eople who were more stupid than she was believe it, for she, Marianna
['S]roka, was much too clever, nobody could humbug her. The mistress
must have some reason for saying it, for there were no rats."

She pretended, however, to agree with her mistress, and when they saw
daylight again she shuddered and said: "Pani is quite pale with fright.
_Psia krew_, those horrible animals! They'll soon be eating the hair
off our heads."

Mrs. Tiralla nodded. Then she said, "You can come to my room
afterwards, and I'll give you the apron I've promised you."

"And the lace," said the maid, "the lace which the Pani showed me the
other day, I'll put it on my apron."

"My lace on your apron!" Mrs. Tiralla's pale face grew red with anger.
"Are you mad?"

"Oh, only a little bit of it--there's only a little bit left. What can
Pani do with such a little bit? It's not worth keeping." And then the
girl gave a loud, bold laugh, and added, "Then I'll say that Pani has
given me it, as the rats would otherwise have devoured it. There are so
many rats, the rats devour everything here."

A thought flashed through Mrs. Tiralla's mind, "How impertinent she
was! What did she suspect? What did she know?"

The two women stared at each other for a few seconds as though they
wished to read each other's thoughts. But then they both smiled.

"The Pani can rely upon me," the servant's smile seemed to say. "I'll
pretend to be stupid: I'll hear nothing, see nothing, know nothing,
just as it suits the Pani."

[Pg 6]

And the mistress's smile said: "That girl is so stupid, there's no need
to fear her. She doesn't notice anything, she believes what is said to
her. And even if she should notice something, she can be bought at a
pinch with an apron, a bit of ribbon, a morsel of lace, or half a
gulden."

"Now we've broken the dish, and there's no _Sauerkraut_ for dinner,
Marianna," said Mrs. Tiralla.

"Never mind, Pani," and the black-haired girl laughed until her narrow,
sparkling eyes quite disappeared behind her prominent cheek-bones.
"I'll go down in the cellar by myself with another dish and fetch up
some 'kapusta'; Pani needn't fear the rats. And if he," with a short
nod in the direction of the nearest door, "should say, 'Why are the
dish and the lamp broken?' I'll answer, 'Oh, an accursed rat jumped
over our hands and bit the Pani's hand and my nose. There are so many
rats in the cellar that you can't go down any more with safety."

"That's r