"Do you? Is he going soon? The war will come only next summer."
"Do you know that to a certainty?"
"I do, for I inquired and I inquired because I cannot keep my own son from it."
"No, because he is a noble. Yatsek is going immediately, for, to tell the truth, it is painful for him to remain here."
"I understand, I understand everything. Haste is the best cure in such a case."
"He will stay only as long as may be needed to mortgage Vyrambki, or sell it. It is only a small strip of land. I advise Yatsek not to sell but to mortgage. Though he may never come back, he can sign himself always as from it, and that is more decent for a man of his name and his origin."
"Must he sell or mortgage in every case?"
"He must. The man is poor, quite poor. You know how much it costs to go to a war, and he cannot serve in a common dragoon regiment."
Pan Serafin thought a while, and said,--
"My benefactor, perhaps I would take a mortgage on Vyrambki."