Page:Russian Fairy Book (N. H. Dole).djvu/48

30 away to church. The congregation gazed at her and marvelled at her beauty. "She must be some queen come from the ends of the earth," said the people one to another.

As soon as the choir began to sing the "Holy, holy" she left the church, took her seat in the coach, and was whisked away home. The orthodox people hurried out to see which way she went, but no matter where they looked not a sign of her was to be seen.

But our beauty hurried back to her feather, and she waved it to the left, and in a twinkling the servants took off her clothes and the coach vanished from sight.

There she was, sitting as before, as if nothing had happened, and was looking out of her little window as the orthodox congregation scattered to their homes. Her sisters also came home.

"Well, sister," said they, "there was such a beautiful woman at mass to-day; such an one was never seen before; no tongue could describe or pen depict her beauty. It must be some queen come from foreign shores, so splendidly was she dressed, so magnificently decked out."

The same thing happened the second Sunday and the third. You see, the beautiful girl