“I am obliged to change the Herr Oberst’s plans for me,” she said when she found him. “I shall not go to Boloszjen in the carriage, but I want you to have the luggage taken there and booked for Pavelsburg in my name. Then even if I am late for the train the boxes will not be lost. I am going to see little Ilona, the shepherd’s daughter, and to take her some clothes. I shall not come back to Witska, but I believe it is possible to cross the mountains from the shepherd’s hut and walk to the station beyond Boloszjen and catch the train there, is it not? Ilona’s father will show me the way, so you need not be alarmed if you do not see me at Boloszjen.” The waiter and the landlord both showed great concern on hearing of the gracious young lady’s determination to fatigue herself so much before starting on her journey, but she refused to yield to any of their suggestions, accepting only the offer of a boy to carry the parcel of clothes. Even this she would have declined if she had not feared that such persistent ungraciousness would excite suspicion, and she paid and dismissed her attendant as soon as the cottage came in sight. Her plans were already laid, and she walked on boldly, carrying in her arms the bundle, which contained the Thracian peasant-dress that Madame O’Malachy had worn on the fateful night of her accident. On entering the hut she was welcomed with a cry of delight by the sick child, whom she had nursed through a bad attack of bronchitis, and her mother; the father was away with his sheep. Nadia had no time to lose. She had picked up a sufficient knowledge of Thracian to make herself understood, and she plunged into her subject at once. “I want you to let me change my dress here, Yerma,” she said. “I have a friend in great danger at Bellaviste, and I must go to warn him.” Glancing at the sympathetic faces of the mother and child, she knew that she was safe with them, and went on, “I thought I would wear clothes like yours, because I should attract less attention on the road. My own dress I will leave with you. You will be able to make a winter frock out of it for Ilona.”