Radonic came back from Cattaro, and, by his humour, things must have gone on well for him; still, strange to say, he brought no money back with him. He only said he had put his money in a bank, so that he might get interest for it, till such times when he should buy another ship.
"And what is a bank?" asked Milena, astonished.
Radonic shrugged his shoulders, and answered peevishly, that she was too stupid to understand such things. "Montenegrins," he added, "have no banks, nor any money to put in banks; they only know how to fight against the Turks."
For a few days Milena asked all her acquaintances what a bank was, and at last she was informed that it was like insurances, one of those modern inventions made to enrich the rich. Putting money in a bank was like sinking a deep well. After that you were not only supplied for your lifetime, but your children and the children of your children were then provided for; for who can drink the water of a well and dry it up?
For Milena, all these things were wonders which she could not understand. She only sighed, and thought that Stosija was right when she had said to her that this world was for the wealthy; the poor were nowhere, not even in church.
Although Radonic had come back, still Vranic, far from desisting from his suit, became always more pressing; for he seemed quite sure that she would never speak to her husband against him. Once more she went to Mara and asked her for advice.
"Why not mention the subject to your husband?" asked her friend.
"First, I dare not; then, it would be quite useless. He would not believe me; Vranic has him entirely under his power. In fact, I am quite sure if Radonic is unbearable, it is the seer who sets him on to bait me."
"Because he thinks that, sooner or later, I'll be driven to despair, and find myself at his mercy. Though I'm no seer myself, still I see through him."
Withal Uros' mother was a woman of great experience, still, she could not help her friend; she only comforted her in a motherly way, and her heart yearned for her.
As Milena, weary and dejected, was slowly trudging homewards, she saw, not far from her house, a small animal leisurely crossing a field. Was it a cat? She stood stock-still for a moment and stared. Surely, it was neither a hare, nor a rabbit, nor a dog. It was a big, dark-coloured cat! How her heart began to beat at that sight!