r husband, at least so
far as she was concerned, was a man of noble and tender sentiments. From
henceforth she began to regard him through a glass of quite another
colour; she began to believe that the faults she had noticed in him were
only the usual bad habits of his sex, and began to discover all sorts of
hidden good qualities in him. She began to love her husband.

When early next morning the carriage stood in the courtyard of Hidvar.
Henrietta awoke in her husband's arms: there she had been sleeping for a
long time. When she looked round and encountered Hatszegi's bright manly
glances it almost seemed to her as if the dreadful scene of the night
before was a mere dream, from which it was a joy to awake. When her
husband kissed her hand before departing for his own room, Henrietta
pressed _his_ hand in return and gave him a grateful smile.

But what then was the key to this horrible mystery? Who could have hit
upon the idea of sending this jewelry? There was not a gleam of light to
go by. An enigma closed the way to every elucidation, and this enigma
was--Fatia Negra. How did the jewelry get out of his hands into
Henrietta's? What was the motive for such a transfer? And who was the
man himself? This thought gave Henrietta no rest.

Why could they not seize this famous robber? First of all, she kept on
asking her husband about it, and he replied that the whole story about
Fatia Negra was only a Wallachian fable. It was true that robberies were
committed by men who regularly wore black masks, but it was never one
and the same man who was guilty of these misdeeds. Nevertheless the name
had won a sort of nimbus of notoriety among the common people, many had
made use of it as well as of the mask attaching to it, and though it was
an undeniable fact that Fatia Negra had been caught and hanged more than
once, yet he still continued to live and go about. The popular mythology
had immortalized him.

The parson, however, had quite a different opinion of the matter; he
seemed to be more particularly informed. Although he opined Fatia Negra
wandered through every corner of the kingdom, his abiding nest was in
this district; he had a sweetheart here to whom he appeared
periodically.

"Why don't they seize him then?" asked Henrietta.

"Because a part of the common folks holds with him, and the other part
thinks he is in league with the devil."

"I would set a high price on his head and give it to whomsoever caught
him."