Aniela put her hand into mine; I saw her eyes lighting up with gratitude for the words "little sister," and the pressure of her hand seemed to say:—
"Oh! let us be friends! let us forgive each other!"
"I hope you two will agree together," muttered my aunt.
"We shall, we shall; he is so good!" replied Aniela.
And truly, my heart was very full of good-will at that moment.
Entering Pani Celina's room, I greeted her very cordially, but she replied with a certain constraint, and I am sure she would have received me with still greater coldness had she not feared to offend my aunt. But I was not hurt by this; her resentment is quite justifiable. Maybe, in her mind, she connects me with the loss of her estate, and thinks all this would not have happened if I had acted differently. I found her much changed. For some time she has been confined to her invalid chair, on which they wheel her on fine days into the garden. Her face, always delicate, looked as if moulded in wax. There are still traces that show how beautiful she must have been, and at the same time so unhappy.
I asked after her health, and expressed the hope that, with the return of the fine weather, she would soon recover her strength. She listened with a sad smile, and shook her head; two tears rolled silently down her face.
Then, fixing her sad eyes upon me, she said,—
"You know Gluchow has been sold?"
This evidently is the thought ever present,—her continual sorrow and gnawing trouble.