"She told me yesterday of this, most unexpectedly, and I asked, 'But, my child, will you have the strength? That is arduous labor.' She smiled at me, and said: 'Do not refuse me, for this is my refuge, my happiness. Should it seem that I have not strength enough, they will not receive me; but if they receive me, and my strength fails afterward, I shall go sooner to Litka, and I am yearning so much for her.' What had I to answer to such a choice, and such simplicity? What art thou able to say, even thou, who art without belief? Wouldst thou have courage to say: 'Perhaps Litka is not in existence; a life in labor, in charity, in sacrifice, and death in Christ, may not lead to Litka at all'? Invent another consolation; but what wilt thou invent? Give her another hope, heal her with something else; but with what wilt thou heal her? Besides, thou wilt see her thyself; speak to her sincerely. Wilt thou have courage to dissuade her?" "No," answered Pan Stanislav, briefly; and after a while he added, "Only suffering on all sides." "One thing might be possible," continued Vaskovski. "To choose instead of Sisters of Charity, whose work is beyond her strength, some contemplative order; there are those in whom the poor human atom is so dissolved in God that it ceases to lead an individual existence, and ceases to suffer." Pan Stanislav waved his hand. "I do not understand these things," said he, dryly, "and I do not look into them." "I have here somewhere a little Italian book on the Ladies of Nazareth," said Vaskovski, opening his coat. "Where did I put it? When going out, I stuck it somewhere." "What can the Ladies of Nazareth be to me?" But Vaskovski, after unbuttoning his coat, unbuttoned his shirt in searching; then he thought a while and said, "What am I looking for? I know that little Italian book. In a couple of days I am going to Rome for a long, very long time. Remember what I said, that Rome is the antechamber to another world. It is time for me to go to God's antechamber. I would persuade Emilia greatly to go to Rome, but she will not leave her child; she will remain here as a Sister of Charity. Maybe, however, the order of Nazareth would please her; it is as simple and mild as was primitive Christianity. Not with the head, my dear, for there they know better what to do, but with the heart, childlike but loving." "Button thy shirt, professor," said Pan Stanislav. "Very good; I will button it. I have something at my heart, and I would tell it thee; thou art as mobile as water, but thou hast a soul. Seest thou, Christianity not only is not coming to an end, as some philosophizing, giddy heads imagine, but it has only made half its way." "Dear professor," said Pan Stanislav, mildly, "I will listen to what thou hast to tell me willingly and patiently, but not to-day; for to-day I am thinking only of Pani Emilia, and there is simply a squeezing at my throat. This is a catastrophe."