"What did you mean," he asked, "when you said 'Be careful'? What did you
mean--tell me?"
His gay, blue eyes were serious enough now. They were alight with an
honest and good love. Never of a cold and calculating habit, he was
reckless of observation. He did not care who saw. He would have taken
her hands and forced her to face him had she not held them behind her
back. She was singularly calm and self-possessed. People who appear
nervous often rise to the occasion.
"I do not know what I meant," she said; "I do not know. You must not ask
me. It slipped out when I was not thinking. Oh! please be generous, and
do not ask me."
By some instinct she had leaped to the right mark. She had asked a
Bukaty to be generous.
"Some day," he said, "I will ask you."
And he walked with her to the gate of the gardens in silence.
XXVII
A SACRIFICE
Though the fine weather did not last, it was a promise of better things,
like the letter that precedes a welcome friend. After it the air seemed
warmer, though snow fell again, and the thermometer went below zero.
Wanda and her father did not return to Warsaw as they had intended.
So long as the frost holds, the country is endurable; nay, it is better
than the towns on those great plains of eastern Europe; but when the
thaw comes, and each small depression is a puddle, every low-lying field
a pond, and whole plains become lakes, few remain in the villages who
can set their feet upon the pavement.
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