"
Meanwhile the affair pursued its regular course, which neither the
impatience of those concerned hastens nor their submission delays, and
one morning the gardener came to Panna's hut with the news that he had
received the summons to appear as witness at the trial, which was to
take place in four days. This was nearly three months after the
murder, and it was already late in November.
Panna knew that the witnesses were reimbursed for the expense incurred
for the carriages in which they drove to the city, and begged the
gardener to take her with him to the court, which the latter readily
promised.
On the appointed morning the peasant's vehicle appeared in front of
Panna's hut at a very early hour. It was not yet five o'clock, and
dense darkness obscured the village and the neighbourhood. But Panna
already stood at her door, and was seated in the carriage almost before
it had stopped. She wore a black dress, a dark shawl covered her
shoulders, at her throat was her old silver crucifix, which had again
come into her possession after her mother-in-law's death, and on her
head was a black silk kerchief, which set off her beautiful face so
marvellously that one might have supposed she had studied the effect,
had not this grave, strong woman been so wholly incapable of any act of
coquetry.
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