“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.”
“Who is that, a real Perugino,—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.”