His lordship can kill an ox with a blow from his fist, but I can throttle a bear to death.

But we cannot overcome each other, though we have often stood up together--only in joke, only in sport, of course, your ladyship.

It would not be well if we encountered each other in our wrath--that would be terrible." [Footnote 21: My lord, your husband.] All the time he spoke Juon was skilfully mending the torn saddle-girths and the bridle; then he re-saddled the horse, which was still trembling in every limb, wiped the bloody foam from its mouth, washed its sores and encouraged the lady to remount.

In a quarter of an hour, he said, they would meet the road again, and in half an hour they would be at Hidvar.
Then the goatherd, who was well acquainted with all the meanderings of the valley, took the horse's rein and conducted the lady to the mountain pass, where the beaten track began again.

There he kissed her hand and parted from her.
"I must now go back," said he, "for they are waiting for me." "Who ?" "My goats and my wife." "Then you have a wife?
Do you love her ?" "Love her ?" cried the herdsman proudly,--and then he added in a lower voice: "She is as beautiful as your ladyship!--_Buna nopte, Domna_!"[22] [Footnote 22: Good night, my lady.] And without waiting for an answer, he plunged back into the forest, disappearing by leaps and bounds.
When Henrietta got home she said not a word to anyone about what had taken place, though the condition of the horse and his harness sufficed to show that an accident had happened.