"
What is to be done? I must establish a quarantine around Ploszow, not
let a paper or letter come in unknown to me, instruct the servants
what to say, and to keep even their features under command.
What an impression news like this makes upon every one; I had an
illustration in Pani Celina, to whom we had to tell the truth. She
fainted twice, and then went off into hysterics; which almost drove me
frantic, because I thought she would be heard all over the house. And
yet she was not fond of her son-in-law; but she too, I suppose, was
mostly afraid for Aniela. I am strenuously opposed to the doctor's
advice, and do not think I shall ever agree to it. I cannot tell them
one thing,--that Aniela did not love her husband, and that for that
very reason the shock will be more terrible to her.
It is not merely a question of sorrow after the death of a beloved
being, but of the reproaches she will apply to herself, thinking that
if she had loved him more he might have clung more to his life. Empty,
trivial, and unjust reproaches, for she did everything that force
of will could command,--she spurned my love and remained pure and
faithful to him. But one must know that soul full of scruples as I
know it, to gauge the depth of misery into which the news would plunge
her, and how she would suspect herself,--asking whether his death did
not correspond to some deeply hidden desire on her part for freedom
and happiness; whether it did not gratify those wishes she had
scarcely dared to form.
Pages:
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583