“But he is not worse than she, never fear! Could you get his equal, you would go even to Orsha, though likely that is at the end of the world.”
“Ah, lucky lady!”
“It is always best for the rich in the world. Ei, ei, that’s gold, not a knight.”
“The Patsuneli girls say that that cavalry captain who is stopping with old Pakosh is a handsome cavalier.”
“I have not seen him; but how compare him with Pan Kmita! Such another as Pan Kmita surely there is not in the world!”
“It’s down!” cried the man of Jmud on a sudden, when something broke again in the mill.
“Go out, shaggy head, with thy freaks! Give us peace, for we cannot hear.—True, true; hard to find better than Pan Kmita in the whole world; surely in Kyedani there is none such.”
“Dream of one like him!”
“May his like come in a dream!”
In such fashion did the girls talk among themselves in the servants’ hall. Meanwhile in the dining-room the table was laid in all haste, while in the drawing-room Panna Aleksandra conversed face to face with Kmita, for Aunt Kulvyets had gone to bustle about the supper.