The sky was cloudless and the air quite still.  There is no silence like that of a northern pine-wood in winter; for the creatures living in the twilight there have been given by God silent feet and a stealthy habit—­the smaller ones going in fear of the larger, and the beasts of prey ever alert for their natural enemy—­man.  The birds kept for the most part to the outer fringes of the forest, nearer to the crops and the few, far cottages.

Wanda had grown from childhood amid the pines, and the gloomy forest-paths were so familiar as to have lost all power to impress her.  In the nursery she had heard tales of wolves and bears, but had never seen them.  They might be near or far; they might be watching through the avenues of straight and motionless stems.  In their childhood it had been the delight of Martin and herself to trace in the snow the footprints of the wolves—­near the house, in the garden, right up to the nursery window.  They had gradually acquired the indifference of the peasants who work in the fields, or the woodmen at their labors amid the trees, who are aware that the silent, stealthy eyes are watching them, and work on without fear.  The prince had taught the children fearlessness, or, perhaps, it was in their blood, and needed no education.  He had taught them to look upon the beasts of the forests not as enemies, but as quiet, watching friends.

Wanda went alone whithersoever she listed, without so much as turning her head to look over her shoulder.  The pine-woods were hers; the peasants were her serfs in spirit, if not in deed.  Here, at all events, the Bukatys were free to come and go.  In cities they were watched, their footsteps dogged by human wolves.

There are few paths through the great forests of Poland, of Posen, and of Silesia, and what there are, are usually cut straight and at right angles to each other.  There was a path just wide enough to give passage to the narrow timber carts from the farm direct to the woodman’s cottage, and so flat is the face of the earth that the distant trees are like the masts of ships half-hidden by the curve of the world.  It seems as if one could walk on and on forever, or drop from hunger and fatigue and lie unheeded for years in some forgotten corner.  In the better-kept forests the paths are staked and numbered, or else it would be impossible to know the way amid such millions of trees—­all alike, all of the same height.  But the prince was too poor to vie with the wealthy land-owners of Silesia, and his forests were ill-kept.

In places the trees had fallen across the original path, and the few passers-by had made a new path to one side or the other.  Sometimes a tree had grown outward towards the light and air, almost bridging the open space.

Wanda could not, therefore, see very far in front or behind, and was taken by surprise by the thud of a horse’s feet on the beaten snow behind her.  She turned, thinking it was her father, who for some reason had returned home, and, learning whither she had gone, had followed her.  But it was not the prince.  It was Cartoner.  Before she had quite realized that it was he, he was on his feet leading his horse towards her.