Warsaw, she admitted, was dull, and the surrounding country simply impossible.  But the winter could not last forever, she urged, with a little shiver.  And it really was quite easy to keep warm if one went for a brisk walk in the morning.  To prove this she put on the new furs which Joseph had bought her, and which were very becoming to her delicate coloring, and set out full of energy.  She usually went to the Saski Gardens, the avenues of which were daily swept and kept clear of snow; and as often as not, she accidentally met Prince Martin Bukaty there.  Sometimes she crossed the bridge to Praga, and occasionally turned her steps down the Bednarska to the side of the river which was blocked by ice now, wintry and desolate.  The sand-workers were still laboring, though navigation was, of course, at a stand-still.

Netty never saw Kosmaroff, however, who had gone as suddenly as he came—­had gone out of her life as abruptly as he burst into it, leaving only the memory of that high-water mark of emotion to which he had raised her.  Leaving also that blankest of all blanks in the feminine heart, an unsatisfied curiosity.  She could not understand Kosmaroff, any more than she could understand Cartoner.  And it was natural that she should, in consequence, give much thought to them both.  There was, she felt, something in both alike which she had not got at, and she naturally wanted to get at it.  It might be a sorrow, and her kind heart drew her attention to any hidden thought that might be a sorrow.  She might be able to alleviate it.  At any rate, being a woman, she, no doubt, wanted to stir it up, as it were, and see what the result would be.

Prince Martin was quite different.  He was comparatively easy to understand.  She knew the symptoms well.  She was so unfortunate.  So many people had fallen in love with her, through no fault of her own.  Indeed, no one could regret it more than she did.  She did not, of course, say these things to her aunt, Julie, or to that dear old blind stupid, her uncle, who never saw or understood anything, and was entirely absorbed in his cigars and his newspapers.  She said them to herself—­and, no doubt, found herself quite easy to convince—­as other people do.

Prince Martin was very gay and light-hearted, too.  If he was in love, he was gayly, frankly, openly in love, and she hoped that it would be all right—­whatever that might mean.  In the mean time, of course, she could not help it if she was always meeting him when she went for her walk in the Saski Gardens.  There was nowhere else to walk, and it was to be supposed that he was passing that way by accident.  Or if he had found out her hours and came there on purpose she really could not help it.

Deulin came and went during the winter.  He seemed to have business now at Cracow, now at St. Petersburg.  He was a bad correspondent, and talked much about himself, without ever saying much; which is quite a different thing.  He had the happy gift of imparting a wealth of useless information.  When in Warsaw he busied himself on behalf of the ladies, and went so far as to take Miss Mangles for a drive in his sleigh.  To Netty he showed a hundred attentions.