Pirka replied:
"He has gone to town with his father."
"And what is my husband doing in town?" asked pretty Michal once more.
"He is helping his father to catch dogs."
CHAPTER XI.
Wherein is shown what terrible perils befall women who are not resigned to their fate, and do not obey their lords and masters.
Pretty Michal did not immediately expire on receiving this answer. For a moment, indeed, she really believed her heart would have ceased to beat there and then. Everything around her seemed to be turning pitch-black, and the horror which froze her breast made itself felt even to the tips of her fingers. Then she held her breath and fancied that her last hour had come.
But she very soon found that death is not to be had for the mere asking.
And surely the old witch must have put something in her drink, some magic charm capable of producing a complete moral transformation; for how else account for the evil thoughts which now suddenly occurred to her as she sat there on the edge of the bed, thoughts which, so far from keeping to herself, she uttered quite loud? Was she speaking to the old hag at her side or to some invisible being? Heaven only knows, but there she sat gazing steadily before her, with her fingers on her lips and her elbows on her knees.