hen first you embraced me."

"What is true, my son?" asked the Pater.

"That Elsa is to marry Eros Bela to-morrow?"

"Yes, my son, that is true," said the priest simply.

And thus Andor knew that, at any rate, the hideous present was not a
dream.

CHAPTER XV

"That is fair, I think."

An hour later, Andor was in the street with the rest of the village
folk, watching Elsa as she walked up toward the schoolroom in the
company of her mother. Her fair hair shone like the gold beads round her
neck, and her starched petticoats swung out from her hips as she walked.

She held her head a little downcast; people thought this most becoming
in a young bride; but Andor, who stood in the forefront of the
spectators as she passed, saw that she held her head down because her
cheeks were pale and her eyes swollen with tears.

Irma neni walked beside her daughter with the proud air of a queen, and
on ahead Barna Moritz, the mayor's second son, Feher Jeno, whose father
worked the water-mill on the Maros, and two other sturdy fellows were
carrying the bride's paralysed father shoulder high in his chair.

Just as the little procession halted for a moment before entering the
white washed school-house, Eros Bela, the bridegroom and hero of the
hour, appeared, coming from the opposite direction, and with Klara
Goldstein, the Jewess, upon his arm.

Klara--arrayed in fashionable town garments, with a huge hat covered in
feathers, a tight modern skirt that forced her to walk with mincing
steps, high-heeled shoes, open-work stockings and gloves reaching to the
elbow--was indeed a curious apparition in amongst these peasant girls,
with their bare heads and high red-leather boots and petticoats standing
round them like balloons.

Andor frowned heavily when he caught sight of her; he had seen that
Elsa's pale cheeks had become almost livid in hue and that her parted
lips trembled as if she were ready to cry.

The looks that were cast by the village folk upon the Jewess were none
too kindly, and there were audible mutterings of disapproval at Eros
Bela's conduct; but neither looks nor mutterings disconcerted Klara
Goldstein in the least. She knew well enough that envy of her
fashionable attire bore a large share in the ill-will which was
displayed against her, and the handsome Jewess, who so often had to bear
the contempt and the sneers of these Magyar peasants whom she despised,
was delighted that Eros Bela's admiration for h