this does not interest you in the least, does it? I
sometimes chatter nonsense, catch myself talking to myself, and
often forget things, for I'm just an old man, you see. You have an
honest-looking face, so I will give you this bit of advice; whenever
you suffer, when everything disappoints you and life becomes
unbearable flee from the city, go into the open country, breathe in
the fresh air, bathe in the sunlight, gaze at the sky, think about
eternity and pray . . . and you will forget all your troubles. You
will feel better and stronger. The misery of the people of to-day
arises from their estrangement from nature and from God, from
loneliness of the soul. And I will tell you one more thing; forgive
everything and be merciful to all. People are bad only through their
ignorance, therefore you be good. The greatest wisdom is in the
greatest kindness. I am here every day while it is warm. Perhaps we
shall meet again sometime. Good-bye, and may you be happy." He
nodded his head kindly in farewell.

She gazed a long time after him until he vanished from her sight
near the church of St. Mary. Janina rubbed her eyes, for it seemed
to her that this meeting had been merely a hallucination.

"No, that cannot be," she whispered to herself, for she still felt
upon her face the pure gaze of his peaceful old eyes and heard his
voice saying: "Be good! Pray! Forgive!" She repeated the words to
herself as she walked along the street.

"Forgive!" and she saw her father and afterwards the theater,
Cabinski, Majkowska, Kotlicki, Mme. Anna, and Sowinska and
remembered those days of suffering, abuse, and insult.

"Be good!" and she saw again Mirowska, who bore the most painful
wrongs with a smile, who never did anyone any harm, and yet was the
laughing stock of the entire company. Then, there was Wolska, who at
the expense of her own life saved her child from death and who was
cheated and forced into poverty. There was Cabinska's nurse
sacrificing herself for a stranger's children. There was, too, the
old stage-director, slighted by everybody; there were the peasants
in the country, treated like animals, and the exploited workmen in
the cities. There were all the swindles, cheatings, and crimes which
were going on continually. Janina felt that something within her was
trembling, breaking, and crying out in protest; that the suffering
of all humanity was pouring into her soul; that all the injustice,
all the wrongs, all the suffering