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.