“Is he well?”
“He is.”
Here the little girl looked at her friend, and said,—
“But Pan Stas has grown thin; hasn’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 different 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.”