the dying child; she is ready even to fall 
 in love with me, and will not permit herself not to love. 
 With us there are such women by the dozen." And all at 
 once he fell into anger. 
 
 " I know those fish natures with cold hearts, but senti- 
 mental heads filled with so-called principles, everything 
 for principle, everything for duty, nothing spontaneous in the 
 heart. I might sigh out my last breath at her feet and gain 
 nothing ; but when duty commands her to love me, she will 
 love even really." 
 
 Evidently Pan Stanislav in his wanderings abroad had 
 grown used to another kind of women, or at least he had 
 read of them in books. But since with all this he had a 
 little sound judgment too, that judgment began to speak 
 thus to him, 
 
 " Listen, Polanyetski," it said. " These are exceptional 
 natures because they are uncommonly reliable : on them one 
 may build ; on them a life may be founded. Art thou mad ? 
 With thee it was a question of finding a wife, not an ephem- 
 eral love affair." 
 
 But Pan Stanislav did not cease to resist, and he answered 
 his judgment, If I am to be loved, I want to be loved for 
 my own sake." 
 
 Judgment tried once more to explain that it was all one 
 how love began ; since later on he could be loved only for 
 his own sake, that in the present case, after his recent efforts 
 and vexations, it was almost miraculous, almost providential, 
 that something natural had intervened in a way to break 
 resistance immediately; but Pan Stanislav did not cease 
 rom being furious. At last judgment was strengthened by 
 tnat attraction and pleasure which he found in Marynia,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 185 
 
 by virtue of which he saw in her more charms than in any 
 other woman ; this attraction spoke in its turn, 
 
 " I do not know if thou love her, and I care not ; but 
 to-day, when her arm and face approached thee, thou wert 
 near jumping out of thy skin. Why is it that such a shiver 
 does not pass through thee when thou art near another ? 
 Think what a difference in that." 
 
 But to everything Pan Stanislav answered : " A fish, a 
 duty-bound fish." And again the thought came to him, 
 " Catch her, if thou prefer that to any other kind. People 
 marry ; and for thee, it is time. What more dost thou want, 
 is it a kind of love which thou wmldst be the first to laugh 
 into ridicule ? Thy love has died out. Suppose it has ; but 
 the attraction remains, and the conviction, too, that this 
 woman is reliable and honest." 
 
 " True," thought he further, " but from love, whether 
 stupid or wise, comes choice, and have I that at present? 
 No, for I hesitate, while formerly I did not hesitate ; second, 
 I ought to decide which is better, Panna Plavitski, or debit 
 and credit in the house of Bigiel and Polanyetski. Money 
 gives power and freedom ; the best use is made of freedom 
 when a man carries no one in his heart or on his shoulders." 
 Thus meditating, he reached home, and lay down to sleep. 
 During the night he dreamed of birches on sand hills, calm 
 blue eyes, and a forehead shaded with dark hair, from which 
 warmth was beating.
 
 186 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SOME mornings later, before Pan Stanislav had gone to 
 his office, Mashko appeared. 
 
 ' I come to thee on two affairs," said he, " but I will 
 begin with money, so as to leave thee freedom of action ; 
 shall I, or not?" 
 
 " My dear friend, I attend to money questions in my office, 
 so begin with the other." 
 
 " The money matter is not a question of thy house, but 
 a private one ; for this reason I prefer to speak of it 
 privately. I am going to marry, as thou knowest ; I need 
 money. I have to make payments as numerous as the hairs 
 on my head, and the wherewithal does not correspond. 
 The term is near to pay the first instalment of my debt to 
 thee for the claim on Kremen ; canst thou .extend the time 
 another quarter ? " 
 
 " I will be frank," replied Pan Stanislav ; " I can, but I 
 am unwilling to do so." 
 
 " Well, I will be equally sincere, and ask what thou wilt 
 do in case I fail to pay." 
 
 " The like happens in the world," answered Pan Stanislav; 
 "but this time thou art looking on me as simpler than I 
 am, for I know that thou wilt pay." 
 "Whence is that certainty?" 
 
 "Thou art going to marry, and marry a fortune; how 
 expose thyself to the evil fame of bankruptcy? Thou wilt 
 squeeze money from under the earth, perhaps, but thou 
 wilt pay." 
 
 "Even Solomon could not pour out of the empty." 
 " Because he did not take lessons from thee. My dear 
 friend, no one is listening to us, so I may say that all thy 
 life thou hast been doing nothing else." 
 
 "Then thou art sure that I will pay thee?" 
 "lam." 
 
 "Thou art right; I wanted of thee a favor to which I 
 have no claim. But even I feel wearied at last of all this, 
 to take something here and thrust it in there; to live 
 eternally in such a whirl passes human power in the long 
 run. I am sailing, as it were, into the harbor. In two
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 187 
 
 months I shall be on a new footing, but meanwhile I am 
 using the last of my steam; 'tis not in thy way to oblige 
 me; the position is difficult. There is a small forest in 
 Kremen; I will cut that and pay, since there is no other 
 way." 
 
 "What forests are there in Kremen? Old Plavitski 
 shaved off everything that could be taken." 
 
 "There is a, large oak grove behind the house, toward 
 Nedzyalkov." 
 
 "True, there is." 
 
 "I know that thou and Bigiel take up such affairs. Buy 
 that forest; it will spare me the search for a purchaser, 
 and he and thou can come out of the business with profit." 
 
 "I will discuss it with Bigiel." 
 
 "Then thou wilt not refuse in advance?" 
 
 "No; if thou give it cheaply, I may even take the forest 
 myself. But in such matters I need to calculate the pos- 
 sible profits or losses; I want also to know thy terms. 
 Make thy own estimates. Send me thy list; how many 
 trees there are, and what kinds." 
 
 "I will send it in an hour." 
 
 "In that case I will give thee an answer in the evening." 
 
 "I advise thee beforehand of one thing, thou wilt not 
 have the right to cut oak for two months." 
 
 "Why is that?" 
 
 " Because Kremen will lose greatly by losing that orna- 
 ment; hence I propose that it be resold to me after the 
 marriage, of course at a good profit to thee." 
 
 "We shall see." 
 
 "Besides, 1 have marl in Kremen; thou hast spoken to 
 me of this. Plavitski reckoned it at millions, that, of 
 course, is nonsense; but in the hands of clever men it 
 might be made a paying business. Think that over, too, 
 with Bigiel; I would take thee into partnership." 
 
 "Should the business seem good, we may take it; our 
 house exists to gain profit." 
 
 "Then we will talk of the marl later on; but now I 
 return to the oak. Let the general outline of our bargain 
 be this, that I, instead of the first payment, give thee 
 the oak grove, or a part of it, according to estimate. I 
 give it in some sense in pledge, and thou art obliged not to 
 cut trees before the close of the following quarter." 
 
 "I can do that; evidently there will be questions later 
 on as to removal of the oak, which we shall mention when 
 writing the contract, if, in general, we write one." .
 
 188 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Then there is at least one burden off my head," said 
 Mashko, rubbing his forehead with his hand. " Imagine 
 that I have ten or fifteen such every day, not counting 
 conversations on business with Pani Kraslavski, which are 
 more wearying than all else, and then waiting on my 
 betrothed, who " here Mashko interrupted himself for a 
 moment, but suddenly waved his hand, and added " which 
 also is not easy." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at him with amazement. On the 
 lips of Mashko, who, in every word, followed society 
 observances so closely, this was something unheard of. 
 Mashko, however, spoke on, 
 
 " But let that pass ; thou knowest how near we were to 
 quarrelling before Litka's death. I had not in mind thy 
 great love for that little maiden; I forgot that thou wert 
 disturbed and annoyed. I acted rudely; the fault was on 
 my side entirely, and I beg thy pardon." 
 
 "That is a forgotten affair," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " I revive it because I have a service to beg of thee. 
 The affair is of this kind: I have not friends, blood rela- 
 tives ; I have n't them, or if I have, it is not worth while 
 to exhibit them. Now, I must find groomsmen, and, in 
 truth, I do not know well where to look for them. I have 
 managed the business of various young lords, as thou 
 knowest; but to ask the first young fellow whom I meet, 
 because he has a title, does not beseem me, and I am un- 
 willing to do so. With me it is a question of having 
 groomsmen who are people of position, and, I tell thee 
 openly, with prominent names. Those ladies, too, attach 
 great importance to this matter. Wilt thou be a grooms- 
 man for me?" 
 
 " In other circumstances I would not refuse ; but I will 
 tell thee how it is. Look at me: I have no crape on my 
 hat nor white tape on my coat, therefore I am not in 
 mourning; but I give thee my word that I am in deeper 
 mourning than if my own child were dead." 
 
 "That is true; I had not thought of that," said Mashko. 
 "I beg thy pardon." 
 
 These words impressed Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "But if this is very important; if, in truth, thou art 
 unable to find another, let it be according to thy wish ; 
 but I say sincerely that for me, after such a funeral, it 
 will be difficult to assist at a wedding." 
 
 Pan Stanislav did not say, it is true, at such a wedding,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 189 
 
 but Masliko divined his thought. "There is another cir- 
 cumstance, too," continued he. "Thou must have heard 
 of a certain poor little doctor, who fell in love to the death 
 with thy betrothed. She was free not to return his love 
 no man will reproach her for that; but he, poor fellow' 
 went his way somewhere to the land where pepper grows^ 
 and the deuce took him. Dost understand? I was in 
 friendship with that doctor; he confided his misfortune to 
 me, and wept out his secret. Dost understand? In these 
 conditions to be groomsman for another say thyself." 
 
 "And did that man really die of love for my betrothed?" 
 
 "But hast thou not heard of it?" 
 
 "Not only have I not heard, but I cannot believe my 
 own ears." 
 
 " Knowest thou what, Mashko, marriage changes a man ; 
 but I see that betrothal does also, I do not recognize thee 
 simply." 
 
 " Because, as I have said, I am so weary that breath fails 
 me, and at such times the mask falls." 
 
 " What dost thou mean by that?" 
 
 "I mean that there are two kinds of people, one, of 
 people who never limit themselves by anything, and arrange 
 their modes of action according to every circumstance; the 
 other, of people having a certain system which they hold 
 to with more or less sequence. I belong to the second. I 
 am accustomed to observe appearances, and, what is more, 
 accustomed so long that at last it has become a second 
 nature to me. But, for example, when travelling in time 
 of great heat, a moment may come on the man who is most 
 comme il faut, when he will unbutton not only his coat, 
 but his shirt; such a moment has come on me, therefore I 
 unbutton." 
 
 "This means? " 
 
 "It means that I am transfixed with astonishment that 
 any man could fall in love to the death with my betrothed, 
 who is, as thou on a time didst give me to understand, 
 cold, formal, and as mechanical in words, thoughts, and 
 movements as if wound up with a key; that is perfectly 
 true, and I confirm it. I do not wish thee to hold me for 
 a greater wretch than I am; I do not love her, and my 
 wife will be as formal as my betrothed. I loved Panna 
 Plavitski, who rejected me. Panna Kraslavski I take for 
 her property. Call this iniquity, if it suit thee to do so; 
 I will answer that such iniquity has been committed, or
 
 190 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 will be committed, by thousands among those so-called 
 honorable people, to whom thou art ready to give thy 
 hand. Moreover, life does not flow on in delight for people 
 thus married, but also not in tragedy; they limp, but go 
 forward. Later on they are aided by years spent together, 
 which bring a species of attachment, by children who are 
 born to them; and they get on in some fashion. Such are 
 most marriages, for the majority choose to walk on the 
 earth , rather than scale summits. Sometimes there are even 
 worse marriages : when a woman wishes to fly , and a man 
 to creep, or vice versa, there is no chance for an under- 
 standing. As to me, I have worked like an ox. Coming 
 from a reduced family, I wished to gain distinction, I con- 
 fess. If 1 had consented to remain an obscure attorney, 
 and acquire merely money, perhaps I should have unlocked 
 and thrown open to my son the door to light; but I have 
 no love for my children before fchey come into the world, 
 hence I wished not only to have money myself, but to be 
 somebody, to mean something, to occupy a position, to 
 have such weight as with us it is possible to have, at least 
 in society. From this it has happened that what the 
 advocate gained, the great lord expended; position obliges. 
 This is why I have not money. Struggling of this sort 
 has wearied me. Opening holes in one place to fill them in 
 another, for this reason I marry Panna Kraslavski; who 
 again marries me for the reason that, if I am not really a 
 great lord, amusing himself in the legal career, I am' so 
 apparently. The match is even ; there is no injustice to 
 any one, and neither has tricked the other, or, if it please 
 thee, we have tricked each other equally. Here is the 
 whole truth for thee; now despise me if thou wish." 
 
 "As God lives, I have never respected thee more" 
 answered Pan Stanislav; "for now I admire not thy sin- 
 cerity merely, but also thy courage." 
 
 "I accept the compliment because thou art candid; but 
 in what dost thou see courage?" 
 
 "In this, that having so few illusions as to Panna 
 Kraslavski, thou art going to marry her." 
 
 "I marry her because I am more wise than foolish. I 
 d for money, it is true; but thinkest thou that for 
 money I would marry the first woman I met who possessed 
 it/ By no means, my dear friend. I take Panna Kra- 
 slavski, and I know what I am doing. She has her great 
 quaJities, indispensable under the circumstances in which
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 191 
 
 I take her, and in which she marries nie. She will be a 
 cold, unagreeable wife, sour, and even contemptuous, in so 
 far as she does not fear me; but, on the other hand, Fauna 
 Kraslavski, as well as her mother, has a religious respect for 
 appearances , for what is fitting, or, speaking generally, 
 for what is polite. This is one point. Further, there is 
 not even one germ in her from which love intrigues could 
 grow; and life with her, be it disagreeable as it may, will 
 never end in scandal. This is the second. Third, she is 
 pedantic in everything, as well in religion as in fulfilment 
 of all the duties which she may take on herself. This is, 
 indeed, a great quality. I shall not be happy with her, 
 but I can be at peace; and who knows if this is not the 
 maximum possible to ask of life, and I tell thee, iny dear 
 friend, that when a man takes a wife he should think 
 before all of future peace. In a mistress seek what pleases 
 thee, wit, temperament, a poetical form of sensitiveness. 
 But with a wife one must live years; seek in her that on 
 which one can rely, seek principles." 
 
 "I have never thought thee a fool," said Fan Stanislav; 
 "but I see that thou hast more wit than I suspected." 
 
 "Our women take those, for example, of the money 
 world are formed really on the French novel ; and what 
 comes of that is known to thee." 
 
 "More or less; but to-day thou art so eloquent that I 
 listen to thy description with pleasure." 
 
 "Well, a woman becomes her own God and her own 
 measure of right." 
 
 "And for her husband?" 
 
 "A chameleon and a tragedy." 
 
 "This happens a little in the world of much money and 
 no traditions; there everything is appearance and toilet, 
 beneath which sits not a soul , but a more or less exquisite 
 wild beast. And this wealthy and elegant world, amusing 
 itself, and permeated with artistic, literary, and even 
 religious dilettantism, wields the baton and directs the 
 orchestra." 
 
 "Not yet with us." 
 
 " Not yet altogether. For that matter, there are excep- 
 tions, even in the society mentioned; all the more must 
 there be outside it. Yes, there are women of Another 
 kind among us, for instance, Fanna Plavitski. Oh, 
 what sef.urity, and withal what a charm of life, with a 
 woman like her! Unhappily, she is not for me."
 
 192 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Mashko, I was ready to recognize in thee cleverness, 
 but I did not know thee to have enthusiasm." 
 
 "What 's to be done? I was in love with her, but now 
 I ain going to marry Panna Kraslavski." 
 
 Mashko pronounced the last words, as if in anger, then 
 followed a moment of silence. 
 
 " Then thou wilt not be my groomsman? " 
 
 'Give me time to consider." 
 
 'In three days I am going away." 
 
 'To what place?" 
 
 'To St. Petersburg. I have business there; I will stay 
 about two weeks." 
 
 'I will give my answer on thy return." 
 
 ' Very well ; to-day I will send thee the estimate of my 
 oak in three sizes. To save the instalment! " 
 
 "And the conditions on which I will buy it." 
 
 Here Mashko took leave and went out.' Pan Stanislav 
 hastened to his office. After a conversation with Bigiel, 
 he decided, if the affair should seem practicable and profit- 
 able, to buy the oak alone. He could not account to him- 
 self why he felt a certain wonderful desire to be connected 
 with Kremen. After business hours he thought also of 
 what Mashko had said of Panna Plavitski. He felt that the 
 man had told the truth, and that, with a woman of this 
 kind, life might be not only safe and peaceful, but full of 
 charm; he noticed, however, that in those meditations he 
 rendered justice rather to the type of which Marynia was 
 a specimen, than to Marynia in person. He observed also 
 in himself a thousand inconsistencies: he saw that he felt 
 a certain repugnance, and even anger, at the thought of 
 loving any one "or anything, or letting his heart go into 
 bonds and knots , usually fastened so firmly that they were 
 painful. At the very thought of this he was enraged, and 
 repeated in spirit, " I will not ; J have had enough of this ! 
 It is an unwholesome exuberance, which leads people 
 only to errors and suffering." At the same time he took 
 it ill, for example, that she did not love him with a 
 certain exuberant and absolute love, and opened her heart 
 to him only when duty commanded. Afterward, when he 
 did not want love, he was astonished that it began to pall 
 on him so easily, and that he desired Marynia far more 
 when she was opposed, than now, when she was altogether 
 inclined to him. 
 
 "All leads to this at last," thought he: "that man him-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 193 
 
 self does not know what he wants, or what he must hold 
 to ; that is his position. May a thunderbolt split it ! 
 Paima Plavitski has more good qualities than she herself 
 suspects. She is dutiful, just, calm, attractive; my 
 thoughts draw me toward her; and still I feel that Panna 
 Plavitski is not for me what she once was, and that the 
 devils have taken something that was in me. But what 
 is it ? As to the capacity for loving," continued Pan 
 Stanislav, in his monologue, "I have come to the conclu- 
 sion that loving is most frequently folly, and loving too 
 much folly at all times; hence I should now be content, 
 but I am not." 
 
 After a while it came to his mind that this was merely 
 a species of weakness, such, for example, as follows an 
 operation in surgery, or an illness that a man has passed 
 through, and that positive life will fill out in time that 
 void which he feels. For him positive life was his mer- 
 cantile house. When he went to dine, he found Vaskovski 
 and two servants, who winked at each other when they 
 saw how the old man at times held motionless an uplifted 
 fork with a morsel of meat on it, and fell to thinking of 
 death, or talking to himself. Professor Vaskovski had for 
 some time been holding these monologues, and spoke to 
 himself on the street so distinctly that people looked 
 around at him. His blue eyes were turned on Pan Stan- 
 islav for a while vacantly ; then he roused himself, as if 
 from sleep, and finished the thought which had risen in 
 his head. "She says that this will bring her near the 
 child." 
 
 " Who says?" inquired Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "Pani Emilia." 
 
 "How will she be nearer?" 
 
 "She wants to become a Sister of Charity." 
 
 Pan Stanislav grew silent under the impression of that 
 news. He was able to meditate over that which passed 
 through his head, to expel feeling, to philosophize on the 
 unwholesome excesses of the society in which he lived; 
 but in his soul he had two sacred images , Litka and Pani 
 Emilia. Litka had become simply a cherished memory, 
 but he loved Pani Emilia with a living, brotherly, and 
 most tender affection, which he never touched in his medi- 
 tations. So for a time he could not find speech; then he 
 looked sternly at Vaskovski, and said, 
 
 "Professor, thou art persuading her to this. I do not 
 
 13
 
 194 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 enter into thy mysticism and ideas from beneath a dark 
 star, but know this, that thou wilt take her life on thy 
 conscience; for she has not the strength to be a Sister of 
 Charity, and will die in a year." 
 
 "My dear friend," answered Vaskovski, "thou hast con- 
 demned me unjustly without a hearing. Hast thou stopped 
 to consider what the expression 'just man ' means?" 
 
 "When it is a question of one dear to me, I jeer at 
 expressions." 
 
 " She told me yesterday of this, most unexpectedly, and 
 I asked, ' But, my child, will you have the strength? 
 That is arduous labor. ' She smiled at me, and said : ' Do 
 not refuse me, for this is my refuge, my happiness. Should 
 it seem that I have not strength enough, they will not 
 receive me; but if they receive me, and my strength fails 
 afterward, I shall go sooner to Litka, and I am yearning 
 so much for her.' What had I to answer to such a choice, 
 and such simplicity? What art thou able to say, even 
 thou, who art without belief? Wouldst thou have courage 
 to say: ' Perhaps Litka is not in existence; a life in labor, 
 in charity, in sacrifice, and death in Christ, may not lead to 
 Litka at all ' ? Invent another consolation ; but what wilt 
 thou invent? Give her another hope, heal her with some- 
 thing else; but with what wilt thou heal her? Besides, 
 thou wilt see her thyself; speak to her sincerely. Wilt 
 thou have courage to dissuade her? " 
 
 " No," answered Pan Stanislav, briefly ; and after a while 
 he added, " Only suffering on all sides." 
 
 " One thing might be possible," continued Vaskovski. 
 " To choose instead of Sisters of Charity, whose work is be- 
 yond her strength, some contemplative order; there are 
 those in whom the poor human atom is so dissolved in God 
 that it ceases to lead an individual existence, and ceases to 
 suffer." 
 
 Pan Stanislav waved his hand. " I do not understand 
 these things," said he, dryly, " and I do not look into them." 
 
 "I have here somewhere a little Italian book on the 
 Ladies of Nazareth," said Vaskovski, opening his coat. 
 "Where did I put it? When going out, I stuck it 
 somewhere." 
 
 " What can the Ladies of Nazareth be to me ? " 
 
 But Vaskovski, after unbuttoning his coat, unbuttoned 
 his shirt in searching; then he thought a while and said, 
 " What am I looking for ? I know that little Italian book. In
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 195 
 
 a couple of days I am going to Rome for a long, very long 
 time. Remember what I said, that Rome is the antecham- 
 ber to another world. It is time for me to go to God's 
 antechamber. I would persuade Emilia greatly to go to 
 Rome, but she will not leave her child ; she will remain here 
 as a Sister of Charity. Maybe, however, the order of Naza- 
 reth would please her; it is as simple and mild as was 
 primitive Christianity. Not with the head, my dear, for 
 there they know better what to do, but with the heart, 
 childlike but loving." 
 
 " Button thy shirt, professor," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "Very good; I will button it. I have something at my 
 heart, and I would tell it thee ; thou art as mobile as water, 
 but thou hast a soul. Seest thou, Christianity not only is 
 not coming to an end, as some philosophizing, giddy heads 
 imagine, but it has only made half its way." 
 
 "Dear professor," said Pan Stanislav, mildly, "I will 
 listen to what thou hast to tell me willingly and patiently, 
 but not to-day ; for to-day I am thinking only of Pani 
 Emilia, and there is simply a squeezing at my throat. This 
 is a catastrophe." 
 
 " Xot for her, since her life will be a success, and her 
 death also." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to mutter, " As God lives, not only 
 every mightier feeling, but simple friendship, ends in regret ; 
 never has any attachment brought me a thing except suffer- 
 ing. Bnkatski is right : from general attachments there is 
 nothing but suffering, from personal attachments nothing but 
 suffering ; and now live, man, in the world so surrounded." 
 
 The conversation broke off, or rather was turned into the 
 monologue of Professor Vaskovski, who began a discourse 
 with himself about Rome and Christianity. After dinner 
 they went out on the street, which was full of the sound of 
 sleighbells and the gladsome winter movement. Though in 
 the morning of that day snow had fallen in sufficient abun- 
 dance, toward evening the weather had become fair, calm, 
 and frosty. 
 
 " But, professor, button thy shirt." 
 
 'Very well; I will button it," answered Vaskovski; and 
 he began to draw the holes of his vest to the buttons of his 
 frockcoat. 
 
 " Still I like that Vaskovski," said Pan Stanislav, to him- 
 self, when on the way home. " If I were to grow attached to 
 him for good, the deuce would take him surely, for such is
 
 196 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 my fate. Fortunately I am insensible enough to him so 
 far." And thus he persuaded himself untruly, for he had a 
 sincere friendship for Vaskovski, and the man's fate was 
 not indifferent in the least to him. When he reached home, 
 Litka's face smiled at him from a large photograph as he 
 entered ; this had been sent by Marynia during his absence, 
 and moved Pan Stanislav to the depth of his soul. He ex- 
 perienced, moreover, this species of emotion whenever he 
 remembered Litka on a sudden, or saw unexpectedly one of 
 her portraits. He thought then, that love for the child, 
 hidden away somewhere in the depth of his heart, rose 
 suddenly with its previous vividness and power, penetrating 
 his whole being with indescribable tenderness and sorrow. 
 This revival of sorrow was even so painful that he avoided 
 it as a man avoids a real suffering usually. This time, 
 however, there was something sweet in his emotion. Litka 
 was smiling at him by the light of the lamp, as if she 
 wished to say " Pan Stas ; " around her head on the white 
 margin of the picture were four green birches. Pan Stan- 
 islav stopped and looked for a long time ; at last he thought, 
 " I know in what may be the happiness of life, in children ! " 
 But he said to himself a few moments later, " I never shall 
 love my own as I loved that poor child." The servant 
 entered now and gave him a letter from Marynia, which 
 came with the photograph. She wrote as follows : 
 
 "My father asks me to pray you to spend the evening with us. 
 Emilia has moved to her own house, and receives no visits to-day. 
 I send you Litka's photograph, and be you to come without fail. I 
 wish to speak with you of Emilia. Papa has invited Pan Bigiel, who 
 has promised to come ; therefore you and I can talk quietly/' 
 
 Pan Stanislav, after reading the letter, dressed, read a 
 certain time, then went to the Plavitskis'. Bigiel had been 
 there a quarter of an hour, and was playing piquet with 
 Plavitski ; Marynia was sitting at some distance, by a small 
 table, occupied in work of some kind. After he had greeted 
 all, Pan Stanislav sat near her, 
 
 "I thank you most earnestly for the photograph," began 
 he. I saw it unexpectedly, and Litka stood before my eyes 
 in such form that I could not control myself. Moments 
 like that are the measure of sorrow, of which a man cannot 
 even give account to himself. I thank you most earnestly 
 and tor the four birches too. Touching Pani Emilia "l 
 know everything from Vaskovski. Is this merely a project, 
 or a fixed resolve ? "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 197 
 
 " Rather a fixed resolve," answered Marynia ; " and what 
 do you think ? " 
 
 Marynia raised her eyes to him as if waiting for some 
 counsel. 
 
 "She has not strength for it," said she, finally. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was silent a while; then he opened his 
 arms helplessly, and said, 
 
 "I have talked about this with Vaskovski. I attacked 
 him, since I thought that the idea was his; but he swore to 
 me that he had nothing to do with it. He asked then 
 what other consolation I could think out for her, and I 
 could give him no answer. What in life has remained to 
 her really?" 
 
 " What?" returned Marynia, in a low voice. 
 
 "Do I not understand, think you, whence that resolve 
 came? She does not wish to violate her religious principles 
 in any way, but she wants to die as soon as possible; she 
 knows that those duties are beyond her strength, and 
 therefore she assumes them." 
 
 "True," answered Marynia; and she inclined her face so 
 closely to her work that Pan Stanislav saw only the part- 
 ing of the dark hair on her small head. Before her stood 
 a box full of pearls, which she was sewing on to various 
 articles to be used in a lottery for benevolent purposes; 
 and tears, which were flowing from her eyes, began to drop 
 on those pearls. 
 
 "I see that you are weeping," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 She raised tearful eyes to him, as if to say, "Before 
 thee I shall not hide tears," and answered, "I know that 
 Emilia is doing well, but such a pity " 
 
 Pan Stanislav, partly from emotion, and partly because 
 he knew not himself what to answer, kissed her hand for 
 the first time. 
 
 Pearls began then to drop more thickly from Marynia's 
 eyes, so that she had to rise and go out. Pan Stanislav 
 approached the players, as Plavitski was saying in a sour, 
 outspoken tone, to his partner, 
 
 "Rubicon after Rubicon. Ha! it is difficult. You 
 represent new times, and I old traditions. I must be 
 beaten." 
 
 "What has that to do with piquet?" asked Bigiel, 
 calmly. 
 
 Marynia returned soon, with the announcement that tea 
 was ready ; her eyes were somewhat red, but her face was
 
 198 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 clear and calm. When, a little later, Bigiel and Plavitski 
 sat down at cards again, she conversed with Pan Stauislav 
 in that quiet, confiding tone which people use who are very 
 near to each other, and who have many mutual relations. 
 It is true that those mutual relations between them had 
 been created by the death of Litka and the misfortune of 
 Pani Emilia, hence the conversation could not be glad- 
 some; but in spite of that, Marynia's eyes, if not her lips, 
 smiled at Pan Stanislav, and were at once thoughtful and 
 clear. 
 
 Later in the evening, after his departure, Marynia did 
 not name him in her mind, when she thought of him, other- 
 wise, than "Pan Stas." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, on his part, returned home feeling calmer 
 by far than he had since Litka's death. While pacing his 
 chamber, he made frequent halts before the little girl's 
 photograph, and looked, too, at the four birches painted 
 by Marynia. He thought that the bond fastened between 
 him and Marynia by Litka was becoming closer each day, 
 as if without any one's will, and simply by some mysterious 
 force of things. He thought, too, that if he lacked the 
 former original desire to make that bond permanent, his 
 courage would almost fail to cut it decisively, especialty 
 so soon after Litka's death. Late in the night he sat down 
 to the lists sent by Mashko. At times, however, he made 
 mistakes in the reckoning, for he saw before him Marynia's 
 head inclining forward, and her tears falling on the box of 
 pearls. 
 
 Next morning he bought the oak in Kremen, very profit- 
 ably, for that matter.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 199 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MASHKO returned in two weeks from St. Petersburg, well 
 pleased with his arrangements for credit, and bringing 
 important news, which had come to him, as he stated, in 
 a way purely confidential, news not known yet to any 
 man. The preceding harvest had been very poor through- 
 out the whole empire; here and there hunger had begun 
 to appear. It was easy to divine, therefore, that, before 
 spring, supplies would be gone in whole neighborhoods, 
 and that the catastrophe of hunger might become uni- 
 versal. In view of this, people of the inner circle began to 
 whisper about the chance of stopping the grain export; and 
 this kind of echo Mashko brought back, with the assurance 
 that it came to his ears through people extremely well 
 versed in affairs. This news struck Pan Stanislav so 
 vividly that he shut himself in for some days, pencil in 
 hand; then he hurried to Bigiel with the proposition that 
 the rea;ly money at command of the house, as well as its 
 cre.lit, should be turned to prompt purchases of grain. 
 Bigiel was afraid, but he began by being afraid of every 
 new enterprise. Pan Stanislav did not conceal from him 
 that this would be a large operation, on the success or 
 failure of which their fate might depend. Complete 
 failure, however, was little likely, and success might make 
 them really rich at one sweep. It was to be foreseen that, 
 in view of the lack of grain, prices would rise in every 
 event. It was also to be foreseen that the law would 
 limit the possibility of making new contracts with foreign 
 merchants, but would respect contracts made before its 
 promulgation; but even if it failed in this regard, the rise 
 of prices in the country itself was a thing almost certain. 
 Pan Stanislav had foreseen and calculated everything, in 
 so far as man could; and Bigiel, who, in spite of his 
 caution, was a person of judgment, was forced to confess 
 that the chances of success were really considerable, and 
 that it would be a pity to miss the opportunity. 
 
 In fact, after a number of new consultations, during 
 which Bigiel's opposition grew weaker and weaker, they 
 decided on that which Pan Stanislav wished; and after a
 
 200 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 certain time their chief agent, Abdulski, went out with 
 power to make contracts in the name of the house, as well 
 for grain on hand as for grain not threshed yet. 
 
 After Abdulski's departure, Bigiel went to Prussia. Pan 
 Stanislav remained alone at the head of the house, toiled 
 from morning till evening, and made scarcely a visit. But 
 time did not drag, for he was roused by hope of great profit 
 and a future of fuller activity. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, in throwing himself into that specula- 
 tion, and drawing in Bigiel, did so, first of all, because he 
 thought it good; but he had another thought, too, the 
 mercantile house with all its affairs was too narrow a field 
 for his special training, abilities, and energies, and Pan 
 Stanislav felt this. Finally, what was the question in 
 affairs handled by the house? To buy cheap, sell dear, 
 and put the profit in a safe; that was its one object. Pur- 
 chases direct, or through another, nothing more. Pan 
 Stanislav felt confined in those limits. "I should like to 
 dig up something, or make something," said he to Bigiel, 
 in moments of dissatisfaction and distaste; "at the root of 
 the matter we are simply trying to direct to our own 
 pockets some current from that stream of money which is 
 flowing in the business of men, but we'produce nothing." 
 
 And that was true. Pan Stanislav wished to advance to 
 property, to acquire capital, and then undertake some very 
 large work, giving a wider field for labor and creativeness. 
 
 The opportunity had come, as it seemed to him; hence 
 he grasped with both hands at it. "I will think of other 
 things afterward," thought he. 
 
 By "other things," he meant his affairs of mind and 
 heart, that is, his relations to religion, people, country, 
 woman. He understood that to be at rest in life one must 
 explain these relations, and stand on firm feet. There are 
 men who all their lives do not know their position with 
 reference to these principles, and whom every wind turns 
 toward a new point. Pan Stanislav felt that a man should 
 not live thus. In his state of mind, as it then was, he saw 
 that these questions might be decided in a manner direct 
 to dryness, as well as positive to materialism, and in 
 general negatively; but he understood that they must be 
 decided. 
 
 " I wish to know clearly whether I am bound to some- 
 thing or not," thought he. 
 
 Meanwhile he labored, and saw people little; he could
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 201 
 
 not withdraw from them altogether. He convinced him- 
 self, also, that questions most intimately personal can* 
 not be decided otherwise than internally, otherwise than 
 by one's own brain or heart, within the four walls of 
 the body; but that most frequently certain external influ- 
 ences, certain people, near or distant, hasten the end of 
 meditation, and the decisions flowing from it. This 
 happened at his farewell with Pani Emilia, who was now 
 shortening daily, and almost feverishly, the time before 
 her entrance on her novitiate with the Sisters of Charity. 
 
 Amid all his occupations, Pan Stanislav did not cease to 
 visit her; but a number of times he failed to find her at 
 home. Once he met Pani Bigiel at her house, and also 
 Pani and Panna Kraslavski, whose presence constrained 
 him in a high degree. Afterward, when Marynia informed 
 him that Pani Emilia would begin her novitiate in a few 
 days, he went to take farewell of her. 
 
 He found her calm and almost joyous, but his heart was 
 pained when he looked at her. Her face was transparent 
 in places, as if formed of pearl; the blue veins appeared 
 through the skin on her temples. 
 
 She was very beautiful, in a style almost unearthly, but 
 Pan Stanislav thought: "I will take the last leave of her, 
 for she will not hold out even a month; from one more 
 attachment, one more grief and unhappiness." 
 
 She spoke to him of her decision as of a thing the most 
 usual, to be understood of itself, the natural outcome of 
 what had happened, the natural refuge from a life deprived 
 of every basis. Pan Stanislav understood that for him to 
 dissuade her would be purely conscienceless, and an act 
 devoid of sense. 
 
 "Will you remain in Warsaw?" asked he. 
 
 "I will, for I wish to be near Litka; and the mother 
 superior promised that I should be in the house first, and 
 afterward, when I learn something, in one of the hospitals. 
 Unless unusual events come to pass, while I am in the 
 house I shall be free to visit Litka every Sunday." 
 
 Pan Stanislav set his teeth, and was silent; he looked 
 only at the delicate hands of Pani Emilia, thinking in his 
 soul, 
 
 "She wishes to nurse the sick with those hands." 
 
 But at the same time he divined that she wanted, beyond 
 all, something else. He felt that under her calmness and 
 resignation there was immense pain, strong as death, and
 
 202 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 calling for death with all the powers of her heart and soul ; 
 but she wished death to come without her fault, not through 
 her sin, but her service, her reward for that service was 
 to be her union with Litka. 
 
 And now, for the first time, Pan Stanislav understood 
 the difference between pain and pain, between sorrow and 
 sorrow. He, too, loved Litka; but in him, besides sorrow 
 for her, and remembrance of her, there was something else, 
 a certain interest in life, a certain curiosity touching 
 the future, certain desires, thoughts, tendencies. To Pani 
 Emilia there remained nothing, it was as if she had died 
 with Litka; and if anything in the world occupied her 
 yet, if she loved those who were near her, it was only for 
 Litka, through Litka, and in so far as they were connected 
 with Litka. 
 
 These visits and that farewell were oppressive to Pan 
 Stanislav. He had been deeply attached to Pani Emilia, 
 but now he had the feeling that the cord binding them had 
 snapped once and forever, that their roads parted at that 
 moment, for he was going farther by the way of life; she, 
 however, wished her life to burn out as quickly as possible, 
 and had chosen labor, blessed, it is true, but beyond 
 her strength, so as to make death come more quickly. 
 
 This thought closed his lips. In the last moments, how- 
 ever, the attachment which he had felt for her from of 
 old overcame him; and he spoke with genuine emotion 
 while kissing her hand. 
 
 "Dear, very dear lady, may God guard and comfort 
 you ! " 
 
 Here words failed him; but she said, without dropping 
 his hand, 
 
 "Till I die, I shall not forget you, since you loved Litka 
 so much. I know, from Marynia, that Litka united you 
 and her; and for that reason I know that you will be 
 happy, otherwise God would not have inspired her. As 
 often as I see you in life, I shall think that Litka made 
 you happy. Let her wish be accomplished at the earliest, 
 and God bless you both ! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav said nothing; but, when returning home, 
 he- thought, 
 
 "Litka's will! She does not even admit that Litka's 
 will can remain unaccomplished; and how was I to tell 
 her that the other is not for me now what she once was?" 
 
 Still Pan Stanislav felt with increasing distinctness that
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 203 
 
 it was not right to remain as he was any longer, and that 
 those bonds connecting him with Marynia ought soon to 
 be tightened, or broken, so as to end the strange condition, 
 and the misunderstandings and sorrows which might rise 
 from it. He felt the need of doing this quickly, so as to 
 act with honor; and new alarm seized him, for it seemed 
 that, no matter how he acted, his action would not bring 
 him happiness. 
 
 When he reached home, he found a letter from Mashko, 
 which read as follows, 
 
 " I have called on thee twice to-day. Some lunatic has insulted 
 me before my subordinates on account of the oak which I sold thee. 
 His name is Gantovski. I need to speak with thee, and shall come 
 again before evening." 
 
 In fact, he ran in before the expiration of an hour, and 
 asked, without removing his overcoat, 
 
 "Dost thou know that Gantovski?" 
 
 " J know him ; he is a neighbor and relative of the Plavit- 
 skis. What has happened, and how has it happened? " 
 
 Mashko removed his overcoat, and said, 
 
 "1 do not understand how news of the sale could get out, 
 for I have not spoken of it to any one ; and it was important 
 for me that it should not become known." 
 
 "Our agent, Abdulski, went to Kremen to look at the 
 oak. Gantovski must have heard of the sale from him." 
 
 "Listen; this is the event. To-day Gantovski's card is 
 brought into my office ; not knowing who he is, I receive 
 the man. A rough fellow enters, and asks if 'tis true 
 that I sold the oak, and if I wish to depopulate a part of 
 Kremen. Evidently I reply by asking how that may con- 
 cern him. He answers that I have bound myself to pay 
 old Plavitski a yearly annuity from Kremen; and that, if 
 I ruin the place by a plundering management, there will 
 be nothing through which to compel me. In answer, as 
 thou canst understand, I advise him to ta,ke his cap, button 
 up closely, in view of the frost, and go to the place whence 
 he came. Hereupon he falls to making an uproar, calling 
 me a cheat and a swindler. At last he says that he lives 
 in the Hotel Saxe, and goes out. Hast thou the key to 
 this? Canst thou tell me its meaning?" 
 
 "Of course. First, this Gantovski is of limited mind, 
 by nature he is rude; second, for whole years he has been 
 in love with Panna Plavitski, and has wished to be her 
 knight."
 
 204 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Thou knowest that I have rather cool blood; but, in 
 truth, it seems at times a dream. That a man should 
 permit himself to iusult me because I sell my own property, 
 simply passes human understanding." 
 
 " What dost thou think of doing? Old Plavitski will be 
 the first to warm Gantovski's ears, and force him to beg 
 thy pardon." 
 
 Mashko's face took on such a cold and determined ex- 
 pression of wrath that Pan Stanislav thought, 
 
 "Well, ' the bear ' has brewed beer of a kind that he did 
 not expect; now he must drink it." 
 
 "No one has ever offended me without being punished, 
 and no one ever will. This man not only has insulted me, 
 but has done me a wrong beyond estimation." 
 
 "He is a fool, simply irresponsible." 
 
 "A mad dog, too, is irresponsible, but people shoot him 
 in the head. I talk, as thou seest, coolly; listen, then, 
 to what I say : a catastrophe has come to me, from which 
 I shall not rise." 
 
 "Thou art speaking coolly ; but anger is stifling thee, and 
 thou art ready to exaggerate." 
 
 "Not in the least; be patient, and hear me to the end. 
 The position is this: If my marriage is stopped, or even 
 put off, a few months, the devils will take me, with my 
 position, my credit, my Kremen, and all that I have. I 
 tell thee that I am travelling with the last of my steam, 
 and I must stop. Panna Kraslavski does not marxy me for 
 love, but because she is twenty-nine years of age, and I 
 seem to her, if not the match she dreamed of, at least a 
 satisfactory one. If it shall seem that I am not what she 
 thinks, she will break with me. If those ladies should 
 discover to-day that I sold the oak in Kremen from neces- 
 sity, I should receive a refusal to-morrow. Now think: 
 the scandal was public, for it was in presence of my 
 subordinates. The matter will not be kept secret. I 
 might explain to those ladies the sale of the oak, but yet I 
 shall be an insulted man. If I do not challenge Gantovski, 
 they may break with me, as a fellow without honor; if I 
 challenge him, remember that they are devotees, and, 
 besides, women who keep up appearances as no others 
 that I know, they will break with me then as a man of 
 adventures. If I shoot Gantovski, they will break with 
 me as a murderer; if he hits me, they will break with me 
 as an imbecile, who lets himself be insulted and beaten.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 205 
 
 In a hundred chances there are ninety that they will act in 
 this way. Is it clear to thee now why I said that the 
 devils will take me, my credit, my position, and Kremen 
 in addition?" 
 
 Pan Stanislav waved his hand with all the easy egotism 
 to which a man can bring himself in reference to another, 
 who, at the bottom of things, is of little account to him. 
 
 "Bah!" said he; "maybe I will buy Kremen of thee. 
 But the position is difficult. What dost thou think, then, 
 of doing with Gantovski?" 
 
 To this Mashko answered: "So far I pay my debts. 
 Thou dost not wish to be my groomsman; wilt thou be my 
 second? " 
 
 "That is not refused," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "I thank thee. Gantovksi lives in the Hotel Saxe." 
 
 "I will be with him to-morrow." 
 
 Immediately after Mashko's departure, Pan Stanislav 
 went to spend the evening at Plavitski's; on the road he 
 thought, 
 
 "There are no jokes with Mashko, and the affair will 
 not finish in common fashion; but what is that to me? 
 What are they all to me, or I to them? Still, how devil- 
 ishly alone a man is in the world ! " 
 
 And all at once he felt that the only person on earth who 
 cared for him, and who thought of him, not as a thing, was 
 Marynia. 
 
 And, in fact, when he came, he knew from the very 
 pressure of her hand that this was true. She said to him, 
 in greeting, with her mild and calm voice, 
 
 "I had a presentiment that you would come. See, here 
 is a cup waiting for you."
 
 206 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 WHEN Pan Stanislav came to the Plavitskis' he found 
 there Gantovski. The young men greeted each other at 
 once with evident coldness and aversion. There was not 
 in the whole world that day an unhappier man than Gan- 
 tovski. Old Plavitski bantered him as usual, and even 
 more than usual, being in excellent humor because of his 
 relative, the old lady from whom he expected a consider- 
 able inheritance. Gantovski's presence was awkward for 
 Marynia; and she strove in vain to hide this annoyance by 
 kindness and a cordial reception. At last Pan Stanislav 
 almost feigned not to see him. It was evident, too, that 
 Gantovski had not confessed anything before old Plavitski, 
 and that he was trembling lest Pan Stanislav might refer 
 to his adventure with Mashko, or tell it outright. 
 
 Pan Stanislav understood this at once, as well as the 
 advantage over " the bear " which was given him by his 
 silence ; wishing to use it in the interest of Mashko, he 
 was silent for a time, but could not forego the pleasure of 
 punishing Gantovski in another way. He occupied himself 
 the whole evening with Marynia, as he had not done since 
 Litka's death. This filled Marynia with evident delight. 
 Leaving Gantovski to her father, she walked with Pan 
 Stanislav through the room and talked confidentially ; then 
 they sat under the palm, where Pan Stanislav had seen 
 Pani Emilia after the funeral, and talked about her ap- 
 proaching admission to the order of Sisters of Charity. To 
 Gantovski it seemed at times that only people who were 
 betrothed could speak in that way ; and he - felt then what 
 must be felt by a soul not in purgatory, for in purgatory a 
 soul has hope yet before it, but what is felt by a soul 
 when entering the gate with the inscription " Lasciate oyni 
 speranza " (Leave every hope). Seeing them together in this 
 way, he thought, too, that perhaps Polanyetski had bought 
 the oak with the land so as to obtain for Marynia even a 
 part of Kremen, and therefore with her will and knowledge. 
 And this being the case, the hair rose on his head at the 
 mere thought of how he had blundered in raising a scandal 
 with Mashko. Plavitski, on his part, hearing his half con-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 207 
 
 scious, but altogether inappropriate auswers, amused him- 
 self still more at the expense of the "rustic," who on the 
 city pavement had lost what remained of his wit. Pla- 
 vitski considered himself now as the model of a man of 
 the " capital." 
 
 The moment came, however, when the young men were 
 left alone, for Marynia was occupied with tea in the next 
 room, and Plavitski had gone for cigars to his study ; Pan 
 Stanislav turned then to Gantovski, 
 
 " Let us go together after tea," said he ; "I wish to 
 speak with you touching your collision with Pan Mashko." 
 
 " Of course," answered Gantovski, gloomily, understand- 
 ing that Polauyetski was Mashko's second. 
 
 Meanwhile they had to remain for tea, and sit long 
 enough after that, for Plavitski did not like to go to bed 
 early, and summoned Gantovski to a game of chess. During 
 the play, Marynia and Pan Stanislav sat apart and conversed 
 with animation, to the heartfelt torment of " the bear." 
 
 " The arrival of Gantovski must be pleasing to you," 
 said Pan Stanislav, all at once, " for it brings Krernen to 
 your mind." 
 
 Astonishment flashed over Marynia's face that he was 
 the first to mention Kremen. She had supposed that, in 
 virtue of a tacit agreement, he would cover that question 
 with silence. 
 
 " I think no more now of Kremen," answered she, after a 
 pause. 
 
 This statement was not true, for in her heart's depth she 
 was sorry for the place in which she had been reared, 
 the place of her labor for years, and of her shattered hopes ; 
 but she thought herself forced to speak thus by duty, and 
 by the feeling for Pan Stanislav. which was increasing 
 continually. 
 
 "Kremen," added she, with a voice of some emotion, 
 " was the cause of our earliest quarrel ; and I wish now for 
 concord, concord forever." 
 
 While saying this, she looked into Pan Stanislav's eyes 
 with a coquetry full of sweetness, which a bad woman is 
 able to put on at any time, but an honest woman only when 
 she is beginning to love. 
 
 " She is wonderfully kind," thought he. Straightway he 
 added aloud, " You might have a fabulous weapon against 
 me, for you might lead me to perdition with kindness." 
 
 " I do not wish to lead you to that," replied she.
 
 208 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 And in sign that she did not, she began to shake her 
 dark, shapely head laughingly ; and Pan Stanislav looked 
 at her smiling face, and her mouth a trifle too large, and 
 said mentally, 
 
 " Whether I love her, or love her not, no one attracts 
 me as she does." 
 
 In fact, she had never occupied him and never pleased 
 him more, even when he felt no shade of doubt that he 
 loved her, and when he was struggling with that feeling. 
 But at last he took farewell of her, for it had grown late ; 
 and after a while he and Gantovski found themselves on 
 the street. 
 
 Fan Stanislav who never had been able to guard himself 
 from impulsiveness, stopped the unfortunate "bear," and 
 asked almost angrily, 
 
 "Did you know that it was I who bought the oak at 
 Kremen ? " 
 
 " I did," answered Gantovski ; " for your agent, that man 
 who says that he is descended from Tartars I forget 
 what his name is was at my house in Yalbrykov, and told 
 me that it was you." 
 
 " Why, then, did you make the scandal with Pan 
 Mashko. not with me ? " 
 
 " Do not push me to the wall so," answered Gantovski, 
 " for I do not like it. I raised the scandal with him, not 
 with you, because the Plavitskis have nothing to do with 
 you; but that man is obliged to pay them yearly from 
 Kremen the amount he has engaged to pay, and if he ruins 
 Kremen, he will have nothing to pay from. If you wished 
 to know why I attacked him, you know now." 
 
 Pan Stanislav had to confess in his soul that there was 
 a certain justice in Gantovski's answer ; hence he began 
 the conversation at once from another side, 
 
 " Pan Mashko has begged me to be his second, that 's why 
 I interfere in this question. I shall call on you to-morrow 
 as a second ; but as a private man, and a relative, though a 
 distant one, of Pan Plavitski, I can tell you to-day only 
 this, that you have rendered the poorest service to Pan 
 Plavitski, and if he and his daughter are left without a 
 morsel of bread, they will have you to thank for it. This 
 is the truth ! " 
 
 Gantovski's eyes became perfectly round. 
 
 " Without a morsel of bread ? They will thank me 
 for it?"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 209 
 
 " That is the position," repeated Pan Stanislav. " But 
 listen carefully. Without reference to the result of -the 
 scandal, the circumstances are such that it may have the 
 .most fatal results. I say this to you, on my word: you 
 have, perhaps, ruined Pan Plavitski, and taken from him 
 and his daughter the way, or rather the means, of living." 
 
 If Gantovski really did not like to be pressed to the wall, 
 it was time for him then to show his dislike ; but Gantov- 
 ski had lost his head utterly, and stood in amazement, 
 with open mouth, unable to find an answer; and only after 
 a time did he begin, 
 
 " What ? How ? In what way ? Be sure that it will 
 not come to that, even if I have to give them Yalbrvkov." 
 
 " Pan Gantovski," interrupted Pan Stanislav, " it is a pity 
 to lose words. I have known your neighborhood from the 
 time I was a little boy. What is Yalbrykov, and what have 
 you iu Yalbrykov ? " 
 
 It was true, Yalbrykov was a poor little village, with 
 nine vlokas of land ; and, besides, Gantovski. had, as is usual, 
 inherited debts higher than his ears ; so his hands dropped 
 at his sides. It occurred to him, however, that perhaps 
 matters did not stand as Pan Stanislav represented them ; 
 and he grasped at this thought as at a plank of salvation. 
 
 " I do not understand what you say," said he. " God is 
 my witness that I would choose my own ruin rather than 
 injure the Plavitskis; and know this, that I would be glad 
 to twist the neck of Pan Mashko ; but, if it is necessary, 
 if it is a question of the Plavitskis, then let the devils 
 take me first ! 
 
 " Immediately after the scandal, I went to Pan Yamish, 
 who is here at the session, and told him all. He said that 
 I had committed a folly, and scolded me, it is true. If it 
 were a question of my skin, it would be nothing, I would 
 not move a finger ; but, since it touches something else, I 
 will do what Pan Yamish tells me, even should a thunder- 
 bolt split me next moment. Pan Yamish lives at the 
 Hotel Saxe, and so do I." 
 
 They parted on this ; and Gantovski went to his hotel, 
 cursing Mashko, himself, and Polanyetski. He felt that it 
 must be as Polanyetski had said, that some incurable 
 misfortune had happened, and that he had wrought 
 grievous injustice against that same Panna Marynia for 
 whom he would have given his last drop of blood; he felt 
 that if there had been for him any hope, he had destroyed it 
 
 14
 
 210 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 completely. Plavitski would close his door on him. Fauna 
 Marynia would marry Polanyetski, unless he did n't want 
 her. But who would not want her ? And, at the same time, 
 Pan Gantovski saw clearly that among those who might ask 
 her hand, he was the last man she would marry. " What 
 have I ? Nothing," said he to himself ; " that measly Yal- 
 brykov, nothing more, neither good name nor money. 
 Every man knows something; I alone know nothing. 
 Every one means something ; I alone mean nothing. That 
 Polanyetski has learning and money ; but that I love her 
 better, the devils to me for that, and as much to her, if I 
 am such an idiot that through loving I harm instead of 
 helping her." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, on his way home, thought of Gantovski in 
 the same way, and in general had not for him even one 
 spark of sympathy. At home he found Mashko, who had 
 been waiting an hour, and who said, as greeting, 
 
 " Kresovski will be the other second." 
 
 Pan Stanislav made somewhat of a wry face, and an- 
 swered, 
 
 " I have seen Gantovski." 
 
 "And what?" 
 
 " He is a fool." 
 
 " He is that, first of all. Hast thou spoken to him in my 
 name ? " 
 
 "Not in thy name. As a relative of Pan Plavitski, I 
 told him that he had given Pan Plavitski the worst service 
 in the world." 
 
 " You gave no explanations ? " 
 
 "None. Hear me, Mashko: it is a question for thee of 
 complete satisfaction ; it is no point for me that ye should 
 shoot each other. In virtue of what I have told Gantovski, 
 he is ready to agree to all thy conditions. Happily, he has 
 committed himself to Yamish. Yamish is a mild, prudent 
 man, who understands also that Gantovski has acted like an 
 idiot, and will be glad to give him a lesson." 
 
 " Very well," said Mashko. " Give me a pen and piece 
 of paper." 
 
 " Thou hast them at the desk." 
 
 Mashko sat down and wrote. When he had finished, 
 he gave the written sheet to Pan Stanislav, who read as 
 follows : 
 
 "I testify this day that I attacked Pan Mashko while I was drunk, 
 in a state of unconsciousness, and without giving mvself account of
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 211 
 
 what I was saying. To-day, having become sober, in presence of 
 my seconds, the seconds of Pan Mashko, and the persons who were 
 present at the scene, I acknowledge my act as rude and senseless, 
 and turn with the greatest sorrow and contrition to the good sense 
 and kindness of Pan Mashko, begging him for forgiveness, and 
 acknowledging publicly that his conduct was and is in everything 
 above the judgment of men like me.'' 
 
 " Gantovski is to declaim this, and then subscribe it," 
 said Mashko. 
 
 "This is devilishly unmerciful; no one will agree to it," 
 said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Dost thou acknowledge that this fool has permitted to 
 himself something unheard of with reference to me?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 "And remember what result this adventure may have 
 for me?" 
 
 "It is impossible to know that." 
 
 ''Well, I know; but I will tell thee only this much, 
 those ladies will regret from their souls that they are bouud 
 to me, and will use every pretext which will excuse them 
 before society. That is certain; I am ruined almost 
 beyond rescue." 
 
 "The devil!" 
 
 "Thou canst understand now that what is troubling me 
 must be ground out on some one, and that Gantovski must 
 pay me for the injustice in one form or another." 
 
 "Neither have I any tenderness for him. Let it be so," 
 said Pan Stanislav, shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 "Kresovski will come for thee to-morrow morning at 
 nine." 
 
 "Very well." 
 
 "Then, till we meet again. By the way, should you 
 see Plavitski to-morrow, tell him that his relative, Panna 
 Ploshovski, from whom he expected an inheritance, has 
 died in Rome. Her will was here with her manager, 
 Podvoyni, and is to be opened to-morrow." 
 
 "Plavitski knows of that already, for she died five days 
 ago." 
 
 Pan Stanislav was left alone. For a certain time he 
 thought of his money without being able to foresee a 
 method by which he might receive it from the bankrupt 
 Mashko, and the thought disturbed him. He remembered, 
 however, that the debt could not be removed from the mort- 
 gage on Kremen until it was paid in full; that in this last
 
 212 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 case he would continue as he had been previously, a 
 creditor of Kremen. Kremen, it is true, was not a much 
 better debtor than Mashko, hence this was no great con- 
 solation; but for the time he was forced to be satisfied 
 with it. Later on, something else also came to his head. 
 He remembered Litka, Pani Emilia, Marynia, and he was 
 struck by this, how the world of women, a world of feel- 
 ings purely, a world whose great interest lies in living in 
 the happiness of those near us, differs from the world of 
 men, a world full of rivalry, struggles, duels, encounters, 
 angers, torments, and efforts for acquiring property. He 
 recognized at that moment what he had not felt before, 
 that if there be solace, repose, and happiness on earth, 
 they are to be sought from a loving woman. This feeling 
 was directly opposed to his philosophy of the last few 
 days, hence it disturbed him. But, in comparing further 
 those two worlds, he could not withhold the acknowledg- 
 ment that that feminine and loving world has its founda- 
 tion and reason of existence. 
 
 If Pan Stanislav had been more intimate with the Holy 
 Scriptures, beyond doubt the words, " Mary has chosen the 
 better part," would have occurred to him.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 213 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 KRESOVSKI was almost an hour late on the following 
 morning. He was, according to a noted description among 
 us, one of the administrators of fresh air in the city, that 
 is, one of the men who do nothing. He had a name suffi- 
 ciently famous, and had squandered rather a large fortune. 
 On these two foundations he lived, he went everywhere, 
 and was recognized universally as a man of good breeding. 
 How the above titles can provide a man everything is 
 the secret of great cities; it is enough that not only 
 Kresovski's position was recognized and certain, but he 
 was considered a person to whom it was possible to apply 
 with safety in delicate questions. In courts of honor he 
 was employed as an arbiter; in duels, as a second. High 
 financial circles were glad to invite him to dinners, wed- 
 dings, christenings, and solemnities of that sort, since he 
 had a patrician baldness, and a countenance extremely 
 Polish; hence he ornamented a table perfectly. 
 
 He was a man in the essence of things greatly disen- 
 chanted with people, a little consumptive, arid very satiri- 
 cal. He possessed, however, a certain share of humor, 
 which permitted him to see the laughable side of things, 
 especially of very small things; in this he resembled 
 Bukatski somewhat, and made sport of his own fault-find- 
 ing. He permitted others to make sport of it also, but 
 within measure. When the measure was passed, he straight- 
 ened himself suddenly, and squeezed people to excess; in 
 view of this he was looked on as dangerous. It was 
 said of him that in a number of cases he had found courage 
 where many would have lacked it, and that, in general, he 
 could " carry his nose high." He did not respect any one 
 nor anything, except his own really very noble physiog- 
 nomy; time, especially, he did not respect, for he was 
 late always and everywhere. Coming in to Pan Stanislav's 
 on this occasion, he began at once, after the greeting, to 
 explain his tardiness, 
 
 "Have you not noticed," asked he, "that if a man is in 
 a real hurry, and very anxious to hasten, the things he 
 needs most vanish purposely? The servaut seeks his hat,
 
 214 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 it is gone; looks for his overshoes, they are not there ; 
 hunts for his pocket-book, it is not to be had. I will 
 wager that this is so always." 
 
 "It happens thus," said Fan Stanislav. 
 
 " I have, in fact, invented a cure. When something has 
 gone from me as if it had fallen into water, I sit down, 
 smile, and say aloud: 'I love to lose a thing in this way, I 
 do passionately; ' my man looks for it, becomes lively, stirs 
 about, passes the time, that is very wholesome and agree- 
 able. And what will you say? Eight away the lost article 
 is found." 
 
 "A patent might be taken for such an invention," 
 answered Fan Stanislav; "but let us speak of Mashko's 
 affair." 
 
 "We must go to Yamish. Mashko has sent me a paper 
 which he has written for Gantovski. He is unwilling to 
 change a word; but it is an impossible statement, too harsh, 
 
 it cannot be accepted. I understand that a duel is wait- 
 ing for us, nothing else; I see no other outcome." 
 
 "Gantovski has intrusted himself to Fan Yamish in 
 everything, and he will do all that Yamish commands. 
 But Yamish, to begin with, is also indignant at Gantovski; 
 secondly, he is a sick man, mild, calm, so that who knows 
 that he may not accept such conditions." 
 
 "Fan Yamish is an old dotard," said Kresovski; "but 
 let us go, for it is late." 
 
 They went out. After a while the sleigh halted before 
 the hotel. Pan Yamish was waiting for them, but he 
 received them in his dressing-gown, for he was really in 
 poor health. Kresovski, looking at his intelligent, but 
 careworn and swollen face, thought, 
 
 "He is really ready to agree to everything." 
 
 "Sit down, gentlemen," said Fan Yamish; "I came only 
 three days ago, and though I do not feel well, I am glad, 
 for perhaps the affair may be settled. Believe me that I 
 was the first to rub the ears of my water-burner." 
 
 Here he shrugged his shoulders, and, turning to Pan 
 Stanislav, inquired, 
 
 "What are the Plavitskis doing? I have not visited 
 them yet, though I long to see my golden Marynia." 
 
 "Panna Marynia is well," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "But the old man?" 
 
 " A few days ago a distant relative of his died, a very 
 wealthy woman; he is counting, therefore, on an inherit- 
 ance. He told me so yesterday; but I hear that she has
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 215 
 
 left all her property for benevolent purposes. The will is 
 to be opened to-day or to-morrow." 
 
 "May God have inspired her to leave something to 
 Mary nia! But let us come to our affair. I need not tell 
 you, gentlemen, that it is our duty to finish it amicably, 
 if we can." 
 
 Kresovski bowed. Introductions like this, which he had 
 heard in his life God knows how often, annoyed him. 
 
 "We are profoundly convinced of this duty." 
 
 "So I had hoped," answered Yaniish, benevolently. "I 
 confess myself that Pan Gantovski had not the least right 
 to act as lie did. I recognize even as just that he should 
 be punished for it; hence I shall persuade him to all, even 
 very considerable, concessions, fitted to assure proper satis- 
 faction to Pan Mashko." 
 
 Kresovski took from his pocket the folded paper, an*d 
 gave it, with a smile, to Pan Yamish, saying, 
 
 "Pan Mashko demands nothing more than that Pan 
 Gantovski should read this little document, to begin with, 
 in presence of his own and Pan Mashko's seconds, as well 
 as in presence of Pan Mashko's subordinates, who were 
 present at the scene, and then write under it his own 
 respected name." 
 
 Pan Yamish, finding his spectacles among his papers, 
 put them on his nose, and began to read. But as he read, 
 his face grew red, then pale ; after that he began to pant. 
 Pan Stanislav and Kresovski could scarcely believe their 
 eyes that that was the same Pan Yamish who a moment 
 before was ready for every concession. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said he, with a broken voice, "Pan Gan- 
 tovski has acted like a water-burner, like a thoughtless 
 man; but Pan Gantovski is a noble, and this is what I 
 answer in his name to Pan Mashko." 
 
 "When he said this, he tore the paper in four pieces, and 
 threw them on the floor. 
 
 The thing had not been foreseen. Kresovski began to 
 meditate whether Yamish had not offended his dignity of 
 a second by this act, and in one moment his face began to 
 grow icy, and contract like that of an. angry dog; but Pan 
 Stanislav, who loved Pan Yamish, was pleased at his 
 indignation. 
 
 "Pan Mashko is injured in such an unusual degree that 
 he cannot ask for less ; but Pan Kresovski and I foresaw 
 your answer, and it only increases the respect which we 
 have for you."
 
 216 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Yamish sat down, and, being somewhat asthmatic, 
 breathed rather heavily for a time; then he grew quiet, 
 and said, 
 
 "I might offer you an apology on the part of Pan Gan- 
 tovski,but in other expressions altogether; I see, however, 
 that we should be losing time merely. Let us talk at once 
 of satisfaction, weapon in hand. Pan Vilkovski, Pan 
 Guntovski's other second, will be here soon; and if you 
 can wait, we will fix the conditions immediately." 
 
 "That is called going straight to the object," said 
 Kresovski, who quite agreed with Pan Yamish. 
 
 "But from necessity, and sad necessity," replied 
 Yamish. 
 
 "I must be in my office at eleven," said Pan Stanislav, 
 looking at his watch; "but, if you permit, I will run in 
 here about one o'clock, to look over the conditions and sign 
 them." 
 
 " That will do. We cannot draw up conditions that will 
 rouse people's laughter, that I understand and inform you; 
 but I count on this, that you, gentlemen, will not make 
 them too stringent." 
 
 " I have no thought, I assure you, of quarrelling to risk 
 another man's life." So saying, Pan Stanislav started for 
 his office, where, in fact, a number of affairs of consider- 
 able importance were awaiting him, and which, in Bigiel's 
 absence, he had to settle alone. In the afternoon he signed 
 the conditions of the duel, which were serious, but not too 
 stringent. He went then to dinner, for he hoped to find 
 Mashko in the restaurant. Mashko had gone to Pani 
 Kraslavski's; and the first person whom Pan Stanislav 
 saw was Plavitski, dressed, as usual, with care, shaven, 
 buttoned, fresh-looking, but gloomy as night. 
 
 "What is my respected uncle doing here?" asked Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 " When I have trouble, I do not dine at home usually, 
 and this to avoid afflicting Marynia," answered Plavitski. 
 "I go somewhere; and as thou seest, the wing of a 
 chicken, a spoonful of preserve, is all that I need. Take 
 a seat with me, if thou hast no pleasanter company." 
 
 " What has happened? " 
 
 "Old traditions are perishing; that has happened." 
 
 "Bah! this is not a misfortune personal to uncle." 
 
 Plavitski glanced at him gloomily and solemnly. "To- 
 day," said he, "a will has been opened."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 217 
 
 "Well, and what?" 
 
 " And what? People are saying now throughout War- 
 saw : ' She remembered her most distant relatives ! ' Nicely 
 did she remember them ! Marynia has an inheritance, has 
 she? Knowest thou how much? .Four hundred rubles a 
 year for life. And the woman was a millionnaire ! An 
 inheritance like that may be left to a servant, not to a 
 relative." 
 
 "But to uncle?" 
 
 "Nothing to me. She left fifteen thousand rubles to 
 her manager, but mentioned no syllable about me." 
 
 "What is to be done?" 
 
 " Old traditions are perishing. How many people gained 
 estates formerly through wills, and why was it? Because 
 love and solidarity existed in families." 
 
 "Even to-day I know people on whose heads thousands 
 have fallen from wills." 
 
 "True, there are such, there are many of them; but I 
 am not of the number." 
 
 Plavitski rested his head on his hand, and from his 
 mouth issued something in the style of a monologue. 
 
 "Yes, always somewhere somebody leaves something to 
 somebody." Here he sighed, and after a while added, 
 " But to me no one leaves anything, anywhere, at any 
 time." 
 
 Suddenly an idea equally cruel and empty occurred to 
 Pan Stanislav on a sudden to cheer up Plavitski; there- 
 fore he said, 
 
 " Ai ! she died in Rome; but the will here was written 
 long ago, and before that one there was another altogether 
 different, as people tell me. Who knows that in Home a 
 little codicil may not be found, and that my dear uncle 
 will not wake up a millionnaire some day?" 
 
 "That day will not come," answered Plavitski. Still 
 the words had moved him; he began to gaze at Polanyetski, 
 to squirm as if the chair on which he was sitting were 
 a bed of torture, and said, at last, "And you think that 
 possible?" 
 
 " I see in it nothing impossible," answered Pan Stanislav, 
 with real roguish seriousness. 
 
 "If the wish of Providence." 
 
 "And that may be." 
 
 Plavitski looked around the hall; they were alone. He 
 pushed back his chair on a sudden, and, pointing to his 
 shirt-bosom, said,
 
 218 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Come here, my boy! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav inclined his head, which Plavitski kissed 
 twice, saying at the same time, with emotion, 
 
 "Thou hast consoled me; thou hast strengthened me. 
 Let it be as God wills, but thou hast strengthened me. I 
 confess to thee now that I wrote to Fauna Ploshovski only 
 to remind her that we were living. I asked her when the 
 rent term of one of her estates would end; I had not, as 
 thou knowest, the intention to take that place, but the 
 excuse was a good one. May God reward thee for strength- 
 ening me ! The present will may have been made before 
 my letter. She went to Rome later; on the way she must 
 have thought of my letter, and therefore of us ; and, to my 
 thinking, that is possible. God reward thee ! ' : 
 
 After a while his face cleared up completely ; all at once 
 he laid his hand on Pan Stanislav's knee, and, clicking 
 with his tongue, cried, 
 
 "Knowest what, my boy? Perhaps in a happy hour 
 thou hast spoken; and might we not drink a small bottle 
 of Mouton-Rothschild on account of this codicil?" 
 
 "God knows that I cannot," said Pan Stanislav, who 
 had begun to be a little ashamed of what he had said to 
 the old man. " I cannot, and I will not." 
 
 "Thou must." 
 
 "'Pon my word, I cannot. I have my hands full of work, 
 and I will not befog my head for anything in the world." 
 
 "A stubborn goat, a regular goat! Then I will drink 
 half a bottle to the happy hour." 
 
 So he ordered it, and asked, 
 
 " What hast thou to do? " 
 
 "Various things. Immediately after dinner I must be 
 with Professor Vaskovski." 
 
 "What kind of a figure is that Vaskovski?" 
 
 "In fact," said Pan Stanislav, "an inheritance has fallen 
 to him from his brother, who was a miner, an inherit- 
 ance, and a considerable one. But he gives all to the 
 poor." 
 
 "He gives to the poor, but goes to a good restaurant. 
 I like such philanthropists. If I had anything to give the 
 poor, I would deny myself everything." 
 
 "He was ailing a long time, and the doctor ordered him 
 to eat plentifully. But even in that case he eats only 
 what is cheap. . He lives in a poor chamber, and rears 
 birds. Next door he has two large rooms ; and knowest,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 219 
 
 uncle, who passes the night in them? Children whom he 
 picks up on the street." 
 
 " It seemed to me right away that he had something 
 here," said Plavitski, tapping his forehead with his 
 finger. 
 
 Pan Stanislav did not find Vaskovski at home; hence 
 after an interview with Mashko he dropped in to see 
 Marynia about five in the afternoon. His conscience was 
 gnawing him for the nonsense he had spoken to Plavitski. 
 "The old man," said he to himself, "will drink costly 
 wines on account of that codicil; while to my thinking 
 they are living beyond their means already. The joke 
 should not last too long." 
 
 He found Marynia with her hat on. She was going to 
 the Bigiels', but received him, and since he had not come 
 for a long time, he remained. 
 
 " I congratulate you on the inheritance," said he. 
 "I am glad myself," replied she; "it is something sure, 
 and in our position that is important. For that matter, I 
 should like to be as rich us possible." 
 " Why so ? " 
 
 " You remember what you said once, that you would like 
 to have enough to establish a manufactory, and not carry 
 on a mercantile house. I remember that ; and since every 
 one has personal wishes, I should like to have much, much 
 money." 
 
 Then, thinking that she might have said too much, and 
 said it too definitely, she began to straighten the fold of 
 her dress, so as to incline her head. 
 
 " I came, for another thing, to beg your pardon," said Pan 
 Stanislav. " To-day at dinner I told a pack of nonsense to 
 Pan Plavitski, saying that Panna Ploshovski had changed 
 her will, perhaps, and left him a whole estate. Beyond my 
 expectation he took it seriously. I should not wish to have 
 him deceive himself ; and if you will permit me, I will goat 
 once to him and explain the matter somehow. " 
 
 "I have explained it to him already," said Marynia, 
 smiling ; " he scolded me, and that greatly. You see how 
 you have involved matters. You have cause indeed to beg 
 pardon." 
 
 " Therefore I beg." 
 
 And, seizing her hand, he began to cover it with kisses ; 
 and she left it with him completely, repeating as if in 
 sarcasm, but with emotion,
 
 220 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Ah, the wicked Pan Stas, the wicked Pan Stas ! " 
 That day Pan Stanislav felt on his lips till he fell asleep 
 the warmth of Marynia's hand ; and he thought neither of 
 Mashko nor Gantovski, but repeated to himself with great 
 persistence, 
 
 " It is time to decide this."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 221 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 KKESOVSKI, with a doctor and a case containing pistols, 
 entered one carriage, Pan Stanislav with Mashko another, 
 and the two moved toward Bielany. The day was clear and 
 frosty, full of rosy haze near the ground. The wheels 
 turned with a whining on the frozen snow ; the horses were 
 steaming, and covered with frost; on the trees abundant 
 snow was resting. 
 
 "Frost that is frost," said Mashko. "Our fingers will 
 freeze to the triggers. And the delight of removing one's 
 furs ! " 
 
 " Then be reconciled ; make no delay. My dear man, tell 
 Kresovski to begin the work straightway." 
 
 Here Mashko wiped his damp eye-glass, and added, 
 " Before we reach the place, the sun will be high, and there 
 will be a great glitter from the snow." 
 
 " Finish quickly, then," answered Pan Stanislav. " Since 
 Kresovski is in time, there will be no waiting for the others; 
 they are used to early rising." 
 
 " Dost know what makes me anxious at this moment ? " 
 asked Mashko. " This, that there is in the world one factor 
 with which no one reckons in his plans and actions, and 
 through which everything may be shattered, involved, and 
 ruined, human stupidity. Imagine me with ten times the 
 mind that I have, and unoccupied with the interests of Pan 
 Mashko. Imagine me, for example, some great statesman, 
 some Bismark or Cavour, who needs to gain property to 
 carry out his plans, and who calculates every step, every 
 word, what then ? A beast like this comes along, stupid 
 beyond human reckoning, and carries all away on his horns. 
 That is something fabulous ! Whether this fellow will 
 shoot me or not, is the least account now ; but the brute has 
 spoiled my life-work." 
 
 " Who can calculate such a thing ? " said Pan Stanislav. 
 "It is as if a roof were to fall on thy head." 
 
 " For that very reason rage seizes me." 
 
 " But as to his shooting thee, don't think of that." 
 
 Mashko recovered, wiped his glass again, and began,
 
 222 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 *' My dear, I see that from the moment of our starting 
 thou hast been observing me a little, and now 't is thy wish 
 to add to my courage. That is natural. On my part, I must 
 calm thee ; and on my word I give assurance that I will not 
 shame thee. I feel a little disquiet, that is simple ; but 
 knowest why ? That which constitutes danger of life, the 
 tiring at one, is nothing. Let weapons be given me and him ; 
 let us into the woods. God knows that I should tire away at 
 that idiot half a day, and meet his shots half a day. I have 
 had a duel already, and know what it is. It is the comedy 
 that disconcerts one, the preparations, the seconds, the idea 
 that men will look at thee, and the fear touching how thou wilt 
 appear, how thou wilt acquit thyself. It is simply a public 
 exhibition, and a question of self-love, nothing more. For 
 nervous natures a genuine trial. But I am not over nervous. 
 I understand, also, that in this regard I am superior to my 
 opponent, for I am more accustomed to men. 'T is true 
 such an ass has less imagination, and is not able to think ; 
 for example, how he would look as a corpse ; how he woTild 
 begin to decay, and so on. Still I shall be able to command 
 myself better. Besides, I will tell thee another thing: 
 Philosophy is philosophy ; but in matters like this the 
 decisive elements are temperament and passion. This duel 
 will not bring me to anything, will not save me in any re- 
 gard ; on the contrary, it may bring me to trouble. But 
 still I cannot deny it to myself, so much indignation has 
 collected in my soul, I so hate that idiot, and would like so 
 to crush and trample him. that I cease to reason. Thou 
 mayest be certain of one thing, that as soon as I see the 
 face of the blockhead I shall forget disquiet, forget the 
 comedy, and see only him." 
 
 " I understand that well enough," said Pan Stanislav. 
 And the spots on Mashko's face increased and became 
 blue from the frost, wherewith he had a look as stubborn 
 as it was ugty. 
 
 Meanwhile they arrived. Almost sim ultaneously squeaked 
 the carriage bringing Gantovski, with Yamish and Vilkov- 
 ski. When they alighted, these gentlemen saluted their op- 
 ponents ; then the seven, counting the doctor, withdrew to 
 the depth of the forest to a place selected on the preceding 
 day by Kresovski. 
 
 The drivers, looking at the seven overcoats outlined 
 strangely on the snow, began to mutter to themselves. 
 " Do you know what is going to happen ? " asked one.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 223 
 
 " Is it my first time ? " answered the other. 
 
 " Let the world grow polite ; let fools go to fight ! " 
 
 Meanwhile the seven, clattering on in their heavy over- 
 shoes, and blowing lines of white steam from their nostrils, 
 went toward the other end of the forest. On the way, 
 Yamish, somewhat against the rules binding in such cases, 
 approached Pan Stanislav, and began, 
 
 " I wished sincerely that my man should beg pardon of 
 Pan Mashko, but under the conditions it is not possible." 
 
 " I proposed to Mashko, too, to tone down that note, but 
 he would not." 
 
 " Then there is no escape. All this is immensely foolish, 
 but there is no escape ! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav did not answer, and they walked on in 
 silence. Pan Yamish began to speak again, 
 
 " But I hear that Marynia Plavitski has received some 
 inheritance ? " 
 
 " She has, but a small one." 
 
 " And the old man ? " 
 
 " He is angry that the whole property is not left to him." 
 
 Yamish tapped his forehead with his glove. " He has a 
 little something here, that Plavitski; " then, looking around, 
 he said, " Somehow we are going far." 
 
 " We shall be on the ground in a moment." 
 
 And they went on. The sun had risen above the under- 
 growth ; from the trees there fell bluish shadows on the 
 snow ; but more and more light was coming into the forest 
 every instant. The crows and daws, hidden somewhere 
 among the tree-tops, shook the snow, dry as down, and it 
 fell without noise to the ground, forming under the trees 
 little pointed piles. Everywhere there was immense silence 
 and rest. Men alone were disturbing it to shoot at each other. 
 
 They halted at last on the edge of the forest where it 
 was clean. Then Yamish's short discourse concerning the 
 superiority of peace over war was listened to by Mashko 
 and Gantovski with ears hidden by fur collars. When 
 Kresovski loaded the pistols, each made his choice ; and 
 the two, throwing their furs aside, stood opposite each 
 other with the barrels of their weapons turned upward. 
 
 Gantovski breathed hurriedly ; his face was red, and his 
 mustaches were in icicles. From his whole posture and face 
 it was clear that the affair disconcerted him greatly; that 
 through shame and force of will he controlled himself; and 
 that, had he followed the natural bent of his feelings, he
 
 224 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 would have sprung at his opponent and smashed him with 
 the butt of his pistol, or even with his fist. Mashko, who 
 previously had feigned not to see his opponent, looked at 
 him now with a face full of hatred, stubbornness, and con- 
 tempt. His cheeks were all in spots. He mastered him- 
 self more, however, than Gantovski ; and, dressed in a long 
 frock-coat, with a high hat on his head, with his long side- 
 whiskers, he seemed too stiff, too much like an actor 
 playing the role of a duelling gentleman. 
 
 u He will shoot 'the bear' like a dog," thought Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 The words of command were heard, and two shots shook 
 the forest stillness. Mashko turned then to Kresovski, and 
 said coolly, 
 
 " I beg to load the pistols." 
 
 But at the same moment at his feet appeared a spot of 
 blood on the snow. 
 
 " You are wounded," said the doctor, approaching quickly. 
 
 " Perhaps ; load the pistols, I beg." 
 
 At that moment he staggered, for he was wounded really. 
 The ball had carried away the very point of his kneepau. 
 The duel was interrupted; but Gantovski remained some 
 time yet on the spot with staring eyes, astonished at what 
 had happened. 
 
 After the first examination of the wound he approached, 
 however, pushed forward by Yamish, and said as awk- 
 wardly as sincerely, 
 
 " Now I confess that I was not right in attacking you. I 
 recall everything that I said, and I beg your pardon. You are 
 wounded, but I did not wish to wound you." After a moment, 
 when he was going away with Yamish and Vilkovski, he 
 was heard to say, " As I love God most sincerely, it was a 
 pure accident ; I intended to fire over his head." 
 
 Mashko did not open his mouth that day. To the ques- 
 tion of the doctor if the wound caused much pain, he merely 
 shook his head in sign that it did not. 
 
 Bigiel, who had just returned from Prussia with his 
 pockets full of contracts, when he heard all that had 
 happened, said to Pan Stanislav, 
 
 "Mashko seems an intelligent man, but, as God lives, 
 every one of us has some whim in his head. He, for 
 example, has credit; he has many splendid business cases; 
 he might have a considerable income, and make a fortune. 
 But no, he wants to force matters, strain his credit to the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 225 
 
 utmost, buy estates, give himself out as a great proprietor, 
 a lord, be God knows what, only not what he is. All 
 this is wonderful, and the more so that it is so common. 
 More than once I think that life in itself is not bad, but 
 that all ruin it through want of mental balance, and certain 
 devilish whims, through a kind of wasp, which every 
 one has behind his collar. I understand that a man wants 
 to have more than he has, and to mean more than he 
 means ; but why strive for it in fantastic fashion? I am 
 first to recognize energy and cleverness in Mashko; but, 
 taking everything into consideration, he has something 
 here, as God is true, he has." 
 
 Bigiel now tapped his forehead with his finger a number 
 of times. 
 
 Meanwhile Mashko, witli set teeth, was suffering, since 
 his wound, though not threatening life, was uncommonly 
 painful. In the evening he fainted twice in presence of 
 Pan Stanislav. Afterward, weakness supervened, during 
 which that boldness of spirit which had upheld the young 
 advocate through the day gave way completely. When 
 the doctor departed, after dressing the wound, Mashko lay 
 quietly for a time, and then began, 
 
 "But I am in luck!" 
 
 " Do not think of that," answered Pan Stanislav; "thou 
 wilt get more fever." 
 
 But Mashko continued, however, "Insulted, ruined, 
 wounded, all at one blow." 
 
 "I repeat to thee that this is no time to think of that." 
 
 Mashko rested his elbow on the pillow, hissed from pain, 
 and said , 
 
 "Never mind; this is the last time that I shall converse 
 with a decent man. One week or two from now I shall 
 be of those whom people avoid. What do I care for this 
 fever? There is something so unendurable in ruin so com- 
 plete, in a wreck of fate so utter, that the first idiot, the 
 first goose that comes along will say: 'I knew that long 
 ago; I foresaw that.' So it is: all of them foresee every- 
 thing after the event; and of him whom the thunderbolt 
 has struck, they make in addition a fool, or a madman. 
 
 Pan Stanislav recalled Bigiel 's words at that moment. 
 But Mashko, by a marvellous coincidence, spoke on m such 
 fashion as if wishing to answer those words. 
 
 "And dost think that I did not give account to myself 
 that I was going too sharply; that I was hurrying with 
 
 15
 
 226 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 too much force; that I wanted to be something greater 
 than I was; that I carried my nose too high? No one 
 will render me that justice; but knowest thou that I said 
 it to myself ? But I said to myself, too: ' It is needful to 
 do this ; this is the one way to rise to distinction. Maybe 
 things are wrong, maybe life, in general, goes backward; 
 but had it not been for that adventure unforeseen, and 
 of unfathomable stupidity, I should have succeeded just 
 because I was such as I was. If I had been a modest man, 
 I should not have got Panna Kraslavski. With us it is 
 necessary always to pretend something; and if the devils 
 take me, it is not through my pride, but that blockhead." 
 
 "But how the deuce art thou to know surely that thy 
 marriage will fail? " 
 
 "My dear man, thou hast no knowledge of those women. 
 They agreed on Pan Mashko through lack of something 
 better, for Pan Mashko had good success. But if any 
 shadow falls on my property, my position, my station, 
 they will throw me aside without mercy, and then roll 
 mountains on to me to shield themselves before the world 
 of society. What knowledge hast thou of them? Panna 
 Kraslavski is nob Panna Plavitski." 
 
 A moment of silence followed, then Mashko spoke 
 further, with a weakening voice: "She could have rescued 
 me. For her I should have gone on another road, a far 
 quieter one. In such conditions Kremen would have been 
 saved; the debt on it would have fallen away, as well as 
 Plavitski's annuity. I should have waded out. Dost 
 thou know that, besides, I fell in love with her in student 
 fashion? It came so, unknown whence. But she chose 
 rather to be angry with thee than love me. Now I under- 
 stand; there is no help for it." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who did not relish this conversation, 
 interrupted it, and spoke with a shadow of impatience, 
 
 " It astonishes me that a man of thy energy thinks every- 
 thing lost, while it is not. Panna Plavitski is a past on 
 which thou hast made a cross, by proposing to Panna 
 Kraslavski. As to the present, thou wert attacked, it is 
 true; but thou hast fought, thou wert wounded, but in 
 such a way that in a week thou wilt be well; and finally, 
 those ladies have not announced that they break with thee. 
 Till thou hast that, black on white, thou hast no right to 
 .talk thus. Thou art sick, and that is why thou art reading 
 funeral services over thyself prematurely. But I will tell
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 227 
 
 thee another thing. It is for thee to let those ladies know 
 what has happened. Dost wish, I will go to them to- 
 morrow, then they will act as they please; but let them be 
 informed by thy second, not by city gossips." 
 
 Mashko thought a while, and said: "I wished to write 
 in every case to my betrothed; but if thou go, it will be 
 better. I have no hope that she will hold to me, but it is 
 needful to do what is proper. I thank thee. Thou wilt 
 be able to present the affair from the best side, only not 
 a word touching troubles of any kind. Thou must lessen 
 the sale of the oak to zero, to a politeness which I wished 
 to show thee. I thank thee sincerely. Say that Gantovski 
 apologized." 
 
 "Hast thou some one to sit with thee?" 
 
 "My servant and his wife. The doctor will come again, 
 and bring a surgeon. This pains me devilishly, but I am 
 not ill." 
 
 " Then, till we meet again." 
 
 " Be well. I thank thee thou art " 
 
 "Sleep soundly." 
 
 Pan Stanislav went out. Along the way he meditated 
 on Mashko's course, and meditated with a species of anger: 
 
 " He is not of the romantic school ; still he is inclined 
 to pretend something of that sort. Panna Plavitski! he 
 loved her he would have gone by another road she 
 might have saved him ! this is merely a tribute to senti- 
 mentality, and, besides, in false coin, since a month later 
 he proposed to that puppet for money's sake! Maybe 
 I am duller-witted; I do not understand this, and do not 
 believe in disappointments cured so easily. Had I loved 
 one woman, and been disappointed, I do not think that I 
 should marry another in a month. Devil take me if I 
 should ! He is right, however, that Marynia is of a 
 different kind from Kraslavski. There is no need what- 
 ever to discuss that; she is different altogether! different 
 altogether ! " 
 
 And that thought was immensely agreeable to Pan 
 Stanislav. When he reached home, he found a letter from 
 Bukatski, who was in Italy, and a card from Marynia, full 
 of anxiety and questions concerning the duel. There was 
 a request to send news early in the morning of what 
 had happened, especially to inform her if everything was 
 really over, and if no new encounter was threatened. Pan 
 Stanislav, under the influence of the idea that she was
 
 228 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 different from Parma Kraslavski, answered cordially, more 
 cordially even than he wished, and commanded his servant 
 to deliver the note at nine the next morning. Then he set 
 about reading Bukatski's letter, shrugging his shoulders 
 from the very beginning. Bukatski wrote as follows : 
 
 / 
 
 Mav Sakya Muni obtain for thee blessed Nirvana ! "Besides this, 
 tell Kaplaner not to forward my three thousand rubles to Florence, 
 but to keep them at iny order. These days I have resolved to enter- 
 tain the design of forming the plan of becoming a vegetarian Dost 
 note how decisive this is ? If the thought does not annoy me, if this 
 plan becomes a determination, and the determination is not beyond 
 mv power, i shall cease to be a flesh-eating animal ; and life will cost 
 me less money. That is the whole question. As to thee, I beg thee 
 to be satisfied with everything, for life is not worth fatigue. 
 
 I have discovered why the Slavs prefer synthesis to analysis. It 
 is because they are idlers, and analysis is laborious. A man can 
 synthesize while smoking a cigar after dinner. For that matter, they 
 are right in being idlers. It is comfortably warm in Florence, es- 
 pecially on Lung-Arno. I walk along for myself and make a syn- 
 thesis of the Florentine school. I have made the acquaintance here 
 of an able artist in water-colors, a Slav, too, who lives by art ; but 
 he proves that art is swinishness, which has grown up from a mer- 
 cantile need of luxury, and from over-much money, which some pile 
 up at the expense of others. In one word, art is, to his thinking, 
 meanness and injustice. He fell upon me as upon a dog, and 
 asserted that to be a Buddhist and to be occupied with art is the 
 summit of inconsistency; but I attacked him still more savagely, 
 and answered, that to consider consistency as something better than 
 inconsistency was the height of miserable obscurantism, prejudices, 
 and meanness. The man was astonished, and lost speech. I am 
 persuading him to hang himself, but he doesn't want to. Tell 
 me, art thou sure that the earth turns around the sun, or is n't this 
 all a joke ? For that matter, it is all one to me ! In Warsaw I 
 was sorry for that child who died, and here too I think of her 
 frequently. How stupid that was ! What is Pani Emilia doing ? 
 People have their role in the world fixed beforehand, and her role 
 came to her with wings and suffering. Why was she good? She 
 would have been happier otherwise. As to thee, O man, show me 
 one kindness. I beg thee, by all things, marry not. Remember 
 that if thou marry, if thou have a son, if thou toil to leave him 
 property, thou wilt do so only for this : that that son may be what 
 I am, irreparably so. Farewell burning energy, farewell mercantile 
 house, commission firm, O transitory form, vicious toil, effort for 
 money, future father of a family, rearer of children and trouble. 
 Embrace for me Vaskovski. He, too, is a man of synthesis. May 
 Sakya Muni open thy eyes to know that it is warm in the sun and 
 cool in the shade, and to lie down is better than to stand ! Thy 
 
 BIKATSKI.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 229 
 
 "Hash! " thought Pan Stanislav. "All this is artificial, 
 all self-deception through a kind of exaggeration. But if 
 a man accustoms himself to this, it will become in time a 
 second nature to him, and, meanwhile, the devils take his 
 reason ; his energy and soul decay like a corpse. A man 
 may throw himself headlong into such a hole as Mashko 
 has, or into such a one as Bukatski. In both cases he will 
 go under the ice. What the devil does it mean? Still 
 there must be some healthy and normal life; only it is 
 needful to have a little common sense in the head. But for 
 a man like Bigiel, it is not bad in the world. He has a wife 
 whom he loves, children whom he loves; he works like an 
 ox. At the same time he has a great attachment for people, 
 loves music and his violoncello, on which he plays in the 
 moonlight, with his face raised toward the ceiling. It 
 cannot be said that he is a materialist. No ; in him one 
 thing agrees with another somehow, and he is happy." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to walk through the room, and look 
 from time to time at Litka's face, smiling from between 
 the birches. The need of balancing accounts with his own 
 self seized hold of him. with increasing force. Like a 
 merchant, he set about examining his debit and credit, 
 which, for that matter, was not difficult. On the credit 
 side of his life, his feeling for Litka once occupied the 
 chief place; she was so dear to him in her time that 
 if a year before it had been said, " Take her as your own 
 child," he would have taken her, and considered that he 
 had something to live for. But now this relation was only 
 a remembrance, and from the rubric of happiness it had 
 passed over to the rubric of misfortune. What was left? 
 First of all, life itself; second, that mental dilettantism, 
 which in every case is a luxury; further, the future, which 
 rouses curiosity; further, the use of material things; and 
 finally, his commercial house. All this had its value; but 
 Pan Stanislav saw that there was a lack of object in it. 
 As to the commercial house, he was pleased with the 
 successes which he experienced, but not with the kind of 
 work which the house demanded; on the contrary, that kind 
 of work was not enough for him, it was too narrow, too 
 poor, and angered him. On the other hand, dilettantism, 
 books, the world of mind, all had significance as an orna- 
 ment of life, but could not become its basis. "Bukatski," 
 said Pan Stanislav to himself, "has sunk in this up to his 
 ears: he wished to live with it, and has become weak,
 
 230 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL, 
 
 incompetent, barren. Flowers are good; but whoso wishes 
 to breathe the odor of them exclusively will poison him- 
 self." In truth, Pan Stanislav did not need to be a great 
 sage to see around him a multitude of people who were 
 out of joint, whose health of soul mental dilettantism had 
 undermined, just as morphine undermines one's health 
 of body. 
 
 This dilettantism had wrought much harm to him, too, 
 if only in this, that it had made him a skeptic. He had 
 been saved from grievous disease only by a sound organism, 
 which felt the absolute need of expending its superfluous 
 energy. But what will come later? Can he continue in 
 that way? To this Fan Stanislav answered now with a 
 decisive Xo ! Since the business of his house could not 
 fill out his life, and since it was simply perilous to fill it 
 out with dilettantism, it was necessary to fill it out with 
 something else, to create new worlds, new duties, to 
 open up new horizons; and to do this, he had to do one 
 thing, to marry. 
 
 On a time when he said this to himself, he saw before 
 him a certain undefined form, uniting all the moral and 
 physical requisites, but without a body and without a name. 
 Now it was a real figure ; it had calm blue eyes, dark hair, a 
 mouth a trifle too large, and was called Marynia Plavitski. 
 Of any one else there could not be even mention ; and Pan 
 Stanislav placed her before himself with such vividness 
 that the veins throbbed in his temples with more life. He 
 was perfectly conscious, however, that something was 
 lacking then in his feeling for Marynia, namely, that 
 around which the imagination lingers, which dares not ask 
 anything, but hopes everything; which fears, trembles, 
 kneels; which says to the loved woman, "At thy feet;" 
 the love in which desire is at the same time worship, 
 homage, a feeling which adds a kind of mystic coloring 
 to the relations of a man to a woman; which makes of the 
 man, not merely a lover, but a follower. That had gone. 
 Pan Stanislav, in thinking now of Marynia, thought 
 soberly, almost insolently. He felt that he could go and 
 take her, and have her; and if he did so, it would be for 
 two reasons: first, because Marynia was for him a woman 
 more attractive than all others; and second, reason com- 
 manded him to marry, and to marry her. 
 
 "She is wonderfully reliable," thought he; "there is 
 nothing in her fruitless or dried up. Egotism has not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 231 
 
 destroyed the heart in her; and it is undoubted that such 
 a one will not think merely of what belongs to her. She 
 is honesty incarnate, duty incarnate; and in life the only 
 need will be to prevent her from thinking too little of her- 
 self. If reason commands me to marry, I should commit 
 a folly, were I to look for another." 
 
 Then he asked whether, if he abandoned Marynia, he 
 would not act dishonorably. Litka had united them. 
 Something in his heart revolted at the very thought of 
 opposing the will and sacrifice of that child. If he wished, 
 however, to act against that will, should he have borne 
 himself as he had? No. In such an event he ought not 
 to have shown himself at' the Plavitskis' since Litka's 
 death, nor have seen Marynia, nor kissed her hand, nor 
 let himself be borne away by the current which had borne 
 him, by the power of events, perhaps, but borne him 
 so far that to-day he would disappoint Marynia, and fall 
 in her eyes to the wretched position of a man who knows 
 not himself what he wishes. For he would have to be 
 blind not to see that Marynia considers herself his be- 
 trothed; and that, if she were not disquieted by his silence 
 so far, it was simply because she ascribed it to the mourn- 
 ing which both had in their hearts for Litka. 
 
 " Looking, then," said Pan Stanislav, " from the side of 
 reason and conservative instinct, from the side of sense and 
 honor, I ought to marry her. Therefore what ? Therefore 
 I should be an imbecile if I hesitated, and did not consider 
 the question as settled. It is settled." 
 
 Then he drew breath, and began to walk through the 
 room. Under the lamp lay Bukatski's letter. Pan Stanis- 
 lav took it, and read from the place where his eyes fell by 
 chance. 
 
 " I beg thec, by all things, marry not. Remember that if them 
 marry, ifthou have a son, if thou toil to leave him property, thou wilt 
 do so only for this : that that son may be what I am." 
 
 "Here is a nice quandary for thee," said Pan Stanislav, 
 with a certain stubbornness. " I will marry. I will marry 
 Marynia Plavitski ; dost hear ? I will gain property ; and 
 if I have a son, I will not make of him a decadent ; dost 
 understand ? " 
 
 And he was pleased with himself. A little later 1 
 looked at Litka, and felt that a sudden emotion seized him.
 
 232 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 A current of sorrow for her, and of feeling, rose with a new 
 power in his heart. He began to converse with the child, 
 as in important moments of life people speak usually with 
 beloved dead, 
 
 " Thou art pleased, kitten ? Is it not true ? asked he. 
 And she smiled at him from among the birches painted by 
 Marynia; she seemed to blink at him, and to answer, 
 
 "True, Pan Stas ; true." 
 
 That evening, before going to bed, he took back from the 
 servant the note which was to be given to Marynia in the 
 morning, and wrote another still more affectionate, and in, 
 the following words, 
 
 DEAR LADY, Gantovski made a scene with Mashko rather 
 an awkward one from which a duel came. Mashko is slightly 
 wounded. His opponent begged his pardon oil the spot. There 
 will be no further results, save this : that 1 am still more convinced 
 of how kind you are, and thoughtful and excellent ; and to-morrow, 
 if you permit, I will come with thanks to kiss your beloved and dear 
 hands. I will come in the afternoon ; for, in the morning, after vis- 
 iting my office, 1 must go to Pani Kraslavski's, and then say farewell 
 to Professor Vaskovski, though, were it possible, I should prefer to 
 begin the day not with them. POLAXYETSKI. 
 
 After writing these words, he looked at the clock, and, 
 though it was eleven already, he gave command to deliver 
 the letter, not in the morning, but straightway. 
 
 "Thou wilt go in through the kitchen," said he to the 
 servant ; " and, if the young lady is asleep, thou wilt leave 
 it." 
 
 When alone, he said the following words to the lady, 
 
 "Thou art a very poor diviner, unless thou divine why I 
 am coming to-morrow ! "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 PANI KRASLAVSKI received Pan Stauislav with great 
 astonishment, because of the early hour; but still she 
 received him, thinking that he had come for some uncom- 
 mon reason. He, on his part, without long introductions, 
 told her what had happened, disguising at the same time 
 only what was necessary for shielding Mashko from sus- 
 picion of bankruptcy or unfavorable business. 
 
 He noticed that the old lady, while he was talking, kept 
 her green eyes made, as it were, of stone, and devoid of 
 glitter fixed on him, and that no muscle of her face 
 moved. Only when he had ended did she say, 
 
 " There is one thing in all this which I do not under- 
 stand. Why did Pan Mashko sell the oak ? That is no 
 small ornament to any residence." 
 
 " Those oaks stand far from the house," answered Pan 
 Stanislav, "and injure the land, for nothing will grow in 
 the shade of them ; and Pan Mashko is a practical man 
 Besides, to tell the truth, we are old friends, and he did 
 that through friendship for me. I am a merchant ; I 
 needed the oak, and Pan Mashko let me have all he could 
 spare." 
 
 " In such an event, I do not understand why that young 
 man " 
 
 " If you are acquainted with Pan Yamish," interrupted 
 Pan Stanislav, "he, because he lives near both Kremen and 
 Yalbrykov, will explain to you that that young man is not 
 of perfect mind, and is known as such in the whole neigh- 
 borhood." 
 
 " In that case Pan Mashko was not obliged to fight a duel 
 with him." 
 
 " In such matters," answered Pan Stanislav, with a shade 
 of impatience, " we have different ideas from ladies." 
 
 "You will permit me to say a couple of words to my 
 daughter." 
 
 Pan Stanislav thought it time to rise and take farewell ; 
 but since he had come, as it were, on a reconnaissance, and 
 wished to take some information to Mashko, he said,
 
 234 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " If the ladies have any message to Pan Mashko, I am 
 going to him directly." 
 
 " In a moment," answered Pani Kraslavski. 
 
 Pan Stanislav remained alone and waited rather long, so 
 long indeed that he began to be impatient. At last both 
 ladies appeared. Though her hair had not been dressed 
 with sufficient care, the young lady, in a white chemisette 
 and a sailor's tie, seemed to Pan Stanislav quite beautiful, in 
 spite of a slight inflammation of the eyes, and a few pimples 
 on her forehead, which were powdered. There was about 
 her a certain attractive languor, from which, having risen 
 very late apparently, she had not been able yet to rouse 
 herself, and a certain equally charming morning careless- 
 ness. For the rest, there was no emotion on her bloodless 
 face. 
 
 After salutations were exchanged with Pan Stanislav, she 
 said, with a cool, calm voice, 
 
 " Be so kind as to tell Pan Mashko that I was greatly 
 pained and alarmed. Is the wound really slight ? " 
 
 " Beyond a doubt." 
 
 " I have begged mamma to visit Pan Mashko ; I will take 
 her, and wait in the carriage for news. Then I will go again 
 for mamma, and so every day till Pan Mashko has recovered. 
 Mamma is so kind that she consents to this." 
 
 Here a slight, barely evident blush passed over her pale 
 face. To Pan Stanislav, for whom her words were an utter 
 surprise, and whom they pierced with astonishment, she 
 seemed then perfectly comely; and a moment later, when 
 going to Mashko, he said to himself, 
 
 " Well, the women are better than they seem. But they 
 are two decanters of chilled water ; still the daughter has 
 some heart. Mashko did not know her, and he will have 
 an agreeable surprise. The old woman will go to him, 
 will see all those bishops and castellans with crooked noses 
 over which Bukatski amused himself so much ; but she will 
 believe in Mashko's greatness." 
 
 Meditating in this way, he found himself in Mashko's 
 house, and had to wait, for he came at the moment of dress- 
 ing the wound. But barely had the doctor gone, when 
 Mashko gave command to ask him to enter, and, without 
 even a greeting, inquired, 
 
 " Well, hast thou been there ? " 
 
 " How art thou ; how hast thou slept ? " 
 
 "Well. But never mind hast thou been there ? "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 235 
 
 "I have. I will tell thee briefly. In a quarter of an 
 hour Pani Kraslavski will be here. The young lady told me 
 to say that she would bring her mother, and would wait to 
 hear how thou art ; and to tell thee that she is greatly 
 alarmed, that she is very unhappy, but thanks God that 
 there is nothing worse. Thou seest, Mashko ! I add, be- 
 sides, that she is good-looking, and has attracted me. Now 
 I am going, for T have no time to wait." 
 
 " Have mercy ; wait a moment. Wait, my dear ; I have 
 not a fever, and if thou speak through fear 
 
 "Thou art annoying," said Pan Stanislav ; " I give thee my 
 word that I tell the truth, and that thou hast spoken ill of 
 ihy betrothed prematurely." 
 
 Mashko dropped his head on the pillow, and was silent 
 for a time ; then he said, as if to himself, 
 
 " I shall be ready to fall in love with her really." 
 
 " That is well. Be in health ; I am going to take farewell 
 of Vaskovski." 
 
 But instead of going to Vaskovski, he went to the Pla- 
 vitskis', whom he did not find at home, however. Plavitski 
 was never at home, and of Marynia they said that she had 
 gone out an hour before. Usually when a man is going to 
 a woman who rouses vivid interest in him, and makes up 
 his mind on the way what to say to her, he has rather a 
 stupid face if he finds that she is not at home. Pan Stan- 
 islav felt this, and was vexed. He went to a greenhouse, 
 however, bought a multitude of flowers, and had them sent 
 to Marynia. When he thought of the delight with which 
 she would receive them, and with what a beating heart she 
 would wait for evening, he was so pleased that after dinner 
 he dropped into Vaskovski's in the very best humor. 
 
 " I have come to take farewell, Professor; when dost thou 
 start on the journey ? " 
 
 " How art thou, my dear ? " answered Vaskovski. " I had 
 to delay for a couple of days ; for, as thou seest, I am winter- 
 ing various small boys here." 
 
 " Young Aryans, I suppose, who in hours of freedom 
 draw purses out of pockets ? " 
 
 "No, they are good souls ; but I cannot leave them with- 
 out care. I must seek out a successor who will live in my 
 place." 
 
 "But who would roast himself here? How dost thou 
 live in such heat ? " 
 
 " Because I sit without a coat; and wilt thou permit me
 
 236 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL, 
 
 not to put it on ? It is a little warm here ; but perspiration 
 is wholesome, and these little feathered creatures crave 
 heat." 
 
 Pan Stauislav looked around. In the room there were at 
 least a dozen and a half of buntings, titmice, finches. Spar- 
 rows, accustomed evidently to be fed, looked in in flocks 
 through the window. The professor kept in his room only 
 birds purchased of dealers; sparrows he did not admit, say- 
 ing that if he did there would be no end to their numbers, 
 and that it would be unjust to receive some and reject 
 others. The chamber birds had cages fastened to the walls 
 and the inner sash of the window, but went into them only 
 at night ; during daylight they flew through the chamber 
 freely, filling it with twitter, and leaving traces on books 
 and manuscripts, with which all the corners and the tables 
 were filled. 
 
 Some' of the birds which had become very tame sat on 
 Vaskovski's head even. On the floor *husks of hemp-seed 
 cracked under one's feet. Pan Stanislav, who knew that 
 chamber thoroughly, still shrugged his shoulders, and said, 
 
 " All this is very good, but that the professor lets them 
 light and sing on his head; that, God knows, is too much. 
 Besides, it is stifling here." 
 
 " That is the fault of Saint Francis of Assisi," answered 
 Yaskovski, " for I learned from him to love these little 
 birds. I have even a pair of doves, but they are home- 
 stayers." 
 
 " Thou wilt see Bukatski, of course ; I received a letter 
 from him, here it is." 
 
 " May I read it ? " 
 
 " I give it to thee for that very purpose." 
 
 Vaskovski read the letter, and said when he had finished, 
 " I have always liked this Bukatski ; he is a good soul, 
 but he has a little something here ! " Vaskovski began, 
 to tap his forehead with his fingers. 
 
 " This is beginning to amuse me," exclaimed Pan 
 Stanislav. "Imagine to thyself, Professor, for a certain 
 number of days some one taps himself on the forehead and 
 says of some one of our acquaintance, ' He has something 
 here ! ' A charming society ! " 
 
 " If it is a little so, it is a little so ! " answered Vaskovski, 
 with a smile. " And knowest thou what this is ? It is the 
 usual Aryan trouble of soul ; and in us, as Slavs, there 
 ;s more of that than in the west, for we are the youngest
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 237 
 
 Aryans, and therefore neither reason nor heart have settled 
 yet into a balance. We are the youngest Aryans : we feel 
 with more vividness; we take everything to heart more 
 feverishly ; and we arrange ourselves to the practice of life 
 with more passion. I have seen much ; I have noticed this 
 for a long time. What wonderful natures ! Just look, for 
 example, the German students can carouse, that doesn't 
 hinder them from either working or fashioning themselves 
 into practical people ; but let a Slav take this habit, and he 
 is lost, he will do himself to death ! And so with every- 
 thing. A German will become a pessimist and write vol- 
 umes on this, that life is despair; but he will drink beer 
 meanwhile, rear children, make money, cultivate his garden, 
 and sleep under a feather tick. A Slav will hang himself, 
 or ruin himself with mad life, with excess, smother himself 
 in a swamp into which he will wade purposely. My dear, 
 I remember men who Byronized themselves to death. I 
 have seen much ; I have seen men who, for example, took 
 a fancy to peasants, and ended with drinking vodka in 
 peasant dramshops. There is no measure with us, and there 
 cannot be, for in us, to the excessive acceptance of every 
 idea, are joined frivolousness and knowest what vanity. 
 my God, how vain we are ! how we wish to push our- 
 selves forward always, so that we may be admired and gazed 
 at ! Take this Bukatski : he has sunk in scepticism up to his 
 ears in fact ; in pessimism, Buddhism, decadency, and in what 
 else besides do I know ? and in these too there is a 
 chaos at present. He has sunk so deeply that those miasmas 
 are really poisoning him ; but dost thou think that with 
 this he is not posing? What wonderful natures! those 
 who are most sincere, who have the most vivid feelings, 
 taking all things to heart most powerfully, are at the same 
 time comedians. When a man thinks of this, he loves them, 
 but he wants to laugh and to weep." 
 
 Pan Stanislav recalled how during his first visit to 
 Kremen he had told Marynia of his Belgian times, when, 
 living with some young Belgians, occupying himself with 
 pessimism, he noticed finally that he took all these theo- 
 ries far more to heart than the Belgians, and that, through 
 this, these theories spoiled his life more. Hence he said 
 now, 
 
 "Professor, thy speech is truthful. I have seen such 
 things too, and the devils will take us all." 
 
 Vaskovski fixed his mystic eyes on the frosty window- 
 panes, and said,
 
 238 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " No ; some one else will take us all. That hotness of 
 blood, that capacity for accepting an idea, are the great 
 basis of the mission which Christ has designed for the 
 Slavs." Here Vaskovski pointed to a manuscript stained 
 by the birds, and said mysteriously, 
 
 " I am going with that ; that is the labor of my life. 
 Dost wish I will read from it ?" 
 
 "As God lives, I have n't time; it is late already." 
 
 " True. It is growing dark. Then I will tell thee in 
 brief words. Not only do I think, but I believe most pro- 
 foundly, that the Slavs have a great mission." 
 
 Here Vaskovski halted, began to rub his forehead, and 
 said, 
 
 " What a wonderful number, ' three.' There is some 
 mystery in it." 
 
 " Thou wert going to speak of a mission," said Pan Stan- 
 islav, disquieted. 
 
 " Never fear ; the one has connection with the other. 
 There are three worlds in Europe : the Roman, the German, 
 and the Slav. The first and second accomplished what 
 they had to do. The future is for that third." 
 
 " And what has that third to do ? " 
 
 "Social conditions, justice, the relations of man to man, 
 the life of individuals, and that which is called private life, 
 are founded on Christian science, no matter what comes. 
 The incoherence of men has deformed this science, but still 
 everything stands on it. Only the first half of the problem 
 is solved, the first epoch. There are people who think 
 that Christianity is nearing its end. No; the second 
 epoch is about to begin. Christ is in the life of individuals, 
 but not in history. Dost understand ? To bring Him into 
 history, to found on Him the relations of peoples, to create 
 the love of our neighbor in the historical sense, that is 
 the mission which the Slav world has to accomplish. But 
 the Slavs are deficient in knowledge yet ; and the need is to 
 open their eyes to this mission." 
 
 Pan Stanislav was silent, for he had nothing to answer. 
 
 Vaskovski continued : " This is what I have been pon- 
 dering over a lifetime, and have explained in this work." 
 Here he pointed to a manuscript. " This is the labor of 
 my life. Here this mission is outlined." 
 
 "On which meanwhile the buntings are " thought Pan 
 Stanislav. " And surely it will be that way a long time.'' 
 But aloud he said, " And it is thy hope, Professor, that 
 when such a work is printed "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 239 
 
 " No j I hope nothing. I have a little love, but I am a 
 man too insignificant, too weak in mind. This will vanish, 
 as if some one had thrown a stone into water ; but there 
 will be a circle. Let some chosen one come later on ; for 
 I know that what is predestined will not fail. He will not 
 refuse the mission even if he wishes. There is no use in 
 bending men from their predestination, nor in changing them 
 by force. What is good in a different place may be bad in 
 this, for God made us for another use. The labor is vain. 
 Vainly too wilt thou persuade thyself that thy only wish is 
 to gain money ; thou, like others, must follow the voice of 
 predestination and nature." 
 
 " I am following it indeed, for I am going to marry ; 
 that is, if I be accepted." 
 
 Vaskovski embraced him. 
 
 " I wish thee happiness ! This is perfect ! May God 
 bless thee ! I know that the little maid indicated it to thee. 
 But remember how I told thee that she had something to 
 do, and that she would not die till she had done it. May 
 God give her light, and a blessing to both of you! Besides, 
 Marynia is golden." 
 
 " And to thee, beloved Professor, a happy journey and a 
 successful mission ! " 
 
 " And to thee, thy wish for thyself." 
 
 " What do I wish ? " asked Pan Stanislav, joyfully. 
 " Well, so, half a dozen little missionaries." 
 
 " Ah rogue ! thou wert always a rogue ! " answered Vas- 
 kovski. "But fly off, fly off; I will visit thee once more." 
 
 Pan Stanislav flew out, sat on a droshky, and gave com- 
 mand to take him to the Plavitskis'. On the road he was 
 arranging what to say to Marynia; and he prepared a little 
 speech, partly sentimental, and partly sober, as befits a 
 positive man who has found really that which he was seek- 
 ing, but who also is marrying through reason. Evidently 
 Marynia looked for him much later ; for there was no light 
 in the chamber, though the last gleam of twilight was 
 quenched. Pan Stanislav, for a greeting, began to kiss both 
 her hands, and, forgetting completely his wise introduc- 
 tion, asked in a voice somewhat uncertain and excited, 
 
 " Have you received the flowers and the letter ? " 
 
 "I have." 
 
 " And did you guess why I sent them ? " 
 
 Marynia's heart beat with such force that she could not 
 answer.
 
 240 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav inquired further, with a still more broken 
 voice, 
 
 " Do you agree to Litka's wish, do you want me ? " 
 
 " I do," answered Marynia. 
 
 Then he, in the feeling that it was proper to thank her, 
 sought words in vain ; but he pressed her hands more firmly 
 to his lips, and, holding them both, drew her gently nearer 
 and nearer. Suddenly a flame seized him ; he put his arms 
 around her, and began to seek her lips with his own. But 
 Marynia turned away her head so that he could kiss only 
 the hair on her temples. For a while only their hurried 
 breathing was heard in the darkness ; at last Marynia 
 wrested herself from his arms. 
 
 A few moments later the servant brought a light. Pan 
 Stanislav, recovering himself, was alarmed at his own bold- 
 ness, and looked into Marynia's eyes with disquiet. He 
 was sure that he had offended her, and was ready to beg 
 her forgiveness. But he saw with wonder that there were 
 no traces of anger in her face. Her eyes were downcast, 
 her cheeks flushed, her hair disarranged somewhat ; it was 
 evident that she was disturbed and, as it were, dazed, but 
 withal only penetrated with the perfect sweetness of that 
 fear which comes to a woman who is loved, and who, in 
 passing over the new threshold, feels that she must yield 
 something there, but who passes over and yields because 
 she wishes. She loves, and she is obliged to yield in view 
 of the rights which she accords to the man. 
 
 But a vivid feeling of gratitude passed through Pan 
 Stanislav at sight of her. It seemed to him then that 
 he loved her as he had loved of old, before Litka's death. 
 He felt also that in that moment he could not be too deli- 
 cate nor too magnanimous j hence, taking Jier hand again, 
 he raised it to his lips with great respect, and said, 
 
 " I know that I am not worthy of yoxi ; there is no dis- 
 cussion on that point. God knows that I shall always do 
 for you what is in my power." 
 
 Marynia looked at him with moist eyes and said, "If 
 only you are happy." 
 
 " Is it possible not to be happy with you ? I saw 
 that from the first moment at Kremen. But afterward, 
 you know, everything was spoiled. I thought you would 
 marry Mashko, and how I worried " 
 
 "I was angry, and I beg forgiveness my dear Pan 
 Stas."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 241 
 
 " This very day the professor said, ' Marynia is gold,' * 
 exclaimed Pan Stanislav, with great ardor. " This is true ! 
 all say the same not only gold, but a treasure a very 
 precious one." 
 
 Her kindly eyes began to smile at him : " Maybe a heavy 
 one." 
 
 " Let not your head ache over that. I have strength 
 enough ; I shall be able to bear it. Now at least I have 
 something to live for." 
 
 t( And I," answered Marynia. 
 
 " Do you know that I have been here already to-day ? I 
 sent chrysanthemums later. After yesterday's letter to you, 
 I said to myself, ' That is simply an angel, and I should 
 lack, not only heart, but common-sense to delay any 
 longer.' 
 
 " I was so alarmed about that duel, and so unhappy. 
 But is it all over now ? " 
 
 " I give you my word, most thoroughly." 
 
 Marynia wanted to make further inquiries, but at that 
 moment Plavitski came. They heard him cough a little, 
 put away his cane, and remove his overcoat ; he opened the 
 door then, and, seeing them alone, said, 
 
 "So you are sitting all by yourselves ? " 
 
 But Marynia ran up to him, and placing her hands on his 
 shoulders, and putting forth her forehead for a kiss, said, 
 
 "As betrothed, papa." 
 
 Plavitski stepped back a little and inquired, " What dost 
 thou say ? " 
 
 " I say," answered she, looking quietly into his eyes, 
 " that Pan Stanislav wishes to take me, and that I am very 
 happy." 
 
 Pan Stanislav approached, embraced Plavitski heartily, 
 and said, " I do with uncle's consent and permission." 
 
 But Plavitski exclaimed, " Oh, my child ! " and, advanc- 
 ing with tottering step to a sofa, he sat on it heavily. 
 "Wait a moment," said he, with emotion. "It will pass 
 do not mind me my children ! If that is needed, I bless 
 you with my whole heart." 
 
 And he blessed them ; wherewith still greater emotion 
 mastered him, for, after all, he loved Marynia really. The 
 voice stuck in his throat repeatedly ; and the two young 
 people heard only such broken expressions as, for example, 
 " Some corner near you for the old man, who worked all 
 his life an only child an orphan."
 
 242 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 They pacified him together, and pacified him so well 
 that half an hour later Plavitski struck Pan Stauislav on 
 the shoulder suddenly, and said, 
 
 " Oh robber ! Thou wert thinking of Marynia, and I 
 was thinking thee a little " He finished the rest in Pan 
 Stanislav's ear, who grew red with indignation, and 
 answered, 
 
 " How could uncle suppose such a thing ? If any one 
 else had dared to say that " 
 
 " Well, well, well ! " answered Plavitski, smiling ; " there 
 is ne smoke without fire." 
 
 That evening Marynia, taking farewell of Pan Stanislav, 
 asked, 
 
 " You will not refuse me one thing ? " 
 
 "Nothing that you command." 
 
 " I have said long to myself that if a moment like the 
 present should come, we would go to Litka together." 
 
 " Ah, rny dear lady," answered Pan Stauislav ; and she 
 continued, 
 
 " I know not what people will say ; but what do we care 
 for the world what indeed ? " 
 
 "Nothing. I am thankful to you from my heart and 
 soul for the thought My dear lady my Marynia ! " 
 
 " I believe that she looks at us and prays for us." 
 
 " Then she is our little patroness." 
 
 " Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night." 
 
 " Till to-morrow." 
 
 " Till to-morrow." said he, kissing her hands, " till after 
 to-morrow, daily ; " and here he added in a low voice, 
 " Until our marriage." 
 
 " Yes," answered Marynia. 
 
 Pan Stanislav went out. In his head and in his heart 
 he felt a great whirl of feelings, thoughts, impressions, 
 above which towered one great feeling, that something 
 unheard of in its decisiveness had happened ; that his fate 
 had been settled; that the time of reckoning, of wavering 
 and changing, had passed ; that he must begin a new life. 
 And that feeling was not unpleasant to him, nay, it verged 
 on a kind of delight, especially when he remembered how 
 he had kissed Marynia's hair and temples. That which 
 was lacking in his feelings shrank and vanished almost 
 utterly in this remembrance ; and it seemed to Pan Stanis- 
 lav that he had found everything requisite to perfect happi-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 243 
 
 ness. " I shall never grow sated with this," thought he ; and 
 it seemed to him simply impossible that he should. He 
 remembered then the goodness of Marynia, and how re- 
 liable she was ; how on such a heart and character he might 
 build ; how in living with her nothing could ever threaten 
 him ; how she would not trample on any quality of his, 
 nor make it of no avail ; how she would receive as gold 
 that which in him was gold ; how she would live for him, 
 not for herself. And, meditating in this way, he asked 
 what better could he find ? and he wondered indeed at his 
 recent hesitation. Still he felt that what was coming was 
 a change so gigantic, so immensely decisive, that some- 
 where at the bottom, in the deepest corner of his soul, 
 there was roused a kind of alarm before this unknown 
 happiness. But he did not hesitate. "I am neither a 
 coward nor an imbecile," thought he. " It is necessary to 
 go ahead, and I will go." 
 
 Returning home, he looked at Litka ; and immediately 
 there opened before him, as it were, a new, clear horizon. 
 He thought that he might have children, have such a 
 bright dear head as this and with Marynia. At the very 
 thought his heart began to beat with greater life, and to the 
 impulse of thoughts was joined such a solace of life as he 
 had not known previously. He felt almost perfectly happy. 
 Looking by chance at Bukatski's letter, which he took from 
 his pocket before undressing, he laughed so heartily that 
 the servant looked in with astonishment. Pan Stanislav 
 wished to tell him that he was going to marry. He fell 
 asleep only toward morning, but rose sprightly and fresh ; 
 after dressing, he flew to his office to announce the news 
 to Bigiel at the earliest. 
 
 Bigiel embraced him, then, with his usual deliberation, 
 proceeded to consider the affair, and said finally, 
 
 "Reasoning the matter over, this is the wisest thing 
 that thou hast done in life ; " then, pointing to a box of 
 papers, he added, " Those contracts ought to be profitable, 
 but thine is still better." 
 
 " Is n't it ? " exclaimed Pan Stanislav, boastfully. 
 
 I will fly to tell my wife," said Bigiel, " for I cannot con- 
 tain myself'; but go thou home, and go for good. I will tall 
 thy place till the wedding, and during the honeymoon. 
 
 "Very well; I will hurry to see Mashko, and then 
 Marynia and I will go to Litka." 
 
 " That is due from you both to her."
 
 244 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav bought more flowers on the way, added a 
 note to them that he would coine soon, and dropped in to 
 see Mashko. Mashko was notably better, under the care 
 of Pani Kraslavski, and was looking for her arrival every 
 moment. When he had heard the news, he pressed Pan 
 Stanislav's hand with emotion, and said, 
 
 " I will tell thee only one thing, I do not know 
 whether she will be happy with thee, but certainly thou 
 wilt be happy with her." 
 
 "Because women are better than men," answered Pan 
 Stanislav. " After what has happened to thee, I hope that 
 thou art of this opinion." 
 
 "I confess that to this moment I cannot recover from 
 astonishment. They are both better, and more mysterious. 
 Imagine to thyself " Here Mashko halted, as if hesi- 
 tating whether to continue. 
 
 "What?" inquired Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "Well, thou art a discreet man, and hast given me, 
 besides, such proofs of friendship that there may not be 
 secrets between us. Imagine, then, that yesterday, after 
 thy departure, I received an anonymous letter. Here, as 
 thou art aware, the noble custom of writing such letters 
 prevails. In the letter were tidings that Papa Kraslavski 
 exists, is alive, and in good health." 
 
 "Which, again, may be gossip." 
 
 "But also may not be. He lives, probably, in America. 
 I received the letter while Pani Kraslavski was here. I 
 said nothing; but after a time, when she had examined 
 those portraits, and began to inquire of my more distant 
 family relations, I asked her, in turn, how long she had 
 been a widow. She answered, 
 
 '" My daughter and I have been alone in the world nine 
 years; and those are sad events, of which I do not wish 
 to speak to-day.' 
 
 " Observe that she did not say directly when her husband 
 died." 
 
 "And what dost thou think?" 
 
 "I think that if papa is alive, he must be that kind of 
 figure of which people do not speak, and that in truth 
 those may be ' sad events. ' * 
 
 "The secret would have come out long ago." 
 
 "Those ladies lived abroad some years. Who knows? 
 That, however, will not change my plans in any way. If 
 Pan Kraslavski is living in America, and does not return,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 245 
 
 he must have reasons; it is as if he were not in the world, 
 then. In fact, I am gaining the hope now that my mar- 
 riage will come to pass, for I understand that when people 
 have something to hide, they exact less." 
 
 "Pardon my curiosity," said Pan Stanislav, taking his 
 hat; "but with me it is a question of my money, and now 
 touching the Kraslavskis. Dost thou know surely that 
 these ladies have money?" 
 
 "It seems that they have much; still, I am playing 
 against a card somewhat hidden. It is likely that they 
 have much ready money. The mother told me repeatedly 
 that her daughter would not need to look to her husband's 
 property. I saw their safe; they keep a big house. I 
 know nearly all the money-lenders Jews and non-Jews 
 in Warsaw, and I know surely that these ladies are not 
 in debt a copper to any one; as thou knowest thyself, they 
 have a nice villa not far from the Bigiels. They do not 
 live on their capital, for they are too prudent." 
 
 "Thou hast no positive figures, however?" 
 
 "I tried to get them, but in roundabout fashion. Not 
 being too certain of my connection with the ladies, I could 
 not insist overmuch. It was given me to understand that 
 there would be two hundred thousand rubles, and perhaps 
 more." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took leave, and on the way to the Pla- 
 vitskis' thought, " All this is a kind of mystery, a kind of 
 darkness, a kind of risk. I prefer Marynia." 
 
 Half an hour later he was driving with Marynia to the 
 cemetery, to Litka. The day was warm, as in spring, but 
 gray; the city seemed sullen and dirty. In the cemetery 
 the melting snow had slipped in patches to the ground 
 from the graves, and covered the yellow, half-decayed 
 grass. From the arms of crosses and leafless tree-branches 
 large drops were falling, which, borne from time to time 
 by gusts of warm wind, struck the faces of Pan Stanislav 
 and Marynia. These gusts pulled Marynia's dress, so that 
 she had to hold it. They stopped at last before Litka's 
 grave. 
 
