'What sort of business?' asked Slimak.
'Build a cottage on your land for my brother-in-law.'
'What for?'
'He wants to set up a shop and deal with the railway people, else the
Germans will take away all the business from under our noses.'
Slimak reflected.
'No, I don't want a Jew on my land,' he said. 'I shouldn't be the first to be eaten up by you longcurls.'
'You don't want to live with a Jew, but you are not afraid to pray with the Germans,' said the Jew, pale with anger.
Slimak was made to feel the profound unpopularity he had incurred in the village. At church on Sundays hardly anyone answered him 'In Eternity', and when he passed a group he would hear loud talk of heresy, and God's judgment which would follow.
He therefore ordered a Mass one Sunday, on the advice of his wife, and went to confession with her and Jendrek; but this did not improve matters, for the villagers discussed over their beer in the evening what deadly sin he might have been guilty of to go to confession and pray so fervently.
Even old Sobieska rarely appeared and came furtively to ask for her vodka. Once, when her tongue was loosened, she said: 'They say you have turned into a Lutheran…It's true,' she added, 'there is only one merciful God, still, the Germans are a filthy thing!'