“Lie there, darling! lie there still! Lie for the last time in thy mother’s home,” she murmured, love and sorrowing pain contending within her many a time. What she had coveted so ardently, she had now: yet she felt such anguish that she could not but wince at the smart of it, and sat down upon the bed.—Boryna ... a kind man, who would treat her daughter with due respect.... And Yagna could do whatever she liked with this man, who saw nothing in the whole world but her! No. It was not he that she dreaded, but the stepchildren.—Ah, why had he driven the Anteks from his home? Now, if ever, would they brew mischief and seek revenge. But yet, if he had not done so?... Antek at Yagna’s side!—A sin against God might have ensued.—Well, there was no help for it now. The banns were published, the guests invited; the pig was killed, the settlement safely stowed away.... No, no, no! What would come of it had to come; and while Dominikova lived, she would suffer no wrong to be done to her daughter.—Having come to this final decision, she went out to rate the lads for their sloth. When she returned, she thought to rouse her daughter too; but Yagna had fallen asleep again, and the quiet regular breathing of slumber was heard from her bed. Once more did the mother feel anxieties and uncertainties swoop down upon her, like hawks with talons tearing at her heart, screaming distrust, and predicting some vaguely awful impending doom. But she dropped on her knees by the window and, with red bleared eyes fixed upon the flushed dawn, prayed very hard for a long time. And she rose, full of strength to meet any fate that might come, no matter what! “Now, Yagna dear, get up; it is high time. Eva is coming at once to cook, and we have so much to do still!” “Is the weather fine?” the girl inquired, raising her heavy head. “So fine that all the country round is glistening over with hoarfrost. The sun will rise presently.” Yagna, aided by her mother, was soon dressed. Then the latter, after due consideration, spoke thus: “What I have told you before, I will repeat again. Boryna is a good, kind man; but you must take great care ... not to make friends with any chance acquaintance, or let tongues ever again wag against you. People are curs: they love to bite.—You hear me, dear?” “I hear, yes; but you speak as though I had not any judgment at all.” “No one is the worse for good advice.—See well to this: Boryna must never be set at naught, but always treated with tender respect. An old man cares much more for that sort of thing than a young one does.... And who knows whether he may not settle all his land on you? or perhaps give you a big sum—from hand to hand?” “For that I care nothing,” she interrupted impatiently.