 And here all was wet, sloppy, gloomy, half-stripped of 
 the melting snow. The thought that that child, once so 
 cared for, so loved, and so petted, was lying in that damp 
 dungeon darkness, could hardly find a place in Pan Stanis- 
 lav's head. 
 
 "All this may be natural," thought he; "but it is not
 
 246 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 possible to be reconciled with death." And, in truth, 
 whenever he visited Litka, he returned from the cemetery 
 in a kind of irrepressible rebellion, with a species of pas- 
 sionate protest in his soul. These thoughts began to rend 
 him in that moment also. It seemed to him simply ter- 
 rible to love Litka, and to reconcile his love with the knowl- 
 edge that a few steps lower down she is lying there, black 
 and decaying. " I ought not to come," said he to himself, 
 "for I grow mad, lose my head here, and lose every 
 basis of life." But, above all, he suffered, for, if it is 
 impossible not to think of death, it is equally impossible 
 to explain it; hence everything touching it, which comes 
 to the head, is, in so far as a man does not stretch forth 
 his hand toward simple faith, at once despairing and 
 shallow, trivial and common. "For me there is a greater 
 question here than that of existence itself, but I am only 
 able to answer with a commonplace. A perfectly vicious 
 circle ! " 
 
 And it was true; for if he considered, for example, that 
 at the first thought of death everything becomes smoke, 
 and he felt that unfortunately it does, he felt at the same 
 time that thousands of people had come to that thought 
 before he had, and that no one had found in it either 
 solace or even such satisfaction as the discovery of a truth 
 gives. Everything that he could say to himself was at 
 once terrifying and petty. It was easy for him to under- 
 stand that the whole life of man, general history, all phi- 
 losophies, are at bottom merely a struggle with incessant 
 death, a struggle despairing, a struggle utterly senseless, 
 and at the same time infinitely foolish and devoid of object, 
 for it is lost in advance. But such reasoning could not 
 bring him any comfort, since it was merely the confirma- 
 tion of a new vicious circle. 
 
 For if the one object of all human efforts is life, and the 
 only result death, the nonsense passes measure, and simply 
 could not be accepted, were it not for that loathsome and 
 pitiless reality, which turns beings beloved and living into 
 rotten matter. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, during every visit to the cemetery, 
 poisoned himself with such thoughts. To-day, while 
 going, he thought that the presence of Marynia would 
 liberate him from them; meanwhile, rather the opposite 
 happened. Litka's death, which had broken in him trust 
 in the sense and moral object of life, undermined in him
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 247 
 
 also that first, former love for Marynia, which was so 
 naive and free of doubt; now, when with Marynia, he was 
 standing at Litka's grave, when that death, which had begun 
 to be only a memory, had become again a thing almost 
 tangible, its poisoning effect was increasing anew. Again 
 it seemed to him that all life, consequently love, too, is 
 merely an error, and the processes of life utterly useless 
 and vain. If above life there is neither reason nor mercy, 
 why toil, why love and marry? Is it to have children, 
 become attached to them with every drop of one's blood, 
 and then look on helplessly, while that blind, stupid, 
 insulting, brutal force chokes them, as a wolf chokes a 
 lamb, and come to their graves, and think that they are 
 mouldering in damp and darkness ? See, Litka is down 
 there. 
 
 A day wonderfully gloomy only strengthened the bitter- 
 ness of these feelings. At times, during his previous 
 visits, the cemetery had seemed to Pan Stanislav a kind 
 of great void in which life was dissolving, but in which 
 every misfortune, too, was dissolving, something enor- 
 mously dreamy, soothing. To-day there was no rest in it. 
 Pieces of snow fell from the trees and gravestones; ravens 
 pushed about among the wet trees with their croaking. 
 Sudden and strong blasts of wind hurled drops of moisture 
 from the branches, and, driving them about, produced a 
 certain desperate struggle around the stone crosses, which 
 stood firm and indifferent. 
 
 Just then Marynia ceased praying, and said, with that 
 slightly suppressed voice with which people speak in 
 cemeteries, 
 
 "Now her soul must be near us." 
 
 Pan Stanislav made no answer; but he thought first that 
 he and Marynia were beings as if from two distinct worlds, 
 and then that if there were even a particle of truth in what 
 she said, all his mental struggles would be less important 
 than that melting snow. "In such case," said he to him- 
 self, "there is dying and there are cemeteries, but there 
 is simply no death." 
 
 Marynia began to place on the grave immortelles, which 
 she had bought at the gate, and he to think hurriedly, 
 rather by the aid of his impressions than his ideas, "In 
 my world there is no answer to anything; there are only 
 vicious circles, which lead to the precipice." 
 
 And this struck him, that if such ideas of death as
 
 248 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Marynia had, did not come from faith, or if they had been 
 unknown altogether, and if all at once some philosopher 
 had formulated them as a hypothesis, the hypothesis would 
 be recognized as the most genial of the genial, because it 
 explains everything, gives an answer to questions, gives 
 light, not only to life, but to death, which is darkness. 
 Mankind would kneel with admiration before such a phi- 
 losopher and such a scientific theory. 
 
 On the other hand, he felt that still something of Litka 
 was there with them. She herself was falling into dust, 
 but something had survived her; there remained, as it 
 were, currents of her thought, of her will, of her feeling. 
 This, that she had brought him to Marynia; that they 
 were betrothed ; that they were then standing at her grave ; 
 that they were to be united; that their lives would go on 
 together; that they would have children, who in their 
 turn would live and love and increase, what was that, 
 if not such a current, which, coming forth from that child, 
 might go on and on through eternity, renewing itself in an 
 endless chain of phenomena? How then understand that 
 from a mortal being should issue an immortal and cease- 
 less energy? Marynia, in the simplicity of her faith, had 
 found an answer; Pan Stanislav had not. 
 
 And still Marynia was right. Litka was with them. 
 Through Pan Stanislav's head there flew at that moment 
 a certain hypothesis, dim, and not fixed in close thought 
 yet, a hypothesis, that, perhaps, all which man thinks 
 during life, all that he wishes, all that he loves, is a hun- 
 dred times more intangible, a hundred times more subtile, 
 than ether, from which rises an astral existence, conscious 
 of itself, either eternal or successively born into beings 
 more and more perfect, more subtile, on to infinity. And 
 it seemed to him that atoms of thought and feeling might 
 collect into a separate individuality, specially because they 
 came forth from one brain or one heart; that they are 
 related, hence tend to one another with the same mys- 
 terious principle by which physical elements combine to 
 form physical individualities. 
 
 At present he had not time to meditate over this, but it 
 seemed to him that he had caught something, that in the 
 veil before his eyes, he saw, as it were, an opening that 
 might turn out to be a deception ; but at the moment, when 
 he felt that still Litka was with them, he thought that her 
 presence could be understood only in that manner.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 249 
 
 Just then some funeral came, for, in the tower, which 
 stood in the middle of the cemetery, the bell began to 
 sound. Pan Stanislav gave Marynia his arm, and they 
 went towards the gate. On the way Marynia, thinking 
 evidently more about Litka, said, 
 
 "Now I am certain that we shall be happy." 
 
 And she leaned more on Pan Stanislav 's arm, for the 
 gusts of wind had become so violent that it was difficult 
 for her to resist them. One of these carried her veil 
 around his neck. Eeality began to call to him. He 
 pressed the arm of the living woman to his side, and felt 
 that loving, if it cannot ward away death, can at least 
 harmonize life. 
 
 When they were seated in the carriage, he took Marynia's 
 hand, and did not let it go during the whole way. At 
 moments solace returned to him almost perfectly, for he 
 thought that that maiden, true and kind to the core of her 
 nature, would be able to make good what was lacking in 
 his feeling, and revivify in him that which was palsied. 
 "My wife! my wife!" repeated he, in mind, looking at 
 her; and her honest, clear eyes answered, "Thine." 
 
 When they arrived at the house, Plavitski had not 
 returned from his walk before dinner; they were all by 
 themselves then. Pan Stanislav sat down by her side, 
 and under the influence of those thoughts which had passed 
 through his head on the way, he said, 
 
 "You declared that Litka was with us; that is true. I 
 have always returned from the cemetery as if cut down; 
 but it is well that we were there." 
 
 "It is; for we went as if for a blessing," said Marynia. 
 
 "I have that same impression; and, besides, it seems to 
 me as if we were united already, or, at least, were nearer 
 than before." 
 
 "True; and this will be both a sad and a pleasant 
 remembrance." 
 
 He took her hand again, and said, 
 
 " If you believe that we shall be happy, why defer happi- 
 ness? My kind, my best, I, too, trust that it will be well 
 with us; 'let us not defer the day. We have to begin a 
 new life; let us begin it promptly." 
 
 "Make the decision. I am yours with all my soul. 
 
 Then he drew her toward him, as he had the day before, 
 and began to seek her lips with his lips; and she, whether
 
 250 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 under the influence of the thought that his rights were 
 greater on that day, or under the influence of awakening 
 thoughts, did not turn her head away any more, but, half 
 closing her eyes, she herself gave him her lips, as if they 
 had been thirsty a long time.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 FOK Pan Stanislav began now the period of ante-nuptial 
 cares and preparations. He had, it is true, a dwelling 
 furnished for more than a year, that is, from a period 
 before he knew Marynia. At that time he made no denial 
 when Bukatski laughed at the lodgings, seeing in them a 
 proof of how anxious his friend was to marry. "Yes," 
 said he; "I have property enough to permit this. I think, 
 too, that I am doing something toward it, and that my 
 plans are growing real." 
 
 Bukatski said this was prevision worthy of praise, and 
 wondered that a man of such foresight did not engage also 
 a nurse and a midwife. At times conversation of this 
 kind ended in a quarrel, for Pan Stanislav could not let 
 any one deny him sound judgment in worldly matters. 
 Bukatski affirmed that it was bird romance, worthy of a 
 bunting, to start with building a poetic nest. One friend 
 contended that there could be no wiser method than to 
 build a cage, if you want a bird; the other retorted that 
 if the bird were not found yet, and the chase was uncer- 
 tain, the cage was a joke on one's appetite. It ended with 
 allusions to the slim legs of Bukatski, which, for him, 
 made the chase after birds of all kinds impossible, even 
 though they were wingless. Bukatski, on such occasions, 
 fell into excellent humor. 
 
 Now, however, when the cage was ready, and the bird 
 not only caught, but willing, there remained so much to 
 be done that Pan Stanislav was seized more than once by 
 surprise that an act so simple by nature as marriage, 
 should be so complex in civilized societies. It seemed to 
 him that if no one has the right to look into the moral 
 side of the connection, since it is the outcome of genuine 
 free-will, the formal side should be looked at still less. 
 
 But he thought so because he was not a law-giver, and 
 was an impulsive man made impatient by the need of 
 getting "papers." Once he had resolved on marriage, he 
 ceased to think or to analyze, and hastened, as a man of 
 action, to execute.
 
 252 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 He was even filled more than once with pride, on com- 
 paring himself with such a man, for instance, as Plo- 
 shovski, whose history had been circling from mouth to 
 mouth in society, before people had begun to learn it from 
 his diary. "But I am of different metal," thought Pan 
 Stanislav, with a certain satisfaction. At moments, again, 
 when lie recalled Ploshovski's figure, his noble, delicate, 
 and also firmly defined profile, his refinement, subtlety, 
 and mental suppleness, his rare gift of winning people, 
 especially women, it occurred to him that he, Polanyetski, 
 is a less refined type, less noble, and, in general, a man cut 
 from ruder materials. But to this he answered that evi- 
 dently, in the face of conditions in life and the resistance 
 required by it, too much refinement is simply fatal to mind 
 as well as body. In himself he saw also far more ability 
 for living. ''Finally," said he, "I can be of some service, 
 while he would have been good only on social shelves with 
 curiosities. I am able to win bread; he was able only to 
 make pellets out of bread when baked. I know how, and 
 I know well how, to color cotton; he only knew how to 
 color women's cheeks. But what a difference between us 
 with reference to women ! That man over-analyzed his 
 life and the life of the woman whom he loved; he de- 
 stroyed her and himself by not being able to escape from 
 the doubt whether he loved her sufficiently. I, too, have 
 doubts whether my love is perfect; but I take my little 
 woman, and should be an imbecile, not a man, to fear the 
 future, and fail to squeeze from it in simple fashion what 
 good and happiness it will let me squeeze." 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav, though he had forsworn analysis, 
 began to analyze, not himself, it is true, but Marynia. 
 He permitted this, however, only because he foresaw cer- 
 tainly favorable conclusions; he understood that, in calcu- 
 lating the future of two people, good-will on one side is not 
 sufficient, and becomes nothing, if good- will fails on the 
 other. But he was convinced that in taking Marynia he 
 was not taking a dead heart. Marynia had brought to the 
 world not only an honest nature, but from years of child- 
 hood she had been in contact with work and with condi- 
 tions in which she was forced to forget herself, so as to 
 think of others. Besides, there was above her the memory 
 of a mother, a kind of endless blessing from beyond the 
 grave, a mother whose calmness, candor, and upright- 
 ness, whose life, full of trials, were remembered to the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 253 
 
 present with the utmost respect, throughout the whole 
 region of Kremen. Pan Stanislav knew this, and was 
 persuaded that, building on the heart and character of 
 Marynia, he was building on a foundation well-nigh im- 
 movable. More than once he recalled the words of a 
 woman, an acquaintance and friend of his mother's, who, 
 when some one asked her whether she was more anxious 
 about the future of her sons than her daughters, answered, 
 " I think only of my sons ; for my daughters, in the worst 
 case, can be only unhappy." 
 
 So it is! School and the world rear .sons, and both 
 may make them scoundrels; daughters, in whom the home 
 ingrafts honorableness, can, in the worst case, be only 
 unhappy. Pan Stanislav understood that this was true 
 with regard to Marynia. So that if he analyzed her, his 
 analysis was rather the examination of a jeweller and his 
 admiration for his gems, than a scientific method intended 
 to reach results unknown and unexpected. 
 
 Still he quarrelled once with Marynia very seriously, 
 because of a letter from Vaskovski, which Pan Stanislav 
 received from Home a few weeks after the professor's 
 departure, and which he read in its integrity to Marynia. 
 This letter was as follows : 
 
 MY DEAR, I am lodging at Via Tritone, Pension Franchise. 
 Visit my Warsaw lodgings; see if Snopchinski looks after my little 
 boys properly, and if the birds of Saint Francis have seeds and water 
 in plenty. When spring comes, it will be needful to open the windows 
 and cages ; whichever bird wishes to stay, let it stay, and whichever 
 one wishes to go, let it fly. The boys of the genus homo sapiens 
 should have good food, since I left money therefor, and besides little 
 moralizing, but much love. Snopchinski is a worthy man, but a 
 hypochondriac. He says this comes from snows. When he is at- 
 tacked by what he calls " chandra," he looks for whole weeks on his 
 boots, and is silent ; but one must talk with little boys, to give them 
 confidence. This is all that touches Warsaw. 
 
 I am printing here in French, in the typography of the journal 
 " L'ltalie," that work of mine which I discussed with thee. They 
 laugh at my French a little, and at me, but I am used to that. 
 Bukatski came here. He is a good, beloved fellow ! he has grown 
 strange to the last degree, and says that he drags his feet after him, 
 though I have not noticed it. lie loves both Marynia and thee, and 
 indeed every one, though he denies it. But when he begins to talk, 
 one's ears wither. May the Lord God bless thee, dear boy, and thy 
 honest Marynia ! T should like to be at thy wedding, but I know not 
 whether I shall finish my work before Easter; listen, therefore, now 
 to what I tell thee, and know that I write this letter to that end. Dn
 
 254 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 not think that the old man is talking just to talk. Thou knowest, be- 
 sides, that I have been a teacher ; that the inheritance from my brother 
 freed me from that occupation ; that I have had experience and have 
 seen things. If ye have children, do not torture them with knowl- 
 ed^e ; let them grow up as God wills. I might stop here ; but thou 
 art fond of figures, hence [ will give thee figures. A little child has 
 as many hours of labor as a grown man in office, with this difference, 
 that the man talks during office hours with his colleagues, or smokes 
 cigarettes ; the child must strain its attention continually, or lose the 
 clew of lessons, and cease to understand what is said to it. The 
 man goes home when his work is done ; the child must prepare for 
 the following day, which takes four hours from a capable child, from 
 one less capable six. Add to this, that poorer pupils give lessons 
 frequently, the rich take them, which, added, gives twelve hours. 
 Twelve hours' labor for a child ! Dost understand that, my dear ? 
 Canst thou realize what sickly natures must grow up in such condi- 
 tions, natures out of joint, inclined to the wildest manias, crooked, 
 wilful ? Dost thou understand how we are filling cemeteries with 
 our children, and why the most monstrous ideas find supporters ? 
 Ah, at present they are limiting the hours of labor in factories even 
 for grown people, but touching children at school philanthropy is 
 silent. Oh, but that is a field ! that is a service to be rendered ; that 
 is a coming glory and sainthood. Do not torture thy children with 
 learning, I beg thee and I beg Marynia ; promise me both of 
 you. I do not speak just to speak, as Bukatski says sometimes, but 
 I speak from the heart ; and this is the greatest reform for which 
 future ages are waiting, the greatest after the introduction of Christ 
 into history. Something wonderful happened to me in Perugia a 
 few days since, but of that I will tell thee sometime, and now I em- 
 brace both of you. 
 
 Marynia listened to this letter, looking at the tips of her 
 shoes, like that Snopchinski of whom the Professor wrote. 
 But Pan Stanislav laughed, and said, 
 
 " Have you ever heard anything like this ? It is long 
 before our marriage ; but he is lamenting over our children, 
 and takes the field on their behalf. This is somewhat the 
 history of my nest." 
 
 After a while he added, " To tell the truth, the fault is 
 mine ; for I made him various promises." And, inclining 
 so that he could see Marynia's eyes, he asked, " But what 
 do you say to this letter ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav, inquiring thus, had chanced on that un- 
 happy moment when a man is not himself, and acts not in 
 accordance with his own nature. He was rather a harsh 
 person generally, but not brutal, and at times was even 
 capable of delicate acts, really womanlike. But now, in his 
 look and in the question directed to a young lady so
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 255 
 
 mimosa-like as Marynia, there was something simply 
 brutal. She knew as well as others that after marriage 
 come children ; but this seemed to her something indefinite, 
 not to be mentioned, or if mentioned, mentioned in allu- 
 sions as delicate as lace, or in a moment of emotion, with 
 beating heart, with loving lips at the ear, with solemnity, 
 as touching what is most sacred in a mutual future. 
 Hence Pan Stanislav's careless tone outraged and pained 
 her. She thought, " Why does he not understand this ? " 
 and she in turn acted not in accordance with her nature ; 
 for, as happens frequently with timid persons in moments 
 of bitterness and confusion, they exhibit greater anger than 
 they feel. 
 
 " You should not treat me in this way ! " cried she, indig- 
 nantly. " You should not speak to me in this way ! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed again with feigned gayety. 
 
 "Why are you angry ? " inquired he. 
 
 " You do not act with me as is proper." 
 
 " I do not understand the question." 
 
 " So much the worse." 
 
 The smile vanished from his lips; his face grew dark, 
 and he spoke quickly, like a man who has ceased to reckon 
 with his words. 
 
 "Perhaps I am stupid; but I know what is right and 
 what is not. In this way life becomes impossible. Who- 
 ever makes great things out of nothing must not blame 
 others. But, since my presence is disagreeable, I go ! ' 
 
 And, seizing his hat, he bowed, and went out. Marynia 
 did not try to detain him. For a while offence and anger 
 stifled in her all other sensations ; then there remained to 
 her only an impression, as if from the blow of a club. Her 
 thoughts scattered like a flock of birds. Above them 
 towered only one dim idea: "All is over! he will not 
 return ! " Thus fell the structure which had begun to unite 
 in such beautiful lines. Emptiness, nothingness, a tortur- 
 ing, because objectless life, and a chilled heart, that 
 what remained to her. And happiness had been so near ! 
 But that which had taken place so suddenly was sometl 
 so strange that she could not explain immediately, 
 went to the writing-desk, and began mechanically to arrange 
 papers in it, with a certain objectless haste, as if 
 be any reason at that moment for arranging them. I hen 
 she looked at Litka's photograph, and sat down quid 
 with her hands on her eyes and temples. After a time it
 
 256 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 occurred to her that Litka's will must be stronger than the 
 will of them both, and a ray of hope shone in on her sud- 
 denly. She began to walk in the room, and to think on 
 what had passed ; she recalled Pan Stanislav, not only as 
 he had been just then, but earlier, two, three days, a 
 week before. Her regret became greater than her feeling 
 of offence, and it increased with her affection for Pan Stau- 
 islav. After a time she said in her soul that she was not 
 free to forget herself; that it was her duty to accept and 
 love Pan Stanislav as he was, and not strive to fix him to 
 her ideas. "That is, he is a living man. not a puppet," 
 repeated she, a number of times. And a growing feeling of 
 fault seized her, and after that compunction. A heart sub- 
 missive by nature, and greatly capable of loving, struggled 
 against sound sense, which she possessed undoubtedly, and 
 which now told her in vain that reason was not on Pan 
 Stanislav's side, and that, moreover, she had said nothing 
 which needed pardon. She said to herself, " If he has a 
 good heart, even to a small extent, he will return ; " but she 
 was seized also with fear in view of the self-love of men in 
 general, and of Pan Stanislav in particular, she was too 
 intelligent not to note that he cared greatly to pass for an 
 unbending person. But considerations of that kind, which 
 an unfriendly heart would have turned to his disadvantage, 
 had made her tender only on his behalf. 
 
 Half an hour later she was convinced to the depth of her 
 soul that the fault lay only on her side ; that " she had tor- 
 mented him so much already " that she ought to yield now, 
 - that is, to be the first to extend a hand in conciliation. 
 That meant in her mind to write a few peace-making words. 
 He had suffered so much from that affair of Kremen that 
 this was due to him. And she was ready even to weep 
 over his fate. She hoped, withal, that he, the bad, ugly 
 man, would estimate what it cost her to write to him, and 
 would come that same evening. 
 
 It had seemed to her that nothing was easier than to write 
 a few cordial phrases, which go directly from one heart to 
 another. But how difficult ! A letter has no eyes, which 
 fill with tears ; no face, which smiles both sadly and 
 sweetly ; no voice, which trembles ; no hands to stretch 
 forth. You may read and understand a letter as you like ; 
 it is merely black letters on paper as impassive as death. 
 
 Marynia had just torn the third sheet, when the face of 
 Pan Plavitski, as wrinkled as a roast apple, and with
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 257 
 
 mustaches freshly dyed, showed itself at the door partly 
 opeu. 
 
 " Is Polanyetski not here ? " inquired he. 
 
 " He is not, papa." 
 
 " But will he come this evening ? " 
 
 "I do not know," answered she, with a sigh. 
 
 "If he comes, my child, tell him that I will return not 
 later than an hour from now ; and that I wish to speak 
 with him." 
 
 " And I too wish to speak with him," thought Marynia. 
 
 And when she had torn the third sheet she took the 
 fourth and was thinking whether to turn the whole quarrel 
 into a jest, or simply to beg his pardon. The jest might 
 not please him; in the pardon there was something 
 warmer, but how difficult it was ! If he had not fled, it 
 would have sufficed to extend her hand ; but he flew out as 
 if shot from a sling, the irritable man, though so much 
 loved. 
 
 And, raising her eyes, she began to work intently with her 
 dark head, when on a sudden the bell sounded in the entrance. 
 Marynia' s heart was beating like a hammer ; and through 
 her head flew these questions, like lightning, 
 
 " Is it he ? Is it not he ? " 
 
 The door opened ; it was he. 
 
 He came in with the look of a wolf, his head down, his 
 face gloomy. Evidently he was very uncertain how she 
 would receive him ; but she sprang up, her heart beating 
 like a bird's heart; her eyes radiant, happy, touched 
 greatly by his return ; and, running to him, she laid her 
 hands on his shoulders. 
 
 " But how good ! how nice ! And do you know, I wanted 
 to write to you." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, pressing her hands to his lips, was silent 
 for some time; at last he said, 
 
 " You ought to give the order to throw me downstairs." 
 In a rapture of thankfulness he drew her up to him, kissed 
 her lips, eyes, temples, and hair, which became unbound 
 in the pressure. In such moments it seemed to him always 
 that he would find everything that goes to make great and 
 perfect love. At last he released her and continued, 
 
 " You are too good. Though that is better, it subdues 
 me. I came to beg your forgiveness, nothing more. I re- 
 gained my senses at once. I reproached myself for my last 
 words, and I cannot tell you how sorry I was. I walked 
 
 17
 
 258 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 along the street, thinking to see you in the window, perhaps, 
 and note from your face whether I might come in. After 
 that I could not restrain myself, and returned." 
 
 " I beg pardon ; it was my fault. You see the torn 
 paper; I wrote and wrote." 
 
 He devoured with his eyes her hair, which she had arranged 
 hastily. With blushing face, from which joy was beaming, 
 with eyes laughing from happiness, she seemed to him more 
 beautiful than ever, and desired as never before. 
 
 Maryuia noticed, too, that he was looking at her hair ; 
 and confusion struggled with pure womanly coquetry. She 
 had fastened it awkwardly by design, so that the tresses 
 were falling more and more on her shoulders; while she 
 said, 
 
 " Do not look, or I '11 go to my room." 
 
 "But that is my wealth," said Pan Stanislav; "and in 
 my life I have never seen anything like it." 
 
 He stretched his hands to her again, but she evaded. 
 
 "Not permitted, not permitted," said she ; " as it is, I am 
 ashamed. I ought to have left you." 
 
 Her hair, however, came gradually to order; then both 
 sat down and conversed quietly, though looking into each 
 other's eyes. 
 
 " And you wished really to write ? " asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " You see the torn paper." 
 
 " I say that, in truth, you are too good." 
 
 She raised her eyes, and, looking at the shelf above the 
 bureau, said, 
 
 " Because the fault was mine. Yes ; only mine." 
 
 And, judging that she could not be too magnanimous, she 
 added after a moment, blushing to her ears and dropping 
 her eyes, 
 
 " For, after all, the professor is correct in what he writes 
 about learning." 
 
 Pan Stanislav wanted to kneel down and kiss her feet 
 Her charm and goodness not only disarmed him, but 
 conquered him thoroughly. 
 
 "That I am annihilated is true," Cried he, as if finishing 
 some unexpressed thought with words. " You conquer me 
 utterly." 
 
 She began to shake her head joyously. "Ei! I don't 
 know ; I am such a coward." 
 
 " You a coward ? I will tell you an anecdote : In 
 Belgium I knew two young ladies named Wauters, who had
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 259 
 
 a pet cat, a mild creature, mild enough, it would seem, to be 
 put to a wound. Afterward one of the young ladies re- 
 ceived a tame hare as a gift. What do you think ? The 
 cat was so afraid that from terror he jumped on to every 
 shelf and stove. One day the ladies went to walk ; all at 
 once they remembered that the cat was alone with the hare. 
 ' But will not Matou hurt the hare ? ' ' Matou ? Matou is 
 so terrified that he is ready to go out of his skin ! ' And 
 they walked on quietly. They came home an hour later. 
 Vnd guess what had happened ? They found only the ears 
 of the hare. That is precisely the relation of young ladies 
 to us. They are afraid seemingly ; but afterward nothing 
 is left of us but ears." 
 
 And Pan Stanislav began to laugh, and Marynia with 
 him ; after a while he added, 
 
 " I know that of me only ears will be left." 
 
 He did not tell the truth, however ; for he felt that it 
 would be otherwise. Marynia too, after thinking a while, 
 said, 
 
 " No ; I have not such a character." 
 
 " That is better too ; for I will tell you sincerely what 
 conclusions I have drawn from my life observations : the 
 greater egotism always conquers the less." 
 
 "Or the greater love yields to the less," answered 
 Marynia. 
 
 " That comes out the same. As to me, I confess that I 
 should like to hold some Herod, see, this way, in my hand " 
 (here Pan Stanislav opened his fingers and then closed 
 them into a fist) ; " but with such a dove as you, it is quite 
 different. With you I think we shall have to fight to 
 restrain you from too much self-abnegation, too much per- 
 sonal sacrifice. Such is your nature, and I know whom I 
 take. For that matter all say so, and even Mashko, who is 
 no Solomon, said : ; She may be unhappy with thee ; thou 
 with her, never.' And he is right. But I am curious to 
 know how Mashko will be for his wife. He has a firm 
 hand." 
 
 "But is he loved much?" 
 
 "Not so much as awhile ago, when a certain young lady 
 coquetted with him." 
 
 " Yes; for he was n't so wicked as a certain ' Pan Stas.' : 
 
 "That will be a wonderful marriage. She is not ill- 
 looking, though she is pale, and has red eyes. But Masbko 
 marries for property. He admits that she doesn't love
 
 260 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 him; and when that adventure with Gantovski took place 
 (he is brave, too), he was certain that those ladies would 
 choose the opportunity to break with him. Meanwhile it 
 turned out just the opposite; and imagine, Mashko is 
 now alarmed again, because everything moves as if on oil. 
 It seems to him suspicious. There are certain strange 
 things there; there exists also, as it seems, a Pan Kras- 
 lavski God knows what there is not. The whole affair is 
 stupid. There will be no happiness in it, at least, not 
 such as I picture to myself." 
 
 "And what do you picture to yourself?" 
 
 "Happiness in this, to marry a reliable woman, like 
 you, and see the future clearly." 
 
 " But I think it is in this, to be loved ; but that is not 
 enough yet." 
 
 "What more?" 
 
 "To be worthy of that love, and to " 
 
 Here Marynia was unable for a time to find words, but 
 at last she said, 
 
 "And to believe in a husband, and work with him."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 PAN STAXISLAV was not mistaken. Everything went so 
 favorably for Masfcko, Pani and Panna Kraslavski acted 
 so admirably, that he was more and more alarmed. At 
 moments he laugher! at this ; and since he had had no secret 
 from Pan Stanislav for some time, he said one day, with 
 complete cynicism, 
 
 'My dear, those are simply angels; but my hair stands 
 on end, for something is hidden in this." 
 
 "Better thank the Lord God." 
 
 "They are too ideal; they are faultless; they are even 
 without vanity. Yesterday, for example, I gave them to 
 understand that I am an advocate only because to my 
 thinking sons of the best families should undertake some- 
 thing in these times, be something. Guess what they 
 answered? That that is as good a position as any other; 
 that every employment is worthy in their eyes, provided 
 it is work; and that only poor and empty natures could 
 be ashamed of work. They shot out so many packages of 
 commonplace that I wanted to answer with a sentence 
 from copy-books, such as ' Honor is a steep cliff,' or some- 
 thing of that sort. Polanyetski, I tell thee there is 
 something concealed there. I thought that it was papa, 
 but it is not papa. I have news of him: he lives in 
 Bordeaux; he calls himself De Langlais; and he has his 
 own domestic hearth, not so much legally, as numerously, 
 surrounded, which he maintains with a pension received 
 from Pani Kraslavski." 
 
 "What harm is that to thee?" 
 
 "None whatever." 
 
 "If it is that way, they are unhappy women, that is 
 all." 
 
 "True; but if their income answers to the misfortune? 
 Remember that I have burdens. Besides, seest thou, if 
 they are such women as they pretend, and if, also, they 
 are rich, I am ready to fall in love really, and that would 
 be stupid; if it appears that they have nothing, or little, 
 I am ready, also, to fall in love, and that would be still 
 more stupid. She has charms for me."
 
 262 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "No; that would be the one wise thing in every case 
 But think of thyself, Mashko, a little of me and the 
 Plavitskis. It is known to thee that I have not the habit 
 of being mild in those matters, and the dates of payment 
 are approaching." 
 
 " I' 11 tire up the boiler once more with credit. For that 
 matter, thou and they have a mortgage on Krernen. In a 
 couple of days there will be a betrothal party at Pani 
 Kraslavski's, after which I hope to learn something 
 reliable." 
 
 Here Mashko began a monologue, 
 
 "But that a positive man, such as I am, should go into 
 a forest in this way, passes belief. On the other hand, 
 there is not a man, even among those who know best how 
 every one stands, who would let himself doubt of Pani 
 Kraslavski's property. And they are so noble ! " 
 
 "Thy fears are probably baseless," interrupted Pan 
 Stanislav, with certain impatience. "But thou, my dear 
 fellow, art not positive in any sense, for thou hast been 
 always pretending, and art pretending still, instead of 
 looking to that which gives thee bread." 
 
 A few days later the betrothal party took place in fact. 
 Marynia was there; for Pani Kraslavski, who liked Pla- 
 vitski, whose relatives were known to her, did not avoid 
 association with him as she did with the Bigiels. Mashko 
 brought such of his acquaintances as had well-known 
 names. They had monocles on their eyes, and their hair 
 parted in the middle; for the greater part very young, 
 and mainly not very quick-witted. Among them were the 
 five brothers Vyj, who were called Mizio, Kizio, Bizio, 
 Brelochek, and Tatus. They were nicknamed the five 
 sleeping brothers, since they felt the impulses of life in 
 their legs exclusively, and were active only in the carnival, 
 but became perfectly torpid, at least in a mental sense, 
 during Lent. Bukatski loved them, and amused himself 
 with them. Baron Kot was there, who, because he had 
 heard something from some one of a certain ancient Kot 
 of Dembna, added always, when he was presented, "of 
 Dembna," and who always answered everything that was 
 said to him with: " Quelle drole tfhistoire!" Mashko was 
 on the footing of thou with all these, though he treated 
 them with a certain species of disregard, as well as 
 Kopovski, a young man with a splendid ideal head, and 
 also splendid eyes without thought. Pan Stanislav and
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 263 
 
 Kresovski represented the category of Mashko's more clever 
 friends. Pani Kraslavski had invited a number of ladies 
 with daughters, among whom the five brothers circled care- 
 lessly and coolly, and whose maiden hearts fluttered at the 
 approach of Kopovski, caring less for his mental resem- 
 blance to Hamlet, resting on this, that if not he, his 
 brain might be put into "a nutshell." A number of digni- 
 fied bald heads completed the company. 
 
 Panna Kraslavski was dressed in white; in spite of her 
 red eyes, she looked alluring. There was in her, indeed, 
 a certain womanly charm, resting on a wonderful, almost 
 dreamy repose. She recalled somewhat the figures of 
 Perugini. At times she grew bright, like an alabaster 
 lamp, in which a flame flashes up on a sudden; after a 
 while she paled again, but paled not without charm. 
 Dressed in a thin white robe, she seemed more shapely 
 than usual. Pan Stanislav, looking at her, thought that 
 she might have a heart which was dry enough, and a dry 
 enough head, but she could be a genteel wife, especially 
 for Mashko, who valued social gentility above everything 
 else. Their manner toward each other seemed like a cool 
 and pale day, in which the sun does not burn, but in which 
 also a storm is not threatening. They were sitting at the 
 end of the drawing-room, not too near, but also not too far, 
 from the rest of the company; they occupied themselves 
 with each other no more and no less than was proper. In 
 his conversation with her as much feeling was evident as 
 was required, but, above all, the wish to appear a "correct " 
 betrothed; she paid him on her part in the same coin. 
 They smiled at each other in a friendly way. He, as the 
 future leader and head of the house, spoke more than she; 
 sometimes they looked into each other's eyes, in a word, 
 they formed the most correct and exemplary couple of 
 betrothed people that could be imagined, in the society 
 sense of the term. "I should not have held out," said Pan 
 Stanislav to himself. Suddenly he remembered that while 
 she was sitting there in conventional repose, white, smil- 
 ing, the poor little doctor, who could not "tear his soul 
 from her," was in equal repose somewhere between the 
 tropics turning to dust, under the ground, forgotten, as if 
 he had never existed; and anger bore him away. Xot only 
 did he feel contempt for the heart of Mashko's betrothed, 
 but that repose of hers seemed now bad taste to him, a 
 species of spiritual deadness, which once had been fashion-
 
 264 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 able, and which, since they saw in it something demonic, 
 the poets had struck with their thunderbolts, and which, 
 in time, had grown vulgar, and dropped to be moral 
 nonentity and folly. "First of all, she is a goose, and, 
 moreover, a goose with no heart," thought Pan Stanislav. 
 At that moment Mashko's alarm at the noble conduct of 
 those ladies grew clear to him to such a degree that Mashko 
 rose in his esteem as a man of acuteness. 
 
 Then he fell to comparing his own betrothed with Panna 
 Kraslavski, and said to himself with great satisfaction, 
 "Marynia is a different species altogether." He felt that 
 he was resting mentally while looking at her. In so much 
 as the other seemed, as it were, an artificial plant, reared, 
 not in broad fresh currents of air, but under glass, in that 
 much did there issue from this one life and warmth, and 
 still the comparison came out to the advantage of Marynia, 
 even in respect to society. Pan Stanislav did not overlook 
 altogether "distinction," so-called, understanding that, if 
 not always, it frequently answers to a certain mental 
 finish, especially in women. Looking now at one, now at 
 the other, he came to the conviction that that finish 
 which Panna Kraslavski had was something acquired and 
 enslaving, with Marynia it was innate. In the one it was 
 a garment thrown on outside; in the other, the soul, a 
 kind of natural trait in a species ennobled through long 
 ages of culture. Taking from liukatski's views as many 
 as he needed, that is, as many as were to the point, - 
 Pan Stanislav remembered that he had said frequently that 
 women, without reference to their origin, are divided into 
 patricians, who have culture, principles, and spiritual 
 needs, which have entered the blood, and parvenues, who 
 dress in them, as in mantillas, to go visiting. At present, 
 while looking at the noble profile of Marynia, Pan Stan- 
 islav thought, with the vanity of a little townsman who is 
 marrying a princess, that he was taking. a patrician in 
 the high sense of the word; and, besides, a very beautiful 
 patrician. 
 
 Frequently women need only some field, and a little 
 luck, to bloom forth. Marynia, who seemed almost ugly 
 to Pan Stanislav when he was returning from the burial 
 of Litka, astonished him now, at times, with her beauty. 
 Near her Panna Kraslavski seemed like a faded robe near 
 a new one; and if the fortune of Panna Plavitski had been 
 on a level with her looks, she would have passed, beyond
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 265 
 
 doubt, for a beauty. As it was, the five brothers, putting 
 their glasses on their equine noses, looked at her with a 
 certain admiration; and Baron Kot, of Derubna, declared 
 confidentially that her betrothal was real luck, for had it 
 not taken place, who knows but he might have rushed in. 
 
 Pan Stanislav could note also that evening one trait of 
 his own character which he had not suspected, jealousy. 
 Since he was convinced that Marynia was a perfectly 
 reliable woman, who might be trusted blindly , that jealousy 
 was simply illogical. In his time he had been jealous of 
 Mashko, and that could be. understood; but now he could 
 not explain why Kopovski, for example, with his head of 
 an archangel and his brains of a bird, could annoy him, 
 just because he sat next to Marynia, and doubtless was 
 asking her more or less pertinent questions, to which she 
 was answering more or less agreeably. At first he re- 
 proached himself. " Still, it would be difficult to ask her 
 not to speak to him!" Afterward he found that Marynia 
 turned to Kopovski too frequently, and answered too agree- 
 ably. At supper, while sitting next her, he was silent and 
 irritated; and when she asked the reason, he answered 
 most inappropriately, 
 
 "I have no wish to spoil the impression which Pan 
 Kopovski produced on you." 
 
 But she was pleased that he was jealous; contracting the 
 corners of her mouth to suppress laughter, and looking at 
 him sedately, she answered, 
 
 " Do you find, too, that there is something uncommon in 
 Pan Kopovski?" 
 
 "Of course, of course! When he walks the streets 
 even, it seems that he is carrying his head into fresh air, 
 lest the moths might devour it." 
 
 The corners of Marynia's mouth bore the test, but her 
 eyes laughed evidently; at last, unable to endure, she said, 
 in a low voice, 
 
 " Outrageously jealous ! " 
 
 "I? Not the least!" 
 
 "Well, I will give you an extract from our conversation. 
 You know that yesterday there was a case of catalepsy 
 during the concert; to-day they were talking of that near 
 us; then, among other things, I asked Pan Kopovski if he 
 had seen the cataleptic person. Do you know what he 
 answered? ' Each of us may have different convictions/ 
 Well, now, isn't he uncommon?"
 
 266 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was pacified, and began to laugh. 
 
 " But I tell you that he simply does n't understand what 
 is said to him, and answers anything. "- 
 
 They passed the rest of the evening with each other 
 in good agreement. At the time of parting, when the 
 Plavitskis, having a carriage with seats for only two 
 persons, were unable to take Pan Stanislav, Marynia 
 turned to him and inquired, 
 
 "Will the cross, whimsical man come to-morrow to 
 dine with us ? " 
 
 " He will, for he loves," answered Pan Stanislav, cover- 
 ing her feet with the robe. 
 
 She whispered into his ear, as it were great news, " And 
 I too." 
 
 And although he at the moment of speaking was per- 
 fectly sincere, she spoke more truth. Mashko conducted 
 Pan Stanislav home. On the road they talked of the 
 reception. Mashko said that before the arrival of guests 
 he had tried to speak to Pani Kraslavski of business, but 
 had not succeeded. 
 
 " There was a moment," said he, " when I thought to 
 put the question plainly, dressing it of course in the most 
 delicate form. But I was afraid. Finally, why have I 
 doubts of the dower of my betrothed ? Only because those 
 ladies treat me with more consideration than I expected. 
 As a humor, that is very good ; but I fear to push matters 
 too far, for suppose that my fears turn out vain, suppose 
 they have money really, and are incensed because my curi- 
 osity is too selfish. It is necessary to count with this also, 
 for I may be wrecked at the harbor." 
 
 "Well, then," answered Pan Stanislav, "admit this, and 
 for that matter it is likely that they have; but if it 
 should turn out that they have not, what then ? Hast a 
 plan ready ? Wilt thou break with Panna Kraslavski, or 
 wilt thou marry her ? " 
 
 " I will not break with her in any case, for I should not 
 gain by it. If my marriage does not take place, I shall be 
 a bankrupt. But if it does, I will state ray financial posi- 
 tion precisely, and suppose that Panna Kraslavski will 
 break with me." 
 
 " But if she does not, and has no money ? " 
 
 " I shall love her, and come to terms with my creditors. 
 I shall cease to 'pretend,' as thy phrase is, and try to win 
 bread for us both; I am not a bad advocate, as thou 
 knowest."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 267 
 
 " That is fairly good," answered Pan Stanislav, " but that 
 does not pacify me touching the Plavitskis and myself." 
 
 " Thou and they are in a better position than others, 
 for ye have a lien on Kremen. In a given case thou wilt 
 take everything in thy firm grasp, and squeeze out some- 
 thing. It is worse for those who have trusted my word ; 
 and I tell thee to thy eyes that I am concerned more for 
 them. I had, and I have great credit even now. That is 
 my tender point. But if they give me time, I will come 
 out somehow. If I had a little happiness at home, and 
 a motive there for labor " 
 
 They came now to Pan Stanislav's house, so Mashko did 
 not finish his thought. At the moment of parting, however, 
 he said suddenly, 
 
 " Listen to me. In thy eyes I am somewhat crooked ; 
 I am much less so than seems to thee. I have pretended, as 
 thou sayst, it is true ! I had to wriggle out, like an eel, and 
 in those wrigglings I slipped sometimes from the beaten 
 road. But I am tired, and tell thee plainly that I wish 
 a little happiness, for I have not had it. Therefore I 
 wanted to marry thy betrothed, though she is without 
 property. As to Panna Kraslavski, dost thou know that 
 there are moments when I should prefer that she had 
 nothing, but, to make up, that she would not drop me when 
 she knows that I too have nothing. I say this sincerely 
 and now good-night." 
 
 " Well," said Pan Stanislav to himself, " this is something 
 new in Mashko." And he entered the gate. Standing at 
 the door, he was astonished to hear the piano in his apart- 
 ments. The servant said that Bigiel had been waiting two 
 hours for him. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was alarmed, but thought that if some- 
 thing unfavorable had caused his presence, he would not 
 play on the piano. In fact, it turned out that Bigiel was in 
 haste merely to get Pan Stanislav's signature for an affair 
 which had to be finished early next morning. 
 
 " Thou mightest have left the paper, and gone to bed, 
 said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 I slept awhile on thy sofa, then sat at 
 Once I played on the piano as well as on the violin, b 
 now my fingers are clumsy. Thy Marynia plays probably ; 
 such music in the house is a nice thing." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed with a sincere, well-wishing 
 laugh.
 
 208 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " My Marynia ? My Maryuia possesses the evangelical 
 talent : her left hand does not know what her right hand 
 is doing. Poor dear woman ! She has no pretensions ; and 
 she plays only when I beg her to do so." 
 
 " Thou art as it were laughing at her," said Bigiel ; " but 
 only those who are in love laugh in that way." 
 
 "Because I am in love most completely. At least it 
 seems so now to me ; and in general I must say that it 
 seems so to me oftener and oftener. Wilt thou have 
 tea ? " 
 
 " Yes. Thou hast come from Pani Kraslavski's ? " 
 
 I have." 
 
 '' How is Mashko ? Will he struggle to shore ? " 
 
 "I parted with him a moment ago. He came with me 
 to the gate. He says things at times that I should not ex- 
 pect from him." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, glad to have some one to talk with, and 
 feeling the need of intimate converse, began to tell what he 
 had heard from Mashko ; and how much he was astonished 
 at finding a man of romantic nature under the skin of a 
 person of his kind. 
 
 " Mashko is not a bad man," said Bigiel. " He is only on 
 the road to various evasions ; and the cause of that is his 
 vanity and respect for appearances. But, on the other 
 hand, that respect for appearances saves him from final 
 fall. As to the man of romance, which thou hast found in 
 him " 
 
 Here Bigiel cut off the end of a cigar, lighted it with 
 great deliberation, wrinkling his brows at the same time, 
 and, sitting down comfortably, continued, 
 
 "Bukatski would have given on that subject ten ironical 
 paradoxes about our society. Now something stuck in my 
 head that he told me, when he attacked us because always 
 we love some one or something. It seems to him that this 
 is foolish and purposeless ; but I see in this a great trait. It 
 is necessary to become something in the world ; and what 
 have we ? Money we have not ; intellect, so-so ; the gift of 
 making our way in a position, not greatly ; management, 
 little. We have in truth this yet, that almost involunta- 
 rily, through some general disposition, we love something or 
 somebody ; and if we do not love, we feel the need of love. 
 Thou knowest that I am a man of deliberation and a 
 merchant, hence I speak soberly. I call attention to this 
 because of Bukatski. Mashko, for instance, in some other
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 269 
 
 country, would be a rogue from under a dark star ; and 1 
 know many such. But here even beneath the trickster thou 
 canst scratch to the man ; and that is simple, for, in the last 
 instance, while a man has some spark in his breast yet, he 
 is not a beast utterly ; and with us he has the spark, 
 precisely for this reason, that he loves something." 
 
 " Thou briugest Vaskovski to my mind. What thou art 
 saying is not far from his views concerning the mission 
 of the youngest of the Aryans.", 
 
 " What is Vaskovski to me ? I say what I think. I 
 know one thing : take that from us, and we should fly apart, 
 like a barrel without hoops." 
 
 " Well, listen to what I will tell thee. This is a thing 
 decided in my mind rather long -since. To love, or not to 
 love some one, is a personal question ; but I understand 
 that it is needful to love something in life. I too have 
 meditated over this. After the death of that child, I felt 
 that the devil had taken certain sides of me ; sometimes I 
 feel that yet. Not to-day ; but there are times how can 
 I tell thee ? times of ebb, exhaustion, doubts. And if, in 
 spite of this, I marry, it is because I understand that it is 
 necessary to have a living and strong foundation under a 
 more general love." 
 
 " For that, and not for that," answered Bigiel the inexor- 
 able in judgment, " for thou are marrying not at all from 
 purely mental reasons. Thou art taking a comely and 
 honest young woman, to whom thou art attracted ; and do 
 not persuade thyself that it is otherwise, or thou wilt begin 
 to pretend. My dear friend, every man has these doubts 
 before marrying. I, as thou seest, am no philosopher ; but 
 ten times a day I asked myself before marriage, if [ loved 
 my future wife- well enough, if I loved her as was neces- 
 sary, had I not too little soul in the matter, and too many 
 doubts? God knows what! Afterward I married a good 
 woman and it was well for us. It will be well for you too, 
 if ye take things simply ; but that endless searching in the 
 mind and looking for certain secrets of the heart is folly, 
 God kno\vs." . . . 
 
 Maybe it is folly. I too have no great love for lying 
 on my back and analyzing from morn m till night; but 
 I cannot help seeing facts." 
 
 " What facts ? " 
 
 Such facts, for example, as this, that my feeling is not 
 what it was at first. I think that it will be ; I acknowledge
 
 270 CHILDREN OJ? THE SOIL. 
 
 that it is going to that. I marry in spite of these obser- 
 vations, as if they did not exist j but I make them." 
 
 " Thou art free to do so." 
 
 " And see what I think besides : still it is necessary that 
 the windows of a house should look out on the sun; 
 otherwise it will be cold in the dwelling." 
 
 " Thou hast said well," answered Bigiel.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOTL. 271 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 MEANWHILE winter began to break ; the end of Lent was 
 approaching, and with it the time of marriage for Pan 
 Stanislav, as well as Mashko. Bukatski, invited as a 
 groomsman to the former, wrote to him among other 
 things as follows, 
 
 " To thrust forth the all-creative energy from its universal condition, 
 that is, from a condition of perfect repose, and force it by means 
 of marriages concluded on earth to incarnate itself in more or less 
 squalling particulars which require cradles and which amuse them- 
 selves by holding the great toe in the mouth, is a crime. Still I will 
 come, because stoves are better with you than in this place." 
 
 In fact, he came a week before the holidays, and brought 
 as a gift to Pan Stanislav a sheet of parchment ornamented 
 splendidly with something in the style of a grave hour-glass, 
 on which was the inscription, " Stanislav Polanyetski, after 
 a long and grievous bachelorhood." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, whom the parchment pleased, took it next 
 day about noon to Marynia. He forgot, however, that it 
 was Sunday, and felt, as it were, disappointed, at finding 
 Marynia with her hat on. 
 
 " Are you going out ? " inquired he. 
 
 "Yes. To church. To-day is Sunday." 
 
 "Ah, Sunday ! True. But I thought that we should sit 
 here together. It would be so agreeable." 
 
 She raised her calm blue eyes to him, and said with 
 simplicity, " But the service of God ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav received these words at once as he would 
 have received any other, not foreseeing that, in the spiritual 
 process which he was to pass through later on, they would 
 play a certain role by reason of their directness, and said as 
 if repeating mechanically, 
 
 " You say the service of God. Very well ! I have time ; 
 let us go together." 
 
 Marynia received this offer with great satisfaction. 
 
 "I am the happier," said she, on the way, "the more I 
 love God." 
 
 "That, too, is the mark of a good nature; some persons 
 think of God only as a terror."
 
 272 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 And iu the church that caine again to his mind of which 
 he had thought during his first visit to Kremen, when 
 he was at the church in Vantory, with old Plavitski: 
 " Destruction takes all philosophies and systems, one after 
 another; but Mass is celebrated as of old." It seemed to 
 him that in that there was something which passed com- 
 prehension. He who, because of Litka, had come in con- 
 tact with death in a manner most painful, returned to 
 those dark problems whenever he happened to be in a 
 cemetery, or a church at Mass, or in any circumstances 
 whatever in which something took place which had no 
 connection with the current business of life, but was 
 shrouded in that future beyond the grave. He was struck 
 by this thought, how much is done in this life for that 
 future; and how, in spite of all philosophizing and doubt, 
 people live as if that future were entirely beyond question ; 
 how much of petty personal egotisms are sacrificed for it; 
 how many philanthropic deeds are performed; how asylums, 
 hospitals, retreats, churches are built, and all on an account 
 payable beyond the grave only. 
 
 He was struck still more by another thought, that to 
 be reconciled with life really, it is necessary to be reconciled 
 with death first; and that without faith in something be- 
 yond the grave this reconciliation is simply impossible. 
 But if you have faith the question drops away, as if it had 
 never existed. "Let the devils take mourning; let us 
 rejoice; " for if this is true, what more can be desired? Is 
 there before one merely the view of some new existence, 
 in the poorest case, wonderfully curious, even that cer- 
 tainty amounts to peace and quiet. Pan Stanislav had an 
 example of that, then, in Marynia. Because she was some- 
 what short-sighted, she held her head bent over the book ; 
 but when at moments she raised it, he saw a face so calm, 
 so full of something like that repose which a flower has, 
 and so serene, that it was simply angelic. "That is a 
 happy woman, and she will be happy always," said he to 
 himself. "And, besides, she has sense, for if, on the oppo- 
 site side, there were at least certainty, there would be also 
 that satisfaction which truth gives; but to torture one's 
 self for the sake of various marks of interrogation is pure 
 folly." 
 
 On the way home, Pan Stanislav, thinking continually of 
 this expression of Marynia's, said, 
 
 "In the church you looked like some profile of Fra An- 
 gelico; you had a face which was indeed happy."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 273 
 
 "For I am happy at present. And do you know why? 
 Because I am better than I was. I felt at one time offended 
 in heart, and I was dissatisfied ; I had no hope before me, 
 and all these put together formed such suffering that it was 
 terrible. It is said that misfortune ennobles chosen souls, 
 but I am not a chosen soul. For that matter, misfortune 
 may ennoble, but suffering, offence, ill-will, destroy. They 
 are like poison." 
 
 "Did you hate rue much then?" 
 
 Marynia looked at him and answered, " I hated you so 
 much that for whole days I thought of you only." 
 
 "Mashko has wit; he described this once thus to me- 
 ' She would rather hate you than love me.' " 
 
 "Oi ! that I would rather, is true." 
 
 Thus conversing, they reached the house. Pan Stanislav 
 had time then to unroll his parchment hour-glass and 
 show it to Marynia; but the idea did not please her. She 
 looked on marriage not only from the point of view of the 
 heart, but of religion. "With such things there is no 
 jesting," said she; and after a while she confessed to Pan 
 Stanislav that she was offended with Bukatski. 
 
 After dinner Bukatski came. During those few months 
 of his stay in Italy he had become still thinner, which 
 was a proof against the efficacy of "chianti" for catarrh 
 of the stomach. His nose, with its thinness, reminded 
 one of a knife-edge; his humorous face, smiling with 
 irony, had become, as it were, porcelain, and was no larger 
 than the fist of a grown man. He was related both to Pan 
 Stanislav and Marynia; hence he said what he pleased in 
 their presence. From the threshold almost, he declared 
 to them that, in view of the increasing number of mental 
 deviations in the world at present, he could only regret, 
 but did not wonder, that they were affianced. He had 
 come, it is true, in the hope that he would be able to save 
 them, but he saw now that he was late, and that nothing 
 was left but resignation. Marynia was indignant on hear- 
 ing this; but Pan Stanislav, who loved him, said, 
 
 "Preserve thy conceit for the wedding speech, for thou 
 must make one; and now tell us how our professor is." 
 
 "He has grown disturbed in mind seriously," replied 
 Bukatski. 
 
 "Do not jest in that way," said Marynia. 
 
 "And so much without cause," added Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But Bukatski continued, with equal seriousness: ' 
 
 IS ..
 
 274 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 fessor Vaskovski is disturbed in mind, and here are iny 
 proofs for you: First, he walks through Rome without a 
 cap, or rather, he walked, for he is in Perugia at present; 
 second, he attacked a refined young English lady, and 
 proved to her that the English are Christians in private 
 life only, that the relations of England to Ireland are not 
 Christian; third, he is printing a pamphlet, in which he 
 shows that the mission of reviving and renewing history 
 with the spirit of Christ is committed to the youngest of 
 the Aryans. Confess that these are proofs." 
 
 "We knew these ways before his departure; if nothing 
 more threatens the professor, we hope to see him in good 
 health." 
 
 "He does not think of returning." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took out his note-book, wrote some words 
 with a pencil, and, giving them to Marynia, said, 
 "Read, and tell me if that is good." 
 "If thou write in my presence, I withdraw," said 
 Bukatski. 
 
 "Xo, no ! this is no secret." 
 
 Marynia became as red as a cherry from delight, and, as 
 if not wishing to believe her eyes, asked, 
 "Is that true? It is not." 
 
 "That depends on you," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 " Ah, Pan Stas ! I did not even dream of that. I must 
 tell papa. I must." 
 
 And she ran out of the room. 
 
 " If I were a poet, I would hang myself," said Bukatski. 
 "Why?" 
 
 " For if a couple of words, jotted down by the hand of a 
 partner in the house of Bigiel and Company, can produce 
 more impression than the most beautiful sonnet, it is better 
 to be a miller boy than a poet." 
 
 But Marynia, in the rapture of her joy, forgot the note- 
 book, so Pan Stanislav showed it to Bukatski, saying, 
 "Read." 
 Bukatski read : 
 
 " After the wedding Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples. Is that 
 well V " 
 
 "Then it 's a journey to Italy?" 
 
 "Yes. Imagine, she has not been abroad in her life; 
 and Italy has always seemed to her an enchanted land, 
 which she has not even dreamed of seeing. That is an
 
 ClllLDKES Of THE SOIL. 275 
 
 immense delight for her; and what the deuce wonder is 
 there, if I think out a little pleasure for her?" 
 
 " Love and Italy ! O God, how many times Thou hast 
 looked on that ! All that love is as old as the world." 
 
 " Not true ! Fall in love, and see if thou 'It find some- 
 thing new in it." 
 
 " My beloved friend, the question is not in this, that I 
 do not love yet, but in this, that I love no longer. Years 
 ago I dug that sphinx out of the sand, and it is no longer 
 a riddle to me." 
 
 "Bukatski, get married." 
 
 " I cannot. My sight is too faint, and my stomach too 
 weak." 
 
 " What hindrance in that? " 
 
 "Oh, seest thou, a woman is like a sheet of paper. An 
 angel writes on one side, a devil on the other; the paper 
 is cut through, the words blend, and such a hash is made 
 that I can neither read nor digest it." 
 
 "To live all thy life on conceits! " 
 
 " I shall die, as well as thou, who art marrying. It 
 seems to us that we think of death, but it thinks more 
 of us." 
 
 At that moment Marynia came in with her father, who 
 embraced Pan Stanislav, and said, 
 
 " Marynia tells me that 't is thy wish to go to Italy after 
 the wedding." 
 
 "If my future lady will consent." 
 
 "Thy future lady will not only consent," answered 
 Marynia, "but she has lost her head from delight, and 
 wants to jump through the room, as if she were ten years 
 of age." 
 
 To which Plavitski answered, "If the cross of a solitary 
 old man can be of use in your distant journey, I will bless 
 you." 
 
 And he raised his eyes and his hand toward heaven, to 
 the unspeakable delight of Bukatski; but Marynia drew 
 down the raised hand, and, kissing it, said with laughter, 
 
 "There will be time for that, papa ; we are going away 
 only after the wedding." 
 
 "And, speaking plainly," added Bukatski, "then there 
 will be a buying of tickets, and giving baggage to be 
 weighed, and starting, nothing more." 
 
 To this Plavitski turned to the cynic, and said, with a 
 certain unction,
 
 276 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Have you come to this, that you look on the blessing 
 of a lonely old man and a father as superfluous?" 
 
 Bukatski, instead of an answer, embraced Plavitski, 
 kissed him near the waistcoat, and said, 
 
 "But would the ' lonely old man ' not play piquet, so 
 as to let those two mad heads talk themselves out?" 
 
 "But with a rubicon?" asked Plavitski. 
 
 " With anything you like." Then he turned to the young 
 couple : " Hire me as a guide to Italy." 
 
 "I do not think of it," answered Pan Stanislav. "I 
 have been in Belgium and France, no farther. Italy I 
 know not; but I want to see what will interest us, not what 
 may interest thee. I have seen men such as thou art, and 
 I know that through over-refinement they go so far that 
 they love not art, but their own knowledge of it." 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav continued the talk with Marynia. 
 
 " Yes, they go so far that they lose the feeling of great, 
 simple art, and seek something to occupy their sated taste, 
 and exhibit their critical knowledge. They do not see 
 trees; they search simply for knots. The greatest things 
 which we are going to admire do not concern them, but 
 some of the smallest things, of which no one has heard; 
 they dig names out of obscurity, occupy themselves in one 
 way or another, persuade themselves and others that things 
 inferior and of less use surpass in interest the better and 
 more perfect. Under his guidance we might not see whole 
 churches, but we might see various things which would 
 have to be looked ^at through cracks. I call all this surfeit, 
 abuse, over-refinement, and we are simply people." 
 
 Marynia looked at him with pride, as if she would say, 
 " Oh, that is what is called speaking ! " Her pride increased 
 when Bukatski said, 
 
 "Thou art quite right." 
 
 But she was indignant when he added, 
 
 " And if thou wert not right, I could not win before the 
 tribunal." 
 
 "I beg pardon," said Marynia; "I am not blinded in 
 any way." 
 
 "But I am not an art critic at all." 
 
 "On the contrary, you are." 
 
 "If I am, then, I declare that knowledge embraces a 
 greater number of details, but does not prevent a love of 
 great art; and believe not Pan Stanislav, but me." 
 
 "No; I prefer to believe him."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 277 
 
 "That was to be foreseen." 
 
 Marynia looked now at one, now at the other, with a 
 somewhat anxious face. Meanwhile Plavitski came with 
 cards. The betrothed walked through the rooms hand in 
 hand; Bukatski began to be wearied, and grew more and 
 more so. Toward the end of the evening the humor 
 which animated him died out; his small face became still 
 smaller, his nose sharper, and he looked like a dried 
 leaf. When he went out with Pan Stanislav, the latter 
 inquired, 
 
 "Somehow thou wert not so vivacious?" 
 
 " I am like a machine : while I have fuel within, I move; 
 but in the evening, when the morning supply is exhausted, 
 I stop." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at him carefully. " What is thy 
 fuel?" 
 
 " There are various kinds of coal. Come to me : I will 
 give thee a cup of good coffee; that will enliven us." 
 
 " Listen ! this is a delicate question, but some one told 
 me that thou hast been taking morphine this long time." 
 
 "For a very short time," answered Bukatski; "if thou 
 could only know what horizons it opens." 
 
 " And it kills Fear God ! " 
 
 " And kills ! Tell me sincerely, has this ever occurred to 
 thee, that it is possible to have a yearning for death?" 
 
 "No; I understand just the opposite." 
 
 "But I will give thee neither morphine nor opium," said 
 Bukatski, at length; "only good coffee and a bottle of 
 honest Bordeaux. That will be an innocent orgy." 
 
 After some time they arrived at Bukatski 's. It was the 
 dwelling of a man of real wealth, seemingly, somewhat un- 
 inhabited, but full of small things connected with art and 
 pictures and drawings. Lamps were burning in a number 
 of rooms, for Bukatski could not endure darkness, even in 
 time of sleep. 
 
 The "Bordeaux" was found promptly, and under the 
 machine for coffee a blue flame was soon burning. Bukatski 
 stretched himself on the sofa, and said, all at once, 
 
 "Perhaps thou wilt not admit, since thou seest me such 
 a filigree, that I have no fear of death." 
 
 "This one thing I have at times admitted, that thou art 
 jesting and jesting, deceiving thyself and others, while 
 really the joke is not in thee, and this is all artificial." 
 
 "The folly of people amuses me somewhat."
 
 278 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "But if tkou thiuk thyself wise, why arrange life so 
 vainly?" Here Pan Stanislav looked around on bric-a- 
 brac, on pictures, and added, "In all this surrounding thou 
 art still living vainly." 
 
 "Vainly enough." 
 
 "Thou art of those who pretend. What a disease in 
 this society ! Thou art posing, and that is the whole 
 question." 
 
 "Sometimes. But, for that matter, it becomes natural." 
 
 Under the influence of " Bordeaux " Bukatski grew ani- 
 mated gradually, and became more talkative, though cheer- 
 fulness did not return to him. 
 
 "Seest thou," said he, "one thing, I do not pretend. 
 All which I myself could tell, or which another could tell 
 me, I have thought out, and said long since to my soul. I 
 lead the most stupid and the vainest life possible. Around 
 me is immense nothingness, which I fear, and which I 
 fence out with this lumber which thou seest in this room; 
 I do this so as to fear less. Not to fear death is another 
 thing, for after death there are neither feelings nor 
 thoughts. I shall become, then, a part also of nothing- 
 ness; but to feel it, while one is alive, to know of it, to 
 give account to one's self of it, as God lives, there can be 
 nothing more abject. Moreover, the condition of my 
 health is really bad, and takes from me every energy. I 
 have no fuel in myself, therefore I add it. There is less 
 in this of posing and pretending than thou wilt admit. 
 When I have given myself fuel, I take life in its humorous 
 aspect; I follow the example of the sick man, who lies on 
 the side on which he lies with most comfort. For me 
 there is most comfort thus. That the position is artificial, 
 I admit; every other, however, would be more painful. 
 And see, the subject is exhausted." 
 
 "If thou would undertake some work." 
 
 "Give me peace. To begin with, I know a multitude of 
 things, but I don't understand anything; second, I am 
 sick; third, tell a paralytic to walk a good deal when he 
 cannot use his legs. The subject is exhausted ! Drink 
 that wine there, and let us talk about thee. That is a good 
 lady, Panna Plavitski ; and thou art doing well to marry 
 her. What I said to thee there in the daytime does not 
 count. She is a good lady, and loves thee." 
 
 Here Bukatski, enlivened and roused evidently by the 
 wine, began to speak hurriedly.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 279 
 
 " What I say in the daytime does not count. Now it is 
 night; let us drink wine, and a moment of more sincerity 
 comes. Dost wish more wine, or coffee? I like this odor; 
 one should mix Mocha and Ceylon in equal parts. Now 
 comes a time of more sincerity! Knowest thou what I 
 think at bottom? I have no clear idea of what happiness 
 fame may give, for 1 do not possess it; and since the 
 Ephesian temple is tired, there is no opening to fame 
 before me. I admit, however, so, to myself, that the 
 amount of it might be eaten by a mouse, not merely on an 
 empty stomach, but after a good meal in a pantry. But I 
 know what property is, for I have a little of it; I know 
 what travelling is, for I have wandered; I know what 
 freedom is, for I am free; I know what women are oi, 
 devil take it ! too well, and I know what books are. 
 Besides, in this chamber, I have a few pictures, a few 
 drawings, a little porcelain. Now listen to what I will 
 say to thee: All this is nothing; all is vanity, folly, dust, 
 in comparison with one heart which loves. This is the 
 result of my observations ; only I have come to it at the 
 end, while normal men reach it at the beginning." 
 
 Here he began to stir the coffee feverishly with a spoon; 
 and Pan Stanislav, who was very lively, sprang up and 
 said, 
 
 " And thou, beast ! what didst thou say some months 
 since, that thou wert going to Italy because there no one 
 loved thee, and thou didst love no one ? Dost remember? 
 Thou 'It deny, perhaps." 
 
 "But what did I say this afternoon to thy betrothed? 
 That thou and she had gone mad; and now I say that thou 
 art doing well. Dost wish logic of me? To talk and to 
 say something are two different things. But now I am 
 more sincere, for I have drunk half a bottle of wine." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to walk through the room and 
 repeat : " But, as God lives, it is fabulous ! See what the 
 root of the matter is, and what they all say when cornered." 
 
 "To love is good, but there is something still better, - 
 that is, to be loved. There is nothing above that! As to 
 me, I would give for it all these; but it is not worth while, 
 to talk of me. Life is a comedy badly written, and with- 
 out talent: even that which pains terribly is sometimes 
 like a poor melodrama; but in life, if there be anything 
 good, it is to be loved. Imagine to thyself, I have not 
 known that, and thou hast found it without seeking."
 
 280 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Do not say so, for thou knowest cot how it came to 
 me." 
 
 " I know; Vaskovski told me. That, however, is all one. 
 The question is this, thou hast known how to value it." 
 
 " Well, what dost thou wish? I understand that I am 
 loved a little; hence I marry, and that is the end of the 
 matter." 
 
 Thereupon Bukatski put his hand on Pan Stanislav's 
 shoulder. 
 
 "No, Polanyetski; I am a fool in respect to myself, 
 but not a bad observer of what is passing around me. That 
 is not the end, but the beginning. Most men say, as thou 
 hast, ' I many, that is the end ; ' and most men deceive 
 themselves." 
 
 "That philosophy I do not understand." 
 
 "But thou seest what the question is? It is not enough 
 to take a woman ; a man should give himself to her also, 
 and should feel that he does so. Dost understand?" 
 
 "Not greatly." 
 
 "Well, thou art feigning simplicity. She should not 
 only feel herself owned, but an owner. A soul for a soul ! 
 otherwise a life may be lost. Marriages are good or bad. 
 Mashko's will be bad for twenty reasons, and among others 
 for this, of which I wish to speak." 
 
 "He is of another opinion. But, as God lives, it is a 
 pity that thou art not married, since thou hast such a 
 sound understanding of how married life should be." 
 
 "If to understand and to act according to that under- 
 standing were the same, there would not be the various, 
 very various events, from which the bones ache in all of 
 us. For that matter, imagine me marrying." 
 
 Here Bukatski began to laugh with his thin little voice. 
 Joyfulness returned to him on a sudden, and with it the 
 vision of things on the comic side. 
 
 "Thou wilt be ridiculous; but what should I be? Some- 
 thing to split one's sides at. What a moment that is! 
 Thou wilt see in two weeks. For instance, how thou wilt 
 dress for church. Here, love, beating of the heart, solemn 
 thoughts, a new epoch in life; there, the gardener, with 
 flowers, a dress-coat, lost studs, the tying of a cravat, the 
 drawing on of patent-leather boots, all at one time, one 
 chaos, one confusion. Deliver me, angels of paradise ! I 
 have compassion on thee, my dear friend; and do thou, I 
 beg, not take seriously what I say. There is a new moon
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 281 
 
 now, and I have a mania for uttering commonplace senti- 
 ment at the new moon. All folly! the new moon, noth- 
 ing more ! I have grown as soft-hearted as a ewe who has 
 lost her first lamb ; and may the cough split me, if I 
 haven't uttered commonplace!" 
 
 But Pan Stauislav attacked him : " I have seen many vain 
 things ; but knowest thou what seems to me vainest in thee 
 and those like thee ? Thou and they, who absolve your- 
 selves from everything, recognize nothing above you, and 
 fear like fire every honest truth, for the one reason that 
 some one might sometime declare it. How bad this is 
 words cannot tell. As to thee, my dear friend, thou wert 
 sincerer a while since than now. Again, thou'rt a poodle, 
 dancing on two legs ; but I tell thee that ten like thee could 
 not show me that I have not won a great prize in the 
 lottery." 
 
 He took farewell of Bukatski with a certain anger; on 
 the road home, however, he grew pacified and repeated con- 
 tinually : "See where the truth is; see what Mashko, and 
 even Bukatski, says, when ready to be sincere; but I 
 have won simply a great prize, and I will not waste what 
 I have won." 
 
 When he entered his lodgings and saw Litka's photo- 
 graph, he exclaimed, "My dearest kitten!" Up to the 
 moment of sleeping he thought of Marynia with pleasure, 
 and with the calmness of a man who feels that some great 
 problem of life has been settled decisively, and settled 
 well. For, in spite of Bukatski's words, he was convinced 
 that, since he was going to marry, all would be decided and 
 ended by that one act.
 
 282 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE "catastrophe," as Bukatski called it, came at last. 
 Pan Stanislav learned by experience that if in life there 
 are many days in which a man cannot seize his own 
 thoughts, to such belong above all the day of his marriage. 
 At times a number of these thoughts circled in his brain at 
 one moment, and were so indefinite, that, speaking accu- 
 rately, they were rather unconscious impressions than 
 thoughts. He felt that a new epoch in life was beginning, 
 that he was assuming great obligations which he ought to 
 fulfil conscientiously and seriously ; and at the same time, 
 but exactly at the same time, he wondered that the car- 
 riage was n't coming yet, and expressed his astonishment in 
 the form of a threat : " If those scoundrels are late, I '11 
 break their necks for them." At moments a solemn, and, 
 as it were, noble fear of that future for which he had 
 assumed responsibility was mastering him ; he felt with- 
 in him a certain elevation, and in this feeling of elevation 
 he began to lather his beard, and he thought whether on 
 such an exceptional day it would not be exceptionally 
 worth while to bring in a barber to his somewhat dis- 
 hevelled hair. Marynia at the same time was at the basis 
 of all his impressions. He saw her, as if present. He- 
 thought : " At this moment, she too is dressing, she is 
 standing in her chamber in front of the mirror, she is talk- 
 ing to her maid, her soul is flying toward me, and her 
 heart beats unquietly." That instant tenderness seized him 
 and he said to himself, "But have no fear, honest soul, for, 
 as God lives, I will not wrong thee ; " and he saw himself in 
 the future, kind, considerate, so that he began to look with 
 a certain emotion at the patent-leather boots standing near 
 the armchair, on which his wedding-suit was lying. He 
 repeated from time to time too, "If to marry, then 
 marry ! " He said to himself that he was stupid to hesi- 
 tate, for another such Marynia there was not on earth ; he 
 felt that he loved her, and thought at the same time that 
 the weather was not bad, but that perhaps rain might fall ; 
 that it might be cold in the Church of the Visitation ; that in 
 an hour he would be kneeling by Marynia, that a white neck-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 283 
 
 tie is safer knotted than pinned; that marriage is indeed 
 the most important ceremony in life ; that there is in it 
 something sacred, and that one must not lose one's head 
 anyhow, for in an hour it will be over; to-morrow they 
 will depart, and then the normal quiet life of husband and 
 wife will begin. 
 
 These thoughts, however, flew away at moments like a 
 flock of sparrows, into which some one has fired from 
 behind a hedge suddenly, and it grew empty in Pan Stanis- 
 lav's head. Then phrases of this kind came to his lips 
 mechanically: "The eighth of April to-morrow will be 
 Wednesday ! to-morrow will be Wednesday ! my watch ! 
 to-morrow will be Wednesday ! " Later he roused him- 
 self, repeated, " One must be an idiot ! " and the scattered 
 birds flew back again in a whole flock to his head, aud 
 began to whirl around in it. 
 
 Mean while Abdulski, the agent of the house of Polany- 
 etski, Bigiel, and Company came in. He was to be the 
 second groomsman, with Bukatski as first. Being a Tartar 
 by origin and a man of dark complexion, though good-look- 
 ing, he seemed so handsome in the dress-coat and white 
 cravat that Pan Stanislav expressed the hope that surely 
 he would marry soon. Abdulski answered, 
 
 " The soul would to paradise ; " then he commenced a 
 pantomime, intended to represent the counting of money, 
 and began to speak of the Bigiels. All their children 
 wanted to be at the marriage. The Bigiels decided to take 
 only the two elder ones ; from this arose disagreements and 
 difference of opinion, expressed on Pan! Bigiel's side by 
 means of slaps. Pan Stanislav, who was a great children's 
 man, was exceedingly indignant at this, and said, 
 
 " I '11 play a trick on the Bigiels. Have they gone al- 
 ready ? " 
 
 "They were just going." 
 
 " That is well ; I will run in there on the way to Plavit- 
 ski's, take all the children, and pour them out before Pani 
 Bigiel and my affianced." 
 
 Abdulski expressed the conviction that Pan Stanislav 
 would not do so ; but he merely confirmed him thereby in 
 his plan all the more. In fact, when he entered the car- 
 riage, they drove for the children directly. The governess, 
 knowing Pan Stanislav's relations with the family, dared 
 not oppose him ; and half an hour later, Pan Stanislav, to 
 the TPat consternation of Pani Bigiel, entered Plavitski's
 
 28-4 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 lodgings at the head of a whole flock of little Bigiels, in 
 their e very-day clothing, with collars awry, hair disarranged 
 for the greater part, and faces half happy, half frightened, 
 and, hurrying up to Maryiiia, he said, kissing her hands 
 already enclosed in white gloves, 
 
 " Thev wanted to wrong the children. Say that I did 
 well." 
 
 This proof of his kind heart entertained and pleased 
 Mary uia ; hence she was glad from her whole soul to see 
 the children, and even glad of this, that the assembled 
 guests considered her future husband an original, and glad 
 because Pani Bigiel, straightening the crooked co lars hur- 
 riedly, said in her worry, 
 
 " What 's to be done with such a madman ? " 
 
 Somewhat of this opinion too was old Plavijski. But 
 Pan Stanislav and Marynia were occupied for the moment 
 with each other so exclusively that everything else vanished 
 from their eyes. The hearts of both beat a little unquietly. 
 He looked at her with a certain admiration. All in white, 
 from her slippers to her gloves, with a green wreath on her 
 head, and a long veil, she seemed to him other than usual. 
 There was in her something uncommonly solemn, as in the 
 dead Litka. Pan Stanislav did not make, it is true, that 
 comparison ; but he felt that this white Marynia, if not more 
 remote from him, made him hesitate more than she of 
 yesterday, arrayed in her ordinary costume. Withal she 
 seemed less comely than usual, for the wedding wreath is 
 becoming to women only exceptionally, and, besides, disquiet 
 and emotion reddened her face ; which, with the white robe, 
 seemed still redder than it was in reality. But a wonderful 
 thing ! Just this circumstance moved Pan Stanislav. In 
 his heart, rather kind by its nature, there rose a certain 
 feeling resembling compassion or tenderness. He under- 
 stood that Marynia's heart must be panting then like a 
 captive bird, and he began to calm her; to speak to her 
 with such good and kind words that he was astonished him- 
 self where he could find them in such numbers, and how 
 they came to him so easily. But they came to him easily 
 just because of Marynia. It was to be seen that she gave 
 herself to him with a panting of the heart, but also with 
 confidence ; that she gave him her heart, her soul, and her 
 whole being, her whole life, and that not only for good, but 
 for every moment of her life and to the end of it. In 
 this regard no shadow rose in Pan Stanislav's mind, and
 
 CHILDKEfl OF THE SOIL. 285 
 
 that certainty made him better at that moment, more 
 sensitive and eloquent, than he was ordinarily. At last they 
 held each the other's hand and looked into each other's eyes, 
 not only with love, but with the greatest friendship and 
 confidence. Both felt the double reality. Yet a few mo- 
 ments, and that future will begin. But now the thoughts 
 of both began to grow clear ; and that internal disquiet, 
 from which they had not been free, yielded more and more 
 and turned into a solemn concentration of thought, as the 
 religious ceremony drew near. Pan Stanislav's thoughts 
 did not fly apart like sparrows ; there remained to him only 
 a certain astonishment, as it were, that he with all his 
 scepticism had such a feeling even of the religious signifi- 
 cance of the act which was about to be accomplished. At 
 heart he was not a sceptic. In his soul there was hidden 
 even a certain yearning for religious sensations ; and if he 
 had not returned to them it was only through a loss of 
 habit and through spiritual negligence. Scepticism, at 
 most, had shaken the surface of his thoughts, just as wind 
 roughens the surface of water ; the depths of which are still 
 calm. He had lost, too, familiarity with forms; but to 
 regain it was a work for the future and Marynia. Mean- 
 while this ceremony to which he must yield seemed to him 
 so important, so full of solemnity and sacredness, that he 
 was ready to proceed to it with bowed head. 
 
 But first he had another ceremony, which, equally solemn 
 in itself, was disagreeable enough to Pan Stanislav ; namely, 
 to kneel before Pan Plavitski, whom he considered a fool, 
 receive his blessing and hear an exhortation, which, as was 
 known, Plavitski would not omit. Pan Stanislav had said 
 in his mind, however, "Since I am to marry, I must pass 
 through all which precedes it, and with a good face ; li 
 do I care what expression that monkey, Bnkatski, will have 
 at such moments." Therefore he knelt with all readiness 
 at Marynia's side before her father, and listened to his 
 blessing with an exhortation, which, by the way, was not 
 lone Plavitski himself was moved really ; his voice and 
 his hands trembled ; he was barely able to pronounce some- 
 thing in the nature of an adjuration to Pan Stanislav, not 
 to prevent Marynia from coming even occasionally to 
 at his grave before it was grown over completely with gras 
 
 Finally the solemnity of the moment affected Yozi 
 Bi-riel 'Seeing Pan Plavitski's tears, seeing Marynia a 
 Pan Stanislav on their knees (kneeling at Bigiel s house
 
 286 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 was not only a punishment, but frequently the beginning 
 of more vigorous instruction), Yozio gave expression to his 
 sympathy and fear by closing his eyes, opening his mouth, 
 and breaking into as piercing a wail as he could utter. 
 When the rest of the little Bigiels followed his example in 
 great part, and all began to move, for the time to pass to 
 the church had arrived, the grave of Pan Plavitski grown 
 over with grass could not call forth an impression suffi- 
 ciently elegiac. 
 
 Sitting in the carriage between Abdulski and Bukatski, 
 Pan Stanislav hardly answered their questions in half 
 words ; he took no part in the conversation, but kept up a 
 monologue with himself. He thought that in a couple of 
 minutes that would coine to pass of which he had been 
 dreaming whole months ; and which till the death of Litka 
 he had desired with the greatest earnestness of his life. 
 Here for the last time he was roused by a feeling of the 
 difference between that past which not long since had van- 
 ished, and the present moment ; but there was a difference. 
 Formerly he strove and desired ; to-day he only wished and 
 consented. That thought pierced him like a shudder, for it 
 shot through his head that perhaps there was lacking in 
 his own personality that basis on which one may build. 
 But he was a man able to keep his alarms in close bonds, 
 and to scatter them to the four winds at a given moment. 
 He said to himself, therefore : " First, there is no time to 
 think of this ; and second, reality does not answer always 
 to imaginings ; this is a simple thing." Then what 
 Bukatski had said pushed again into his memory : " It is not 
 enough to take, a man must give ; " but he thought this a 
 fabric of such fine threads that it had no existence what- 
 ever, and that life should be taken more simply, that there 
 is no obligation to come to terms with preconceived theories. 
 Here he repeated what he had said to himself frequently, 
 "I marry, and that is th*e end." Then reality embraced 
 him, or rather the present moment ; he had nothing in his 
 head but Marynia, the church, and the ceremony. 
 
 She on the way meanwhile implored God in silence to 
 help her to make her husband happy ; for herself she 
 begged also a little happiness, being certain, moreover, 
 that her dead mother would obtain that for her. 
 
 Then they went arm in arm between the lines of invited 
 and curious people, seeing somewhat as through a mist 
 lights gleaming in the distance on the altar, and at the sides
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 287 
 
 faces known and unknown. Both saw more distinctly the 
 face of Pani Emilia, who wore the white veil of a Sister of 
 Charity, her eyes at once smiling and filled with tears. 
 Litka came to the minds of both ; and it occurred to them 
 that it was precisely she who was conducting them to the 
 altar. After a while they knelt down ; before them was the 
 priest, higher up the gleaming of the candles, the glitter of 
 gold, and the holy face of the principal image. The cere- 
 mony commenced. They repeated after the priest the 
 usual phrases of the marriage vow; and Pan Stanislav, hold- 
 ing Marynia's hand, was seized suddenly by emotion such 
 as he had not expected, and such as he had not felt since 
 his mother had brought him to first communion. He felt 
 that that was not a mere every-day legal act, in virtue of 
 which a man receives the right to a woman ; but in that 
 binding of hands, in that vow, there is present a certain 
 mysterious power from beyond this world, that it is simply 
 God before whom the soul inclines and the heart trembles. 
 The ears of both were struck then in the midst of silence 
 by the solemn words, " Quod Dens junxit, homo non dis- 
 jungat ; " but Pan Stanislav felt that that Marynia whom 
 he had taken becomes his body and blood, and a part of his 
 soul, and that for her too he must be the same. That mo- 
 ment a chorus of voices in the choir burst out with " Veni 
 Creator" and a few moments after the Polanyetskis went 
 forth from the church. On the way out, the arms of Pani 
 Emilia embraced Marynia once again : " May God bless 
 you ! " and when they drove to the wedding reception, she 
 went to the cemetery to tell Litka the news, that Pan Stas 
 was married that day to Marynia.
 
 288 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Two weeks later, in Venice, the doorkeeper of the Hotel 
 Bauer gave Pan Stanislav a letter with the postmark of 
 Warsaw. It was at the moment when he and his wife were 
 entering a gondola to go to the church of Santa Maria della 
 Salute, where on that day, the anniversary of her death, a 
 Mass was to be offered for the soul of Marynia's mother. 
 Pan Stanislav, who expected nothing important from War- 
 saw, put the letter in his pocket, and asked his wife, 
 
 "But is it not a little too early for Mass?" 
 
 "It is; a whole half hour." 
 
 "Then perhaps it would please thee to go first to the 
 Kialto?" 
 
 Maryuia was always ready to go. Never having been 
 abroad before, she simply lived in continual rapture, and 
 it seemed to her that all which surrounded her was a dream. 
 More than once, in the excess of her delight, she threw 
 herself on her husband's neck, as if he had built Venice, 
 as if she ought to thank him alone for its beauty. More 
 than once she repeated, 
 
 "I look and I see, but cannot believe that this is real." 
 
 So they went to the Rialto. There was little movement 
 yet, because of the early hour; the water was as if sleep- 
 ing, the day calm, clear, but not very bright, one of those 
 days in which the Grand Canal with all its beauty has the 
 repose of a cemetery; the palaces seem deserted and for- 
 gotten, and in their motionless reflection in the water is 
 that peculiar deep sadness of dead things. One looks at 
 them then in silence, and as if in fear, lest by words the 
 general repose may be broken. 
 
 Thus did Marynia look. But Pan Stanislav, less sensi- 
 tive, remembered that he had a letter in his pocket, hence 
 he drew it forth, and began to read. After a time he 
 exclaimed, 
 
 "Ah! Mashko is married; their wedding was three days 
 after ours." 
 
 But Marynia, as if roused from a dream, inquired, while 
 blinking, " What dost thou say? " 
 
 "I say, dreaming head, that Mashko's wedding is over.'
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 289 
 
 She rested her head on his shoulder, and, looking into 
 his eyes, inquired, 
 
 "What is Mashko to me? I have my Stas." 
 
 Pan Stanislav smiled like a man who kindly permits 
 jiimself to be loved, but does not wonder that he is loved; 
 then he kissed his wife on the forehead, with a certain 
 distraction, for the letter had begun to occupy him, and 
 read on. All at once he sprang up, as if something had 
 pricked him, and cried, 
 
 " Oh, that is a real catastrophe ! " 
 
 "What has happened?" 
 
 "Panna Kraslavski has a life annuity of nine thousand 
 rubles, which her uncle left her; beyond that, not a 
 copper." 
 
 "But that is a good deal." 
 
 " A good deal? Hear what Mashko writes : 
 
 " ' In view of this, my bankruptcy is an accomplished fact, and the 
 declaration of my insolvency a question of time.' 
 
 "They deceived each other; dost .understand? He 
 counted on her property, and she on his." 
 
 "At least they have something to live on." 
 
 "They have something to live on; but Mashko has noth- 
 ing with which to pay his debts, and that concerns us a 
 little, me, thee, and thy father. All may be lost." 
 
 Here Marynia was alarmed in earnest. "My Stas," said 
 she, " perhaps thy presence is needed there ; let us return, 
 then. What a blow this will be to papa! " 
 
 "I will write Bigiel immediately to take my place, and 
 save what is possible. Do not take this business to heart 
 too much, my child. I have enough to buy a bit of bread 
 for us both, and for thy father." 
 
 Marynia put her arms around his neck. "Thou, my 
 good With such a man one may be at rest." 
 
 "Besides, something will be saved. If Mashko finds 
 credit, he will pay us; he may find a purchaser, too, for 
 Kremen. He writes me to ask Bukatski to buy Kremen, 
 and to persuade him to do so. Bukatski is going to Rome 
 this evening, and I have invited him to lunch. I will ask 
 him. He has a considerable fortune, and would have 
 something to do. I am curious to know how Mashko's 
 life will develop. He writes at the end of the letter : 
 
 " ' I discovered the condition of affairs to my wife; she bore herself 
 passively, but her mother is wild with indignation.' 
 
 19
 
 290 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Finally he adds that at last he has fallen in love with 
 his wife, and that if they should separate, it would be the 
 greatest uuhappiness in life for him. That lyric tale gives 
 ine little concern; but I ain curious as to how all this will 
 end." 
 
 "She will not desert him," said Marynia. 
 
 "I do not know; I thought myself once that she would 
 not, but I like to contradict. Wilt thou bet? " 
 
 "No; for I do not wish to win. Thou ugly man, thou 
 hast no knowledge of women." 
 
 "On the contrary, I know them; and I know them 
 because all are not like this little one who is sailing now 
 in a gondola." 
 
 "In a gondola in Venice, with her Stas," answered 
 Marynia. 
 
 They were now at the church. When they went from 
 Mass to the hotel, they found Bukatski, dressed for the. 
 road, in a cross-barred gray suit, which, on his frail body, 
 seemed too large, in yellow shoes and a fantastic cravat, 
 tied as fancifully as carelessly. 
 
 "I am going to-day," said he, after he had greeted 
 Marynia. "Do you command me to prepare a dwelling in 
 Florence for you? I can engage some palace." 
 
 "Then you will halt on the road to Rome?" 
 
 "Yes. First, to give notice in the gallery of your 
 coming, and to put a sofa on the stairs for you; second, I 
 halt for black coffee, which is bad throughout Italy in 
 general, but in Florence, at Giacosa's, Via Tornabuoni, it 
 is exceptionally excellent. That, however, is the one 
 thing of value in Florence." 
 
 "What pleasure is there for you in always saying some- 
 thing different from what you think?" 
 
 "But I am thinking seriously of engaging nice lodgings 
 on Lung-Arno for you." 
 
 " We shall stop at Verona." 
 
 "For Romeo and Juliet? Of course; of course! Go 
 now; later you would shrug your shoulders if you thought 
 of them. In a month it would be too late for you to go, 
 perhaps." 
 
 Marynia started up at him like a cat; then, turning to 
 her husband, said, 
 
 "Stas, don't let this gentleman annoy me so! " 
 
 "Well," answered Pan Stanislav, "I will cut his head 
 off, but after lunch."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 291 
 
 Bukatski began to declaim : 
 
 " It is not yet near day : 
 It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 
 That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear." 
 
 Then, turning to Marynia, he inquired, " Has Pan Stanislav 
 written a sonnet for you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Oh, that is a bad sign. You have a balcony on the 
 street; has it never come once to his head to stand under 
 your balcony with a guitar?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Oh, very bad!" 
 
 "But there is no place to stand here, for there is water." 
 
 " He might go in a gondola. With us it is different, you 
 see ; but here in Italy the air is such that if a man is in 
 love really, he either writes sonnets, or stands under a 
 balcony with a guitar. It is a thing perfectly certain, 
 resulting from the geographical position, the currents of 
 the sea, the chemical make-up of the air and the water: 
 if a man does not write sonnets, or stand out of doors with 
 a guitar, surely he is not in love. I can bring you very 
 famous books on this subject." 
 
 "It seems that I shall be driven to cut his head off 
 before lunch," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 The execution, however, did not come, for the reason 
 that it was just time for lunch. They sat down at a 
 separate table, but in the same hall was a general one, 
 which for Marynia, whom everything interested, was a 
 source of pleasure, too, for she saw real English people. 
 This made on her such an impression as if she had gone 
 to some land of exotics ; for since Kremen is Kremen, not 
 one of its inhabitants had undertaken a similar journey. 
 For Bukatski, and even Pan Stanislav, her delight was a 
 source of endless jokes, but also of genuine pleasure. The 
 first said that she reminded him of his youth; the second 
 called his wife a "field daisy," and said that one was not 
 sorry to shoAV the world to a woman like her. Bukatski 
 noticed, however, that the "field daisy" had much feeling 
 for art and much honesty. Many things were known to 
 her from books or pictures; not knowing others, she 
 acknowledged this openly, but in her expressions there 
 was nothing artificial or affected. When a thing touched 
 her heart, her delight had no bounds, so that her eyes
 
 292 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 became moist. At one time Bukatski jested with her 
 unmercifully; at another he persuaded her that all the 
 connoisseurs, so called, have a nail in the head, and that 
 she, as a sensitive and refined nature, and so far unspoiled, 
 was for him of the greatest importance in questions of art; 
 she would be still more important if she were ten years 
 of age. 
 
 At lunch they did not talk of art, because Fan Stanislav 
 remembered his news from Warsaw, and said, 
 
 "I had a letter from Mashko." 
 
 "And I, too," answered Bukatski. 
 
 "And thou? They must be hurried there; Mashko must 
 be pressed in real earnest. Is the question known to 
 thee?" 
 
 "He persuades me, or rather, he implores me, to buy 
 dost thou know what?" 
 
 Bukatski avoided Kremen, knowing well what trouble 
 it had caused, and was silent through delicacy toward 
 Marynia. 
 
 But Pan Stanislav, understanding his intention, said, 
 
 "Oh, my God! Once we avoided that name as a sore 
 spot, but now, before my wife, it is something different. 
 It is hard to be tied up a whole lifetime." 
 
 Bukatski looked at him quickly; Marynia blushed a 
 .tittle, and said, 
 
 " Stas is perfectly right. Besides, I know that it is a 
 question of Kremen." 
 
 "Yes, it is of Kremen." 
 
 "Well, and what?" asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "I should not buy it even because of this, that the 
 lady might have the impression that people are tossing 
 it about like a ball." 
 
 "If I do not think at all of Kremen?" said Marynia, 
 blushing still more. She looked at her husband; and he 
 nodded in sign of praise and satisfaction. 
 
 "That is a proof," answered he, "that thou art a child 
 of good judgment." 
 
 "At the same time," continued Marynia, " if Pan Mashko 
 does not hold out, Kremen will either be divided, or go 
 into usurers' hands, and that to me would be disagreeable." 
 
 "Ah, ha!" said Bukatski, "but if you do not think at 
 all of Kremen?" 
 
 Marynia looked again at her husband, and this time 
 with alarm; he began to laugh, however.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 293 
 
 "Marynia is caught," said lie. 
 
 Then he turned to Bukatski. "Evidently Mashko looks 
 on thee as the one plunk of salvation." 
 
 "But I am not a plank; look at me! I am a straw, 
 rather. The man who wishes to save himself by such a 
 straw will drown. Mashko has said himself more than 
 once to me, ' Thou hast blunted nerves. ' Perhaps I have ; 
 but I need strong impressions for that very reason. If I 
 were to help Mashko, he would work himself free, stand 
 on his feet, give himself out as a lord still further; his 
 wife would personate a great lady, they would be terribly 
 comme il faut, and I should have the stupid comedy, 
 which I have seen already, and which I have yawned at. 
 If, on the other hand, I do not help him, he will be 
 ruined, he will perish, something interesting will happen, 
 unexpected events will come to pass, something tragic may 
 result, which will occupy me more. Now, think, both of 
 you, I must pay for a wretched comedy, and dearly; the 
 tragedy I can have for nothing. How is a man to hesitate 
 in this case?" 
 
 " Fi! how can you say such things? " exclaimed Marynia. 
 
 "Not only can I say them, but I shall write them to 
 Mashko; besides, he has deceived me in the most unworthy 
 manner." 
 
 "In what?" 
 
 "In what? In this, that I thought: 'Oh, that is a 
 regular snob ! that is material for a dark personage ; that 
 is a man really without heart or scruples 1' Meanwhile, 
 what comes out? That at bottom of his soul he has a certain 
 honesty; that he wants to pay his creditors; that he is 
 sorry for that puppet with red eyes; that he loves her; 
 that for him separation from her would be a terrible catas- 
 trophe. He writes this to me himself most shamelessly. 
 I give my word that in our society one can count on noth- 
 ing. I will settle abroad, for I cannot endure this." 
 
 Now Marynia was angry in earnest. 
 
 " If you say such things, I shall beg to break relations 
 with you." 
 
 But Pan Stanislav shrugged his shoulders, and added : 
 " In fact, thy talk is ever on some conceit to amuse thyself 
 and others, and never wilt thou think with judgment and 
 in human fashion. Dost understand, I do not persuade 
 thee to buy Kremen, and all the more because I might 
 have a certain interest to do so; but there would be some 
 occupation for thee there, something to do."
 
 294 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Here Bukatski began to laugh, and said after a while, 
 "I told thee once that I like, above all, to do what 
 pleases rne, and that it pleases me most to do nothing; 
 hence it is that doing nothing I do what pleases me most. 
 If thou art wise, prove that I have uttered nonsense. 
 Take the second case: Suppose me a buckwheat sower; 
 that, however, simply passes imagination. I, for whom 
 rain or fine weather is merely the question of choosing a 
 cane or an umbrella, would have, in my old age, to stand 
 on one leg, like a stork, and look to see whether it pleases 
 the sun to shine, or the clouds to drop rain. I should 
 have to tremble as to whether my wheat is likely to grow, 
 or my rape-seed shed, or rot fall on the potatoes; whether 
 I shall be able to stake my peas, or furnish his Worship 
 of Dogweevil as many bushels as I have promised; whether 
 my plough-horses have the glanders, and my sheep the foot- 
 rot. I should, in my old age, come to this, that from 
 blunting of faculties I would interject after every three 
 words: ' Pan Benefactor,' or ' What is it that I wanted to 
 say? ' Voyons! pas si bete f I, a free man, should become 
 a glebce adscriptus, a ' Neighbor,' a ' Brother Lata,' a ' Pan 
 Matsyei,' a ' Lechit.'" 1 
 
 Here, roused a little by the wine, he began to quote in 
 an undertone the words of Slaz in "Lilla Weneda": 
 
 " Am I a Lechit ? What does this mean ? Are boorishness, 
 Drunkenness, gluttony, gazing from my eyes 
 With the seven deadly sins, a passion for uproar, 
 Pickled cucumbers, and escutcheons ? " 
 
 "Argue with him," said Pan Stanislav, "especially when 
 at the root of the matter he is partly right." 
 
 But Marynia, who as soon as Bukatski had begun to 
 speak of work in the country, grew somewhat thoughtful, 
 shook thoughtfulness now from her forehead, and said, 
 
 "When papa was not well, and never in Kremen has 
 he been so well as recently, I saved him a little in 
 management, and later that work became for me a habit. 
 Though God knows there was no lack of troubles, it gave 
 me a pleasure that I cannot describe. But I did not 
 understand the cause of this till Pan Yamish explained it. 
 ' That,' said he, 'is the real work on which the world 
 stands, and every other is either the continuation of it, 
 or something artificial.' Later I understood even things 
 
 1 Polish noble.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 295 
 
 which he did not explain. ' More than once, when I went 
 out to the fields in spring, and saw that all things were 
 growing, I felt that iny heart, too, was growing with them. 
 And now I know why that is : In all other relations that a 
 man holds there may be deceit, but the land is truth. It 
 is impossible to deceive the land ; it either gives, or gives 
 not, but it does not deceive. Therefore land is loved, as 
 truth ; and because one loves it, it teaches one to love. 
 And the dew falls not only on grain, and on meadows, but 
 on the soul, as it were ; and a man becomes better, for he 
 has to deal with truth, and he loves, that is, he is nearer 
 God. Therefore I loved my Kremen so much." 
 
 Here Marynia became frightened at her own speech, 
 and at this, what would " Stas " think ; at the same time 
 reminiscences had roused her. All this was reflected in her 
 eyes as the dawn, and on her young face ; and she was 
 herself like the dawn. 
 
 Bukatski looked at her as he would at some unknown 
 newly discovered master-piece of the Venetian school ; then 
 he closed his eyes, and hid half of his small face in his 
 enormous fantastic cravat, and whispered, 
 
 " Delicieuse ! " 
 
 Then, thrusting forth his chin from his cravat, he 
 said, 
 
 "You are perfectly right." 
 
 But the logical woman would not let herself be set aside 
 by a compliment. 
 
 "If I am right, yon are not." 
 
 "That is another matter. You are right because it 
 becomes you; a woman in that case is always right." 
 
 "Stas!" said Marynia, turning to her husband. But 
 there was so much charm in the woman at that moment, 
 that he also looked on her with delight, his eyes smiled, 
 his nostrils moved with a quick motion; for a moment he 
 covered her hand with his, and said, 
 
 "Oh, child, child!" 
 
 Then he inclined to her, and whispered, 
 
 "If we were not in this hall, I would kiss those dear 
 eyes and that mouth." 
 
 And, speaking thus, Pan Stanislav made a great mistake , 
 for at that moment it was not enough to feel the physical 
 charm of Marynia, to be roused at the color of her face, 
 her eyes, or her mouth, but it was necessary to feel the 
 soul in her; to what an extent he did not feel it was shown
 
 296 CHILDREN OF THE SQIL. 
 
 by his fondling words, "0 child, child!" She was for 
 him at that moment only a charming child-woman, and 
 he thought of nothing else. 
 
 Just then coffee was brought. To end the conversation, 
 Pan Stanislav said, 
 
 "So Mashko has come out a lover, and that after 
 marriage." 
 
 Bukatski swallowed a cup of boiling coffee, and answered, 
 "In this is the stupidity, that Mashko is the man, not in 
 this, that the love was after marriage. I have not said 
 anything sensible. If I have, I beg pardon most earnestly, 
 and promise not to do so a second time. I have burned my 
 tongue evidently with the hot coffee! I drink it so hot 
 because they tell rue that it is good for headache ; and my 
 head aches, aches." 
 
 Here Bukatski placed his palm on his neck and the back 
 of his head, and blinked, remaining motionless for a few 
 seconds. 
 
 "I am talking and talking," said he, then, "but my head 
 aches. I should have gone to my lodgings, but Svirski, 
 the artist, is to come to me here. We are going to Florence 
 together; he is a famous painter in water-colors, really 
 famous. No one has brought greater force out of water- 
 colors. But see, he is just coming! " 
 
 In fact, Svirski, as if summoned by a spell, appeared ift 
 the hall, and began to look around for Bukatski. Espying 
 him at last, he approached the table. 
 
 He was a robust, short man, with hair as black as if he 
 were an Italian. He had an ordinary face, but a wise, 
 deep glance, and also mild. While walking, he swayed a 
 little because of his wide hips. 
 
 Bukatski presented him to Marynia in the following 
 words , 
 
 "I present to you Pan Svirski, a painter, of the genus 
 genius, who not only received his talent, but had the most 
 happy idea of not burying it, which he might have done 
 as well, and with equal benefit to mankind, as any other 
 man. But he preferred to fill the world with water-colors 
 and with fame." 
 
 Svirski smiled, showing two rows of teeth, wonderfully 
 small, but white as ivory, and said, 
 
 "I wish that were true." 
 
 "And I will tell you why he did not bury his talent," 
 continued Bukatski j "his reasons were so parochial that
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 97 
 
 it would be a shame for any decent artist to avow them. 
 He loves Pognembiu, which is somewhere in Poznan, or 
 thereabouts, and he loves it because he was born there. 
 If he had been born in Guadeloupe he would have loved 
 Guadeloupe, and love for Guadeloupe would have saved 
 him in life also. This man makes me indignant; and 
 will the lady tell me if I am not right?" 
 
 To this Marynia answered, raising her blue eyes to 
 Svirski, "Pan Bukatski is not so bad as he seems, for he 
 has said everything that is good of you." 
 
 "I shall die with my qualities known," whispered 
 Bukatski. 
 
 Svirski was looking meanwhile at Marynia, as only an 
 artist can permit himself to look at a woman, and not 
 offend. Interest was evident in his eyes, and at last he 
 muttered, 
 
 "To see such a head all at once, here in Venice, is a 
 genuine surprise." 
 
 "What?" asked Bukatski. 
 
 "I say, that the lady is of a wonderfully well-defined 
 type. Oh, this, for example " (here he drew a line with his 
 thumb along his nose, mouth, and chin). "And also what 
 purity of outline ! " 
 
 "Well, isn't it true?" asked Pan Stanislav, with excite- 
 ment. "I have always thought the same." 
 
 "I will lay a wager that thou hast never thought of it," 
 retorted Bukatski. 
 
 But Pan Stanislav was glad and proud of that interest 
 which Marynia roused in the famous artist; hence he 
 said, 
 
 "If it would give you any pleasure to paint her portrait, 
 it would give me much more to have it." 
 
 "From the soul of my heart," answered Svirski, with 
 simplicity; "but I am going to Kome to-day. There I 
 have begun the portrait of Pani Osnovski." 
 
 " And we shall be in Rome no later than ten days from 
 now." 
 
 "Then we are agreed." 
 
 Marynia returned thanks, blushing to her ears. 
 Bukatski began to take farewell, and drew Svirski after 
 him. When they had gone out, he said, 
 
 " We have time yet. Come to Floriani's for a glass of 
 cognac." 
 
 Bukatski did not know how to drink, and didn t like
 
 298 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 spirits ; but since he had begun to take morphine, he drank 
 more than he could endure, because some one had told him 
 that one neutralized the other. 
 
 " What a delightful couple those Polanyetskis are ! " said 
 Svirski. 
 
 "They are not long married." 
 
 "It is evident that he loves her immensely. When I 
 praised her, his eyes were smiling, and he rose as if on 
 yeast." 
 
 "She loves him a hundred times more." 
 
 "What knowledge hast thou in such matters?" 
 
 Bukatski did not answer; he only raised his pointed 
 nose, and said, as if to himself, 
 
 "Oh, marriage and love have disgusted me; for it is 
 always profit on one side, and sacrifice on the other. 
 Polanyetski is a good man, but ^vhat of that? She has 
 just as much sense, just as much character, but she loves 
 more; therefore life will fix itself for them in this way, 
 he will be the sun, he will be gracious enough to shine, to 
 warm, will consider her as his property, as a planet made 
 to circle around him. All this is indicated to-day. She 
 has entered his sphere. There is in him a certain self- 
 confidence which angers me. He will have her with an 
 income, but she will have him alone without an income. 
 He will permit himself to love, considering his love as 
 virtue, kindness, and favor; she will love, considering her 
 love as a happiness and a duty. Look, if you please, at 
 him, the divine, the resplendent! I want to go back and 
 tell them this, in the hope that they will be less happy." 
 
 Meanwhile the two men had taken seats in front of 
 Floriani's, and soon cognac was brought to them. Svirski 
 thought some time over the Polanyetskis, and then 
 inquired, 
 
 "But if the position is pleasant for her?" 
 
 "I know that she has short sight; she might be pleased 
 quite as well to wear glasses." 
 
 "Go to the deuce! glasses on a face like hers " 
 
 " This makes thee indignant; but the other makes me " 
 
 " Yes, for thou hast a kind of coffee-mill in thy head, 
 which grinds, and grinds everything till it grinds it into 
 fine dust. What dost thou want of love in general?" 
 
 "I, of love? I want nothing of love! Let the devil 
 take him who wants anything of love ! I have sharp pains 
 in my shoulder-blades from it. But if I were other than
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 299 
 
 I ain, if I had to describe what love ought to be, if I 
 wanted anything of it, then I should wish " 
 
 "What? hop! jump over!" 
 
 "That it were composed in equal parts of desire and 
 reverence." 
 
 Then he drank a glass of cognac, and added after a 
 while, 
 
 " It seems to me that I have said something which may 
 be wise, if it is not foolish. But it is all one to me." 
 
 "No! it is not foolish." 
 
 "As God lives, it is all one to me."
 
 300 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AFTER a stay of cue week in Florence, Pan Stanislav re- 
 ceived his first letter from Bigiel concerning the business 
 of the house, and news so favorable that it almost sur- 
 passed his expectations. The law prohibiting export of 
 grain because of the famine was proclaimed. But the firm 
 had enormous supplies bought and exported previously; 
 and because prices, especially at the first moment, had 
 risen excessively abroad, Bigiel and Polanyetski began to 
 do perfect business. Speculation, planned and carried 
 through on a great scale, turned out so profitable that 
 from well-to-do people, which they were before, they had 
 become almost rich. For that matter Pan Stanislav had 
 been sure of his business from the beginning, and enter- 
 tained no fears; the news, however, pleased him both with 
 reference to profit and his own self-love. Success intoxi- 
 cates a man and strengthens his self-confidence. So, in 
 talking with Marynia, he was not able to refrain from 
 giving her to understand that he had an uncommon head, 
 unquestionably higher than all those around him, like a 
 tree the loftiest in the forest; that he is a man who always 
 reaches the place at which he has aimed, in a word, a 
 kind of phoenix in that society, abounding in men who 
 know not how to help themselves. In the whole world 
 he could not have found a listener more willing and ready 
 to accept everything with the deepest faith. 
 
 "Thou art a woman," said he, not without a shade of 
 loftiness; "therefore why tell thee the affair from the 
 beginning, and enter into details. To thee, as a woman, I 
 can explain all best if I say thus : I was not in a condi- 
 tion yesterday to buy the medallion with a black pearl 
 which I showed thee at Godoni's; to-day I am, and will 
 buy it." 
 
 Marynia thanked him, and begged that he would not 
 do so; but he insisted, and said that nothing would re- 
 strain him, that that was resolved on, and Marynia must 
 consider herself the owner of the great black pearl, which, 
 on such a white neck as hers, would be beautiful. Then 
 he fell to kissing that neck ; and when finally he had satis-
 
 CHILDREN Of THE SOIL. 301 
 
 fied himself, but still felt the need of a listener of some 
 sort, he began to walk in the room, smiling at his wife 
 and at his own thoughts, saying, 
 
 "I do not mention those who do nothing: Bukatski, 
 for instance, who is known to be good for nothing, nor 
 asses like Kopovski, who is known to have a cat's head; 
 but take even men who do something, men of mind 
 seemingly. Never would Bigiel seize a chance on the 
 wing: he would set to thinking over it, and to putting 
 it off; to-day he would decide, and to-morrow be afraid, 
 and the time would be gone. What is the point in ques- 
 tion? First, to have a head, and second, to sit down and 
 calculate. And if one decides to act, then act. It is 
 needful, too, to be cool, and not pose. Mashko is no fool, 
 one might think; but see what he has worked out! I have 
 not gone his way, and shall not follow him." 
 
 Thus speaking, he continued to walk and to shake his 
 thick, dark hair; and Marynia, who, in every case, would 
 have listened to his words with faith, received them now 
 as an infallible principle, all the more that they rested on 
 tangible success. 
 
 He stopped before her at last, and said, 
 
 "Knowest what I think? that coolness is judgment. It 
 is possible to have an intelligent head, to take in knowl- 
 edge as a sponge absorbs liquid, and still not to have 
 sound, sober judgment. Bukatski is for me a proof of 
 this. Do not think me vain; but if I, for instance, knew 
 as much about art as he does, I should have a sounder 
 judgment concerning it. He has read so much, and caught 
 up so many opinions, that at last he has none of his own. 
 Surely, from the materials which he has collected, I should 
 have squeezed out something of my own." 
 
 "Oh, that is sure," said Marynia, with perfect con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Pan Stanislav might have been right in a certain view. 
 He was not a dull man by any means, and it may be 
 that his intelligence was firmer and more compact than 
 Bukatski's; but it was less flexible and less comprehen- 
 sive. This did not occur to him. He did not think, also, 
 that in that moment, under the influence of boastfulness, 
 he was saying things before Marynia which the fear of 
 ridicule and criticism would have restrained him from say- 
 ing before strangers, sceptical persons. Bnt he did not 
 restrain himself before Marynia; he judged that if he could
 
 302 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 permit himself such little boastfuluess before any one, it 
 was before his wife. Besides, as he himself said, ''He 
 had taken her, and all was over." Moreover, she was his 
 own. 
 
 In general, he had not felt so happy and satisfied at any 
 time in life as then. He had experienced material success, 
 and considered the future as guaranteed; he had married 
 a woman, young, charming, and clever, for whom he had 
 become a dogma, and the position could not be otherwise, 
 since her lips were not dry for whole days from his kisses, 
 and whose healthy and honest heart was filled with grati- 
 tude for his love. What could be lacking to him? What 
 more could he wish? He was satisfied with himself, for 
 he ascribed in great part to his own cleverness and merit, 
 his success in so arranging life that everything promised 
 peace and prosperity. He saw that life was bitter for 
 other men, but pleasant for him, and he interpreted the 
 difference to his own advantage. He had thought once 
 that a man wishing peace had to regulate his connection 
 with himself, with mankind, with God. The first two he 
 looked on as regulated. He had a wife, a calling, and a 
 future; hence he had given and secured to himself all that 
 he could give and secure. As to society, he permitted 
 himself sometimes to criticise it, but he felt that in the 
 bottom of his soul he loved it really; that even if he 
 wished, he could not do otherwise; that if in a given case 
 it were necessary to go into water or fire for society, he 
 would go, hence he considered everything settled on that 
 side too. His relation with God remained. He felt that 
 should that become clear and certain, he might consider 
 all life's problems settled, and say to himself definitely, 
 "I know why I have lived, what I wanted, and why I must 
 die." While not a man of science, he had touched enough 
 on science to know the vanity of seeking in philosophy 
 so-called explanations or answers which are to be sought 
 rather in intuition, and, above all, in feeling, in so far as 
 the one and the other of these are simple, otherwise they 
 lead to extravagance. At the same time, since he was not 
 devoid of imagination, he saw before him, as it were, the 
 image of an honest, well-balanced man, a good husband, a 
 good father, who labors and prays, who on Sunday takes 
 his children to church, and lives a life wonderfully 'whole- 
 some from a moral point of view. That picture smiled at 
 him; and in life so much is done for pictures. He
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 303 
 
 thought that a society which had a great number of such 
 citizens would be stronger and healthier than a society 
 which below was composed of boors, and above of sages 
 dilettanti, decadents, and all those forbidden figures with 
 sprained intellects. One time, soon after his acquaint- 
 ance with Marynia, he had promised himself and Bigiel 
 that on finishing with his own person, and with people, he 
 would set about this third relation seriously. Now 'the 
 time had come, or at least was approaching. Pan Stanislav 
 understood that this work needed more repose than is 
 found on a bridal trip, and among the impressions of a 
 new life and a new country, and that hurry of hotels and 
 galleries in which he lived with Marynia. But, in spite 
 of these conditions, in the rare moments when he was with 
 his own thoughts, he turned at once to that problem, which 
 for him was at that time the main one. He was subject 
 meanwhile to various influences, which, small in themselves, 
 exercised a certain action, even because he refrained pur- 
 posely from opposing them. Of these was the influence 
 of Marynia. Pan Stanislav was not conscious of it, and 
 would not have owned to its existence; still the continual 
 presence of that calm soul, sincerely and simply pious, 
 extremely conscientious in relation to God, gave him an 
 idea of the rest and peace to be found in religion. When 
 he attended his wife to church, he remembered the words 
 which she said to him in Warsaw, "Of course; it is the 
 service of God." And he was drawn into it, for at first he 
 went to church with her always not to let her go alone, 
 and later because it gave him also a certain internal 
 pleasure, such, for example, as the examination of phe- 
 nomena gives a scientist specially interested in them. In 
 this way, in spite of unfavorable conditions, in spite of 
 journeys, and a line of thought interrupted by impressions 
 of every sort, he advanced on the new road continually. 
 His thoughts had at times great energy and decisiveness in 
 this direction. "I feel God," said he to himself. 
 Him at Litka's grave; I felt Him, though I did not 
 acknowledge it, in the words of Vaskovski about death; I 
 felt Him at marriage; I felt Him at home, in the plains, 
 and in this country, in the mountains above the snow; and 
 I only ask yet how I am to glorify Him, to honor and love 
 Him? Is it as pleases me personally, or as my wife does, 
 and as my mother taught me? " 
 
 In Rome, however, he ceased at first to think of these
 
 304 
 
 things; so many external impressions were gathered at 
 once in his mind that there was no room for reflection. 
 Moreover, he and Maryuia came home in the evening so 
 tired that he remembered almost with terror the words of 
 Bukatski, who, at times, when serving them as cicerone 
 for his own satisfaction, said, "Ye have not seen the thou- 
 sandth part of what is worth seeing ; but that is all one, 
 for in general it is not worth while to come here, just as 
 it is not worth while to stay at home." 
 
 Bukatksi was then in a n't of contradiction, overturning 
 in one statement what he had seemed to affirm in the pre- 
 ceding one. 
 
 Professor Vaskovski came, too, from Perugia to greet 
 them, which pleased Marynia so much that she met him 
 as she would her nearest relative. But, after satisfying 
 her first outbursts of delight, she observed in the professor's 
 eyes, as it were, a kind of melancholy. 
 
 "What is the matter?" inquired she. "Do you not feel 
 well in Italy?" 
 
 "My child," answered he, "it is pleasant in Perugia, 
 and pleasant in Rome oh, how pleasant! Know this, 
 that here, while walking on the streets, one is treading 
 on the dust of the world. This, as I repeat always, is the 
 antechamber to another life but " 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 " But people you see, that is, not from a bad heart, for 
 here, as well as everywhere, there are more good than bad 
 people ; but sometimes I am sad, for here, as well as at 
 home, they look on me as a little mad." 
 
 Bukatski, who was listening to the conversation, said, 
 
 " Then the professor has more cause for sadness here than 
 at home." 
 
 "Yes," answered Vaskovski; "I have so many friends 
 there, like you, who love me but here, no and therefore 
 I am homesick." 
 
 Then he turned to Pan Stanislav: "The journals here 
 have printed an account of my essay. Some scoff altogether. 
 God be with them! Some agree that a new epoch would, 
 begin through the introduction of Christ and His spirit into 
 history. One writer confessed that individuals treat one 
 another in a Christian spirit, but that nations lead a pagan 
 life yet. He even called the thought a great one ; but he and 
 all others, when I affirm this to be a mission which God has 
 predestined to us, and other youngest of the Aryans, seize
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 305 
 
 their sides from laughter. And this pains me. They give 
 it to be understood also that I have a little here " 
 
 And poor Vaskovski tapped his forehead with his finger. 
 After a while, however, he raised his head and said, 
 
 " A man sows the seed in sadness and often in doubt; but 
 the seed falls on the field, and God grant that it spring up ! " 
 
 Then he began to inquire about l j ani Emilia ; at last he 
 turned to them his eyes, which were as if wakened from 
 sleep, and asked naively, 
 
 " But it is pleasant for you to be with each other ? " 
 
 Marynia, instead of answering, sprang to her husband, 
 and, nestling her head up to his shoulder, said, 
 
 " Oh, see, Professor, this is how we are together, so ! " 
 
 A.nd Pan Stanislav stroked her dark head with his hand
 
 306 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 A WEEK later Pan Stanislav took his wife to Svirski's on 
 Via Margutta. Svirski they saw almost daily. They had 
 grown accustomed to the artist and liked him ; now he was 
 to paint Marynia's portrait. At the studio they found the 
 Osnovskis, with whom acquaintance was made the more 
 easily since the ladies had met some years before at a party, 
 and Pan Stanislav had been presented on a time to Pani 
 Osnovski, at Ostend; he needed merely to remember her 
 now. Pan Stanislav, it is true, did not recollect whether at 
 that epoch, when, after looking at every young and present- 
 able woman, he asked himself, "Is it this one?" he had 
 asked this touching the present Pani Osnovski ; he might 
 have done so, however, for she had the reputation then of 
 being a comely, though rather flighty young person. Now 
 she was a woman of six or seven and twenty, very tall, a 
 fresh, though dark brunette, with cherry lips, dishevelled 
 forelock, and somewhat oblique violet eyes, which gave her 
 face a resemblance to Chinese faces, and at the same time a 
 certain expression of malice and wit. She had a strange 
 way of bearing herself, which consisted in thrusting back 
 her shoulders and pushing forward her body ; in consequence 
 of this, Bukatski said of her that she carried her bust en 
 qffrande. 
 
 Almost immediately she told Marynia that, as they were 
 sitting in the same studio, they ought to consider each other 
 as colleagues; and told Pan Stanislav that she remembered 
 him, from the ball at Ostend, as a good dancer and causeur, 
 and therefore that she would not delay in taking advantage 
 of that knowledge now. To both she said that it was very 
 agreeable to her, that she was delighted with Rome, that she 
 was reading " Cosmopolis," that she was in love with the 
 Villa Doria, with the view from the Pincian, that she hoped 
 to see the catacombs in company with them, and that she 
 knew the works of Rossi, in Allard's translations. . Then, 
 pressing Svirski's hand, and smiling coquettishly at Pan 
 Stanislav, she went out, declaring that she gave way to one 
 worthier than herself, and left the impression of a whirl- 
 wind, a Chinese woman, and a flower. Pan Osnovski, a very
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 307 
 
 young man, with a light blond face without significance, but 
 kindly, followed her, and hardly had he been able to put iu 
 a word. 
 
 Svirski drew a deep breath. 
 
 " Oh, she is a storm ! " said he ; " I have a thousand dif- 
 ficulties in keeping her at rest two minutes." 
 
 " But what an interesting face ! " said Marynia. " Is it 
 permitted to look at the portrait ? " 
 
 " It lacks little of being finished ; you may look at it." 
 
 Murynia and Pan Stanislav approached the portrait, and 
 could express admiration without excess of politeness. That 
 head, painted in water-colors, had the strength and warmth 
 of an oil painting, and at the same time the whole spiritual 
 essence of Pani Osnovski was in it. Svirski listened to the 
 praises calmly; it was clear that he was pleased with his 
 work. He covered the picture, and carried it to a dark 
 corner of the studio, seated Marynia in an armchair already 
 in position, and began to study her. 
 
 His persistent gaze confused her somewhat, her cheeks 
 began to flush ; but he smiled with pleasure, muttering, 
 
 " Yes ; this is another type, earth and heaven !" 
 
 At moments he closed one eye, which confused Marynia 
 still more ; at moments he approached the cardboard, and 
 again drew back, and again studied her; and again he said, 
 as if to himself, 
 
 "In the other case, one had to bring out the devil, but 
 here womanliness." 
 
 "As you have seen that immediately, I feel sure of a 
 masterpiece," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 All at once Svirski stopped looking at the paper and at 
 Marynia, and, turning to Pan Stanislav, smiled joyously, 
 showing his sound teeth. 
 
 " Yes, womanliness ! and her own womanliness, that is 
 the main characteristic of the face." 
 
 "And seize it, as you seized the devil in the other one." 
 
 "Stas !" exclaimed Marynia. 
 
 " It is not I who invented that, but Pan Svirski." 
 
 "If you wish, we will say imp, not devil, a comely imp, 
 but a dangerous one. While painting, I observe various 
 things. That is a curious type, Pani Osnovski." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Have you observed her husband? " 
 
 ''Somehow 1 was so occupied with her that I had no 
 time."
 
 308 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " There it is : she hides him in such a degree that he is 
 hardly visible ; and, what is worse, she herself does not see 
 him. At the same time he is one of the most worthy men 
 in the world, uncommonly well-bred, considerate to others 
 in an unheard-of degree, very rich, and not at all stupid. 
 Moreover, he loves her to distraction." 
 
 Here Svirski began to paint, and repeated, as if in 
 forgetfuluess, 
 
 " Lo-ves her to dis-trac-tion. Be pleased to arrange your 
 hair a little about the ear. If your husband is a talker, he 
 will be in despair, for Bukatski declares that when I begin 
 work my lips never close, and that I let no one have a 
 word. She, do you see, may be thus far as pure as a tear, 
 but she is a coquette. She has an icy heart with a fiery 
 head. A dangerous species, oh, dangerous ! She devours 
 books by whole dozens, naturally French books. She 
 learns psychology in them, learns of feminine tempera- 
 ments, of the enigma of woman, seeks enigmas in herself, 
 which do not exist at all in her, discovers aspirations of 
 which yesterday she knew nothing. She is depraving her- 
 self mentally; this mental depravation she considers wis- 
 dom, and makes no account of her husband." 
 
 "But you are a terrible man," remarked Marynia. 
 
 "My wife will hide to-morrow from fear, when the hour 
 for sitting comes," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Let her not hide ; hers is a different type. Osnovski 
 is not at all dull; but people, and especially, with your 
 permission, women, are so unwise, that if a man's clever- 
 ness does not hit them on the head, if a man lacks confi- 
 dence in himself, if he does not scratch like a cat and cut 
 like a knife, they do not value him. As God lives, I have 
 seen this in life a hundred times." 
 
 After a while he closed one eye again, gazed at Marynia, 
 and continued, 
 
 " In general , how foolish human society is ! More than 
 once have I put to myself this question: Why is honesty 
 of character, heart, and such a thing as kindness, less 
 valued than what is called mind? Why, in social life, are 
 two categories pre-eminent, wise and foolish? It is not 
 the custom, for example, to say, virtuous and unvirtuous ; 
 to such a degree is it not the custom, that the very ex- 
 pressions would seem ridiculous." 
 
 "Because," said Pan Stanislav, "mind is the lantern 
 with which virtue and kindness and heart must light the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 309 
 
 way for themselves, otherwise they might break their noses, 
 or, what is worse, break the noses of other people." 
 
 Marynia did not utter, it is true, a single word; but in 
 her face it was possible to read distinctly, " How wise this 
 Stas is terribly wise ! " 
 
 " Wise Stas " added meanwhile, 
 
 " I am not speaking of Osnovski now, for I do not know 
 him." 
 
