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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jókai
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Debts of Honor
+
+Author: Maurus Jókai
+
+Translator: Arthur B. Yolland
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2007 [EBook #22757]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEBTS OF HONOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WORKS OF MAURUS JÓKAI
+
+HUNGARIAN EDITION
+
+DEBTS OF HONOR
+
+_Translated from the Hungarian_
+
+_By_ ARTHUR B. YOLLAND
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+Copyright, 1900, by
+DOUBLEDAY & MCCLURE CO.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
+
+
+In rendering into English this novel of Dr. Jókai's, which many of his
+countrymen consider his masterpiece, I have been fortunate enough to
+secure the collaboration of my friend, Mr. Zoltán Dunay, a former
+colleague, whose excellent knowledge of the English language and
+literature marked him out as the most competent and desirable
+collaborator.
+
+ARTHUR B. YOLLAND.
+BUDAPEST, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+     I.   The Journal of Desiderius                        1
+    II.   The Girl Substitute                             30
+   III.   My Right Honorable Uncle                        59
+    IV.   The Atheist and the Hypocrite                   71
+     V.   The Wild-Creature's Haunt                      104
+    VI.   Fruits Prematurely Ripe                        114
+   VII.   The Secret Writings                            122
+  VIII.   The End of the Beginning                       131
+    IX.   Aged at Seventeen                              143
+     X.   I and the Demon                                148
+    XI.   "Parole d'Honneur"                             172
+   XII.   A Glance into a Pistol Barrel                  185
+  XIII.   Which Will Convert the Other                   199
+   XIV.   Two Girls                                      225
+    XV.   If He Loves, then Let Him Love                 240
+   XVI.   That Ring                                      249
+  XVII.   The Yellow-robed Woman in the Cards            258
+ XVIII.   The Finger-post of Death                       266
+   XIX.   Fanny                                          281
+    XX.   The Fatal Day!                                 285
+   XXI.   That Letter                                    299
+  XXII.   The Unconscious Phantom                        306
+ XXIII.   The Day of Gladness                            322
+  XXIV.   The Mad Jest                                   330
+   XXV.   While the Music Sounds                         341
+  XXVI.   The Enchantment of Love                        351
+ XXVII.   When the Nightingale Sings                     360
+XXVIII.   The Night Struggle                             370
+  XXIX.   The Spider in the Corner                       383
+   XXX.   I Believe...!                                  397
+  XXXI.   The Bridal Feast                               407
+ XXXII.   When We Had Grown Old                          413
+
+
+
+
+DEBTS OF HONOR
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE JOURNAL OF DESIDERIUS
+
+
+At that time I was but ten years old, my brother Lorand sixteen; our
+dear mother was still young, and father, I well remember, no more than
+thirty-six. Our grandmother, on my father's side, was also of our party,
+and at that time was some sixty years of age; she had lovely thick hair,
+of the pure whiteness of snow. In my childhood I had often thought how
+dearly the angels must love those who keep their hair so beautiful and
+white; and used to have the childish belief that one's hair grows white
+from abundance of joy.
+
+It is true, we never had any sorrow; it seemed as if our whole family
+had contracted some secret bond of unity, whereby each member thereof
+bound himself to cause as much joy and as little sorrow as possible to
+the others.
+
+I never heard any quarrelling in our family. I never saw a passionate
+face, never an anger that lasted till the morrow, never a look at all
+reproachful. My mother, grandmother, father, my brother and I, lived
+like those who understand each other's thoughts, and only strive to
+excel one another in the expression of their love.
+
+To confess the truth, I loved none of our family so much as I did my
+brother. Nevertheless I should have been thrown into some little doubt,
+if some one had asked me which of them I should choose, if I must part
+from three of the four and keep only one for myself. But could we only
+have remained together, without death to separate us or disturb our
+sweet contentment, until ineffable eternity, in such a case I had chosen
+for my constant companion only my brother. He was so good to me. For he
+was terribly strong. I thought there could not be a stronger fellow in
+the whole town. His school-fellows feared his fists, and never dared to
+cross his path; yet he did not look so powerful; he was rather slender,
+with a tender girl-like countenance.
+
+Even now I can hardly stop speaking of him.
+
+As I was saying, our family was very happy. We never suffered from want,
+living in a fine house with every comfort. Even the very servants had
+plenty. Torn clothes were always replaced by new ones and as to
+friends--why the jolly crowds that would make the house fairly ring with
+merry-making on name-days[1] and on similar festive occasions proved
+that there was no lack of them. That every one had a feeling of high
+esteem for us I could tell by the respectful greetings addressed to us
+from every direction.
+
+[Footnote 1: In Hungary persons celebrate the name-day of the saint
+after whom they are called with perhaps more ceremony than their
+birthday.]
+
+My father was a very serious man; quiet and not talkative. He had a pale
+face, a long black beard, and thick eyebrows. Sometimes he contracted
+his eyebrows, and then we might have been afraid of him; but his idea
+always was, that nobody should fear him; not more than once a year did
+it happen that he cast an angry look at some one. However, I never saw
+him in a good humor. On the occasion of our most festive banquets, when
+our guests were bursting into peals of laughter at sprightly jests, he
+would sit there at the end of the table as one who heard naught. If dear
+mother leaned affectionately on his shoulder, or Lorand kissed his face,
+or if I nestled to his breast and plied him, in child-guise, with
+queries on unanswerable topics, at such a time his beautiful, melancholy
+eyes would beam with such inexpressible love, such enchanting sweetness
+would well out from them! But a smile came there never at any time, nor
+did any one cause him to laugh.
+
+He was not one of those men who, when wine or good humor unloosens their
+tongue, become loquacious, and tell all that lies hidden in their heart,
+speak of the past and future, chatter and boast. No, he never used
+gratuitous words. There was some one else in our family just as serious,
+our grandmother; she was just as taciturn, just as careful about
+contracting her thick eyebrows, which were already white at that time;
+just as careful about uttering words of anger; just as incapable of
+laughing or even smiling. I often remarked that her eyes were fixed
+unremittingly on his face; and sometimes I found myself possessed of the
+childish idea that my father was always so grave in his behavior because
+he knew that his mother was gazing at him. If afterward their eyes met
+by chance, it seemed as if they had discovered each other's
+thoughts--some old, long-buried thoughts, of which they were the
+guardians; and I often saw how my old grandmother would rise from her
+everlasting knitting, and come to father as he sat among us thus
+abstracted, scarce remarking that mother, Lorand, and I were beside him,
+caressing and pestering him; she would kiss his forehead, and his
+countenance would seem to change in a moment: he would become more
+affectionate, and begin to converse with us; thereupon grandmother would
+kiss him afresh and return to her knitting.
+
+It is only now that I recall all these incidents. At that time I found
+nothing remarkable in them.
+
+One evening our whole family circle was surprised by the unusually good
+humor that had come over father. To each one of us he was very tender,
+very affectionate; entered into a long conversation with Lorand, asked
+him of his school-work, imparted to him information on subjects of which
+as yet he had but a faulty knowledge; took me on his knee and smoothed
+my head; addressed questions to me in Latin, and praised me for
+answering them correctly; kissed our dear mother more than once, and
+after supper was over related merry tales of the old days. When we began
+to laugh at them, he laughed too. It was such a pleasure to me to have
+seen my father laugh once. It was such a novel sensation that I almost
+trembled with joy.
+
+Only our old grandmother remained serious. The brighter father's face
+became, the more closely did those white eyebrows contract. Not for a
+single moment did she take her eyes off father's face; and, as often as
+he looked at her with his merry, smiling countenance, a cold shudder ran
+through her ancient frame. Nor could she let father's unusual gayety
+pass without comment.
+
+"How good-humored you are to-day, my son!"
+
+"To-morrow I shall take the children to the country," he answered; "the
+prospect of that has always been a source of great joy to me."
+
+We were to go to the country! The words had a pleasant sound for us
+also. We ran to father, to kiss him for his kindness; how happy he had
+made us by this promise! His face showed that he knew it well.
+
+"Now you must go to bed early, so as not to oversleep in the morning;
+the carriage will be here at daybreak."
+
+To go to bed is only too easy, but to fall asleep is difficult when one
+is still a child, and has received a promise of being taken to the
+country. We had a beautiful and pleasant country property, not far from
+town; my brother was as fond as I was of being there. Mother and
+grandmother never came with us. Why, we knew not; they said they did not
+like the country. We were indeed surprised at this. Not to like the
+country--to wander in the fields, on flowery meadows; to breathe the
+precious perfumed air; to gather round one the beautiful, sagacious, and
+useful domestic animals? Can there be any one in the world who does not
+love that? Child, I know there is none.
+
+My brother was all excitement for the chase. How he would enter forest
+and reeds! what beautiful green-necked wild duck he would shoot. How
+many multi-colored birds' eggs he would bring home to me.
+
+"I will go with you, too," I said.
+
+"No; some ill might befall you. You can remain at home in the garden to
+angle in the brook, and catch tiny little fishes."
+
+"And we shall cook them for dinner." What a splendid idea! Long, long we
+remained awake; first Lorand, then I, was struck by some idea which had
+to be mentioned; and so each prevented the other from sleeping. Oh! how
+great the gladness that awaited us on the morrow!
+
+Late in the night a noise as of fire arms awoke me. It is true that I
+always dreamed of guns. I had seen Lorand at the chase, and feared he
+would shoot himself.
+
+"What have you shot, Lorand?" I asked half asleep.
+
+"Remain quite still," said my brother, who was lying in the bed near me,
+and had risen at the noise. "I shall see what has happened outside."
+With these words he went out.
+
+Several rooms divided our bedroom from that of our parents. I heard no
+sound except the opening of doors here and there.
+
+Soon Lorand returned. He told me merely to sleep on peacefully--a high
+wind had risen and had slammed to a window that had remained open; the
+glass was all broken into fragments; that had caused the great noise.
+
+And therewith he proceeded to dress.
+
+"Why are you dressing?"
+
+"Well, the broken window must be mended with something to prevent the
+draught coming in; it is in mother's bedroom. You can sleep on
+peacefully."
+
+Then he placed his hand on my head, and that hand was like ice.
+
+"Is it cold outside, Lorand?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then why does your hand tremble so?"
+
+"True; it is very cold. Sleep on, little Desi."
+
+As he went out he left an intermediate door open for a moment; and in
+that moment the sound of mother's laughter reached my ears. That
+well-known ringing sweet voice, that indicates those _naïve_ women who
+among their children are themselves the greatest children.
+
+What could cause mother to laugh so loudly at this late hour of the
+night? Because the window was broken? At that time I did not yet know
+that there is a horrible affliction which attacks women with agonies of
+hell, and amidst these heart-rending agonies forces them to laugh
+incessantly.
+
+I comforted myself with what my brother had said, and forcibly buried my
+head in my pillow that I might compel myself to fall asleep.
+
+It was already late in the morning when I awoke again. This time also my
+brother had awakened me. He was already quite dressed.
+
+My first thought was of our visit to the country.
+
+"Is the carriage already here? Why did you not wake me earlier? Why, you
+are actually dressed!"
+
+I also immediately hastened to get up, and began to dress; my brother
+helped me, and answered not a word to my constant childish prattling. He
+was very serious, and often gazed in directions where there was nothing
+to be seen.
+
+"Some one has annoyed you, Lorand?"
+
+My brother did not reply, only drew me to his side and combed my hair.
+He gazed at me incessantly with a sad expression.
+
+"Has some evil befallen you, Lorand?"
+
+No sign, even of the head, of assent or denial; he merely tied my
+neckerchief quietly into a bow.
+
+We disputed over the coat I should wear; I wished to put on a blue one.
+Lorand, on the contrary, wished me to wear a dark green one.
+
+I resisted him.
+
+"Why, we are going to the country! There the blue doublet will be just
+the thing. Why don't you give it to me? Because you have none like it!"
+
+Lorand said nothing; he merely looked at me with those great reproachful
+eyes of his. It was enough for me. I allowed him to dress me in the dark
+green coat. And yet I would continually grumble about it.
+
+"Why, you are dressing me as if we were to go to an examination or to a
+funeral."
+
+At these words Lorand suddenly pressed me to him, folding me in his
+embrace, then knelt down before me and began to weep, and sob so that
+his tears bedewed my hair.
+
+"Lorand, what is the matter?" I asked in terror; but he could not speak
+for weeping. "Don't weep, Lorand. Did I annoy you? Don't be angry."
+
+Long did he weep, all the time holding me in his arms. Then suddenly he
+heaved a deep and terrifying sigh, and in a low voice stammered in my
+ear:
+
+"Father--is--dead."
+
+I was one of those children who could not weep; who learn that only with
+manhood. At such a time when I should have wept, I only felt as if some
+worm were gnawing into my heart, as if some languor had seized me, which
+deprived me of all feeling expressed by the five senses--my brother wept
+for me. Finally, he kissed me and begged me to recover myself. But I was
+not beside myself. I saw and heard everything. I was like a log of wood,
+incapable of any movement.
+
+It was unfortunate that I was not gifted with the power of showing how I
+suffered.
+
+But my mind could not fathom the depths of that thought. Our father was
+dead!
+
+Yesterday evening he was still talking with us; embracing and kissing
+us; he had promised to take us to the country, and to-day he was not: he
+was dead. Quite incomprehensible! In my childhood I had often racked my
+brains with the question, "What is there beyond the world?" Void. Well,
+and what surrounds that void? Many times this distracting thought drove
+me almost to madness. Now this same maddening dilemma seized upon me.
+How could it be that my father was dead?
+
+"Let us go to mother!" was my next thought.
+
+"We shall go soon after her. She has already departed."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To the country."
+
+"But, why?"
+
+"Because she is ill."
+
+"Then why did she laugh so in the night?"
+
+"Because she is ill."
+
+This was still more incomprehensible to my poor intellect.
+
+A thought then occurred to me. My face became suddenly brighter.
+
+"Lorand, of course you are joking; you are fooling me. You merely wished
+to alarm me. We are all going away to the country to enjoy ourselves!
+and you only wished to take the drowsiness from my eyes when you told me
+father was dead."
+
+At these words Lorand clasped his hands, and, with motionless, agonized
+face, groaned out:
+
+"Desi, don't torture me; don't torture me with your smiling face."
+
+This caused me to be still more alarmed. I began to tremble, seized one
+of his arms, and implored him not to be angry. Of course, I believed
+what he said.
+
+He could see that I believed, for all my limbs were trembling.
+
+"Let us go to him, Lorand."
+
+My brother merely gazed at me as if he were horrified at what I had
+said.
+
+"To father?"
+
+"Yes. What if I speak to him, and he awakes?"
+
+At this suggestion Lorand's two eyes became like fire. It seems as if he
+were forcibly holding back the rush of a great flood of tears. Then
+between his teeth he murmured:
+
+"He will never awake again."
+
+"Yet I would like to kiss him."
+
+"His hand?"
+
+"His hand and his face."
+
+"You may kiss only his hand," said my brother firmly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I say so," was his stern reply. The unaccustomed ring of his
+voice was quite alarming. I told him I would obey him; only let him take
+me to father.
+
+"Well, come along. Give me your hand."
+
+Then taking my hand, he led me through two rooms.[2] In the third,
+grandmother met us.
+
+[Footnote 2: In Hungary the houses are built so that one room always
+leads into the other; the whole house can often be traversed without the
+necessity of going into a corridor or passage.]
+
+I saw no change in her countenance; only her thick white eyebrows were
+deeply contracted.
+
+Lorand went to her and softly whispered something to her which I did not
+hear; but I saw plainly that he indicated me with his eyes. Grandmother
+quietly indicated her consent or refusal with her head; then she came to
+me, took my head in her two hands, and looked long into my face, moving
+her head gently. Then she murmured softly:
+
+"Just the way _he_ looked as a child."
+
+Then she threw herself face foremost upon the floor, sobbing bitterly.
+
+Lorand seized my hand and drew me with him into the fourth room.
+
+There lay the coffin. It was still open; only the winding-sheet covered
+the whole.
+
+Even to-day I have no power to describe the coffin in which I saw my
+father. Many know what that is; and no one would wish to learn from me.
+Only an old serving-maid was in the chamber; no one else was watching.
+My brother pressed my head to his bosom. And so we stood there a long
+time.
+
+Suddenly my brother told me to kiss my father's hand, and then we must
+go. I obeyed him; he raised the edge of the winding-sheet; I saw two
+wax-like hands put together; two hands in which I could not have
+recognized those strong muscular hands, upon the shapely fingers of
+which in my younger days I had so often played with the wonderful
+signet-rings, drawing them off one after the other.
+
+I kissed both hands. It was such a pleasure! Then I looked at my brother
+with agonized pleading. I longed so to kiss the face. He understood my
+look and drew me away.
+
+"Come with me. Don't let us remain longer." And that was such terrible
+agony to me! My brother told me to wait in my room, and not to move from
+it until he had ordered the carriage which was to take us away.
+
+"Whither?" I asked.
+
+"Away to the country. Remain here and don't go anywhere else." And to
+keep me secure he locked the door upon me.
+
+Then I fell a-thinking. Why should we go to the country now that our
+father was lying dead? Why must I remain meanwhile in that room? Why do
+none of our acquaintances come to see us? Why do those who go about the
+house whisper so quietly? Why do they not toll the bell when so great a
+one lies dead in the house?
+
+All this distracted my brain entirely. To nothing could I give myself an
+answer, and no one came to me from whom I could have demanded the truth.
+
+Once, not long after (to me it seemed an age, though, if the truth be
+known, it was probably only a half-hour or so), I heard the old
+serving-maid, who had been watching in yonder chamber, tripping past the
+corridor window. Evidently some one else had taken her place.
+
+Her face was now as indifferent as it always was. Her eyes were cried
+out; but I am sure I had seen her weep every day, whether in good or in
+bad humor; it was all one with her. I addressed her through the window:
+
+"Aunt Susie, come here."
+
+"What do you want, dear little Desi?"
+
+"Susie, tell me truly, why am I not allowed to kiss my father's face?"
+
+The old servant shrugged her shoulders, and with cynical indifference
+replied:
+
+"Poor little fool. Why, because--because he has no head, poor fellow."
+
+I did not dare to tell my brother on his return what I had heard from
+old Susie.
+
+I told him it was the cold air, when he asked why I trembled so.
+
+Thereupon he merely put my overcoat on, and said, "Let us go to the
+carriage."
+
+I asked him if our grandmother was not coming with us. He replied that
+she would remain behind. We two took our seats in one carriage; a second
+was waiting before the door.
+
+To me the whole incident seemed as a dream. The rainy, gloomy weather,
+the houses that flew past us, the people who looked wonderingly out of
+the windows, the one or two familiar faces that passed us by, and in
+their astonished gaze upon us forgot to greet us. It was as if each one
+of them asked himself: "Why has the father of these boys no head?" Then
+the long poplar-trees at the end of the town, so bent by the wind as if
+they were bowing their heads under the weight of some heavy thought; and
+the murmuring waves under the bridge, across which we went, murmuring as
+if they too were taking counsel over some deep secret, which had so oft
+been intrusted to them, and which as yet no one had discovered--why was
+it that some dead people had no heads? Something prompted me so, to turn
+with this awful question to my brother. I overcame the demon, and did
+not ask him. Often children, who hold pointed knives before their eyes,
+or look down from a high bridge into the water, are told, "Beware, or
+the devil will push you." Such was my feeling in relation to this
+question. In my hand was the handle, the point was in my heart. I was
+sitting upon the brim, and gazing down into the whirlpool. Something
+called upon me to thrust myself into the living reality, to lose my head
+in it. And yet I was able to restrain myself. During the whole journey
+neither my brother nor I spoke a word.
+
+When we arrived at our country-house our physician met us, and told us
+that mother was even worse than she had been; the sight of us would
+only aggravate her illness; so it would be good for us to remain in our
+room.
+
+Our grandmother arrived two hours after us. Her arrival was the signal
+for a universal whispering among the domestics, as if they would make
+ready for something extraordinary which the whole world must not know.
+Then we sat down to dinner quite unexpectedly, far earlier than usual.
+No one could eat; we only gazed at each course in turn. After dinner my
+brother in his turn began to hold a whispered conference with
+grandmother. As far as I could gather from the few words I caught, they
+were discussing whether he should take his gun with him or not. Lorand
+wished to take it, but grandmother objected. Finally, however, they
+agreed that he should take gun and cartridges, but should not load the
+weapon until he saw a necessity for it.
+
+In the mean while I staggered about from room to room. It seemed as if
+everybody had considerations of more importance than that of looking
+after me.
+
+In the afternoon, however, when I saw my brother making him ready for a
+journey, despair seized hold of me:
+
+"Take me with you."
+
+"Why, you don't even know where I am going."
+
+"I don't mind; I will go anywhere, only take me with you; for I cannot
+remain all by myself."
+
+"Well, I will ask grandmother."
+
+My brother exchanged a few words with my grandmother, and then came back
+to me.
+
+"You may come with me. Take your stick and coat."
+
+He slung his gun on his shoulder and took his dog with him.
+
+Once again this thought agonized me afresh: "Father is dead, and we go
+for an afternoon's shooting, with grandmother's consent as if nothing
+had happened."
+
+We went down through the gardens, all along the loam-pits; my brother
+seemed to be choosing a route where we should meet with no one. He kept
+the dog on the leash to prevent its wandering away. We went a long way,
+roaming among maize-fields and shrubs, without the idea once occurring
+to Lorand to take the gun down from his shoulder. He kept his eyes
+continually on the ground, and would always silence the dog, when the
+animal scented game.
+
+Meantime we had left the village far behind us. I was already quite
+tired out, and yet I did not utter a syllable to suggest our returning.
+I would rather have gone to the end of the world than return home.
+
+It was already twilight when we reached a small poplar wood. Here my
+brother suggested a little rest. We sat down side by side on the trunk
+of a felled tree. Lorand offered me some cakes he had brought in his
+wallet for me. How it pained me that he thought I wanted anything to
+eat. Then he threw the cake to the hound. The hound picked it up and,
+disappearing behind the bushes, we heard him scratch on the ground as he
+buried it. Not even he wanted to eat. Next we watched the sunset. Our
+village church-tower was already invisible, so far had we wandered, and
+yet I did not ask whether we should return.
+
+The weather became suddenly gloomy; only after sunset did the clouds
+open, that the dying sun might radiate the heavens with its
+storm-burdened red fire. The wind suddenly rose. I remarked to my
+brother that an ugly wind was blowing, and he answered that it was good
+for us. How this great wind could be good for us, I was unable to
+discover.
+
+When later the heavens gradually changed from fire red to purple, from
+purple to gray, from gray to black, Lorand loaded his gun, and let the
+hound loose. He took my hand. I must now say not a single word, but
+remain motionless. In this way we waited long that boisterous night.
+
+I racked my brain to discover the reason why we were there.
+
+On a sudden our hound began to whine in the distance--such a whine as I
+had never yet heard.
+
+Some minutes later he came reeling back to us; whimpering and whining,
+he leaped up at us, licked our hands, and then raced off again.
+
+"Now let us go," said Lorand, shouldering his gun.
+
+Hurriedly we followed the hound's track, and soon came out upon the
+high-road.
+
+In the gloom a hay-cart drawn by four oxen, was quietly making its way
+to its destination.
+
+"God be praised!" said the old farm-laborer, as he recognized my
+brother.
+
+"For ever and ever."
+
+After a slight pause my brother asked him if there was anything wrong?
+
+"You needn't fear, it will be all right."
+
+Thereupon we quietly sauntered along behind the hay-wagon.
+
+My brother uncovered his head, and so proceeded on his way bareheaded;
+he said he was very warm. We walked silently for a distance until the
+old laborer came back to us.
+
+"Not tired, Master Desi?" he asked; "you might take a seat on the cart."
+
+"What are you thinking of, John?" said Lorand; "on this cart?"
+
+"True; true, indeed," said the aged servant. Then he quietly crossed
+himself, and went forward to the oxen.
+
+When we came near the village, old John again came toward us.
+
+"It will be better now if the young gentlemen go home through the
+gardens; it will be much easier for me to get through the village
+alone."
+
+"Do you think they are still on guard?" asked Lorand.
+
+"Of course they know already. One cannot take it amiss; the poor fellows
+have twice in ten years had their hedges broken down by the hail."
+
+"Stupidity!" answered my brother.
+
+"May be," sighed the old serving-man. "Still the poor man thinks so."
+
+Lorand nudged the old retainer so that he would not speak before me.
+
+My brain became only more confused thereat.
+
+Lorand told him that we would soon pass through the gardens; however,
+after John had advanced a good distance with the cart we followed in his
+tracks again, keeping steadily on until we came to the first row of
+houses beginning the village. Here my brother began to thread his way
+more cautiously, and in the dark I heard distinctly the click of the
+trigger as he cocked his gun.
+
+The cart proceeded quietly before us to the end of the long village
+street.
+
+Above the workhouse about six men armed with pitchforks met us.
+
+My brother said we must make our way behind a hedge, and bade me hold
+our dog's mouth lest he should bark when the others passed.
+
+The pitchforked guards passed near the cart, and advanced before us too.
+I heard how the one said to the other:
+
+"Faith, _that_ is the reason this cursed wind is blowing so furiously!"
+
+"_That_" was the reason! What was the reason?
+
+As they passed, my brother took my hand and said: "Now let us hasten,
+that we may be home before the wagon."
+
+Therewith he ran with me across a long cottage-court, lifted me over a
+hedge, climbing after me himself; then through two or three more strange
+gardens, everywhere stepping over the hedges; and at last we reached our
+own garden.
+
+But, in Heaven's name, had we committed some sin, that we ran thus,
+skulking from hiding-place to hiding-place?
+
+As we reached the courtyard, the wagon was just entering. Three
+retainers waited for it in the yard, and immediately closed the gate
+after it.
+
+Grandmother stood outside on the terrace and kissed us when we arrived.
+
+Again there followed a short whispering between my brother and the
+domestics; whereupon the latter seized pitchforks and began to toss down
+the hay from the wain.
+
+Could they not do so by daylight?
+
+Grandmother sat down on a bench on the terrace, and drew my head to her
+bosom. Lorand leaned his elbows upon the rail of the terrace and watched
+the work.
+
+The hay was tossed into a heap and the high wind drove the chaff on to
+the terrace, but no one told the servants to be more careful.
+
+This midnight work was, for me, so mysterious.
+
+Only once I saw that Lorand turned round as he stood, and began to weep;
+thereupon grandmother rose, and they fell each upon the other's breast.
+
+I clutched their garments and gazed up at them trembling. Not a single
+lamp burned upon the terrace.
+
+"Sh!" whispered grandmother, "don't weep so loudly," she was herself
+choking with sobs. "Come, let us go."
+
+With that she took my hand, and, leaning upon my brother's arm, came
+down with us into the courtyard, down to the wagon, which stood before
+the garden gate. Two or more heaps of straw hid _it_ from the eye; it
+was visible only when we reached the bottom of the wagon.
+
+On that wagon lay the coffin of my father.
+
+So this it was that in the dead of night we had stealthily brought into
+the village, that we had in so skulking a manner escorted, and had so
+concealed; and of which we had spoken in whispers. This it was that we
+had wept over in secret--my father's coffin. The four retainers lifted
+it from the wagon, then carried it on their shoulders toward the garden.
+We went after it, with bared heads and silent tongues.
+
+A tiny rivulet flowed through our garden; near this rivulet was a
+little round building, whose gaudy door I had never seen open.
+
+From my earliest days, when I was unable to rise from the ground if once
+I sat down, the little round building had always been in my mind.
+
+I had always loved it, always feared to be near it; I had so longed to
+know what might be within it. As a little knickerbockered child I would
+pick the colored gravel-stones from the mortar, and play with them in
+the dust; and if perchance one stone struck the iron door, I would run
+away from the echo the blow produced.
+
+In my older days it was again only around this building that I would
+mostly play, and would remark that upon its façade were written great
+letters, on which the ivy, that so actively clambered up the walls,
+scarcely grew. At that time how I longed to know what those letters
+could mean!
+
+When the first holiday after I had made the acquaintance of those
+letters came, and they took me again to our country-seat, one after
+another I spelled out the ancient letters of the inscription on that
+mysterious little house, and pieced them together in my mind. But I
+could not arrive at their meaning; for they were written in some foreign
+tongue.
