“Ha! did I ever speak him fair? am I now doing aught to keep him?” she cried out angrily. Matthew stood perplexed and hesitating. A tempest of weeping shook her, and the tears poured down her glowing cheeks. “Oh, the cruel wrong he did me!—To take my senses away!... And yet no one came forward on my behalf to accuse him!... No one has any mercy; ye all cry: Down, down with her!” she lamented bitterly. “The villain! I will pay him out for it!” Matthew exclaimed, clenching his fist. “Aye, pay him, Matthew! pay him! And ye shall have...!” Her eager appeal died away on her lips. Without another word he hastened to the church.—She sat for a long time by the pond, wondering whether he would indeed take her part, and suffer no more wrong to be done to her. “Antek, perchance!” the thought flashed through her brain. She returned home, her mind agitated by secret but not unpleasant anticipations. The bells were pealing as the people came out of church, and the air rang with their laughter; but those who passed by Dominikova’s cabin went silently, with gloomy looks and meaning glances at one another. None of the merry sounds that echoed through all the rest of the village during the noonday meal was heard in her hut. Nor was anyone eager to visit her, as she lay there moaning and feverish. Yagna, to whom a long stay by her side was unbearable, went out at times to the porch, now and then walking as far as the gate; or she would sit by the window, looking out with weary desire for change. Simon sat motionless outside. Andrew alone remembered that the dinner had to be cooked, and set about cooking it. Some time after dinner, Hanka came to look in. She was in an odd state of excitement, asking questions without number, deeply interested in the sufferer, but at times casting a stealthy troubled glance in the direction of Yagna, and sighing deeply. After a time, Matthew dropped in to see Simon. “Will you go forth with us to the Germans?” “This place will I not quit: ’tis my father’s land and mine; from it I will not budge,” he answered, full of on thought only. “A great ass you are!—Sit ye here till to-morrow, if you will.” Matthew was annoyed at this foolery; and as Yagna was then seeing Hanka to the gate on her departure, he went out with her, without bestowing so much as a look on the other. They went along by the mill-pond road. “Has Roch left the church yet?” he asked. “Aye, and a good many peasants are waiting for him.” He glanced back, and saw Yagna gazing after them. Quickly turning his head round, and with eyes cast down, he inquired of Hanka: “Is it true that the priest has denounced anyone from the pulpit?” “Why ask?—Ye have heard.” “I came too late for the sermon.—They told me something, but I thought they were lying.”