Although Radonic had come back, still Vranic, far from desisting from his suit, became always more pressing; for he seemed quite sure that she would never speak to her husband against him. Once more she went to Mara and asked her for advice.
"Why not mention the subject to your husband?" asked her friend.
"First, I dare not; then, it would be quite useless. He would not believe me; Vranic has him entirely under his power. In fact, I am quite sure if Radonic is unbearable, it is the seer who sets him on to bait me."
"But to what purpose?"
"Because he thinks that, sooner or later, I'll be driven to despair, and find myself at his mercy. Though I'm no seer myself, still I see through him."
Withal Uros' mother was a woman of great experience, still, she could not help her friend; she only comforted her in a motherly way, and her heart yearned for her.
As Milena, weary and dejected, was slowly trudging homewards, she saw, not far from her house, a small animal leisurely crossing a field. Was it a cat? She stood stock-still for a moment and stared. Surely, it was neither a hare, nor a rabbit, nor a dog. It was a big, dark-coloured cat! How her heart began to beat at that sight!
At that moment she forgot that it was almost dusk, that the days were still short, that the light was vanishing fast. She forgot that it would be very disagreeable meeting Vranic—always lurking thereabout—that her husband would soon be coming home. In fact, forgetting everything and everybody, she began running after the cat, which scampered off the moment it saw her. Still, the quicker the cat ran, the quicker Milena went after it.
Of course, she knew quite well, as you and I would have known, that the cat was no cat at all, for real pussies are quiet, home-loving pets, taking, at most, a stroll on the pantiles, but never go roaming about the fields as dogs are sometimes apt to do.
That cat, of course, was a witch—not a simple baornitza, but a real sorceress, able to do whatever she chose to put her hand to.