"For God's sake! What has happened?" Anton cried, and hastened to the prostrate form. But Thoma stood still, and fixed her gaze on her father, who was tearing open his vest, and loosening his collar.
Controlling herself with a violent effort, Thoma went up to her father, who was staring into his open hands.
"Father! What have you done?" cried she. He looked at her. There was a terrible change in his face. Is this the look of a man at the moment that he has killed another?
Thoma laid her hand on his shoulder. He shook it off and said: "Let me alone." He was afraid of her, and she of him.
At this moment it came to pass that father and daughter lost each other.
"He's dead! His skull is broken!" called the hostler, Fidelis, who, with Anton, had lifted Vetturi up.
With eyes cast on the ground, Thoma went to the house. Landolin left the yard, and went to the spring on the other side of the road.
The people in the house, who had come to give their congratulations, hastened out. With lamentation and mourning they carried Vetturi home to his mother.
Landolin's yard was suddenly still and forsaken; only a little pool of blood, near the heap of paving-stones, showed what had happened there. The sparrows and chickens had gathered round. The head-servant Tobias drove them off, and quickly swept everything away. He then threw the stone and the broom into the drain.