"Now Thou suddenly glidest before my eyes like a light, and through my ears like music, and hast filled my bosom with a yearning for things I had not known before, and hast filled me with Thine own indispensable quintessence and a consciousness of my happiness. "Therefore I loved Thee the same night when I beheld Thee and heard Thee for the first time. "Henceforth, though Thou are not near me, I am with Thee and will follow wherever Thou wilt be. "For Thou art necessary to my existence and I am to Thee, in order to resuscitate Thee. "In order to snatch Thee from destruction; from amidst those who are about to die. "In order to surrender Thee to the great idea, and the exalted, and the light, and the living hosts who suffer from a dearth of bread and music. "Thee and Thy music. "May extermination not fail upon you both. "Oh, beloved one. "A certain night I summoned Thee but Thou didst not hear me and didst not come. Now I extend my hands towards Thee and say unto Thee: Come and slumber in my heart. "And when the time of awakening comes, I will wake Thee for a brief moment of pleasure, which love gives for the toil without an end and which the idea demands. "For toil and perchance for martyrdom. "But in that martyrdom for the dawn of a new life, there is greater happiness than in the dusk, mephitic air, ashes and mould of graves. "Therefore come even for martyrdom. "And until our existence floats into the sea of nothingness, abide with me. "Oh, beloved one." Gronski's countenance reflected perturbation. For a time he and Pani Otocka walked in silence. "What shall I do with this, and what does it mean?" "This is a disagreeable and vexatious matter, and the letter means that Laskowicz, who never in his life saw a being like Marynia, has fallen in love with her from the first acquaintance, as he himself says. I observed that after a few days and if I did not say anything to you about it, it was because Laskowicz was soon to leave. But he has fallen in love with his head and not his heart, for otherwise, instead of high-flown expressions, borrowed, as it were, from some school of literature, he would have found simpler and more sincere words. His exaltation may be sincere, it may waste and destroy him like a fever; it may last for whole years, but its chief source is the head and not the heart." But Pani Otocka, who at the moment was not in the least interested in an analysis of Laskowicz's feelings, interrupted a further disquisition: "But what are we to do, in view of this? How are we to act? It is about Marynia that I am concerned."