Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/213

Rh These words acted soothingly on the abbot, for in general his anger was short lived.

"Yes," said he, "ye are my relatives, while she is only a goddaughter, but I like her and Zyh these many years. A better man than Zyh there is not on earth, nor a better girl than Yagenka. Who will say aught against them?"

And he looked around with challenging glance; but Matsko not only made no contradiction, he asserted quickly that it would be useless to search the whole kingdom to find a better neighbor.

"And as to the girl," said he, "I could not love my own daughter more. She was the cause of my recovery, and till death I shall never forget it."

"Ye will be damned both the one and the other, if ye forget her," said the abbot; "and I shall be the first man to curse you. I wish you no harm, for ye are my blood relatives, hence I have thought out a method by which everything left by me will be yours and Yagenka's. Do ye understand?"

"God grant that to happen!" said Matsko. "Dear Jesus! I would walk from the queen's grave in Cracow to Bald Mountain to bow down before the wood of the Holy Cross."

The abbot was delighted at the sincerity with which Matsko spoke, so he laughed and continued,—

"The girl has the right to be choice; she is beautiful, she has a good dowry, she is of good stock. What is Stan or Vilk to her when a voevoda's son would not be too much? But if I, without alluding to any one, propose a bridegroom, she will marry him; for she loves me, and knows that I would not give bad advice to her."

"It will be well for the man whom you find for Yagenka," said Matsko.

"And what sayst thou?" asked the abbot, turning to Zbyshko.

"I think as uncle does."

The honest face of the abbot grew still brighter; he struck Zbyshko with his hand on the shoulder, so that the sound filled the room, and asked,—

"Why didst thou not let Stan or Vilk come near Yagenka at church? Why?"

"Lest they might think that I feared them, and lest you also might think so."

"But thou gavest her holy water."

"I did."