 "Osnovski," said Svirski, "loves his wife as his wife, 
 as his child, and as his happiness; but she has her head 
 turned, God knows with what, and does not repay him in 
 kind. Women interest me, as an unmarried man, im- 
 mensely; more than once have I talked whole days about 
 women, especially with Bukatski, when they interested 
 him more than they do now. Bukatski divides women 
 into plebeian souls, by which he means poor and low spirits, 
 and into patrician souls, that is, natures ennobled, full 
 of the higher aspirations, and resting on principles, not 
 phrases. There is a certain justice in this, but I prefer 
 my division, which is simply into grateful and ungrateful 
 hearts." 
 
 Here he withdrew from the sketch for a moment, half 
 closed his eyes, then, taking a small mirror, placed it 
 toward the picture, and began to look at the reflection. 
 
 "You ask what I mean by grateful and ungrateful 
 hearts," said he, turning to Marynia, though she had not 
 asked about anything. "A grateful heart is one which 
 feels when it is loved, and is moved by love; and in re- 
 turn for the loving, loves more and more, yields itself more 
 and more, prizes the loving, and honors it. The ungrate- 
 ful heart gets all it can from the love given; and the more 
 certain it feels of this love, the less it esteems it, the more 
 it disregards and tramples it. It is enough to love a 
 woman with an ungrateful heart, to make her cease loving. 
 The fisherman is not concerned for the fish in the net; 
 therefore Pani Osnovski does not care for Pan Osnovski. 
 In the essence of the argument this is the rudest form of 
 egotism in existence, it is simply African; and therefore 
 God guard Osnovski, and may the Evil One take her, wit 
 her Chinese eyes of violet color, and her frizzled forelock 
 To paint such a woman is pleasant, but to marry we are 
 not such fools. Will you believe it, I am in so much dread 
 of an ungrateful heart that I have not mamedM far, 
 though my fortieth year has sounded distinctly?
 
 310 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "But it is so easy to recognize such a heart," said 
 Marynia. 
 
 " May the Evil One take what is bad! " answered Svirski. 
 " Not so easy, especially when a man has lost sense and 
 reason." 
 
 Bending his athletic form, he looked at the sketch some 
 time, and said, 
 
 "Well, enough for to-day. As it is, I have talked so 
 continuously that flies must have dropped from the walls. 
 To-morrow, if you hear too much, just clap your hands. I 
 do not talk so with Pani Osnovski, because she herself 
 likes to talk. But how many titles of books have I heard? 
 Enough of this! I wanted to say something more, but 
 have forgotten. Ah ! this is it, you have a grateful 
 heart." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed, and invited Svirski to dinner, 
 promising him the society of Bukatski and Vaskovski. 
 
 "With great delight," answered Svirski; "I am as much 
 alone here as a wild beast. As the weather is clear and 
 the moon full, we will go later to see the Colosseum by 
 moonlight." 
 
 The dinner took place, however, without Bukatski's 
 mental hobbies, for he felt out of health, and wrote that 
 he could not come. But Svirski and Vaskovski suited 
 each other excellently, and became friends right away. 
 Only while he was working did Svirski let no one have a 
 word; in general, he liked to hear others, knew how to 
 listen, and, though the professor and his views seemed to 
 him comical sometimes, so much sincerity and kindness 
 was evident in the old man that it would have been diffi- 
 cult for him not to win people. His mystic face and the 
 expression of his eyes struck the artist. He sketched 
 him a little in his mind; and, while listening to his talk 
 about the Aryans, he thought how that head would look if 
 all that was in it were brought out distinctly. 
 
 Toward the end of the dinner the professor asked 
 Marynia if she would like to see the Pope. He said that 
 in three days a Belgian pilgrimage was to arrive, and that 
 she might join it. Svirski, who knew all Eome and all 
 the monsignores, guaranteed to effect this with ease. When 
 he heard this, the professor looked at him, and inquired. 
 
 "Then you are almost a Roman?" 
 
 "Of sixteen years' standing." 
 
 "Is it possible!"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 311 
 
 Here the professor was somewhat confused, fearing lest 
 he had committed some indiscretion, but still wishing to 
 know what to think of a man so sympathetic, he overcame 
 his timidity, and inquired, 
 
 "But of the Quirinal, or the Vatican?" 
 
 "From Pognembin," answered Svirski, frowning slightly. 
 
 The end of the dinner interrupted further explanations 
 and converse. Marynia could scarcely sit still at the 
 thought that she would see the Capitol, the Forum, and 
 the Colosseum by moonlight. In fact, somewhat later 
 they were driving toward the ruins along the Corso, which 
 was lighted by electricity. 
 
 The night was calm and warm. Around the Forum and 
 Colosseum the place was completely deserted; as, for that 
 matter, it is in the day sometimes. Near the church of 
 Santa Maria Liberatrice some person in an open window 
 was playing on a flute, and one could hear every note in 
 the stillness. On the front of the Forum a deep shadow fell 
 from the height of the Capitol and its edifices; but farther 
 on it was flooded with clear, greenish light, as was also 
 the Colosseum, which seemed silver. "When the carriage 
 halted at the arches of the gigantic circus, Pan Stanislav, 
 Svirski, and Vaskovski entered the interior, and pushed 
 toward the centre of the arena, avoiding the fragments of 
 columns, friezes, piles of bricks, stones, and bases of 
 columns standing here and there, and fragments piled up 
 near the arches. Under the influence of silence and loneli- 
 ness, words did not rise to their lips. Through the arched 
 entrances came to the interior sheaves of moonlight, which 
 seemed to rest quietly on the floor of the arena, on the 
 opposite walls, on the indentations, on openings in the 
 walls, on breaks, on the silvered mosses and ivy, covering 
 the ruin here and there. Other parts of the building, 
 sunk in impenetrable darkness, produced the impression 
 of black and mysterious gulleys. From the low-placed 
 cunicula came the stern breath of desolation. Reality was 
 lost amidst that labyrinth and confusion of walls, arches. 
 bright spots, bright stripes, and deep shadows. The 
 colossal ruin seemed to lose its real existence, and to 
 become a dream vision, or rather, a kind of wonderful 
 impression composed of silence, night, the moon, sadness, 
 and the remembrance of a past, mighty, but full of blood 
 and suffering. 
 
 Svirski began to speak first, and in a subdued voice,
 
 312 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " What pain, what tears, were here ! what a measureless 
 tragedy ! Let people say what they please, there is some- 
 thing beyond human in Christianity; and that thought 
 cannot be avoided." 
 
 Here he turned to Marynia, and continued, 
 
 " Imagine that might : a whole world, millions of people, 
 iron laws, power unequalled before or since, an organiza- 
 tion such as has never been elsewhere, greatness, glory, 
 hundreds of legions, a gigantic city, possessing the world, 
 and that Palatine hill over there, possessing the city; 
 it would seem that no earthly power could overturn it. 
 Meanwhile two Jews come, Peter and Paul, not with 
 arms, but a word; and see, here is a ruin, on the Palatine 
 a ruin, in the Forum a ruin, and above the city crosses, 
 crosses, crosses and crosses." 
 
 Again there was silence; but from the direction of Santa 
 Maria Liberatrice the sound of the flute came continually. 
 
 After a while Vaskovski said, pointing to the arena, 
 
 "There was a cross here, too, but they have borne it 
 away." 
 
 Pan Stanislav was thinking, however, of Svirski's words; 
 for him they had a more vital interest than they could 
 have for a man who had finished the spiritual struggle 
 with himself. At last he said, following his own course 
 of thought, 
 
 "Yes, there is something beyond human in this; some 
 truth shines into the eyes here, like that moon." 
 
 They were going slowly toward the entrance, when a 
 carriage rattled outside. Then in the dark passage leading 
 to the centre of the circus, steps were heard; two tall 
 figures issued from the shade into the light. One of these, 
 dressed in gray stuff, which gleamed like steel in the 
 moonlight, approached a number of steps to distinguish 
 the visitors better, and said all at once, 
 
 " Good-evening ! The night is so beautiful that we, too, 
 came to the Colosseum. What a night! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav recognized the voice of Pani Osnovski. 
 
 Giving her hand, she spoke with a voice as soft as the 
 sound of that flute which came from the direction of the 
 church, 
 
 "I shall begin to believe in presentiments, for really 
 something told me that here I should find acquaintances. 
 How beautiful the night is I"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 ON returning to the hotel. Pan Stanislav and Marynia 
 were surprised somewhat to hud the Osnovskis' cards; and 
 their astonishment rose from this, that, being newly married, 
 it was their duty to make the first visit. For this unusual 
 politeness it was needful to answer with equal politeness, 
 hence they returned the visit on the following day. 
 Bukatski, who saw them before they made it, though he 
 was very unwell, and could barely drag his feet along, 
 brought himself still to one of his usual witticisms, and 
 said to Pan Stanislav, when they were alone for a 
 moment, - 
 
 "She will play the coquette; but if thou suppose that 
 she Avill fall in love with thee, thou art mistaken. She 
 is a little like a razor, she needs a strap to sharpen her- 
 self; in the best event, thou wilt be a strap for her." 
 
 "First, I do not wish to be her strap," answered Pan 
 Stanislav; "and second, it is too early." 
 
 "Too early? That means that thou art reserving the 
 future for thyself." 
 
 "No; it means that I am thinking of something else, 
 and also that T love my Marynia more and more. And 
 when that ends, too early will be too late, and that Pani 
 Osnovski might dent, but not sharpen herself, on me." 
 
 And Pan Stanislav, in saying this, was sincere: he had 
 his thoughts occupied really with something else ; he was 
 too honorable to betray his wife at any time, but even if 
 not, it was too early to begin. 
 
 He was so greatly sure of his strength that he felt a 
 certain readiness to expose himself to trial. In other 
 words, it would have given the man a kind of pleasure if 
 Pani Osnovski had dented herself on him. 
 
 After lunch he went with Marynia to sit to Svirski; the 
 sitting, however, was short, since the artist was judge i 
 some exhibition, and had to hasten to a meeting, 
 returned home, and Pan Osnovski came to them a quart 
 of an hour later. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, after his conversation with bvirski, had 
 a kind of compassion for Osnovski, but also a sort o
 
 314 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 small opinion. Marynia, however, felt for him a living 
 sympathy; she was won by what she had heard of his 
 kindness and delicacy, as well as his attachment to his 
 wife. It seemed to her now that all these qualities were 
 as it' written on his face, a face by no means ugly, 
 though it had pimples here and there. 
 
 After the greeting, Osnovski began to speak with the 
 confident freedom of a man accustomed to good society: 
 
 ' I come at the instance of iny wife with a proposal. 
 Praise to God, visiting ceremonies are ended between us, 
 though abroad it is not worth while to reckon too precisely 
 in this matter. The affair is this: We are going to 
 St. Paul's to-day, and then to the Three Fountains. That 
 is outside the city; there is an interesting cloister in the 
 place, and a beautiful view. It would be very agreeable to 
 us if you would consent to make the trip in our company." 
 
 Marynia was always ready for every trip, especially in 
 company, and with pleasant conversation; in view of this 
 she looked at her husband, waiting for what he would say. 
 Pan Stanislav saw that she wished to go, and, besides, he 
 thought in his soul, " If the other wants to dent herself, 
 let her do it." And he answered, 
 
 "I would consent willingly, but this depends on my 
 superior power." 
 
 His ''superior power" was not sure yet whether the 
 obedient subordinate meant that really; but, seeing on his 
 face a smile and good-humor, she made bold to say at 
 last, 
 
 "With much thankfulness; but shall we not cause 
 trouble?" 
 
 "Not trouble, but pleasure," answered Osnovski. "In 
 that event the matter is ended. We '11 be here in a quarter 
 of an hour." 
 
 In fact, they set out a quarter of an hour later. Pani 
 Osnovski 's Chinese eyes were full of satisfaction and 
 repose. W r earing an iris-colored robe, in which she might 
 pass for the eighth wonder of the world, she looked really 
 like a rusalka. 1 And before they had reached St. Paul's, 
 Pan Stanislav did not know how Pani Osnovski, who had 
 not spoken on this subject to him, had been able somehow 
 to say to him, or at least to give him to understand, more 
 or less as follows : " Thy wife is a pleasant little woman 
 from the country; of my husband nothing need be said. 
 1 River-maiden among the Slavs.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 315 
 
 We two only are able to understand each other and share 
 impressions." 
 
 But he resolved to torment her. When they arrived at 
 St. Paul's, which Pani Osnovski did not mention otherwise 
 than as "San Poolo t'uori le Mura," * her husband wished 
 to stop the carriage, but she said, 
 
 " We will stop when returning, for we shall know then 
 how much time is left for this place; but now we'll go 
 straight to the Three Fountains." 
 
 Turning to Pan Stanislav, she continued, "There are in 
 this famous place various things, about which I should 
 like to ask you." 
 
 "Then you will do badly, for I know nothing at all of 
 these matters." 
 
 It appeared soon, on passing various monuments, that 
 of the whole party Pan Osnovski knew most. The poor 
 man had been studying the guide-books from morning till 
 evening, so that he might be a guide for his wife, and 
 also to please her tvifch his knowledge. But she cared 
 nothing for explanations which her husband could give, 
 precisely because they came from him. The insolent self- 
 assurance with which Pan Stanislav had confessed that he 
 had no idea of antiquities was mere to her taste. 
 
 Beyond St. Paul's opened out a view on the Campagna 
 with its aqueducts, which seemed to run toward the city 
 in haste, and on the Alban hills, veiled, as they were, with 
 the blue haze of distance, a view at once cairn and bright. 
 Pani Osnovski gazed for some time with a dreamy look, 
 and then inquired, 
 
 " Have you been in Albani or Nemi ? " 
 
 "oSTo," answered Pan Stanislav; " sitting to Svirski breaks 
 L /he day so for us that we cannot make long excursions till 
 Mie portrait is finished." 
 
 " We have been there ; but when you are going, take me 
 with you, take me with you ! Is it agreed ? Will you per- 
 mit ? " added she, turning to Marynia. "I shall be a fifth 
 wheel to some extent, but never mind. Besides, I shall 
 sit quietly, very quietly, in a corner of the carriage, and 
 not give out one mru mru ! Is it agreed ? " 
 
 "Oi ! little one, little one," said Pan Osnovski. 
 
 But she continued, "My husband will not believe that 
 1 am in love with Nemi ; but I am. When I was there, 
 it seemed to me that Christianity had not reached the place 
 1 Thus printed to show her style of Italian.
 
 316 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 yet; that in the night certain priests coine out and celebrate 
 pagan rites on the lake. Silence and mystery! there you 
 have Nemi. Will you believe that when I was there the 
 wish came to me to be a hermit, and it has not left me to 
 this moment ? I would build a cell on the bank of the lake 
 for myself, and wear a robe long and gray, like the habit 
 of Saint Francis of Assisi, and go barefoot. What would I 
 give to be a hermit ! I see myself at the lake " 
 
 "Anetka, 1 but what would become of me?" inquired 
 Osnovski, half in jest, half in earnest. 
 
 " Oh, thou wouldst console thyself," said she, curtly. 
 
 " Thou wouldst be a hermitess," thought Fan Stanislav, 
 " if on the other side of the lake there were a couple of 
 dozen dandies gazing through glasses to see what the 
 hermitess was doing, and how she looked." 
 
 He was too well-bred to tell her this directly ; but he told 
 her something similar, and which could be understood. 
 
 "Naturally," said she, laughing; " I should live by alms, 
 and should have to see people sometimes ; if you came to 
 Nemi, I should come to you too and repeat in a very low 
 voice, ' Un soldo ! un soldo ! ' ' 
 
 Saying this, she. stretched her small hands to him, 
 and shook them, repeating humbly, 
 
 " Un soldo per la povera ! un soldo ! " 
 
 And she looked into his eyes. 
 
 Pan Osnovski spoke meanwhile to Marynia. 
 
 " This is called Three Fountains," said he, " for there are 
 three springs here. Saint Paul's head was cut off at this 
 place ; and there is a tradition that the head jumped three 
 times, and that on those places springs burst forth. The 
 place belongs now to the Trappists. Formerly people 
 could not pass a night here, there was such fever ; now there 
 is less, for they have planted a whole forest of eucalyptuses 
 on the hills. Oh, we can see it already." 
 
 But Pani Osnovski, bending back somewhat, half closed 
 her eyes for a moment, and said to Pan Stauislav, 
 
 " This Roman air intoxicates me. I am as if beside 
 myself. At home I cannot force from life more than it 
 gives me ; but here I am demoralized, I feel that something 
 is wanting to me. Do I know what ? Here one feels 
 something, divines something, yearns for something. 
 Maybe that is bad. Maybe it is not right for me to say 
 this. But I say always what passes through my mind. 
 1 A diminutive of Aneta.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 317 
 
 At home, when a child, they called rue Little Sincerity. 
 I shall beg my husband to take me hence. It may be better 
 to live in my own narrow shell, like a nut, or a suail." 
 
 " It may be pleasant in shells for nuts or snails," an- 
 swered Fan Stanislav, with gravity, "but not for birds, 
 and besides birds of paradise, of which there is a tradition 
 that they have no legs and can never rest, but must fly and 
 fly." 
 
 " What a beautiful tradition ! " exclaimed Pani Osnovski. 
 And, raising her hands, she began to move them, imitating 
 the motion of wings, and repeating, 
 
 " This way, forever through the air." 
 
 The comparison flattered her, though she was astonished 
 that Pan Stanislav had uttered it with a serious voice, but 
 with an inattentive and, as it were, ironical face. He began 
 to interest her, for he seemed very intelligent, and more 
 difficult to master than she had expected. 
 
 Meanwhile they arrived at Three Fountains. They visited 
 the garden, the church, and the chapel, in the basement of 
 which three springs were flowing. Pan Osnovski explained, 
 in his kind, somewhat monotonous voice, what he had read 
 previously. Marynia listened with interest ; but Pan Stan- 
 islav thought, 
 
 " Still to live three hundred and sixty-five days in a 
 year with him, must be a little tiresome." 
 
 That justified Pani Osnovski in his eyes for the moment ; 
 she, taking upon herself now the new role of bird of 
 paradise, did not rest for a moment, not merely on the 
 ground, but on any subject. First she drank eucalyptus 
 liquor, which the cloister prepared as a means against fever ; 
 then she declared decisively that if she were a man she 
 would be a Trappist. Later, however, she remembered that 
 her sailing career would be agreeable "ever between sea and 
 sky, as if living in endlessness ; " at last the wish to become 
 a great, a very great writer, gained the day against every- 
 thing else, a writer describing the minutest movements 
 of the soul, half-conscious feelings, desires incompletely de^- 
 fined, all forms, all colors, all shades. The party learne< 
 also, as a secret, that she was writing her memoirs, wind 
 "that honest Yozio" considers a masterpiece ; but she knov 
 that that is nothing, she has not the least pretensions, anc 
 she ridicules Yozio and the memoirs. 
 
 "Yozio" looks at her with loving eyes, and wit 
 affection on his pimpled face, and says with a protest, -
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " As to the memoirs, I beg pardon greatly." 
 They drove away about sundown. There were long shad- 
 ows from the trees; the sun was large and red. The 
 distant aqueducts and the Alban hills were gleaming in rose- 
 color. They were halfway when the "Angelus" was 
 sounded in the tower of St. Paul's, and immediately alter 
 were heard a second, a third, a tenth. Each church gave 
 the signal to the succeeding one ; and such a mighty chorus 
 was formed as if the whole air were ringing, as if the 
 "Augelus " had been sounded not merely by the city, but the 
 whole region, the plains, and the mountains. 
 
 Pah Stauislav looked on Marynia's face, lighted by the 
 golden gleams. There was great calm in it and attention. 
 It was evident that she was repeating the "Angelus " now, 
 as she had repeated it in Kreinen, when it was sounded in 
 Vantory. Always and everywhere the same. Pan Stanislav 
 remembered again the " service of God." It seemed to him 
 more simple and pacifying than ever. But now, while ap- 
 proaching the city, he understood the permanence, the 
 vitality, the immensity, of those beliefs. "All this," thought 
 he, " has endured thus for a thousand and a half of years ; 
 and the strength and certainty of this city is only in those 
 towers, those bells, that permanence of the cross, which en- 
 dures and endures." Again Svirski's words came to him : 
 "Here a ruin, on the Palatine a ruin, in the Forum a ruin, but 
 over the city crosses, crosses, crosses and crosses." It seemed 
 to him beyond a doubt that in that very permanence there is 
 something superhuman. Meanwhile the bells sounded, and 
 the heavens above the city were covered with twilight. 
 Under the impression produced by the praying Marynia, 
 and the bells, and that vesper feeling, which seemed to 
 hover over the city and the whole land, the following thought 
 began to take form in Pan Stanislav, who had much mental 
 directness : " What an idiot and vain fool should I be, in 
 view of the needs of faith and that feeling of God, were I 
 to seek some special forms of love and reverence of my own, 
 instead of accepting those which Marynia calls 'service of 
 God,' and which still must be the best, since the world has 
 lived nearly two thousand years in them ! " Then the reason- 
 ing side of this thought struck him as a practical man, and 
 he continued to himself, almost joyously : "On one side the 
 traditions of a thousand years, the life of God knows how 
 many generations and how many societies, for which there 
 was and is delight in those forms, the authority for God
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 319 
 
 knows how many persons who consider them as the only 
 forms ; on the other side, who ? I, a partner in the com- 
 mission house of Bigiel and Polanyetski; and I had the 
 pretension to think out something better into which the 
 Lord God would fit Himself more conveniently. For this it 
 is needful at least to be a fool ! I, besides, am a man sincere 
 with myself ; and I could not endure it if from time to time 
 the thought came to me, I am a fool. But my mother be- 
 lieved in this, and my wife believes ; and I have never 
 seen greater peace in any one than in them." 
 
 Here he looked at Marynia once and a second time ; she 
 had finished evidently her " Angelus," f or she smiled at him 
 in answer, and inquired, 
 
 " Why so silent ? " 
 
 " We are all silent," he answered. 
 
 And so it was, but for various reasons. While Pan 
 Stanislav was occupied with his thoughts, Pani Osnovski 
 attacked him a number of times with her eyes and her words. 
 He answered her words with something disconnected, and 
 did not notice her glances in any way. He simply offended 
 her: she might have forgiven him, she might have been 
 pleased even, if to her statement that she wished to be a nun, 
 he had answered with impudence concealed in polished 
 words ; but he wounded her mortally when he ceased to 
 notice her, and in punishment she ceased also to notice him. 
 
 But as a person of good breeding she became all the 
 politer to Marynia. She inquired touching her plans on the 
 following day ; and, learning that they were to be at the 
 Vatican, she announced that she and her husband had 
 tickets of admission, and would use the opportunity 
 also. 
 
 " You know the dress ? " inquired she. " A black robe, 
 and black lace on the head. One looks a little old in them, 
 but no matter." 
 
 " I know; Pan Svirski forewarned me," answered Marynia. 
 
 " Pan Svirski always talks of you to me when I am sit- 
 ting to him. He has great regard for you." 
 
 "And I for him." 
 
 During this conversation they arrived at the hotel. Pan 
 Stanislav received such a slight and cool pressure of the 
 hand from the fair lady that, though his head was occupied 
 with something else, he noticed it. 
 
 "Is that a new method," thought he, "or have I said 
 something that displeased her?"
 
 320 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " What dost thou think of Pani Osnovski ? " asked he of 
 Marynia in the evening. 
 
 " I think that Pan Svirski may be right in some meas- 
 ure." 
 
 And Pan Stanislav answered: "She is writing at this 
 moment < memoirs/ which ' Yozio ' considers a master- 
 piece."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 321 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 1\ EXT morning when Marynia came out to her husband he 
 hardly knew her. Dressed in black, and with a black lace 
 veil on her head, she seemed taller, more slender, darker, 
 and older. But he was pleased by a certain solemnity in 
 her which recalled the ceremony of their marriage. Half 
 an hour later they started. On the road Marynia con- 
 fessed to fear, and a beating of the heart. He pacified her 
 playfully, though he, too, was moved somewhat; and when, 
 after a short drive, they entered the gigantic half -circle 
 in front of St. Peter's, he felt also that his pulse was not 
 beating as every day, and, besides, he had a strange feeling 
 of being smaller than usual. Near the steps, where stood 
 a number of Swiss guards, arrayed in the splendid uniform 
 invented by Michael Angelo, they found Svirski, who 
 led them up with a throng of people, mostly Belgians. 
 Marynia, who was somewhat dazed, did not know herself 
 when she entered a very spacious hall, in which the throng 
 was still denser, excepting on a space in the centre, where 
 the Swiss guards were posted in lines, and kept a broad 
 passage open. The crowd, among which the French and 
 Flemish languages were to be heard, whispered in low 
 voices, and turned their heads and eyes toward a passage, 
 in which, from time to time, appeared, through the adjoin- 
 ing hall, forms in remarkable costumes, which reminded 
 Pan Stanislav of galleries in Antwerp or Brussels. It 
 seemed to him that the Middle Ages were rising from the 
 dead: now it was some knight of those ages, in a helmet, 
 different indeed from helmets on the ancient portraits, but 
 with steel on his breast; now a herald in a short red 
 dalmatica, and with a red cap on his head; at times 
 through the open door appeared purple cardinals, or violet 
 bishops, ostrich feathers, lace on black velvet, and heads 
 immensely venerable, white hair and faces, as if from a 
 sarcophagus. But it was evident that the glances of th 
 throng were falling on those peculiar dresses and cole 
 and faces, as if, in passing, that their eyes were waiting 
 for something beyond, something higher, some other heart; 
 it was clear that in people's minds attention was fixed as 
 
 21
 
 322 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 was feeling in their souls, in waiting for a moment which 
 comes once in a lifetime, and is memorable ever after. 
 Pan Stanislav, holding Marynia by the hand, so as not to 
 lose her in the throng, felt that hand tremble from emotion ; 
 as to him, in the midst of those silent crowds and beating 
 hearts, before that historical dignity of former ages rising 
 from the dead, as it were, in the midst of that attention 
 and expectation, he felt a second time the wonderful im- 
 pression of becoming smaller and smaller, till he was the 
 smallest that he had ever been in life. 
 
 At that moment a low and rather panting voice whispered 
 near them, 
 
 " I have been looking for you, and found you with diffi- 
 culty. The ceremony will begin at once, it seems." 
 
 But it was not to begin at once. The monsiguor acquaint- 
 ance greeted Svirski meanwhile, and, speaking a few words 
 to him, conducted the whole party politely to the adjoining 
 hall, which was fitted in crimson damask. Pan Stanislav 
 saw with astonishment that this hall, too, was full of 
 people, with the exception of one end, which was reserved 
 by a guard of honor, and in which was an armchair on an 
 elevation, and before it a number of prelates and bishops 
 conversing confidentially. Here expectation and attention 
 were more expressly visible. It was evident that people 
 were holding their breath; and all faces had a solemn, 
 mysterious expression. The azure clearness of the day, 
 mingled with the purple reflections of the tapestry, filled 
 that hall with a kind of unusual light, in which the rays 
 of the sun, breaking in here and there through the window- 
 panes, appeared very ruddy and of a deeper red. 
 
 They waited some time yet; at last, in the first hall a 
 murmur was heard, then a muttering, then a shout, and, 
 finally, in the open side door appeared a white figure, 
 borne by the noble guard. Marynia's hand pressed Pan 
 Stanislav's nervously; he returned the pressure; and swift 
 impressions, merged in one general feeling of the excep- 
 tional and solemn import of the moment, flashed through 
 their minds, as during the ceremony of their marriage. 
 
 One of the cardinals began to speak, but Pan Stanislav 
 neither heard nor understood what he said. His eyes, his 
 thoughts, his whole soul, were with the figure clothed in 
 white. Nothing in it escaped his attention, its un- 
 paralleled emaciation, its frailness, its thinness, and its 
 face as pale, and at the same time as transparent, as faces
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 323 
 
 of the dead are. There was in it something which had no 
 physical strength, or in every case it seemed to him simply 
 half body, half apparition, as it were, a light shining 
 through alabaster; a spirit, fixed in some transparent mat- 
 ter ; an intermediate link between two worlds ; a link human 
 yet, though already preterhuman, earthly so far, hut also 
 above earthly things. And through a marvellous antithesis 
 the matter in it seemed to be something apparitional, and 
 the spirit something material. 
 
 Afterward, when people began to approach it for a bless- 
 ing; when Pan Stanislav saw his Maryniaat its feet; when 
 he felt that to those knees, already half empyrean, one 
 might still incline as to those of a father, an emotion 
 surpassing everything seized him; his eyes were as if mist- 
 covered; never in life had he felt himself such a small 
 grain of sand, but at the same time he felt himself a grain 
 of sand in which the grateful heart of a little child was 
 throbbing. 
 
 After they had gone out, all were silent. Marynia had 
 eyes as if roused from sleep; Vaskovski's hands were 
 trembling. Bukatski dragged himself in to lunch; but, 
 being ill, he could not excite conversation in any one. 
 Svirski, strange to say, talked little while Marynia was 
 sitting, and returned continually to the same subject; from 
 time to time he repeated, 
 
 "Yes, yes; whoever has not seen that can have no con- 
 ception of it. That will remain." 
 
 In the evening Pan Stanislav and Marynia went to see 
 the sunset from Trinita dei Monti. The day ended very 
 beautifully. The whole city was buried in a kind of hazy 
 golden gleam; under their feet, far down in the valley, on 
 the Piazza di Spagna, darkness was beginning, but a dark- 
 ness yet lighted, in the mild tones of which irises and 
 white lilies were visible among the flowers set out on both 
 sides of the Via Condotti. In the whole picture there 
 was great and undisturbed repose, a kind of soothing 
 announcement of night and sleep. Then the Piazza di 
 Spagna began to sink more and more in the shade, but the 
 Trinita was shining continually in purple. 
 
 Pan Stanislav and Marynia felt this calmness reflected 
 in themselves; they descended the giant stairs then with a 
 wonderful feeling of peace in their souls. All the impres- 
 sions of the day settled down in them in lines as great and 
 calm as those twilight belts, which were still shining above 
 them.
 
 324 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Knowest thou," said Pan Stanislav, "what I remember 
 yet from childhood's years? That with us at home they 
 always said the evening rosary together." And he looked 
 with an inquiring glance into Marynia's eyes. 
 
 "Oh, my Stas!" said she, with a voice trembling from 
 emotion, "I did not dare to mention this my best." 
 
 " ' Service of God, ' dost thou remember? " 
 
 But she had said that formerly with such simplicity, and 
 as a thing so self-evident, that she remembered nothing 
 whatever about it. 

 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 BUT Pan Stanislav was in permanent disfavor with Pani 
 Osnovski. Meeting him at Svirski's, between one sitting 
 and another, she spoke to him only in so far as good breed- 
 ing and politeness demanded. He saw this perfectly, and 
 asked himself sometimes, "What does that woman want 
 of me?" but troubled himself little. He would have 
 troubled himself still less if "that woman," instead of 
 being eight and twenty, had been eight and fifty years of 
 age ; if she had been without those violet eyes and those 
 cherry lips. And such is human nature that, in spite of 
 the fact that he wanted nothing of her, and expected noth- 
 ing, he could not refrain from thinking what might happen 
 should he strive really for her favor, and how far would 
 she be capable of going. 
 
 They had another trip of four to the catacombs of 
 St. Calixtus, for Pan Stanislav wished to repay politeness 
 with politeness, that is, a carriage with a carriage. But 
 this trip did not bring reconciliation; they only conversed 
 so far as not to call attention to themselves. At last this 
 began to anger Pan Stanislav. In fact, Pani Osnovski's 
 bearing developed a special relation between them, un- 
 pleasant in a way, but known only to them, hence some- 
 thing between them exclusively, a kind of secret, to 
 which no one else was admitted. Pan Stanislav considered 
 that all this would end with the work on her portrait; but 
 though the face had been finished some time, there remained 
 many little details, for which the presence of the charm- 
 ing model was indispensable. Even for the simple reason 
 that Svirski did not wish to lose time, it happened that 
 when Pan Stanislav and his wife came, the Osnovskis were 
 in the studio. Sometimes they stopped a little for greeting 
 and a short talk touching yesterday's impressions; some- 
 times Osnovski was sent by his wife on an errand, or for 
 some news. In that event he went out first, leaving the 
 carriage for her before the studio. 
 
 And it happened once that when Marynia had taken her 
 place for a sitting, Pani Osnovski had not gone yet; after 
 a while, learning that Marynia had been at the theatre the
 
 326 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 evening before, she, while putting on her hat and gloves 
 before the mirror, inquired about singers and the opera, 
 then , turning to Pan Stanislav, she said, 
 
 "And now, I pray you, conduct me to the carriage." 
 
 She threw on her wrap, and began to look for the ribbons 
 sewn behind to the lining, so as to fasten it around her 
 waist, but she stopped suddenly at the entrance, 
 
 "I cannot find the ribbons because I have niy gloves on; 
 take pity on me." 
 
 Pan Stanislav had to look for the ribbons, but in doing 
 so he was forced to put his arm almost around her ; after a 
 moment the brewing of desire poured about him, all the 
 more since she bent toward him, and the warmth of her 
 face and body struck him. 
 
 "But why are you angry with me?" inquired she, in an 
 undertone; "that is bad. I am in such need of friendly 
 souls. What have I done to you? " 
 
 He found the ribbons, recovered himself, and \vith that 
 somewhat coarse satisfaction of a rude man, who desires 
 to use his triumph, and to signify that he has not yielded, 
 answered simply, with an impertinence, 
 
 "You have done nothing to me, and you can do nothing." 
 
 But she repulsed the impoliteness, as if it were a ball at 
 tennis. 
 
 "Because sometimes I notice persons so little that I 
 jiardly see them." 
 
 They went in silence to the carriage. 
 
 "But is it that way?" thought Pan Stanislav, returning 
 to the studio; "a man might advance there as far as he 
 pleased; " and a quiver passed through him. "As far as 
 he pleased," repeated he. 
 
 Herewith he was not conscious that he had made such a 
 mistake as is made daily by dozens of men who are lovers 
 of hunting in other men's grounds. Pani Osnovski was a 
 coquette : she had a dry heart, and her thought was dis- 
 honorable already; but she was hundreds of miles yet from 
 complete physical fall. 
 
 Meanwhile Pan Stanislav returned to the studio feeling 
 that he had made an immense sacrifice for Marynia, and 
 with a certain regret in his heart, first, because she would 
 not know what had happened, and second, if she should 
 know, she would consider his action as perfectly simple. 
 This feeling angered him; and when he looked at her, at 
 her clear eyes, her calm face, and her fair, honest beauty,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 327 
 
 a comparison of those two women urged itself into his 
 mind in spite of him, and in his soul he said, 
 
 "Ah, Marynia! such as she would rather sink through 
 the earth; of her it is possible to be certain." 
 
 And singular thing there was in this an undoubted 
 recognition, but there was also a shade of regret, and, as 
 it were, of irritation, that that was a woman so greatly his 
 own that he did not feel bound to a continual admiration 
 of her worthiness. 
 
 And for the rest of the sitting he turned his thought to 
 Pani Osnovski. He supposed that in future she would 
 simply cease to give her hand to him, and it turned out 
 that he was mistaken again. On the contrary, wishing to 
 show that she attached no importance to him or to his 
 words, she was more polite to him than hitherto. Pan 
 Osnovski, however, had an offended look, and became more 
 and more icy every day toward him. This was caused, 
 undoubtedly, by conversations with "Anetka." 
 
 A few days later, however, impressions of another sort 
 effaced that adventure from Pan Stanislav's mind. Bukatski 
 had long been ill; he complained more and more of a pain 
 in the back of his head, and a strange feeling of separating 
 from his own muscles. His humor revived still at moments, 
 but it shot up and went out like fireworks. He came to 
 the table d'hote more rarely. At last Pan Stanislav re- 
 ceived his card one morning; on it these words were written 
 with a very uncertain hand, 
 
 MY DEAR, After to-night it seems that I am about to get on 
 horseback. If thou wish to see my departure, come, especially in 
 lack of anything better to do. 
 
 Pan Stanislav hid the card from Marynia, but went 
 straightway. He found Bukatski in bed, and a doctor 
 with him, whom Bukatski sent away that moment. 
 
 "Thou hast frightened me terribly," said Pan Stanislav. 
 "What ails thee?" 
 
 " Nothing great, a little paralysis of the lower part of 
 the body." 
 
 "Have the fear of God!" 
 
 "Thou speakest wisely, if there were time for it; but 
 now I have no power in my left arm, in my left leg, and 
 I cannot rise. Thus did I wake this morning. I thought 
 that I had lost speech, too, and began to declaim to myself,
 
 328 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 ' Per me si va; ' but, as thou seest, I have not lost speech. 
 My tongue remained, and now I am trying to find calmness 
 of thought." 
 
 "But art thou sure that it is paralysis? It may be a 
 temporary numbness." 
 
 "What is life? Ah, only a moment," Bukatski began 
 to declaim; "I cannot move, and that is the end, or, if 
 thou prefer, the beginning." 
 
 "That would be a terrible thing, but I do not believe it; 
 any one may be benumbed for a time." 
 
 "There are moments in life which are somewhat bitter, 
 as the carp said when the cook was scraping his scales off 
 with a knife. I confess that at first terror took hold of 
 me. Hast thou ever felt the hair rising on thy head? It 
 is not to be reckoned altogether among feelings of delight. 
 But I have recovered my balance, and now, at the end of 
 three hours, it seems to me that I have lived ten years 
 with my paralysis. It is a question of habit! as the 
 mushroom said when in the frying-pan. I am chatting 
 much, for I haven't much time. Dost thou know, my 
 dear friend, that I shall die in a couple of days?' 
 
 " Indeed, thou art chatting ! Paralyzed people live thirty 
 years." 
 
 "Even forty," answered Bukatski. "Paralysis in that 
 case is a luxury which some may permit themselves, but 
 not men like me. For a strong man, who has a good neck, 
 good shoulders, good breast, and proper legs, it may be 
 even a species of rest, a kind of vacation after a frolic- 
 some youth, and an opportunity for meditation; but for me ! 
 Dost remember how thou wert laughing at my legs? Well, 
 I tell thee that they were elephantine at that time if com- 
 pared with what they are to-day. It is not true that every 
 man is a clod; I am only a line, I am not joking, and, 
 moreover, a line vanishing in infinity." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to shrug his shoulders, to contra- 
 dict, and to quote known examples; but Bukatski resisted. 
 
 "Stop! I feel and know that in a couple of days 
 paralysis of the brain will set in. I have been expecting 
 this a whole year, but told no one, and for a year have 
 been reading books on medicine. A second attack will 
 come, and that will be final." 
 
 Here he was silent, but after a time continued, 
 
 "And, believe me, I do not like this. Think of it: I 
 am as much alone as a finger cut off from its hand ; I have
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 329 
 
 no one. Here, and even in Warsaw, only people who are 
 paid would take care of me. Life is terribly wretched 
 when a man is without power of movement, and without a 
 living soul who is related. When I lose speech, as I have 
 lost power of motion, any woman in attendance, or any man , 
 may strike me on the face as much as she or he pleases. 
 But thou must know one thing. I feared paralysis at the 
 first moment; but in my weak body there is a brave spirit. 
 Remember what I said to thee, that I fear not death; 
 and I do not fear it." 
 
 Here there gleamed in Bukatski's eyes a certain pale re- 
 flection of daring and energy, hidden somewhere in the 
 bottom of that disjointed and softened soul. 
 
 But Pan Stanislav, who had a good heart, put his hand 
 on the palm already paralyzed, and said, with great 
 feeling, 
 
 " My Adzia ! But do not suppose that we will leave thee 
 thus, desert thee as thou art ; and do not say that thou hast 
 no one. Thou hast me, and besides me, my wife, and 
 Svirski , Vaskovski, and the Bigiels. For us thou art not 
 a stranger. I will take thee to Warsaw, I will put thee in 
 the hospital, and we will care for thee, and no attendant 
 will strike thee on the face, first, because I should break 
 the bones of such a person; secondly, we have Sisters of 
 Charity, and among them is Pani Emilia." 
 
 Bukatski was silent, and grew pale a little; he was more 
 moved than he wished to show. A shadow passed over 
 his eyes. 
 
 "Thou art a good fellow," said he, after a prolonged 
 silence. "Thou knowest not what a miracle thou hast 
 worked, for thou hast brought it about that I wish some- 
 thing yet. Yes; I should like wonderfully to go to 
 Warsaw, to be among you all. I should be immensely 
 pleased there." 
 
 " Here thou must go at once to some hospital, and be 
 under constant care. Svirski must know where the best 
 one is. Yield thyself to me, wilt thou? Let me arrange 
 for thee." 
 
 "Do what may please thee," answered Bukatski, whom 
 consolation began to enter now, in view of the new plans 
 and the energy of his friend. 
 
 Pan Stanislav wrote to Svirski and to Vaskovski, and 
 sent out messengers immediately. Half an hour later both 
 appeared, Svirski with a famous local physician. Before
 
 330 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 mid-day Bukatski found himself in a hospital, in a well- 
 lighted and cheerful chamber. 
 
 "What a pleasant and warm tone! " said he, looking at 
 the golden color, and the walls and ceiling. "This is 
 nice." Then, turning to Pan Stanislav, he said, "Come to 
 me in the evening, but go now to thy wife." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took farewell of him, and went out. 
 When he reached home he told Marynia the whole story 
 cautiously, for he did not wish to frighten her with sudden 
 news, giving the idea that he was in a dangerous condition. 
 Marynia begged him to take her to Bukatski, if not in 
 the evening, in the morning early, which he promised to 
 do. They went immediately after lunch, for that day 
 there was no sitting in the studio. 
 
 But before they arrived, Vaskovski was there, and he 
 did not leave Bukatski for a moment. When the patient 
 had settled himself well in the new bed, the old man told 
 him how once he had thought himself dying, but after con- 
 fession and receiving the sacraments, he grew better, as 
 if by a miracle. 
 
 "A well-known method, dear professor," said Bukatski, 
 with a smile; "I divine what thy object is." 
 
 The professor was as confused as if caught in some evil 
 deed, and crossed his hands. 
 
 "I will lay a wager that it would help thee," said he. 
 
 Bukatski answered with a gleam of his former humor, 
 "Very well. In a couple of days I shall convince myself, 
 on the other side of the river, how much it will help me." 
 
 The arrival of Marynia pleased him, all the more that 
 it was unexpected. He said that he had not thought to 
 see anj T woman on this side of the river, and, moreover, one 
 of his own. Therewith he began to scold them all a little, 
 but with evident emotion. 
 
 "What sentimentalists they are!" said he. "It is 
 simply a judgment to be occupied with such a skeleton 
 grandfather as I am. Ye will never have reason. What 
 is this for? What good in it? See, even before death, I 
 am forced to be grateful ; and I am sincerely, very sincerely 
 grateful." 
 
 But Marynia did not let him talk about death ; on the 
 contrary, she said with great firmness that he must go to 
 Warsaw, and be among his friends. She spoke of this as a 
 thing the execution of which was not subject to the least 
 doubt, and she succeeded gradually in convincing Bukatski
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 331 
 
 of it. She told him how to prepare, and at last he listened 
 to her eagerly. His thoughts passed into a certain condi- 
 tion of yielding, in which they let themselves be led. He 
 felt like a child, and, besides, a poor child. 
 
 That same day Osnovski visited him, and also showed 
 as much interest and feeling as if he had been his own 
 brother. Bukatski had out and out not expected all this, 
 and had not counted on anything similar. Therefore, 
 when later in the evening Pan Stanislav came a second 
 time, and no others were present, he said to him, 
 
 "I tell thee sincerely that never have I felt with such 
 clearness that I made life a stupid farce, that 1 have 
 wasted it like a dog." And soon after he added, "And if 
 I had found a real pleasure in that method by which I 
 was living; but I had not even that satisfaction. How 
 stupid is our epoch! A man makes two of himself; all 
 that is best in him he hides away, shuts in somewhere in 
 corners, and becomes a kind of ape. He rather persuades 
 himself of the uselessness of life than feels it. How 
 wonderful this is ! One thing consoles me, that in truth 
 death is the only thing real in life, though, on the other 
 hand, this again is not a reason why, before it comes, we 
 should say of it as a fool says of wine, that it is vinegar." 
 
 "My dear friend," answered Pan Stanislav, "thou hast 
 always tortured thyself with this endless winding of thought 
 around some bobbin. Do not do that at present." 
 
 "Thou art right. But I am unable not to think that 
 while I was walking around and was well in a fashion, I 
 jeered at life; and now I tell thee as a secret I want 
 to live longer." 
 
 "Thou wilt live longer." 
 
 "Give me peace. Thy wife was persuading me of that, 
 but now again I do not believe it. And it is painful to 
 me, I have thrown myself away. But hear why I wanted 
 to speak with thee. .1 know not whether any account is 
 waiting for me; I say sincerely that I know not, but still 
 I feel a kind of strange alarm, as if I were afraid. And I 
 will tell thee something: during life I did nothing for my 
 fellows, and I was able! I was able! In presence of this 
 thought fear seizes me; I give thee my word! That 
 an unworthy thing. I did nothing; I ate bread without 
 paying for 'it, and now death. If there are any whips 
 beyond, and if they are waiting for me, it is to punish that; 
 and listen, Stas, it is painful to me."
 
 332 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Here, although he spoke with the ..careless tone usual to 
 him, his face expressed real dread, his lips grew pale some- 
 what, and on his forehead drops of sweat appeared. 
 
 "But stop!" said Pan Stanislav; "see what comes to 
 his head. Thou art injuring thyself." 
 
 But Bukatski spoke on: "Listen! wait! I have property 
 which is rather considerable; let even that do something 
 for me. I will leave thee a part of it, and do thou use the 
 remainder for something useful. Thou art practical, so is 
 Bigiel. Think of something, thou and he, for I do not 
 believe that I shall have time. Wilt thou do this?" 
 
 "That, and thy every wish." 
 
 "1 thank thee. How wonderful are fears and reproaches 
 of this kind! And still I cannot escape a feeling of guilt. 
 The conditions are such that I am not right! One should 
 do something honorable even just before death. But it is 
 no joke, death. If that were something visible, but it 
 is so dark. And one must decay, corrupt, and rot in the 
 dark. Art thou a believer?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "But I, neither yes nor no. I amused myself with 
 Nirvana, as with other things. Dost thou know, were it 
 not for the feeling of guilt, I should be more at rest? I 
 had no idea that this would pain me so; I have the im- 
 pression that I am a bee which has robbed its hive, and 
 that is a low thing. But at least my property will remain 
 after me. This is true, is it not? I have spent a little, 
 but very little, on pictures, which will remain, too; isn't 
 this true ? But now, howl should like to live longer, even 
 a year, even long enough not to die here ! " 
 
 He meditated a while, and then said, 
 
 " I understand one thing now : life may be bad, for a man 
 may order it foolishly ; but existence is good." 
 
 Pan Stanislav went away late in the night. Through 
 the following week the health of the patient was wavering. 
 The doctors were unable to foresee anything ; they judged, 
 however, that a journey was not dangerous in any case. 
 Svirski and Vaskovski volunteered to go to Warsaw with 
 the sick man, who was yearning for home more and more, 
 and who mentioned Pani Emilia, the Sister of Charity, 
 almost daily. But on the eve of the day on which he was 
 to go, he lost speech suddenly. Pan Stanislav's heart was 
 bleeding when he looked at his eyes, in which at moments 
 a terrible alarm was depicted, and at moments a kind oi
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 333 
 
 great, silent prayer. He tried to write, but could not. lu 
 the evening came paralysis of the brain, and he died. 
 
 They buried him in the Campo Santo temporarily. Pan 
 Stanislav thought that his looks uttered a prayer to be car- 
 ried to his own country, and Svirski confirmed that thought. 
 
 Thus vanished that bubble which gleamed sometimes with 
 the colors of the rainbow, but was as empty and evanescent 
 as any bubble. 
 
 Pan Stauislav was sincerely afflicted by his death, and 
 meditated afterward for whole hours on that strange life. 
 He did not share these thoughts with Marynia, for somehow 
 it had not become a custom with him yet to confide to her 
 anything that took place in his mind. Finally, as hap- 
 pens often with people who are thinking of the dead, he 
 drew from these thoughts various conclusions to his own 
 advantage. 
 
 " Bukatski," said he to himself, " was never able to corne 
 to harmony with his own mind : he lacked the understand- 
 ing of life ; he could not fix his position in that forest, and 
 he travelled always according to the fancy of the moment. 
 But if he had felt contented with that system, if he had 
 squeezed something out of life, I should own that he had 
 sense. But it was unpleasant for him. It is really a foolish 
 thing to persuade one's self, before death comes, that wine 
 is vinegar. But I look at matters more clearly, and, besides, 
 I have been far more sincere with myself. Happen what 
 may, I am almost perfectly in order with God and with 
 life." 
 
 There was truth in this, but there was also illusion. Pan 
 Stanislav was not in order with his own wife. He judged 
 that if he gave her protection, bread, good treatment, and 
 put kisses on her lips from time to time, he was discharging 
 all possible duties assumed with regard to her. Meanwhile 
 their relations began to be more definitely of this sort, that 
 he only deigned to love and receive love. In the course of 
 his observations of life this strange phenomenon had stn 
 him more than once, that when, for example, a man well- 
 known for honor does some noble deed, people wave theii 
 hands as if with a certain indifference, saying, " 
 
 is p an x ; from him this is perfectly natural ! When, 
 
 however, some rogue chanced to do something 1 
 these same people said with great recognition, "But the 
 is something in the man." A hundred times Pan Stains] 
 observed that a copper from a miser made more impres
 
 334 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 than a ducat from a generous giver. He did not notice, 
 however, that with Marynia he followed the same method 
 of judgment and recognition. She gave him all her being, 
 all her soul. " Ah, Marynia ! that is natural ! " and he 
 waved his hand too. Had her love not been so generous, had 
 it come to him with supreme difficulty, with the conviction 
 that it was a treasure, and given as such, with the con- 
 viction that she was a divinity demanding a bowed head and 
 honor, Fan Stanislav would have received it with a bowed 
 head, and would have rendered the honor. Such is the 
 general human heart ; and only the choicest natures, woven 
 from rays, have power to rise above this level. Marynia 
 had given Pan Stanislav her love as his right. She con- 
 sidered his love as happiness, and he gave it as happiness ; 
 he felt himself the idol on the altar. One ray of his fell on 
 the heart of the woman and illumined it : the divinity 
 kept the rest of the rays for itself ; taking all, it gave only a 
 part. In his love there was not that fear which flows from 
 honor, and there was not that which in every fondling says 
 to the woman beloved, " at thy feet." 
 
 But they did not understand this yet, either of them.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 335 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVII. 
 
 " I DO not ask if thou art happy," said Bigiel to Pan 
 Stanislav after his return to Warsaw ; " with such a person 
 as thy wife it is not possible to be unhappy." 
 
 "True," answered Pan Stanislav; "Marynia is such an 
 houest little woman that it would be hard to find a better." 
 Then, turning to Pani Bigiel, he said, 
 
 " We are both happy, and it cannot be otherwise. You 
 remember, dear lady, our former conversations about love 
 and marriage ? You remember how I feared to meet a 
 woman who would try to hide the world from her husband 
 with herself, to occupy all his thoughts, all his feelings, to 
 be the single object of his life ? You remember how I 
 proved to you and Pani Emilia that love for a woman could 
 not and should not in any case be for a man everything ; that 
 beyond it there are other questions in the world ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but I remember also how I told you that domestic 
 occupations do not hinder me in any way from loving my 
 children; for I know in some fashion, as it seems to me, 
 that these things are not like boxes, for example, of which, 
 when you have put a certain number on a table, there is no 
 room for others." 
 
 "My wife is right now," said Bigiel. "I have noticed 
 that people often deceive themselves when they transfer 
 feelings or ideas into material conditions. When it is a 
 question of feelings or ideas,, space is not to be considered." 
 
 "Oh, stop! Thou art conquered to the country," said 
 Pan Stanislav, humorously. 
 
 "But if the position is pleasant for me? "said Bigiel, 
 promptly. "Moreover, thou, too, wilt be conquered." 
 
 "I?" 
 
 "Yes; with honesty, kindness, and heart." 
 
 "That is something different. It is possible to be con- 
 quered, and not be a slipper. Do not hinder me in prais- 
 ing Marynia; I have succeeded in a way that could not be 
 improved, and specially for this reason, that she is 
 satisfied with the feeling which I have for her, and has no 
 wish to be my exclusive idol. For this I love her. God 
 has guarded me from a wife demanding devotion of the
 
 336 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 whole soul, whole miud, whole existence; and I thank 
 Him sincerely, since I could not endure such a woman. I 
 understand more easily that all may be given of free will, 
 and when not demanded." 
 
 "Believe me, Pan Stanislav," answered Pani Bigiel, 
 "that in this regard we are all equally demanding; but at 
 first we take frequently that part for the whole which they 
 give us, and then " 
 
 "And then what?" interrupted Pan Stanislav, rather 
 jokingly. 
 
 44 Then those who have real honesty in their hearts attain 
 to something which for you is a word without meaning, 
 but for us is often life's basis." 
 
 "What kind of talisman is that?" 
 
 "Resignation." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed, and added, "The late Bukatski 
 used to say that women put on resignation frequently, as 
 they do a hat, because it becomes them. A resignation 
 hat, a veil of light melancholy, are they ugly?" 
 
 "No, not ugly. Say what you please; they may be a 
 dress, but in such a dress it is easier to reach heaven than 
 in another." 
 
 " Then my Marynia is condemned to hell, for she will 
 never wear that dress, I think. But you will see her in a 
 moment, for she promised to come here after office hours. 
 She is late, the loiterer; she ought to be here now." 
 
 "Her father is detaining her, I suppose. But you will 
 stay to dine with us, will you not?" 
 
 " We will stay to dine. Agreed." 
 
 " And some one else has promised us to-day, so the soci- 
 ety will only be increased. I will go now to tell them to 
 prepare places for you." 
 
 Pani Bigiel went out; but Pan Stanislav asked Bigiel, 
 
 " Whom hast thou at dinner? " 
 
 "Zavilovski, the future letter-writer of our house." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 "That poet already famous." 
 
 "From Parnassus to the desk? How is that?" 
 
 " I do not remember, now, who said that society keeps its 
 geniuses on diet. People say that this man is immensely 
 capable, but he cannot earn bread with verses. Our 
 Tsiskovski went to the insurance company; his place was 
 left vacant, and Zavilovski applied. I had some scruples, 
 but he told me that for him this place was a question of
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 337 
 
 bread, and the chance of working. Besides, he pleased me, 
 for he told me at once that he writes in three languages, 
 but speaks well in none of them ; and second, that he has 
 not the least conception of mercantile correspondence." 
 
 "Oh, that is nonsense," answered Pan Stanislav; "he 
 will learn in a week. But will he keep the place long, 
 and will not the correspondence be neglected? Business 
 with a poet ! " 
 
 " If he is not right, we will part. But when he applied, 
 I chose to give the place to him. In three days he is to 
 begin. Meanwhile, I have advanced a month's salary; he 
 needed it." 
 
 "Was he destitute?" 
 
 " It seems so. There is an old Zavilovski, that one 
 who has a daughter, a very wealthy man. I asked our 
 Zavilovski if that was a relative of his; he said not, but 
 blushed, so I think that the old man is his relative. But 
 how it is with us? A balance in nothing. Some deny 
 relationship because they are poor; others, because they 
 are rich. All through some fancy, and because of that 
 rascally pride. But he'll please thee; he pleased my 
 wife."' 
 
 " Who pleased thy wife?" asked Pani Bigiel, coming in. 
 
 "Zavilovski." 
 
 " For 1 read his beautiful verses entitled, ' On the Thresh- 
 old.' At the same time he looks as if he were hiding 
 something from people." 
 
 "He is hiding poverty, or rather, poverty was hiding 
 him." 
 
 "No; he looks as if he had passed through some severe 
 disappointment. " 
 
 " Thou wert able to see in him a romance, and to tell me 
 that he had suffered much. Thou wert offended when I 
 put forth the hypothesis that it might be from worms in 
 childhood, or scald-head. That was not poetical enough 
 for her." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at his watch, and was a little 
 impatient. 
 
 "Marynia is not coming," said he; "what a loiterer! " 
 
 But the " loiterer " came at that moment, or rather, drove 
 up. The greeting was not effusive, for she had seen the 
 Bigiels at the railway. Pan Stanislav told his wife that 
 they would stay to dine, to which she agreed willingly, 
 
 22
 
 338 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 and fell to greeting the children, who rushed into the room 
 in a swarm. 
 
 Now came Zavilovski, whom Bigiel presented to Pan 
 Stanislav and Maryuia. He was a man still young, about 
 seven or eight and twenty. Pan Stanislav, looking at him, 
 considered that in every case his inien was not that of a 
 man who had suffered much; he was merely ill at ease in 
 a society with which he was more than half unacquainted. 
 He had a nervous face, and a chin projecting prominently, 
 like Wagner's, gladsome gray eyes, and a very delicate 
 forehead, whiter than the rest of his face; on his forehead 
 large veins formed the letter Y. He was, besides, rather 
 tall and somewhat awkward. 
 
 "I have heard," said Pan Stauislav to him, "that in 
 three days you will be our associate." 
 
 "Yes, Pan Principal," answered the young man; "or 
 rather, I shall serve in the office." 
 
 "But give peace to the 'principal,' " said Pan Stanislav, 
 laughing. " With us it is not the custom to use the words 
 'grace,' or 'principal ' unless perchance such a title would 
 please my wife by giving her importance in her own eyes. 
 But listen, Pani Principals, " said he, turning to Marynia, 
 " would it please thee to be called principaless ? It would 
 be a new amusement." 
 
 Zavilovski was confused; but he laughed too, when 
 Marynia answered, 
 
 "No; for it seems to me that a principals ought to 
 wear an enormous cap like this" (here she showed with 
 her hands how big), "and I cannot endure caps." 
 
 It grew pleasanter for Zavilovski in the joyous kindness 
 of those people; but he was confused again when Marynia 
 said, 
 
 " You are an old acquaintance of mine. I have read noth- 
 ing of late, for we have just returned home; has anything 
 appeared while we were gone?" 
 
 "No, Pani," answered he; ".I occupy myself with that 
 as Pan Bigiel does with music, in free moments, and for 
 my own amusement." 
 
 "I do not believe this," said Marynia. 
 
 And she was right not to believe, for it was not true at 
 all. Zavilovksi's reply was lacking also in candor, for he 
 wished to let it be known that he desired beyond all to 
 pass as the correspondent of a commercial house, and to be 
 considered an employee, not a poet. He gave a title to
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 339 
 
 Bigiel and Pan Stanislav, not through any feeling of 
 inferiority, but to show that when he had undertaken office- 
 work he considered it as good as any other, that he accom- 
 modated himself to his position , and would do so in the 
 future. There was in this also something else. Zavilovski, 
 though young, had observed how ridiculous people are,' 
 who, when they have written one or two little poems, pose 
 as seers, and insist on being considered such. His great 
 self-esteem trembled before the fear of the ridiculous; 
 hence he fell into the opposite extreme, and was almost 
 ashamed of his poetry. Recently, when suffering great 
 want, this feeling became almost a deformity, and the least 
 reference by any one to the fact that he was a poet brought 
 him to suppressed anger. 
 
 But meanwhile he felt that he was illogical, since for 
 him the simplest thing would have been not to write and 
 publish poems; but he could not refrain. His head was 
 not surrounded with an aureole yet, but a few gleams had 
 touched it; these illuminated his forehead at one moment, 
 and then died, in proportion as he created, or neglected. 
 After each new poem the gleam began again to quiver; and 
 Zavilovski, as capable as he was ambitious, valued in his 
 heart those reflections of glory more than aught else on 
 earth. But he wanted people to talk of him only among 
 themselves, and not to his eyes. When he felt that they 
 were beginning to forget him, he suffered secretly. There 
 was in him, as it were, a dualism of self-love, which, 
 wanted glory, and at the same time rejected it through a 
 certain shyness and pride, lest some one might say that too 
 much had been given. And many contradictions besides 
 inhered in him, as a man young and impressionable, who 
 takes in and feels exceptionally, and who, amidst his feel- 
 ings, is not able frequently to distinguish his own personal 
 7. For this reason it is that artists in general seem often 
 unnatural. 
 
 Xow came dinner, during which conversation turned on 
 Italy, and people whom the Folanyetskis had met there. 
 Pan Stanislav spoke of Bukatski and his last monn-nts, 
 and also of the dead man's will, by which he became the 
 heir to a fairly large sum of money. By far the gmii.-r 
 part was to be used for public objects, and touching tins 
 he had to confer with P.igiel. They loved Bukatski. and 
 remembered him with sympathy. Pani Bigiel had even 
 tears in her eyes when Marynia stated that before death
 
 340 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 he had confessed; and that he died like a Christian. But 
 this sympathy was of the kind that one might eat dinner 
 with; and if Bukatski had, in truth, sighed sometimes for 
 Nirvana, he had what he wanted at present, since he had 
 become for people, even those near him, and who loved 
 him, a memory as slight as it was unenduring. A week 
 longer, a month, or a year, and his name would be a sound 
 without an echo. He had not earned, in fact, the deep 
 love of any one, and had not received it; his life flowed 
 away from him in such fashion that after even a child 
 like Litka, there remained not only a hundred times more 
 sorrow, but also love and memorable traces. His life roused 
 at first the curiosity of Zavilovski, who had not known 
 him ; but when he had heard all that Pan Stanislav narrated, 
 he said, after thinking a while, "An additional copy." 
 Bukatski, who joked at everything, would have been pained 
 by such an epitaph. 
 
 Marynia, wishing to give a more cheerful turn to con- 
 versation, began to tell of the excursions they had made in 
 Rome and the environs, either alone, with Svirski, or the 
 Osnovskis. Bigiel, who was a classmate of Osuovski, and 
 who from time to time saw him yet, said, 
 
 "He has one love, his wife; and one hatred, his 
 corpulence, or rather, his inclination to it. As to other 
 things, he is the best man on earth." 
 
 "But he seems quite slender," said Marynia. 
 
 "Two years ago he was almost fat; but since he began 
 to use a bicycle, fence, follow the Banting system, drink 
 Karlsbad in summer, and .go in winter to Italy or Egypt 
 to perspire, he has made himself slender again. But I 
 have not said truly that he has a hatred for corpulence ; it 
 is his wife who has, and he does this through regard for 
 her. He dances whole nights, too, at balls, for the same 
 reason." 
 
 "He is a sclavus saltans" said Pan Stanislav. "Svirski 
 has told us of this already." 
 
 "I understand that it is possible to love a wife," said 
 Bigiel; "it is possible to consider her, according to the 
 saying, as the apple of the eye. Very well! But, as I 
 love God, I have heard that he writes verses to his wife; 
 that he opens books with his eyes closed, marks -a verse 
 with his finger, and divines to himself from what he reads 
 whether he is loved. If it comes out badly, he falls into 
 melancholy. He is in love like a student, counts all her
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 341 
 
 glances, strives to 'divine what this or that word is to 
 mean, kisses not only her feet and hands, but when he 
 thinks that no one is looking, he kisses her gloves. God 
 knows what it is like! and that for whole years." 
 
 " How much in love ! " said Marynia. 
 
 "Would it be to thy liking were I such?" asked Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 She thought a while, and answered, "No; for in that 
 case thou wouldst be another man." 
 
 "Oh, that is a Machiavelli," said Bigiel. "It would be 
 worth while to write down such an answer, for that is at 
 once a praise, and somewhat of a criticism, a testimony 
 that as it is, is best, and that it would be possible to wish 
 for something still better. Manage this for thyself, man." 
 
 " I take it for praise, " said Pan Stanislav, " though you " 
 (here he turned to Pani Bigiel), " will say surely that it is 
 resignation." 
 
 "The outside is love," answered Pani Bigiel, laughing; 
 "resignation may come in time, as lining, if cold comes." 
 
 Zavilovski looked on Marynia with curiosity; she seemed 
 to him comely, sympathetic, and her answer arrested his 
 . attention. He thought, however, that only a woman could 
 speak so who was greatly in love, and one for whom there 
 was never enough of feeling. He began to look at Pan 
 Stanislav with a certain jealousy; and because he was a 
 great hermit, the words of the song came at once to his 
 head, "My neighbor has a darling wife." 
 
 Meanwhile, since he had been silent a whole hour, or 
 had spoken a couple of words merely, it seemed to him 
 that he ought to engage in the conversation somehow. But 
 timidity restrained him, and, besides, a toothache, which, 
 when the sharpest pain had passed, was felt yet at moments 
 acutely enough. This pain had taken all his courage; but 
 he rallied finally, ami asked, 
 
 "But Pani Osnovski?" 
 
 "Pani Osnovski," said Pan Stanislav, "has a husband 
 who loves for two; therefore she has no need to fatigue 
 herself, so Svirski, at least, insists. She has Chinese eyes; 
 she is Aneta by name; has filling in her upper teeth, which 
 is visible when she laughs much, therefore she prefers to 
 smile; in general, she is like a turtle-dove, she turns in 
 a circle, and cries, ' Sugar! sugar! ' ' 
 
 "That is a malicious man," said Marynia. "She is 
 beautiful, lively, witty; and Pan Svirski cannot krnnv
 
 342 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 how much she loves her husband, for surely he hasn't 
 mentioned the matter to her. All these are simply 
 suppositions." 
 
 Tan Stanislav thought two things : first, that they were 
 not suppositions ; and second, that he had a wife who was 
 as naive as she was honest. 
 
 But Zavilovski said, 
 
 " I am curious to know what would happen were she as 
 much in love with him as he is with her." 
 
 " It would be the greatest double egotism that the world 
 has ever witnessed," said Pan Stanislav. "They would be 
 so occupied with each other that they would see no other 
 thing or person on earth." 
 
 Zavilovski smiled, and said, "Light does not prevent 
 heat; it produces it." 
 
 " Taking matters strictly, that is rather a poetical than a 
 physical comparison," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But Zavilovski's answer pleased the two ladies, so both 
 supported him ardently ; and when Bigiel joined them, Pan 
 Stanislav was outvoted. 
 
 After that they talked of Mashko and his wife. Bigiel 
 said that Mashko had taken up an immense case against 
 Pauna Ploshovski's million-ruble will, in which a number 
 of rather distant heirs appeared. Pan Playitski had written 
 of this to Marynia while she was in Italy ; but, considering 
 the whole affair such an illusion as were aforetime the mil- 
 lions resting on the marl of Kremen, she barely mentioned 
 it to her husband, who waved his hand on the whole question 
 at once. Now, as Mashko had taken up the affair, it seemed 
 more important. Bigiel supposed that there must be some 
 informality in the' will, and declared that if Mashko won, 
 he might stand on his feet right away, for he had stipulated 
 an immense fee for himself. The whf>le affair roused Pan 
 Stan i slav's curiosity greatly. 
 
 " But Mashko has the elasticity of a cat," said he ; " he 
 always falls on his feet." 
 
 " And this time thou shouldst pray that he may not break 
 his back," answered Bigiel ; " for it is a question of no 
 small amount, both for thee and thy father-in-law. Ploshov 
 alone with all its farms is valued at seven hundred thousand 
 rubles ; and, besides, there is much ready money." 
 
 " That would be wonderful, such unexpected gain ! " said 
 Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But Marynia heard with pain that her father had indeed
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 343 
 
 appeared among the other heirs in the suit against the will. 
 " Stas " was for her a rich man, and she had blind faith that 
 he could make millions if he wished; her father had an in- 
 come, and, besides, she had given him the life annuity from 
 Magyerovka ; hence poverty threatened no one. It would 
 have been pleasant indeed for her to be able to buy Kremen, 
 and take " Stas " there in summer, but not for money got in 
 this way. 
 
 " I am only pained by this," said she, with great anima- 
 tion. " That money was bequeathed so honestly. It is not 
 right to change the will of the dead ; it is not right to take 
 bread from the poor, or schools. Panna Ploshovski's 
 brother's son shot himself ; it may have been for her a 
 question of saving his soul, of gaining God's mercy. This 
 breaking of the will is not right. People should think and 
 feel differently." 
 
 She grew even flushed somewhat. 
 
 " How determined she is ! " said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But she pushed forward her somewhat too wide mouth, and 
 called out with the expression of a pouting child, 
 
 " But say that I am right, Stas ; say that I am right. 'T is 
 thy duty to say so." 
 
 " Without doubt," answered Pan Stanislav ; " but Mashko 
 may win the case." 
 
 " I wish him to lose it." 
 
 "How determined she is ! " repeated Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " And how honest, what a noble nature ! " thought Zavi- 
 lovski, framing in his plastic mind conceptions of goodness 
 and nobility in the form of a woman with dark hair, blue 
 eyes, a lithe form, and mouth a trifle too wide. 
 
 After dinner Bigiel and Pan Stanislav went for a cigar 
 and black coffee to the office, where they had to hold 
 meanwhile the first consultation concerning the objects for 
 which Bukatski's property had been bequeathed. Zavi- 
 lovski, as a non-smoker, remained with the ladies in the 
 drawing-room. Then Marynia, who, as lady principals, 
 felt it her duty to give courage to the future employee of 
 the " house," approached him, and said, 
 
 "I, as Avell as Pani Bigiel, wish that we should all 
 consider one another as members of one great family; 
 therefore I hope that you will count us too as your good 
 acquaintances." 
 
 " With the greatest readiness, if you permit me," an- 
 swered Zavilovski. " As it is, I would have testified my 
 respect."
 
 344 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " I made the acquaintance of all the gentlemen in the 
 office only at my wedding. We went abroad immediately 
 after ; but now it will come to a nearer acquaintance. My 
 husband told me that he should like to have us meet one 
 week at Pan Bigiel's, and the next week at our house. This 
 is a very good plan, but I make one condition." 
 
 " What is that ? " asked Pani Bigiel. 
 
 "Not to speak of any mercantile matter at those meet- 
 ings. There will be a little music, for I hope that Pan 
 Bigiel will attend to that ; sometimes we '11 read something, 
 like ' On the Threshold.' " 
 
 "Not in my presence," said Zavilovski, with a forced 
 smile. 
 
 " Why not ? " inquired she, looking at him with her usual 
 simplicity. "We have spoken of you more than once in 
 presence of people really friendly, and thought of you be- 
 fore it came to an acquaintance ; and why should we not all 
 the more now ? " 
 
 Zavilovski felt wonderfully disarmed. It seemed to him 
 that he had fallen among exceptional persons, or at least 
 that Pani Polanyetski was an exceptional woman. The 
 fear,which burned him like fire, that he might appear ridicu- 
 lous with his poetry, his over-long neck, and his pointed 
 elbows, began to decrease. He felt in a manner free in her 
 presence. He felt that she said nothing for the mere pur- 
 pose of talking, or for social reasons, but only that which 
 flowed from her kindness and sensitiveness. At the same 
 time her face and form delighted him, as they had delighted 
 Svirski in Venice. And since he was accustomed to seek 
 forms for all his impressions, he began to seek them for her 
 too ; and he felt that they ought to be not only sincere, but 
 exquisite, charming, and complete, just as her own beauty 
 was exquisite and complete. He recognized that he had a 
 theme, and the artist within him was roused. 
 
 She began now to ask with great friendliness about 
 his family relations ; fortunately the appearance of Bigiel 
 and Pan Stanislav in the drawing-room freed him from 
 more positive answers, which would have been disagreeable. 
 His father had been a noted gambler and roisterer on a 
 time, and for a number of years had been suffering in an 
 institution for the insane. 
 
 Music was to interrupt that dangerous conversation. Pan 
 Stanislav had finished the discussion with Bigiel, who 
 said,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 345 
 
 "That seems to me a perfect project, but it is necessary 
 to think the matter over yet." 
 
 Then, leaning on his violin, he began to meditate really, 
 and said at last, 
 
 "A wonderful thing ! When I play, ft is as if there were 
 nothing else in my head, but that is not true. A certain 
 part of my brain is occupied with other things ; and it is 
 exactly then that the best thoughts come to me." 
 
 Saying this, he sat down, took the violoncello between his 
 knees, closed his eyes, and began the " Spring Song." 
 
 Zavilovski went home that day enchanted with the people 
 and their simplicity, with the " Spring Song," and especially 
 with Pani Folanyetski. 
 
 She did not even suspect that in time she might enrich 
 poetry with a new thrill.
 
 346 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE Mashkos visited the Polanyetskis in a week after 
 their return. She, in a gray robe, trimmed with marabout 
 feathers of the same color, looked better than ever before. 
 Inflammation of the eyes, from which she had suffered 
 formerly, had disappeared. Her face had its usual indif- 
 ferent, almost dreamy mildness, but at present this only 
 enhanced her artistic expression. The former Fauna Kras- 
 lavski was about five years older than Marynia; and 
 before marriage the lady looked still older, but now it 
 seemed as if she had grown young. Her slender form, 
 really very graceful, was outlined in a closely fitting dress 
 as firmly as a child's form. It was strange that Pan Stan- 
 islav, who did not like the lady, found in her something 
 attractive, and whenever he looked at her said to himself, 
 "But there is something in her." Even her monotonous 
 and somewhat childlike voice had a certain charm for him. 
 At present he said to himself plainly that she looked ex- 
 ceptionally charming, and had improved more than Marynia. 
 
 Mashko, on his part, had unfolded like a sunflower. Dis- 
 tinction was just beaming from him ; and at her side self- 
 confidence and pride were softened by affability. It seemed 
 impossible that he could visit all his lands within one day, 
 in a word, he pretended more than ever. But he did not 
 pretend love for his wife, since it was evident from every 
 look of his that he felt it really. In truth, it would have 
 been difficult to find a woman who could answer better to 
 his idea of refinement, good taste, and the elegance of high 
 society. Her indifference, her, as it were, frozen manner 
 with people, he considered as something simply unapproach- 
 able. She never lost this " distinction " at any time, even 
 when she was alone with him. And he, as a genuine par- 
 venu who had won a princess, loved her precisely because 
 she seemed a princess, and because he possessed her. 
 
 Marynia inquired where they had passed the honey- 
 moon. Pani Mashko answered on " my husband's estate," 
 in such a tone as if that " husband's estate " had been en- 
 tailed during twenty generations ; wherewith she added that 
 they were not going abroad till next year, when her hus-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 347 
 
 band would finish certain affairs. Meanwhile they would go 
 again to her " husband's estate " for the summer months. 
 
 " Do you like the country ? " inquired Marynia. 
 
 " Mamma likes the country," answered Pani Mashko. 
 
 " And does Kremen please your mamma ? " 
 
 " Yes. But the windows in the house are like those in a 
 conservatory. So many panes ! " 
 
 "That is somewhat needed," said Marynia; "for when 
 one of those panes is broken, any glazier of the place can 
 put in a new one, but for large panes it would be necessary 
 to send to Warsaw." 
 
 " My husband says that he will build a new house." 
 
 Marynia sighs in secret, and the conversation is changed. 
 Now they talk of mutual acquaintances. It appears that 
 Pani Mashko had taken lessons in dancing once, together 
 with "Anetka" Osnovski and her young relative, Lineta 
 Castelli ; that they are well acquainted ; that Lineta is more 
 beautiful than Anetka, and, besides, paints, and has a whole 
 album of her own poems. Pani Mashko has heard that 
 Auetka has returned already and that Lineta is to live in 
 the same villa till June together with her aunt Bronich, 
 " and that will be very pleasant, for they are so nice." 
 
 Pan Stanislav and Mashko make their way to the ad- 
 joining room, and talk over Panna Ploshovski's will. 
 
 " I can inform thee that I have sailed out very nearly," 
 said Mashko. " I was almost over the precipice ; but that 
 action put me on my feet, by this alone, that I began it. 
 For years there has not been such a one. The question is 
 one of millions. Ploshovski himself was richer than his 
 aunt ; and before he shot himself, he willed his property to 
 Pani Krovitski's mother, and when she did n't accept it, the 
 whole fortune went to old Panna Ploshovski. Thou wilt 
 understand now how much property the woman must have 
 "eft." 
 
 "Bigiel mentioned something like seven hundred thou- 
 sand rubles." 
 
 "Tell thy Bigiel, since he has such love for giving 
 rigures, that it is more than twice that amount. Well, in 
 justice it should be said that I have strength to save my- 
 self, and that it is easier to throw me into water than to 
 drown me. But I will tell thee something personal. Know- 
 est thou whom I have to thank for this ? Thy father-in- 
 law. Once he mentioned the affair to me, but I waved un- 
 hand at it. Afterward I fell into the troubles of which I
 
 348 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 wrote thee. I had a knife at my throat. Well, three 
 weeks since I chanced to meet Pan Plavitski, who men- 
 tioned among other persons Panna Ploshovski, and in- 
 vented against her all that he could utter. Suddenly I 
 slap my forehead. What have I to lose ? Nothing. I 
 ask Vyshynski, clerk of the court, to bring the will to me. 
 I find informalities, small ones, but they are there. In a 
 week I have power of attorney from the heirs, and begin an 
 action. And what shall I say ? At a mere report of the fee 
 which I am to get in case of success, confidence returns 
 to people, patience returns to my creditors, credit returns 
 to me, and I am firm. Dost remember ? there was a 
 moment when I was lowering my tone, when through my 
 head were passing village ideas of living by an ant-like in- 
 dustry, of limiting my style of living. Folly ! That is diffi- 
 cult, my dear. Thou hast reproached me because I pre- 
 tend ; but with us pretence is needful. To-day I must give 
 myself out as a man who is as sure of his property as he is 
 of victory." 
 
 " Tell me sincerely, is this a good case ?" 
 
 " How a good case ? " 
 
 "Simply will it not be needful to pull the matter too 
 much by the ears against justice ? " 
 
 "Thou must know that in every case there is something 
 to be said in its favor, and the honor of an advocate con- 
 sists just in saying this something. In the present case 
 the special questions are, who are to inherit, and is the will 
 so drawn as to stand in law ; and it was not I who made 
 the law." 
 
 " Then thou hast hopes of gaining ? " 
 
 "When it is a question of breaking a will, there are 
 chances almost always, because generally the attack is con- 
 ducted with a hundred times more energy than is the 
 defence. Who will defend against me ? Institutions ; that 
 is, bodies unwieldy by nature, of small self-help, whose 
 representatives have no personal interest in the defence. 
 They will find an advocate ; well ! but what will they give 
 him, what can they give him ? As much as is allowed by 
 law; now that advocate will have more chances of profit 
 in case I win, for that may depend on a personal bargain 
 between him and me. In general, I tell thee that in legal 
 actions, as in life, the side wins which has the greater wish 
 to win." 
 
 "But public opinion will grind thee into bran, if thou
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 349 
 
 break such wills. My wife is interested a little, thou 
 seest." 
 
 " How a little ? " interrupted Mashko. " I shall be a 
 genuine benefactor to both of you." 
 
 " Well, my wife is indignant, and opposed to the whole 
 action." 
 
 " Thy wife is an exception." 
 
 "Not altogether; it is not to my taste either." 
 
 " What 's this ? Have they made thee a sentimentalist 
 also ? " 
 
 " My dear friend, we have known each other a long time ; 
 use that language with some other man." 
 
 " Well, I will talk of opinions only. To begin with, I 
 tell thee that a certain unpopularity for a man genuinely 
 comme il faut rather helps than harms him; second, it 
 is necessary to understand those matters. People would 
 grind me into bran, as thou hast said, should I lose the 
 case ; but if I win, I shall be considered a strong head 
 and I shall win." 
 
 After a while he continued, "And from an economical 
 point of view, what is the question? The money will 
 remain in the country; and, as God lives, I do not know 
 that it will be put to worse use. By aid of it a number 
 of sickly children might be reared to imbecility and help 
 dwarf the race, or a number of seamstresses might get 
 sewing-machines, or a number of tens of old men and 
 women live a couple of years longer; not much good could 
 come to the country of that. Those are objects quite 
 unproductive. We should study political economy some 
 time. Finally, I will say in brief, that I had the knife at 
 my throat. My first duty is to secure life to myself, my 
 wife, and my coming family. If thou art ever in such a 
 position as I was, thou 'It understand me. I chose to sail 
 out rather than drown ; and such a right every man has. 
 My wife, as I wrote thee, has a considerable income, but 
 almost no property, or, at least, not much; besides, from 
 that income she allows something to her father. I have 
 increased the allowance, for he threatened to come here, 
 and I didn't want that." 
 
 "So thou art sure, then, that Pan Kraslavski exists? 
 Thou hast mentioned him, I remember." 
 
 " I have ; and for that very reason I make no secret of 
 the matter now. Besides, I know that people talk to 
 the prejudice of my father-in-law and my wife, that they
 
 350 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 relate God knows what; hence I prefer to tell thee, as a 
 friend, how things are. Pan Kraslavski lives in Bordeaux. 
 He was an agent in selling sardines, and was earning good 
 money, but he lost the position, for he took to drinking, 
 and drinks absinthe; besides, he has created an illegal 
 family. Those ladies send him three thousand francs 
 yearly; but that sum does not suffice him, and, between 
 remittance and remittance, need pinches the man. Because 
 of this he drinks more, and ^torments those poor women 
 with letters, threatening to 'publish in newspapers how 
 they maltreat him; and they treat him better than he 
 deserves. He wrote to me, too, immediately after my 
 marriage, begging me to increase his allowance a thousand 
 francs. Of course he informs me that those women have 
 'eaten him up;' that he 'has n't had a copper's worth of 
 happiness in life; that their selfishness has gnawed him, 
 and warns me against them." Here Mashko laughed. 
 "But the beast has a nobleman's courage. Once, from 
 want, he was going to sell handbills in the corridor of the 
 theatre; but the authorities ordered him to don a kind of 
 helmet, and he could not endure that. He wrote to me as 
 follows: 'All would have gone well, sir, but for the 
 helmet; when they gave me that, I could not.' He pre- 
 ferred death by hunger to wearing the helmet! My 
 father-in-law pleases me! I was in Bordeaux on a time, 
 but forget what manner of helmets are worn by the venders 
 of handbills ; but I should like to see such a helmet. Thou 
 wilt understand, of course, that I preferred to add the 
 thousand francs, if I could keep him far away, with his 
 helmet and his absinthe. This is what pains me, however: 
 people say that even here he was a sort of tipstaff, or 
 notary; and that is a low fiction, for it is enough to open 
 the first book on heraldry to see who the Kraslavskis 
 were. Here connections are known; and the Kraslavskis 
 are in no lack of them. The man fell; but the family was 
 and is famous. Those ladies have dozens of relatives who 
 are not so and so; and if I tell this whole story, I do so 
 because I wish thee to know what the truth is." 
 
 But the truth touching the Kraslavskis concerned Pan 
 Stanislav little; so he returned to the ladies, and all the 
 more readily that Zavilovski had just come. Pan Stanislav 
 had invited the young man to after-dinner tea, so as to 
 show him photographs brought from Italy. In fact, piles 
 of them were laid out on the table; but Zavilovski was
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 holding in his hand the frame containing the photograph 
 of Litka's head, and was so enchanted that immediately 
 after they made him acquainted with Mashko, he looked 
 again at the portrait, and continued to speak of it. 
 
 " I should have thought it the idea of an artist rather 
 than a portrait of a living child. What a wonderful head! 
 What an expression! Is this your sister? " 
 
 "No/' answered Marynia; "that is a child no longer 
 living." 
 
 In the eyes of Zavilovski, as a poet, that tragic shadow 
 increased his sympathy and admiration for that truly 
 angelic face. He looked at the photograph for some time 
 in silence, now holding it away from his eyes, and now 
 drawing it nearer. 
 
 "I asked if it was your sister," said he, "because there 
 is something in the features, in the eyes rather; indeed, 
 there is something." 
 
 Zavilovski seemed to speak sincerely; but Pan Stanislav 
 had such a respect for the dead child, a respect almost 
 religious, that, in spite of his recognition of Marynia's 
 beauty, the comparison seemed to him a kind of profana- 
 tion. Hence, taking the photograph from Zavilovski's 
 hands, he put it back on the table, and began to speak 
 with a certain harsh animation, 
 
 " Not the least ; not the least ! There is not one trait in 
 common. How is it possible to compare them ! Not one 
 trait in common." 
 
 This animation touched Marynia somewhat. 
 
 "I am of that opinion, too," said she. 
 
 But her opinion was not enough for him. 
 
 "Did you know Litka? " asked he, turning to Pani 
 Mashko. 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "True; you saw her at the Bigiels'." 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "Well, there wasn't a trace of likeness, was there?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Zavilovski, who adored Marynia, looked at Pan Stanislav 
 with a certain astonishment; then he glanced at the tall 
 form of Pani Mashko, outlined through the gray robe, 
 and thought, 
 
 " How elegant she is ! " 
 
 After a while the Mashkos rose to take farewell. 
 Mashko, when kissing Marynia's hand at parting, said ,
 
 352 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Perhaps I shall go to St. Petersburg soon; at that time 
 remember my wife a little." 
 
 During tea Maryuia reminded Zavilovski of his promise 
 to bring at his first visit, and read to her, the variant of 
 " On the Threshold ; " he had grown so attached to the 
 Polanyetskis already that he gave not only the variant, 
 but another poem, which he had written earlier. It was 
 evident that he was amazed himself at his own self-confi- 
 dence and readiness; so that when he had finished reading, 
 and heard the praises, which were really sincere, he said, 
 
 "I declare truly that with you, after the third meeting, 
 it seems as though we were acquainted from of old. So 
 true is this that I am astonished." 
 
 Pan Stanislav remembered that once he had said some- 
 thing similar to Marynia in Krenien; but he received this 
 now as if it included him also. 
 
 But Zavilovski had her only in mind; she simply 
 delighted him with her straightforward kindness, and her 
 face. 
 
 "That beast is really capable," said Pan Stanislav, when 
 Zavilovski had gone. "Hast thou noticed that he is 
 jhanged a little in the face?" 
 
 " He has cut his hair, " answered Marynia. 
 
 "Ah, ha! and his chin sticks out a trifle more." 
 
 Thus speaking, Pan Stanislav rose and began to put 
 away the photographs -on the shelves above the table; 
 finally, he took Litka's portrait, and said, 
 
 "I will take this to my study." 
 
 14 But thou hast that one there with the birches, colored." 
 
 ; 'True; but I do not want this here so much in view. 
 Every one makes remarks, and sometimes that angers me. 
 Wilt thou permit? " 
 
 "Very well, my Stas," answered Marynia.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 353 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 BIGIEL persuaded Pan Stanislav emphatically not to ex- 
 tend the house, and not to throw himself too hurriedly into 
 undertakings of various sorts. "We have created," said 
 he, "an honorable mercantile firm of a kind rare in this 
 country; hence we are useful." He maintained that from 
 gratitude alone they ought to continue a business through 
 which they had almost doubled their propert}'. At the 
 same time he expressed the conviction that they would 
 show more sense if at this juncture specially they managed 
 matters with care and solidly, and that their first bold 
 speculation, though it had been fortunate, should not only 
 not entice them to others, but should be the last. 
 
 Pan Stanislav agreed that it was necessary to show 
 moderation, especially in success ; but he complained that 
 he could not find a career in the house, and that he wanted 
 to produce something. He had common-sense enough not 
 to think yet of a factory on his own capital. " I do not 
 wish to carry on a small one," said he, "since a large one 
 producing en gros attracts me, and I have not capital for 
 it; one with shares, I should be working not for myself, 
 but for others." He understood, too, that it was not easy 
 to find shareholders among the local elements, and he did 
 not want strangers; he knew, moreover, that he could not 
 rouse confidence in them, and that his name alone would 
 be a hindrance. Bigiel, for whom it was a question of the 
 "house," was sincerely pleased with this sobriety of view. 
 
 In Pan Stanislav was roused still another desire, which 
 is as old as man, the desire of possession. After the 
 lucky grain speculation and the will of Bukatski, he was 
 quite wealthy; but with all his real sobriety, he had a 
 certain strange feeling that that wealth, consisting even 
 of the most reliable securities shut up in fire-proof safes, 
 was just paper, and would remain so till he owned some- 
 thing real, of which he could say, "This is mine." That 
 strange desire was seizing him with growing force. For 
 him it was not a question of anything great, but of some 
 corner of his own, where he might feel at home. He tried 
 to philosophize over this, and to explain to Bigiel that 
 
 23.
 
 354 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 such a desire of ownership must be some inborn passion 
 which might be repressed, but which, in riper age, would 
 appear with new strength. Bigiel acknowledged that that 
 might be true, and said, 
 
 "That is proper. Thou art married, hence hast the 
 wish to have thy own hearth, not a hired one; and 
 since thou hast the means, then make such a hearth for 
 thyself." 
 
 Pan Stanislav had been thinking for some time of build- 
 ing a large house in the city, a house which would satisfy 
 his desire of ownership, and also bring income. But one 
 day he noted a bad side in this practical project, namely, 
 it had no charm. It is necessary to love that something of 
 which he said, "It is mine; " and how love a brick build- 
 ing, in which any one may live who will hire lodgings. 
 At first he was ashamed of this thought, for it seemed 
 sentimental; but afterward he said to himself, "No; since 
 I have means, it is not only not sentimental to use them 
 in a way which will assure satisfaction, but a proof of 
 judgment." He was more attracted by the thought of a 
 smaller house in the city, or outside the city, one in 
 which only he and his wife would live. But he wanted 
 with it even a piece of land on which something would 
 grow ; he felt, for example, that the sight of trees growing 
 in his garden or before his house, on his land, would 
 cause him great pleasure; he was astonished himself that 
 this was so, but it was. At last he came to the conviction 
 that it would be more agreeable to have some little place 
 near the city, something in the style of that summer house 
 which Bigiel owned, but with a piece of land, a piece of 
 forest, some acres of garden, finally, with grounds, and 
 with a stork's nest somewhere on an old linden-tree. 
 
 "Since I have means to get it, I prefer it to be thus, not 
 otherwise, that is, to be beautiful, not ugly," said he. 
 
 And he began to consider the affair on every side. He 
 understood that since it was a question of a nest in which 
 he was to live out his life, he ought to select with care ; 
 hence he did not hurry. Meanwhile meditation over this 
 occupied all his hours free from counting-house toil, and 
 caused him real pleasure. Various people learned soon 
 that Pan Stanislav was seeking to buy with ready money; 
 hence propositions came from various sides, often strange, 
 but at times attractive. On occasions he had to drive to 
 villas in the city, or outside it. Frequently, after his
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 355 
 
 return from the counting-house, or after dinner, Pan 
 Stanislav shut himself in with plans, with papers, and 
 came out only in the evening. In those days Marynia had 
 much leisure. She noted at last that something occupied 
 him unusually, and tried to learn what it was by question- 
 ing; but he answered, 
 
 "My child, when there is a result, I will tell thee; but 
 while I know nothing, it would be difficult to talk about 
 nothing. That is so opposed to my nature." 
 
 She learned at last what the question was from Pani 
 Bigiel, who had learned it from her husband, to whose 
 nature it was not repugnant to speak with his wife about 
 all undertakings and plans for the future. For Marynia it 
 would have been also immensely agreeable to speak with 
 her husband of everything, and especially of the chance 
 of a nest. Her eyes laughed at the very thought of that; 
 but since " Stas's " disposition stood in the way, she pre- 
 ferred through delicacy not to inquire. 
 
 He had no ill-will in this, but simply it did not occur to 
 him to initiate her into any affair in which there was a 
 question of money. It might have been otherwise had 
 she brought him a considerable dower, or had he been 
 forced to manage her property. In such affairs he was 
 very scrupulous. But since he was managing only his own, 
 he did not feel now any more than in his past unmarried 
 years any need of confessing, especially while nothing was 
 determined. With Bigiel alone did he talk, because he 
 was accustomed to talk with him of business. 
 
 With his wife he spoke of things which, according to 
 him, "pertained to her; "hence, among other things, of 
 the acquaintances which they should make. Toward the 
 end of his single life he had been scarcely anywhere; but 
 he felt that at present he could not act thus. They re- 
 turned, therefore, visits to the Mashkos; and on a certain 
 evening they began to consider whether they ought to visit 
 the Osnovskis, who had returned from abroad, and would 
 remain in Warsaw till the middle of June. Marynia said 
 that they ought, because they should see them at Pani 
 Mashko's; and she wished to make a visit, for she liked 
 Pan Osnovski, who had moved her sympathy. Pan Stanis- 
 lav seemed less willing, and the decision was according 
 to his wish at first; but some days later the Osnovskis met 
 Marynia and greeted her so cordially, Pani Osnovski 
 repeated so often, "We Roman women," and both put
 
 356 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 such emphasis on the hope of seeing and meeting her, that 
 it was not possible to avoid the visit. 
 
 When the visit was made, politeness was shown first of 
 all to Marynia. The husband vied with his wife in this 
 regard. Like well-bred people, they were faultlessly polite 
 toPan Stauislav, but colder. He understood that Marynia 
 played the first, and he only the second role, and that irri- 
 tated him a little. Pan Osnovski, for that matter, had no 
 need to make an effort in being polite to Marynia; for, 
 feeling that she had for him earnest sympathy, he repaid 
 her with interest, though, in general, to act thus was not 
 his habit. 
 
 He seemed to her more in love with his wife than ever. 
 It was evident that his heart beat with more life when he 
 was looking at her. When speaking to her, he seemed to 
 offer his expressions with a certain fear, as it were, lest he 
 might offend her with something. Pan Stanislav looked 
 on with a kind of pity; but the sight was also touching. 
 In his struggle with corpulence, however, Pan Osnovski 
 had gained such a crushing victory that his clothing seemed 
 too large for him. The pimples on his blond face had 
 vanished, and, in general, he was more presentable than 
 he had been. 
 
 But the lady had, as ever, her incomparable, sloping 
 violet eyes, and thoughts, which, like birds of paradise, 
 were playing in the air continually. 
 
 The Polanyetskis made new acquaintances at the Osnov- 
 skis, namely, Pani Bronich and her sister's daughter, 
 Panna Castelli; these ladies had arrived for the "summer 
 carnival " in Warsaw, and were living in the same villa, 
 which the late Pan Bronich had sold to the Osnovskis, 
 with the reservation of one pavilion for his wife. Pani 
 Bronich was a widow after Pan Bronich, whom she men- 
 tioned as the last relative of the Princes Ostrogski, and as 
 the last descendant of Rurik. She was known in the city 
 also under the title of "Sweetness;" for this name she 
 was indebted to the fact that, when talking, especially to 
 persons whom she needed, she became so pleasing that it 
 seemed as if she were speaking through a lump of sugar 
 held in her mouth. Marvels were told of her lies. Panna 
 Castelli was the daughter of Pani Bronich 's sister, who, 
 in her day, to the great offence of her family and of 
 society, married an Italian, a music-teacher, and died in 
 labor, leaving a daughter. When, a year later, Pan
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 357 
 
 Castelli was drowned at Venice, in the Lido, Pani Bronich 
 took her niece, and reared her. 
 
 Panna Lineta was a beauty, with very regular features, 
 blue eyes, golden hair, and a complexion too fair, for it 
 was almost like porcelain. Her eyelids were rather heavy; 
 this gave her a dreamy look, but that dreaminess might 
 seem also concentration. It might be supposed that she 
 was a person who led an immensely developed inner life, 
 and hence bore herself indifferently toward all that sur- 
 rounded her. If any man had not come on that idea un- 
 aided, he might be sure that Pani Bronich would help him. 
 Pani Osnovski, who had passed through the grades of en- 
 chantment over her cousin, said of Lineta's eyes, "They 
 are as deep as lakes." The only question was what is at 
 the bottom; and it was precisely this secret which gave 
 her charm to the young lady. 
 
 The Osnovskis came with the intention of remaining in 
 Warsaw; but Pani Aneta had not seen Rome in vain. 
 "Art, and art!" said she to Pani Marynia; "I wish to 
 know of nothing else." Her professed plan was to open 
 an "Athenian" salon; but her secret one was to become 
 the Beatrice of some Dante, the Laura of some Petrarch, 
 or, at least, something in the nature of Vittoria Colonna 
 for some Michael Angelo. 
 
 "We have a nice garden with the villa," said she. "The 
 evenings will be beautiful, and we shall pass them in such 
 Roman and Florentine conversations. You know" (here 
 she raised her hands to the height of her shoulders, and 
 began to move them), "the gray hour, a little twilight, a 
 little moonlight, a few lamps, a few shadows from the 
 trees; we shall sit and talk in an undertone about every- 
 thing, life, feelings, art. In truth, that is worth more 
 than gossip! My Yozio, perhaps thou wilt be annoyed; 
 but be not angry, do this for my sake, and, believe me, it 
 will be very nice." 
 
 "But, my Anekta, can I be annoyed by what pie 
 thee?" 
 
 "Especially now, while Lineta is with us; she i 
 artist in every drop of her blood." . 
 
 Here she turned to Lineta. "What fine thread is that 
 head spinning now? What dost thou say of such 
 evenings?" ., , , 
 
 Lineta smiled dreamily; and the widow of "Rurik s 1 
 descendant" began to speak, with an expression c 
 scribable sweetness, to Pan Stanislav,
 
 358 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " You do not know that Victor Hugo blessed her when 
 she was yet a little girl." 
 
 "Then did you ladies know Victor Hugo?" asked 
 
 Marynia. 
 
 "We? no! I would not know him for anything in the 
 world; but once, when we were going through Passy, he 
 stood on a balcony, and I know not whether through some- 
 thing prophetic, or through inspiration, the moment he set 
 eyeson Lineta, he raised his hand and blessed her." 
 
 " Aunt! " said Panna Castelli. 
 
 "When it is true, my child; and what is true, is true! 
 I called at once to her, ' See, see! he is raising his hand! ' 
 and Pan Tsardyn, the consul, who was sitting on the 
 front seat, saw also that he raised his hand, and gave a 
 blessing. I tell this freely, for perhaps the Lord God 
 forgave him his sins, of which he had many, because of 
 this blessing. He was of such perverse mind; and still, 
 when he saw Lineta, he blessed her." 
 
 There was in the tale this much truth, those ladies, 
 while going through Passy, really saw Victor Hugo on a 
 balcony. As to the blessing which they said he gave 
 Lineta, malicious tongues in Warsaw declared that he 
 raised his hand because he was yawning at the moment. 
 
 Meanwhile Pani Aneta continued, 
 
 "We '11 make for ourselves here a little Italy; and should 
 the attempt fail, next winter we '11 escape to the great one. 
 It has entered my head already to open a house in Rome. 
 Meantime Yozio has bought a number of nice copies of 
 statues and paintings. That was so worthy on his part, 
 for he doesn't care much about them; he did this only for 
 me. There are very good things among them; for Yozio 
 had the wit not to trust himself, and begged the aid of 
 Pan Svirski. It is a pity that they are not here; it is a 
 pity, too, that Pan Bukatski died, as it were, through 
 perversity, for he would have been useful. At times he 
 was very nice; he had a certain subtlety, snake-like, and 
 that in conversation, gives life. But" (here she turned to 
 Marynia) "do you know that you have conquered Pan Svir- 
 ski utterly? After you had left Rome, he talked of no one 
 else, and he has begun a Madonna with your features. 
 You'll become a Fornarina! Evidently you have luck 
 with artists ; and when my Florentine evenings begin, Lineta 
 and I must be careful, if not, we shall go to the corner." 
 
 But Pani Bronich, casting hostile glances at Marynia, 
 said,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 359 
 
 " If it is a question of faces which make an impression 
 on artists, I'll tell the company what happened once in 
 Nice." 
 
 "Aunt! " interrupted Panna Castelli. 
 
 "But if it is true, my child; and what 's true, is true! A 
 year ago no! two years ago Oh, how time flies! " 
 
 But Fani Aneta, who had heard more than once, surely, 
 what had happened at Nice, began to inquire of Marynia, 
 
 "But have you many acquaintances in the world of 
 artists?" 
 
 "My husband has," answered Marynia, "I have not; but 
 we know Fan Zavilovski." 
 
 Pani Aneta fell into real enthusiasm at this news. It 
 was her dream to know Zavilovski, and let " Yozio" say 
 if it was not her dream. Not long before, she and Lineta 
 had read his verses entitled "Ex imo;" and Lineta, who, 
 at times, knows how to describe an impression with one 
 word, as no one else can, said, what is it that she said 
 so characteristic? 
 
 "That there was in that something bronze-like," added 
 Pani Bronich. 
 
 "Yes, something bronze-like; I imagined to myself also 
 Pan Zavilovski as something cast. How does he look in 
 reality?" 
 
 "He is short, fat, fifty years old," said Pan Stanislav, 
 "and has no hair on his head." 
 
 At this the faces of Fani Aneta and Lineta took on such 
 an expression of disenchantment that Marynia laughed, 
 and said, 
 
 "Do not believe him, ladies; he is malicious, and likes 
 to torment. Pan Zavilovski is young, somewhat shy, a 
 little like Wagner." 
 
 "That means that he has a chin like Punch," added Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 But Pani Aneta paid no heed to Pan Stanislav's words, 
 and obtained from Marynia a promise to make her ac- 
 quainted with Pan Zavilovski, and soon, "very soon, for 
 summer is at the girdle ! " 
 
 "We will try to make it pleasant for him among us, and 
 that he shouldn't be shy; though, if he is a little shy, 
 that is no harm, for he ought to be, and, like an eagle 
 cage, withdraw when people approach him. But we wil 
 come to an understanding with Lineta; she,-too,^is wrappe( 
 up in herself, and is as mysterious as a sphinx.
 
 360 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "It seems to me that every uncommon soul " began 
 Aunt Sweetness. 
 
 But the Polanyetskis rose to go. In the entrance they 
 met the wonderful Kopovski, whose shoes the servants 
 were dusting, and who was arranging meanwhile the hair 
 on his statuesque head, which was as solid as marble. 
 When outside, Pan Stauislav remarked, 
 
 "He, too, will be useful for their ' Florentine ' evenings; 
 he, too, is a sphinx." 
 
 "If he were to stand in a niche," said Marynia. "But 
 what beautiful women they are ! " 
 
 "It is a wonderful thing," answered Pan Stanislav, 
 "though Paui Osnovski is good-looking, I, for example, 
 prefer Pani Mashko as a beauty. As to Castelli, she is. 
 in truth, beautiful, though too tall. Hast thou noticed 
 how they speak of her all the time, but she not a word? " 
 
 "She has a very intelligent opinion," answered Marynia, 
 "but is, perhaps, a little timid, like poor Zavilovski." 
 
 "It is necessary to think of arranging for that acquaint- 
 ance." 
 
 But an accident disturbed these plans of making the 
 acquaintance. Marynia, on the day following this visit, 
 slipped on the stone stairs, and struck her knee against the 
 step with such violence that she had to lie in bed several 
 days. Pan Stanislav, on returning from the office, learned 
 what had happened. Alarmed at first, then pacified by the 
 doctor, he upbraided his wife rather sharply. 
 
 " Thou shouldst remember that it may be a question not 
 of thee alone," said he. 
 
 She suffered severely from the fall and from these 
 words, which seemed to her too unsparing ; for she consid- 
 ered that with him* it should above all be a question of her, 
 especially as other fears were baseless so far. Aside from 
 this, he showed great attention ; neither on the next nor 
 the following day did he go to the counting-house, but re- 
 mained to take care of her. In the forenoon he read to 
 her ; after lunch, he worked in the adjoining room with 
 open doors, so that she might call him at any moment. 
 Affected by this care, she thanked him very warmly ; in 
 return he kissed her, and said, 
 
 "My child, it is a simple duty. Thou seest that even 
 strangers inquire about thee daily." 
 
 In fact, strangers did inquire daily. Zavilovski inquired 
 in the counting-house, " How does the lady feel ? " Pani
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 361 
 
 Bigiel came in the forenoon, and Bigiel in the evening- 
 without going to the chamber of the sick woman, he 
 played on the piano in the next room to entertain her. 
 The Mashkos and Pani Bronich left cards twice. Pani 
 Osnovski, leaving her husband in the carriage below, broke 
 into Marynia a little by violence, and sat with her about 
 two hours, talking, with her usual gift of jumping from 
 subject to subject, of Koine, of her intended evenings, of 
 Svirski, of her husband, of Lineta, and of Zavilovski, who 
 didn't let her sleep. Toward the end of the visit, she 
 declared that they ought to say thou to each other, and 
 that she invited Marynia to give aid in one plan: "that is, 
 not a plan, but a conspiracy ;" or, rather, in a certain thing 
 which had so struck into her head that it was burning, and 
 burning to such a degree that her whole head was on fire. 
 
 "That Zavilovski has so stuck in my mind that Yozio 
 has begun to be jealous of him; but in the end of the 
 affair, Yozio, poor fellow, does n't know himself what to 
 think. I am sure that he and Lineta are created for each 
 other, not Yozio and Lineta, but Zavilovski and Lineta. 
 That poetry, that poetry ! And don't laugh, Maryuia ; don't 
 think me moonstruck. Thou dost not know Lineta. She 
 needs some uncommon man. She would n't marry Kopov- 
 ski for anything, though Kopovski looks like an archangel. 
 Such a face as Kopovski has, I have never seen in life. 
 In Italy, perhaps, in some picture, and even then not. 
 Knowest thou what Lineta says of him ? ' C'est un imbe- 
 cile.' But still she looks at him. Think how beautiful 
 that would be, if they should become acquainted, and love, 
 and take each other, that is, not Kopovski and Lineta, 
 but Zavilovski and Lineta. That would be a couple ! Li- 
 neta, with her aspirations, whom can she find ? Where is 
 there a man for her ? What we have seen, that we have 
 seen. I imagine how they would live. It is so wearisome in 
 the world that when it is possible to have such a plan, it is 
 worth while to work for it. Moreover, I know that that 
 will succeed without difficulty, for Aunt Bronich is wringing 
 her hands, where can she find a husband for Lineta ? 
 am afraid that I have worn thee out, and surely I have 
 tormented thee ; but it is so nice to talk, especially when 
 one is making some plan." 
 
 In fact, Marynia felt, as it were, a turning of the head 
 after Pani Aneta had gone. Still when Pan Stanislav 
 came in, she told him of the plans prepared against Zavi-
 
 362 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 lovski, and, laughing a little at the eagerness of Pani 
 Aneta, said at last, 
 
 " She must have a good heart, and she pleases me ; but 
 what an enthusiast ! What is there that does n't rush 
 through her head ? " 
 
 "She is impetuous, but no enthusiast," answered Pan 
 Stanislav ; " and see what the difference is, enthusiasm 
 comes almost always from the warmth of a good heart, 
 while impetuousness frequently agrees with a dry heart, 
 and often comes even from this, that the head is hot, and 
 the heart is asleep." 
 
 " Thou hast no liking for Pani Aneta," said Marynia. 
 
 Pan Stanislav did not indeed like her ; but this time, 
 instead of confirming or contradicting, he looked at his 
 wife with a certain curiosity, and that moment her beauty 
 struck him, her hair flowing in disorder on the pillow, 
 and her small face coming out of the dark waves, just like 
 a flower. Her eyes seemed bluer than usual ; through her 
 open mouth was to be seen the row of small white teeth. 
 Pan Stanislav approached her, and said in an undertone, 
 
 " How beautiful thou art to-day ! " 
 
 And, bending over her, with changed face, he fell to kiss- 
 ing her eyes and mouth. 
 
 But every kiss moved her, and each movement caused 
 pain. It was disagreeable, besides, that he had noticed her 
 beauty as if by accident; his expression of face was dis- 
 tasteful to her, and his inattention ; therefore she turned 
 away her head. 
 
 " Stas, do not kiss me so roughly ; thou knowest that I am 
 suffering." 
 
 Then he stood erect, and said with suppressed anger, 
 
 " True ; I beg pardon." 
 
 And he went to his room to examine the plan of a cer- 
 tain summer house with a garden, which had been sent to 
 him that morning.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 BUT Marynia's illness was not lasting, and a week later 
 she and her husband were able to visit the Bigiels, who 
 had moved to their summer residence; for the weather, 
 notwithstanding the early season, was fine, and in the city 
 summer heats were almost beginning. Zavilovski, who had 
 grown accustomed to them, went also, taking an immense 
 kite, which he was to fly in company with Pan Stanislav 
 and the children. The Bigiels, too, liked Zavilovski, since 
 he was simple, and, except his shyness, a pleasant man, on 
 occasions even childlike. Paui Bigiel maintained, more- 
 over, that he had a peculiar head ; which was in so fur true, 
 that he had a scar on his eyelid, and that his prominent 
 chin gave him an expression of energy which was contra- 
 dicted utterly by his upper face, which was delicate, almost 
 feminine. At first Pani Bigiel sought in him an original ; 
 but he mastered everything, and therefore himself, too 
 quickly. He was simply a great enthusiast of unequal 
 temper, because he was timid ; and he was not without hid- 
 den pride. 
 
 At dinner they mentioned the Osnovskis to him, and 
 the projected Atheniau-Roman-Florentine evenings, Panna 
 Castelli, and the curiosity which he had roused in the 
 ladies. When he heard this, he said, 
 
 " Oh, it is well to know that ; I shall not go there now 
 for anything in the world." 
 
 " You will make their acquaintance first at our house," 
 said Marynia. 
 
 " I shall escape from the entrance," said he, clasping his 
 hands. 
 
 " Why ? " asked Pan Stanislav. " It is needful to have 
 the courage not only of one's convictions, but of one's 
 
 V6FSGS " 
 
 "Evidently," said Pani Bigiel. "What is there to be 
 ashamed of ? I should look people in the eyes boldly and 
 say : I write ; yes, I write." 
 
 "I write; yes, I write," repeated Zavilovski, raising Ins 
 head and laughing.
 
 364 CHILDKEN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But Marynia continued : " You will make their acquaint- 
 ance at our house; then you will leave your card with 
 them, and after that we will visit them some evening." 
 
 " I cannot hide my head in snow," said he, " because 
 there is none ; but I ; 11 find some place of hiding." 
 
 " But if I entreat you greatly ? " 
 
 "Then I will go," answered Zavilovski, after a while, 
 blushing slightly ; and he looked at her. 
 
 Her face, somewhat pale after protracted lying in bed, 
 had become more delicate, and looked like the face of a 
 maiden of sixteen. She seemed so wonderful to the young 
 man that he could refuse her nothing. 
 
 In the evening, Pan Stanislav was to take him back to 
 the city ; but before that Marynia said to him, 
 
 "Now you must be constrained, for you have not seen 
 Panna Lineta Castelli ; but as soon as you have seen her, 
 you will fall in love." 
 
 " T, Pani ? " cried Zavilovski, putting his hand on his 
 breast ; " I, with Panna Castelli ? " 
 
 And there was so much sincerity in his question that 
 he was confused again ; but this time Marynia herself was 
 confused somewhat. 
 
 Meantime Pan Stanislav has finished his conversation 
 with Bigiel about the dangers of investing capital in land, 
 and they drive away. Marynia remembers how once she 
 returned with her father, Pani Emilia, Litka, and Pan 
 Stanislav from the Bigiels, in a moonlight night such as 
 this; how "Pan Stanislav" was in love with her then; 
 how unhappy he was ; how severe she was with him ; and 
 her heart begins to beat with pity for that "Pan Stanislav," 
 who suffered so much on a time. She wants to nestle up 
 to him and implore pardon for those evil moments of the 
 past ; and but for the presence of Zavilovski, she would 
 do so. 
 
 But that old-time Pan Stanislav is sitting there calm and 
 self-confident at her side, and smoking his cigar. Moreover, 
 she is his ; he has taken her and has her ; all is over. 
 
 " Of what art thou thinking, Stas ? " inquired she. 
 
 " Of the business of which I was talking with Bigiel." 
 
 And, shaking the ashes from his cigar, he replaced it in 
 his mouth, and drew so vigorously that a ruddy gleam 
 lighted his mustache and a part of his face. 
 
 Zavilovski, looking at Marynia's face, thought in his 
 young soul that if she were his wife he would not smoke
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 365 
 
 a cigar, nor think of business of which he had been talk- 
 ing with Bigiel, but might kneel before her and adore her 
 on his knees. 
 
 And gradually, under the influence of the night and 
 that sweet womanly face, which he glorified, exaltation 
 possessed him. After a time he began to declaim, at first 
 in silence, as if to himself, then more audibly, his verses 
 entitled, "Snows on the Mountains." There was in that 
 poem, as it were, an immense yearning for something un- 
 approachable and immaculate. Zavilovski himself did not 
 know when they arrived in the city, and when lamps began 
 to gleam on both sides of the street. At Pan Stanislav's 
 house Marynia said, 
 
 " To-morrow, then, to a five o'clock." 
 
 " Yes," answered he, kissing her hand. 
 
 Marynia was sunk somewhat in revery under the influence 
 of the ride, the night, and maybe the verses. But from 
 the time of their stay in Rome, she and her husband had 
 repeated the rosary together. And after these prayers a 
 great tenderness possessed her suddenly, as it were, an 
 influx of feeling, hidden for a time by other impressions. 
 Approaching him, she put her arms around his neck, and 
 whispered, 
 
 "My Stas, but we feel so pleasant together, do we 
 not ? " 
 
 He drew her toward him, and answered with a certain 
 careless boastfulness, 
 
 "But do I complain?" 
 
 And it did not occur to him that there was in her ques- 
 tion something like a shade of doubt and sorrow, which 
 she did not like to admit to her soul, and desired him to 
 calm and convince her. 
 
 Next morning in the office Zavilovski gave Pan Stanislav 
 a cutting from some paper of " Snows on the Mountains ; " 
 he read it during dinner, but with the sound of forks the 
 verses seemed less beautiful than amid the night stillness 
 and in moonlight. 
 
 "Zavilovski told me," said Pan Stanislav, "that a volume 
 would be issued soon ; but he has promised to collect first 
 everything printed in various journals, and bring it to 
 thee." 
 
 "No," said Marynia; "he should keep them for Linetn ; " 
 
 " Ah, they are to meet to-morrow for the first time. Ye 
 wish absolutely to make an epoch in Zavilovski's life ? "
 
 366 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " We do," answered Marynia, with decisiveness. " Aneta 
 astonished me at first ; but why not ? " 
 
 Indeed, the meeting took place. The Osnovskis, Pani 
 Bronich, and Panna Castelli came very punctually at five ; 
 Zavilovski had come still earlier, to avoid entering a room 
 in presence of a whole society. But as it was he was not 
 only frightened, but more awkward than usual, and never 
 had his legs seemed so long to him. There was, however, 
 a certain distinction even in his awkwardness ; and Pani 
 Aneta was able to see that. The first scenes of the human 
 comedy began, in which those ladies, as well-bred persons, 
 guarding against every rudeness and staring at Zavilovski, 
 did not, however, do anything else ; he, feigning not to see 
 this, was not thinking of anything else than how they were 
 looking at him and judging him. This caused him great 
 constraint, which he strove to hide by artificial freedom ; 
 he had so much self-love, however, that he was interested 
 in having the judgment favorable. But the ladies were 
 so attuned previously that the decision could not be 
 unfavorable ; and even had Zavilovski turned out flat and 
 dull it would have been taken for wisdom and poetic 
 originality: More indifferent was the bearing of Lineta, 
 who was somewhat astonished that for the moment, not 
 she was the sun, and Zavilovski the moon, but the contrary. 
 The first impression which he made on her was : " What 
 comparison with that stupid Kopovski ! " 
 
 And the incomparable, wonderful face of that "stupid" 
 stood before her eyes as if living ; therefore her lids became 
 dreamier still, and the expression of her face called to mind 
 a sphinx in porcelain more than ever. She is irritated, how- 
 ever, that Zavilovski turns almost no attention to her form 
 of a Juno, nor to that something " mysterious and poetic," 
 which, as Pani Bronich insists, fetters one from the first 
 glance. She begins to observe him gradually ; and, having, 
 besides her poetic inclination, the sense of social observation 
 developed powerfully, she sees that he has much expression 
 indeed, but that his coat fits badly, that he dresses, of course, 
 at a poor tailor's, and that the pin in his cravat is mauvais 
 genre simply. Meanwhile he casts occasional glances at 
 Marynia, as the one near and friendly soul, and converses 
 with Pani Aneta, who considers it as the highest tact not 
 to mention poetry on first acquaintance, and, knowing that 
 Zavilovski had passed the early years of his childhood in the 
 country, begins to chatter about her inclinations for rural
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 367 
 
 life. Her husband prefers the city always, having his 
 friends and pleasures in the city, but as to her ! " Oh, I 
 am sincere, and 1 confess at once that I cannot endure land 
 management and accounts ; for this I have been scolded 
 more than once. Besides, I am a trifle lazy ; therefore I 
 should like work in which I could be lazy. What should 
 I like, then ? " 
 
 Here she spreads out her extended fingers so as to count 
 more easily the occupations which would suit her taste : 
 
 " First, I should like to herd geese ! " 
 
 Zavilovski laughs ; she seems to him natural, and, besides, 
 the picture of Pani Osnovski herding geese amuses him. 
 
 Her violet eyes begin to laugh also ; and she falls into the 
 tone of a free and joyous maiden, who talks of everything 
 which runs through her head. 
 
 " And you would like that ? " inquires she of Zavilovski. 
 
 " Passionately." 
 
 " Ah, you see ! What else ? I should like to be a fisher- 
 man. The morning dawn must be reflected beautifully in 
 the water. Then the damp nets before the cottage, with 
 films of water between the meshes of the net. If not a 
 fisherman, I should like to be at least a heron, and meditate 
 in the water on one leg, or a lapwing in the fields. But no! 
 the lapwing is a sad kind of bird, as if in mourning." 
 
 Here she turned to Panna Castelli, 
 
 " Lineta, what wouldst thou like to be in the country ? " 
 
 Panna Lineta raised her lids, and answered after a while, 
 
 "A spider-web." 
 
 The imagination of Zavilovski as a poet was touched by 
 this answer. Suddenly a great yellow sweep of stubble 
 stood before his eyes, with silver threads floating in the 
 calm blue and in the sun. 
 
 " Ah, what a pretty picture ! " said he. 
 
 He looked more carefully at Lineta; and she smiled, as if 
 in thankfulness that he had felt the beauty of the image. 
 
 But at that moment the Bigiels came. Pani Bronich took 
 Zavilovski into her sphere of influence, and so hemmed him 
 in with her chair that he had no chance to escape. It was 
 easy to divine the subject of their dialogue, for Zavilovski 
 raised his eyes from time to time to Lineta, as if to convince 
 himself that he was looking at that about which he was 
 hearing. At last, though the conversation was conducted in 
 subdued tones, those present heard these words, spoken as 
 if through sugar,
 
 368 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Do you know that Napoleon that is, I wanted to say 
 Victor Hugo blessed her ? " 
 
 In general, Zavilovski had heard so many uncommon 
 things that he might look at Lineta with a certain curi- 
 osity. She had been, according to those narratives, the most 
 marvellous child in the world, always very gentle, and 
 not strong. At ten years she had been very ill ; sea air 
 was prescribed, and those ladies dwelt a long time on 
 Stromboli. 
 
 " The child looked at the volcano, at the sea, and clapped 
 her little hands, repeating, 'Beautiful, beautiful!' We 
 went there by chance, wandered in on a hired yacht, with- 
 out object ; it was difficult to stay long, for that is an empty 
 island. There was no proper place to live in, and not much 
 to eat ; but she, as if with foreknowledge that she would 
 regain her health there, would not leave for anything. In 
 fact, in a month, and if not in a month, in two, she began 
 to be herself, and see what a reed she is." 
 
 In fact, Lineta, though shapely and not too large, in 
 stature was somewhat taller than Pani Aneta. Zavilovski 
 looked at her with growing interest. Before the guests 
 separated, when he was freed at last from imprisonment, he 
 approached her, and said, 
 
 " I have never seen a volcano, and I have no idea what 
 impression it may make." 
 
 " I know only Vesuvius." answered she ; " but when I 
 saw it there was no eruption." 
 
 " But Stromboli ? " 
 
 " I do not know it." 
 
 " Then I have heard incorrectly, for your aunt " 
 
 " Yes," answered Lineta, " I don't remember ; I was small, 
 I suppose." 
 
 And on her face displeasure and confusion were 
 reflected. 
 
 Before she took leave, Pani Aneta, without destroying 
 her role of charming prattler, invited Zavilovski for some 
 evening, ''without ceremony and without a dress-coat, for 
 such a spring might be considered summer, and in summer 
 freedom is the most agreeable. That such a man as you 
 does not like new acquaintances, I know, but for that there 
 is a simple remedy : consider us old acquaintances. We are 
 alone most generally. Lineta reads something, or tells what 
 passes through her head; and such various things pass 
 through her head that it is worth while to hear her, espe-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 369 
 
 cially for a person who beyond others is in a position to feel 
 and understand her." 
 
 Panna Lineta pressed his hand at parting with unusual 
 heartiness, as if confirming the fact that they could and 
 should understand each other. Zavilovski, unused to society, 
 was a little dazed by the words, the rustle of the robes, the 
 eyes of those ladies, and by the odor of iris which they left 
 behind. He felt besides some weariness, for that conversa- 
 tion, though free and apparently natural, lacked the repose 
 which was always found in the words of Pani Polanyetski 
 and Pani Bigiel. For a time there remained with him the 
 impression of a disordered dream. 
 
 The Bigiels were to stay to dinner. Pan Stanislav there- 
 fore kept Zavilovski. They began to talk of the ladies. 
 
 " Well, and Panna Castelli ? " asked Marynia. 
 
 "They have much imagination," answered Zavilovski, 
 after a moment's hesitation. " Have you noticed how easy 
 it is for them to speak in images ? " 
 
 "But really, what an interesting young lady Liueta is! " 
 
 Lineta had not made a great impression on Pan Stanislav ; 
 besides, he was hungry and in a hurry for dinner, so he said 
 somewhat impatiently, 
 
 " What do you see in her ? Interesting until she becomes 
 an every-day subject." 
 
 "No; Lineta will riot become an every-day person," said 
 Marynia. "Only those ordinary, simple beings become 
 every-day subjects who know how to do nothing but lov." 
 
 To Zavilovski, who looked at her that moment, it seemed 
 that he detected a shade of sadness. Perhaps, too, she was 
 weak, for her face had lily tones. 
 
 "Are you wearied ?" inquired he. 
 
 " A little," answered she, smiling. 
 
 His young, impressionable heart beat with great sympathy 
 for her. "She is in truth a lily," thought he ; and in com- 
 parison with her sweet charm Pani Osnovski stood before 
 him as a chattering nut-cracker, and Panna Castelli as the 
 inanimate head of a statue. At first, after sight of Marynia, 
 he was dreaming of a woman like her ; this evening he be- 
 gan to dream, not of one like her, but of her. And since he 
 was quickly aware of everything that happened in him, 
 he noticed that she was beginning to be a " field flower," 
 but a beloved one. 
 
 Pan Stauislav, meeting him next day in the counting-room, 
 asked, 
 
 24
 
 370 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Well, did the dreamy queen come to you in a vision ? " 
 "No," answered Zavilovski, blushing. 
 Pan Stanislav, seeing that blush, laughed, and said, 
 "Ha! it's difficult! Everyone must pass that; I, too, 
 have passed it."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 371 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 MARYNIA did not complain even to herself of her hus- 
 band. So far there had not been the least misunderstanding 
 between them. But she was forced to confess that genuine, 
 very great happiness, and especially very great love, such 
 as she had imagined when Pan Stanislav was her betrothed, 
 she had imagined as different. Of this each day convinced 
 her: her hopes had been of one kind; reality proved to be 
 of another. Marynia's honest nature did not rebel against 
 this reality; but a shade of sadness came over her, and the 
 feeling that that shade might in time be the basis of her 
 life. With a soul full of good-will, she tried to explain to 
 herself at the beginning that those were her own fancies. 
 What was lacking to her, and in what could Pan Stanislav 
 have disappointed her? He had never caused her pain 
 purposely; as often as it occurred to him that a given thing 
 might please her, he tried to obtain it; he was liberal, 
 careful of her health; at times he covered her face and 
 hands with kisses, in a word, he was rather kind than 
 ill-natured. Still there was something lacking. It was 
 difficult for Marynia to describe this in one word, or in 
 many; but her mind was too clear not to understand what 
 her heart felt every day more distinctly, every day with 
 more sadness. Something was wanting! After a great 
 and solemn holiday of love, a series of common days had 
 set in, and she regretted the holiday; she would have it 
 last all her life; she saw now, with sorrow, that to her 
 husband this common life seemed precisely what was 
 normal and wished for. It was not bad, such as it was^ 
 but it was not that high happiness which "such a man 
 should be able to feel, create, and impart. But there was 
 a question of other things also. She felt, for example, 
 that she was more his than he was hers; and that though 
 she gave him her whole soul, he returned to her only t 
 part of his which he had designed in advance for 1 
 use. It is true that she said to herself, " an; 
 
 besides me he has a whole world of work and thou 
 But she had hoped once that he would take her by the ha 
 and lead her into that world, that in the house, at least,
 
 372 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 he would share it with her ; at present she could not even 
 flatter herself that he would do so. And the reality was 
 worse than she had imagined. Pan Stanislav, as he ex- 
 pressed himself, took her, and had her; and when their 
 mutual feeling became at the same time a simple mutual 
 obligation, he judged that it was not needful otherwise to 
 care for her, or otherwise to be occupied with her than 
 with any duty of every-day life. Tt did not come to his 
 head simply that to such a fire it was not enough to bring 
 common fuel, such as is put in a chimney, but that there 
 was need to sprinkle on it frankincense and myrrh, such 
 as is sprinkled before an altar. If a man were to tell him 
 something like this, he would shrug his shoulders, and 
 look on him as a sentimentalist. Hence there was in him 
 the carefulness of a husband, perhaps, but not the anxiety 
 of a lover, concern, watching, or awe of that kind 
 which, in the lower circles of earthly feelings, corresponds 
 to fear of God in religion. On a time when, after the 
 sale of Kremen, Marynia was indifferent to him, he felt 
 and passed through all this ; but now, and even beginning 
 with Litka's death, when he received the assurance that 
 she was his property, he thought no more of her than was 
 necessary to think of property. His feeling, resting pre- 
 eminently on her physical charm, possessed what it wanted, 
 and was at rest; while time could only vulgarize, cool, and 
 dull it. 
 
