of water; and yet of this young fellow Thaddeus I was always
immensely fond, from his childhood up. I took nonce that whenever he got
into a fight with the other lads he always beat them; so, every time that
he came to the castle, I kept stirring him up to difficult feats. He
succeeded in everything, whether he set out to dislodge the doves from the
tower, or to pluck the mistletoe from the oak, or to tear down a crow's
nest from the highest pine: he was equal to anything. I thought to
myself--that boy was born under a happy star; too bad that he is a Soplica!
Who would have guessed that in him I was to greet the owner of the castle,
the husband of Panna Sophia, Her Grace my Lady!"

Here they broke off their conversation, but, deep in thought, they
continued to drink; one could only hear now and then these brief words,
"Yes, yes, Gerwazy"; "Yes, Protazy."

The bench adjoined the kitchen, the windows of which were standing open
and pouring forth smoke as from a conflagration; at last between the
clouds of smoke, like a white dove, flashed the shining nightcap of the
head cook. The Seneschal, putting his head out of the kitchen window,
above the heads of the old men, listened in silence to their talk, and
finally handed them some biscuits in a saucer, with the remark:--

"Have something to eat with your mead, and I will tell you a curious story
of a quarrel that seemed likely to end in a bloody fight, when Rejtan,
hunting in the depths of the forests of Naliboki, played a trick on the
Prince de Nassau. This trick he nearly atoned for with his own life; I
made up the gentlemen's quarrel, as I will tell you."

But the Seneschal's story was interrupted by the cooks, who inquired whom
he would have set the table.

The Seneschal withdrew, and the old men, having finished their mead,
turned their thoughtful eyes towards the centre of the garden, where that
handsome uhlan was talking with the young lady. At that moment the uhlan,
taking her hand in his left (his right hung in a sling, so that he was
evidently wounded), addressed the lady with these words:--

"Sophia, you positively must tell me this; before we exchange rings, I
must be sure of it. What does it matter that last winter you were prepared
to give me your promise? I did not accept your promise then, for what did
I care for such a forced promise? I had then stayed in Soplicowo but a
very short time, and I was not so vain as to flatter myself that by my
mere glanc