“Perchance ye do: ye are beyond man’s understanding. Worn-out old besoms ye are, who would hate the very light of the sun! Had she but been like that Magda, the tavern wench, and done the worst of things, you would have forgiven her; but simply because she is the fairest of all, you’d all like to drown her—aye, and in a spoonful of water too!” This caused such a storm that he was glad to make his escape, crying as he went: “Ye foul jades, may your tongues rot in your heads!” Passing by Dominikova’s house, he looked in at the open window. The room was lit, but Yagna could not be seen, and he was unwilling to go in; so he regretfully passed on to his own hut, on his way to which he was met by Veronka. “Ah, I was at your home just now.—Staho has dug the new foundations and made the trunks ready, so that you might cut them into shape now: when are ye coming?” “On Tib’s eve perhaps. I am disgusted with this village, and may any day throw everything up—and go over the hills and far away!” he cried angrily, as he went past. “Something,” she wondered, as she went her way to Boryna’s, “must have stung the man pretty sharply: what can it be?” Supper was done, and Hanka told her all at leisure. Yagna’s expulsion interested her deeply; but on hearing of Gregory, she only observed: “His death will make one the fewer to share the property.” “It will.—I never thought of that.” “And with what the Squire has to give for the forest, you will get hard upon seventeen acres apiece!... To think of it! Even other folk’s death is a gain to those already rich!” she sighed ruefully. “What care I for wealth?” said Hanka. But when she went to bed, and thought the matter over, she felt a secret joy in her heart. And afterwards, kneeling down for her evening prayer, she said resignedly: “Since he has died, it is the will of our Lord.” And she prayed fervently for his eternal rest. The next day, about noon, Ambrose came to her cabin. “Where have ye been?” she inquired. “At the Koziols’. A child there has been scalded to death. She called me in, but there is naught needed for it save a coffin and a few clods.” “Which of them is it?” “The younger of the two that she brought from Warsaw this spring. It fell into a tub of boiling water, and was all but boiled.” “Those foundlings, as it seems, do not get on with her.” “They do not.—But she is no loser: the funeral expenses are paid.—I came to you on another business, however.” She looked at him uneasily. “Dominikova, you must know, has gone to the law court with Yagna—to complain of your having turned her out, I suppose.” “Let her. I do not care.” “They went to confession this morning, and had later a long conference with the priest. I could not catch half they said against you, but what they said made him shake his fist with anger!”