After which he began to look at Pani Krzycki with a penetrating gaze and asked:
"Permit me to put one question to you: Why should your son necessarily be happy?"
She looked at him with surprise.
"Why, I am his mother."
"Yes, but there are things more important than happiness, particularly temporal,--is it not true?"
"True," she answered quietly.
"That which you said in respect to temporal matters may be more or less just and may actually be the reasons which make such marriages less happy than others, but it is necessary above all things to propound to one's self the question. What in life is greater and what is less, what is more important and what is less important, and to act according to the dictates of conscience."
"Well, how am I to act?" asked Pani Krzycki.
The aged prelate looked at the crucifix hanging on the wall and quietly, but with emphasis, answered:
"As a Christian."