But her face only had changed, not her kindness or good-will. Nay, feeling safe now from superfluous enthusiasms 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 willingly, 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, stumbling 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.