As they passed Boryna’s, Yuzka rushed in with a shrill cry: “O Hanka, do buy some red tape!... And we want log-wood to colour the Easter eggs!... And we need thread also!” Her voice had sunk to tones of whining entreaty. “But you shall go to town to-morrow, and buy whatsoever is needed.” “Yes, yes, in town it will be cheaper, for they cheat less!” she exclaimed, delighted at the thought of the morrow’s drive; and ran at once, without prompting, to inform the pedlars that they needed none of their wares, and had nothing for sale. Hanka, peeping outside the door, shouted after her: “Keep the fowls together, lest one should stray into that wagon of theirs!” Tereska, the soldier’s wife, now came running into the premises, away (it seemed) from the Jewess, who was shouting something to her. She rushed into the cabin, stammering, exceedingly red, and very indignant. A tear or two glistened in her long lashes. “O Tereska! what is the matter?” Hanka inquired with curiosity. “Why, that swindling woman will give me no more than fifteen _zloty_ for this woollen skirt. Quite new! And I am in such terrible want of money just now!” “Let me see it.... Is—is it dear?” She would have liked to buy the skirt herself. “Worth at least thirty _zloty_! Quite new; seven cubits and half a span of stuff! I put more than four pounds of pure wool into it, and paid, moreover, for the dyeing.” She spread it out on the table, where its vivid rainbow tints blazed in the light. “’Tis more beautiful than any skirt I ever saw! Oh, what a pity I cannot buy it now!... I too am short of money for Easter. If ye could but wait till Low Sunday?” “But, alas! I want the money instantly!” She rolled the skirt up swiftly, averting her head with a sense of shame. “The Voyt’s wife may purchase it: she generally has money in her purse.” Hanka took it once more, measured its length, and unwillingly returned it. “You want to send something to your goodman in the army, no doubt?” “Yes!... he wrote ... complaining ... in great want.—Farewell!” She left the hut in a great hurry. Yagustynka, who was busy mashing potatoes in a tub, burst into a roar of laughter. “You made her run so fast, ’tis a wonder she did not lose her petticoat as she fled!—It is for Matthew she wants the money, not for her husband!” “What, are they intimate, then?” Hanka asked, much surprised. “Where do you live? In the forest?” “But how was I to know about such a thing?” “Well, ’tis a fact; Tereska runs over to Matthew every week, and wanders about outside the jail all day like a dog, and sends him all she can get.” “My God! what, has she not a goodman of her own?” “True, but he is far away in the army, and none knows when he will return ... and the woman felt lonely all by herself ... and there was Matthew at hand—a strapping young buck. Wherefore, then, should she deny herself?” Hanka thought of Antek and Yagna, and fell into a brown study.