Secrecy--nothing, Grand mother, was more hateful to me from childhood." "But he," the old woman again interrupted, "he--I know it--he praised it to you as the noblest virtue." A silent nod from Ledscha confirmed this conjecture, and she added hesitatingly: "'Only far from the haunts of men,' he said, 'when the light had vanished, did we hear the nightingale trill in the dark thickets.

Those are his own words, and though it angers you, Grandmother, they are true." "Until the secrecy is over, and the sun shines upon misery," the sorceress answered in her faltering speech, with menacing severity.
"And beneath the tempter's roof you enjoyed the lauded secret love until the cock roused you ?" "No," replied Ledscha firmly.

"Did I ever tell you a lie, that you look at me so incredulously ?" "Incredulously ?" replied the old woman in protest.

"I only trembled at the danger into which you plunged." "There could be no greater peril," the girl admitted.

"I foresaw it clearly enough, and yet--this is the most terrible part of it--yet my feet moved as if obeying a will of their own, instead of mine, and when I crossed his threshold, resistance was silenced, for I was received like a princess.