“Grandfather wants his way; grandmother will have hers. Come down to me this minute!”
“I will not go down!”
“It is laughable, as God is dear to me, to take defeat to heart as you do. Not you alone, angry weasel, but Kmita, who passed for a master of masters, did Pan Michael treat in this way, and not in sport, but in a duel. The most famous swordsmen—Italians, Germans, and Swedes—could not stand before him longer than during one ‘Our Father,’ and here such a gadfly takes the affair to heart. Fie! be ashamed of yourself! Come down, come down! Besides, you are only beginning to learn.”
“But I cannot endure Pan Michael!”
“God be good to you! Is it because he is exquisitissimus in that which you yourself wish to know? You should love him all the more.”
Zagloba was not mistaken. The admiration of Basia for the little knight increased in spite of her defeat; but she answered, “Let Krysia love him.”
“Come down! come down!”
“I will not come down.”
“Very well, stay there; but I will tell you one thing: it is not nice for a young lady to sit on a ladder, for she may give an amusing exhibition to the world.”
“But that’s not true,” answered Basia, gathering in her skirts with her hand.