At this juncture, Ambrose came in, and went straight to them. He had come late, having had to go with his Reverence to a sick person three villages away, in Krosnova. So now he set to drink energetically, to make up for lost time. Vainly: for at that very moment a chorus of elderly women struck up the song: Bridesmen, about, about! With you it rests Round the spread tables now to bring the guests! To which they replied, having given the signal by striking on the benches: Lo, we have called them: they are ready here Your spread to taste, if it be but good cheer. The guests, now straggling in to table, took their seats on the benches. The newly married couple had the first places, and all the others sat about them in order of precedence, as they were higher in standing, in possessions, or more advanced in age—from the elders to the girls and children. Tables had been set up along three of the walls, and yet there was scarce room for them all. The bridesmen and the musicians remained standing, the former to serve the guests. There was a hush. The organist stood up and said a prayer aloud; after which, a glass went round, with the sentiment: Health and enjoyment! The cooks and bridesmen then bore in a huge and deep dish of smoking food, singing the while: Friends, we bring you dainty food: Fowls in rice-soup boiled and stewed! And, carrying in the second dish: Tripe with pepper, spiced and hot: He’s a fool that likes it not! The musicians, stationed near the fire-place, played various tunes very softly, to give more savour to the food. All the company ate with becoming refinement, and deliberation; few spoke at all, and for some time the room resounded only with the sound of munching and the clatter of spoons. When they had to some extent slaked their appetites, the smith set another bottle in circulation; and now they began conversing (though in low tones) to one another across the table. Yagna ate scarcely anything at all. In vain did Boryna urge and coax her, entreating her as one entreats a child to eat. She could not even swallow the meat before her; she was so hot, so tired! “Yagna, are you content, sweet? Most beautiful Yagna, you will be as happy with me as ever you were with your mother.... Yagna, you will be a lady—a lady! I’ll hire a girl, that you may not be overworked.”—He spoke in hushed tones, and looking with love into her eyes, caring not for what folk might say; and they began to make fun of him openly. “He looks like a cat after bacon!” “How the old fellow flaunts his wantonness! Beside him, a cock is nothing at all.” “Oh, he is enjoying himself, Grandfather Boryna is!” “As a dog does out in the frost,” old Simon here muttered spitefully. All held their sides with laughter, and the miller laid his face down on the table and beat it with his fists for sheer joy! Once more the cooks entered, proclaiming: