Her face, always delicate, looked as if moulded in
wax. There are still traces that show how beautiful she must have
been, and at the same time so unhappy.
I asked after her health, and expressed the hope that, with the return
of the fine weather, she would soon recover her strength. She listened
with a sad smile, and shook her head; two tears rolled silently down
her face.
Then, fixing her sad eyes upon me, she said,--
"You know Gluchow has been sold?"
This evidently is the thought ever present,--her continual sorrow and
gnawing trouble.
When Aniela heard the question she grew very red. It was a painful
blush, because a blush of shame and sorrow.
"Yes, I have heard," I said quickly. "Perhaps it can be recovered; if
so, nothing is lost; and if not, you must submit to God's will."
Aniela cast a grateful glance at me, and Pani Celina said,--
"I have lost all hope."
It was not true; she still clung to the delusion that the estate might
be recovered. Her eyes looked hungrily at me, waiting for the words
which might confirm her secret hopes. I resolved to gratify her wish,
and said,--
"It seems to have been a case of necessity, and I do not see how any
one can be blamed for it. Yet there are no obstacles which cannot be
overcome where there is a will and adequate means. Sometimes it has
happened that a sale has been invalidated in law from some omission of
formality.
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