“No, it is only blown and swept about so, that one cannot see one’s way,” Yagna replied, warming her hands, and setting to wind the thread from a spindle on to a reel. Her husband, after again peeping out of the window, and listening with still greater impatience, took up his work. “Yuzka—where is she?” he asked presently. “Gone to Nastka’s, no doubt; she is always there.” “The girl’s a gadabout—never at home for the space of a ‘pater.’” “She says staying at home is wearisome.” “Wants to divert herself, the little chit!” “No; to shirk her duties, rather.” “Can ye not forbid her?” “I? Once I did; and was abused and railed at for my pains. Ye must give her orders yourself: mine are of no account.” To this complaint Boryna paid little attention; he was listening with extreme impatience. But no human voice was audible outside, only the gale blowing, roaring here and there, and smiting the walls till they vibrated and groaned again. “Going out?” she asked. He made no answer, hearing the front door open; and immediately Vitek ran in, out of breath, and crying out, as he entered: “The Squire has come!” “Only now? Shut the door, quick!” “I can hear the jingling of his harness-bells still.” “Did he come alone?” “I could only distinguish the horses, the air was so thick.” “Run this instant and find out where he has stopped.” “Shall ye go to him?” she asked, with bated breath. “Not until he has asked to see me; I shall not invite myself. But without me he can do nothing.” There was a pause: Yagna winding up threads, counting them and making them into skeins, while her goodman, so impatient that he could not work any longer, laid the things down and was preparing to go out ... when in bolted Vitek! “The Squire is at the miller’s, in his front room—and his horses stand in the yard.” “How have you dirtied yourself so?” “The wind blew me into a snow-drift.” “Say rather you were fighting with other young rascals in the snow!” “No, it was the wind!” “Aye, aye: tear your clothes, do: you’ll get such a beating from me as you’ll remember!” “But it’s true what I say. It blows and blusters so, one can scarcely keep one’s feet.” “Get away from the fire-place; you will warm yourself enough later.—Go to Pete, tell him to do some threshing; and you are to help him—not run about the village like a dog with its tongue lolling out.” “I go,” he answered sulkily; “but I must first bring firewood, as mistress ordered me.” He sorely wished to tell what he had seen in the village. Going out, he whistled to Lapa, but the dog, curled up by the fireside, paid no heed to him. Boryna, dressed to go, went about the cabin, poked the logs, peeped into the stable, looked out of the window, and waited with growing restlessness to be sent for; but no one came. “He may have forgotten,” Yagna hazarded. “Forgotten?—Forgotten _me_?” “Perhaps. Ye trust the blacksmith so, and he is such a liar.” “You are a fool. Speak not of what ye do not understand.”