 Even now, though still vivid, it lacks the alert and 
 careful tenderness which existed, for example, in his feel- 
 ing for Litka. And Marynia noticed this. Why was it 
 so? To this she could not answer; but still she saw 
 clearly that she was for this man, to whom she wished to 
 be everything, something more common and less esteemed 
 than the dead Litka. 
 
 It did not occur to her, and she could not imagine by 
 any means, that the only reason was this, that that child 
 was not his, while she had given him soul and body. 
 She judged that the more she gave, the more she ought to 
 receive and have. But time brought her in this regard 
 many disappointments. She could not but notice, too, that 
 all are under a certain charm of hers; that all value her, 
 praise her; that Svirski, Bigiel, Zavilovski, and even Pan 
 Osnovski, look on her, not only with admii'ation, but with 
 enthusiasm almost; while "Stas" regards her distinguish- 
 ing traits less than any roan, Jt had not occurred to her for
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL 373 
 
 a moment that he could be incapable of seeing in her and 
 valuing that which others saw and valued so easily. What 
 was the cause, then, of this? These questions tormented 
 her night and day now. She saw that Pan Stauislav 
 feigned to have in all cases a character somewhat colder 
 and more serious than he had in reality, but to her this did 
 not seem a sufficient answer. Unfortunately only one 
 answer remained : " He does not love me as he might, and 
 therefore does not value me as others do." There was in 
 this as much truth as disappointment and sadness. 
 
 The instinct of a woman, which, in these cases, never 
 deceives her, warned Mary ma that she had made an un- 
 common impression on Zavilovski; that that impression 
 increased with every meeting. And this thought did not 
 make her indignant; she did not burst out with the angry 
 question, "How dare he?" since, for that matter, he had 
 not dared anything, on the contrary, it gave her a certain 
 comfort, certain confidence in her own charm, which at 
 moments she had begun to lose, but withal it roused the 
 greater sorrow that such honor, such enthusiasm, should be 
 shown her by some stranger, and not by "Stas." As to 
 Zavilovski, she felt nothing for him save a great sympathy 
 and good-will; hence her thoughts remained pure. She 
 was incapable of amusing herself through vanity by the 
 suffering of another; and for that reason, not wishing him 
 to go too far, she associated herself willingly with the 
 plan of Pani Aneta of bringing him into more intimate 
 relations with Panna Castelli, though that plan seemed to 
 her as abrupt as it was unintelligible. Moreover, her heart 
 and mind were occupied thoroughly with the questions: 
 Why does that kind, wise, beloved "Stas" not go to the 
 heights with her? why does he not value her as he might? 
 why does he only love her, but is not in love with her? 
 why does he consider her love as something belonging to 
 him, but not as something precious? whence is this, and 
 where lies the cause of it? 
 
 Every common, selfish nature would have found all the 
 fault in him; Marynia found it in herself. It is true that 
 she made the discovery through foreign aid; but she was 
 always so eager to remove from "Stas" every respon- 
 sibility, and take it on herself, that though it caused fear, 
 this discovery brought her delight almost. 
 
 Once, on an afternoon, she was sitting by herself, wit 
 her hands on her knees, lost in thoughts and questions
 
 374 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 to which she could find no answer, when the door opened, 
 and in it appeared the white head-dress and dark robe of 
 a Sister of Charity. 
 
 "Emilka!" cried Marynia, with delight. 
 
 "Yes; it is I," said the Sister. "This is a free day 
 for me, and I wished to visit thee. Where is Pan Stan- 
 islav?" 
 
 "Stas is at the Mashkos, but he will return soon. Ah, 
 how glad he will be! Sit down and rest." 
 
 Pani Emilia sat down and began to talk. "I should run 
 in oftener," said she, "but I have no time. Since this is 
 a free day, I was at Litka's. If you could see how green 
 the place is, and what birds are there ! " 
 
 "We were there a few days ago. All is blooming; and 
 such rest ! What a pity that Stas is not at home ! " 
 
 "True; besides, he has a number of Litka's letters. 
 I should like to ask him to lend them to me. Next week 
 I '11 run in again and return them." 
 
 Pani Emilia spoke calmly of Litka now. Maybe it was 
 because there remained of herself only the shadow of a 
 living person, which was soon to be blown away; but for 
 the time there was in it undisturbed calm. Her mind was 
 not absorbed so exclusively now by misfortune, and that 
 previous indifference to everything not Litka had passed. 
 Having become a Sister of Charity, she appeared again 
 among people, and had learned to feel everything which 
 made their fortune or misfortune, their joy or their sorrow, 
 or even pleasure or suffering. 
 
 "But how nice it is in this house! After our naked 
 walls, everything here seems so rich to me. Pan Stanislav 
 was very indolent at one time : he visited the Bigiels and 
 us, never wished to be elsewhere; but now I suppose he 
 bestirs himself, and you receive many people?" 
 
 "No," answered Marynia; "we visit only the Mashkos, 
 Pani Bronich, and the Osnovskis." 
 
 "But wait! I know Pani Osnovski; I knew her before 
 she was married. I knew the Broniches, too, and their 
 niece; but she had not grown up then. Pan Bronich died 
 two years ago. Thou seest how I know every one." 
 
 Marynia began to laugh. "Really, more people than I 
 do. I made the acquaintance of the Osnovskis in Rome 
 only." 
 
 " But I lived so many years in Warsaw, and everything 
 came to my ears. I was in the house apparently, but
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 375 
 
 the world occupied me. So frivolous was I in those 
 days! For that matter, thy present Pan Stas knew Pan 
 Osnovski." 
 
 "He told me so." 
 
 " They met at public balls. At that time she was to 
 marry Pan Kopovski. There were tears and despair for 
 her father opposed it. But she succeeded well, did' she 
 not? Pan Osnovski was always a very good man'" 
 
 "And to her he is the very best. But 1 did not know 
 that she was to marry Kopovski; and that astonishes me 
 she is so intelligent." 
 
 "Praise to God, she is happy, if she would think so! 
 Happiness is a rare thing, and should be used well. I 
 have learned now to look at the world quite impartially, 
 as only those can who expect nothing for themselves from 
 it; and knowest thou what comes more than once to my 
 head? That happiness is like eyes, any little mote, and 
 at once tears will follow." 
 
 Marynia laughed a little sadly, and said, 
 
 "Oi! that 's a great truth." 
 
 A moment of silence ensued; then Pani Emilia, looking 
 attentively at Marynia, laid her transparent hand on her 
 hand mildly, and asked, 
 
 " But thou, Marynia, art happy, art thou not? " 
 
 Such a desire to weep seized Marynia on a sudden that 
 she resisted it only with the utmost effort; that lasted, 
 however, one twinkle. Her whole honest soul trembled 
 suddenly at the thought that her tears or sorrow would be 
 a kind of complaint against her husband; therefore she 
 mastered her emotion by strength of will, and said, 
 
 "If only Stas is happy! " And she raised her eyes, now 
 perfectly calm, to Pani Emilia, who said, 
 
 " Litka will obtain that for thee. I inquired only because 
 thou wert in appearance somehow gloomy, as I entered. 
 But I know best how he loved thee, and how unhappy he 
 was when thou wert angry with him because of Kremen." 
 
 Marynia's face was bright with a smile. So pleasant to 
 her was every word of his former love that she was ready 
 to listen to that kind of narrative, even if it went on 
 forever. 
 
 Pani Emilia continued, while touching her hand: "But 
 thou, ugly child, wert so cruel as neither to value nor 
 regard his true attachment, and I was angry at times 
 with thee. At times I feared for the honest Pan Stanislav;
 
 376 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 I was afraid that he would grow sick of life, lose his mind, 
 or become misanthropic. For seest thou when one wrinkle 
 is made in the depth of the heart, it may not be smoothed 
 for a lifetime." 
 
 Marynia raised her head, and began to blink as if some 
 light had struck her eyes suddenly. 
 
 "Ernilka, Emilka!" cried she, "how wise thy discourse 
 is!" 
 
 Pani Emilia was called now "Sister Aniela;" but Ma- 
 rynia always gave her her old name. 
 
 "What! wise? I am just talkiDg of old times. But 
 Litka will implore for thee happiness, which God will 
 grant, for thou and Stas deserve it, both of you. " 
 
 And she made ready to go. Marynia tried to detain her 
 till " Stas " came, but in vain, for work was awaiting her 
 in the institution. She chatted, however, at the door, 
 fifteen minutes longer, in the manner of women ; at last she 
 went away, promising to visit them again the coming 
 week. 
 
 Marynia returned to her armchair at the window, and, 
 resting her head on her hand, fell to meditating on Pani 
 Emilia's words ; after a while she said, in an undertone, 
 
 "The fault is mine." 
 
 It seemed to her that she had the key to the enigma, 
 she had not known how to respect a power so true and so 
 mighty as love is. And now, in her terrified heart, that 
 love seemed a kind of offended divinity which punishes. 
 In the old time Pan Stanislav had been on his knees in 
 her presence. As often as they met, he had looked into 
 her eyes, watching for forgiveness from her heart, and 
 from those memories, pleasant, departed, but dear, which 
 connected them. If at that time she had brought herself to 
 straightforwardness, to magnanimity ; if she had extended 
 her hands to him, as her secret feeling commanded, he 
 would have been grateful all his life, he would have 
 honored her, he would have honored and loved with the 
 greater tenderness, the more he felt his own fault and her 
 goodness. But she had preferred to swaddle and nurse her 
 feeling of offence, and coquet at the same time with Mashko. 
 When it was necessary to forget, she would not forget; 
 when it was necessary to forgive, she would not forgive. 
 She preferred to suffer herself, provided he suffered also. 
 She had given her hand to Pan Stanislav when she could 
 not do otherwise, when not to give it would have been
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 37J 
 
 simply dishonorable and stupid stubbornness. That stifled 
 love, it is true, rose up in its whole irrepressible might 
 then, and she loved, heart and soul, but too late. Love 
 had been injured; something had broken, something had 
 perished. In his heart there had come an ill-omened 
 wrinkle like that of which Pani Emilia had spoken; and 
 now she, Marynia, was harvesting only what she had sown 
 with her own hand. 
 
 He is not guilty of anything in this case, and if any one 
 has spoiled another's life, it is not he who has spoiled her 
 life ; it is she who has spoiled his. 
 
 Such a terror possessed her at this thought, and such 
 sorrow, that for a moment she looked at the future with 
 perfect amazement. And she wished to weep, too, and 
 weep like a little child. If Pani Emilia had not gone, she 
 would have done so on her shoulder. She was so pene- 
 trated with the weight of her own offences that if at that 
 moment some one had come and tried to free her of this 
 weight, if this one had said to her, "Thou art as guilty as 
 a dove," she would have considered the speech dishonest. 
 The most terrible point in her mental conflict was this, 
 that at the first moment the loss seemed irreparable, and 
 that in the future it might be only worse and worse, because 
 " Stas " would love her less and less, and would have the 
 right to love her less and less, in one word, she saw no 
 consolation before her. 
 
 Logic said this to her : " To-day it is good in comparison 
 with what it may be to-morrow; after to-morrow, a month, 
 or a year. And here it is a question of a lifetime! " 
 
 And she began to exert her poor tortured head to dis- 
 cover, if not a road, at least some path, by which it would 
 be possible to issue from those snares of unhappiness. At 
 last, after a long effort, after God knows how many swal- 
 lowed tears, it seems to her that she sees a light, and that 
 that light, in proportion as she looks at it, increases. 
 
 There is, however, something mightier than the logic of 
 misfortune, mightier than committed offences, mightier 
 than an offended divinity, which knows nothing but ven- 
 geance, and this is the mercy of God. 
 
 She has offended; therefore she ought to correct herself 
 It is needful, then, to love "Stas," so that he may find 
 all which has perished in his heart; it is needful to have 
 patience, and not only not to complain of her present 1 
 but to thank God and " Stas" that it is such as it is.
 
 378 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 greater griefs and difficulties should couie, it is necessary 
 to hide them in her heart in silence, and endure long, very 
 long, even whole years, till the mercy of God comes. 
 
 The path began to change then into a highway. "I 
 shall not go astray," said Marynia to herself. She wanted 
 to weep from great joy then ; but she judged that she could 
 not permit that. Besides, "Stas" might return at any 
 moment, and he must find her with dry eyes. 
 
 In fact, he returned soon. Marynia wished at the first 
 moment to throw herself on his neck, but she felt such 
 guilt in reference to him that some sudden timidity stopped 
 her; and he, kissing he-r on the forehead, inquired, 
 
 "Was any one here?" 
 
 "Emilia was, but she could not stay longer. She will 
 come next week." 
 
 He was irritated at this. 
 
 " But, my God ! thou knowest that it is such a pleasure 
 for me to see her; why not let me know? Why didst thou 
 not think of me, knowing where I was?" 
 
 She, like a child explaining itself, spoke with a voice in 
 which tears were trembling, but in which there was at the 
 same time a certain trust, 
 
 "No, Stas, on the contrary, as I love, I was thinking 
 all the time of thee."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 "BUT you see I was there," said Zavilovski, joyously, at 
 the Bigiels'. " They looked on me somewhat as they might 
 on a panther, or a wolf, but I turned out a very tame 
 creature; I tore no one, killed no one, answered with more 
 or less presence of mind. No; I have long since considered 
 that it is easier to live with people than it seems, and only 
 in the first moments have I a wish always to run away. 
 But those ladies are indeed very free." 
 
 "I beg you not to put us off, but tell exactly how it 
 was," said Pani Bigiel. 
 
 "How it was? Well, first, I entered the inclosure of 
 the villa, and did not know what to do further, or where 
 the Osnovskis lived, or Pani Bronich; whether to pay 
 them a visit at once, or whether it was necessary to visit 
 both separately." 
 
 "Separately," said Pan Stanislav; "Pani Bronich has 
 separate apartments, though they have one drawing-room, 
 which they use in common." 
 
 "Well, I found all in that drawing-room; and Pani 
 Osnovski first brought me out of trouble, for she said that 
 she would share me with Pani Bronich, and that I should 
 make two visits at one time. I found Pani Mashko there 
 and Pan Kopovski; and he is such a man, so beautiful 
 that he ought to have on his head one of those velvet- 
 crowned caps which jewellers wear. Who is Kopovski?" 
 "An idiot!" answered Pan Stanislav. "In that is con- 
 tained his name, his manner of life, his occupation, and 
 personal marks. Another description of the man would 
 not be needed even in a passport." 
 
 "Xow I understand," said Zavilovski; "and certain 
 words which I heard have become clear for me. That 
 gentleman was sitting, and the young ladies were painting 
 him. Pani Osnovski, his full face in oil; Panna Castelli, 
 his profile in water-colors. Both had print skirts over 
 their dresses, and both were beautiful. Evidently Pani 
 Osnovski is just beginning to paint, but Panna Castelli has 
 had much practice." 
 
 "Of what did they talk?"
 
 380 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Zavilovski turned to Marynia. " First, those ladies asked 
 about your health; I told them that you looked better and 
 better." 
 
 He did not say, however, that on that occasion he had 
 blushed like a student, and that at present he consoled 
 himself only with the thought that all had been so occupied 
 in painting that they did not notice him, in which he was 
 mistaken. He was confused now a little, and, wishing to 
 hide this, continued, 
 
 "Later we spoke of painting, of course, and portraits. 
 I observed that Panna Castelli took something from the 
 head of Kopovski ; she answered me, 
 
 " ' It is not I, but nature.' 
 
 "She is a witty young lady; she said this in a perfectly 
 audible voice. I began to laugh, all the others too, and 
 with us Kopovski himself. He must have an accommodat- 
 ing character. He declared later on that if lie looked worse 
 to-day than usual, it was because he had not slept enough, 
 and that he was in a hurry for the embraces of Orpheus." 
 
 "Orpheus?" 
 
 " That 's what he said. Pan Osnovski corrected him 
 without ceremony ; but he did not agree to the correction, 
 saying Orpheus at least ten times, and that he remem- 
 bered well. Those ladies amused themselves a little with 
 him, but he is such a fine-looking fellow that they are 
 glad to paint him. But what an artist Panna Castelli is! 
 When she went to showing me various plain surfaces with 
 the brush, and lines on the portraits of Pan Kopovski, 
 which she had begun, she touched colors, ' What a line 
 that is! and what tones these are!' I must do her the 
 justice to say that she looked at the time like one of the 
 Muses. She told me that it pleases her beyond everything 
 to paint portraits, and that she meditates on a face to 
 begin with, as on a model, and that she dreams of those 
 heads in which there is anything uncommon." 
 
 " Oh, ho ! and you will appear to her in a dream first, 
 and then sit for her, I am sure," said Marynia. "And 
 that will be welL" 
 
 Zavilovski added with a voice somewhat uncertain, 
 
 " She told me, it is true, that that is a tribute which she 
 likes and extorts from good acquaintances; she did not 
 turn to me, however, directly, with this request. Had it 
 not been for Pani Bronich, there would have been no talk 
 of it."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 381 
 
 "Pani Bronich saved the Muse the trouble," said Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 "But that will be well," said Marynia. 
 
 "Why?" inquired Zavilovski; and he looked at her with 
 a glance at once submissive and alarmed. The idea that 
 she might push him to another woman purposely, because 
 she divined what was passing in his heart, attracted him, 
 and at the same time filled him with fear. 
 
 "Because," answered Marynia, "I, indeed, am almost 
 unacquainted with Panna Lineta, and judge only from my 
 first impressions and from what I hear of her; but it seems 
 to me that hers is an uncommon nature, and that there is 
 something deep in her heart. It is well, then, that you 
 should become acquainted." 
 
 "I also judge from first impressions," answered Zavi- 
 lovski, quieted; "and it is true that Pani Castelli seems to 
 me less shallow than Pani Osnovski. In general, those 
 are beautiful and pleasant ladies; but maybe I cannot de- 
 fine it, because I am not acquainted enough with society 
 but, coming away from them, I had a feeling as if I had 
 been travelling on the railway with exceedingly charming 
 foreign ladies, who amused themselves by conversing very 
 wittily but nothing more. Something foreign is felt in 
 them. Pani Osnovski, for example, is exactly like an 
 orchid, a flower very peculiar and beautiful, but a kind 
 of foreign flower. Panna Castelli is also that way, and in 
 her there is nothing homelike. With them there is no 
 feeling that one grew up on the same field, under the same 
 rain and same sunshine." 
 
 " What intuition this poet has! " said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 Zavilovski became so animated that on his delicate fore- 
 head the veins in the form of the letter became outlined 
 more distinctly. He felt that his blame of those ladies was 
 also praise for Marynia, and that made him eloquent. 
 
 "Besides," continued he, "there exists a certain instinct 
 which divines the real good wishes of people; it is not 
 divined in that house. They are pleasant, agreeable, but 
 their society has the appearance of form only; therefore I 
 think that an earnest man, who becomes attached to people 
 easily, might experience there many deceptions, 
 bitter and humiliating thing to mistake social tares 
 wheat. As to me, that is just why I fear people; 
 though Pan Stanislav says that I have intuition, I know 
 well that at the root of the matter I am simple. And
 
 382 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 such things pain me tremendously. Simply my nerves 
 cannot endure them. I remember that when still a child 
 I noticed how people acted toward me in one way before 
 my parents, and in another when my parents were absent; 
 that was one of the great vexations of my childhood. It 
 seemed to me contemptible, and pained me, as if I myself 
 had done something contemptible." 
 
 "Because you have an honest nature," said Pani Bigiel. 
 
 He stretched forth his long arms, with which he gesticu- 
 lated, when, forgetting his timidity, he spoke freely, and 
 said, 
 
 " sincerity ! in art and in life, that is the one thing ! " 
 
 But Marynia began, in defence of those ladies : " People, 
 and especially men, are frequently unjust, and take their 
 own judgments, or even suppositions, for reality. As to 
 Pani Osnovski and Lineta, how is it possible to suspect 
 them of insincerity? They are joyful, kind, cordial, and 
 whence should that come if not from good hearts ? " 
 Then, turning to Zavilovski, she began at him, partly in 
 earnest, partly in jest, " You have not such an honest 
 nature as Pani Bigiel says, for those ladies praise you, and 
 you criticise them " 
 
 But Pan Stanislav interrupted her with his usual vivac- 
 ity : " Oh, thou art an innocent, and measurest all things 
 with thy own measure. Wilt thou understand this, that 
 petty cordiality and kindness may flow also from selfish- 
 ness, which likes to be cosey and comfortable. 
 
 " If you," said he, turning to Zavilovski, " pay such 
 homage to sincerity, it is sitting before you ! You have 
 here a real type of it." 
 
 " I know that ! I know that ! " said Zavilovski, with 
 warmth. 
 
 " But is it thy wish to have me otherwise ? " inquired 
 Marynia, laughing. 
 
 He laughed also, and answered: "No, I would not. 
 But, by the way, what a happiness it is that thou art? not too 
 small, and hast no need of heels ; for shouldst thou wear 
 them, chronic inflammation of the conscience would strike 
 thee for deceiving people." 
 
 Marynia, seeing that Zavilovski's eyes were turned tow- 
 ard her feet, hid them under the table involuntarily, and, 
 changing the subject, said, 
 
 " But your volume is coming out these days^ I think ? " 
 
 " It would have been published already, but I. added one 
 poem ; that causes delay."
 
 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 383 
 
 "And may we kuovv what the poem is called ?" 
 
 "Lilia" (Lily). 
 
 " Is it not Lilia-Lineta ? " 
 
 " No ; it is not Lilia-Lineta." 
 
 Marynia's face grew serious. For her, it was easy to 
 divine from the answer that the poem was to her and 
 about her ; hence she felt a sudden vexation, because she 
 alone and one other, Zavilovski, knew this, and that 
 there had arisen between them, for this cause, a sort of 
 secret known to them only. This seemed to her not in 
 accord with that honesty of hers mentioned a moment 
 earlier, and a kind of sin against " Stas." For the first 
 time, she saw the mental trouble into which a woman may 
 fall, even though she be most in love with her husband 
 and most innocent, if only the not indifferent look of an- 
 other man fall on her. It seemed to her impossible, in 
 any case, to lead her husband into the secret of her suppo- 
 sition. For the first time, she was seized by a certain 
 anger at Zavilovski, who felt this straightway with his 
 nerves of an artist, just as the barometer reflects a change 
 of atmosphere ; and, being a man without experience, he 
 took the matter tragically. He imagined that Marynia 
 would close her doors on him, would hate him, that he 
 would not be able to see her ; and the world appeared in 
 mourning colors all at once to him. In his artistic nature 
 there existed a real mixture of selfishness and fantasy with 
 genuine tenderness, well-nigh feminine, which demanded 
 love and warmth. Having become acquainted with Marynia, 
 he cleaved to her with the selfishness of a sybarite, to 
 whom such a feeling is precious, and who thinks of nothing 
 else; next, his fancy raised her to poetic heights, and 
 enhanced her charm a hundredfold, made her a being al- 
 most beyond the earth ; and, finally, his native sensitive- 
 ness, to which loneliness and the want of- a near heart 
 caused actual pain, was so moved by the goodness wit, 
 which he was received, that from all this was producec 
 something having every appearance of love. A physical 
 basis was lacking to this feeling, however. Besides hi 
 capacity for impulses, as ideal as the soul itself is, Zav 
 lovski, like most artists, had the thoughts of a 
 Those thoughts were sleeping at that time. 
 Marynia in so many glories and so much sacredness that 
 he did not desire her; and if, against every likelihood, she 
 were to cast herself on his neck unexpectedly, she would
 
 384 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 cease to be for him aesthetically that which she was, and 
 which he wished her to be in future, that is, a stainless 
 being. All the more, therefore, did he judge that he could 
 permit himself such a feeling, and all the more was he 
 grieved now to part with that intoxication which had lulled 
 his thought in such a beautiful manner, and filled the void 
 of his life. It had been so pleasant for him, on returning 
 home, to have a womanly figure at whose feet he had placed 
 his soul, to have one of whom to dream, and to whom he 
 might write verses. Now he understands that if she dis- 
 covers definitely what is taking place in him, if he does not 
 succeed in hiding this .better than hitherto, their relations 
 cannot endure, and the former void, more painful than 
 ever, will surround him a second time. He began then 
 to think how he was to escape this, and how, not only not 
 to lose anything of what he had enjoyed so far, but to 
 see Marynia still oftener. In his quick imagination, there 
 was no lack of methods. When he had made a hasty 
 review, he found and chose one which, as it seemed to him, 
 ]ed directly to his object. 
 
 " I will fall in love, as it were, with Panna Castelli," said 
 he to himself, "and will confess to Pani Polanyetski my 
 torments. That not only will not separate us, but will 
 bring us nearer. I will make her my patroness." 
 
 And straightway he begins to arrange the thing as if he 
 were arranging objects. He imagines that he is in love 
 with that " dreamy queen ; " that he is unhappy, and that 
 he will confess his secret to Marynia, who will listen to 
 him willingly, with eyes moist from pity, and, like a real 
 sister, will place her hand on his head. This play of fancy 
 seemed to him so actual, and his sensitiveness was so great, 
 that he composed expressions with which he would confess 
 to Marynia; he found simple and touching ones, and 'he 
 did this with such occupation that he himself was moved 
 sincerely. 
 
 Marynia, returning home with her husband, thought of 
 that poem entitled " Lilia," which had delayed the issue of 
 the book. Like a real woman, she was somewhat curious 
 about it, and feared it a little. She feared too in general 
 the difficulty which the future might bring in the relation 
 with Zavilovski. And under the influence of these fears 
 she said, 
 
 "Knowest thou of what I am thinking? That Lineta 
 would be a great prize for Zavilovski."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 385 
 
 " Tell me," answered Pan Stanislav, " what shot this Zavi- 
 lovski and that girl into thy head." 
 
 " I, my Stas, am not a matchmaker, I say only that it 
 would not be bad. Aneta Osnovski is rather a hot head, 
 it is true ; but she is so lively, such a fire spark." 
 
 " Abrupt, not lively ; but believe me that she is not so 
 simple as she seems, and that she has her own little per- 
 sonal plan in everything. Sometimes I think that Panna 
 Lineta concerns her as much as she does me, and that at 
 the root of all this something else is hidden." 
 
 " What could it be ? " 
 
 " I don't know, and I don't know, perhaps, because I don't 
 care much. In general, I have no faith in those women." 
 
 Their conversation was interrupted by Mashko, who was 
 just driving in by the road before their house ; and, seeing 
 them, he hastened to greet Marynia, and said then to Pan 
 Stanislav, 
 
 " It is well that we have met, for to-morrow I am going 
 away for a couple of days, and to-day is my time for pay- 
 ment, so I bring thee the money." 
 
 " I have just been at your father's," said he, turning to 
 Marynia. " Pan Plavitski seems in perfect health ; but he 
 told me that he yearns for the country and land manage- 
 ment, therefore he is thinking whether to buy some little 
 place near the city, or not. I told him that if we win the 
 will case he can stay at Ploshov." 
 
 Marynia did not like this conversation, in which there 
 was evident, moreover, a slight irony ; hence she did not 
 wish to continue it. After a while Pan Stanislav took 
 Mashko to his study, 
 
 " Then is all going well ? " asked he. 
 
 "Here is the instalment due on my debt," answered 
 Mashko ; " be so kind as to give a receipt." 
 
 Pan Stanislav sat down at his desk, and wrote a receipt. 
 
 "But now there is another affair," continued Mashko: 
 "I sold some oak in Kremen once, on condition that I 
 might redeem it, returning the price and a stipulated in- 
 terest. Here is the price and the interest. I trust that 
 thou hast nothing to add ; I can only thank thee for a 
 real service rendered, and shouldst thou ever need some- 
 thing of me, I beg thee, without any ceremony, I 
 thee to come to me, service for service. As it 
 thee, I like to be grateful." 
 
 " This monkey is beginning to patronize me, thought
 
 386 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav. And if he had not been in his own house, 
 he might have uttered the silent remark aloud; but he 
 restrained himself and said, 
 
 " I have nothing to add ; such was the contract. Be- 
 sides, I have never considered that as business." 
 
 " All the more do I esteem it," answered Mashko, kindly. 
 
 " Well, what is to be heard in general ? " inquired Pan 
 Stanislav. " Thou art moving with all sails, I see. How 
 is it with the will ? " 
 
 " On behalf of the benevolent institutions a young little 
 advocate is appearing named Sledz (herring). A nice 
 name, is n't it ? If I should call a cat by that name, she 
 would miau for three days. But I '11 pepper that herring 
 and eat him. As to the lawsuit ? It stands this way, 
 that at the end of it I shall be able to withdraw from law 
 in all likelihood, which, moreover, is not an occupation be- 
 fitting me and I will settle in Kremen permanently." 
 
 " With ready money in thy pocket ? " 
 
 " With ready money in my pocket, and in plenty. I 
 have enough of law. Of course, whoso came from the 
 country is drawn to it. That is inherited with the blood. 
 But enough of this matter, for the present. To-morrow, 
 as I told thee, I am going away; and I recommend my wife 
 to thee, all the more that Pani Kraslavski has gone just 
 now to an oculist in Vienna. I am going besides to the 
 Osnovskis' to ask them too to remember her." 
 
 " Of course we shall think of her," said Pan Stanislav. 
 Then the conversation with Marynia occurred to him, and 
 he asked, 
 
 "Thy acquaintance with the Osnovskis is of long 
 standing ? " 
 
 "Kather long, though my wife knows them better. 
 He is a very rich man ; he had one sister who died, and a" 
 miserly uncle, after whom he received a great fortune. As 
 to her, what shall I say to thee ? she read when still unmar- 
 ried all that came to her hand ; she had pretensions to wit, 
 to art, in a word, to everything to which one may pre- 
 tend, and in her way fell in love with Kopovski : here 
 she is for thee in toto" 
 
 " And Pani Bronich and Panna Castelli ? " 
 
 " Panna Castelli pleases women rather than men ; more- 
 over, I know nothing of her, except that it is said that 
 this same Kopovski tried for her, or is trying now, but 
 Pani Bronich "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 387 
 
 Here Mashko began to laugh. " Pani Bronich the Khe- 
 dive conducted in person over the pyramid of Cheops ; the 
 late Alphonso of Spain said every day to her in Cannes, 
 ' Bon jour, Madame la Couitesse.' In the year 56, Musset 
 wrote verses in her album, and Moltke sat with her on a 
 trunk in Karlsbad, in one word, she has been at every 
 coronation. Now, since Fanni Castelli has grown up, or 
 rather luxuriated up to five feet and some inches, Aunt 
 ' Sweetness ' makes those imaginary journeys, not on her 
 own account, but her niece's, in which for some time past 
 Pani Osnovski helps her so zealously that it is difficult to 
 understand what her object is. This is all, unless it is 
 thy wish to know something of the late Pan Bronich, who 
 died six years ago, it is unknown of what disease, for Pani 
 Bronich finds a new one every day for him, adding, besides, 
 that he was the last of the descendants of Kurik, not stat- 
 ing, however, that the second last descendant that is, his 
 father was manager for the Edultovskis, and made his 
 property out of them. Well, I have finished, ' Vanity 
 fair ! ' "Be well, keep well, and in case of need count on me. 
 If I were sure that such a need would come quickly, I would 
 make thee promise to turn to no one but me. Till we 
 meet ! " 
 
 When he had said this, Mashko pressed his friend's hand 
 with indescribable kindness ; and when he had gone, 
 Pan Stanislav, shrugging his shoiilders, said, 
 
 "Such a clever man apparently, and doesn't see the 
 verv same vanity in himself that he is laughing at in 
 others ! How different he was such a little while ago! He 
 had almost ceased to pretend; but when trouble passed, the 
 devil gained the upper hand." 
 
 Here he remembered what Vaskovski had said once 
 about vanity and playing a comedy ; then he thought, 
 
 " And still such people have success in this country.
 
 388 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 PANI OSNOVSKI forgot her " Florentine-Roman " even- 
 ings so thoroughly -that she was astonished when her hus- 
 band reminded her once of them. Such evenings are not 
 even in her head now ; she has other occupations, which 
 she calls " taming the eagle." If any one does not see that 
 the eagle and Lineta are created for each other, then, with 
 permission of my husband and lord, he has very short 
 sight ; but there is no help for that. In general, men fail 
 to understand many things, for they lack perception. 
 Zavilovski may be an exception in this regard ; but if Ma- 
 rynia Polanyetski would tell him, through friendship, to 
 dress with more care and let his beard grow, it would be 
 perfect! "Castelka" 1 is so thoroughly aesthetic that the 
 least thing offends her, though on the other hand he car- 
 ries her away, nay, more, he hypnotizes her simply. 
 And with her nature that is not wonderful. 
 
 Pan Osnovski listened to this chattering, and, dissolving 
 from ecstasy, watched the opportunity to seize his wife's 
 hands, and cover them, and her arms to the elbow, with 
 kisses ; once, however, he put the perfectly natural ques- 
 tion, which Pan Stanislav too had put to Marynia, 
 
 " Tell me what concern thou hast in this ? " 
 
 But Pani Aneta said coquet-tishly, 
 
 " La reine s' 'amuse ! It is not a trick to write books. 
 If there be only a little talent, that 's enough ; but to bring 
 into life that which is described in books is a far greater 
 trick, and, besides, what amusement ! " 
 
 And after a while she added, 
 
 " I may have some personal object ; and if I have, let 
 Yozio guess it." 
 
 " I '11 tell it in thy ear," answered Osnovski. 
 
 She put out her ear with a cunning mien, blinking her 
 violet eyes with curiosity. But Osnovski only brought his 
 lips to her ear to kiss it ; for the whole secret he repeated 
 simply, 
 
 " La, reine s 1 amuse ! " 
 
 1 Familiar for Castelli.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 389 
 
 And there was truth in this. Pani Aneta might have 
 her own personal object in bringing Zavilovski near 
 "Castelka;" but in its own way that development of a 
 romance in life and the role of a little Providence occupied 
 and amused her immensely. 
 
 With these providential intentions she ran in often to 
 Marynia, to learn something of the "eagle," and returned 
 in good spirits usually. Zavilovski, wishing to lull 
 Marynia's suspicions, spoke more and more of Lineta; his 
 diplomacy turned out so effectual that once, when Pani 
 Aneta inquired of Marynia directly if Zavilovski were not 
 in love with her, she answered, laughing, 
 
 " We must confess that he is in love, my Anetka, but not 
 with me, nor with thee. The apple is adjudged to Lineta, 
 and nothing is left to us but to cry or be comforted." 
 
 On the other hand, feelings and thoughts were talked 
 into and attributed continually to Lineta which self-love 
 itself would not let her deny. From morning till evening 
 she heard that this " eagle " of wide wings was in love 
 with her; that he was at her feet; and that such a chosen 
 one, such an exceptional being, as she was, could not be 
 indifferent to this. It flattered her also too much to make 
 it possible for her to be indifferent. While painting 
 Kopovski, she admired always, it is true, the "splendid 
 plain surfaces" on his face, and liked him because he 
 offered her a field for various successes, which were repeated 
 later as proofs of her wit and cleverness; she liked him 
 for various reasons. Zavilovski, too, was not an ill-looking 
 man, though he did not wear a beard, and did not dress 
 with due care. Besides, so much was said of his wings, 
 and of this, that a soul such as hers should understand 
 him. All said this, not Pani Aneta only. Pani Bronich, 
 who, on a time, did not understand how any one could avoid 
 falling in love with herself, transferred later on to her 
 niece this happy self-confidence, and accepted the views 
 of Pani Aneta, ornamenting at the same time the canvas 
 of reality with flowers from her own mind. At last Pan 
 Osnovski, too, joined the chorus. Out of love for his wife, 
 he loved "Castelka" and Pani Bronich, and was ready to 
 love whatever had remote or near relation to "Anetka," 
 hence he took the matter seriously. Zavilovski was for 
 him sympathetic; the information which he collected touch- 
 ing him was favorable. In general, he learned only that 
 he was misanthropic, ambitious, and pursued stubbornly
 
 390 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 whatever he aimed at; besides, he was secretive, and 
 greatly gifted. Since all this pleased the ladies, Osuovski 
 began to think with perfect seriousness " if that were not 
 well." Zavilovski justified so far the serious view of af- 
 fairs, he had begun for some time to visit more frequently 
 the "common drawing-room," and to speak oftener with 
 Lineta. The first, it is true, he did always at the cordial 
 invitation of Fani Aneta, but the other flowed from his 
 will. Pani Aneta noticed, also, that his glance rested 
 more and more on the golden hair and the dreamy lids of 
 "Castelka," and his eyes followed her when she passed 
 through the drawing-room. Indeed, he began to survey 
 her more carefully, a little through diplomacy, a little 
 through curiosity. 
 
 The affair became much more important when the first 
 volume of his poetry was issued. The poems had won 
 attention already and were much spoken of; but the effect 
 was weakened through this, that they had appeared at 
 considerable intervals, and unconnected. Now the book 
 struck people's eyes; it was brilliant, strong, sincere. The 
 language had freshness and metallic weight, but still bent 
 obediently, and assumed the most subtile forms. The im- 
 pression increased. Soon the murmur of praise changed 
 to a roar filled with admiration. With the exaggeration 
 usual in such cases, the work was exalted above its value, 
 and in the young poet people began to foresee the coming 
 heir of great glory and authority; his name passed from 
 newspaper offices to publicity. People spoke of him every- 
 where, were occupied with him, sought him; curiosity 
 became the greater that he was little known personally. 
 The old rich Zavilovski, Panna Helena's father, who said 
 that the two greatest plagues existing were perhaps the 
 gout and poor relatives, repeated now to every one who 
 asked him, "Mais oui, mats oui, c'est mon cousin;" 
 and such testimony had also its social weight for many 
 persons, and, among others, weight of first order for Pani 
 Bronich. Pani Aneta and Lineta ceased even to suffer 
 because of the pin of "poor taste" in Zavilovski's necktie, 
 for now everything abo\it him might pass as original. She 
 was pained yet that his name was Ignatsi. They would 
 have preferred another more in keeping with his fame 
 and his poetry; but when Osnovski, who from Metz 
 had brought home a little Latin, explained to them 
 that it meant "fiery," they answered that if that were
 
 CHILDREN OF TI1E SOIL. 3<Jl 
 
 true, it was another thing; and they were reconciled with 
 Ignatsi. 
 
 Sincere and great joy reigned at Bigiel's, at Pan Stan- 
 islav's, and in the counting-house, because the book had 
 won such fame; they were not envious in the counting, 
 house. The old cashier, the agent, and the second 
 book-keeper were proud of their colleague, as if his glory 
 had brightened the counting-house also. The cashier even 
 said, "But we have shown the world what our style is!" 
 Bigiel was thinking for two days whether in view of all 
 this Zavilovski should remain in a 'modest position in the 
 house of Polanyetski and Bigiel; but Zavilovski, when 
 Questioned by him, answered, 
 
 "This is very good of you, kind sir. Because people 
 are talking a little about me, you want to take my morsel 
 of bread from me, and my pleasant associates. I found 
 no publishers; and had it not been for your book-keeper, I 
 could not have published the volume." 
 
 To such an argument there was no answer, and Zavi- 
 lovski remained in the counting-house. But he was a more 
 frequent guest both at Bigiel's and at Pan Stanislav's. 
 At the Osnovskis' he had not shown himself for a whole 
 week after the volume was published, just as if something 
 had happened. But Pani Bigiel and Marynia persuaded 
 him to go; he had a secret desire, too, hence one evening 
 he went. 
 
 But he found the company just going to the theatre. 
 They wished to remain at home absolutely, but he would 
 not consent; and to the evident delight of Pani Osnovski 
 and Lineta, it ended in this, that he went with them. 
 "Let Yozio buy a ticket for a chair if he wishes." And 
 Yozio took a ticket for a chair. During the play Zavilovski 
 sat in the front of the box with Lineta, for Pani Aneta had 
 insisted that Pani Bronich and she would play "mother" 
 for them. " You two can say what you please; and if any 
 one comes, I will so stun him that he '11 not have power to 
 trouble you." The eyes of people were turned frequently 
 to that box when it was known who were sitting there, 
 and Lineta felt that a kind of halo surrounded her; she 
 felt that people not only were looking at him, but at the 
 same time inquiring, "Whose is that head with golden 
 hair and dreamy lids, to whom he is inclining and speal 
 ing?" She, on her part, looking at him sometimes, said 
 to herself, " Were it not for the too prominent chin, ho
 
 892 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 would be perfectly good-looking; his profile is very deli, 
 cate, and a beard might cover his chin." Pani Aneta 
 carried out her promise nobly; and when Kopovski ap- 
 peared, she occupied him so much that he could barely 
 greet Lineta, and say to Zavilovski, 
 
 " Ah, you write verses ! " 
 
 After this happy discovery he succeeded in adding, but 
 rather as a monologue, "I should like verses immensely; 
 but, a wonderful thing, the moment I read them I think of 
 something else right away." 
 
 Lineta, turning her lace, cast a long glance at him; and 
 it is unknown which was stronger in this glance, the 
 maliciousness of the woman, or the sudden admiration of 
 the artist, for that head without brains, which, issuing 
 from the depth of the box, seemed, on the red background 
 of the wall, like some masterly thought of an artist. 
 
 After the theatre, Pani Aneta would not let Zavilovski 
 go home; and all went to drink tea. Hardly had they 
 reached the house, when Pani Bronich began to make 
 reproaches. 
 
 "You are an evil man; and if anything happens to 
 Lineta, it will be on your conscience. The child does n't 
 eat, doesn't sleep; she only reads you, and reads." 
 
 Pani Aneta added immediately, 
 
 "True! I, too, have cause of complaint: she seized 
 your book, and will not give it to any one for an instant; 
 and when we are angry, do you know what she answers? 
 ' This is mine! this is mine! ' " 
 
 And Lineta, though she had not the book in her hands 
 at that moment, pressed them to her bosom, as if to defend 
 something, and said in a low, soft voice, 
 
 "For it is mine, mine!" 
 
 Zavilovski looked at her and felt that something had, as 
 it were, thrilled in him. But on returning home late he 
 passed by Pan Stanislav's windows, in which light was still 
 shining. After the theatre and conversation at the Osnov- 
 skis' he felt a certain turning of the head. JSTow the sight 
 of those windows brought him to himself; he felt suddenly 
 such a pleasant impression as one experiences on thinking 
 of something very good and very dear. His immense, pure 
 homage for Marynia arose in him with its former power: 
 he was possessed by that kind of mild exaltation in which 
 the desires fall asleep, and a man becomes almost entirely 
 a spirit; and he returned home, muttering passages from
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 393 
 
 the poem "Lilia," the most full of exaltation of any which 
 he had written in his life yet. 
 
 There was light at Pan Stanislav's because something 
 had happened, which seemed to Marynia that mercy of 
 God expected and hoped for. 
 
 In the evening, after tea, she was sitting breaking her 
 head, as usual, over daily accounts, when she put the pencil 
 down on a sudden. After a while she grew pale, but her 
 face became clear; and she said, with a voice slightly 
 changed, 
 
 "Stas!" 
 
 Her voice surprised him somewhat; therefore he ap- 
 proached her, and asked, 
 
 "What is the matter? Thou art a little pale." 
 
 "Come nearer; I '11 tell thee something." 
 
 And, taking his head with her hands, she whispered into 
 his ear, and he listened; then, kissing her on the forehead, 
 he said, 
 
 "Only be not excited, lest thou hurt thyself.*' 
 
 But in his words emotion was evident. He walked 
 through the room, looked at her a while, kissed her again 
 on the forehead; at last he said, 
 
 "Usually people wish a son first, but remember that it 
 be a daughter. We '11 call her Litka." 
 
 Neither of them could sleep that night for a long time, 
 and that was why Zavilovski saw light in the windows.
 
 394 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL, 
 
 CHAPTER XLTV. 
 
 IN a week, when probability had become certainty, Pan 
 Stanislav gave the news to the Bigiels. Pani Bigiel flew 
 the same day to Marynia, who fell to weeping with glad- 
 ness on her honest shoulders. 
 
 "It seems to me," said she, "that Stas will love me more 
 now." 
 
 "How more?" 
 
 "I wished to say still more," answered Marynia. "Seest 
 thou, for that matter, I have never enough." 
 
 "He would have to settle with me if there were not 
 enough." 
 
 The tears dried on Marynia's sweet face, and only a 
 smile remained. After a time she clasped her hands, as 
 if in prayer, and said, 
 
 "Oh, my God, if it is only a daughter! for Stas wants a 
 daughter. " 
 
 "And what wouldst thou like?" 
 
 "I but don't tell Stas I should like a son; but let it 
 be a daughter." 
 
 Then she grew thoughtful, and asked, 
 
 "But there is no help, is there?" 
 
 "There is not," answered Pani Bigiel, laughing; "for 
 that they have not found yet any remedy." 
 
 Bigiel, on his part, gave the news to every one whom he 
 met; and in the counting-house he said, in Pan Stauislav's 
 presence, with a certain unction in his voice, 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, it seems that the house will be in- 
 creased by one member." 
 
 The employees turned inquiring glances on him; he 
 added , 
 
 "Thanks to Pan and Pani Polanyetski." 
 
 Then all hurried to Pan Stanislav with good wishes, 
 excepting Zavilovski, who, bending over his desk, began 
 to look diligently at columns of figures; and only after a 
 while, when he felt that his conduct might arrest attention, 
 did he turn with a changed face to Pan Stanislav, and, press- 
 ing his hand, repeat, "I congratulate, I congratulate! "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 395 
 
 It seemed to him then that he was ridiculous, that some- 
 thing had fallen on his head; that he felt empty, bound- 
 lessly stupid; and that the whole world was fabulously 
 trivial. The worst, however, was the feeling of his own 
 ridiculousness; for the affair was so natural and easily 
 foreseen that even such a man as Kopovski might foresee 
 it. At the same time, he, an intelligent man, writing 
 poetry, pervaded with enthusiasm, grasping everything 
 which happened around, slipped into such an illusion that 
 it seemed to him then as if a thunderbolt had strnck him. 
 What overpowering ridiculousness ! But he had made the 
 acquaintance of Marynia as Paul Polanyetski, and imagined 
 to himself unconsciously that she had always been, and 
 would be, Pani Polanyetski in the future as she was in 
 the present, and simply it had not occurred to him that 
 any change might supervene. And behold, observing lily 
 tones once on her face, he called her Lily, and wrote lily 
 verses to her. And now that lost sense, which to vexation 
 adds something of ridicule, whispered in his ear, "Ah, a 
 pretty lily! " And Zavilovski felt more and more crushed, 
 more and more ridiculous; he wrote verses, but Pan 
 Stanislav did not write any. In that apposition there was 
 a gnawing bitterness, and something idiotic; he took deep 
 draughts from that cup, so as not to lose one drop in the 
 drinking. If his feelings had been betrayed; if he had 
 made them known to Marynia; if she had repulsed him 
 with utter contempt, and Pan Stanislav had thrown him 
 downstairs, there would have been something in that like 
 a drama. But such an ending, "such flatness!" He 
 had a nature feeling everything ten times more keenly than 
 common men; hence the position seemed to him simply un- 
 endurable, and those office hours, which he had to sit out 
 yet, a torture. His feeling for Marynia had not sunk in 
 his heart deeply; but it occupied his imagination altogether. 
 Reality now struck its palm on his head without mercy; the 
 blow seemed to him not only painful and heavy, but also 
 given sneeringly. The desperate thought came to his 
 head to seize his" cap, go out, and never come back again. 
 Fortunately, the usual hour for ending work came at last, 
 and all began to separate. 
 
 Zavilovski, while passing through the corridor, where, 
 at a hat-rack, a mirror was fixed, saw his projecting chin 
 and tall form in it, and said to himself, "Thus looks an 
 idiot." He did not go to dine that day with the second
 
 396 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 book-keeper, as usual; he would have been eveu glad to flee 
 from his own person. Meanwhile he shut himself in at 
 home, and with the exaggeration of a genuine artist, 
 heightened to impossible limits his misfortune and ridicu- 
 lous position. After some days he grew calm, however; 
 he felt oily a strange void in his heart, precisely as if it 
 were a dwelling vacated by some one. He did not show 
 himself at Pan Stauislav's for a fortnight; but at the end 
 of that time he saw Marynia at the Bigiels', and was 
 astonished. 
 
 She seemed to him almost ugly. That was by no means 
 his prejudice, for, though it was difficult to notice a change 
 in her form, still she had changed greatly. Her lips were 
 swollen; there were pimples on her forehead; and she had 
 lost freshness of color. She was calm, however, but some- 
 what melancholy, as if some disappointment had met her. 
 Zavilovski, who, in truth, had a good heart, was moved 
 greatly by her ugliness. Before, it seemed to him that he 
 would disregard her; now that seemed to him stupid. 
 
 But her face only had changed, not her kindness or 
 good-will. Nay, feeling safe now from superfluous enthu- 
 siasms on his part, she showed him more cordiality than 
 ever. She asked with great interest about Lineta; and 
 when she found that a subject on which he, too, spoke will- 
 ingly, she began to laugh with her former laughter, full 
 of indescribable sweetness, and said almost joyously, 
 
 "Well, well! People wonder there why you have not 
 visited them for so long a time; and do you know what 
 Aneta and Pani Bronich told me? They told me- " 
 
 But here she stopped, and after a while said, 
 
 "No; I cannot tell this aloud. Let us walk in the garden 
 a little." 
 
 And she rose, but not with sufficient care, so that, stum- 
 bling at the first step, she almost fell. 
 
 " Be careful ! " cried Pan Stanislav, impatiently. 
 
 She looked at him with submission , almost with fear. 
 
 "Stas," said she, blushing, "as I love thee, that was 
 inadvertent." 
 
 "But do not frighten her so," said Pani Bigiel, quickly. 
 
 It was so evident that Pan Stanislav cared more at that 
 moment for the coming child than Marynia, that even 
 Zavilovski understood it. 
 
 As to Marynia, this was known to her long before that 
 day; she had passed through a whole mental battle with
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 397 
 
 herself just because of it. Of that battle she had not 
 spoken to any one; and it was the more difficult, the more 
 the state of her health advised against excitement, unquiet, 
 and an inclination to gloomy brooding. She had passed 
 through grievous hours before she said to herself, "It must 
 be as it is." 
 
 Pan Stanislav would have been simply astonished had 
 any one told him that he did not love, and especially that 
 he did not value, his wife as duty demanded. He loved her 
 in his own way, and judged at once that, if ever, it was 
 then that the child should be for both a question beyond 
 every other. Vivacious and impulsive by nature, he pushed 
 this care at moments too far, but he did not account this to 
 himself as a fault; he did not even stop to think of what 
 might take place in the soul of Maryuia. It seemed to 
 him that among other duties of hers one of the first was 
 the duty of giving him children; that it was a simple thing, 
 therefore, that she should accomplish this. Hence he 
 was thankful to her, and imagined that, being careful of a 
 child, he was by that very act careful of her, and careful 
 in a degree that few husbands are. If he had considered 
 it proper to call himself to account touching his treatment 
 of her, he would have considered it a thing perfectly 
 natural also that her charm, purely feminine, attracted him 
 now less than it had hitherto. With each day she became 
 uglier, and offended his aesthetic sense sometimes; he 
 fancied that, concealing this from her. and trying to show 
 her sympathy, he was as delicate as a man could well be 
 to a woman. 
 
 She, on her part, had the impression that the hope on 
 which she had counted most had deceived her; she felt 
 that she had descended to the second place, that she would 
 descend more and more. And in spite of all her affection 
 for her husband, in spite of the treasures of tenderness 
 which were collecting in her for the future child, rebellion 
 and regret seized her soul at the first moment. But this 
 did not last long; she battled with these feelings also, and 
 conquered. She said to herself that here it was no one's 
 fault; life is such that this issues from the natural con- 
 dition of things, which, again, is a result of God's wil 
 Then she began to accuse herself of selfishness, and crush 
 herself with the weight of this thought: Has she a right 
 to think of herself, not of "Stas," and not of her future 
 child What nan she bring against " Stas " ? What is there
 
 398 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 wonderful in this, that he, who had loved even a strange 
 child so much, has his soul occupied now, above all, with 
 his own; that his heart beats first for it? Is there not an 
 offence against God in this, that she permits herself to 
 bring forward first of all rights of her own, happiness of 
 her own, she, who has offended so much? Who is she, 
 and what right has she to an exceptional fate? And she 
 was ready to beat her breast. The rebellion passed ; there 
 remained only somewhere in the very depths of her heart 
 a little regret that life is so strange, and that every new 
 feeling, instead of strengthening a previous one, pushes 
 it into the depths. But when that sorrow went from her 
 heart to her eyes, under the form of tears, or began to 
 quiver on her lips, she did not let it have such an escape. 
 
 "I shall be calm in a moment," thought she, in her soul. 
 "Such it is, such it will be, and such is right; for such is 
 life, and such is God's will, with which we must be recon- 
 ciled." And at last she was reconciled. 
 
 By degrees she found repose even, not giving an account 
 to herself that the basis of this was resignation and sad- 
 ness. It was sadness, however, which smiled. Being 
 young, it was almost bitter at times to her, when all at 
 once, in the eyes of her husband, or of even some stranger, 
 she read clearly, " Oh , how ugly thou hast grown ! " But 
 because Pani Bigiel had said that " afterward " she would 
 be more beautiful than ever, she said in her soul to them. 
 " Wait ! " and that was her solace. 
 
 She answered also something similar to Zavilovski. She 
 was at once glad, and not glad, of the impression she had 
 made on him; for if on the one hand her self-love had 
 suffered a little, on the other she felt perfectly safe, and 
 could speak with him freely. She wished to speak, and 
 speak with full seriousness, for a few days before, Pani 
 Aneta had told her directly that "The Column" was in 
 love to the ears, and that Zavilovski had every chance 
 with her. 
 
 This forging the iron while hot disquieted her somewhat; 
 she could not understand why it was so, even taking into 
 consideration the innate impetuosity of Pani Aneta. For 
 Zavilovski, who had become somehow the Benjamin of 
 both houses, she, as well as the Bigiels and Pan Stanislav, 
 had great friendship; and, besides, she was grateful to him, 
 for, be things as they might, he had appreciated her. He 
 had known her truly, hence she would help him with glad-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 399 
 
 ness in that which seemed to her a great opportunity; but 
 she thought also, "Suppose it should be bad for him." 
 She feared responsibility a little, and her own previous 
 diplomacy. Now, therefore, she wishes to learn tirst what 
 he thinks really, and then give him to understand how 
 things are, and finally advise him to examine and weigh 
 with due care in the given case. 
 
 " They are wondering there, because you have not called 
 for a long time," said she, when they had gone to the 
 garden. 
 
 "What did Pani Osnovski say?" inquired Zavilovski. 
 
 " I will tell you only one thing, though I am not sure 
 that I ought to repeat it. Pani Aneta told me that 
 but no ! First, I must learn why you have not called there 
 this long time." 
 
 "I was not well, and I had a disappointment. I made 
 no visits; I could not! You have stopped talking." 
 
 " Yes, for I wished to know if you were not angry at 
 those ladies for some cause. Pani Aneta told me that 
 Lineta supposed you were, and that she saw tears in her 
 eyes a number of times, for that reason." 
 
 Zavilovski blushed; on his young and impressionable 
 face real tenderness was reflected. 
 
 "Ah, my God!" answered he; "I angry, and at a lady 
 like Panna Lineta? Could she offend any one?" 
 
 "I repeat what was said to me, though Pani Aneta is so 
 impulsive that I dare not guarantee all she says to be 
 accurate. I know that she is not lying; but, as you un- 
 derstand, very impulsive people see things sometimes as 
 if through a magnifying-glass. Satisfy yourself. Lineta 
 seems to me agreeable, very uncommon, and very kind 
 but judge for yourself; you have such power of 
 observation." 
 
 " That she is kind and uncommon is undoubted. ^ You 
 remember how I said that they produced the impression of 
 foreign women ; that is not true altogether. Pani Osnovski 
 may, but not Panna Lineta." 
 
 " You must look yourself, and look again ," said Marynia, 
 " You understand that I persuade you to nothing. I should 
 have a little fear, even of Stas, who does not like those 
 ladies. But I say sincerely that when I heard of Lineta's 
 tears, my heart was touched. The poor girl ! ' 
 
 "I cannot even tell you how the very thought of that 
 stirs me," replied Zavilovski.
 
 400 
 
 Further conversation was interrupted by the coming of 
 Pan Stanislav, who said, 
 
 "Well? always matchmakers! But these women are 
 incurable. Knowest thou, Marynia, what I will tell thee? 
 I should be most happy wert thou to refrain from such 
 matters." 
 
 Marynia began to explain; but he turned to Zavilovski, 
 and said, 
 
 "I enter into nothing in this case, and know only this, 
 that I have not the least faith in those ladies." 
 
 Zavilovski went home full of dreams. All the strings 
 of his imagination had been stirred and sounded , so that 
 the wished-for sleep fled from him. He did not light a 
 lamp, so that nothing might prevent him from playing 
 on those quivering strings; he sat in the moonlight and 
 mused, or rather, created. He was not in love yet; but 
 a great tenderness had possessed him at thought of Lineta, 
 and he arranged images as if he loved already. He saw 
 her as distinctly as though she were before him; he 
 saw her dreamy eyes, and her golden head, bending, like 
 a cut flower, till it reached his breast. And now it seems 
 to him that he is placing his fingers on her temples, and 
 that he is feeling the satin touch of her hair, and, bend- 
 ing her head back a little, he looks to see if the fondling 
 has not dried her tears; and her eyes laugh at him, like 
 the sky still wet from rain, but sunny. Imagination 
 moves his senses. He thinks that he is confessing his 
 love to her; that he presses her to his bosom, and feels her 
 heart beating; that he kneels with his head on her knees, 
 from which comes warmth through the silk garment to his 
 face. And he began in reality to shiver. Hitherto she 
 had been for him an image; now he feels her for the first 
 time as a woman. There is not in him even one thought 
 which is not on her; and he so forgets himself in her that 
 he loses consciousness of where he is, and what is happen- 
 ing within him. 
 
 Some kind of hoarse singing on the street roused him; 
 then he lighted a lamp, and began to think more soberly. 
 A kind of alarm seized him now, because one thing seemed 
 undoubted, if he did not cease to visit Pani Bronich and 
 the Osnovskis altogether, he would fall in love with that 
 maiden past memory. 
 
 "I must choose, then," said he to himself. 
 
 And next day he went to see her, for he had begun to
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 401 
 
 yearn; and that same night he tried to write a poem with 
 the title of "Spider-web." 
 
 He dared not go to Pani Bronich herself, so he waited 
 till the hour when he could find all at tea, in the common 
 drawing-room. Fani Aneta received him with uncommon 
 cordiality, and outbursts of joyous laughter; but he, after 
 greeting her, began to look at Liueta's face, and his heart 
 beat with more force when he saw in her a great and deep 
 
 joy- 
 
 "Do you know what?" cried Pani Aneta, with her usual 
 vivacit} 7 . " Our ' Poplar ' likes beards so much that I 
 thought this of you: 'he is letting his beard grow, and 
 does not show himself.' ' : 
 
 "No, no! " said the "Poplar," "stay as you were when I 
 made your acquaintance." 
 
 But Pan Osnovski put his arm around Zavilovski, and 
 said, in that pleasant tone of a man of good breeding, who 
 knows how to bring people at once to more intimate and 
 cordial relations, 
 
 "Did Pan Ignas hide himself from us? Well, I have 
 means to compel him. Let Lineta begin his portrait, then 
 he must come to us daily." 
 
 Pani Aneta clapped her hands. 
 
 " How clever that Yozio is, wonderfully clever! " 
 
 His face was radiant because he had said a thing pleasing 
 to his wife, and he repeated, 
 
 " Of course, my Anetka, of course." 
 
 " I have promised already to paint it," said Lineta, with 
 a soft voice, "but I was afraid to be urgent." 
 
 " Whenever you command," answered Pan Ignas. 
 
 " The days are so long now that about four, after Pan 
 Kopovski; for that matter, I shall finish soon with that 
 insufferable Kopovski." 
 
 "Do you know what she said about Pan Kopovski?" 
 began Pani Aneta. 
 
 But Lineta would not permit her to say this for anything ; 
 she was prevented, moreover, by Pan Plavitski, who came 
 in at that moment, and broke up the conversation. Pan 
 Plavitski, on making the acquaintance of Pani Aneta at 
 Marynia's, lost his head for her, and acknowledged this 
 openly ; on her part, she coquetted with him unsparingly, 
 to the great delight of herself and of others. 
 
 " Let papa sit near me here," said she ; " we will be happy 
 side by side, won't we ? " 
 
 20
 
 402 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " As in heaven ! as in heaven ! " replied Plavitski, strok- 
 ing his knees with his palms time after time, and thrusting 
 out the tip of his tongue from enjoyment. 
 
 Zavilovski drew up to Lineta and said, 
 
 " I am so happy to be able to come every day. But shall 
 I not occupy your time, really ? " 
 
 "Of course you will occupy it," answered she, looking 
 him in the eyes; " but you will occupy it as no one else can. 
 I was really too timid to urge, because I am afraid of you." 
 
 Then he looked into the depth of her eyes, and answered 
 with emphasis, 
 
 " Be not afraid." 
 
 Lineta dropped her eyelids, and a moment of rather 
 awkward suspense followed ; then the lady inquired, in a 
 voice somewhat lowered, 
 
 " Why did you not come for such a long time ? " 
 
 He had it on his tongue to say, " I was afraid," but he 
 had not the daring to push matters that far; hence he 
 answered, 
 
 "I was writing." 
 
 " A poem ? " 
 
 " Yes, called < Spider-web ; ' I will bring it to-morrow. You 
 remember that when I made your acquaintance, you said 
 that you would like to be a spider-web. I remembered that j 
 and since then I see continually such a snowy thread sport- 
 ing in the air." 
 
 " It sports, but not with its own power," answered Lineta, 
 "and cannot soar unless " 
 
 " What ? Why do you not finish ? " 
 
 " Unless it winds around the wing of a Soarer." 
 
 When she had said this, she rose quickly and went to 
 help Osnovski, who was opening the window. 
 
 Zavilovski remained alone with mist in his eyes. It 
 seemed to him that he heard the throbbing of his temples. 
 The honeyed voice of Pani Bronich first brought him to his 
 senses, 
 
 " A couple of days ago old Pan Zavilovski told me that 
 you and he are related; but that you are not willing to visit 
 him, and that he cannot visit you, since he has the gout. 
 Why not visit him? He is a man of such distinction, and so 
 pleasant. Go to him ; it is even a disappointment to him 
 that you do not go. Go to visit him." 
 
 "Very well; I can go," answered Zavilovski, who was 
 ready that moment to agree to anything.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 403 
 
 " How kind and good you must be ! You will see your 
 cousin, Panua Helena. But don't fall in love with her, for 
 she too is very distinguished." 
 
 "No, there is no danger," said Zavilovski, laughing. 
 
 "They say besides that she was in love with Ploshov- 
 ski, who shot himself, and that she wears eternal mourning 
 in her heart for him. But when will you go ? " 
 
 "To-morrow, or the day after. When you like." 
 
 " You see, they are going away. The summer is at our 
 girdles ! Where will you be in the summer ? " 
 
 " I do not know. And you ? " 
 
 Lineta, who during this time had returned and sat down 
 not far away, stopped her conversation with Kopovski, and, 
 hearing Pan Ignas's question, replied, 
 
 " We have no plan yet." 
 
 " We were going to Scheveningen," said Pani Bronich, 
 "but it is difficult with Lineta." And after a while she 
 added in a lower voice : " She is always so surrounded by 
 people ; she has such success in society that you would not 
 believe it. Though why should you not ? It is enough to 
 look at her. My late husband foretold this when she was 
 twelve years of age. 'Look,' said he, 'what trouble there 
 will be when she grows up.' And there is trouble, there 
 is! My husband foresaw many things- But have I 
 told you that he was the last of the Rur Ah, yes! 1 
 have told you. We had no children of our own, for the 
 first one did n 't come to birth, and my husband was four- 
 teen years older than I ; later on he was to me more, a 
 father." 
 
 "How can that concern me ? " thought Pan Ignas. But 
 Pani Bronich continued, 
 
 " My late husband always grieved over this, that he had 
 no son. That is, there was a son, but he came halfway too 
 early " (here tears quivered in the voice of Pani Bronich). 
 " We kept him some time in spirits. And, if you will believe 
 it, when there was fair weather he rose, and when there was 
 rain he sank down. Ah, what a gloomy remembrance ! 
 much my husband suffered because he was to die, the last 
 of the Rur . But a truce to this ; 't is enough that at last 
 he was as attached to Lineta as to a relative, and sunk 
 she was his nearest relative, and wluit remains after us 
 will ba hers. Maybe for that reason people surround her 
 so. Though no ! I do not wonder at them. If you knew
 
 404 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 what a torment that is to her, and to me. Two years ago, 
 in Nice, a Portuguese, Count Jao Colimagao, a relative of 
 the Alcantaras, so lost his head as to rouse people's 
 laughter. Or that Greek of last year, in Ostend ! the son 
 of a banker, from Marseilles, a millionuaire. What was his 
 name ? Lineta, what was the name of that Greek million- 
 naire, that one who, thou knowest ?" 
 
 "Aunt!" said Lineta, with evident displeasure. 
 
 But the aunt was in full career already, like a train with 
 full steam. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! I recollect," said she, " Kanafaropulos, Sec- 
 retary of the French Embassy in Brussels." 
 
 Lineta rose and went to Pani Aneta, who was talking at 
 the principal table with Plavitski. The aunt, following her 
 with her eyes, said, 
 
 "The child is angry. She hates tremendously to have 
 any one speak of her successes ; but I cannot resist. Do you 
 understand me ? See how tall she is! How splendidly she 
 has grown ! Anetka calls her sometimes the column, and 
 sometimes the poplar; and really, she is a poplar. What 
 wonder that people's eyes gaze at her ! I have n't mentioned 
 yet Pan Ufinski. That 's our great friend. My late hus- 
 band loved him immensely. But you must have heard of 
 Pan Ufinski ? That man who cuts silhouettes out of paper. 
 The whole world knows him. I don't know at how many 
 courts he has cut silhouettes ; the last time he cut out the 
 Prince of Wales. There was also a Hungarian." 
 
 Osnovski, who sat near by amusing himself with a pencil 
 at his watch-chain, now drawing it out, now pushing it back, 
 grew impatient at last, and said, 
 
 " A couple of more such, dear aunt, and there would be a 
 masquerade ball." 
 
 "Precisely, precisely!" answered Pani Bronich. "If I 
 mention them, it is because Lineta does n't wish to hear of 
 any one. She is such a chauviniste ! You have no idea 
 what a chauviniste that child is." 
 
 " God give her health ! " said Pan Ignas. 
 
 Then he rose to take farewell. At parting, he held for 
 some time the hand of Lineta, who answered also with an 
 equally prolonged pressure. 
 
 "Till to-morrow," said he, looking into her eyes. 
 
 " Till to-morrow after Pan Kopovski. And do not for- 
 get ' Spider-web/ "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 405 
 
 "No, I will not forget ever/' answered Zavilovski, with 
 a vorce somewhat moved. 
 
 He went out with Plavitski ; but they had scarcely found 
 themselves on the street, when the old man, tapped him 
 lightly on the arm, and stopping, said, 
 
 " Young man, do you know that I shall soon be a grand- 
 father?" 
 
 " I know." 
 
 "Yes, yes ! " repeated Plavitski with a smile of delight, 
 " and in addition to that, I will tell you only this much : 
 there is nothing to surpass young married women ! " 
 
 And, laughing, he began to clap Pan Ignas time after time 
 on the shoulder; then he put the ends of his fingers to his 
 lips, took farewell, and walked off. 
 
 But his voice, slightly quivering, came to Pan Ignas from 
 a distance, 
 
 "There is nothing to surpass young married women." 
 Noise on the street drowned the rest.
 
 406 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 FKOM that time Pan Ignas went every day to Aunt 
 Bronich's. He found Kopovski there frequently, for 
 toward the end something had been spoiled in the portrait 
 of " Antinous." Lineta said that she had not been able to 
 brin" everything out of that face yet; that the expression 
 in the picture was not perhaps what it should be, in a 
 word, she needed time for reflection. With Fan Ignas her 
 work went more easily. 
 
 " With such a head as Pan Kopovski's," said she once, 
 "it is enough to change the least line, it is enough to have 
 the light wrong, to ruin everything. While with Pan 
 Zavilovski one must seize first of all the character." 
 
 On hearing this, both were satisfied. Kopovski declared 
 even that it was not his fault ; that God had created him 
 so. Pani Bronich said later on that Lineta had said 
 apropos of that : " God created him ; the Son of God re- 
 deemed him ; but the Holy Ghost forgot to illuminate him." 
 That witticism on poor Kopovski was repeated throughout 
 Warsaw. 
 
 Pan Ignas liked him well enough. After a few meetings 
 he seemed to him so unfathomably stupid that it did not 
 occur to him that any one could be jealous of the man. On 
 the contrary, it was always pleasant to look at him. Those 
 ladies too liked him, though they permitted themselves to 
 jest with him ; and sometimes he served them simply as a 
 ball, which they tossed from hand to hand. Kopovski's 
 stupidity was not gloomy, however, nor suspicious. He 
 possessed a uniform temper and a smile really wonderful ; 
 of this last he was aware, perhaps, hence he preferred to 
 smile rather than frown. He was well-bred, accustomed to 
 society, and dressed excellently ; in this regard he might 
 have served as a model to Pan Ignas. 
 
 From time to time he put astonishing questions, which 
 filled the young ladies with merriment. Once, hearing 
 Pani Bronich talk of poetic inspirations, he asked Pan 
 Ignas, " If anything was taken for it or not," and at the 
 first moment confused him, for Pan Ignas did not know 
 what to answer.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 407 
 
 Another time Pani Aneta said to him, 
 
 " Have you ever written poetry ? Make some rhyme, 
 then." 
 
 Kopovski asked time till next day ; but next day he 
 had forgotten the request, or could not make the verses. 
 The ladies were too well-bred to remind him of his promise. 
 It was always so agreeable to look at him that they did 
 not wish to cause him unpleasantness. 
 
 Meanwhile spring ended, and the races began. Pan 
 Ignas was invited for the whole time of their continuance 
 to the carriage of the Osnovskis. They gave him a place 
 opposite Lineta ; and he admired her with all his soul. 
 In bright dresses, in bright hats, with laughter in her 
 dreamy eyes, with her calm face flushing somewhat under 
 the breath of fresh breezes, she seemed to him spring and 
 paradise. Returning home, he had his eyes full of her, 
 his mind and his heart full. In that world in which they 
 lived, in the society of those young men, who came up to 
 the carriage to entertain the ladies, he was not at home, 
 but the sight of Lineta recompensed him for everything. 
 Under the influence of sunny days, fair weather, broad 
 summer breezes, and that youthful maiden, who began to 
 be dear to him, he lived, as it were, in a continuous intoxi- 
 cation ; he felt youth and power in himself. In his face 
 there was at times something truly eagle-like. At moments 
 it seemed to him that he was a ringing bell, sounding and 
 sounding, heralding the delight of life, the delight of love, 
 the delight of happiness, a great jubilee of loving. 
 
 He wrote much, and more easily than ever before ; there 
 was besides in his verses that which recalled the fresh 
 odor of newly ploughed fields, the vigor of young leaves, 
 the sound of wings of birds flying on to fallow land to the 
 immense breadth of plains and meadows. He felt his own 
 power, and ceased to be timid about poetry even before 
 strangers, for he understood that there was something about 
 him, something within him, and that he had something to 
 lay at the feet of a loved one. 
 
 'Pan Stanislav, who, in spite of his mercantile life, had 
 an irrestrainable passion for horses, and never neglected 
 the races, saw Pan Ignas every day with the Osnovskis and 
 Panna Castelli, and gazing at the latter as at a rainbow ;- 
 when he teased him in the counting-house for being in love, 
 the young poet answered, 
 
 "It is not I, but my eyes. The Osnovskis will go soon, 
 those ladies too ; and all will disappear like a dream.
 
 408 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But he did not speak truth, for he did not believe that 
 all could disappear like a dream. On the contrary, he felt 
 that for him a new life had begun, which with the departure 
 of Panna Lineta might be broken. 
 
 "And where are Pani Bronich and Panna Castelli 
 going ? " continued Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " For the rest of June and during July they will remain 
 with the Osnovskis, and then go, as they say, to Schevenin- 
 gen ; but this is not certain yet." 
 
 "Osnovski's Prytulov is fifteen miles from Warsaw," 
 said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 For some days Pan Ignas had been asking himself, with 
 heart beating, whether they would invite him or not; but 
 when they invited him, and besides very cordially, he did 
 not promise to go, and with all his expressions of gratitude 
 held back, excusing himself with the plea of occupation 
 and lack of time. Lineta, who was sitting apart, heard 
 him, and raised her golden brows. When he was going, she 
 approached him and asked, 
 
 " Why will you not come to Prytulov ? " 
 
 He, seeing that no one could hear them, said, looking 
 into her eyes, 
 
 " I am afraid." 
 
 She began to laugh, and inquired, repeating Kopovski's 
 words, 
 
 " Is it necessary to take anything for that ? " 
 
 " It is," answered he, with a voice somewhat trembling ; 
 " I need to take the word, come, from you ! " 
 
 She hesitated a moment; perhaps she did not dare to tell 
 him directly in that form which he required, but she 
 blushed suddenly and whispered,' 
 
 "Come." 
 
 Then she fled, as if ashamed of those colors on her face, 
 which, in spite of the darkness, were increasingly evident. 
 
 On the way home it seemed to Pan Ignas that a shower 
 of stars was raining down on him. 
 
 The departure of the Osnovskis was to take place in ten 
 days only. Up to that time, the painting of portraits was 
 to continue its usual course, and to go on in the same 
 fashion till the last day, for Lineta did not wish to lose 
 time. Pani Aneta persuaded her to paint Pan Ignas exclu- 
 sively, since Kopovski would need only as many sittings as 
 could be arranged in Prytulov just before their departure 
 for Scheweningen. For Pan Ignas those sittings had be-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 409 
 
 come the first need of his life, as it were ; and if by chance 
 there was any interruption, he looked on that day as lost. 
 Pani Bronich was present at the sittings most frequently. 
 But he divined in her a friendly soul ; and at last the man- 
 ner in which she spoke of Lineta began to please him. 
 They both just composed hymns in honor of Liueta, whom in 
 confidential conversation Pani Bronich called "Niteehka." 1 
 This name pleased Pan Ignas the more clearly he felt how 
 that " Niteehka" (thread) was winding around his heart. 
 
 Frequently, however, it seemed to him that Pani Bronich 
 was narrating improbable things. It was easy to believe 
 that Lineta was and could be Svirski's most capable pupil; 
 that Svirski might have called her "La Perla;" that he 
 might have fallen in love with her, as Pani Bronich gave 
 one to understand. But that Svirski, known in all Europe, 
 and rewarded with gold medals at all the exhibitions, could 
 declare with tears, while looking at some sketch of hers, 
 that saving technique, he ought rather to take lessons of her, 
 of this even Pan Ignas permitted himself to doubt. And 
 somewhere, in some corner of his soul, in which there was 
 hidden yet a small dose of sobriety, he wondered that 
 Panna "Niteehka" did not contradict directly, but limited 
 herself to her words usual on such occasions : " Aunt ! thou 
 knowest that I do not wish you to repeat such things." 
 
 But at last he lost even those final gleams of sobriety, 
 and began to have feelings of tenderness even over the late 
 Bronich, and almost fell in love with Pani Bronich, for this 
 alone, that he could talk with her from morning till night 
 of Lineta. 
 
 In consequence of this repeated insistence of Pani Bro- 
 nich, he visited also, at this time, old Pan Zavilovski, that 
 Croesus, at whose house he had never been before. The 
 old noble, with milk-white mustaches, a ruddy complexion, 
 and gray hair closely trimmed, received him with his foot 
 in an armchair, and with that peculiar great-lord famili- 
 arity of a man accustomed to this, that people count more 
 with him than he with them. 
 
 " I beg pardon for not standing," said he, " but the gout 
 is no joke. Ha, what is to be done ! An inheritance ! It 
 seems that this will be attached to the name for the ages of 
 ages. But hast thou not a twist in thy thumb some- 
 times ? " 
 
 1 "Niteehka" (little thread) is the diminutive of " Nitka," itself a di- 
 minutive of " Nits," which means thread.
 
 410 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "No," answered Pan Ignas, who was a little astonished, 
 as well at the manner of reception as that the old noble 
 said thou to him from the first moment. 
 
 "Wait; old age will come." 
 
 Then, calling his daughter, he presented Pan Ignas to 
 her, and began to speak of the family, explaining to the 
 young man how they were related. At last he said, 
 
 "Well, I have not written verses, for I am too dull; but 
 I must tell thee that thou hast written them for me, and 
 that I was not ashamed, though I read my name under the 
 verses." 
 
 But the visit was not to end successfully. Pauna Zavi- 
 lovski, a person of thirty years, good-looking, but, as it 
 were, untimely faded and gloomy, wishing to take some 
 part in the conversation, began to inquire of her " cousin " 
 whom he knew, and where he visited. To every name 
 mentioned, the old noble appended, in one or two words, 
 his opinion. At mention of Pan Stanislav, he said, " Good 
 blood ! " at Bigiel's, he inquired, " How ? " and when the 
 name was repeated, he said, " Connais pas ; " Pani Aueta 
 he outlined with the phrase, "Crested lark!" at mention 
 of Pani Bronich he muttered, "Babbler;" at last, when 
 the young man named, with a certain confusion, Panna 
 Castelli, the noble, whose leg twitched evidently at that 
 moment, twisted his face terribly, and exclaimed, " Ei ! a 
 Venetian half-devil ! " 
 
 At this, it grew dark in the eyes of Pan Ignas, who, not- 
 withstanding his shyness, was impulsive ; his lower jaw 
 came forward more than ever, and, rising, he measured with 
 a glance the old man from his aching foot to his crown, 
 and said, 
 
 " You have a way of giving sharp jiTdgments, which does 
 not suit me ; therefore it is pleasant to take farewell." 
 
 And, bowing, he took his hat and departed. 
 
 Old Pan Zavilovski, who permitted himself everything, 
 and to whom everything was forgiven, looked at his daugh- 
 ter some time with amazement, and only after long silence 
 exclaimed, 
 
 " What ! has he gone mad ? " 
 
 The young man did not tell Pani Bronich what had hap- 
 pened. He said merely that he had made a visit, and that 
 father and daughter alike did not please him. She learned 
 everything, however, from the old man himself, who, for 
 that matter, did not call Lineta anything but " Venetian 
 half-devil," even to her eyes.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 4H 
 
 "But to make the matter perfect, you have sent me a full 
 devil," said he; "it is .well that he did not break my 
 head." 
 
 Still in his voice one might note a species of satisfaction 
 that it was a Zavilovski who had shown himsef so resolute; 
 but Pani Bronich did not note it. She took the affair some- 
 what to heart, and, to the great astonishment of the " full- 
 devil," said to him, 
 
 " He is wild about Lineta, and with him this is a sort of 
 term of tenderness ; besides, one should forgive a man 
 much who has such a position, and in this age. It must be 
 that you have n't read Krashevski's novel, ' Venetian Half- 
 Devil.' This is a title in which there is a certain poetry 
 ever since that author used it. When the old man grows 
 good-natured, write him a couple of words, will you not ? 
 Such relations should be kept up." 
 
 " Pani," answered Pan Ignas, " I would not write to him 
 for anything in the world.'' 
 
 "Even if some one besides me should ask?" 
 
 " That is again, I am not a stone." 
 
 Lineta laughed when she heard these words. In secret 
 she was pleased that Pan Ignas, at one word touching her 
 which to him seemed offensive, sprang up as if he had 
 heard a blasphemy. So that during the sitting, when for a 
 while they were alone, she said, 
 
 " It is wonderful how little I believe in the sincerity of 
 people. So difficult is it for me to believe that any one, 
 except aunt, should wish me well really." 
 
 Why ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I cannot explain it to myself. 
 
 But, for example, the Osnovskis ? Pani Aneta ?" 
 
 " Pani Aneta ? " repeated Lineta. 
 
 And she began to paint diligently, as if she had forgotten 
 the question. 
 
 " But I ? " asked Pan Ignas, in a lower voice. 
 
 You yes. You, I am sure, would not let anyone 
 speak ill of me. I feel that you are sincerely well-wishing, 
 though I know not why, for in general I am of 
 worth." 
 
 "You of little worth!" cried Pan Ignas, springing up. 
 "Remember that, in truth, I will let no one speak 
 you, not even you yourself." 
 
 Lineta laughed and said, n 
 
 " Very well ; but sit down, for I cannot paint.
 
 412 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 He sat down ; but he looked at her with a gaze so full of 
 love and enchantment that it began to confuse her. 
 
 " What a disobedient model! " said she ; " turn your head 
 to the right a little, and do not look at me." 
 
 "I cannot! I cannot! " answered Pan Ignas. 
 
 "And I, in truth, cannot paint, for the head was begun 
 in another position. Wait! " 
 
 Then she approached him, and, taking his temples with 
 her fingers, turned his head toward the right slightly. His 
 heart began to beat like a hammer; everything went around 
 in his eyes; and, holding the hand of Lineta, he pressed 
 her warm palm to his lips, and made no answer, he only 
 pressed it more firmly. 
 
 "Talk with aunt," said she, hurriedly. "We are going 
 to-morrow." 
 
 They could not say more, for that moment Osnovski, 
 Kopovski, and Pani Aneta, who had been sitting in the 
 drawing-room adjoining, came into the studio. 
 
 Pani Aneta, seeing Lineta's blushing cheeks, looked 
 quickly at Pan Ignas, and asked, 
 
 "How is it going with you to-day?" 
 
 " Where is aunt? " inquired Lineta. 
 
 "She went out to make visits." 
 
 "Long since?" 
 
 "A few minutes ago. How has it gone with you?" 
 
 "Well; but enough for to-day." 
 
 Lineta put down her brush , and after a moment went to 
 wash her hands. Pan Ignas remained there, answer- 
 ing, with more or less presence of mind, questions put 
 to him; but he wanted to go. He feared the conversa- 
 tion with Pani Bronich, and, with the habit of cowards, he 
 wished to defer it till the morrow ; he wanted, besides, to 
 remain a while with his own thoughts, to arrange them , to 
 estimate better the significance of what had happened. For 
 at that moment he had in his head merely a certain chaos 
 of indefinite thoughts; he understood that something un- 
 paralleled had happened, something from which a new 
 epoch in life would begin. At the very thought of this, 
 a quiver of happiness passed through him, but also a 
 quiver of fear, for he felt that now it was too late to 
 withdraw ; through love, through confession , through dec- 
 laration to the lady and to her family, he must advance 
 to the altar. He desired this with his whole soul; but he 
 was so accustomed to consider everything that was happi-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 413 
 
 ness as a poetic imagining, as something belonging exclu- 
 sively to the world of thought, art, and dreams, that he 
 almost lacked daring to believe that Lineta could become 
 his wife really. Meanwhile he had barely endurance to 
 sit out the time ; and when Lineta returned, he rose to take 
 leave. 
 
 She gave him her hand, cooled by fresh water, and 
 said, 
 
 "Will you not wait for aunt?" 
 
 "I must go; and to-morrow I will take farewell of you 
 and Pani Bronich." 
 
 "Then till our next meeting! " 
 
 This farewell seemed to Pan Ignas, after what had 
 happened, so inappropriate and cold that despair seized 
 him; but he had not the daring to part before people 
 otherwise, all the more that Pani Aneta was looking at 
 him with uncommon attention. 
 
 "Wait! I have something to do in the city; we'll go 
 together," said Osnovski, as he was going out. 
 
 And they went together; but barely were they outside 
 the gate of the villa, when Pan Osnovski stopped, and put 
 his hand on the poet's arm. 
 
 "Pan Ignas, have you not quarrelled a little with 
 Lineta?" 
 
 Pan Ignas looked at him with great eyes. 
 
 "I? with Panna Lineta?" 
 
 "Yes, for you parted somehow coldly. I thought you 
 were as far, at least, as hand-kissing." 
 
 Pan Ignas's eyes grew still larger; Osnovski laughed, 
 and said, 
 
 " Well, I '11 tell you the truth. My wife, as a woman 
 who is curious, looked at you, and said that something had 
 happened. My Pan Ignas, you have in me a great friend, 
 who, besides, knows what it is to love. I can say to you 
 only one thing, God grant you to be as happy as I 
 am!" 
 
 When he had said this, he began to shake his guest j 
 hand; and Pan Ignas, though confused to the highest 
 degree, was barely able to refrain from falling on his neck. 
 
 "Have you really some work to-day? Why did you 
 go?" 
 
 "I will tell you sincerely. I wanted to collect my 
 thoughts, and, besides, fear of Pani Bronich seized 
 me."
 
 414 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL 
 
 "Then you do not know aunt? Her head, too, is warm 
 with the question. Come with me a bit of the road, and 
 then go back without ceremony. On the way you will col- 
 lect your thoughts; by that time Pani Bronich will be at 
 home, and you will tell her your little story, at which she 
 will weep. Nothing else threatens you. .Remember, too, 
 that if you are fortunate you are to thank mainly my An eta, 
 for, as God lives, she has filled Castelka's head, as your 
 own sister might. She has such an impetuous head, and 
 at the same time such an honest heart. Equally good 
 women there may be, but a better there is not on earth. 
 It seemed to us a little that that fool Kopovski was in- 
 clined to Castelka, and Aneta was tremendously angry. 
 They like Kopovski; but to let her marry such a man 
 that would be too much." 
 
 Thus talking, he took Pan Ignas by the hand, and after 
 a moment, continued, "We are to be relatives soon; let us 
 drop ceremony and say thou to each other. I must tell 
 thee further: I have no doubt Castelka loves thee with 
 her whole heart, for she is a true woman also. Besides, 
 they have turned her head with thee greatly ; but she is 
 so young yet that I tell thee to throw fuel on the fire 
 throw it! Dost understand? What is begun should 
 become rooted; this can happen easily, for hers is really 
 an uncommon nature. Do not think that I wish to fore- 
 warn or to frighten thee. No; it is a question only of 
 making things permanent. That she loves thee is not 
 subject to doubt. If thy eyes had but seen her when she 
 was carrying thy book around, or what happened when 
 she and thou were returning from the theatre. A stupid 
 thought came to my head then. I spoke of having heard 
 that old Zavilovski wished to make thy acquaintance 
 because he had planned to marry thee to his daughter, so 
 that his property might not leave the name ; and imagine 
 to thyself, that poor girl, when she heard this, became as 
 pale as paper, so that I was frightened, and took back niy 
 words in all haste. What is thy answer to this? " 
 
 Pan Ignas wanted to laugh and to weep; but he merely 
 pressed to his side, and pressed with all his force, Osnov- 
 ski's hand, which he held under his arm, and said, after a 
 while, 
 
 "I am not worthy of her, no." 
 
 "Well, and after that ' no ' perhaps thou wilt say, ' No, 
 I do not love her properly. ' '
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 415 
 
 
 
 "That may be true," answered Pan Ignas, raising his 
 eyes. 
 
 "Well, go back now, and tell thy little story to Aunt 
 Bronich. Do not fear being too pathetic; she likes that. 
 Till we meet again, Iguas ! I shall be back myself in an 
 hour or so, and we shall have a betrothal evening." 
 
 They pressed each other's hands, and Osnovski said, with 
 a feeling which was quite brotherly, 
 
 "I repeat once more: God grant thee to find in Castelka 
 such a wife as my Anetka! " 
 
 On the way back Pan Ignas thought that Osnovski was 
 an angel, Pani Osnovski another, Pani Bronich a third, 
 and Lineta, soaring above them all on the wings of an 
 archangel, something divine and sacred. He understood 
 at that moment that a heart might love to pain. In his 
 soul he was kneeling at her knees, bowing to the earth at 
 her feet; he loved her, deified her, and to all these feel- 
 ings, which were playing in him one great hymn, as it 
 were, to greet the dawn, was joined a feeling of such 
 tenderness, as if that magnified woman was also a little 
 child, alone, and wonderfully loved, but a little thing, 
 needing care. He recalled Osnovski's story of how she 
 had grown pale when they told her that there was a plan 
 to marry him to another; and in his soul he repeated, 
 "Ah, but thou art mine, thou art mine! " He grew tender 
 beyond measure, and gratitude so filled his heart that it 
 seemed to him that he could not repay her in a lifetime 
 for that one moment of paleness. He felt happier than 
 ever before; and at moments the immensity of this happi- 
 ness almost frightened him. Hitherto he had been a 
 theoretical pessimist, but now reality gave the lie to those 
 passing theories with such power that it was hard for him 
 to believe that he could have deceived himself to such a 
 degree. 
 
 Meanwhile he was returning to the villa, inhaling along 
 the way the odor of blc/oming jasmines, and having some 
 species of dim feeling that that intoxicating odor was 
 nothing external, but simply a part and component of his 
 happiness. "What people! what a house! what a family! ' 
 said he to himself; "only among them could my White 
 One be reared!" Then he looked on the sun, setting in 
 calmness; he looked at the golden curtains of evening, 
 bordered with purple ; and that calmness began to possess 
 him. In those immense lights he felt boundless love and
 
 416 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 
 
 kindness, which look on the world, cherish, and bless it. 
 He did not pray in words, it is true; but everything was 
 singing one thanksgiving prayer in his soul. 
 
 At the gate of the villa he recovered as if from a dream; 
 he saw an old serving-man of the Osnovskis, who was look- 
 ing at the passing carriages. 
 
 "Good-evening, Stauislav," said he; "but has not Pan i 
 Bronich returned? " 
 
 "I am just looking, but I do not see her." 
 
 "Are the ladies in the drawing-room yet?" 
 
 "They are; and Pan Kopovski, too." 
 
 "But who will open for me?" 
 
 "The door is open. I 've come out only this minute." 
 
 Pan Ignas went up; but, rinding no one in the common 
 drawing-room, he went to the studio. There, too, he found 
 no one; but in the adjoining smaller chamber certain low 
 voices reached him through the portiere dividing that 
 room from the studio. Thinking to find there both ladies 
 and Kopovski, he drew aside the portiere slightly, and, 
 looking in, was stupefied. 
 
 Lineta was not in the room; but Kopovski was kneeling 
 before Pani Osnovski, who, holding her hands thrust into 
 his abundant hair, was bending his head back, inclining 
 her face at the same time, as if to place a kiss on his 
 forehead. 
 
 "Anetka, if thou love me " said Kopovski, with a 
 voice stifled from passion. 
 
 "I love but no! I don't want that," answered Pani 
 Osnovski, pushing him away somewhat. 
 
 Pan Ignas dropped the portiere with an involuntary 
 movement; for a moment he stood before it as if his feet 
 had grown leaden. Finally, without giving himself a clear 
 account of what he was doing, he passed through the studio, 
 where the sound of his steps was deadened on the thick 
 carpet, as it had been when he entered ; he passed the main 
 drawing-room, the entrance, the front steps, and came to 
 himself at the gate of the villa. 
 
 "Is the serene lord going out?" inquired the old serving- 
 man. 
 
 "Yes," answered Pan Ignas. 
 
 He walked away as quickly as if escaping from some- 
 thing. After a time, however, he stopped, and said aloud 
 to himself, 
 
 "Why have I not gone mad?"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 417 
 
 And suddenly madness seemed to him possible, for he 
 felt that he was losing the thread of his thoughts- that 
 he could not give himself an account of anything; that he 
 understood nothing, believed nothing. Something began 
 to tear in him, fall away. How was it? That house 
 which a moment before he thought to be some kind of 
 blessed retreat of exceptional souls, conceals the usual 
 falsehood, the usual wickedness, the usual vileness of life 
 a wretched and shameful comedy. And his Lineta, his 
 \\hite One, is breathing such an atmosphere, living in 
 such an environment, existing with such beings! Here 
 Osnovski's words occurred to him : " God grant thee to find 
 in Castelka such a wife as I have in my Anetka ! " "I thank 
 thee,'' thought Tan Ignas, and he began to laugh, in spite 
 of himself. Neither evil nor vileness were to him a 
 novelty: he had seen them, and he knew that they existed; 
 but for the first time life showed them to him with such 
 a merciless irony, as that through which Pan Osnovski, 
 a man who had shown him the heart of a brother; a man 
 honest, just, kind as few people in the world are turned 
 out to be also a fool, a kind of exalted idiot, exalted 
 through his faith and his feeling; an idiot through a 
 woman. And for the first time, too, he saw clearly what 
 a bad and contemptible woman may make of a man, with- 
 out any fault of his. On a sudden new, dreadful horizons 
 of life opened before him, whole regions, the exist- 
 ence of which he had not suspected; he had understood 
 before that an evil woman, like a vampire, may suck the 
 life out of a man, and kill him, and that seemed to him 
 demonic, but he had not imagined that she could make a 
 fool of him also. He could not master that thought. But 
 still, Osnovski was ridiculous when he wished him to be 
 as happy with his future wife as he with Anetka; there 
 was no help for this case either. One should not so love 
 as to grow blind to that degree. 
 
 Here his thoughts passed to Lineta. At the first moment 
 he had a feeling that from that vileness in the house of 
 the Osnovskis, and from that doubt which was born in his 
 heart, a certain shadow fell on her also. After a while he 
 began, however, to cast out that feeling as though it were 
 profanation, treason against innocence, treason against a 
 being as pure as she was beloved, and defiling in thought 
 her and her angelic plumage. Indignation at himself 
 seized him. " Does such a dove even think evil ? " asked 
 
 27
 
 418 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 he, in his soul. And his love rose still more at the thought 
 that " such a super-pure child " must come in contact with 
 such depravity. He would take her with the utmost 
 haste possible from Pani Osnovski's, guard her from that 
 woman's influence, seize her in his arms, and bear her^ 
 from that house, in which her innocent eyes might be* 
 opened on evil and depravity. A certain demon whis- 
 pered at moments to his ear, it is true, that Osnovski, too, 
 believes as he does, and that he would give his own blood 
 in pledge for his wife's honesty; he too would count 
 every doubt a profanation of her sacredness. But Pan 
 Iguas drove away those whisperings with dread. "It is 
 enough to look into her eyes," said he; and at the mere 
 thought of those eyes, he was ready to beat his own breast, 
 as if he had sinned most grievously. He was also angry at 
 himself because he had come out, because he had not 
 waited for Pani Bronich, and had not strengthened him- 
 self with the sight of Lineta. He remembered now how 
 he had pressed her hand to his lips; how she, changing 
 from emotion, said to him, "Speak with aunt." How 
 much angelic simplicity and purity there was in those 
 words! what honesty of a soul, which, loving, wishes to 
 be free to love before the whole world ! Pan Ignas, when 
 he thought of this, was seized by a desire to return ; but 
 he felt that he was too much excited, and that he could 
 not explain his former presence if the servant should 
 mention it. 
 
 Then again the picture rose before his eyes of Kopovski 
 kneeling to Pani Osnovski; and he fell to inquiring of him- 
 self what he was to do in view of this, and how he was to 
 act. Warn Osnovski? he rejected this thought at once 
 with indignation. Shut himself in with Pani Osnovski, 
 and give her a sermon, eye to eye? She would show him 
 the door. After a time it came to his head to threaten 
 Kopovski, and force from him a promise to cease visiting 
 the Osnovskis. But soon he saw that that, too, was use- 
 less. Kopovski, if he had even a small share of courage, 
 would give him the lie, challenge him; in such a case he 
 would have to be silent, and people would think that the 
 scandal rose because of Panna Castelli. Pan Ignas was 
 sorry for Osnovski; he had conceived for the man a true 
 friendship, and, on the other hand, he was too young to 
 be reconciled at once with the thought that evil and human 
 crookedness were to continue unpunished. Ah! but if at
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 419 
 
 that juncture lie could have counselled with some one, 
 
 for instance, with Pan Stanislav or Marynia. But that 
 could not be. And after long thought he resolved to bury 
 all in himself, and be silent. 
 
 At the same time, from the passionate prayer of Kopovski 
 and the answer of Pani Aneta, he inferred that the evil 
 might not have passed yet into complete fall. He did not 
 knosv women; but he had read no little about them. He 
 knew that there exists some for whom the form of evil has 
 more charm than the substance; that there are women 
 devoid of moral sense, but also of passion, who have just 
 as much desire for a prohibited adventure as they have 
 repugnance to complete fall, in a word, those who are 
 incapable of loving anybody, who deceive their lovers as 
 well as their husbands. He recalled the words of a certain 
 Frenchman: "If Eve had been Polish, she would have 
 plucked the apple, but not eaten it." A similar typt> 
 seemed to him Pani Aneta; vice might be in her as super- 
 ficial as virtue, and in such case the forbidden relation 
 might annoy her very soon, especially with a man like 
 Kopovski. 
 
 Here, however, Pan Ignas lost the basis of reasoning 
 and the key to the soul of Pani Aneta. He would have 
 understood relations with any other man more readily than 
 with Kopovski, that archangel with the brains of an 
 idiot. "A poodle understands more of what is said to 
 him," thought Pan Ignas; "and a woman with such aspira- 
 tions to reason, to science, to art, to the understanding of 
 every thought and feeling, could lower herself for such a 
 head ! " He could not explain this to himself, even with 
 what he had read about women. 
 
 And still reality said more definitely than all books 
 that it was so. Suddenly Pan Ignas remembered what 
 Osnovski had said to him about their fear lest that fool 
 might have, plans against Castelka, that the mention of 
 this had angered Pani Aneta immensely, and that she 
 filled Lineta's head with feeling for another. So then, for 
 Pani Aneta the question consisted in this, that Kopovsl 
 should not pay court to Lineta. She wanted to save him 
 for herself. Here Pan Ignas shive-ed all at once, for the 
 thought struck him, that if that were true, Kopovski must 
 have had some chance of success; and again a shadow p\ir 
 sued the bright form of Lineta. If that were true, she 
 would fall in his eyes to the level of Pani Aneta, After a
 
 420 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 time he felt bitterness in liis mouth and fire in his brain. 
 Anger sprang upon him, like a tempest; he could not for- 
 give her this, and the very suspicion would have poisoned 
 him. Halting again on the street, he felt that he must 
 throttle that thought in himself, or go mad from it. 
 
 In fact, he put it down so effectively that he recognized 
 himself as the lowest fool for this alone, that the thought 
 could come to him. That Lineta was incapable of loving 
 Kopovski was shown best by this, that she had fallen in 
 love with him, Pan Ignas; and the fears and suspicions of 
 Pani Aneta flowed only from the self-love of a vain woman, 
 who was afraid that another might be recognized as more 
 attractive and beautiful than she was. Pan Ignas had the 
 feeling of having pushed from his breast a stone, which 
 had oppressed him. He began then in spirit to implore 
 on his knees pardon of the unspotted one ; and thenceforth 
 his thoughts touching her were full of love, homage, and 
 contrition. 
 
 Now he made the remark to himself that' evil, though 
 committed by another, bears evil; how many foul thoughts 
 had passed through his mind only because he had seen a 
 fool at the feet of a giddy head! He noted that considera- 
 tion down in his memory. 
 
 When near his lodgings he met Pan Stanislav with Pani 
 Mashko on his arm; and that day had so poisoned him that 
 a sudden suspicion flashed through his mind. But Pan 
 Stanislav recognized him in the light of the moon and a 
 lamp, and had no desire to hide evidently, for he stopped 
 him. 
 
 " Good-evening," said he. " Why home so early to-day? " 
 
 "I was at Pani Bronich's, and I am just strolling about, 
 for the evening is beautiful." 
 
 "Then step in to us. As soon as I conduct this lady 
 home, I will return. My wife has not seen you this long 
 time.' 1 
 
 "I will go," said Pan Ignas. 
 
 And a desire to see Pani Marynia had seized him really. 
 So many thoughts and feelings had rushed through him 
 that he was weary; and he knew that the calm and kind 
 face of Marynia would act on him soothingly. 
 
 Soon he rang the bell at Pan Stanislav's. When he had 
 entered, he explained, after the greeting, that he came at 
 the request of her husband, to which she answered, 
 
 "Of course! I am very glad. My husband at this
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 421 
 
 moment is escorting home Pani Mashko, who visited 
 me, but he will return to tea. The Bigiels will be here 
 surely, and perhaps my father will come, if he has not 
 gone to the theatre." 
 
 Then she indicated a place at the table to him, and, 
 
 straightening the lamp shade, began on the work with 
 
 which she was occupied previously, making little rosettes 
 
 of narrow red and blue ribbons, of which there was a pile 
 
 lying before her. 
 
 "What are you making?" asked Pan Ignas. 
 
 "Rosettes. They are sewed to various costumes." 
 
 After a while she added, 
 
 "But this is far more interesting, what are you doing? 
 Do you know that all Warsaw is marrying you to Lineta 
 Castelli? They have seen you both in the theatre, at the 
 races; they see you at the promenades; and it is impossible 
 to persuade them that the affair is not decided already." 
 
 "Since I have spoken with you so openly, I will tell you 
 now that it is almost decided." 
 
 Mary ma raised to him eyes enlivened with a smile and 
 with curiosity. 
 
 "Is that true? Ah, that is a perfect piece of news! 
 May God give you such happiness as we wish you ! " 
 
 Then she stretched her hand to him, and afterward 
 inquired with roused curiosity, 
 
 "Have you spoken with Lineta?" 
 
 Pan Ignas told her how it was, and acknowledged his 
 conversation with Lineta arid with Osnovski; then, letting 
 himself be borne away in the narrative, he confessed every- 
 thing that had happened to him how, from the beginning, 
 he had observed, criticised, and struggled with himself; 
 how he had not dared to hope; how he had tried to drive 
 that feeling from his head, or rather, from his heart, and 
 how he could not resist it. He assured her that he had 
 promised himself a number of times to cut short the 
 acquaintance and the visits, but strength failed him each 
 time; each time he saw with amazement that the whole 
 world, the whole object of his life, was there; that without 
 her, without Lineta, he would not know what to do with 
 his life and he went back to her. 
 
 Pan Ignas had not observed himself less truthfully, but 
 he criticised and struggled less than he said. He spoke 
 sincerely, however. He added at the end that he knew 
 with certainty that he loved, not his own feelings involved
 
 422 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 in Lineta, but Lineta herself, for herself, and that she was 
 the dearest person on earth to him. 
 
 "Think," said he, "others have families, mothers, sisters, 
 brothers; I, except my unfortunate father, have no one, 
 and therefore my love for the whole world is centred 
 in her." 
 
 "True," said Marynia; "that had to come." 
 
 "This seems a dream to me," continued he; "it cannot 
 find place in my head that she will be my wife really. 
 At times it seems to me that this cannot happen; that 
 something will intervene; that all will be lost." 
 
 In fact, this feeling was strengthened in him by exalta- 
 tion, to which he was more inclined than other men, and 
 at last he began to tremble nervously ; then he covered his 
 eyes with his hands, and said, 
 
 " You see I must shield my eyes to imagine this properly. 
 Such happiness! such fabulous happiness! What does a 
 man seek in life, and in marriage? Just that, and in its 
 own course that exceeds his strength. I do not know 
 whether I am so weak or what? but I say sincerely that 
 at times breath fails me." 
 
 Marynia placed her rosette on the table, and, putting her 
 hands on it, looked at him for a while, then said, 
 
 "You are a poet, and are carried away too much; you 
 should look more calmly. Listen to what I will tell you. 
 I have a little book from my mother, in which, while she 
 was sick and without hope of recovery, she wrote for me 
 what she thought was good. About marriage she wrote 
 down something which later I have not heard from any 
 one, and have not -read in any book, that is, that one 
 should not marry to be happy, but to accomplish those 
 duties which God imposes at marriage; and that happi- 
 ness is only an addition, a gift of God. You see how 
 simple this is; and still it is true that not only have I 
 not heard it since, but I have not seen any woman or any 
 man about to marry who thought more of duty than of 
 happiness. Remember this, and repeat it to Lineta, will 
 you?" 
 
 Pan Ignas looked at her with atonishment. 
 
 "Do you know this is so simple that really it will never 
 come to any one's mind?" 
 
 She laughed a little sadly, and, taking her rosette, began 
 again to sew. After a while she repeated, 
 
 "Tell that to Lineta."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 423 
 
 And she sewed on, drawing out with quick movement 
 her somewhat thin hand, together with the needle. 
 
 " You will understand that if one has such a principle in 
 the heart, one has perpetual peace, more joyous, or sadder 
 as God grants, but still deep. But without that there is 
 only a kind of feverish happiness, and deceptions always 
 at hand, even if only for this reason, that happiness 
 may be different from what we imagine it." And she 
 sewed on. 
 
 He looked at her inclined head, at her moving hand, at 
 her work; he heard her voice; and it seemed to him that 
 that peace of which she had spoken was floating above her, 
 was filling the whole atmosphere, was suspended above the 
 table, was burning mildly in the lamp, and finally, was 
 entering him. 
 
 He was so occupied with himself, with his love, that it 
 did not even occur to him that her heart could be sad. 
 Meanwhile he was penetrated, as it were, by a double 
 astonishment: first, that these truths which she had told 
 him were such an a, I, c, that they ought to lie on the 
 very surface of every thought; and second, that in spite of 
 this, his owri thought had not worked them out of itself, 
 or, at least, had not looked at them. "What is that," 
 thought he, " our wisdom, bookish in comparison with that 
 simple wisdom of an honest woman's heart?" Then, re- 
 calling Pani Aneta, and looking at Marynia, he began this 
 monologue in his soul, "That woman and this woman!" 
 And suddenly there came to him immense solace; all his 
 disturbed thoughts settled down to their level. He felt 
 that he was resting while looking at that noble woman. 
 "In Lineta," said he to himself, "there is the same calm- 
 ness, the same simplicity, and the same honesty." 
 
 Now Pan Stanislav came, a little later the Bigiels, after 
 which the violoncello was brought. At tea Pan Stanislav 
 spoke of Mashko. Mashko conducted the suit against the 
 will with all energy, and it advanced, though there were 
 difficulties at every step. The advocate on the side of the 
 benevolent institutions that young Sledz (herring), whom 
 Mashko promised to sprinkle with pepper, cover with oil, 
 and swallow turned out not to be so easily eaten as had 
 seemed. Pan Stanislav heard that he was a man cool, 
 resolute, and at the same time a skilled lawyer. 
 
 "What is amusing, withal," said he, "is, that Mashko, 
 as Mashko, considers himself a kind of patrician, who is
 
 424 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 fighting with a plebeian, and says this will be a test of 
 whose blood is thicker. It is a pity that Bukatski is not 
 living; this would give him amusement." 
 
 "But is Mashko in St. Petersburg all this time?" asked 
 Bigiel. 
 
 " He returns to-day ; for that reason she could not stay 
 for the evening," answered Pan Stanislav; after a while 
 he added, "I had in my time a prejudice against her; but 
 I have convinced myself that she is not a bad woman, and, 
 besides, is poor." 
 
 "How poor? Mashko hasn't lost the case yet," said 
 Pani Bigiel. 
 
 "But he is always from home. Paui Mashko's mother 
 is in an optical hospital in Vienna, and will lose her 
 eyes, perhaps. Pani Mashko is alone whole days, like a 
 hermitess. I say that I had a prejudice against her, but 
 now I am sorry for her." 
 
 "It is true," said Marynia, "that since marriage she has 
 become far more sympathetic." 
 
 " Yes," answered Pan Stanislav ; " and besides she has 
 lost no charm. Red eyes injured her formerly ; but now 
 the redness has vanished, and she is as maiden-like as 
 ever." 
 
 " But it is unknown whether Mashko is equally pleased 
 with that," remarked Bigiel. 
 
 Marynia was anxious to tell those present the news about 
 Pan Ignas ; but since he was not betrothed yet officially, 
 she did not know that it might be mentioned. Whei\ 
 however, after tea, Pani Bigiel began to inquire of him 
 how the matter stood, he himself said that it was as good 
 as finished, and Marynia put in her word announcing that 
 the matter stood in this form, that they might congratu- 
 late Pan Ignas. All began then to press his hand with that 
 true friendship which they had for him, and genuine glad- 
 ness possessed all. Bigiel, from delight, kissed Pani 
 Bigiel ; Pan Stanislav commanded to bring glasses and a 
 bottle of champagne, to drink the health of the " most 
 splendid couple " in Warsaw ; Pani Bigiel began to joke 
 with Pan Ignas, predicting what the housekeeping of a 
 poet and an artist would be. He laughed ; but was really 
 moved by this, that his dreams were beginning to be real. 
 
 A little later, Pan Stanislav punched him, and said, 
 
 " The happiness of God, but I will give you one advice : 
 what you have in poetry, put into business, into work;
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 425 
 
 be a realist in life, and remember that marriage is no 
 romance." 
 
 But he did not finish, for Marynia put her hand suddenly 
 over his mouth, and said, laughing, " Silence, thou wise 
 head ! " 
 
 And then to Pan Ignas, " Don't listen to this grave pate : 
 make no theories beforehand for yourself ; only love." 
 
 " True, Pani, true," answered Pan Ignas. 
 
 " In that case, buy a harp for yourself," added Pan Stan- 
 islav, jeeringly. 
 
 At mention of the harp, Bigiel seized his violoncello, say- 
 ing that they ought to end such an evening with music. 
 Marynia sat at the piano, and they began one of Handel's 
 serenades. Pan Ignas had the impression that the soul was 
 going out of him. He took those mild tones into himself, 
 and was flying amid the night, lulling Lineta to sleep with 
 them. Late in the evening, he came out, as if strengthened 
 with the sight of those worthy people.
 
 426 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 MARYNIA had such peace "as God gave," but really 
 deep. A great aid to fiuding it was that voice from beyond 
 the grave, the little book, yellowed by years, in which 
 she read " that a woman should not marry to be happy, but 
 to fulfil the duties which God imposes on her then." 
 Marynia, who looked frequently into this little book, had 
 read more than once those lines before that ; but real mean- 
 ing they had taken on for her only of late, in that spiritual 
 process through which she had passed after her return 
 from Italy. It ended in this way, that she was not only 
 reconciled with fate, but at present she did not admit 
 even the thought that she was unhappy. She repeated to 
 Jjerself that it was a happiness different, it is true, from 
 what she had imagined, but none the less real. It is cer- 
 tain that, if God had given her the power of arranging 
 people's hearts, she would have wished " Stas " to show her, 
 not more honor, but more of that tenderness of which he 
 was capable, and which he had shown in her time to Litka ; 
 that his feeling for her might be less sober, and have in it 
 a certain kernel of poetry which her own love had. But, 
 on the other hand, she cherished always somewhere, in 
 some little corner of her heart, first, the hope that that 
 might come to pass ; and, second, she thought in her soul 
 that, even if it did not, then, as matters stood, she ought to 
 thank God for having given her a brave and honest man, 
 whom she could not only love, but esteem. More than once 
 she stopped to compare him with others, and could not find 
 any one to sustain the comparison. Bigiel was worthy, but 
 he had not that dash ; Osnovski, with all his goodness, 
 lacked practical knowledge of life and work ; Mashko was 
 a person a hundred times lower in everything ; Pan Ignas 
 seemed to her rather a genial child than a man, in a word, 
 from every comparison " Stas " came out always victori- 
 ous, and the one result was that she felt for him an increasing 
 trust as to vital questions, and loved him more and more. At 
 the same time, while denying herself, subjecting to him her 
 own /, bringing in sacrifice her imaginings and her selfish- 
 ness, she had the feeling that she was developing more and
 
 CIIILDRKX OF THE SOIL. 427 
 
 more in a spiritual sense, that she was perfecting herself, 
 that she was becoming better, that she was not descending 
 to any level, but rising to some height, whence the soul 
 would be nearer to God ; and all at once she saw that in 
 such a feeling lies the whole world of happiness. Pan 
 Stanislav at that time was away from home often, there- 
 fore she was alone frequently ; and, more than once, she 
 reasoned with the great simplicity of an honest woman: 
 "People should strive to be better and better; but if I am 
 not worse than I was, it is well. Were it otherwise, maybe 
 I should be spoiled." She did not come, however, to the 
 thought that there was more wisdom in this than in all the 
 ideas and talks of Pani Osnovski. It seemed to her natu- 
 ral, too, that she had less charm at that time for " Stas " 
 than formerly. Looking into her mirror, she said to her- 
 self : " Well, the eyes do not change, but what a figure ! 
 what a face! If I were Stas, I would run out of the 
 house ! " And she thought an untruth, for she would not 
 have run out ; but it seemed to her that in this way she was 
 increasing " Stas's " merit. She got comfort, too, from Pani 
 Bigiel, who said that afterward she would be fairer than 
 ever, "just like some young girl." And, at times, joy and 
 thankfulness rose in her heart, because all is so wisely 
 arranged ; and if, at first, one is a little uglier and must 
 suffer a little, not only does all return, but, as a reward, 
 there is a beloved "bobo" which attaches one to life, and 
 creates a new bond between wife and husband. In this 
 way, she had times, not only of peace, but simply of joy- 
 fulness, and sometimes she said to Pani Bigiel, 
 
 " Dost thou know what I think? it is possible to be 
 happy always, only we must fear God." 
 
 "What has one to do with the other?" asked Pani 
 Bigiel, who from her husband had gained a love of clear 
 thinking. 
 
 " This," answered Marynia, "that we should rest with 
 what He gives us, and not importune Him, because He 
 has n't given that which seems to us better." 
 
 Then she added joyously, " We must n't tease for happi- 
 ness." And both began to laugh. 
 
 Frequently, too, in the tenderness almost exaggerated 
 which Pan Stanislav showed his wife, it was clearly 
 evident that he was thinking chiefly of the child; but 
 Marynia did not take that ill of him now. In truth, she 
 never had ; but at present she was willing to count it a
 
 428 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 merit in him, for she thought it the duty of both to care 
 above all for the child, as for their future mutual love. 
 Yielding up daily in this way something of her own 
 care for self, she gained more and more peace, more and 
 more calmness ; these feelings were reflected in her eyes, 
 which were more beautiful than ever. Her main anxiety 
 now was that it should be a daughter. She was ready even 
 in this to yield to the will of God, but she feared " Stas " a 
 little ; and one day she asked him in jest, 
 
 " Stas, and thou wilt not kill me if it is a son ? " 
 "No," answered he, laughing and kissing her hand; " but 
 I should prefer a daughter." 
 
 " But I have heard from Pani Bigiel that men always 
 prefer sons." 
 
 " But I am such a man that I prefer a daughter." 
 Not always, however, were her thoughts so joyous. At 
 times it came to her head that she might die, for she knew 
 that death happens in such cases ; and she prayed earnestly 
 that it should not happen, for first she feared it, second, she 
 would be sorry to go away, even to heaven, when she had 
 such a prospect of loving, and finally she imagined to her- 
 self that " Stas " would mourn for her immensely. And at 
 that thought she grew as tender over him as if he had been 
 at that moment a man more deserving of pity than all 
 other unfortunates living. Never had she spoken to him 
 of this, though it seemed to her that sometimes he had 
 feared it. 
 
 But she deceived herself thoroughly. The doctor, who 
 came to Marynia weekly, assured both her and her husband 
 after each visit that all was and would be most regular ; 
 hence Pan Stanislav had no fear for his wife's future. 
 The cause of his alarm was something quite different, 
 which happily for herself Marynia had not suspected, and 
 which Pan Stanislav himself had not dared even to name 
 in his own mind. For some time something had begun to 
 go wrong in his life calculations, of which he had been so 
 proud, and which had given him such internal security. A 
 little while before he had considered that his theories of 
 life were like a house built of firm timbers, resting on solid 
 foundations. In his soul he was proud of that house, and 
 in secret exalted himself above those who had not the 
 skill to build anything like it. Speaking briefly, he thought 
 himself a better life architect than others. He judged that 
 the labor was finished from foundation to summit, only go
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 429 
 
 in, live, and rest there. He forgot that a human soul, 
 like a bird when it has soared to a given height, not only 
 is not free to rest, but must work its wings hard to support 
 itself, otherwise the very first temptation will bring it to 
 the earth again. 
 
 The worse and vainer the temptation, the more was he 
 enraged at himself because he gave way to it. A mean 
 desire, a low object, he had not even anything to explain 
 to himself ; and still the walls of his house had begun to 
 crack. Fan Stanislav was a religious man now, and that from 
 conviction ; he was too sincere with himself to enter into 
 a compromise with his own principles, and say to himself 
 that such things happen even to the firmest of believers. 
 No ! He was by nature a man rather unsparing, and logic 
 said to him " either, or ; " hence he felt that speaking thus 
 it spoke justly. Hitherto he had not given way to temp- 
 tation ; but still he was angry because he was tempted, for 
 temptation brought him to doubt his own character. Con- 
 sidering himself as better than others, he stood suddenly 
 in face of the question, was he not worse than others, for 
 not only had temptation attacked him, but he felt that in a 
 given case he might yield to it. 
 
 More than once, while looking at Pani Osnovski, he re- 
 peated to himself the opinion of Confucius : " An ordinary 
 woman has as much reason as a hen ; an extraordinary woman 
 as much as two hens." In view of Pani Mashko, it occurred 
 to him that there are women with reference to whom this 
 Chinese truth, which makes one indignant, is flattery. Had 
 it been at least possible to say of Pani Mashko that she 
 was honestly stupid, it would become a certain individual 
 trait of hers ; but she was not. A few, or a few tens of 
 formulas had made of her a polite nonentity. Just as two 
 or three hundred phrases make up the whole language of the 
 inhabitants of New Guinea, and satisfy all their wants, so 
 those formulas satified Pani Mashko as to social relations, 
 thoughts, and life. For that matter, she was as completely 
 passive within that shade of automatic dignity which nar- 
 rowness of mind produces, and a blind faith that if proper 
 formalities are observed, there can be no error. Pan i. 
 islav knew her as such, and as such ridiculed her more than 
 once while she was unmarried. He called her a puppet, a 
 manikin ; he felt enraged at her because of that doctor who 
 had perished for her in some place where pepper grdws ; 
 he disregarded her and did not like her. But even then, as
 
 430 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 often as he saw her, whether at the Bigiels', or when on 
 Mashko's business he went to Paul Kraslavski, he always 
 returned under the physical impression which she made on 
 him, of which he gave himself an account. That quenched 
 face, that passive, vegetable calm of expression, that cold- 
 ness of bearing, that frequent reddening of the eyes, that 
 slender form, had in them something which affected him 
 unusually. He explained that to himself then by some law 
 of natural selection ; and when he had outlined the thing 
 technically, he stopped there, for the impression which 
 Marynia had made on him was still greater, hence he had 
 followed it. At present, however, Marynia was his, and he 
 had grown used to her beauty, which, moreover, had disap- 
 peared for a period. It so happened that because of 
 Mashko's frequent journeys, he saw Pani Mashko almost 
 daily, in consequence of which former impressions not only 
 revived, but, in the conditions in which Pan Stanislav found 
 himself with reference to Marynia, they revived with unex- 
 pected vigor. And it happened finally that he who would 
 not consent to be in leading strings for the ten times more 
 beautiful and charming Pani Osnovski ; he, who had resisted 
 her Roman fantasies ; he, who had looked on himself as a 
 man of principles, stronger in character and firmer in mind 
 than most people, saw now that if Pani Mashko wished 
 to push that edifice with her foot, all its bindings might 
 be loosened, and the ceiling tumble on his head. Of a 
 certainty, he would not cease to love his wife, for he was 
 sincerely and profoundly attached to her ; but he felt that 
 he might be in a condition to betray her, and then not 
 only her, but himself, his principles, his conceptions of 
 what an honest and a moral man should be. With a certain 
 terror as well as anger, he found in himself not merely the 
 human beast, but a weak beast. He was alarmed by this, 
 he rebelled against this weakness ; but still he could not 
 overcome it. It was a simple thing in view of this, not to 
 see Pani Mashko, or to see her as seldom as possible ; mean- 
 while he was finding reasons to see her the oftenest possible. 
 At first he wanted to lull himself with these reasons; but, 
 in view of his innate consistency, that was impossible, 
 and it ended with this, that he merely invented them. 
 Straightway, he deceived with them his \yife, and whomever 
 he wished. When in company with Pani Mashko, he could 
 not refrain from looking at her, from embracing with his 
 glance her face and whole person. A sickly curiosity seized
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL, 431 
 
 him as to how she would bear herself in case he appeared be- 
 fore her with what was happening within him. What would 
 she say then ? And he took pleasure in spite of himself in 
 supposing that she would bear herself with perfect passive- 
 ness. He despised her beforehand for this ; but she became 
 the. more desired by him thereby. In himself he discovered 
 whole mountains of depravity, which he referred to long 
 stay in foreign countries ; and, having considered himself up 
 to that time a fresh and healthy nature, he began to grow 
 alarmed. Had he not been deceived in himself, and was not 
 that wonderful impression produced on him by a being so 
 little attractive the appearance of some neurosis consum- 
 ing him without his knowledge ? It had not occurred to 
 him that there might exist even such conditions in which 
 the soul of a man simply despises a woman, but the human 
 beast longs for her. 
 
 In her, instinct had taken the place of mental keenness ; 
 besides, she was not so naive as not to know what his glance 
 meant as it slipped over her form, or what his eyes said 
 when talking, especially when they were alone, and he looked 
 into her face with a certain persistence. At first she felt a 
 kind of satisfaction for her self-love, which it is difficult for 
 even an honest woman to resist when she sees the impres- 
 sion produced by her ; when she feels herself distinguished, 
 desired beyond others, in a word, victorious. Besides, she 
 was ready not to recognize and not to see the danger, just 
 as a partridge does not wish to see it, when it hides its head 
 in the snow, on feeling the hawk circling above it. For Pani 
 Mashko appearances were this snow ; and Pan Stanislav 
 felt that. He knew also from his experience as a single 
 man that there are women for whom it is a question above 
 all of preserving certain, frequently even strange, appear- 
 ances. He remembered some who burst out in indignation 
 when he said to them in Polish that which they heard in 
 French with a smile ; he had met even those who were un- 
 approachably firm at home and in the city, and so free i 
 summer residences, at watering, or bathing places, and 
 others who endured an attempt, but could not endure words, 
 and others for whom the decisive thing was light or dark- 
 ness. In all places where virtue did not come from t 
 soul, and from principles ingrafted like vaccination into the 
 blood, resistance or fall depended on accident or surrounc 
 ings, or external, frequently favoring circumstances, pei 
 sonal ideas of polite appearances. He judged that it might
 
 432 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 be thus with Paul Mashko ; and if hitherto he had not 
 entered the road of testing and trying, it was simply because 
 he was battling with himself, because he did not wish to 
 give way, and, despising her in the bottom of his soul, he 
 wished to escape the position of despising himself. Attach- 
 ment to Marynia restrained him too, and sympathy, as it 
 were, mingled with respect for her condition and gratitude 
 to her, and the hope of fatherhood, which moved him, and 
 a remembrance of the shortness of the time which they had 
 lived together, and honesty, and a religious feeling. These 
 were chains, as it were, at which the human beast was 
 still tugging. 
 
 They did not hold, however, with equal strength always. 
 Once, and, namely, that evening on which Pan Ignas had 
 met them, he had almost betrayed himself. At the thought 
 that Mashko was returning and that Pani Mashko was 
 hastening home, therefore, a low, purely physical jealousy 
 seized him ; and he said with a certain anger, repressed, but 
 visible, 
 
 " True ! I understand your haste ! Ulysses is coming, and 
 Penelope must be at home, but " 
 
 Here he felt a desire to curse. 
 
 " But what ? " inquired Pani Mashko. 
 
 Pan Stanislav answered without any hesitation, 
 
 " Just to-day I wished to detain you longer." 
 
 " It is not proper," answered she briefly, with a voice as 
 thin as though strained through a sieve. 
 
 And in that, " It is not proper," was her whole soul. 
 
 He returned, cursing earnestly her and himself. When 
 he reached home he found in the clear, peaceful room 
 Marynia and Pan Ignas, she proving to the poet that when 
 they marry, people should not look for some imagined 
 happiness, but the duties which God imposes at that time.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 433 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 
 " WHAT is Pani Osnovski to me, and what are all her 
 affairs to me ? " said Pan Ignas to himself next morning on 
 the way to Pani Bronich's : " I am not going to marry her, 
 but my oivn one. Why did I so tear and torment myself 
 yesterday ? " 
 
 And when he had said this " to his lofty soul," he began 
 to think only of what he would say to Pani Bronich; for in 
 spite of Osnovski's assurances, in spite of every hope that 
 that conversation would be merely a certain form for obser- 
 vance, in spite of his confidence in Lineta's heart and the 
 kindness of Pani Bronich, the " lofty soul " was in fear. 
 
