s.
Her hands were clenched as though she were in a fit. Oh, God, have
mercy t Was she going to die? How her limbs ached.

The maid lay there in a state of collapse, until she gradually
recovered so far as to be able to rise, moaning and groaning, and
stagger out of the kitchen into the yard. There she was very sick.

Jendrek came up to her and laughed as he saw her standing there. Ha-ha,
had she been to a dance, unknown to everybody? But the harvest-homes
were over, and Twelfth Day had not yet come round. "What had she been
eating or drinking to make herself so ill?" he inquired in a scoffing
tone.

She did not answer. All she could do was to raise her head a very
little and give him a strange look.

He grew terrified when he saw how enormous the [Pg 50] pupils of her
eyes had become. Ugh! she did look awful. Instead of telling her how
pleased he was to think that she for once in a way could sympathize
with his feelings on a Monday morning, he grasped her by the arm and
asked, "Is anything the matter? Tell me."

She groaned and gave a feeble nod. When he had asked her what she had
been eating, the thought had pierced her stupefied brain that she must
have been bewitched, that she must have eaten or dr----

"Poison, poison!" she suddenly shrieked, and throwing herself on the
ground she rolled about and screamed, so that the man shrunk back in
fright.

Mrs. Tiralla must also have heard the girl's shrieks, for she came out
of the house at once. She ran up to the maid, but as the latter
continued to scream "Poison, poison!" in a loud voice, and roll about
as if she were mad, with her hands pressed against her body, the woman
grew so deadly pale that Jendrek thought she would also fall down.

"Silence, silence!" she cried hastily, holding her hand before
Marianna's mouth. But as the latter pushed her hand away and went on
screaming, she looked round like a terrified animal at bay.

Jendrek felt quite anxious when he saw his mistress's eyes. "Shall I go
to Gradewitz and fetch the doctor?" he asked timidly.

"No," cried the woman angrily. And then, rousing herself, she seized
hold of his smock and cried, "Are you mad? She's only drunk, only
drunk, nothing else."

"I'm not drunk!" screamed Marianna. Then she added in a furious voice,
"That fool, that Jendrek, says I'm drunk; but let him sweep before his
own door first. I've not drunk anything, not a drop, and [Pg 51] that
I'll swear." All at once Marianna recovere