"In the forenoon. From the morning she was gloomy, as if foreboding something. You know that in my presence she says always that she is well; but she must have felt ill, for before the attack she sat near me and begged me to hold her hand. Yesterday, I forgot to tell you that she put such strange questions to me: 'Is it true,' inquired she, 'that if a sick child asks for a thing it is never refused?' I answered that it is not refused unless the child asks for something impossible. Some idea was passing through her head evidently, for in the evening, when Marynia ran in for a moment, she put like questions to us. She went to sleep in good humor, but this morning early she complained of stifling. It is lucky that I sent for the doctor before the attack, and that he came promptly." "It is the greatest luck that he went away with such certainty that the attack would not be repeated. I am perfectly sure that that is his conviction," answered Pan Stanislav. Pani Emilia raised her eyes: "The Lord God is so merciful, so good, that--" In spite of all her efforts, she began to sob, for repressed alarm and despair were changed to joy in her, and she found relief in tears. In that noble and spiritualized nature, innate exaltation disturbed calm thought; by reason of this, Pani Emilia never gave an account to herself of the real state of affairs; now, for example, she had not the least doubt that Litka's illness had ended once for all with this recent attack, and that thenceforth a time of perfect health would begin for the child. Pan Stanislav had neither the wish nor the heart to show her a middle road between delight and despair; his heart rose with great pity for her, and there came to him one of those moments in which he felt more clearly than usually how deeply, though disinterestedly, he was attached to that enthusiastic and idealistic woman. If she had been his sister, he would have embraced her and pressed her to his bosom; as it was, he kissed her delicate, thin hands, and said,-- "Praise be to God; praise be to God! Let the dear lady think now of herself, and I will go to the little one and not stir till she wakes." And he went.