+
+Many, many times I wrote those words in the dust even before I
+understood them:
+
+"NE NOS INDUCAS IN TENTATIONEM."
+
+I strove to reach one year earlier than my school-fellows the so-called
+"student class," where Latin was taught.
+
+My most elementary acquaintance with the Latin tongue had always for its
+one aim the discovery of the meaning of that saying. Finally I solved
+the mystery--
+
+"Lead us not into temptation." It is a sentence of the Lord's Prayer,
+which I myself had repeated a thousand times; and now I knew its
+meaning still less than before.
+
+And still more began to come to me a kind of mysterious abhorrence of
+that building, above whose door was to be found the prayer that God
+might guard us against temptations.
+
+Perhaps this was the very dwelling of temptations?
+
+We know what children understand by "temptations."
+
+To-day I saw this door open, and knew that this building was our family
+vault.
+
+This door, which hitherto I had only seen covered with ivy, was now
+swung open, and through the open porch glittered the light of a lamp.
+The two great Virginia creepers which were planted before the crypt hid
+the glass so that it was not visible from the garden. The brightness was
+only for us.
+
+The four men set the coffin down on the steps; we followed after it.
+
+So this was that house where temptations dwell; and all our prayers were
+in vain; "lead us not into temptation." Yet to temptation we were forced
+to come. Down a few steps we descended, under a low, plastered arch,
+which glittered green from the moisture of the earth. In the wall were
+built deep niches, four on either side, and six of them were already
+filled. Before them stood slabs of marble, with inscriptions telling of
+those who had fallen asleep. The four servants placed the coffin they
+had brought on their shoulders in the seventh niche; then the aged
+retainer clasped his hands, and with simple devotion repeated the Lord's
+Prayer; the other three men softly murmured after him: "Amen. Amen."
+
+Then they left us to ourselves.
+
+Grandmother all this while had without a word, without a movement, stood
+in the depth of the crypt, holding our hands within her own; but when we
+were alone, in a frenzy she darted to the coffined niche and flung
+herself to the ground before it.
+
+Oh! I cannot tell what she said as she raved there. She wept and
+sobbed, flinging reproaches--at the dead! She scolded, as one reproves a
+child that has cut itself with a knife. She asked why he did _this_. And
+again she heaped grave calumny upon him, called him coward, wretch,
+threatened him with God, with God's wrath, and with eternal
+damnation;--then asked pardon of him, babbled out words of conciliation,
+called him back, called him dear, sweet, and good; related to him what a
+faithful, dear, loving wife waited at home, with his two sweet
+children,--how could he forget them? Then with gracious, reverent words
+begged him to turn Christian, to come to God, to learn to believe, to
+hope, to love; to trust to the boundless mercy; to take his rest in the
+paths of Heaven. And then she uttered a scream, tore the tresses of her
+dove-white hair, and cursed God. Methought it was the night of the Last
+Judgment.
+
+Every fire-breathing monster of the Revelation, the very disgorging of
+the dead from the rent earth, were as naught to me compared with the
+terror which that hour heaped upon my head.
+
+'Twas hither we had brought father, who died suddenly, in the prime of
+life. Hither we had brought him, in stealth, and slinking; here we had
+concealed him without any Christian ceremony, without psalm or toll of
+bell; no priest's blessing followed him to his grave, as it follows even
+the poorest beggar; and now here, in the house of the dead, grandmother
+had cursed the departed, and anathematized the other world, on whose
+threshold we stand, and in her mad despair was knocking at the door of
+the mysterious country as she beat upon the coffin-lid with her fist.
+
+Now, in my mature age, when my head, too, is almost covered with
+winter's snow, I see that our presence there was essential; drop by drop
+we were to drain to the dregs this most bitter cup, which I would had
+never fallen to our lot!
+
+Grandmother fell down before the niche and laid her forehead upon the
+coffin's edge; her long white hair fell trailing over her.
+
+Long, very long, she lay, and then she rose; her face was no more
+distorted, her eyes no longer filled with tears. She turned toward us
+and said we should remain a little longer here.
+
+She herself sat down upon the lowest step of the stone staircase, and
+placed the lamp in front of her, while we two remained standing before
+her.
+
+She looked not at us, only peered intensely and continuously with her
+large black eyes into the light of the lamp, as if she would conjure
+therefrom something that had long since passed away.
+
+All at once she seized our hands, and drew us toward her to the
+staircase.
+
+"You are the scions of a most unhappy house, every member of which dies
+by his own hand."
+
+So this was that secret that hung, like a veil of mourning before the
+face of every adult member of our family! We continuously saw our elders
+so, as if some mist of melancholy moved between us; and this was that
+mist.
+
+"This was the doom of God, a curse of man upon us!" continued
+grandmother, now no longer with terrifying voice. Besides, she spoke as
+calmly as if she were merely reciting to us the history of some strange
+family. "Your great-grandfather. Job Áronffy, he who lies in the first
+niche, bequeathed this terrible inheritance to his heirs; and it was a
+brother's hand that hurled this curse at his head. Oh, this is an
+unhappy earth on which we dwell! In other happy lands there are
+murderous quarrels between man and man; brothers part in wrath from one
+another; the 'mine and thine,'[3] jealousy, pride, envy, sow tares among
+them. But this accursed earth of ours ever creates bloodshed; this
+damned soil, which we are wont to call our 'dear homeland,' whose pure
+harvest we call love of home, whose tares we call treason, while every
+one thinks his own harvest the pure one, his brother's the tares, and,
+for that, brother slays brother! Oh! you cannot understand it yet.
+
+[Footnote 3: That is, the disputes as to the superiority of each other's
+possessions, or as to each other's right to possession.]
+
+"Your great-grandfather lived in those days when great men thought that
+what is falling in decay must be built afresh. Great contention arose
+therefrom, much knavery, much disillusion; finally the whole had to be
+wiped out.
+
+"Job's parents educated him at academies in Germany; there his soul
+became filled with foreign freedom of thought; he became an enthusiastic
+partisan of common human liberty. When he returned, this selfsame idea
+was in strife with an equally great one, national feeling. He joined his
+fortunes with the former idea, as he considered it the just one. In what
+patriots called relics of antiquity he saw only the vices of the
+departed. His elder brother stood face to face with him; they met on the
+common field of strife, and then began between them the unending feud.
+They had been such good brothers, never had they deserted each other in
+time of trouble; and on this thorn-covered field they must swear eternal
+enmity. Your great-grandfather belonged to the victorious, his brother
+to the conquered army. But the victory was not sweet.
+
+"Job gained a powerful, high position, he basked in the sunshine of
+power, but he lost that which was--nothing; merely the smiles of his old
+acquaintances. He was a seigneur, from afar they greeted him, but did
+not hurry to take his hand; and those who of yore at times of meeting
+would kiss his face from right and left, now after his change of dignity
+would stand before him, and bow their greetings askance with cold
+obeisance. Then there was one man who did not even bow, but sought a
+meeting only that he might provoke him with his obstinate sullenness,
+and gaze upon him with his piercing eyes--his own brother. Yet they were
+both honorable, good men, true Christians, benefactors of the poor, the
+darlings of their family, and once so fond of each other! Oh, this
+sorrowful earth here below us!
+
+"Then this new order of things that had been built up for ten years,
+fell into ruins, and Joseph II. on his death-bed drew a red line through
+his whole life-work; what had happened till then faded into mere
+remembrance.
+
+"The earth re-echoed with the shouts of rejoicing--this earth, this
+bitter earth. Job for his part wended his way to the Turkish bath in
+Buda, and, that he might meet with his brother no more, opened his
+arteries and bled to death.
+
+"Yet they were both good Christians; true men in life, faithful to
+honor, no evil-doers, no godless men; in heart and deed they worshipped
+God; but still the one brother took his own life, that he might meet no
+more with the other; and the other said of him: 'He deserved his fate.'
+
+"Oh, this earth that is drenched with the flow of our tears!"
+
+Here grandmother paused, as if she would collect in her mind the
+memories of a greater and heavier affliction.
+
+Not a sound reached us down there--even the crypt door was closed; the
+moaning of the wind did not reach so far; no sound, only the beating of
+the hearts of three living beings.
+
+Grandmother sought with her eyes the date written upon the arch, which
+the moisture that had sweated out from the lime had rendered illegible.
+
+"In this year they built this house of sorrow. Job was the first
+inhabitant thereof. Just as now, without priest, without toll of bell,
+hidden in a wooden chest of other form, they brought him here; and with
+him began that melancholy line of victims, whose legacy was that one
+should draw the other after him. The shedding of blood by one's own hand
+is a terrible legacy. That blood besprinkles children and brothers. That
+malicious tempter who directed the father's hand to strike the sharp
+knife home into his own heart stands there in ambush forever behind his
+successors' backs; he is ever whispering to them; 'Thy father was a
+suicide, thy brother himself sought out death; over thy head, too,
+stands the sentence; wherever thou runnest from before it, thou canst
+not save thyself; thou carriest with thyself thy own murderer in thine
+own right hand.' He tempts and lures the undecided ones with blades
+whetted to brilliancy, with guns at full cock, with poison-drinks of
+awful hue, with deep-flowing streams. Oh, it is indeed horrible!
+
+"And nothing keeps them back! they never think of the love, the
+everlasting sorrow of those whom they leave behind here to sorrow over
+their melancholy death. They never think of Him whom they will meet
+there beyond the grave, and who will ask them: 'Why did you come before
+I summoned you?'
+
+"In vain was written upon the front of this house of sorrow, 'Lead us
+not into temptation.' You can see. Seven have already taken up their
+abode here. All the seven have cast at the feet of Providence that
+treasure, an account of which will be asked for in Heaven.
+
+"Job left three children: Ákos, Gerö, and Kálmán. Ákos was the eldest,
+and he married earliest. He was a good man, but thoughtless and
+passionate. One summer he lost his whole fortune at cards and was
+ruined. But even poverty did not drive him to despair. He said to his
+wife and children: 'Till now we were our own masters; now we shall be
+the servants of others. Labor is not a disgrace. I shall go and act as
+steward to some landowner.' The other two brothers, when they heard of
+their elder's misfortune, conferred together, went to him, and said:
+'Brother, still two-thirds of our father's wealth is left; come, let us
+divide it anew.'
+
+"And each of them gave him a third of his property, that they might be
+on equal terms again.
+
+"That night Ákos shot himself in the head.
+
+"The stroke of misfortune he could bear, but the kindness of his
+brothers set him so against himself that when he was freed from the
+cares of life he did not wish to know further the enjoyments thereof.
+
+"Ákos left behind two children, a girl and a boy.
+
+"The girl had lived some sixteen summers--very beautiful, very good.
+Look! there is her tomb: 'Struck down in her sixteenth year!' She loved;
+became unhappy; and died.
+
+"You cannot understand it yet!
+
+"So already three lay in the solitary vault.
+
+"Gerö was your grandfather--my good, never-to-be-forgotten husband. No
+tear wells in my eyes as I think of him; every thought that leads me
+back to him is sweet to me; and I know that he was a man of high
+principles; that every deed of his--his last deed, too--was proper and
+right, it is as it should be. It happened before my very eyes; and I did
+not seize his hand to stay his action."
+
+How my old grandmother's eyes flashed in this moment! A glowing warmth,
+hitherto unknown to me, seemed to pervade my whole being; some
+glimmering ray of enthusiasm--I knew not what! How the dead can inspire
+one with enthusiasm!
+
+"Your grandfather was the very opposite of his own father; as it is
+likely to happen in hundreds, nay, in thousands of cases that the sons
+restore to the East the fame and glory that their fathers gathered in
+the West.
+
+"But you don't understand that, either!
+
+"Gerö was in union with those who, under the leadership of a priest of
+high rank, wished at the end of the last century, to prepare the country
+for another century. No success crowned their efforts; they fell with
+him--and fell without a head. One afternoon your grandfather was sitting
+in the family circle--it was toward the end of dinner--when a strange
+officer entered in the midst of us, and, with a face utterly incapable
+of an expression of remorse, informed Gerö that he had orders to put him
+under guard. Gerö displayed a calm face, merely begged the stranger to
+allow him to drink his black coffee. His request was granted without
+demur. My husband calmly stirred his coffee, and entered into
+conversation with the stranger, who did not seem to be of an angry
+disposition. Indeed, he assured my husband that no harm would come of
+this incident. My husband peacefully sipped his coffee.
+
+"Then having finished it, he put down his cup, wiped his beautiful long
+beard, turned to me, drew me to his breast, and kissed me on both
+cheeks, not touching my mouth. 'Educate our boy well,' he stammered.
+Then, turning to the stranger: 'Sir, pray do not trouble yourself
+further on my account. I am a dead man; you will be welcome at my
+funeral.'
+
+"Two minutes later he breathed his last. And I had clearly seen, for I
+sat beside him, how with his thumb he opened the seal of the ring he
+wore on his little finger, how he shook a white powder therefrom into
+the cup standing before him, how he stirred it slowly till it dissolved,
+and then sipped it up little by little; but I could not stay his hand,
+could not call to him, 'Don't do it! Cling to life!'"
+
+Grandmother was staring before her, with the ecstatic smile of madness.
+Oh! I was so frightened that even now my mind wanders at the
+remembrance.
+
+This smile of madness is so contagious! Slowly nodding with her gray
+head, she again fell all in a heap. It was apparent that some time must
+elapse before this recollection, once risen in her mind, could settle to
+rest again. After what seemed to us hours she slowly raised herself
+again and continued her tragic narrative.
+
+"He was already the fourth dweller in this house of temptations.
+
+"After his death his brother Kálmán came to join our circle. To the end
+he remained single; very early in life he was deceived, and from that
+moment became a hater of mankind.
+
+"His gloom grew year by year more incurable; he avoided every
+distraction, every gathering; his favorite haunt was this garden--this
+place here. He planted the beautiful juniper-trees before the door;
+such trees were in those days great rarities.
+
+"He made no attempt to conceal from us--in fact, he often declared
+openly to us that his end could be none other than his brothers' had
+been.
+
+"The pistol, with which Ákos had shot himself, he kept by him as a
+souvenir, and in sad jest declared it was his inheritance.
+
+"Here he would wander for hours together in reverie, in melancholy,
+until the falling snow confined him to his room. He detested the winter
+greatly. When the first snowflake fell, his ill-humor turned to the
+agony of despair; he loathed the atmosphere of his rooms and everything
+to be found within the four walls. We so strongly advised him to winter
+in Italy, that he finally gave in to the proposal. We carefully packed
+his trunks; ordered his post-chaise. One morning, as everything stood
+ready for departure, he said that, before going for this long journey,
+he would once again take leave of his brothers. In his travelling-suit
+he came down here to the vault, and closed the iron door after him,
+enjoining that no one should disturb him. So we waited behind; and, as
+hour after hour passed by and still he did not appear, we went after
+him. We forced open the closed door, and there found him lying in the
+middle of the tomb--he had gone to the country where there is no more
+winter.
+
+"He had shot himself in the heart, with the same pistol as his brother,
+as he had foretold.
+
+"Only two male members of the family remained: my son and the son of
+Ákos. Lörincz--that was the name of Ákos' son--was reared too kindly by
+his poor, good mother; she loved him excessively, and thereby spoiled
+him. The boy became very fastidious and sensitive. He was eleven years
+old when his mother noticed that she could not command his obedience.
+Once the child played some prank, a mere trifle; how can a child of
+eleven years commit any great offence? His mother thought she must
+rebuke him. The boy laughed at the rebuke; he could not believe his
+mother was angry; then, in consequence, his mother boxed his ears. The
+boy left the room; behind the garden there was a fishpond; in that he
+drowned himself.
+
+"Well, is it necessary to take one's life for such a thing? For one
+blow, given by the soft hand of a mother to a little child, to take such
+a terrible revenge! to cut the thread of life, which as yet he knew not;
+How many children are struck by a mother, and the next day received into
+her bosom, with mutual forgiveness and a renewal of reciprocal love?
+Why, a blow from a mother is merely one proof of a mother's love. But it
+brought him to take his life."
+
+The cold perspiration stood out in beads all over me.
+
+That bitterness I, too, feel in myself. I also am a child, just as old
+as that other was; I have never yet been beaten. Once my parents were
+compelled to rebuke me for wanton petulance; and from head to foot I was
+pervaded through and through by one raving idea: "If they beat me I
+should take my own life." So I am also infected with the hereditary
+disease--the awful spirit is holding out his hand over me; captured,
+accursed, he is taking me with him. I am betrayed to him! Only instead
+of thrashing me, they had punished me with fasting fare; otherwise, I
+also should already be in this house.
+
+Grandmother clasped her hands across her knees and continued her story.
+
+"Your father was older at the time of this event--seventeen years of
+age. Ever since his birth the world has been rife with discord and
+revolutions; all the nations of the world pursued a bitter warfare one
+against another. I scarce expected my only son would live to be old
+enough to join the army. Thither, thither, where death with a scythe in
+both hands was cutting down the ranks of the armed warriors; thither,
+where the children of weeping mothers were being trampled on by horses'
+hoofs; thither, thither, where they were casting into a common grave the
+mangled remains of darling first-borns; only not hither, not into this
+awful house, into these horrible ranks of tempting spectres! Yes, I
+rejoiced when I knew that he was standing before the foe's cannons; and
+when the news of one great conflict after another spread like a dark
+cloud over the country, with sorrowful tranquillity, I lay in wait for
+the lightning-stroke which, bursting from the cloud, should dart into my
+heart with the news: 'Thy son is dead! They have slain him, as a hero is
+slain!' But it was not so. The wars ceased. My son returned.
+
+"No, it is not true; don't believe what I said,--'If only the news of
+his death had come instead!'
+
+"No; surely I rejoiced, surely I wept in my joy and happiness, when I
+could clasp him anew in my arms, and I blessed God for not having taken
+him away. Yet, why did I rejoice? Why did I triumph before the world,
+saying, 'See, what a fine, handsome son I have! a dauntless warrior,
+fame and honor he has brought home with him. My pride--my gladness? Now
+they lie here! What did I gain with him--he, too, followed the rest! He,
+too! he, whom I loved best of all--he whose every Paradise was here on
+earth!"
+
+My brother wept; I shivered with cold.
+
+Then suddenly, like a lunatic, grandmother seized our hands, and leaped
+up from her sitting-place.
+
+"Look yonder! there is still _one_ empty niche--room for _one_ coffin.
+Look well at that place; then go forth into the world and think upon
+what the mouth of this dark hollow said.
+
+"I had thought of making you swear here never to forsake God, never to
+continue the misfortunes of this family; but why this oath? That some
+one should take with him to the other world one sin more, in that in the
+hour of his death he forswore himself? What oath would bind him who
+says: 'The mercy of God I desire not'?
+
+"But instead, I brought you here and related you the history of your
+family. Later you shall know still more therefrom, that is yet secret
+and obscure before you. Now look once more around you, and then--let us
+go out.
+
+"Now you know what is the meaning of this melancholy house, whose door
+the ivy enters with the close of a man's life from time to time. You
+know that the family brings its suicides hither to burial, because
+elsewhere they have no place. But you know also that in this awful
+sleeping-room there is space for only _one_ person more, and the second
+will find no other resting-place than the grave-ditch!"
+
+With these words grandmother passionately thrust us both from her. In
+terror we fell into each other's arms before her frenzied gaze.
+
+Then, with a shrill cry, she rushed toward us and embraced us both with
+all the might of a lunatic; wept and gasped, till finally she fainted
+utterly away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE GIRL SUBSTITUTE[4]
+
+
+[Footnote 4: In former days it was the custom for a Magyar and a German
+family to interchange children, with a view to their learning the two
+languages perfectly. So Fanny Fromm is interchanged with Desiderius
+Áronffy.]
+
+A pleasant old custom was then in fashion in our town: the interchange
+of children,--perhaps it is in fashion still. In our many-tongued
+fatherland one town is German-speaking, the other Magyar-speaking, and,
+being brothers, after all to understand each other was a necessity.
+Germans must learn Magyar and Magyars, German. And peace is restored.
+
+So a method of temporarily exchanging children grew up: German parents
+wrote to Magyar towns, Magyar parents to German towns, to the respective
+school directors, to ask if there were any pupils who could be
+interchanged. In this manner one child was given for another, a kind,
+gentle, womanly thought!
+
+The child left home, father, mother, brother, only to find another home
+among strangers: another mother, other brothers and sisters, and his
+absence did not leave a void at home; child replaced child; and if the
+adopted mother devoted a world of tenderness to the pilgrim, it was with
+the idea that her own was being thus treated in the far distance; for a
+mother's love cannot be bought at a price but only gained by love.
+
+It was an institution that only a woman's thought could found: so
+different from that frigid system invented by men which founded
+nunneries, convents, and closed colleges for the benefit of susceptible
+young hearts where all memory of family life was permanently wiped out
+of their minds.
+
+After that unhappy day, which, like the unmovable star, could never go
+so far into the distance as to be out of sight, grandmother more than
+once said to us in the presence of mother, that it would not be good for
+us to remain in this town; we must be sent somewhere else.
+
+Mother long opposed the idea. She did not wish to part from us. Yet the
+doctors advised the same course. When the spasms seized her, for days we
+were not allowed to visit her, as it made her condition far worse.
+
+At last she gave her consent, and it was decided that we two should be
+sent to Pressburg. My brother, who was already too old to be exchanged,
+went to the home of a Privy Councillor, who was paid for taking him in,
+and my place was to be taken by a still younger child than myself, by a
+little German girl, Fanny, the daughter of Henry Fromm, baker.
+Grandmother was to take us in a carriage--in those days in Hungary we
+had only heard rumors of steamboats--and to bring the girl substitute
+back with her.
+
+For a week the whole household sewed, washed, ironed and packed for us;
+we were supplied with winter and summer clothing: on the last day
+provisions were prepared for our journey, as if we had intended to make
+a voyage to the end of the world, and in the evening we took supper in
+good time, that we might rise early, as we had to start before daybreak.
+That was my first departure from my home. Many a time since then have I
+had to say adieu to what was dearest to me; many sorrows, more than I
+could express, have afflicted me: but that first parting caused me the
+greatest pain of all, as is proved by the fact that after so long an
+interval I remember it so well. In the solitude of my own chamber, I
+bade farewell separately to all those little trifles that surrounded me:
+God bless the good old clock that hast so oft awakened me. Beautiful
+raven, whom I taught to speak and to say "Lorand," on whom wilt thou
+play thy sportive tricks? Poor old doggy, maybe thou wilt not be living
+when I return? Forsooth old Susie herself will say to me, "I shall never
+see you again Master Desi." And till now I always thought I was angry
+with Susie; but now I remark that it will be hard to leave her.
+
+And my dear mother, the invalid, and grandmother, already so
+grey-haired!
+
+Thus the bitter strains swept onward along the strings of my soul, from
+lifeless objects to living, from favorite animals to human
+acquaintances, and then to those with whom we were bound soul to soul,
+finally dragging one with them to the presence of the dead and buried. I
+was sorely troubled by the thought that we were not allowed to enter,
+even for one moment, that solitary house, round the door of which the
+ivy was entwining anew. We might have whispered "God be with thee! I
+have come to see thee!" I must leave the place without being able to say
+to him a single word of love. And perhaps he would know without words.
+Perhaps the only joy of that poor soul, who could not lie in a
+consecrated chamber, who could not find the way to heaven because he had
+not waited till the guardian angel came for him, was when he saw that
+his sons love him still.
+
+"Lorand, I cannot sleep, because I have not been able to take my leave
+of that house beside the stream."
+
+My brother sighed and turned in his bed.
+
+My whole life long I have been a sound sleeper (what child is not?) but
+never did it seem such a burden to rise as on the morning of our
+departure. Two days later a strange child would be sleeping in that bed.
+Once more we met together at breakfast, which we had to eat by
+candle-light as the day had not yet dawned.
+
+Dear mother often rose from her seat to kiss and embrace Lorand,
+overwhelmed him with caresses, and made him promise to write much; if
+anything happened to him, he must write and tell it at once, and must
+always consider that bad news would afflict two hearts at home. She
+only spoke to me to bid me drink my coffee warm, as the morning air
+would be chilly.
+
+Grandmother, too, concerned herself entirely with Lorand: they enquired
+whether he had all he required for the journey, whether he had taken his
+certificates with him--and a thousand other matters. I was rather
+surprised than jealous at all this, for as a rule the youngest son gets
+all the petting.
+
+When our carriage drove up we took our travelling coats and said adieu
+in turn to the household. Mother, leaning on Lorand's shoulder, came
+with us to the gate whispering every kind of tender word to him; thrice
+she embraced and kissed him. And then came my turn.
+
+She embraced me and kissed me on the cheek, then tremblingly whispered
+in my ear these words:
+
+"My darling boy,--take care of your brother Lorand!" I take care of
+Lorand? the child of the young man? the weak of the strong? the later
+born guide the elder. The whole journey long this idea distracted me,
+and I could not explain it to myself.
+
+Of the impressions of the journey I retain no very clear recollections:
+I think I slept very much in the carriage. The journey to Pressburg
+lasted from early morning till late evening; only as twilight came on
+did a new thought begin to keep me awake, a thought to which as yet I
+had paid no attention: "What kind of a child could it be, for whom I was
+now being exchanged? Who was to usurp my place at table, in my bed-room,
+and in my mother's heart? Was she small or large? beautiful or ugly?
+obedient or contrary? had she brothers or sisters, to whom I was to be a
+brother? was she as much afraid of me as I was of her?"
+
+For I was very much afraid of her.
+
+Naturally, I dreaded the thought of the child who was meeting me at the
+cross-roads with the avowed intention of taking my place as my mother's
+child, giving me instead her own parents. Were they reigning princes,
+still the loss would be mine. I confess that I felt a kind of sweet
+bitterness in the idea that my substitute might be some dull, malicious
+creature, whose actions would often cause mother to remember me. But if,
+on the contrary, she were some quiet, angelic soul, who would soon steal
+my mother's love from me! In every respect I trembled with fear of that
+creature who had been born that she might be exchanged for me.
+
+Towards evening grandmother told us that the town which we were going to
+was visible. I was sitting with my back to the horses, and so I was
+obliged to turn round in order to see. In the distance I could see the
+four-columned white skeleton of a building, which was first apparent to
+the eye.
+
+"What a gigantic charnel-house," I remarked to grandmother.
+
+"It is no charnel-house, my child, but it is the ruin of the citadel of
+(Pressburg) Pozsony."[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: Pozsony. A town in Hungary is called by the Germans
+Pressburg.]
+
+A curious ruin it is. This first impression ever remained in my mind: I
+regarded it as a charnel-house.
+
+It was quite late when we entered the town, which was very large
+compared to ours. I had never seen such elegant display in shop-windows
+before and it astonished me as I noticed that there were paved sidewalks
+reserved for pedestrians. They must be all fine lords who live in this
+city.
+
+Mr. Fromm, the baker, to whose house I was to be taken, had informed us
+that we need not go to an hotel as he had room for all of us, and would
+gladly welcome us, especially as the expense of the journey was borne by
+us. We found his residence by following the written address. He owned a
+fine four-storied house in the Fürsten allee,[6] with his open shop in
+front on the sign of which peaceful lions were painted in gold holding
+rolls and cakes between their teeth.
+
+[Footnote 6: Princes avenue.]
+
+Mr. Fromm himself was waiting for us outside his shop door, and hastened
+to open the carriage door himself. He was a round-faced, portly little
+man, with a short black moustache, black eyebrows, and close-cropped,
+thick, flour-white hair. The good fellow helped grandmother to alight
+from the carriage: shook hands with Lorand, and began to speak to them
+in German: when I alighted, he put his hand on my head with a peculiar
+smile:
+
+"Iste puer?"
+
+Then he patted me on the cheeks.
+
+"Bonus, bonus."
+
+His addressing me in Latin had two advantages; firstly, as I could not
+speak German, nor he Magyar, this use of a neutral tongue removed all
+suspicions of our being deaf and dumb; secondly, it at once inspired me
+with a genuine respect for the honest fellow, who had dabbled in the
+sciences, and had, beyond his technical knowledge of his own business,
+some acquaintance with the language of Cicero. Mr. Fromm made room for
+grandmother and Lorand to pass before him up a narrow stone staircase,
+while he kept his hand continuously on my head, as if that were the part
+of me by which he could best hold me.
