'Perhaps you can decide on something, for you are a clever woman.'
'What can I advise? Should I have borrowed money from Just if I could have helped it? I did it for a good reason, but now the cottage in which we are settled, and the land also are already his. Just is better than other Germans, but he too has an eye to his own profit, not other people's. He won't be lenient to us any more than he has been lenient to others. I am not so stupid as not to know why he sticks his money in here! But what is one to do, what is one to do?' she cried, wringing her hands. 'Give some advice yourself, if you are clever. You can beat the French, but what will you do without a roof over your head, or a crust to eat?'
The victor of Gravelotte bent his head. 'Oh Jesu! Jesu!'
Magda had a kind heart; Bartek's grief touched her, so she said quickly:—
'Never mind, dear boy, never mind. Don't worry as long as you are not yet well. The rye is so fine, it's bending to the ground; the wheat the same. The ground doesn't belong to the Germans; it's as good as ever it was. The fields were in a bad state before your quarrel, but now they are growing so well, you'll see!'
Magda began to smile through her tears.
'The ground doesn't belong to the Germans,' she repeated once more.
'Magda!' Bartek said, looking at her with wide-open eyes, 'Magda!'
'What?'
'But,—because you are ... if....'