ust so delicate a commission; she thought of Damie, but
remembered that he was not allowed to enter the village. Finally, wet
and chilled, as a result of wandering about through the fields barefoot,
she returned home and went to bed.]

CHAPTER XV

BANISHED AND RELEASED

The following morning, when Barefoot awoke, she found the necklace that
she had once received from Dame Landfried lying on her bed, and she had
to think for some time before she remembered that she herself had taken
it out the night before, and had looked at it a long, long time.

[Illustration: WHILE SHE WAS MILKING JOHN ASKED HER ALL KINDS OF
QUESTIONS]

When she started to get up, all her limbs felt numb; and clasping her
hands with difficulty, she moaned:

"For Heaven's sake let me not be ill now! I have no time for it--I
mustn't be ill now"--as if in anger at her bodily weakness.

Determined to overcome it by force, she got up; but how she started back
when she looked at herself in the glass! Her whole face was swollen!
"That's your punishment," she said, half-aloud, "for running about so
last night, and wanting to call upon strangers, even bad people, to help
you!" She beat her disfigured face as if to chastise herself, and then
tied a cloth around it tightly and went about her work.

When the mistress saw her, she wanted to put her to bed again at once.
Rose, on the other hand, scolded, and declared that it was a bit of
spite on Barefoot's part, this being ill just now--she had done it out
of meanness, knowing that she would be wanted. Barefoot made no reply.

When she was out in the cow-shed, putting clover into the mangers, she
heard a clear voice say:

"Good morning! At work so early?"

It was _his_ voice.

"Not very hard," replied Barefoot; and she ground her teeth with
vexation, more on account of the tormenting demon who had disfigured her
face, so that it was impossible that he should recognize her, than
anything else.

Should she make herself known now?--it was better to wait and see.

While she was milking, John asked her all sorts of questions; first he
inquired about the quantity of milk the cows yielded, and whether any of
it was sold, and how; then he wanted to know who made the butter, and if
anybody in the house kept an account of it.

Barefoot trembled. It was now in her power to put her rival out of the
way by declaring what kind of a person she was! But how strangely
involved and tangled are the strings