+
+"Veni puer. Hic puer secundus, filius meus."
+
+So there was a boy in the house, a new terror for me.
+
+"Est studiosus."
+
+What, that boy! That was good news: we could go to school together.
+
+"Meus filius magnus asinus."
+
+That was a fine acknowledgment from a father.
+
+"Nescit pensum nunquam scit."
+
+Then he discontinued to speak of the young student, and pantomimically
+described something, from which I gathered that "meus filius," on this
+occasion was condemned to starve, until he had learnt his lessons, and
+was confined to his room.
+
+This was no pleasant idea to me.
+
+Well, and what about "mea filia?"
+
+I had never seen a house that was like Mr. Fromm's inside. Our home was
+only one-storied, with wide rooms, and broad corridors, a courtyard and
+a garden: here we had to enter first by a narrow hall: then to ascend a
+winding stair, that would not admit two abreast. Then followed a rapid
+succession of small and large doors, so that when we came out upon the
+balconied corridor, and I gazed down into the deep, narrow courtyard, I
+could not at all imagine how I had reached that point, and still less
+how I could ever find my way out. "Father" Fromm led us directly from
+the corridor into the reception room, where two candles were burning
+(two in our honor), and the table laid for "gouter." It seemed they had
+expected us earlier. Two women were seated at the window, Mrs. Fromm and
+her mother. Mrs. Fromm was a tall slender person; she had grey curls (I
+don't know why I should not call them "Schneckles," for that is their
+name) in front, large blue eyes, a sharp German nose, a prominent chin
+and a wart below her mouth.
+
+The "Gross-mamma" was the exact counterpart of Mrs. Fromm, only about
+thirty years older, a little more slender, and sharper in feature: she
+had also grey "Schneckles"--though I did not know until ten years later
+that they were not her own:--she too had that wart, though in her case
+it was on the chin.
+
+In a little low chair was sitting that certain personage with whom they
+wished to exchange me.
+
+Fanny was my junior by a year:--she resembled neither father nor mother,
+with the exception that the family wart, in the form of a little brown
+freckle, was imprinted in the middle of her left cheek. During the whole
+time that elapsed before our arrival here I had been filled with
+prejudices against her, prejudices which the sight of her made only more
+alarming. She had an ever-smiling, pink and white face, mischievous blue
+eyes, and a curious snub-nose; when she smiled, little dimples formed in
+her cheeks and her mouth was ever ready to laugh. When she did laugh,
+her double row of white teeth sparkled; in a word she was as ugly as the
+devil.
+
+All three were busy knitting as we entered. When the door opened, they
+all put down their knitting. I kissed the hands of both the elder
+ladies, who embraced me in return, but my attention was entirely devoted
+to the little lively witch, who did not wait a moment, but ran to meet
+grandmother, threw herself upon her neck, and kissed her passionately;
+then, bowing and curtseying before us, kissed Lorand twice, actually
+gazing the while into his eyes.
+
+A cold chill seized me. If this little snub-nosed devil dared to go so
+far as to kiss me, I did not know what would become of me in my terror.
+
+Yet I could not avoid this dilemma in any way. The terrible little
+witch, having done with the others, rushed upon me, embraced me, and
+kissed me so passionately that I was quite ashamed; then twining her arm
+in mine, dragged me to the little arm-chair from which she had just
+risen, and compelled me to sit down, though we could scarcely find room
+in it for us both. Then she told many things to me in that unknown
+tongue, the only result of which was to persuade me that my poor good
+mother would have a noisy baggage to take the place of her quiet,
+obedient little son; I felt sure her days would be embittered by that
+restless tongue. Her mouth did not stop for one moment, yet I must
+confess that she had a voice like a bell.
+
+That was again a family peculiarity. Mother Fromm was endowed with an
+inexhaustible store of that treasure called eloquence: and a sharp,
+strong voice, too, which forbade the interruption of any one else, with
+a flow like that of the purling stream. The grandmamma had an equally
+generous gift, only she had no longer any voice: only every second word
+was audible, like one of those barrel-organs, in which an occasional
+note, instead of sounding, merely blows.
+
+Our business was to listen quietly.
+
+For my part, that was all the easier, as I could not suspect what was
+the subject of this flow of barbarian words; all I understood was that,
+when the ladies spoke to me, they addressed me as "Istok,"[7] a jest
+which I found quite out of place, not knowing that it was the German for
+"Why don't you eat?" For you must know the coffee was brought
+immediately, with very fine little cakes, prepared especially for us
+under the personal supervision of Father Fromm.
+
+[Footnote 7: "Issdoch," the German for "but eat." (Why don't you eat?)
+While Istok is a nickname for Stephan in Magyar.]
+
+Even that little snub-nosed demon said "Issdoch," seized a cake, dipped
+it in my coffee, and forcibly crammed it into my mouth, when I did not
+wish to understand her words.
+
+But I was not at all hungry. All kinds of things were brought onto the
+table, but I did not want anything. Father Fromm kept calling out
+continually in student guise "Comedi! Comedi!" a remark which called
+forth indignant remonstrances from mamma and grossmamma; how could he
+call his own dear "Kugelhuff"[8] a "comedy!!!"
+
+[Footnote 8: A cake eaten everywhere in Hungary.]
+
+Fanny in sooth required no coaxing. At first sight anyone could see that
+she was the spoiled child of the family, to whom everything was allowed.
+She tried everything, took a double portion of everything and only after
+taking what she required did she ask "darf ich?"[9]--and I understood
+immediately from the tone of her voice and the nodding of her head, that
+she meant to ask "if she might."
+
+[Footnote 9: i. e., darf ich, "may I?"]
+
+Then instead of finishing her share she had the audacity to place her
+leavings on my plate, an action which called forth rebuke enough from
+Grossmamma. I did not understand what she said, but I strongly suspected
+that she abused her for wishing to accustom the "new child" to eating a
+great deal. Generally speaking, I had brought from home the suspicion
+that, when two people were speaking German before me, they were surely
+hatching some secret plot against me, the end of which would be, either
+that I would not get something, or would not be taken somewhere, where
+I wished to go.
+
+I would not have tasted anything the little snub-nose gave me, if only
+for the reason that it was she who had given it. How could she dare to
+touch my plate with those dirty little hands of hers, that were just
+like cats-paws?
+
+Then she gave everything I would not accept to the little kitten;
+however, the end of it all was, that she again turned to me, and asked
+me to play with the kitten.
+
+Incomprehensible audacity! To ask me, who was already a school-student,
+to play with a tiny kitten.
+
+"Shoo!" I said to the malicious creature; a remark which,
+notwithstanding the fact that it seemed to belong to some
+strange-tongued nationality, the animal understood, for it immediately
+leaped down off the table and ran away. This caused the little snub-nose
+to get angry with me, and she took her sensitive revenge upon me, by
+going across to my grandmother, whom she tenderly caressed, kissing her
+hand, and then nestled to her bosom, turning her back on me; once or
+twice she looked back at me, and if at the moment my eye was on her,
+sulkily flung back her head; as if that was any great misfortune to me.
+
+Little imp! She actually occupied my place beside my grandmother--and
+before my eyes too.
+
+Well, and why did I gaze at her, if I was so very angry with her? I will
+tell you truly; it was only that I might see to what extremes she would
+carry her audacity. I would far rather have been occupied in the
+fruitless task of attempting to discover something intelligent in a
+conversation that was being carried on before me in a strange tongue: an
+effort that is common to all men who have a grain of human curiosity
+flowing in their veins, and that, as is well-known, always remains
+unsuccessful.
+
+Still one combination of mine did succeed. That name "Henrik"
+often struck my ear. Father Fromm was called Henrik, but he
+himself uttered the name: that therefore could not be other than
+his son. My grandmother spoke of him in pitiful tones, whereas
+Father Fromm assumed a look of inexorable severity, when he gave
+information on this subject; and as he spoke I gathered frequently
+the words "prosodia,"--"pensum"--"labor"--"vocabularium"--and
+many other terms common to dog-Latin: among which words like
+"secunda"--"tertia"--"carcer" served as a sufficiently trustworthy
+compass to direct me to the following conclusion: My friend Henrik might
+not put in an appearance to-day at supper, because he did not know his
+lessons, and was to remain imprisoned in the house until he could
+improve his standing by learning to repeat, in the language of a people
+long since dead, the names of a host of eatables.
+
+Poor Henrik!
+
+I never had any patience with the idea of anyone's starving, and
+moreover starving by way of punishment. I could understand anyone being
+done to death at once: but the idea of condemning anyone in cold blood
+to starve, to wrestle with his own body, to strive with his own heart
+and stomach, I always regarded as cruelty. I deemed that if I took one
+of those little cakes, which that audacious girl had piled up before me
+so forcibly, and put it in my pocket, it would not be wasted.
+
+I waited cautiously until nobody was looking my way, and then slipped
+the cake into my pocket without accident.
+
+Without accident? I only remarked it, when that little snub-nose laughed
+to herself. Just at that moment she had squinted towards me. But she
+immediately closed her mouth with her hand, giggling between her
+fingers, the while her malicious, deceitful eyes smiled into mine. What
+would she think? Perhaps that I am too great a coward to eat at table,
+and too insatiable to be satisfied with what I received. Oh! how ashamed
+I was before her! I would have been capable of any sacrifice to secure
+her secrecy, perhaps even of kissing her, if she would not tell
+anyone.... I was so frightened.
+
+My fright was only increased by the grandmother, who first looked at the
+cake-dish, and then looked at each plate on the table in turn,
+subsequently resetting her gaze upon that cake-dish; then she gazed up
+to the ceiling, as if making some calculation, which she followed up by
+considerable shaking of her head.
+
+Who could not understand that dumb speech? She had counted the cakes;
+calculated how many each had devoured; how many had been put on the
+dish, had added and subtracted, with the result that one cake was
+missing: what had become of it? An inquisition would follow: the cake
+would be looked for, and found in my pocket, and then no water could
+ever wash away my shame.
+
+Every moment I expected that little demoniacal curiosity to point to me
+with that never-resting hand of hers, and proclaim: "there in the new
+child's pocket is the cake."
+
+She was already by my side, and I saw that father, mother and
+Grandmother Fromm turned to me all with inquiring looks, and addressed
+some terrible "interpellatio" to me, which I did not understand, but
+could suspect what it was. And Lorand and grandmother did not come to my
+aid to explain what it all meant.
+
+Instead of which snub-nose swept up to me and, repeating the same
+question, explained it by pantomimic gestures; laying one hand upon the
+other, then placing her head upon them, gently closed her eyes.
+
+Oh, she was asking, if I were sleepy? It was remarkable, how this
+insufferable creature could make me understand everything.
+
+Never did that question come more opportunely. I breathed more freely.
+Besides, I made up my mind never to call her "snub-nose devil" any more.
+
+Grandmother allowed me to go: little Fanny was to show me to my room: I
+was to sleep with Henrik: I said good-night to all in turn, and so
+distracted was I that I kissed even Fanny's hand. And the little bundle
+of malice did not prevent me, she merely laughed at me for it.
+
+This girl had surely been born merely to annoy me.
+
+She took a candle in her hand and told me to follow her: she would lead
+the way.
+
+I obeyed her.
+
+We had not quite reached the head of the corridor when the draught blew
+out the candle.
+
+We were in complete darkness, for there was no lamp burning here of an
+evening on the staircase, only a red glimmer, reflected probably from
+the bakery-chimney, lit up the darkness, and even that disappeared as we
+left the corridor.
+
+Fanny laughed when the candle went out, and tried for a time to blow the
+spark into a flame: not succeeding, she put down the candle-stick, and
+leaning upon my arm assured me that she could show me the way in this
+manner too.
+
+Then, without waiting for a remark from me, she took me with her into
+the pitchy darkness. At first she spoke, to encourage me, and then began
+to sing, perhaps to make me understand better; and felt with her hands
+for the doors, and with her feet for the steps of the staircase.
+Meanwhile I continually reflected: "this terrible malicious trifler is
+plotting to lead me into some flour-bin, shut the door upon me, and
+leave me there till the morning: or to let me step in the darkness into
+some flue, where I shall fall up to my neck into the rising dough;--for
+of that everything is full."
+
+Poor, kind, good Fanny! I was so angry with you, I hated you so when I
+first saw you!... And now, as we grow old....
+
+I should never have believed that anyone could lead me in such
+subterranean darkness through that winding labyrinth, where even in
+broad daylight I often entirely lost my whereabouts. I only wondered
+that this extraordinarily audacious girl could refrain from pulling my
+hair as she led me through that darkness, her arm in mine, though she
+had such a painful opportunity of doing so. Yes, I quite expected her to
+do so.
+
+Finally we reached a door, before which there was no need of a lamp to
+assure a man of the room he was seeking. Through the door burst that
+most sorrowful of all human sounds, the sound of a child audibly
+wrestling with some unintelligible verse, twenty, fifty, a thousand
+times repeated anew, and anew, without becoming intelligible, while the
+verse had not yet taken its place in the child's head. Through the
+boards sounded afar a spiral Latin phrase.
+
+"His atacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque." Then again:
+
+"His acatem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque."
+
+And again the same.
+
+Fanny placed her ear against the door and seized my hand as a hint to be
+quiet. Then she laughed aloud. How can anyone find an amusing subject in
+a poor hard-brained "studiosus," who cannot grasp that rule, inevitable
+in every career in life, that the second syllable of dropax, antrax,
+climax "et caethra graeca" in the first case is long, in the second
+short--a rule extremely useful to a man later in life when he gets into
+some big scrape?
+
+But Fanny found it extremely ridiculous. Then she opened the door and
+nodded to me to follow her.
+
+It was a small room under the staircase. Within were two beds, placed
+face to face; on one I recognized my own pillows which I had brought
+with me, so that must be my sleeping place. Beside the window was a
+writing-table on which was burning a single candle, its wick so badly
+trimmed as to prove that he who should have trimmed it had been so
+deeply engaged in work that he had not remarked whether darkness or
+light surrounded him.
+
+Weeping, his head buried in his hands, my friend Henrik was sitting at
+that table; as the door opened he raised his head from the book over
+which he was poring. He greatly resembled his mother and grandmother:
+he had just such a pronounced nose; but he had bristly hair, like his
+father, only black and not so closely cropped. He, too, had the family
+wart, actually in the middle of his nose.
+
+As he looked up from his book, in a moment his countenance changed
+rapidly from fear to delight, from delight to suspicion. The poor boy
+thought he had gained a respite, and that the messenger had come with
+the white serviette to invite him to supper: he smiled at Fanny
+entreating compassion, and then, when he saw me, became embarrassed.
+
+Fanny approached him with an enquiring air, placed one hand on his
+thigh, with the other pointed to the open book, probably intending to
+ask him whether he knew his lessons.
+
+The great lanky boy rose obediently before his little confessor, who
+scarce reached to his shoulder, and proceeded to put himself to rights.
+He handed the book to Fanny, casting a farewell glance at the
+disgusting, insufferable words; and with a great gulp by which he hoped
+to remove all obstacles from the way of the lines he had to utter,
+cleared his throat and began:--
+
+"His abacem, phylacem ..."
+
+Fanny shook her head. It was not good.
+
+Henrik was frightened. He began again:
+
+"His abacem, coracem...."
+
+Again it was wrong. The poor boy began over five or six times, but could
+not place those pagan words in the correct order, and as the mischievous
+girl shook her head each time he made a mistake, he finally became so
+confused that he could not even begin; then he reddened with anger, and,
+gnashing his teeth, tore the graceless book out of Fanny's hand, threw
+it down upon the table and commenced an assault upon the heathen words,
+and with glaring eyes read the million-times repeated incantation: "His
+abacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem facemque," striking the back of his
+head with clinched fist at every word.
+
+Fanny burst into uncontrollable laughter at this scene.
+
+I, however, was very sorry for my companion. My learning had been easy
+enough, and I regarded him with the air of a lord who looks from his
+coach window at the bare-footed passers-by.
+
+Fanny was unmerciful to him.
+
+Henrik looked up at her, and though I did not understand her words, I
+understood from his eyes that he was asking for something to eat.
+
+The strong-headed sister actually refused his request.
+
+I wished to prove my goodness of heart--my vanity also inclined me to
+inform this mischievous creature that I had not put away the bun for my
+own sake--So I stepped up to Henrik and, placing my hand on his shoulder
+with condescending friendliness, pressed into his hand the cake I had
+reserved for him.
+
+Henrik cast a glance at me like some wild beast which has an aversion to
+petting, then flung the bun under the table with such violence that it
+broke into pieces.
+
+"Dummer kerl!"[10]
+
+[Footnote 10: "Stupid fellow!"]
+
+I remember well, that was the first title of respect I received from
+him.
+
+Planting his knuckles on the top of my head, he performed a tattoo with
+the same all over my head.
+
+That is called, in slang, "holz-birn."[11] By this process of
+"knuckling" the larger boys showed their contempt for the smaller, and
+it belongs to that kind of teasing which no self-respecting boy ever
+would allow to pass unchallenged. And before this girl, too!
+
+[Footnote 11: Literally "Wild-pear" (_wood-pear_) a method of
+"knuckling" down the younger boys.]
+
+Henrik was taller than I, by a head, but I did not mind. I grasped him
+by the waist, and grappled with him. He wished to drag me in the
+direction of my bed, in order to throw me on to it, but with a quick
+movement I cast him on his own bed, and holding his two hands tight on
+his chest, cried to him:
+
+"Pick up the bun immediately!"
+
+Henrik kicked and snarled for a moment, then began to laugh, and to my
+astonishment begged me, in student tongue, to release him: "We should be
+good friends." I released him, we shook hands, and the fellow became
+quite lively.
+
+What astonished me most was that, at the time I was throwing her
+brother, Fanny did not come to his aid nor tear out my eyes, she merely
+laughed, and screamed her approval. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying
+herself.
+
+After this we all three looked for the fragments of Henrik's broken bun,
+which the good fellow with an expression of contentment dispatched on
+its natural way; then Fanny produced a couple of secreted apples which
+she had "sneaked" for him. I found it remarkable beyond words that this
+impertinent child's thoughts ran in the same direction as my own.
+
+From that hour Henrik and I were always fast friends; we are so to this
+day. When we got into bed I was curious as to the dreams I should have
+in the strange house. There is a widely-spread belief that what one
+dreams the first night in a new house will in reality come to pass.
+
+I dreamed of the little snub-nose.
+
+She was an angel with wings, beautiful dappled wings, such as I had read
+of not long since in the legend of Vörösmarty.[12] All around me she
+fluttered: but I could not move, my feet were so heavy, albeit there was
+something from which I ought to escape, until she seized my hand and
+then I could run so lightly that I did not touch the earth even with the
+tips of my feet.
+
+[Footnote 12: A great Hungarian poet who lived and died in the early
+part of this century. He wrote legends and made a remarkable translation
+of some of Shakespeare's works.]
+
+How I worried over that dream! A snub-nosed angel-- What mocking dreams
+a man has, to be sure.
+
+The next day we were early astir; to me it seemed all the earlier, as
+the window of our little room looked out on to the narrow courtyard,
+where the day dawned so slowly, but Márton, the principal assistant, was
+told off to brawl at the schoolboy's door, when breakfast was being
+prepared:
+
+"Surgendum disciple!"
+
+I could not think what kind of an assault it was, that awoke me from my
+dream, when first I heard the clamorous clarion call. But Henrik jumped
+to his feet at once, and roused me from my bed, explaining, half in
+student language, half by gesture, that we should go down now to the
+bakery to see how the buns and cakes were baked. There was no need to
+dress; we might go in our night clothes, as the bakers wear quite
+similar costumes. I was curious, and easily persuaded to do anything; we
+put on our slippers and went down together to the bakery.
+
+It was an agreeable place; from afar it betrayed itself by that sweet
+confectionery smell, which makes a man imagine that if he breathes it in
+long enough he will satisfy his hunger therewith. Everything in the
+whole place was as white as snow; everything so clean; great bins full
+of flour; huge vessels full of swelling dough, from which six
+white-dressed, white-aproned assistants were forming every conceivable
+kind of cake and bun; piled upon the shelves of the gigantic white oven
+the first supply was gradually baking, filling the whole room with a
+most agreeable odor.
+
+Master Márton, when he caught sight of me, began to welcome me in a kind
+of broken Hungarian "Jo reggelt jo reggelt!"[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: Good morning.]
+
+He had a curious knack of putting the whole of his scalp into motion
+whenever he moved his eyebrows up or down; a comical peculiarity of
+which he availed himself whenever he wished to make anyone laugh, and
+saw that his words did not have the desired effect.
+
+Henrik set to work and competed with the baker's assistants; he was
+clever at making dainty little titbits of cakes quite as clever as
+anyone there; and pleasure beamed on his face when the old assistant
+praised his efforts.
+
+"You see," Márton said to me, "what a ready assistant he would make! In
+two years he might be free. But the old man is determined he shall learn
+and study; he wants to make a councillor of him." With these words
+Márton, by a movement of his eyebrows, sent the whole of the skin on his
+head to form a bunch on the crown, for all the world as if it had been a
+wig on springs.
+
+"Councillor, indeed! a councillor who gnaws pens when he is hungry!
+Thanks; not if they gave me the tower of St. Michael. A councillor, who,
+with paper in hand and pen behind ear, goes to visit the bakers in turn,
+and weighs their loaves in the balance to see if they are correct
+weight."
+
+It seemed that Márton did not take into consideration any other duties
+that a councillor might have besides the examining of bakers'
+loaves--and that one could hardly gain his approval.
+
+"Yet, if you take a little pains for their sake, you will find them as
+gentle as lambs. Give them a 'heitige striozts,'[14] or All Saints Day,
+and you will secure your object. Such is Mr. Dintenklek." At this point
+Márton could not refrain from breaking out into an unmelodious
+"Gassenhauer"[15] the refrain of which was, "Alas! Mr. Dintenklek."
+
+[Footnote 14: A kind of dainty bit suitable to this "holy" occasion.]
+
+[Footnote 15: A popular air sung in the streets.]
+
+Two or three assistants joined in the refrain, of which I did not
+understand a word; but as Márton uttered the final words, "Alas Mr.
+Dintenklek," his gestures were such as to lead me to suspect that this
+Mr. Dintenklek must be some very ridiculous figure in the eye of baker's
+assistants.
+
+"Why, of course, Henrik must learn law. The old man says he, too, might
+have become a councillor if he had concluded his studies at school.
+What a blessing he did not. As it is, he almost murders us with his
+learning. He is always showing off how much Latin he knows. Yes, the old
+man Latinizes."
+
+As he said this Márton could scarcely control the skin of his head, so
+often did he have to twitch his eyebrows in order to express the above
+opinion, which he held about his master's pedantry.
+
+Then with a sudden suspicion he turned to me:
+
+"You don't wish to be a councillor, I suppose?"
+
+I earnestly assured him that, on the contrary, I was preparing for a
+vacancy in the county.
+
+"Oho! lieutenant-governor? That is different, quite another thing;
+travelling in a coach. No putting on of mud boots when it is muddy. That
+I allow." And, in order to show how deep a respect he bore towards my
+presumptive office position, he drew his eyebrows up so high that his
+cap fell back upon his neck.
+
+"Enough of dough-kneading for the present, Master Henrik. Go back to
+your room and write out your 'pensum,' for you will again be forbidden
+breakfast, if it is not ready."
+
+Henrik did not listen to him, but worked away for all the world as if he
+was not being addressed.
+
+Meanwhile Márton was cutting a large piece of dough into bits of exactly
+equal size, out of which the "Vienna" rolls were to be formed. This
+delicate piece of work needs an accurate eye to avoid cheating either
+one's master or the public.
+
+"You see, he is at home here; he does not want his books. And there is
+nothing more beautiful, more refined than our art; nothing more
+remunerative; we deal with the blessing of God, for we prepare the daily
+bread. The Lord's Prayer includes the baker, 'Give us this day our daily
+bread.' Is there any mention anywhere of butchers, of tailors or of
+cobblers? Well, does anyone pray for meat, for coats, or for books? Let
+me hear about him. But they do pray for their daily bread, don't they?
+And does the prayer-book say anything concerning councillors? What? Who
+knows anything on that score?"
+
+Some young assistant interrupted: "Why, of course, 'but deliver us from
+the evil one.'"
+
+This caused everybody to laugh; it caused Henrik to spoil his buns,
+which had to be kneaded afresh. He was annoyed by the idea that he had
+learned all he had merely in order to be ridiculed here in the bakery.
+
+"Ha, yes," remarked Master Márton, smiling. "It is a great misfortune
+that a man is never asked how he wishes to die, but a still greater
+misfortune if he is not asked how he wishes to live. My father destined
+me to be a butcher. I learned the whole trade. Then I suddenly grew
+tired of all that ox-slaughtering, and cow-skinning. I was always
+fascinated by these beautiful brown-backed rolls in the shop-window;
+whenever I passed before the confectionery window, the pleasant warm
+bread-odors just invited me in:--until at last I deserted my trade, and
+joined Father Fromm. At that time my moustache and beard were already
+sprouting, but I have never regretted my determination. Whenever I look
+at my clean, white shirt, I am delighted at the idea that I have not to
+sprinkle it with blood, and wear the blood-stained garment the rest of
+the day. Everyone should follow his own bent, should he not, Henrik?"
+
+"True," muttered the youth in a tone of anger. "And yet the butcher's
+trade is as far above the councillor's as the weather-cock on St.
+Michael's tower is above our own vane. I do not like blood on my hands,
+yet at least I could wash it off; but if a drop of ink gets on my finger
+from my pen, for three days no pumice stone would induce it to depart.
+Yes, it is a glorious thing to be a baker's assistant."
+
+Márton now busied himself in shovelling several dozen loaves of white
+bread into the heated oven. Meantime the whole "ménage" commenced with
+one voice to sing a peculiar air, which I had already heard several
+times resounding through the bakers' windows.
+
+It runs as follows:
+
+    "Oh, the kneading trough is fine,
+    Very beautiful and fine.
+
+    Straight and crooked, round in form
+    Thin and long, three-legged too,
+    Here's a stork, and here's a 'ticker,'
+    While here's a pair of snuffers too,
+    Stork and ticker, snuffers too,
+    Bottles, tipsy Michael with them.
+    Bottles, tipsy Michael with them,
+    Stork and ticker, snuffers too,
+    Thin and long, three-legged too,
+    Straight and crooked, round in form.
+
+    Oh! the kneading trough is fine,
+    Very beautiful and fine."
+
+They sang this air with such a passionate earnestness that, to this day
+I must believe, was caused, not by the beauty of the verses, or the
+corresponding melody, but rather by some superstitious feeling that
+their chanting would prevent the plague infecting the bread while it was
+baking, or perhaps the air served as an hour-glass telling them by its
+termination that now was the time to take the bread out of the oven. As
+they who are wont to use the Lord's Prayer for the boiling of eggs--God
+save the mark.
+
+Henrik joined in. I saw he had no longer any idea of finishing his
+school tasks, and when the "Oh, the kneading trough" began anew, I left
+him in the bakery, and went upstairs to our room. On the table lay
+Henrik's unfortunate exercise-book open, full of corrections made in a
+different ink; of the new exercise only the first line had been begun.
+Immediately I collected the words wanted from a dictionary, and wrote
+the translation down on a piece of paper.
+
+Not till an hour later did he return from the scene of his operations,
+and even then did not know to what he should turn his hand first. Great
+was his delight, then, to see the task already finished; he merely had
+to copy it.
+
+He gazed at me with a curious peevishness and said: "Guter kerl."[16]
+
+[Footnote 16: Good fellow.]
+
+From his countenance I could not gather what he had said but the word
+kerl made me prepare myself for a repetition of the struggle of
+yesterday, for which I did not feel the least inclination.
+
+Scarcely was the copying ready when the steps of Father Fromm resounded
+on the staircase. Henrik hastily thrust my writing into his pockets and
+was poring over the open book, when the old man halted before the door,
+so that when he opened it, such a noise resounded in the room as if
+Henrik were trying to drive an army of locusts out of the country: "his
+abacem."
