ace caps set off by white veils disposed
in picturesque puffs and creases,--all betrayed a wealth of fancy and
nicety of taste on the wearer's part that would be hard to match.

After the matrons were seated, the maidens came in through the fourth
and last door, entering now in pairs, now singly, and sat down on the
two sides of the house, behind the married women. Finally the children
were admitted,--a splendid phalanx, a company of angels of the Murillo
and Bernini type.

The pride of the Toroczko church is its people. The churches of Rome
boast many a masterpiece of early Italian art on their walls, but their
worshippers are ragged and dirty. The walls of the Toroczko temple are
bare, but the faces of its congregation beam with happiness. No works of
sculpture, resplendent with gold and silver and precious stones, are to
be seen there. The people themselves are arrayed in costly stuffs and
furnish the adornment of the house.

After a simple opening prayer, the pastor ascended the pulpit and
addressed his flock, in words intelligible to all, on such themes as
patriotism, man's duty to his fellow-man, the blessings of toil, the
recompense of good deeds in the doer's own bosom, and God's infinite
mercy toward his children. In his prayer the preacher referred to Jesus
as the beloved Son of God, the model for mankind to follow, but he did
not deny salvation and paradise to those that chose other leaders for
their guidance.

After the service Blanka asked Aaron and Berthold to go with her to the
preacher as witnesses while she announced her purpose to join the
church. After making this declaration in due form, she was reminded that
she had two weeks in which to consider the matter carefully, at the end
of which, if she was still of the same mind, she was to come back again
and renew her declaration.

"Two weeks longer," sighed Blanka, "and then six weeks more for the
divorce!"

Aaron heard her sigh, and hastened to say: "If we make a special effort
we can shorten this period. Our law directs that an applicant for a
divorce must either be a resident of, or own an estate in, Transylvania.
Therefore, if you could acquire a piece of land here, we should only
have to wait for the consistory to assemble and ratify the divorce
already granted by the Roman Curia, with the added permission to marry
again. That done, nothing further remains to hinder the marriage. So you
must manage to buy a house-lot or something of the sort