"I have a hope that my beautiful cousin will give him the mitten."
"Which would increase a beautiful collection. But tell me, what do you think of your cousins?"
"Certainly--Pani Otocka--certainly--both have what the Galicians call 'something ennobling.' But Panna Marynia is still quite a child."
Gronski directed his eyes at the slim and slender figure walking before them and said:
"That is a child who could as well fly in the air as walk on earth."
"I warn you that she is the object of my highest adoration."
"So I have heard. It is already known to all men."
"Only they do not know that that adoration is not of a red color, but heavenly blue."
"When you are better acquainted with her you will understand me."
Krzycki, who was more interested in Miss Anney, wanted to turn the conversation to her, but they passed the gates, before which the horses waited. The young man proceeded to assist the ladies to their seats, in which operation he saw directed towards himself for a moment the soulful eyes of the Englishwoman. Preparatory to her departure, his mother asked him whether he had finished his duties connected with the funeral and whether he would return immediately to Jastrzeb.
"No," he answered; "I have made an arrangement with the parish-priest that he should permit me to invite the priests to the rectory, and I must entertain them there. But as soon as I greet them and eat something, I will excuse myself to the guests and return as soon as possible."
Here he bowed to the ladies, after which he removed his hands from the carriage, cast a glance at the chestnut thill-horse to see if he did not overreach, and shouted:
The carriage trundled over the road on which the funeral cortege had passed. Of the participants who were dressed in surtouts, besides Ladislaus, only Dolhanski remained. He felt that, as a relative of the deceased, it was also his duty to entertain the priests who officiated at the obsequies; and besides, he had other reasons which induced him to remain in Ladislaus' company.
They had barely settled in the britzska, when he began to look around among the peasants, who still stood here and there in groups, and then asked:
"He rode ahead with the priests, but to-night you will see him at Jastrzeb, for he invited himself there."