+
+"Ergo, ergo; quomodo?" said the old man, placing the palm of his hand
+upon my head. I saw that this was his manner of showing affection.
+
+I ventured to utter my first German word, answering his query with a
+"Guter morgen;"[17] at which the old fellow shook his head and laughed.
+I could not imagine why. Perhaps I had expressed myself badly, or had
+astonished him with my rapid progress?
+
+[Footnote 17: Correctly, "Guten Morgen" (wunsch ich): "I wish (you) (a)
+good morning."]
+
+He did not enlighten me on the subject; instead he turned with a severe
+confessorial face to Henrik: "No ergo! Quid ergo? Quid seis? Habes
+pensum? Nebulo!"
+
+Henrik tried whether he could move the skin of his head like Master
+Márton did, when he spoke of Mr. Fromm's Latin. For the sake of greater
+security he first of all displayed the written exercise to his father,
+thinking it better to leave his weaker side until later.
+
+Father Fromm gazed at the deep learning with a critical eye, then
+graciously expressed his approval.
+
+"Bonus, Bonus."
+
+But the lesson?
+
+That bitter piece!
+
+Even yesterday, when he had only to recite them to the little snub-nose,
+Henrik did not know the verses, and to-day, the book was in the old
+man's hand! If he had merely taken the book in his hands! But with his
+disengaged hand he held a ruler with the evident intention of
+immediately pulling the boy up, if he made a mistake.
+
+Poor Henrik, of course, did not know a single word. He gazed ever
+askance at Father Fromm's ruler, and when he reached the first obstacle,
+as the old fellow raised the ruler, probably merely with the intention
+of striking Henrik's mental capacity into action by startling him,
+Henrik was no more to be seen; he was under the bed, where he had
+managed to hide his long body with remarkable agility; nor would he come
+forth until Father Fromm promised he would not hurt him, and would take
+him to breakfast.
+
+And Father Fromm kept the conditions of the armistice, only verbally
+denouncing the boy as he wriggled out of his fortress; I did not
+understand what he said, I only gathered by his grimaces and gestures
+that he was annoyed over the matter--by my presence.
+
+The morning was spent in visiting professors. The director was a
+strongly-built, bony-faced, moustached man, with a high, bald forehead,
+broad-chested, and when he spoke, he did not spare his voice, but always
+talked as if he were preaching. He was very well satisfied with our
+school certificates, and made no secret of it. He assured grandmother he
+would take care of us and deal severely with us. He would not allow us
+to go astray in this town. He would often visit us at our homes; that
+was his custom; and any student convicted of disorderliness would be
+punished.
+
+"Are the boys musicians?" he asked grandmother in harsh tones.
+
+"Oh, yes; the one plays the piano, the other the violin."
+
+The director struck the middle of the table with his fist: "I am
+sorry--but I cannot allow violin playing under any circumstances."
+
+Lorand ventured to ask, "Why not?"
+
+"Why not, indeed? Because that is the fountain-head of all mischief. The
+book, not the violin, is for the student. What do you wish to be? a
+gypsy, or a scholar? The violin betrays students into every kind of
+mischief. How do I know? Why, I see examples of it every day. The
+student takes the violin under his coat, and goes with it to the inn,
+where he plays for other students who dance there till morning with
+loose girls. So I break into fragments every violin I find. I don't ask
+whether it was dear; I dash it to the ground. I have already smashed
+violins of high value."
+
+Grandmother saw it would be wiser not to allow Lorand to answer, so she
+hastened to anticipate him:
+
+"Why, it is not the elder boy, sir, who plays the violin, but this
+younger one; besides, neither has been so trained as to wish to go to
+any undesirable place of amusement."
+
+"That does not matter. The little one has still less need of scraping.
+Besides, I know the student; at home he makes saintly faces, as if he
+would not disturb water, but when once let loose, be it in an inn, be it
+in a coffee-house, there he will sit beside his beer, and join in a
+competition, to see who is the greatest tippler, shout and sing
+'Gaudeamus igitur.' That is why I don't allow students to carry violins
+under their top-coats to inns, under any circumstances. I break the
+violin in pieces, and have the top-coat cut into a covert-coat. A
+student with a top-coat! That's only for an army officer. Then, I cannot
+suffer anyone to wear sharp-pointed boots which are especially made for
+dancing; flat-toed boots are for honest men; no one must come to my
+school in pointed boots, for I put his foot on the bench and cut away
+the points."
+
+Grandmother hurried her visit to prevent Lorand having an opportunity of
+giving answer to the worthy man, who carried his zeal in the defence of
+morality to such a pitch as to break up violins, have top-coats cut
+down, and cut off the points of pointed boots.
+
+It was a good habit of mine (long, long ago, in my childhood days), to
+regard as sacred anything a man, who had the right to my obedience,
+might say. When we came away from the director's presence, I whispered
+to Lorand in a distressed tone:
+
+"Your boots seem to me a little too pointed."
+
+"Henceforward I shall have them made still more pointed," replied
+Lorand,--an answer with which I was not at all satisfied.
+
+In my eyes every serious man was surrounded by a "nimbus" of
+infallibility; no one had ever enlightened me on the fact that
+serious-minded men had themselves once been young, and had learned the
+student jargon of Heidelberg; that this director himself, after a noisy
+youth, had arrived at the idea that every young man has malicious
+propensities, and that what seems good in him is only make-believe, and
+so he must be treated with the severity of military discipline.
+
+Then we proceeded to pay a visit to my class-master, who was the exact
+opposite of the director: a slight, many-cornered little man, with long
+hair brushed back, smooth shaved face, and such a thin, sweet voice that
+one might have taken every word of his as a supplication. And he was so
+familiar in his dealings with us. He received us in a dressing gown, but
+when he saw a lady was with us, he hastily changed that for a black
+coat, and asked pardon--why, I do not know.
+
+Then he attempted to drive a host of little children out of his room,
+but without success. They clung to his hands and arms and he could not
+shake them off; he called out to some lady to come and help him. A
+sleepy face appeared at the other door, and suddenly withdrew on seeing
+us. Finally, at grandmother's request, he allowed the children to
+remain.
+
+Mr. Schmuck was an excellent "paterfamilias," and took great care of
+children. His study was crammed with toys; he received us with great
+tenderness, and I remember well that he patted me on the head.
+
+Grandmother immediately became more confident of this good man than she
+had been of his colleague, whom we had previously visited. For he was
+so fond of his own children. To him she related the secret that made her
+heart sad; explained why we were in mourning; told him that father was
+unfortunately dead, and that we were the sole hopes of our sickly
+mother; that up till now our behaviors had been excellent, and finally
+asked him to take care of me, the younger.
+
+The good fellow clasped his hands and assured grandmother that he would
+make a great man of me, especially if I would come to him privately;
+that he might devote particular attention to the development of my
+talents. This private tuition would not come to more than seven florins
+a month. And that is not much for the whetting of one's mind; as much
+might be paid even for the grinding of scissors.
+
+Grandmother, her spirits depressed by the previous reception, timidly
+ventured to introduce the remark that I had a certain inclination for
+the violin, but she did not know whether it was allowed?
+
+The good man did not allow her to speak further. "Of course, of course.
+Music ennobles the soul, music calms the inclinations of the mind. Even
+in the days of Pythagoras lectures were closed by music. He who indulges
+in music is always in the society of good spirits. And here it will be
+very cheap; it will not cost more than six florins[18] a month, as my
+children have a music-master of their own."
+
+[Footnote 18: 1 florin equals 2s English money or 40 cents.]
+
+Dear grandmother, seeing his readiness to acquiesce, thought it good to
+make some more requests (this is always the way with a discontented
+people, too, when it meets with ready acquiescence in the powers that
+be). She remarked that perhaps I might be allowed to learn dancing.
+
+"Why, nothing could be more natural," was the answer of the gracious
+man. "Dancing goes hand-in-hand with music; even in Greek days it was
+the choral revellers that were accompanied by the harp. In the classics
+there is frequent mention of the dance. With the Romans it belonged to
+culture, and according to tradition even holy David danced. In the world
+of to-day it is just indispensable, especially to a young man. An
+innocent enjoyment! One form of bodily exercise. It is indispensable
+that the young man of to-day shall step, walk, stand properly, and be
+able to bow and dance, and not betray at once, on his appearance, that
+he has come from some school of pedantry. And in this respect I obey the
+tendency of the age. My own children all learn to dance, and as the
+dancing-master comes here in any case my young friend may as well join
+my children; it will not cost more than five florins."
+
+Grandmother was extraordinarily contented with the bargain; she found
+everything quite cheap.
+
+"By coöperation everything becomes cheap. A true mental 'ménage.' Many
+learn together, and each pays a trifle. If you wish my young friend to
+learn drawing, it will not cost more than four florins; four hours
+weekly, together with the others. Perhaps you will not find it
+superfluous, that our young friend should make acquaintance with the
+more important European languages; he can learn, under the supervision
+o£ mature teachers, English and French, at a cost of not more than three
+florins, three hours a week. And if my young friend has a few hours to
+spare, he cannot do better than spend them in the gymnasium; gymnastic
+exercise is healthy, it encourages the development of the muscles along
+with that of the brain, and it does not cost anything, only ten florins
+entrance fee."
+
+Grandmother was quite overcome by this thoughtfulness. She left
+everything in order and paid in advance.
+
+I do not wish anyone to come to the conclusion, from the facts stated
+above, that in course of time I shall come to boast what a Paganini I
+became in time, what a Mezzofanti as a linguist, what a Buonarotti in
+art, what a Vestris in the dance, or what a Michael Toddy in fencing:--I
+hasten to remark that I do not even yet understand anything of all
+these things. I have only to relate how they taught them to me.
+
+When I went to my private lessons--"together with the others"--the
+professor was not at home; we indulged in an hour's wrestling.
+
+When I went to my dancing lessons--"together with the others"--the
+dancing master was missing: again an hour's wrestling.
+
+During the French lessons we again wrestled, and during the drawing and
+violin hours we spent our time exactly as we did during the other hours;
+so that when the gymnastic lessons came round we had no more heart for
+wrestling.
+
+I did just learn to swim,--in secret, seeing that it was prohibited, and
+truly without paying:--unless I may count as a forfeit penalty that mass
+of water I swallowed once, when I was nearly drowned in the Danube. None
+even dared to acquaint the people at home with the fact; Lorand saved
+me, but he never boasted of his feat.
+
+As we left the house of this very kind man, who quite overcame
+grandmother and us, with his gracious and amiable demeanors, Lorand
+said:
+
+"From this hour I begin to greatly esteem the first professor: he is a
+noble, straight-forward fellow."
+
+I did not understand his meaning--that is, I did not wish to understand.
+Perhaps he wished to slight "my" professor.
+
+According to my ethical principles it was purely natural that each
+student should admire and love that professor who was the director of
+his own class, and if one class is secretly at war with another, the
+only reason can be that the professor of one class is the opponent of
+the other. My kingdom is the foe of thy kingdom, so my soldiers are the
+enemies of thy soldiers.
+
+I began to look at Lorand in the light of some such hostile soldier.
+
+Fortunately the events that followed drove all these ideas out of my
+head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY RIGHT HONORABLE UNCLE
+
+
+We were invited to dine with the Privy Councillor Bálnokházy, at whose
+house my brother was to take up his residence.
+
+He was some very distant relation of ours; however, he received a
+payment for Lorand's board, seven hundred florins, a nice sum of money
+in those days.
+
+My pride was the greatest that my brother was living in a privy
+councillor's house, and, if my school-fellows asked me where I lived, I
+never omitted to mention the fact that "my brother was living with
+Bálnokházy, P. C.," while I myself had taken up my abode merely with a
+baker.
+
+Baker Fromm was indeed very sorry that we were not dining "at home." At
+least they might have left me alone there. That he did not turn to stone
+as he uttered these words was not my fault; at least I fixed upon him
+such basilisk eyes as I was capable of. What an idea! To refuse a dinner
+with my P. C. uncle for his sake! Grandmother, too, discovered that I
+also must be presented there.
+
+We ordered a carriage for 1:30; of course we could not with decency go
+to the P. C.'s on foot. Grandmother fastened my embroidered shirt under
+my waistcoat, and I was vain enough to allow the little pugnose to
+arrange my tie. She really could make pretty bows, I thought. As I gazed
+at myself in the looking-glass, I found that I should be a handsome boy
+when I had put on my silver-buttoned attila.[19] And if only my hair
+was curled! Still I was completely convinced that in the whole town
+there did not exist any more such silver-buttoned attilas as mine.
+
+[Footnote 19: The coat worn by the hussars, forming part, as it does, of
+all real Magyar _levée_ dresses.]
+
+Only it annoyed me to watch the little pugnose careering playfully round
+me. How she danced round me, without any attempt to conceal the fact
+that I took her fancy; and how that hurt my pride!
+
+At the bottom of the stairs the comical Henrik was waiting for me, with
+a large brush in his hand. He assured me that my attila had become
+floury--surely from Fanny's apron, for that was always floury--and that
+he must brush it off. I only begged him not to touch my collar with the
+hair brush; for that a silk brush was required, as it was velvet.
+
+I believe I set some store by the fact that the collar of my attila was
+velvet.
+
+From the arched doorway old Márton, too, called after me, as we took our
+seats, "Good appetite, Master Sheriff!" and five or six times moved his
+cap up and down on the top of his head.
+
+How I should have loved to break his nose! Why is he compromising me
+here before my brother? He might know that when I am in full dress I
+deserve far greater respect from when he sees me before him in my night
+clothes.--But so it is with those whose business lies in flour.
+
+But let us speak no more of bakers; let us soar into higher regions.
+
+Our carriage stopped somewhere in the neighborhood of the House of
+Parliament, where there was a two-storied house, in which the P. C.
+lived.
+
+The butler--pardon! the chamberlain--was waiting for us downstairs at
+the gate (it is possible that it was not for us he was waiting). He
+conducted us up the staircase; from the staircase to the porch; from the
+porch to the anteroom; from the anteroom to the drawing-room, where our
+host was waiting to receive us.
+
+I used to think that at home we were elegant people--that we lodged and
+lived in style; but how poor I felt we were as we went through the rooms
+of the Bálnokházys. The splendor only incited my admiration and wonder,
+which was abruptly terminated by the arrival of the host and hostess and
+their daughter, Melanie, by three different doors. The P. C. was a tall,
+portly man, broad-shouldered, with black eyebrows, ruddy cheeks, a
+coal-black moustache curled upward; he formed the very ideal I had
+pictured to myself of a P. C. His hair also was of a beautiful black,
+fashionably dressed.
+
+He greeted us in a voice rich and stentorian; kissed grandmother;
+offered his hand to my brother, who shook it; while he allowed me to
+kiss his hand.
+
+What an enormous turquoise ring there was on his finger!
+
+Then my right honorable aunt came into our presence. I can say that
+since that day I have never seen a more beautiful woman. She was then
+twenty-three years of age; I know quite surely. Her beautiful face, its
+features preserved with the enamel of youth, seemed almost that of a
+young girl; her long blonde tresses waved around it; her lips, of
+graceful symmetry, always ready for a smile; her large, dark blue, and
+melancholy eyes shadowed by her long eyelashes; her whole form seemed
+not to walk--rather fluttered and glided; and the hand which she gave me
+to kiss was transparent as alabaster.
+
+My cousin Melanie was truly a little angel. Her first appearance, to me,
+was a phenomenon. Methinks no imagination could picture anything more
+lovely, more ethereal than her whole form. She was not yet more than
+eight years of age, but her stature gave her the appearance of some ten
+years. She was slender, and surely must have had some hidden wings, else
+it were impossible she could have fluttered as she did upon those
+symmetrical feet. Her face was fine and _distingué_, her eyes artful and
+brilliant; her lips were endowed with such gifts already--not merely of
+speaking four or five languages--such silent gifts as brought me beside
+myself. That child-mouth could smile enchantingly with encouraging
+calmness, could proudly despise, could pout with displeasure, could
+offer tacit requests, could muse in silent melancholy, could indulge in
+enthusiastic rapture--could love and hate.
+
+How often have I dreamed of that lovely mouth! how often seen it in my
+waking hours! how many horrible Greek words have I learned while musing
+thereon!
+
+I could not describe that dinner at the Bálnokházys to the end. Melanie
+sat beside me, and my whole attention was directed toward her.
+
+How refined was her behavior! how much elegance there was in every
+movement of hers! I could not succeed in learning enough from her. When,
+after eating, she wiped her lips with the napkin, it was as if spirits
+were exchanging kisses with the mist. Oh, how interminably silly and
+clumsy I was beside her! My hand trembled when I had to take some dish.
+Terrible was the thought that I might perchance drop the spoon from my
+hand and stain her white muslin dress with the sauce. She, for her part,
+seemed not to notice me; or, on the contrary, rather, was quite sure of
+the fact that beside her was sitting now a living creature, whom she had
+conquered, rendered dumb and transformed. If I offered her something,
+she could refuse so gracefully; and if I filled her glass, she was so
+polite when she thanked me.
+
+No one busied himself very particularly with me. A young boy at my age
+is just the most useless article; too big to be played with, and not big
+enough to be treated seriously. And the worst of it is that he feels it
+himself. Every boy of twelve years has the same ambition--"If only I
+were older already!"
+
+Now, however, I say, "If I could only be twelve years old still!" Yet at
+that time it was a great burden to me. And how many years have passed
+since then!
+
+Only toward the end of dinner, when the younger generation also were
+allowed to sip some sweet wine from their tiny glasses, did I find the
+attention of the company drawn toward me; and it was a curious case.
+
+The butler filled my glass also. The clear golden-colored liquor
+scintillated so temptingly before me in the cut glass, my little
+neighbor would so enchantingly deepen the ruddiness of her lips with the
+liquor from her glass, that an extraordinarily rash idea sprang up
+within me.
+
+I determined to raise my glass, clink glasses with Melanie, and say to
+her, "Your health, dear cousin Melanie." The blood rushed into my
+temples as I conceived the idea.
+
+I was already about to take my glass, when I cast one look at Melanie's
+face, and in that moment she gazed upon me with such disheartening pride
+that in terror I withdrew my hand from my glass. It was probably this
+hesitating movement of mine that attracted the P. C.'s attention, for he
+deigned to turn to me with the following condescending remark (intended
+perhaps for an offer):
+
+"Well, nephew, won't you try this wine?" With undismayed determination I
+answered:
+
+"No."
+
+"Perhaps you don't wish to drink wine?"
+
+Cato did not utter the phrase "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa
+Catoni," with more resolution than that with which I answered:
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Oho! you will never drink wine? We shall see how you keep your word in
+the course of time!"
+
+And that is why I kept my word. Till to-day I have never touched wine.
+Probably that first fit of obstinacy caused my determination; in a word,
+slighted in the first glass, I never touched again any kind of pressed,
+distilled, or burnt beverage. So perhaps my house lost in me an
+after-dinner celebrity.
+
+"Don't be ashamed, nephew," encouragingly continued my uncle; "this wine
+is allowed to the young also, if they dip choice Pressburg biscuits in
+it; it is a very celebrated biscuit, prepared by M. Fromm."
+
+My blood rose to my cheeks. M. Fromm! My host! Immediately the
+conversation will turn upon him, and they will mention that I am living
+with him; furthermore, they will relate that he has a little pug-nosed
+daughter, that they are going to exchange me with her. I should sink
+beneath the earth for very shame before my cousin Melanie! And surely,
+one has only to fear something and it will indeed come to pass.
+Grandmother was thoughtless enough to discover immediately what I wished
+to conceal, with these words:
+
+"Desiderius is going to live with that very man."
+
+"Ha ha!" laughed uncle, in high humor (his laughter penetrated my very
+marrow). "With the celebrated 'Zwieback'[20] baker! Why, he can teach my
+nephew to bake Pressburg biscuits."
+
+[Footnote 20: Biscuit.]
+
+How I was scalded and reduced to nothing, how I blushed before Melanie!
+The idea of my learning to bake biscuits from M. Fromm! I should never
+be able to wash myself clean of that suspicion.
+
+In my despair I found myself looking at Lorand. He also was looking at
+me. His gaze has remained lividly imprinted in my memory. I understood
+what he said with his eyes. He called me coward, miserable, and
+sensitive, for allowing the jests of great men to bring blushes to my
+cheeks. He was a democrat always!
+
+When he saw that I was blushing, he turned obstinately toward
+Bálnokházy, to reply for me.
+
+But I was not the only one who read his thoughts in his eyes; another
+also read therein, and before he could have spoken, my beautiful aunt
+took the words out of his mouth, and with lofty dignity replied to her
+husband:
+
+"Methinks the baker is just as good a man as the privy councillor."
+
+I shivered at the bold statement. I imagined that for these words the
+whole company would be arrested and thrown into prison.
+
+Bálnokházy, with smiling tenderness, bent down to his wife's hand and,
+kissing it, said:
+
+"As a man, truly, just as good a man; but as a baker, a better baker
+than I."
+
+Now it was Lorand's turn to crimson. He riveted his eyes upon my aunt's
+face.
+
+My right honorable uncle hastened immediately to close the rencontre
+with a vanquishing kiss upon my aunt's snow-white hand, a fact which
+convinced me that their mutual love was endless. In general, I behaved
+with remarkable respect toward that great relation of ours, who lived in
+such beautiful apartments, and whose titles would not be contained in
+three lines.
+
+I was completely persuaded that Bálnokházy, my uncle, had few superiors
+in celebrity in the world, for personal beauty (except, perhaps, my
+brother Lorand) none; his wife was the most beautiful and happiest woman
+under the sun; and my cousin Melanie such an angel that, if she did not
+raise me up to heaven, I should surely never reach those climes.
+
+And if some one had said to me then, "Let us begin at the beginning;
+that rich hair on Bálnokházy's head is but a wig," I should have
+demanded pardon for interrupting: I can find nothing of the least
+importance to say against the wearing of wigs. They are worn by those
+who have need of them; by those whose heads would be cold without them,
+who catch rheumatism easily with uncovered head. Finally, it is nought
+else but a head-covering for one of æsthetic tastes; a cap made of hair.
+
+This is all true, all earnest truth; and yet I was greatly embittered
+against that some one who discovered to me for the first time that my
+uncle Bálnokházy wore a wig, and painted his moustache (with some
+colored unguent, of course, nothing else). And I am still the enemy of
+that some one who repeated that before me. He might have left me in
+happy ignorance.
+
+Even if some one had said that this showy wealth, which indicated a
+noble affluence, was also such a mere wig as the other, covering the
+baldness of his riches; if some one had said that these hand-kissing
+companions, in whose every word was melody when they spoke the one to
+the other, that they did not love, but hated and despised one another;
+if some one had said that this lovely, ideal angel of mine even--but no
+farther, not so much at once!
+
+At the end of dinner our noble relations were so gracious as to permit
+my cousin Melanie to play the piano before us. She was only eight years
+old as yet, still she could play as beautifully as other girls of nine
+years.
+
+I had very rarely heard a piano; at home mother played sometimes, though
+she did not much care for it. Lorand merely murdered the scales, which
+was not at all entertaining for me.
+
+My cousin Melanie executed opera selections, and a French quadrille
+which excited my extremest admiration. My beautiful aunt laid stress
+upon the fact that she had only studied two years. A very intricate plan
+began to develop within me.
+
+Melanie played the piano, I the violin. Nothing could be more natural
+than that I should come here with my violin to play an obligato to
+Melanie's piano; and if afterward we played violin and piano together
+perseveringly for eight or nine years, it would be impossible that we
+should not in the end reach the goal of life on that road.
+
+In consequence I strove to display my usefulness by turning over the
+leaves of the music for her; and my pride was greatly hurt by the fact
+that my noble relations did not ask grandmother how I understood how to
+read music. Finally the end came to this, as to every good thing; my
+cousin Melanie was not quite "up" in the remaining pieces, though I
+would have listened even to half-learned pieces, but my grandmother was
+getting ready to return to the Fromms'. The Bálnokházys asked her to
+spend the night with them, but she replied that she had been there
+before, and that I was there too; and she would remain with the younger.
+I detested myself so for the idea that I was a drag upon my good
+grandmother; why, I ought to have kissed the dust upon her feet for
+those words:
+
+"I shall remain with the younger." My brother I envied, who for his part
+was "at home" with the P. C.
+
+When I kissed my relations' hands at parting, Bálnokházy thrust a silver
+dollar[21] into my hand, adding with magnificent munificence:
+
+[Footnote 21: Thaler.]
+
+"For a little poppy-cake, you know."
+
+Why, it is true, that in Pressburg very fine poppy-biscuits are made;
+and it is also true, that many poppy-goodies might be bought, a few at a
+time, for a dollar; likewise I cannot deny that so much money had never
+been in my hand, as my very own, to spend as I liked. I would not have
+exchanged it for two other dollars, if it had not been given me before
+Melanie. I felt that it degraded me in her eyes. I could not discover
+what to do with that dollar. I scarce dared to look at Melanie when he
+departed; still I remarked that she did not look at me either when I
+left.
+
+At the door Lorand seized my hand.
+
+"Desi," said he severely, "that thing that the P. C. thrust into your
+hand you must give to the butler, when he opens the carriage door."
+
+I liked the idea. By that they would know who I was; and my eyes would
+no longer be downcast before cousin Melanie.
+
+But, when I thrust the dollar into the butler's hand, I was so
+embarrassed by his matter-of-fact grandeur that any one who had seen us
+might have thought the butler had presented me with something. I hoped
+uncle would not exclude me from his house for that.
+
+Long did that quadrille sound in my ears; long did that
+phenomenon-pianist haunt me; how long I cannot tell!
+
+She was the standard of my ambition, the prize of a long race, which
+must be won. In my imagination the whole world thronged before her. I
+saw the roads by which one might reach her.
+
+I too wished to be a man like them. I would learn diligently; I would be
+the first "eminence" in the school, my teacher would take pride in me,
+and would say at the public examination: "This will be a great man some
+day." I would pass my barrister's exams, with distinction; would serve
+my time under a sheriff; would court the acquaintance of great men of
+distinction; would win their favor by my gentle, humble conduct; I would
+be ready to serve; any work intrusted to me I would punctually perform;
+would not mix in evil company; would make my talent shine; would write
+odes of encomium, panegyrics, on occasions of note; till finally, I
+should myself, like my uncle, become "secretarius," "assessor,"
+"septemvir," and "consiliarius."
+
+Ha, ha, ha!
+
+When we returned to Master Fromm's, the delicate attention of little
+Miss Pugnose was indeed burdensome. She would prattle all kinds of
+nonsense. She asked of what the fine dinner consisted; whether it was
+true that the daughter of the "consiliarius" had a doll that danced,
+played the guitar, and nodded its head. Ridiculous! As if people of such
+an age as Melanie and I interested themselves in dolls! I told Henrik to
+interpret this to her; I observed that it put her in a bad temper, and
+rejoiced that I had got rid of her.
+
+I remarked that I must go and study, and the lesson was long. So I went
+to my room and began to study. Two hours later I observed that nothing
+of what I had learnt remained in my head; every place was full of that
+councillor's daughter.
+
+In the evening we again assembled in Master Fromm's dining-room. Fanny
+again sat next to me, was again in good humor, treating me as familiarly
+as if we had been the oldest acquaintances; I was already frightened of
+her. It would be dreadful for the Bálnokházys to suspect that one had a
+baker's daughter as an acquaintance, always ready to jump upon one's
+neck when she saw one.
+
+Well, fortunately she would be taken away next day, and then would be
+far away, as long as I remained in the house; we should be like two
+opposite poles, that avoid each other.
+
+Before bedtime grandmother came into the room once more. She gave me my
+effects, counted over my linen. She gave me pocket-money, promising to
+send me some every month with Lorand's.
+
+"Then I beg you," she whispered in my ear, "take care of Lorand!"
+
+Again that word!
+
+Again that hint that I, the child, must take care of my brother, the
+young man! But the second time the meaning, which the first time I had
+not understood, burst at once clearly upon me; at first I thought,
+"Perhaps some mistaken wisdom or serious conduct on my part has deserved
+this distinction of looking after my brother." Now I discovered that the
+best guardian was eternal love; and mother and grandmother knew well
+that I loved Lorand better than he loved himself.
