longed for amusement and for society, that was from childishness; I know
now that the city wearies me. I convinced myself last winter, after a
short stay in Wilno, that I was born for a country life; in the midst of
gaieties I longed once more for Soplicowo. And I am not afraid of work,
for I am young and strong; I know how to walk about the place and wear a
bunch of keys: you will see how quickly I shall learn how to manage the
household!"

While Zosia was speaking these last words, Gerwazy came up to her, amazed
and glum.

"I know it already," he said, "the Judge has already been speaking of this
liberty! But I do not understand what that has to do with peasants! I am
afraid that there may be something a trifle German in this! Why, liberty
is not a peasant's affair, but a gentleman's! To be sure, we are all
derived from Adam, but I have heard that the peasants proceed from Ham,223
the Jews from Japhet, and we gentry from Shem; hence we are lords over
both, as the elder brothers. But now the parish priest gives us different
teaching from the pulpit--he says that so it was under the old law; but
that when once Christ our Lord, though he sprang from the blood of kings,
was born among Jews in a peasant's stable, from that time on he has made
equal all classes of men and brought in peace among them. Well, so be it,
since it can't be otherwise! Especially if, as I hear, Your Excellency my
Lady Sophia has agreed to everything; it is for you to give orders and for
me to obey them: authority belongs to you alone. Only I warn you that we
must not grant merely an empty liberty, in words alone, like that under
the Muscovites, when the late Pan Karp freed his serfs and the Muscovite
starved them to death with a triple tax.224 So it is my advice that
according to the ancient custom we make the peasants nobles and proclaim
that we bestow on them our own coats of arms. You, my lady, will bestow on
some villages the Half-Goat; to others let Pan Soplica give his Star and
Crescent.225 Then will even Rembajlo recognize the peasant as his equal,
when he beholds him an honourable gentleman, with a coat of arms. The Diet
will confirm the act.

"But, sir, do not make anxious your lady wife by saying that the giving up
of the lands will make you both so extremely poor; God forbid that I
should see the hands of a dignitary's daughter hardened with housewifely
labour. There is a way of preventing this: in the castle I know of a
certain ches