Mateusz’s pursuit of Jagna

Mateusz’s pursuit of Jagna is a courtship shaped less by mutual intimacy than by rivalry, public boasting, and the calculation of land. He openly spoke of his affection for her, while Antek concealed his own pursuit; Mateusz’s later claim that he had been with Jagna in her storeroom turns that rivalry into a violent confrontation. Much later, news of Jagna’s settlement prompts Mateusz to decide that he will marry her and to calculate what it would cost to keep a twenty-morgen farm for himself. The evidence does not establish that Jagna returned his feelings or that Mateusz’s boast about the storeroom was true.

Courtship and rivalry

Mateusz and Antek had both pursued Jagna long before spring, perhaps since Shrovetide. They knew of one another’s interest even as they competed indirectly. Mateusz’s attentions were comparatively public: he spoke aloud about his affection, whereas Antek had to hide his meetings. This contrast gave their rivalry an unequal texture. Mateusz could present himself openly as a suitor; Antek’s secrecy left him exposed to jealousy and to Mateusz’s provocations.

Their antagonism was already established before the dispute at the mill. They had long been wary of each other and had tried to outdo one another before other villagers, each thinking himself the strongest man in the village. Mateusz also took pleasure in reminding people that Antek worked for him and obeyed him, portraying his employee as meek and dependent. Antek resented being treated as someone Mateusz could dismiss or push around. The rivalry over Jagna therefore sharpened an existing conflict over status and dignity: Mateusz had both the advantage of speaking openly about his desire and the power to lord it over Antek at work.

The boast at the mill

The immediate crisis came when Mateusz told friends at the mill that he and Jagna knew each other well. He claimed to have heard Antek whining at the storeroom door until Jagna drove him away with a broom, and said that Jagna had often complained about Antek to him. When someone challenged whether he had witnessed this, Mateusz insisted that he had been in her storeroom more than once. His account made him sound not merely like a rival but like a man with privileged access to Jagna, while casting Antek as a rejected pursuer.

Antek heard the talk from the threshold. He was pale, tense, and standing with clenched fists before he crossed into the room and called Mateusz a liar. Mateusz sprang at him, but Antek seized him by the collar and throat, dragged him outside, and carried him behind the mill to the fenced river. There Antek hurled him into the water with enough force to smash four fence pickets. The sudden movement from boast to assault gives the scene its force: Mateusz’s story is not established as fact, but its public humiliation of Antek provokes a physical answer.

Jagna’s response and village gossip

The fight was not initially known in the Boryna household, although talk had already spread through the village. When Jagna later asked what the men had fought about, the old woman told her that Mateusz had been boasting about being with her in the storeroom and that Antek had beaten him after hearing it. She framed the men’s behavior as a contest over Jagna, but also stressed that she was repeating Mateusz’s claim, not confirming it. The story thus reaches Jagna as gossip whose circulation matters independently of its truth.

Jagna called Mateusz a foul liar and said that she would gladly have added her own share to the beating. She was angry not only at his alleged lie but at the way village tongues could keep repeating such stories without giving her any defense from them. Her response makes clear that Mateusz’s pursuit does not imply consent or reciprocation. In the village’s telling, the men’s rivalry threatens to make her the object of their contest; Jagna instead rejects Mateusz’s claim and resents the gossip it feeds.

A later marriage calculation

Much later, Mateusz again brought Jagusia into conversation, this time after learning about the dispute over the land Maciej had transferred to her. He had heard that Dominikowa was considering legal action over the property. Antek said that the transfer itself was not denied, though he would pay the land’s value rather than hand it over; when Mateusz asked whether Jagusia had given her settlement to Hanka, Antek pointed out that the document had not been signed by a notary. Mateusz brightened at this information and repeatedly praised Jagusia.

Antek then deliberately provoked him with reports that Jagusia was meeting Jasio in the woods or on the baulks. Mateusz reddened and threatened to beat the people spreading such talk. Afterward, however, he privately interpreted Jagusia’s supposed pursuit of Jasio as a childish way of keeping him at arm’s length, and thought that the priest, rather than the young man, was drawing her. That interpretation belongs to Mateusz; it does not establish Jagusia’s intentions. Having questioned Antek about Maciej’s settlement, Mateusz had firmly decided to marry her. He began calculating how much he would need to pay Jędrzych and Szymek to remain alone on the farm, with twenty morgen under his control.

The terms of Mateusz’s pursuit

Across these episodes, Mateusz’s interest shifts from public courtship and a boast of intimacy to a marriage plan tied to property. He speaks of Jagna openly, bristles when Antek implies she prefers Jasio, and treats the uncertainty around her land settlement as relevant to his prospects. The contrast with Antek’s secret meetings is central: both men’s desire becomes rivalry, but Mateusz’s confidence and work authority let him perform his pursuit in public, while Antek’s jealousy erupts when that performance humiliates him.

The relationship remains one-sided in the evidence available here. Jagna rejects Mateusz’s storeroom story, and no scene establishes that she accepts his later intention to marry her. Instead, Mateusz’s pursuit reveals how village courtship, reputation, and inheritance overlap: a claim about private access becomes public gossip, and a possible marriage becomes inseparable from a calculation about land and who will hold it.