And sighing for the second time, she thought:
"Why did Zosia bring her to Jastrzeb?"
And she began to seek with her eyes Pani Otocka, who at that moment was approaching the door to greet an elderly gentleman with a white leonine mane and the same kind of white beard who, evidently being almost blind, stood on the threshold and gazed over the salon through his gold-rimmed spectacles.
Finally espying Pani Otocka, he seized both her hands and commenced to kiss them with great ardor, while she greeted him with that shy grace, peculiarly her own, which made her resemble a young village maid.
"How sweet she is and how lovable!" Pani Krzycki said to herself.
But her further meditations and regrets were interrupted by Swidwicki, who, taking the chair vacated by Miss Anney, said:
"But your son, benefactress, is a genuine Uhlan from under Somo-Sierra. What a race! what a type! I, who everywhere fancy beauty as a setter does partridges, observed this at once to Gronski. Only put a sabre in his hand and place him on horseback. Or at some exhibition! plainly on exhibition, as a notable specimen of the race. Ah, what blood with milk! The women must rave over him!"
Pani Krzycki, notwithstanding her internal worries, was pleased to hear these words, for Ladislaus' shapeliness was from his childhood days a source of pride and joy for her. But in reality, she did not deem it proper to admit this before Swidwicki.
"I do not attach any importance to that," she answered, "and I thank God that it is not the only thing that can be said of my son."
And Swidwicki snapped his fingers and said: