There is something mysterious going on around me. Towards noon I
knocked at the room of the ladies, to let Aniela know it was time to
go to the studio; but they were not there. The hotel servant told me
they had ordered a carriage two hours before and driven into town. A
little surprised at that, I resolved to wait for their return. Half
an hour later they came in, but Aniela gave me her hand silently and
passed at once into her room. A quick glance at her face told me it
was troubled. I thought she had only gone to change her dress, when
Pani Celina said:--
"My dear Leon, please go to Angeli and apologize for Aniela; her
nerves are so shaken that she cannot possibly sit for him."
"What is the matter with her?" I asked, anxiously.
Pani Celina seemed at a loss what to say, and at last replied: "I do
not know; I took her to the doctor, but we did not find him at home. I
left my card and asked him to call on us at the hotel; that is all I
can tell you."
I could not get anything more out of her. I took a cab and drove at
once to Angeli's studio. When I told him that Aniela could not come
it seemed to me as if he looked suspicious. Perhaps the troubled
expression of my face had something to do with it. It crossed my mind,
"Suppose he suspects us to have changed our minds, and that we do not
want the portrait any longer?" He does not know us; he might even
think that some money difficulties are the cause of my anxiety.
To guard against such suspicions, I made up my mind to pay him in
advance. When he heard of this, he protested vehemently and said he
never accepted payment until the picture was finished; but I replied
that I was only the depositary of the sum, and as I might be called
away at any moment, I would rather get rid of the trouble. After some
more discussion, which bored me, it was settled according to my wish.
We agreed that the sitting should take place at the same hour the day
following, and in case Pani Kromitzka was still unable to attend I
would let him know before ten. When back at the hotel, I went at once
to the ladies. Aniela was in her room. Pani Celina said the doctor had
just gone away, but did not say anything conclusive; only advised her
to keep quiet and avoid emotion. I do not know why, but I fancied I
saw again in her face the same hesitation. Possibly it comes only from
her anxiety about Aniela, which I can well understand, as I feel the
same.
When in my own room I reproached myself bitterly for having been, at
least partly, the cause of this; as all this struggle between her love
and her duty could not but act perniciously upon her health. Thinking
of all this, I had a sensation which might be summed up in a few
words: "Better I should perish than that she should suffer." I thought
with terror that she would not come down to dinner, as if something
serious, God knows what, had depended upon it. Fortunately she did
come down; but she still avoided my eyes, and there was the same
mysterious something in the air. First she grew confused at seeing me,
and then made an effort to be her usual self, but failed. She made
upon me the impression of a person that tries to conceal a trouble.
She must have been paler too than usual, for though she cannot be
called dark she almost looked like a brunette.
I racked my brain to guess what could have happened. Was it anything
connected with Kromitzki; and if so, what could it be? Perhaps my
money is in danger. The deuce take the money! All I possess may
perish, rather than that Aniela should have a moment of anxiety. I
must get at the bottom of the mystery to-morrow. I am quite sure it
has to do with Kromitzki; but what can he have done? He has not sold
another Gluchow, for the simple reason that there is not another to
sell.
Berlin, 5 September.
I am at Berlin, because escaping from Vienna I had to go somewhere. I
could not go to Ploszow, because she will be there. I was so convinced
that no human power could tear me from her that the very idea of
separation seemed to me a wild impossibility. But no! It is always the
unexpected that happens, for I have gone away, and everything is at
an end. I am at Berlin. I feel as if I had an engine in my head, the
wheels of which keep whirring incessantly. This hurts me; but I am
not mad. I know everything and remember everything. My physician was
right; it is only weak heads that come to grief. Besides, it could not
happen to me, because insanity sometimes means happiness.