"But are they healed?" answered Marynia, "or is it possible to say to her, 'Do not go'? I thought myself that it would not be well, but grew convinced of the contrary. At the graveyard she wept much, but was the better for it. On the way home she remembered what Professor Vaskovski had told her, and the thought is for her the only consolation,--the only." "Let her have even such a one," answered Pan Stanislav. "You see, I did not dare to mention Litka at first, but she speaks of her all the time. Do not fear to speak to her of the child, for it gives her evident solace." Here the young lady continued in a lower, and, as it were, an uncertain voice, "She reproaches herself continually for having listened to the assurances of the doctor the last night, and gone to sleep; she is sorry for those last moments, which she might have passed with Litka, and that thought tortures her. To-day, when we were returning from the graveyard, she asked about the smallest details. She asked how the child looked, how long she slept, whether she took medicine, what she said, whether she spoke to us; then she implored me to remember everything, and not omit a single word." "And you did not omit anything?" "No." "How did she receive it?" "She cried very, very much." Both grew silent, and were silent rather long; then Marynia said,-- "I will go and see what is happening to her." After a while she returned. "She is sleeping," said the young lady. "Praise be to God!" Indeed, Pan Stanislav did not see Pani Emilia that evening; she had fallen into a kind of lethargic slumber. At parting, Marynia pressed his hand again long and vigorously, and inquired almost with submission,-- "You do not take it ill of me that I repeated to Pani Emilia Litka's last wish?" "At such moments," answered Pan Stanislav, "I cannot think of myself: for me it is a question only of Pani Emilia; and if your words caused her solace, I thank you for them." "Till to-morrow, then?" "Till to-morrow." Pan Stanislav took farewell, and went out. While descending the steps, he thought,-- "She considers herself my betrothed."