n
vain Anielka wept, in vain she cried, "Where is my father?" No father
appeared. At last it was said that Sava had been sent to a long
distance with a large sum of money, and had been killed by robbers.
In the ninth year of one's life the most poignant grief is quickly
effaced, and after six months Anielka ceased to grieve. The old people
were very kind to her, and loved her as if sue were their own child.
That Anielka might be chosen to serve in the palace never entered
their head, for who would be so barbarous as to take the child away
from an old woman of seventy and her aged husband?

To-day was the first time in her life that she had been so far from
home. She looked curiously on all she saw,--particularly on a young
lady about her own age, beautifully dressed, and a youth of eighteen,
who had apparently just returned from a ride on horse-back, as he held
a whip in his hand, whilst walking up and down examining the boys who
were placed in a row before him. He chose two amongst them, and the
boys were led away to the stables.

"And I choose this young girl," said Constantia Roszynski, indicating
Anielka; "she is the prettiest of them all. I do not like ugly faces
about me."

When Constantia returned to the drawing-room, she gave orders for
Anielka to be taken to her apartments, and placed under the tutelage
of Mademoiselle Dufour, a French maid, recently arrived from the first
milliner's shop in Odessa. Poor girl! when they separated her from her
adopted mother, and began leading her toward the palace, she rushed,
with a shriek of agony, from them, and grasped her old protectress
tightly in her arms! They were torn violently asunder, and the Count
Roszynski quietly asked, "Is it her daughter, or her grand-daughter?"

"Neither, my lord,--only an adopted, child."

"But who will lead the old woman home, as she is blind?"

"I will, my lord," replied one of his servants, bowing to the ground;
"I will let her, walk by the side of my horse, and when she is in
her cabin she will have her old husband,--they must take care of each
other."

So saying, he moved away with the rest of the peasants and domestics.
But the poor old woman had to be dragged along by two men; for in the
midst of her shrieks and tears she had fallen to the ground, almost
without life.

And Anielka? They did not allow her to weep long. She had now to
sit all day in the corner of a room to sew. She was expected to do
everything well from the f