tating?
Had she not promised Mikolai to do it and also prayed about it?--"What
you've been saying is not true, daddy. Nobody is going to do you any
[Pg 299] harm, neither mother nor anybody eke. You're not kind to
mother. You're talking nonsense. Look, here is your Roeschen, feel my
hands." She put her dry, burning hands round his wrists. "As true as I
stand here, I swear that you've nothing to fear, we all lov----"--no,
she must not lie, so she quickly corrected herself--"we all mean you
well. Daddy, oh, my daddy!"

She let go of his wrists and impulsively pressed her hands to his
cheeks, as she had so often done when she was small and her fingers had
seemed no bigger than the legs of a fly that played about on his fat
cheeks. "Oh, my dear daddy, if only you would stop drinking.
Everything, everything would be better then. Then mother would no
longer"--she suddenly stopped and the colour mounted to her brow; she
did not mention her mother again. But her voice sounded so honest and
convincing as she continued, "Then you would never have cause to fear
any more. You would see then that nobody wishes you ill. And how happy
Mikolai would be if you were to go into the stables and fields again,
and talk to him about the work on the farm. Poor Mikolai, his friend is
going away and he'll be so lonely. And you would feel much better
yourself. You wouldn't cough so much--Marianna says you spit blood--you
would be happy again; you wouldn't sit alone in this room any more, and
you would see the wheat and the oats and the red clover that smells so
sweet. Just think of it, daddy!"

She grew quite hot in her eagerness; at that moment she forgot all
about her convent and that she would not be at Starydwor to see the
improvement. And then as the last and best promise she said, "And you
would still be saved, daddy; God in heaven would forgive your sins."
Her eyes shone as she looked at [Pg 300] him, as though she wanted to
infect him with some of her own radiant happiness.

But his eyes did not shine. He was looking down in a dull-witted way
and merely muttered, "Yes, you're Rosa."

Ah! now he knew her. The saints be praised, that was a big step
forward. Putting her sweet face close to his, and without shrinking
back from the poisonous breath that almost suffocated her, she
whispered, "And Rosa will love you again, daddy; love you so dearly if
you'll only leave off drinking." She pointed to a full bottle standing
on the table next t