'Why have they been frozen?'
'Slimak drove them out of the house.'
'Slimak drove them out of the house?' she repeated, fingering the bodies, 'yes, that's my little girl, she's grown a bit; whoever heard of a child being frozen to death?… she was meant to come to a bad end. As God loves me, yes, that's my girl, my little girl—they've murdered her; look at her!' she suddenly became animated.
'Drive on,' said the Soltys, 'we must be getting on.'
The horses started, Zoska tried to get into the sledge.
'What are you doing?' cried her attendants, pulling her back.
'That's my little girl!' cried Zoska, holding on.
'What if she is yours?' said the Soltys, 'there's one road for you and another for her.'
'She's my little girl, mine!' With both hands the woman held on to the sledge, but the peasant whipped up the horses and she fell to the ground; she grasped the runners and was dragged along for several yards.
'Don't behave like a lunatic,' cried the men, detaching her with difficulty from the fast-moving sledge; she would have run after it, but one of them knelt on her feet and the other held her by the shoulders.