“True to my word, I arrived several days ahead of time. Gavrilo had not returned from the academy when I reached the hotel, but Michael and Stana gave me a warm welcome and produced the costumes they were intending to wear, and I remember that Stana said I ought to have a costume too—that even though I had not been so fortunate as to be born a Serb, they proposed to adopt me. “‘But you should see Mara’s costume!’ she exclaimed, when I admired hers. ‘It is a true Serbian dress, very old, which came to her from her great-grandmother. Such beautiful embroidery you never saw.’ “That made a good excuse for me to go and see Mara, whom I found sewing in the little garden behind the house. The costume, which she showed me, was indeed beautiful, and I admired it in terms which were, I hope, sufficiently extravagant to please even a girl as exacting as she. “While talking with her I observed a bird cage hanging on a hook by the window and, never having noticed it before, asked if she had a new bird. “In reply she merely nodded, without looking up from her work. “I strolled over and looked at the bird. “‘Why,’ I said, ‘this bird appears to be a _kos_, Maro.’ Probably there was a note of surprise in my voice, for the _kos_ is not supposed to live in captivity. “Mara looked up sharply. “‘Are you visiting blame upon me, then?’ she asked. “‘Not at all,’ I answered, mystified at her tone. ‘I did not know that the _kos_ could be tamed; that is all.’ “‘Did Gavrilo tell you to speak to me about this?’ she demanded. “‘Certainly not,’ I answered. ‘I have not seen Gavrilo yet.’ Then, crossing to where she sat, and looking down at her, I asked: ‘What is the matter, Maro? How have I offended you?’ “Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up at me. “‘You have not offended me, dear friend,’ she said. ‘It is only that I am made miserable by this subject. My relative who is employed in the railway caught this bird a few days since, placed it in a cage, and presented it to me. And if he is a handsome young fellow, am I to be censured for that? I am not his mother nor yet his father; I did not make him handsome! And even so, what is a little bird, to make words and black looks over?’ “‘You mean that Gavrilo is annoyed?’ “‘Since this bird came,’ she returned, ‘I have heard of nothing else. He begs me to let it go. He insists that it will die. He says the man who gave it me is cruel and that I am cruel too.’ “‘Then why not release it?’ I suggested. ‘It is dying in the cage, Maro.’ “‘Let it die, then!’ she cried, and burst into a flood of tears. “‘Now, Maro,’ I urged when the paroxysm had abated, ‘what is all this about?’