r one fleeting moment her mind dwelt on all this, but at
the same time there awoke memories of all her sufferings and her
banishment.

She handed him a box of cigarettes and said in an easy tone,
breaking the somewhat prolonged silence: "You give proof of no small
courage and . . . kindness by visiting me after all that has
happened. . . ."

"Do you remember what I told you the last time," he answered,
subduing and softening his voice, "that I would never and
always! . . . That I would never cease and would always continue to
love you!"

Janina moved impatiently, for his deeply sincere accent pained her.

"I beg your pardon . . . if it makes you angry, I will not say
another word about myself . . ." he said with resignation.

"What is the news from home?" she asked, raising her eyes to his.

"How can I tell you? . . . It's something that beggars all
description. You would not know your father; he has become an
impossible autocrat in his official duties, and outside of them he
goes hunting, visits his neighbors, whistles to himself . . . but
has become so thin and worn that it is hard to recognize him. Worry
is eating him away like a canker."

"Why? . . . What is there for my father to worry about?"

"My God! How can you ask such a question? Are you joking, or haven't
you a spark of feeling in you? . . . Why is he worrying? . . .
Because you are away . . . because he, like all of us, is dying
with longing for you! . . ."

"And what about Krenska? . . ." Janina asked with apparent calmness,
although stirred deeply by what he had told her.

"What has Krenska to do with this? . . . He threw her out the very
next day after your departure, afterwards received a few days'
official leave from his duties and left Bukowiec. . . . In about a
week he returned so woebegone and haggard that we scarcely
recognized him. Even strangers are crying over him, but you had no
pity on him and went forth into the world . . . and what kind of
world, besides? . . ."

Janina sprang up violently from her chair.

"Yes, you may be angry with me if you will, but I love you, I love
you too well, and we all love you too well to be denied the right to
speak what we feel. Have me thrown out of here if you will, and I'll
not complain, but I'll wait for you at the street door or meet you
anywhere else and keep telling you that your father is dying without
you and that he is growing sicker and weaker every day! My mother
came across him no