“Mara looked black. “‘The holiday is not yet here!’ said she. “‘When the day comes,’ he answered, ‘the _kos_ will be dead.’ “‘I wish it were already dead!’ she exclaimed petulantly. ‘I wish I had never seen the accursed thing. It has brought me only sorrow!’ “‘Then,’ I interjected, ‘why not let it fly away?’ “‘I have told you both,’ she answered angrily. ‘This means more to me than the life or death of a bird. It is a symbol. I have the feeling that if it were to fly away all my will power would fly with it.’ “‘And to me also,’ returned the boy solemnly, ‘this means more than the life or death of a bird. And likewise to me the _kos_ is a symbol. It should be so to every Serb. Think of Kossovo! This is a bird linked with our racial aspirations. If we free this one, we may, perhaps, ourselves deserve freedom. Otherwise, what do we deserve? Do we merit more than we ourselves give?’ “Having witnessed Mara’s agitation when she first told me of their differences over the bird, I would now have stopped Gavrilo could I have signaled him, but he was engaged in putting some green leaves through the door of the cage. As he finished speaking, Mara rose, dropped her sewing upon the ground, and bursting into tears ran into the house. “‘Maro, _mila_!’ Gavrilo cried, attempting to catch her; but the door slammed in his face. “He was white as he turned to me. ‘Tell me,’ he cried in a tone childlike and baffled, ‘can anyone understand the ways of woman? As men grow older do they understand better, or is it always like this?’ “Deeply concerned about them as I was, the naïveté of this question forced a smile from me. “‘You must ask some man older than I,’ I answered. “‘Perhaps we are not intended to understand them,’ he said reflectively. ‘No doubt the Lord made them as they are so that we should forever be enthralled by them, as by any other enigma beyond comprehension. I enjoy lying on my back at night, to gaze up at the stars and think profoundly of eternity whirling about us, and the infinity of space, but I assure you, when my lovely Mara becomes agitated those phenomena of nature seem, by contrast, trifling matters. I believe that if one could but understand Mara, one could understand the riddles of the ages.’ “I left Gavrilo in the garden. At dinner that night he was not with us. I did not see him again until next evening, when I came upon him whispering with three young men upon the stairs. As I passed them they became silent, nor did I like the nervous smile with which Gavrilo greeted me. On the day following I saw him go into a _kafana_ with the same youths. I think he also saw me, and from the haste with which he moved into the little café I gathered the impression that he was avoiding me. “On the day before the maneuvers I cornered him after luncheon. Clearly he was keyed to a highly nervous tension.