Fire in the Steppe

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Book: Read Fire in the Steppe for Free Online
Authors: Henryk Sienkiewicz, Jeremiah Curtin
know well what to do.
    "My God! my God!" said he, falling into evil humor, and looking around on the Cracow suburbs, which he had just passed; "here are the Bernardines, and there is the ruin of the Kazanovski Palace! Thankless city! I had to wrest it from the enemy with my blood and toil, and now it grudges me a corner for my gray head."
    But the city did not by any means grudge Zagloba a corner for his gray head; it simply hadn't one. Meanwhile a lucky star was watching over him, for barely had he reached the palace of the Konyetspolskis when a voice called from one side to his driver, "Stop!"
    The man reined in the horses; then an unknown nobleman approached the wagon with gleaming face, and cried out, "Pan Zagloba! Does your grace not know me?"
    Zagloba saw before him a man of somewhat over thirty years, wearing a leopard-skin cap with a feather,—an unerring mark of military service,—a poppy-colored under-coat, and a dark-red kontush, girded with a gold brocade belt. The face of the unknown was of unusual beauty: his complexion was pale, but burned somewhat by wind in the fields to a yellowish tinge; his blue eyes were full of a certain melancholy and pensiveness; his features were unusually symmetrical, almost too beautiful for a man. Notwithstanding his Polish dress, he wore long hair and a beard cut in foreign fashion. Halting at the wagon, he opened his arms widely; and Zagloba, though he could not remember him at once, bent over and embraced him. They pressed each other heartily, and at moments one pushed the other back so as to have a better look.
    "Pardon me, your grace," said Zagloba, at last; "but I cannot call to mind yet."
    "Hassling-Ketling!"
    "For God's sake! The face seemed well known to me, but the dress has changed you entirely, for I saw you in old times in a Prussian uniform. Now you wear the Polish dress?"
    "Yes; for I have taken as my mother this Commonwealth, which received me when a wanderer, almost in years of boyhood, and gave me abundant bread and another mother I do not wish. You do not know that I received citizenship after the war."
    "But you bring me good news! So Fortune favored you in this?"
    "Both in this and in something else; for in Courland, on the very boundary of Jmud, I found a man of my own name, who adopted me, gave me his escutcheon, and bestowed on me property. He lives in Svyenta in Courland; but on this side he has an estate called Shkudy, which he gave me."
    "God favor you! Then you have given up war?"
    "Only let the chance come, and I'll take my place without fail. In view of that, I have rented my land, and am waiting here for an opening."
    "That is the courage that I like. Just as I was in youth, and I have strength yet in my bones. What are you doing now in Warsaw?"
    "I am a deputy at the Diet of Convocation."
    "God's wounds! But you are already a Pole to the bones!"
    The young knight smiled. "To my soul, which is better."
    "Are you married?"
    Ketling sighed. "No."
    "Only that is lacking. But I think—wait a minute! But has that old feeling for Panna Billevich gone out of your mind?"
    "Since you know of that which I thought my secret, be assured that no new one has come."
    "Oh, leave her in peace! She will soon give the world a young Kmita. Never mind! What sort of work is it to sigh when another is living with her in better confidence? To tell the truth, 'tis ridiculous."
    Ketling raised his pensive eyes. "I have said only that no new feeling has come."
    "It will come, never fear! we'll have you married. I know from experience that in love too great constancy brings merely suffering. In my time I was as constant as Troilus, and lost a world of pleasure and a world of good opportunities; and how much I suffered!"
    "God grant every one to retain such jovial humor as your grace!"
    "Because I lived in moderation always, therefore I have no aches in my bones. Where are you stopping? Have you found lodgings?"
    "I have a comfortable cottage, which I built after the

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