Zbyszko rode beside Jagienka, listening to the abbot's shpilmen singing merry songs; but when they had traveled five or six furlongs, he suddenly reined in his horse, and said: "Oh! I intended to pay for a mass to be said for uncle's health and I forgot it; I must return."
"Do not go back!" exclaimed Jagienka; "we will send from Zgorzelice."
"No, I will return, and you must not wait for me. With God!"
"With God," said the abbot. "Go!" And his face brightened; when Zbyszko disappeared, he touched Zych with his elbow and said: "Do you understand?"
"What?"
"He will surely fight in Krzesnia with Wilk and Cztan; but I wished for it and I am glad."
"They are dreadful boys! If they wound him, then what of it?"
"What of it? If he fight for Jagienka, then how can he afterward think about that other girl, Jurandowna? From this time, Jagienka will be his lady, not the other girl; and I wish it because he is my relative and I like him."
"Bah! What about his vow?"
"I will give him absolution in the twinkling of an eye! Have you not heard that I promised to absolve him?"
"Your head is wise about everything," answered Zych.
The abbot was pleased with this praise; then he approached nearer Jagienka and asked: "Why are you so sad?"
She leaned on the saddle, seized the abbot's hand and lifted it to her mouth: "Godfather, could you not send your shpilmen to Krzesnia?"
"What for? They will get drunk in the inn--that's all."
"But they may prevent a quarrel."
The abbot looked into her eyes and then said sharply: "Let them even kill him."
"Then they must kill me also!" exclaimed Jagienka.
The bitterness which had accumulated in her bosom since that conversation about Danusia with Zbyszko, mingled with grief, now gushed forth in a stream of tears. Seeing this, the abbot encircled her with his arm, almost covering her with his enormous sleeve, and began to talk: "Do not be afraid, my dear little girl. They may quarrel, but the other boys are noblemen; they will attack him only in a chivalrous manner; they will call him up on the field, and then he can manage for himself, even if he be obliged to fight with both of them at once. As for Jurandowna, about whom you have heard, I will tell you this: there is no wood growing for a bed for the other girl."