But it was round the large tavern that they thronged closest. This stood opposite the District Office, surrounded by a clump of trees, as in a shady grove; and many a one went that way to refresh himself with a glass of beer, after standing so long in the hot glare. The tavern being chock-full, quite a number of groups were lounging about under the trees, discussing the news and attentively watching both the Office and the other side of the house, where the scrivener lived, and where the noise and bustle was greatest. From time to time, the scrivener’s wife thrust her fat face out of a back window, screaming: “Make haste, Magda! O you sluggard! may you break both your legs!” The girl was heard every now and then rushing about the rooms, the panes quivering to her tread; a child would squall with shrill vehemence; somewhere behind, the fowls were cackling in great trepidation, and a panting constable was hunting chickens in the corn and down the road. “Belike they are going to feast the head official,” someone remarked. “They say the scrivener brought in half a cartload of liquor yesterday.” “Then they’ll get as drunk as they did last year.” “Oh, they can afford it. Do not the people pay, and is there anyone to watch what their hands grab?” said Matthew: to whom another cried at once: “Be silent! the gendarmes have come.” “They prowl about like wolves: where they go, and by which ways, who can tell?” So they stood mute with fear, when the gendarmes drew up in a line before the Office, with a number of people round them: amongst whom were conspicuous the miller, the Voyt, and—at a little distance—the blacksmith, alert and attentive. “That miller!—He fawns upon them, like a famished dog!” “Wherever the gendarmes are seen, look out for the District Official!” Gregory exclaimed, passing over to where Antek, Matthew, Klemba, and Staho were talking together. Then they parted to mix with the people, holding forth and expressing their opinions with much force. They were listened to in silence; sometimes one or another of their hearers would groan and scratch his head with an embarrassed air, or cast a glance at the gendarmes, now drawing closer to one another. Antek, with his back against the corner of the tavern, spoke curtly, but with conviction, and an air of authority. In another group, Matthew was talking humorously and making many a man laugh at his jests, while in a third crowd, nearer the cemetery, Gregory lectured with much ability, and as if he were reading out of an open book! But their speeches all tended in one direction: to oppose the head official, to vote against the school, and not to heed those who were always on the side of the officials. No one else uttered a word, but all nodded assent: even the greatest fools among them knew well that such a school meant nothing but the payment of new taxes for nothing: which no one cared for.