"What an appetite! A genuine cannibal."
"Go also over the road a mile before breakfast and you will have the same appetite. But cannibal or no cannibal, when I entered this room, I was ready to devour even this bouquet of flowers which is before me."
"The time will come when the country nobility will not have anything else to eat," replied Dolhanski.
But Marynia quickly seized the bouquet and, laughing, shoved it to the other side of the table.
"After coffee there is no fear," cried Ladislaus. "But what beautiful field flowers! Did you ladies pick them?"
"We are sleepy-heads," answered Pani Otocka; "they were gathered by Aninka's servant."
Aninka was the pet name which both sisters gave Miss Anney.
Ladislaus turned a sharp glance towards the ladies, but as their faces were perfectly calm, he thought:
"She gathered the flowers and did not mention the mishap."
And Miss Anney, turning the bouquet about and examining it, said: