"Oh, Aunt, if you only knew how they sometimes twit me!"
"Somehow I do not see that, but I think that the time will come when somebody will rule you also."
"It has already come," broke out Marynia.
"So? That is curious. Who is that despot?"
And the little violinist, pointing with a quick movement of her little finger at Gronski, said:
"That gentleman."
"Now I understand," said Dolhanski, "why, after our return from the notary, he had a teapot full of hot water over his head."
Gronski shrugged his shoulders, like a man who had been charged with unheard-of things, and exclaimed:
"I? A despot? Why, I am a victim, the most hypnotized of all."
"Then Pan Laskowicz is the hypnotizer, not I," answered the young miss, "for he himself at supper was telling me about hypnotism and explaining what it is."