hey said to one another, "She has no heart; she is cold as an icicle;
her lips are thin and cruel. She would serve Ivan badly if we were not
here to check her."

And Breda certainly had her idiosyncrasies. She preferred raw to cooked
meat, and would not sleep in the same room as her husband. She grew very
angry when Ivan expostulated, saying, "You promised you would never
thwart me. If you do not keep your word, I shall despise you, scorn you,
hate you." And Ivan, who loved his wife beyond anything, yielded.

Some weeks after their marriage, neighbours complained of losing cattle
and horses. They said there was a wolf about, and that its tracks, which
they had followed, always ended under the walls of Ivan's house. They
asked Ivan if he had not heard the brute. But he had heard nothing, he
slept very soundly. Then they inquired of Ivan's sisters and mother, who
also replied in the negative; but there was hesitation in their voices,
and they looked very frightened and ashamed. And then people began to
talk. They looked at Breda curiously, and finally they cut her. One
night, when there was a downfall of snow, and the wind howled down the
chimneys of Ivan's house and blew the snow, with heavy thumps against
the window-panes, Ivan, who could not sleep for the storm, heard the
door of Breda's room open very softly, and light steps steal stealthily
down the passage. Then there came a half-suppressed, half-smothered cry,
a groan, and all was still. Ivan got out of bed and opened his door, but
his wife's voice called to him from the darkness and bade him go back.

"Do not be alarmed and make a fuss," she said; "I was ill a moment ago,
but am quite well again now. Go back to bed at once, or I shall be very
angry." And Ivan obeyed her.

In the morning his eldest sister, Beata, was found dead in bed, her
throat, breast, and stomach slit open, as is the custom with wolves, and
her flesh all mangled and eaten.

Breda took no food that day, and Ivan's mother and other sister,
Malvina, looked at her out of the corner of their eyes and shuddered.
But Ivan said nothing. A week later the same fate befell Malvina. Then
Ivan's mother spoke. She told him that he must assuredly be under some
evil spell, or he would never remain idle whilst his sisters' destroyer
was at large, and she adjured him, by all that he held holy, not to
allow himself a moment's rest till he had had ample vengeance for the
loss of two such valuable lives.

Rou