The young men, who were sowing the last seeds, finished their day's
work in silence, a silence that was as heavy as the grey, lowering sky
overhead, and as sad as the damp, sullen-looking fields in November.
They had nothing pleasant to say to each other. Martin's thoughts were
far away, he was longing to leave Starydwor, leave it far behind him;
and Mikolai was also deep in thought.

The happiness that Mikolai had felt during the summer was a thing of
the past. Although a farm of one's own is not to be despised, he would
much rather be servant somewhere else than master at Starydwor. How
awful his father was! Why, he was out of his mind! If only he could
catch that fellow Boehnke by the throat, he thought to himself,
clenching his fists in fury. Why did he come creeping to the farm day
after day, locking himself in with his father? They never let anybody
in, but they would drink and drink, until they had not as much sense
left as the cattle. Mikolai swore to himself as he thought of it. And
then his stepmother even expected [Pg 260] him to put the horses in and
drive that drunken rascal home when he felt too tired to have a chat
with Marianna. Let him sleep himself sober in the first ditch he came
across; it was quite good enough for him. But instead of that he had to
be hoisted up into the cart and driven at a walking pace along the
pitch-dark road, so that he, Mikolai, was frozen and wet to the skin
and felt thoroughly annoyed. What could she see in the schoolmaster to
make her so patient and calm that she put up with his visits, which
were certainly not doing his father any good?

The young fellow felt very surprised, and now and then something like
suspicion awakened within him. How could his stepmother always be
smiling? Was it not rather a thing to cry about? But who could know if
her smiles came from the heart? She was, no doubt, to be pitied too. It
was wrong of Marianna to speak so unkindly of her mistress. She ought
not to shrug her shoulders and make faces, but it was just like a
servant. That was another cause of annoyance to the young man. If there
had been anything between the schoolmaster and his stepmother, he
would, of course, have noticed it of his own accord, he was no longer a
foolish boy. Rosa gave him much more to think of than that. He felt
very uneasy about her, she was so strange. He could not dissuade her
from that confounded wish of hers to go into a convent. She persisted
in it more than