“Clever men promise, fools believe them!—He has not where to lay his head, yet talks of giving cabins to others!” he cried roughly, staring at him under his bent brows; but Mr. Yacek sat down again, went on smoking and playing with his beard, his eyes fixed on the sky-line. “In a little, he will promise you a whole farm!” Matthew said, with a laugh and a shrug, as he left them. He at once turned to the left along the path that led to the outhouses. Few were at work in the gardens that day: there was but the red glint of a stray petticoat, or the sight of a man here and there mending a roof, or pottering about the granary gates, open to the fields. Matthew was in no hurry; he loitered about willingly, chatting with the neighbours on the topic of the Voyt’s battle, grinning and talking merrily with lasses, or making such strong-flavoured jokes with the elder women in the gardens that they could not help laughing; many a one sighed and cast fond looks after him, as he passed out of sight. And a handsome fellow indeed he was: built like an oak, and the king, as it were, of all the young men in Lipka; first in strength (after Antek Boryna); and as a dancer, not inferior to Staho Ploshka. And withal, a man of much ability in every field of work; able to construct a cart, to set up a chimney, to repair a cabin; and he played the flute beautifully too. So, though he had next to no land at all, and was so open-handed with everybody that he never put anything by, many a mother would have gladly drunk with him the price of a calf, could she but have disposed him favourably thereby towards marriage with her daughter; more than one girl, too, had allowed him much intimacy, hoping to get the banns sooner published. All would not do. He drank with the mothers, made love to the daughters, but on the question of marriage was slippery as an eel. “’Tis hard to choose.—Each one has her good points; and others are growing up, worth more than any.—I’ll wait,” he would say, when match-makers beset him. Then, the preceding winter, he had that entanglement with Teresa, and lived almost openly with her, disregarding both gossip and cautions. “When Yasyek comes, I’ll give her back to him, and he’ll stand me treat into the bargain for having taken good care of her,” he once said laughingly, shortly after his return. He was tired of her, and slowly drifting apart. And now, as he went in to dinner, he chose a longer way round, merely to joke with the girls, and have some horse-play with those who would let him. And thus, quite unexpectedly, he came face to face with Yagna, weeding her mother’s garden. “Ah! Yagna!” he cried out, joyfully. She suddenly shot up to her full height, tall and graceful as a hollyhock. “So you’ve noticed me? Oh, how very soon! Not more than a week since your home-coming!” “Why, you look lovelier than ever before!” he said in low tones of wonder.