kisses passionately. As the sounds of merriment from the house build up, Ilona appears to ask Józsi to play his violin for them. He does so, counting his success with Zorika and, when Jonel comes in search of his engagement kiss, Zorika, her mind and heart in a whirl, refuses him. In her confusion, she remembers a superstition told her by her nurse, telling that anyone drinking from the River Czerna on Annunciation Eve will see into the future. She bends down and drinks from the water. She falls asleep as the glow-worms and fireflies dance around about and mysterious voices call to her in the darkness. ACT 2 Zorika's vision takes her into the future and she sees herself a few years hence on a gipsy encampment on Ilona von Körösházy's estate. Józsi enters with Zorika and calls for Mihály, the innkeeper, who cannot believe his eyes at seeing Józsi returning from Hungary after two years' absence. Weddings and funerals have not been the same without Józsi's violin playing, and he is warmly welcomed back into the encampment. Zorika clearly feels deeply about Józsi, but his conversations with Mihály make it clear that he regards her purely as a passing fancy. After all, Ilona herself has always shown an interest in him, and there are plenty of other gipsy girls to welcome him back with practical expressions of delight. Ilona is giving a party in the local inn that evening, and Zorika suggests that it might make a memorable night for a gipsy wedding between herself and Józsi. The gipsies move off to prepare for the occasion as Zorika clings excitedly to Józsi and muses on the twists of fate that have brought her from being a girl dressed magnificently in velvet and silk but knowing nothing about love to this wild and abandoned existence. Now Ilona appears in hunting costume, accompanied by Dragotin, who has come to join the party. Old Dragotin is trying to impress the free-living lady with his potential as a lover and overcome her doubts about his virility, but Ilona reckons that she knows the only recipe for eternal youth. Jolan and Kajetán arrive, seeking accommodation at the inn. They have been married for more than three years, and Kajetán is pushing a pram in which sit a small boy and girl. He is obviously finding marriage harder work than he had imagined and Jolán has turned out a decidedly bossy little wife. Ilona and Józsi obviously have eyes very much for each other and Ilona finds the idea of Józsi settling down to married life a humorous one indeed. Józsi is strongly drawn to her, but she runs off as Zorika appears dressed for the gipsy wedding ceremony and Józsi coolly confirms his readiness for the wedding. His violin begins to play, as the voice of Jonel is heard calling romantically through the night. Jonel asks Zorika why she has rejected him and begs her to come back to him, but Józsi's violin playing continues to hold her in its power. Mihály summons all his serving girls to prepare for the party and the gipsy orchestra starts playing, as Ilona tells her guests of the gipsy wedding that is to be part of the evening's entertainment. Seeing her father, Zorika goes to him, but he denies her. He does not have a gipsy daughter. Ilona tells her that she must dance and sing for them, but Zorika makes a poor effort at being a gipsy. Then bells are heard ringing and she declares her intention to get married in church, but Józsi treats the idea with contempt. A gipsy wedding is good enough for him, he says, and he produces a red scarf that he says will bind them together. For Zorika it is not enough, and she asks Józsi to tell her that he really loves her. Zorika, knowing that she can never love in gipsy style, turns on her heels and flees. ACT 3 While Zorika has been looking into the future, the party for her engagement to Jonel has continued at Dragotin's hunting lodge. Jonel looks out and sees the figure of Zorika, lying asleep by the river, and longs for her pledge of love.
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