"No. I have passed the last month with Zosia Otocka."
"I wish that our Jastrzeb would find favor in your eyes. It is too bad that you chanced here upon a funeral. That is always sad. I saw that you were even affected."
"It reminded me of something," answered Miss Anney.
Whereupon, evidently desiring to change the subject of the conversation, she again began to peer into the depths of the garden.
"How everything blooms and smells agreeably here!"
"Those are jasmines and elders. Did you observe on the forest road, riding to Jastrzeb, that the edges of the woods are planted with elders? That is my work."
"I only observed it at the bridge, where an old building stands. What kind of building is that?"
"That is an ancient mill. At one time there was a great deal of water in the stream beside it, but later my uncle, Zarnowski, drained it off to the fish-ponds in Rzeslewo and the mill stood still. Now it is a ramshackle building in which for over ten years we have stored hay instead of keeping it in hayricks. Folks say that the place is haunted, but I myself circulated, in its time, that myth."
"Why?"
"First, so that they should not steal the hay, and again because it was of much concern to me that no one should pry in there."