"I suppose you were very frightened?"
"Not very; in fact, I don't think I was startled at all. But now I begin to fear my brother will be anxious about me."
"The priest of Glogova?"
"Yes. He is very fond of me, and will be so anxious if we do not return. And yet I hardly know how we are to manage it."
"Well," said Mravucsán, consolingly, "we have the horses, and we will borrow a cart from some one."
Veronica shuddered and shook her head.
"With those horses? Never again!"
"But, my dear young lady, you must never take horses seriously, they have no real character. You see, this is how it was. Near the brickfield there is that immense windmill, for of course every town must have one. The world is making progress, in spite of all Senator Fajka says. Well, as I said, there is the windmill. I had it built, for every one made fun of us because we had no water in the neighborhood. So I make use of the wind. Of course, the horses don't understand that; they are good mountain horses, and had never seen a beast with such enormous wings, turning in the air, so of course they were frightened and ran away. You can't wonder at it. But that is all over now, and they will take you quietly home."
"No, no, I'm afraid of them. Oh, how dreadful they were! If you had only seen them! I won't go a step with them. As far as I am concerned, I could walk home, but poor Madame Krisbay ..."
"Now that would be a nice sort of thing to do," remarked Mravucsán. "Fancy my allowing my best friend's little sister to walk all the way home with those tiny feet of hers! How she would stumble and trip over the sharp stones in the mountain paths! And his reverence would say: 'My friend Mravucsán is a nice sort of fellow to let my sister walk home, after all the good dinners and suppers I have given him.' Why, I would rather take you home on my own back, my dear, right into Glogova parish!"