That morning Miharu and Slavya went early to mass, the latter elegantly dressed and wearing a necklace of blue beads, Miharu thought that her dress was too much elegant just for attending a mass,

Slavya spoke.

"The good Lord will forgive me, Miharu, since He must know the hearts of girls better than you do"

Slavya giggled and covered her smile with her fan.

"I'm a woman too you know, but too bad looks like Zaril won't be coming. Your elegant dress has now become useless"

"Y-you, probably we'll see him later since my Father is here."

Unfortunately her expectations were not answered and the mass has finished without the person she was waiting for.

Slavya consumed her impatience by reading some books with a silk cover while Miharu was trying to clean up the traces of dirt on her own dress by swinging a feather duster. Captain Renas was busy looking over some papers. Every noise in the street, every carriage that passed, caused the maiden to tremble and quickened the beatings of her heart. She wished that person would at least see her. The expression on her face is full of agitation!

Slavya Mumbled to herself

"Wasn't he a companion of mine, had we not played together and even quarreled at times?"

There is no need to explain the reasom of the irritation of her feelings, Oh reader, have you ever loved, you will understand; and if you have not, it is useless for me to tell you, as the unexperienced do not comprehend these mysteries.

"I believe, Slavya, that the doctor is right," said Captain Renas. "You need to go out of the country you are very pale and need some fresh air. What do you think of travelling to other Kingdom, Ragalia for example?"

At the mention of the latter place Slavya blushed like a poppy and was unable to answer.

"You and Miharu can go at once to get your clothes and to say good-bye to your friends." he continued, without raising his head.

The girl felt the vague sadness her good friend just came back home after seven years of absence and now Captain Renas wants her to leave the kingdom without even meeting him.

"In four or five days, after you get some new clothes, we'll go to Ragalian Kingdom. The young priest that you may have noticed here last night, Glen, is the new Friar that we have there, and he is a saint! I believe he would allow us to go out from this forsaken country!"

"I think that Ishvan Republic would be better choice, uncle," said by Miharu.

"Besides, Grandpa has a house there"

Slavya wanted to say something but hearing a carriage stop, she turned pale.

"Ah, very true," answered Captain Renas, and then in a different tone

he exclaimed, "Zaril Seed!"

The maiden let her fan and the book that she was holdin fall from her hands and wished to move quickly, but a violent tremor ran through her body. Steps were heard on the stairway and then a fresh, manly voice. As if that voice had some magic power, the maiden controlled her emotion and ran to hide among the trees. The two person Miharu and Captain Renas laughed, and Zaril even heard the noise of their laughter.

Pale and breathing rapidly, the maiden pressed her beating heart and tried to listen.

She heard his voice, that beloved voice that for so long a time she had heard only in her dreams he was asking for her! Overcome with joy, she bit her lips. Afterwards she peek from behind the tree order to see and examine him. She smiled, but Miharu went to wake her up from her delusions threw her arms around Slavya.

"Foolish Lady what's the matter with you?" Miharu said so as she wiped a tear from the faded eyes of Slavya.

Slavya felt ashamed and covered her eyes with her arm.

"Come on, get ready, come!" added by Miharu fondly.

"This is your chance while he is talking to your father. Come, don't make him wait."

Like a child the maiden obediently followed her and while looking down.

Captain Renas and Zaril were conversing in a lively manner when Miharu appeared half dragging her niece, who was looking in every direction except toward Zaril.

Her eyes are moving rapidly lightning flash, expressing feelings already recognized, It is because her heart's desire is dominating all of her emotions flooding it with happiness, To the questioning glance of love, as it flashes out and then conceals itself, Slavya has remain silent

Captain Renas and Miharu has left the two since they both know that Slavya can't speak what's on her mind while they are wtaching.

The sky was blue and a fresh breeze, they could smell the the fragrance of roses, hear the stirring grasses The splashes of the water in a nearby river they are currently on the riverside walking together. Before Captain Renas and Miharu Left the, Miharu said

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"It is better for us to be somewhere else or you'll be watched by the whole neighborhood."

At first Zaril talked nonsense, like boastings about free nations like Ragalian Kingdom and Ishvan Republic. This caused Slavya to frown.

She, like was of course jealous and asked her good friend,

"Have you always thought of me? Have you never forgotten me on all your travels in the great cities among so many beautiful women?"

"Could I forget you?" he answered as he gazed enraptured into her beautiful eyes.

"How could I ever do that to my oath, my sacred oath? Do you remember that stormy night when

you saw me weeping alone by the side of my dead mother and, drawing near to me, you put your hand on my shoulder, that hand which for a long time you had not allowed me to touch, saying to me.

[You have lost your mother while I never had one,] and you wept with me.

You loved her and she looked upon you as a daughter. Outside it rained and the lightning flashed, but within I seemed to hear music and to see a smile on a pale face of the dead. My mother was happy even in death because she knows that I have you! I then caught your hand along with

the hand of my mother and swore to be always here for you and to make you happy, whatever fortune Heaven might have in store for me; and that oath, which has never weighed upon me as a burden!"

