“Ah, brother!” said the youth, “why didn’t you wake me? To-night we’ll both keep watch together.”
The night came; they slept not, but watched. Exactly at twelve o’clock the blossom began to shake, flew from place to place, and then fell to the ground, and the beautiful maiden appeared, got herself things to eat and drink, and sat down to supper. The young seigneur rushed forward and seized her by her white hands. Impossible was it for him sufficiently to look at her, to gaze on her beauty!
Next morning he said to his father and mother, “Please allow me to get married. I’ve found myself a bride.”
His parents gave their consent. As for Marusia, she said:
“Only on this condition will I marry you—that for four years I need not go to church.”
Well, they were married, and they lived together one year, two years, and had a son. But one day they had visitors at their house, who enjoyed themselves, and drank, and began bragging about their wives. This one’s wife was handsome; that one’s was handsomer still.
“You may say what you like,” says the host, “but a handsomer wife than mine does not exist in the whole world!”
“Handsome, yes!” reply the guests, “but a heathen.”
“How so?”