Then there followed a great silence, broken only by the hum of insects and the dull clatter of falling acorns.
"Forever! . . ." whispered Janina.
She arose and started back toward the station. She walked slowly, looking about her with fond, lingering gaze upon the trees, the woodpaths, and the hillsides.
Then she began to think of the new existence before her. There slowly arose in her soul a certain self-conscious power and increasing courage.
When she spied her father on the station platform, not so much as a tremor disturbed her. Already there loomed between them that new world which already lured her.
She even went to the station-master's office for a ticket. She stood before the window and asked for it in a loud voice. Orlowski (for he sold the tickets himself) raised his head with a violent start and something like a red shadow passed over his face, but he did not utter a word. He calmly handed her her change and stared at her coldly, stroking his beard.
On leaving, she turned her head and met his burning gaze. He started violently back from the window and swore aloud, while she went on, only somehow she went more slowly and her legs trembled under her. That gleam of his eyes, as though bloody with tears, struck deep into her heart.
The train arrived and she got on. From the window of the car she still kept gazing at the station. Krenska waved to her with a handkerchief from the house and pretended she was wiping away tears.
Orlowski, in a red cap and immaculately white gloves, paced up and down the platform with a stiff official air and did not glance even once in her direction.
The bell rang and the train pulled out.