"What shall I do? I do not believe in this prophet of ours, who would let others have only one wife, but had as many himself as he pleased. Besides, I tell thee that I like wine. I am not free to be anything except a Mohammedan, but I believe in God, and often I pray as I know how. But do I know anything? I know that there is a Lord God, and that is the end of the question." After a while he continued,-- "Knowest what, Henryk?" "What?" "I have splendid cigars. We are children no longer; let us smoke." Selim sprang out of bed and got a package of cigars. We each lighted one, then lay down and smoked in silence, spitting out of the bed in secret from each other. "Knowest thou what, Henryk?" said Selim after a while. "How I envy thee! Thou art really grown up now." "I hope so." "For thou art a guardian already. Oh, if some one would leave me such a ward to care for!" "That is not so easy, and, besides, where could another Hania be found in the world? But knowest what?" continued I, in the tone of a mature wise man. "I hope that soon I shall not go to school. A man who has such obligations at home cannot go to school." "And--thou art raving! What! thou wilt not learn any more? But school is the main thing." "Thou knowest that I like to study, but duty before all. Unless my father and mother send Hania to Warsaw with me." "They won't even dream of it." "While I am in the classes, surely not; but when I am in the University they will. Well, dost thou not know what a student means?" "Yes, yes! That may happen. Thou wilt be her guardian, and thou wilt marry her." I sat up in bed. "Selim, art thou mad?" "Why shouldst thou not marry her? In school one is not free to marry; but a student may not only have a wife, he may have even children," said Selim. At that moment all the University prerogatives and privileges did not concern me in the least. Selim's question illuminated, as with a lightning flash, those sides of my heart which to me were still dark. A thousand thoughts, like a thousand birds, flew through my head all at once. To marry my dear, beloved orphan! Yes; that was the lightning flash, the new flash of thought and feelings. It seemed to me that suddenly into the darkness of my heart some one had brought light. Love, deep, but brotherly hitherto, had grown rosy on a sudden from that light and was heated through it by an unknown warmth. To marry Hania, that bright-haired angel, my dearest, most beloved Hania. With a weak voice now and lower, I repeated like an echo,-- "Selim, art mad?" "I would lay a wager that thou art in love with her already," said Selim. I made no answer; I quenched the light, then seized a corner of the pillow and began to kiss it. Yes; I loved her already. CHAPTER III.