 He found aunt and niece together ; and, emboldened by 
 yesterday, he pressed to his lips the hand of the young 
 lady, who said, blushing slightly, 
 
 " But I will run away." 
 
 " Nitechka, stop ! " said Pani Bronich. 
 
 " No," answered she ; " I fear this gentleman, and I fear 
 aunt." 
 
 Thus speaking, she began to rub her golden head, like 
 a petted kitten, against the shoulder of Pani Bronich, 
 saying, 
 
 " Do not wrong him aunt ; do not wrong him." 
 
 And looking at him, she ran away really. Pan Ignas, 
 from emotion and excess of love, was as pale as linen ; Pani 
 Bronich had tears on her lids. And, seeing that his throat 
 was so pressed that it would have been easier for him to 
 cry than to talk, she said, 
 
 " I know why you have come. I have noticed this long 
 time what was passing between you, my children." 
 
 Pan Ignas seized her hands, and began to press them to 
 his lips one after the other ; she on her part continued, 
 
 " Oh, I myself have felt too much in life not to know 
 real feelings ; I will say more : it is my specialty. Women 
 live only by the heart, and they know how to divine hearts. 
 I know that you love Nitechka truly; and I am certain 
 that if she did not love you, or if I should^ refuse her to 
 you, you would not survive. Is it not true ?" 
 
 28
 
 434 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Here she gazed at him with an inquiring glance, and he 
 said with effort, 
 
 " Beyoiid doubt ! I know not what would happen to 
 me." 
 
 " I guessed that at once, "answered she, with radiant face. 
 "Ah, iny dear friend, a look is enough for me ; but I shall 
 not be an evil spirit as your genius. No, I shall not, I can- 
 not be that. Whom shall I find for Nitechka ? Where a 
 man worthy of her ? Who would ' have in him all that she 
 loves and esteems chiefly ? I cannot give her to Kopovski, 
 and I will not. You perhaps do not know Nitechka as I 
 do ; but I cannot and will not give her." 
 
 In spite of all his emotion, that energy with which Pani 
 Bronich refused "Nitechka's" hand to Kopovski aston- 
 ished Pan Ignas, just as if he had declared for Kopovski, 
 not for himself ; and the aunt continued, moved, but evi- 
 dently enjoying her own words and delighted with the 
 position, 
 
 " No ! there can be no talk ; of Kopovski. You alone can 
 make ISTitechka happy. You alone can give her what she 
 needs. I knew yesterday that you would talk with me to- 
 day. I did not close an eye the whole night. Do not 
 wonder at that. Here it is a question of Nitechka, and I 
 was hesitating yet ; therefore fear seized me in view of to- 
 day's conversation, for I knew in advance that I would not 
 resist you, that you would bear me away with your feeling 
 and your eloquence, as yesterday you bore away Nitechka." 
 
 Pan Ignas, who neither yesterday nor to-day was able to 
 buzz out one word, could not explain somehow to himself 
 in what specially lay the power of his eloquence, or when 
 he had time to exhibit it ; but Pani Bronich did not 
 permit him to hesitate longer on this question. 
 
 " And do you know what I did ? This is what I do always 
 in life's most serious moments. Speaking yesterday with 
 Nitechka., I went early this morning to the grave of my 
 husband. He is lying here in Warsaw I know not 
 whether I have told you that he was the last descendant of 
 Rurik Ah, yes, I have ! Oh, dear friend, what a refuge 
 .for me that grave is ; and how many good inspirations I 
 have brought from it ! Whether it was a question of the 
 education of Nitechka, or of some journey, or of investing 
 capital which my husband left me, or of a loan which 
 some one of my relatives or acquaintances wished to make, 
 I went there directly at all times. And will you believe
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 435 
 
 me ? More than once a mortgage is offered : it seems a 
 good one ; the business is perfect ; more than once my heart 
 even commands me to give or to lend, but my husband 
 there in the depth of his eternal rest, answers : ' Do not 
 give,' and I give not. And never has evil resulted. Oh, 
 my dear, you who feel and understand everything, you will 
 understand how to-day I prayed, how I asked with all 
 the powers of my soul, 'Give Nitechka, or not give 
 
 Here she seized Pan Ignas's temples with her hands, and 
 said through her tears, 
 
 " But my Teodor answered, < Give : ' therefore I give her 
 to thee, and my blessing besides." 
 
 Tears quenched indeed further conversation in Pani 
 Bronich. Pan Ignas knelt before her ; " Nitechka," who 
 came in, as if at a fixed moment, dropped on her knees at 
 his side; Pani Bronich stretched her hands and said 
 sobbing, 
 
 " She is thine, thine ! I give her to thee ; I and Teodor 
 give her." 
 
 Then the three rose. Aunt Bronich covered her eyes with 
 her handkerchief, and remained some time without motion ; 
 gradually, however, she slipped away the handkerchief, 
 looking from one side at the two young people. Suddenly 
 she laughed, and, threatening with her finger, said, 
 
 "Oi! I know what you would like now, you would 
 like to be alone. Surely you have something to say to each 
 other. Is it not true ? " 
 
 And she went out. Pan Ignas took Lineta's hands that 
 moment, and looked into her eyes with intoxication. 
 
 They sat down ; and she, leaving her hands in his, rested 
 her temple on his shoulder. It was like a song without 
 words. Pan Ignas inclined his head toward her bright face. 
 Lineta closed her eyes ; but he was too young and too timid, 
 he respected too much and he loved, hence he did not ven- 
 ture yet to touch her lips with his. He only kissed her 
 golden hair, and even that caused the room in which they 
 were sitting to spin with him; the world began to whirl round. 
 Then all vanished from his eyes ; he lost memory of where 
 he was, and what was happening; he heard only the beating 
 of his own heart; he felt the odor of the silken hair, which 
 brushed his lips, and it seemed to him that in that was the 
 universe. 
 
 But that was only a dream from which he had to wake.
 
 436 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 After a certain time the aunt began to open the door gently, 
 as if wishing to lose the least possible of the romance, in 
 which, with Teodor's aid, she was playing the role of 
 guardian spirit ; in the adjoining chamber were heard the 
 voices of the Osnovskis ; and a moment later Lineta found 
 herself in the arms of her aunt, from which she passed into 
 the embraces of Pani Aneta. Osnovski, pressing Ignas's 
 hands with all his power, said, 
 
 " But what a joy in the house, what a joy ! for we have 
 all fallen in love with thee, I, and aunt, and Anetka, not 
 to speak of this little one." 
 
 Then he turned to his wife and said, 
 
 "Knowest, Anetka, what I wished Iguas, even yesterday ? 
 that they should be to each other as we are." And, seizing 
 her hands, he began to kiss them with vehemence. 
 
 Pan Ignas, though he knew not in general what was hap- 
 pening to him, found still presence of mind enough to look 
 into the face of Pani Aneta; but she answered joyously, 
 withdrawing her hands from her husband, 
 
 "No, they will be happier; for Castelka is not such a 
 giddy thing as I, and Pan Ignas will not kiss her hands so 
 stubbornly before people. But, Yozio, let me go ! " 
 
 "Let him only love her as I thee, my treasure, my 
 child," answered the radiant Yozio. 
 
 Pan Ignas stayed at Pani Bronich's till evening, and did 
 not go to the counting-house. After lunch he drove out in 
 the carriage with the aunt and Lineta, for Pani Bronich 
 wanted absolutely to show them to society. But their 
 drive in the Alley was not a success altogether, because of 
 a sudden hard shower, which scattered the carriages. On 
 their return, Pan Osnovski, good as he ever was, made a 
 new proposition which delighted Pan Ignas. 
 
 " Prytulov will not escape us," said he. " We live here 
 as if we were half in the country ; and since we have re- 
 mained till the end of June, we may stay a couple of days 
 longer. Let that loving couple exchange rings before our 
 departure, and at the same time let it be free to Aneta 
 and me to give them a betrothal party. Is it well, aunt ? 
 I see that they have nothing against it, and surely it will be 
 agreeable for Ignas to have at the betrothal his friends the 
 Polanyetskis and the Bigiels. It is true that we do not 
 visit the latter, but that is nothing ! We will visit them 
 to-morrow, and the affair will be settled. Is it well, Ignas ; 
 is it well, aunt?"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 437 
 
 Ignas was evidently in the seventh heaven; as to aunt, 
 she did n't know indeed what Teodor's opinion would be 
 in this matter, and she began to hesitate. But she might 
 inquire of Teodor yet; and then she remembered that he 
 had answered, "Give," with such a great voice from his 
 place of eternal rest that it was impossible to doubt his 
 good wishes, hence she agreed at last to everything. 
 
 After dinner Kopovski, the almost daily guest, came; 
 and it turned out that he was the only being in the villa 
 to whom news of the feelings and betrothal of the young 
 couple did not cause delight. For a time his face expressed 
 indescribable astonishment; at last he said, 
 
 " I never should have guessed that Panna Lineta would 
 marry Pan Ignas." 
 
 Osnovski pushed Pan Ignas with his elbow, blinked, and 
 whispered, with a very cunning mien, 
 
 " Hast noticed? I told thee yesterday that he was mak- 
 ing up to Castelka." 
 
 Pan Ignas left the villa of the Osnovskis late in the even- 
 ing. When he reached home he did not betake himself to 
 verses, however, though it seemed to him then that he was 
 a kind of harp, the strings of which played of themselves, 
 but to the counting-house, to unfinished correspondence 
 and accounts. 
 
 At the counting-house all were so pleased with this that 
 when the Bigiels returned the visit of the Osnovskis, and 
 at the same time made the first visit to Pani Bronich, 
 Bigiel said, 
 
 " The worth of Pan Zavilovski's poetry is known to you 
 ladies, but perhaps you do not know how conscientious a 
 man he is. I say this because that is a rare quality among 
 us. Since he remained all day with you here, and could 
 not be at the counting-house, he asked to have it opened 
 by the guard in the night; he took home the books and 
 papers in his charge, and did what pertained to him. 
 pleasant to think that one has to do with such a man, for 
 such a man may be trusted." 
 
 Here, however, the honorable partner of the house ol 
 Bigiel and Polanyetski was astonished that such high 
 praise from his lips made so little impression, and that 
 Pani Bronich, instead of showing gladness, replied, 
 
 "Ah, we hope that in future Pan Zavilovski will bf 
 able to give himself to labor more in accordance wit 
 powers and position."
 
 438 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 In general, the impression which both sides brought 
 away from their acquaintance showed that somehow they 
 were not at home with each other. Lineta pleased the 
 Bigiels, it is true; but he, in going away, whispered to his 
 wife, "How comfortably they live for themselves in this 
 place!" He had a feeling that the spirit of that whole 
 villa was a sort of unbroken holiday, or idling; but he 
 was not able at once to express that idea, for he had not 
 the gift of ready utterance. 
 
 But Pani Bronich, after their departure, said to 
 "Niteehka," 
 
 " Of course, of course ! They must be excellent people 
 true, perfect people! I am certain yes, certain " 
 
 And somehow she did not finish her thought; but 
 " IS'itechka " must have understood her, however, for she 
 said, 
 
 "But they are no relatives of his." 
 
 A few days later the relatives, too, made themselves 
 heard. Pan Ignas, who, in spite of the wishes of Pani 
 Bigiel, had not gone yet with excuses to old Zavilovski, 
 received the following letter from him, 
 
 PAX WILDCAT ! Thou hast scratched me undeservedly, for I 
 had no wish to offend thee ; and if I say always what I think, it is 
 permitted me because T am old. They must have told thee, too, that 
 I never name, even to her eyes, thy young lady otherwise than Vene- 
 tian half-devil. But how was I to know that thou wert in love and 
 about to marry V I heard of this only yesterday, and only now do I 
 understand why thou didst spring out of my sight ; but since I pre- 
 fer water-burners to dullards, and since through this devil of a gout 
 I cannot go myself to thee to congratulate, do thou come to the old 
 man, who is more thy well-wisher than seems to thee. 
 
 After this letter Pan Ignas went that same day, and was 
 received cordially, though with scolding, but so kindly that 
 this time the old truth-teller pleased him, and he felt in 
 him really a relative. 
 
 "May God and the Most Holy Lady bless thee!" said 
 the old man. "I know thee little; but I have heard such 
 things of thee that I should be glad to hear the like touch- 
 ing all Zavilovskis." 
 
 And he pressed his hand ; then, turning to his daughter, 
 he said, 
 
 "He 's a genial rascal, isn't he?" 
 
 And at parting he inquired,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 439 
 
 "But ' Teodor,' did n't he trouble thee too much? Hei? " 
 
 Pan Ignas, who, as an artist, possessed in a high degree 
 the sense of the ridiculous, and to whom in his soul that 
 Teodor, too, seemed comical, laughed and answered, 
 
 "No. On the contrary, he was on my side." 
 
 The old man began to shake his head. 
 
 "That is a devil of an accommodating Teodor! Be on 
 the lookout for him; he is a rogue." 
 
 Pani Bronich had so much genuine respect for the prop- 
 erty and social position of old Zavilovski that she visited 
 him next day, and began almost to thank him for his 
 cordial reception of his relative; but the old man grew 
 angry unexpectedly. 
 
 "Do you think that I am some empty talker?" asked 
 he. " You have heard from me that poor relatives are a 
 plague; and you think that I take it ill of them that they 
 are poor. No, you do not know me! But, know this, 
 when a noble loses everything, and is poor, he becomes 
 almost always a sort of shabby fellow. Such is our char- 
 acter, or rather, its weakness. But this Ignas, as I hear 
 from every side, is a man of honor, though poor; and 
 therefore I love him." 
 
 "And I love him," answered Pani Bronich. "But you 
 will be at the betrothal?" 
 
 " C'est decide. Even though I had to be carried." 
 
 Pani Bronich returned radiant, and at lunch could not 
 restrain herself from expressing suppositions which her 
 active fancy had begun to create. 
 
 "Pan Zavilovski," said she, "is a man of millions, and 
 greatly attached to the name. I should not be astonished 
 at all were he to make our Ignas his heir, if not of the 
 chief, of a considerable part of his property, or if he were 
 to entail some of his estates in Poznan on him. I should 
 not be surprised at all." 
 
 Xo one contradicted her, for events like that in the 
 world had been seen; therefore after lunch, Pani Bronich, 
 embracing Xitechka, whispered in her ear, 
 
 "Oi, thou, thou, future heiress ! " 
 
 But in the evening she said to Pan Ignas, 
 
 " Be not astonished if I so mix up in everything, but J 
 am your mamma. So mamma is immensely curious to 
 know what kind of ring you are preparing for Nitechka? 
 It will be something beautiful, of course. There \vill be 
 so many people at the betrothal. And, besides, you have
 
 440 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 no idea what a fastidious girl! She is so aesthetic even 
 in trifles; and she has her own taste, but what a taste! 
 ho, ho!" 
 
 "I should like," answered Pan Ignas, "the stones to be 
 of colors denoting faith, hope, and love, for in her is iny 
 faith, my hope, and my love." 
 
 "A very pretty idea! have you said this to Nitechka? 
 Do you know what? Let there be a pearl in the middle, 
 as a sign that she is a pearl. Symbols are in fashion now. 
 Have I told you that Fan Svirski, when he gave her 
 lessons, called her ' La Perla '? Ah, yes, I did. You do 
 not know Pan Svirski? He, too Yozio Osnovksi told 
 rue that he would come to-morrow. Well, then, a sapphire, 
 a ruby, an emerald, and in the middle a pearl? Oh, yes! 
 Pan Svirski, too Will you be at the funeral?" 
 
 "Whose funeral?" 
 
 u Pan Bukatski's. Yozio Osnovski told me that Pan 
 Svirski brought home his body." 
 
 "I did not know him; I have never seen, him in my 
 life." 
 
 "That is better; Nitechka would prefer that you had 
 not known him. God in His mercy forgive him in spite 
 of this, that for me he was never a sympathetic person, 
 and Nitechka could not endure him. But the little one 
 will be glad of the ring ; and when she is glad, I am glad. " 
 
 The "Little One" was glad not only of the ring, but of 
 life in general. The role of an affianced assumed for her 
 increasing charm. Beautiful nights came, very clear, 
 during which she and Pan Ignas sat together on the 
 balcony. Nestling up to each other, they looked at the 
 quivering of light on the leaves, or lost their gaze in the 
 silver dust of the Milky Way, and the swarms of stars. 
 From the acacia, growing under the balcony, there rose 
 a strong and intoxicating odor, as from a great censer. 
 Their powers seemed to go to sleep in them; their souls, 
 lulled by silence, turned into clear light, were scattered in 
 some way amidst the depth of night, and were melted into 
 unity with the soft moonlight; and so the two, sitting 
 hand in hand, half in oblivion, half in sleep, lost well- 
 nigh the feeling of separate existence and life, preserving 
 a mere semi-consciousness of some sort of general bliss and 
 general "exaltation of hearts." 
 
 Pan Ignas, when he woke and returned to real life, 
 understood that moments like those, in which hearts melt
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 441 
 
 in that pantheism of love, and beat with the same pulsa- 
 tion with which everything quivers that loves, unites, and 
 harmonizes in the universe, form the highest happiness 
 which love has the power to give, and so immeasurable 
 that were they to continue they would of necessity destroy 
 man's individuality. But, having the soul of an idealist, 
 he thought that when death comes and frees the human 
 monad from matter, those moments change into eternity; 
 and in that way he imagined heaven, in which nothing is 
 swallowed up, but everything simply united and attuned 
 in universal harmony. 
 
 Lineta, it is true, could not move with his flight; but 
 she felt a certain turning of the head, as it were, a kind 
 of intoxication from his flight, and she felt herself happy 
 also. A woman even incapable of loving a man is still 
 fond of her love, or, at least, of herself, and her role in it; 
 and, therefore, most frequently she crosses the threshold 
 of betrothal with delight, feeling at the same time grati- 
 tude to the man who opens before her a new horizon of life. 
 Besides, they had talked love into Lineta so mightily that 
 at last she believed in it. 
 
 And once, when Pan Ignas asked her if she was sure of 
 herself and her heart, she gave him both hands, as if with 
 effusion, and said, 
 
 "Oh, truly; now I know that I love." 
 
 He pressed her slender fingers to his lips, to his fore- 
 head, and his eyes, as something sacred; but he was dis- 
 quieted by her words, and asked, 
 
 " Why ' now ' for the first time, Nitechka? 
 there been a moment in which thou hast thought that thou 
 couldst not love me?" 
 
 Lineta raised her blue eyes and thought a moment; al 
 a while, in the corners of her mouth and in the dimples o: 
 her cheeks, a smile began to gather. 
 
 "No," said she; "but I am a great coward, so I was 
 afraid. I understand that to love you is another t 
 from loving the first comer." And suddenly she began t( 
 laugh. " Oh, to love Pan Kopovski would be as simple a 
 bon jour; but you maybe I cannot express it well, but 
 more than once it seemed to me that that is like going up 
 on some mountain or some tower. When once at 
 a whole world is visible; but before that one must go 
 go, and toil, and I am so lazy." 
 
 Pan Ignas, who was tall and bony, straightened 
 
 and said,
 
 442 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "When my dear, lazy one is tired, I'll take her in my 
 arms, like a child, and carry her even to the highest." 
 
 "And I will shrink up and make myself the smallest," 
 answered Lineta, closing her arms, and entering into the 
 role of a little child. 
 
 Pan Iguas knelt before her, and began to kiss the hem of 
 her dress. 
 
 But there were little clouds, too, on that sky; the be- 
 trothed were not the cause, however. It seemed to the 
 young man at times that his feelings were too much observed, 
 and that Fani Bronich and Fani Aneta examined too closely 
 whether he loves, and how he loves. He explained this, it 
 is true, by the curiosity of women, and, in general, by the 
 attention which love excites in them; but he would have 
 preferred more freedom, and would have preferred that 
 they would not help him to love. His feelings he con- 
 sidered as sacred, and for him it was painful to make an 
 exhibition of them for uninvited eyes; at the same time 
 every movement and word of his was scrutinized. He 
 supposed also that there must be female sessions, in which 
 Pani Bronich and Pani Aneta gave their "approbatur; " 
 and that thought angered him, for he judged that neither 
 was in a situation to understand his feelings. 
 
 It angered him also that Kopovski was invited to 
 Prytulov, and that he went there in company with all; but 
 in this case it was for him a question only of Osnovski, 
 whom he loved sincerely. The pretext for the invitation 
 was the portrait not finished yet by Lineta. Pan Ignas 
 understood now clearly that everything took place at the 
 word of Pani Aneta, who knew exactly how to suggest 
 her own wishes to people as their own. At times even it 
 came to his head to ask Lineta to abandon the portrait; but 
 he knew that he would trouble her, as an artist, with that 
 request, and, besides, he feared lest people might suspect 
 him of being jealous of a fop, like "Koposio." l 
 
 1 Nickname for KopOYski.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIIL 
 
 SVIRSKI had come indeed from Italy with Bukatski's 
 body; and he went at once on the following day to Pan 
 Stanislav's. He met only Marynia, however, for her hus- 
 band had gone outside the city to look at some residence 
 which had been offered for sale. The artist found Marynia 
 so changed that he recognized her with difficulty; but since 
 he had liked her greatly in Home, he was all the more 
 moved at sight of her now. At times, besides, she seemed 
 to him so touching and so beautiful in her way, with the 
 aureole of future maternity, and besides she had brought 
 to him so many artistic comparisons, with so many "types 
 of various Italian schools," that, following his habit, he 
 began to confess his enthusiasm audibly. She laughed at 
 his originality; but still it gave her comfort in her trouble, 
 and she was glad that he came, first, because she felt a 
 sincere sympathy with that robust and wholesome nature; 
 and second, she was certain that he would be enthusiastic 
 about her in presence of "Stas," and thus raise her in the 
 eyes of her husband. 
 
 He sat rather long, wishing to await the return of Pan 
 Stanislav; he, however, returned only late in the evening. 
 Meanwhile there was a visit from Pan Ignas, who, needing 
 some one now before whom to pour out his overflowing 
 happiness, visited her rather often. For a while he and 
 Svirski looked at each other with a certain caution, as 
 happens usually with men of distinction, who fear each 
 other's large pretensions, but who come together the more 
 readily when each sees that the other is simple. So did it 
 happen with these men. Marynia, too, helped to break 
 the ice by presenting Pan Ignas as the betrothed of Panna 
 Castelli, who was known to Svirski. 
 
 "Indeed," said Svirski, "I know her perfectly; she is 
 my pupil ! " 
 
 Then, pressing the hand of Pan Ignas, he said, 
 
 "Your betrothed has Titian hair; she is a little tall, but 
 you are tall, too. Such a pose of head as she has one 
 might look for with a candle. You must have noticed that
 
 444 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 there is something swan-like in her movements; I have 
 even called her 'The Swan." : 
 
 Pan Ignas laughed as sincerely and joyously as a man 
 does when people praise that which he loves most in life, 
 and said with a shade of boastfulness, 
 
 "' La Perla,' do you remember?" 
 
 Svirski looked at him with a certain surprise. 
 
 " There is such a picture by Raphael in Madrid , in the 
 Museum del Prado," answered he. "Why do you men- 
 tion 'La Perla'?" 
 
 "It seems to me that I heard of it from those ladies," 
 said Pan Ignas, beaten from the track somewhat. 
 
 "It may be, for I have a copy of my own making in my 
 studio Via Margutta." 
 
 Pan Ignas said in spirit that there was need to be more 
 guarded in repeating words from Pani Bronich; and after 
 a time he rose to depart, for he was going to his betrothed 
 for the evening. Svirski soon followed, leaving with 
 Marynia the address of his Warsaw studio, and begging 
 that Pan Stanislav would meet him in the matter of the 
 funeral as soon as possible. 
 
 In fact, Pan Stanislav went to him next morning. 
 Svirski's studio was a kind of glass hall, attached, like the 
 nest of a swallow, to the roof of one in a number of many 
 storied houses, and visitors had to reach him by separate 
 stairs winding like those in a tower. But the artist had 
 perfect freedom there, and did not close his door evi- 
 dently, for Pan Stanislav, in ascending, heard a dull sound 
 of iron, and a bass voice singing, 
 
 " Spring blows on the world warmly ; 
 Hawthorns and cresses are blooming. 
 I am singing and not sobbing, 
 For I have ceased to love thee too ! 
 Hu-ha-hu ! " 
 
 "Well," thought Pan Stanislav, stopping to catch breath, 
 "he has a bass, a real, a true bass; but what is he making 
 such a noise with ? " 
 
 When he had passed the rest of the steps, however, and 
 then the narrow corridor, he understood the reason, for he 
 saw through the open doors Svirski, dressed to his waist in 
 a single knitted shirt, through which was seen his Herculean 
 torso ; and in his hands were dumb-bells. 
 
 "Oh, how are you?" he called out, putting down the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 445 
 
 dumb-bells in presence of his guest. "I beg pardon that I 
 am not dressed, but I was working a little with the dumb- 
 bells. Yesterday I was at your house, but found only Pani 
 Polanyetski. Well, I brought our poor Bukatski. Is the 
 little house ready for him ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav pressed his hand. "The grave is ready 
 these two weeks, and the cross is set up. We greet vou 
 cordially in Warsaw. My wife told me that the body is 
 in Povanzki already." 
 
 " It is now in the crypt of the church. To-morrow we '11 
 put it away." 
 
 "Well, to-day I will speak to the priest and notify ac- 
 quaintances. What is Professor Vaskovski doing? " 
 
 "He was to write you. The heat drove him out of Rome; 
 and do you know where he went? Among the youngest 
 of the Aryans. He said that the journey would occupy 
 two months. He wishes to convince himself as to how 
 far . they are ready for his historical mission; he has 
 gone through Ancona to Fiume, and then farther and 
 farther." 
 
 "The poor professor! I fear that new disillusions are 
 waiting for him." 
 
 " That may be. People laugh at him. I do not know 
 how far the youngest of the Aryans are fitted to carry out 
 his idea; but the idea itself, as God lives, is so uncommon, 
 so Christian, and honest, that the man had to be a Vas- 
 kovski to come to it. Permit me to dress. The heat here 
 is almost as in Italy, and it is better to exercise in a single 
 shirt." 
 
 "But best not to exercise at all in such heat." 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav looked at Svirski's arms and said, 
 
 "But you might show those for money." 
 
 "Well; not bad biceps! But look at these deltoids. 
 That is my vanity. Bukatski insisted that any one might 
 say that I paint like an idiot; but that it was not per- 
 mitted any one to say that I could not raise a hundred 
 kilograms with one hand, or that I couldn't hit ten flies 
 with ten shots." 
 
 "And such a man will not leave his biceps nor his 
 deltoids to posterity." 
 
 "Ha! what's to be done? I fear an ungrateful heart; 
 as I love God, I fear it so much. Find me a woman li 
 Pani Polanyetski, and I will not hesitate a day^ 
 what should I wish you, a son or a daughter?
 
 446 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "A daughter, a daughter! Let there be sons; but the 
 first must be a daughter ! " 
 
 " And when do you expect her? " 
 
 "In December, it would seem." 
 
 "God grant happily! The lady, however, is healthy, so 
 there is no fear." 
 
 "She has changed greatly, has she not?" 
 
 " She is different from what she was, but God grant the 
 most beautiful to look so. What an expression! A pure 
 Botticelli. I give my word! Do you remember that por- 
 trait of his in the Villa Borghese? Madonna col Bambino 
 e angeli. There is one head of an angel, a little inclined, 
 dressed in a lily, just like the lady, the very same expres- 
 sion. Yesterday that struck me so much that I was moved 
 by it." 
 
 Then he went behind the screen to put on his shirt, and 
 from behind the screen he said, 
 
 "You ask why I don't marry. Do you know why? I 
 remember sometimes that Bukatski said the same thing. I 
 have a sharp tongue and strong biceps, but a soft heart; so 
 stupid is it that if I had such a wife as you have, and 
 she were in that condition, as God lives, I shouldn't know 
 whether to walk on my knees before her, or to beat the 
 floor with my forehead, or to put her on a table, in a corner 
 somewhere, and adore her with upraised hands." 
 
 " Ai! " said Pan Stanislav, laughing, "that only seems so 
 before marriage; but afterward habituation itself destroys 
 excess of feeling." 
 
 "I don't know. Maybe I 'm so stupid " 
 
 "Do you know what? When my Marynia is free, she 
 must find for thee just such a wife as she herself is." 
 
 "Agreed!" thundered Svirski, from behind the screen. 
 " Verbum ! I give myself into her hands; and when she says 
 'marry,' I will marry with closed eyes." 
 
 And appearing, still without a coat, he began to repeat, 
 "Agreed, agreed! without joking. If the lady wishes." 
 
 "Women always like that," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 " Have you seen, for instance, what that Pani Osnovski did 
 to marry our Pan Ignas to Panna Castelli? And Marynia 
 helped her as much as I permitted; she kept her ears open. 
 For women that is play." 
 
 "I made the acquaintance of that Pan Ignas at your 
 house yesterday. He is an immensely nice fellow; simply 
 a genial head. It is enough to look at him. What a
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 447 
 
 profile, and what a woman-like forehead! and with that 
 insolent jaw! His shanks are too long, and his knees 
 must be badly cut, but his head is splendid." 
 
 " He is the Benjamin of our counting-house. Indeed, we 
 love him surpassingly; his is an honest nature." 
 
 "Ah! he is your employee? But I thought he was of 
 those rich Zavilovskis; I have seen abroad often enough a 
 certain old original, a rich man." 
 
 "That is a relative of his," said Pan Stanislav; "but our 
 Zavilovski hasn't a smashed copper." 
 
 "Well," said Svirski, beginning to laugh, "old Zavilovski 
 with his daughter, the only heiress of millions, a splendid 
 figure ! In Florence and Rome half a dozen ruined Italian 
 princes were dangling around this young lady; but the old 
 man declared that he wouldn't give his daughter to a 
 foreigner, 'for,' said he, 'they are a race of jesters.' Im- 
 agine to yourself, he considers us the first race on earth, and 
 among us, of course, the Zavilovskis; and once he showed 
 that in this way: 'Let them say what they like,' said 
 he; 'I have travelled enough through the world, and how 
 many Germans, Italians, Englishmen, and Frenchmen 
 have cleaned boots for me? but I,' said he, 'have never 
 cleaned boots for any man, and I will not. ' ' 
 
 "Good! " answered Pan Stanislav, laughing; "he thinks 
 boot-cleaning not a question of position in the world, but of 
 nationality." 
 
 " Yes, it seems to him that the Lord God created other 
 ' nations ' exclusively so that a nobleman from Kutno may 
 have some one to clean his boots whenever he chooses to 
 go abroad. But does n't he turn up his nose at the mar- 
 riage of the young man? for I know that he thinks the 
 Broniches of small account." 
 
 "Maybe he turns up his nose; but he has become 
 acquainted with our Pan Ignas not long since. They had 
 not met before, for ours is a proud soul, and would not 
 seek the old man first." 
 
 " I like him for that. I hope he has chosen well, for- 
 
 "What! do you know Pan na Castelli? What kind of a 
 person is she?" 
 
 "I know Panna Castelli; but, you see, I am no judge of 
 young ladies. Ba! if I knew them, I would not have 
 waited for the fortieth year as a single man. They are 
 all good, and all please me; but since I have seen, as 
 married women, a few of those who pleased me, I do not
 
 448 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 believe in any. And that makes me angry; for if 1 had 
 no wish to marry well, I should say, leave the matter! 
 but I have the wish. What can I know? I know that 
 each woman has a corset; but what sort of a heart is inside 
 it? The deuce knows ! I was in love with Panna Castelli ; 
 but for that matter I was in love with all whom I met. 
 With her, perhaps, even more than with others." 
 
 "And how is it that a wife did not come to your head?" 
 
 "Ah, the devil didn't come to my head! But at that 
 time I had n't the money that I have to-day, nor the reputa- 
 tion. I was working for something then; and believe me 
 that no people are so shy of workers as the children of 
 workers. I was afraid that Pan Bronich or Pani Bronich 
 might object, and I was not sure of the lady; therefore I 
 left them in peace." 
 
 "Pan Ignas has no money." 
 
 "But he has reputation, and, besides, there is old Zavi- 
 lovski ; and a connection like that is no joke. Who among 
 us has not heard of the old man? Besides, as to me, to 
 tell the truth, I disliked the Broniches to the degree that 
 at last I turned from them." 
 
 "You knew the late Pan Bronich, then? Be not aston- 
 ished that I ask, for with me it is a question of our Pan 
 Ignas." 
 
 "Whom have I not known? I knew also Pani Bronich's 
 sister, Pani Castelli. For that matter I have been 
 twenty-four years in Italy, and am about forty, that is 
 said for roundness. In fact, I am forty-five. I knew Pan 
 Castelli, too, who was a good enough man; I knew all. 
 What shall I say to you? Pani Castelli was an enthusiast, 
 and distinguished by wearing short hair; she was always 
 unwashed, and had neuralgia in the face. As to Pani 
 Bronich, you know her." 
 
 " But who was Pan Bronich? " 
 
 " ' Teodor ' ? Pan Bronich was a double fool, first, 
 because he was a fool; and second, because he didn't know 
 himself as one. But I am silent, for ' de mortuis nil nisi 
 bonum.' He was as fat as she is thin; he weighed more 
 than a hundred and fifty kilograms, perhaps, and had 
 fish eyes. In general, they were people vain beyond 
 everything. But why expatiate? When a man lives a 
 while in the world, and sees many people, and talks with 
 them, as I do while painting, he convinces himself that 
 there is really a high society, which rests on tradition,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 4-19 
 
 and besides that a canaille, which, having a little money, 
 apes great society. The late Bronich and his present 
 widow always seemed to me of that race; therefore I chose 
 to keep them at a distance. If Bukatski were alive, he 
 would let out his tongue now at their expense. He knew 
 that I was in love with Panna Castelli; and how he ridi- 
 culed me, may the Lord not remember it against him! 
 And who knows whether he did not speak justly? for what 
 Panna Lineta is will be shown later." 
 
 "It concerns me most of all to learn something of her." 
 
 " They are good, all good ; but I am afraid of them and 
 their goodness, unless your wife would go security for 
 some of them." 
 
 At this point the conversation stopped, and they began 
 to talk of Bukatski, or rather, of his burial of the day 
 following, for wjiich Pan Stanislav had made previously 
 all preparations. 
 
 On the way from Svirski's he spoke to the priest again, 
 and then informed acquaintances of the hour on the 
 morrow. 
 
 The church ceremony of burial had taken place at Rome 
 in its own time, so Pan Stanislav, as a man of religious 
 feeling, invited a few priests to join their prayers to the 
 prayers of laymen ; he did this also through attachment 
 and gratitude to Bukatski, who had left him a considerable 
 part of his property. 
 
 Besides the Polanyetskis came the Mashkos, the Osnov- 
 skis, the Bigiels, Svirski, Pan Plavitski, and Pani Emilia, 
 who wished at the same time to visit Litka. The day was 
 a genuine summer one, sunny and warm ; the cemetery had 
 a different seeming altogether from what it had during 
 Pan Stanislav's former visits. The great healthy trees 
 formed a kind of thick, dense curtain composed of dark 
 and bright leaves, covering with a deep green shade the 
 white and gray monuments. In places the cemetery seemed 
 simply a forest full of gloom and coolness. On certain 
 graves was quivering a shining network of sunbeams, 
 which had filtered in through the leaves of acacias, poplars, 
 hornbeams, birch, and lindens ; some crosses, nestling in a 
 thick growth, seemed as if dreaming in cool air above the 
 graves. In the branches and among the leaves were 
 swarms of small birds, calling out from every side with an 
 unceasing twitter, which was mild, and, as it were, low 
 purposely, so as not to rouse the sleepers. 
 
 29
 
 450 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Svirski, Mashko, Polanyetski, and Osnovski took on 
 their shoulders the narrow coffin containing the remains 
 of Bukatski, and bore it to the toinb. The priests, in white 
 surplices now gleaming in the sun, now in the shade, 
 walked in front of the coffin; behind it the young women, 
 dressed in black ; and all the company went slowly through 
 the shady alleys, silently, calmly, without sobs or tears, 
 which usually accompany a coffin. They moved only with 
 dignity and sadness, which were on their faces as the 
 shadow of the trees on the graves. There was, however, 
 in all this a certain poetry filled with melancholy ; and 
 the impressionable soul of Bukatski would have felt the 
 charm of that mourning picture. 
 
 In this way they arrived at the tomb, which had the 
 form of a sarcophagus, and was entirely above ground, for 
 Bukatski during life told Svirski that he did not wish to 
 lie in a cellar. The coffin was pushed in easily through 
 the iron door ; the women raised their eyes then ; their lips 
 muttered prayers ; and after a time Bukatski was left to 
 the solitude of the cemetery, the rustling trees, the twitter 
 of birds, and the mercy of God. 
 
 Pani Emilia and Pan Stanislav went then to Litka; while 
 the rest of the company waited in the carriages before the 
 church, for thus Pani Aneta had wished. 
 
 Pan Stanislav had a chance to convince himself, at Litka's 
 grave, how in his soul that child once so beloved had gone 
 into the blue distance and become a shade. Formerly 
 when he visited her grave he rebelled against death, and 
 with all the passion of fresh sorrow was unreconciled to 
 it. To-day it seemed to him well-nigh natural that she 
 was lying in the shadow of those trees, in that cemetery ; 
 he had the feeling almost that it must end thus. She had 
 ceased all but completely to be for him a real being, and 
 had become merely a sweet inhabitant of his memory, a 
 sigh, a ray, simply one of that kind of reminiscences which 
 is left by music. 
 
 And he would have grown indignant at himself, perhaps, 
 were it not that he saw Pani Emilia rise after her finished 
 prayer with a serene face, with an expression of great 
 tenderness in her eyes, but without tears. He noticed, 
 however, that she looked as sick people look, that she rose 
 from her knees with difficulty, and that in walking she 
 leaned on a stick. In fact, she was at the beginning of a 
 sore disease of the loins, which later on confined her for 
 years to the bed, and only left her at the coffin.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 451 
 
 Before the cemetery gate the Osnovskis were waiting for 
 them ; Paui Aneta invited them to a betrothal party on 
 the morrow, and then those " who were kind " to Prytulov 
 
 Svirski sat with Pani Emilia in Pan Stanislav's carriage, 
 and for some time was collecting his impressions in silence ; 
 but at last he said, 
 
 " How wonderful this is ! To-day at a funeral, to-morrow 
 at a betrothal ; what death reaps, love sows, and that is 
 life ! "
 
 452 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 N IGNAS wished the betrothal to be not in the evening 
 before people, but earlier ; and his wish was gratified all 
 the more, since Lineta, who wished to show herself to 
 people as already betrothed, supported him before Aunt 
 Bronich. They felt freer thus ; and when people began to 
 assemble they appeared as a young couple. The light of 
 happiness shone from Lineta. She found a charm in that 
 role of betrothed ; and the role added charm to her. In her 
 slender form there was something winged. Her eyelids did 
 not fall to-day sleepily over her eyes ; those eyes were full 
 of light, her lips of smiles, her face was in blushes. She 
 was so beautiful that Svirski, seeing her, could not refrain 
 from quiet sighs for the lost paradise, and found calmness 
 for his soul only when he remembered his favorite song, 
 
 " I am singing and not sobbing, 
 For I have ceased to love thee too ! 
 
 Hu-ha-hu!" 
 
 For that matter her beauty struck every one that day. 
 Old Zavilovski, who had himself brought in his chair to 
 the drawing-room, held her hands and gazed at her for a 
 time ; then, looking around at his daughter, he said, 
 
 " Well, such a Venetian half-devil can turn the head, she 
 can, and especially the head of a poet, for in the heads of 
 those gentlemen is fiu, fiu ! as people say." 
 
 Then he turned to the young man and asked, 
 
 " Well, wilt thou break my neck to-day because I said 
 Venetian half-devil to thee ? " 
 
 Pan Ignas laughed, and, bending his head, kissed the old 
 man's shoulder. " No ; I could not break any one's neck 
 to-day." 
 
 " Well," said the old man, evidently rejoiced at those 
 marks of honor, " may God and the Most Holy Lady bless 
 you both! I say the Most Holy Lady, for her protection is 
 the basis." 
 
 When he had said this, he began to search behind in the 
 chair, and, drawing forth a large jewel-case, said to Lineta, 
 
 " This is from the family of the Zavilovskis ; God grant 
 thee to wear it long! "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 453 
 
 Lineta, taking the box, bent her charming figure to kiss 
 him on the shoulder ; he embraced her neck, and said to the 
 bridegroom, 
 
 "But thou might come." 
 
 And he kissed both on the forehead, and said, with 
 greater emotion than he wished to show, 
 
 " Now love and revere each other, like honest people." 
 
 Lineta opened the case, in which on a sapphire-colored 
 satin cushion gleamed a splendid riviere of diamonds. The 
 old man said once more with emphasis, " From the family of 
 the Zavilovskis," wishing evidently to show that the young 
 lady who married a Zavilovski, even without property, was 
 not doing badly. But no one heard him, for the heads of 
 the ladies of Lineta, Pani Aneta, Pani Mashko, Pani 
 Bronich and even Marynia bent over the flashing stones; 
 and breath was stopped in their mouths for a time, till at 
 last a murmur of admiration and praise broke the silence. 
 
 " It is not a question of diamonds ! " cried Pani Bronich, 
 casting herself almost into the arms of old Zavilovski, " but 
 as the gift, so the heart." 
 
 " Do not mention it Pani ; do not mention it ! " said the 
 old man, warding her off. 
 
 Now the society broke into pairs or small groups ; the 
 betrothed were so occupied with each other that the 
 whole world vanished from before them. Osnovski and 
 Svirski went up to Marynia and Pani Bigiel. Kopovski 
 undertook to entertain the lady of the house ; Pan Stan- 
 islav was occupied with Pani Mashko. As to Mashko 
 himself, he was anxious evidently to make a nearer 
 acquaintance with the Croesus, for he so fenced him off 
 with his armchair that no one could approach him, and 
 began then to talk of remote times and the present, which, 
 as he divined easily, had become a favorite theme for the 
 old man. 
 
 But he was too keen-witted to be of Zavilovski's opir 
 in all things. Moreover, the old man did not attack rece 
 times always; nay, he admired them in part. He acknowl- 
 edged that in many regards they were moving toward 
 better ; still he could not take them in. But Mashkc 
 plained to him that everything must change on earth; 
 hence nobles, as well as other strata of society. 
 
 "I, respected sir," said he, "hold to the land through a 
 certain inherited instinct, through that something which 
 attracts to land the man who came from it; but, WW
 
 454 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 managing my own property, I am an advocate, and I am 
 one on principle. We should have our own people in that 
 department; if we do not, we shall be at the mercy of 
 men coming from other spheres, and often directly opposed 
 to us. And I must render our landholders this justice, that 
 for the greater part they understand this well, and choose 
 to confide their business to me rather than to others. Some 
 think it even a duty." 
 
 ' The bar has been filled from our ranks at all times," 
 answered Pan Zavilovski ; "but will the noble succeed in 
 other branches? As God lives, I cannot tell. I hear, and 
 hear that we ought to undertake everything; but people 
 forget that to undertake and to succeed are quite different. 
 Show me the man who has succeeded." 
 
 " Here he is, respected sir, Pan Polanyetski : he in a 
 commission house has made quite a large property; and 
 what he has is in ready cash, so that he could put it all on 
 the table to-morrow. He will not deny that my counsels 
 have been of profit to him frequently; but what he has 
 made, he has made through commerce, mainly in grain." 
 
 " Indeed, indeed ! " said the old noble, gazing at Pan 
 Stanislav, and staring from wonder, " has he really made 
 property ? Is it possible ? Is he of the real Polanyet- 
 skis ? That 's a good family." 
 
 "And that stalwart man with brown hair ? " 
 
 " Is Svirski the artist." 
 
 " I know him, for I saw him abroad ; and the Svirskis 
 did not make fires as an occupation." 
 
 " But he can only paint money, for he has n't made any." 
 
 " He has n't ! " said Mashko, in a confidential tone. " Not 
 one big estate in Podolia will give as much income as aqua- 
 relles give him." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 "Pictures in water-colors." 
 
 " Is it possible ? not even oil paintings ! And he too ? 
 Ha! then, perhaps, my relative will make something at 
 verses. Let him write ; let him write. I will not take it 
 ill of him. Pan Zygmund was a noble, and he wrote, and 
 not for display. Pan Adam was a noble also; but he 
 is famous, more famous than that brawler who has 
 worked with democracy What 's his name ? Never 
 mind! You say that times are changing. Hm, are they? 
 Let them change for themselves, if only with God's help, 
 for the better."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 455 
 
 "The main thing," said Mashko, "is not to shut up 
 a man's power in his head, nor capital in chests ; whoever 
 does that, simply sins against society." 
 
 " Well, but with permission ! How do you understand 
 this, Am I not free to close with a key what belongs to 
 me ; must I leave my chests open to a robber ? " 
 
 Mashko smiled with a shade of loftiness, and, putting his 
 hand on the arm of the chair, said, 
 
 " That is not the question, respected sir." And then he 
 began to explain the principles of political economy to Pan 
 Zavilovski ; the old noble listened, nodding his head, and 
 repeating from time to time, 
 
 " Indeed ! that is something new ! but I managed with- 
 out it." 
 
 Pani Bronich followed the betrothed with eyes full of 
 emotion, and at the same time told Plavitski (who on his 
 part was following Pani Aneta with eyes not less full 
 of emotion) about the years of her youth, her life with 
 Teodor, and the misfortune which met them because of 
 the untimely arrival in the world of their only descendant, 
 and Plavitski listened with distraction ; Taut, moved at last 
 by her own narrative, she said with a somewhat quivering 
 voice, 
 
 "So all my love, hope, and faith are in Lineta. You 
 will understand this, for you too have a daughter. And as 
 to Lolo, just think what a blessing that child would have 
 been had he lived, since even dead he rendered us so much 
 service " 
 
 "Immensely touching, immensely touching!" inter- 
 rupted Plavitski. 
 
 " Oh, it is true," continued Pani Bronich. " How often in 
 harvest time did my husband run with the cry, <Lolo 
 monte ! ' and send out all his laboring men to the field. 
 With others, wheat sprouted in the shocks, with us, never. 
 Oh, true! And the loss was the greater in this, that that 
 was our last hope. My husband was a man in years, and 
 I can say that for me he was the best of protectors ; but 
 after this misfortune, only a protector." 
 
 " Here I cease to understand him," said Plavitski. Ha, 
 ha ! I fail altogether to understand him." 
 
 And, opening his mouth, he looked roguishly at Pani 
 Bronich ; she slapped him lightly with her fan, and said, 
 
 "These men are detestable; for them there is nothing 
 sacred."
 
 456 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " "Who is that, a real Perugiuo, - - that pale lady, with 
 whom your husband is talking ? " asked Svirski now of 
 Marynia. 
 
 "An acquaintance of ours, Pani Mashko. Have you not 
 been presented to her ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I became acquainted with her yesterday at the 
 funeral, but forget her name. I know that she is the wife 
 of that gentleman who is talking with old Pan Zavilovski. 
 A pure Vannuci ! The same quietism, and a little yellowish ; 
 but she has very beautiful lines in her form." 
 
 And looking a little longer he added, 
 
 "A quenched face, but uncommon lines in the whole 
 figure. As it were slender ; look at the outline of her arms 
 and shoulders." 
 
 But Marynia was not looking at the outlines of the arms 
 and shoulders of Pani Mashko, but at her husband ; and on 
 her face alarm was reflected on a sudden. Pan Stanislav 
 was just inclining toward Pani Mashko and telling her 
 something which Marynia could not hear, for they were 
 sitting at a distance ; but it seemed to her that at times he 
 gazed into that quenched face and those pale eyes with the 
 same kind of look with which during their journey after 
 marriage he had gazed at her sometimes. Ah, she knew 
 that look ! And her heart began now to beat, as if feeling 
 some great danger. But immediately she said to herself, 
 "That cannot be ! That would be unworthy of Stas." Still 
 she could not refrain from looking at them. Pan Stanislav 
 was telling something very vivaciously, which Pani Mashko 
 listened to with her usual indifference. Marynia thought 
 again : " Something only seemed to me ! He is speaking 
 vivaciously as usual, but nothing more." The remnant of 
 her doubt was destroyed by Svirski, who, either because he 
 noticed her alarm and inquiring glance, or because he did 
 not notice the expression on Pan Stanislav's face, said, 
 
 " With all this she says nothing. Your husband must 
 keep up the conversation, and he looks at once weary and 
 angry." 
 
 Marynia's face grew radiant in one instant. " Oh, you 
 are right ! Stas is annoyed a little, surely ; and the moment 
 he is annoyed he is angry." 
 
 And she fell into perfect good-humor. She would have 
 been glad to give a riviere of diamonds, like that which Pan 
 Zavilovski had brought to Lineta, to make " Stas " approach 
 at that moment, to say something herself to him, and hear a
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 457 
 
 kind word from him. In fact, a few minutes later her wish 
 was accomplished, for Osnovski approached "Pani Mashko 
 Fan Stanislav rose, and, saying a word or two on the way to 
 Pani Aneta, who was talking to Kopovski, sat down at last 
 by his wife. 
 
 " Dost wish to tell me something ? " he inquired. 
 
 "How wonderful it is, Stas, for I called to thee that 
 moment, but only in mind ; still thou hast felt and art here 
 with me." 
 
 "See what a husband I am," answered he, with a smile. 
 " But the reason is really very simple : I noticed thee look- 
 ing at me ; I was afraid that something might have happened, 
 and I came." 
 
 " I was looking, for I wanted something." 
 
 " And I came, for I wanted something. How dost thou 
 feel? Tell the truth! Perhaps thou hast a wish to go home ? " 
 
 "No, Stas, as I love thee, I am perfectly comfortable. I 
 was talking with Pan Svirski of Pani Mashko, and was en- 
 tertained well." 
 
 " I guessed that you were gossiping about her. This artist 
 says himself that he has an evil tongue." 
 
 "On the contrary," answered Svirski, "I was only ad- 
 miring her form. The turn for my tongue may come 
 later." 
 
 " Oh, that is true," said Pan Stanislav ; " Pani Osnovski 
 says that she has indeed a bad figure, and that is proof 
 that she has a good one. But, Marynia, I will tell thee 
 something of Pani Osnovski." Here he bent toward his 
 wife, and whispered, " Knowest what I heard from 
 Kopovski's lips when I was coming to thee ?" 
 
 " What was it ? Something amusing ? " 
 
 " Just as one thinks : I heard him say thou to Pani 
 Aneta." 
 
 " Stas ! " 
 
 "As I love thee, he did. He said to her, <Thou art always 
 so.'" 
 
 " Maybe he was quoting some other person's words." 
 
 "I don't know. Maybe he was; maybe he wasn't. 
 Besides, they may have been in love sometime." 
 
 " Fi ! Be ashamed." 
 
 "Say that to them or rather to Pani Aneta." 
 
 Marynia, who knew perfectly well that unfaithfulness 
 exists, but looking on it rather as some French literary 
 theory, she had not even imagined that one might meet
 
 458 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 such a thing at every step and in practice, began to look 
 now at Pani Aneta with wonder, and at the same time with 
 the immense curiosity with which holiest women look at 
 those who have had boldness to leave the high-road for by- 
 paths. She had too truthful a nature, however, to believe 
 in evil immediately, and she did not; and somehow it 
 would not find a place in her head that really there could be 
 anything between those two, if only because of the unheard- 
 of stupidity of Kopovski. She noticed, however, that they 
 were talking with unusual vivacity. 
 
 But they, sitting somewhat apart between a great porce- 
 lain vase and the piano, had not only been talking, but 
 arguing for a quarter of an hour. 
 
 " I fear that he has heard something," said Pani Aneta, 
 with a certain alarm, after Pan Stanislav had passed. 
 " Thou art never careful." 
 
 " Yes, it is always my fault ! But who is forever repeat- 
 ing, 'Be careful'?" 
 
 In this regard both were truly worthy of each other, since 
 he could foresee nothing because of his dulness, and she 
 was foolhardy to recklessness. Two persons knew their 
 secret now ; others might divine it. One needed all the in- 
 fatuation of Osnovski not to infer anything. But it was on 
 that that she reckoned. 
 
 Meanwhile Kopovski looked at Pan Stanislav and said, 
 
 "He has heard nothing." 
 
 Then he returned to the conversation which they had be- 
 gun ; but now he spoke in lower tones and in French, 
 
 " Didst thou love me, thou wouldst be different ; but since 
 thou dost not love, what harm could that be to thee ? " 
 
 Then he turned on her his wonderful eyes without mind, 
 while she answered impatiently, 
 
 " Whether I love, or love not, Castelka never ! Dost un- 
 derstand ? Never ! I would prefer any other to her, though, 
 if thou wert in love with me really, thou wouldst not think 
 of marriage." 
 
 " I would not think of it, if thou wert different." 
 
 "Be patient." 
 
 " Yes ! till death ? If I married Castelka, we should then 
 be near really." 
 
 " Never ! I repeat to thee." 
 
 " Well, but why ? " 
 
 "Thou wouldst not understand it. Besides, Castelka is 
 betrothed; it is too bad to lose time in discussing this."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 459 
 
 "Thou thyself hast commanded me to pay court to her 
 and now art casting reproaches. At first I thought of 
 nothing; but afterward she pleased me, I do not deny 
 this. She pleases all ; and, besides, she is a good match." 
 
 Fani Aneta began to pull at the end of her handker- 
 chief. 
 
 " And thou hast the boldness to say to my eyes that she 
 pleased thee," said she at last. " Is it I, or she ? " 
 
 " Thou, but thee I cannot marry ; her I could, for I saw 
 well that I pleased her." 
 
 " If thou wert better acquainted with women, thou wouldst 
 be glad that I did not let it go to marriage. Thou dost not 
 know her. She is just like a stick, and, besides, is malicious 
 in character. Dost thou not understand that I told thee to 
 pay court to her out of regard to people, and to Yozio ? 
 Otherwise, how explain thy daily visits ? " 
 
 " I could understand, wert thou other than thou art." 
 
 " Do not oppose me. I have fixed all, as thou seest, to 
 keep thy portrait from being finished, and give thee a chance 
 to visit Prytulov. Steftsia Ratkovski, a distant relative of 
 Yozio's, will be there soon. Dost understand ? Thou must 
 pretend that she pleases thee ; and I will talk what I like 
 into Yozio. In this way thou wilt be able to stop at Pry- 
 tulov. I have written to Panna Ratkovski already. She is 
 not a beauty, but agreeable." 
 
 " Always pretence, and nothing for it." 
 
 " Suppose I should say to thee : Don't come." 
 
 " Anetka ! " 
 
 "Then be patient. I cannot be angry long with thee. 
 But now go thy way. Amuse Pani Mashko." 
 
 And a moment later Pani Aneta was alone. Her eyes 
 followed Kopovski a while with the remnant of her anger, 
 but also with a certain tenderness. In the white cravat, 
 with his dark tint of face, he was so killingly beautiful that 
 she could not gaze at him sufficiently. Lineta was now the 
 betrothed of another ; still the thought seemed unendurable 
 that that daily rival of hers might possess him, if not as 
 husband, as lover. Pani Aneta, in telling Kopovski that 
 she would yield him to any other rather than to Castelka, 
 told the pure truth. That was for her a question, at once 
 of an immense weakness for that dull Endymion, and a 
 question of self-love. Her nerves simply could not agree 
 to it. Certain inclinations of the senses, which she herse 
 looked on as lofty, and rising from a Grecian nature, but
 
 460 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 which at the root of the matter were common, took the place 
 in her of morality and conscience. By virtue of these incli- 
 nations, she fell under the irresistible charm of Kopovski , 
 but having not only a heated head, but a temperament of 
 fishy coldness, she preferred, as Pan Ignas divined intui- 
 tively, the play with evil to evil itself. Holding, in her way, 
 to the principle, " If not I, then no one ! " she was ready to 
 push matters to the utmost to prevent the marriage of Ko- 
 povski to Liueta, the more since she saw that Lineta, in spite 
 of all her " words " about Kopovski, in spite of the irony 
 with which she had mentioned him and her jests about the 
 man, was also under the charm of his exceptional beauty ; 
 that all those jests were simply self-provocation, under 
 which was concealed an attraction ; and that, in general, the 
 source of her pleasure and Lineta's was the same. But she 
 did not observe that, for this reason, she at the bottom of 
 her soul had contempt for Lineta. 
 
 She knew that Lineta, through very vanity, would not 
 oppose her persuasion, and the homages of a man with a 
 famous name. In this way, she had retained Kopovski, 
 and, besides, had produced for herself a splendid spectacle, 
 on which women, who are more eager for impressions 
 than feelings, look always with greediness. Besides, if 
 that famous Pan Ignas, when his wife becomes an every- 
 day object, should look somewhere for a Beatrice, he might 
 find her. Little is denied men who have power to hand 
 down, to the memory of mankind and the homage of ages, 
 the name of a loved one. These plans for the future Pani 
 Aneta had not outlined hitherto expressly ; but she had, as 
 it were, a misty feeling that her triumph would in that case 
 be perfect. 
 
 Moreover, she had triumphed even now, for all had gone 
 as she wished. Still Kopovski made her angry. She had 
 considered him as almost her property. Meanwhile, she 
 saw that, so far as he was able to understand anything, he 
 understood this, that the head does not ache from abun- 
 dance, and that Aneta might not hinder Lineta. That 
 roused her so keenly that at moments she was thinking 
 how to torment him in return. Meanwhile, she was glad 
 that Lineta paraded herself as being in love really, soul and 
 heart, with Pan Ignas, which for Kopovski was at once 
 both a riddle and a torture. 
 
 These thoughts flew through her head like lightning, and 
 flew all of them in the short time that she was alone.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 461 
 
 At last she was interrupted by the serving of supper. 
 Osnovski, who desired that his wife should be surrounded 
 by such homage from every one as he himself gave, and to 
 whom it seemed that what he had said to Pan Ignas about 
 his married life was very appropriate, had the unhappy 
 thought to repeat at the first toast the wish that Pan 
 Ignas might be as happy with Lineta as he with his wife. 
 Hereupon, the eyes of Pan Iguas and Pan Stanislav turned 
 involuntarily to Pani Osnovski, who looked quickly at Pan 
 Stanislav, and doubts on both sides disappeared in one 
 instant ; that is, she gained the perfect certainty that Pan 
 Stanislav had heard them, and he, that Kopovski had not 
 quoted the words of another, but had said thou in direct 
 speech to the lady. Pani Aneta had guessed even that Pan 
 Stanislav must have spoken of that to Marynia, for she had 
 seen how, after he had passed, both had talked and looked 
 a certain time at her with great curiosity. The thought 
 filled her with anger and a desire of revenge, so that she 
 listened without attention to the further toasts, which were 
 given by her husband, by Pan Ignas, by Plavitski, and 
 at last by Pan Bigiel. 
 
 But, after supper, it came to her head all at once to 
 arrange a dancing-party; and' "Yozio," obedient as ever 
 to each beck of hers, and, besides, excited after feasting, 
 supported the thought enthusiastically. Marynia could not 
 dance, but besides her there were five youthful ladies, 
 Lineta, Pani Osnovski, Pani Bigiel, Pani Mashko, and 
 Panna Zavilovski. The last declared, it is true, that she did 
 not dance ; but, since people said that she neither danced, 
 talked, ate, nor drank, her refusal did not stop the readi- 
 ness of others. Osnovski, who was in splendid feeling, 
 declared that Ignas should take Lineta in his arms, for 
 surely he had not dared to do so thus far. 
 
 It turned out, however, that Pan Ignas could not avail 
 himself of Pan Osnovski's friendly wishes, for he had 
 never danced in his life, and had not the least knowledge 
 of dancing, which not only astonished Pani Bronich and 
 Lineta, but offended them somewhat. Kopovski, on the 
 other hand, possessed this art in a high degree ; hence he 
 began the dance with Lineta, as the heroine of the evening. 
 They were a splendid pair, and eyes followed them invol- 
 untarily. Pan Ignas was forced to see her golden head 
 incline toward Kopovski's shoulder, to see their bosoms 
 near each other, to see both whirling to the time of Bigiel's
 
 462 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 waltz, joined in the harmony of movement, blending, as it 
 were, into one tune and one unity. Even from looking at 
 all this, he grew angry, for he understood that there was a 
 thing which he did not know, which would connect Lineta 
 with others and disconnect her with him. Besides, people 
 about him mentioned the beauty of the dancing couple; 
 and Svirski, sitting near him, said, 
 
 " What a beautiful man ! If there were male houris, as 
 there are female, he might be a houri in a Mussulman 
 paradise for women." 
 
 They waltzed long; and there was in the tones of the 
 music, as in their movements, something, as it were, intoxi- 
 cating, a kind of dizzy faintness, which incensed Pan Ignas 
 still more, for he recalled Byron's verses on waltzing, 
 verses as cynical as they are truthful. At last, he said to 
 himself, with complete impatience : " When will that ass 
 let her go ? " He feared, too, that Kopovski might tire 
 her too much. 
 
 The " ass " let her go at last at the other end of the 
 hall, and straightway took Pani Aneta. But Lineta ran up 
 to her betrothed, and, sitting down at his side, said, 
 
 "He dances well, but he likes to exhibit his skill, for 
 he has nothing else. He kept me too long. I have lost 
 breath a little, and my heart is beating. If you could 
 put your hand there and feel how it beats but it is not 
 proper to do so. How wonderful, too, for it is your 
 property." 
 
 " My property !" said Pan Ignas, holding out his hand 
 to her. "Do not say ' your ' to me to-day, Lineta." 
 
 "Thy property," she whispered, and she did not ward 
 off his hand, she only let it drop down a little on her robe, 
 so that people might not notice it. 
 
 "I was jealous of him," said Pan Ignas, pressing her 
 fingers passionately. 
 
 "Dost wish I will dance no more to-day? I like to 
 dance, but I prefer to be near thee." 
 
 "My worshipped one! " 
 
 " I am a stupid society girl, but I want to be worthy of 
 thee. As thou seest, I love music greatly, even waltzes 
 and polkas. Somehow they act on me wonderfully. How 
 well this Pan Bigiel plays! But I know that there are 
 things higher than waltzes. Hold my handkerchief, and 
 drop my hand for a moment. It is thy hand, but I must 
 arrange my hair. It is time to dance; to dance is not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 463 
 
 wrong, is it ? But if thou wish, I will not dance, for I 
 am an obedient creature. I will learn to read in thy eyes, 
 and afterward shall be like water, which reflects both 
 clouds and clear weather. So pleasant is it for me near 
 thee ! See how perfectly those people dance ! " 
 
 Words failed Pan Ignas; only in one way could he 
 have shown what he felt, by kneeling before her. But 
 she pointed out Pan Stanislav, who was dancing with Pani 
 Mishko, and admired them heartily. 
 
 "Really he dances better than Pan Kopovski," said she, 
 with gleaming eyes; "and she, how graceful! Oh, I should 
 like to dance even once with him if thou permit." 
 
 Pan Ignas, in whom Pan Stanislav did not rouse the 
 least jealousy, said, 
 
 "My treasure, as often as may please thee. I will send 
 him at once to thee." 
 
 "Oh, how perfectly he dances! how perfectly! And 
 this waltz, it is like some delightful shiver. They are 
 sailing, not dancing." 
 
 Of this opinion, too, was Marynia, who, following the 
 couple with her eyes, experienced a still greater feeling of 
 bitterness than Pan Ignas a little while earlier; for it 
 seemed a number of times to her that Pan Stanislav had 
 looked again on Pani Mashko with .that expression with 
 which he had looked when Svirski supposed that either he 
 was annoyed, or was angry. But now such a supposition 
 was impossible. At moments both dancers passed near 
 her; and then she saw distinctly how his arm embraced 
 firmly Pani Mashko's waist, how his breath swept around 
 her neck, how his nostrils were dilated, how his glances 
 slipped over her naked bosom. That might be invisible 
 for others, but not for Marynia, who could read in his 
 face as in a book. And all at once the light of the lamps 
 became dark in her eyes; she understood that it was one 
 thing not to be happy, and another to be unhappy. This 
 lasted briefly, as briefly as one tact of the waltz, or one 
 instant in which a heart that is straitened ceases to 
 beat; but it sufficed for the feeling that life in the future 
 might be embroiled, and present love changed into a bitter 
 and contemptuous sorrow. And that feeling filled her with 
 terror. Before her was drawn aside, as it were, a curtain, 
 behind which appeared unexpectedly all the sham of life, 
 all the wretchedness and meanness of human nature. 
 Nothing had happened yet, absolutely nothing; but a vision
 
 464 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 came to Marynia, in which she saw that there might be a 
 time wheii her confidence in her husband would vanish like 
 smoke. 
 
 She tried, however, to ward away doubts ; she wished to 
 talk into herself that he was under the influence of the 
 dance, not of his partner; she preferred not to believe her 
 eyes. Shame seized her for that " Stas " of whom she had 
 been so proud up to that time; and she struggled with all 
 her strength against that feeling, understanding that it 
 was a question of enormous importance, and that from 
 that little thing, and from that fault of his, hitherto almost 
 nothing, might flow results which would act on their whole 
 future. 
 
 At that moment was heard near her the jesting voice of 
 Pani Aneta. 
 
 "Ah, Marynia, nature has created, as it were, purposely, 
 thy husband and Pani Mashko to waltz with each other. 
 What a pair!" 
 
 " Yes, " answered Marynia, with an effort. 
 
 And Pani Aneta twittered on: "Perfectly fitted for each 
 other. It is true that in thy place I should be a little 
 jealous; but thou, art thou jealous? No? I am outspoken, 
 and confess freely that I should be; at least, it was so with 
 me once. I know, for that matter, that Yozio loves me; 
 but these men, even while loving, have their little fancies. 
 Their heads do not ache the least on that score ; and that 
 our hearts ache, they do not see, or do not wish to see. 
 The best of them are not different. Yozio? true! he is a 
 model husband; and dost thou think that I do not know 
 him? Now, when I have grown used to him, laughter 
 seizes me often, for they are all so awkward! I know the 
 minute that Yozio is beginning to be giddy; and knowest 
 thou what my sign is?" 
 
 Marynia was looking continually at her husband, who 
 had ceased now to dance with Pani Mashko, and had taken 
 Lineta. She felt great relief all at once, for it seemed to 
 her that "Stas," while dancing with Lineta, had the same 
 expression of face. Her suspicions began to fade ; and she 
 thought. at once that she had judged him unjustly, that she 
 herself was not good. She had never seen him dancing 
 before; and the thought came to her head that perhaps he 
 danced that way always. 
 
 Then Pani Aneta repeated, " Dost know how I discover 
 when Yozio is beginning to play pranks?"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 465 
 
 "How?" inquired Maryuia, with more liveliness. 
 
 " I will teach thee the method. Here it is : the moment 
 he has an unclean conscience, he puts suspicion on others, 
 and shares these suspicions with me, so as to turn atten- 
 tion from himself. Dear Yozio! that is their method. 
 How they lie, even the best of them ! " 
 
 When she had said this, she went away, with the convic- 
 tion that on the society chessboard she had made a very 
 clever move; and it was clever. In Marynia's head a 
 kind of chaos now rose; she knew not what to think at 
 last of all this. Great physical weariness seized her also. 
 "I am not well," said she to herself; "I am excited, and 
 God knows what may seem to me." And the feeling of 
 weariness increased in her every moment. That whole 
 evening seemed a fever dream. Pan Stanislav had men- 
 tioned Pani Aneta as a faith-breaking woman; Pani Aneta 
 had said the same of all husbands. Pan Stanislav had 
 been looking with dishonest eyes on Pani Mashko, and 
 Pani Aneta had said thou to Kopovski. To this was 
 added the dancing couples, the monotonous tact of the 
 waltz, the heads of the lovers, and finally, a storm, which 
 was heard out of doors. What a mixture of impressions! 
 what a phantasmagoria! " I am not well," repeated Marynia 
 in her mind. But she felt also that peace was leaving her, 
 and that this was the unhappy evening of her life. She 
 wished greatly to go home, but, as if to spite her, there 
 was a pouring rain. "Let us go home! let us go home!" 
 If " Stas " should say some good and cordial word besides. 
 Let him only not speak of Pani Aneta or Pani Mashko; 
 let him speak of something that related to him and her, 
 and was dear to them. 
 
 " Oh, how tired I am ! " 
 
 At that moment Pan Stanislav came to her; and at sight 
 of her poor, pale face, he felt a sudden sympathy, to which 
 his heart, kind in itself, yielded easily. 
 
 "My poor dear," said he, "it is time for thee to go t 
 bed; only let the rain pass a little. Thou art not afraid 
 of thunder? " 
 
 "No; sit near me." 
 
 "The summer shower will pass soon, 
 art ! " 
 
 "Perhaps I ought not to have come, Stas. I have great 
 
 need of rest." , 
 
 He had a conscience which was not too clear, and 
 
 so
 
 466 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 angry at himself. But it had not come to his mind that 
 what she was saying of rest might relate to him and his 
 attempts and conduct with Pani Mashko; but he felt all at 
 once that if she had suspected, her peace would be ruined 
 forever through his fault, and since he was not a spoiled 
 man, fear and compunction possessed him. 
 
 "To the deuce with all dances! " said he. "I will stay 
 at home, and take care of that which belongs to me." 
 
 And he said this so sincerely that a shadow of doubt 
 could not pass through her head, for she knew him per- 
 fectly. Hence a feeling of immense relief came upon her. 
 
 " When thou art with me," said she, " I feel less tired 
 right away. A moment ago I felt ill somehow. Aneta 
 sat near me; but what can I care for her? When out of 
 health, one needs a person who is near, who is one's own, 
 and reliable. Perhaps thou wilt scold me for what I say, 
 since it is strange to say such things at a party, among 
 strangers, and so long after marriage. I understand my- 
 self that it is somewhat strange; but I need thee really, 
 for I love thee much." 
 
 "And I love thee, dear being," answered Pan Stanislav 
 who felt then that love for her could alone be honest and 
 peaceful. 
 
 Meanwhile the rain decreased; but there was lightning 
 yet, so that the windows of the villa were bright blue 
 every moment. Bigiel, who, after the dancing, had played 
 a prelude of Chopin's, was talking now with Lineta and 
 Pan Ignas about music, and, defending his idea firmly, 
 said, 
 
 "That Bukatski invented various kinds and types of 
 women; and I have my musical criterion. There are 
 women who love music with their souls, and there are 
 others who love it with their skin, these last I fear." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later the short summer storm had 
 passed by, and the sky had cleared perfectly; the guests 
 began to prepare for home. But Zavilovski remained 
 longer than others, so that he might be the last to say 
 good-night to Lineta. 
 
 Out of fear for Marynia, Pan Stanislav gave command 
 to drive the carriage at a walk. The picture of her hus- 
 band dancing with Pani Mashko was moving in her tortured 
 head continually. Pani Aneta's words, "Oh, how they 
 lie! even the best of them," were sounding in her ears. 
 But Pan Stanislav supported her meanwhile with his arm,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 467 
 
 and held her resting against him during the whole way; 
 hence her disquiet disappeared gradually. She wished 
 from her soul to put some kind of question to him, from 
 which he might suspect her fears and pacify her. But 
 after a while she thought: "If he did not love me, he 
 would not show anxiety; he could be cruel more readily 
 than pretend. I will not ask him to-day about anything." 
 Pan Stanislav, on his part, evidently under the influence 
 of the thought which moved in his head, and under the 
 impression that she alone might be his right love and true 
 happiness, bent down and kissed her face lightly. 
 
 "I will not ask him about anything to-morrow either," 
 thought Marynia, resting her head on his shoulder. And 
 after a while she thought again, "I will never tell him 
 anything." And fatigue, both physical and mental, began 
 to overpower her, so that before they reached home her 
 eyes were closed, and she had fallen asleep on his arm. 
 
 Pani Bronich was sitting, meanwhile, in the drawing- 
 room, looking toward the glass door of the balcony, t<? 
 which the betrothed had gone out for a moment to breathe 
 the air freshened by rain, and say good-night to each other 
 without witnesses. After the storm the night had become 
 very clear, giving out the odor of wet leaves ; it was full 
 of stars, which were as if they had bathed in the rain, and 
 were smiling through tears. The two young people stood 
 some time in silence, and then began to say that they loved 
 each other with all their souls; and at last Pan Ignas 
 stretched forth his hand, on which a ring was glittering, 
 and said, 
 
 "My greatly beloved! I look at this ring, and cannot 
 look at it sufficiently. To this moment it has seemed to 
 me that all this is a dream, and only now do I dare to 
 think that thou wilt be mine really." 
 
 Then Lineta placed the palm of her hand on his, so that 
 the two rings were side by side; and she said, with a voice 
 of dreamy exaltation, 
 
 "Yes; the former Lineta is no longer in existence, only 
 thy betrothed. Now we must belong with our whole lives 
 to each other; and it is a marvel to me that there show 
 be such power in these little rings, as if something holy 
 were in them." 
 
 Pan Ignas's heart was overflowing with happiness, calm, 
 
 and sweetness. , , . . 
 
 "Yes," said he; "for in the ring is the soul, wnic,
 
 468 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 yields itself, and in return receives another. In such a 
 golden promise is ingrafted everything which in a man 
 says, ' I wish, I love, and promise." 
 
 Lineta repeated like a faint echo, " I wish, I love, and 
 promise." 
 
 Next he embraced her and held her long at his breast, 
 and then began to take farewell. But, borne away by the 
 might of love and the impulse of his soul, he made of that 
 farewell a sort of religious act of adoration and honor. 
 So he gave good-night to those blessed hands which had 
 given him so much happiness, and good-night to that heart 
 which loved him, and good-night to the lips which had 
 confessed love, and good-night to the clear eyes through 
 which mutuality gazed forth at the poet ; and at last the 
 soul went out of him, and changed itself, as it were, into 
 a shining circle, around that head which was dearest in the 
 world and worshipped. 
 
 "Good-night!" 
 
 After a while Pani Bronich and Lineta were alone in the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 "Art wearied, child?" inquired Pani Bronich, looking 
 at Liseta's face, which was as if roused from sleep. 
 
 And Lineta answered, 
 
 "Ah, aunt, I am returning from the stars, and that's 
 Mich a long journey."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 469 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 PAN IGNAS could say to himself that sometimes a lucky 
 star shines even for poets. It is true that since the day 
 of his betrothal to Liueta it had occurred to him frequently 
 that there would be need now to think of means to furnish 
 a house, and meet the expenses, as well of a marriage as 
 a wedding; but, being first of all in love, and not having 
 in general a clear understanding of such matters, he repre- 
 sented all this to himself only as some kind of new diffi- 
 culty to be overcome. He had conquered so many of these 
 in his life that, trusting in his power, he thought that he 
 would conquer this too ; but he had not thought over the 
 means so far. 
 
 Others, however, were thinking for him. Old Zavi- 
 lovski, in whom, with all his esteem for geniuses, nothing 
 could shake the belief that every poet must have "fiu, tiu" 
 in his head, invited Pan Stauislav to a personal consulta- 
 tion, and said, 
 
 "I will say openly that this youngster has pleased me, 
 though his father was, with permission, a great roisterer; 
 nothing for him but cards and women and horses. He 
 came to grief in his time. But the son is not like the 
 father; he has brought to the name not discredit, but honor. 
 Well, others have not accustomed me much to this; but the 
 Lord God grant that I shall not forget the man. I should 
 like, however, to do something for him at once; for though 
 a distant relative, he is a relative, and the name is the 
 same, that is the main thing." 
 
 "We have been thinking of this," said Pan Stanislav, 
 "but the thing is difficult. If aid be spoken of, he is so 
 sensitive that one may make the impatient fellow angry." 
 
 "Indeed! How stubborn he is!" said Zavilovski, with 
 evident pleasure. 
 
 " True ! He has kept books and written letters for our 
 house a short time. But we have conceived a real liking for 
 him; therefore my partner and I have offered him credit 
 ourselves. * Take a few thousand rubles,' said we, ' for ex- 
 penses and furnishing a house, and return them to us in 
 the course of three years from thy salary.' He would
 
 470 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 not: he said that he had trust in his betrothed; she would 
 accommodate herself to him, he felt sure, and he did not 
 want the money. Osnovski, too, wanted to offer aid. but 
 we stopped him, knowing that it was useless. Your pro- 
 ject will be difficult." 
 
 "Maybe, then, he has something ?" 
 
 "He has, and he hasn't. We have just learned that 
 some thousands of rubles came to him from his mother; 
 but with the interest he supports his father in an insane 
 asylum, and considers the capital as inviolable. That he 
 takes nothing from it, is certain, for before he began with 
 iis, he suffered such poverty that he was simply dying of 
 hunger, and he did n't touch a copper. Such is his char- 
 acter. And yon will understand why we esteem him. He 
 is writing something, it seems, and thinks that he will 
 meet the expense of first housekeeping with it. Maybe he 
 will; his name means much at present." 
 
 "Pears on willows!" said Pan Zavilovski. "You tell 
 me that his name means much does it? But that 's pears 
 on willows!" 
 
 "Not necessarily; only it will not come quickly." 
 
 " Well, he was ceremonious with you because you were 
 strangers, but I am a relative." 
 
 "We are strangers, but older acquaintances than you, 
 and we know him better." 
 
 Zavilovski, unacciistomed to contradiction, began to 
 move his white mustaches, and pant from displeasure. 
 For the first time in his life he had to trouble himself 
 about the question, would the man to whom he wished to 
 give money be pleased to accept it? This astonished, 
 pleased, and angered him all at once; he recalled, then, 
 something which he did not mention to Pan Stanislav, and 
 this was it, how many times had he paid notes for the 
 father of the young man? and what notes! But see, the 
 apple has fallen so far from the tree that now there is a 
 new and unexpected trouble. 
 
 "Well," said he, after a while, "may the merciful God 
 grant the young generation to change; for now, O devil, do 
 not go even near them ! " 
 
 Here his face grew bright all at once with an immense 
 honest pleasure. The inexhaustible optimism, lying at 
 the bottom of his soul, when it found a real cause to 
 justify itself, filled his heart with glad visions. 
 
 "Bite him now, lord devil," said he, "for the beast is
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 471 
 
 as if of stone! a capable rascal! resolute in work, and 
 character; that is what it is, character." 
 
 Here he stared, and, shaking his head, fixed his lips as 
 a sign of wonder, as if to whistle, and after a moment 
 added, 
 
 "Indeed! and that in a noble! As God lives, I didn't 
 expect it." 
 
 But talking in this way he deceived himself, for all his 
 life he had expected everything. 
 
 "It seems, then," said Pan Stanislav, "that there is no 
 help but this, Panna Castelli must accommodate herself 
 to him." 
 
 But the old noble made a wry face all at once. " That is 
 talk! tfu! Will she accommodate, or will she not? the 
 deuce knows her! She is young; and as she is young, 
 maybe she is ready for everything; but who will give 
 assurance, and for how long? Besides, there is her aunt 
 and that accommodating dead man ; when he shouts from 
 under the ground, go and talk with him. As God is true, I 
 esteem people who have acquired property; but when 
 any one has crept out of a cottage, and not a mansion, and 
 pretends that he lived always in palaces, he wants palaces. 
 And so it was with old Bronich. Neither of them was 
 lacking in vanity; the young woman was reared in such a 
 school, nothing but comfort and abundance. Ignas does 
 not know them in that respect and you do not. Such a 
 woman as this " (here he pointed to his daughter) "would 
 go to a garret even, once she had given her word; but that 
 other one, she may not go easily." 
 
 "I do not know them," said Pan Stanislav, "though I 
 have heard various reports; but through good-will for 
 Ignas, I should like to know definitely what to think of 
 them." 
 
 " What to think of them ! I have known them a long time , 
 and I, too, do not know much. Well, judging from what- 
 Bronich herself says, the women are saints, the most 
 worthy. And pious! Ha! they should be canonized 
 while living! But you see it is this way, there are 
 women among us who bear God and the commands of faith 
 in their hearts, and there are such, too, who make of our 
 Catholic religion, Catholic amusement; and such talk the 
 loudest, and grow up where no one .sowed them. That's 
 what the case is." 
 
 "Ah, how truly you have spoken!" said Pan Stanislav.
 
 472 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Well, is it not true?" inquired Zavilovski. "I have 
 seen various things in life; but let us return to the ques- 
 tion. Have you any method to make this wild cat accept 
 aid, or not?" 
 
 "It is necessary to think of something; but at this 
 moment nothing occurs to me." 
 
 Thereupon Fauna Helena Zavilovski, who, occupied 
 with embroidery on canvas, was silent up to that moment 
 as if not hearing the conversation, raised her steel cold 
 eyes suddenly, and said, 
 
 "There is a very simple method." 
 
 The old noble looked at her. 
 
 "See, she has found it! What is this simple method?" 
 
 "Let papa deposit sufficient capital for Pan Ignas's 
 father." 
 
 " It would be better for thee not to give that advice ; I 
 "have done enough in my life for Pan Ignas's father, though 
 I had no wish to see him, and prefer now to do something 
 for Pan Ignas himself." 
 
 "I know; but if his father has an income assured till 
 his death, Pan Ignas will be able to command that whicli 
 he has from his mother." 
 
 "As God is dear to me, that is true! " said Pan Zavi- 
 lovski, with astonishment. "See! we have both been break- 
 ing our heads for nothing, and she has discovered it. True, 
 as God is dear to me ! " 
 
 "You are perfectly right," said Pan Stanislav, looking 
 at her with curiosity. 
 
 But she had inclined to the embroidery her face, which 
 was without expression of interest, and, as it were, faded 
 before its time. 
 
 The news of such a turn of affairs pleased Marynia and 
 Pani Bigiel greatly, and gave at the same time occasion to 
 speak of Panna Helena. Formerly she was considered a 
 cold young lady, who placed form above everything; but 
 it was said that later a way was broken through that cold- 
 ness to her heart by great feeling, which, turning into a 
 tragedy, turned also that society young lady into a strange 
 woman, separated from people, confined to herself, jealous 
 of her suffering. Some exalted her great benevolence; but 
 if she was really benevolent, she did her good work so 
 secretly that no one knew anything definite. It was diffi- 
 cult, also, for any one to approach her, for her indifference 
 was greatly like pride. Men declared that in her manner
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 473 
 
 there was something simply contemptuous, just as if she 
 could not forgive them for living. 
 
 Pan Ignas had been in Prytulov, and returned only the 
 week following the old man's talk with Pan Stanislav, 
 that is, when the noble had deposited in the name of his 
 father twice the amount of capital which had served so far 
 to pay his expenses at the asylum. When he learned of 
 this, Pan Iguas rushed off to thank the old man, and to 
 save himself from accepting it; but Zavilovski, feeling firm 
 ground under his feet, grumbled him out of his position. 
 
 "But what hast thou to say?" asked he. "1 have done 
 nothing for thee ; I have given thee nothing. Thou hast no 
 right to receive or not to receive; and that it pleased me to 
 go to the aid of a sick relative is a kind of act permitted 
 to every man." 
 
 In fact, there was nothing to answer; hence the matter 
 ended in embraces and emotion, in which these two men, 
 strangers a short time before, felt that they were real 
 relatives. 
 
 Even PannarHelena herself showed " Pan Tgnas " good- 
 will. -As to old Zavilovski, he, grieving in secret over 
 this, that he had no son, took to loving the young man 
 heartily. A week later, Pani Bronich, who had visited 
 Warsaw on some little business, went to Yasmen to learn 
 what was to be heard about the gout, and to speak of the 
 young couple. When she repeated a number of times, to 
 the greater praise of "Nitechka," that she was marrying 
 a man without property, the old noble grew impatient, and 
 cried. 
 
 " What do you say to me ? God knows who makes the 
 better match, even with regard to property, omitting men- 
 tion of other things." 
 
 And Pani Bronich, who moreover endured all from the 
 old truth-teller, endured smoothly even the mention of 
 " other things." Nay, a half an hour later, she spread 
 wings of her imagination sufficiently. Visiting the J 
 nyetskis on the way, she told them that Pan Zavilovski 
 had given her 'a formal promise to make an entail 
 "that dear, dear Ignas," with an irrepressible moth e 
 feeling that at times he took the place of Lolo in her heart. 
 Finally, she expressed the firm conviction that 
 would have loved him no less than she, and that 
 sorrow for Lolo would have been less painful I 
 them.
 
 474: CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Ignas did not know that he had taken the place of 
 Lolo in Pani Bronich's heart, nor did he know of the entail 
 discovered for him, but he noticed that his relations with 
 people had begun already to change. The news of that 
 entail must have spread through the city with lightning- 
 like swiftness, for his acquaintances greeted him in some 
 fashion differently ; and even his colleagues of the bureau, 
 honest people, began to be less familiar. When he returned 
 from Prytulov, he had to visit all persons who had been 
 present at the betrothal party at the Osnovskis' ; and the 
 quickness with which the visit was returned by such a man 
 as Mashko, for example, testified also to the change in his 
 relations. In the first period of their acquaintance, Mashko 
 treated him somewhat condescendingly. Now he had not 
 ceased, it is true, to be patronizing, but there was so much 
 kindness and friendly confidence in his manner, such a 
 feeling for poetry even. No ! Mashko had nothing against 
 poetry ; he would have preferred, perhaps, if Pan Ignas's 
 verses were more in the spirit of safely thinking people ; 
 but in general he was reconciled to the existence of poetry, 
 and even praised it. His favorable inclination -both to 
 poetry and the poet were evident from his look, his smile, 
 and the frequent repetition, " but of course, of course, 
 but very ! " Pan Ignas, who was in many regards 
 naive, but at the same exceptionally intelligent, still un- 
 derstood that in all this there was some pretence, hence he 
 thought : " Why does this, as it were, thinking man pose in 
 such style that it is evident ? " 
 
 And that same day he raised this question in a talk with 
 the Polanyetskis ; at their house it was that he had made 
 Mashko's acquaintance. 
 
 " Were I to pose," said he, " I should try so to pose that 
 people could not recognize it." 
 
 " Those who pose," answered Pan Stanislav, " count on 
 this, that, though people notice the posing, still, through 
 slothfulness or a lack of civic courage, they will agree to 
 that which the pose is intended to express. Moreover, the 
 thing is difficult. Have you noticed that women who use 
 rouge lose gradually the sense of measure ? It is the 
 same with posing. The most intelligent lose this sense of 
 measure." 
 
 " True," answered Pan Ignas, " as it is true also that one 
 can reproach people with everything." 
 
 ** As to Mashko," continued Pan Stanislav, " he knows,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 475 
 
 besides, that you are marrying a lady who passes for 
 wealthy ; he knows that you are a favorite with Pan Zavi- 
 lovski, and perhaps he would like to approach him through 
 your favor. Mashko must think of the future ; for they 
 tell me that the actiou to break the will, on which his fate 
 depends, is not very favorable." 
 
 Such was the case really. The young advocate who 
 had appeared in defence of the will had shown much 
 energy, adroitness, and persistence. 
 
 Here ceased their conversation about Mashko, for Pani 
 Marynia had begun to inquire about Prytulov and its inhab- 
 itants, a subject which for Pan Ignas was inexhaustible. 
 In his expressive narrative, the residence at Prytulov ap- 
 peared, with its lindens along the road, then its shady 
 garden, ponds, reeds, alders, and on the horizon a belt of 
 pine-wood. Kremen, which had faded in Marynia's memory, 
 stood before her now as if present ; and, in that momentary 
 revival of homesickness, she thought that sometime she 
 would beg " Stas " to take her even to Vantory, to that 
 little church in which she was baptized, and where her 
 mother was buried. Maybe Pan Stanislav remembered 
 Kremen at that moment, for, waving his hand, he said, 
 
 "It is always the same in the country. I remember 
 Bukatski's statement, that he loved the country passion- 
 ately, but on condition 'that there should be a perfect 
 cook in the house, a big library, beautiful and intelligent 
 women, and no obligation to stay longer than two days in 
 a twelvemonth.' And I understand him." 
 
 "But still," said Marynia, "it is thy wish to have a 
 piece of land of thy own near the city." 
 
 " To live in our own place in summer, and not with the 
 Bigiels, as we must this year." 
 
 "But in me," said Pan Ignas, "certain field instincts 
 revive the moment I am in the country. For that matter, 
 my betrothed does not like the city, and that is enough 
 for me." 
 
 " Does Lineta dislike the city really ? " inquired Ma- 
 rynia, with interest. 
 
 " Yes, for she is a born artist. I gaze on nature too, and 
 feel it ; but she shows me things which I should not notice 
 myself. A couple of days ago, we all went into the forest, 
 where she showed me ferns in the sun, for instance, 
 are so delicate! She taught me also that the trunks of 
 pine-trees, especially in the evening light, have a vio
 
 476 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 tone. She opens ray eyes to colors which I have not seen 
 hitherto, and, like a kind of enchantress going through the 
 forest, discloses new worlds to me." 
 
 Fan Stauislav thought that all this might be a proof of 
 artistic sense, but also it might be an expression of the 
 fashion, and of that universal love for painting color which 
 people talk into themselves, and in which any young lady 
 at present may be occupied, not from love of art, but for 
 show. He had not occupied himself with painting ; but he 
 noticed that, for society geese, it had become of late a 
 merchandise, exhibited willingly in Vanity Fair, or, in other 
 words, a means to show artistic culture and an artistic 
 soul. 
 
 But he kept these thoughts to himself; and Pan Ignas 
 talked on, 
 
 " Besides, she loves village children immensely. She 
 says that they are such perfect models, and less vulgarized 
 than the little Italians. When there is good weather, we 
 are all day in the fresh air, and we have become sunburnt, 
 both of us. I am learning to play tennis, and make great 
 progress. It is very easy, but goes hard at first. Osnovski 
 plays passionately, so as not to grow fat. It is difficult to 
 tell what a kind and high-minded person that man is." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who during his stay in Belgium had 
 played tennis no less passionately than Osnovski, began to 
 boast of his skill, and said, 
 
 " If I had been there, I should have shown you how to 
 play tennis." 
 
 "Me you might," answered Pan Ignas; "but they play 
 perfectly, especially Kopovski." 
 
 " Ah, is Kopovski in Prytulov ? " asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " He is," said Pan Ignas. 
 
 And suddenly they looked into each other's eyes. In one 
 instant each divined that the other knew something; 
 and they stopped talking. A moment of silence and even of 
 awkwardness ensued, for Pani Marynia blushed unexpect- 
 edly; and not being able to hide this, she blushed still 
 more deeply. 
 
 Pan Ignas, who had thought that he was the exclusive 
 possessor of the secret, was astonished at seeing her blush, 
 and was confused too ; then, wishing to cover the confusion 
 with talk, he went on hurriedly, 
 
 " Yes ; Kopovski is in Prytulov. Osnovski invited him, 
 so that Lineta might finish his portraits, for later on there
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 477 
 
 will be no time. Besides, there is a relative of Osnovski's 
 there also, Panna Ratkovski; and I think that Kopovski is 
 courting her. She is a pleasing and quiet young lady. In 
 August we are all going to Scheveningen, for those ladies 
 do not like Ostend. If Pan Zavilovski had not come with 
 such cordial assistance to my father, I should not have 
 been able to go; but now my hands are free." 
 
 When he had said this, he began to talk with Pan Stan- 
 islav about his position in the counting-house, which he did 
 not wish to leave. On the contrary, he asked a leave of 
 some months, in view of exceptional circumstances; then 
 he took farewell and went out, for he was in a hurry to 
 write to his betrothed. In a couple of days he was to go 
 to Prytulov again ; but meanwhile he wrote sometimes even 
 twice a day. And on the way to his lodgings he composed 
 to himself the words of the letter, for he knew that Lineta 
 would read it in company with Pani Bronich ; that both 
 would seek in it not only heart but wings ; and that the 
 most beautiful passages would be read in secret to Pani 
 Aneta, Pan Osnovski, and even Panna Ratkovski. But he 
 did not take this ill of his beloved "Nitechka," nay, he 
 was thankful to her that she was proud of him ; and he used 
 all his power to answer to her lofty idea of him. The 
 thought did not anger him either, that people would know 
 how he loved her. " Let them know that she was loved as 
 no one else in the world." 
 
 He thought then a little of Marynia too. Her blushes 
 moved him, for he saw in them a proof of a most pure 
 nature, which not only was incapable of evil itself, but 
 which was even ashamed, offended, and alarmed by evil in 
 others. And, comparing her with Paui Aneta, he under- 
 stood what a precipice divided those women, apparently 
 near each other by social position and mental level. 
 
 When Pan Ignas had gone, Pan Stauislav said, 
 
 "Hast thou seen that Zavilovski must have noticed 
 something ? Now I have no doubt. That Osnovski is blind, 
 blind ! " 
 
 " Just his blindness should restrain and hold her back," 
 said Marynia. " That would be terrible." 
 
 "That is not 'would be,' it is terrible. Thou seest, 
 noble souls pay for confidence with gratitude ; mean ones, 
 with contempt."
 
 478 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 THESE words were a great consolation to Marynia, for, 
 remembering her previous alarms, she thought at once that 
 Pan Stanislav would not have said anything like them had 
 he been capable of betraying her confidence ; for she did 
 not suppose that a man can have one measure for his 
 neighbors and another for himself, and that in life these 
 different measures meet at every step. She said to herself 
 that to restrain her husband from everything, it was enough 
 to show perfect trust in him ; and she thought now with less 
 fear of the nearness of Pani Kraslavski's country house to 
 the house of the Bigiels, in which she and her husband 
 were to pass the summer. It was easy to divine that Pani 
 Mashko, who had moved already into her mother's house, 
 would be a frequent guest at the Bigiels' from very tedium. 
 Mashko did not send her to Kremen, for he did not wish to 
 be separated from her during summer. From Warsaw, 
 where he had to be on business, it was easy to go every day 
 to Pani Kraslavski's villa, one hour's ride from the city 
 barrier, while to distant Kremen such journeys were not 
 possible. To Mashko, really in love with his wife, her 
 presence was requisite to give him strength, for trying 
 times had come again. The case against the will was not 
 lost yet by any means ; but it had taken a turn which was 
 unfavorable, since the defence was very vigorous. It had 
 begun to drag, so people began to doubt ; and for Mashko 
 doubt approached defeat. His credit, almost fallen at the 
 opening of the case, had bloomed forth like an apple-tree in 
 spring, but was beginning now to waver a second time. 
 Sledz (the opposing advocate), hostile personally to Mashko, 
 and in general a man of strong will, not only did not cease 
 to spread news of the evil plight of his opponent, but strove 
 that doubts as to the favorable issue of the will case 
 should make their way into the press. A merciless legal 
 and personal warfare set in. Mashko strove with every 
 effort to lame his enemy ; and when they met, he bore 
 himself defiantl} 7 . This brought no advantage, however. 
 Credit became more and more difficult ; and creditors, 
 though so far paid regularly, lost confidence. Again a
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 47;i 
 
 feverish hunt began for money, to stop one debt with an- 
 other, and uphold the opinion of ready solvency. Mashko 
 exhibited such intelligence and energy in this struggle 
 that, had it not been for the fundamental error in his life 
 relations, he would have advanced to fame and great pros- 
 perity. 
 
 The breaking of the will might save all, but to break the 
 will it was needful to wait ; meanwhile to mend threads 
 breaking here and there was difficult as well as humiliating. 
 It came to this, that in two weeks after the Polanyetskis 
 had moved to Bigiel's, when the Mashkos came to them 
 with a visit, Mashko was forced to ask of Pan Stanislav a 
 " friendly service ; " that is, his signature to a note for a 
 few thousand rubles. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was by nature an obliging man and inclined 
 to be liberal, but he had his theory, which in money affairs 
 enjoined on him to be difficult, hence he refused his sig- 
 nature ; but to make up he treated Mashko to his views on 
 money questions between friends, 
 
 " When it is a question not of a mutually profitable 
 affair," said he to him, "but of a personal service, I refuse 
 on principle to sign ; but I will oblige with ready money 
 as far as an acquaintance or a friend may need it iii tem- 
 porary embarrassment, but not in a desperate position. In 
 this last case I prefer to keep my service till later." 
 
 "That means," answered Mashko, dryly, "that thou art 
 giving me a small hope of support when I am bankrupt." 
 
 " Xo ; it means that should a catastrophe come, and 
 thou borrow of me, thou 'It be able to keep the loan, or 
 begin something anew with that capital. At present thou 
 wilt throw it into the gulf, with loss to me, without profit 
 to thyself." 
 
 Mashko was offended. 
 
 " My dear friend," said he, " thou seest my position in a 
 worse light than I myself see it, and than it is in reality. 
 It is merely a temporary trouble, and a small one. I 
 esteem thy good wishes, but this very day I would not give 
 my prospects for thy actual property. Now I have one 
 other friendly request; namely, that we speak no more 
 of this." 
 
 And they went to the ladies, Mashko angry at 
 for bavin" made the request, and Pan Stanislav for having 
 refused it. His theory, that in money questions it w; 
 proper to be unaccommodating, caused him such bitter
 
 480 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 moments more than once, not to mention the harm which it 
 had done him in life. 
 
 When with the ladies his ill-humor increased because of 
 the contrast between Pani Mashko and Marynia. To 
 Mashko's intense disappointment nothing announced that 
 Pani Mashko was to be a mother. On the contrary, she 
 preserved all the slenderuess of maiden forms; and now, 
 especially in her muslin summer robes, she looked, near 
 Marynia, who was greatly changed and unwieldy, not only 
 like a maiden, but younger than her neighbor by some 
 years. Pan Stanislav, to whom it had seemed that the 
 strange attraction which she exercised on him was over- 
 come, felt suddenly that it was not, and that because of their 
 living near each other, and of his seeing her frequently, he 
 would yield more and more to her physical charm. 
 
 Still his relations with his wife had become warmer 
 since Pan Ignas's betrothal evening, and Marynia was in 
 better spirits than before ; so now after the Mashkos had 
 gone, she, seeing that the men had parted more coolly than 
 usual and that in general Pan Stanislav was ill-humored, 
 inquired if they had not quarrelled. 
 
 Pan Stauislav had not the habit of talking with her 
 about business ; but at this moment he was dissatisfied with 
 himself, and felt that need of telling what troubled his 
 mind which a man who is somewhat egotistical feels when 
 lie is sure that he will find sympathy in a heart devoted 
 to him. Therefore he said, 
 
 " I refused Mashko a loan ; and I tell thee sincerely that 
 it pains me now that I did so. He has certain chances of 
 success yet; but his position is such that before he reaches 
 his object he may be ruined by any obstacle. Of course we 
 have never been in friendship ; I almost do not like him. 
 He irritates, he angers me ; still life brings us together con- 
 stantly, .and he rendered us once a great service. It is true 
 that I have rendered him services too; but now he has a 
 knife at his throat again." 
 
 Marynia heard these words with pleasure, for she 
 thought that if '' Stas " were really under the charm of 
 Pani Mashko, he would not have refused the loan, and 
 second, she saw in his sorrow the proof of a good heart. 
 She too was sorry for their neighbor, but as she had 
 brought her husband hardly any dower, she did not venture 
 to ask " Stas " directly to assist Mashko, she merely 
 inquired,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 481 
 
 " But dost thou think that the loan would be lost ? " 
 
 "Perhaps so, perhaps not," answered Pan Stauislav. 
 Then with a certain boastfulness : " I can refuse. Bigiel 
 has a softer heart." 
 
 " But don't say that. Thou art so kind. The best proof 
 is this, that the present matter is so disagreeable to thee." 
 
 " Naturally it cannot be agreeable to think that a man, 
 though a stranger, is squirming like a snake because of a 
 few thousand rubles. I know what the question is. 
 Mashko has given to-morrow as the last day of payment. 
 Hitherto he has sought money everywhere, but sought 
 guardedly, not wishing to make a noise and alarm his 
 creditors ; and in straits he relied on me. So thou seest, 
 he will not pay to-morrow. I will suppose that in a few 
 days he will find money as much as he needs ; but mean- 
 while the opinion of his accuracy will be shaken, and in the 
 position in which he is anything may be ruin for him." 
 
 Marynia looked at her husband ; at last she said with a 
 certain timidity, 
 
 " And would this be really difficult for thee ? " 
 
 " If thou wish the truth, not at all. I have even a check- 
 book here with me ; I took it to give earnest-money, if I 
 found a place to buy. Oh, interest in a former adorer 
 and sympathy for him give me something to think of," 
 said he, laughing. 
 
 Marynia laughed too, for she was glad that she had 
 brightened her husband's face ; but, shaking her charming 
 head, she said, 
 
 " No ! not sympathy for an adorer, but vile egotism, for 
 I think to myself, are the two thousand rubles worth the 
 sorrow of my husband ?" 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to smooth her hair with his hand. 
 
 "But thou," said he, "art an honest little woman to thy 
 bones." 
 
 Then he said, "Well, now, decide; one, two, three! to 
 give ? " 
 
 She made no answer, but began to wink her eyes 
 petted child, as a sign to give. Both became joyous at 
 once ; but Pan Stanislav pretended to complain and mutter. 
 
 " See what it is to be under the slipper. Drag on through 
 the night, man, and beg Pan Mashko to take thy money, 
 because it pleases that fondled figure there." 
 
 And her heart was overflowing with delight, simply t 
 he called her a " fondled figure." All her former sorrows 
 
 31
 
 482 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 and alarms vanished as if enchanted by those words. Her 
 radiant eyes looked at her husband with indescribable love. 
 After a while she inquired, 
 
 " Is it necessary to go there right away ? " 
 
 " Of course. Mashko will go to the city at eight in the 
 morning, and be flying all day." 
 
 " Then give order to make Bigiel's horse ready." 
 
 " No ! The moon is shining, and it is not far ; I '11 go 
 on foot." 
 
 Thus saying, he took farewell of Marynia, and, seizing his 
 check-book, went out. On the road he thought, 
 
 "But Marynia might be applied to a wound. She is 
 such a golden woman that though at times a man might 
 like to play some prank, he simply has n't the heart for it. 
 God has given me a wife of the kind of which there are 
 few on earth." 
 
 And he felt at the moment that he loved her in truth. 
 He felt also that love alone in itself, as a mutual attraction 
 between persons of different sexes, is not happiness yet, 
 and if ill directed may be even a misfortune; but that, on 
 the other hand, the imagination of people cannot dream 
 out a truer happiness on earth than great and honest love 
 in marriage. " There is nothing superior to that," said Pan 
 Stanislav to himself; "and to think that it lies at hand; 
 that it is accessible to each one ; that it is simply an affair 
 of good and honest will ; and that people trample on that 
 ready treasure and sacrifice their peace for disturbance, 
 and their honor for dishonor." 
 
 Thus meditating, he went to the villa of the Mashkos, 
 the windows of which were shining like lanterns on the dark 
 ground of the forest. When he had passed through the 
 gate to the yard lighted by the moon, and had drawn near 
 the porch, he saw, through the window of the room next 
 the entrance, Mashko and his wife, sitting on a low sofa 
 formed like a figure eight, near which was a small table 
 and a lamp. Mashko was embracing his wife with one 
 arm ; with his other hand he held her hand, which he raised 
 to his lips, and then lowered, as if thanking her. All at 
 once he embraced the young woman, with both arms drew 
 her toward him, and inclining, began to kiss her mouth 
 passionately ; she, with hands dropped without control on 
 her knees, not returning his fondling, but also not refusing, 
 yielded as passively as if she had been deprived of blood 
 and will. For a time Pan Stanislav saw only the top of
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 483 
 
 Mashko's head, his long side whiskers moving from the 
 kissing ; and at sight of that the blood rushed to his head. 
 And he was dashed with just such a flood of desire as 
 when looking for the ribbons of Pani Osuovski's mantle 
 (in Rome), and the more burning that it was strengthened 
 by a whole series of temptations. This purely physical 
 attraction, surprising to Pan Stanislav himself, and with 
 which he had struggled long, revived now with irresistible 
 force. In a twinkle were roused in him the wild instincts 
 of the primitive man, who, when he sees the woman 
 desired in the embrace of another, is enraged and ready 
 to fight to the death for her with the fortunate rival. 
 Together with desire, jealousy burned him, an unjust, a 
 pitiful, and the lowest of all kinds of jealousy, because 
 purely physical, but still so unbridled that he, who the 
 moment before had understood that only honest love for a 
 wife might be real happiness, was ready to trample that 
 happiness and that love, if he could trample Mashko, and 
 seize himself in his arms that slender body of a woman, 
 and cover with kisses that face of a puppet, without mind, 
 and less beautiful than the face of his own wife. 
 
 That sight beyond the window not only excited him, 
 but he could not suffer it ; hence he sprang to the door and 
 pulled the bell feverishly. The thought that that sound, 
 heard on a sudden in the silence, would stop that fondling 
 of husband and wife roused a savage and malicious delight 
 in him. When the servant opened the door, Pan Stanislav 
 gave command to announce him, and endeavored to calm 
 himself and compose somehow that which he had to tell 
 Mashko. 
 
 After a while Mashko came out with a face somewhat 
 astonished, 
 
 " Pardon that I come so late, but my wife scolded me 
 because I refused thee a service ; and since I knew that 
 thou wilt go early in the morning,! have come to settle the 
 business to-night." 
 
 On Mashko's face a secret joy was reflected. 
 straightway that such a late visit from his neighbor had 
 relation to their previous talk; he did not hope, however, 
 that the affair would go so smoothly and at once. 
 
 I beg thee," said he. " My wife is not sleeping yet. 
 
 And he brought him into that room the interior 
 which Pan Stanislav had seen the minute before. 
 Mashko was sitting on the same sofa ; in her hand she held
 
 484 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 a book and a paper-knife, which evidently she had taken 
 from the table that moment. Her quenched face seemed 
 calm, but traces of the fresh kisses were evident on her 
 cheeks ; her lips were moist, her eyes misty. The blood 
 seethed up again in Pan Stanislav; and in spite of all 
 efforts to keep himself indifferent, he so pressed the hand 
 given him that Fani Mashko's lips contracted as if from 
 pain. 
 
 But when he touched her hand, a shiver ran through him 
 from feet to crown. There was in that very giving of her 
 hand something so passive that it ran through his head in- 
 voluntarily that that woman was not capable of resisting any 
 man who had the courage and daring to attack her directly. 
 
 Meanwhile Mashko said, 
 
 " Imagine to thyself, we have both raised a storm, thou 
 for refusing me a service, and I for requesting it. Thou 
 hast an honest wife, but mine is no worse. Thine took me 
 into her protection, and mine thee. I revealed to her 
 plainly my temporary trouble, and she scolded me for not 
 having done so before. Evidently she did not speak to 
 me as a lawyer, for of that she has no idea ; but in the end 
 of ends she said that Pan Polanyetski refused me justly ; 
 that one should give some security to a creditor ; and this 
 security she is ready to give with her life annuity, and in 
 general with all that she has. I was just thanking her 
 when you came." Here Mashko laid his hand on Pan 
 Stanislav's arm. 
 
 " My dear friend, I agree with thee that thy wife is the 
 best person on earth ; and I agree all the more that I have 
 fresh proof of it, on condition, however, that thou assure 
 me that mine is no worse. It ought not to surprise thee, 
 then, that I hide my troubles from her, for, as God is true, 
 I am always ready to share the good with such a beloved 
 one, but the evil, especially the temporary, to keep for 
 myself; and if thou knew her as I do, this would be no 
 wonder to thee." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, who, despite all the temptation which 
 Pani Mashko was for him, entertained by no means a high 
 opinion of the woman, and had not considered her in the 
 least as capable of sacrifice, thought, 
 
 "She is, in truth, a good woman; and I was mistaken, 
 or Mashko has lied to her, so that she really considers his 
 position as brilliant, and this trouble as purely a passing 
 one." And he said aloud to her,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 435 
 
 "I am an accurate man in business; but for whom do you 
 hold me, when you think that I would ask security 01 
 your property? I refused simply through sloth, and I am 
 terribly ashamed of it; I refused to avoid going at a given 
 time to Warsaw for a new supply. In summer a man 
 becomes lazy and egotistical. But the question is a small 
 one ; and to a man like your husband, who is occupied in 
 property, such troubles happen daily. Not infrequently 
 loans are needed only because one's own money cannot be 
 raised at a given moment." 
 
 "Just that has happened to me," answered Mashko, 
 satisfied, evidently, that Pan Stanislav had presented 
 affairs to his wife in this manner. 
 
 "Mamma occupied herself with business, therefore I 
 have no knowledge of it," put in Pani Mashko; "but I 
 thank you." 
 
 Pan Stanislav began to laugh. "Finally, what do I 
 want of your security? Suppose for a moment that you 
 will be bankrupt, and I will suppose so just because noth- 
 ing similar threatens you; can you imagine me in such 
 an event bringing an action against you, and taking your 
 income?" 
 
 "No," said Pani Mashko. 
 
 Pan Stanislav raised her hand to his lips, but with all 
 the seeming of society politeness; he pressed his lips to it 
 with all his force, and at the same time there was in the 
 look that he gave her such passion that no declaration in 
 words could have' said more. 
 
 She did not wish to betray that she understood, though 
 she understood well that the show of politeness was for 
 her husband, and the power of the kiss for herself. She 
 understood, also, that she pleased Pan Stanislav, that her 
 beauty attracted him ; still better, however, she understood 
 that she was triumphing over Marynia, of whose beauty, 
 while still unmarried, she was jealous, hence, first of all, 
 she felt her self-love deeply satisfied. For that matter she 
 had noticed for a long time that Pan Stanislav was ardent 
 in her presence; hers was not a nature either so honest 
 or so delicate that that action could offend or pain her. 
 On the contrary, it roused in her curiosity, interest, and 
 vanity. Instinct warned her, it is true, that he is an 
 insolent man, who, at a given moment, is ready to push 
 matters too far, and that thought filled her at times with 
 alarm; but since nothing similar had happened yet, the 
 verv fear had a charm for her.
 
 486 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Meanwhile she said to Pan Stanislav, 
 
 " Mamma mentions you always as a man to be relied on 
 in every case." 
 
 She said this with her usual thin voice, which Pan 
 Stanislav had laughed at before more than once; Taut now 
 everything in her became more attractive thereby, and 
 hence, looking her fixedly in the eyes, he said, 
 
 " Think the same of me. " 
 
 "Have mutual confidence in each other," put in Mashko, 
 jestingly; ''but I will go to my study to prepare what is 
 needed, and in a moment we will finish the matter." 
 
 Pani Mashko and her guest were left alone. On her face 
 a certain trouble was apparent. To hide this she began to 
 straighten the shade on the lamp; but he approached her 
 quickly, and began, 
 
 " I shall be happy if you think the same of me. I am 
 a man greatly devoted to you; I should be glad to have 
 even your friendship. Can 1 rely on it?" 
 
 "You can." 
 
 "I thank you." 
 
 When he had said this, he extended his hand to her, for 
 all that he had said was directed only to this, to get pos- 
 session of her hand. In fact, Pani Mashko did not dare to 
 refuse it; and he, seizing it, pressed it to his lips a second 
 time, but this time he did not stop with one kiss, he fell 
 to devouring it almost. It grew dark in his eyes. A 
 moment more, and in his madness he would have seized 
 and drawn that desired one toward him. Meanwhile, 
 however, Mashko's squeaking boots were heard in the 
 adjoining room; hearing which, Pani Mashko began to 
 speak first, hurriedly, 
 
 "My husband is coming." 
 
 At that moment Mashko opened the door, and said, 
 
 "I begthee." 
 
 Then, turning to his wife, he added, 
 
 "Give command at once to bring tea; we will return 
 soon." 
 
 In fact, the business did not occupy much time, for Pan 
 Stanislav filled out a check, and that was the end. But 
 Mashko treated him to a cigar, and asked him to sit down, 
 for he wished to talk. 
 
 "New troubles are rolling onto me," said he; "but I 
 shall wade out. More than once I have had to do with 
 greater ones. It is only a question of this, that the sun
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 487 
 
 should get ahead of the dew, and that I should open some 
 new credit for myself, or some new source of income, before 
 the conclusion of the will case, and in support of it." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, all roused up internally, listened to this 
 beginning of confidences with inattention, and chewed his 
 cigar impatiently. On a sudden, however, the dishonest 
 thought came to him that, were Mashko to be ruined 
 utterly, his wife would be a still easier prey; hence he 
 asked dryly, 
 
 " Hast thought of this, what thou art to do should the 
 case be lost?" 
 
 "I shall not lose it." 
 
 "Everything may happen: thou knowest that best 
 thyself." 
 
 "I do not wish to think of it." 
 
 "Still it 's thy duty," said Pan Stanislav, with an accent 
 of a certain pleasure, which Mashko did not notice. " What 
 wilt thou do in such a case?" 
 
 Mashko rested Ms arms on his knees, and looking 
 gloomily on the floor, said, 
 
 "In such a case I shall have to leave Warsaw." 
 
 A moment of silence came. The young advocate's face 
 became gloomier and gloomier; at last he grew thoughtful, 
 and said, 
 
 " Once, in my best days, I knew Baron Hirsh, in Paris. 
 We met a number of times, and once we took part in some 
 affair of honor. Sometimes now, when doubts come upon 
 me, I remember him; he has withdrawn, apparently, from 
 business, but really has much on hand, especially in the 
 East. I know men who have made fortunes by him, for 
 the field there is open at every step." 
 
 "Dost think it possible to go to him?" 
 
 "Yes; but besides thnt I can shoot into my forehead." 
 
 But Pan Stanislav did not take this threat seriously. 
 From that short conversation he convinced himself of two 
 things : first, that Mashko, in spite of apparent confidence, 
 thought often of possible ruin ; and second, that in such an 
 event he had a plan, fantastic, it may be', but ready. 
 
 Mashko shook himself suddenly out of his gloomy visions, 
 and said, 
 
 " My strength has lain always in this, that I never think 
 of two things at once. Therefore I am thinking only of 
 the will case. That scoundrel will do everything to ruin 
 me in public opinion, I know that; but I sneer at public
 
 488 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 opinion, and care only for the court. Should I fail before 
 the decision, that might have a bad influence, perhaps. 
 Dost understand? They would consider the whole case 
 then as the despairing effort of a drowning man, who grasps 
 at what he can. I have no wish for that position; there- 
 fore I must seem to be a man standing on firm feet. This 
 is a sad necessity, and I am not free now to be even 
 economical. I cannot diminish my scale of living. As 
 thou seest me, I have troubles to my ears; as for that 
 matter, who knows it better than thou, who art giving me 
 a loan? And still, as late as yesterday, I was buying 
 Vyborz, a considerable property in Ravsk, simply to throw 
 dust in the eyes of my creditors and opponents. Tell me, 
 dost thou know old Zavilovski well?" 
 
 " Not long. I made his acquaintance through the young 
 man." 
 
 "But thou hast pleased him, for he has immense admira- 
 tion for men with noble names who make property. I 
 know that he is his own agent; but he is growing old, and 
 the gout is annoying him. I have put several thoughts 
 before him; therefore, if he asks thee about anything, 
 recommend me. Understand that I do not wish to get at 
 his money chest, though, as agent, I should have some 
 income, which would be greatly to my hand; but the main 
 question for me is that it should become noised abroad 
 that I am the agent of such a millionnaire. Is it true that 
 he intends to create an entail for the young man out of his 
 estates in Poznan?" 
 
 "So Pani Bronich says." 
 
 "That would be a proof that it is not true; but all 
 things are possible. In every case the young man, too, 
 will receive with his wife a certain dower; and, being a 
 poet, he has not the least idea, surely, how to handle such 
 matters. I might serve him, too, with advice and aid." 
 
 "I must refuse you decisively in his name, for we have 
 engaged to occupy ourselves with his interests in future, 
 that is, my partner and I." 
 
 "It is not a question with me of his interest either," 
 said Mashko, frowning slightly, "but that I might tell 
 people that I am Zavilovski 's agent; for, dost understand, 
 before it .is known which Zavilovski, my credit can only 
 gain by it?" 
 
 "Thou knowest that I never look into other men's busi- 
 ness; but I tell thee sincerely that for me it would be a 
 terrible thing to exist in this way only on credit-"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 489 
 
 "Ask the greatest millionnaires on earth if they made 
 fortunes on another basis." 
 
 "And ask all bankrupts if they did not fail from that 
 cause." 
 
 " As to me, the future will show." 
 
 "It will," said Pan Stanislav, rising. 
 
 Mashko thanked him once more for the loan; and both 
 went to tea to the lady, who inquired, 
 
 "Well, the business is finished?" 
 
 Pan Stanislav, whom her appearance roused again, and 
 who remembered suddenly that a little while before she 
 said to him, "My husband is coming!" as if half guilty, 
 answered her without reference to Mashko, 
 
 "Between your husband and me it is, but between us two 
 not yet." 
 
 Pani Mashko, though she had cool blood, was still con- 
 fused, as if frightened at his daring; and Mashko asked, 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 "This way," answered Pan Stanislav: "that the lady 
 thought me capable of asking her property in pledge, and 
 I cannot pardon her that yet." 
 
 Pani Mashko looked at him with her indefinite gray 
 eyes, as if with a certain admiration. His boldness had 
 imposed on her, and the presence of mind with which he 
 was able to give a polite society turn to his words. He 
 seemed to her also at that moment a fine-looking man, 
 beyond comparison better-looking than Mashko. 
 
 "I beg pardon," said she. 
 
 " That will not be given easily. You do not know what 
 a stubborn and vengeful man I am." 
 
 Then she answered with a certain coquetry, like a person 
 conscious of her charm and her power, 
 
 "I don't believe that." 
 
 He sat near her; and taking, with a somewhat uncertain 
 hand, the cup, he began to stir the tea with the spoon. 
 Greater and greater alarm seized him. More than once 
 before he had called Pani Mashko, while unmarried, a 
 fish; but now he felt warmth passing through her light 
 garments from her body, and felt as if some one were 
 scattering sparks on him. Again he remembered her words, 
 " My husband is coming; " and waves of blood rushed to 1 
 heart, for it seemed to him that only a woman could speak 
 thus who was prepared and ready for everything, 
 voice in his soul said, " That is only a question of oppor-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 tunity;" and at this thought his unbridled desire was 
 turned at once to unbridled delight. He ceased altogether 
 to control himself. Soon he began to seek her foot with 
 his; but suddenly that act seemed to him passing rude and 
 peasant-like. Finally he said to himself that since it was 
 a question of opportunity only, he ought to know how to 
 wait. He foresaw that the time would come, the oppor- 
 tunity be found. 
 
 Meanwhile his position was awkward; he had to keep 
 up a conversation quite in disaccord with the state of his 
 mind, and to answer Mashko, who asked about the future 
 plans of Pan Ignas, and various things of like tenor. At 
 last he rose to leave ; but before going, he turned and said 
 to Mashko, 
 
 "Some dogs attacked me on the way, and I forgot my 
 cane; lend me thine." 
 
 No dogs had attacked, but with him it was a ques- 
 tion of remaining even one minute alone with the 
 young woman, so that when Mashko went out he ap- 
 proached her quickly, and said, with a sort of stifled and 
 unnatural voice, 
 
 "You see what is taking place with me?" 
 
 She saw, indeed, his excitement, his eyes glittering with 
 desire, and his distended nostrils. Alarm and fear seized 
 her at once; but he remembered only her words, "My 
 husband is coming," and one feeling, described by the 
 words, "let happen what may," made the man, who, a 
 moment before, said to himself that he ought to know how 
 to wait, put everything on one card in the twinkle of an 
 eye, and whisper, 
 
 "I love you." 
 
 She stood before him with downcast eyes, as if stunned, 
 and turned into a pillar under the influence of those words, 
 from which simple infidelity must begin, and then a new 
 epoch in life. She turned her head away slightly, as if 
 to avoid his gaze. Silence followed, broken only by the 
 somewhat panting breath of Pan Stanislav. But in the 
 next room Mashko's squeaking boots were heard. 
 
 "Till to-morrow," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 And in that whisper there was something almost com- 
 manding. Pani Mashko stood all this time with downcast 
 eyes, motionless as a statue. 
 
 "Here is the cane," said Mashko. "To-morrow morning 
 1 go to the city, and return only in the evening. If the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 491 
 
 weather is good, maybe thou and Pani Polanyetski would 
 like to visit my hermitess." 
 
 "Good-night," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 And after a while he found himself on the empty road, 
 which was lighted by the moon. It seemed to him that he 
 had sprung out of a flame. The calm of the night and the 
 forest was in such contrast to his tempest that it struck 
 him like something uncommon. The first impression which 
 he was able to note was the feeling that his internal con- 
 flict was closed, his hesitations ended; that the bridges 
 were burned, and all was over. Some internal voice began 
 to shout in his soul that first of all it had transpired 
 that he was a wretch ; but in this thought precisely there 
 was a kind of desperate solace, for he said to himself if 
 it were true, he must come to terms with himself as 
 with a wretch, and in that event "let everything perish, 
 and let the devils take all." In every case a wretch will 
 not need to fight with his own inclinations, and may 
 indulge himself. Yes, all is over, and the bridges are 
 burned! He will be false to Marynia, trample her heart, 
 trample honesty, trample the principles on which he built 
 his life ; but in return he will have Pani Mashko. Now 
 one of two, either she will complain of him to her hus- 
 band, and to-morrow there will be a duel, if so be, 
 let it come, or she will be silent, and in that case will 
 be his partner. To-morrow Mashko will go to Warsaw; 
 and he, Pan Stanislav, will gain all that he desires, even 
 if the world had to sink the next moment. If she will not 
 expose him, it is better for her not to try resistance. He 
 imagined even that she would not try, or if she did, she 
 would do so only to preserve appearances. And it began 
 to seethe in him again; that helplessness of hers, which 
 formerly roused so much contempt in him, had become 
 now an additional charm. He imagined the morrow, and 
 the passiveness of that woman. In spite of all his chaos 
 of thought, he understood perfectly that just in that pas- 
 siveness she would seek later on an excuse : she would say 
 to herself that she was not a partaker in the guilt, because 
 she was forced to it; and in this way she would calumniate 
 God, her own conscience, and, if need be, her hus- 
 band. And thinking thus, he despised her as much as 
 he desired her; but he felt at the same tune that he 1 
 self was not much worthier, and that by virtue of a certain 
 selection, not only natural, but moral, they ought to belong 
 to each other.
 
 492 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 He understood, also, that for him it was too late to with 
 draw from that road, and that once those same lips of his, 
 which had sworn faith and love to Marynia, had said to 
 another woman, "I love!" the greatest evil was com- 
 mitted. The rest was simply a sequence , which it was not 
 proper to reject, even for this reason, that in every case 
 it was a pleasure. He imagined that all must reason thus 
 who throw honesty through the window, and resolve on 
 deeds of vileness; and the reasoning seemed to him as 
 exact as it was immoral. And the more soberly he re- 
 flected, the more he was astonished at his own degradation. 
 He had seen much evil and hidden vileness in the world 
 under the guise of refinement and polish. He knew that 
 corruption had worked out for itself, somehow, under the 
 influence of bad books, a right of citizenship; but he re- 
 membered that he was indignant at this, that he wished 
 simplicity and strictness for the society in which he lived, 
 in the conviction that only on such bases could social 
 strength and permanence be developed. Nothing had 
 roused in him so many fears for the future as that refined 
 evil of the West sown on the wild Slav field, and growing 
 up on it with a sickly bloom of dilettantism, license, 
 weakness, and faithlessness. More than once, as he re- 
 membered, he had reproached with such sowings, at one 
 time high financial spheres, at another aristocracy of 
 birth; and more than once he had attacked them without 
 mercy. Now he understood that whoso lives in an atmos- 
 phere filled with carbonic gas, must suffocate. In what 
 was he better than others? Or rather, how much worse 
 was he than those who, floating in corruption, as sticks 
 float in water, do not, at least, amuse themselves with 
 hypocrisy, nor deceive themselves, nor prescribe rules to 
 others, nor erect ideals of a healthy man spiritually, an 
 honest husband, an honest father, as a binding model. 
 And he almost refused to believe that he was the man 
 who once gave Pani Emilia ideal friendship, and prom- 
 ised faithfulness to Marynia, and who considered that 
 he had a clear intellect and a character juster and stronger 
 than others. 
 
 He stronger? His strength was only deception, coming 
 from lack of temptation. If he had loved Pani Emilia 
 with the ideal feeling of a brother; if he had resisted the 
 coquetry of Pani Aneta, it was only because they did not 
 rouse in him that animal feeling which that puppet with her
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 493 
 
 red eyes roused, she whom his soul rejected, but for whom 
 his senses were striving this long time. He thought then, 
 too, that his feeling for Marynia had never been honest, 
 for at the basis of things it was not anything else than just 
 such an animal attraction. Familiarity had dulled it; and, 
 restrained by the condition of Marynia, he had turned to 
 where he was able, and turned without restraint or scruple 
 hardly half a year after his marriage. 
 
 And Pan Stanislav, who, on leaving Mashko's house, 
 had the feeling that he was a wretch, thought all at once 
 that he was more of a wretch than at first he had imagined, 
 for he remembered now that he was to be a father. 
 
 At home, in Marynia's windows, the lights had not been 
 extinguished; he would have given much to find her sleep- 
 ing. It came to his mind, even, to walk on and not return 
 till there was darkness in the chamber. But suddenly he 
 saw her profile in the window. She must be looking for 
 him; and, since it was clear in front of the house, she 
 must have seen him, hence he halted and went in. 
 
 She received him in a white night wrapper, and with 
 unbound hair. There was in that unbound hair a certain 
 calculated coquetry , for she knew that she had beautiful 
 hair, and that he liked to fondle it. 
 
