In her eyes a deep, quiet joy was reflected, which enlivened her whole face with a mild radiance. There was in her at the moment so much kindness and trustfulness that she reminded Pan Stanislav of that first Marynia whom he had seen at Kremen when she was sitting on the garden veranda in the rays of the setting sun. But since Litka's death he had been in such a frame of mind that he considered remembrances like that as unworthy of him; hence he rose and began to take leave. "Will you not remain the whole evening?" asked Marynia. "No, I must return." "I will tell Emilia that you are going," said she, approaching the door of the adjoining room. "She is either thinking of Litka at present, or is praying; otherwise she would have come of herself. Better not interrupt her; I will come to-morrow in any case." Marynia approached him, and, looking into his eyes, said with great cordiality, "To-morrow and every day. Is it not true? Remember that you are 'Pan Stas' for us now." Since Litka's death Marynia had named him thus for the second time, so in going home he thought, "Her relations to me are changed thoroughly. She feels herself simply as belonging to me, for she bound herself to that by the promise given the dying child; she is ready even to fall in love with me, and will not permit herself not to love. With us there are such women by the dozen." And all at once he fell into anger. "I know those fish natures with cold hearts, but sentimental heads filled with so-called principles,--everything for principle, everything for duty, nothing spontaneous in the heart. I might sigh out my last breath at her feet and gain nothing; but when _duty_ commands her to love me, she will love even really." Evidently Pan Stanislav in his wanderings abroad had grown used to another kind of women, or at least he had read of them in books. But since with all this he had a little sound judgment too, that judgment began to speak thus to him,-- "Listen, Polanyetski," it said. "These are exceptional natures because they are uncommonly reliable: on them one may build; on them a life may be founded. Art thou mad? With thee it was a question of finding a wife, not an ephemeral love affair." But Pan Stanislav did not cease to resist, and he answered his judgment, "If I am to be loved, I want to be loved for my own sake." Judgment tried once more to explain that it was all one how love began; since later on he could be loved only for his own sake, that in the present case, after his recent efforts and vexations, it was almost miraculous, almost providential, that something natural had intervened in a way to break resistance immediately; but Pan Stanislav did not cease from being furious. At last judgment was strengthened by that attraction and pleasure which he found in Marynia, by virtue of which he saw in her more charms than in any other woman; this attraction spoke in its turn,--