Torn apart with the tumult of this internal battle, he went forward alone, almost without knowing whither. Suddenly he heard behind a well-known voice singing in bass the glad song:—
"Hop! hop! hop! hop!
And the horseshoe firmly fastened."
He looked around—it was Vasilkevich and Augustinovich.
"Whither art thou hastening, Gustav?" asked the first.
"I? Ha! whither—" He looked at his watch. "It is too early to visit Pani Helena. I am going at present to the club."
"Well, go straight to the widow."
"What? Why?"
"Woe!" exclaimed Augustinovich, raising his hand toward heaven; and without noticing passers-by, he fell to declaiming loudly:—
"The castle where joyousness sounded
Is shrouded in mourning to-day;
On its wall the wild weeds are growing,
At its gate the faithful dog howls."
"Thou hast no reason to visit the club," added Vasilkevich.
"What has happened?"
"Gloom is there now incubating a tempest," replied Augustinovich.
