“And I will tell you why. As often as Pan Babinich mentioned Prince Boguslav, his face grew white, and his teeth squeaked like doors.”
“He will be our friend!” said the sword-bearer,
“Certainly! And we will flee to him, if he shows himself.”
“If I could escape from this place, I would have my own party, and you would see that war is no novelty to me either, and that this old hand is good for something yet.”
“Go under command of Pan Babinich.”
“You have a great wish to go under his command.”
They chatted yet for a long time in this fashion, and always more joyously; so that Olenka, forgetting her grief, became notably more cheerful, and Anusia began at last to laugh loudly at the sword-bearer. She was well rested; for at the last halting-place in Rossyeni she had slept soundly; she left them then only late in the evening.
“She is gold, not a maiden!” said Billevich, after she had gone.
“A sincere sort of heart, and I think we shall soon come to confidence,” answered Olenka.
“But you looked at her frowningly at first.”