Keeping to the middle of the road, and heedless of the sleet beating into his face, the miller dragged himself homewards. He breathed with difficulty, and often paused, sighing heavily. At times he staggered, at times he stopped short, as though petrified; and now and then a low, pained whisper broke from the depth of his tortured heart. "You--my daughter! So that's what you are!--With the policeman!" he repeated involuntarily. And he clenched his fist in his bitterness; but he was trembling as in a fever, and heavy tears rolled fast down his face. FOOTNOTES: [18] The greeting usual among peasants. [19] The colloquial name for policeman. [20] The Uniats are forbidden by the Russian Government to be baptized, married, etc., by their own or Roman Catholic priests. [21] Children are only allowed to attend specially licensed schools--one of the measures taken by the Russian Government to prevent Polish subjects from being taught. THE STRONGER SEX By STEFAN ŻEROMSKI DR. PAWEŁ OBARECKI returned home in rather a bad temper from a whist-party, where he had been paying his respects to the priest, in company with the chemist, the postmaster and the magistrate, for sixteen successive hours, beginning the previous evening. He carefully locked the door of his study so that no one, not even his housekeeper, aged twenty-four, should disturb him. He sat down at the table, glared angrily at the window without knowing why, and drummed on the table with his fingers. He realized that he was in for another fit of his "metaphysics." It is a well-established fact that a man of culture who has been cast out by the irresistible force of poverty from the centres of intellectual life into a small provincial town succumbs in time to the deadening effects of wet autumn, lack of means of communication, and the absolute impossibility of sensible conversation for days together. He develops into a carnivorous and vegetable-eating animal, drinks an excessive quantity of bottled beer, and becomes subject to fits of weariness resembling the weakness that precedes physical sickness. He swallows the boredom of a small town unconsciously, as a dog swallows dirt with his food. The actual process of decay begins at the moment when the thought "Nothing matters" takes hold of the organism. This was the case with Dr. Obarecki of Obrzydłówek. At the period of his life when this story begins, he had already come to the end of the resources of Obrzydłówek as regards his brain, his heart, and his energy.