 "Why art thou not sleeping?" asked he, coming in. 
 
 She approached him, sleepy, but smiling, and said, 
 
 "I was waiting for thee to say the evening prayer." 
 
 Since their stay in -Rome they had prayed together; but 
 at present the very thought of this seemed to him insup- 
 portable. Meanwhile Marynia inquired, 
 
 " Well , Stas , art content that thou hast saved him? Thou 
 art, I think." 
 
 " Yes," answered he. 
 
 " But she does not know of his position ? " 
 
 " She does and does not. It is late. Let us go to sleep." 
 
 "Good-night. Dost thou know of what 1 have been 
 thinking here alone ? That thou art so good and honest." 
 
 And, extending her face to him, she put her arms around 
 his neck ; he kissed her, feeling at the same time the pure 
 honesty of her kiss, and his own vileness, and the whole 
 series of vilenesses which he would have to commit later on. 
 
 One of these lie committed right there, kneeling down to 
 the prayer, which Marynia repeated aloud. He could not 
 avoid saying it ; and in saying it, he merely played a pitiful 
 comedy, for he could not pray.
 
 494 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 After the prayer was finished and a second good-night 
 given, he could not sleep. It seemed to him that, when 
 coining from Mashko's, he had embraced with his mind his 
 action and all its moral consequences. Meanwhile it turned 
 out that he had not. It came to his head now that it is 
 possible not to believe in God, but not permitted to make 
 sport of Him. To commit, for example, a perfidy, to return 
 home to-morrow, or the following day, after having com- 
 mitted adultery, and kneel down to prayer, that would be 
 too much. He felt that it was necessary to choose either 
 religious feeling and sincere faith, or Paui Mashko. 
 To reconcile these was not possible. And all at once he 
 saw that everything which he had worked out and elabo- 
 rated in himself purposely for years, that all that immense 
 calm, resulting from the solution of life's chief enigma, 
 in a word, that which composed the essence of his spiritual 
 existence, must be rejected outright. On the other hand, 
 he understood equally well that, from to-morrow forward, he 
 must give the lie to his own social principles, to his recog- 
 nition of the family as the basis of social existence. It is 
 not permitted to proclaim such principles, and seduce other 
 men's wives in secret. It was necessary to choose here too. 
 As to Marynia, perfidy against her had been committed al- 
 ready. With one sweep, then, his relations witli God, with 
 society, with his wife, had gone to ruin ; the ceiling of that 
 spiritual house, reared with great labor, and in which he had 
 been dwelling, had tumbled on his head. And that chilling 
 cold of evil filled him with wonder. He had not expected 
 that, on cutting a single thread, the whole fabric would un- 
 ravel so quickly ; and with astonishment he asked himself 
 how there can exist in the world opportunism of that kind, 
 which reconciles faith-breaking in life with honesty and 
 honor ? For that is what is done. He knew many so-called 
 decent people, married men, loving their wives, as it were, 
 religious, and at the same time pursuing every woman 
 they met. These same men, who would account to their 
 wives every deviation from duty as a crime, permitted them- 
 selves conjugal infidelity without a scruple. He remembered 
 how one of his acquaintances, pushed to the wall on this 
 point, wriggled out humorously with the well-known street 
 witticism that he was not a Swedish match. Absolute in- 
 fidelity was obliterated, and among men passed as something 
 permitted, almost customary. That thought brought Pan 
 Stanislav a moment of consolation, but a short one, for he
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 495 
 
 was consistent, if not in his actions, at least in his reason- 
 ing. True! The world is not composed of thieves and 
 hypocrites alone, but in great part of thoughtless and 
 frivolous people ; and this opportunism, reconciling adul- 
 tery with honor and honesty, is nothing else than frivolity. 
 For in what can custom excuse a man, who recognizes the 
 immorality and stupidity of that custom ? For a fool, in- 
 fidelity may be a joke, thought Pan Stanislav ; for a man 
 who thinks seriously, it is scoundrelism, as much opposed 
 to ethics as a crime, as the signing of other men's names to 
 notes, as the breaking of an oath, as the breaking of a word, 
 as swindling in trade, or in cards. Keligion may forgive the 
 sin of adultery as a momentary fall ; but adultery which ex- 
 cuses itself beforehand, excludes religion, excludes society, 
 excludes honesty, excludes honor. Pan Stanislav, who, in 
 his reasonings with himself, was always consistent and in 
 general utterly unsparing, did not withdraw before this last 
 induction. But he was frightened when he saw the preci- 
 pice. If he did not withdraw, he would break his neck ; 
 but at the same time he began to fret at his own weakness. 
 He knew himself well enough, with sorrow and with con- 
 tempt also for his own weakness ; he knew in advance that 
 when he should see Pani Mashko, the human beast would 
 get the upper hand of his soul. To withdraw ? But he had 
 repeated that to himself, and determined it after every 
 temptation ; and afterward, in presence of each succeeding 
 one, passion had run away with his will at breakneck speed, 
 just as a wild horse runs away with a rider. At the very 
 remembrance of this he wanted to curse. Tf he had been 
 unhappy at home, if his passion had grown up on the ground 
 of great love, he would have had some excuse for it ; but he 
 did not love Pani Mashko, he only desired her. He could 
 never give himself an account of this dualism in the nature 
 of man, he knew only that he desired and would desire 
 after every meeting, after every thought of her. 
 
 There remained one escape, not to see her, an impos- 
 sible escape, not only with reference to relations of acquaint- 
 ance of every kind, but even with reference to this, that 
 then Marynia would begin to suspect something. Pan Stan- 
 islav did not even suppose that that had taken place already, 
 and that she merely concealed from him her suffering; he 
 gave account to himself, however, that if his treason should 
 in any way come out, it would be a blow simply beyond 
 the strength of that mild and trusting woman. And his re-
 
 496 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 preaches increased still more. Great pity and compassion 
 for her seized him, as well as increased contempt for him- 
 self. In spite of darkness, the blood rushed to his face 
 when he remembered that the fatal words had fallen ; that 
 he had said, " I love," to Pan! Mashko ; that he had de- 
 ceived and betrayed Marynia, that honest, truthful woman ; 
 and that he was capable of betraying her trust, and tram- 
 pling on her heart. 
 
 For a while it seemed to him a pure impossibility ; but 
 his conscience answered him, Thou art capable! Still, in 
 that sorrow and pity for her he found a kind of consolation, 
 when he saw that his feeling for her was and is something 
 more than animal attraction, and that there were in him 
 certain attachments, flowing out of the community of life 
 and mutual possession; from the marriage vow; from com- 
 radeship in good and evil fortune ; from the great esteem 
 and affection which in future was to be strengthened by a 
 child. Never had he loved her more than in that moment 
 of internal torture, and never had there risen in him greater 
 tenderness. Day began to break ; through the openings of 
 the window the dawn was entering, and rilled the chamber 
 with a pale light, in which he could see indistinctly her 
 dark head sunk in the pillow. His heart was filled with 
 the feeling that that was his only and best treasure, his 
 greatly beloved comrade sleeping there, his best friend, his 
 wife, and the future mother of his child. And no con- 
 clusions, no reasonings about religion and social unvirtue, 
 filled him with such disgust for that unvirtue and for him- 
 self as the sight of that mild, sleeping face. The light 
 through the openings entered more and more, and her head 
 emerged more distinctly each moment from the shade. The 
 half-circles of her eyelids were visible already on her cheeks ; 
 and Pan Stanislav, looking at her, began to say to himself, 
 "Thy honesty will help me!" All at once better feelings 
 gained the victory in him: the beast abandoned his soul ; 
 and a certain consolation seized him, for he thought that if 
 he were such a wretch as he had imagined, he would have 
 followed the voice of passion with a lighter heart, and 
 would not have passed through such suffering. 
 
 He woke late in the morning, wearied and somewhat ill; 
 he felt such dissatisfaction and exhaustion as he had never 
 felt before. But by the light of day, and besides a rainy 
 and gloomy day, the whole affair stood before him differ- 
 ently, it seemed more sober, ordinary; the future did not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 497 
 
 appear to him so terrible, nor his fault so great. Every- 
 thing grew smaller in his eyes; he began to think then 
 principally of this, whether Pani Mashko had confessed 
 all to her husband or not. At moments he had the feel- 
 ing of a man who has crawled into a great and sore trouble 
 needlessly. Gradually, however, this feeling was changed 
 into an ever increasing and more vivid alarm. "The posi- 
 tion is stupid," said he to himself. "Every reproach may 
 be made against Mashko, but not this, that he is an incom- 
 petent or a coward; and he will not put such an insult as 
 that into his pocket. Hence there will be an explanation, 
 a scandal, perhaps a duel. May the thunderbolts shatter 
 it! What a fatal history, if the thing reaches Marynia! " 
 And he began to be angry with the whole world. Till 
 then he had had perfect peace ; he had cared for no one, 
 counted with no one. To-day, however, he is turning to 
 every side; in his head is the question, "Has she told; has 
 she not told?" and from the morning he could not think 
 of aught else. It went that far that finally he put to 
 himself this question: "What the deuce! am I afraid of 
 Mashko? I?" It was not Mashko whom he feared, but 
 Marynia, which was in like manner something both new 
 and astonishing, for a couple of days earlier he would have 
 admitted anything rather than this, that he would ever 
 fear Marynia. And as midday approached, the affair, 
 which seemed to him diminished in the morning, began 
 again to increase in his eyes. At moments he strength- 
 ened himself with the hope that Pani Mashko would be 
 silent; at moments he lost that hope. And then he felt 
 that he would not dare to look into the eyes, not of 
 Marynia, merely, but of any one; and he feared Bigiel, 
 too, and .Pani Bigiel, and Pani Emilia, Pan Ignas. in a 
 word, all his acquaintances. "See what it is to make a 
 muddle ! " thought he. " How much one stupidity costs ! " 
 His alarm increased to the degree that at last, under 
 pretext of returning the cane, he sent a servant boy 
 to Pani Mashko with a bow, and an inquiry as to her 
 health. 
 
 The servant returned in half an hour. Pan Stanislav 
 saw him through the window, and, going down hurriedly 
 to meet him, learned that he had brought a note from 
 Pani Mashko to Marynia. Taking the note, he gave it to 
 Marynia; and his heart beat with still greater alarm wink 
 watching her face as she read it. 
 
 32 .
 
 498 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But Marynia, when she had finished, raised her calm 
 eyes to him, and said, 
 
 "Pani Mashko invites us to supper to-day and the 
 Bigiels also." 
 
 "A-a!" answered Pan Stanislav, drawing a full breath. 
 And in his soul he added, "She has not told." 
 
 "We will go, shall we not?" asked Marynia. 
 
 "If thou wish that is, go with the Bigiels, for after 
 dinner I must go to the city. 1 must see Svirski; per- 
 haps I shall bring him here." 
 
 " Then we may send an excuse? " 
 
 "No, no! go with the Bigiels. Maybe I shall call in or? 
 the way and explain to her; but even that is not necessary. 
 Thou wilt explain for me." And he went out, for he 
 needed to be alone with his thoughts. 
 
 "She has not told; " a feeling of relief and delight now 
 possessed him. She had not told her husband; she was 
 not offended; she had invited them. She has agreed, there- 
 fore, to everything; she is ready to go farther, and to 
 go everywhere, whithersoever he may wish to lead her. 
 What is that invitation itself, if not a wish to put him at 
 ease, if not an answer to his, " Till to-morrow" ? Now all 
 depends on him alone; and shivers begin again to go from 
 his feet to his head. There are no hindrances unless in 
 himself. The fish has swallowed the hook. Temptations 
 attacked him with new power, for uncertainty restrained 
 them no longer. Yes, the fish had swallowed the hook; 
 she had not resisted. Here a feeling of triumph seized 
 him, and of satisfaction for his self-love; and at the same 
 time, thinking of Pani Mashko, he began almost to beg 
 pardon of her in his soul, because he had at moments been 
 capable of doubting her, and thinking her an honest woman 
 for even five minutes. Now, at least, he knew what to 
 think of her, and he was thankful. After a while he 
 laughed at his previous fears. In this way he rendered 
 the first tribute due her, contempt. She had ceased to be 
 for him something unattainable, something for which a 
 battle between hope and fear is fought. In spite of him- 
 self, he imagined her now as something of his, as his 
 own, always attractive, but for this very reason less valu- 
 able. The thought also caused him pleasure, that if he 
 resisted temptation at present, it would be a pure merit. 
 Now, when the doors stood open, he saw with wonder 
 that the desire of resistance increased in him. Once more
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 499 
 
 all that he had said during the sleepless night about faith- 
 breaking flew through his mind. Once more his heart 
 reminded him of Marynia, her justness, her honesty, her 
 approaching motherhood, and that great peace, that real 
 happiness, which he could find only near her; and in the 
 end of all these considerations he decided to go to the city, 
 and not be at Pani Mashko's. 
 
 After midday he gave command to bring the horses. 
 When he was seated in BigiePs carriage he bent over, 
 embraced Marynia at parting, "Amuse thyself well," and 
 drove away. His morning exhaustion had passed; he 
 recovered even his humor, for he felt satisfied with him- 
 self. Confidence in his own power and character returned 
 to him. Meanwhile, a certain exciting pleasure was caused 
 in his mind by the thought of Pani Mashko's astonish- 
 ment when she should learn that he had gone, and had 
 no intention to visit her. He felt a certain need of revenge 
 on the woman for the physical impression which she had 
 produced on him. Since the coming of that note, which 
 she had written to. Marynia, his contempt for her had 
 increased with such force that soon he began to think that 
 he would be in a position to come off victorious, even 
 should he visit her. 
 
 " And if I should go there, indeed, and give another 
 meaning to yesterday's words," said he. But directly he 
 thought, " I will not be a deceiver, at least, with reference 
 to myself." 
 
 He was certain, however, that she would not be aston- 
 ished at his coming. After what he had told her yester- 
 day, she might suppose that he would find some excuse for 
 visiting her before the arrival of Marynia and the Bigiels, 
 or for remaining behind them. 
 
 But should she see him driving past, she might think 
 that he feared her, or consider him a boor, or jester. 
 
 "There is no doubt," monologued he, further, "that a 
 man who does not consider himself a fool, or a dolt, in- 
 capable of resisting any puppet, would go in and try to 
 correct in some fashion yesterday's stupidity." 
 
 But at the sagie moment fear seized him. 
 voice which yesterday evening shouted in his soul that he 
 was a wretch, began to shout again with redoubled energy. 
 
 "I will not go in," thought Pan Stanislav. 
 stand and to be able to refrain are two different matt. 
 
 Pani Kraslavski's villa was visible now m the distance.
 
 500 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Suddenly it flew into his head that Pani Mashko, through 
 vexation and the feeling of being contemned, through 
 offended self-love, through revenge, might tell Marynia 
 something that would open her eyes. Maybe she would do 
 that with one word, with one smile, giving even, it might 
 be, to understand further, that certain insolent hopes of 
 his had been shattered by her womanly honesty, and in 
 that way explain his absence. Women rarely refuse them- 
 selves such small revenges, and still more rarely are they 
 merciful one toward another. 
 
 " If I had the courage to go in " 
 
 At that moment the carriage was even with the gate of 
 the villa. 
 
 " Stop ! " said Pan Stanislav to the driver. 
 
 He saw on the balcony Pani Mashko, who, however, 
 withdrew at once. 
 
 He walked through the yard ; the servant received him 
 at the door. 
 
 "The lady is upstairs," said he. 
 
 Pan Stanislav felt that his legs were trembling under 
 him, when he walked up the steps ; meanwhile the follow- 
 ing thoughts flew through his head, 
 
 "He may permit himself everything who takes life 
 lightly, but 1 do not take it lightly. If, after all that I 
 have considered and thought over and said, I could not 
 master myself, I should be the last among men." Now, 
 standing at the door of the room pointed out by the ser- 
 vant, he inquired, 
 
 "Is it permitted?" 
 
 "I beg," said the thin voice. 
 
 And after a while he found himself in Pani Mashko's 
 boudoir. 
 
 "I have come in," said he, giving her his hand, "to ex- 
 plain that I cannot be at supper. I must go to the city." 
 
 Pani Mashko stood before him with head a little inclined, 
 with drooping eyes, confused, full of evident fear, having 
 in her posture and expression of face something of the 
 resigned victim, which sees that the decisive moment has 
 come, and that the misfortune must happen. 
 
 That state of mind came on Pan Stanislav, too, in one 
 flash; hence, approaching her suddenly, he asked with 
 stifled voice, 
 
 " Are you afraid? Of what are you afraid? "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 501 
 
 CHAPTER LIT. 
 
 NEXT morning Pani Polanyetski received a letter from 
 her husband, stating that he would not return that day, for 
 he was going to look at a place situated on the other side 
 of the city. On the following day, however, he returned, 
 and brought Svirski, who had promised Bigiel and Pan 
 Stanislav before that he would visit them at their summer 
 residence. 
 
 "Imagine to thyself," said Pan Stanislav, after greeting 
 his wife, "that that Buchynek, which I have been looking 
 at, lies next to old Zavilovski's Yasmen; when I learned 
 that, I visited the old man, who is not feeling well, and in 
 Yasmen I found Pan Svirski, unexpectedly. He helped 
 me to look at Buchynek, and the house pleased him much. 
 There is a nice garden, a large pond, and some forest. 
 Once it was a considerable property ; but the land has been 
 sold away, so that little remains now with the residence." 
 
 "A pretty, very pretty place," said Svirski. "There is 
 much shade, much air, arid much quiet." 
 
 "Wilt thou buy it?" inquired Marynia. 
 
 "Perhaps. Meanwhile I should like to rent it. We 
 could live there the rest of the summer, and satisfy our- 
 selves as to whether it would suit us. The owner is so 
 certain that a stay there will be agreeable to us that he 
 agrees to rent it. I should have given him earnest-money 
 at once, but I wished to know what thy thought would be." 
 
 Marynia was a little sorry to lose the society of the 
 Bigiels; but, noticing that her husband was looking into 
 her eyes earnestly, and that he had an evident wish that 
 they should live the rest of the summer by themselves, 
 she said that she would agree most willingly. 
 
 The Bigiels began to oppose, and offer a veto; but wh 
 Pan Stanislav represented to them that it was a question 
 of trying a house in which he and Marynia would be 1 
 to live every summer to the end of their lives, they had 
 to confess that the reason was sufficient. 
 
 "To-morrow I will engage the place, and carry out all 
 the furniture necessary from Warsaw, and we can me 
 the day after."
 
 502 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "That is just as if you wished to flee from us as soon as 
 possible," said Pani Bigiel; "why such haste?" 
 
 "There is no trouble with packing," answered he, hur- 
 riedly; "and you know that I do not like delay." 
 
 Finally it was left in this way: that the Polanyetskis 
 were to go to Buchynek in four days. Now dinner was 
 served, during which Svirski told how Pan Stauislav had 
 found him at Zavilovski's in Yasmen. 
 
 " Panna Helena wished me to paint her father's portrait, " 
 said he, "and to paint it in Yasmen. I went because I 
 was eager for work, and, besides, the old man has an inter- 
 esting head. But nothing could come of that. They are 
 in a residence with walls two yards thick; for that reason 
 there is poor light in the rooms. I would not paint under 
 such conditions; and then another hindrance appeared, 
 the model was attacked by the gout. The doctor, whom 
 they took with them to the country, told me that the old 
 man's condition is not good, and may end badly." 
 
 "I am sorry for Pan Zavilovski," said Marynia, "for he 
 seems a worthy man. And poor Panna Helena! In the 
 event of his death she will be quite alone. And does he 
 understand his own condition? " 
 
 "He does, and he does not; it is his way. He is always 
 an original. Ask your husband how he received him." 
 
 Pan Stanislav laughed, and said, 
 
 " On the way to Buchynek I learned that Yasmen was 
 near, and I resolved to go there. Panna Helena took me 
 to her father; but he was just finishing his rosary, and did 
 not greet me till he had said the last ' Hail Mary.' Then 
 he begged my pardon, and said thus : ' Those heavenly 
 matadors in their own order; but with Her a man has more 
 courage, and in old fashion, when She is merciful, all is 
 well, for nothing is refused Her.' ' 
 
 "What a type he is! " exclaimed Svirski. 
 
 The Bigiels laughed, but Marynia said that there was 
 something affecting in such confidence. With this Svirski 
 agreed, and Pan Stanislav continued, 
 
 "Then he said that it was time for him to think of 
 his will, and I did not oppose him, in usual fashion, for 
 with me it is a question of our Pan Ignas. On the con- 
 trary, I told him that that was a purely legal matter, for 
 which it was never too early, and that even young people 
 ought to think of it." 
 
 "That is my opinion, too," put in Bigiel.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 503 
 
 "We spoke also of Pan Ignas; the old man has come to 
 love him heartily." 
 
 "Yes!" exclaimed Svirski. "When he learned that I 
 had been in Prytulov, he began at once to inquire about 
 him." 
 
 "Then have you been in Prytulov?" inquired Marynia. 
 
 "Four days. I like Osnovski immensely." 
 
 "AndPani Osnovski?" 
 
 "I gave my opinion in Rome of her, and, as I remem- 
 ber, let my tongue out like a scourge." 
 
 " I remember too. You were very wicked. How is it 
 with the young couple?" 
 
 "Oh, nothing! They are happy. But Panna Ratkovski 
 is there, a very charming young lady. I lacked little of 
 falling in love with her." 
 
 "There it is for you! But Stas told me that you are in 
 love with all ladies." 
 
 "With all, and therefore always in love." 
 
 Bigiel, hearing this, stopped and said earnestly, 
 
 "That is a good way never to marry." 
 
 "Unfortunately it is," said Svirski. Then , turning to 
 Marynia, he said, "Pan Stanislav must have told you of 
 our agreement, that when you say to me ' marry,' I shall 
 marry. That was the agreement with your husband; there- 
 fore I should wish you to see Panna Ratkovski. Her name 
 is Stefania, which means the crowned. A pretty name, 
 is it not? She is a calm kind of person, not bold, fear- 
 ing Pani Aneta and Panna Castelli, but clearly honest. I 
 had a proof of this. Whenever a young lady is in ques- 
 tion, I observe everything and note it down in my memory. 
 Once a beggar came to me in Prytulov with a face like 
 that of some Egyptian hermit from Thebes. Pani Aneta 
 and Panna Castelli rushed out at him with their cameras 
 and photographed him, profile and full face, as much as 
 was possible. But the old man wanted food, I think. 
 He had come hoping for alms, but evidently he hated to 
 ask. Peasants have that kind of feeling. Well, none of 
 those ladies observed this, or at least did not note it; they 
 treated him as a thing, till Panna Ratkovski told them 
 that they were humiliating and hurting the old man. 
 That is a small incident, but it shows heart and delicate 
 feelings. That handsome Kopovski dangles about her; but 
 she is not charmed with the man, like those ladies, who are 
 occupied with him, who paint him , invent new costumes for
 
 504 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 him, hand him around, and almost carry him in their arms, 
 like a doll. No ; she told me herself that Kopovski annoys 
 her; and that pleases me, too, for he has as much sense as 
 the head of a walking-stick." 
 
 "As far as I have heard," said Bigiel, "Pan Kopovski 
 needs money ; and Panna Ratkovski is not rich. I know 
 that her father, when dying, was in debt to a bank for a 
 sum which, with interest, was due on the last day of last 
 month." 
 
 "What is that to us?" interrupted Pani Bigiel. 
 
 "Thou art right, that is not our affair." 
 
 "But how does Panna Eatkovski look?" inquired 
 Marynia. 
 
 "Panna Ratkovski? She is not beautiful, but she has 
 a sweet face, pale complexion, and dark eyes. You will 
 see her, for those ladies expressed a wish to come here 
 some day. And I persuaded them to it, for I want you 
 to see her." 
 
 "Well," answered Marynia, laughing, "I shall see her, 
 and declare my sentence. But if it be favorable?" 
 
 "I will propose; I give my word. In the worst case, 
 I'll get a refusal. If you say 'no,' I'll go after ducks. 
 At the end of July shooting is permitted." 
 
 "Oh, those plans are important! " said Pani Bigiel, "a 
 wife or ducks! Pan Ignas would not have spoken that 
 way." 
 
 "Well, of what use is reason when one is in love?" said 
 Marynia. 
 
 " You are right, and I envy him that very condition ; not 
 Panna Castelli, though I was in love with her once myself 
 oh, no! but just that condition in which one does not 
 reason any longer." 
 
 "But what have you against Panna Castelli?" 
 
 "Nothing. I owe her gratitude, for thanks to her 
 I had my time of illusions; therefore I shall never say an 
 evil word of her, though some one is pulling me by the 
 tongue greatly. So, ladies, do not pull me." 
 
 "On the contrary," said Pani Bigiel, "you must tell us 
 of both. I will ask you only on the veranda, for I have 
 directed to bring coffee there." 
 
 After a time they were on the veranda. The little 
 Bigiels were running about in a many-colored crowd among 
 the trees, circling about like bright butterflies. Bigi^l 
 placed cigars before Svirski. Marynia, taking advantage
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 505 
 
 of the moment, went up to her husband, who was standing 
 aside somewhat, and, raising her kindly eyes to him, asked- 
 
 " Why so silent, Stas?" 
 
 "I am tired. In the city there was heat, and in our 
 house one might smother. J could n't sleep, for Buchynek 
 got into my head." 
 
 "I, too, am curious about that Buchynek, dost thou 
 know? In truth, I am curious. Thou hast done well to 
 see the place and hire it; very well." And she looked at 
 him with affection; but, seeing that he seemed really not 
 himself, she said, 
 
 " We will occupy Pan Svirski here, and do thou go and 
 rest a while." 
 
 "No; I cannot sleep." 
 
 Meanwhile Svirski talked on. "There is no breeze," 
 said he; "not a twig in motion. A genuine summer day! 
 Have you noticed that in the season of heat, and in time 
 of such calm, the whole world seems as if sunk in medita- 
 tion. I remember that Bukatski found always in this 
 something mystical, and said that he would like to die on 
 such a sunny day, to sit thus in an armchair, then fall 
 asleep, and dissipate into light." 
 
 "Still, he did not die in summer," remarked Bigiel. 
 
 "No, but in spring, and in good weather. Besides, 
 taking things in general, he did not suffer, and that is 
 beyond all." 
 
 Here he was silent a while, and then added, 
 
 "As to death, we may and should be reconciled to it, 
 and death has never made me indignant; but why pain 
 exists, that, as God lives, passes human understanding. '' 
 
 No one took up the consideration, so Svirski, shaking 
 the ashes from his cigar, said, 
 
 "But never mind that. After dinner, and with black 
 coffee, it is possible to find a more agreeable subject." 
 
 "Tell us of Pan Ignas," said Paul Bigiel. 
 
 " He pleases me. In all that he does and says the lion's 
 claw is evident, and, in general, his nature is uncommon, 
 immensely vital. During those two days in Prytulov we 
 became acquainted a little more nearly, and grew friendly. 
 You have no idea how Osnovski has grown to like the man; 
 and I told Osnovski openly that I feared that Pan Ignas 
 might not be happy with those ladies." 
 
 "But why?" asked Marynia. 
 
 "That is difficult to say, since one has no facts; but it
 
 506 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 is felt. Why? Because his nature is utterly different 
 from theirs. You see, that all the loftier aspirations, 
 which for Pan Ignas are the soul of his life, are for those 
 ladies merely an ornament, something like lace on a 
 dress worn for guests, while on common days the person 
 who owns it goes about in a dressing-gown ; and that is a 
 great difference. I fear lest they, instead of soaring with 
 his flight, try to make him jog along by their side, at their 
 own little goose-trot, and convert that which is in him into 
 small change for their every-day social out-go. And there 
 is something in him! I do not presuppose that catas- 
 trophes of any kind are to come, for I have not the right 
 to refuse them ordinary petty honesty, but there may be 
 non-happiness. I say only this much : you all know Pan 
 Ignas, and you know that he is wonderfully simple; but 
 still, according to me, his love for Castelka is too difficult 
 and exclusive. He puts into it all his soul; and she is 
 ready to give a little bit so ! The rest she would like to 
 keep for social relations, for comforts, for toilets, for 
 visits, for luxuries, for five o'clocks, for lawn-tennis with 
 Kopovski, in a word, for that mill in which life is 
 ground into bran." 
 
 "This may not fit Panna Castelli, and if it does not, so 
 much the better for Pan Ignas," said Bigiel; "but in general 
 it is pointed." 
 
 " No," said Pani Bigiel, " that first of all is wicked ; in 
 truth, you hate women." 
 
 " I hate women ! " exclaimed Svirski, raising his hands 
 toward heaven. 
 
 " Do you not see that you are making Panna Castelli a 
 common little goose ? " 
 
 " I gave her lessons in painting, but I have never been 
 occupied in her education." 
 
 Marynia, hearing all this, said, threatening Svirski, 
 
 " It is wonderful that such a kind man should have such 
 a wicked tongue." 
 
 " There is a certain justice in that," answered Svirski ; 
 "and more than once have I asked, am I really a kind 
 man ? But I think that I am. For there are people who 
 calumniate their neighbors through a love for digging in 
 the mud, and that is vile ; there are others who do this 
 through jealousy, and that is equally vile. Such a man as 
 Bnkatski talks even for a conceit; but I, first of all, am 
 talkative ; second, a human being, and especially a woman,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 507 
 
 interests me more than aught else in existence ; and, finally, 
 the shabbiuess and flatness and petty vanities of humaii 
 nature pain me terribly. And, as God lives, it is because 
 1 could wish that all women had wings; but since I see 
 that many of them have only tails, I begin, from amaze- 
 ment alone, to shout in a heaven-piercing voice " 
 
 "But why do you not shout in the same way against 
 men ? " inquired Pani Bigiel. 
 
 " Oh, let the men go ! What do I care for them ? 
 Though, to speak seriously, we deserve perhaps to be 
 shouted at more than the ladies." 
 
 Here Pani Bigiel and Marynia attacked the unfortunate 
 artist ; but he defended himself, and continued, 
 
 " Well, ladies, take such a man as Pan Ignas, and such a 
 woman as Panna Castelli : he has worked hard since his 
 childhood ; he has struggled with difficulties, thought hard, 
 given something to the world already, but what is she? 
 A real canary in a cage. They give the bird water, sugar, 
 and seed ; it has only to clean its yellow plumage with its 
 little bill, and twitter. Or is this not true ? We work im- 
 mensely, ladies. Civilization, science, art, bread, and all 
 on which the world stands is absolutely our work. And 
 that is a marvellous work. Oh, it is easy to talk of it, but 
 difficult to do it. Is it right, or is it natural, that men push 
 you aside from this work ? I do not know, and at this 
 moment it is not for me a question ; but taking the world 
 in general, only one thing has remained to you, loving ; 
 therefore you should know, at least, how to love." 
 
 Here his dark face took on an expression of great mild- 
 ness, and also, as it were, melancholy. 
 
 " Take me, for example ; I am working apparently for 
 this art of ours. Twenty-five years have I been daubing and 
 daubing with a brush on paper or on canvas ; and God alone 
 knows how I slaved, how I toiled before I worked anything 
 out of myself. Now I feel as much alone in the world as a 
 finger. But what do I want ? This, that the Lord God, 
 for all this toil, might vouchsafe me some honest little 
 woman, who would love me a little and be grateful for my 
 affection." 
 
 "And why do you not marry ?" 
 
 "Why?" answered Svirski, with a certain outburst 
 "Because I am afraid ; because of you, one in ten knows "How 
 to love, though you have nothing else to do." 
 
 Further discourse was interrupted by the coming of Pan
 
 508 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Plavitski and Pani Mashko; she, in a dark blue foulard 
 dress with white spots, looked from afar like a butterfly. 
 Pan Plavitski looked like a butterfly also ; and, approaching 
 the veranda, he began to cry out, 
 
 " I seized Pani Mashko, and brought her. Good-evening 
 to the company ; good-evening, Maryuia ! I was coming 
 here to you on a droshky till I saw this lady standing out 
 on the balcony ; then I seized her, and we came on foot. 
 I dismissed the droshky, thinking that you would send me 
 home." 
 
 Those present began to greet Pani Mashko ; and she, ruddy 
 from the walk, fell to explaining joyously, while removing 
 her hat from her ash-colored hair, that really Pan Plavit- 
 ski had brought her away almost by force; for, awaiting 
 the return of her husband, she did not like to leave home. 
 Pan Plavitski pacified her by saying that her husband, not 
 finding her at home, would guess where she was, and for 
 the flight and the lonely walk he would not be angry, for 
 that was not the city, where people raise scandal for any 
 cause (here he smoothed his white shirt-front with the mien 
 of a man who would not be at all astonished if scandal were 
 roused touching him) ; " but the country has its own rights, 
 and permits us to disregard etiquette." 
 
 When he had said this, he looked slyly at Pani Mashko, 
 rubbed his hands, and added, 
 
 " Ha, ha ! the country has its rights ; I said well, has its 
 rights, and so there is no place for me like the country." 
 
 Pani Mashko laughed, feeling that the laugh was becom- 
 ing, and that some one might admire her. But Bigiel, who, 
 being himself a strict reasoner, demanded logic from all, 
 turned to Plavitski, and said, 
 
 " If there is no place like the country, why do you not 
 move out of the city in summer ? " 
 
 " How do you say ? " asked Plavitski. " Why do I not 
 move out ? Because in the city, on one side of the street 
 there is sun, and on the other shade. If I wish to warm 
 myself, I walk in the sun ; if it is hot for me, I walk in the 
 shade. There is no place in summer like the city. I wanted 
 to go to Karlsbad, but " 
 
 Here he was silent for a moment ; and, remembering only 
 then that what he was giving to understand might expose 
 a young woman to the evil tongues of people, he looked 
 with a gloomy resignation on those present, and added, 
 
 "Is it worth while to think of that pair of years left of 
 my life, that are of no value to me, or to any one ? "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 509 
 
 " Here it is ! " cried Marynia. "If papa will not go to 
 Karlsbad, he will drink Millbrun with us in Buchynek." 
 
 "In what Buchynek ? " asked Plavitski. 
 
 " True, we must announce la grande nouvette." 
 
 And she began to tell that Buchynek had been found 
 and rented and probably would be bought ; and that in three 
 days she and her husband would move into that Buchynek 
 for the whole summer. 
 
 Pani Mashko, hearing the narrative, raised her eyes to 
 Pan Stanislav in wonder, and inquired, 
 
 " Then are you really going to leave us ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered he, with a trace of suappishness. 
 
 " A-a ! " 
 
 And for a while she looked at him with the glance of a 
 person who understands nothing and asks, l( What does 
 all this mean?" but, receiving no answer, she turned to 
 Marynia and began an indifferent conversation. She was 
 so instructed in the forms of society that only Pan Stanis- 
 lav himself could perceive that the news about Buchynek 
 had dulled her. But she had divined that her person 
 might come into question, and that those sudden movings 
 might be in connection with her. With every moment 
 that truth stood before her with increasing clearness, and 
 her cold face took on a still colder expression. Gradu- 
 ally a feeling of humiliation possessed her. It seemed 
 to her that Pan Stanislav had done something directly 
 opposed to what she had a right to expect of him ; that 
 he had committed a grave offence not only against her, 
 but against all those observances which a man of a cer- 
 tain sphere owes to a woman. And her whole soul was 
 occupied in this because it pained her more than his re- 
 moval to Buchynek. In certain cases women demand more 
 regard the less it belongs to them, and the more respect 
 the less they are worthy of it, because they need it for 
 their own self-deception, and often too because the infatua- 
 tion, or delicacy, or comedian character in men gives 
 women all they demand, at least for a season. Still, in 
 this intention of moving in a few days to the opposite 
 side of the city, was involved, as it were, a confession of 
 breaking off relations which was worthy of a boor. Faith- 
 breaking has its own style of a posteriori declaration, and 
 has it always, for there is not on earth an example of a 
 permanent relation resting on faithlessness. But this time 
 the rudeness surpassed every measure, and the sowing had
 
 510 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 given an untimely, peculiar harvest. Pani Mashko's mind, 
 though not very keen by nature, needed no extra effort to 
 conclude that what had met her was contempt simply. 
 
 And at this very moment Pan 'Stanislav thought, "She 
 must have a fabulous contempt for me. 5 ' 
 
 It did not occur to them at the time that in the best 
 event this contempt was a question of time merely. But 
 Pani Mashko caught after one more hope, that this might 
 be some misunderstanding, some momentary anger, some 
 excitability of a fantastic man, some offence which she 
 could not explain to herself, in a word, something which 
 might be less decisive than seemed apparent. One word 
 thrown out in answer might explain everything yet. 
 Judging that Pan Stanislav might feel the need of such a 
 conversation, she determined to get it for him. Hence 
 after tea she began to prepare for home, and, looking at Pan 
 Stanislav, said, 
 
 " Now I must request one of the gentlemen to conduct 
 me." 
 
 Pan Stanislav rose. His tired, and at the same time 
 angry face, seemed to say to her, "If 'tis thy wish to have 
 the pure truth, thou wilt have it ; " but unexpectedly Bigiel 
 changed the arrangement by saying, 
 
 " The evening is so pleasant that we can all conduct 
 you." 
 
 And they did. Plavitski, considering himself the lady's 
 knight for that day, gave her his arm with great gallantry, 
 and during the whole way entertained her with conversa- 
 tion ; so that Pan Stanislav, who was conducting Pani Bigiel, 
 had no chance to say one word except " good-night " at the 
 gate. 
 
 That " good-night " was accompanied by a pressure of 
 the hand which was a new inquiry without an answer. 
 Pan Stanislav, for that matter, was glad that he had not to 
 give explanations. He could have given only unclear and 
 disagreeable ones. Pani Mashko roused in him then as 
 much mental distaste as physical attraction, and for both 
 those reasons he considered that if he remained in Bigiel's 
 house, she would be too near him. Moreover, he had 
 sought Buchynek and found it chiefly because active 
 natures, if confined too much, are forced instinctively to 
 undertake and act even when that which they do is not in 
 immediate connection with that which gives them pain. 
 He had not the least feeling, however, that flight from
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 511 
 
 danger was equivalent to a return to the road of honesty, 
 or even led to it; it seemed to. him then that it was too 
 late for that, that honesty was a thing lost once and for- 
 ever. " To flee," said he to himself ; " there was a time to 
 flee. At present flight is merely the egotism of a beast 
 disturbed in one lair and seeking another." Having be- 
 trayed Marynia to begin with, he will betray Pani Mashko 
 no\v out of fear that the relation with her may become too 
 painful ; and he will betray her in a manner as wretched as 
 it is rude, by trampling on her. That is only a new 
 meanness, which he permits himself like a desperado, in 
 the conviction that, no matter how he may struggle, he 
 will sink into the gulf ever deeper. 
 
 At the bottom of these thoughts was hidden, moreover, 
 an immense amazement. If this had happened to some 
 other man, who took life lightly, such a man might wave 
 his hand and consider that one more amusing adventure 
 had met him. Pan Stanislav understood that many would 
 look on the affair in that way precisely. But he had 
 worked out in himself principles, he had had them, and 
 he fell from the whole height of them ; hence his fall was 
 the greater, hence he thought to himself, " That which I 
 won, that to which I attained, is no protection whatever 
 from anything. Though a man have what I had, he may 
 break his neck as quickly as if he had nothing." And the 
 position seemed to him simply beyond understanding. 
 Why is this ? What is the reason of it ? To this question 
 he had no answer ; and, having doubted his own honesty 
 and honor, he began now to doubt his own intellect, for 
 he felt that he could grasp nothing, give no answer. 
 
 In general, he felt like a man lost in some mental wilder- 
 ness ; he could recover nothing, not even attachment to his 
 wife. It seemed to him that, having lost in himself all 
 human sides, he had lost at the same time the power and 
 right to love her. With no less astonishment did he see 
 that in the bottom of his heart he cherished a feeling of 
 offence against her for his own fall. Up to that time he had 
 not injured any one ; hence he could not have known that 
 usually a man has a feeling of offence and even hatred 
 against a person whom he has wronged. 
 
 Meanwhile the society, after taking farewell of 
 Mashko, returned home. Marynia walked at her husband i 
 side ; but, supposing that he was occupied in calculation! 
 touching the purchase of the place, and remembering
 
 512 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 he did not like to be interrupted in such cases, she did 
 not break the silence. The evening was so warm that 
 after returning they remained some time on the veranda. 
 Bigiel tried to detain Svirski for the night, saying in jest 
 that such a Hercules could not find room in his little 
 brichka with Plavitski. Pan Stanislav, to whom the 
 presence of any guest was convenient, supported Bigiel. 
 
 " Remain," said he. " I am going to the city to-morrow 
 morning; we can go then together." 
 
 " But I am in a hurry to paint. To-morrow I wish to 
 begin work early, and if I stay here there will be delay." 
 
 " Have you any work to be finished on time ? " asked 
 Marynia. 
 
 " No ; but one's hand goes out of practice. Painting is a 
 kind of work in which one is never permitted to rest. I have 
 loitered much already, at one time in Prytulov, at another 
 here ; meanwhile iny colors are drying." 
 
 Both ladies began to laugh ; for that was said by a famous 
 master, who ought to be free from fear that he would forget 
 how to paint. 
 
 "It seems to people that when a man has reached a 
 certain skill, he owns it," answered Svirski. " It is a won- 
 derful thing, this human organism, which must either ad- 
 vance or fall back. I know not if this is so in everything, 
 but in art it is not permitted to say to one's self, ' This is 
 enough ; ' there is no leave to stop. If I cease to paint 
 for a week, not only do I lose adroitness of hand, but I do 
 not feel in power. The hand dulls, that I can under- 
 stand, but the artistic sense dulls also ; talent simply dulls. 
 I used to think that this was the case only in my career, 
 for in it technique has enormous significance ; but, will you 
 believe me, Snyatinski, who writes for the theatre, told me 
 the same. And in literature like his, in what does technique 
 consist, if not in this ? Not to have any technique, or at least, 
 to seem not to have it. Still, even Snyatinski says that he 
 may not stop, and that he falls back or advances in propor- 
 tion to his efforts. The services of art, that sounds 
 beautifully. Ah, what a dog service, in which there is 
 never rest, never peace ! nothing but toil and terror. Is 
 that the predestination of the whole race, or are we alone 
 those tortured figures ? " 
 
 Svirski, it is true, did not look like a tortured figure in 
 any sense ; he did not fall into a pathetic tone either, com- 
 plaining of his occupation. But in his sweeping words there
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 513 
 
 was a sincerity which gave them power. After a while he 
 raised his fist; and, shaking it at the moon, which was 
 showing itself just then above the forest, he cried out, half 
 in joy, half in anger, 
 
 " See that chubby face there ! Once it learned to go around 
 the earth, it was sure of its art. Oh, to have one moment 
 like that in one's life ! " 
 
 Marynia began to laugh, and, raising her eyes unwittingly 
 in the direction of Svirski's hand, said, 
 
 "Do not complain. It is not merely artists who are not 
 free to stop ; whether we work on a picture, or on ourselves, 
 it is all one, we must work every hour, otherwise life is 
 injured." 
 
 "There is immense need of work," interrupted Plavitski, 
 with a sigh. 
 
 But Marynia continued, seeking a comparison with some 
 effort, and raising her brows at the same time, 
 
 " And you see, if any man were to say to himself, even 
 for a moment, ' I am wise enough, and good enough,' that 
 very saying would be neither good nor wise. Now it seems 
 to me that we are all swimming across some deep place to a 
 better shore ; but whoso just wishes to rest and stops 
 moving his hands, is drawn to the bottom by his own 
 weight." 
 
 " Phrases ! " exclaimed Pan Stanislav, on a sudden. 
 
 But she, pleased with the aptness of her comparison, 
 answered, 
 
 " No, Stas, as I love thee, they are not phrases." 
 
 " If God would grant me to hear such things always," 
 said Svirski, with animation. "The lady is perfectly 
 right." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, in reality, was also convinced that she was 
 right; and, what was more, in that darkness, which sur- 
 rounded him, something began to gleam like a lamp. He 
 was just the man who had said to himself, "I am wise 
 enough, I am good enough, and I can rest; " he was just 
 the man who had forgotten that there was need of coi 
 tinual effort ; he had ceased to move his hands over t 
 depth, and therefore his own weight took him down to the 
 bottom. Such was the case ! All these lofty religious and 
 moral principles, which he had gained, he had enclosed in 
 his soul, as a man encloses money in a chest, and he mad 
 dead capital of them. He had them, but, as it were, hidden 
 away. He fell into the blindness of the miser, who cheers 
 
 33
 
 514 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 himself with hoarded gold, but lives like a mendicant. He 
 had them, but he did not live on them ; and, trusting in his 
 wealth, he imagined that his life accounts were closed, and 
 that he might rest. But now a gray dawn, as it were, began 
 in that night which surrounded his thoughts ; and out of the 
 darkness began to rise toward him a truth hazy, and as yet 
 undefined, declaring that accounts of that sort could never 
 be closed, and that life is an immense daily, ceaseless labor, 
 which, as Marynia had said, ends only there, somewhere on 
 the other and better shore.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 515 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 " MY dear Pan Ignas, why do you not dress like Pan 
 Kopovski ? " asked Pani Bronich. " Naturally, Niteclika 
 values your poetry more than all costumes on earth ; but you 
 will not believe how aesthetic that child is, and what per- 
 fect knowledge she has in such matters. Yesterday, the 
 poor dear came to me with such a pretty face that if you 
 had seen her you would have melted. 'Aunt,' said she. 
 ' why does Pan Ignas not have white flannel costumes in thf- 
 morning ? It is so elegant for all gentlemen to be in such 
 costumes.' Have something like that made ; she will be so 
 glad. You see that Yozio Osnovski too has a flannel suit- 
 he has even a number' of them, through attention tc 
 Aneta. These are little things, I know ; but they affect a 
 woman greatly when she considers what they mean. You 
 have no idea how she sees everything. In Scheveningen 
 all wear such costumes till midday ; and it would be dis- 
 agreeable to her if any one should think that you did not 
 belong to society which knows how to dress. You are so 
 kind, you will buy such a costume ; will you not ? You will 
 do that for her ; and you will not take it ill of me that I 
 speak of what Nitechka likes ? " 
 
 "Oh," said Pan Ignas, "I'll do so, most willingly." 
 " How good you are ! But, what else did I wish to say ? 
 Oh, yes ! and a nice yellow-leather travelling-case. My 
 dear Pan Ignas, Nitechka loves immensely nice travelling- 
 cases ; and abroad, as a man looks, so is he valued. Yester- 
 day I will tell you this as a secret we looked at Pan 
 Kopovski's travelling-case. It is very nice, and in perfect 
 taste, bought in Dresden. It pleased Nitechka much. Look 
 at it, and buy one something in that style. I beg pardon of 
 you for entering into this matter, but this is a trifle. You 
 see, I know women in general, and I know Nitechka. There 
 is no better way with her than to yield in little things. 
 When it comes to great ones, she will give up everything. 
 Besides, you have heard what chances of marriage she had, 
 and still she chose you. Show her, then, gratitude even in 
 small things. Have you not, as a student of character, 
 noticed that natures capable of great sacrifice reserve them-
 
 516 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 selves for exceptional occasions; but in every-day life they 
 like to be gratified." 
 
 " Perhaps I have not thought of this so far." 
 
 "Oh, it is true beyond doubt, and that is just Nitechka's 
 nature. But you are not iu a position to know what kind 
 of a nature she has, though you should know, for the reason 
 that she chose you. But you men are not able to perceive 
 so many shades of feeling. If it should coine to some crisis, 
 you would see that in her there is not one trace of selfish- 
 ness. May the Lord God preserve her from every trial ! but 
 should it come to anything, you would see." 
 
 "I know that you esteem Panna Nitechka," said Pan 
 Ignas, with certain animation ; " but still you do not think 
 so much good of her as I do." 
 
 "Ah, how I love you when you say things like 
 that!" cried Pani Bronich, with delight. "My dear! But, 
 if it is thus, then I will whisper still more in your ear : she 
 loves passionately that gentlemen should wear black silk 
 stockings ; but remember that one look is enough for her 
 to see what is silk and what is Scotch thread. My God ! do 
 not suppose that I wish to mix in everything. No one is 
 able to keep away so well as I ; but it is only a question 
 of this, that Nitechka should never think that you are 
 not equal to others in any regard whatever. What 's to be 
 done? You are marrying a real artist, who loves that every- 
 thing around her should be beautiful. And, in truth, she 
 will not be so poor as not to have a right to this. Will 
 she ? " 
 
 Pan Ignas took out his notebook, and said, 
 
 "I will write down your orders, so as not to forget 
 them." 
 
 There was a shade of irony in what he said. Pani 
 Bronich, with her excess of words, her manner of talking, 
 and especially her evident infatuation for things of excep- 
 tional superfluity, had made him impatient very often. 
 Pan Ignas was offended by a certain parvenu element in 
 her nature. Since he did not see what palaces she was 
 building with the property of old Zavilovski, he was 
 unable to understand that a sensitive woman could be so 
 unceremonious with him in demands for ".Nitechka " when 
 it was a question of the style of their future life. He had 
 supposed previously that it would be just the opposite, 
 and that those ladies would be even over-scrupulous and 
 delicate; this was his first disillusion. On the other
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 517 
 
 hand, he was pained by the bad taste with which Pani 
 Bronich mentioned almost daily the great matches which 
 "Nitechka" might have made, and also her self-denials for 
 his sake; these self-denials had not taken place yet. Pan 
 Tgnas did not over-estimate himself, but also he did not 
 carry his head lower than was needful; and with that 
 which was in him he considered himself not a worse, but 
 a better match than such men as Kopovski, and the 
 various Colimaqaos, Kanafaropuloses, and similar operatic 
 lay figures. He was indignant at the very thought that 
 they dared to compare these men with him, especially to 
 his disadvantage. Having poetry and love in his soul, he 
 judged that he had that which even princes of this world 
 cannot command always. What his every-day life with 
 Lineta would be, of that he had not thought much hitherto, 
 or had thought in a general way only; but feeling strong, 
 and being ready to seize every fate by the forelock, he 
 trusted that it would be agreeable. To chaffer with this 
 future he had no intention; and when Pani Bronich ex- 
 pressed wishes like these, he had to restrain himself from 
 telling her that they seemed to him vulgar. 
 
 Svirski, when stopping at Prytulov, gave out once the 
 striking opinion that love was not blind altogether, but 
 only suffering from daltonism. Pan Ignas thought that 
 the painter had Osnovski in mind, and did not suspect 
 that he himself was a perfect example of a man subject 
 to the infirmity mentioned. He was blind, however, only 
 in reference to Lineta; except her he saw and observed 
 everything with greater readiness than others. And cer- 
 tain observations filled him with astonishment. Omitting 
 his observations on Pani Aneta, her Yozio, and Kopovski, 
 he noticed, for example, that his own relations with Pani 
 Bronich b?gan to change; and from the time that he had 
 become near to her, and she had grown accustomed to him, 
 and confidential, as with a future relative, and the future 
 husband of "Nitechka," she began to have less esteem for 
 his person, his work, and his talent. To an ordinary eye 
 this was invisible, perhaps, but to Pan Ignas it was clear, 
 though be could not explain its origin. The future alone 
 was to teach him that common natures, by contact with per- 
 sons or things which are higher, lose esteem for them through 
 this familiarity, as if showing involuntarily that what- 
 ever becomes near to them must thereby be infected with 
 vulgarity and meanness, and cannot, for that very reason,
 
 518 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 continue lofty. Meanwhile Pani Bronich disenchanted 
 him more and more. He was impatient at that convenient 
 "Teodor," whose role it was to shield with his dignity 
 from beyond the tomb every act of hers; he was amazed 
 at that bird-like mobility of her mind which seized on 
 the wing everything from the region of the good and the 
 beautiful, and turned it at once into empty and meaning- 
 less phrases. 
 
 Besides, her enormous ill-will for people astonished him. 
 Pani Bronich, almost servile in presence of old Zavilovski, 
 spoke of him with animosity in private; Panna Helena she 
 simply disliked ; of Pani Kraslavski and Pani Mashko she 
 spoke with endless irony; of the Bigiels, with contempt; 
 more specially salt in her eye was Marynia. She listened 
 to the praises rendered Marynia by Svirski, Pan Ignas, 
 and Osnovski with the same impatience as if they had 
 been detractions from Lineta. Pan Ignas convinced him- 
 self that, in truth, Pani Bronich cared for no one on earth 
 except " Nitechka." But just this love made up in his mind 
 for all her disagreeable peculiarities; he did not under- 
 stand yet that such a feeling, when associated with hate 
 and exclusiveness, instead of widening the heart, makes 
 it narrow and dry, and is merely a two-headed selfishness, 
 and that such selfishness may be as rude and harsh as 
 if one-headed. Loving Lineta himself with his whole 
 soul, and feeling better and kinder from the time that he 
 had begun thus to love her, he considered that a person 
 who loved really could not be evil at heart; and in the 
 name of their common love, "Nitechka," he forgave Pani 
 Bronich all her shortcomings. 
 
 But with reference to Lineta, that quick observer could 
 not see anything. The strongest men make in love so 
 many unhappy mistakes for one reason, that they array 
 the beloved in all their own sunbeams, not accounting to 
 themselves afterward that this glory with which they are 
 blinded has been put by themselves there. So it was with 
 Pan Ignas. Lineta became accustomed more and more 
 every day to him, and to her own role of betrothed. The 
 thought that he had distinguished her, raised her above 
 others, chosen her, loved her, from having been, as once, 
 a continual living source of satisfaction to her vanity 
 and pride, was beginning to lose the charm of novelty, 
 and grow common. Everything which it was possible to 
 win from it for her own personal glory had been won by
 
 CHILDREN OF THK SOIL. 519 
 
 the aid of Aunt Bronich. The admiration of people had 
 been also "juggled out" of it, as Svirski said; and the 
 statue was so near her eyes now that, instead of taking 
 in the whole, she began to discover defects in the marble. 
 At moments yet, under the influence of the opinion or 
 admiration of others, she regained the recollection and 
 knowledge of its proportions; but she was seized by a 
 kind of astonishment that that man in love with her, look- 
 ing into her eyes, and obedient to every beck of hers, was 
 that Zavilovski over whom even Svirski loses his head, 
 and whom such a man as Osnovski esteems as some 
 precious public treasure. She could send him at any 
 moment for fresh strawberries, if she wished, or for yarn; 
 the knowledge of this caused her a certain pleasure, hence 
 he was needed. She admired her own power in him, and 
 sometimes she detailed to him impressions of this kind 
 quite sincerely. 
 
 Once, when they went out to damp fields, Pan Ignas 
 returned for her overshoes. Kneeling by an alder-tree, he 
 put them on her feet, which he kissed. Then she, looking 
 at that head bent to her feet, said, 
 
 ''People think you a great man, but you put on my 
 overshoes." 
 
 Pan Ignas raised his eyes to her, and, amused by the 
 comparison, answered joyously, without rising from his 
 knees, 
 
 "Because I love immensely." 
 
 "That is all right; but I am curious to know what people 
 would say of it? " 
 
 And the last question seemed to occupy her most of all-, 
 but Pan Ignas quarrelled that moment with her because 
 she said "you" to him, but he did not notice, however, 
 that, in her "that is all right," there was that peculiar 
 indifference with which things too familiar or less im- 
 portant are slipped over. With a similar half-attention 
 she heard what he said then, that not being vain h 
 considers himself a man like his fellows, but that he 
 respects his career, and counts a life the greatest happiness 
 in which it is possible to serve loftily, and love simply. 
 In the feeling of this happiness he embraced her wit 
 arm, so as to have his simple love as near his breast 
 sible. But when his prominent chin pushed forward si 
 more, as happened whenever he spoke with enthusiasm, 
 Lineta begged him to leave off the habit, as it made him
 
 520 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 look stern, and she liked joyous faces around her. While 
 her hand was in now, she reminded him also that yester- 
 day, when they were sailing over the pond, and he was 
 tired after rowing, he breathed very loudly. She did not 
 like to tell him then how that "acted on her nerves." 
 Any little thing " acts on her nerves ; " but nothing acts 
 like some one who is tired, and breathes loudly near 
 her. 
 
 Saying this, she took off her hat and began to fan her 
 face. The breeze raised her bright hair ; and in the green 
 shade of the alder-trees, quivering in the sun, which shone 
 in through the leaves, she looked like a vision. Fan Ignas 
 delighted his eyes with her, and in her words admired, 
 above all, the charm of a spoiled child. There was per- 
 haps something more in them ; but he neither sought nor 
 found it, just because his love, with all its force, was 
 simple. 
 
 Simplicity, however, does not exclude loftiness. Lineta 
 had, in fact, clung like a spider-web to the wings of the 
 bird, which, in spite of her, bore her to heights where one 
 had to feel every movement with the heart, to divine all, to 
 understand all, and where even the mind must exert itself 
 to give expression to feeling. But Lineta was " so lazy," 
 she had said so on a time to her soarer, who at present did 
 not even suspect that those heights merely made her tired 
 and dizzy, nothing more. 
 
 It happened to her now oftener and oftener to wake in 
 the morning, and remember that she must meet her be- 
 trothed, that she must tune herself up to his high note; 
 and this gave her the feeling that a child has, for whom a 
 hard lesson is waiting. She had recited that lesson al- 
 ready; she had answered more or less everything which 
 had been taught her; and she judged that her betrothed 
 ought to give a vacation now. Finally, she had enough 
 of all those uncommonnesses, both of herself and of others, 
 those original sayings, those apt answers, with which she 
 had campaigned in society so far. She felt, moreover, that 
 the supply was exhausted, that the bottom of the well 
 could be seen. There remained to her yet only certain 
 artistic feelings, and that unendurable " Pan Ignas " might 
 be satisfied, if from time to time she showed him now a 
 broad Held, now a bit of forest, now a strip of land with 
 yellow grain, as if scattered in the light, and said, "Beauti- 
 ful! beautiful! " That was easier. He, it is true, could not
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 521 
 
 find words to express admiration of the artistic depth of 
 soul hidden in such a siugle word as "beautiful;" but if 
 that were true, what more did he want? and why, in con- 
 versation, in feelings, in method of loving, did he force her 
 to those useless efforts? If he did not force her, if that 
 came without his knowledge, so much the worse for him, 
 that, being by nature so abrupt, he did not even know it. 
 In such a case let him talk with Steftsia Ratkovski. 
 
 With "Koposio," on the other hand, there was no need 
 of effort; his society was real rest for Lineta. The mere 
 sight of him made her gladsome, called out a smile on her 
 face, inclined her to jesting. It is true that Pan Stanislav 
 had once in his life been jealous of Kopovski; but to Pan 
 Ignas, a man who lived a mental life far more exclusively, 
 and therefore measured everything with a measure purely 
 mental, it did not even occur that a maiden so spiritualized 
 and so "wise " as "Nitechka," could for a moment consider 
 Kopovski as other than a subject for witticisms, which 
 she permitted herself continually. Had not Pani Bronich, 
 in spite of all her mental shallowness, grown indignant 
 at the mere hint of giving Lineta to Kopovski? What 
 Pan Ignas had seen between Kopovski and Pani Aneta 
 was no lesson, for he considered his "Nitechka" as the 
 opposite pole of Aneta. "Nitechka," besides, had chosen 
 him, and he was the antithesis of Kopovski; that alone set 
 aside every doubt. "Nitechka" amused herself with 
 "Koposio," painted him, conversed with him, though Pan 
 Ignas could not exhaust his astonishment at this, -how 
 she could avoid falling asleep while he talked ; she joked 
 with him, she followed him with a look of amusement, 
 but only because she was a child yet, needing moments of 
 amusement, and even of vanity. But no one saw better 
 than she his whole measureless stupidity, and no one spoke 
 of it more frequently. How often had she ridiculed it to 
 Pan Ignas ! . 
 
 Not all eyes, however, looked at this amusement of hers 
 in that way, and, above all, Pani Aneta looked at it differ- 
 ently ; from time to time she told her husband directly th 
 Castelli was coquetting with Kopovski; to "Yozio" him- 
 self this seemed at times to be true, and he had the wis 
 to send Kopovski away from Prytulov politely. 
 Aneta would not permit: "Since he is paying attention fa 
 Steftsia, we have no right to hinder that poor g 
 tune." Osnovski was sorry to lose that dear Steftsia on
 
 522 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Kopovski; but since, in fact, she had no property, and 
 since Aneta wished the match, he would not oppose it. 
 
 But he was not able to control himself from astouish- 
 meut and indignation at Castelka : " To have such a man 
 as Ignas, and coquet with such a fool; to act so, a woman 
 must be a soulless puppet surely." At first he could not 
 understand it. On the hypothesis, however, that Aneta 
 must have been mistaken, he began to observe the young 
 lady diligently; and since, aside from his personal relation 
 to his wife, he was not by any means dull-witted, he saw 
 a number of things which, in view of his friendship for 
 Pan Ignas, disquieted him greatly. He did not admit, it 
 is true, that anything might take place to change the posi- 
 tion; but he asked himself what Ignas's future would be 
 with a woman who knew so little how to value him, and 
 who was so slightly developed morally that she not only 
 found pleasure in the society of such a brainless fop, but 
 allowed herself to turn his head, and allure him. 
 
 "Anetka judges others by herself," thought Osnovski, 
 "and has really deceived herself, ascribing certain deep 
 feelings to Castelka. Castelka is a puppet; and, if spirits 
 like Anetka and Ignas do not come, nothing rouses her." 
 In this way that unfortunate man, affected with the 
 daltonism of love, while discovering truth on one side, 
 fell into greater and greater error on the other. On 
 "Castelka," therefore, he looked more justly every day, 
 and needed no excessive effort to convince himself that in 
 the relations of that "ideal" "Nitechka" with Kopovski 
 there were jests, it is true, there was much contradiction, 
 teasing, even ridicule ; but there was also such an irresisti- 
 ble weakness, and such an attraction, as women with the 
 souls of milliners have for nice and nicely dressed young 
 men. The phenomenal stupidity of Kopovski seemed to 
 increase in country air; but as a recompense the sun gilded 
 his delicate complexion, through which his eyes became 
 more expressive, his teeth whiter, while the beard on his 
 face was lighter, and gleamed like silk. Indeed, bright- 
 ness shone not only from his youth and beauty, but also 
 from his linen, from his neckties, from his exquisite and 
 simple costiimes. In the morning, dressed for lawn-tennis, 
 in English flannel, he had in him the freshness of morning 
 and the dreaminess of sleep. His slender, finished form 
 appeared as if fondlingly through the soft cloth; and how 
 could that bony Pan Ignas, with his insolent Wagner jaw
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 523 
 
 and his long legs, be compared, in the eyes of those ladies, 
 with that "raignon" who called to inind at once the gods 
 of Greece and the fashion sheets, the glyptotheks of 
 Italy and the table d' holes of Biarritz or Ostend. One 
 should be such an original as that still-water Steftsia 
 to insist, unless from malice, that he was an insuffer- 
 able puppet. Castelka, it is true, laughed when Svirski 
 said that Kopovski, especially when some question was 
 put to him on a sudden, had an expression in which were 
 evident the sixteen " quarterings " of stupidity in his 
 escutcheon, both on the male and female side. In truth, 
 he had a somewhat absent look, and, in general, could not 
 understand at first what people said to him. But he was 
 so joyous, he seemed so good-natured, and, in spite of a 
 way of thinking which was not over elevated, he was so 
 well-bred, beautiful, and fresh that everything might be 
 forgiven him. 
 
 Pan Ignas deceived himself in thinking that only Pani 
 Bronich was pining for things of external richness, and 
 that his betrothed did not even know of those requests 
 with which her aunt comes. Castelka did know of them. 
 Having lost hope that " Pan Ignas " could ever be equal to 
 Kopovski, she wanted at least that he should approach him. 
 For things of external richness she had an inborn leaning, 
 and "aunt," when begging Pan Ignas to buy this or that 
 for himself, merely carried out Lineta's wishes. For her, 
 really, one glance was enough to distinguish silk from 
 Scotch thread, and all her soul was rushing instinctively 
 to silk; for her Kopovski was among men what silk is 
 among textures. Had it not been for Pani Aneta, who 
 restrained the young man, and for the various lofty feel- 
 ings which she had talked into Lineta, Lineta, without 
 fail, would have married Kopovski. Osnosvki, knowing 
 nothing of all this, was even astonished that that had not 
 taken place; for he, in the end of his observations, had 
 come to the conclusion that both for Lineta and Pan Ignas 
 this would have been perhaps better. 
 
 One day he confided these thoughts to his wife, but she 
 grew angry, and said, with great animation, 
 
 "That did not happen, because it could not. No one i 
 obliged to accommodate himself to Yozio's plans. I, first 
 of all, saw that Castelka was coquetting with Kopovski. 
 Who could know that she was such a nature? 
 betrothed and to coquet with other men, that passes
 
 524 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 human understanding. But she does it through vanity, 
 and through spite against Steftsia Katkovksi, and maybe 
 to rouse jealousy in Pan Ignas. Who knows why? It is 
 easy for Yozio to talk now, and to throw all the blame on 
 me for having made this marriage; let Yozio remember 
 better how many times he was enchanted with Castelka, 
 how many times he said that hers was an uncommon nature, 
 and that just such a one would make Pan Iguas happy. A 
 pretty uncommon nature! Now she is coquetting with 
 Kopovski, and if she were his betrothed she would coquet 
 with Pan Ignas. Whoever is vain, will remain so forever. 
 Yozio says that she was fitted for Kopovski ; it was neces- 
 sary to have that way of thinking at first, not at present, 
 when she is the betrothed of Pan Ignas. But Yozio says 
 this purposely to show me what a folly I committed in 
 helping Pan Ignas." 
 
 And the whole affair was so turned by Pani Aneta that 
 Pan Ignas and Castelka descended to the second place, but 
 in the first appeared the cruelty and malice of Yozio. 
 Osnovski, however, began to justify himself, and, opening 
 his arms, said, 
 
 " Anetka ! How canst thou even suppose that I wanted 
 to do anything disagreeable to thee? I know, besides, 
 how honest and cordial thy wishes were ; but terror takes 
 hold of me when I think of the future of Ignas, for I love 
 him. I should wish from the soul of my heart that God 
 had given him such a person as thou art. My dearest 
 little bird, thou knowest that I would rather lose my 
 tongue than say one bitter thing to thee. I came to thee 
 so just to talk and take counsel, for I know that in that 
 dear head of thine there is always some cure for every- 
 thing." 
 
 When he had said this, he began to kiss her hands and 
 then her arms and face with great affection, and with 
 increasing enthusiasm; but she turned her head aside, 
 twisting away from his kisses, and saying, 
 
 "Ah, how Yozio is sweating! " 
 
 He was, in fact, almost always in perspiration, for he 
 played whole days at tennis, raced on horseback, rowed, 
 wandered through fields and forests, to grow thin as far as 
 was possible. 
 
 " On-ly tell me that thou art not angry," said he, dropping 
 her hand, and looking into her eyes tenderly. 
 
 "Well, I am not; but what help can I give? Let them
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 525 
 
 go as quickly as possible to Scheveuingen, and let Kopovski 
 stay here with Steftsia." 
 
 " See, thou hast found a plan. Let them go at the begin- 
 ning of August. But hast thou noticed that somehow 
 Steftsia is not very somehow Kopovski has not pleased 
 her heart so far?" 
 
 " Steftsia is secretive as few are. Yozio doesn't know 
 women." 
 
 "Thou art right surely in that. But I even see that she 
 doesn't like Castelka. Maybe, also, she is angry in her 
 heart with Kopovski, too." 
 
 "What!" inquired Aneta, with animation, "has Yozio 
 seen anything with reference to Castelka? 
 
 Koposio laughs at her, for he has gccd teeth; but 
 if I should see anything, he wouldn't be in Prytulov. 
 Maybe, too, Castelka is coquetting with him, because such 
 is her nature without knowing it. That itself is bad, 
 but that it should go as far as looking at each other seri- 
 ously, I don't believe. 
 
 "But it is necessary to examine Koposio as to Steftsia. 
 Knowest what, Yozio? I will go this very day with him 
 on horseback to Lesnichovka, and I will talk with him 
 rather seriously. Go thou in another direction! ' : 
 
 " Good, my child. But see, thy head is finding measures 
 
 already ! " 
 
 Going out, he stopped on the threshold, thought a while, 
 
 and said, 
 
 "But how wonderful all this is! and how it passes 
 understanding! This Ignas catches everything on the 
 wing; and at the same time he worships Castelka as ii 
 were some divinity, and sees nothing and nothing. 
 
 In the afternoon, when Kopovski and Pani Aneta wer 
 riding along the shady road to the forest cottage, Pan 
 Ignas followed them with his eyes, and looked at h 
 figure on horseback, outlined in the well-fitting ridi 
 dress. " She is shaped like a slender pitcher,' thought 
 "But how elegant and enticing she is! There is n 
 some irony of life, that that honest and kindly Osnovski 
 
 11 And'truly'there was irony of life in that, but not in that 
 only.
 
 526 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 SINCE the day when Pani Aneta and Kopovski made tne 
 trip to Lesnichovka, something had changed in the social 
 relations of the dwellers in Prytulov. Pan Ignas looked, 
 it is true, as formerly, into the eyes of his affianced, and 
 was enchanted with her beyond measure ; but in her inter- 
 course with him and with others there was a certain light 
 shade of ill- humor. Kopovski felt as if bound; he looked 
 at Lineta by stealth only. He approached her hurriedly, 
 and only in the absence of Pani Aneta; but he sat oftener 
 near Panna Ratkovski, to whom he spoke, as it were, with 
 his mind in another place. Pani Aneta was, moreover, 
 more determined than usual; and, to the great satisfaction 
 of "Yozio," she extended now such watchful care over 
 every affair in Prytulov, that she took Kopovski aside 
 twice for personal explanations. Liueta's glance did not 
 follow Kopovski with that former half -gladsome , half- 
 ironical freedom ; but the cloudy eyes of Panna Ratko^ski 
 turned to Pan Ignas with a certain sympathy, in one 
 word, something had changed both in looks and relations. 
 
 But those were changes observable only to a very quick 
 eye, and one accustomed to look at life of that kind, in 
 which, for lack of greater objects and severe daily labor, 
 the least shade of feelings and the most subtle movement of 
 thoughts, and even dispositions, take on not only the form 
 of far-reaching events, but frequently conceal the actual 
 germs of such events in themselves. Externally life re- 
 mained just the same it had been; that is, a kind of daily 
 festival, a May day, country idleness, interwoven with 
 love, aesthetic impressions, more or less witty conversa- 
 tions, and, finally, amusements. The arrangement of a 
 whole series of these amusements, to fill out the day, was 
 the sole occupation which weighed on their thoughts ; and 
 even this, for the greater part, Pan Osnovski took on him- 
 self as master of the house. 
 
 But on a certain day the uniform calm of that life was 
 broken by a thunderbolt, under the form of two black- 
 bordered envelopes addressed to Osnovski and Pan Ignas.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 527 
 
 When they were brought in , the whole society was at after- 
 dinner coffee ; and the eyes of the ladies were turned with 
 curiosity and alarm at the readers, who, taking cards from 
 the unsealed envelopes, cried almost simultaneously, 
 
 " Pan Zavilovski is dead ! " 
 
 The news made a deep impression. Pani Bronich, as 
 a person of the old school, and remembering those days 
 when the coming of a courier in the country obliged the 
 most sensitive ladies to faint, even before it was known 
 what the courier had brought, fell into a kind of numbness, 
 joined to loss of speech ; Panna Ratkovski , who had spent 
 some time at Pan Zavilovski's, and cherished great friend- 
 ship for him and his daughter, grew pale in real earnest; 
 Panna Lineta, seizing Pani Bronich's hand, tried to restore 
 her to consciousness, whispering, " Voyons, chere, tu n'es 
 pas raisonnable ! " Pani Aneta, as if wishing to verify with 
 her own eyes the substance of the announcement, took the 
 card from her husband's hands, and read, 
 
 " The respected Pan Eustachius Zavilovski departed this life on 
 the 25th day of July. His grief-stricken daughter invites relatives 
 and friends to the funeral, at the parish church in Yasmen, on the 
 28th day of the current month." 
 
 Then followed a moment of silence, which was broken 
 by Pan Ignas. 
 
 'I knew him little," said he, "and was prepossessed 
 against him once; but now I grieve for him sincerely, for 
 I know that at heart he was a worthy man." 
 
 "And he loved thee sincerely," answered Osnovski. "I 
 have proofs of that." 
 
 Pani Bronich, who, during this time, had recovered, 
 declared that those proofs might appear now in their 
 fulness, and that the heart of the deceased would very 
 likely prove itself still greater than they imagined. "Pan 
 Eustachius always loved Nitechka much, and such a man 
 cannot be malicious." At times he had reminded her that 
 is, Pani Bronich of Teodor, and therefore she had become 
 so attached to him. He was, it is true, as abrupt on occa- 
 sions as Teodor was gentle at all times; but both had that 
 honesty of spirit which the Lord God is best able to value. 
 
 Then she turned to "Xitechka," reminding her that the 
 least emotion would add to the sinking of her heart, and 
 begging her to strive this time not to yield to innate sonsi-
 
 528 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 
 
 tiveness. Pan Ignas, too, with the feeling that a common 
 sorrow had struck him and Lineta for the first time, began 
 to kiss her hands. This state of mind was broken by 
 Kopovski, who said, as if in meditation on the transitory 
 nature of human affairs , 
 
 "I am curious to know what Panna Helena will do with 
 the pipes left by her father." 
 
 In fact, the old noble's pipes were famous throughout the 
 whole city. Through dislike for cigarettes and cigars, he 
 had in his day made a great collection in his mansion for 
 lovers of the pipe. Kopovski's anxiety about the pipes 
 was not quieted, however, first, because at that moment 
 they brought Pan Ignas a letter from Pan Stanislav, con- 
 taining also intelligence of the old man's decease, and an 
 invitation to the funeral; secondly, because Osnovski began 
 to advise with his wife about the trip to Yasmen. 
 
 It ended in this, that all were to go at once to the 
 city , where the ladies would set about buying various small 
 articles of mourning, and on the second day, the day of the 
 funeral, they would be in Yasmen. Thus did they do. 
 Pan Ignas, immediately after their arrival, went to his 
 lodgings to carry home things, and prepare a black suit for 
 mourning; and then he went to the Polanyetskis , suppos- 
 ing that they, too, perhaps, had come in from the Bigiels. 
 The servant informed him that his master had been there 
 the day before, but had gone at once to Yasmen, near 
 which place he had hired, or even bought, a house two 
 weeks earlier. 
 
 Hearing this, he returned to Osnovski's villa to spend 
 the evening with his betrothed. 
 
 At the entrance, the tones of a waltz by Strauss, coming 
 from the depth of the house, astonished him. Meeting in 
 the next salon Panua Ratkovski, he inquired who was 
 playing. 
 
 " Lineta is playing with Pan Kopovski," answered she. 
 
 " Then Pan Kopovski is here ? " 
 
 " He came a quarter of an hour since." 
 
 " And Pani and Pan Osnovski ? " 
 
 They have not returned yet; Aneta is making pur- 
 chases." 
 
 Pan Ignas, for the first time in his life, felt a certain dis- 
 satisfaction with Lineta, He understood that the deceased 
 was nothing to her ; still the moment for playing a four- 
 handed waltz with Kopovski seemed inappropriate. He had
 
 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 529 
 
 a feeling that that showed want of taste. Pani Bronich, 
 who did not lack society keenness, divined evidently that 
 impression on his face. 
 
 " Nitechka was moved greatly, and worn out,'* said she ; 
 " and nothing calms her like music. I was much alarmed,' 
 for sinking of the heart had begun with her; and when Pan 
 Kopovski came, I myself proposed that they play something." 
 
 They stopped playing ; and Pan Ignas's unpleasant im- 
 pression disappeared by degrees. There was for him in 
 that villa a multitude of recent and precious remembrances. 
 About dusk he took Lineta's arm, and they walked through 
 the rooms. They stopped in various places ; he called to 
 mind something every moment. 
 
 "Dost remember," asked he, in the studio, "when paint- 
 ing, thou didst take me by the temple to turn my head 
 aside, and for the first time in life I kissed thy hand ; and 
 thy words, ' Talk with aunt ' ? I lost not only con- 
 sciousness, but breath. Thou, my chosen, my dearest ! " 
 
 And she answered, 
 
 " And how pale thou wert then ! " 
 
 " It is difficult not to be pale when the heart is dying in 
 one from emotion ; and I loved thee beyond memory." 
 
 Lineta raised her eyes, and said after a while, 
 
 " How wonderful all this is ! " 
 
 " What, Nitechka ? " 
 
 " That it begins somehow, and begins as if it were a kind 
 of trial, a kind of play; then one goes farther into it, and 
 all at once the trap falls." 
 
 Pan Ignas pressed her arm to his bosom, and said, 
 
 " Ah, yes ! it has fallen ! I have my bright maiden, and 
 I won't let her go." 
 
 Then, walking on, they came to the great drawing-room. 
 
 Pan Ignas pointed to the glass door, and said, 
 
 " Our balcony, our acacia-tree." 
 
 It grew darker and darker. Objects in the room were 
 sunk in shade ; only here and there, on golden picture 
 frames, gleamed points of light,, like eyes of some kind 
 gazing at the young couple. 
 
 "Dost thou love me?" asked Pan Ignas. 
 
 "Thou knowest." 
 
 "Say yes." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Then he pressed her arm more, and said with a voice 
 changed through rising emotion, 
 
 84
 
 530 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Thou hast no idea, simply, how much happiness is in 
 thee. 1 give thee my word ; thou hast no idea. Thou 
 knowest not how I love thee. I would give my life for 
 thee. I would give the world for one hair of thine. Thou 
 art my world, my life, my all. I should die without 
 thee." 
 
 " Let us sit down," whispered Lineta ; " I am so wearied." 
 
 They sat down, resting against each other, hidden in tho 
 dark. A moment of silence followed. 
 
 " What is the matter ? Thou art trembling all over," 
 whispered Lineta. 
 
 But she too, whether stirred by remembrances, or borne 
 on by his feeling, or by nearness, began to breathe hur- 
 riedly, and, closing her eyes, was the first to put her lips 
 forward toward his. 
 
 Meanwhile Kopovski was bored evidently in the adjoin- 
 ing room with Panna Ratkovski and Pani Bronich, for at 
 that moment the tones of the waltz which he had played 
 before with Lineta were heard. 
 
 When Pan Ignas returned to his own lodgings, the place 
 seemed the picture of sadness and loneliness, a kind of 
 objectless nomad dwelling, after which there will not be 
 one memory ; and he thought that that golden " Nitechka " 
 had so wound herself around his heart that in truth he 
 would not live without her, and could not. 
 
 The funeral, on the third day, was not numerously 
 attended. The neighboring estates, as lying near the city, 
 belonged for the greater part to rich people, who passed the 
 summer season abroad ; hence not many of Pan Zavilovski's 
 acquaintances had remained in the city. But numerous 
 throngs of villagers had assembled, who, crowding into the 
 church, looked at the coffin as if with wonder that a man of 
 such wealth, wading in property, in money and riches, was 
 going into the ground like the first chance peasant who 
 lived in a hut somewhere. Others looked with envy on the 
 young lady to whom " so much wealth " was to fall. And 
 such is human nature that not only peasants, but refined 
 people, distant or near acquaintances of Pan Zavilovski, 
 were unable even during the burial itself to refrain from 
 thinking what, that Panna Helena would do with those 
 millions which were left her for the drying of tears. There 
 were some too, who, supposing young Zavilovski as the last 
 relative of that name, the heir of a considerable part of the 
 property, gave themselves in secret the question whether
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 531 
 
 that lucky poet, and ruillionnaire of the morrow, perhaps 
 would stop writing verses. And they thought, as if with a 
 certain unexplained satisfaction, that he would probably. 
 
 But the chief attention was turned to Panna Hele'na. 
 All wondered at the resignation with which she bore the 
 loss, the more painful, since after the death of her father 
 she remained in the world all alone, without relatives 
 nearer than the young poet, and even without friends, con- 
 cerning whom she had long since ceased to busy herself. 
 She walked after the coffin with a face over which tears 
 were flowing, but which was calm, with that calmness usual 
 to her, but somewhat lifeless and stony. On her return 
 from the church, she spoke of the death of her father as if 
 a number of months at least had passed since it happened. 
 The ladies of Prytulov could not understand that an im- 
 mense faith was speaking through her; and that in virtue 
 of her faith, that death, in comparison with another, which 
 she had survived, but which had rent her soul, seemed 
 something that was sad, it is true, but at the same time a 
 blessing, pressing out tears of sorrow, but not of despair. 
 In fact, old Pan Zavilovski died very piously, though almost 
 suddenly. From the time of his arrival in Yasmen, he had 
 the habit of confessing twice a week ; hence he did riot lack 
 religious consolation. He died with the rosary in his hand, 
 in his armchair, having fallen previously into a light sleep, 
 without any suffering; his usual pain having left him a few 
 days before, so that he had even begun to gain the hope of 
 a perfect return of health. Panna Helena, while speaking 
 of this, in her low uniform voice, turned at last to Pan 
 Ignas and said, 
 
 " He mentioned you very often. Perhaps an hour before 
 death he said that if you should come to Buchynek to 
 Pan Polanyetski, to let him know, for he wished to see you 
 without fail. Father loved and esteemed you greatly, 
 greatly." 
 
 "Dear lady," said Pan Ignas, raising her hands to his 
 lips, "I join you in mourning for him sincerely." 
 
 There was something noble and truthful, as well in his 
 tones as in his words, therefore Panna Helena's eyes filled 
 with tears; but the weeping of Pani Bronich was so loud 
 that, had it not been for a flask of salts given her by 
 Lineta, it would have passed into a nervous attack, very 
 likely. 
 
 But Panna Helena, as if not hearing those sobs, thanked
 
 532 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Pan Stanislav for the aid which she had received from 
 him, he had occupied himself with those cares which the 
 death of a near friend imposes, in addition to their mis- 
 fortune, on those who are bereaved. He took all that on 
 himself because of his active nature, and because at that 
 juncture he seized every chance to occupy himself with 
 something to deaden his thoughts, and escape from the 
 torturing circle of his own meditations. 
 
 Marynia did not go to the grave, for her husband did 
 not wish her exposed to crowding and fatigue, but she 
 kept company with Panna Helena in the house, giving her 
 consolation, as she could. Afterward she wished to take 
 her, with the Prytulov ladies, to Buchynek, and even to 
 keep her there a few days. Pan Stanislav supported this 
 request ; but as Panna Helena had her old governess at the 
 mansion, she refused, assuring Marynia that in Yasinen 
 it would not be disagreeable at all to her, and that she did 
 not wish to leave it for the first days especially. 
 
 But the ladies from Prytulov, who, at the persuasion 
 of Svirski, had intended to visit the Polanyetskis , went 
 willingly with their acquaintances to Buchynek, all the 
 more since Pani Bronich desired to learn from Pan Stan- 
 islav nearer details touching the last moments of the 
 deceased. Marynia, who had looked most curiously at 
 Panna Ratkovski, took her in her carriage, and that hap- 
 pened which happens sometimes in society, that the two 
 youthful women felt at once an irrestrainable attraction to 
 each other. In Panna Ratkovski's pensive eyes, in her 
 expression, in her "retiring" face, as Svirski called it, 
 there was something of such character that Marynia 
 divined, at the first glance almost, a nature not bold, 
 accustomed to retire into itself, delicate and sensitive. 
 On the other hand, Panna Ratkovski had heard so much of 
 Marynia from Pan Ignas, and heard because other ladies 
 in Prytulov were not willing to lend their ears to praises 
 of their neighbors, that, seeing in her eyes interest and 
 sympathy, to which, in her poverty and loneliness, she 
 was not accustomed, she nestled up with her whole heart 
 to her. In this way they arrived at Buchynek as good 
 friends, and Svirski, who was with Pan Stanislav, Osnovski, 
 and Kopovski, arrived right after them; it did not need 
 any great acuteness to divine that the judgment of Marynia 
 would be for Panna Steftsia. 
 
 But he wished to hear it. Marynia began to show the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 533 
 
 guests her new residence, which was to be her property, 
 for Pan Stanislav had decided already to buy it. They 
 looked specially at the garden, in which were growing 
 uncommonly old white poplars. Svirski , taking advantage 
 of this walk, gave his arm to Marynia; and on the way 
 back to the house, when the party had scattered somewhat 
 along all the paths, he asked with great precipitance, 
 
 "Well, what is the first impression?" 
 
 "The best possible. Ah, what a good and sensitive 
 child that must be! Try to know her." 
 
 "I? What for? I will propose this day. You think I 
 will not do that? Upon my word, I will, to-day and in 
 Buchynek! I have no time for examination and medita- 
 tion. In those affairs there must be a little daring. I will 
 make a declaration this day, as true as I am here before 
 you." 
 
 Marynia began to laugh, thinking that he was jesting; 
 but he answered, 
 
 "I am laughing, too, for there is nothing sad in this; 
 it is no harm that this is a funeral day. I am not super- 
 stitious; or rather, I am, for I believe that nothing from 
 your hand can be evil." 
 
 " But it is not from my hand ; I only made her acquaint- 
 ance to-day." 
 
 " It is all one to me. I have been afraid of women all 
 my life; but of this one, somehow, I have no fear. She 
 simply cannot be a thankless heart." 
 
 "I think, too, that she cannot." 
 
 "And do you see? this is my last chance. If she 
 accepts me, I will carry her all my life, see? " (here he put 
 his hand in the bosom of his coat); "if not, then " 
 
 "Then what?" 
 
 "I'll shut myself in, and for a whole week will paint 
 from morning till night. I have said that I would go to 
 shoot ducks but no ! This is more important than you 
 think. I judge, however, that she ought to accept me. 
 know that she does not like that ladies' butterfly, that 
 Kopovski; she is alone in the world, an orphan; she wil. 
 do me a kindness, for which I shall be grateful all my 
 days, because, really, I am a kind man but 
 grow embittered." 
 
 Marynia saw now, for the first time, that Svirski mignl 
 speak seriously; and she answered, 
 
 "You are, in truth, a kind man; hence you will never 
 be embittered."
 
 534 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "On the contrary," answered he, with great animation, 
 "it might end in that; I will be outspoken with you. Do 
 you think that I am as happy as I seem? God knows that 
 I am not. I have gained a little money and fame; that is 
 true. But perhaps there has not been among men another 
 who has so stretched forth his hands to a womanly ideal 
 as I have. What is the result? I have met you, Pani 
 Bigiel, maybe two or three others, worthy, true, sensible, 
 pure as tears. Permit me ! I do not wish to say pleasant 
 things to you; but in what I say now I do not wish to 
 announce a criticism, but to discover my suffering. I have 
 seen among our women so much tinsel, so many common, 
 frivolous natures, so much egotism, so much shallowness, 
 so many thankless hearts, so many dolls from a picture, 
 so many false aspirations, that from sight of them ten 
 such men as I am might be embittered." After a while he 
 added: "This child seems different; quiet, mild, and very 
 honest. God grant that it come to pass; God grant her 
 to want me ! " 
 
 At the same time Pani Bronich, taking Pan Stanislav 
 aside openly, spoke with uplifted eyes, 
 
 "Oh, yes! he reminded me of my years of youth; and, 
 as you see, in spite of this that for a long time relations 
 between us were broken I preserved friendship for him 
 to the end of his life. You must have heard! but no! 
 you could not have heard, for I have never mentioned this 
 to any one, that it depended on me alone to be the 
 mother of Helena. Now there is no longer any need to 
 keep the secret. Twice he proposed to me, and twice I 
 refused him. I respected and loved him always ; but you 
 will understand that when one is young, something else is 
 sought for, that is sought for which I found in my 
 Teodor. Oh, that is true! Once he proposed in Ischia, 
 a second time in Warsaw. He suffered much; but what 
 could I do? Would you have acted otherwise if in my 
 place? Tell me sincerely." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, not having the least desire to say, either 
 sincerely or insincerely, how he would have acted in the 
 position of Pani Bronich, replied, 
 
 "Did you wish to ask me about something?" 
 
 "Yes, oh, yes! I wanted to ask you about his last 
 moments. Helena said that he died suddenly; btit you, 
 who lived so near him, must have visited him, therefore 
 you will remember what he said. Maybe you know what
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 his last intentions and thoughts were? Personally I have 
 not the least interest in the matter. My God! would it 
 not be difficult to act more disinterestedly? You do not 
 know Xitechka? But Pan Zavilovski gave me his word 
 that he would leave Pan Ignas his estates in Poznan. If 
 he did not keep his word, or if he did not try to keep it, 
 may the Lord God forgive him, as I forgive him! Wealth, 
 of course, amounts to nothing. Who has given a better 
 example than Xitechka of disregard for wealth? Were it 
 the opposite, she would not have refused such matches as 
 the Marquis Jao Colimaqao, or Pan Kanafaropulos. You 
 must have heard also of Pan Ufinski, that same who, 
 with his famous silhouettes, bought for himself a palace in 
 Venice. His last work was to cut out the Prince of Wales. 
 This very year he proposed to me for Xitechka. Oh, true! 
 if any one has sought wealth, it is not we. But I should 
 not wish Xitechka to think that she had made a sacrifice, 
 for still, between us, she is making a sacrifice, and if con- 
 sidered in society fashion, a great sacrifice." 
 
 Pan Stanislav was an energetic man; angered by the last 
 words of Pani Bronich, he answered, 
 
 "I have not known either the Marquis Jao Colimaqao 
 or Pan Kanafaropulos, but in this country they are 
 rather fantastic names. I will suppose that Panna Castelli 
 marries Pan Zavilovski out of love; in that case, every 
 sacrifice is excluded. I am an outspoken man, and I say 
 what 1 think. Whether Pan Ignas is a practical man is 
 another question; but Pan Ignas does not know, and -he 
 does not want to ask, what Panna Castelli brings him. The 
 ladies know perfectly what he brings, even from a society 
 point of view." 
 
 "Oh, but you have not heard that the Castellis are 
 descended from Marino Falieri." 
 
 " That is precisely what neither I nor any one'else has 
 heard. Let us suppose that for me and you such views 
 have no meaning; but since you say, first, that, taking 
 things from a society point of view, Panna Castelli is 
 making a great sacrifice, I -do not hesitate to deny that, 
 and to say that, omitting Pan Ignas's talents and social 
 position, the match is equal." 
 
 From his tone and face it was evident that if 
 Bronich would not stop at what he said, he was ready to 
 speak more openly; but Pani Bronich, having evidently 
 more than one arrow in her quiver, seized P;m Stanislav s 
 hand, and, shaking it vigorously, exclaimed,
 
 536 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Oh, how honest you are, to take the part of Ignas so 
 earnestly, and how I love him, as my own son! Whom 
 have I in the world if not those two? And if I inquire 
 whether you know of any arrangement made by Pan 
 Zavilovski , I do so only through love for Pan Ignas. I know 
 that old people like to put off and put off, just as if death 
 let itself be delayed by that. Oh, death will not be 
 delayed! no, no! Helena has no use for all those millions; 
 but Ignas he might then spread his wings really. For 
 me and Nitechka the question beyond all questions is his 
 talent. But if anything should come to pass " 
 
 " What can I tell you? " said Pan Stanislav. " That Pan 
 Zavilovski was thinking of Iguas is for me undoubted, and 
 I tell you why. About ten days since, he gave command 
 to bring some old arms to show them to me; thereupon he 
 turned to his daughter, and I heard him say to her, ' These 
 are not worth enumerating in the will; but after my death 
 give them to Ignas, for you have no use for them.' From 
 this I infer that either he made some will in favor of 
 Ignas, or thought of it. Further I know nothing, for I 
 made no inquiry of him. Should there be any new will, 
 it will be known in a couple of days, and Panna Helena 
 of a certainty will not hide it." 
 
 "Do you know that honest Helena well? But no, no\ 
 You do not know her as I know her, and I can be a surety 
 for her. Never suspect her in my presence ! Helena hide 
 a will? Never, sir! " 
 
 "Let the lady be so kind as not to ascribe to me a 
 thought which I have not, and from which I guard myself. 
 The will can in no case be concealed, for it is made before 
 witnesses." 
 
 " And do you see that it is not even possible to conceal 
 it, for it is drawn up before witnesses? I was sure that it 
 could not be concealed; but Pan Zavilovski loved Nitechka 
 so much that even out of regard for her, he could not for- 
 get Ignas. He carried her in his arms when she was so 
 big, see." Here Pani Bronich put one hand above the 
 other, so as to give Pan Stanislav in that manner an idea 
 of how big Lineta might have been at the time; but after a 
 while she added, "And maybe she wasn't even that big." 
 
 Then tLey returned to the rest of the company, who, 
 having finished a survey of the garden, were assembling 
 for dinner. Pan Stanislav, looking at the charming face 
 of Lineta, thought that when Pan Zavilovski carried her
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 537 
 
 in his arms, she might, in fact, have been a nice and pretty 
 child. Suddenly he remembered Litka, whom he carried 
 m his arms also, and inquired, 
 
 "Then are you an old acquaintance of the deceased?" 
 
 "Oh so /'answered Lineta. " About four years. Aunt, 
 how long is it since we became acquainted with Pan 
 Zavilovski?" 
 
 "Of what is that dear head thinking?" exclaimed Pani 
 Bronich. "Ah, my dear, what a happy age! and what a 
 happy period ! " 
 
 During this time Svirski, who was sitting near Panna 
 Ratkovski, felt that it would not be so easy for him to 
 carry out the promise given Marynia as it had seemed to 
 him. Witnesses hindered him, and, still more, a certain 
 alarm about the heart, joined to a loss of usual presence of 
 mind and freedom, "to think," said he to himself, "that 
 I am a greater coward than I supposed." And he did not 
 succeed. He wanted at least to prepare the ground, and 
 he talked of something different from what he wished ; he 
 noticed now that Panna Katkovski had a beautiful neck, and 
 pearl tones about her ears, and a very charming voice 
 but he noticed with astonishment that this made him still 
 more timid. After lunch the whole company sat togethei 
 as if through perversity. The ladies were wearied by the 
 funeral; and when, an hour later, Pani Aneta announced 
 that it was time to return , he felt at once a sensation of 
 disappointment and relief. 
 
 "It is not my fault," thought he; "I had a fixed 
 purpose." 
 
 But when the ladies were taking their places, the feeling 
 of solace changed into sorrow for himself. He thought of 
 his loneliness, and of this, that he had no one on whom to 
 bestow his reputation or his property ; he thought of his 
 sympathy for Panna Ratkovski, of the confidence which she 
 had roused in him, of the sincere feeling which he had con- 
 ceived for her at the first glance, and at the last moment 
 he took courage. 
 
 Giving his arm to the young lady to conduct her to the 
 carriage, he said, 
 
 " Pan Osnovski has asked me to come again to Prytulov, 
 and I will come, but with a brush and palette ; I should 
 like to have your head." 
 
 And he stopped, trying how to pass from that which he n 
 said to that which he wished to say, and feeling at the same
 
 538 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 time that he needed to hurry immensely, for there was no 
 time. But Panna Ratkovski, evidently unaccustomed to 
 this, that any man should occupy himself with her, inquired 
 with unfeigned astonishment, 
 
 Mine ? " 
 
 " Permit me to be your echo," replied Svirski, hurriedly, 
 and in a somewhat stifled voice, " and to repeat that word." 
 
 Panua Eatkovski looked at him as if not understanding 
 what the question was ; but at that moment Pani Aneta 
 called her to the carriage, so Svirski had barely time to 
 press her hand and say, 
 
 " Till we meet again." 
 
 The carriage moved on. Her open parasol hid the face 
 of Panna Ratkovski quickly ; the artist followed with his 
 eyes the departing ladies, and at last gave himself the 
 question, 
 
 " Have I made a declaration, or not ? " 
 
 He was certain, however, that Panna Ratkovski would 
 think, during the whole drive, of what he had told her. He 
 thought, also, that he had answered adroitly, and that he 
 had made good use of her question. In this regard he was 
 satisfied ; but at the same time he was astonished that he 
 felt neither great joy nor fear, and that he had a certain 
 dull feeling that something was lacking in the whole matter. 
 It seemed to him that, in a moment so important, he was 
 too little moved. And he returned from the gate to the 
 house in thoughtfulness. 
 
 Marynia, who had seen the parting from a distance, had 
 red ears from curiosity. Though her husband was not in the 
 room at that moment, she dared not ask first; but Svirski 
 read so clearly in her eyes the question, " Have you pro- 
 posed ? " .that he laughed, and answered just as if she had 
 inquired, 
 
 " Yes, almost. Not completely ; there was no chance for 
 further conversation, so I could not receive an answer. I 
 do not know even whether I was understood." 
 
 Marynia, not seeing in him that animation with which he 
 had spoken to her before, and, ascribing this to alarm, 
 wished to give him consolation, but the entrance of Pan 
 Stanislav prevented her. Svirski too began to take fare- 
 well at once ; but wishing evidently to satisfy her curiosity 
 before he went away, he said, not regarding the presence of 
 Pan Stanislav, 
 
 " In every case I shall be in Prytulov to-morrow, or I shall 
 write a letter; I hope that the answer will be favorable."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 539 
 
 Then he kissed her hands with great friendship, and 
 after a while, found himself alone in his droshky, in clouds 
 of yellow dust, and in his own thoughts. 
 
 As an artist he was so accustomed to seizing in artist 
 fashion various details which intruded themselves on his 
 eyes that he did so even now, but mechanically, without 
 proper consciousness, as if only at the surface of his brain. 
 But in the depth of it he was meditating on everything 
 that had happened. 
 
 " What the devil, Svirski ! " said he to himself ; " what 
 is happening to thee ? Hast thou not passed twenty-five 
 years so as to be able to jump over this ditch ? Has not that 
 happened for which thou wert eager this morning ? Where 
 is thy transport ? thy delight ? Why art thou not shouting, 
 At last ! Thou art about to marry ! Dost understand, old 
 man ? At last ! At last ! " 
 
 But that was vain urging. The internal man remained 
 cold. He understood that what had happened ought to be 
 happiness; but he did not respond to it. Greater and 
 greater astonishment was seizing him. He had acted, it 
 seems, with all knowledge and will and choice. He was 
 not a child, nor frivolous, nor a hysterical person, who 
 knows not what he wants. Having reasoned out, finally, 
 that it would be well, he had not changed his opinion. 
 Panna Ratkovski, too, was evjer that same retiring, " very 
 reliable person ; " why did the thought that she would be 
 the "little woman," desired from of old, not warm him 
 more vigorously ? Why did hope, changed now almost into 
 certainty, not turn into joy ? And at the bottom of his soul 
 there remained a certain feeling of disappointment. 
 
 " What I told her," thought he, " might be adroit, but it 
 was dry. Let a thunderbolt strike me, if it was not, and, 
 besides, it was unfinished. Simply I have no certainty yet, 
 and I do not feel the thing as finished." 
 
 Here the impressions of an artist interrupted the thread 
 of his thought. Sheep scattered on a sloping field visible 
 from the road shaded by distance, and also bathed in the 
 sunlight, seemed on the green background bright spots, 
 with a strong tint of blue fringed with gold. 
 
 " Those sheep are sky blue, impressionists are right 
 a small degree/' muttered Svirski ; " but may the devil 
 take them ! I am goin<j to marry ! " 
 
 And he returned to his meditations. Yes ! 
 did not answer to his hope and expectation. There are
 
 540 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 various thoughts which a man does not wish to confess to 
 himself ; there are feelings also which he does not wish to 
 turn into definite thoughts. So it was with Svirski. He 
 did not love Panna Ratkovski, and here was the direct 
 answer to all the questions which he put to himself. 
 But he dodged this answer as long as he could. He did 
 not like to confess that he took that girl only because he 
 had a great wish to marry. He wanted to explain to him- 
 self that he did not feel the affair finished, which was 
 an evasion. He was not in love ! Others reached love 
 through a woman ; but he wanted to fit a woman to his 
 general internal demand for loving, that is, he went 
 by a road the reverse of the usual one. Others, having a 
 divinity, built for it a church ; he, having a church ready, 
 was bringing into it a divinity, not because he had wor- 
 shipped the divinity with all his power previously, but be- 
 cause it seemed to him not badly fitted for the architecture 
 of the temple. And now he understood why he had shown 
 so much ardor and resolution in the morning, but was so 
 cold at that moment. By this was explained too the im- 
 mense impetus in carrying out his plan, and the want of 
 spiritual " halleluia," after it had been carried out. 
 
 Svirski's astonishment began to pass into sadness. He 
 thought that he would have done better, perhaps, if, instead 
 of thinking so much about a woman, instead of forming 
 theories of what a woman ought to be, he had caught up 
 the first girl who pleased his heart and senses. He under- 
 stood now that a man loves the woman whom he does love, 
 and that he does not fit to her any preconceived ideas, for 
 ideas of love like children can be born only of a 
 woman. All this was the more felt by him since he was 
 conscious that he could love immensely ; and he saw more 
 and more positively that he was not loving as he might 
 love. He remembered what in his time Pan Stanislav had 
 told him in Rome of a certain young doctor, who, trampled 
 by a thoughtless puppet, said : " I know what she is ; 
 but I cannot tear my soul from her." There was love 
 strong as death ; that man loved ! It is unknown why 
 Panna Castelli and Pan Ignas came at once to Svirski's 
 mind ; he remembered also Pan Ignas's face as he had seen 
 it in Prytulov, lost in contemplation and, as it were, rapt 
 into Heaven. 
 
 And again was roused in him the artist, who by whole 
 years of custom takes the place of the man, even when the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 541 
 
 man is thiuking of things the most personal. For a while 
 he forgot himself and Panna Ratkovski, and thought of 
 Pan Ignas's face, and of that which formed specially its 
 most essential expression. Was it a certain concentrated 
 exaltation ? Yes ! but there was something else which 
 was still more essential. 
 
 And suddenly he trembled. 
 
 " A. wonderful thing," thought he ; " that is a tragic 
 head."
 
 542 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 A FEW days later Pan Ignas was summoned by Pan Stan- 
 islav, and went to the city. The young man had a great 
 desire to remain in Prytulov; but Panna Helena wished 
 absolutely that he should be present at the opening of her 
 father's will. He went, therefore, with Pan Stanislav and 
 the grand-nephew of old Pan Zavilovski, the advocate 
 Kononovich, for that purpose to Yasmen. But when Pan 
 Ignas, during the two following days, in his letters to 
 " Nitechka," poured forth on paper only his feelings, and 
 made not the least reference to the will, Pani Brouich, whom 
 such effusions had delighted up to that time, confessed now, 
 as a secret, to Pani Aneta, that that was a stupid way of 
 writing to a betrothed, and that there \vsis.quelque chose de 
 louche in a silence which was as if designed. The first of 
 those letters was sent, it is true, from the city, the second 
 immediately after his arrival in Yasmen ; the old lady in- 
 sisted, however, that in every case Pan Ignas should have 
 mentioned his hopes, at least, for by silence he showed 
 "Nitechka" a lack of confidence, and simply offended her. 
 
 Osnovski insisted, on the contrary, that Pan Ignas was 
 silent concerning his hopes through delicacy toward Lineta; 
 and on this subject it came to a little dispute between 
 him and Pani Bronich, who on that occasion uttered a 
 psychic principle, that men in general have too weak a con- 
 ception of two things : logic and delicacy. " Oh, that is 
 true ! As to logic, it is not your fault, perhaps ; but you are 
 that way, my Yozio, all of you." Xot being able, however, 
 to stay two days in one place, she went to the city on some 
 plausible pretext, so as to find an informant in the question 
 of the will. 
 
 Returning on the following day, she brought with her, 
 first, Pani Mashko, whom she met at the Prytulov station, 
 and who had been wishing for a long time to visit " that 
 dear Anetka," and second, information that no new will of 
 Pan Zavilovski had been found, and that the only and sole 
 heiress of his immense property was Panna Helena. This 
 news had been received in Prytulov already, by the third 
 letter from Pan Ignas, which Lineta had received mean-
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 543 
 
 while ; still its confirmation by Pani Bronicli produced an 
 uncommon impression, so that the arrival of Pani Mashko 
 passed unobserved, as it were. This was all very strange. 
 Those ladies had made the acquaintance of Pan Ignas as a 
 man without property. Lineta became his betrothed when 
 there were no hopes of a will. The affair had been arranged 
 first under the influence of Pani Aneta, who was "firing the 
 boilers, since there was need to move, and move quickly ; " 
 it took place under the influence of the general enthusiasm 
 roused by Pan Ignas's poetry, under the influence of his 
 fame ; through the vanity of Pani Bronich and Lineta, 
 which vanity felt not only satisfied, but borne away by this 
 fact, that that famous and celebrated Zavilovski, who had 
 turned all eyes to himself, was kneeling at the feet of no 
 one else, but just "Nitechka." It took place, finally, for 
 the sake of public opinion, which could not but glorify a 
 young lady who had no thought for property, but only for 
 that mental wealth which Pan Ignas possessed. It is true 
 that, having begun in this way, everything went farther by 
 the force too of that elemental rush, which, when once it has 
 seized people, bears them on, without their will, as the cur- 
 rents of rivers bear objects swept away by them. Be what 
 might, Lineta became the betrothed of a man without prop- 
 erty ; and had it not been for those hopes which rose after- 
 ward, neither she nor Pani Bronich, nor any one else, could 
 have or would have taken it ill of Pan Ignas that he had no 
 inherited fortune. But such is human nature, that just be- 
 cause those hopes had risen, and by rising had made Pan 
 Ignas an imposing match in the full measure, no one could 
 help feeling a certain disappointment when they were blown 
 apart now by the wind of reality. Some were grieved sin- 
 cerely ; others, like Kopovski and like Pani Mashko, who die 
 not know herself why, felt a certain satisfaction at such 
 a turn of affairs, but even such a true friend as Osnovski 
 could not resist some feeling of disappointment. 
 
 Pan Ignas, in his last letter to Lineta, wrote among oth 
 things : " I should like to have wealth for thy sake ; I 
 what meaning has all wealth for me if compared with thee I 
 I say sincerely that I have ceased to think of it ; and 
 know that thou, whose feet walk not on the earth i 
 troubled no more than I am. And, as truly as I love 
 I am not troubled at all. These great assurances whicl 
 make are for me immensely sacred ; hence thou must believe 
 me. Various wants and lacks threaten people in lite, b
 
 544 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 tell thee this simply, I will not give thee to any one. Thou 
 art my golden ! iny one dear child, and lady." 
 
 Lineta showed this letter to Pani Aneta, to Panna Rat- 
 kovski, and on the arrival of her aunt, to her aunt, of course. 
 Pan Iguas had, indeed, not deceived himself as to her in 
 this regard at least, that if in all Prytulov there was no talk 
 of anything but old Pan Zavilovski's will, Lineta would 
 be silent amid those conversations and regrets. It may be 
 that her eyes assumed to a certain degree their former 
 dreamy expression ; maybe at the very corners of her mouth, 
 when people spoke of Pan Ignas, something like a minute 
 wrinkle of contempt might be gathered ; maybe, finally, she 
 talked very much with " aunt " evenings, when, after the 
 general good-night, they went to their own rooms ; but like 
 a person who " does not walk on the earth," never did she 
 raise her voice in this question before people. 
 
 " Koposio," once on a time, when they were left alone for 
 a minute, began to talk with her about it ; but she put her 
 finger first to her own lips, and then pointed from a distance 
 toward his lips, in sign that she did not wish such conver- 
 sation. What is more, even Pani Bronich spoke before her 
 little and guardedly concerning her disappointment. But 
 when " Nitechka " was not in the room, the old woman could 
 not stop the flow to her mouth of that bitterness which had 
 risen in her heart ; this flow carried her a number of times 
 so far that she lacked little of quarrelling with Osnovski. 
 
 Osnovski, casting from his soul that feeling of disappoint- 
 ment which he had not been able to ward off at first, tried 
 now with all his power to decrease the significance of the 
 catastrophe, and show that Ignas was in general an excep- 
 tional match, and even in a financial view, quite a good 
 one. 
 
 " I do not think," said he, " that he would have stopped 
 writing had he been old Zavilovski's heir; but the mere 
 management of such an immense property would have taken 
 so much time that his talent might have suffered. As the 
 question is of Ignas, I remember, aunt, what Henry VIII. 
 said, when some prince threatened Holbein : ' I can make 
 ten lords out of ten peasants, if the fancy comes to me ; but 
 out of ten lords I cannot make one Holbein.' Ignas is an 
 exceptional man. Believe me, aunt, I have always con- 
 sidered Lineta a charming and honest girl, and have al- 
 ways loved her; but she really rose in my eyes only when 
 she appreciated Ignas. To be something in the life of a
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 545 
 
 man like him, is what any woman might envy her. Is it 
 not true, Anetka?" 
 
 " Of course," answered Pani Osuovski ; " it is pleasant for 
 a woman to belong to a man who is something." 
 
 Osnovski seized his wife's hand, and, kissing it, said, half 
 in jest, half in earnest, 
 
 " And dost thou not think that this often torments me, 
 that such a being as thou art should belong to such a zero 
 as Yozio Osnovski ? But it is hard to help it ! The thing 
 has happened ; and, besides, the zero loves much." 
 
 Then he turned to Pani Bronich, 
 
 " Think, aunt," said he, " Iguas has a number of thou- 
 sands of rubles of his own ; and, besides, after his father's 
 death he will have what old Zavilovski secured to him. 
 Poor he will not be." 
 
 " Oh, naturally," answered Pani Bronich, shaking her 
 head contemptuously ; " Nitechka, in accepting Zavilovski, 
 did not look for money, of course ; if she had looked for 
 money, it would have been enough for us to raise a hand at 
 Pan Kanafaropulos." 
 
 "Aunt ! Mercy !" exclaimed Pani Aneta, laughing. 
 
 " But nothing has happened," said Osnovski. " It is sure 
 that Panna Helena will not marry, and the property will 
 pass sometime, if not to Ignas, to his children, that's the 
 whole affair." 
 
 Seeing, however, that the face of Pani Bronich was de- 
 pressed continually, he added after a while, 
 
 " Well, aunt, more agreement with the will of God ! more 
 calmness. Ignas is not an inch less." 
 
 " Of course," answered she, with a tinge of anger; "of 
 course all that changes nothing. Zavilovski in his way has 
 talent; and every one must confess that in his way he forms 
 a match beyond all expectations. Oh, yes ; of this there 
 cannot be two opinions. Of course nothing is to be said of 
 the property, all the more since people tell various things 
 of the ways by which old Pan Zavilovski increased it so 
 greatly. May God be good to him, and pardon him for 
 having deceived me, it is unknown why ! This very day 
 Nitechka and I prayed for his soul. It was difficult to do 
 otherwise. Of course I should prefer that he had not had 
 that inclination to untruth, for it may be a family trait. 
 Nitechka and I would prefer, too, that Pan Ignas had given 
 us less frequently to understand that he would be an heir 
 of Pan Zavilovski."
 
 546 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "I beg pardon most earnestly," interrupted Osnovski, 
 with vigor. " He never gave that to be understood. Aunt 
 will permit this is too much. He did not wish to men- 
 tion it ; aunt asked him in my presence." 
 
 But Fani Bronich was in her career, and nothing could 
 stop her ; so she said, with growing irritation, 
 
 " He did not give Yozio to understand this, but he gave 
 me to understand it. Nitechka can testify. Besides, I 
 said to Yozio, ' Never mind this matter.' Of course nothing 
 has changed ; and if we have some grief, it is at least not 
 from this cause. Yozio has never been a mother ; and as a 
 man he can never understand how much fear we mothers 
 feel at the last moment before giving a child into strange 
 hands. I have learned of late, just now, that Zavilovski, 
 with all his qualities, has a violent temper; and he has. I 
 have always suspected him of something similar ; and that 
 being so, it would be simply death for Nitechka. Pan Po- 
 lanyetski himself did not deny that he has a violent temper. 
 Pan Polauyetski himself, though his friend, so far as men 
 can be friends, gave to understand that his father, too, had 
 a violent temper, and because of it fell into insanity, which 
 may be in the family. I know that Pan Ignas seems to 
 love Nitechka, in as far as men can love truly; but will 
 that love last long ? That he is selfish, Yozio himself will 
 not deny ; for that matter, you are all selfish. Then let 
 Yozio not be astonished that in these recent hours terror 
 seizes me when I think that my darling may fall into the 
 hands of a tyrant, a madman, and an egotist." 
 
 " No." cried Osnovski, turning to his wife ; " as I love 
 thee, one's ears simply wither ; one may simply lose one's 
 head." 
 
 But Pani Aneta seemed to amuse herself with that con- 
 versation as she would in a theatre. The quarrels of her 
 husband with Pani Bronich always amused her ; but now 
 she was carried away more than usual, for Pani Bronich, 
 looking at Osnovski as if with pity, continued, 
 
 "Besides, that sphere! All those Svirskis and Polanyet- 
 skis and Bigiels ! We are blinded in Zavilovski, all of us; 
 but, to tell the truth, is that sphere fit for Nitechka ? 
 Hardly. The Lord God himself made a difference between 
 people ; and from that comes a difference in breeding. 
 Perhaps Yozio does not give himself a clear account of 
 this, for, in general, men are unable to give account to 
 themselves of such matters ; but I tell Yozio that there are
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 547 
 
 shades and shades, which in life may become enormously 
 important. Has Yozio forgotten who Nitechka is, and 
 that if anything pains such a person as Nitechka, if any- 
 thing wounds her, she may pay for it with her life ? Let 
 5fozio think who those people are, speaking among our- 
 selves, such people as the Polanyetskis, and such men as 
 Svirski, and that whole company with which Pan Ignas 
 associates, and with which he will force Nitechka to asso- 
 ciate, perhaps ! " 
 
 " Well, let us take things from that point of view," inter- 
 rupted Osnovski. " Very well ! Let it be so. First of all, 
 then, who was old Pan Zavilovski? That aunt knows 
 clearly enough, even out of regard to her own relations 
 with him. If it is a question, aunt, of the sphere, I have 
 the honor to say that we all, in relation to such people as 
 the Polanyetskis, are parvenus, and are taking liberties 
 with them. I never enter into genealogies ; but since aunt 
 wants them, let aunt have them. Aunt must have heard 
 that the Svirskis are princes. That line which settled in 
 Great Poland dropped the title, but has the right to it ; that 
 is who they are. As to us, my grandfather was a manager 
 in the Ukraine, and I do not think of denying that. Out of 
 what did the Broniches grow ? Aunt knows better than I 
 do. I do not touch that matter ; but, since we are alone, 
 we can speak openly. Of the Castellis, too, aunt knows." 
 
 "The Castellis are descended from Marino Falieri," 
 exclaimed Pani Bronich, with enthusiasm. 
 
 " Beloved aunt ! I remind thee that we are alone." 
 
 " But it depended on Nitechka to become the Marchioness 
 Colimaqao." 
 
 " La vie parisienne!" answered Osnovski. "Aunt 
 knows that operetta. There is a Swiss admiral in it." 
 
 Pani Aneta was amused to perfection ; but it became dis- 
 agreeable to Osnovski that he had raised in his own house 
 reminiscences which were not agreeable to Pani Bronich, 
 hence he added, 
 
 "But why all our talk? Aunt knows how I have al- 
 ways loved Xitechka, and how from the core of my heart 1 
 wished her to be worthy of Ignas." 
 
 But this was pouring oil on the flames, for Pani Bro- 
 nich, hearing this blasphemy, lost the last of her cool blood, 
 and exclaimed, 
 
 - Xitechka worthy of Ignas ? Such a- 
 
 Happily the entrance of Pani Mashko interrupted further 
 conversation. Aunt Bronich was silent, as if indignation
 
 548 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 had stopped the words in her mouth ; Pani Aneta began to 
 inquire of Pani Mashko what the rest of the company were 
 doing, and where she had left them. 
 
 " Pan Kopovski, Lineta, and Stefania remained in the 
 conservatory," answered Pani Mashko ; " the two ladies are 
 painting orchids, and Pan Kopovski amused us." 
 
 " How ? " asked Osnovski. 
 
 " With conversation ; we laughed heartily. He told us 
 that his acquaintance, Pan Vyj, who very likely is a great 
 man at heraldry, told him in all seriousness that there is a 
 family in Poland with the escutcheon, ' Table legs.' " 
 
 "If there is one," muttered Osnovski, humorously, "it 
 is the family of the Kopovskis, beyond doubt." 
 
 " And did Steftsia remain, too, in the conservatory ? " 
 asked Pani Aneta. 
 
 " Yes ; they are sketching together." 
 
 " Dost wish to go to them ? " 
 
 " Let us go." 
 
 But at that moment the servant brought letters, which 
 Pan Osnovski looked over, and delivered. "For Anetka, 
 for Anetka ! " said he ; " this little literary woman has an 
 enormous correspondence always. For you," added he, 
 turning to Pani Mashko; "for aunt; and this is for Steft- 
 sia, somehow a known hand, quite familiar. The ladies 
 will permit me to carry her this letter." 
 
 " Of course ; go," said Pani Aneta, with animation ; " and 
 we will read ours." 
 
 Osnovski took the letter and went in the direction of the 
 conservatory, looking at it, and repeating, "Whence do I 
 know this hand ? as if I know that I have seen this 
 hand." 
 
 In the conservatory he found three young people, sitting 
 under a great arum at a yellow iron table, on which the 
 orchid was standing. Both ladies were painting it in al- 
 bums. Kopovski, a little behind them, dressed in a white- 
 flannel costume and black stockings, was looking over the 
 shoulders of the young ladies into the albums, smoking 
 meanwhile a slender cigarette, which he had taken from an 
 elegant cigarette-case lying near the flower-pot. 
 
 " Good-day ! " said Osnovski. " What do you think of 
 my orchids ? Splendid, are n't they ? What peculiar flowers 
 they are ! Steftsia, here is a letter ; ask the company to 
 excuse thee, and read it, for it seems to me that I know the 
 handwriting, but I cannot in any way remember whose it 
 can be."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 549 
 
 Panna Katkovski opened the letter, and began to read 
 After a while her face changed; a flame passed over her 
 forehead, then paleness, and again a flaine. Osnovski 
 looked at her with curiosity. When she had finished read- 
 ing, she showed him the signature, and said, with a voice 
 which trembled somewhat, 
 
 " See from whom the letter is." 
 
 "Ah!" said Osnovski, who understood everything at 
 once. 
 
 " May I ask thee for a moment's talk ? " 
 
 " At once, my child," answered he, as if with a certain 
 tenderness ; " I will serve thee." 
 
 And they went out of the conservatory. 
 
 " But they have left us alone for once even," said Ko- 
 povski, nai'vely. 
 
 Lineta did not answer; but, taking Kopovski's white- 
 leather cigarette-case, which was lying on the table, began 
 to draw it across her face gently. 
 
 He looked at that beautiful face with his wonderful eyes, 
 beneath which she simply melted. Lineta had known for a 
 long time what to think of him ; his boundless stupidity 
 had no longer any secret from her. Still the exquisiteness 
 and incomparable beauty of that dullard brought her 
 plebeian blood into some uncommon movement. Every hair 
 in his beard had a certain marvellous and irresistible charm 
 for her. 
 
 " Have you noticed that for a long time they are watch- 
 ing us, like I know not whom ?" continued Kopovski. 
 
 But she, feigning not to hear, continued to draw the 
 cigarette-case across her delicate face, and, bringing it nearer 
 and nearer to her lips, said, 
 
 " How soft this is ; how pleasant to the touch ! " 
 
 Kopovski took the cigarette-case ; but he put it to his lips 
 and began to kiss lightly the part which a while before had 
 touched Lineta's face. Then a moment of silence rose be- 
 tween them. 
 
 " We must go from here," said Lineta. 
 
 And, taking the pot of orchids, she wished to put it on 
 steps in the conservatory ; she was not able to do so, how- 
 ever, because of the slope of those steps. 
 
 "Permit me," said Kopovski. 
 
 "No, no!" answered Lineta; "it would fall, and be 
 broken ; I will put it on the other side." 
 
 Saying this, she went with the pot of orchids in her
 
 550 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 hands around to the other side of the steps, where between 
 them and the wall was a narrow passage. Kopovski followed 
 her. There she stepped on to a pile of bricks, and put the 
 orchids on the highest step ; but at the moment when she 
 turned to descend, the bricks moved under her feet, and 
 she began to totter. Just at that moment, Kopovski, who 
 was standing behind, caught her by the waist. 
 
 For a few seconds they remained in that posture, she 
 leaning with her shoulder against his breast, he drawing 
 her toward him. Lineta leaned over more, so that at last 
 her head was on his shoulder. 
 
 " What are you doing ? This is wrong ! ' ' she began to 
 whisper, with panting breast, surrounding him with her hot 
 breath. 
 
 But he, instead of an answer, pressed his mustaches to 
 her lips. All at once her arms embraced his neck with a 
 passionate movement, and she began breathlessly and madly 
 to return his kisses. 
 
 In their ecstasy, neither observed that Osnovski, in re- 
 turning through the open doors of the conservatory, passed 
 along on the soft sand beyond the entrance, and looked at 
 them with a face changed and pale as linen from emotion.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 551 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 MEANWHILE Pan Ignas spent the time between Warsaw 
 and Buchynek, going from one place to the other daily, re- 
 maining now here, now there, just as his work and business 
 commanded. Since his marriage was to take place in the 
 fall, immediately after the season in Scheveningeu, Pan 
 Stanislav told him that it was time to find a dwelling, and 
 furnish it, even in some fashion. He and Bigiel promised 
 every assistance in that affair. Pani Bigiel was to see to 
 the part which pertained to housekeeping. Pan Ignas's 
 presence in Buchynek was necessary also in view of his 
 relations with Panna Helena. Though the will of her 
 father, bearing date a year earlier, made her the only heiress 
 of the whole immense property, she did not hide in the least 
 that she knew that her father did not make another will 
 simply because either he had not foreseen a death so sud- 
 den, or had deferred the matter from day to day, in the 
 manner of old people. She had not the least doubt, how- 
 ever, that her father wished to do something for a man of 
 the same name, and a relative ; and she said openly that 
 she held it a duty to carry out her father's wish. No one, 
 it is true, could foresee in what measure she would decide 
 to do that ; and for her too it was difficult to answer such a 
 question, before she had made an exact inventory of all the 
 properties and moneys; meanwhile, however, she began to 
 present Pan Ignas with everything which, in her opinion, 
 male heirs should inherit. In this way, she gave him a part 
 of the household plate, left after the deceased, as well as a 
 considerable and valuable collection of arms, which the old 
 man prized, and horses greatly esteemed by him, these 
 Polanyetski took on commission ; and, finally, that collection 
 of pipes the fate of which had concerned Kopovski so 
 much. 
 
 Cold, and apparently indifferent to all, intimidating people 
 by her severe and concentrated expression of face, she had 
 for Pan Ignas alone, in her voice and look, a certain some- 
 thing almost motherly; just as if with the property sin' 
 had inherited from her father his inclination for tin- ycmn^ 
 man. He was indeed the only person on earth with whom
 
 552 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 she was connected by bonds of blood, or at least by identity 
 of name. Learning from Pan Stanislav of the steps taken 
 by Pan Ignas toward furnishing a house, she begged him to 
 put in the bank for her a considerable sum in the name of 
 "Pan Ignas," for outlays toward that end, begging, how- 
 ever, not to mention the matter to him immediately. 
 
 Pan Ignas, who had a young and grateful heart, became 
 attached to her quickly, as to an elder sister ; and she felt 
 perfectly that sympathy of two natures, who wish each 
 other well, and feel mutual confidence. Time usually 
 changes original sympathies of that sort into great, enduring 
 friendship, which in evil periods of life may be of great 
 support. But at that juncture, Pan Ignas could devote to 
 her barely a tiny part of his soul ; for he had applied soul, 
 heart, and all his powers, with the entire exclusiveuess of a 
 fanatic in love, to the greater and greater adoration of 
 " Nitechka." 
 
 Meanwhile he was as busy as a fly in a pot, between 
 Buchynek and the city, and even made new acquaintances. 
 One of these was Professor Vaskovski, who had returned 
 from his pilgrimage among the " youngest of the Aryans." 
 He had visited the shores of the Adriatic, and the entire 
 Balkan peninsula; but the state of his health was so pitiful 
 that Pan Stanislav took him for good to Buchynek, to save 
 the poor man from being cheated, and to give him needful 
 care, which in his loneliness he could not have found in 
 another place. Pan Ignas, himself a person of lofty sou^ 
 and ready to grasp every broad idea, though it might seem 
 absurd to common-sense fools, conceived from the first day 
 a love for the old man, with his theory of a historical mis- 
 sion predestined to the youngest of the Aryans. Of this 
 theory he had heard already more than once from Svirski 
 and Polanyetski, and considered it a splendid dream. But 
 it struck him and Svirski and the Polanyetskis that the 
 professor, on returning from his journey, answered only that 
 "No one could escape the service which Christ had pre- 
 ordained to him;" then he gazed forward with his mystic 
 eyes, as if seeking something, or looking for something in 
 infinity, and his old face took on an expression of such 
 deep sorrow, and even of such pain, that no one had the 
 heart to touch that particular question. The doctor called 
 in by Polanyetski declared that the greasy kitchen of the 
 youngest of the Aryans had given the old man a serious 
 catarrh of the stomach, to which was added marasmus
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 553 
 
 senilis. The professor bad, in fact, a serious catarrh of the 
 
 stomach ; but Pan Ignas divined in him something else, 
 
 namely, a desperate struggle between doubt and that' in 
 which he believed, and to which, as a real maniac-idealist, 
 he had devoted a lifetime. Pan Ignas alone understood the 
 whole tragedy of such a final ergo erravi ; and he was doubly 
 moved, first, as a man with a heart, second, as a poet, who 
 at once saw a theme for a poem : the old man before the 
 house, in the sun, sitting on the ruin of his life and beliefs, 
 with the words, " vanity, vanity,'' on bis lips, and waiting for 
 death, whose steps he hears now in the distance. 
 
