The clocks in the nearby villages had just struck six when Egon and Franziska, accompanied only by Andras, rode off for Nagy-Vasar. To their right and left were fields and meadows; only occasionally did a copse of birches mixed with firs interrupt the plain that stretched down to the lake. They were half an hour away at most; they would arrive in good time for the seven o’clock boat, even if they rode at a walk.
But the very first grove to which they came made them pause. In the middle of the woods they thought they could see a fiery glow between the trees, and hear the sound of many different voices. A fight, it seemed.
“We have to go see what it is,” Egon called, quickly turning his horse aside as Andras and Franziska followed him through the white trunks of the birches. But they found nothing, and finally, after much searching, returned to the main road.
“I was really hoping,” said Egon, “that we would find another child to bring to Toldy, a foster child.”
“Which he very probably would have rejoiced at, in his happiness over his own child.”
“Yes, undoubtedly. For one of the many unexplained riddles of existence is where ordinary people, the so-called disinherited of society, derive their tender affections.”
“The same place as everyone else does, or ought to, I should think—from the heart.”