noticed that the violets on her breast rose and fell far quicker than the quiet step of the dance warranted.  I understood that she felt agitated.  Love is a law of nature, kept under control by a careful bringing-up.  But once the girl is told that she may love this one or that, the chance is she will obey very readily.  Aniela evidently expected that after I had been bold enough to write those few words I would allude to it further, but I kept aloof on purpose to leave her in suspense.

I wished also to look at her from a distance.  Decidedly she is my type.  Women of that kind have a special attraction for me.  Oh, if only she were thirty, and not a girl they expect me to marry!

WARSAW, 30 January.

They have come to stay with us.  Yesterday I spent all the day with Aniela.  She has more pages to her soul than most girls at her age.  On many of these pages the future will write, but there is room for many beautiful things.  She feels and understands everything, and is an excellent listener, and follows the conversation with her large, intelligent eyes.  A woman that can listen possesses one more attraction, because she flatters man’s vanity.  I do not know whether Aniela is conscious of this, or whether it be her womanly instinct.  Maybe she has heard so much about me from my aunt that she deems every word I say an oracle.  She is decidedly not without coquetry.  To-day I asked her what she wished for most in life.  She answered, “To see Rome;” then her eyelashes fell, and she looked indescribably pretty.  She sees that I like her, and it makes her happy.  Her coquetry is charming, because it comes straight from a delighted heart, and tries to please the chosen object.  I have not the slightest doubt that her heart is fluttering towards me, as a moth flutters into the candle.  Poor child! she feels the elders have given their mute consent, and she obeys only too willingly.  I can watch the process from hour to hour.

Perhaps I ought to inquire of myself, “If you do not want to marry her, why are you trying to make her love you?” But I do not choose to answer that question.  I feel at peace here, and restful!  After all, what is it I am doing?  I try not to appear more foolish or disagreeable or less courteous than I am by nature, that is all.

Aniela appeared to-day at breakfast in a loose sailor-dress, which only just betrayed the outline of her shape, and she looked bewitching.  Her eyes were still full of dreaminess and sleep.  It is something wonderful what an impression she is making on me.

31 January.