h eyes all red from crying.

"Please Miss, come along with me, for my mistress is very sick and
wants to see you without fail," she said.

"Is Madame Niedzielska so seriously ill?" cried Janina, springing up
from the bed and hurriedly putting on her hat.

"The priest has already been there this afternoon with the sacrament
and she has only a few hours to live," whispered the faithful old
servant with tears in her eyes. "She can scarcely draw her breath
and all I understood her to say was that I should run to you and
tell you that she wants to see you right away. And where is Mr.
Wladyslaw?"

"How can I know? He ought to be with his mother," answered Janina.

"He ought to, but he is a worthless son," whispered the servant in
hollow tones. "Already for a week he has not been at home, for he
had an awful quarrel with his mother. My God! My God! how he swore
at her and abused her and even wanted to strike her. O merciful
Lord, that is the way he repaid her for loving him so dearly that
she even denied herself food to supply him with money. She was such
a miser that she did not want to spend money for a doctor or any
medicines and he . . . oh! oh, God will punish him severely for his
mother's tears! I know that you are not to blame for it, miss . . .
I can guess that . . . but . . ." she whispered quietly, hobbling
alongside of Janina and every now and then wiping her eyes, all red
from crying and loss of sleep.

Janina hardly heard a word of what she was saying for the noise and
the din in the street and the splashing of water flowing from the
drainpipes to the sidewalk drowned out everything else. She went
along only because the dying woman had summoned her.

The first room of Niedzielska's home was almost filled with people
and Janina greeted them as she passed through it, but no one
answered her and all eyes followed her with a peculiar curiosity.

In the room where Niedzielska lay, there were also a few persons
seated about her bed. Janina went straight to the sick woman. She
was lying flat on her back, but fixed her eyes upon Janina as soon
as she had crossed the threshold.

On Janina's entrance the persons in the room stopped talking so
abruptly that the sudden silence sent a strange thrill through her.
She met Niedzielska's gaze and could not tear her eyes away from it.
She sat down alongside of the bed, greeting her in a subdued voice.

The old woman grasped her hand tightly and in a quiet voice with a