 But with the professor it was not so bad, perhaps, as Pan 
 Ignas had imagined. "The youngest of the Aryans" 
 might, indeed, have disappointed him; but there remained 
 the faith that Christianity had not uttered its last word yet, 
 and that the coming epoch in the life of humanity would 
 not be anything else than a spreading of the spirit of Christ, 
 and a transfer of it from relations between individuals to 
 general human relations. " Christ in history " did notecase 
 to be for him a vision of the future. He believed even, 
 always that the mission of introducing love into history 
 was predestined to the youngest of the Aryans ; but from 
 the time of his journey a deep sadness had seized him, for 
 he understood that, before that could be realized, not only he, 
 but whole generations, must die of catarrh of the stomach, 
 caused by the indigestible kitchen of principalities on the 
 Danube. 
 
 Meanwhile he shut himself up in himself, and in silence 
 which had more the appearance of life-sorrow than it was 
 in reality. Of his " idea," he hardly ever spoke directly, 
 but the idea was evident. Just as the hand of a clock, 
 stopped at a certain hour, never indicates any hour but 
 that, so the indicator of his thought did not desert that 
 idea; for to various questions he answered with words 
 which were rather connected with it than the thing touch- 
 ing which he was questioned. Whenever they wished to 
 cal) him back to reality, it was needful to rouse him. In 
 dress he neglected himself utterly, and seemed every day to 
 forget more and more that buttons on a vest, for example, 
 are there to be buttoned. YVith his eternal absence of 
 mind ; with his eyes both short-sighted and child-like, reflect- 
 ing in some mechanical way external impressions ; with a 
 face of concern, on which pimples had become still more evi- 
 dent because of defective digestion ; finally, with a neglect
 
 554 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 of dress, and his wonderful trousers, which, it is unknown 
 for what reason, were twice as wide as the trousers of other 
 men, he roused mirth in strangers, and became frequently 
 the object of jokes more or less malicious. It seems that 
 he roused such feelings first of all in the " youngest of the 
 Aryans." In general, they considered him as a man in 
 whose head the staves lacked a hoop ; but some showed 
 him compassion. The word " harmless " struck his ears 
 frequently, but he feigned not to hear it. He felt, how- 
 ever, that at Pan Stauislav's he was comfortable; that no 
 one laughed at him, no one showed him the compassion 
 shown idiots. 
 
 Finally, neither the too greasy kitchen of the "youngest 
 of the Aryans," nor the catarrh of the stomach, had taken 
 away his boundless forbearance, and his kindness to people. 
 He was always that dear old professor who fell into revery, 
 but who recovered his senses when it was a question of 
 others. He loved, as of old, Marynia, Pan Stanislav, Pani 
 Emilia, Svirski, the Bigiels, even Mashko, in a word, all 
 those with whom life had brought him in contact. In gen- 
 eral, he had a certain strange understanding of people; 
 namely, that all, whether willing or unwilling, were serving 
 some purpose, and were like pawns which the hand of God 
 is moving for reasons which He Himself knows. Artists, 
 like Svirski, he esteemed as envoys who " reconcile." 
 
 He looked in the same way on Pan Ignas, whose poetry 
 he had read before. On becoming acquainted with the 
 author, he looked at him as curiously as at some peculiar 
 object ; but in the morning, when the poet had gone to the 
 city, and they began to talk about him during tea, the old 
 man raised his finger, and, turning to Marynia, said, with a 
 look of mystery, 
 
 "Oh, he is God's bird! He does not know what God 
 wrote on his head nor to what He designed him." 
 
 Marynia told him of Pan Ignas's approaching marriage, 
 of his feeling for Panna Lineta, and of her, praising her 
 goodness and beauty. 
 
 " Yes," said the professor, when he had heard all, " you 
 see she too has her mission, and she too is 'chosen.' God 
 commanded her to watch over that flame ; and since she is 
 chosen, she should be honored for having been chosen. Do 
 you see ? Favor is upon her." Then he grew thoughtful 
 and added, "All this is precious for humanity in the 
 future."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 555 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at his wife, as if wishing to say that 
 the professor was dreaming disconnectedly ; but the latter 
 blinked somewhat, and, looking before him, continued, 
 
 " There is in the sky a Milky Way ; and when God wishes, 
 He takes dust from it and makes new worlds. And you see, 
 I think there is likewise a spiritual Milky Way, made up of 
 all that people have ever thought and felt. Everything is 
 in it, what genius has accomplished, what talent has 
 wrought; in it are the efforts of men's minds, the honesty 
 of women's hearts, human goodness, and people's pains. 
 Nothing perishes, though everything turns to dust, for out 
 of that dust, by the will of God, new spiritual worlds are 
 created for people." 
 
 Then he began to blink, weighing what he had said ; after 
 that, as if coming to himself, he looked for the buttons of 
 his vest, and added, 
 
 " But that young woman must have a soiil pure as a tear, 
 since God pointed her out and designated her to be the 
 guardian of that fire." 
 
 Svirski's arrival interrupted further conversation. For 
 Marynia it was not a surprise, as the artist had promised 
 her that either he would come himself or write to inform 
 her what turn his affair had taken. Marynia, seeing him 
 now through the window, was nearly certain that all had 
 ended auspiciously ; but when he had entered the room and 
 greeted every one, he looked at her with such a strange 
 face that she did not know what to divine from it. Evi- 
 dently he wished to speak of the affair, and that immedi- 
 ately ; but he did not like to do so before the old professor 
 and Pan Stanislav. So the latter to whom Mary ma had 
 told everything, came to his aid, and, pointing t 
 
 BW She needs a walk greatly ; take her to the garden, for I 
 know that she and you have some words to say. 
 
 Tfter a while they found themselves in the alley among 
 the white poplars. They walked a time in silence, he 
 
 wayTng on'Ms broad 1/ps of an athlete and peeking for 
 something from which to begin she bent somewhat , f o 
 ward, with her kindly face full of curiosity. oth 
 
 ' 
 
 to have secrets from him."
 
 556 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Of course not," said Svirski, kissing her hand. " You 
 did well. I am not ashamed of that, just as I am not 
 ashamed of this, that I got a refusal." 
 
 "Impossible ! You are joking," said Marynia, halting. 
 
 "I give you my word that I am not." And, seeing the pain 
 which the news caused her, he began to speak as if with 
 concern. "But don't take it more to heart than I do. That 
 happened which had to happen. See, I have come; I am 
 standing before you ; I have not fired into my forehead, and 
 have no thought of doing so ; but that I got a basket 1 is 
 undoubted." 
 
 " But why ? what did she answer you ? " 
 
 " Why ? what did she answer me ? " repeated Svirski. 
 "You see, just in that is hidden something from which 
 there is a bitter taste in my mouth. I confess to you sin- 
 cerely that I did not love Panna Ratkovski deeply. She 
 pleased me ; they all please me. I thought that she would 
 be an honest and grateful heart, and I made a declaration 
 here ; but more through calculation, and because it was 
 time for me. Afterward I had even a little burning at 
 the heart. There was even a moment when I said to my- 
 self, 'Thy declaration in Buchyuek was not precise enough; 
 better put it forward another corner.' I grew shamefaced 
 ' What the deuce ! ' thought I ; ' thou hast crossed the 
 threshold with one foot ; go over with the other.' And I 
 wrote her a letter, this time with perfect precision; and 
 see what she has written as an answer." 
 
 Then he drew a letter from his coat-pocket, and said, 
 before he began to read it, ' 
 
 " At first there are the usual commonplaces, which you 
 know. She esteems me greatly; she would be proud and 
 happy (but she prefers not to be) ; she nourishes for me 
 sincere sympathy. (If she will nourish her husband as she 
 does that sympathy, he will not be fat.) But at the end she 
 says as follows : 
 
 " ' I have not the power to give you my heart with such delight as 
 you deserve. I have chosen otherwise ; and if I never shall be happy, 
 I do not wish at least to reproach myself hereafter with not having 
 been sincere. In view of what has happened here I cannot write 
 more ; but believe me that I shall be grateful to you all inv life for 
 your confidence, and henceforth I shall pray daily that God permit 
 you to find a heart worthy of you, and to bless you all your life.' 
 
 "That is all." 
 
 1 Was rejected.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 557 
 
 A moment of silence followed ; then Svirski said, 
 
 " So far as I am concerned, these are empty words ; but 
 they mean, I love another." 
 
 "That is the case, I suppose," replied Marynia, sadly. 
 " Poor girl ! for that is an honest letter." 
 
 " An honest letter, an honest letter ! " cried Svirski. 
 " They are all honest, too. That is why it is a little bitter 
 for me. She does n't want me. All right ; that is permitted 
 to every one. She is in love ; that, too, is permitted. But 
 with whom is she in love ? Not with Osnovski or Pan 
 Ignas, of course. With whom, then ? With that head of a 
 walking-stick, that casket, that pretty man, that tailor's 
 model, with that ideal of a waiting-maid. You have seen 
 such beautiful gentlemen depicted on pieces of muslin? 
 That is he, perfectly. If he should stand in a barber's 
 window, young women would burst in the glass. When he 
 wishes, he puts on a dress-coat ; when not, he goes so, and 
 all right ! You remember what I said of him, that he was 
 a male houri? And this is bitter, and this is ill-tasting " 
 (he spoke with growing irritation, accenting with special 
 emphasis the word is), "and this speaks badly of women; 
 for be thou, man, a Newton, a Kaphael, a Napoleon, and 
 wish thou as thy whole reward one heart, one woman's 
 head, she will prefer some lacquered Bibisi. That 's how 
 they are." 
 
 "Not all women, not all. Besides, as an artist, you 
 should know what feeling is. Something falls on a person, 
 and that is the end of all reasoning." 
 
 " True," said Svirski, calmly ; " I know that not all 
 women are so. And as to love, you say that something 
 falls, and there is an end. Perhaps so. That is like a 
 disease. But there are diseases by which the more noble 
 kinds of creatures are not affected. There is, for instance, 
 a disease of the hoofs. You will permit me to say that it 
 is needful to have hoofs in order to get this^ disease. But 
 there has never been a case that a dove fell in love with a 
 hoopoo, though a hoopoo is a very nice bird. You see that 
 doesn't happen to the dove. Hoopoos fall ; n love with 
 hoopoos. And let them fall in love for themselves, if only 
 they will not pretend to be doves. That is all 
 Eemember how I spoke once against Panna Castelh at 
 Bigiel's. And still she chose Pan Ignas at last. For me, 
 it is a question of those false aspirations, that insincerity, 
 and those phrases. If thou art a hoopoe's daughter, have
 
 558 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 the courage to own it. Do not pretend ; do not lie ; do not 
 deceive. I, a man of experience, would have wagered my 
 neck on this, that Panna Ratkovski is simply incapable 
 of falling in love with Kopovski ; and still she has. I am 
 glad that here it is not a question of me, but of comedy, of 
 that conventional lying, and not of Panna Ratkovski, 
 but of this, that such a type as Kopovski conquers." 
 
 " True," said Marynia ; " but we ought to find out why 
 all this has become entangled somehow." 
 
 But Svirski waved his hand. "Speaking properly," said 
 he, " it is rather unravelled. If she had married me ! 
 surely I should have carried her at last in my arms. I give 
 you my word. In me immensely much tenderness is accu- 
 mulated. I should have been kind to her, and it would have 
 been pleasant for both of us. I am also a little sorry for it. 
 Still, she is not the only one on earth. You will find some 
 honest soul who will want me ; and soon, my dear lady, for 
 in truth at times I cannot endure as I am. Will you not ? " 
 
 Marynia began to be amused, seeing that Svirski himself 
 did not take the loss of Panna Ratkovski to heart so very 
 greatly. But, thinking over the letter a little more calmly, 
 she remembered one phrase, to which she had not turned 
 attention at first, being occupied entirely with the refusal, 
 and she was disquieted by the phrase. 
 
 " Have you noticed," asked she, " that in one place, she 
 says, ' After what has happened here I cannot write more ' ? 
 Can you think what that may be ? " 
 
 " Perhaps Kopovski has made a declaration." 
 
 "No; in such a case she would have written more ex- 
 plicitly. If she has become attached to him, she is a poor 
 girl indeed, for likely she has no property, and neither is 
 Pan Kopovski rich, they say ; therefore he would hardly 
 decide " 
 
 " True," said Svirski ; " you know that that came to my 
 mind, too. She is in love with him, that is undoubted ; 
 but he will not marry her." Then he stopped, and said, 
 "In such a case, why is he staying there ? " 
 
 " They amuse themselves with him, and he amuses him- 
 self," answered Marynia, hurriedly, while turning away 
 her face somewhat, so that Svirski might not notice her 
 confusion. 
 
 And she answered untruly. Since Pan Stanislav had 
 shared his views with her touching Kopovski's relations 
 with Pani Osnovski, she had thought of them frequently j
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 559 
 
 the stay of the young man in Prytulov seemed to her sus- 
 picious more than once, and explaining it by the presence 
 of Panna Katkovski dishonest. This dishonesty was in- 
 creased, if Panna Katkovski had fallen in love really with 
 Kopovski. But all those intrigues might come to the sur- 
 face any moment ; and Marynia thought with alarm then 
 whether the words of Panna Katkovski "after what has 
 happened here" had not that meaning precisely. In 
 such a case it would be a real catastrophe for that honest 
 Pan Osnovski and for Panna Steftsia. 
 
 Keally everything might be involved in a tragic manner. 
 
 " I will go to-morrow to Prytulov," said Svirski ; " I 
 wish to visit the Osnovskis, just to show that I cherish no 
 ill-feelings. If anything has happened there really, or if 
 any one has fallen ill, I shall discover it and let you know. 
 Pan Ignas is not there at this moment." 
 
 "No. Pan Ignas is in the city. To-morrow, or after 
 to-morrow surely, he will come here, or go to Yasmen. 
 Stas, too, is preparing for the city to-day. Sister Aniela is 
 ill, and we wish to bring her here. Since I cannot go, 
 Stas is going." 
 
 "Sister Aniela? That one whom your husband calls 
 Pani Emilia, a Fra Angelico face, a perfectly sainted 
 face, a beautiful face ! I saw her perhaps twice at your 
 house. Oh, if she were not a religious ! " 
 
 " She is sick, the poor thing. She can barely walk. She 
 has disease of the spine, from overwork." 
 
 " Oh, that is bad," said Svirski. " You will have the pro- 
 fessor, and that poor woman But what kind people you 
 are!" 
 
 " That is Stas," replied Marynia. 
 
 At that moment Pan Stanislav appeared at the end of the 
 walk, and approached them with a hurried step. 
 
 "I hear that you are going to the city to-day," said 
 Svirski ; " let us go together." 
 
 "Agreed !" 
 
 And, turning to his wife, he said, 
 
 " Marynia, hast thou not walked enough ? Wilt thou lean 
 on me ? " 
 
 Marynia took his arm, and they walked to the veranda 
 together ; after that she went in to give command to bring 
 the afternoon tea. 
 
 " I have received a wonderful despatch," said Pan Stan- 
 islav; "I did not wish to show it before my wife. Osnov-
 
 560 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 
 
 ski asks me where Ignas is, and asks that I go to the city 
 on his affair. What can that be ? " 
 
 " It is a wonderful thing," answered Svirski. " Panna 
 Batkovski writes me that something has happened there." 
 
 " Has any one fallen ill ? " 
 
 "They would have sent for Pan Ignas directly. If it 
 were Panna Castelli or Pani Bronich, they would summon 
 him at once." 
 
 " But if Osnovski did n't wish to frighten him, he would 
 telegraph to me." 
 
 And both looked each other in the eyes with alarm.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 501 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 NEXT day, half an hour after Pan Stanislav's arrival, 
 Osnovski rang at his house. At the sound of the bell, Pan 
 Stanislav, who had been in great alarm since the day before, 
 went himself to the door. He had admitted for some time 
 that a bomb might burst in Prytulov any day ; but he strug- 
 gled in vain with his thoughts, to discover what connection 
 the explosion might have with Pan Ignas. 
 
 Osnovski pressed his hand at greeting with special force, 
 as is done in exceptional circumstances; and when Pan 
 Stanislav invited him to his study, he asked on the way, 
 
 " Are you living in Buchynek ? " 
 
 " I am ; we are perfectly alone." 
 
 In the study, Osnovski, when he had sat in the armchair 
 pointed out to him, bent his head and was silent for a while, 
 breathing hurriedly meantime ; for in consequence of exces- 
 sive exercise he was affected somewhat with distention of 
 the lungs. At present emotion, and the steps, obstructed his 
 breath still more. Pan Stanislav waited patiently for some 
 time ; at last his inborn curiosity conquered, and he asked, 
 
 " What has happened ? " 
 
 " A misfortune has happened," said Osnovski, in deep 
 sorrow. " Ignas's marriage is broken off." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Those are things so disagreeable that it would be better 
 for Ignas perhaps not to know the reasons. For a time, I 
 even 'hesitated to mention them. But he ought to know all ; 
 for this is a question of more importance than his self 
 Indignation and disgust may help him to bear the misfortune. 
 The marriage is broken, for Panna Castelh is not worthy ot 
 such a man as Pan Ignas; and if to-day there could be j 
 talk of renewing the relation, I would be the first 
 it decisively." . , , ,, 
 
 Here Osnovski began to catch breath again; 1 
 Stanislav, who had been listening as if fixed I 
 burst out suddenly, 
 
 "By the dear God, what has happened f 
 
 30
 
 562 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " This has happened, that those ladies went abroad three 
 days ago, with Kopovski as the betrothed of Panna 
 Castelli." 
 
 Pan Stauislav, who a moment before had sprung up from 
 the chair, sat down again. On his face, with all its emotion 
 and alarm, was reflected unspeakable astonishment. He 
 looked for some time at Osnovski, and then, as if unable to 
 collect his thoughts, said, 
 
 " Kopovski ? and has Panna Castelli gone too? " 
 
 But Osnovski was too much occupied with the affair itself 
 to turn attention to the particular form of Pan Stanislav's 
 inquiry. 
 
 " It is unfortunate," said he ; " you know that I am re- 
 lated to those ladies : my mother was a sister of Pani 
 Bronich, and also of Lineta's mother ; and for a time we 
 were reared together. You will understand that I would 
 rather spare them. But let that go. Our relations are 
 broken ; and, besides, if Lineta were my own sister, I would 
 say what I say now. As to Pan Ignas, since my wife and 
 I are going, and that to-day I may not find him, I will 
 even say openly that I lack courage to talk with him ; but 
 I will tell you what I saw. You, as his near friend, may be 
 able to soften the blow; he should know everything, for in 
 a misfortune of this kind, there is no better cure than 
 disgust." 
 
 Here he began to tell Pan Stanislav what he had seen in 
 the conservatory. Excited himself, he lost breath at 
 moments, but was unable to resist a certain astonishment 
 at sight of the feverishness with which Pan Stanislav 
 listened. He had hoped for cool blood in the man ; he 
 could not, of course, divine that Pan Stanislav had personal 
 reasons, in virtue of which a narrative of that v sort acted 
 more powerfully on his nerves than would news even of the 
 death of Pan Ignas or Panna Castelli. 
 
 " At the first moment I lost my head," continued Osnov- 
 ski ; " I am not hasty, but how I avoided breaking his bones, 
 I know not. Perhaps I remembered that he was my guest ; 
 perhaps, since it is a question here of something more im- 
 portant than he, I thought of Ignas ; perhaps I thought of 
 nothing. I lost my head, and went out. After a time I re- 
 turned, and told him to follow me. I saw that he was pale, 
 but decided. In my own room I told him that he had acted 
 unworthily ; that he had abused the hospitality of an honor- 
 able house; and that Lineta was a wretch, for whom I had
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 563 
 
 not sufficient words of contempt ; that, by this same act, her 
 marriage with Pan Ignas was broken, but that I would 
 force him to marry her, though I had to go to extremities. 
 Here it turned out that they must have taken counsel dur- 
 ing the interval in which I left them alone ; for he told me 
 that he had been in love with Lineta a long time, and that 
 he was ready to marry her at any moment. As to Pan 
 Ignas, I felt that Kopovski was repeating words which 
 Lineta had dictated, for he told me that which he could not 
 have come at himself. He said that he was ready to give 
 every satisfaction, but that he was not bound to count with 
 Pan Ignas, for he had no obligations touching him : ' Panna 
 Lineta has chosen me finally; that,' said he, 'is all the 
 worse for him, but it is her affair.' What was going on 
 meanwhile between aunt and Lineta, I cannot tell; it is 
 enough that before I had finished with Kopovski, Aunt 
 Bronich rushed in like a fury, with reproaches, saying that 
 I and my wife had not permitted Lineta to follow the 
 natural impulse of her heart ; that we had thrust her on 
 Pan Ignas, whom she had never loved; that Lineta had 
 cried whole nights, and that she would have paid for that 
 marriage with her life ; that what happened now was by the 
 express will of God, and so for a whole hour. We are to 
 blame; Pan Ignas is to blame, they alone are faultless." 
 
 Here Osnovski rubbed his forehead with his hand, and 
 said, 
 
 " I am thirty-six years of age ; but before this affair I 
 could not even imagine what woman's perversity may be. 
 I cannot understand yet such an inconceivable power of 
 perverting things, of placing them bottom upward. I un- 
 derstand what the situation was ; I understand that they 
 thought everything finished with Pan Ignas, even for this 
 alone, that I 'hindered, and that there was no one left for 
 them save Kopovski. But the ease with which white was 
 made black, and black white ; that lack of moral sense, that 
 absence of truth and justice, that egotism without bound 
 or bottom. The deuce might take them were it not 
 Ignas. He would have been most unhappy with them ; I 
 what a blow for a man of such nature, and so much in love : 
 what a deception ! But Lineta! Who could have supposed ? 
 Kopovski, such a fool, such a fool ! And that young woman 
 thought to be so full of impulses ; she who a few week: 
 fore exchanged rings, and gave her word ! And 
 betrothed of Pan Ignas ! As God lives, a man might 1 
 his senses."
 
 564 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " A man might lose his senses," repeated Pan Stauislav, 
 as an echo. 
 
 A moment of silence followed. 
 
 " But is it long since this happened? " asked Pan 
 Stanislav, at last. 
 
 " Three days ago they went to Scheveningen together. 
 They started that very day; Kopovski had a passport. See 
 how. a supreme ass may still have some cunning. He had 
 a passport ready, for he pretended to pay court to Pahna 
 Eatkovski, my cousin, and to be ready to go abroad with 
 us ; he pretended to be courting this one, so as to have the 
 chance of turning the other one's head. Ai, poor Pan 
 Ignas, poor man! I give you my word, that if he had been 
 my brother, I should not have had more sympathy for him. 
 Better, better, that he had not bound himself to such a 
 Lineta ; but what a crash ! " 
 
 Here Osnovski took out a handkerchief and rubbed his 
 glasses, blinking meanwhile with a suffering and helpless 
 expression of face. 
 
 "Why did you not inform us earlier?" inquired Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 " Why did I not inform you earlier? Because my wife 
 fell ill. Nervous attacks God knows what ! You will 
 not believe how she took it to heart. And no wonder ! 
 Such a woman as she is and in our house ! With her 
 sensitiveness, that was a blow, for it was a deception on the 
 part of Lineta, whom she loved so much; and her sorrow 
 for Ignas, and that contact with evil, and her disgust ! On 
 such a pure and sensitive nature as hers is, that was more 
 than was needed. At the first moments I thought that she 
 would be dangerously ill, and even now I say, God grant 
 that it have no fatal effect on her nerves! We simply 
 cannot give an account to ourselves of what takes place in 
 a soul like hers at the very sight of evil." 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked carefully at Osnovski, bit his 
 mustache, and was silent. 
 
 "I sent for the doctor," continued Osnovski, after a while, 
 "and lost my head a second time. Happily, Stefania 
 Ratkovski was there, and that worthy Pani Mashko. Both 
 occupied themselves with Anetka so earnestly that I shall 
 be grateful to them for a lifetime. Pani Mashko seems 
 cold, but she is such a cordial person " 
 
 "I judge simply," said Pan Stanislav, wishing to turn 
 the conversation from Pani Mashko, "that if old Zavilovski
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 565 
 
 had left his property to Ignas, all this would not have 
 happened." 
 
 "Perhaps not; but for me again it is not subject to 
 doubt that if Lineta had married Ignas, and even if he owned 
 all Pan Zavilovski's property, her instinct would attract her 
 toward as many Kopovskis as she might chance to meet in 
 her lifetime; she is that kind of soul. But I understand 
 some points; I have said that it is possible to lose one's 
 mind at the thought that things are as they are, but I give 
 a partial account to myself of what has happened. Hers 
 is too common a nature to love really such a man as Pan 
 Ignas; she needs Kopovskis. But they talked into her 
 various lofty impulses, and finally she talked into herself 
 that which did not exist. They seized on Ignas through 
 vanity, through self-love, because of public opinion, and 
 because they had no true knowledge of themselves; but 
 what is insincere cannot last. From the moment when 
 their vanity was satisfied, Ignas ceased to interest those 
 ladies. Then they were afraid that with him, perhaps, 
 they would not have such a life as alone is of worth to 
 them; perhaps he, with his too lofty style, began to weary 
 them. Add to this the story of the will, which, without 
 being certainly the main cause of the catastrophe, dimin- 
 ished Pan Ignas in their eyes; add, before all, the instincts 
 of Lineta's nature; add Kopovski, and you have an answer 
 to all. There are women like Pani Polanyetski or my 
 Anetka; there are women, also, like Lineta and her aunt." 
 
 Here Osnovski was silent again for a time; then he 
 said, 
 
 "I see the regret and indignation of your "wife, and I 
 am sorry that you have not seen how this affected mine 
 or even Pani Mashko. Yes, there are women and women ; 
 but I tell you that we ought to thank God every day on 
 our knees for having given us such wives as we have." 
 And his voice trembled with emotion. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, though for him it was a question mainly 
 of Pan Ignas, was simply astounded that a man who, some 
 minutes before, understood things so profoundly and well, 
 could be so naive. A bitter smile came on him, too, at 
 mention of Pani Mashko's indignation. In general, he was 
 seized by a feeling of a certain crushing irony of life, the 
 whole immensity of which he had never seen before 
 distinctly. 
 
 "Will you not see Ignas?" asked he, after a while.
 
 566 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "I tell you plainly that I do not feel sufficient courage; 
 to-day I return to Prytulov, and to-day we will go from 
 our station. I must take my wife abroad, first, because 
 she herself begged me tearfully to do so, and second, per- 
 haps her health will be restored by change of air. We 
 will go somewhere to the seaside, only not to Scheveningen. 
 where they went with Kopovski. But I have a great re- 
 quest to make of you. You know how I love and value 
 Ignas? Let me know by letter how the poor man receives 
 the news, and what happens to him. I would ask the favor 
 of Svirski, but I may not see him." 
 
 Then Osnovski covered his face and said, 
 
 "Ai! how sad all this is, how sad!" 
 
 " Very well," said Pan Stanislav ; " send me your address, 
 and I will report to you how matters turn. But since the 
 grievous mission falls to me of telling Ignas what has 
 happened, lighten it for me. It is necessary that he 
 receive information not from a third person, or a fourth, 
 but from some one who saw everything. If he hears of 
 the event from me, he may think that I represent the affair 
 inaccurately. In such cases a man grasps at every shadow 
 of a hope. Sit down and write to him. I will give him 
 your letter in support of what I tell him; otherwise he 
 may be ready to fly after them to Scheveningen. I con- 
 sider such a letter indispensable." 
 
 "Will he not come here soon?" 
 
 "No; his father is sick, and he is with him. He thinks 
 that I shall be here only in the afternoon. Write to him 
 surely." 
 
 "You are right, perfectly right," said Osnovski. And 
 he sat down at the writing-desk. 
 
 "Irony of life, irony of life!" thought Pan Stanislav; 
 "bloody irony is this which has met Pan Ignas. What 
 is such a person as Panna Castelli, with her bearing of a 
 swan, and her instincts of a chambermaid, that ' chosen 
 of God,' as Vaskovski said only yesterday? What is Pani 
 Bronich, and Osnovski, with faith in his wife, and the 
 nervous attacks of that wife, caused by the mere contact 
 with evil, of such a pure soul, and the indignation of Pani 
 Mashko? Nothing but a ridiculous human comedy, in 
 which some are deceiving others, and others deceiving 
 themselves; nothing but deceived and deceivers; nothing 
 but mistakes, blindness, and errors, and lies of life, and 
 victims of error, victims of deceit, victims of illusions;
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 567 
 
 a complication without issue; a ridiculous, farcical, and 
 desperate irony, covering the feelings, the passions, and 
 
 hopes of people, just as snow covers fields in winter 
 
 and that is life." 
 
 These thoughts were for Pan Stanislav more grievous 
 because, rising on a basis purely personal, they became at 
 once a kind of reckoning with his conscience. He was 
 enough of an egoist to refer everything to himself; and 
 he was not fool enough not to see that in that most ironical 
 human comedy he was playing a role immensely abject. 
 His position was of that sort that he wished with all the 
 power of his breath to hiss that Panna Castelli; and still 
 he understood that if there was any one who was not free 
 to judge her, it was he. In what was he better? In what 
 was he less vile? She had betrayed a man for a fool; he 
 had betrayed his wife for a brainless puppet. She had 
 followed her instincts of a milliner; he had followed his in- 
 stincts of an ape. But she had trampled on artificial 
 phrases merely, with which she deceived herself and others; 
 he had trampled on principles. She had betrayed confi- 
 dence, and broken her word; he had betrayed confidence 
 also, and broken more than a word, lie had broken an 
 oath. And in view of this what can he say? Has he the 
 right to condemn her? If there is no way to justify her, 
 if he is ready to acknowledge that it would be unjust and 
 deserving of indignation for a person like her to become 
 the wife of Pan Ignas, with what right is he the husband 
 of Marynia? If he can find even one word of condemna- 
 tion for Panna Castelli, and it is impossible not to find 
 it, and he wishes to be consistent, he should separate 
 from Marynia, which he will never have either the will or 
 the power to do. There is a vicious circle for you. Pan 
 Stanislav had passed many bitter moments because of his 
 success ; but this moment was so grievous that it even filled 
 him with amazement. By degrees it became simply a 
 torture. At last, through the simple instinct of self 
 preservation, he began to seek for something to give him 
 even momentary relief. But in vain did he say to himse 
 that such people as Kopovski would not have taken li 
 position to heart so. That was the same consolation to 
 him as if he had thought that a cat or a horse would not 
 have taken it to heart so either. In vain he remembered 
 the words of Balzac: "Infidelity, when undiscovered, is 
 nothing; when discovered, it is a trifle." That s a lie,
 
 568 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 repeated he, gritting his teeth, "a pleasant nothing, which 
 burns so!" He understood, it is true, that behind the 
 fact itself there may be something which heightens or 
 lessens its criminality; and he understood also that in 
 his case all the circumstances are of a kind to make the 
 fault immense and unpardonable. "Here," thought he, 
 "it takes from me the right of judging, the right of serv> 
 ing with my conscience. Those women sacrificed a man 
 of the loftier kind for an idiot; they trampled him; they 
 pushed him into misfortune, into tragedy, which may 
 break him; they did this in a mean and abject manner, 
 and I cannot, even in my soul, brand such a woman as 
 Panna Castelli." And never before had the truth become 
 to him so nearly tangible that as a man for certain crimes 
 is deprived of a share in public life, so he now had become 
 deprived of a share in moral life. He had had remorse 
 enough already, but now he saw still new desolations, 
 which he had not noted at first. The more he thought 
 over the tragedy of Pan Ignas, and took in its extent with 
 growing clearness, the more he was seized by a dull alarm, 
 and a kind of prescience that in virtue of a higher and mys- 
 terious logic, something terrible must happen in his fate 
 as well. For the man who bears in his system the germs 
 of mortal disease, death is a question of time simply. 
 
 At last, however, he found this relief, that his thoughts 
 turned exclusively to the present, and to Pan Ignas. How 
 will Pan Ignas receive the news? How will he bear it? In 
 view of the man's" exaltation, in view of his deep, blind 
 faith in Lineta, and the love which he feels for her, these 
 questions were simply terrible. " Everything in him will 
 be broken; all will slide away from under his feet in a 
 moment," thought Pan Stanislav. It seemed to him that 
 there was something repulsive and monstrous in this, that 
 even those relations of life which do not bear in them 
 germs of tragedy, and which ought to end well, end badly 
 without any reason; and that life is, as it were, a forest in 
 which misfortunes hunt a man more venomously than dogs 
 hunt a wild beast, for they hunt in silence. Pan Stanislav 
 felt suddenly that besides faith in himself, which he had 
 lost already, there might fail in him various other things 
 too, which are more important, because they are more 
 fundamental. 
 
 In this moment, however, he thought more of Pan Ignas 
 than of anything else. He had a good heart, and Pan
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL 569 
 
 Ignas was near him; hence he was touched sincerely by 
 his misfortune. "But that man is simply writing his 
 sentence," thought he, as he heard the squeak of Osnovski's 
 pen in the next room. "Poor fellow! And this is so 
 undeserved." 
 
 Osnovski finished the letter at last, and, opening the 
 door, said, 
 
 " I have written guardedly, but written the whole truth. 
 May God give him strength now! Could I think that I 
 should have to send him such news! " 
 
 But under the sincere sorrow was evident, as it were, a 
 certain satisfaction with his own work. Clearly he judged 
 that he had succeeded in writing better than he had 
 expected. 
 
 "And now I repeat once again an earnest prayer: send 
 me even a couple of words about Ignas. Oh, if this were 
 not so irreparable ! " said he, extending his hand to Pan 
 Stanislav. "Till we meet again! till we meet again! 1 
 will write to Ignas, too, but now I must go, for my wife is 
 waiting. God grant us to see each other in happier times! 
 Till we meet! A most cordial greeting to the lady," and 
 he went out. 
 
 ''What is to be done?" thought Pan Stanislav. "Limit 
 myself to sending the letter to Pan Ignas in his lodgings, 
 or look for him, or wait for him here? It would be well 
 not to leave him alone at such a time; but I must return in 
 the evening to Marynia, so that he will be alone in any 
 case. Besides, who can hinder him from hiding? In his 
 place, I should hide too, I must go to Pani Emilia's." 
 
 He felt so tired from that sudden tragedy, from thoughts 
 about himself, and thoughts about the difficult role which 
 he had to play with Pan Ignas, that he remembered with 
 some satisfaction that he must go to Pani Emilia's and 
 take her to Buchynek. For a moment he was tempted to 
 defer the interview with Pan Ignas, and the delivery of 
 the letter, till the following day; but it occurred to him 
 that if Pan Ignas did not find him at home, he might go to 
 Buchynek. 
 
 "Better let him know everything here," thought h 
 " in view of Marynia's condition, I must keep everythin 
 perfectly secret from her, both what has happened, anr 
 what may happen hereafter. I must warn every one 1 
 silent. Pan I^nns would do better to go abroad; I cou 
 tell Marynia that he is in Scheveningen, and later, tl 
 they disagreed and separated there."
 
 570 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Now again he began to walk with long strides through 
 the room, and repeat, 
 
 " The irony of life ! the irony of life ! " 
 
 Then bitterness and reproaches flamed in on his soul 
 with a new current. He was seized by a wonderful feel- 
 ing, as it were, of some kind of responsibility for what 
 had happened. "Deuce take it!" repeated he: "but 1 am 
 not to blame at least in this matter." After a while, 
 however, it came to his head that if he were not to blame 
 personally, he, in every case, was a stick from the same 
 forest as Panna Castelli, and that such as he had infected 
 that social-moral atmosphere in which such flowers might 
 spring up and blossom. At this thought he was carried 
 away by savage anger. 
 
 The bell in the entrance was heard now. Pan Stanislav 
 was a man of courage, but at the sound of that bell he felt 
 his heart beat in alarm. He had forgotten his promise to 
 lunch with Svirski, and at the first moment he was sure 
 that Pan Ignas was coming. He recovered only when he 
 heard the voice of the artist, but he was so wearied that 
 Svirski's coming was disagreeable. 
 
 "isow he will let out his tongue; he will talk," thought 
 he, with displeasure. 
 
 But he decided to tell Svirski all, for the cffair could 
 not be kept secret in any case. The point for him was 
 rhat Svirski, if he visited Buchynek, should know how to 
 bear himself before Marynia. He was mistaken in sup- 
 posing that Svirski would annoy him with theories about 
 ungrateful hearts. The artist took the matter, not from 
 the side of general conclusions, but that of Pan Ignas. To 
 conclusions he was to come later; at present, while listen- 
 ing to the narrative, he only repeated, "A misfortune! 
 May God protect! " But at times, too: "May the thunder- 
 bolts crush!" when his fists of a Hercules were balled in 
 anger. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was carried away somewhat, and attacked 
 Panna Castelli without mercy, forgetting that he was 
 uttering thereby a sentence on himself. But, in general, 
 the conversation gave him relief. He regained at last 
 his usual power of management; he concluded that in no 
 case could he leave Pan Ignas at such a moment, so he 
 begged Svirski to take his place, conduct Pani Emilia to 
 Buchynek, and excuse to Marynia his absence with count- 
 ing-house duties. Svirski, who had no reason now to visit
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 571 
 
 Prytulov, agreed very willingly, and since the carriage 
 engaged by Pan Stanislav had arrived, both drove to Pani 
 Emilia's. 
 
 Labor beyond her strength labor which, as a Sister of 
 Charity, she had to fulfil brought on a disease of the spine. 
 They found her emaciated and changed, with a trans- 
 parent face and eyelids half closed. She walked yet, but 
 by leaning on two sticks and not having full use of her 
 lower limbs. As labor had brought her near life, so sick-- 
 ness had begun to remove her from it. She was living in the 
 circle of her own thoughts and reminiscences, looking at 
 the affairs of people somewhat as though a dream, some- 
 what as from the other shore. She suffered very little, 
 which the doctors considered a bad sign ; but, as a Sister 
 of Charity, she had learned something of various diseases, 
 and knew that there was no help for her, or, at least, that 
 help was not in human power, and she was calm. To Pan 
 Stanislav's inquiries she answered, raising her eyelids with 
 effort, 
 
 " I walk poorly ; but it is well for me that way." 
 
 And it was well for her. One moral scruple alone gave 
 her trouble. In her soul she believed most profoundly that 
 were she to visit Lourdes she would regain her health 
 surely. She did not wish to go because of the remoteness 
 of Lourdes from Litka's grave, and because of her own 
 wish for death. But she did not know whether she had a right 
 to neglect anything to preserve the life given her, and espe- 
 cially whether she had a right to put a hindrance in the 
 way of grace and miracles, and she was disturbed. 
 
 At present, however, the thought of seeing Marynia 
 smiled on her, and she was ready for the road ; Svirski was 
 to take her at five. The two men went now to the lunch 
 agreed on, for Svirski, in spite of his amazement at the 
 affair of Pan Ignas, felt as hungry as a wolf. After they 
 had sat down at table, they remained a while in silence. 
 
 " I wanted to make one other request of you," said Pan 
 Stanislav at last, " to inform Panna Helena of everything 
 that has happened, and also to tell her not to mention the 
 matter to my wife." 
 
 " I will do so," said Svirski. " I will go this very day to 
 Yasmen, as if to walk, and try to see her. Should she not 
 receive me, I will send her a note, stating that it is a ques- 
 tion of Pan Ignas. If she wishes to come to Warsaw, I 
 will b'ring her, for I shall return to-day in every case. Did
 
 572 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Osnovski say whether Panna Ratkovski had gone with 
 them," inquired the artist, after a pause, " or will she stay 
 in Prytulov ? " 
 
 " He said nothing. Usually Panna Ratkovski lives with 
 her old relative, Paui Melnitski. If she goes, it will be as 
 company for Pani Osnovski, whose angelic nature got a 
 palpitation of the heart at sight of what has happened." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Svirski. 
 
 " Yes. There is no other cause for it. Panna Ratkovski 
 was stopping with the Osnovskis, so that Kopovski might 
 seem to court her ; but since he was courting another, there 
 is no further reason for her stay there." 
 
 " As God lives, this is something fabulous ! " said Svir- 
 ski ; " so that all,- with the exception of Pani Osnovski, fell 
 in love with that hoopoo." 
 
 Pan Stanislav smiled ironically and nodded his head ; on 
 his lips were sticking the words, " without exception, with- 
 out exception ! " 
 
 But now Svirski began his conclusions about women, 
 from which he had refrained so far. 
 
 " Do you see ; do you see ? I know German and French 
 and especially Italian women. The Italians in general 
 have fewer impulses, and less education, but they are hon- 
 ester and simpler. May I not finish this macaroni, if I 
 have seen anywhere so many false aspirations and such dis- 
 cord between natures which are vulgar and phrases which 
 are lofty ! If you knew what Panna Ratkovski told me of 
 Kopovski! Or take that 'Poplar,' that 'Column,' that 
 ' Nitechka,' that Panna Castelli, that Lily, is it not ? You 
 would swear that she was a mimosa, an artist, a sibyl, a 
 golden-haired tall ideal. And here she is for you ! She 
 has shown herself ! She has chosen, not a living person, 
 but a lay-figure ; not a man, but a puppet. When it came 
 to the test, the sibyl turned into a waiting-maid. But I tell 
 you that they are all palpitating for fashionable lay-figures. 
 May thunderbolts singe them ! " 
 
 Here Svirski extended his giant fist, and wanted to strike 
 the table with it ; but Pan Stanislav stopped the hand in 
 mid-air, and said, 
 
 " But you will admit that something exceptional has hap- 
 pened." 
 
 Svirski began to dispute, and to maintain that "they 
 are all that way," and that all prefer the measure of a 
 tailor to that of Phidias. Gradually, however, he began to
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 573 
 
 regain his balance, and acknowledge that Panna Ratkovski 
 might be an exception. 
 
 "Do you remember when you inquired touching the 
 Broniches, I said the ladies are canaille, canaille ! neither 
 principles nor character, parvenu souls, nothing more ? He 
 was a fool, and you know her. God guarded me; for if 
 they had known then that I have some stupid old genea- 
 logical papers, would n't they have made sweet faces at me, 
 and I might have fixed myself nicely! May the woods 
 cover me ! I will go, as you see me, with Pan Ignas abroad, 
 for I have enough of this." 
 
 They paid, and went out on to the street. 
 
 " What will you do now ? " inquii-ed Svirski. 
 
 " I shall go to look for Pan Ignas." 
 
 " Where will you find him ? " 
 
 " I think among the insane, with his father ; if not, I 
 will wait for him at my own house." 
 
 But Pan Ignas was approaching the restaurant just at 
 that moment. Svirski was the first to see him at a 
 distance. 
 
 " Ah, there he goes ! " 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " On the other side of the street. I should know him a 
 verst away by his jaw. Will you tell him everything ? If 
 so, I will go. You have no need of spectators." 
 
 "Very well." 
 
 Pan Ignas, on seeing them, hurried his steps and stood 
 before them, dressed elegantly, almost to a fit, and with a 
 glad face. 
 
 "My father is better," said he, with a voice panting a 
 little ; "I have time and will drop in at Prytulov to-day." 
 
 But Svirski, pressing his hand firmly, went off in silence. 
 The younc: man looked after him with surprise. 
 
 "Was Pan Svirski offended at anything?" asked he, 
 looking at Pan Stanislav; and he noticed then that his face 
 too had a serious, almost stern, expression. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " asked he, "or what has 
 happened ? " 
 
 Pan Stanislav took him by the hand, and said, with a 
 voice full of emotion and cordiality, - 
 
 " My dear Pan Ignas, I have esteemed you always, n 
 onlv for exceptional gifts, but for exceptional character; 
 have to announce very bad news to you, but 1 .am sure 
 you will find in yourself strength enough, and will 
 way to the misfortune."
 
 574 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " What has happened ? " asked Pan Ignas, whose face 
 changed in one moment. 
 
 Pan Stanislav beckoned to a droshky, and said, 
 
 " Take a seat. To the bridge ! " cried he, turning to 
 the driver. Then, taking out Osnovski's letter, he gave it 
 to Pan Ignas. 
 
 The young man tore open the envelope hurriedly, and 
 began to read. 
 
 Pan Stanislav put his arm with great tenderness around 
 his friend's body, not taking his eyes from his face, on which 
 as the man read were reflected amazement, incredulity, 
 stupefaction, and, above all, terror without limit. His 
 cheeks became as white as linen; but it was evident that, 
 feeling the misfortune, he did not grasp its extent yet, and 
 did not understand it thoroughly, for he looked at Pan 
 Stanislav as if without sense, and inquired with a low voice, 
 full of fear, 
 
 " How how could she ? " 
 
 Then, removing his hat, he passed his hand through his 
 hair. 
 
 "I do not know what Osnovski has written," said Pan 
 Stanislav, " but it is true. There is no reason to diminish 
 the affair. Have courage ; say to yourself that this has 
 happened, and happened beyond recall. You were lost on 
 her, for you are worth more than all that. There are people 
 who know your worth, and who love you. I am aware that 
 this is a mighty misfortune ; your own brother would not 
 be pained on your behalf more than I am. But it has hap- 
 pened ! My dear Pan Ignas, they have gone, God knows 
 whither. The Osnovskis too. There is no one in Prytulov. 
 I understand what must take place in you ; but you have a 
 better future by yourself than with Panna Castelli. God 
 destined you to higher purposes, and surely gave greater 
 power to you than to others. You are the salt of the earth. 
 You have exceptional duties to yourself and the world. I 
 know that it is difficult to wave your hand at once on that 
 which has been loved, and I do not ask you to do so ; but you 
 are not permitted to yield to despair like the first comer. 
 My dear, poor Pan Ignas ! " 
 
 Pan Stanislav spoke long, and spoke with power, for 
 he was moved. In the further course of his speech he 
 said things which were not only heartfelt, but wise : that 
 misfortune has this in itself, that it stands still ; while a 
 man, whether he wishes or wishes not, must move on into
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 575 
 
 the future ; therefore he goes away from it ever farther ami 
 farther. A man drags, it is true, a thread of pain and re- 
 membrance behind him ; but the thread grows ever more 
 slender, for the force of things is such that he lives in the 
 morrow. All this was true, but it was something by itself ; 
 far nearer, more real, more tangible was that which Osnov- 
 ski's letter mentioned. Beyond the fact described in that 
 letter there existed only empty sounds, striking on his ears 
 externally, but without meaning, and for Pan Ignas as devoid 
 of sense as the rattle of the iron lattice-work on the bridge, 
 past which he was driving with Pan Stanislav. Pan Ignas 
 could feel and think only in an immensely dull way ; he had, 
 however, the feeling first that what had happened was 
 simply impossible, but still it had happened; second, that 
 in no measure could he be reconciled to it, and never would 
 he be reconciled, a fact, however, which had not the least 
 significance. There was no place in his head for another 
 idea. He was not conscious of having lost anything except 
 Lineta. He was not conscious of pain or sorrow or ruin or 
 desolation, or the loss of every basis of life ; he knew only 
 that Lineta had gone, that she had not loved him, that she 
 had left him, that she had gone with Kopovski, that the 
 marriage was broken, that he was alone, that all this had 
 happened, and that he did not want it, as a thing in- 
 credible, impossible, and dreadful. Still, it had happened. 
 
 The droshky moved slowly beyond the bridge, for they 
 were passing through a herd of oxen driven toward the 
 city ; and in the midst of the heavy tramping of these beasts, 
 Pan Stanislav continued. Pan Ignas's ears were struck by 
 the words, " Svirski, abroad, Italy, art ;" but he did not 
 understand that Svirski meant an acquaintance, abroad a 
 journey, Italy a country. Now, he was talking to Lineta : 
 " That is all well," said he ; " but what will become of me ? 
 How couldst thou forget that I love thee so immensely ? 
 And for a time it seemed to him that if he could see her, 
 if he could tell her that one must think of the suffering of 
 people, she would fall to weeping and throw herself on his 
 neck. "And so many things unite us," said he to her 
 "besides, I am the same, thine." And suddenly his ja? 
 protruded ; it began to tremble ; the veins swelled in h 
 forehead, and his eyes were filled with a mist of tears. 1 
 Stanislav, who had an uncommonly kind heart, and 
 thought, besides, that he might touch his feelings, pul 
 arm around his neck suddenly, and, being affected himselt,
 
 576 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 began to kiss him on the cheek. But Pan Ignas's emotion 
 did not continue ; he returned to the feeling of reality. "I 
 will not tell her that," thought he, "for I shall not see her, 
 since she has gone with her betrothed, with Kopovski." 
 And at that thought his face became rigid again. He began 
 then to take in effectively the whole extent of the misfortune. 
 The thought struck him for the first time that if Lineta had 
 died, his loss would have been less. The gulf caused by 
 death leaves to believers the hope of a common life on the 
 other shore; to unbelievers, a common nothingness; 
 hence, to some the hope of a union, to others a common 
 fate. Death is powerless against love which passes beyond 
 the grave ; death may wrest a dear soul from us, but cannot 
 prevent us from loving it, and cannot degrade it. On the 
 contrary, death makes that soul sacred ; makes it not only 
 beloved, but holy. Lineta, in taking from Pan Ignas her- 
 self, that is, his most precious soul, took from him at once 
 the right of loving and grieving and yearning and honor- 
 ing ; by going herself, she left a memory behind her which 
 was ruined in full measure. Now Pan Ignas felt clearly 
 that if he should not be able to cease loving her, he would 
 thereby become abject ; and he felt that he would not be 
 able to cease loving. Only in that moment did he see the 
 whole greatness of his wreck, ruin, and suffering. In that 
 moment he understood that it was more than he could bear. 
 " Go with Svirski to Italy," said Pan Stanislav. " Suffer 
 out the pain, my dear friend ; endure till it is over. You 
 cannot do otherwise. The world is wide ! There is so much 
 to see, so much to love. Everything is open before thee ; 
 and before no one as before thee. Much is due to the 
 world from thee ; but much also to thee from the world. 
 Go, my dear. Life is around thee ; life is everywhere. 
 New impressions will come ; thou wilt not resist them ; they 
 will occupy thy thought, soften thy pain. Thou wilt not be 
 circling around one existence. Svirski will show thee 
 Italy. Thou wilt see what a comrade he is, and what 
 horizons he will open. Besides, I tell thee that a man such 
 as thou art, should have that power which the pearl oyster 
 has, of turning everything into pearl simply. Listen to 
 what thy true friend says. Go, and go at once. Promise 
 me that thou wilt go. God grant my wife to pass her ill- 
 ness safely ; then we may journey there also in spring. 
 Thou wilt see how beautiful it will be for us. Well, Ignas, 
 promise me. Dost thou say yes ? "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 577 
 
 " Yes," answered Pan Ignas, hearing the last word, but 
 not knowing in general what the question was. 
 
 " Well, now, praise God," replied Pan Stanislav. "Let us 
 return to the city, and spend the evening together. I have 
 something to do in the counting-house, and I have left home 
 for two days." 
 
 Then he gave command to turn back, for the sun was 
 toward setting. It was a beautiful day, of those which 
 come at the end of summer. Over the city a golden, delicate 
 dust was borne ; the roofs, and especially the church towers, 
 gleamed at the edges, as it were with the reflection of ain- 
 ber, and, outlined clearly in the transparent air, seemed to 
 delight in it. The two men rode for some time in silence. 
 
 " Wilt thou go to my house, or to thy own lodgings ? " 
 asked Pan Stanislav, when they entered the city. 
 
 The city movement seemed to calm Pan Ignas, for he 
 looked at Pan Stanislav with perfect presence of mind, and 
 said, 
 
 " I have not been at home since yesterday, for I spent 
 the night with my father. Perhaps there are letters for 
 ine ; let us drive to my lodgings." 
 
 And he foresaw correctly, for at his lodgings a letter 
 from Pani Bronich in Berlin was awaiting him. He tore 
 open the envelope feverishly, and began to read; Pan 
 Stanislav, looking at his changing face, thought, 
 
 " It is evident that some hope is hidden yet in him." 
 
 Here he remembered all at once that young doctor, who 
 in his time said of Panna Kraslavski, "I know what she 
 is, but I cannot tear my soul from her." 
 
 Pan Ignas finished reading, and, resting his head on his 
 hand, looked without thought on the table and the papers 
 lying on it. At last he recovered, and gave the letter to 
 Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " Kead," said he. 
 
 Pan Stanislav took the letter and read as follows : 
 
 " I know that you believed really in your feeling for Nitechka, 
 and that at the first moment what has happened will seem to you a 
 misfortune ; believe me, too. that to me and to her it was not easy to 
 resolve on the decisive step. Perhaps you will not be able to esti- 
 mate Nitechka well, there are so many things which men cannot 
 estimate; but, you ought to know her at least enough to know KoW 
 much it costs her when she is forced to cause the slightest j.:nii, 
 even to a stranger. But what can we do ! such is the will of od, 
 which it would be a sin not to obey. We both act as our cou- 
 
 37
 
 578 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 sciences dictate ; and Nitechka is too just to give her hand to you 
 without a real attachment. What has taken place, has taken place 
 not only in conformity with the will of God, hut in conformity with 
 your good and hers ; for if, without loving you sufficiently, she had 
 become your wife, how would she he ahle to resist the temptations to 
 which such a being would with certainty be exposed in view of the 
 corruption of society ? Besides, you have your talent ; therefore you 
 have something. Nitechka has only her heart, which violence would 
 break in one moment ; and if it seems to you that she has disappointed 
 you, think conscientiously whose fault is the greater ? You have 
 done much harm to Nitechka, for you fettered her will, and you did 
 not let her follow the natural impulse of her heart; and by thus doing 
 you sacrificed, or were ready to sacrifice, through your selfishness, 
 her happiness, and even her life, for I am convinced that under such 
 conditions she would not have survived a single year. Neverthelesf 
 may God forgive you as we forgive ; and be it known to you that 
 this very day we prayed for you at a Mass ordered purposely for 
 your intention, in the church of Saint Yadviga. 
 
 " You will be pleased to send the ring to Pan Osnovski's villa ; 
 your ring, since the Osnovskis had to go abroad too, will reach you 
 through the hands of Pauna Ratkovski. Once more, may God for- 
 give you everything, and keep you in His protection ! " 
 
 " This is something unparalleled ! " said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " It is evident that truth may be treated as love is," said 
 Pan Ignas, with a heart-rending sorrow ; " but I had not 
 supposed that." 
 
 "Listen to me, Ignas," said Pan Stanislav, who under 
 the impulse of sympathy had begun to say thou to Zavi- 
 lovski ; " this is not merely a question of thy happiness, 
 but of thy dignity. Suffer as much as may please thee ; 
 but it is thy duty to find strength to show that thou art 
 indifferent to all this." 
 
 A long silence followed. But Pan Stanislav, remember- 
 ing the letter, repeated from time to time, 
 
 '' This passes human understanding." Finally he turned 
 to Pan Tgnas, 
 
 " Svirski is returning to-day from Buchynek, and late in 
 the evening he will come to my house. Come thou too. 
 We will pass the evening together, and he and thou will 
 talk of the journey." 
 
 " No," said Pan Tgnas ; " on my return from Prytulov, I 
 was to spend the night with my father, so I must go to 
 him. To-morrow morning I will be with you and see Svirski." 
 
 But he merely said that, for he wanted to be alone. 
 Pan Stanislav did not oppose his intention of spending the
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 579 
 
 night at the institution, for he judged that occupation near 
 the sick man, and care for him, would occupy his mind, 
 then weariness and need of sleep would come. He deter- 
 mined, however, to drive with him to the institution. 
 
 In fact, they took fare well .only at the gate. Pan Ignas, 
 however, after he had remained a few minutes in the insti- 
 tution and inquired of the overseer touching his father, 
 went out and returned home by stealth. 
 
 He lighted a candle, read Pani Bronich's letter once 
 move, and, covering his face with his hands, began to medi- 
 tate. In spite of Osnovski's letter and in spite of every- 
 thing which Pan Stanislav had told him, a certain doubt 
 and a certain hope had lingered in his soul, yet he knew 
 that all was over; but at moments he had the feeling that 
 that was not reality, but an evil dream. It was only 
 Pani Bronich's letter that had penetrated to that little cor- 
 ner of his soul which was unwilling to believe, and burned 
 out in it the remnant of illusion. So there was no Lineta 
 any longer ; there was no future, no happiness. Kppovski 
 had all that ; for him were left only loneliness, humiliation, 
 and a ghastly vacuum. There was left to him also the im- 
 pression that if " Nitechka " could have snatched from him 
 that talent too, of which Pani Bronich made mention she 
 would have snatched it and given it to Kopovski ^\na 
 was he for her in comparison with Kopovski ? iall 
 
 never really understand this," thought he; "but it is so. 
 And he began to meditate over this, what was there in him 
 so abiect that she should sacrifice him thus without mercy, 
 without the least consideration, to take less note of hm 
 than the meanest worm. '< Why does she love Kopovsk 
 and not me, the man to whom she confessed love 
 he recalled how once she had quivered h %*"^" 
 after the betrothal he gave her good-night, 
 is quivering in Kopovski's arms in precisely the saro 
 way And at this thought he seized his handkerchief an 
 feezed it between hi^teeth ^ * ? 
 
 hen M 
 
 And a-ain he caught after the letter of Pani Bronich, as
 
 580 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 about this, that he was guilty, that he had done much 
 harm to " Nitechka," and that she forgave him, and about 
 the Mass, which was celebrated for his intention in Saint 
 Yadviga's ; and when he had ended he began to gaze at the 
 light, blinking and saying, . 
 
 " How is that possible ? How have I offended? " And 
 suddenly he felt that the understanding of what truth is 
 and what falsehood, of what evil is, and what good, and 
 what is proper and improper, began to desert him. Lineta 
 had gone from him, taken herself from him, taken his 
 future, and now one after another all the bases of life were 
 gliding away and reason and thought and life itself. He 
 saw yet that he had always loved this " Nitechka" of his 
 beyond life, and in no way was he able to wish any harm 
 to her ; but besides that impression, everything which com- 
 poses a thinking being was crushed into dust in him, and 
 flew apart like dust in that mighty wind of misfortune. 
 
 Still he loved. Lineta became divided for him now into 
 the Lineta of to-day and the Lineta of the past. He began 
 to call to mind her voice, her face, her bright golden hair, 
 her eyes and mouth, her tall form, her hands, and that 
 warmth which so many times he had felt from her lips. 
 His powerful imagination recreated her almost tangibly ; 
 and he saw that not only had he loved his own distant one, 
 but he loved her yet, that is, he yearned for her beyond 
 measure, and was suffering beyond measure for the loss of 
 her. 
 
 And, recognizing this, he began again to speak to her : 
 " How couldst thou think me able to bear this ? " 
 At that moment he had not the least doubt of this either, 
 that God knew the position very well. He sat a long time 
 more in silence, and the light had burned out half its 
 length almost when he came to himself. 
 
 But something uncommon took place in him then. He 
 had an impression as if he were going from land in a ship, 
 and that seemed to him which seems always on such an 
 occasion, that it was not he who was moving away, but the 
 shore on which he had dwelt hitherto. Everything that 
 was he, and in general his life ; all thoughts, hopes, ambi- 
 tions, objects, plans, even love, even Lineta, even his loss ; 
 and those vicious circles, and those tortures through which 
 he had passed seemed not merely removed from him, but 
 foreign, and belonging exclusively to that land off there. 
 And gradually they sank, gradually they melted, becoming
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 581 
 
 ever smaller, ever more visionary, ever more dreamlike ; 
 and be went on, he became more distant, feeling that to 
 that foreigrmess he does not wish to return, that he cannot 
 return,-aud that all which is left of him belongs to the 
 space which has taken him to itself, and opened its bosom 
 before him, immense and mysterious.
 
 582 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 FOUR days later, on the Assumption of the Most Blessed 
 Lady, which was also Marynia's name's l day, the Bigiels 
 and Svirski went to Buchynek. They did not find Marynia 
 at home, for she was at vespers in the church of Yasmen 
 with Pani Emilia. When Pani Bigiel learned this, she 
 followed them with the whole crowd of little Bigiels. The 
 men, left alone, began to talk of the event of which for a 
 number of days the whole city had been talking, that was 
 of the -attempted suicide of the poet Zavilovski. 
 
 " I went to see him to-day three times," said Bigiel ; " but 
 Panna Helena's servants have the order to admit no one 
 except the doctors." 
 
 " As for me," said Pan Stanislav, " this is the first day 
 on which I have not been able to visit him ; but during the 
 previous days I spent a number of hours with him regu- 
 larly. I tell my wife that I am at the counting-house on 
 business." 
 
 " Tell me how it happened," said Bigiel, who wanted to 
 know all the details, so as to consider them exactly after- 
 ward in his fashion. 
 
 " It happened this way," said Pan Stanislav. " Ignas 
 told me that he was going to the institution, to his father. 
 I was glad, for I judged that that would keep him away 
 from his thoughts. I took him, however, to the gate, and 
 he promised to visit me next day. Meanwhile it turned 
 out that he wanted to be rid of me, so as to shoot himself 
 undisturbed." 
 
 " Then you were not the first to find him ? " 
 
 " No ; I suspected nothing of that kind, and I should 
 have looked for him next day. Luckily Panna Helena 
 came at the mere news that the marriage was broken." 
 
 "I informed her," said Svirski, "and she took the matter 
 to heart so much that I was astonished. She had a fore- 
 warning, as it were, of what would follow." 
 
 " She is a wonderful person," said Pan Stanislav. " I 
 have not been able to learn how it happened ; but she found 
 him ; she saved him ; she called in a whole circle of doc- 
 tors, and finally gave command to take him to her house." 
 
 1 Name's day, day of that saint whose name a given person bears.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 583 
 
 " But the doctors insist that he will live ? " 
 
 1 c They know nothing yet definitely. In shooting, he must 
 have turned the pistol so that the ball, after passing 
 through his forehead, went up and lodged under the skull. 
 They found the ball, and extracted it easily enough ; but 
 whether he will live and if he lives, whether his inind 
 will survive is unknown. One doctor fears a disturbance 
 in his speech ; but his life is in question yet." 
 
 The event, though known generally, and described every 
 day in the papers, had made so great an impression that 
 silence continued awhile. Svirski, who, with his muscles 
 of an athlete, had the sensitiveness of a woman, burst 
 forth, 
 
 "Through such women!" 
 
 But Vaskovski, sitting near, said in a low voice, 
 
 "Leave them to the mercy of, God." 
 
 " Is it possible ? " said Bigiel, turning to Pan Stanislav ; 
 " and thou hadst no suspicion ? " 
 
 " It did not come to my head even that he would shoot 
 himself. I saw clearly that he was struggling with his 
 feelings. For a while, when we were riding, his chiu 
 trembled, as if he wished to burst into weeping; but he is 
 a brave soul. He restrained himself at once, and to ap- 
 pearance was calm. He deceived me mainly by his promise 
 to come next day." 
 
 " Do you know what seems to me ? " continued he, after 
 a while ; " the last drop which overflowed the cup was 
 Pani Bronich's letter. Ignas gave it to me to read. She 
 wrote that what had happened was the will of God ; that the 
 fault was on his side; that he was an egotist; but that 
 they were obeying the voice of conscience and justice; that 
 they forgave him, and begged God to forgive him too, in 
 a word, unheard of things ! I saw that that made a des- 
 perate impression on him, and I imagine what must have 
 taken place in a man so injured and of such spirit, when 
 he saw that in addition to everything else injustice was 
 attributed to him ; when he understood that it is possible 
 for people to set everything at naught and distort it, to 
 trample on reason, truth, and the simplest principles of 
 justice, and then shield themselves behind the Lord God. 
 For that matter I was not concerned ; but when I saw the 
 cynicism, the want of moral understanding, as God lives, I 
 asked myself this question : Am I mad, and are truth and 
 honesty mere illusions on earth ? "
 
 584 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav was so indignant at Pani Bronich's 
 letter that he tugged at his beard feverishly, and Svirski 
 said, 
 
 " I understand that even a believer may spit upon life in 
 such moments." 
 
 Here Yaskovski rubbed his forehead with his hand, and 
 then said to himself, 
 
 " Yes ; I have seen that kind, too. For there are people 
 who believe, not through love, but as it were because athe- 
 ism is bankrupt, as it were from despair, who imagine to 
 themselves that somewhere, off behind phenomena, there 
 is not a merciful Father, who places his hand on every 
 unfortunate head, but some kind of He, unapproachable, 
 inscrutable, indifferent ; it is all one, in such case, whether 
 that He is called the Absolute, or Nirvana. He is only a 
 concept, not love. It is impossible to love this He ; and 
 when misfortune comes, people spit on life." 
 
 " That is well," answered Svirski, testily ; " but mean- 
 while Pan Ignas is lying with a broken skull, and they 
 have gone to the seashore, and it is pleasant for them." 
 
 " Whence do you know that it is pleasant for them ? " 
 answered Vaskovski. 
 
 " The deuce fire them ! " said Svirski. 
 
 "But I say to you that they are unhappy. No one may 
 trample on truth and go unpunished. They will talk 
 various things into each other, but one thing they will not 
 be able to talk into each other, that is, self-respect ; they 
 will begin to despise themselves in secret, and at last even 
 that attachment which they had for each other will be 
 turned into secret dislike. That is inevitable." 
 
 " The deuce fire them ! " repeated Svirski. 
 
 " The mercy of God is for them, not for the good," con- 
 cluded Vaskovski. 
 
 Meanwhile Bigiel talked with Pan Stanislav, admiring 
 the kindness and courage of Panna Helena. 
 
 " For there will be a fabulous amount of gossip from 
 this," said he. 
 
 "She does not care for that," answered Pan Stanislav. 
 " She does not count with society, for she wants nothing of 
 it. She, too, is a resolute soul. She showed Pan Ignas 
 always exceptional attachment, and his act must have 
 shocked her tremendously. Do you know the history of 
 Ploshovski ? " 
 
 "I knew him personally," said Svirski. "His father
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 585 
 
 was the first man in Rome to predict success to me. Of 
 Panna Helena they say, I think, that she was betrothed to 
 Ploshovski." 
 
 ''No, she was not; but in her secret heart perhaps she 
 loved him greatly. Such was his fortune. It is certain 
 that since his death she has become different altogether 
 For a woman so religious as she is, his suicide must hi 
 truth have been dreadful, for just think, not to be able even 
 to pray for a man whom one has loved. And now again 
 Paii Ignas '. If any one, it is she who is doing everything to 
 save him. Yesterday I was there ; she came out to me 
 barely alive, pale, weary, without having slept. And there 
 is some one else to watch with her. Panna Ratkovski told 
 me of her, that for four days she had n't slept one hour, ner- 
 
 i ' * 
 
 haps." 
 
 "Panna Ratkovski?" inquired Svirski, quickly; and he 
 began mechanically to seek with his hand in the coat pocket 
 where he had her letter. 
 
 He remembered then her words : "I have chosen otherwise, 
 and if I shall never be happy, I do not wish at least to 
 reproach myself afterwards with insincerity." "Now for the 
 first time I understand the meaning and real tragedy of 
 those words. Now, in spite of all social appearances, with- 
 out regard to the tongues of people, this young girl has 
 gone to watch over that suicide. What could this mean ? 
 The case is clear as the sun. It is true that Kopovski 
 went abroad with another; but she had expressed always 
 openly what she thought of Kopovski, and if she had cared 
 nothing for Pan Ignas, she would not have gone this time 
 to watch at his bedside. It seems to me that I am an ass," 
 muttered Svirski. 
 
 But that was not the only conclusion to which he came 
 after mature consideration. All at once a yearning for 
 Panna Ratkovski took hold of him, and sorrow that that 
 had not happened which might have happened, as well as 
 immense pity for her. "Thou hast become a poodle again, 
 old fellow," said he to himself, "and it serves thee right! 
 A good man would have felt sorrow, but thou didst begin 
 to be angry and condemn her for loving a fool and pretend- 
 ing to aspiration, and for having a lew nature ; thou didst 
 talk ill of her before Pani Polanyetski and before him ; 
 didst do injustice to a kind and unfortunate person, not be- 
 cause her refusal pained thee too greatly, but through 
 thy own self-love. Served thee right, right ! thou art an
 
 586 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 ass ; thou art not worthy of her; and thou wilt be knocking 
 around alone till death, like a mandrill, behind a menagerie 
 grating." 
 
 In these reproaches there was a portion of truth. Svirski 
 had not fallen in love decidedly with Panna Ratkovski ; but 
 her refusal pained him more deeply than he acknowledged, 
 and, not being able to master his vexation, he gave way to 
 general conclusions about women, citing Panna Ratkovski 
 as an example, and to her disadvantage. 
 
 Now he saw the whole vanity of such conclusions. 
 " These stupid syntheses have ruined me always,'' thought 
 he. " Women are individuals like all people ; and the 
 general concept woman explains nothing whatever. There 
 is a Panna Castelli, there is a Pani Osnovski, in whom I 
 admit various rascalities, without, however, having proof of 
 them ; but on the other hand there is a Pani Polanyetski, a 
 Pani Bigiel, a Sister Aniela, a Panna Helena, and a Pauna 
 Stefania. Poor child ! and so it serves me right. She 
 was there suffering in silence, and I was gnashing my teeth. 
 If that girl isn't worth ten times more than I, then that 
 sun is n't worth my pipe. She had a sacred reason in giv- 
 ing a refusal to such a buffalo. I will go to the Orient, 
 and that is the end of the matter. Such light as there is in 
 Egypt, there is nowhere else on earth. And what an honest 
 woman ! Moreover, she has done me good, even with her 
 refusal, for through her I have convinced myself that my 
 theory about women should be broken on the back of a dog. 
 But if Panna Helena puts a whole regiment of dragoons be- 
 fore her door, I must see that poor girl and say what I 
 think to her." 
 
 In fact, he went on the following morning to Panna Hel- 
 ena's. They did not wish to admit him, but he insisted so 
 much that at last he was admitted. Panna Helena, judg- 
 ing that friendship and anxiety alone had brought him, 
 conducted him even to the chamber in which the wounded 
 man was lying. There, in the gloom of fastened blinds, he 
 saw Pan Ignas, from whom came the odor of iodine, his 
 head bound, his jaw protruding; and with him those two 
 wearied out women, the fever of sleeplessness on their 
 faces, and really like two shadows. The wounded man lay 
 with open lips ; he was changed, and resembled himself in 
 nothing. He was as if incomparably older; his eyelids 
 were swollen, and protruding from under the bandage. 
 Svirski had liked him greatly, and with his sensitiveness
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 587 
 
 had not less sympathy for him than had Pan Stanislav and 
 Osnovski ; he was struck, however, this time by his de- 
 formity. "He has fixed himself," thought he; then, turn- 
 ing to Panna Helena, he asked in an undertone, 
 
 " Has he not regained consciousness ? " 
 
 "Xo," answered she, in a whisper. 
 
 ' What does the doctor say?" 
 
 Panna Helena moved her thin hand in sign that all was 
 uncertain yet. 
 
 " This is the fifth day," whispered she again. 
 
 " And the fever decreases," said Panna Ratkovski. 
 
 Svirski wished to offer his services in watching the sick 
 man ; but Panna Helena indicated with her eyes a young 
 doctor, whom he was not able to distinguish at once in the 
 darkness, but who, sitting in an armchair near the table, 
 with a basin and pile of iodine wadding, was dozing from 
 weariness, waiting till another should relieve him. 
 
 "We have two," said Panna Ratkovski, "and besides 
 people from the hospital, who know how to nurse the sick." 
 
 " But you ladies are wonderfully wearied." 
 
 " It is a question here of the sick man," answered she, 
 looking toward the bed. 
 
 Svirski followed her glance. His eyes were better 
 accustomed now to the gloom, and saw distinctly the face, 
 motionless, with lips almost black. The long body was 
 motionless also, only the fingers of his emaciated hand, 
 lying on the coverlet, stirred with a monotonous move- 
 ment, as if scratching. 
 
 "They will take him out in a couple of days, as God is 
 in Heaven ! " thought he, remembering his colleague, that 
 " Slav " with whom Bukatski had disputed in his time, and 
 who, when he had shot himself in the head, died only after 
 two weeks of torture. 
 
 Wishing, however, to give comfort to the women, he 
 said, in spite of that of which he was certain, 
 
 " Wounds of this kind are either mortal at once, or are 
 cured." 
 
 Panna Helena made no answer, but her face contracted 
 nervously, and her lips grew pale. Evidently there was a 
 terrible thought in her soul, that he also might die, and she 
 did not wish to admit that she had had enough with that 
 other suicide, and at the same time it was for her a qm-s- 
 tion of something more than saving his life for Pan Ignas. 
 
 Svirski began to take farewell. He entered with a
 
 588 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 speech prepared for Panna Ratkovski, to whom he had 
 resolved to acknowledge that he had judged her unjustly, 
 and to express all the homage which he felt for her, and to 
 beg for her friendship ; but in presence of the real tragedy 
 of those two women, and of the danger of death, and of 
 that half corpse, he saw at once that everything which he 
 intended to say would be poor and petty, and that it was 
 not the time for such empty and personal matters. 
 
 He merety pressed to his lips in silence the hand of 
 Panua Helena, and then that of Panna Ratkovski; and, 
 going out of that room filled with misfortune and per- 
 meated with iodine, he drew a deep breath. In his artistic 
 imagination was represented distinctly the changed Pan 
 Ignas, ten years older, with bound head and black lips. 
 And in spite of all the sympathy which he had for the man, 
 indignation seized him all at once. 
 
 "He made a hole in his skull," muttered he; "he made 
 a hole in his talent, and does n't care ! and those souls 
 there are dragging themselves to death and trembling like 
 leaves." 
 
 Then a feeling, as it were of jealousy, took hold of him, 
 as if he were sorry, for himself, and he began to speak in a 
 monologue, 
 
 " Well, old man ! but if thou, for example, were to pack 
 a bit of lead into thy talent, no one would walk at thy bed- 
 side on tiptoe." 
 
 Further meditation was interrupted by Pan Plavitski, 
 who, meeting him at the cross-street, stopped him, and 
 began conversation, 
 
 "I am just from Karlsbad," said he. "0 Lord, how 
 many elegant women ! 1 am going to Buchynek to-day. I 
 have just seen Stanislav, and know that my daughter is 
 well ; but he has grown thin somehow." 
 
 " Yes for he has had trouble. Have you heard of Pan 
 Ignas ? " 
 
 " I have, I have ! But what will you say of that ? " 
 
 " A misfortune." 
 
 "A misfortune ; but this too, that there are no principles 
 at present. All those new ideas, those atheisms of yours, 
 and hypnotisms, and socialisms. The young generation 
 have no principles, that is where the trouble lies."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 589 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 PAX STAXISLAV, under the impression of the catastrophe, 
 forgot utterly his promise to inform Osnovski by letter 
 how Pan Ignas had borne the rupture of the marriage and 
 the departure of Lineta. But Osnovski, having learned 
 from the newspapers what had happened, inquired every 
 day by telegraph about the condition of the patient, and 
 was greatly alarmed. In the press and in public the most 
 contradictory accounts were current. Some journals de- 
 clared that his condition was hopeless ; others predicted a 
 speedy recovery. For a long time Pan Stanislav could 
 report nothing certain; and only after two weeks did he 
 send a despatch that the sick man had ceased to waver 
 between death and life, and that the doctors guaranteed 
 his recovery. 
 
 Osnovski answered with a long letter, in which he gave 
 various news from Ostend, 
 
 " God reward you for good news ! All danger has passed then 
 decisively? I cannot tell you what a weight fell from the hearts of 
 both of us. Tell Pan Ignas that not only I, but my wife received 
 the news of his recovery with tears. She does not speak of any one 
 else now, and thinks only of him. Oh, what women arel volumes 
 might be written on this subject ; but Anetka is an exception, and 
 will you believe, that in spite of all her terror and sorrow and sym- 
 pathy, Ignas has increased in her eyes through this unhappy event? 
 They seek romantic sides always ; so far does this reach that even in 
 Kopovski, as the originator of the misfortune, Anetka, who knows all 
 his stupidity, sees now something demonic. But beyond all she 
 praises God for the recovery of Ignas. May he live to the glory of 
 our society, and may he find a being worthy of him ! From vour 
 despatch, I infer that he is under the care of Panna Helena. May 
 God grant her too every blessing for such an honest heart! Really 
 she has no one in the world nearer to her than Ignas, and I imagine 
 that lie is still dearer to her through remembrance of Ploshovski. 
 
 " Now, since vouhave quieted me as to Ijjnas's recovery,! can send 
 you some news about Aunt Bronich and Lineta. Perhaps you have 
 heard that they are here with Kopovski. They went first 
 Schevi-ninren ; but, hearing that the small-pox was there, ti 
 escaped to Ostend, not supposing that we were here. We. n. 
 number of times in the Cursaal. hut pretended not to know them. 
 Kopovski even left cards with us ; but we did not return his visit,
 
 590 CHILDKEN -OF THE SOIL. 
 
 though, as my wife says justly, he is far less to blame in all this than 
 the two women. When I received your despatch, stating that Ignas 
 is saved surely, I thought that humanity itself commanded me to 
 send the news to them, and I did so. As matters stand, life is un- 
 pleasant for them here, since their acquaintances withdraw; so I 
 wished them to know at least that they have no human life on 
 their consciences, all the more since Lineta, as it would seem, felt the 
 deed of Ignas. In fact, they called the same day on us, and my wife 
 received them. She says truly that evil is moral sickness, and that 
 we should not desert relatives in sickness. In general, this first 
 meeting was awkward and painful for both sides. Of Ignas we said 
 not a word. Kopovski appears here as Lineta's betrothed; but 
 they do not seem very happy, though, to tell the truth, she is better 
 fitted for him than for Ignas, and in that view at least what has hap- 
 pened may be considered God's work. I know also from persons 
 aside that Aunt Bronich mentions it as such. I need not tell 
 you how that abuse of the name of God angers me. I know that 
 she tried to talk into some acquaintances stopping here that she 
 and her niece broke with Ignas because of his want of religious feel- 
 ings; to others she told tales of his despotism and of his disagreement 
 in temper with Lineta. In all this she deceives not only the world, 
 but herself. Aunt, through persuading herself and others of it un- 
 ceasingly, believes at last in the lofty character of Lineta, and in 
 this too she is immensely disappointed. She feels bound really 
 to defend her; she invents God knows what in her behalf, and 
 struggles like a mad woman ; but a feeling of disappointment sticks 
 in her, and I think that she grieves over it, for she has grown very 
 thin. Evidently they value relations with us, which, as they hope, 
 may bring them back to society ; but though my wife received them, 
 our relations cannot return to their former condition, of course. I, 
 first of all, could not permit this, from regard to my duty of choosing 
 a proper society for my wife. Lineta's marriage with Kopovski is 
 to be in Paris two months from now. Of course we shall not be 
 present. Moreover, my wife looks on the marriage very skeptically. 
 I have written thus at length hoping to oblige you to write as much, 
 with all details about Ignas. If his health permits, press his hand 
 for me, and tell him that he has and will have in me a most cor- 
 dial friend, who is devoted heart and soul to him." 
 
 Marynia, notwithstanding the lateness of the season, was 
 living yet in Buchynek; so that Pan Stanislav, when he 
 received this letter in the counting-house, showed it first 
 of all to the Bigiels, with whom he dined. 
 
 "I am glad of one thing," said Pani Bigiel, when she 
 had finished the letter; "she will marry that Kopovski 
 right away. Otherwise I should be afraid that something 
 might spring up again in Ignas, and that after he had 
 recovered he might be ready to return to her." 
 
 "No; Pan Ignas has much character, and I think that
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 591 
 
 in an case 
 
 Bigiel was so accustomed to ask the opinion of his part- 
 ner in every question, that he could not get on without it 
 in this one. 
 
 "I think that they, when they look around on what they 
 have done, will be rather ready to return. As to Ignas I 
 have lived so many years, and seen so many improbable 
 things, that I will not answer for any one." 
 ^ At that moment these words occurred again to Pan 
 Stanislav : " I know what she is, but I cannot tear my soul 
 from her." 
 
 ' But wouldst thou return in his place?" inquired Bigiel. 
 
 "I think not; but I will not answer for "myself even. 
 First of all, I shouldn't have shot myself in the forehead; 
 but still, I don't know even that." 
 
 And he said this with great discouragement, for he 
 thought that if there was any man who had no right to 
 answer for himself it was he. 
 
 But Pani Bigiel began, 
 
 "I would give I do not know what to see Ignas; but 
 really it is easier to take a fortress than to go to him. 
 And I cannot understand why Panna Helena keeps him 
 from people so, even from such friends as we are." 
 
 "She keeps him from people because the doctor has 
 ordered absolute quiet. Besides, since he has regained 
 consciousness, the sight of his nearest friends, even, is ter- 
 ribly painful to him; and this we can understand. He 
 cannot talk with them about his deed; and he sees that 
 every one who approaches him is thinking of nothing else." 
 
 " But you are there every day." 
 
 "They admit me because I was connected with the affair 
 from the beginning; I was the first to report the rupture 
 of the marriage, and I watched him." 
 
 " Does he mention that girl yet? " 
 
 " I asked Panna Helena and Panna Ratkovski about this; 
 they answered. 'Never.' I have sat for hours with him alone, 
 ami have heard nothing. It is wonderful: he is conscious ; 
 he knows that he is wounded, knows that he is sick; but 
 he seems at the same time to remember nothing of 
 events, just as if the past had no existence whatever. Tin- 
 doctors say that wounds in the head cause various and 
 very peculiar phenomena of this kind. For the rest, he 
 recognizes every one who approaches him, exhibits immense
 
 592 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 gratitude to Panna Helena and Panna Ratkovski. He 
 loves Panna Ratkovski especially, and evidently yearns 
 for her when she goes for a while from him. But they 
 are both, as God lives! there are no words to tell how 
 good they are." 
 
 "Panna Ratkovski moves me especially," said Pani 
 Bigiel. 
 
 Bigiel put in, " Meditating over everything carefully, I 
 have come to the conclusion that she must have fallen in 
 love with him." 
 
 "Thou hast spent time for nothing in meditating," 
 answered Pan Stanislav, "for that is as clear as the sun. 
 The poor thing hid this feeling in herself till misfortune 
 came. Why did she reject such an offer as Svirski's? 1 
 make no secret of this, for Svirski himself tells it on every 
 side. It seems to him that he owes her satisfaction because 
 he suspected her of being in love with Kopovski. When 
 Pan Ignas shot himself, she was living with her relative, 
 Pani Melnitski, after the Osuovskis had gone; but when 
 she learned that Panna Helena had taken Ignas, she went 
 and begged permission to remain with her. All know 
 perfectly how to understand this; but she does not mind 
 such considerations, just as Panna Helena herself does 
 not mind them." 
 
 Here Pan Stanislav turned to Pani Bigiel, 
 
 "Panna Ratkovski moves you deeply; but think, as God 
 lives, what a tragic figure Panna Helena is. Pan Ignas is 
 alive, at least, but Ploshovski aimed better; and, accord- 
 ing to her ideas, there is no mercy for him, even in that 
 world. But she loves him. There is a position! Finally, 
 after such a suicide, comes another; it tears open all 
 wounds, freshens every memory. Panna Ratkovski may 
 be a touching figure; but the other has her life broken 
 forever, and no hope, nothing left but despair." 
 
 " True, true ! But she must be attached to Ignas, since 
 she cares for him so." 
 
 "I understand why she does it; she wants to beg of the 
 Lord God mercy for the other man, because she has saved 
 Pan Ignas." 
 
 "That may be," said Bigiel. "And who knows that Pan 
 Ignas may not marry Panna Ratkovski, when he recovers?" 
 
 " If he forgets that other, if he is not broken, and if he 
 recovers." 
 
 " How, if he recovers? Just now thou hast said that his 
 recovery is undoubted."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 593 
 
 "It is undoubted that he will live; but the question is, 
 will he be the former Ignas? Even though he had not tired 
 into his head, it would be difficult to say whether such an 
 experience would not break a man who is so sensitive. 
 But add a broken head; that must be paid for. Who 
 knows what will happen further? but now, for example, 
 though he is conscious, though he talks with sense, at 
 times he breaks off, and cannot recollect the simplest 
 expression. Before, he never hesitated. This, too, is 
 strange, he remembers the names of things well, but 
 when it is a question of any act, he stops most generally, 
 and either remembers with effort, or forgets altogether." 
 
 "What does the doctor say?" 
 
 "In God is his hope that it will pass; the doctor does 
 not lose hope. But even yesterday, while I was going in, 
 Ignas said, 'Pani ' and stopped. Evidently he was 
 thinking of Marynia, whom he recalled on a sudden, but 
 he could not ask about her. Every day he talks more, it 
 is true; but before he recovers, much time may pass, and 
 certain traces may remain forever." 
 
 " But does Marynia know of everything? " 
 
 "While there was no certainty that he would live, 1 
 kept everything in secret; but after that I thought it better 
 to tell her. Of course I was very cautious. It was hard 
 to keep the whole matter from her longer. People were 
 talking too much about it, and I feared that she might 
 hear from people on one side. I told her, moreover, that 
 the wound was slight, and that nothing threatened him, 
 but that the doctors forbade him visitors. Even thus she 
 was greatly affected." 
 
 "When will you bring her to the city?" 
 
 " While the weather is good, I prefer to keep her in the 
 country." 
 
 Further conversation was interrupted by a letter, which 
 the servant gave Pan Stanislav. The letter was from 
 Mashko, and contained the following words: 
 
 " I wish to see thee in thy own interest. I will wait for thee at 
 my house till five." 
 
 "I am curious to know what he wants," said Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 "Who is it?" 
 
 "Mashko; he wants to see me." 
 
 38
 
 594 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Business and business," said Bigiel; "he has business 
 above his ears. Sometimes I wonder really whence he gets 
 endurance and wit for all this. Dost thou know that Pani 
 Kraslavski has come home, and that she has lost her sight 
 altogether? She sees nothing now, or what is called noth- 
 ing. We visited those ladies before they left their country 
 house. Wherever one turns there is misery, so that at last 
 pity seizes one while looking." 
 
 " But in misfortune each man or woman shows his or her 
 real nature," said Pani Bigiel. "You remember that we 
 considered Pani Mashko as somewhat dry in character, but 
 you will not believe how kind she is now to her mother. 
 She does not let a servant come near her; she attends her 
 herself everywhere, waits on her, reads to her. Eeally 
 she has given me a pleasant surprise, or rather both of 
 them, for Pani Kraslavski has lost her former pretentious- 
 ness thoroughly. It is pleasant to see how those women 
 love each other. It seems that there was something in 
 Pani Mashko which we could not discover." 
 
 "Both, too, were terribly indignant at the behavior of 
 Panna Castelli," added Bigiel. "Pani Kraslavski said to 
 us, ' If my Terka had acted in that way, I should have 
 denied her, though I am blind, and need care.' But Pani 
 Mashko is as she is, and she would not have acted in that 
 way, for she is another kind of woman." 
 
 Pan Stanislav drank his cup of black coffee, and began to 
 take farewell. For some time past every conversation 
 about Pani Mashko had become for the man unendurable; 
 it seemed to him, moreover, that he was listening again to 
 an extract from that strange human comedy which people 
 were playing around him, and in which he, too, was play- 
 ing his empty part. It did not occur to him that human 
 nature is so composed that even in the very worst person 
 some good element may be found, and that Pani Mashko 
 might be, after all, a loving daughter. In general, he pre- 
 ferred not to think of that, but began to halt over the 
 question, what could Mashko want of him? Forgetting 
 that Mashko had written in the letter that he wanted to 
 see him, not in his own, but in his (Pan Stanislav's) in- 
 terest, he supposed, with a certain alarm, that he wanted 
 money a second time. 
 
 "But I," thought he, "will not refuse now." 
 
 And it occurred to him that life is like the machinery 
 of a watch. When something is out of order in one wheel,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 595 
 
 all begin to act irregularly. What connection could there 
 be between his adventure with Paui Mashko and his busi- 
 ness, his money, his mercantile work ? And still he felt 
 that even as a merchant he had not, at least with refer- 
 ence to Mashko, the freedom that he once had. 
 
 But his suppositions proved faulty. Mashko had not 
 come to ask money. 
 
 "I looked for thee in the counting-house, and at thy 
 residence," said he; "at last I divined that thou must be 
 at the Bigiels', and I sent my letter there. I wished to 
 speak with thee on thy own business." 
 
 "How can I serve thee?" asked Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " First of all, I beg that what I say may remain between 
 us." 
 
 "It will; I am listening." 
 
 Mashko looked for a time in silence at Pan Stanislav, 
 as if to prepare him by that silence for some important 
 annoiincement ; at last he said, with a wonderful calmness, 
 weighing out every expression, 
 
 "I wished to tell thee that I am lost beyond redemption." 
 
 "Hast lost the will case?" 
 
 "Xo; the case will come up only two weeks from now 
 but I know that I shall lose it." 
 
 " \Vhence hast thou that certainty?" 
 
 "Dost remember what 1 told thee once, that cases against 
 wills are won almost always because the attack is more 
 energetic than the defence; because usually the overthrow 
 of the will concerns some one personally, while maintain- 
 ing it does not? Everything in the world may be attacked; 
 for though a thing be in accordance with the spirit of the 
 law, almost always, in a greater degree or less, it fails to 
 satisfy the letter, and the courts must hold to the letter." 
 
 " True. Thou hast said all that." 
 
 " Well, so it is, too, in this case which I took up. It 
 was not so adventurous as may seem. The whole question 
 was to break the will; and I should, perhaps, succeed in 
 proving certain disagreements in it with the letter of the 
 law, were it not that there is a man striving with equal 
 energy to prove that there are none such. I will not talk 
 long about this; it is enough for thee to know that I bav* 
 to contend nofc merely with an opponent who is a lawyer and 
 a finished trickster, but a personal enemy, for whom it 
 a question, not only to win the case, but to rum me. Once 
 I slighted him, and now he is taking revenge."
 
 596 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "In general, I do not understand why you have to do 
 with any one except the State Attorney." 
 
 " Because there were legacies to private people in defence 
 of which the opposite side employed Sledz, that advocate. 
 But let this rest. I must lose the case, for it is in condi- 
 tions for being lost; and if I were Sledz, I would win just 
 as he wins. I know this in advance, and I do not deceive 
 myself. Enough now of this whole matter." 
 
 "But go on; appeal." 
 
 'tNo, my dear friend, I cannot go on." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because I have more debts than there are hairs on my 
 head; because, after my first defeat, creditors will rush at 
 me; and because" here Mashko lowered his voice "I 
 must flee." 
 
 Silence followed. 
 
 Mashko rested his elbow on his knee, his head on his 
 palm, and sat some time with his head inclined; but after 
 a while he began to speak, as if to himself, without raising 
 his head, 
 
 "It is broken. I tied knots desperately, till my hands 
 were wearied; strength would have failed any man, still I 
 kept knotting. But I cannot knot any longer! God sees 
 that I have no more strength left. Everything must have 
 its end; and let this finish sometime." 
 
 Here he drew breath, like a man who is terribly tired; 
 then he raised his head, and said, 
 
 "This, however, is my affair merely, and I have come 
 to talk of thy affairs. Listen to me ! According to con- 
 tract concluded at the sale of Kremen, I was to make pay- 
 ments to thy wife after the parcelling of Magyerovka ; thou 
 hast a few thousand rubles of thy own money with me. I 
 was to pay thy father-in-law a life annuity. Now I come 
 to tell thee that if not in a week, then in two, I shall go 
 abroad as a bankrupt, and thou and they will not see a 
 copper." 
 
 Mashko, while telling all this with the complete bold- 
 ness and insolence of a man who no longer has anything to 
 lose, looked Pan Stanislav in the eyes, as if seeking for a 
 storm. 
 
 But he was deceived most thoroughly. Pan Stanislav's 
 face grew dark for one twinkle of an eye, it is true, as if 
 from suppressed anger; but he calmed himself quickly, and 
 said,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 597 
 
 "I have always expected that this would end so." 
 
 Mashko, who, knowing with whom he had to deal, sup- 
 posed that Pan Stanislav would seize him by the shoulder, 
 looked at him with amazement, as if wishing to ask what 
 had happened. 
 
 But at that moment Pan Stanislav thought, 
 
 "If he had wanted to borrow money for the road, I 
 could not have refused him." 
 
 But aloud he said, "Yes; this was to be foreseen. 
 
 "No," answered Mashko, with the stubbornness of a 
 man who will not part with the thought that only a con- 
 currence of exceptional circumstances is to blame for every- 
 thing "Thou hast no right to say this. The moment 
 before death, I should be ready to repeat that it migh 
 have gone otherwise." 
 
 But Pan Stanislav inquired, as if with a shade 
 
 impatience, . ,, 
 
 "My dear, what dost thou want of me specially ? 
 Mashko recovered, and answered, 
 "Nothing. I have come to thee only as to a man whc 
 
 has shown me good-will at all times, and with whom 
 r v e coTtracted g a money debt, as well as a debt ot grati- 
 
 tude II ave come to confess openly how things stand and 
 
 also to say to thee: save what is possible, and as much as 
 
 PaStnislav set his teeth; he judged that even in that 
 
 _if thou would on ly go thog htto, ^f he 
 
 compressing m himsell 
 said, 
 
 " I see no way. , Mas hko " While it 
 
 "There is only one y," answered t Maahko. 
 is still unknown to people that I mu st ^ > and sig . 
 are connected with the ,wiU case ^ile my ^ ^ ^ 
 nature mean something, th ^ purchas er that it is 
 wife's claim. Thou wilt say to the p ^^.^ f 
 
 thy wish to capitalize the v e FJJ^J^ wiU b e found 
 that sort. Appearances are easy. A purcna 
 always especially if thou dec u ^ to sel la i 
 tion. In view ot piont, ai^
 
 598 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 .any other should lose rather than thou; it is permitted thee 
 not to hear what I have told thee of my coming bank- 
 ruptcy, and it is permitted thee to hope that I shall win 
 the case. Thou canst be sure that he who will buy the 
 claim of thee, would sell it to thee, even though he knew 
 that it would not be worth a broken copper on the mor- 
 row. The world is an exchange; and on the exchange 
 most business is transacted on this basis. This is called 
 cleverness." 
 
 "No," answered Pan Stanislav, " it has a different name. 
 Thou hast mentioned Jews ; there are certain kinds of busi- 
 ness which they describe with one word, 'sehmttxigl' I 
 shall save my wife's claim in another way." 
 
 "As may please thee. I, my dear friend, know the 
 value of my system; but, seest thou, in spite of all, I said to 
 myself that I ought to tell thee this. It is perhaps the honor 
 of a bankrupt ; but now I cannot have another. It is easy 
 for thee to divine how hard it is for me to say this. 
 For that matter, I knew in advance that thou wouldst 
 refuse ; hence with me it was a question only of doing my 
 own. And now give me a cup of tea and a glass of cognac, 
 for I am barely living." 
 
 Pan Stanislav rang for the tea and the cognac. 
 
 Mashko continued, 
 
 "I must pluck a certain number of people, there is no 
 nelp for that ; hence I prefer to pluck indifferent ones 
 rather than those who have rendered me service. There 
 are positions in which a man must be an opportunist with 
 his own conscience." 
 
 Here Mashko laughed with bitterness. 
 
 "I did not know of that myself," continued he ; "but 
 now new horizons open themselves before me. One is 
 learning till death. We bankrupts have a certain point 
 of honor too. As to me, I care less for those who would 
 have plucked me in a given case than those who are near 
 me, and to whom I owe gratitude. This may be the moral- 
 ity of Rinaldini, but morality of its own kind." 
 
 The servant brought in tea now. Mashko, needing to 
 strengthen himself evidently, added to his cup an overflow- 
 ing glass of cognac, and, cooling the hot tea in that way, 
 drank it at a gulp. 
 
 "My dear friend," said Pan Stanislav, "thou knowest 
 the position better than I. All that I could say against 
 flight, and in favor of remaining and coming to terms with
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 599 
 
 creditors, thou hast said to thyself of course, therefore I pre- 
 fer to ask of something else : Hast thou something to grasp 
 with thy hand ? Hast thou even money for the road ? " 
 
 " I have. Whether a man fails for a hundred thousand, 
 or a hundred and ten thousand, is all one ; but I thank thee 
 for the question." 
 
 Here Mashko added cognac to a second cup ot tea, and 
 
 said. , . . . 
 
 "Do not think that I am beginning to drink tror 
 despair; I have not sat down since morning, and 
 terribly tired. Ah, how much good this has done me ! 
 I will say now to thee openly that I have not thrown up 
 the game. Thou seest that I have not fired into my fore- 
 head! That is a melodrama! that is played out. 
 indeed that everything is <?nded for me here ; but in this 
 place I could not'sail out anyhow. Here the interests are 
 too small siuiDly, and there is no field. lake the west, 
 rift There men make fortunes ; there they take a somer- 
 ' t, and rise again. What is to be said in the case 
 
 m j 1 J_TT* Itrt^l YI/-*T TlPVn 1 T^ L 
 
 'Evidently the tea and cognac had begun to rouse 
 
 him, for, clinching his fist, he ado 
 
 now what?" W v,n "thpv will count 
 
 "Now," said Mashko, a fter a i le, they ^ 
 
 Si Tte,f ^ r f i - I-e-taUen 
 
 I am going now ; and ^ I m wttl ed B aye 
 
 here with her mother I do not kn o i cannot 
 
 heard that Pani Kraslavski h aa 1 ostb e s^ ^^ j 
 take them at present, for I ami ^ven ^ T h 
 
 live ,_in Paris perhaps : perhap nu ^ P know llotllillg 
 
 that our BPW^^ittW- me! 
 yet. See in what the (Ir
 
 600 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 And Mashko put his palm on the top of his head, blink- 
 ing at the same time, as if from pain in his eyes. 
 
 " When wilt thou go ? " inquired Pan Stauislav. 
 
 " I cannot tell. I will let thee know. Thou hast had the 
 evident wish to aid me, and thou mayest, though not in 
 money. People will avoid my wife at first ; show her, 
 then, a little attention ; take her under thy protection. 
 Is it agreed ? Thou hast been really friendly to me, and 
 I know that thou art friendly to her." 
 
 " As God lives, one might go mad," thought Pan Stanis- 
 lav ; but he said aloud, 
 
 " Agreed." 
 
 "I thank thee from the soul of my heart; and I have 
 still a prayer. Thou hast much influence over those two 
 ladies. They will believe thy words. Defend me a little 
 in the first moments before my wife. Explain to her that 
 dishonesty is one thing, and misfortune another. I, as God 
 lives, am not such a rogue as people will consider me. 
 I might have brought my wife also to ruin, but I have not 
 done so. I might have obtained from thee a few thousand 
 more rubles; but I preferred not to take them. Thou wilt 
 be able to put this before her, and she will believe thee. Is 
 it agreed ? " 
 
 " Agreed," replied Pan Stanislav. 
 
 Mashko covered his head with his hands once more, and 
 said, with a face contracted as if from physical pain, 
 
 " See where real ruin is ! See what pains the most ! " 
 
 After a while he began to take farewell, thanking Pan 
 Stanislav, meanwhile, again for good-will toward his wife, 
 and future care of her. 
 
 Pan Stanislav went out with him, sat in a carriage, and 
 started for Buchynek. 
 
 On the road he thought of Mashko and his fate ; but at 
 the same time he repeated to himself, " I too am a bank- 
 rupt ! " 
 
 And that was true. Besides this, for a certain time 
 some sort of general uncoraprehended alarm had tormented 
 him ; against this he could not defend himself. Round 
 about he saw disappointment, catastrophes, ruin ; and 
 he could not resist the feeling that all these were for 
 him, too, a kind of warning and threat of the future. 
 He proved to himself, it is true, that such fears could not 
 be logically justified ; but none the less, the fears did not 
 cease to stick in the bottom of his soul somewhere, and
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 601 
 
 sometimes he said to himself again, " Why should I be the 
 one exception?" Then his heart was straitened with a 
 foreboding of misfortune. This was still worse than those 
 pins which, without wishing it, people, even the most 
 friendly, drove into him by any word, unconsciously. In 
 general, his nerves had suffered recently, so that he had 
 become almost superstitious. He returned daily to Buchy- 
 uek in alarm, lest something bad might have happened in 
 the house during his absence. 
 
 This evening, he returned later than usual because of 
 Mashko's call, and drove in about the time when real dark- 
 ness had come. Stepping out before the entrance on the 
 sandy road, which dulled the sound of the carriage, he 
 saw through the window Marynia, Pani Emilia, and the 
 professor sitting near a table in the middle of the parlor. 
 Marynia was laying out patience, and was evidently ex- 
 plaining the play to Pani Emilia, for her head was turned 
 toward her, and she had one finger on the cards. At sight 
 of her Pan Stanislav thought that which for some time 
 he had been repeating mentally, and which filled him at 
 once with a feeling of happiness, and with greater anger 
 at himself : " She is the purest soul that I have met in 
 life." And with that thought he entered the room. 
 
 " Thou art late to-day," said Marynia, when he raised 
 her hand to his lips with greeting; "but we are waiting for 
 thee with supper." 
 
 " Mashko detained me," answered he. "What is to be 
 heard here ? " 
 
 " The same as ever. All happy." 
 
 "And how artthou?" 
 
 " As well as a fish ! " answered she, joyously, giving him 
 her forehead for a kiss. 
 
 Then she began to inquire about Pan Ignas. Pan 
 Stanislav, after the disagreeable talk with Mashko, breathed 
 for the first time more freely. " She is in health, and all 
 is right," thought he, as if in wonder. And really he felt 
 well in that bright room, in that great peace, among those 
 friendly souls and at the side of that person so good 
 and reliable. He felt that everything was there whicl 
 needed for happiness ; but he felt that he had spoiled that 
 happiness of his own will ; that he had brought into 
 clear atmosphere of his house the elements of comipti 
 and evil, and that he was living under that roof wit 
 right.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 IN the middle of September such cold days came that 
 the Polanyetskis moved from Buchynek to their house iu 
 the city. Pan Stanislav, before the arrival of his wife, 
 had the house aired and ornamented with flowers. It 
 seemed to him, it is true, that he had lost the right to 
 love her, but he had lost only his former freedom with 
 reference to her ; but perhaps, just because of this, he be- 
 came far more attentive and careful. The right to love no 
 one gives, and nothing can take away. It is another case 
 when a man has fallen, and in presence of a soul incom- 
 parably more noble than his own, feels that he is not 
 worthy to love ; he loves then with humility, and does not 
 dare to call his feeling by its name. What Pan Stanislav 
 had lost really was his self-confidence, his commanding 
 ways, and his former unceremoniousness iu his treatment 
 of his wife. At present in his intercourse with her he 
 bore himself sometimes as if she were Panna Plavitski, 
 and he a suitor not sure of his fate yet. 
 
 Still that uncertainty of his had the aspect of coldness 
 &t times. Finally, their relation, in spite of Pan Stanis- 
 iav's increased care and efforts, had become more distant 
 than hitherto. " I have not the right ! " repeated Pan 
 Stanislav, at every more lively movement of his heart. 
 And Marynia at last observed that they were living now 
 somehow differently, but she interpreted this to herself 
 variously. 
 
 First, there were guests in the house, before whom, be 
 what may, freedom of life must be diminished ; second, 
 that misfortune had happened to Pan Ignas, a thing to 
 shock " Stas " and carry his mind in another direction ; 
 and finally Marynia, accustomed now to various changes in 
 his disposition, had ceased also to attach to them as much 
 meaning as formerly. 
 
 Having gone through long hours of meditation and sad- 
 ness, she came at last to the conviction that in the first 
 period, while certain inequalities and bends of character 
 are not accommodated into one common line, such vari- 
 ous shades and changes in the disposition are inevitable,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 603 
 
 though transient. The sober judgment of Pani Bi^iel 
 helped her also to the discovery of this truth ; she, on a 
 time, when Marynia began to praise her perfect accord 
 with her husband, said, 
 
 " Ai ! it did n't come to that at once. At first we loved 
 each other as it were more passionately, but we were far less 
 fitted for each other ; sometimes one 'pulled in one and the 
 other in another direction. But because we both had hon- 
 esty and good-will the Lord God saw that and blessed us. 
 After the first child all went at once in the best way ; and 
 this day I would n't give my old husband for all the treas- 
 ures of earth, though he is growing heavy, and when I per- 
 suade him to Karlsbad he will not listen to me." 
 
 "After the first child," inquired Marynia, with great 
 attention. " Ah! I would have guessed at once that it was 
 after the first child." 
 
 Pani Bigiel began to laugh. 
 
 " And how amusing he was when our first boy was born ! 
 During the first days he said nothing at all ; he would only 
 raise his spectacles to his forehead and look at him, as at 
 some wonder from beyond the sea, and then come to me 
 and kiss my hands." 
 
 The hope of a child was also a reason why Marynia did 
 not take this new change in " Stas " to heart too much. 
 "First, she promised herself to enchant him completely both 
 with the child, which she knew in advance would be simply 
 phenomenal, and with her own beauty after sickness ; and 
 second, she judged that it was not permitted her to think 
 of herself now, or even exclusively of " Stas." She was 
 occupied in preparing a place for the coming guest, as well 
 in the house, as in her affections. She felt that she must 
 infold such a figure not only in swaddling clothes, but in 
 love. Hence she accumulated necessary supplies. She 
 said to herself at once that life for two living together 
 might be changeable ; but for three living together it could 
 not be anything but happiness and the accomplishment 
 of that expected grace and mercy of God. 
 
 In general, she looked at the future with uncommon 
 cheerfulness. If, finally, Pan Stanislav was for her in some 
 way a different person, more ceremonious, as it were, and 
 more distant, he showed such delicacy as he had never 
 shown before. The care and anxiety which she saw on his 
 face she referred to his feeling for Pan Ignas, for whose 1 
 there was no fear, it is true, but whose misfortune she :
 
 604 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 with a woman's heart, understanding that it might continue 
 as long as his life lasted. The knowledge of this gave 
 more than one moment of sadness to her, and to the 
 Bigiels, and to all to whom Pan Ignas had become near. 
 
 Moreover, soon after the arrival of the Polanyetskis in the 
 city, news came all at once from Ostend which threatened 
 new complications. A certain morning Svirski burst into 
 the counting-house like a bomb, and, taking Bigiel and 
 Pan Stanislav to a separate room, said, with a mien of 
 mysteriousness, 
 
 " Do you know what has happened ? Kresovski has just 
 been at my studio, and he returned yesterday from Ostend. 
 Osnovski has separated from his wife, and broken Kopovski's 
 bones for him. A fabulous scandal ! All Ostend is talk- 
 ing of nothing else." 
 
 Both were silent under the impression of the news ; at 
 last Pan Stanislav said, 
 
 " That had to come sooner or later. Osnovski was 
 blind." 
 
 " But I understand nothing," said Bigiel. 
 
 " An unheard of history ! " continued Svirski. " Who 
 could have supposed anything like it ? " 
 
 " What does Kresovki say ? " 
 
 " He says that Osnovski made an arrangement one day 
 to go with some Englishmen to Blanckenberg to shoot dol- 
 phins. Meanwhile he was late at the railroad, or tramway. 
 Having an hour's time before him, he went home again and 
 found Kopovski in his house. You can imagine what he 
 must have seen, since a man so mild was carried away, and 
 lost his head to that degree that, without thinking of the 
 scandal, he pounded Kopovski, so that Kopovski is in 
 bed." 
 
 "He was so much in love with his wife that he might 
 have gone mad even, or killed her," said Bigiel. "What 
 a misfortune for the man! " 
 
 "See what women are! " exclaimed Svirski. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was silent. Bigiel, who was very sorry 
 for Osnovski, began to walk back and forth in the room. 
 At last he stopped before Svirski, and, thrusting his hands 
 into his pockets, said, 
 
 "But still I don't understand anything." 
 
 Svirski, not answering directly, said, turning to Pan 
 Stanislav, "You remember what I said of her in Kome, 
 when I was painting your wife's portrait? Old Zavilovski
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 60o 
 
 called her a crested lark. I understand how just that was; 
 for a crested lark has another name, ' the soiler.' What 
 a woman! I knew that she was not of high worth, but I 
 did not suppose that she could go so far and with such a 
 man as Kopovski ! Now I see various things more clearly. 
 Kopovski was there all the time, as if courting Panna 
 Castelli, then as if courting Panna Ratkovski; and of 
 course he and the lady were in agreement, inventing 
 appearances together. What a cheery life, the fellow had! 
 Castelli for dinner, and Pani Osnovski for dessert! Pleasant 
 for such a man! Between those two women there must 
 have been rivalry; one vying with the other in concessions 
 to attract him to herself. You can understand that in such 
 a place woman's self-esteem had small value." 
 
 "You are perfectly right," said Pan Stanislav. "Pani 
 Osnovski was always most opposed to the marriage of 
 Kopovski to Castelli; and very likely for that reason she 
 was so eager to have her marry Pan Ignas. When, in spite 
 of everything, Kopovski and Castelli came to an agree- 
 ment, she went to extremes to keep Kopovski for herself. 
 Their relation is an old story." 
 
 "I begin to understand a little," said Bigiel; "but how 
 sad this is ! " 
 
 " Sad? " said Svirski ; " on the contrary. It was cheerful 
 for Kopovski. Still, it was not. ' The beginning of evil 
 is pleasant, but the end is bitter.' There is no reason to 
 envy him. Do you know that Osnovski is hardly any 
 weaker than I? for, through regard for his wife, he was 
 afraid of growing fat, and from morning till evening prac- 
 tised every kind of exercise? Oh, how he loved her! what 
 a kind man he is! and how sorry I am for him! In him 
 that woman had everything, heart, property, a dogs 
 attachment, and she trampled on everything. Castelli, 
 at least, was not a wife yet." 
 
 "And have they separated really?" 
 
 " So really that she has gone. What a position, wh 
 a man like Osnovski left her ! In truth, the case is a han 
 one." 
 
 But Bigiel, who liked to take things on the pract] 
 side, said, "I am curious to know what she wil. io, f( 
 the property is his." , . , 
 
 "If l!e has not killed her on the spot, he will not let 1 
 die of hunger, that is certain ; he is not a man of t 
 Kresovski told me that he remained in Ostend, and that he
 
 606 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 is going to challenge Kopovski to a duel. But Kopovski 
 will not rise out of bed for a week. There will be a duel 
 when he recovers. Pani Brouich and Panna Castelli have 
 gone away, too, to Paris." 
 
 "And the marriage with Kopovski?" 
 
 "What do you wish? In view of such open infidelity, 
 it is broken, of course. Evil does not prosper; they, too, 
 were left in the lurch. Ha! let them hunt abroad for 
 some Prince Crapulescu 1 for after what they have done 
 to Ignas, no one in this country would take Castelli, save a 
 swindler, or an idiot. Pan Iguas will not return to her." 
 
 "I told Pan Stanislav that, too," said Bigiel; "but he 
 answered, ' Who knows? ' ' 
 
 "Ai!" said Svirski, "do you suppose really?" 
 
 "I don't know! I don't know anything!" answered 
 Pan Stanislav, with an outburst. "I guarantee nothing; 
 I guarantee nobody; I don't guarantee myself even." 
 
 Svirski looked at him with a certain astonishment. 
 
 "Ha! maybe that is right," said he, after a while. "If 
 any one had told me yesterday that the Osnovskis would 
 ever separate, I should have looked on hi: i as a madman." 
 
 And he rose to take farewell; he vac in a hurry to 
 work, but wishing to hear more about the catastrophe of 
 the Osnovskis, had engaged to dine with Kresovski. Bigiel 
 and Pan Stanislav remained alone. 
 
 "Evil must always pay the penalty," said Bigiel, after 
 some thought. "But do you know what sets me thinking? 
 that the moral level is lowering among us. Take such 
 persons as Bronich, Castelli, Pani Osnovski, how dis- 
 honest they are! how spoiled! and, in addition, how 
 stupid! What a mixture, deuce knows of what! what 
 boundless pretensions ! and with those pretensions the 
 nature of a waiting-maid. So that it brings nausea to 
 think of them, does it not? And men, such as Ignas and 
 Osnovski, must pay for them." 
 
 "And that logic is not understood," answered Par; 
 Stanislav, gloomily. 
 
 Bigiel began to walk up and down in the room again, 
 clicking his tongue and snaking his head; all at once he 
 stopped before Pan Stanislav with a radiant face, and, slap- 
 ping him on the shoulder, said, 
 
 1 A fanciful Roumanian name formed from the French crnpule, a 
 debauchee.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 607 
 
 "Well, my old man, thou and I can say to ourselves that 
 we drew great prizes in life's lottery. We were not saints 
 either; but perhaps the Lord God gave us luck because we 
 have not undermined other men's houses like bandits." 
 
 Pan Stanislav gave no answer; he merely made ready to go. 
 
 Conditions had so arranged themselves lately that every- 
 thing which took place around him, and everything which 
 he heard, became , as it were , a saw , which was tearing his 
 nerves. In addition, he had the feeling that that was not 
 only terribly torturing and painful, but was beginning to 
 be ridiculous also. At moments it came to his head to 
 take Marynia and hide with her somewhere in some tumble- 
 down village, if only far away from that insufferable 
 comedy of life which was growing viler and viler. Hut 
 he saw that he could not do that, even for this reason, 
 that Maryuia's condition hindered it. He stopped, how- 
 ever, the bargaining for Buchynek, which had been almost 
 finished, so as to find for himself a more distant and less 
 accessible summer place. In general, relations with people 
 began to weigh on him greatly; but he felt that he was in 
 the vortex, and could not get out of it. Sometimes the 
 former man rose in him, full of energy and freshness, and 
 he asked himself with wonder, " What the devil! why does 
 a fault which thousands of men commit daily, swell up in 
 my case beyond every measure?" But the sense of truth 
 answered straightway that as in medicine there are no 
 diseases, only patients, so in the moral world there are no 
 offences, only offenders. What one man bears easily, 
 another pays for with his life; and he tried in vain to 
 defend himself. For a man of principles, for a man who, 
 barely half a year before, had married such a woman as 
 Marynia, for a man whom fatherhood was awaiting, his 
 offence was beyond measure; and it was so inexcusable, 
 so unheard of, that at times he was amazed that he 'could 
 have committed it. Now, while returning home under the 
 impression of Osnovski's misfortune, and turning it over 
 in his head in every way, he had again the feeling as if 
 part of the responsibility for what had happened weighed 
 on him. "For I," said he to himself, "am a shareholc 
 in that factory in which are formed such relations and such 
 women as Castelli or Pani Osnovski." Then it occurred 
 him that Bigiel was right in saying that the moral 
 was lowering, and that the general state of mind whirl 
 does not exclude the possibility of such acts is Simply
 
 608 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 dangerous. For he understood that all these deviations 
 flowed neither from exceptional misfortunes, nor uncom- 
 mon passions, nor over-turbulent natures, but from social 
 wantonness, and that the name of such deviations is legion. 
 "See," thought he, "only in the circle of my acquaintances, 
 Pani Mashko, Pani Osnovski, Panna Castelli; and over 
 against them whom shall I place? My Marynia alone." 
 And at that moment it did not occur to him that, besides 
 Maryuia, there were in his circle Pani Emilia, Pani Bigiel, 
 Panna Helena, and Panna Katkovski. But Marynia stood 
 out before him on that ground of corruption and frivolity 
 so unlike them, so pure and reliable, that he was moved to 
 the depth of his soul by the mere thought of her. " That 
 is another world; that is another kind," thought he. For 
 a moment he remembered that Osnovski, too, had called 
 his own wife an exception; but he rejected this evil thought 
 immediately. "Osuovski deceived himself, but I do not 
 deceive myself." And he felt that the skepticism which 
 would not yield before Marynia would be not only stupid, 
 but pitiable. In her there was simply no place for evil. 
 Only swamp birds can sit in a swamp. He himself had 
 said once in a jest to her, that if she wore heels, she would 
 have inflammation of the conscience from remorse, because 
 she was deceiving people. And there was truth in this 
 jest; he saw her now just there before him as clearly as 
 one always sees the person one thinks of with concentrated 
 feeling. He saw her changed form and changed face, in 
 which there remained always, however, that same shapely 
 mouth, a little too wide, and those same clear eyes; and he 
 was more and more moved. " Indeed, I did win a great prize 
 in life's lottery," thought he; "but I did not know how to 
 value it. ' Evil must always pay the penalty,' said Bigiel." 
 And Pan Stanislav, to whom a similar thought had come 
 more than once, felt now a superstitious fear before it. 
 "There is," thought he, "acertain logic, in virtue of which 
 evil returns, like a wave hurled from the shore, so that evil 
 must return to me." And all at once it seemed to him per- 
 fectly impossible that he could possess such a woman in 
 peace, and such happiness. Just in that was lacking the 
 logic which commands the return of the wave of evil. And 
 then what? Marynia may die at childbirth, for instance. 
 Pani Mashko, through revenge, may say some word about 
 him, which will stick in Marynia's mind, and in view of 
 her condition, will emerge afterward in the form of a fever.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 609 
 
 Not even the whole truth is needed for that effect. On the 
 contrary, Pani Mashko may boast even that she resisted 
 his attempts. "And who knows," said Pan Stanislav to 
 himself , " if Pani Mashko is not making a visit to Marynia 
 this moment? in such an event the first conversation about 
 men and a few jesting words are sufficient." 
 
 Thinking thus, he felt that the cap was burning on his 
 head; and he reached hoiac with a feeling of alarm. At 
 home he did not find Pani Mashko; but Marynia gave him 
 a card from Panna Helena, asking him to come after dinner 
 to see her. 
 
 "I fear that Ignas is worse," said Marynia. 
 
 "No; I ran in. there for a moment in the morning. 
 Panna Helena was at some conference with the attorney, 
 Kononovich ; but I saw Panna Ratkovski and Pan Ignas. 
 He was perfectly well, and spoke to me joyously." 
 
 At dinner Pan Stanislav resolved to tell Marynia of the 
 news which he had heard, for he knew that it could not be 
 concealed from her anyhow, and he did not wish that it 
 should be brought to her too suddenly and incautiously. 
 
 When she asked what was to be heard in the counting- 
 house and the city, he said, 
 
 "Nothing new in the counting-house; but in the city they 
 are talking about certain misunderstandings between the 
 Osnovskis." 
 
 "Between the Osnovskis?" 
 
 " Yes ; something has happened in Ostend. Likely the 
 cause of all is Kopovski." 
 
 Marynia flushed from curiosity, and asked, 
 
 "What dost thou say, Stas?"' 
 
 " I say what I heard. Thou wilt remember my remarks 
 on the evening of Pan Ignas's betrothal? It seems that I 
 was right; I will say, in brief, that there was a certain 
 history, and, in general, that it was bad." 
 
 " But thou hast said that Kopovski is the betrothed of 
 Panna Castelli " 
 
 " He has been, but he is not now. Everything may be 
 broken in their case." 
 
 The news made a great impression on Marynia; i 
 wanted to inquire further, but when Pan Stanislav t, 
 her that he knew nothing more, and that in all 
 more detailed news would come in some days, she 1 
 lamenting the fate of Osnovski, whom she had 
 liked much, and was indignant at Pani Aneta. 
 
 39.
 
 610 CHILDREN OP THE SOIL. 
 
 "I thought," said she, "that he would change her, and 
 attract her by his love; but she is not worthy of him, and 
 Pan Svirski is right in what he says about women." 
 
 The conversation was interrupted by Plavitski, who, 
 after an early dinner at the restaurant, had come to tell 
 the "great news," which he had just heard, for all the city 
 was talking of it. Pan Stanislav thought then that he 
 had done well to prepare Marynia, for in Plavitski's nar- 
 rative the affair took on colors which were too glaring. 
 Plavitski mentioned, it is true, in the course of his story, 
 "principles and matrons" of the old time; but apparently 
 he was satisfied that something of such rousing interest 
 had happened, and evidently he took the affair, too, from 
 the comic side, for at the end he said, 
 
 "But she is a mettlesome woman! she is a frolicker! 
 Whoever was before her was an opponent! She let no man 
 pass, no man! Poor Osnosio! but she let no man pass." 
 
 Here he raised his brows, and looked at Marynia and 
 Pan Stanislav, as if wishing to see whether they understood 
 what "no man" meant. But on Marynia's face disgust 
 was depicted. 
 
 "Fe! Stas," said she, "how all that is not only dis- 
 honorable, but disgusting ! "
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 611 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 AFTER dinner Pan Stanislav went to Panna Helena's. 
 Pan Ignas wore a black bandage on his forehead yet, with a 
 wider plaster in the centre, covering a wound ; he stuttered, 
 and, when looking, squinted somewhat; but, in general, he 
 was coming to himself more and more, and looked on him- 
 self as recovered already. The doctor asserted that those 
 marks which remained from the wound yet were dis- 
 appearing without a trace. When Pan Stanislav entered, 
 the young man was sitting at a table in a deep armchair, 
 in which old Pan Zavilovski used to sit formerly, and was 
 listening with closed eyes to verses which Panna Ratkovski 
 was reading. But she closed the book at sight of a visitor. 
 
 "Good-evening," said Pan Stanislav to her. "How art 
 thou, Ignas? I see that I have interrupted a reading. In 
 what are you so interested?" 
 
 Panna Ratkovski turned her closely-clipped head to the 
 book, her hair had been luxuriant before, but she cut it 
 so as not to occupy time needed for the sick man, and 
 answered, 
 
 "This is Pan Zavilovski's poetry." 
 
 "Thou art listening to thy own poetry?" said Pan 
 Stanislav, laughing. "Well, how does it please thee?" 
 
 "I hear it as if it were not my own," replied Pan Ignas. 
 After a while he added, speaking slowly, and stuttering a 
 little, "But I shall write again as soon as I recover." 
 
 It was evident that this thought occupied him greatly, 
 and that he must have mentioned it more than once; for 
 Panna Ratkovski, as if wishing to give him pleasure, 
 said, 
 
 "And the same kind of beautiful verses, and not too 
 
 long." 
 
 He smiled at her with gratitude, and was silent, 
 at that moment Panna Helena entered the room, and press- 
 ing Pan Stanislav's hand, said, 
 
 "How well it is that you have come! I wanted to take 
 counsel with you." 
 
 "I am at your service." 
 
 " I beg you to come to my room."
 
 612 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 She conducted him to the adjoining room, indicated a 
 chair to him, then, sitting down opposite, was silent, as if 
 collecting her thoughts. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, looking at her under the lamp, noticed, 
 for the first time, a number of silvery threads in her bright 
 hair, and remembered that that woman was not thirty yet. 
 
 She began to speak in her cool and decisive voice, 
 
 ' ; I do not request counsel precisely, but assistance for 
 my relative. I know that you are a real friend of his, and, 
 besides, you have shown me so much kindness at the death 
 of my father that I shall be grateful the rest of my life 
 for it; and now I will speak more openly with you than 
 with any one else. For personal reasons, which I will not 
 touch, and of which I can only say that they are very 
 painful, I have decided to create for myself other con- 
 ditions of life, conditions for me more endurable. I 
 should have done so long since, but while my father was 
 living I could not. Then Ignas's misfortune came. It 
 seemed to me my duty not to desert .the last relative bear- 
 ing our name, for whom, besides, I have a heartfelt and 
 real friendship. But now, thanks be to God ! he is saved. 
 The doctors answer for his life; and if God has given him 
 exceptional capacities and predestined him to great things, 
 nothing stands in the way of his activity." 
 
 Here she stopped, as if she had fallen to thinking 
 suddenly of something in the future, after which, when she 
 had roused herself, she spoke on, 
 
 " But by his recovery my last task is finished, and I am per- 
 mitted to return to my original plan. There remains only 
 the property of which my father left a considerable amount, 
 and which would be altogether useless to me in my coming 
 mode of life. If I could consider this property my own 
 personally, I might dispose of it otherwise, perhaps ; but 
 since it is family property, I consider that I have no right 
 to devote it to foreign objects while any one of the family 
 is alive who bears the name. I do not conceal from you 
 that attachment to my cousin moves me ; but I judge that 
 I do above all that which conscience commands, and besides 
 carry out the wish of my father, who did not succeed in 
 writing his will, but who I know with all certainty 
 wished to leave a part of his property to Ignas. I have 
 provided for myself not in the degree which my father 
 thought of doing, but still I take more than I need. Ignas 
 inherits the rest. The act of conveyance has been written
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 613 
 
 by Pan Kononovich according to all legal rules. It includes 
 this house, Yasmeu, the property in Kutno, the estates in 
 Poznan and the moneys with the exception of that portion 
 which I have retained for myself, and a small part which I 
 have reserved for Panna Ratkovski. It is a question now 
 only of delivering this document to Ignas. I have asked two 
 doctors if it is not too early, and if the excitement might 
 not harm him. They assure me that it is not too early, and 
 that every agreeable news may only act on his health bene- 
 ficially. This being the case, I wish to finish the matter at 
 once, for I am in a hurry." 
 
