“Oh, that is splendid!”
“I will go with the colonel; I will go surely,” said Pan Adam, looking quickly at Basia; and she said in answer,—
“There will be not a few like you. It is a delight for men to serve under such a commander. Go; go! It will be pleasanter for Pan Michael.”
The young man only sighed and stroked his forelock with his broad palm; at last he said, stretching his hands, as if playing blind-man’s-buff, “But first I will catch Panna Barbara! I will catch her most surely.”
“Allah! Allah!” exclaimed Basia, starting back.
Meanwhile Krysia approached Pan Michael, with face radiant and full of quiet joy. “But you are not kind, not kind to me, Pan Michael; you are better to Basia than to me.”
“I not kind? I better to Basia?” asked the knight, with astonishment.
“You told Basia that you were coming back to the election; if I had known that, I should not have taken your departure to heart.”
“My golden—” cried Pan Michael. But that instant he checked himself and said, “My dear friend, I told you little, for I had lost my head.”