St. Peter's Umbrella Part 38

"What do I care about the umbrella?"

"So it is the girl you want? You told me a different tale before dinner."

Gyuri turned round.

"I did not know then."

"And now you know?"

"Yes, now I know," he answered shortly.

"And may I ask," said Sztolarik, "when did Amor light this flaming fire?

for you did not seem to take much interest in the girl before her disappearance."

"And yet it is causing me at the present moment all the tortures of h.e.l.l. Believe me, my dear guardian, the loss of my inheritance seems to me a trifle beside the loss of Veronica."

Sztolarik was impressed by the apparent sincerity of Gyuri's sorrow.

"That's quite another thing," he said. "If that is how you feel I will stay here with you. Let us go and look for the girl ourselves, and find out what she thinks on the subject."

When they went out, they found great confusion reigning in the courtyard, but Mrs. Adamecz was loudest in her lamentations.

"I knew this would be the end of it. A legend should never be tampered with by a mortal's hand, or it will fall to pieces. Oh, our dear young lady! She was G.o.d's bride, and they wanted to make her the bride of a mortal, so G.o.d has taken her to Himself."

Sztolarik sprang toward her, and caught hold of her hand.

"What is that you say? Have you heard anything?"

"Gundros, the cowherd, has just told us that he saw our young lady this morning running straight toward the Bjela Voda, across the meadows, and her eyes were red, as though she had been crying. There is only one conclusion to be drawn from that."

A lot of women and children were gathered round the kitchen door, and one of them had also seen Veronica earlier than Gundros had.

"Did she look sad?" asked Gyuri.

"She was crying."

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Gyuri despairingly.

"We will look for her," Sztolarik a.s.sured him.

"Where?"

"Out in the meadows or in the village, for it is certain she must be somewhere about, and we shall soon know where."

"That will not be so easy," sighed Gyuri, "for we have no gla.s.s to show us things, as they have in fairy-tales."

"I'll have the whole village round us in a few minutes."

Gyuri shook his head doubtfully. Had Sztolarik gone mad to think he could call all the people together from the fields, from the woods, from everywhere round about? But the old lawyer was as good as his word.

Veronica must be found at any cost.

"Where is his reverence?" he asked of the bystanders.

"He has gone to the pond where the hemp is soaked, to see if the young lady has fallen in there."

"Where is the bell-ringer?"

"Here I am, sir."

"Go up at once into the tower, and ring the big bell."

"But there is no fire!"

"That does not matter. If I order it to be done, you must do it. Do you know me?"

Of course he knew Mr. Sztolarik, who had often been to Glogova since he had been made President of the Courts. So off ran Pal Kvapka, and in a few minutes the big fire-bell was tolling. There was no wind, and the sound was carried for miles around over the meadows, into the woods, over the mountains, and soon the people came running up from every side.

It was astonis.h.i.+ng how soon the villagers were a.s.sembled round the Presbytery. Those who saw it will never see its like again, until the Archangel Gabriel sounds his trumpet at the last day.

Sztolarik gazed placidly at the crowd a.s.sembled around him.

"Now," he said, "I have only to stand up in their midst and ask them if any of them have seen Veronica. But it will be quite unnecessary, for Veronica herself will soon be here. Look out of the window," he called up to the bell-ringer, "and tell me if you can see the young lady."

"Yes, I can see her, she is running through the Srankos' maize-field."

"She lives!" exclaimed Gyuri ecstatically, but his joy was soon at an end, for he thought: "If there is nothing the matter with her she must have run away from me."

And he began to wonder if it would not have been better if she were dead, for then he could have believed she loved him, and could have loved her and sorrowed for her.

The bell-ringer still went on tolling the bell, so Sztolarik called up to him:

"Stop tolling, you fool, can't you? Show us which way the Srankos'

maize-field lies."

The bell-ringer pointed to the right.

"You run on in front, Gyuri, and try and get out of her what is the matter with her."

But Gyuri was already gone, through the priest's garden, across Magat's clover-field, and his heart began to beat, for from there he could see Veronica in her green dress, without a hat, only a little red silk shawl round her shoulders. Across Szlavik's corn-field, then into Gongoly's meadow, and they were face to face.

The girl drew a sobbing breath when she saw him, and began to tremble violently.

"Where is the fire?" she asked.

"Don't be frightened, there is no fire. My guardian had the bell rung so as to make you return home. Why did you run away?"

The girl turned pale, and bit her lip.

"It is enough if I know the reason," she said in a low voice. "Please leave me alone."