"Ho, what saintliness! These beasts here may have before God greater merit than I have." But Pan Serafin spoke so sincerely and with such simplicity that he won the priest straightway. They began at once, therefore, to speak pleasant words which were heartfelt. "I know your son," said the priest; "he is a cavalier of worth and noble manners. In comparison, those Bukoyemskis seem simply serving-men. I will say to you that Yatsek Tachevski has conceived such a love for Pan Stanislav that he praises him always." "And my Stashko treats him in like manner. It happens frequently that men fight and later on love each other. None of us feel offence toward Pan Tachevski, nay, we should like to conclude with him real friendship. I have just been at his house in Vyrambki, expecting to find him. I wished to invite to Yedlinka you, my benefactor, and Pan Tachevski." "Yatsek is in Radom, but he will return and would be glad, doubtless, to serve you-- But have you seen, your grace, how they treated him at Pan Gideon's?" "They have seen that themselves," said Pan Serafin, "and are sorry, not Pan Gideon, however, but the women." "There are few men so stubborn as Pan Gideon, and he incurs a serious account before the Lord sometimes for this reason--as for the women--God be with them-- Let them go, what is the use in hiding this: that one of them caused the duel?" "I divined that before my son told me. But the cause is innocent." "They are all innocent-- Do you know what Ecclesiastes says of women?" Pan Serafin did not know, so the priest took down the Vulgate and read an extract from Ecclesiastes. "What do you think of that?" asked he. "There are women even of that kind." "Yatsek is going into the world for no other cause, and I am far from dissuading him. On the contrary, I advise him to go." "Do you? Is he going soon? The war will come only next summer." "Do you know that to a certainty?" "I do, for I inquired and I inquired because I cannot keep my own son from it." "No, because he is a noble. Yatsek is going immediately, for, to tell the truth, it is painful for him to remain here." "I understand, I understand everything. Haste is the best cure in such a case." "He will stay only as long as may be needed to mortgage Vyrambki, or sell it. It is only a small strip of land. I advise Yatsek not to sell but to mortgage. Though he may never come back, he can sign himself always as from it, and that is more decent for a man of his name and his origin." "Must he sell or mortgage in every case?" "He must. The man is poor, quite poor. You know how much it costs to go to a war, and he cannot serve in a common dragoon regiment." Pan Serafin thought a while, and said,-- "My benefactor, perhaps I would take a mortgage on Vyrambki."