 Here she smiled faintly. Pan Stanislav, pressing her hand, 
 asked, with unfeigned emotion, 
 
 " Dear lady, I do not inquire through curiosity, What do 
 you intend ? " 
 
 Not wishing evidently to give an explicit answer, she 
 said, 
 
 " A person has the right always to take refuge under the 
 care of God. As to Ignas, he has an honest heart and a 
 noble character, which will not be injured by wealth ; but 
 the property is very considerable, and he is young, inex- 
 perienced ; he will begin life in conditions changed altogether, 
 hence I wish to ask you, as a man of honor and his friend, 
 to have guardianship over him. Care for him, keep him 
 from evil people, but above all remind him that his duty 
 is to write and work further. For me it was a question, 
 not only of saving his life, but his gifts. Let him write; 
 let him pay society, not for himself only, but for those too 
 whom God created for His own glory and the assistance of 
 men, but who destroyed both themselves and their gifts." 
 
 Here her lips became pale on a sudden, her hands closed, 
 and the voice stopped in her throat. It might seem that 
 the despair accumulated in her soul would break all bounds 
 immediately ; but she mastered herself after a while, and 
 only her clinched hands testified what the effort was which 
 that action had cost her. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, seeing her suffering, judged that it would 
 be better to turn her thought in another direction, toward 
 practical and current affairs ; hence he said, 
 
 " Evidently this will be an unheard of change in tl 
 of Ignas : but I too hope that it will result only in goc 
 Knowing him, it is difficult to admit another i 
 could you not defer the act for a year, or at least hal: 
 year ?'"
 
 614 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Why ? " 
 
 "For reasons which do not lie in Ignas himself, but 
 which might have connection with him. I do not know 
 whether the news has reached you that the marriage of 
 Panna Castelli to Kopovski is broken, and that the posi- 
 tion of those ladies is tremendously awkward in con- 
 sequence. Through breaking with Ignas, they have made 
 public opinion indignant, and now their names are on 
 people's tongues again. It would be for them a perfect 
 escape to return to Ignas ; and it is possible to suppose that 
 when they learn of your gift, they will surely attempt this, 
 and it is unknown whether Ignas, especially after so short 
 an interval, and weakened as he is, might not let himself 
 be involved by them." 
 
 Panna Helena looked at Pan Stanislav with brows con- 
 tracted from attention, and, dwelling on what he said, she 
 answered,. 
 
 11 No. I judge that Ignas will choose otherwise." 
 
 " I divine your thought," said Pan Stanislav ; " but think, 
 he was attached to that other one beyond every estimate, 
 to such a degree that he did not wish to outlive the loss of 
 her." 
 
 Here something happened which Pan Stanislav had not 
 expected, for Panna Helena, who had always such control 
 of herself and was almost stern, opened her thin arms in 
 helplessness, and said, 
 
 "Ah, if that were true, if there were not for him any 
 other happiness save in her! Oh, Pan Polanyetski, I knew 
 that he ought not to do that; but there are things stronger 
 than man, and they are things which he needs for life 
 absolutely and besides 
 
 Pan Stanislav looked at her with astonishment ; after a 
 while she added, 
 
 " Besides, while one lives, one may enter on a better 
 road any moment." 
 
 " I did not suppose that I should hear anything like this 
 from her," thought Pan Stanislav. And he said aloud, 
 
 "Then let us go to Ignas." 
 
 Pan Ignas received the news first with amazement, and 
 then with delight; but that delight was as if external. It 
 might be supposed that, by the aid of his brain, he under- 
 stood that something immensely favorable had met him, 
 and that he had told himself that he must be pleased with 
 it, but that he did not feel it with his heart. His heart
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 615 
 
 declared itself only in the care and interest with which he 
 asked Panna Helena what she intended to do with herself, 
 and what would become of her. She was not willing to 
 answer him, and stated, in general terms, that she would 
 withdraw from the world, and that her resolve was un- 
 changeable. She implored of him this, which clearly con- 
 cerned her most, not to waste his powers and disappoint 
 people who were attached to him. She spoke as a mother, 
 and he, repeating, " I will write again the moment I re- 
 cover," kissed her hands and had tears in his eyes. It 
 was not known, however, whether those tears meant sym- 
 pathy for her, or the regret of a child abandoned by a good 
 and kind nurse ; for Panna Helena told him that from that 
 moment she considered herself a guest in his house, and in 
 two days would withdraw. Pan Ignas would not agree to 
 this, and extorted the promise from her to remain a week 
 longer. She yielded at last, through fear of exciting him 
 and injuring his health. Then he grew calm, and was as 
 gladsome as a little boy whose prayer has been granted. 
 Toward the end of the evening, however, he grew thought- 
 ful, as if remembering something, looked around with aston- 
 ished eyes on those present, and said, 
 
 " It is wonderful, but it seems to me as if all this had 
 happened before some time." 
 
 Pan Stanislav, wishing to give a more cheerful tone 
 the conversation, asked, laughing, 
 
 "Was it during previous existences on other pla 
 
 ^n'tlat'way everything might have happened some 
 other time," said Pan Ignas. 
 
 And you have written the very same verses aln 
 
 book lying on the table, looked at it, grew 
 thoughtful, and said at last, 
 
 Panna Katkov removed to her little chamber at Pan, 
 
 Melnitski's.
 
 61t> CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LXII. 
 
 THE separation of the Osnovskis, who in social life occu- 
 pied a position rather prominent, and the great fortune 
 which fell on a sudden to Pan Jgnas, were the items of news 
 with which the whole city was occupied. People who supposed 
 that Panna Helena had taken the young man to her house 
 to marry him were stunned from amazement. New gossip 
 and new suppositions rose. People began to whisper that 
 Pan Ignas was a son of old Zavilovski; that he had threat- 
 ened his sister with a law-suit for concealing the will ; that 
 she chose to renounce all and go abroad rather than be 
 exposed to a scandalous law-suit. Others declared that the 
 cause of her departure was Panna Ratkovski ; that between 
 those two young ladies scenes had taken place unpar- 
 alleled, scenes to arouse indignation. In consequence of 
 this, self-respecting houses would not permit Panna Kat- 
 kovski to cross their thresholds. There were others, too, 
 who, appearing in the name of public good, refused simply 
 to Panna Helena the right of disposing of property in that 
 fashion, giving at the same time to understand that they 
 would have acted more in accord with public benefit. 
 
 In a word, everything was said that gossip and meddling 
 and frivolity and low malice could invent. Soon new food 
 for public curiosity arrived under the form of news of a 
 duel between Osnovski and Kopovski, in which Osnovski 
 was wounded. Kopovski returned to Warsaw soon after 
 with the fame of a hero of uncommon adventures in love 
 and arms, stupider than ever, but also more beautiful, 
 and in general so charming that at sight of him hearts 
 young and old began to beat with quickened throb. 
 
 Osnovski, wounded rather slightly, was under treatment 
 in Brussels. Svirski received from him a brief an- 
 nouncement soon after the duel, that he was well, that in 
 the middle of winter he would go to Egypt, but, before 
 that, would return to Prytulov. The artist came to Pan 
 Stanislav with this news, expressing at the same time the 
 fear that Osnovski was returning only to avenge his wrongs 
 afresh on Kopovski.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 617 
 
 "For I am sure," said he, "that if he is wounded, it is 
 because he permitted it. According to ine, he wished to 
 die simply. I have shot with him more than once at 
 Brufini's, and know how he shoots. I have seen him hit 
 matches, and am convinced that had he wished to blow 
 out Koposio, we should n't see him to-day." 
 
 " Perhaps not," answered Pan Stanislav ; " but since he 
 talks of going to Egypt, 't is clear that he does not intend 
 to let himself be killed. Let him go, and let him take Pan 
 Ignas." 
 
 " It is true that Pan Ignas ought to see the world a little. 
 I should like to go from here to see him. How is he ?" 
 
 "I will go with you, for I have not seen him to-day. He 
 is well, but somehow strange. You remember what a 
 proud soul he was, shut up in himself. Now he is in good 
 health, as it were, but has become a little child ; at the least 
 trouble there are tears in his eyes." 
 
 After a while the two went out together. 
 
 " Is Panna Helena with Pan Ignas yet ? " inquired 
 Svirski. 
 
 " She is. He takes her departure to heart so much that 
 she has pity on him. She was to go away in a week ; now, 
 as you see, the second week has passed." 
 
 "What does she wish specially to do with herself? " 
 
 " She says nothing precise on this point. Probably she 
 will enter some religious order and pray all her life for 
 Ploshovski." 
 
 " But Panna Eatkovski ? " 
 
 " Panna Eatkovski is with Pani Melnitski." 
 
 " Did Pan Ignas feel her absence much ? " 
 
 " For the first days. Afterward he seemed to forget her." 
 
 "If he does not marry her in a year, I will repeat my 
 proposal. As I love God, I will. Such a woman, when she 
 becomes a wife, grows attached to her husband." 
 
 " I know that in her soul Panna Helena wishes Ignas to 
 marry Panna Eatkovski. But who knows how it will turn 
 out?'" 
 
 "I am sure that he will marry her; what I say is the 
 imagining of a weak head. I shall not marry." 
 
 " My wife said that you told her that yesterday ; but she 
 laughed at the threat. " 
 
 " It is not a threat ; it is only this, that I have no hap- 
 piness. " 
 
 Their conversation was interrupted by the coming c
 
 618 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 carriage, in which were Pani Kraslavski and Paui Mashko. 
 Those ladies were going in the direction of the Alley, 
 wishing evidently to take the air. The day was clear, but 
 cold ; and Pani Mashko was so occupied with drawing a 
 warm cloak on her mother that she did not see them, and 
 did not return their salutation. 
 
 " I called on them the day before yesterday," said Svirski, 
 " She is a kindly sort of woman." 
 
 " I hear that she is a very good daughter," answered Pan 
 Stanislav. 
 
 " I noticed that when I was there ; but, as is usual with 
 an old sceptic, it occurred to me at once that she finds 
 pleasure also in the role of a careful daughter. Do you 
 not see women often doing good of some special sort be- 
 cause they think that it becomes them ? " 
 
 And Svirski was not mistaken. In fact, Pani Mashko 
 found pleasure in the role of a self-sacrificing daughter. 
 But that itself was very much, since such a satisfaction 
 flowed still from real attachment to her mother, and because 
 at sight of her misfortune something was roused in the 
 woman, something quivered. At the same time Svirski did 
 not wish, or did not know how, to draw this further" conclu- 
 sion from his thoughts : that as in the domain of the toilet 
 a woman in addition to a new hat needs a new cloak, a new 
 dress, new gloves, so in the domain of good deeds once she 
 has taken up something she wants to be fitted out anew from 
 head to foot. In this way the rebirth of a woman is never 
 quite impossible. 
 
 Meanwhile they arrived at Pan Ignas's, who received 
 them with delight; because, for some time past, the sight 
 of people gave him pleasure, as it does usually to patients 
 returning to life. When he had learned from Svirski that 
 the latter would go soon to Italy, he began to insist that he 
 should take him. 
 
 "Ah, ha!" thought Svirski; "then somehow Panna 
 Eatkovski is not in thy head?" 
 
 Pan Ignas declared that he had been thinking long 
 of Italy; that nowhere else would he write as there, under 
 those impressions of art, and those centuries crumbling 
 into ruins entwined with ivy. He was carried away and 
 pleased by that thought; hence the honest Svirski agreed 
 without difficulty. 
 
 "But," said he, "I cannot stay long there this time, for 
 I have a number of portraits to paint in this city; and,
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 619 
 
 besides, I promised Pan Stanislav to return to the christen- 
 ing." Then he turned to Pan Stanislav, 
 
 "Well, what is it finally, the christening of a son or a 
 daughter?" 
 
 "Let it be what it likes," answered Pan Stanislav, "if 
 only, with God's will, in good health." 
 
 And while the other two began to plan the journey, he 
 took farewell, and went to his counting-house. He had a 
 whole mail from the previous day to look over, so, shutting 
 himself in, he began to read letters, and dictate to a writer 
 in short-hand those which touched affairs needing imme- 
 diate transaction. After a while, however, a newly hired 
 servant interrupted his labor by announcing that some lady 
 wished to see him. 
 
 Pan Stanislav was disturbed. It seemed to him, it is 
 unknown why, that this could be no other than Pani 
 Mashko; and, foreseeing certain explanations and scenes, 
 his heart began to beat unquietly. 
 
 Meanwhile the laughing and glad face of Marynia ap- 
 peared in the door most unexpectedly. 
 
 "Ah, well, haven't I given a surprise?" inquired she. 
 
 Pan Stanislav sprang up at sight of her, with a feeling 
 of sudden and immense delight, and, seizing her hands, 
 began to kiss them, one after the other. 
 
 "But, my dear, this is really a surprise!" said he. 
 "Whence did it come to thy head to look in here?" 
 
 And thus speaking, he pushed an armchair toward her, 
 and seated her as a dear and honored guest; from his 
 radiant face it was evident what pleasure her presence was 
 giving him. 
 
 "I have something curious to show thee," said Marynia; 
 "and because I must walk a good deal, anyhow, I came in. 
 And thou, what didst thou think? Whom didst thou look 
 for? Own up, right away ! " 
 
 Thus speaking, she began to threaten him while laugh- 
 ing; but he answered, 
 
 " So much business is done here, in every case I did n t 
 think it was thou. What hast thou to show?" 
 
 "See what a letter I have ! " 
 
 DEAR AND BELOVED LADY, It will astonish you perhaps that I 
 turn to you; but you, who are to become a mother soon, an- i 
 person on earth who will understand what must take place u 
 of a mother -even if she is only an aunt- who M*
 
 620 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 unhappiness. Believe me it is a question for me of nothing else than 
 bringing even temporary relief to an unhappy child ; and it inter- 
 ests me the more, that in all this that has happened 1 myself am to 
 blame chiefly. Perhaps these words too will astonish you, but k is 
 the case. 1 am to blame. If a bad and spoilt man, at the moment 
 when Xitechka was tottering and losing her balance, dared to touch 
 her with hh unworthy lips, I should not have lost my head and sac- 
 rificed the child. Indeed, Yozio Osnovski is to blame too: he put 
 the question of marriage ou a sharp knife ; he suspected something 
 and wanted to rid his house of Kopovski. May God forgive him, for 
 it is not proper to defend one's self at the cost of another's happiness 
 and life. My dear lady ! it seemed to me at the first moment that 
 the only issue was marriage with the unworthy Kopovski, and that 
 Nitechka had no longer the right to become the wife of Ignas. I 
 wrote even purposely to Ignas that she followed the impulse of her 
 heart, and that she would give her hand to Kopovski with attach- 
 ment ; and I thought that in this way Ignas would bear the loss of 
 her more easily, and I wanted to decrease his pain. Nitechka for 
 Kopovski ! The merciful God did not permit that ; and when I too 
 saw that that union would have been death for Nitechka, we were 
 thinking only of this, how to be free of those bonds. It is no longer 
 a question for me of returning to former relations, for Xitechka too 
 has lost faith in people and in life, so that probably she would never 
 be willing to agree to a return. She does not even know that I am 
 writing this letter. If the beloved lady had seen how Xitechka has 
 paid for all this with her health, and how terribly she felt the act of 
 Pan Ignas, she would have pitied her. Pan Ignas should not have 
 done what he has done, even out of regard for Nitechka ; alas ! men 
 in such cases count only with their own wishes. She is as much to 
 blame in all this as a newly born infant ; but I see how she melts 
 before my eyes, and how from morning till evening she is grieving 
 because she was the unconscious cause of his misfortune, and might 
 have broken his life. Yesterday, with tears in her eyes, she begged 
 me in case of her death to be a mother to Ignas, and to watch over 
 him as over my own son. Every day she says that maybe he is 
 cursing her, and my heart is breaking, for the doctor says that he 
 answers for nothing if her condition continues. O God of mercy ! 
 but come to the aid of a despairing mother ; let me know even from 
 time to time something about Ignas, or rather write to me that he is 
 well, that he is calm, that he has forgotten her, that he is not cursing 
 her, so that I might show her that letter and bring her even a little 
 relief from her torture. I feel that I am writing only in half con- 
 sciousness, but you will understand what is taking place in me, when 
 I look on that unhappy sacrifice. God will reward you and I will 
 pray every day that your daughter, if God gives you a daughter, be 
 happier than my poor Nitechka. 
 
 " What is thy thought about that? " inquired Marynia. 
 "I think," said Pan Stanislav, "that news of the change
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 in Pan Ignas's fortune has spread 
 
 & I , i 
 
 " That may be. It is not an honest letter- but still 
 may be very unhappy." 
 
 pleasant for them. Perhaps, too, conscience is speaking 
 
 dodges there are i 
 
 "Xo, I will not," answered Marynia, whose warmest 
 wishes were on the side of Panna Ratkovski. 
 
 And Pan Stanislav, following the thought which was 
 digging into him for some time past, repeated to her, word 
 tor word almost, what he had repeated to himself, 
 
 "There is a certain logic which punishes, and they are 
 harvesting what they sowed. Evil, like a wave, is thrown 
 back from the shore and returns." 
 
 Hereupon Marynia began to draw figures on the floor 
 with her parasol, as if meditating on something; then, 
 raising her clear eyes to her husband, she said, 
 
 " It is true, my Stas, that evil returns; but it may return, 
 too, as remorse and sorrow. In that case the Lord God is 
 satisfied with such penance, and punishes no further." 
 
 If Marynia had known what was troubling him, and 
 wanted to soften his suffering, and console the man, she 
 could not have found anything better than those few simple 
 words. For some time Pan Stanislav had been oppressed 
 by a foreboding that some misfortune must meet him, and 
 he was in ceaseless fear of it. From her only did he learn 
 that his sorrow and remorse might be that returning wave. 
 Yes, he had had no little remorse, and sorrow had not been 
 wanting in him ; he felt, too, that if suffering might and 
 could be a satisfaction, he would be ready to suffer twice 
 as grievously. Now a desire took him to seize in his arms 
 that woman full of simplicity and honesty, from whom so 
 inunli good came to him; and if he did not do so, it was 
 only from, fear of emotions for her, and out of regard for
 
 622 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 her condition, and that indecision which fettered him in 
 his relations with her. But he raised her hand to his lips, 
 and said, 
 
 ''Thou art right, and art very kind." 
 
 She, pleased with the praise, smiled at him, and began 
 to prepare for home. 
 
 When she had gone, Pan Stanislav went to the window, 
 and followed her with his eyes. From afar he saw her 
 carved form advancing with heavy step, her dark hair 
 peeping from under her hat; and in that moment he felt 
 with new force, greater than ever, that she was the dearest 
 person in the world to him, and that he loved her only, 
 and would love her till his death.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 628 
 
 CHAPTER LXIII. 
 
 Two days later Pan Stanislav received a note from 
 Mashko, containing a few words of farewell. 
 
 ' I go to-day," wrote he. " I shall try absolutely to run in once 
 more to thee ; but in every case I bid thee farewell, and thank thee 
 for all proofs of friendship which thou hast shown uie. May the 
 Lord God prosper thee better than He has prospered me so far! 1 
 should like to see thee, even for a moment ; and if I can, 1 shall run 
 in about four o'clock. Meanwhile I repeat the request to remem- 
 ber my wife, and protect her a little when people drop her. 1 praj 
 thee also to defend me before her against people's tongues. 1 am 
 going to Berlin at nine in the evening, and quite openly. Till we 
 meet again ! and in every case, be well, and once more, thanks for 
 everything. 
 
 " MASHKO." 
 
 Pan Stanislav went to tlie counting-house about four, 
 but he waited beyond an hour in vain. "He will not 
 come," thought he, at last; "so much the better." And 
 he went home with the feeling of satisfaction that he had 
 succeeded in avoiding a disagreeable meeting. But in the 
 evening a species of pity for Mashko began to move him: 
 he thought that the man had gone by a bad and feverish 
 road, it is true ; but he 'had had his fill of torment and 
 tearing, and in the end had paid dearly; that all which 
 had happened was to be foreseen long before; and if those 
 who foresaw it had associated with him, and received him 
 at their houses, they ought not to show him contempt i 
 the day of his downfall. He knew, too, that he shou 
 give Mashko pleasure by his appearance at the i 
 and after a moment of hesitation he went. 
 
 On the road he remembered that likely he should 
 Pani Mashko, too, at the station; but he knew 
 any event he must meet her, and he judged that 1 
 draw because of her would be a kind of vain cowardi 
 With these thoughts he went to the station. 
 
 In the hall of the first class, which is not large, th 
 were several persons, and on the tables whole pil 
 travelling-cases, but nowhere could he see Mash 
 only after he had looked around carefully did he recognize
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 iii a young veiled lady, sitting in one corner of the hall, 
 Pani Mashko. 
 
 "Good-evening," said he, approaching her. "I have 
 come to say good-by to your husband. Where is he?'' 
 
 She bowed slightly, and answered, with the thin, cold 
 voice usual to her, 
 
 "My husband is buying tickets." 
 
 " How tickets? Are you going with him? " 
 
 "No; my husband is buying a ticket." 
 
 Further conversation under these conditions seemed 
 rather difficult; but, after a while, Mashko appeared in 
 company with a railway servant, to whom he gave the 
 ticket and money, with the order to check the baggage. 
 Wearing a long travelling overcoat and a soft silk cap, he 
 looked, with his side whiskers and gold glasses, like some 
 travelling diplomat. Pan Stanislav deceived himself, too, 
 in thinking that Mashko would show uncommon delight at 
 his coming. Mashko, when he saw him, said, it is true, 
 "Oh, how thankful I am that thou hast come!" but, as it 
 were, with a kind of indifference, and with the hurry usual 
 to people who are going on a journey. 
 
 "Everything is checked," said he, looking around the 
 Jiall. "But where are my hand packages? Ah, here they 
 are! Good!" 
 
 Then he turned to Pan Stanislav, and said, 
 
 "I thank thee for having come. But do me still one 
 kindness, and conduct my wife home; or, at least, go out 
 with her, and help her to find a- carriage. Terenia, Pan 
 Polanyetski will take thee home. My dear friend, come 
 one moment; I have something more to say to thee." 
 
 And, taking Pan Stanislav aside, he began to speak 
 feverishly, 
 
 "Take her home without fail. I have given a plausible 
 form to my journey; but do thou say to her, so, in passing, 
 that thou art surprised that I am going such a short time 
 before the calling of the will case, for if any event should 
 detain me, the case must be lost. I wanted to go to thy 
 house just to ask this of thee; but, as thou knowest, on the 
 day of a journey The case will come up in a week. I shall 
 fall ill; my place will be taken by my assistant, a young 
 advocate, a beginner, and of course he will lose. But the 
 affair will be plausible through my illness. I have secured 
 my wife; everything is in her name, and they will not 
 take one glass from her. I have a plan which I shall lay
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 625 
 
 before a shipbuilding company in Antwerp. If I make a 
 contract, timber will rise in price throughout this whole 
 country ; but who knows, in that case, if I shall not return, 
 for the whole affair of Ploshov is a trifle in comparison 
 with this business ? I cannot speak more in detail. Were 
 it not for the grievous moments which my wife must pass, 
 I should keep regret away ; but that just throttles me." 
 
 Here he touched his throat with his hand, and then 
 spoke still more hurriedly, 
 
 " Misfortune fell on me ; but misfortune may fall on any 
 man. For that matter, it is too late to speak of this. 
 What has been, has been ; but I did what I could, and I 
 shall do yet what I can. And this, too, is a relief to me, 
 that thou wilt get thy own even from Kremen. If I had 
 time to tell thee what I have in mind, thou couldst see that 
 it would not come to the head of every man. Maybe I 
 shall have business even with thy firm. I do not give up, 
 as thou seest I have secured my wife perfectly. Well, 
 it 's over, it 's over ! Another in my place might have 
 ended worse. Might he not ? But let us return to ray 
 wife now." 
 
 Pan Stanislav listened to Mashko's words with a certain 
 pain. He wondered, it is true, at his mental fertility; 
 but at the same time he felt that in him there was lacking 
 that balance which makes the difference between a man of 
 enterprise and an enterprising adventurer. It seemed to 
 him, too, that there was in Mashko already something of 
 the future worn-out trickster, who will struggle for a long 
 time yet, but who, with his plans, will be falling lower 
 and lower till he ends, with boots worn on one side, in a 
 second-rate coffee-house, telling, in a circle of the same 
 kind of "broken men," of his former greatness. He 
 thought, also, that the cause of all this was a life resting 
 to begin with on untruth ; and that Mashko, with all his 
 intelligence, can never work himself out of the fetters of 
 falsehood. 
 
 See, he pretends yet, and even before his wife. He li 
 to do so ; but when the hall began to fill with people, som 
 acquaintances stepped up to greet the two men, and e: 
 change a couple of such hurried phrases as are 
 railroads. Mashko answered them with such a t 
 loftiness and favor that anger seized Pan Stanislav. , 
 to think," said he, " that he is fleeing from his creditor 
 What would happen were that man to roach fortu 
 
 40
 
 626 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 But now the bell sounded, and beyond the window was 
 heard the hurried breath of the engine. People began to 
 move about and hasten. 
 
 " I am curious to know what is going on in him now ? " 
 thought Pan Stanislav. 
 
 But even at that moment Mashko could not free himself 
 from the bonds of lying. Maybe his heart was straitened 
 by an evil foreboding : maybe he had a gleam of second 
 sight, that that wife whom he loved he should never see 
 again ; that he was going to want, to contempt, to fall ; but 
 it was not permitted him to show what he felt, or even to 
 say farewell to his wife as he wished. 
 
 The second bell sounded. They went out on the plat- 
 form, and Mashko stood still a while before the sleeping- 
 car. The gleam of i;he lamp fell directly on his face, on 
 which two small wrinkles appeared near the mouth. But 
 he spoke calmly, with the tone of a man whom business 
 constrains to a few days' absence, but who is sure that he 
 will return. 
 
 " Well, till we meet again, Teresia ! Kiss mamma's 
 hands for me, and be well. Till we meet, till we meet! " 
 
 Thus speaking, he raised her hand, which, moreover, he 
 kept long at his lips. Pan Stanislav, going aside a little 
 by design, thought, 
 
 " They see each other now for the last time. In some 
 half year a separation in form will follow." 
 
 And the peculiar lot of those two women struck him, 
 the same for mother and daughter. Both married with 
 great appearances of brilliancy; and the husbands of both 
 had to run away from their domestic hearths, leaving only 
 shame to their wives. 
 
 But now the bell sounded the third time. Mashko 
 entered. For a while, in the wide pane of the sleeping- 
 car, his side whiskers were visible, and his gold-rimmed 
 eye-glasses ; then the train pushed out into darkness. 
 
 "I am at your service," said Pan Stanislav to Pani 
 Mashko. 
 
 He was almost certain that she would thank him dryly 
 for his society, and reject it ; he was even angry, for the 
 reason that he had determined to tell her not only some- 
 thing about her husband, but something from himself. 
 But she inclined her head in agreement; she, too, had her 
 plan. So much bitter dislike for Pan Stanislav and such 
 a feeling of offence had been rising in her heart for a long
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 627 
 
 time, that, thinking him likely to take advantage again of 
 a moment which they were to pass together, she determined 
 to give him a slap which he would remember for many a 
 day. 
 
 But she was mistaken altogether. First, through her 
 he had been crushed as ice is crushed against a cliff, and 
 therefore for some time he had felt for her not only, dis- 
 like, but even hatred. Second, if later, through a feeling 
 of conviction that the fault was on his side exclusively, 
 that hatred had passed, then he had changed so much that 
 he had become almost entirely another man. His mercan- 
 tile reckoning with himself had taught him that such 
 transgressions are paid for too dearly ; he was in a phase 
 of immense desire for a life without deceit; and finally 
 remorse and sorrow had eaten up desire in him as rust eats 
 up iron. When assisting her into the carriage, and when 
 he touched her shoulder, he remained calm ; and when he 
 had taken his seat, he began at once to speak of Mashko, 
 for he judged that through a feeling of humanity alone he 
 ought to prepare her for the coming catastrophe, and soften 
 its significance. 
 
 "I wonder at the daring of your husband," said he. 
 " Let one bridge fall on the road during his stay in Berlin, 
 he will not be able to return to the will case, on which, as 
 you know, of course, all his fate depends. He must have 
 gone for important reasons ; but it is always hazardous to 
 act thus." 
 
 " The bridges are strong," answered Pani Mashko. 
 
 But he, unconquered by that not over-encouraging answer, 
 spoke on, drawing aside before her gradually the curtain 
 of the future ; and he spoke so long that while he was talk- 
 ing they arrived before the Mashko dwelling, 
 not understanding the meaning of his words evidently, and 
 angry, perhaps, that she had not had the chance to give 
 him the intended blow, said, when she had stepped out ol 
 the carriage, 
 
 Had you any personal object in disquieting i 
 
 "No," answered Pan Stanislav, who saw that the roomen 
 had come to tell her that which he had resolved to say 
 from himself. ' In relation to you, I have only ^one obj t 
 -to declare that, with reference to 3^.^** 
 unworthily, and that from my whole soul 
 
 ^BuT'the young woman went into her house without
 
 628 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 answering a single word. Pan Stanislav, to the end of 
 his life, did not know whether that was the silence of 
 hatred or forgiveness. 
 
 Still he returned home with a certain encouragement, 
 for it seemed to him that he ought to have acted thus. In 
 his eyes that was a small act of penitence; it was all one 
 to him how Paui Mashko understood him. "Maybe she 
 judged," said he to himself, "that I begged pardon of her 
 for my subsequent treatment; in every case 1 shall be able 
 to look her more boldly in the eyes now." 
 
 And in that thought of his there was undoubtedly some 
 selfishness ; but there was also the will to escape from the 
 toils.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 629 
 
 CHAPTER LXIV. 
 
 PANNA HELENA, also, before her departure, received a 
 letter from Pani Bronich, in the style of that which Marynia 
 had received, and, like Marynia, she did not show it to Pan 
 Ignas. Besides, Pan Ignas went away with Svirski a week 
 later without visiting any acquaintance except Panna 
 Eatkovski. Svirski, in person, kept him from all visits; 
 and Pan Stanislav, in conversations with his wife, declared 
 that he had acted rightly. "At present," said he, "it 
 would be disagreeable both for Ignas, and for us. Those 
 who saw him every day are different, for they are used to 
 him ; but no one else could refrain from looking at the scar 
 which is left on his forehead. Besides, Ignas has changed 
 very much. During the journey he will recover perfectly; 
 on his return we shall receive him as if nothing had hap- 
 pened; and strangers will see in him, above all, a wealthy 
 young lord." 
 
 And it might have been so in reality. But meanwhile, 
 there was loneliness around the Polanyetskis, because of 
 that departure. Their circle of acquaintances had scat- 
 tered on all sides. Osnovski remained still in Brussels; 
 where Pani Aneta had gone no one knew. Pani Bronich 
 and Panna Castelli were in Paris; there was no one at 
 Yasmen. Pani Kraslavski and her daughter shut them- 
 selves in, and lived only for each other; and finally sick- 
 ness had confined to her bed poor Pani Emilia, once and 
 forever. 
 
 There remained only the Bigiels and the professor. But 
 he was sick, too, and, moreover, he had become so peculiar 
 that strangers considered him a lunatic. Some said with 
 a certain irony that a man who thinks that the spirit of 
 Christianity will penetrate into politics as it has into pri- 
 vate life, must be indeed of sound mind. He began himself 
 to think about death, and to make preparations for it. 
 Frequently he repeated to Pan Stanislav his desire 
 "in the ante-chamber to the other world," and in i view o 
 that was preparing for Eome. But since he loved Marynia 
 greatly, he wished to wait till after her sickness.
 
 '630 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL.- 
 
 In this way time passed in great seclusion for the Po- 
 lanyetskis. It was for that matter necessary for Marynia, 
 who iu recent days had felt very ill, and necessary for her 
 state of feeling. Pan Stanislav worked over business in the 
 counting-house, and over himself; he was working out in 
 himself a new man, and watching over his wife. She, too, 
 was preparing herself for a new epoch iu life; and she was 
 preparing herself gladly, for it seemed to her that what 
 she did would act upon both of them. Pan Stanislav be- 
 came daily less absolute in some way, more condescending 
 in his judgments of people, and milder, not only in rela- 
 tion to her, but in relation to all persons with whom life 
 brought him into contact. He surrounded her with excep- 
 tional, with thoughtful care ; and though she supposed that 
 this care had in view not so much her person as the child, 
 she recognized this as proper, and was grateful. She was 
 astonished at times by a kind of timidity and, as it were, 
 hesitation in his treatment of her; but not being able to 
 divine that he was simply curbing his feeling for her, she 
 ascribed such exhibitions to " Stas's " fear as to whether 
 all would end well in her case. 
 
 Whole weeks passed in this manner. Their monotony 
 was broken sometimes by a letter from Svirski, who, when 
 he could seize a free moment, reported what he could of 
 himself and Pan Ignas. In one of those letters he inquired 
 in Pan Ignas's name if Pani Polanyetski would permit him 
 to send a description of his impressions in the form of 
 letters to her. " I spoke with him of this in detail," wrote 
 Svirski. " He contends first that it might be agreeable to 
 the lady to have echoes from a land which has left her so 
 many pleasant memories ; and second, that it would lighten 
 his work greatly were he to write as if privately. He is 
 well ; he walks, eats, and sleeps perfectly. Every evening 
 I see too that he sits at his desk and prepares to write. 
 I concluded that he was trying poetry, also. Somehow 
 it does not succeed, for he has not written anything 
 yet, so far as I know. I suppose, however, that all will 
 come out by degrees, and in season. Meanwhile the form 
 of letters would lighten his work, perhaps, really. I will 
 add in conclusion that he mentions Panna Helena with 
 immense gratitude ; and at every mention of Panna Rat- 
 kovski, his eyes become bright. I speak of her to him 
 frequently, for what can I, poor man, do ? When anything 
 is not predestined, there is no help in the case ; and when
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 63 J 
 
 it is written down to a man that he must remain like a 
 stake in a hedge, he will not put forth leaves in spring 
 even." 
 
 In the middle of November a letter came from Rome, 
 which roused much thought in the Polanyetskis. Svirski 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 "Imagine to yourselves that Pani Bronich is here and Panna 
 Castelli, and that I have had an interview with them. In Rome I 
 am as if at home ; hence I learned of their coming on the second dav. 
 And do you know what I did immediately'.'' I |>ersuaded Inas to 
 go to Sicily, in which, moreover, I found no great difficulty. I 
 thought to myself, 'he will sit in Syracuse or in Taormina; and* if hy 
 chance he falls into the hands of tho Mafia the cost of his ransom 
 will be less than what he paid for the privilege of wearing Panna 
 Nitechka's ring for a short time.' I said to myself, ' if he and she 
 are to meet on earth and be reconciled, let them meet and l>e recon- 
 ciled ; but I have no wish to take that work on my conscience, espe- 
 cially after what has happened.' Ignas is well to all seeming ; but he 
 has not recovered yet mentally, and in that state he might be brought 
 easily to something which he would regret for a lifetime. As to 
 those ladies, I divined at once why they came here, and I was de- 
 lighted in soul that I had hindered their tricks ; that my supposition 
 was to the point is shown by this, that some days later a letter came 
 to Ignas, on which I recognized the handwriting of the widow of that 
 heaven-dwelling Teodor. I wrote on the envelope that Pan Ignaa 
 had gone away, it was unknown whither, and sent the letter retro. 
 
 " That, however, was only the beginning of the history. Nert 
 morning I received a letter with an invitation to a talk. I answered 
 that I must refuse with regret ; that my occupations do not permit me 
 to give myself such a pleasure. In answer to this, I received a 
 second letter with an appeal to my character, my talent, my descent, 
 my heart, my sympathy for an unhappy woman : and with the prayer 
 that I should either go myself, or appoint an hour in my studio. 
 There was no escape, I went. Pani Bronich herself received me 
 with tears, and a whole torrent of narratives which I shall not 
 repeat, but in which ' Nitechka ' appears as a Saint Agnes the 
 martyr. ' With what can I serve,' ask I ? She answers : ' It is 
 not a question of anything, but a kind word from Pan I^nas. The 
 child is sick, she is coughing, in all likelihood she will not live the 
 year out ; but she wants to die with a word of forgiveness.' At this 
 I confess that I was softened a little, but I held out. Moreover I 
 could not "ive the address of Pan Ignas, for I did not know really 
 at what hotel he had stopped. I was sweat in- as in a st 
 and at last I promised something in general, that i 
 be<nn at any time to talk with me about Panna ( Mtelli, that 
 would persuade him to act in accordance with the 
 Bronich. 
 
 But this was not all yet.. When I was thinking of going, Panna
 
 632 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Lineta herself rushed in on a sudden, and turned to her aunt with 
 the request to let her talk with me alone. I will say in parenthesis 
 that she has grown thin r and that she seems taller than usual, really 
 like ' a poplar,' which any wind might break. Hardly were we 
 left alone when she turned to me and said, ' Aunt is trying to make 
 me innocent, and is doing so through love for me. I am thankful to 
 her ; but I cannot endure it, and I declare to you that I am guilty, 
 that I am not worthy of anything, and that if 1 am unhappy I have 
 deserved it a hundred times.' When I heard this I was astonished; 
 but I saw that she was talking sincerely, for her lips were quivering 
 and her eyes were mist-covered. You may say to yourselves that I 
 have a heart made of butter ; but I confess that I was moved greatly, 
 and I inquired what I could do for her. To this she answered that 
 I could do nothing ; but she begged me to believe at least that she 
 took no part in those efforts of her aunt to renew relations, that 
 after Pan Ignas's act her eyes were opened to what she had done, 
 and that she would never forget it in her life. At last she said once 
 again, that she alone was the cause of everything, and begged me to 
 repeat our conversation to Pan Ignas, not immediately, however, but 
 only when he could not suspect that she wished to influence him. 
 
 " Well, and what do you think ? Would you lend belief to anything 
 like that ? I see clearly two things, first, that Pan Ignas's attempt 
 on his life, happen what may, must have shaken her terribly ; and 
 second, that she is fabulously unhappy, who knows, she may be sick 
 really. So the opinion of Panna Helena comes to my mind, who, 
 as you repeated to me, says that we must not despair of a man while 
 he is living. In every case it is something uncommon. I believe 
 too that even if Pan Ignas wished now to return to her, she would 
 not consent, simply because she does not feel that she is worthy ot 
 him. As to me, I think that there are many better and nobler 
 female natures than hers in the world ; but may the deuce take me if 
 I act against her ! '' 
 
 In continuation Svirski inquired about health, and sent 
 obeisances to the Bigiels. 
 
 This letter made a great impression on all, and was the 
 occasion of numerous discussions between the Polanyetskis 
 and the Bigiels. It appeared at once too how far Pan 
 Stanislav was changed. Formerly he would not have found 
 words enough to condemn Panna Castelli, and never would 
 he have believed that any chord of honor would make itself 
 heard in a woman of her kind ; but at present, when Pani 
 Bigiel, who, as well as the other ladies, belonged soul and 
 body to Panna Ratkovski's side, expressed doubts, and said, 
 "Is not that merely a change of tactics on the part of 
 Panna Castelli?" he said, 
 
 "No; she is too young for that, and she seems to me 
 sincere. It is a great thing if she acknowledges her fault
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 633 
 
 so unconditionally, for it proves that untruth in life has 
 disgusted her." 
 
 After a moment's hesitation, he added, 
 
 " I remember, for example, that more than once Mashko 
 acknowledged, as it were, that he was going by a wrong and 
 false road ; but right away he sought reasons to justify him- 
 self : < With us it is necessary to do so ;' ' That is the fault 
 of our society ; ' < I pay with the money that is current. 1 
 How much of this have I heard ! And that was all untrue, 
 too. Meanwhile there is a certain bravery in declaring, 
 It is my fault absolutely. And whoso has that bravery has 
 something left yet." 
 
 "Then do you judge that Pan Ignas would do well to 
 return to her ? " 
 
 " I do not judge at all, nor do I suppose that it could 
 happen." 
 
 But the living interest roused by news from Rome, to- 
 gether with anxiety for Pan Ignas and Panna Castelli, 
 passed away soon, under the pressure of a more import- 
 ant anxiety, which was hanging over the house of the 
 Polanyetskis. 
 
 Toward the end of November Marynia's health began to fail 
 evidently. It had been failing for some time, but she con- 
 cealed this fact as long as possible. A painful palpitation of 
 the heart came on her, and weakness so great that there were 
 days when she could not move out of an armchair. Next 
 came pains in her back and giddiness. In the course of a 
 week she changed so much in the eyes, and grew thin to 
 such a degree, that even the doctors, who up to that time 
 had considered those symptoms as the ordinary forerunners 
 of approaching labor, began to be alarmed at them. Her 
 transparent face assumed at times a bluish tinge; and 
 seemed, especially when the sick woman kept her eyes 
 closed, like the face of a dead person. Even Pani Bigiel, 
 the greatest optimist near Marynia, could not at last resist 
 fears ; the doctor declared to Pan Stanislav plainly that under 
 such conditions the expected event might be dangerous, 
 both in itself and in sequences. Marynia, though weaker 
 every day and more exhausted, was indeed the only one 
 who did not lose hope now. 
 
 But Pan Stanislav lost it. Such a grievous 
 on him that all sufferings and misfortunes which li 
 in life he had gone through seemed to him nothing 
 comparison with his terrible dread, which often and
 
 634 
 
 became utter despair. Formerly after his wedding, in his 
 conceptions of marriage and his hopes of the future, a child 
 was the main thing ; now for the first time he felt that he 
 would give not only one, but all the children that he could 
 ever have, to save that one beloved Marynia. And his 
 heart was cut when at times Marynia repeated with her 
 weakened voice the question which before she had asked 
 more than once, " Stas, but if it is a boy ? " He would 
 have been glad to fall at her feet, embrace them, and say, 
 " Let the devil take it, boy or girl, if only thou art left ; " 
 but he had to smile at her, and assure her calmly that it 
 was all one to him. His former terrors fell upon him 
 again ; and that hope, roused by Marynia's words, that by 
 God's favor a wave of evil returns as remorse only, was 
 dissipated without a trace. Now, at moments, he had again 
 the feeling that Marynia's sickness might be just that 
 returning wave. How it might be that wave he could not 
 tell, for in vain did reason say to him that between the 
 offence of Pani Osnovski or of Panna Castelli, for example, 
 and the punishment which met them, there is an immediate 
 connection which there is not in his case. Fear answered 
 him, that evil may filter through life by such secret chan- 
 nels that the reason of man cannot follow it. And at this 
 thought a dread seized him that was simply mysterious. A 
 man in misfortune loses power of accurate reasoning ; he 
 lives under the weight of terror, and under such a weight 
 was Pan Stanislav living. He saw only the precipice, and 
 his own helplessness. More than once, while looking at the 
 haggard face of Marynia, he said to himself, "One must 
 be mad to suppose that she may not die ; " and he sought 
 desperately on the faces of those surrounding her for even a 
 shade of hope, and with every drop of his blood, with every 
 atom of his brain, with his whole soul and heart, he rose 
 up against her death. It seemed to him an inconceivable 
 injustice that she will have to close her eyes forever before 
 he can show her how he loves her beyond every estimate ; 
 before he rewards her for all his carelessness, harsh treat- 
 ment, egotism, and faithlessness; before he tells her that 
 she has become the soul of his soul, something not only 
 loved above all in his life, but revered. He repeated to 
 himself that if God would not do this for him He ought to 
 do it for her, so that in going from the world she might 
 leave it with a feeling at least of that happiness which she 
 had deserved. From these insolent suggestions to God of
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 636 
 
 how He ought to act, he passed again to compunction, to 
 humility, and to prayer. But meanwhile Marynia was 
 daily more and more dangerously ill, and he, between two 
 despairs, one of which shouted, ""This cannot be," and the 
 other, " It must be," he struggled as if in a vice. 
 
 Finally, from necessity, from the fear of taking hope 
 from Marynia, he was forced to pretend in her presence 
 that he paid little attention to her sickness. And the doc- 
 tor and Paui Bigiel warned him daily not to alarm her; his 
 own reason indicated the same to him. And here was a 
 new torture, since it came to his mind that she might look 
 on this as a lack of feeling, and die with the conviction that 
 he had never loved her. Thus everything was changed in 
 him utterly. Sleeplessness, torment, and alarm brought 
 him to a kind of sickly exaltation, in which even the dan- 
 ger, which of itself was too evident, he saw in a still higher 
 degree. It seemed to him that there was no hope, and at 
 times he thought of Maryuia as if already dead. For 
 whole days he was thinking over every good point of her 
 character, her words, her kindness, her calmness. He 
 remembered how all loved her, and he reproached himself 
 desperately, saying that he had never been worthy of her, 
 that he had not loved her sufficiently, that he had not 
 valued her enough, and, to crown all, had broken faith 
 with her ; and therefore he must lose her, and lose her 
 deservedly. 
 
 And in the feeling that a thing so terrible was also 
 deserved, and that it was too late for any correction, was 
 something simply heart-rending. Even persons who during 
 life were always loved greatly, when they go from this 
 world, leaving their friends in sorrow because they did not 
 love the departed enough, leave behind, of all sorrows, that 
 which is sorest. 
 
 At the beginning of December, Svirski and Pan Ignas 
 returned, after two months' journey, from Italy. Pan Stan- 
 islav had grown so thin and haggard in that interval that 
 they hardly knew him ; and he, quite sunk in misery, 
 turned scarcely any attention to them, and listened as in a 
 dream to words of hope and consolation from both, as w, 
 as narratives, with which the honest artist tried 1 
 his suffering mind. What did he care now for Pan I] 
 Pani Bronich, Panna Castelli, in face of 
 Marynia might die any day? Svirski, who had imni 
 friendship for him, wishing to find from some point a
 
 636 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 hope, betook himself to Paul Bigiel ; but even she had not 
 much hope to offer. The doctors themselves did not 
 know well what the trouble was, for to her condition were 
 added various complications, which could not be defined 
 even. It was only known that the heart of the sick woman 
 acted irregularly ; they feared above all that, as a result of 
 defective circulation, some coagulation in the veins might 
 result, which would cause sudden death. Besides, even in 
 case of a happy delivery, they feared a number of things, 
 exhaustion, loss of strength, and all those results which 
 come only later. Svirski convinced himself that Pani 
 Bigiel did not deceive herself either when, at the end of 
 the conversation, she fell into tears, and said, 
 
 "Poor Marynia! but he, poor man too. If even a child 
 should be left him, he might find strength to bear the 
 blow." 
 
 And when she had dried her tears, she added, 
 " As it is, I do not understand how he endures it all." 
 That was true ; Pan Stanislav did not eat and did not 
 sleep. He had not shown himself at the counting-house 
 for a long time ; he went out only for flowers, which Marynia 
 loved always, and the sight of which cheered her. But she 
 was so sick that whenever he went for a bunch of chrysan- 
 themums he returned with the terrible thought that perhaps 
 he was bringing it for her coffin. Marynia's own eyes 
 opened to this, that perhaps her death was coming. She 
 did not wish to speak of this to her husband ; but before 
 Pani Bigiel she fell to weeping one day in grief for her own 
 life and for " Stas." She was tortured by the thought, 
 how would he bear it, for she wanted that he should be 
 awfully sorry for her, and at the same time, that he 
 should not suffer much. Before him she pretended yet a 
 long time to feel sure that all would end happily. 
 
 But later, when fainting spells came, she summoned 
 courage to talk with him openly ; this seemed to her a duty. 
 Therefore one night, when Pani Bigiel, overcome by drow- 
 siness, went to sleep, and he was watching near her as usual, 
 she stretched her hand to him, and said, 
 
 " Stas, I wanted to talk with thee, and beg for one thing." 
 " What is it, my love ? " asked Pan Stanislav. 
 She thought for a time evidently how to express her 
 prayer ; and then she began to speak, 
 
 "Promise me I know that I shall recover surely but 
 promise me that should it be a boy, thou wilt love and be 
 kind."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. (537 
 
 Pan Stanislav, by a superhuman effort, restrained the 
 sobbing which seized his breast, and said calmly, _ 
 
 " My dear love, I will always love thee and him, be sure " 
 Thereupon Marynia tried to raise his hand to her lips 
 but from weakness she was not able to do so ; then she 
 smiled at him from thankfulness. And again she said 
 "Do not think that I suppose for a moment anything 
 terrible, not at all ! but I should like to confess." 
 
 A shiver went through Pan Stauislav from head to feet. 
 " Well, my child," answered he, with a voice of fear, and 
 as it were not his own voice. 
 
 And, recollecting that once her expression " service of 
 God " pleased him, and wishing to let him know that it 
 was not the question of anything else here but the per- 
 formance of ordinary religious duties, she repeated, with 
 an almost glad smile, 
 " The service of God." 
 
 The confession took place next morning*. Pan Stanislav 
 was so sure that that was the end that he was almost 
 astonished because Marynia was alive yet, and because she 
 was even a little better in the evening. 
 
 He did not dare to admit hope into his soul. But she 
 became brighter, and said that she breathed more easily. 
 About midnight she began the usual warfare with him 
 about his going to rest. Indeed, from trouble of mind and 
 toil he looked not much better than she did. He refused 
 at first, contending that he had slept in the daytime, and 
 that he was refreshed, which was not true ; but she insisted 
 absolutely. He yielded all the more that there was a special 
 woman and Pani Bigiel, besides the doctor, who for a week 
 had slept in their house, and who assured him now that 
 for the time there was no reason to expect any turn for 
 the worse. 
 
 But when he went out, he did as he did usually ; that 
 is, he sat in an armchair at the door, and began to listen 
 to what was happening in the room. In this way the 
 hours of night passed. At the least noise he sprang up ; 
 but when the noise ceased he sat down again and began to 
 think hurriedly and chaotically, as people do over wlmm 
 danger is hanging. But at times his thoughts pressed one 
 another, grew confused from weariness, farming, :is i 
 a dense crowd in which he was wandering witturat IH.W.T 
 to know anything. Sleep also tortured him. He had 
 common strength ; but for ten days he knew not how be
 
 638 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 lived. Only black coffee and feverishness kept him on his 
 feet. He did not yield even then, though his head was as 
 heavy as lead and the crowd of his thoughts changed, as 
 it were, into a black cloud, without a clear spot. He 
 merely repeated to himself yet that Marynia was sick and 
 he ought not to fall asleep ; but these words had not the 
 least meaning for him now. 
 
 At last toil, exhaustion, and sleepless nights conquered. 
 A stony invincible sleep seized him, a sleep in which there 
 was no dreaming, in which reality perished, in which the 
 whole world perished, and in which life itself was be- 
 numbed. 
 
 He was only roused toward morning by a knocking at 
 the door. 
 
 " Pan Stanislav ! " called the smothered voice of Pani 
 Bigiel. 
 
 He sprang to his feet, and, gaining consciousness that 
 moment, ran out 'of that room. With one glance he took 
 in Marynia's bed ; and at sight of the closed curtains his 
 feet tottered under him. 
 
 "What has happened?" whispered he, with whitening 
 lips. 
 
 But Pani Bigiel answered with a voice equally low, pant- 
 ing a trifle, 
 
 " You have a son." 
 
 And she put her finger on her lips.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. G39 
 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 
 THERE were grievous days yet, and very grievous. Such 
 weakness came on Marynia that her life began to quiver, 
 like the flame of a taper. Would it quench, or would it 
 flicker up again ? At moments all were convinced that 
 the flame was just, just dying. Still youth, and the reliei 
 brought by the coming of a child to the world, turned the 
 scale on the life side. On a certain day the sick woman 
 woke after long sleep, and seemed healthier. The old 
 doctor in attendance, who witnessed the improvement, 
 wished to convince himself more clearly that there was no 
 deception, and asked to call in a physician with whom he 
 had held counsel earlier. Pan Stanislav went to find him, 
 and drove himself out of his mind almost while searching 
 the city half a day for him ; he did not dare hope yet that 
 that turn in her sickness and in his misfortune was de- 
 cisive. When at last he found the hunted doctor and 
 brought him to the house, Pani Bigiel received him in the 
 room adjoining the sick chamber, with moist eyelids, but 
 with a glad face, and said, 
 
 "She is better! decidedly better." 
 
 The woman could not say more, for tears flowed from 
 her eyes. Pan Stanislav grew pale from emotion; but she 
 controlled her delight with an effort, and said, smiling 
 through her tears, 
 
 " She is fighting for food now. A while since she asked 
 to have the child brought. She asked also why you did 
 not come. But now she is fighting for food ; and how she 
 is fighting ! Ah, praise be to God ! Praise be to God ! 
 
 And in her excitement she threw her arms around Pan 
 Stanislav ; then he kissed her hand and did not take it from 
 his mouth for a long time. He trembled in every limb in 
 the struggle to repress his delight, and also the groans 
 which had gathered in him through many days of drea 
 and torture, and which sought to burst forth now i 
 of every effort. 
 
 Meanwhile the doctors came to Marynia, and sat rat 
 long at her bedside. When the consultation was 
 and they appeared again, satisfaction was evident <
 
 640 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 faces. After Pan Stanislav's feverish inquiry, the doctor 
 in regular attendance, an impetuous old man, with gold- 
 rimmed glasses on his nose, and a golden heart in his 
 breast, happy himself now, but greatly wearied, said, 
 grumbling, 
 
 " How is she ? Go and thank God, that is what ! " 
 
 And Pan Stanislav went. Even had he been a man with- 
 out belief, he would have gone at that moment, and 
 thanked God with a heart swollen from tears and thank- 
 fulness, for having taken pity on him and let the wave 
 return in the guise of pain and suffering, and not in the 
 guise of death. 
 
 Later, when he had calmed himself, he went on tiptoe to 
 his wife's room, where Pani Bigiel was. Marynia was 
 gazing straight ahead with gladsome eyes, and at the first 
 glance it was evident that she was much better really. 
 When she saw him, she said, 
 
 " Ah, see, Stas I am well! " 
 
 "Well, my love," answered Pan Stanislav, quietly. It 
 was not time yet for outbursts ; therefore he sat clown in 
 silence near her bed. But after a while joy and great feel- 
 ing for her overcame him so far that, bending down, he 
 embraced with both hands her feet covered with the quilt, 
 and, putting his face down to them, remained motionless. 
 
 And she, though very weak yet, smiled with satisfaction. 
 She looked some time at him ; then, just like a child which 
 is happy because it is fondled, she said to Pani Bigiel, 
 pointing with her transparent finger to that dark head 
 nestled at her feet, 
 
 "He loves me! " 
 
 Next day Marynia felt still stronger, and from that 
 moment almost every hour brought improvement. At last 
 that was not a gradual return to health, but a bloom, as 
 it were, a sudden return of spring after winter, which 
 astonished the doctor himself. Pan Stanislav wanted at 
 moments to shout from the joy which was stifling him, as 
 formerly sorrow had stifled. They kept Marynia in bed 
 still, through excess of caution ; but when her strength, 
 her bloom, her wish for life, her humor, had returned, she 
 began to call people to her, and say every evening that she 
 would rise from her bed on the morrow. In one respect 
 only the long illness and weakness had brought a change 
 in her manner, which was to pass, however, with other 
 traces of sickness. This was it, she, who had been such a
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 641 
 
 calm and wise woman formerly, had become for a certain 
 time a kind of spoiled child, who insisted on various things 
 frequently, and felt a real disappointment if they were 
 refused. Pan Stanislav, in speaking with her, entered 
 involuntarily into her tone, hence those " grimaces " were 
 an occasion also of merriment. 
 
 Once she began to complain to him that Pani Bigiel 
 would not give her red wine. Pani Bigiel explained that 
 she gave as much as the doctor permitted, and must wait 
 for permission to give more. Pan Stanislav set about com- 
 forting Mavynia at once, speaking to her just as he used to 
 speak formerly to Litka, 
 
 " They will give the child wine, they will give it! 
 the moment the doctor comes." 
 
 To which Marynia said, " Red ! " 
 
 " But how red must it be! " answered Pan Stanislav; and 
 then both began to laugh, and Pani Bigiel with them. As 
 some time before, the fear of death and misfortune had hung 
 over that room, so now it was lighted with frequent joy, as 
 with sunlight. At times they fell into perfect humor, and 
 grandfather Plavitski formed part of the company too on 
 occasions. He, since the advent to the world of his grand- 
 son, had grown full of patriarchal, but kindly importance, 
 which did not drive away merriment. It was varied, 
 however, for at times a lofty and solemn manner gained 
 the upper hand in him. On a certain day he brought his 
 will, and forced all to listen to its paragraphs from begin- 
 ning to end. In the touching words of the introduction 
 he took farewell of life, of his daughter, of Pan Stanislav, 
 and of his grandson, not sparing directions regarding the 
 education of the latter into a good grandson, a good son, 
 a good father, and a good citizen ; then he made him heir 
 of all he possessed. And in spite of the fact that since 
 Mashko's bankruptcy he possessed only as much as Pan 
 Stanislav gave him, still he was moved by his own muni- 
 ficence and preserved all that evening the mien of a pelican, 
 which nourishes its young with its own proper blood. 
 
 A person who returns to the world after a grievous il 
 ness passes anew through all the periods of childhood and 
 first youth, with this difference only, that that which 
 formerly was counted by years is counted now by v 
 or even days. So it was with Marynia. 
 who at first called her "baby," said, in laughing, th 
 gradually "baby" had changed into a little girl, the 
 
 41
 
 642 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 i 
 
 girl into a maiden. But the maiden began to find her 
 feminine coquetry. Now, when they combed her hair, she 
 insisted that they should place on her knees a small mirror, 
 which she had received from her mother; and she looked 
 into it carefully, to see if Pani Bigiel's promise that 
 "afterward she would be still more beautiful," was being 
 justified. On the first occasions the examinations did not 
 satisfy her over-much, but afterwards more and more. At 
 last she gave command one day to bring the mirror again, 
 after her hair was dressed; and once more she made a 
 thorough review of her complexion, her eyes, her mouth, 
 her hair, her expression, in a word, of everything which 
 there was to look at. And the review must have turned 
 out well, for she began to smile, and grow radiant; at last 
 she turned toward Pan Stanislav's chamber, threatening 
 with her thin fist, and said, with a very aggressive 
 mien, 
 
 " But wait now, Pan Stas ! " 
 
 In truth, she had never been so comely. Her complexion, 
 always very pure, had become still clearer, and more lily- 
 like than it was when Pan Ignas had lost his head, and 
 rhymed from morning till evening about it. Besides, the 
 first rosy dawn of health was shining on her cheeks. From 
 her eyes, from her mouth, from her face, which had grown 
 smaller after sickness, there shone a species of light, a 
 rebirth into life, a spring. It was a wonderful head 
 simply, full of bright and clear colors, and at the same 
 time of delicate outline, really exquisite, and, as Pan 
 Ignas had expressed himself once, belonging to the field, 
 so wonderful that at moments, when it was lying on the 
 pillow, and on its own dark hair, it was not possible to 
 look at it sufficiently. That so-called "Pan Stas," who 
 saw everything clearly, and who, according to the descrip- 
 tion of Bigiel, "could not move hand or foot from love," 
 did not need to "wait" at all. Not only did he love her 
 now as a woman and one dear to him, but he felt for her 
 gratitude beyond bounds because she had not died, and he 
 showed his gratitude by striving to divine her thoughts. 
 Marynia had not even imagined at any time that she would 
 become to such a degree the motive of his life, the sight of 
 his eye, the soul of his thought and activity. Never had 
 it been disagreeable to them with each other; but now, 
 with Marynia's return to health, an unexampled happi- 
 ness, an unexampled delight, came to their household.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 643 
 
 And young Polanyetski, too, contributed actively. 
 Maxynia was not able to nourish him herself; and her 
 husband, foreseeing this, got a nurse for his son. Wish- 
 ing, moreover, to give the sick woman pleasure, he brought 
 in an old acquaintance of hers in Kremen. She had served 
 once with the Plavitskis; after their departure she hap- 
 pened in Yalbrykov, and there a misfortune befell her. It 
 was never known strictly who the cause was; but if it was 
 possible to reproach any of the greater proprietors with 
 want of love for the people, it was not possible to reproach 
 Pan Gantovski, for all Yalbrykov was full of proofs of 
 how Gantovski loved the people. Even in the negotia- 
 tions about peasant privileges of the co-residents of Yal- 
 brykov, among other points raised was this, that "the 
 lord heir rides on a white horse, shoots from pistols, 
 and looks into the girls' eyes; " and if on the one hand it 
 Avas not easy to see what particular connection the above 
 habits of Gantovski had with the agreements about peasant 
 privileges, it became perfectly clear on the other that, 
 thanks to those habits, Pan Stanislav found with ease a 
 nurse for his son in Yalbrykov. 
 
 But as that was a youthful, vigorous, and buxom Mazo- 
 vian, the young man could only succeed in her care. In 
 general, that little Polanyetski was a personage who, from 
 the first moment of his arrival in the world, became more 
 and more a lord in the house, not counting with any one, 
 nor thinking of anything, save his own wants and pleasures. 
 According to his method, in moments free from sleep and 
 feasting, he occupied himself with noise-making, and the 
 development of his little lungs, by means of a cry which 
 was as piercing as his early age could attain. At such 
 times he was brought frequently to Marynia. On those 
 occasions endless sessions began, at which all his physical 
 and mental traits were investigated minutely, as well as 
 every striking resemblance to his life-givers. It was 
 asserted that he had the nose of his mother, the remark 
 of his nurse, that he had a nose like a cat, being rejected 
 with remarkable unanimity; it was settled, also, that h> 
 would have an immensely interesting smile; that he would 
 be dark, with brown hair; that he would be tall without 
 fail; that he was very lively, and would have an astpniftj 
 ing memory. Pani Bigiel, while Marynia was lying m 
 bed, made, also, on her own account, various di- 
 which she announced to all in general. Once she rushed
 
 644 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 into Marynia's room with delight and haste worthy of 
 every recognition , and said, 
 
 "Imagine to thyself, he spread out his little ringers on 
 one hand, and with the other thon wouldst swear that he 
 was counting. He'll be a mathematician, beyond doubt." 
 
 And Marynia answered in all seriousness, 
 
 "Then he '11 take after his father." 
 
 Still she made a discovery earlier, even with reference 
 to date, than all those of Pani Bigiel, namely, that 
 he was "a dear little love of a creature." As to Pan 
 Stanislav, at the first moment he looked at the new 
 acquaintance with astonishment and a certain distrust. 
 In his time he had wished greatly to have a daughter, with 
 this reason chiefly, that, being in make-up of heart a great 
 child-man, he imagined that he could give all the tender- 
 ness in him only to a girl. There was sticking in him, it 
 is unknown why, an idea that a son would be some kind 
 of a big lump of a fellow with mustaches almost, speaking 
 in a bass voice, snorting somewhat like a horse, whom it 
 would not be worth while to approach with tenderness, for 
 ie would hold it in contempt. Only gradually, after look- 
 ing at this little figure sleeping on pillows, did he begin 
 to reach the conviction that not only was that no big 
 "lump of a boy," but simply a poor little thing, deserving 
 of tenderness, small, weak, defenceless, needing care and 
 Jove as much as any little girl in the world. At last he 
 said to himself, " So he is that kind of boy! " And thence- 
 forth he became more and more tender toward the little 
 thing; and after a few days he even tried to carry him to 
 Marynia, which, however, he did with such an amount of 
 purely superfluous caution, and also so awkwardly, that he 
 brought to laughter, not only Marynia and Pani Bigiel, 
 but, with a loss to his own dignity, even the nurse. 
 
 And laughter was heard now in the dwelling of the 
 Polanyetskis from morning till evening. Both, waking in 
 the morning, woke with that happy feeling that the day 
 would bring them new delight. Bigiel, who, from the 
 time that Marynia left her bed, was admitted in the even- 
 ing with his violoncello, looking at their life, said once, 
 after a moment of necessary meditation, "Misfortune may 
 come to good people, as to every one; but when it is well 
 for them, as God lives, it is better for no one else." 
 
 And, in truth, life was pleasant for them. Marynia, 
 according to what she had heard in her time from Pani
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 645 
 
 Bigiel, and what she thought herself, judged that the cause 
 of this new bloom of love in her husband was the child, 
 which bound them by new bonds. One day she began even 
 to speak of this to Pan Stanislav; but he answered with all 
 simplicity, 
 
 "No; I give thee my word! I love him in his way; but 
 thee 1 loved already fabulously before he came to the world, 
 for thyself, because thou art as thou art. Look around," 
 said he, "think what is going on in the world; and to whom 
 can I compare thee?" 
 
 Then, taking her hands, he began to kiss them, not only 
 with immense love, but also with the greatest respect, and 
 added, 
 
 " Thou wilt never know what thou art for me, and how 
 1 love thee." 
 
 But, nestling up to him, she asked, with a face bright as 
 the sun in heaven, 
 
 " Indeed, Stas, shall I never know? Try to tell me."
 
 646 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LXVI. 
 
 THE christening came. Immediately after his arrival in 
 the world, the young man had been baptized with water 
 by Pani Bigiel, to whom, impressed by the sickness of the 
 mother, it seemed that the little one might die any moment. 
 But he had not even thought of that, and had waited, in 
 the best of health and appetite, for the time of the solem- 
 nity, in which he was to play the leading part. Pan 
 Stanislav had invited all his acquaintances. Besides people 
 of the house, and grandfather Plavitski, there were Pani 
 Emilia, who, for that day, had rallied the remnant of her 
 strength, the Bigiels, with the little Bigiels, Professor 
 Vaskovski, Svirski, Pan Ignas, and Paiina Ratkovski. Pani 
 Polanyetski, now in health, and happy, looked so enchant- 
 ing that Svirski, gazing at her, caught his hair with both 
 hands, and said, with his usual outspokenness, 
 
 "This just passes every understanding! As God lives! 
 a man might lose his eyes." 
 
 "Well," said Pan Stanislav, puffing with satisfaction, 
 and with that conceit evident in him that he had always 
 seen that which others saw only now for the first time. 
 
 But Svirski answered, 
 
 "Kneel down, nations! I will say nothing further." 
 
 Marynia was confused at hearing this, but flushed with 
 pleasure, feeling that Svirski was right. She had, how- 
 ever, to occupy herself with the guests and the ceremony, 
 and all the more since a certain disorder had crept in, to 
 begin with. The first couple, Pani Emilia and Bigiel, 
 were to hold little Stas; the second couple were Panna 
 Ratkovski and Svirski. Meanwhile, this last man began 
 to create unexpected difficulties, discovering hindrances, 
 and evading, it was unknown why. "He would be very 
 glad he had come from Italy purposely of course. 
 That was an arranged affair; but he had never before held 
 a child at a christening, therefore he didn't know if his 
 god-child would remain in good health, and especially if 
 he would have luck with women." At this Pan Stanis- 
 lav laughed, and called him a superstitious Italian, but 
 Marynia divined the trouble more quickly. She took
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 647 
 
 advantage of the moment in which he had pushed back 
 toward the window to escape, and whispered, 
 
 " A gossip l of the second couple is no hindrance in this 
 case." 
 
 _ Svirski raised his eyes to her, then laughed, showing 
 his small sound teeth, and said on a sudden, turning to 
 Panna liatkovski, 
 
 "It is true, this is only in the second couplej therefore, 
 I will serve you." 
 
 All surrounded the little Stas, who, in the arms of the 
 nurse, and dressed in muslin and lace, looked valiant, with 
 his bald spot and his staring round eyes, in which the 
 external world was reflected as mechanically as in a mirror. 
 Bigiel took him now in his arms, and the ceremony 
 began. 
 
 Those present listened with due attention to the solemn 
 sacramental words, but the young pagan exhibited excep- 
 tional hardness of heart. First he began to kick, so that 
 he half freed himself from Bigiel's arms; later, when 
 Bigiel, in his name, renounced the devil and his works, 
 the young man did all in his power to drown the words. 
 It was only when he saw, all at once, in the midst of his 
 screaming, Bigiel's spectacles, that he stopped suddenly, 
 as if to let people know that if there are such astonishing 
 objects in the world, it is a different thing. 
 
 However, the ceremony ended, and immediately after 
 they gave him into the hands of the nurse, who put him 
 into a splendid cradle, in the form of a wagon, the gift of 
 Svirski, and wished to roll him out of the room. But 
 Svirski, who never in his life, perhaps, had seen so nearly 
 such a small person, and in whose breast beat a heart long 
 yearning for fatherhood, stopped the nurse, and, bending 
 down to the cradle, took the child in his arms. 
 
 "Carefully, carefully! " cried Pan Stanislav, pushing up 
 quickly. 
 
 But the artist turned to him, and said, 
 
 " Sir, I have held in my hands the works of Luca della 
 Kobbia." 
 
 And, in fact, he lifted the little creature, and began 
 swing him with as much dexterity as if he had had cai 
 of children all his life. Then he approached Professor 
 Vaskovski, and asked, 
 
 i With Panna Ratkovski, Svirski wished to avoid spiritual relationship, 
 a hindrance to marriage.
 
 648 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Well, what does the beloved professor think of his 
 young Aryan?" 
 
 "What?" answered the old man, looking with tender- 
 ness at the child; "naturally, an Aryan, an Aryan of 
 purest water." 
 
 "And a coming missionary," added Pan Stanislav. 
 
 "He will not turn from that in the future; he will not 
 evade, just as you cannot evade," answered the professor. 
 
 It was not possible, in fact, to prejudge the future ; but 
 for the moment the young Aryan avoided all missions in a 
 manner so unmistakable, and simply insulting, that it was 
 necessary to give him to the nurse. The ladies, however, 
 did not cease to smack their, lips at him, and to be charmed 
 with him, until they came to a decisive conclusion that he 
 was a perfectly exceptional child, that his whole bearing 
 showed this clearly, and that any one must be without eyes 
 not to see that that would be the nicest man in the countr} r , 
 and, moreover, a genius. 
 
 But the " genius " fell asleep at last, as if he had been 
 stunned by the incense, and meanwhile lunch was served. 
 Marynia, in spite of all her friendship for the artist, seated 
 Pan Ignas next to Panna Eatkovski. She wished, as, for 
 that matter, all wished, not excepting even Svirski, that 
 something should be made clear in their relations, for Park 
 Ignas acted strangely. Svirski held that he was not yet en- 
 tirely normal. He was healthy; he slept and ate well; he 
 had grown a little heavier; he spoke with judgment, even 
 more deliberately than had been his habit, but there 
 appeared in him a certain infirmity of will, a certain lack 
 of that initiative for which he had been so distinguished 
 before. In Italy he grew radiant at remembrance of Panna 
 Ratkovski ; and when he spoke of her his eyes filled with 
 tears at times. On his return, when some one reminded him 
 that it would be well to make a visit to Panna Eatkovski, 
 and especially when that one offered to go with him, he 
 answered, " It is true," and he went with delight. But the 
 visit made, it seemed as though he did not remember her 
 existence. At times it was evident that in the depth of 
 his soul something was troubling him, swallowing all his 
 mental force. Svirski supposed for a while that it might 
 be the remembrance of Panna Castelli ; but he convinced 
 himself, with a certain astonishment, that it was not, and 
 at last he began to think that Pan Ignas never mentioned 
 her because he had lost the feeling that she was real, or
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 649 
 
 that she seemed to him now an impression so remote, a 
 remembrance so blown apart, that it could not be brought 
 into a real living whole. He was not melancholy. On 
 the contrary, one might note at times in him satisfaction 
 with life and the joy which he experienced, as it were, in 
 this his second birth in it. Really sad, more and more 
 confined in herself, and increasingly quiet, was Fauna 
 Eatkovski. It may be that, besides a lack of mutual feel- 
 ing, other things in Pan Ignas alarmed her; but she did 
 not mention those alarms to any one. Marynia and Pani 
 Bigiel, judging that the only cause of her sadness was the 
 conduct of Pan Ignas, showed the most heartfelt sympathy, 
 and were ready to do anything to help her. Marynia saw 
 Pan Ignas now for the first time since his return from 
 Italy; but Pani Bigiel spoke to him daily, praising Panua 
 Eatkovski, reminding him how much he owed her, and 
 giving him to understand more and more clearly that it was 
 his duty to pay something of the debt which he owed her. 
 The honest Svirski, to the detriment of his own hopes, 
 repeated the same to him ; and Pan Ignas agreed to every- 
 thing, but, as it were, unwillingly, or without being able 
 to add the final conclusion. He spoke of his approaching 
 second trip abroad, of plans of still greater journeys in the 
 future, in a word, of things which, by their nature, 
 excluded the co-operation of Panna Eatkovski. 
 
 And now, sitting side by side, they spoke little to each 
 other. Pan Ignas ate abundantly, and with appetite, even 
 with attention ; he followed with his eyes the new courses 
 which were served first to the elder guests. Pauna Bat- 
 kovski, noticing this, looked on him at moments, as if with 
 painful sympathy. At last this began to vex Marynia ; so, 
 wishing to rouse a conversation between them, she said, 
 bending over the table, 
 
 " You have come so recently from travels, tell me and 
 Steftsia something of Italy. Hast thou never been there, 
 Steftsia ? " 
 
 "I have not," answered Panna Eatkovski; "but not long 
 since I read the account of a journey but to read and 
 see are different." 
 
 And she blushed slightly, for she had betrayed the i 
 that she had been reading about Italy just when F 
 was there. ... . , 
 
 " Pan Svirski persuaded me to go as far as 8 
 he, "but it was hot there at that time; that would 
 place to visit at this season."
 
 650 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Ah!" said Marynia, "it is well that I think of it 
 but my letters? You asked through Pan Svirski if I 
 wished you to write your impressions, but afterward I did 
 not receive a single letter." 
 
 Fan Ignas blushed ; he was confused, and then in a kind 
 of strange and uncertain voice, answered, 
 
 "No, for I have not been able yet; I will write very 
 much, but later." 
 
 Having heard these words, Svirski approached Marynia 
 after lunch, and indicating Pan Ignas with his eyes, 
 said, 
 
 "Do you know the impression which he makes on me 
 sometimes ? that of a costly vessel which is cracked."
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LXVII. 
 
 A COUPLE of days after the christening, Svirski visited 
 Fan btamslav in the counting-house, to inquire for Mary- 
 nia's health, and to talk about various things which lay at 
 his heart. Seeing, however, that he was late, and that Pan 
 
 btanislav was preparing to go, he said, 
 
 " Do not stop for me. Let us talk on the street. The 
 light is so sharp to-day that I cannot work; therefore I 
 will walk to your door with you." 
 
 " In every case I should have been forced to beg your 
 pardon," said Pan Stanislav. " My Marynia goes out to- 
 day for the first time, and we are to dine with the Bigiels. 
 She must be dressed by this time, but we have twenty 
 minutes yet." 
 
 " As she goes out, she is well ? " 
 
 "Praise be to God, as well as a bird!" answered Pan 
 Stanislav, with delight. 
 " And the little Aryan ?-" 
 "The little Aryan bears himself stoutly." 
 " happy man, if I had such a toad at home, not to 
 mention such a wife, I should not know what to do un- 
 less to walk upon house-tops." 
 
 " You will not believe how that boy takes my heart. 
 Every day more, and in general, in a way that I did not 
 expect, for you must know that I wanted a daughter." 
 
 " It is not evening yet ; the daughter will come. But 
 you are in a hurry ; let us go then." 
 
 Pan Stanislav took his fur coat, and they went to the 
 street. The day was frosty, clear. Around was heard the 
 hurried sound of sleigh-bells. Men had their collars over 
 their ears, their mustaches were frosty, and they threw 
 columns of steam from their mouths. 
 
 " It is a gladsome sort of day," said Pan Stanislav. " I 
 rejoice, for my Marynia's sake, that it is clear." 
 
 "It is gladsome for you in life; therefore everything 
 seems clear to you," said Svirski, taking him by the arm. 
 But all at once he dropped the arm, and stopping the 
 way, said, with an expression as if he wished to quarrel,
 
 652 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " Do you know that you have the most beautiful woman 
 in Warsaw as wife ? It is I who tell you this I ! " 
 
 And he began to strike his breast with his hand as if tc 
 increase thereby the certainty that it was he and no one 
 else who was speaking thus. 
 
 " Of course ! " answered Pan Stanislav, laughing, " and 
 also the best and most honest on earth ; but let us go on, 
 for it is cold." 
 
 When Svirski took him again by the arm, Pan Stanislav 
 added with some emotion, 
 
 " But what I went through during her sickness, the Lord 
 God alone knows Better not mention it She gave 
 me a surprise simply by her return to life ; but if God 
 grants nie to live till spring, I will give a surprise that will 
 gladden her." 
 
 " There is nothing with which to compare her," answered 
 Svirski. 
 
 Then, halting again, he said, as if in astonishment, "And, 
 as I love God, so much simplicity at the same time." 
 
 They walked on a while in silence, then Pan Stanislav 
 asked Svirski of his journey. 
 
 "I shall stay three weeks in Florence," answered the 
 artist. " I have some work there. Besides. I have grown 
 homesick for the light on San Miniato and Ginevra, with 
 which, and with Cimabue, I was in love on a time. Do 
 you remember in Santa Maria Novella, in the chapel of 
 Kucellai ? After a three weeks' stay I shall go to Kome. 
 I wanted to talk with you about the journey, for this morn- 
 ing Pan Ignas came to me with the proposition that we 
 should go again together." 
 
 " Ah ! and did you agree ? " 
 
 "I had not the heart to refuse, though, between our- 
 selves, he is sometimes a burden. But you know how I 
 loved him, and how I felt for him, so it is hard for me 
 to say it, but he is burdensome occasionally. What is to be 
 said in this case? he is changed immensely. At the 
 christening I told Pani Polanyetski that at times he seems 
 to me like a costly vessel which is cracked ; and that is 
 true. For I saw how he struggled over those letters, in 
 which he wished to describe Italy for her. He walked 
 whole hours through the room, rubbed his shot forehead, 
 sat down, stood up ; but the paper remained just as it was, 
 untouched. God grant him to recover his former power. 
 At present he repeats to every one that he will write ; but
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 653 
 
 he begins to doubt himself, and to grieve. I know that he 
 grieves." 
 
 " The loss of his power would be a misfortune both for 
 him and Panna Helena. If you knew how she was con- 
 cerned to the verge of despair, not only for his life but 
 his talent." 
 
 " The loss of that would be a public misfortune ; but the 
 person for whom I am most sorry is Panna Katkovski. 
 She too begins to doubt whether he will be what he was,' 
 and that tortures her, perhaps, more than other griefs." 
 
 " Poor girl ! " said Pan Stanislav, " and the more so since 
 from all his plans of travelling one thing is clear, that he 
 does not even think of her. It is fortunate that Panua 
 Helena secured her independence." 
 
 "I will wait a year," answered Svirski, "and after a year 
 I will propose a second time. She has taken hold of me, 
 it is not to be denied ! Have you noticed how becoming 
 short hair is to her ? She ought to wear it that way always. 
 I will wait a year," and he was silent; "but after that 
 I shall consider my hands free. It is not possible either 
 that in her something will not change in a year, especially 
 if he gives no sign of life. All this is wonderfully strange. 
 Do you think that I do not do everything in my power to 
 blow into life some spark for her? As God is true, a man 
 has never done more against his own heart than I have. 
 Pani Bigiel too does what she can. But it is difficult. 
 Again, no one has the right to say to him expressly: marry ! 
 if he does not love her. And this is the more wonderful, 
 since he does not seem even to think of the other. One 
 Panna Eatkovski is worth more than a whole grove of such 
 ' Poplars ; ' but that is another affair ! For me the point is 
 that she should not suppose that I am taking him away 
 purposely. I have not dissuaded him, for I could not ; but, 
 my dear sir, should there ever be a conversation about our 
 journey, say to her that, as God lives, I did not persuade 
 Pan Ignas to the journey, and that I would give more than 
 she supposes to make her happy, even were it at the cost < 
 an old dog like me." 
 
 " Of course we shall do so." 
 
 " Thank you for that. Before going, I shall be with yoi 
 asrain to say good-by to Pani Polanyetski." 
 
 Surely 'in the evening, so that we may sit longer. J 
 too that you will return in summer; you and Pan Ignas 
 spend some time with us."
 
 654 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " In Buchynek ?" 
 
 " In Buchynek or not, that is unknown yet." 
 
 Further conversation was interrupted by the sight of 
 Osnovski, who at that moment was coining out of a fruit- 
 shop, with a white package in his hand. 
 
 " See, there is Osnovski ! " said Svirski. 
 
 " How changed ! " said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 And indeed he was changed immensely. From under his 
 fur cap gazed a pale face, grown yellow, and, as it were, 
 much older. His fur coat seemed to hang on him. Seeing 
 his two friends, he was vexed ; it was evident that for a 
 while he hesitated whether or not to go around, pretending 
 that he did not see them. But the sidewalk was empty, 
 and they had come so near that he changed his intention, 
 and, coming up, began to speak with unnatural haste, as 
 if wishing to cover with talk that of which all three were 
 thinking exclusively. 
 
 " A good day to you, gentlemen ! Oh, this is a chance 
 that we meet, for I am shut up in Prytulov, and come rarely 
 to the city. I have just bought some grapes, for the doctor 
 orders me to eat grapes. But they are imported in saw- 
 dust, and have the odor of it; I thought they would 
 be better here. There is frost to-day, indeed. In the 
 country sleighing is perfect." 
 
 And they walked on together, all feeling awkward. 
 
 " You are going to Egypt, are you not ? " inquired Pan 
 Stanislav at last. 
 
 " That is my old plan, and perhaps I shall go. In the 
 country there is nothing to do in winter ; it is tedious to be 
 alone there." 
 
 Here he stopped suddenly, for he saw that he was touching 
 a delicate subject. And they went on in a silence still more 
 oppressive, feeling that unspeakable awkwardness which is 
 felt always when, by some tacit agreement, people talk of 
 things of no interest, while hiding the main ones, which 
 are painful. Osnovski would have been glad to leave- his 
 two friends ; but people accustomed for long years to observe 
 certain forms pay attention to appearances unconsciously, 
 even in the deepest misfortune, hence he wanted to find 
 some easy and natural means of leaving Pan Stanislav and 
 the artist; but not being able to find it, he merely continued 
 the awkward position. Finally, he began to take farewell 
 of them in the unexpected and unnatural way of a man 
 who has lost his head.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 655 
 
 At the last moment, however, he determined otherwise. 
 Such a comedy seemed to him unendurable. He had had 
 enough of it. It flashed into his head that he ought not to 
 make a secret of anything; that in avoidance of every 
 mention of misfortune there is something abject. On his 
 face constraint was clear, and suffering; but, halting, he 
 began to say with a broken voice, losing breath every 
 moment, 
 
 " Gentlemen, I beg pardon for detaining you longer. But 
 you know that I have separated from my wife I do not 
 see any reason why I should not speak of it, especially with 
 persons so honorable and so near I declare to you, gentle- 
 men, .that that was that that happened so that is, that 
 I wished it myself, and that to my wife nothing 
 
 But the voice stuck in his throat, and he could not speak 
 further. Evidently he wanted to take the fault on himself; 
 but on a sudden he felt all the incredibility, all the extent 
 and desperate emptiness of a lie like that, which must be a 
 mere sound of words, so that not even the feeling of any 
 duty, nor any social appearance could justify him. And, 
 losing his head altogether, he went into the crowd, bearing 
 with him his grapes and unfathomable misfortune. 
 
 Svirski and Pan Stauislav went on in silence under the 
 impression of this misfortune. 
 
 "As God is true," said Pan Stanislav at length, "his 
 heart is breaking.'' 
 
 " For such a man," answered the artist, "there is nothing 
 except to wish death." 
 
 " And still he has not deserved such a fate." 
 
 "I give you my word," said Svirski, "whenever I think 
 of him, I see him kissing her hands. He did it so often 
 that I cannot imagine him otherwise. And what sets me 
 to thinking again is this, that misfortune, like death, severs 
 the relations of people, or if it does not sever relations com- 
 pletely, it estranges people. You have not known him long, 
 but I, for example, lived on intimate terms with him, and 
 now he is to me somehow farther away, while I am to him 
 more a stranger ; there is no help in this case, arid that is 
 so sad." 
 
 "Sad and wonderful " 
 
 But Svirski stopped on a sudden, and exclaimed, - 
 
 "Do you know what? May a thunderbolt burn that 
 Pani Osnovski ! Panna Helena said that it was not per- 
 mitted to despair of a man while he was living; but as to 
 that one, let a thunderbolt shake her ! '
 
 656 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " There was not in the world, perhaps, a woman more 
 worshipped than she," said Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " There you have them/' answered Svirski, passionately. 
 " Women, taking them in general " 
 
 But all at once he struck his glove across his mouth. 
 
 " No ! " cried he. " To the devil with my old fault ! I 
 have promised myself not to make any general conclusions 
 about women." 
 
 " I said that he worshipped her," continued Pan Stanis- 
 lav, " because now I simply do not understand how he can 
 live without her." 
 
 But he must." 
 
 Osuovski was forced really to live without his wife, but 
 he was not able. In Prytulov and in Warsaw, which 'were 
 full of reminiscences of her, life soon became for him unen- 
 durable ; hence a month later he started on a journey. But, 
 already out of health when he left Warsaw, he caught cold 
 in an over-heated car, and in Vienna fell so ill that he had 
 to take to his bed. The cold, which at first was considered 
 influenza, turned into a violent typhus. After a few days 
 ihe sick man lost consciousness, and lay in a hotel at the 
 mercy of strange doctors and strange people, far from home 
 and his friends. But afterward in the fever which heated 
 his brain and confused his thoughts it seemed to him that 
 he saw near his bedside the face dearest in life to him, 
 beloved at all times, beloved in loneliness, in sickness, and 
 in presence of death. It seemed to him that he saw it even 
 when he had regained consciousness, but was so weak that 
 he could not move yet, nor speak, nor even arrange his own 
 thoughts. 
 
 Later the vision disappeared. But he began to inquire 
 about it from the Sisters of Charity, who were sent, it was 
 unknown by whom, and who surrounded him with the most 
 tender care ; and he began to yearn beyond measure.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LXVIII. 
 
 AFTER the solemnity of the christening, and after the 
 departure of Svirski and Pan Ignas, the Polanyetskis 
 began to live again a secluded and home life, seeing 
 scarcely any one except the Bigiels, Pani Emilia, and 
 Vaskovski. But it was pleasant for them in that narrow 
 circle of near friends, and pleasantest of all with them- 
 selves. Pan Stanislav was greatly occupied; he sat long 
 in the counting-house and outside the counting-house, 
 settling some business of which no one else knew anything. 
 But, after finishing his work, he hurried home now with 
 greater haste than when, as betrothed, he flew everyday 
 to the lodgings of the Plavitskis. His old liveliness re- 
 turned, his old humor and confidence in life. Soon he 
 made a discovery which seemed to him wonderful, 
 namely, that not only did he love his wife with all his 
 power as his wife and the one dearest to him, but that he 
 was in love with her as a woman, without alarm or effort, it 
 is true, without transitions from joy to doubts and despair, 
 but with all the emotions of sincere feeling, with a whole 
 movement of desire, with a continually uniform fresh 
 sensitiveness to her feminine charm, and with an untiring 
 care, which watches, foresees, acts, anticipates, wishes, 
 and strives continually not to injure happiness, and not 
 to lose it. "I shall change into an Osnovski," said he, 
 humorously; "but to me alone is it permitted to be an 
 Osnovski, because my little one will never become a Pani 
 Aneta." He said "my little one" to her often now, but 
 there was in that as much respect as petting. He under- 
 stood, too, that he never should have loved her so, if she 
 had been other than she was; that all was the result 
 her immense, honest will, and of that sort of wonde 
 rectitude which issued from her as naturally as heat i 
 a hearth. Pan Stanislav knew that his mind was the mo 
 active, his thought the more far-reaching, and his knowle 
 profounder than her knowledge; still he felt that throuj 
 her, and through her alone, all that which was in h 
 had become in some way more finished and more i 
 Through her influence all those principles acquired by h 
 
 42
 
 658 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 passed from his. head, where they had been a dead theory, 
 to his heart, where they became active life. He noticed, 
 too, that not only happiness, but he himself was her work. 
 There was in this even a little disillusion for him, since 
 he saw, without any doubt, that had he found some common 
 kind of woman he might have turned out some common kind 
 of man. At times he wondered even how she could have 
 loved him; but he called to mind then her expression, "ser- 
 vice of God," and that explained to him everything. For 
 such a woman marriage , too, was "service of God," as was 
 love also, not by some wild power lying beyond the will of 
 people, but precisely by an act of honest will, by serving 
 an oath, by serving God's law, by serving duty. Marynia 
 loved him because he was her husband. Such was she, 
 and that was the end of the question! For a long time 
 Pan Stanislav was not able to see that all that which he 
 worshipped in her was enjoined directly by the first cate- 
 chism which one might take up, and that in her training 
 had not killed the catechism. Perhaps she had not been 
 reared with sufficient care; but she had been taught that 
 she must serve God, and not use God to serve herself. 
 
 Pan Stanislav, not understanding well the reasons why 
 she was what she was, admired her increasingly, honored 
 and loved her. As to her, while taking things without 
 exaggeration, she did not conceive an excessive opinion of 
 herself; she understood, however, that life had never been 
 so pleasant for her as it then was ; that she had passed 
 through certain trials; that during those trials she had 
 acted honorably; that she had endured the trials with 
 patience; that the Lord God had rewarded her. And this 
 feeling filled her with peace. Her health came back com- 
 pletely; she felt, therewith, very pleasant, and very imich 
 beloved. That "Stas," whom formerly she had feared a 
 little, inclined his dark head frequently to her knees with 
 submissiveness almost; and she thought with delight that 
 "that man was not at all bending by nature, and that if 
 he did bend, it was because he loved much." And she just 
 grew every day. Gratitude rose in her, and she paid him 
 for his love with her whole heart. 
 
 The young " Aryan " filled his role of a ray in the house 
 splendidly. Sometimes it was, indeed, a ray connected 
 with noise; but when he was in good-humor, and when, 
 lying in his favorite position, with his legs raised at right 
 angles, he drew cries of delight from himself, all the male
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 59 
 
 and female population of the house gathered around his 
 cradle. Marynia covered his legs, calling him "naughty 
 boy ; " but he pulled off the cover every instant, thinking, 
 evidently, that if a man of character has determined to 
 kick, he should hold out in his undertaking bravely. He 
 laughed while he kicked, showing his little toothless gums, 
 crowing, twittering like a sparrow, cooing like a dove, or 
 mewing like a cat. On such occasions his nurse and mother 
 talked for whole hours with him. Professor Vaskovski, 
 who had lost his head over the boy altogether, maintained 
 with perfect seriousness that that was an "esoteric speech," 
 which should be phonographed by scientists, for it might 
 either disclose thoroughly the mystery of astral existence, 
 or, at least, touch on its main indications. 
 
 In this way the winter months passed in the house of 
 the Polanyetskis. In January, Pan Stanislav began to 
 make journeys on some business, and after each return he 
 had long consultations with Bigiel. But from the middle 
 of January he stayed at home permanently, never going 
 out, unless to the counting-house, or to take short excur- 
 sions with Marynia and Stas in the carriage. The uni- 
 formity of their life, or rather the uniformity of its 
 calmness and happiness, was interrupted only by news of 
 acquaintances in the city, brought most frequently by 
 Pani Bigiel. In this way Marynia learned that Panna 
 Eatkovski, who, of late, had not shown herself anywhere, 
 had established a refuge for children from the income 
 secured her by Panna Helena, and that Osnovski had gone 
 really to Egypt, not alone, however, but with his " Anetka," 
 with whom, after returning to health, he reunited him- 
 self. Pan Kresovski, the former second of Mashko, had 
 seen them in Trieste, and declared to Pan Stanislav ironi- 
 cally that "the lady had the look of a submissive penitent." 
 Pan Stanislav, knowing from experience how a person is 
 crushed in misfortune, and what sincerity there may be in 
 penitence, replied with perfect seriousness that since her 
 husband had received Pani Osnovski, no decent man had a 
 right to be more exacting than he was. 
 
 But later news came from Italy which was more wonder- 
 ful, and so unheard of that it became the subject of talk, 
 
 married immediately after Easter. Marynia was so much
 
 660 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 roused by this that she persuaded her husband to write to 
 Svirski and ask if it were true. An answer came in ten 
 days; and v;lien Pan Stanislav entered his wife's room at 
 last with the letter, holding it by the corner of the en- 
 velope, and with the words, " Letter from Rome ! " the 
 serious Marynia ran. up to him, with cheeks red from 
 curiosity, and the two, standing temple to temple, read as 
 follows : 
 
 "Is it true? No, dear friends, it is not true! But that you 
 should understand why that could not take place, and can never take 
 place, I must speak to you of Pan Ignas. He came here three days 
 since. First I persuaded him to remain in Florence, then to glance 
 at Sienna, Parma, and especially Ravenna. Thence I send him to 
 Athens, and to-morrow he will go by way of Brindisi. Meanwhile 
 he sat with me from morning till evening. I saw that something was 
 troubling the man, and wishing to turn direct conversation to things 
 which concerned him more closely, I asked yesterday carelessly if he 
 had not in his portfolio a half a dozen sonnets on Ravenna. And 
 do you know what took place? At first he grew pale, and answered, 
 ' Not yet,' but added that he would begin to write soon ; then he 
 threw his hat on the floor suddenly, and began to sob like a child. 
 Never have I seen an outburst of similar suffering. He just wrung 
 his hands, saying that he had murdered his talent ; that there was 
 nothing more left in him ; that never would he have power to write 
 another line ; that he would prefer a hundred times that Panna 
 Helena had not saved him. You see what is happening within him ; 
 while people will say, surely, that he does not write because he has 
 money. And this, beyond doubt, will remain so. They have killed 
 the poor man, murdered soul and talent in him, put out the strong 
 fire from which light and warmth might have come to people. And 
 that, see you, I could not forget. God be with Panna Castelli ! but it 
 was not right for her to pluck such feathers to make for herself a 
 fan, which she threw out of the window soon after. No ! I could not 
 forget this ! Never mind what I said in Warsaw, that now she must 
 find a Prince Crapulescu, since no one else will take her; for, besides 
 that kind, there are blind men in the world also, plenty of them. 
 As to me, I am neither Prince Crapulescu, nor blind. It is per- 
 mitted to forgive wrongs done to one's self, but not those done to 
 others ; for that would be. too easy. And this is all that I can tell 
 you touching this matter, for you yourselves know the rest. I am 
 waiting out the year ; then I shall repeat my prayer to Panna Rat- 
 kovski. If she wants me, or rejects me, may God bless her in every 
 case; but still that .is my unchangeable decision." 
 
 "Indeed!" interrupted Marynia ; "but whence did such 
 news come ? " 
 
 But in the continuation of the letter Svirski gave an 
 exact answer.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 661 
 
 " All this gossip " (wrote he), " may have arisen from this, that I 
 have seen those ladies rather often. You remember that, during mv 
 former stay in Rome, Pani Bronich wrote to me first, and I was "with 
 them. Panna Castelli, instead of seeking evasions, blamed herself. 
 I confess that that affected me. Let people say what they like, still 
 in an open confession of fault there is a certain awakening of honesty, 
 a certain courage, a certain turn, a groan of sorrow, which, if it does 
 not redeem the offence, may redeem the soul. And believe me that 
 in this which I say there is more than my heart of butter. Think, 
 also, that in truth it is evil for them. Are the times few in which 
 I have seen the hesitation with which they approach people, and 
 how they are received by persons who have the courage of their 
 principles ? So much bitterness has gathered in these two women, 
 that, as Vaskovski said with truth once, they are beginning to be 
 embittered against themselves. That is a terrible position, in which 
 one belongs, as it were, to the world, and carries the burden of a 
 notable scandal. God be with them ! Much might be written of 
 this ; but I remember always what Panna Helena said, that one 
 must not despair of a man while he lives. That unfortunate Lineta 
 has changed from grief; she has grown thin and ugly, and I am 
 very sorry for her. I am sorry even for Pani Bronich, who, it is 
 true, bores holes in people's ears with her lies ; but she does it out of 
 attachment to that girl. Still, as I have said, it is permitted only to 
 forgive wrongs done ourselves ; but a man would be a kind of gorilla, 
 and not a Christian, if he did not feel a little pity over the misfor- 
 tunes of people. AVhether I shall have the heart to go to them 
 again after having seen the despair of Ignas, I know not. I am not 
 sorry, however, that I was there. People will talk ; they will stop 
 talking ; and after a year or so, if God grant me and that clear 
 maiden to wait it out, they will see that they are talking nonsense." 
 
 The letter finished with a reference to the Osnovskis, of 
 whose reunion Svirski knew ; he had heard, even, various 
 details which were unknown to Pan Stanislav. 
 
 " To think " (wrote he) " that God is more powerful than the per- 
 versity of man, and also is fabulously merciful, and that sometimes 
 He permits misfortune to beat a man on the head as with a hammer, 
 so as to knock some spark of honesty out of him. I believe now 
 even in the rebirth of such as Pani Aneta. Maybe it is naive in me, 
 but at times I admit that there are no people in the world who are 
 completely bad. See, something quivered in Pani Aneta even; she 
 nursed him in his sickness. Oi, those women! K very thin-.: i< 
 turned around in my head that soon I shall not have an opinion, not 
 merely about them, but about anything." 
 
 Further on were questions about Stas, and heartfelt wonls 
 for his life-givers, and finally a promise to return 11 
 first days of spring.
 
 662 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 CHAPTER LXIX. 
 
 BUT spring was coming really, and, besides, it was as warm 
 as it was early. Pan Stauislav, at the end of March and 
 the beginning of April, began again to make journeys, and 
 sometimes to spend a Dumber of days away from home. 
 He and Bigiel were so busied that often they remained in 
 the counting-house till late in the evening. Pani Bigiel 
 supposed that they must be undertaking something large ; 
 but it astonished her that her husband, who always spoke 
 with her about his business, and almost thought aloud in 
 her presence, and even frequently took counsel with her, 
 was as silent now as if spell-bound. Marynia noticed also 
 that " Stas " had his head tilled with something in an 
 unusual manner. He was more tender toward her than 
 ever; but it seemed to her that in that tenderness of his, as 
 well as in every conversation and every petting, there was 
 some third thing, another thought, which occupied him so 
 thoroughly that he could not keep away from it even a 
 moment. And this state of distraction increased daily till 
 the beginning of May, when it passed into something 
 feverish. Marynia began to hesitate whether to ask or 
 not, what the matter was. She was a little afraid to 
 intrude ; but for her it was important also that he should 
 not think that his affairs concerned her too little. In this 
 uncertainty, she determined to wait for a favorable mo- 
 ment, hoping that he himself would begin to touch on his 
 business, even remotely. 
 
 In fact, it seemed to her, on a certain day soon after, 
 that the opportune moment had come. Pan Stanislav re- 
 turned from the counting-house earlier than usual, and 
 with a face in some way wonderfully radiant, though seri- 
 ous, so that, looking him in the eyes, she asked, almost 
 mechanically, 
 
 " Something favorable must have happened, Stas ? " 
 
 He sat near her, and instead of answering directly, 
 began to talk with a voice which was strange in some 
 sort, 
 
 "See how calm and warm. The windows might be 
 opened now. Dost thou know what I've been thinking
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 663 
 
 of these last days ? That for thy health and Stas's we 
 ought to go soon from the city." ' 
 
 " But is not Buchynek rented ? " asked Marynia. 
 
 " Buchynek is sold," answered he. Then, taking both 
 her hands and looking into her eyes with immense affec- 
 tion, he said, 
 
 " Listen, my dear, I have something to tell thee, and 
 something which ought to please thee; but promise not to 
 be excited too much." 
 
 " Well, what is it, Stas ? " 
 
 " Seest thou, my little one ? Mashko fled to foreign parts ; 
 for he had more debts than property. His creditors threw 
 themselves on everything which was left after him, so as 
 to recover even something. Everything went into liquida- 
 tion. Magyerovka has been parcelled, and is lost; but 
 Kremen, Skoki, and Suhotsin could be saved. Do not 
 grow excited, my love; I have bought them for thee." 
 
 Marynia looked at him some time, blinking, and as if 
 not believing her ears. But no ! He was so moved him- 
 self that he could not jest. Her eyes were darkened with 
 tears, and all at once she threw both arms around his neck. 
 
 " Stas ! " 
 
 And at that moment she could not find other words ; but 
 in this one exclamation there were thanks and great love, 
 and a woman's homage for the efficiency of that man who 
 had been able to do everything. Fan Stauislav understood 
 this ; and in the feeling of that immense happiness which 
 he had not known hitherto, he began to speak, holding her 
 still at his breast, 
 
 " I knew that this would comfort thee, and God knows 
 there is no greater pleasure for me than thy delight. I re- 
 membered that thou wert sorry for Kremen, that that was 
 an injustice to thee, and that it was possible to correct it; 
 therefore I corrected it. But that is nothing ! If I had 
 bought ten such Kremens for thee, I should not have repaid 
 thee for the good which thou hast done me, and still I 
 should not be worthy of thee." 
 
 And he spoke sincerely ; but Marynia removed her head 
 from his shoulder, and, raising on him her eyes, which 
 were at once moist and bright, said, 
 
 " It is I, Stas, that am not worthy of thee ; and I did not 
 even hope to be so happy." 
 
 Then they began to dispute who was the more worthy; 
 but in that dispute there were frequent intervals of silence,
 
 664 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 for Marynia, every moment embracing him, pushed up to 
 hinr her mouth, beautiful, though a little too wide, and 
 kissed him ; and then he kissed in turn her eyes and her 
 hands. For a long time yet she wanted now to cry, now 
 to laugh from delight ; for really her happiness surpassed 
 everything which she had ever hoped for. Her mother had. 
 written once, with a weakening hand, " One should not 
 marry to be happy, but to fulfil the duties which God 
 imposes ; happiness is only an addition and a gift of God." 
 Meanwhile this addition was now too great to find place in 
 her heart. There had been trials, there had been moments 
 of grief to her, and even of doubt ; but all had passed, and 
 at last that " Stas " not only loved her as the sight of his 
 eye, but he had done more than he had ever promised. 
 
 And at that moment, while walking with long strides 
 through the room, still excited, but pleased with himself, 
 and with an expression of complete boastfulness on his 
 dark, challenging face, he said, 
 
 " Well, Marys 1 1 Now for the first time will work begin, 
 will it not ? For I have n't the least idea of country life, 
 and that will be thy affair. But I think that I shall not 
 be the worst of managers. We shall both work, for that 
 Kremen is a big undertaking." 
 
 "My golden Stas," answered she, clasping her hands, 
 "I know that thou hast done that for me; but will it not 
 injure thee in business?" 
 
 " In business? It is thy idea, perhaps, that I let myself 
 be stripped. Not at all ! I bought cheaply, very cheaply. 
 Bigiel, who is afraid of everything, still confesses that that 
 is a good purchase; besides, I remain in company with 
 him for the future. But only be not afraid of Kremen, 
 Marys, or the old troubles. There will be something to 
 work with; and I tell thee sincerely that if to-day all 
 Kremen were to sink in the earth, we should have enough 
 to support us, together with Stas." 
 
 "I," said Marynia, looking at him more or less as she 
 would on Napoleon, or some other conqueror of similar 
 size, " am certain that thou wilt do all that thou wishest, 
 but I know that it was only for me that Kremen was 
 bought." 
 
 "And I hope that I bought it, too, because thy mother 
 is lying there, because I love thee, and because thou lovest 
 
 1 Pronounced Marees, a diminutive of Marynia.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 665 
 
 Kremen," answered Pan Stanislav. "But in thy way thou 
 hast brought me back to the soil. I recall thy words in 
 Venice when Mashko wanted to sell Kremen to Bukatski. 
 Thou hast no idea of how I am under thy influence. 
 Sometimes thou wilt say a thing, and I for the moment 
 make no answer; still it remains in me, and later it is 
 heard unexpectedly. So it was in this business. It seems 
 strange to me now for a man to dwell on this planet, to 
 have some wealth, as it were, and not have three square 
 ells of this earth, concerning which he might say ' mine.' 
 Then the question was settled. Then came the purchase. 
 Perhaps thou hast noticed that for some months I have 
 been buzzing about like a fly in a caldron. I did not wish 
 to speak to thee till all was finished; I preferred a sur- 
 prise. And thou hast it! This is because thou hast 
 recovered, and art so beloved." 
 
 Here he seized her hands, and began to press them again 
 to his mouth and his forehead. She wanted to kiss his 
 hands, too, but he would not permit that; and at last they 
 began to run after each other, like children, through the 
 room, speaking to each other words which were kindly, 
 and bright as sunbeams. Marynia wanted so much to go 
 straight to Kremen, and to such a degree was she unable 
 to think of aught else, that at last he threatened to grow 
 jealous of Kremen, and to sell it. 
 
 "Oi! thou wilt not sell," said she, shaking her head. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because," said she, taking his ear, and whispering into 
 it, "thou lovest me." 
 
 And he began to nod in sign that that was true. But 
 they agreed, to the great delight of Marynia, to go with 
 their whole household to Kremen at the end of the week, 
 a thing perfectly possible, for Pan Stanislav had made 
 the house ready for the coming of the "heiress." He 
 assured her, too, that almost nothing had changed, and 
 he had tried only that the rooms should not seem too 
 empty; then he began to laugh suddenly, and said, "I am 
 curious to know what papa will say to this." 
 
 The conjectural astonishment of " papa " was a new cause 
 of delight to Marynia. For that matter, there was no need 
 to wait long for Plavitski, since he came to dinner half an 
 hour later. He had barely showed himself when Marynia, 
 throwing herself on his shoulder, told with one breath tl 
 happy news; he was really astonished, and even moved.
 
 666 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 Perhaps he felt the happiness of his daughter; perhaps 
 there was roused in him an attachment for that corner, in 
 which he had lived so many years; it is enough that his 
 eyes grew moist. First he mentioned his sweat, with which 
 that soil was soaked; then he began to say something of the 
 "old man," and of his "refuge in the country;" at last, 
 pressing Pan Stanislav's head between his palms, he 
 said, 
 
 "God grant thee luck to manage as well as I have 
 managed, and be assured that I shall not refuse thee 
 either my assistance or my counsels." 
 
 In the evening, at the Bigiels',Marynia, still intoxicated 
 with her happiness, said to Pani Bigiel, 
 
 "Well, now, tell me, how could 1 help loving a man 
 like that?"
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 667 
 
 CHAPTER LXX. 
 
 NEXT morning after the arrival of the Polanyetskis in 
 Kremen, it was Sunday. Pan Stanislav himself rose late, 
 for they had come at one o'clock the night previous. In 
 Kremen the servants had been waiting with bread and salt 
 for them. Marynia, laughing and weeping in turn, ex- 
 amined every corner in the house, and after that was unable 
 to fall asleep, from emotion, till almost daylight. For all 
 these reasons Pan Stanislav did not permit her to rise; but 
 since she wanted to go to Mass at Vantory rather early, so 
 as to pray at the church for her mother, he promised to 
 have the carriage ready, and let her know when it was 
 time. Immediately after breakfast he went out to look at 
 his new inheritance. It was the second half of May, and 
 the day was exceptionally beautiful. Rain had fallen in 
 the night, and the sun was shining on little pools in the 
 yard; and on the buildings it was reflected in diamond 
 brightness in raindrops hanging on the leaves, and it made 
 the wet roofs of the barns, cow-houses, and sheep-houses 
 gleam. In that glitter, and in the bright May green of 
 the trees, Kremen seemed altogether charming. Around 
 the buildings there was hardly any movement, for it was 
 Sunday; but at the stable were busied some men, who had 
 to drive to church. This silence and sleepiness struck 
 Pan Stanislav strangely. Having intended for some time to 
 buy Kremen, he had been there repeatedly, and knew that 
 it was a neglected property. Mashko had begun, it is true, 
 to build a granary, which was covered with a red roof, but 
 he had not finished it. He had never lived in the pl;i<-<- 
 himself, and toward the end could not expend anything on 
 the property, hence neglect was visible at every step. Hut 
 never had it seemed to Pan Stanislav neglected so absolutely 
 as now, when he was able to say to himself, " This is mine." 
 The buildings were somehow leaning; the walls in them 
 not very solid; the fences were inclining and broken; under 
 the walls were lying fragments of various broken agricul- 
 tural implements. Everywhere the earth seemed desirous 
 of drawing into itself that which was on its surface; every- 
 where was seen a kind of passive abandonment of tilings
 
 668 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 to themselves; everywhere carelessness was visible. Of 
 agriculture Pan Stanislav knew only this, that there was 
 need to be careful in expenses; for the rest, he had not 
 the least conception of it, save some general information, 
 which had struck his ears in childhood. But, looking at 
 his kingdom, he divined that cultivation of its fields must 
 coincide exactly with that carelessness which he saw 
 around; he had a clear feeling that if anything was done 
 there it was rather from custom, from routine, as it were, 
 and because of this alone, that some such thing had been 
 done ten, twenty, a hundred years earlier. That exertion, 
 that untiring, watchful energy, which is the basis of com- 
 merce, of industry, and of city industry in general, of 
 that there was not a trace. " If I brought nothing more than 
 that to this torpor," said Pan Stanislav, "it would be very 
 much, for there is an absolute lack of energy. Besides, 
 I have money, and at least this much knowledge, that I 
 know to begin with that I know nothing, and second, I. 
 know that I must learn and inquire." He remembered, 
 besides, from his Belgian times, that even abroad, even 
 there in Belgium, the spirit of man and the exertion of 
 will 'meant more than the most powerful machines. And 
 in this regard he counted on himself, and he was able to 
 count. He felt that he was a persistent and active man. 
 Everything taken in hand by him hitherto had to move, 
 whether it would or not. He felt, besides, that in busi- 
 ness he had a head that was not fantastic, but one reckon- 
 ing accurately; and, thanks to this feeling, not only did 
 he not lose confidence at sight of the neglect which he saw 
 before him, but he found in it something like a spur. 
 That torpor, that neglect, that inertia, that sleepiness, 
 seemed to challenge him; and, casting his eyes around, he 
 said to them almost with pleasure, "That 's all right; we '11 
 have a trial! " And he was even in a hurry for the trial. 
 
 These first reviews and thoughts did not spoil his humor, 
 but took much time. Looking at his watch, he saw that if 
 he wished to be in Vantory for Mass, it was time to start 
 at once; giving the order, then, to attach the horses, he 
 returned hastily to the house, and knocked at Marynia's 
 door. 
 
 "Lady heiress! " called he, "the service of God!" 
 
 "Yes, yes!" answered the gladsome voice of Marynia 
 through the door, "I am ready." 
 
 Pan Stanislav went in, and saw her in a light summer
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 669 
 
 robe, like that in which he saw her at his first visit in 
 Kremen. She had dressed thus purposely; and he, to her 
 great delight, understood her intention, for he exclaimed 
 stretching out his hands to her, 
 
 "PannaPlavitski!" 
 
 And she, as if embarrassed, put her nose up to his face 
 and pointed to the cradle, in which Stas was sleeping. 
 
 Then they drove to the church with Papa Plavitski. It 
 was a spring day, bright, full of warm breezes and glad- 
 ness. In the groves the cuckoos were calling, and on the 
 fields striding storks were visible. Along the road hoopoos 
 and magpies flew from tree to tree before the carriage. 
 From time to time a breeze sprang up and flew over the 
 green fleeces, as over waves, bending the blades of grass, 
 and forming quivering shades on the green of the fields. 
 Around about was the odor of the soil, of grass, of spring. 
 He and she were seized by a swarm of reminiscences. In 
 her was called forth, though a little blunted by life in the 
 city, that love of hers for laud, and the country, the forest 
 and green fields, the fruits in the fields, the pastures 
 narrowing in the distance, the broad expanses of air, and 
 that extent of the sky which is far greater than in cities. 
 All this filled her with a half-conscious feeling which 
 verged on the intoxication of delight. And Pan Stanislav 
 remembered how once, in the same way, he had ridden to 
 church with Pan Plavitski, and how, in like manner, the 
 hoopoos and magpies flew from tree to tree before him. 
 But now he felt at his side that rosy woman, whom he had 
 seen then for the first time, that former Panna Plavitski. 
 In one word, he made present in his mind all that had 
 taken place between them: the first acquaintance, and that 
 charm with which she possessed him; their later disagree- 
 ment; that strange part which Litka played in their lives; 
 their marriage, later life, and the hesitations of happiness; 
 the changes which, under the influence of that clear spirit, 
 took place in him, and the present clearing up of life. He 
 had also a blissful feeling that the evil had passed; that 
 he had found more than he had dreamed of; that at present, 
 it is true, misfortunes of every kind might come on him; 
 but with reference to relations with her, his life had become 
 clear once for all, and very honorable, almost equally tlic 
 same as "the service of God," and as much more sunny 
 than the past as that horizon which surrounded thcin 
 sunnier than that of the city. At this thought, happiness
 
 670 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 and affection for her overflowed his heart. Arriving at 
 Vantory, he repeated "eternal repose " for the soul of that 
 mother to whom he was thankful for such a wife, with no 
 less devotion than Marynia herself. It seemed to him 
 that he loved that dust, buried under the church, with the 
 same filial affection as the dust of his own mother. 
 
 But now the bell sounded for Mass. Jn the church again 
 old memories thronged into his mind. Everything around 
 him was known somehow, so that at moments he felt the 
 illusion that he had been there yesterday. The nave of 
 the church was filled with the same gray crowd of peasants, 
 and the odor of sweet flag; the same priest was celebrating 
 Mass at the altar; the same birch branches, moved by the 
 breeze, were striking the window from the outside; and 
 Pan Stanislav thought again, as before, that everything 
 passes, life passes, pains pass, hopes, impulses, pass, direc- 
 tions of thought and whole systems of philosophy pass, 
 but Mass, as of old, is celebrated, as if in it alone were 
 eternal indestructibility. Marynia alone was a new form 
 in the old picture. Pan Stanislav, looking at moments on 
 her calm face, and her eyes raised to the altar, divined 
 that she was praying with her whole soul for their future 
 life in the country; hence he accommodated himself to her, 
 and prayed with her. 
 
 But after Mass, on the church square, neighbors sur- 
 rounded them, old acquaintances of Pan Plavitski and 
 Marynia. Plavitski, however, looked around in vain for 
 Pani Yamish ; she had been in the city for a number of 
 days. Councillor Yamish was cured completely from 
 catarrh of the stomach; and therefore well, and made 
 young, at the sight of Marynia he fell into genuine 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 " Here is my pupil ! " cried he, kissing her hand, " the 
 house mistress ! my golden Marynia! Aha ! the birds have 
 come back to the old nest. But how beautiful she is al- 
 ways, as God is true, a young lady, just a young damsel 
 to look at, though I know that there is a son in the house." 
 
 Marynia was blushing from delight ; but at that moment 
 the Zazimskis approached, with their six children, and with 
 them also Pan Gantovski, called commonly " Little Bear," 
 the former unsuccessful rival for Marynia, and the incom- 
 plete slayer of Mashko. Gantovski approached awkwardly 
 and with some confusion, as if dazzled by Marynia's beauty, 
 and seized with sorrow for the happiness which had missed
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. C71 
 
 him. In fact, Marynia greeted him with comic awkward- 
 ness; but Pan Stanislav stretched his hand to him in friend- 
 liness, with the magnanimity of a conqueror, and said, 
 
 "Oh, I find here acquaintances even from years of child- 
 hood. How are you ? " 
 
 " In the old fashion," answered Gantovski. 
 
 But Pan Yamish, who was in excellent humor, said, look- 
 ing teasingly at the young man, 
 
 " He has his cares in regulating peasant privileges." 
 
 Gantovski grew still more confused, for the whole neigh- 
 borhood was talking of those troubles. For some years the 
 poor fellow had been barely able to live in that Yalbrykov 
 of his. The regulation of peasant privileges and the sell- 
 ing of timber might have brought him to the open road at 
 length, when in opposition to all the conditions, which 
 more than once had been near settlement, there rose the 
 eternal unchangeable reproach on the part of his Yalbry- 
 kov neighbors that! " the lord heir rides on a white horse, 
 fires from pistols, and looks into the girls' eyes." 
 
 Gantovski, though accustomed from years of youth to 
 various country troubles, lost at times his patience and 
 cried out in genuine despair, 
 
 " Well, dog blood I what has one to do with the other ? 
 May the brightest thunderbolts shake every one of 
 you I " 
 
 But after such a convincing dictum, the Yalbrykov peas- 
 ant representatives assembled as usual a new mature coun- 
 cil, and, after a careful consideration of everything, for 
 and against, announced again, while scratching the backs 
 of their heads, that all would be right, but that " the lord 
 heir rides on a white horse, fires from pistols, and looks at 
 the girls." 
 
 Meanwhile Marynia, who had as much attachment for 
 Pan Yamish as if he had been one of the family, when she 
 heard that he was a straw widower, invited him to dinner. 
 But beyond expectation Plavitski, angry because he had 
 not found Pani Yamish in Vantory, and mindful of his 
 Sunday whist parties w'ith " Gantos," invited Gantovski 
 too, in consequence of which the Polanyetskis drove ahead 
 very hurriedly, so that Marynia might have time to mnkt> 
 needful arrangements. Behind them came Plavitski and 
 the councillor; Gantovski dragged on in the rear in his 
 briehka drawn by a lean Yalbrykov nag. 
 
 Along the road Plavitski said to Councillor Yamish,
 
 672 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "I cannot tell you. My daughter is happy. He is a 
 good man and an energetic piece, but " 
 
 "But what?" asked Fan Yainish. 
 
 "But flighty. Thou hast in mind, neighbor, that he 
 pressed me so hard for some wretched twelve thousand 
 rubles that I was forced to sell Kremen. And what then? 
 Then he bought back that same Kremen. If he had not 
 squeezed me, he would not have had to buy Kremen, for 
 he would have had it for nothing with Marynia after my 
 death. He is a good-natured man, but here " (and while 
 he was saying this, Plavitski tapped his forehead with his 
 finger) "there is something lacking! What is true, is not 
 a sin." 
 
 "Hm!" answered Yamish, who did not wish to cause 
 bitterness to Plavitski by the remark that if Kremen had 
 remained longer in his hands nothing would have been 
 left of it. 
 
 Plavitski sighed, and said, 
 
 "But for me in my old age new toil, for now every- 
 thing must go by my head." 
 
 With difficulty did Pan Yamish restrain himself from 
 shouting, " May God forbid ! " but he knew Pan Stanislav 
 well enough to know that there was no danger. Plavitski 
 did not believe much in what he himself said; he was a 
 little afraid of his son-in-law, and he knew well that now 
 everything would go by another head. 
 
 Thus conversing, they drove up to the porch. Marynia, 
 who had arranged everything already for the dinner, re- 
 ceived them with Stas in her arms. 
 
 "I wanted to present my son to you before we sat down 
 to table," said she; "a big son! a tremendous boy! a nice 
 son!" 
 
 And in time to these words she began to sway him toward 
 Pan Yamish. Pan Yamish touched Stas's face with his 
 fingers, whereupon the "nice son" first made a grimace, 
 then smiled, and all at once gave out a sound which might 
 have a certain exceptionally important meaning for investi- 
 gators of "esoteric speech; " but for an ordinary ear it re- 
 called wonderfully the cry of a magpie or a parrot. 
 
 Meanwhile Gantovski came, and having hung up his over- 
 coat on a peg in the entrance, he was looking in it for a 
 handkerchief, when, by a strange chance, Eozulka, young 
 Stas's nurse, found herself also in the entrance, and ap- 
 proaching Gantovski, embraced his knees, and then kissed 
 his hands.
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 673 
 
 "Oh! how art thou, how art thou? What wilt thou 
 say?" asked the heir of Yalbrykov. 
 
 "Nothing! I only wished to make obeisance," said 
 Kozulka, submissively. 
 
 Gantovski bent a little to one side, and began to search 
 for something with his fingers in his breast pocket; but 
 evidently she had come only to bow to the heir, for, with- 
 out waiting for a gift, she kissed his hand again, and 
 walked away quietly to the nursery. 
 
 Gantovski went with a heavy face to the rest of the 
 company, muttering to himself in bass, 
 
 " Um-dree-dree ! Um-dree-dree ! TJm-dramta-ta ! " 
 
 Then all sat down at the table, and a conversation began 
 about the return of the Polanyetskis to the country. Pan 
 Yamish, who, of himself, was an intelligent man, and, as 
 a councillor, must be wise by virtue of his office, and elo- 
 quent, turned to Pan Stanislav, and said, 
 
 " You come to the country without a knowledge of agri- 
 culture, but with that which is lacking mainly to the bulk 
 of our country residents , a knowledge of administration, 
 and capital. Hence, I trust, and I am sure, that you will 
 not come out badly in Kremen. Your return is for me a 
 great joy, not only with reference to you and my beloved 
 pupil, but because it is also a proof of what I say always, 
 and assert, that the majority of us old people must leave 
 the land; but our sons, and if not our sons, our grandsons, 
 will come back; and will come back stronger, better 
 trained in the struggle of life, with calculation in their 
 heads, and with the traditions of work. Do you remember 
 what I told you once, that land attracts, and that it is 
 genuine wealth? You contradicted me, then, but to-day 
 see, you are the owner of Kremen." 
 
 "That was through her, and for her," answered Pan 
 Stanislav, pointing to his wife. 
 
 "Through her, and for her," repeated the councillor; 
 "and do you think that in my theory there is no place for 
 women, and that I do not know their value? They divine 
 with heart and conscience where there is real obligation, 
 and with their hearts they urge on to it. But land is a 
 real obligation, as well as real wealth." 
 
 Here Pan Yamish, who, in the image and likeness of 
 many councillors, had this weakness, that he was fond of 
 listening to himself, closed his eyes, so as to listen still 
 better, and continued, 
 
 43
 
 674 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 
 
 "Yes, you have returned through your wife! Yes, that 
 is her merit; and God grant us that such women be born 
 more frequently! But in your way you have all come out 
 of the soil, and therefore soil attracts you. We ought to 
 have the plough on our escutcheons, all of us. And I tell 
 you more, not only did Pan Stanislav Polanyetski return, 
 not only did Pani Marynia Polanyetski return, but the 
 family of the Polanyetskis returned, for in it was awakened 
 the instinct of whole generations, who grew out of the soil, 
 and whose dust is enriching it." 
 
 When he had said this, Pan Yamish rose, and taking a 
 goblet, exclaimed, 
 
 "In the hands of Pani Polanyetski, the health of the 
 family of the Polanyetskis!" 
 
 "To the health of the family of the Polanyetskis!" 
 cried Gantovski, who, having a feeling heart, was ready 
 to forgive the family of the Polanyetskis all the sufferings 
 of heart through which he had passed by reason of them. 
 
 And all went with their glasses to Pani Marynia, who 
 thanked them with emotion; but to Pan Stanislav, who 
 approached her, she whispered, 
 
 " Ai, Stas, how happy I am ! " 
 
 But when all in the company found themselves again at 
 their places, Papa Plavitski added, on his part, 
 
 " Keep the soil to the very last ! that is what I have been 
 advocating all my life." 
 
 " That is certain ! " confirmed Gantovski. 
 
 But in his soul he thought, "If it were not for those 
 dog blood troubles ! " 
 
 And at that very time, in the nursery, Kozulka was sing- 
 ing little Stas to sleep with the sad village song, 
 
 " Those ill-fated chambers. 
 Oi, thou my Yasenku ! " 
 
 After dinner, the guests were making ready to separate ; 
 but Plavitski kept them for a "little party," so that they 
 went away only when the sun was near setting. Then the 
 Polanyetskis, having amused themselves first with little 
 Stas, went out on the porch, and further, to the garden, 
 for the evening was calm and clear. Everything reminded 
 them of that first Sunday which they had spent there 
 together; it seemed to them like some wonderful and 
 pleasant dream, and reminiscences of that kind were there 
 without number at every step. The sun was going down
 
 CHILDREN OF THE SOIL. 675 
 
 in the same way, large and shining ; the trees stood motion- 
 less in the stillness of evening, reddening at the tops from 
 the evening light; on the other side of the house the storks 
 were chattering in the same way on their nests ; there was 
 the same mood of all things around them, cherishing and 
 vesperal. They began to walk about, to pass through all 
 the alleys, go to the fences, look at the fields, which lost 
 themselves in the distance, at the narrow strips of woods 
 barring the horizon, and to say quiet things to each other, 
 and also as quietly as that evening was quiet. All this 
 which surrounded them was to be their world. Both felt 
 that that village was taking them into itself; that some 
 relation was beginning to weave itself between them and 
 it; that henceforth their life must flow there, not else- 
 where, laborers, devoted to the " service of God " in the 
 field. 
 
 When the sun had gone down, they returned to the porch ; 
 but, as on that first occasion, so now they remained on it, 
 waiting for perfect darkness. But formerly Marynia had 
 kept at a distance from Pan Stanislav; now she nestled up 
 to his side, and said, after some silence, 
 
 "It will be pleasant for us here with each other, Stas, 
 will it not? " 
 
 And he embraced her firmly, so as to feel her at his very 
 heart, and said, 
 
 "My beloved, my greatly beloved! ' 
 
 Then from beyond the alder-trees, which were wrapped 
 in haze, rose the ruddy moon; and the frogs in the ponds, 
 having learned, evidently, that the lady had returned, she 
 whom they had seen so often at the shore, called m the 
 midst of the evening silence, in one great chorus, 
 
 "Glad! glad!" 
 
 THE END.

 
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