h glory!

She did not care about anything now: about her wound: about life, or
death: she felt only that glow of health which coursed through every
sinew of her body and possessed every thought of her soul.

"I believe!" she said in rapture, rising where she lay: and in those
words was everything: everything in which people are wont to believe,
from the love of God to the love of man.

She did not care about anything now. She had no thought for men's eyes
or men's words: but, as she uttered these words, she fell suddenly on
Lorand's neck, drew him with the force of delight to her heart, and
covered him with her kisses.

The wound reopened in her breast, and as the girl's kisses covered the
face of the man she loved, her blood covered his bosom.

Each time her impassioned lips kissed him, a fresh gush of blood spurted
from that faithful heart, which had always been filled with thoughts of
him only, which had beat only for him, which had, to save him, received
the murderer's knife:--the poor "green-robed" faithful girl.

And as she pressed her last kiss upon the lips of her darling, ... she
knew already what was the meaning of eternity....

CHAPTER XXXI

THE BRIDAL FEAST

"Poor Czipra! I thought you would bury us all, and now it is I that must
give you that one clod of earth the only gift you asked from the whole
beautiful world."

Topandy himself saw after the sad arrangements.

Lorand could not speak: he was beside himself with grief.

He merely said he would like to have his darling embalmed and to take
her to his family property, there to bury her.

This wish of his must be fulfilled.

It would be a sad surprise for his mother, to whom Topandy only the day
before had written that her son was bringing home a new daughter-in-law.

When Lorand had asked Topandy for Czipra's hand, he immediately wrote to
Mrs. Aronffy, thinking that what Lorand himself wrote to his mother
would be in a proud strain. He anticipated his nephew's letter, told his
mother quietly and restrainedly in order that Lorand's letter might be
no surprise to her.

Now he must write again to her, telling that the bride was coming, and
the family vault must be ready for her reception.

And curiously Topandy felt no pain in his heart as he thought over it.

"Death is after all the best solution of life!"

He did not shed a single tear upon the letter he wrote: he sealed it and
looked for a servant to despatch it.

But other