"Say what you want, but this kind of matrimonial affair is the limit," argued the blacksmith, pushing back his hat. "I can't see how a woman comes such a distance and so many weeks to marry Petka, whom she has never seen, and how Petka gets the crazy thought to marry a city woman whom he does not know. Something is wrong somewhere. This is going to bust sooner or later."
"My dear Vasska, it's the education, the refinement and all that which I and you can do without," grunted the inn-keeper.
Vasska rubbed his fists and spat vigorously. The inn-keeper tried to mollify him by saying that he should not take the matter so seriously.
Suddenly the dogs began to bark and the boys shouted:
"The American bride! Here comes the lady from abroad!"
All the guests rushed out to see her. And there she was, in a big flower-trimmed hat, with a silk parasol, and all the wonderful fineries. She looked so elegant, so superior that the village women, accustomed to their rural simplicity, felt overawed. The groom hurrying with throbbing heart to open the gates of the front-yard bowed almost to the ground to the dazzling reality of his romantic dreams. He was so confused by this apparition that he did not know whether to shout or cry.
"My gracious, how she is made up!" whispered the women.
"What a wonderful dress!" whispered the girls.
"Ain't you Petka? You deary!" exclaimed the bride, affecting a foreign accent.
"Yes, mademoiselle, gracious yes," stammered the groom nervously, wiping the tears of joy from his eyes.