+
+And indeed, what cause had they to fear for him? And from what could I
+defend him?
+
+Was he not living in the best place in the world? And did I not live far
+from him?
+
+Grandmother exacted from me a promise to write a diary of all that
+happened about us, and to send the same to her at the end of each month.
+I was to write all about Lorand too; for he himself was a very bad
+letter-writer.
+
+I promised.
+
+Then we kissed and took leave. They had to start early in the morning.
+
+But the next day, when the carriage stood at the door, I was waiting
+ready dressed for them.
+
+The whole Fromm family came down to the carriage to say adieu to the
+travellers.
+
+That girl who was going to occupy my place was sad herself. Methought
+she was much more winning, when sadness made her eyes downcast.
+
+One could see from her eyes that she had been weeping, that she was even
+now forcibly restraining herself from weeping. She spoke a few short
+words to me, and then disappeared behind grandmother in the carriage.
+
+The whip cracked, the horses started, and my substitute departed for my
+dear home, while I remained in her place.
+
+As I pondered for the first time over my great isolation, in a place
+where everybody was a stranger to me, and did not even understand my
+speech, at once all thought of the great man, the violin-virtuoso, the
+first eminence, the P. C., the heroic lover, disappeared from within me;
+I leaned my head against the wall, and would have wept could I have done
+so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ATHEIST AND THE HYPOCRITE
+
+
+Let us leave for a while the journal of the student child, and examine
+the circumstances of the family circle, whose history we are relating.
+
+There was living at Lankadomb an old heretic Samuel Topándy by name, who
+was related equally to the Bálnokházy and Áronffy families;
+notwithstanding this, the latter would never visit him on account of his
+conspicuously bad habits. His surroundings were of the most unfortunate
+description, and in distant parts it was told of him that he was an
+atheist of the most pronounced type.
+
+But do not let any one think that the more modern freedom of thought had
+perhaps made Topándy cling to things long past, or that out of mental
+rationalism he had attempted, as a philosopher, to place his mind far
+beyond the visible tenets of religion. He was an atheist merely for his
+own amusement, that, by his denial of God, he might annoy those
+people--priests and the powers that be--with whom he came in contact.
+
+For to annoy, and successfully annoy, has always been held as an
+amusement among frail humanity. And what can more successfully annoy
+than the ridiculing of that which a man worships?
+
+The County Court had just put in a judicial "deed of execution," and had
+sent a magistrate, and a lawyer, supported by a posse of twelve armed
+gendarmes, for the purpose of putting an end, once for all, to those
+scandals, by which Topándy had for years been arousing the indignation
+of the souls of the faithful, causing them to send complaint after
+complaint in to the court.
+
+Topándy offered cigars to the official "bailiffs." The magistrate,
+Michael Daruszegi, a young man of thirty, appeared to be still younger
+from his fair face. They had sent the under, not the chief magistrate,
+because he was a new hand, and would be more zealous. There is more
+firmness in a young man, and firmness was necessary when face to face
+with the disbeliever in God.
+
+"We did not come here to smoke, sir," was the dry reply of the young
+officer. "We are on official business."
+
+"The devil take official business. Don't 'sir' me, my dear fellow, but
+come, let us drink a 'chartreuse,' and then tell your business, in
+company with the lawyer, to my steward. If money is required, break open
+the granaries, take as much wheat as will settle your claims, then dine
+with me; there will be some more good fellows, who are coming for a
+little music. And to-morrow morning we can make out the report and enter
+it in the protocol."
+
+As he said this he kept continuous hold on the "bailiff's" wrist, and
+led him inward into the inner room: and as he was far stronger by nature
+than the latter, it practically amounted to the leader of the attacking
+force being taken prisoner.
+
+"I protest! I forbid every kind of confidence! This is serious
+business!"
+
+In vain did the magistrate protest against his enforced march.
+
+Soon the second part of the "legale testimonium;" Mr. Francis Butzkay,
+the lawyer, came to his aid with his stumpy, short-limbed figure: he had
+gazed for a time in passive inactivity at the fruitless struggle of his
+principal with the "in causam vocatus."
+
+"I hope the gentleman will not give cause for the use of force; for we
+shall fetter him hand and foot in such a manner that no better safeguard
+will be necessary." So saying, our friend the lawyer smiled
+complaisantly, all over his round face, looking, with his long
+moustache, for all the world like the moon, when a long cloud is
+crossing its surface.
+
+"Fetters indeed!" Topándy guffawed, "I should just like to see you! I
+beg you, pray put those fetters on me, merely for the sake of novelty,
+that I may be able to say: I also have had chains on me: at any rate on
+one of my legs, or one of my arms. It would be a damned fine amusement."
+
+"Sir," exclaimed the magistrate, freeing his hand. "You must learn to
+respect in us the 'powers that be.' We are your judges, sent by the
+County Court, entrusted with the task of putting an end to those
+scandals caused by you, which have filled every Christian soul with
+righteous indignation."
+
+Topándy raised his eyes in astonishment at the envoys of the "powers
+that be."
+
+"Oho, so it is not a case of a 'deed of execution?'"
+
+"By no means. It is a far more important matter that is at stake. The
+Court considers the atheistical irreligious 'attentats' have gone too
+far and therefore has sent us--"
+
+"--To preach me a sermon? No, sir magistrate, now you must really bring
+those irons, and put me in chains, and bind me, for unbound I will not
+listen to your sermon. Hold me down if you wish to preach words of
+devotion to me, for otherwise I shall bite, like a wild animal."
+
+The magistrate retreated, in spite of his youthful daring; but the
+lawyer only smiled gently and did not even take his hands from behind
+his back.
+
+"Really, sir, you must not get mad, or we shall have to take you to the
+Rókus hospital,[22] and put the strait-jacket on you."
+
+[Footnote 22: A hospital in Pest.]
+
+"The devil blight you!" roared Topándy, making for the two judges, and
+then retiring before the undisturbed smiling countenance of the lawyer.
+"Well, and what complaint has the Court to make of me? Have I stolen
+anything from anybody? Have I committed incendiarism? Have I committed a
+murder, that they come down so hard upon me?"
+
+The magistrate was a ready speaker: immediately he answered with:
+
+"Certainly, you have committed a theft: you have stolen the welfare of
+others' souls. Certainly you are an incendiary: you have set fire to the
+peace of faithful souls. Certainly you are a murderer: you have murdered
+the souls entrusted to you!"
+
+Topándy, seeing there was no escape, turned entreatingly to the
+gendarmes who accompanied the magistrate.
+
+"Boys, cherubims without wings, two of you come here and seize me, that
+I may not run away."
+
+They obeyed him and laid hands on him.
+
+"Well, my dear magistrate, fire away."
+
+The worthy magistrate was annoyed, that this sorry business could not in
+any way assume a serious aspect.
+
+"In the first place I come to see the execution of that judgment which
+the honorable Court has passed upon you."
+
+"I bow my head,"--growled Topándy in a tone of derisive subservience.
+
+"You have in your household youths and young girls growing up in various
+branches of service, who, born here, have never yet been baptized,
+thanks to your sinful neglect."
+
+"Excuse me, the general drying up of wells...."
+
+"Don't interrupt me," bawled the magistrate. "You should have produced
+your defence then and there, when and where you were accused; but as you
+did not appear at the appointed time, and obstinately procrastinated,
+you must listen to the sentence. All those boys and girls brought up
+within your premises must be taken into the country town and baptized
+according to the ordinances of religion."
+
+"Could not the matter be finished here at once by the spring?"
+
+The magistrate was beside himself with anger. But the good lawyer only
+smiled and said:
+
+"Pray, sir, show a little common sense. The County Court compels none,
+against his will, to be a Christian: still one must belong to some
+religion. So if your lordship will not take the trouble to go with his
+household to the 'pater,' well, we shall take him to the rabbi: that
+will do just as well."
+
+Topándy laughingly shook a menacing fist at the lawyer.
+
+"You're a great gibbet! You always manage me. Well, let us rather go to
+the 'pater' than to the rabbi; but at least let my servants keep their
+old names."
+
+"That is also inadmissible," answered the magistrate severely. "You have
+given your servants names, of a kind not usually borne by men. One is
+called Pirók,[23] another Czinke:[24] the name of one little girl--God
+save the mark--is Beelzebub! Who would register such names as these?
+They will all receive respectable names to be found in the Christian
+calendar; and any one, who dares to call them by the names they have
+hitherto borne shall pay as great a fine as if he had purposely
+calumniated a fellow-man. How many are there whom you have kept back in
+this manner from the water of Christianity?"
+
+[Footnote 23: Chaffinch.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Titmouse, names of birds given as pet names to these
+servants.]
+
+"Four butlers, three maid-servants and two parrots."
+
+"Perjurer! Your every word is spittle in the face of the true
+believers."
+
+"Oh, gag me. I beg you to save me from perjury."
+
+"Kindly call the people in question."
+
+Topándy turned round and called to his butler who stood behind him:
+
+"Produce Pirók, Estergályos,[25] Seprünyél,[26] then Kakukfü,[27] and
+Macskaláb;[28] comfort them with the news that they are going to enter
+Heaven, and will receive a fur-coat, a pair of boots, and a good gourd,
+from which the wine will never fail: all the gift of the honorable
+County Court."
+
+[Footnote 25: Turner.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Broom.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Thyme.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Catsfoot.]
+
+"For my part," said the young representative of the law, standing on
+tip-toe, "I must ask you seriously to answer, with the moderation due to
+our presence, have you hidden any one?"
+
+"Whether I have stolen away someone on hell's account? No, my dear
+fellow, I don't court Satan's acquaintance either: let him catch men for
+himself, if he can."
+
+"I have a mandatum for your examination on oath."
+
+"Keep your mandatum in your pocket, and measure out thirty florins'
+worth of oats from my granary: that's the fine. For I don't intend to be
+examined on oath."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Of course. If you bid me, I will swear: I'm a rare hand at it; I can
+swear for half an hour at a stretch without repeating myself."
+
+Again the smiling lawyer intervened:
+
+"Give us your word of honor, then, that besides those produced, there is
+no servant in your household who has not yet been baptized."
+
+"Well, I give you my word of honor that there is not 'in my household'
+even a living creature who is a pagan."
+
+Topándy's word of honor only just escaped being broken for that
+gypsy-girl, whom he had bought in her sixth year from encamping gypsies
+for two dollars and a sucking pig, now, ten years later, did not belong
+any more to the household, but presided at table when gentlefolk came to
+dinner. But she still bore that heathen name, which she had received in
+the reedy thicket. She was still called Czipra.
+
+And the godless fellow had snatched her away from the water of
+Christianity.
+
+"Has the honorable Court any other complaint to make against me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Not merely do you force your household to be pagan, but
+you are accused of disturbing in their religious services others who
+make no secret of their devout feelings."
+
+"For example?"
+
+"Just opposite you is the courtyard of Mr. Nepomuk John Sárvölgyi,[29]
+who is a very righteous man."
+
+[Footnote 29: Mud-valley.]
+
+"As far as I know, quite the opposite: he is always praying, a fact
+which proves that his sins must be very numerous."
+
+"It is not your business to judge him. In our common world it is a
+merit, if someone dares to display to the public eye the fact that he
+still respects religion, and it is the duty of the law to protect him."
+
+"Well, and how have I scandalized the good fellow?"
+
+"Not long ago Mr. Sárvölgyi had a large Saint Nepomuk painted on the
+façade of his house, in oils on a sheet of bronze, and before the chief
+figure he was himself painted, in a kneeling position."
+
+"I know: I saw it."
+
+"From the lips of St. Nepomuk was flowing down in 'lapidarig' letters to
+the kneeling figure the following Latin saying: 'Mi fili, ego te nunquam
+deseram.'"
+
+"I read the words."
+
+"An iron grating was placed before the picture, and covered the whole
+niche, that infamous hands might not be able to touch it."
+
+"A very wise idea."
+
+"One morning following a very stormy night, to the astonishment of all,
+the Latin inscription had disappeared from the picture, and in its place
+there stood: 'Soon thou wilt pass from before me, thou old hypocrite!'"
+
+
+"I can't help it, if the person in question changed his views."
+
+"Why, certainly you can help it. The painter who prepared that picture,
+upon being cross-questioned, confessed and publicly affirmed that, in
+consideration of a certain sum of money paid by you, he had painted the
+latter inscription in oils, and over it, in water-colours, the former:
+so that the first shower washed off the upper surface from the picture,
+making the honest, zealous fellow an object of ridicule and contempt in
+his own house. Do you believe, sir, that such practical jokes are not
+punished by the hand of justice?"
+
+"I am not in the habit of believing much."
+
+"Among other things, however, you are bound to believe that justice will
+condemn you, first to pay a fine for blackmail; secondly, to pay for the
+repairs your tricks have made necessary."
+
+"I don't see an atom of plaintiff's counsel here."
+
+"Because plaintiff left the amount due him to the pleasure of the Court,
+to be devoted to charitable purposes."
+
+"Good: then please break into the granaries."
+
+"That we shall not do," interrupted the lawyer: "later on we shall take
+it out of the 'regalia.'"
+
+Topándy laughed.
+
+"My dear, good magistrate. Do you believe all that is in the Bible?"
+
+"I am a true Christian."
+
+"Then I appeal to your faith. In one place it stands that some invisible
+hand wrote, in the room of some pagan king--Belshazzar, if the story be
+true,--the following words,'Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.' If that hand could
+write then, why could it not now have written that second saying? And if
+it was the rain that washed away the righteous fellow's words, you must
+accuse the rain, for the fault lies there."
+
+"These are indeed very weighty counter-charges: and you might have
+declared them all before the Court, to which you were summoned: you
+might have appealed even to the septemvirate, but as you did not appear
+then, you must bear the consequences of your obstinacy."
+
+"Good; I shall pay the price," said Topándy laughing:--"But it was a
+good joke on my part after all, wasn't it?"
+
+The magistrate showed an angry countenance.
+
+"There will be other good jokes, too. Kindly wait until the end."
+
+"Is the list of crimes still longer?"
+
+"A severe enquiry into the sources would never find an end. The gravest
+charge against you is the profanation of holy places."
+
+"I profane some holy place? Why, for twenty years I have not been in the
+precincts even of a church steeple."
+
+"You desecrated a place used long ago for holy ceremonies by riotous
+revels."
+
+"Oh, you mean that, do you? Let us make distinctions, if you please.
+Great is the difference between place and place. Do you mean the convent
+of the Red Brothers? That is no church. The late Emperor Joseph drove
+them out, and their property was put up to auction by the State,
+together with all the buildings situate thereon. Thus it was that I came
+into possession of the convent garden: I was there at the auction; I bid
+and it was knocked down to me. There were buildings on it, but whether
+any kind of church had been there I do not know, for they took away all
+the movables, and I found only bare walls. No kind of 'servitus'
+(engagement), as to what I would use the building for, had been included
+in the agreement of purchase. In this matter I know of others who were
+no more scrupulous. I know of a convent at Maria-Eich,[30] where in
+place of the ancient altar stands the peasant-chimney, and here the
+Swabian, into whose hands this honorable antiquity passed, keeps his
+maize; why, in a town beside the Danube may be seen what was once a
+convent, the 'aerarium' of which has been turned into a hospital."
+
+[Footnote 30: A place in Austria where sacred relics exist.]
+
+"Examples cannot help you. If the Swabian peasant keeps 'the blessing of
+God' in that place, from which they had once prayed for it, that is not
+profanity: the 'aerarium' too is pursuing an office of righteousness, in
+nursing bodily sufferings in the place where once mental sufferings
+gained comfort; but you have had disgusting pictures painted all over
+the walls that have come into your possession."
+
+"I beg your pardon, the subjects are all chosen from classical
+literature: illustrations to the poems of Beranger and Lafontaine--'Mon
+Curé,' 'Les Clefs Du Paradis,' 'Les Capulier,' 'Les Cordeliers Du
+Catalogue,' etc. Every subject a pious one."
+
+"I know: I am acquainted with the originals of them. You may cover the
+walls of your own rooms with them, if you please: but I have brought
+four stone-workers with me, who, according to the judgment of the Court,
+are to erase all those pictures."
+
+"Genuine iconoclasm!" guffawed Topándy, who found great amusement in
+arousing a whole county against him by his caprices. "Iconoclasts!
+Picture-destroyers!"
+
+"There is something else we are going to destroy!" continued the
+magistrate. "In that place there was a crypt. What has become of it?"
+
+"It is a crypt still."
+
+"What is in it?"
+
+"What is usually in a crypt: dead men of hallowed memory, who are lying
+in wooden coffins and waiting for the great awakening."
+
+The magistrate made a face of doubt. He did not know whether to believe
+or not.
+
+"And when you and your revelling companions hold your Bacchanalia
+there?"
+
+"I object to the word 'Bacchanalia.'"
+
+"True, it is still more. I should have used a stronger expression for
+that riot, when in scandalous undress, carrying in front a steak on a
+spit, the whole company sings low songs such as 'Megálljon Kend'[31]
+and 'Hetes, nyloczas,'[32] and in this guise makes scandalous
+processions from castle to cloister."
+
+[Footnote 31: "Stop (you)," "Kend" being the pleasant abbreviation for
+"Kegyed," one method of addressing (literally "your grace"),
+corresponding to our "you."]
+
+[Footnote 32: "Seven and eight," referring to the number on the playing
+cards: the Austrian National Hymn is sung by great patriots to these
+words: the "king" and "ace" being the highest two cards, come together;
+and this is in Magyar király (king), diszno (ace); is also "swein."]
+
+"The authorities must indeed be greatly embittered against me, if they
+see anything scandalous in the fact that a body of good-humored men
+undress to the skin, when they are warm. As far as the so-called low
+songs are concerned, they have such innocent words, they might be
+printed in a book, while the melodies are very pious."
+
+"The scandal is just that, that you parody pious songs, setting them to
+trivial words. Tell me what is the good of singing the eight cards of
+the pack[33] as a hymn. And if you are in a good humor, why do you go
+with it to the crypt?"
+
+[Footnote 33: In Magyar cards the pack begins with the 7.]
+
+"You know we go there for a little mumony feast."
+
+"Yes, for a little 'Mumon,'" interrupted the lawyer.
+
+"That's just what I meant," said the atheist, laughing.
+
+"What?" roared the magistrate, who now began to understand the enigma of
+the dead lying in their wooden coffins: "perhaps that is a cellar?"
+
+"Of course: I never had a better cellar than that."
+
+"And the dead, and the coffins?"
+
+"Twenty-five round coffins, full of wine. Come, my dear sir, taste them
+all. I assure you you won't regret it."
+
+The magistrate was now really in a fury: fury made a lion of him, so
+that he was quite capable of tearing his wrists by sheer force out of
+the imprisoning hands.
+
+"An end to all familiarity! You stand before the authority of the law,
+with whom you cannot trifle. Give me the keys of the cloister, that I
+may clean the profaned place."
+
+"Please break open the door."
+
+"Would you not be sorry to ruin a patent lock?" suggested the lawyer.
+
+"Well, promise me that you will taste at least 'one' brand: then I will
+open the door, for I don't intend to open any door under the title of
+'cloister,' but any number under the title of 'cellar;' and in that case
+I shall pay in ready money."
+
+The worthy lawyer tugged at the magistrate's sleeve; prudence yielded,
+and there are bounds to severity, too.
+
+"Very well, the lawyer will taste the wine, but I am no drinker."
+
+Topándy whispered some words in his butler's ears, whereupon that worthy
+suddenly disappeared.
+
+"So you see, my dear fellow, we are agreed at last: now I should like to
+see the account of how much I owe to the county for my slight upon the
+Brotherhood."
+
+"Here is the calculation: two hundred florins with costs, which amount
+to three florins, thirty kreuzer."
+
+(This happened thirty years ago.)
+
+"Further?"
+
+"Further, the repair of the damage caused by you, the expenses of the
+present expedition, the daily pay and sustenance of the stone-masons
+aforesaid: making in all a sum total of two hundred and forty-three
+florins, forty kreuzers."
+
+"A large sum, but I shall produce it from somewhere."
+
+With the words Topándy drew out from his chest a drawer, and carrying it
+bodily as it was, put it down on the great walnut table, before the
+authorities of the law.
+
+"Here it is!"
+
+The interesting members of the law first drew back in alarm, and then
+commenced to roar with laughter. That drawer was filled with--I cannot
+express it in one word--but generally speaking--with paper.
+
+A great variety of aged bank notes, some before the depreciation of
+value, others of a late date, still in currency: long bank-notes, black
+bank-notes, red spotted bank-notes; then, old cards: Hungarian, Swiss,
+French; old theatre-tickets, market pictures, the well-known product of
+street-humor; the tailor riding on a goat, the devil taking off bad
+women, a portrait of the long-moustached mayor of Nuremberg: a pile of
+envelopes, all heaped together in a huddle.
+
+That was Topándy's savings bank.
+
+He would always spend silver and gold money, but money paid to him in
+bank-notes, which he had to accept, he would put by year by year among
+this collection of cards, funny pictures, and theatrical programmes;
+this heap of value was never disturbed except when, as at present, some
+enforced visit had to be put up with, some so-called "execution."
+
+"Please, help yourselves."
+
+"What?" cried the magistrate. "Must we pick out the value from the
+non-value in this rubbish?"
+
+"Now I am not so well-informed an expert as to distinguish what is
+recalled from what is still in circulation. Still my good friend is
+right, it is my duty to count out, yours to receive."
+
+Then he plunged his hand into the treasure-heap, and counted over the
+bits of paper.
+
+"This is good, this is not. This is still new, this is surely torn.
+Here's a five florin, here a ten florin note. This is the Knave of
+Hearts."
+
+A little discussion occurred when he counted a label that had been
+removed from an old champagne bottle, as a ten florin note.
+
+The gentlemen took exception to that: it must be thrown away.
+
+"What, is this not money? It must be money. It is a French bank-note.
+There is written on it ten florins. Cliquot will pay if you take it to
+him."
+
+Then he began to explain several comical pictures, and bargained with
+the authorities--how much would they give for them? he had paid a big
+price for them.
+
+Finally the worthy lawyer had again to intervene: otherwise this
+liquidation might have lasted till the following evening; then, after a
+strict search in a critical manner, he withdrew two hundred and
+forty-three florins from the pile.
+
+"A little water if you please, I should like to wash my hands," said the
+lawyer after his work, feeling like one who has separated the raw wheat
+from the tares.
+
+"Like Pilate after passing judgment," jested Topándy. "You shall have
+all you want at once. Already there is an end to the legal manipulation:
+we are no longer 'legale testimonium' and 'incattus,' but guest and
+host."
+
+"God forbid," repudiated the magistrate retiring towards the door. "We
+did not come in that guise. We do not wish to trouble you any longer."
+
+"Trouble indeed!" said the accused, guffawing. "What, do you think this
+matter has been any trouble to me?--on the contrary, the most exquisite
+amusement! This annoyance of the county against me I would not sell for
+a thousand florins. It was glorious. 'Execution!' Legally erased
+pictures! An investigation into my private behavior! I shall live for a
+year on this joke. And you will see, my friends, I shall do so again
+soon. I shall find out some plan for getting them to take me in irons to
+the Court: a battalion of soldiers shall come for me, and they shall
+make me the son of the warden! Ha! ha! May I be damned if I don't
+succeed in my project! If they would but put me in prison for a year,
+and make me saw wood in the courtyard of the County Court, and clean the
+boots of the Lieutenant Governor. That is a capital idea! I shall not
+die until I reach that."
+
+In the meantime a butler arrived with the water, while a second opened
+another door and invited the guests with much ceremony to partake in the
+pleasure of the table.
+
+"Her ladyship invites the honorable gentlemen's company at déjeuner."
+
+The magistrate looked in perplexity at the lawyer, who turned to the
+basin and hid his laughing face in his hands.
+
+"You are married?" the magistrate enquired of Topándy.
+
+"Oh dear no," he answered, "she is not my wife, but my sister."
+
+"But we are invited to dinner in the neighborhood."
+
+"By Mr. Sárvölgyi? That does not matter. If a man wishes to dine at
+Sárvölgyi's, he will be wise to have déjeuner first. Besides I have your
+word to drink a glass as a 'conditio sine qua non;' besides a chivalrous
+man cannot refuse the invitation of a lady."
+
+The last pretext was conclusive; it was impossible to refuse a lady's
+invitation, even if a man has armed force at his command. He is obliged
+to yield to the superior power.
+
+The magistrate allowed the third attempt to succeed, and was dragged by
+the arm into the dining-room.
+
+Topándy audibly bade the butlers look after the wants of the gendarmes
+and stone-masons, and give them enough to eat and drink: and, when our
+friend, the magistrate, prepared to object, interrupted him with:
+"Kindly remember the 'execution' is over, and consider that those good
+fellows are tearing off plaster from the cloister walls, and the
+paint-dust will go to their lungs: and it shall not be my fault if any
+harm touches the upholders of public security. This way, if you please:
+here comes my sister."
+
+Through the opposite door came the above mentioned "ladyship."
+
+She could not have been taken for more than fifteen years old: she was
+wearing a pure white dress, trimmed with lace, according to the fashion
+of the time, and bound round her slender waist with a broad rose-colored
+riband; her complexion was brunette, and pale, in contrast to her ruddy
+round lips, which allowed to flash between their velvet surfaces the
+most lovely pearly set of teeth imaginable: her two thick eyebrows
+almost met on her brow, and below her long eyelashes two restless black
+eyes beamed forth: like coal, that is partly aglow.
+
+Sir Magistrate was surprised that Topándy had such a young sister.
+
+"My guests," said Topándy, presenting the servants of the law to her
+ladyship.
+
+"Oh! I know," remarked the young lady in a gay light-hearted tone. "You
+have come to put in an 'execution' against his lordship. You did quite
+right: you ought to treat him so. You don't know the hundredth part of
+his godless dealings. For did you know, you would long since have
+beheaded him three times over."
+
+The magistrate found this sincere expression of sisterly opinion most
+remarkable; still, notwithstanding that he took his seat beside her
+ladyship.
+
+The table was piled with cold viands and old wines.
+
+Her ladyship entertained the magistrate with conversation and tasty
+tit-bits, meanwhile the lawyer was quietly drinking his glasses with the
+host,--nor was it necessary to ask him to help himself.
+
+"Believe me," remarked her ladyship: "if this man ever reaches hell,
+they will give him a special room, so great are his merits. I have
+already grown tired of trying to reform him."
+
+"Has your ladyship been staying long in this house?" enquired the
+magistrate.
+
+"Oh, ten years already."
+
+("How old could the lady have been then?" the magistrate thought to
+himself: but he could not answer.)
+
+"Just imagine what he does. A few days ago he put up an old saint among
+the vines as a scarecrow, with a broken hat on his head."
+
+The magistrate turned with a movement of scorn towards the accused. It
+would not be good for him if that, too, came to the ears of the Court.
+
+"Do not speak, for you do not understand what you're saying," replied
+Topándy by way of explanation. "It was an ugly statue of Pilate, a
+relic of the ancient Calvary."[34]
+
+[Footnote 34: Many such Calvaries exist in Hungary: they may be seen by
+the roadside, and are used as places of pilgrimage by pious peasants and
+others: there is always a picture of Christ crucified or a figure of the
+same.]
+
+"Well, and wasn't that holy?" enquired the flashing-eyed damsel.
+
+The magistrate began to rise from his chair. (Her ladyship must have had
+a curious education if she did not even know who Pilate was.)
+
+Topándy broke out in unrestrained laughter. Then, as if he desired by an
+earnest word to repair the insult his language had given, he said to the
+lady with a pious face:
+
+"Well, if you are right, was it not a gracious act on my part to give a
+permanent occupation to such an honest fellow, who had been degraded
+from office; and as he was bare-headed I gave him a hat to protect him
+against changes of the weather. However, don't treat our friend to a
+series of incriminations, but rather to that deer-steak; you see he does
+not venture to taste it."
+
+Her ladyship did as she was told.
+
+The magistrate was obliged to eat: in the first place because it was a
+beautiful woman that offered the viands to him, secondly because
+everything she offered was so good. He had to drink, too, because she
+kept filling his glass and calling on him to "clink" with her, herself
+setting the example. She drained that sparkling liquor from her glass
+just as if it had been pure water. And those wines were truly remarkably
+strong. The magistrate could not refuse the appeal of her ladyship's
+beautiful eyes.
