Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/697

 Rh his heart straitened with great love and great pain. He listened then carefully to hear the sound of horse hoofs which announced the daily coming of Yagenka, for through pretending in her presence that he had good hope, he gained it for himself and strengthened his suffering soul somewhat.

She appeared each day, usually toward evening, with a crossbow at her saddle, and with a spear, against attack when going home. It was not a thing at all possible that she should ever find Zbyshko at Bogdanets unexpectedly, since Matsko did not dare to look for him before a year or a year and a half had passed; but evidently even that hope was hidden in the girl, for she did not appear as she had in the old time, in a skirt girded with a strip of tape, in a sheepskin coat wool outward, and with leaves in her dishevelled hair, but with a beautifully braided tress, and her bosom covered with colored cloth of Sieradz.

Matsko always went out to meet her, and his first question was ever the same as if some one had written it down for him. "But what?" And her first answer was, "Well, nothing!" He conducted her then to a large room, and they chatted, near the fire, about Zbyshko, Lithuania, the Knights of the Cross, the war,—talking always in a circle, always about the same things,—and never did these conversations annoy either one of them; on the contrary, they never had enough of those subjects.

And so it continued for months. It happened that Matsko rode to Zgorzelitse, but Yagenka went oftener to Bogdanets.

Sometimes, when there was disturbance in the neighborhood, or when old he-bears in a rage were inclined to attack, Matsko conducted the girl home. When well armed the old man, thanks to uncommon strength, feared no wild beasts, since he was more dangerous to them than they could be to him. At such times he rode stirrup to stirrup with Yagenka, and frequently the pine forest gave forth a threatening sound from the depth of it, but they, oblivious of everything which might happen, conversed only of Zbyshko: where was he? what was he doing? had he killed, or would he kill quickly, as many Knights of the Cross as he had promised Danusia and her mother? would he return soon? Yagenka put questions to Matsko which she had put hundreds of times to him, and he answered them with as much thought and attention as though he heard them then for the first time.