"Then you have a wife? Do you love her?"
"Love her?" cried the herdsman proudly,—and then he added in a lower voice: "She is as beautiful as your ladyship!—Buna nopte, Domna!"[22]
[22] Good night, my lady.
And without waiting for an answer, he plunged back into the forest, disappearing by leaps and bounds.
When Henrietta got home she said not a word to anyone about what had taken place, though the condition of the horse and his harness sufficed to show that an accident had happened. But she could scarce wait for the morrow to come, bringing along with it Todor Rubán, from whom she meant to find out everything relating to Juon Tare.[23]
[23] From the Roumanian Taria, strength, solidity.
CHAPTER IX
THE GEINA MAID-MARKET
"Would your ladyship believe,"—so Todor[24] Rubán began his story of Juon the strong,—"sitting here as you do by the fireside, accustomed from your birth to every elegant luxury, with a particular servant always ready to fly obediently to accomplish each separate command, and with different glasses and porcelain for each several course at meals—would your ladyship believe, I ask, that there are people in this world who know not what it is to have a roof above their heads when they go to sleep, who would not recognize a bed or a dinner service if they saw them, nay, who often are in want of bread—and yet, for all that, are happy?