piness to her! She deserves it all.
Perhaps it is for her sake God's mercy is showing.

My nerves are so overstrung that I start when I hear a dog barking in
the distance, or the watchman's rattle; it seems to me as if somebody
were bringing news and trying to get to Aniela. I make an effort to
calm myself, and explain away the strange fear that haunts me, by the
state of Aniela's health; I try to be convinced that but for this I
should not feel so uneasy. I repeat to myself that my fear will pass,
as everything passes, and afterwards there will be the beginning of a
new life.

I have to familiarize myself with the thought that Kromitzki is no
more. Out of this catastrophe springs my happiness, such happiness as
I dared not hope for; but there is within us a moral instinct which
forbids us to rejoice at the death of even an enemy. And moreover in
death itself there is an awful solemnity,--those who speak in presence
of it speak in hushed voices; that is the reason I dare not rejoice.

13 November.

All my plans are shattered. The doctor came this morning, and after
examining Aniela, announced that there could be no question of any
long journey for her, as it would be positively dangerous. There seem
to be some irregularities in her state. What a torture to hear his
professional jargon, when every word he utters seems to threaten the
life of the beloved woman. I told the doctor the position we are in,
and he said that between two dangers he preferred the lesser one.

What troubled and angered me most was his advice to tell Aniela, after
due preparation, about her husband's death. Alas! I cannot deny that
from his point of view he is right. "If you are quite sure," he said,
"that you can keep it from Pani Kromitzka for some months to come, it
would certainly be better to do so; but if not, it would be advisable
to prepare her mind and then tell her; for if she receives the news
suddenly there may be another catastrophe."

What is to be done? I must establish a quarantine around Ploszow, not
let a paper or letter come in unknown to me, instruct the servants
what to say, and to keep even their features under command.

What an impression news like this makes upon every one; I had an
illustration in Pani Celina, to whom we had to tell the truth. She
fainted twice, and then went off into hysterics; which almost drove me
frantic, because I thought she would be heard all over the house. And
yet she was not fond of her