Page:Henryk Sienkiewicz - In Vain.djvu/222

210 Augustinovich followed them awhile with his eyes, then nodded a couple of times.

"By the prophet!" said he, "I understand her. She is right, but so is Yosef. Hei! I must fly before everything breaks."

In a moment he ran to Pelski, told him the whole story.

"Some fatality weighed on them," concluded Augustinovich. "Yosef could not act otherwise, could he?"

"He acted as was fitting, but what inchned you to tell me of this?"

"A bagatelle. One question: Did not Lula act nobly in rejecting your hand?"

"I will leave the answer to myself."

"Leave it, my dear sir! The answer is all one to me, Lula is nothing to me; I know only that if my friend withdraws her future will not be enviable, and you are her cousin The case is too bad." Pelski thought awhile.

"Too bad? Ha, what is too bad?"

"That your proposal did not come a little later." Pelski walked with quick step through the room.

"Now, never!" whispered he to himself.

Augustinovich heard this monologue.