e--who are
therefore idle, without the natural Southern sloth that enables Italians
and Spaniards to do nothing gracefully all day long. Wanda was wiser
than Martin. Girls generally are infinitely wiser than young men. But
the wisdom ceases to grow later in life, and old men are wiser than old
women. Wanda was, in a sense, Martin's adviser, mentor, and friend. She
had, as he himself acknowledged, already saved him from dangers into
which his natural heedlessness and impetuosity would have led him. As
to the discontent in which all Poland was steeped, which led the princes
and their friends into many perils, Wanda had been brought up to it,
just as some families are brought up to consumption and the anticipation
of an early death.

In her eminently practical, feminine way of looking at things, Wanda was
much more afraid of Martin running into debt than into danger. Debt and
impecuniosity would be so inconvenient at this time, when her father
daily needed some new comfort, and daily depended for his happiness more
and more upon his port wine and that ease which is only to be enjoyed by
an easy mind.

Wanda was thinking of these things in the Saski Gardens, and hardly
heeded the passers-by, though--for the feminine instincts were strong in
her--she looked with softer eyes on the children than she did on the
Jew who hurried past, with bent back and a bowed head, from the
richer quarter of the town to his own mysterious purlieus of the
Franoiszkanska. The latter, perhaps, recalled the thoughts of Martin and
his heedlessness; the former made her think of--she knew not what.

She was looking towards the colonnade that marks the site of the King of
Saxony's palace, when Cartoner came through the archway into the garden.
She recognized him even at this distance, for his walk was unlike that
of the nervous, quick-moving Pole or the lurking Jew. It was more like
the gait of a Russian; but all the Russians in Warsaw wear a uniform.
That is why they are there. There was a suggestion of determination in
the walk of this Englishman.

He came down the wide alley towards her, and then suddenly perceived
her. She saw this without actually looking at him, and knew the precise
moment when he first caught sight of her. It was presumably upon
experience that Wanda based her theory that women see twice as much as
men. She saw him turn, without hesitation, away from her down a narrower
alley leading to the right. It was his intention to av