+
+"Forbidden fruit is sweet." The magistrate experienced the truth of the
+saying keenly, in so far as one may place among forbidden fruit the
+_déjeuner_ of which a man partakes in the house of a godless fellow,
+destroying his appetite for the ensuing dinner to which he is invited by
+a pious man.
+
+The courses seemed endless: cold viands were followed by hot, and the
+beautiful young damsel could offer so kindly, that the magistrate was
+powerless to resist.
+
+"Just a little of this 'majoraine' sausage. I myself made it yesterday
+evening."
+
+The magistrate was astonished. Her ladyship busied herself with such
+things? When the sausage had disappeared, he made a remark about it.
+
+"Yet no one would imagine that these delicate hands could busy
+themselves with other things than sewing, piano-playing, and the turning
+over of gold-bordered leaves. Have you read the almanacs of the
+parliament?"
+
+At this question Topándy burst into loud laughter, while the lawyer
+covered his mouth with his napkin, the laughter stuck in his throat: the
+magistrate could not imagine what there could be to ridicule in this
+question.
+
+Her ladyship answered quite unconsciously:
+
+"Oh! there are some fine airs in it: I know them. If you will listen, I
+will sing them."
+
+The magistrate thought there must be some misunderstanding: still, if
+her ladyship cared to sing, he would be only too delighted to listen.
+
+"Which do you want 'Vienna Town' or 'Rose-bud?'"
+
+"Both," said the host, "and into the bargain the latest parliamentary
+air, 'Come Down from the Cross, and Fly to the Poplar-tree.' But let us
+go out of the dining-room to hear the songs; the forks and plates are
+rattling too much here: we'll go to my sister's room. There she will
+sing to the accompaniment of a Magyar piano. Have you ever seen a Magyar
+piano, my friend?"
+
+"I don't remember having done so."
+
+"Well, it is beautiful: you must hear it. My sister plays it
+wonderfully."
+
+The magistrate offered his arm to her ladyship, and the company entered
+the next room, which was the lady's apartment.
+
+It was an elegant, finely-decorated room, with mahogany and ebony
+furniture, richly carved and gilded, with huge glass-panelled chests,
+and heavy silk curtains yet there was a striking difference between this
+room and those of other ladies; all these expensive draperies, as far as
+their form and ordering was concerned, did not at all correspond with
+the usual appanage of a boudoir.
+
+In one corner stood a loom of mahogany, richly inlaid with ivory: it was
+still covered with some half-finished work, in which flowers,
+butterflies, and birds had been worked with remarkable refinement.
+
+"You see," said the lady, "this is my work-table. I am responsible also
+for that table-cloth on which we breakfasted to-day."
+
+Indeed she had received an unusual education.
+
+Beside the loom was a spinning wheel.
+
+"And this is my library," said the lady, pointing to the cupboards
+against the wall.
+
+Through the glass panels was to be seen a host of every kind of culinary
+bottles. On the bottom shelf the great folios; every kind of vinegar
+that grows in hot-houses; the second row was full of preserved
+cucumbers; and then on the top shelf different sorts of confitures in
+brilliant perfection; last of all, a row of fruit extracts was visible,
+in colors as numerous as the bottles that contained them.
+
+"A magnificent library!" said the lawyer. But the magistrate could not
+yet clearly make out what kind of lady it might be, who called such
+things a library.
+
+The heavy velvet curtains, which made a kind of tent of the alcove, also
+had their secret: the young lady; raised the curtain and said naively,
+
+"This is my sleeping place."
+
+An embroidered quilt laid out on a plank, nothing more.
+
+Indeed, a curious, most remarkable education.
+
+Beside the bed stood a large copper cage.
+
+"This is my pet bird," said the fair lady, pointing at the creature
+within.
+
+It was a large black cock, which rose angrily as the strangers
+approached, and crowed in an agonized manner, shaking its red comb
+furiously.
+
+"You see, this is my old comrade, who takes care of me! and is at the
+same time my clock, waking me at daybreak." And the lady's look became
+quite tender, as she placed her hand on the wrathful creature. At her
+gentle touch the bird clucked his satisfaction.
+
+"When I go outside, he accompanies me, loose, like a dog."
+
+The black monster, as long as he saw strangers, only noted in quiet
+tones the fact that he had remarked their presence, but as soon as
+Topándy stepped forward, he suddenly broke out into a clarion cry, as if
+he wished to arouse every hen-roost in the property to the fact that
+there was a fox in the garden. Every feather on his neck stood bolt
+upright, like a Spanish shirt-collar.
+
+"He will soon be quiet," the young lady assured the guests:--"for he
+will listen to music."
+
+So we are about to see the Magyar piano? It was but a "czimbalom."[35]
+It is true that it was a marvellous work of art, inlaid with ebony and
+mother-of-pearl; the nails on which the strings were stretched were of
+silver, the groundwork a mosaic of coloured woods; the two drumsticks
+lying upon the strings had handles of red coral; the stand on which the
+"czimbalom" rested was a marvellously perfected specimen of the
+carpenter's art, giving a strong tone to the instrument; and before it
+was a little, round, armless chair covered with red velvet, its feet
+golden tiger-claws. Yet it was certainly strange that a young lady
+should play the "czimbalom," that country instrument which they are
+wont to carry under the covering of a ragged coat, and to place upon
+inn-tables, or up-turned barrels.--Here it appeared among mahogany
+furniture, to serve as accompaniment to a young lady's voice, while she
+herself with her delicate fingers beat the melody out of the plaintive
+instrument for all the world as if she were seated beside a piano.
+Incongruous enough, for we have always thought of the "czimbalom-artist"
+as a gawky bushy-bearded fellow with the indispensable short-stemmed
+clay-pipe--all burned out and being sucked only for its bitter taste.
+
+[Footnote 35: The peculiar and characteristic Magyar instrument which is
+indispensable to every gypsy orchestra, taking the place of harp and
+piano. It is in the form of a zither of large size, played with padded
+sticks, and forms the foundation of these wandering bands.]
+
+And the whole "czimbalom" playing is such a jest, so grotesque; the
+player's arms jerk and wave continuously; his whole shoulder and head
+are in perpetual motion; whereas, with the piano, the five fingers do
+all; the artist's relation to the piano is that of my lord to his
+children, whom he addresses from a far-off height; the czimbalom-player
+is "_per tu_" with his instrument.
+
+But the young lady had the grace of one born to the instrument. As she
+took the sticks in her hands and struck a chord upon the outstretched
+strings, her face assumed a new expression; so far, we must confess,
+there had been much "naiveté" in it, now she felt at home; this was her
+world.
+
+She sang two songs to the guests, both taken from what are called in our
+country "Parliamentary airs;" they used to break forth in "juratus"
+coffee-houses, during the sitting of Parliament, when there was more
+spirit in the youths of the country than now.
+
+The one had a fine impassioned refrain: "From Vienna town, from west to
+east, the wind hath a cold blast." The end of it was that the Danube
+water is bitter, for at Pressburg many bitter tears have flowed into it,
+"Which the great ones of our land have shed, because Ragályi was not
+sent to be ambassador." Now patriots are more sparing with their tears;
+but in those days much bitterness was expressed with the air of "Vienna
+town."
+
+The other air was "Rose-bud, laurel," which had also a pretty refrain;
+it is full of such expressions as "altars of freedom," "angels of
+freedom," "wreaths of freedom," and other such mythological things. How
+the strings responded to the young woman's touch, what expression was in
+her refrain! It was as if she felt the meaning of those beautiful
+"flosculi" best of all, and must suffer more than all for them.
+
+Then she introduced a third parliamentary song, the contents of which
+were satirical; but the satire was purely local and personal, and would
+not be intelligible to people of modern days.
+
+Topándy was inexpressibly pleased by it: he asked for it again. Someone
+had ridiculed the priests in it, but in such a manner that no one,
+unless he had had it explained could understand it.
+
+The magistrate was quite enraptured by the simple instrument; he would
+never have believed that anyone could play it with such masterly skill.
+
+"Tell me," he asked her ladyship, not being able any longer to conceal
+his astonishment, "where you learned to play this instrument."
+
+At these words her ladyship broke into such a fit of laughter, that, if
+she had not suddenly steadied herself with her feet against the
+czimbalom stand, she would have fallen over. As it was, her hair being,
+according to the fashion of the day, coiled up "à la Giraffe" round a
+high comb, and the comb falling from her head, her two tresses of raven
+hair fell waving over her shoulders to the floor.
+
+At this the young lady discontinued laughing, and not succeeding at all
+in her efforts to place her dishevelled hair around the comb again,
+suddenly twisted it together on her head and fastened it with a spindle
+she snatched from the spinning wheel.
+
+Then to recover her previous high spirits, she again took up the
+czimbalom sticks, and began to play some quiet melody on the instrument.
+
+It was no song, no variations on well-known airs; it was some marvellous
+reverie; a frameless picture, a landscape without horizon. A plaint, in
+a voice rather playful over something serious that is long past, and
+that can never come back again, avowed to no one by word of mouth, only
+handed down from generation to generation on the resounding strings--the
+song of the beggar who denies that he has ever been king:--the song of
+the wanderer, who denies that he ever had a home and yet remembers it,
+and the pain of the recollection is heard in the song. No one knows or
+understands, perhaps not even the player, who merely divines it and
+meditates thereon. It is the desert wind, of which no one knows whence
+it comes and whither it goes; the driving cloud, of which no one knows
+whence it arose, and whither it disappears. A homeless, unsubstantial,
+immaterial bitterness ... a flowerless, echoless, roadless desert ...
+full of mirages.
+
+The magistrate would have listened till evening, no matter what became
+of the neighbor's dinner, if Topándy had not interrupted him with the
+sceptical remark that this lengthened steel wire has far more soul than
+a certain two-footed creature, who affirms that he was the image of God.
+
+And thus he again drew the attention of the worthy gentleman to the fact
+that he was in the home of a denier of God.
+
+Then they heard the mid-day curfew, which made the black cock, with
+fluttering wings, begin his monotonous clarion, for all the world like
+the bugle call of some watch-tower, whose _taran-tara!_ gives the sign
+to its inhabitants.
+
+At this the lady's face suddenly lost its sad expression of melancholy;
+she put down the czimbalom-sticks, leaped up from her chair, and with
+natural sincerity asked,
+
+"It was a beautiful song, was it not?"
+
+"Indeed it was. What is it?"
+
+"Hush! that you may not ask."
+
+The lawyer had to call the magistrate's attention to the fact that it
+was already time to depart, as there was still another "entertainment"
+in store for them.
+
+At this they all laughed.
+
+"I am very sorry that it was my fortune to make your acquaintance, on
+such an occasion as the present," said the young officer of the law, as
+he bade farewell, and shook hands with his host.
+
+"But I rejoice at the honor, and I hope I may have the pleasure of
+seeing you again--on the occasion of the next 'execution'."
+
+Then the magistrate turned to her ladyship, to thank her for her kind
+hospitality.
+
+To do so he sought the young lady's hand with intention to kiss it; but
+before he could fulfill his intention, her ladyship suddenly threw her
+arms around his neck and imprinted as healthy a kiss on his face as
+anyone could possibly wish for.
+
+The magistrate was rather frightened than rejoiced at this unexpected
+present. Her ladyship had indeed peculiar habits. He scarcely knew how
+he arrived in the road; true, the wine had affected his head a little,
+for he was not used to it.
+
+From Topándy's castle to Sárvölgyi's residence one had to cross a long
+field of clover.
+
+The lawyer led his colleague as far as the gate of this field by the
+arm, sauntering along by his side. But, as soon as they were within the
+garden, Mr. Buczkay said to the magistrate:
+
+"Please go in front, I will follow behind; I must remain behind a little
+to laugh myself out."
+
+Thereupon he sat down on the ground, clasped his hands over his stomach,
+and commenced to guffaw; he threw himself flat upon the grass, kicking
+the earth with his feet, and shouting with merriment the while.
+
+The young officer of the law was beside himself with vexation, as he
+reflected: "This man is horribly tipsy; how can I enter the house of
+such a righteous man with a drunken fellow?"
+
+Then when Mr. Buczkay had given satisfaction to the demands of his
+nature, according to which his merriment, repressed almost to the
+bursting point, was obliged to break loose in a due proportion of
+laughter, he rose again from the earth, dusted his clothes, and with the
+most serious countenance under the sun said, "Well, we can proceed
+now."
+
+Sárvölgyi's house was unlike Magyar country residences, in that the
+latter had their doors night and day on the latch, with at most a couple
+of bulldogs on guard in the courtyard--and these were there only with
+the intention of imprinting the marks of their muddy paws on the coats
+of guests by way of tenderness. Sárvölgyi's residence was completely
+encircled with a stone wall, like some town building: the gate and small
+door always closed, and the stone wall crowned with a continuous row of
+iron nails:--and,--what is unheard of in country residences--there was a
+bell at the door which he who desired to enter had to ring.
+
+The gentlemen rang for a good quarter of an hour at that door, and the
+lawyer was convinced that no one would come to open it; finally
+footsteps were heard in the hall, and a hoarse, shrill woman's voice
+began to make enquiries of those without.
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"We are."
+
+"Who are 'we'?"
+
+"The guests."
+
+"What guests?"
+
+"The magistrate and the lawyer."
+
+Thereupon the bolts were slipped back with difficulty, and the
+questioner appeared. She was, as far as age was concerned, a little
+"beyond the vintage." She wore a dirty white kitchen apron, and below
+that a second blue kitchen apron, and below that again a third dappled
+apron. It was this woman's custom to put on as many dirty aprons as
+possible.
+
+"Good day, Mistress Boris," was the lawyer's greeting. "Why, you hardly
+wished to let us in."
+
+"I crave your pardon. I heard the bell ring, but could not come at once.
+I had to wait until the fish was ready. Besides, so many bad men are
+hereabouts, wandering beggars, 'Arme Reisenden,'[36] that one must
+always keep the door closed, and ask 'who is there?'"
+
+[Footnote 36: Poor travellers.]
+
+"It is well, my dear Boris. Now go and look after that fish, that it
+may not burn; we shall soon find the master somewhere. Has he finished
+his devotions?"
+
+"Yes; but he has surely commenced anew. The bells are ringing the
+death-toll, and at such times he is accustomed to say one extra prayer
+for the departed soul. Don't disturb him, I beg, or he will grumble the
+whole day."
+
+Mistress Boris conducted the gentlemen into a large room, which, to
+judge from the table ready laid, served as dining room, though the
+intruder might have taken it for an oratory, so full was it of pictures
+of those hallowed ones, whom we like to drag down to ourselves, it being
+too fatiguing to rise up to them.
+
+And in that idea there is much that is sublime. A picture of Christ in
+the mourning widow's chamber; a "mater dolorosa," in the distracted
+mother's home; a "kerchief" of the Holy Virgin, spotlessly white, like
+the glorious spirit, above the bed of olden times, are surely elevating,
+and honorable presences, the recollections which lead us to them are
+holy and imperishable, as is the devotion which bows the knee before
+them. But a repugnant sight is the home of the Pharisee, who surrounds
+himself with holy images that men may behold them.
+
+Sárvölgyi allowed his guests to wait a long time, though they were, as
+it happened, not at all impatient.
+
+Great ringing of bells announced his coming; this being a sign he was
+accustomed to give to the kitchen, that the dinner could be served. Soon
+he appeared.
+
+He was a tall, dry man, of slight stature, and so small was his head
+that one could scarce believe it could serve for the same purposes as
+another man's. His smoothly shaven face did not betray his age; the skin
+of his cheeks was oil yellow, his mouth small, his shoulders rounded,
+his nose large, mal-formed and unpleasantly crooked.
+
+He shook hands very cordially with his guests; he had long had the honor
+of the lawyer's acquaintance, but it was his supreme pleasure to see the
+magistrate to-day for the first time. But he was extremely courteous,
+not a feature of his countenance betraying any emotion.
+
+The magistrate seemed determined not to say a word. So the brunt of the
+conversation fell on the lawyer.
+
+"We have happily concluded the 'execution'."
+
+That was naturally the most convenient topic for the commencement of the
+conversation.
+
+"I am sorry enough that it had to be so," sighed Sárvölgyi. "Apart from
+the fact that Topándy is unceasingly persecuting me, I respect and like
+him very much. I only wish he would turn over a new leaf. He would be an
+excellent fellow. I know I made a great mistake when I accused him out
+of mere self-love. I am sorry I did so. I ought to have followed the
+command of scripture, 'If he smite thee on thy right cheek, offer him
+thy left cheek also.'"
+
+"Under such circumstances there would be very few criminal processes for
+the courts to consider."
+
+"I confess I rejoiced this morning when the commission of execution
+arrived. I felt an inward happiness, due to the fact that this foe of
+mine had fallen, that he was trampled under my feet. I thought: he is
+now gnashing his teeth and snapping at the heels of justice that stamp
+upon his head. And I was glad if it. Yet my gladness was sinful, for no
+one may rejoice at the destruction of the fallen, and the righteous
+cannot be glad at the danger of a fellow creature. It was a sin for
+which I must atone."
+
+The simplest atonement, thought the lawyer, would be for him to return
+the amount of the fine.
+
+"For this I have inflicted a punishment upon myself," said Sárvölgyi,
+piously bowing his head. "Oh, I have always punished myself for any
+misdemeanor, I now condemn myself to one day's fasting. My punishment
+will be, to sit here beside the table and watch the whole dinner,
+without touching anything myself."
+
+It will be very fine! thought the lawyer. He is determined to fast,
+while we have taken our fill yonder. So we shall all look at the whole
+dinner, without tasting anything,--and Mistress Boris will sweep us out
+of the house.
+
+"My friend the magistrate's head is doubtless aching after his great
+official fatigue!" Sárvölgyi said, hitting the nail right on the head.
+
+"It is indeed true," remarked the lawyer assuringly. The young official
+was in need rather of rest than of feasting. There are good, blessed
+mortals, whom two glasses of wine immediately send to sleep, and to whom
+it is the most exquisite torture to be obliged to remain awake.
+
+"My suggestion is," said the lawyer, "that it would be good for the
+magistrate to repose in an armchair and rest himself, until the cleaning
+of the cloister is finished, and we can again take our seats in the
+carriage."
+
+"Sleep is the gift of Heaven," said the man of piety: "it would be a sin
+to steal it from a fellow-man. Kindly make yourself comfortable at once
+in this room."
+
+It was an extremely difficult process to make oneself comfortable on
+that apology for an arm-chair; it seemed to have been prepared as a
+resting place for ascetics and body-torturers: still the magistrate sat
+down in it, craved pardon,--and fell asleep. And then he dreamed that he
+saw before him again that laid-out table, where one guest sat two yards
+from the other while all round holy pictures were hanging on the walls,
+with their faces turned away, as if they did not wish to gaze upon the
+scene. In the middle of the room there was hanging from the ceiling a
+heavy chandelier with twelve branches, and on it was swaying the host
+himself.
+
+What a cursed foolery is a dream! The host was actually sitting there
+vis-à-vis with the lawyer, at the other end of the long table; for
+Mistress Boris had so laid the places. And as the magistrate's place
+remained empty, host and guest sat so far apart that the one was
+incapable of helping the other.
+
+At last the door opened, with such a delicate creaking that the lawyer
+thought somebody was ringing to be admitted:--It was Mistress Boris
+bringing in the soup.
+
+The lawyer was determined to make some sacrifice, in order to maintain
+the dignity of the "legale testimonium," by dining a second time. He
+thought himself capable of this heroic deed.
+
+He was deceived.
+
+There is a peculiarity of the Magyar which has not yet been the subject
+of song: his stomach will not stand certain things.
+
+This a stranger cannot understand: it is a "specificum."
+
+When Vörösmarty sang that "in the great world outside there is no place
+for thee,"[37] he found it unnecessary to add the reason for that, which
+every man knows without his telling them:--"in every land abroad they
+cook with butter."
+
+[Footnote 37: From the celebrated Szózat (appeal) calling on the
+Hungarian to be true to his fatherland.]
+
+A Magyar stomach detests what is buttery. He becomes melancholy and
+sickly from it; he runs away from the very mention of it, and if some
+sly housekeeper deceitfully gives him buttery things to eat, all his
+life long he considers that as an attempt upon his life, and will never
+again sit down to such a poison-mixer's table.
+
+You may place him where you like abroad, still he will long to return
+from the cursed butter-smelling world, and if he cannot he grows thin
+and fades away: and like the giraffe in the European climate, he cannot
+reproduce his kind in a foreign land. Roughly speaking, all his
+neighbors cook with butter, oil and dripping: and "be harsh or kind, the
+hand of fate, here thou must live, here die."[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: Also from the "Szózat."]
+
+The lawyer was a true Magyar of the first water. And when he perceived
+that the crab soup was made with butter, he put down his spoon beside
+his plate and said he could not eat crabs. Since he had learned that the
+crab was nought else but a beetle living in water, and since a company
+had been formed in Germany for making beetles into preserves for
+dessert, he had been unable to look with undismayed eye upon these
+retrograde monsters.
+
+"Ach, take it away, Boris," sighed the host. He himself was not eating,
+for was he not atoning for his sins?
+
+Mistress Boris removed the dish with an expression of violent anger.
+
+Just imagine a housekeeper, whose every ambition is the kitchen, when
+her first dish is despatched away from the table without being touched.
+
+The second dish--eggs stuffed with sardines--suffered the same fate.
+
+The lawyer declared on his word of honor that they had buried his
+grandfather for tasting a dish of sardines, and that every female in the
+family immediately went into spasms from the smell of the same. He would
+rather eat a whale than a sardine.
+
+"Take this away, too, Mistress Boris. No one will touch it." Mistress
+Boris began to mutter under her breath that it was absurd and affected
+to turn up one's nose at these respectable eatables, which were quite as
+good as those they had eaten in their grandfather's house. Her last
+words were rather drowned by the creaking of the door as she went out.
+
+Then followed some kind of salad, with bread crumbs. The lawyer had in
+his university days received such a dangerous fever from eating such
+stuff, that it would indeed be a fatal enterprise to tackle it now.
+
+This was too much for the housekeeper. She attacked Mr. Sárvölgyi:
+
+"Didn't I tell you not to cook a fasting dinner? Didn't I say so? You
+think everyone is as devout as you are in keeping Friday? Now you have
+it. Now I am disgraced."
+
+"It is part of the punishment I have inflicted on myself," answered
+Sárvölgyi, with humble acquiescence.
+
+"The devil take your punishment; it is me that will come in for ridicule
+if they hear about it yonder. You become more of a fool every day."
+
+"Say what is on your tongue, my good Boris; heaven will order you to do
+penance as well as me."
+
+Mistress Boris slammed the door after her, and cried outside in bitter
+disappointment.
+
+The lawyer swore to himself that he would eat whatever followed, even if
+it were poison.
+
+It was worse: it was fish.
+
+We have medical certificates to enable us to assert that whenever the
+lawyer ate fish he promptly had to go to bed. He was forced to say that
+if they chased him from the house with boiling water he could not
+venture to put his teeth into it.
+
+Mistress Boris said nothing now. She actually kept silent. As we all
+know, the last stage but one of a woman's anger is when she is silent,
+and cannot utter a word. There is one stage more, which was imminent.
+The lawyer thought the dinner was over, and with true sincerity begged
+Mistress Boris to prepare a little coffee for him and the magistrate.
+
+Boris left the room without a word, placing the coffee machine before
+Sárvölgyi himself; he did not allow anyone else to make it, and occupied
+himself with the preparations till Mistress Boris came back.
+
+The magistrate was just dreaming that that fellow swinging from the
+ceiling turned to him, and said "will you have a cup of coffee?" It did
+him good starting from his doze, to see his host, not on the chandelier,
+but sitting in a chair before him, saying: "Will you have a cup of
+coffee?"
+
+The magistrate hastened to taste it, with a view to driving the
+sleepiness from his eyes, and the lawyer poured some out for himself.
+
+Just at that moment Mistress Boris entered with a dish of omelette.
+
+Mistress Boris with a face betraying the last stage of anger, approached
+the lawyer:--she smiled tenderly.
+
+It is not the pleasantest sight in the world when a lady with a plate
+of omelette in her hand, smiles tenderly upon a man who is well aware of
+the fact that only a hair's breadth separates him from the catastrophe
+of having the whole dish dashed on his head.
+
+"Kindly help yourself."
+
+The lawyer felt a cold shiver run down his back.
+
+"You will surely like this!--omelette."
+
+"I see, my dear woman, that it is omelette," whispered the lawyer; "but
+no one of my family could enjoy omelette after black coffee."
+
+The catastrophe had not yet arrived. The lawyer had his eyes already
+shut, waiting for the inevitable; but the storm, to his astonishment,
+passed over his head.
+
+There was something else to attract the thunderbolt. The magistrate had
+again taken his seat at the table, and was putting sugar in his coffee;
+he could not have any such excuse.
+
+"Kindly help yourself ..."
+
+The magistrate's hair stood on end at her awful look. He saw that this
+relentless dragon of the apocalypse would devour him, if he did not
+stuff himself to death with the omelette. Yet it was utterly impossible.
+He could not have eaten a morsel even if confronting the stake or the
+gallows.
+
+"Pardon, a thousand pardons, my dear woman," he panted, drawing his
+chair farther away from the threatening horror: "I feel so unwell that I
+cannot take dinner."
+
+Then the storm broke.
+
+Mistress Boris put the dish down on the table, placed her two hands on
+her thighs, and exploded:
+
+"No, of course not," she panted, her voice thick with rage. "Of course
+you can't dine here, because you were simply crammed over yonder by--the
+gypsy girl."
+
+The hot coffee stuck in the throats of the two guests at these words! In
+the lawyer's from uncontrollable laughter, in the magistrate's from
+still more uncontrollable consternation.
+
+This woman had indeed wreaked a monstrous vengeance.
+
+The good magistrate felt like a boy thrashed at school, who fears that
+his folks at home may learn the whole truth.
+
+Luckily the sergeant of gendarmes entered with the news that the unholy
+pictures had been already erased from the walls, and the carriages were
+waiting. He too "got it" outside, for, as he made inquiries after his
+masters, Mistress Boris told him severely to go to the depths of hell:
+"he too smelt of wine; of course, that gypsy girl had given him also to
+drink!"
+
+That gypsy girl!
+
+The magistrate, in spite of his crestfallen dejection, felt an actual
+sense of pleasure at being rid of this cursed house and district.
+
+Only when they were well on their dusty way along the highroad did he
+address his companion:
+
+"Well, my dear old man, that fine lady was only a gypsy girl after all."
+
+"Surely, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then why did you not tell me?"
+
+"Because you did not ask me."
+
+"That is why you lay on your stomach and laughed, is it?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+The magistrate heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"At least, I implore you, don't tell my wife that the gypsy girl kissed
+me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WILD CREATURE'S HAUNT
+
+
+In those days the Tisza regulations did not exist--that plain around
+Lankadomb where now turnips are hoed with four-bladed machines was at
+that time still covered by an impenetrable marsh, that came right up to
+Topándy's garden, from which it was separated by a broad ditch. This
+ditch wound in a meandering, narrow course to the great waste of rushes,
+and in dry summer gave the appearance of a rivulet conveying the water
+of the marsh down to the Tisza. When the heavy rains came, naturally the
+stream flowed back along the same route.
+
+The whole marsh covered some ten or twelve square miles. Here after a
+heavy frost, they used to cut reeds, and on the occasion of great
+hunting matches[39] they would drive up masses of foxes and wolves; and
+all the huntsmen of the neighborhood might lie in wait in its expanse
+for fowl from morn till eve, and if they pleased, might roam at will in
+a canoe and destroy the swarms of winged inhabitants of the fen: no one
+would interrupt them.
+
+[Footnote 39: A hunting match in which the vassals of the landlord form
+a ring of great extent and advancing and narrowing the circle by
+degrees, drive the animals together towards a place where they can be
+conveniently shot. (Walter Scott.)]
