"Thou shouldst remember that it may be a question not of thee alone," said he. She suffered severely from the fall and from these words, which seemed to her too unsparing; for she considered that with him it should above all be a question of her, especially as other fears were baseless so far. Aside from this, he showed great attention; neither on the next nor the following day did he go to the counting-house, but remained to take care of her. In the forenoon he read to her; after lunch, he worked in the adjoining room with open doors, so that she might call him at any moment. Affected by this care, she thanked him very warmly; in return he kissed her, and said,-- "My child, it is a simple duty. Thou seest that even strangers inquire about thee daily." In fact, strangers did inquire daily. Zavilovski inquired in the counting-house, "How does the lady feel?" Pani Bigiel came in the forenoon, and Bigiel in the evening; without going to the chamber of the sick woman, he played on the piano in the next room to entertain her. The Mashkos and Pani Bronich left cards twice. Pani Osnovski, leaving her husband in the carriage below, broke into Marynia a little by violence, and sat with her about two hours, talking, with her usual gift of jumping from subject to subject, of Rome, of her intended evenings, of Svirski, of her husband, of Lineta, and of Zavilovski, who didn't let her sleep. Toward the end of the visit, she declared that they ought to say _thou_ to each other, and that she invited Marynia to give aid in one plan: "that is, not a plan, but a conspiracy;" or, rather, in a certain thing which had so struck into her head that it was burning, and burning to such a degree that her whole head was on fire.