o whom?" he said "To the priest."

Yet he was not wont to correspond with such.

Czipra thought this too was all on her account.

Why, she had not yet been christened.

What a mysterious house it was, the door of which was now to open before
her!

Perhaps a whole palace, in the brilliant rooms of which the eye was
blinded, as it looked down them?

Soon steps were heard again outside. Perhaps the clergyman was coming.

She was mistaken.

In the new-comer she recognized a figure she had seen long before--Mr.
Buczkay, the lawyer.

Despite the customary roundness of that official's face, there were
traces of pity on it, pity for the young girl, victim of so dreadful a
crime.

He called Topandy aside and began to whisper to him.

Czipra could not hear what they were saying: but a look which the two
men cast in her direction, betrayed to her the subject of their
discourse.

The judges were here and were putting the law into force upon the
guilty.--They were examining into the events, from beginning to
end.--They must know all.--They had taken the depositions of the others
already: now it was her turn.--They would come with their documents, and
ask her "Where did you walk? Why did you leave your room at night? Why
did you open the house-door? Whom were you looking for outside in the
garden?"

What could she answer to those terrible questions?

Should she burden her conscience with lies, before the eyes of God whom
she would call as a witness from Heaven, and to whom she would raise her
supplicating hands for pity, when the day of reckoning came?

Or should she confess all?

Should she tell how she had loved him: how mad she was: how she started
in search of a charm, with which she wished to overcome the heart of her
darling?

She could not confess that! Rather the last drop of blood from her
heart, than that secret.

Or should she maintain an obdurate silence? That, however, would create
suspicion that she, the robber's daughter, had opened the door for her
robber father, and had plotted with workers of wickedness.

What a desperate situation!

And then again it occurred to her that she too could defend herself
against terrors: she knew now how to pray. So she took refuge in the
sanctuary of the Great Lord, and, embracing the pillars of his throne,
prayed, and prayed, and prayed.

Scarce a quarter of an hour after the lawyer's departure, some one else
came.

It was Michael Daruszegi, the magistra