+
+Some ancestor of Topándy had given the peasantry permission to cut peat
+in the bog, but the present proprietor had discontinued this industry,
+because it completely defiled the place: the ditches caused by the old
+diggings became swampy morasses, so that neither man nor beast could
+pass among them without danger.
+
+Anyone with good eyes could still descry from the castle tower that
+enormous hay-rick which they had filled up ten or twelve years before in
+the middle of the marsh; it was just in the height of summer and they
+had mown the hillocks in the marsh; then followed a mild winter, and
+neither man nor sleigh could reach it. The hay was lost, it was not
+worth the trouble of getting; so they had left it there, and it was
+already brown, its top moss-covered and overgrown with weeds.
+
+Topándy would often say to his hunting comrades, who, looking through a
+telescope, remarked the hay-rick in the marsh:
+
+"Someone must be living in that rick; often of an evening have I seen
+smoke coming from it. It might be an excellent place for a dwelling.
+Rain cannot penetrate it, in winter it keeps out the cold, in summer the
+heat. I would live in it myself."
+
+They often tried to reach it while out hunting; but every attempt was a
+failure; the ground about the rick was so clogged with turfy peat that
+to approach it by boat was impossible, and one who trusted himself on
+foot came so near being engulfed that his companions could scarcely haul
+him out of the bog with a rope. Finally they acquiesced in the idea that
+here within distinct view of the castle, some wild creature, born of
+man, had made his dwelling among the wolves and other wild beasts; a
+creature whom it would be a pity to disturb, as he never interfered with
+anybody.
+
+The most enterprising hunter, therefore, even in broad daylight avoided
+the neighborhood of the suspicious hay-rick; who then would be so
+audacious as to dare to seek it out by night when the circled moon
+foretelling rain, was flooding the marsh-land with a silvery, misty
+radiance, adding a new terror to the face of the landscape; when the
+exhalations of the marsh were sluggishly spreading a vaporous heaviness
+over the lowland; while the eerie habitants of the bog (whose time of
+sleep is by day, their active life at night) the millions of frogs and
+other creatures were reëchoing their cries, announcing the whereabouts
+of the slimy pools, where foul gases are lord and master; when the
+he-wolf was howling to his comrades; and when, all at once, some
+mysterious-faced cloud drew out before the moon, and whispered to her
+something that made all nature tremble, so that for one moment all was
+silent, a death-like silence, more terrible than all the night voices
+speaking at once;--at such a time whose steps were those that sounded in
+the depths of the morass?
+
+A horseman was making his way by the moonlight, in solitude.
+
+His steed struggled along up to the hocks in the swamp which showed no
+paths at all; the tracks were immediately sucked up by the mud:--nothing
+lay before to show the way, save the broken reed. No sign remained that
+anyone had ever passed there before.
+
+The sagacious mare carefully noted the marks from time to time,
+instinctively scenting the route, that tracks trodden by wild beasts
+should not lead her astray; cleverly she picked out with her sharp eyes
+the places where the ground was still firm; at times she would leap from
+one clod of peat to another. The space between these spots might be
+overgrown by green grass, with yellow flowers dotted here and there, but
+the sagacious animal knew, felt, perhaps had even experienced, that the
+depth there was deceptive; it was one of those peat-diggings, filled in
+by mud and overgrown by the green of water-moss; he who stepped thereon
+would be swallowed up in an instant. Then she trotted on picking her way
+among the dangerous places.
+
+And the rider?
+
+He was asleep.
+
+Asleep on horseback, while his steed was going with him through an
+accursed spot: where to right and left were graves, where below was hell
+and around him the gloom of night. The horseman was sleeping, his head
+nodding backwards and forwards, swaying to and fro. Sometimes he
+started, as those who travel in carriages are wont to do when the
+jolting is more pronounced than ordinary, and then settled down again.
+Though asleep he kept his seat as if he had grown to the saddle. His
+hands seemed wide awake for all he held the reins in one and a
+double-barrelled gun in the other.
+
+By the light of the moon his dark face seemed even darker; his long,
+crisp, curly hair, his hat pressed down over his eyes, his black beard
+and moustache, his strongly aquiline nose, all proclaimed his gypsy
+origin. He wore a threadbare blue doublet, braided with cords, which
+were buttoned here and there at random, and over this was fastened some
+tattered lambskin covering.
+
+The rider was really fast asleep: surely he must have travelled at such
+a pace that he had no time, or thought for sleep, and now, strangely
+enough, he felt at home.
+
+Here, where no one could pursue him, he bowed his head upon his horse's
+neck.
+
+And the horse seemed to know that his master was sleeping, for he did
+not shake himself once, even to rid himself of the crowds of biting,
+sucking insects that preyed upon his skin, knowing that such a motion
+would wake his master.
+
+As the mare broke through a clump of marsh-willows, in the darkness of
+the willow forest, little dancing fire-flies came before her in scores,
+leaping from grass to grass, from tree to tree, dissolving one into the
+other, then leaping apart and dancing alone; their flames assumed a
+pale, lustreless brilliance in the darkness, like some fire of mystery
+or the burning gases of some moldering corpses.
+
+The mare merely snorted at the sight of these flickering midnight
+flames; surely she had often met them, in journeys across the marsh, and
+already knew their caprices: how they lurked about the living animals,
+how they ran after her if she passed before them, how they fluttered
+around, how they danced beside her continuously, how they leaped across
+above her head, how they strove to lead her astray from the right path.
+
+There they were darting around the heads of horse and horseman as if
+they were burning night-moths; one lighted upon the horseman's hat, and
+swayed with it, as he nodded his head.
+
+The steed snorted and breathed hard upon those living lights. But the
+snorting awakened the rider. He gazed askance at his brilliant
+demon-companions, one of which was on the brim of his hat; he dug the
+spurs into the mare's flanks, to make her leap more speedily from among
+the jeering spirits of the night.
+
+When they came to a turn in the track, the crowd of graveyard
+mystery-lights parted in twain: most of them joined the rushing
+air-current, while some careful guardians remained constantly about the
+rider, now before, now behind him.
+
+Darting from the willows, a cold breeze swept over the plain: before it
+every mystery-light fled back into the darkness, and still kept up its
+ghostly dance. Who knows what kind of amusement that was to them?
+
+The horseman was sleeping again. The terrible hay-rick was now so near
+that one might have gone straight to it, but the steed knew better;
+instead, she went around the spot in a half-circle, until she reached a
+little lake that cut off the hay-rick. Here she halted on the water's
+edge and began to toss her head, with a view to quietly awakening the
+rider from his sleep.
+
+The latter looked up, dismounted, took saddle and bridle off his horse,
+and patted her on the back. Therewith the steed leaped into the water,
+which reached to her neck, and swam to the other side.
+
+Why did she not cross over dry ground? Why did she go only through the
+water? The horseman meanwhile squatted down among the broom, rested his
+gun upon his knee, made sure that it was cocked and that the powder had
+not fallen from the pan, and noiselessly crouched down, gazing after the
+retreating steed, as she reached the opposite bank. Suddenly she drew in
+her tail, bristled her mane, pricked up her ears. Her eyes flashed fire,
+her nostrils expanded. Slowly and cautiously she stepped forward, so as
+to make no noise, bowed her head to the earth, like some scenting hound,
+and stopped to listen.
+
+On the southern side of the hay-rick,--the side away from the
+village,--there was a narrow entrance cut into the pile of hay: a
+plaited door of willow-twigs covered it, and the twigs were plaited
+together in their turn with sedges to make the color harmonize with that
+of the rick. This was done so perfectly that no one looking at it, even
+from a short distance, would have suspected anything. As the steed
+reached the vicinity of the door, she cautiously gazed upon it: below
+the willow-door there was an opening, through which something had broken
+in.
+
+The mare knew already what it was. She scented it. A she-wolf had taken
+up her abode there in the absence of the usual occupants, she had young
+ones with her, and was just now giving suck; otherwise she would have
+noticed the horse's approach; the whining of the whelps could be heard
+from the outside. The mare seized the door with her teeth, and suddenly
+wrenched it from its place.
+
+From the hollow of the hay-rick a lean, hungry wolf crept out. At first
+in wonder she raised her eyes, which shone in the green light,
+astonished at this disturbance of her repose; and she seemed to take
+counsel within herself, whether this was the continuation of her sweet
+dreams. The providential joint had come very opportunely to the mother
+of seven whelps. Two or three of these were still clinging to her
+hanging udders, and left her only that she might prepare herself for the
+fight. The old animal merely yawned loudly,--in a man it would be called
+a laugh,--a yawn that declared her delight in robbery, and with her
+slatternly tail beat her lean, hollow sides. The mare, seeing that her
+foe was in no hurry for the combat, came nearer, bowed her head to the
+earth, and in this manner stepped slowly forward, sniffing at the enemy;
+when the wolf seemed in the act of springing on her neck she suddenly
+turned, and dealt a savage kick at the wolf's chin that broke one of its
+great front teeth. Then the furious wild creature, snarling and hissing,
+darted upon the steed, which at the second attack kicked so viciously
+with both hind legs that the wolf turned a complete somersault in the
+air; but this only served to make it more furious: gnashing its teeth,
+its mouth foaming and bloody, it sprang a third time upon the mare, only
+to receive from the sharp hoof a long wound in its breast; but that was
+not all: before it could rise from the ground, the mare dealt another
+blow that crushed one of its fore paws.
+
+The wolf then gave up the battle. Terrified, with broken teeth and feet,
+it hobbled off from the scene of the encounter, and soon appeared on the
+roof of the rick. The coward had sought a place of refuge from the
+victorious foe, whither that foe could not follow it.
+
+The steed galloped round the rick: she wished to deceive her enemy, who
+merely sat on the roof licking its broken leg, its bruised side, and
+bloody jaws.
+
+All at once the proud mare halted, with a haughtier look than man is
+capable of, as who might say: "You are not coming?"
+
+Suddenly she seized one of the whelps in her teeth. They had slunk out
+of the hollow, whining after their mother. She shook it cruelly in the
+air, then dashed it to the ground violently so that in a moment its
+cries ceased.
+
+The mother-wolf hissed with agonized fury on the roof of the rick.
+
+The mare seized another one of the whelps and shook it in the air.
+
+As she grasped the third by the neck, the mother, mad with rage, leaped
+down upon her from the pile and, with the energy of despair, made so
+fierce an assault that her claws reached the steed's neck; but her
+crushed leg could take no hold, and she fell in a heap at the mare's
+feet; the triumphant foe then trampled to death first the old mother,
+then all the whelps. At last, proudly whinnying, she galloped in frisky
+triumph around the rick, and then quickly swam back to the place where
+she had left her master.
+
+"Well, Farao, is there anything the matter?" said the horseman,
+embracing his horse's head.
+
+The horse replied to the question with a familiar neigh, and rubbed her
+nose against her master's hip.
+
+The horseman thereupon tied saddle and bridle together into one bundle,
+and leaped upon his steed's back, who then, without harness of any kind,
+readily swam with him to the place she had already visited, and halted
+before the opening in the rick. The master dismounted. The steed, thus
+freed, rolled on the grass, neighing and whinnying, then leaped up,
+shook herself, and with great delight grazed in the rich swampy pasture.
+
+The gypsy was not surprised to see the bloody signs of the late
+struggle. He had many a time discovered dead wolves in the track of his
+grazing horse.
+
+"This will serve splendidly for a skin-cloak, as the old one is torn."
+
+Then something occurred to him.
+
+"This was a female: so the male must be here somewhere--I know where."
+The rick was surrounded by wolf-ditches in double rows, so made that the
+inner ditch corresponded to the space left between the two outer ones:
+the whole crafty work of defence was covered over with thin brush and
+reeds, which had been overgrown by process of time by moss, so that even
+a man might have been deceived by their appearance. Here was the reason
+why the steed had not approached the rick in a straight line. This was a
+fortified place, and the only entrance to the stronghold was that lake
+which lay before it: that was the gate. The she-wolf, too, had
+undoubtedly come across the water, but the male had not been so prudent
+and had entrapped himself in one of the ditches.
+
+The gypsy at once noticed that one ditch had been broken in, and, as he
+gazed down into the depths, two blazing blood-red eyes told him that
+what he was looking for was there.
+
+"Well, you are in a fine position, old fellow: in the morning I shall
+come for you: and I'll ask for your skin, if you'll give it to me. If
+you give, you give; if you don't give, I take. That is the order of
+things in the world. I have none, you have: I want it, you don't. One
+of us must die for the other's sake: that one must be you."
+
+Then it occurred to him to remove the skin of the she-wolf at once, for,
+if he left it to cool, the work would be more difficult. He stretched
+the fur on poles and left it to dry in the moonlight; the carcass he
+dragged to the end of the rick and buried it there; then he made a fire
+of rushes, took his seven days' old bread and rancid bacon from his
+greasy wallet and ate. As the darting flames threw a flickering light
+upon his face, he looked no more peaceful than that wild creature, whose
+hollow he had usurped.
+
+It was just a sagacious, courageous, wily, resolute--_animal_ face.
+
+"Either you eat me, or I eat you." That was its meaning. "You have, I
+have not; I want, you don't:--if you give, you give; if you don't, I
+take."
+
+At every bite with his brilliant white teeth into the bread and bacon,
+you could see it in his face; his gnashing teeth, and ravenous eyes
+declared it.
+
+That bacon, and bread, had surely cost something, if not money.
+
+Money? How could the gypsy purchase for money? Why, when he took that
+bright dollar from his knapsack, people would ask him where he got it.
+Should he show one of those red-eyed bank-notes, they would at once
+arrest, imprison him: whom had he murdered to obtain them?
+
+Yet he has dollars and bank-notes in plenty. He gathers them from his
+leathern purse with his hands, and scatters them around him on the
+grass.
+
+Bright silver and gold coins glitter around him in the firelight. He
+gazes at the curious notes of the imperial banks, and fears within
+himself that he cannot make out the worth of any of them. Then he sweeps
+them all together in one heap, along with snail shells and rush-seeds.
+After a while the man enters the hollow interior of the rick, and draws
+from the hay a large, sooty copper vessel, partly moldy with the mold of
+money. He pours the new pile in with two full hands. Then he raises the
+cauldron to see how much heavier it has become.
+
+Is he satisfied with his work?
+
+He buries his treasure once more in the depths of the rick; he himself
+knows not how much there might be. Then he attacks anew the hard, stale
+bread, the rancid bacon, and devours it to the last morsel. Perhaps some
+ready-prepared banquet awaited him on the morrow. Or perhaps he is
+accustomed to feasting only every third day. At last he stretches
+himself out on the grass, and calls to Farao.
+
+"Come here, graze about my head, let me hear you crunch the grass."
+
+And quickly he fell asleep beside her, as it were one whose brain was of
+the quietest and his conscience the most peaceful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"FRUITS PREMATURELY RIPE"
+
+
+At first I was invited to my P. C. uncle's every Sunday to dinner: later
+I went without invitation. As soon as I was let out of school, I
+hastened thither. I persuaded myself that I went to visit my brother. I
+found an excuse, too, in the idea that I must make progress in art, and
+that it was in any case an excellent use of time, and a very good
+"entrée" to art, if I played waltzes and quadrilles of an afternoon from
+five to eight on the violin to Melanie's accompaniment on the piano,
+while the rest of the company danced to our music.
+
+For the Bálnokházys had company every day. Such a change of faces that I
+could scarcely remember who and what they all were. Gay young men and
+ladies they were, who loved to enjoy themselves: every day there was a
+dance there.
+
+Sometimes others would change places with Melanie at the piano: a piece
+of good fortune for me, for she was able to then have a dance--with me.
+
+I have never seen any one dance more beautifully than she; she fluttered
+above the floor, and could make the waltz more agreeable than any one
+else before or after her. That was my favorite dance. I was exclusively
+by her side at such times, and we could not gaze except into each
+other's eyes. I did not like the quadrille so well: in that one is
+always taking the hands of different persons, and changing partners; and
+what interest had I in those other lady-dancers?
+
+And I thought Melanie, too, rejoiced at the same thing that pleased me.
+
+And, if by chance--a very rare event--the P. C. had no company, we still
+had our dance. There were always two gentlemen and two lady dancers in
+the house party; the beautiful wife of the P. C. and Fraülein Matild,
+the governess: Lorand and Pepi[40] Gyáli.
+
+[Footnote 40: A nickname for Joseph.]
+
+Pepi was the son of a court agent at Vienna, and his father was a very
+good friend of Bálnokházy; his mother had once been ballet-dancer at the
+Vienna opera--a fact I only learned later.
+
+Pepi was a handsome young fellow "en miniature;" he was a member of the
+same class as Lorand, a law student in the first year, yet he was no
+taller than I. Every feature of his face was fine and tender, his mouth,
+small, like that of a girl, yet never in all my life have I met one
+capable of such backbiting as was he with his pretty mouth.
+
+How I envied that little mortal his gift for conversation, his profound
+knowledge, his easy gestures, his freedom of manners, that familiarity
+with which he could treat women! His beauty was plastic!
+
+I felt within myself that such ought a man to be in life, if he would be
+happy.
+
+The only thing I did not like in him was that he was always paying
+compliments to Melanie: he might have desisted from that. He surely must
+have remarked on what terms I was with her.
+
+His custom was, in the quadrille, when the solo-dancing gentlemen
+returned to their lady partners, to anticipate me and dance the turn
+with Melanie. He considered it a very good joke, and I scowled at him
+several times. But once, when he wished to do the same, I seized his
+arm, and pushed him away; I was only a grammar-school boy, and he was a
+first-year law student; still I did push him away.
+
+With this heroic deed of mine not only myself but my cousin Melanie also
+was contented. That evening we danced right up till nine o'clock. I
+always with Melanie, and Lorand with her mother.
+
+When the company dispersed, we went down to Lorand's room on the ground
+floor, Pepi accompanying us.
+
+I thought he was going to pick a quarrel with me, and vowed inwardly I
+would thrash him.
+
+But instead he merely laughed at me.
+
+"Only imagine," he said, throwing himself on Lorand's bed, "this boy is
+jealous of me."
+
+My brother laughed too.
+
+It was truly ridiculous: one boy jealous of another.
+
+Yes, I was surely jealous, but chivalrous too. I think I had read in
+some novel that it was the custom to reply in some such manner to like
+ridicule:
+
+"Sir, I forbid you to take that lady's name in vain."
+
+They laughed all the more.
+
+"Why, he is a delightful fellow, this Desi," said Pepi. "See, Lorand, he
+will cause you a deal of trouble. If he learns to smoke, he will be
+quite an Othello."
+
+This insinuation hit me on a sensitive spot. I had never yet tasted that
+ambrosia, which was to make me a full-grown man; for as every one knows,
+it is the pipe-stem which is the dividing line between boyhood and
+manhood; he who could take that in his mouth was a man. I had already
+often been teased about that.
+
+I must vindicate myself.
+
+On my brother's table stood the tobacco-box full of Turkish tobacco, so
+by way of reply I went and filled a church warden, lit and began to
+smoke it.
+
+"Now, my child, that will be too strong," sneered Pepi, "take it away
+from him, Lorand. Look how pale he is getting: remove it from him at
+once."
+
+But I continued smoking: the smoke burned and bit the skin of my tongue;
+still I held the stem between my teeth, until the tobacco was burned
+out.
+
+That was my first and last pipe.
+
+"At any rate, drink a glass of water," Lorand said.
+
+"No thank you."
+
+"Well, go home, for it will soon be dark."
+
+"I am not afraid in the streets."
+
+Yet I felt like one who is a little tipsy.
+
+"Have you any appetite?" inquired Pepi scornfully.
+
+"Just enough to eat a gingerbread-hussar like you."
+
+Lorand laughed uncontrollably at this remark of mine.
+
+"Gingerbread-hussar! you have got it from him, Pepi."
+
+I was quite flushed with pride at being able to make Lorand laugh.
+
+But Pepi, on the contrary, became quite serious.
+
+"Ho, ho, old fellow," (when he spoke seriously to me he always addressed
+me "old fellow," and on other occasions as "my child"). "Never be afraid
+of me; now Lorand might have reason to be: we both want what is ready;
+we do not court your little girl, but her mother. If the old wigged
+councillor is not jealous of us, don't you be so."
+
+I expected Lorand to smite that fair mouth for this despicable calumny.
+
+Instead of which he merely said, half muttering:
+
+"Don't; before the child..."
+
+Pepi did not allow himself to be called to order.
+
+"It is true, my dear Desi: and I can tell you that you will have a far
+more grateful part to play around Melanie, if she marries someone else."
+
+Then indeed I went home. This cynicism was something quite new to my
+mind. Not only my stomach, but my whole soul turned sick. How could I
+measure the bitterness of the idea that Lorand was paying court to a
+married woman? Such a thing was not to be seen in the circle in which we
+had been brought up. Such a case had been mentioned in our town,
+perhaps, as the scandal of the century, but only in whispers that the
+innocent might not hear: neither the man nor the woman could have shown
+their faces in our street. Surely no one would have spoken another word
+to them.
+
+And Lorand had been so confused when Pepi uttered this foul thing to his
+face before me. He did not deny it, nor was he angry.
+
+I arrived at home in an agony of shame. The street-door was already
+closed: so I had to pass in by the shop door. I wished to open it
+softly that the bell should not betray my coming, but Father Fromm was
+waiting for me. He was extremely angry: he stopped my way.
+
+"Discipulus negligens! Do you know 'quote hora?' Decem. Every day to
+wander out of doors till after nine, hoc non pergit.--Scio, scio, what
+you wish to say. You were at the P. C.'s. That is 'unum et idem' for me.
+The other 'asinus' has been learning his lessons ever since midday, so
+much has he to do, while you have not even so much as glanced at them;
+do you wish to be a greater 'asinus' than he? Now I say 'semel propter
+semper,' 'finis' to the carnival! Don't go any more a-dancing; for if
+you stay out once more, 'ego tibi umsicabo.' Now 'pergus, dixi.'"
+
+Old Márton during this well-deserved drubbing kept moving the scalp of
+his head back and forth in assent, and then came after me with a candle,
+to light me along the corridor to the door of my room, singing behind me
+these jesting verses:
+
+    "Hab i ti nid gsagt
+    Komm um halbe Acht?
+    Und du Kummst mir jetzt um halbe naini
+    Jetzt ist de Vater z'haus, kannst nimmer aini."[41]
+
+[Footnote 41: "Did I not tell thee, 'come at half-past seven?' and thou
+comest now at half-past eight? Now the father is at home, thou canst no
+more come in."]
+
+And after me he called out "Prosit, Sir Lieutenant-Governor." I had no
+desire to be angry with him. I felt too sad to quarrel with any one.
+
+Henrik was indeed slaving away at the table, and the candle, burnt to
+the end, proved that he had been at it a long time.
+
+"Welcome, Desi," he said good humoredly. "You come late; a terrible
+amount of 'labor' awaits you to-morrow. I have finished mine: you will
+be behind with yours, so I have written the exercises in your place.
+Look and see if it is good."
+
+I was humbled.
+
+That heavy-headed boy, on whom I had been wont to look down from such a
+height, whose work I had prepared in play, work which he would have
+broken his head over, had now in my place finished the work I had
+neglected. What had become of me?
+
+"I waited for you with a little pleasant surprise," said Henrik, taking
+from his drawer something which he held in his hand before me. "Now
+guess what it is."
+
+"I don't care what it is."
+
+I was in a bad humor, I longed to lay my head on the bed.
+
+"Of course you care. Fanny has written a letter from her new home. She
+has written to you in Magyar, about your dear mother."
+
+These words roused me from my lethargy.
+
+"Show me: give it me to read."
+
+"You see, you are delighted after all."
+
+I tore the letter from him.
+
+First Fanny wrote to her parents in German, on the last page in Magyar
+to me. She had already made such progress.
+
+She wrote that they often spoke of me at home; I was a bad boy not to
+write mother a letter: she was very ill and it was her sole delight to
+be able to speak of me. As often as her parents or brother wrote to
+Fanny, she would add a few lines after opening the letter, in my name,
+then take it to my mother and read it to her, as if I had written. How
+delighted she was! She did not know my German writing, so she readily
+believed it was I who had written. But I must be a good boy and write
+myself, for some day mother and grandmother would discover the deceit
+and would be angry.
+
+My heart was almost bursting.
+
+I pored over the letter I had read, and sobbed bitterly as I had never
+before done in my life.
+
+My dear only mother! thou saint, thou martyr! who sufferest, weepest,
+and anguishest so much for my sake, while I mix in a society where they
+mock women, and mothers! Canst thou forgive me?
+
+When I had cried myself out, my face was covered with tears. Henrik
+raised me from my seat upon the floor.
+
+"Give me this letter," I panted; and I kissed him for giving it to me.
+
+Many great historical documents have been torn up since then, but that
+letter is still in my possession.
+
+"Now I cannot go to bed. I will stay up until morning and finish the
+work I have neglected. I thank you for what you have written in my
+stead, but I cannot accept it. I shall do it myself. I shall do
+everything in which I am behindhand."
+
+"Good, Desi, my boy, but you see our candle has burned down; and
+grandmother is already asleep, so I cannot ask her for one. Still, if
+you do wish to sit up, go down to the bakehouse, they are working all
+night, as to-morrow is Saturday: take your ink, paper, and books with
+you. There you can write and learn your lessons."
+
+I did so. I descended to the court, washed my head beside the fountain,
+then took my books and writing material and descended to the bakehouse,
+begging Márton to allow me to work there by lamp-light. Márton irritated
+me the whole night with his satire, the assistants jostled me, and drove
+me from my place; they sang the "Kneading-trough" air, and many other
+street-songs: and amid all these abominations I studied till morning;
+what is more, I finished all my work.
+
+That night, I know, was one of the turning-points in my life.
+
+Two days later came Sunday: I met Pepi in the street.
+
+"Well, old fellow: are you not coming to-day to see little Melanie?
+There will be a great dance-rehearsal."
+
+"I cannot: I have too much to do."
+
+Pepi laughed loudly. "Very well, old fellow."
+
+His laughter did not affect me in the least.
+
+"But when you have learned all there is to learn will you come again?"
+
+"No. For then I shall write a letter to my mother."
+
+Some good spirit must have whispered to this fellow not to laugh at
+these words, for he could not have anticipated the box on the ears I
+would have given him, because he could not for an instant forget that I
+was a grammar-school boy, and he a first-year law student.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SECRET WRITINGS
+
+
+One evening Lorand came to me and laid before me a bundle of papers
+covered with fine writing.
+
+"Copy this quite clearly by to-morrow morning. Don't show the original
+to any one, and, when you have finished, lock it up in your trunk with
+the copy, until I come for it."
+
+I set to work in a moment and never rose from my task until I had
+completed it.
+
+Next morning Lorand came for it, read it through, and said: "Very good,"
+handing me two pieces of twenty.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Take it," he said, "It is not my gift, but the gift of someone else: in
+fact, it is not a gift, but a fixed contract-price. Honorable work
+deserves honorable payment. For every installment[42] you copy, you get
+two pieces of twenty. It is not only you that are doing it: many of your
+school-fellows are occupied in the same work."
+
+[Footnote 42: _i. e._, A printed sheet of sixteen pages.]
+
+Then I was pleased with the two pieces of twenty.
+
+My uneasiness at receiving money from anybody except my parents, who
+alone were entitled to make me presents, was only equalled by my
+pleasure at the possession of my first earnings, the knowledge that I
+was at last capable of earning something, that at last the tree of life
+was bearing fruit, which I might reach and pluck for myself.
+
+I accepted the work and its reward. Every second day, punctually at
+seven o'clock in the evening, Lorand would come to me, give me the
+matter to be copied, 'matter written, as I recognized, in his own hand
+writing,' and next day in the morning would come for the manuscript.
+
+I wrote by night, when Henrik was already asleep: but, had he been
+awake, he could not have known what I was writing, for it was in Magyar.
+
+And what was in these secret writings?
+
+The journal of the House of Parliament. It was the year 1836. Speeches
+held in Parliament could not be read in print; the provisional censor
+ruled the day, and a few scarecrow national papers fed their reading
+public on stories of the Zummalacarregu type.
+
+So the public helped itself.
