“But what evil have I done?” Yagna stammered, beside herself with shame and mortification. “Off with you this instant, or I’ll have the dogs loosed!—I do not mean to weep because of you, as Hanka and the Voytova have wept! You minx, you baggage! I’ll teach you—I’ll teach you to come love-making here—and ye shall remember the lesson!” she screamed at the top of her voice. Yagna, bursting into tears, fled out of the room ... and Yanek stood thunderstruck. CHAPTER XII On a sudden he made a start to rush after her. “Whither?” his mother asked grimly, blocking the way. “Why—why have ye turned her out? Because she was so kind to me? It is unjust—unjust—and I will not have it.—What wrong thing has she done, say?” he cried, struggling violently in his mother’s powerful grasp. “Sit down quietly, or I’ll call Father.... What has she done, hey?—I’ll tell you at once. You are to be a priest: I will not see you taking a mistress under my very roof, nor load yourself with such shame and disgrace that folk will point their fingers at you as you go by! That’s why I expelled her. And now you know!” “Lord Almighty!—What is this you say?” he cried indignantly. “What I know well.—I was aware that you had meetings with her; but, as God is my witness, I never suspected you of any wickedness! For I thought that if my son wore a priest’s habit, he would not drag it in the mud—not make me curse him for ever—not force me to tear him out of my heart, and break my heart in the tearing!” As she spoke, her eyes flamed with such holy indignation that Yanek was petrified with amazement. “Kozlova,” she went on to say, “was the first to open mine eyes; and now I myself have seen how this drab was trying to inveigle you!” He burst into a flood of tears, and brokenly—between fits of sobbing and complaints of her monstrous suspicions—told her so frankly all about their meetings that her trust in him was completely restored. She pressed him to her heart, and wiped his tears, and soothed him. “Now do not marvel if I feared for you. Why, she is the worst trull in the whole village!” “Yagna ... the worst...!” He could not believe his ears. “It shames me to speak of such things; but for your good I must.” She thereupon poured forth all the scandalous tales in circulation against Yagna, sparing him none of them. Yanek shook with horror, and started up at last, crying: “This cannot be; I will never believe her so vile.” “Take heed; ’tis your mother who speaks; these are no lying inventions of hers.” “But they must be lies! Were they true, it would be too horrible.” And he wrung his hands in despair. “What makes you defend her so stoutly? Answer me that!” “I must defend anyone—anyone that’s innocent.” “You’re an arrant fool!” She was losing her temper; his disbelief pained her deeply.