"Oh, let us go to the wheat,
For thou art a kind woman!"
And he tried to seize her by the waist. Frightened for herself and the child, she sprang to one side, the man after her; but, being drunk, he fell. He rose at once, it is true, though he did not pursue her; he only picked up a stone and threw it after the woman with such force that the air whistled.
She felt a pain in her head; it grew dark before her at once; and she knelt down. She remembered only one thing, "the child," and began to flee farther. She stopped under the cross, and, looking around, saw that the man was half a verst distant, staggering along toward the town.
At this moment she felt a certain strange warmth on her neck; she put her hand there, and, looking at her fingers, saw blood.
It grew dark in her eyes; she lost consciousness.
When she recovered, her shoulders were resting against the cross; in the distance a carriage from Dovborko was approaching, and in it young Pan Dovbor, with a governess from the mansion.
Pan Dovbor did not know Repa's wife; but she knew who he was, she had seen him at church; she thought then to hurry to the carriage and beg him, for God's mercy, to take even the child before the storm came; she rose to her feet, but could not advance.
Meanwhile the young man had driven up; and, seeing an unknown woman standing at the cross, he called,—
"Woman! woman! take a seat."