"We will soon reassure the young lady, and your reverence will feel all right after a night's rest. In two or three days it will seem like an amusing incident."
"But which might have ended in a horrible death if Divine Providence had not sent you to help me."
"It really does seem as though Divine Providence had something to do with it. The shaft of my carriage broke, or I should never have come near that precipice."
"If I live to be a hundred I shall never forget your kindness to me, and your name will always have a place in my prayers. But how thoughtless of me! I have not even asked you your name yet."
"Gyuri Wibra."
"The well-known lawyer of Besztercebánya? And so young! I am glad to make the acquaintance of such an honorable man, sir, who is beloved in the whole of Besztercebánya; but I should be much more pleased if a poor man now stood before me, to whom I could give a suitable reward. But how am I to prove my gratitude to you? There is nothing I possess which you would accept."
A smile played around Gyuri's mouth.
"I am not so sure of that. You know we lawyers are very grasping."
"Is there really something, or are you joking?"
The lawyer did not answer immediately, but walked on a few steps toward an old wild pear-tree, which had been struck by lightning, and not far from which the carriage was standing.