This time they obeyed with alacrity.  Some of them, evidently strangers to Ploszow, addressed her as “gracious Panienka” (Miss), which caused me unspeakable delight.  If Ploszow were mine they might cut down every tree at her wish.  In half an hour every broken branch and fallen tree was cleared away, and the park looked really all the better for it.  Walking with Aniela along the paths I found a great many swallows and other birds, either killed by the storm or half dead and drenched with rain.  I picked them up, and handing them one by one to Aniela, I touched her hands, looked into her eyes, and again felt happy.  The idyl of the day before repeated itself, for us both, and brought with it ease and cheerfulness.  My heart was full of joy, for I saw what Aniela could not see,—­that in our brotherly relation there was twice as much tenderness as would be or ought to be between the most loving brother and sister.  I was quite sure now that, unconsciously, she loved me as much as I loved her.  In this way one half of my hopes and schemes are realized already; there remains only to bring it home to her and make her own to the feeling.  When I think of that I remember, with a heart beating fast with happiness, what I wrote down some time ago:  that “no woman in the world can resist the man she truly loves.”

15 May.

Our visitors did not come yesterday but to-day, which was very sensible, as all traces of the storm have disappeared and the weather is very fine.  This fifteenth of May will be one of the best remembered days in my life.  It is now past midnight; I am wide awake, as if I never wanted to sleep again, and intend to write until morning.  I am collecting my thoughts so as not to begin at the end, and put it all down in proper order.  Force of habit is a great help in this.

My aunt sent the carriage for the Sniatynskis and Clara very early, in consequence of which they arrived before noon.  The ladies were bright, cheerful, and chirping like sparrows, glad of the fine weather and their excursion.  What toilets, and what quaint hats!  Clara looked very well in a light, striped dress that made her seem less tall than usual.  I observed that Aniela, after the first greeting, looked at her searchingly and seemed struck by her beauty, of which I had scarcely said anything to her.  I had not refrained out of calculation, but had been so occupied with Aniela that I had not thought of it.  For instance, though I had met Pani Sniatynska several times I had never noticed she wore her hair short, which suits her style of beauty.  The light, curly hair falling over her brow gives her the expression of a resolute, rosy-faced boy.  We are excellent friends again.  There was a time she would have liked to kill me, so angry was she about Aniela.  Evidently her husband had told her what I suffered, and women have a special weakness for those who suffer for love’s sake; she has forgiven me and reinstalled me in her favor.  The presence of such a bright,