But Anna tossed her head and walked to the door.
"Don't run away, you stupid, I shan't eat you."
But Anna would not listen, and took refuge in her kitchen, from which she was not to be coaxed again that evening.
The next day she gave notice to leave, but her master pacified her by the gift of a golden ring, and a promise never to lay a finger on her again. He told her he could not let her go, for he would never get any one to cook as well as she did. Anna was pleased with the praise and with the ring, and stayed, on condition that he kept his promise. He did keep it for a time, and then forgot it, and Anna was again on the point of leaving. But Gregorics pacified her this time with a necklace of corals with a golden clasp, like the Baronesses Radvánszky wore at church. The necklace suited her so well, that she no longer thought of forbidding her master to touch her. He was rich enough, let him buy her a few pretty things.
In fact, the same afternoon she paid a visit to the old woman who kept a grocer's shop next door, and asked whether it would hurt very much to have her ears pierced. The old woman laughed.
"Oh, you silly creature," she said, "you surely don't want to wear earrings? Anna, Anna, you have bad thoughts in your head."
Anna protested and then banged the door behind her, so that the bell fastened to it went on ringing for some moments.
Of course she wanted some earrings, why should she not have some? God had given her ears the same as to all those grand ladies she saw at church. And before the day was over she had found out that it would hardly hurt her at all to have her ears pierced.
Yes, she wanted to have some earrings, and now she did all she could to bring Gregorics into temptation. She dressed herself neatly, wore a red ribbon in her hair, in fact, made herself thoroughly irresistible. Gregorics may have been wily enough to be a spy for a whole Russian and Austrian army, but a woman, however simple, was far deeper than he.
Next Sunday she went to church with earrings in her ears, much to the amusement of the lads and lasses of the town, who had long ago dubbed her "the Grenadier." And in a few weeks' time the whole town was full of gossip about Gregorics and his cook, and all sorts of tales were told, some of them supremely ridiculous. His step-brothers would not believe it.