When he came that day from the woods to his cottage, Marysia ran to him with great crying, and began to call out,-- "Oh, poor man, my eyes will not look long on thee; oh, I shall not weave clothes for thee, nor cook food long for thee! Thou wilt go to the ends of the earth, poor unfortunate!" Repa was astonished. "Hast eaten madwort, woman, or has some beast bitten thee?" "I haven't eaten madwort, and no beast has bitten me; but the secretary was here, and he said that there was no way for thee to escape from the army. Oi! thou wilt go, thou wilt go to the edge of the world!" Then he began to question her: how, what?--and she told him everything, only she concealed the tricks of Pan Zolzik; for she was afraid that Repa would say something foolish to the secretary, or, which God keep away! he would attack him, and harm himself in that way. "Thou foolish woman!" said Repa, at last, "why art thou crying? They will not take me to the army, for I am beyond the years; besides, I have a house, I have land, I have thee, stupid woman, and I have that tormented lobster there too." While saying that he pointed to the cradle where the "tormented lobster," a sturdy boy a year old, was kicking and screaming to make a man's ears split. The woman wiped her eyes with her apron, and said,-- "What does this all mean, then? Or does he know of the papers which thou wert carrying from forest to forest?" Repa began now to scratch his head. "He does indeed!" After a while he added, "I will go and talk with him. Maybe it is nothing terrible." "Go, go!" said Marysia, "and take a ruble with thee. Don't go near him without a ruble." Repa took a ruble out of the box, and went to the secretary. The secretary was a single man, so he had no separate housekeeping, but lived in the house of four tenements standing at the dam,--the so-called "brick house." There he had two rooms, with a separate entrance. In the first room there was nothing but some straw and a pair of gaiters; the second was both a reception and a sleeping room. There was a bed in it, almost never made up; on the bed two pillows without cases, from these pillows feathers were dropping continually; near by was a table, on it an inkstand, pens, chancery books, a few numbers of "Isabella of Spain," published by Pan Breslauer, two dirty collars of English make, a bottle of pomade, paper for cigarettes, and finally a candle in a tin candlestick, with a reddish wick and a fly drowned in the tallow close to the wick. By the window hung a large looking-glass; opposite the window stood a bureau on which were the very exquisite toilet articles of the secretary,--jackets, vests of fabulous colors, cravats, gloves, patent-leather shoes, and even a cylinder hat which the lord secretary wore whenever he had to visit the district capital of Oslovitsi.