“That will be a wonderful marriage. She is not ill-looking, though she is pale, and has red eyes. But Mashko marries for property. He admits that she doesn’t love 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 Kraslavski—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.”