Baroness Orczy

“ Etelka foresaw with unerring judgment, the contempt with which the dainty girl would place her soft white hand into András’ rough brown palm, the blush of horror and anger with which she would respond to his strange masterful passion, the passion of an unlettered, half-educated son of the soil, born and bred in the free life of the plain, with warm breathing, living nature, to teach him the lessons of life, and the years of petty tyranny behind him, during which every feeling, every emotion was held in constant check ”

“ And, silently, she had wept and prayed: prayed to God and to the Virgin Mary to avert the catastrophe, which threatened her András’ happiness. Her shrewd mind, rendered doubly acute by earnest love for her boy, showed her the hideous image of misery, that so preposterous, so unequal a marriage would inevitably bring, beneath the humble peasant’s home. The proud lady, nurtured from her cradle to look on every peasant with contempt, linked against her will, to save her parents’ ruin, with one of the despised race! ”

“ How infinitely better, than the daily, hourly torture of an ill-assorted union, the wrecked life, the hourly shame, the mad joy of a few hours, the grief of life-long days. And now the answer had come: a message from the noble lord of Bideskút to Kemény András, bidding him come to the castle, to present his respects to the noble Countess and to her young ladyship: the peasant was bidden to pay his court to the noble lady, the stars were descending from heaven, in order to walk upon the plains. ”