“To you the very sound of glasses when they clink is a temptation,” Dominikova grumbled, as she set to work at the sick man’s bandages. “Poor creature!” she cried in pity; “lying there insensible, with all God’s world lost to him!” “And not to taste sausage or vodka again for ever!” Yagustynka chimed in, turning the pity into a gibe. Dominikova rebuked her tartly: “You laugh at everything, you!” “Shall weeping lessen my pain? My laughter is all my fortune.” Ambrose remarked: “Let those only that have sown evil garner in sorrow, and atone for it by penance!” This was a shrewd hit at Dominikova, who retorted, glaring on him sternly: “They say truly that Ambrose, though he serves in church, curries favour with sin in order to enjoy the good things of this life!” And she added, lowering her tone threateningly: “But he alone will turn away from the good and befriend the wicked, who considereth not the punishment which he shall receive hereafter!” Silence fell upon all. Ambrose worked on, though surly. He had a sharp retort ready, but kept it back, knowing well that anything he said would be reported to his Reverence the next day, and after Mass at latest: it was to some purpose that the old dame was such a church-goer. Everyone, besides, shrank from the fixed gaze of those owlish eyes of hers; even Yagustynka, the defiant, was overawed and quailed before her. Yes, and so did all the village. More than one had experienced the power of those evil eyes; more than one, on whom she had laid a spell, now groaned with twisted limbs, or in the clutch of some dire disease! They worked on then, with bowed heads: only her face, rugged, withered, and white as bleached wax, was seen towering amongst them in the room. She too remained silent, along with Yagna; but they were both so active and diligent that Hanka had not the heart to refuse the aid they were giving. But after Ambrose had left, called away to church by the priest’s servant, they remained alone, diligently packing flitches and pork into the tubs and barrels. “The meat will be cooler in the larder that’s on this side, for the fire here is much smaller,” the old dame decided, rolling the vessels in there at once, with the help of Yagna. All this was done so quickly that they were put in the larder before Hanka had time even to protest. She was extremely mortified, and, immediately calling Pete and Yuzka to her aid, carried over to her own side all that remained. At dusk and by lamplight they set to making sausages, blood-puddings, and brawn. Hanka, whose annoyance had not passed away, sat mincing the materials with a sort of dark rage. “Leave the things here, for her to eat or steal? Not I!—... But oh, the cunning hag!” she hissed through her clenched teeth.