Colors began to go back on Slavya's face, but Zaril wasn't done yet

"The thought of you has ever been with me, strengthening me amid the dangers of travel, and the thought of you has been a comfort to my soul's loneliness in foreign lands. The thoughts of you

which erases from the bad memories of our motherland. In dreams I saw you always standing with me at the far horizon wrapped in the warm light of the early dawn. You are a true daughter of Yushania, beautiful,unaffected, lovable, frank. That beauty which unites with the imposing virtues of our mother country."

"Have I thought of you? The thoughts of you gave warmth to the snowy nights of winter! The beautiful skies of Ragalia with their clear depths reminded me of your eyes"

This time Slavya opened her lips

"I have not traveled like you, so I only know this town" she answered with a smile which showed that she believed all he said.

"Zaril, I have always thought of you and have never put you out of my mind. I recalled our games and our quarrels when we were children. You used to pick up the most beautiful shells and search the river for the roundest and smoothest pebbles of different colors. You were very stupid and always lost, and as a penalty I would slap you with the palm of my hand, but I always tried not to strike you hard, for I had pity on you. In those games you cheated too much, even more than I did, and we used to finish our play in a quarrel.

Do you remember that time when you became really angry at me? Then you made me suffer, but afterwards, when I thought of it, I smiled and longed for you so that we might quarrel again, so that we might once more make up. We were still children and had gone with your mother to bathe in the riverside under the shade of the thick bamboo. On the banks grew many flowers and plants whose strange names you told me, but I know you just made them up.

Once you disappeared suddenly and when you returned you brought a crown of leaves and orange blossoms, which you placed upon my head, calling me a Princess, but your mother snatched away my crown from my head saying it would make my hair smelly and threw it away. Then tears came into your eyes and you said that she did not understand your feelings and your mother exclaimed 'Silly boy, you'll see how sweet your hair will smell afterwards.' I laughed, but you were offended and would not talk to me , and for the rest of the day you act so serious and I wanted to cry. On our way back to the town through the hot sun, I picked some sage leaves that grew beside the path, made it into a crown and put them into your head and called you Prince. You smiled and caught my hand, and we made up."

Zaril smiled with happiness as he listened and opened his pocketbook and took from it a piece of paper in which were wrapped some dry, blackened leaves which gave off a sweet odor.

"Your sage leaves," he said, in answer to her inquiring look.

"This is all that you have ever given me."

She in turn snatched from her bosom a little pouch of white

silk.

"You must not touch this," she said, tapping the palm of his

hand lightly.

"It's a letter of farewell."

"The one I wrote to you before leaving?"

"Have you ever written me any other?"

"And what did I say to you then?"

"Many typical lies and excuses actually,"

She answered smilingly

"Be quiet now and I'll read it to you. I'll leave out your fine phrases in order not to make a martyr of you."

Raising the paper to the height of her eyes so that the youth might not see her face, she began:

"Oh my I'll not read some of the lines because it's not true."

Her eyes ran along some lines and began to read it.

"'My father wishes me to go away, in spite of all my pleadings. [You are a man now] he told me and you must think about your future and about your duties. You must learn everything about life which your fatherland cannot teach you, so that it may some day be useful to to you. If you remain here in my shadow, in this environment of business affairs, you will not learn to look far ahead. The day in which you lose me is the day you will find yourself like a plant that will wither Don't you understand? You are man, and yet you weep!]

These reproaches hurt me and I confessed that I don't want to leave you. My father reflected for a time in silence and then, placing his hand on my shoulder, said in a trembling voice,

[Do you think that you alone know how to love, that your father does not love you, and that he will not feel the separation from you? It is only a short time since we lost your mother, and I must journey on alone toward old age, toward the very time of life when I would seek help and comfort from your youth, yet I accept my loneliness, hardly knowing whether I shall ever see you again. But you must think of other and greater things; the future lies open before you, while for me it is already passing behind; your love is just awakening, while mine is dying; fire burns in your blood, while the chill is creeping into mine. Yet you weep and cannot sacrifice the present for the future, useful as it may be alike to yourself and to your country.]

My father's eyes filled with tears and I fell upon my knees at his feet, I embraced him, I begged his forgiveness, and I assured him that I was ready to set out--"

Zaril's growing agitation caused her to suspend the reading, for he had grown pale and was pacing back and forth.

"What's the matter? What is troubling you?" she asked him.

"You have almost made me forget that I have my duties, that I must leave at once for the town. Tomorrow is the day for commemorating the dead."

Slavya silently fixed her large dreamy eyes upon him for a few moments and then, picking some flowers, she said with emotion,

"Go, I won't keep you any longer! In a few days we shall see each other again. Lay these flowers on the tomb of your parents."

A few moments later the youth left accompanied by Captain Renas and Miharu, while Slavya shut herself up in her room

"Please tell our friends to get the house ready, as Slavya and Miharu are coming. A pleasant journey!"

Shouted by Captain Renas as Zaril stepped into the carriage, which at once started in the direction of Hamir.