ice the outrageous act until the mischief was
done. Shrieks, running hither and thither, and confusion followed.
The fiddlers stopped and stretched their necks, but prudently kept
aloof, as they had learned to do during frequent brawls; the girls
screamed and wrung their hands, the youths shouted hasty questions,
crowding around their bleeding companion. Water was quickly procured,
cold bandages were applied to the swollen, shapeless face, and other
efforts were made to relieve him, while at the same time he was
besieged with questions about the event.

After dealing the fatal blow Panna had stood for a moment deadly pale,
as if paralyzed, and then darted off as though pursued by fiends.
Perhaps this was fortunate, for she would have fared badly if the
enraged lads had had her in their power, when all, amid the confused
medley of outcries, had learned the truth. There was no time to pursue
her, for Pista seemed to be constantly growing worse; the cold water
and fomentations did not stop the bleeding; he soon lost consciousness
and lay on the ground amid the terrified, helpless group, an inert
mass, until some one made the sensible proposal to carry him home to
his mother, a poor widow, which, with their united strength, was
instantly done.

Meanwhile, Panna had rushed to her own home, locked herself in, and sat
on the bench by the stove, an image of grief and despair. She was
incapable of coherent thought, nothing but the spectacle of the
bleeding Pista staggering against the wall, stood distinctly before her
mind. But she could not give herself up to her desolate brooding long:
at the end of fifteen minutes the bolted door shook violently. She
started up and listened; it was her father, and she reluctantly went to
the door and opened it. The old man entered, shot the bolt behind him,
and asked in a trembling voice:

"For God's sake, child, what have you done?'"

Panna burst into a flood of tears; they were the first she had shed
since the incident described.

"He pressed upon me too boldly. And I didn't mean to do it. I only
wanted to keep him off."

"You were possessed. The devil is in us. To kill a man by a blow!"

The girl shrieked aloud. "Kill, do you say?"

"Sol was just told. They say he is dead."

"That is impossible, it's a lie," Panna murmured in a hollow tone,
while her face looked corpse-like. She seemed to cower into herself
and to grow smaller, as if the earth was swallowing her by