red him up for a while, but soon
after that he seemed to collapse very suddenly in health, like old folk
do in this part of the world--stricken down by one or other of the
several diseases which are engendered by the violent extremes of heat
and cold--diseases of the liver for the most part--the beginning of a
slowly-oncoming end.

He had always been reputed to be a miser, and those who were in the know
now averred that Andor had found several thousand florins tucked away in
old bits of sacking and hidden under his uncle's straw paillasse. Pali
bacsi was also possessed of considerable property--some land, a farm and
the mill; there was no doubt now that Andor would be a very rich man one
of these days.

Mothers with marriageable daughters sighed nevertheless in vain. Andor
was not for any of them. Andor had eyes only for Elsa. He had become an
important man in the village now that his uncle was so ill and he was
left to administer the old man's property; and he took his duties very
earnestly in the intervals of courting Kapus Elsa.

As to this no one had cause to make any objection. They had loved one
another and been true to one another for five years; it was clearly the
will of the good God that they should come together at last.

And now October was drawing to its close--to-day was the fourth Sunday
in the month and one of the numerous feasts of our Blessed Lady, one on
which solemn benediction is appointed to be sung in the early afternoon,
and benediction is followed by a procession to the shrine of the Virgin
which stands on the roadside on the way to Saborso some two kilometres
distant from Marosfalva. It is a great festival and one to which the
peasantry of the countryside look forward with great glee, for they love
the procession and have a great faith in the efficacy of prayer said at
the shrine.

Fortunately the day turned out to be one of the most glorious sunshiny
days which mid-autumn can yield, and the little church in the afternoon
was crowded in every corner. The older women--their heads covered with
dark-coloured handkerchiefs, occupied the left side of the aisle, the
men crowded in on the right and at the back under the organ loft. Round
about the chancel rail and steps the bevy of girls in gayest Sunday
dresses looked like a garden of giant animated flowers. When the sexton
went the round with the collecting-bag tied to the end of a long pole,
he had the greatest difficulty in making his way thr