stroking his moustache in his usual challenging way, added, "Allow me
to see you home," she stared at him for a moment. And when he smiled at
her with all the impertinence which the wine and the advanced hour, the
spectators' goading looks, and the conviction of his own
irresistibility had given him, she administered such a violent,
resounding box on his ears that he and all the others started back.

She rushed out of the cloak-room and across the passage to the front
door, and, standing on the pavement which the downtrodden straw had
made still dirtier, she shouted for her carriage. She was weeping.

The wind had veered round in the early morning, [Pg 104] and was
blowing from the west, as she stood in the deserted market-place. Large
flakes of watery snow were being driven along before the wind, and
clung to her cheeks and mingled with the hot drops from her eyes. Oh,
how she would have liked to lie down there in the dirt and die! That
beautiful ball! Alas, there would never be any more pleasure for her
where her husband was. How he had made a laughing-stock of her before
them all. And he had lied into the bargain.

The carriage had not come yet; she stood trembling with cold and grief.
She clenched her hands; she would do it quite, quite alone now, if she
couldn't find anybody to help her.

All at once she had a feeling that somebody was standing behind her;
that somebody was breathing on her cheek. It was the schoolmaster.

He had quietly followed her. He was no less excited than she. She had
been insulted by Mr. Tiralla, but Mr. Tiralla had also insulted him; he
had insulted them both.

The schoolmaster looked upon the harmless man as a criminal. "He
doesn't deserve the sun to shine on him," he whispered, in a voice that
was hoarse with excitement. Then he snatched hold of the hand which she
held out to him, and pressed it to his lips, to his eyes, and stammered
wildly, "Pani, let me die on the spot--God punish me if ever I forget
Mr. Tiralla's behaviour. I--I----" he suppressed something he was going
to say. Then he once more pressed her willing hand to his burning lips
and stood near her in silence, until they heard Mr. Tiralla's voice at
the hotel door at the same moment as the carriage rattled out of the
yard and round the corner.

She got in without help; the schoolmaster had disappeared, swallowed up
by the darkness. Mr. [Pg 105] Tiralla was hoisted up on the front
seat with great difficulty by the boo