Страница 690 из 788

"I am a woman, authority does not belong to me. You will be my

husband; I am too young to give advice-whatever you arrange, I

agree to with all my heart! If by freeing the villagers you

become poorer, then, Thaddeus, you will be all the dearer to my

heart. Of my family I know little, and to it I am quite

indifferent; I remember only that I was poor and an orphan, and

that I was taken in as a daughter by the Soplicas, that I was

brought up in their house and married from it. Of the country I

am not afraid: if I have lived in a great city, that was long

ago; I have forgotten it, and have always loved the country.

Believe me, that my hens and roosters have given me more

amusement than all those St. Petersburgs, If at times I have

longed for amusement and for society, that was from childishness;

I know now that the city wearies me. I convinced myself last

winter, after a short stay in Wilno, that I was born for a

country life; in the midst of gaieties I longed once more for

Soplicowo.