'Jagna,' Slimak said with concern, 'Jendrek is going to his trial.'
'What of that?' she answered with a delirious look.
'Are you very ill?'
'No, I'm only weak.'
She went into the alcove and Slimak remained alone. The longer he sat pondering the lower his head dropped on to his chest. Half dozing, he fancied he was sitting on a wide, grey plain, no bushes, no grass, not even stones were to be seen; there was nothing in front of him; but at his side there was something he dared not look at. It was Maciek with the child looking steadily at him.
No, he would not look, he need not look! He need see nothing of him, except a little bit of his sukmana…perhaps not even that!
The thought of Maciek was becoming an obsession. He got up and began to busy himself with the dishes.
'What am I coming to? It doesn't do to give way!'
He pulled himself together, fed the cattle, ran to the river for water. It was so long since he had done these things that he felt rejuvenated, and but for the thought of Maciek he would have been almost cheerful.
His gloom returned with the dusk. It was the silence that tormented him most. Nothing stirred but the mice behind the boards. The voice was haunting him again: 'I was a stranger and ye took me not in.'