And he said this with great discouragement, for he thought that if there was any man who had no right to answer for himself it was he.
But Pani Bigiel began,—
“I would give I do not know what to see Ignas; but really it is easier to take a fortress than to go to him. And I cannot understand why Panna Helena keeps him from people so, even from such friends as we are.”
“She keeps him from people because the doctor has ordered absolute quiet. Besides, since he has regained consciousness, the sight of his nearest friends, even, is terribly painful to him; and this we can understand. He cannot talk with them about his deed; and he sees that every one who approaches him is thinking of nothing else.”
“But you are there every day.”
“They admit me because I was connected with the affair from the beginning; I was the first to report the rupture of the marriage, and I watched him.”
“Does he mention that girl yet?”
“I asked Panna Helena and Panna Ratkovski about this; they answered, ‘Never.’ I have sat for hours with him alone, and have heard nothing. It is wonderful: he is conscious; he knows that he is wounded, knows that he is sick; but he seems at the same time to remember nothing of past events, just as if the past had no existence whatever. The doctors say that wounds in the head cause various and very peculiar phenomena of this kind. For the rest, he recognizes every one who approaches him, exhibits immense gratitude to Panna Helena and Panna Ratkovski. He loves Panna Ratkovski especially, and evidently yearns for her when she goes for a while from him. But they are both, as God lives!—there are no words to tell how good they are.”
“Panna Ratkovski moves me especially,” said Pani Bigiel.
Bigiel put in, “Meditating over everything carefully, I have come to the conclusion that she must have fallen in love with him.”