'I'm speaking the truth; Stasiek has been ill ever since he took a cold; he couldn't run without getting out of breath; once I saw it fall upon him while I was ploughing. I had to go and bring him round.'
'Why did you never say anything about it?'
'I did tell the gospodyni, but she told me to mind my own business and not to talk like a barber.'
'Well, you see,' said the schoolmaster, the boy was suffering from a weak heart and that killed him; he would have died young in any case.'
Slimak listened eagerly, and his consciousness seemed to return.
'Could it be that?' he murmured. 'Did the boy die a natural death?'
He tapped at the window and the woman came out, rubbing her swollen eyes.
'Why didn't you tell me that Stasiek had been ill since the winter, and couldn't run without feeling queer?'
'Of course he wasn't well,' she said; 'but what good could you have done?'
'I couldn't have done anything, for if he was to die, he was to die.'