21 May.

I told Aniela that I intended to work, and I will do so, if only for the reason that I said so to her.  I will have the collections brought over from Rome, and found a museum.  This will be Aniela’s merit, and the first useful deed that springs from our love.  I suppose the Italian government will raise difficulties, as there is a law that prohibits the exportation of antiquities and precious works of art.  But my lawyer will arrange that for me.  And that reminds me of the Madonna by Sassoferrato, which my father bequeathed to his future daughter-in-law.  I will have it sent over at once, because I want it.

22 May.

Human nature is ever malicious.  I have a grim satisfaction in thinking how ridiculous a man like Kromitzki must seem, who is turning summersaults in the East in his effort to make money, while somebody whispers love vows into his wife’s ears; and sooner or later Aniela must see it in this light.  The whole Kromitzki can be summed up in the one fact:  he sold Gluchow and left the women without a home.  He thought perhaps they would live in Odessa or Kieff; in the mean while Pani Celina’s illness brought Aniela to Ploszow.

Yet he knew how precarious the lady’s health was; he ought to have foreseen that she might fall ill, and that Aniela would remain alone with the burden of sorrow and trouble.  If his business requires his presence in the East, why did he marry at all?

To-morrow I go back to Ploszow.  I feel very lonely here, and besides I feel the longing to look once more into Aniela’s eyes, and at times feel guilty, as if I had been shirking a duty by running away.  It was necessary at the time, but I must go back now.  Who knows? greater happiness than I suppose may be waiting for me,—­perhaps she too is longing for me.

I called upon the Sniatynskis, and Clara, whom I did not find at home.  I paid also a visit to the celebrated beauty, Pani Korytzka.  The latter carries her historical name like a jockey cap, and her wit as a riding-whip; she hits people with it between the eyes.  I came off unscathed; she even tried a little coquetry on me.  I made a dozen or so calls and left cards.  I wish people to think that I am settled at Warsaw.

As the bringing over of my father’s collections is only a matter of will and ready money, I am seeking what else there is for me to do.  Men of my position are usually occupied with the administration of their fortune; and very badly they administer it on the whole, far worse than I. Very few take any part in public life.  I mentioned before that here they still amuse themselves with aristocracy and democracy; there are even some whose whole aim in life consists in backing up social hierarchy, and stemming the tide of democratic currents.  It is a sport as good as any other, but since I am no sportsman, I take no interest in that amusement.  Even if it were no mere play, if there were some sense at the bottom