noon
`` Nor you either , Pista , '' she said quickly , `` for whenever I see your face I shall say to myself how much I must make amends to you and , believe me , it will bind me far more firmly than the handsomest features could . '' Pista was not a man of great intellect or loquacious speech . He now threw his arms around Panna 's neck , patted her , caressed her , covered her head and her face with kisses , and burst into weeping that would soften a stone . Panna wept a little , too , then they remained together until long after noon and , in the evening , went to the spinning-room and presented themselves as betrothed lovers . Three weeks after they were married amid a great crowd of the villagers , some of whom pitied Pista , others Panna , and from that time until the moment when the incidents about to be described occurred , they lived together five years in a loyal , model marriage . Besides the church and the tile-roofed town hall built of stone , the main street of Kisfalu contained only one edifice of any pretension , the manor or , as it is called in Hungary , `` the castle '' of Herr von Abonyi . It was really a very ordinary structure , only it had a second story , stood on an artificial mound , to which on both sides there was a very gentle ascent , and above the ever open door was a moss-grown escutcheon , grey with age , on which a horseman , with brandished sword , could be discerned in vague outlines , worn by time and weather .