They returned to the village together, Matthew looking gloomy and downcast, and more than once heaving a sigh. “I see,” Antek said, weighing each word, “that you are grievously troubled in mind.” “For her?—Not I! She was sticking like a bone in my throat. No, ’tis something else that perplexes me.” Antek felt surprised, but did not like to ask questions. “To sorrow over each particular girl of mine the time would not suffice me. She came within my grasp; I took her: who would not have done so? But truly, mine was but the joy of a dog fallen down a well; she has wailed and lamented for ten women. I fled her; she came after me, just like my shadow. Let John now rejoice with her!—I no longer crave for love affairs, but something very different.” “True, it were time for you to take a wife.” “Nastka just now was saying so to me.” “Our village girls are plentiful as poppies, and you have an ample choice.” Matthew blurted out the thoughtless answer: “It was made long ago.” “Then ask me to be your proposer, and have the wedding after harvest-home.” Somehow the idea displeased him; he asked for more particulars about John, talked of Simon’s farm, and let out—inadvertently, it seemed—the information that, according to Andrew, Dominikova meant to bring an action against Antek for Yagna’s rights as old Boryna’s relict. “But no one denies that Father made a settlement,” Antek said. “I’ll not give the land up, but will pay her its value to the full. The quarrelsome hag does this for sheer love of a lawsuit!” “Did Yagna really give the title-deed back to Hanka?” “Yes, but what of that? she took care not to annul it at the notary’s.” This greatly relieved Matthew, who—now unable to conceal all he felt—dropped several words in Yagna’s praise. The whole manœuvre was soon plain to Antek, who only said with a mocking smile: “Have you heard what they are saying about her now?” “Oh, those old women are always her enemies!” “It seems she is running after Yanek, the organist’s son. And most shamelessly,” he added for greater effect. Matthew flared up, hot with anger. “Did ye see that?” “Nay, I am no spy on her: what is she to me? But those there are who daily see her go out to meet her Yanek ... in the forest ... or amongst the corn....” “A good beating for one or two of them would soon put an end to such tales!” “Try, try; ye may perchance frighten them,” Antek responded deliberately, though horribly tortured with jealousy at the thought of Matthew possibly becoming her husband: it bit him with all the venom of a mad dog’s fangs. To what the latter said, though his talk was not infrequently hostile and even offensive, he made no reply, lest he should reveal what he was suffering; but, when they parted, he could not help saying with a malicious smile: “Whoso marries that woman will have plenty of ... connexions....” And they parted, not on very friendly terms. When Matthew had gone a little way, his face grew brighter.