[Pg 189]

"Why are you sighing?" inquired the woman at that moment. Her voice
sounded soft and veiled in the twilight. The tone frightened him. "What
are you thinking of? Don't you like being here?"

He grew still more frightened. Did she know what he had been thinking
of? The woman was a witch who could look at you inside and out. He grew
red and then vexed; what was it to her what he was thinking of? Well,
as she already knew it, yes, he wanted to go away. But he said nothing
of that to her, he stammered something, hesitated, and grew quite
confused. By gad! how beautiful the woman was!

Mrs. Tiralla bent a little forward over the table, so that her face was
nearer to him. In spite of the increasing obscurity the young man saw
her eyes gleam. Her voice sounded very ingratiating as she said:

"I'm so pleased that you've both come, you and Mikolai. Mr. Tiralla is
old. Now there are some young people in the house." She gave a slight
sigh. "And he has got into the way of drinking, I'm sorry to say. It's
so lonely for Rosa and me. Such a young girl wants a change too."

Oh, certainly. The young man understood that perfectly, he agreed with
her mother that it could not be very amusing for a young girl there.
Conquering his shyness, he asked if Miss Rosa had no friends whatever
in the neighbourhood, and if she did not take part in any of the
amusements in Gradewitz, or whatever the nearest town was called.

"What are you thinking of?" Mrs. Tiralla gave a soft little laugh.
"Rosa isn't fifteen yet, she's still a child. Don't say 'Miss,' Mr.
Becker. Besides"--she sighed again and became very serious--"my
daughter will never care for what you, what people call [Pg 190]
amusements. Rosa has chosen another path for herself; she's going to
the Grey Sisters, or to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, who have that
large hospital on the Wilda in Posen."

"To the Ladies of the Sacred Heart in Posen?" The young fellow looked
quite horrified. Was it possible that that little thing with her curly
hair and bright face wanted to be a nun? To be pious was all well and
good--Martin liked to go to Mass every Sunday, and regularly went to
confession as an orthodox Christian is expected to do--but in a
convent! ugh! He shuddered. "_Psia krew!_" he burst out, "such a young
girl doesn't know what she's doing. You shouldn't let her, Mrs.
Tiralla," he said, almost upbraidingly. Why did the beautiful woman
blink at him so with her black eyes? And