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 him, a much better, more just and wiser one than I, since he is going to try me tomorrow!” the boyar said with a wry smile.

‘‘What I meant to say,” Maxim corrected himself, “is that I want to marry your daughter, whom I love dearer than life, more than my soul!”

If a thunderbolt had suddenly dropped out of the blue and struck the ground in front of him, Tuhar Wolf would not have been as shocked as he was by this passionate but plain-spoken declaration of the youth. He stepped back a pace or two and surveyed poor Maxim up and down with a piercing, blazing fury. Rage had turned his face purple, clenched his teeth and trembled upon his lips.

“Lout, boor!” he exploded wrathfully at last so that the very hills reverberated with the damning sound of his outcry. “What is that speech you have just dared to address to me? Repeat it! It can’t be that I heard aright!”

This furious exclamation by the boyar, returned to Maxim his usual cogent self-composure. He drew himself up to his full height before the boyar and said in a calm, assured tone of voice, “There wasn’t anything in my speech, sir, that should offend you, nothing in it that would bring dishonor either upon you or your daughter. I merely asked for her hand in marriage because I love her more than anyone else in the world can possibly ever love her. Is the difference then between your boyar rank and mine really so vast that love could not bridge it? And in what manner aside from that, are you above me?”

“Enough, fool, enough!” Tuhar spluttered angrily. “My hand is upon the hilt of my sword itching to stop your stupid throat from further utterance. Only one thing prevented my using it already and that is that you saved my daughter’s life today. Otherwise you would this moment be lying at my feet for daring to speak to me the way you have just now. Ignorant peasant that you are, how dare you so much as raise your eyes in the direction of my daughter? Is it because she and I