She replied nothing: the words stuck in her throat. Her heart was palpitating so violently that she thought everyone near her must have heard it. But she made a gesture as if she would go that very instant where he wished, where her love was urging her ... behind the haystack. The church was resounding with the joyful thunder of the carols, when she came a little to her senses, and looked round at the people and the sanctuary. Antek was there no more. He had withdrawn unnoticed, and was slowly walking out into the churchyard. There he stood in the frost a long time, beneath the belfry, that he might cool down a little and breathe some fresh air. But his bosom was so overflowing with gladness, there was in him such an exultation, such a triumph of power, that he never even heard the chant that welled out from the open church door, nor the faint echoes which repeated it from the bells above. No, he took no heed of anything whatsoever.... Seizing a handful of snow, and swallowing it greedily, he leapt over the wall and into the road—rushing away, out on to the country-side, wayward as the blast. CHAPTER V The Boryna family returned from church very late; and but a few minutes later, they were all in bed, snoring loud. All except Yagna alone. Wearied though she was, she did not fall asleep. She turned on her pillow, she even threw the blanket over her head: it was of no avail; sleep would not come. In its stead there came a sort of nightmare, and fell upon her, and crushed her with its weight. She could neither breathe, nor cry out, nor jump from her bed. There she lay, numb, drowsy, in that half-awake state when the mind spins out memories all the while and goes over the world with them—rising far above the earth, arraying itself in the sun’s splendour, and yet no more capable of any activity in itself than is a reflection in clear wind-rippled water.