+
+In those days shorthand was unknown in our country; four or five
+quick-fingered young men occupied a bench in the gallery of the House,
+and "skeletonized" the speeches they heard. At the end of a sitting they
+pieced their fragments together: in one would be found what was missing
+in the other: thus they made the speeches complete. They wrote the
+result out themselves four times, and then each one provided for the
+copying forty times, of his own copy. The journals of Parliament, thus
+written, were preserved by the patriots, who were members at that
+time,--and are probably still in preservation.
+
+The man of to-day, who sighs after the happy days of old, will not
+understand how dangerous an enterprise, was the attempt made by certain
+young men "in the glorious age of noble freedom," to make the public
+familiar, through their handwriting, with the speeches delivered in
+Parliament.
+
+These writings had a regenerating influence upon me.
+
+An entirely new world opened out before me: new ideas, new impulses
+arose within my mind and heart. The name of that world which opened out
+before me was "home." It was marvellous to listen for the first time to
+the full meaning of "home." Till then I had had no idea of "home:" now
+every day I passed my nights with it:--the lines, which I wrote down
+night after night, were imprinted upon those white pages, that are left
+vacant in the mind of a child. Nor was I the only one impressed.
+
+There is still deeply engraved on my memory that kindling influence, by
+which the spirit of the youth of that age was transformed through the
+writing of those pages.
+
+One month later I had no more dreams of becoming Privy-Councillor:--then
+I knew not how I could ever approach my cousin Melanie.
+
+All at once the school authorities discovered where the parliamentary
+speeches were reproduced. It was done by the school children, that
+hundred-handed typesetting machine.
+
+The danger had already spread far; finding no ordinary outlet, it had
+found its way through twelve-year-old children: hands of children
+supplied the deficiency of the press.
+
+Great was the apprehension.
+
+The writing of some (among them mine) was recognized. We were accused
+before the school tribunal.
+
+I was in that frame of mind that I could not fear. The elder boys they
+tried to frighten with greater things, and yet they did not give way: I
+would at least do no worse. I was able to grasp it all with my child's
+mind, the fact that we, who had merely copied for money, could not be
+severely punished. Probably we never understood what might be in those
+writings lying before us. We merely piled up letter after letter. But
+the gravest danger threatened those who had brought those original
+writings before us.
+
+Twenty-two of the students of the college were called up for trial.
+
+On that day armed soldiers guarded the streets that led to the
+council-chamber, because the rumor ran that the young members of
+parliament wished to free the culprits.
+
+On the day in question there were no lessons--merely the accused and
+their judges were present in the school building.
+
+It is curious that I did not fear, even when under the surveillance of
+the pedellus,[43] I had to wait in the ante-room of the school tribunal.
+And I knew well what was threatening. They would exclude either me or
+Lorand from the school.
+
+[Footnote 43: Warden of the school.]
+
+That idea was terrible for me.
+
+I had heard thrilling stories of expelled students. How, at such times,
+they rang that cracked bell, which was used only to proclaim, to the
+whole town, that an expelled student was being escorted by his fellows
+out of the town, with songs of penitence. How the poor student became
+thenceforth a wanderer his whole lifetime through, whom no school would
+receive, who dared not return to his father's house. Now I merely
+shrugged my shoulders when I thought of it.
+
+At other times the least rebuke would break my spirit, and drive me to
+despair; now--I was resolved not even to ask for pardon. As I waited in
+the ante-room, I met the professors, one after another, as they passed
+through into the council-chamber. Fittingly I greeted them. Some of them
+did not so much as look at me. As Mr. Schmuck passed by he saw me, came
+forward, and very tenderly addressed me:--
+
+"Well, my child, and you have come here too. Don't be afraid: only look
+at me always. I shall do all I can for you, as I promised to your dear,
+good grandmother. Oh how your devoted grandmother would weep if she knew
+in what a position you now stand. Well, well, don't cry: don't be
+afraid. I intend to treat you as if you were my own child: only look at
+me always."
+
+I was glad when he went away. I was angry that he wished to soften me. I
+must be strong to-day.
+
+The director also noticed me, and called out in harsh tones:
+
+"Well, famous fiddler: now you can show us what kind of a gypsy[44] you
+are."
+
+[Footnote 44: The czigány (gypsy) is celebrated for his sneaking
+cowardice, and his fiddle playing, he being a naturally gifted musician,
+as any one who has heard czigány music in Budapest can testify.]
+
+That pleased me better.
+
+I would be no gypsy!
+
+The examination began: my school-fellows, the greater part of whom were
+unknown to me, as they were students of a higher class, were called in
+one by one into the tribunal chamber, and one by one they were
+dismissed; then the pedellus led them into another room, that they might
+not tell those without what they had been asked, and what they had
+answered.
+
+I had time enough to scrutinize their faces as they came out.
+
+Each one was unusually flushed, and brought with him the impression of
+what had passed within.
+
+One looked obstinate, another dejected. Some smiled bitterly: others
+could not raise their eyes to look at their fellows. Each one was
+suffering from some nervous perturbation which made his face a glaring
+contrast to the gaping, frozen features without.
+
+I was greatly relieved at not seeing Lorand among the accused. They did
+not know one of the chief leaders of the secret-writing conspiracy.
+
+But when they left me to the last, I was convinced they were on the
+right track; the copyers one after another had confessed from whom they
+had received the matter for copying. I was the last link in the chain,
+and behind me stood Lorand.
+
+But the chain would snap in two, and after me they would not find
+Lorand.
+
+For that one thing I was prepared.
+
+At last, after long waiting, my turn came. I was as stupefied, as
+benumbed, as if I had already passed through the ordeal.
+
+No thought of mother or grandmother entered my head; merely the one
+idea that I must protect Lorand with body and soul: and then I felt as
+if that thought had turned me to stone: let them beat themselves against
+that stone.
+
+"Desiderius Áronffy," said the director, "tell us whose writing is
+this?"
+
+"Mine," I answered calmly.
+
+"It is well that you have confessed at once: there is no necessity to
+compare your writing, to equivocate, as was the case with the
+others.--What did you write it for?"
+
+"For money."
+
+One professor-judge laughed outright, a second angrily struck his fist
+upon the table, a third played with his pen. Mr. Schmuck sat in his
+chair with a sweet smile, and putting his hands together twirled his
+thumbs.
+
+"I think you did not understand the question, my son," said the director
+in a harsh dry voice. "It is not that I wished to know for how much you
+wrote that trash: but with what object."
+
+"I understood well, and answered accordingly. They gave me writings to
+copy, they paid me for them: I accepted the payment because it was
+honorable earnings."
+
+"You did not know they were secret writings?"
+
+"I could not know it was forbidden to write what it was permitted to say
+for the hearing of the whole public, in the presence of the
+representative of the King and the Prince Palatine."
+
+At this answer of mine one of the younger professors uttered a sound
+that greatly resembled a choked laugh. The director looked sternly at
+him, rebuked with his eyes the sympathetic demonstration, and then
+bawled angrily at me:--
+
+"Don't play the fool!"
+
+The only result of this was that I gazed still more closely at him, and
+was already resolved not to move aside, even if he drove a coach and
+four at me. I had trembled before him when he had rebuked me for my
+violin-playing; but now, when real danger threatened me, I did not wince
+at his gaze.
+
+"Answer me, who gave into your hands that writing, which you copied?"
+
+I clenched my teeth. I would not answer. He might cut me in two without
+finding within me what he sought.
+
+"Well, won't you answer my question?"
+
+Indeed, what would have been easier than to relate how some gentleman,
+whom I did not know, came to me; he had a beard that reached to his
+knees, wore spectacles, and a green overcoat: they must then try to find
+the man, if they could:--but then--I could not any longer have gazed
+into the questioning eyes.
+
+No! I would not lie: nor would I play the traitor.
+
+"Will you answer?" the director cried at me for the third time.
+
+"I cannot answer."
+
+"Ho ho, that is a fine statement. Perhaps you don't know the man?"
+
+"I know, but will not betray him."
+
+I thought that, at this answer of mine, the director would surely take
+up his inkstand and hurl it at my head.
+
+But he did not: he took a pinch of snuff from his snuff-box, and looked
+askance at his neighbor, Schmuck, as much as to say, "It is what I
+expected from him."
+
+Thereupon Mr. Schmuck ceased to twirl his thumbs and turning to me with
+a tender face he addressed me with soothing tones:--
+
+"My dear Desider, don't be alarmed without cause: don't imagine that
+some severe punishment awaits you or him from whom you received the
+writing. It was an error, surely, but not a crime, and will only become
+a crime in case you obstinately hold back some of the truth. Believe me,
+I shall take care that no harm befall you; but in that case it is
+necessary you should answer our questions openly."
+
+These words of assurance began to move me from my purpose. They were
+said so sweetly, I began to believe in them.
+
+But the director suddenly interrupted:--
+
+"On the contrary! I am forced to contradict the honored professor, and
+to deny what he has brought forward for the defence of these criminal
+young men. Grievous and of great moment is the offence they have
+committed, and the chief causers thereof shall be punished with the
+utmost rigor of the law."
+
+These words were uttered in a voice of anger and of implacable severity;
+but all at once it dawned upon me, that this severe man was he who
+wished to save us, while that assuring, tender paterfamilias was just
+the one who desired to ruin us.
+
+Mr. Schmuck continued to twirl his thumbs.
+
+The director then turned again to me.
+
+"Why will you not name the man who entrusted you with that matter for
+copying?"
+
+I gave the only answer possible. "When I copied these writings I could
+not know I was engaged on forbidden work. Now it has been told me that
+it was a grievous offence, though I cannot tell why. Still I must
+believe it. I have no intention of naming the man who entrusted that
+work to me, because the punishment of me who did not know its object,
+will be far lighter than that of him, who knew."
+
+"But only think, my dear child, what a risk you take upon your own
+shoulders," said Mr. Schmuck in gracious tones; "think, by your obduracy
+you make yourself the guilty accomplice in a crime, of which you were
+before innocent."
+
+"Sir," I answered, turning towards him: "did you not teach me the heroic
+story of Mucius Scævola? did you not yourself teach me to recite
+'Romanus sum civis?'
+
+"Do with me what you please: I shall not prove a traitor: if the Romans
+had courage, so have I to say 'longus post me ordo idem petentium
+decus.'"
+
+"Get you hence," brawled the director; and the pedellus led me away.
+
+Two hours afterwards they told me I might go home; I was saved. Just
+that implacable director had proved himself the best in his efforts to
+rescue us. One or two "primani," who had amused the tribunal with some
+very broad lies, were condemned to a few days' lock-up. That was all.
+
+I thought that was the end of the joke. When they let me go I hurried to
+Lorand. I was proudly conscious of my successful attempt to rescue my
+elder brother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE END OF THE BEGINNING
+
+
+Her ladyship, the beautiful wife of Bálnokházy, was playing with her
+parrot, when her husband entered her chamber.
+
+The lady was very fond of this creature--I mean of the parrot.
+
+"Well, my dear," said Bálnokházy, "has Kokó learned already to utter
+Lorand's name?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Well, he will soon learn. By the bye, do you know that Parliament is
+dissolved. Mr. Bálnokházy may now take his seat in peace beside his
+wife."
+
+"As far as I am concerned, it may dissolve."
+
+"Well, perhaps you will be interested so far; the good dancers will now
+go home. The young men of Parliament will disperse to their several
+homes."
+
+"I don't wish to detain them."
+
+"Of course not. Why, Lorand will remain here. But even Lorand will with
+difficulty be able to remain here. He must fly."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"What I ought not to say out. Nor would I tell anyone other than you, my
+dear, as we agreed. Do you understand?"
+
+"Partly. You are referring to the matter of secret journalism?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, and to other matters which I have heard from you."
+
+"Yes, from me. I told you frankly, what Lorand related to me in
+confidence, believing that I shared his enthusiastic ideas. I told you
+that you might use your knowledge for your own elevation. They were
+gifts of honor, as far as you are concerned, but I bound you not to
+bring any disgrace upon him from whom I learned the facts, and to inform
+me if any danger should threaten him."
+
+Bálnokházy bent nearer to his wife and whispered in her ear:
+
+"To-night arrests will take place."
+
+"Whom will they arrest?"
+
+"Several leaders of the Parliamentary youths, particularly those
+responsible for the dissemination of the written newspaper."
+
+"How can that affect Lorand? He has burned every writing; no piece of
+paper can be found in his room. The newspaper fragments, if they have
+come into strange hands, cannot be compared with his handwriting. If
+hitherto he wrote with letters leaning forwards, he will now lean them
+backwards: no one will be able to find any similarity in the
+handwritings. His brother, who copied them, has confessed nothing
+against him."
+
+"True enough; but I am inclined to think that he has not destroyed
+everything he has written in this town. Once he wrote some lines in the
+album of a friend. A poem or some such stupidity; and that album has
+somehow come into the hands of justice."
+
+"And who gave it over?" enquired the lady passionately.
+
+"As it happens, the owner of the album himself."
+
+"Gyáli?"
+
+"The same, my dear. He too thought that one must use a good friend's
+shoulders to elevate himself."
+
+Madam Bálnokházy bit her pretty lips until blood came.
+
+"Can you not help Lorand further?" she inquired, turning suddenly to her
+husband.
+
+"Why, that is just what I am racking my brain to do."
+
+"Will you save him?"
+
+"That I cannot do, but I shall allow him to escape."
+
+"To escape?"
+
+"Surely there is no other choice, than either to let himself be
+arrested, or to escape secretly."
+
+"But in this matter we have made no agreement. It was not this you
+promised me."
+
+"My darling, don't place any confidence in great men's promises. The
+whole world over, diplomacy consists of deceit: you deceive me, I
+deceive you: you betrayed Lorand's confidence, and Lorand deserved it:
+why did he confide in you so? You cannot deny that I am the most polite
+husband in the world. A young man pays his addresses to my wife: I see
+it, and know it; I am not angry; I do not make him leap out of the
+window, I do not point my pistol at him: I merely slap him on the
+shoulder with perfect nonchalance, and say, 'my dear boy, you will be
+arrested to-night in your bed.'"
+
+Bálnokházy could laugh most jovially at such sallies of humor. The whole
+of his beautiful white teeth could be seen as he roared with
+laughter--(even the gold wire that held them in place.)
+
+My lady Hermine rose from beside him, and seemed to be greatly
+irritated.
+
+"You are only playing the innocent before me, but I know quite surely
+that you put Gyáli up to handing over the album to the treasury."
+
+"You only wish to make yourself believe that, my dear, so that when
+Lorand disappears from the house, you may not be compelled to be angry
+with Gyáli, but with me; for of course somebody must remain in the
+house."
+
+"Your insults cannot hurt me."
+
+"I did not wish to hurt you. My every effort was and always will be to
+make your life, my dear, ever more agreeable. Have I ever showed
+jealousy? Have I not behaved towards you like a father to a daughter
+about to be married?"
+
+"Don't remind me of that, sir. That is your most ungracious trait. It is
+true that you yourself have introduced into our house young men of every
+class of society. It is true that you have never guarded me against
+them:--but then in a short time, when you began to remark that I felt
+some affection towards some of them, you discovered always choice
+methods to make me despise and abhor them. Had you shut me up and
+guarded me with the severity of a convent, you would have shown me more
+consideration. But you are playing a dangerous game, sir: maybe the time
+will come when I shall not cast out him whom I have hated!"
+
+"Well, that will be your own business, my dear. But the first business
+is to tell our relation Lorand that by ten o'clock this evening he must
+not be found here: for at that hour they will come to arrest him."
+
+Hermine walked up and down her room in anger.
+
+"And it is all your work: it is useless for you to defend yourself,"
+said she, tossing away her husband's hat from the arm-chair, and then
+throwing herself in a spiritless manner into it.
+
+"Why, I have no intention of defending myself," said Bálnokházy,
+good-humoredly picking up his rolling hat. "Of course I had a little
+share in it: why, you know it well enough, my dear. A man's first
+business is to create a career. I have to rise: you approve of that
+yourself; it is a man's duty to make use of every circumstance that
+comes to hand. Had I not done so, I should be a mere magistrate,
+somewhere in Szabolcs, who at the end of every three years kisses the
+hands of all the 'powers that be,' that they may not turn him out of
+office.[45] The present chancellor, Adam Reviczky, was one class ahead
+of me in the school. He too was the head of his class, as I was of mine.
+Every year I took his place: at every desk, where I sat in the first
+place, I found his name carved, and always carved, it out, putting mine
+in its place. He reached the height of the 'parabola,' and is now about
+to descend. Who knows what may happen next? At such times we must not
+mind if we make celebrated men of a few lads, whom at other times we did
+not remark."
+
+[Footnote 45: Every three years new magistrates and officials were
+elected to the various posts in the counties.]
+
+"But consider, Lorand is a relation of ours."
+
+"That only concerns me, not you."
+
+"It is, notwithstanding, terrible to ruin the career of a young man."
+
+"What will happen to him? He will fly away to the country to some friend
+of his, where no one will search for him. At most he will be prohibited
+from being 'called to the bar.' But it will not prevent him from being
+elected lawyer to the county court at the first renovation.[46] Besides,
+Lorand is a handsome fellow: and the harm the persecution of men has
+done him will soon be repaired by the aid of women."
+
+[Footnote 46: As explained above.]
+
+"Leave me to myself. I shall think about the matter."
+
+"I shall be deeply obliged to you. But, remember, please, ten o'clock
+this evening must not find here--the dear relation."
+
+Hermine hastened to her jewel-case with ostentation. Bálnokházy, as he
+turned in the doorway, could see with what feverish anxiety she unlocked
+it and fumbled among her jewels.
+
+With a smile on his face the husband went away. It is a fine instance of
+the irony of fate, when a woman is obliged to pawn her jewels in order
+to help someone escape whom she has loved, and whom she would love still
+to see about her,--to send him a hundred miles from her side.
+
+Hermine did indeed collect her jewels, and threw them into a
+travelling-bag.
+
+Then she sat down at her writing-table, and very hurriedly wrote
+something on some lilac-coloured letter paper on which the initials of
+her name had been stamped; this she folded up, sealed it and sent it by
+her butler to Lorand's room.
+
+Lorand had not yet stirred from the house that day; he did not know that
+part of the Parliamentary youth, gaining an inkling of the movement
+against them, had hurried to depart.
+
+When he had read the letter of the P. C.'s wife, he begged the butler to
+go to Mr. Gyáli and ask him in his name to pay him a visit at once: he
+must speak a few words to him without fail.
+
+When the butler had gone, Lorand began to walk swiftly up and down his
+room. He was in search of something which he could not find, an idea.
+
+He sat again, driving his fist into his hand: then sprang up anew and
+hastened to the window, as if in impatient expectation of the new-comer.
+
+Suddenly a thought came to him: he began to put on gloves, fine, white
+kid gloves. Then he tried to clench his fist in them without tearing
+them.
+
+Perhaps he does not wish to touch, with uncovered hands, him for whom he
+is waiting!
+
+At last the street door opened, and steps made direct for his door.
+
+Only let him come! but he, whom he expected did not come alone: the
+first to open his door was not Pepi Gyáli, but his brother, Desiderius.
+By chance they had met.
+
+Lorand received his brother in a very spiritless manner. It was not he
+whom he wished to see now. Yet he rushed to embrace Lorand with a face
+beaming triumph.
+
+"Well, and what has happened, that you are beaming so?"
+
+"The school tribunal has acquitted me: yet I drew everything on myself
+and did not throw any suspicion on you."
+
+"I hope you would be insulted if I praised you for it. Every ordinary
+man of honor would have done the same. It is just as little a merit not
+to be a traitor as it is a great ignominy to be one. Am I not right?
+Pepi,--my friend?"
+
+Pepi Gyáli decided that Lorand could not have heard of his treachery and
+would not know it until he was placed in some safe place. He answered
+naturally enough that no greater disgrace existed on earth than that of
+treachery.
+
+"But why did you summon me in such haste," he enquired, offering his
+hand confidently to Lorand; the latter allowed him to grasp his hand--on
+which was a glove.
+
+"I merely wished to ask you if you would take my vis-à-vis in the ball
+to-night following my farewell banquet?"
+
+"With the greatest pleasure. You need not even have asked me. Where you
+are, I must be also."
+
+"Go upstairs, Desi, to the governess and ask her whether she intends to
+come to the ball to-night, or if the lady of the house is going alone."
+
+Desiderius listlessly sauntered out of the room.
+
+He thought that to-day was scarcely a suitable day to conclude with a
+ball; still he did go upstairs to the governess.
+
+The young lady answered that she was not going for Melanie had a
+difficult "Cavatina" to learn that evening, but her ladyship was getting
+ready, and the stout aunt was going with her.
+
+As Desiderius shut the door after him, Lorand stood with crossed arms
+before the dandy, and said:
+
+"Do you know what kind of dance it is, in which I have invited you to be
+my vis-à-vis?"
+
+"What kind?" asked Pepi with a playful expression.
+
+"A kind of dance at which one of us must die." Therewith he handed him
+the lilac-coloured letter which Hermine had written to him: "Read that."
+
+Gyáli read these lines:
+
+"Gyáli handed over the album-leaf you wrote on. All is betrayed."
+
+The dandy smiled, and placed his hands behind him.
+
+"Well, and what do you want with me?" he enquired with cool assurance.
+
+"What do you think I want?"
+
+"Do you want to abuse me? We are alone, no one will hear us. If you wish
+to be rough with me, I shall shout and collect a crowd in the street:
+that will also be bad for you."
+
+"I intend to do neither. You see I have put gloves on, that I may not
+befoul myself by touching you. Yet you can imagine that it is not
+customary to make a present of such a debt."
+
+"Do you wish to fight a duel with me?"
+
+"Yes, and at once: I shall not allow you out of my sight until you have
+given me satisfaction."
+
+"Don't expect that. Because you are a Hercules, and I a titmouse, don't
+think I am overawed by your knitted eyebrows. If you so desire, I am
+ready."
+
+"I like that."
+
+"But you know that as the challenged, I have the right to choose weapons
+and method."
+
+"Do so."
+
+"And you will find it quite natural that I have no intention of being
+pummelled into a loaf of bread and devoured by you. I recommend the
+American duel. Let us put our names into a hat and he whose name is
+drawn is compelled to shoot himself."
+
+Lorand was staggered. He recalled that night in the crypt.
+
+"One of us must die; you said so yourself," remarked Gyáli. "Good, I am
+not afraid of it. Let us draw lots, and then he whom fate chooses, must
+die."
+
+Lorand gazed moodily before him, as if he were regarding things
+happening miles away.
+
+"I understand your hesitation: there are others whom you would spare.
+Well, let us fix a definite time for dying. How long can those, of whom
+you are thinking, live? Let us say ten years. He, whose name is drawn
+must shoot himself--to-day ten years."
+
+"Oh," cried Lorand in a tone of vexation, "this is merely a cowardly
+subterfuge by which you wish to escape."
+
+"Brave lion, you will fall just as soon, if you die, as the mouse. Your
+whole valor consists in being able to pin, with a round pin, a tiny
+little fly to the bottom of a box, but if you find an opponent, like
+yourself, you draw back before him."
+
+"I shall not draw back," said Lorand irritated; and there appeared
+before his soul all those figures, which, pointing their fingers
+threateningly, rose before him from the depths of the earth. Headless
+phantoms returned to the seven cold beds; and the eighth was bespoken.
+
+"Be it so," sighed Lorand: "let us write our names." Therewith he began
+to look for paper. But not a morsel was there in his room: all had been
+burned, clean paper too, that the water mark might not betray him. At
+last he came across Hermine's note. There was no other alternative.
+Tearing it in two,--one part he threw to Gyáli, on the other he
+inscribed his own name.
+
+Then they folded the pieces of paper and put them into a hat.
+
+"Who shall draw?"
+
+"You are the challenger."
+
+"But you proposed the method."
+
+"Wait a moment. Let us entrust the drawing of lots to a third party."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"There is your brother, Desi."
+
+"Desi?"--Lorand felt a twitching pain at his heart:--"that one's own
+brother should draw one's death warrant!"
+
+"As yet his hand is innocent. Nor shall he know for what he is drawing.
+I will tell him some tale. And so both of us may be tranquil during the
+drawing of lots."
+
+Just at that moment Desiderius opened the door.
+
+He related that the governess was not going, but the stout aunt was to
+accompany "auntie" to the ball. And the "fraülein" had sent Lorand a
+written dance-programme, which Desiderius had torn up on the way.
+
+He tore it up because he was angry that other people were in so
+frivolous a mood at a time when he felt so exalted. For that reason he
+had no intention of handing over the programme.
+
+Hearing of the stout aunt, Pepi laughed and then began to feign horror.
+
+"Great heavens, Lorand: the seven fat kine of the Old Testament will be
+there in one: and one of us must dance with this monster. One of us will
+have to move from its place that mountain, which even Mahomet could not
+induce to stir, and waltz with it. Please undertake it for my sake."
+
+Lorand was annoyed by the ill-timed jest which he did not understand.
+
+"Well, to be sure I cannot make the sacrifice: it must be either you or
+I. I don't mind, let's draw lots for it, and see who must dance this
+evening with the tower of St. Stephen's."
+
+"Very well,"--Lorand now understood what the other wanted.
+
+"Desi will draw lots for us."
+
+"Of course. Just step outside a moment, Desi, that you may not see on
+which paper which of our names was written." Desiderius stepped outside.
+
+"He must not see that the tickets are already prepared," murmured
+Lorand:----
+
+"You may come in now."
+
+"In this hat are both our names," said Gyáli, holding the hat before
+Desiderius: "draw one of them out: open it, read it, and then put both
+names into the fire. The one whose name you draw will do the honors to
+the Cochin-China Emperor's white elephant."
+
+The two foes turned round toward the window. Lorand gazed out, while
+Gyáli played with his watch-chain.
+
+The child unsuspectingly stepped up to the hat that served as the "urna
+sortis," and drew out one of the pieces of paper.
+
+He opened it and read the name,
+
+"Lorand Áronffy."
+
+"Put them in the fire," said Gyáli.
+
+Desiderius threw two pieces of lilac paper into the fire.
+
+They were cold May days; outside the face of nature had been distorted,
+and it was freezing; in Lorand's fire-place a fire was blazing. The two
+pieces of paper were at once burnt up.
+
+Only they were not those on which the two young men had written their
+names. Desiderius, without being noticed, had changed them for the dance
+programme, which he had cast into the fire. He kept the two fatal
+signatures to himself.
+
+He had a very good reason for doing so, and a still better reason for
+saying nothing about it.
+
+Lorand said:
+
+"Thank you, Desi."
+
+He thanked him for drawing that lot.
+
+Pepi Gyáli took up his hat and said to Lorand in playful jesting:
+
+"The white elephant is yours. Good night." And he went away unharmed.
+
+"And now, my dear Desi, you must go home," said Lorand, gently grasping
+his brother's hand.
+
+"Why I have only just come."
+
+"I have much to do, and it must be done to-day."
+
+"Do it: I will sit down in a corner, and not say a word; I came to see
+you. I will be silent and watch you."
+
+Lorand took his brother in his arms and kissed him.
+
+"I have to pay a visit somewhere where you could not come with me."
+
+Desiderius listlessly felt for his cap.
+
+"Yet I did so want to be with you this evening."
+
+"To-morrow will do as well."
+
+Lorand was afraid that the officers of justice might come any moment for
+him. For his part he did not mind: but he did not wish his brother to be
+present.
+
+Desiderius sorrowfully returned home.
+
+Lorand remained by himself.
+
+By himself? Oh no. There around him were the others--seven in number:
+those headless dead.
+
+Well, fate is inevitable.
+
+Family misfortune is inherited. One is destroyed by the family disease,
+another by the hereditary curse.
+
+And again the cause is the "sorrowful soil beneath them."
+
+From that there is no escape.
+
+A terrible inheritance is the self-shed blood, which besprinkles the
+heads of sons and grandsons!
+
+And his inheritance was--the pistol, with which his father had killed
+himself.
+
+It were vain for the whole Heaven to be here on earth. He must leave it,
+must go, where the others had gone.
+
+The eighth niche was still empty, but was already bespoken.
+
+For later comers there was room only in the ditch of the graveyard.
+
+And there were still ten years left to think thereon! But ten years is a
+long time. Meanwhile that field might open where an honourable death,
+grasping a scythe in its two hands, cuts a way through the ranks of
+armed warriors:--where the children of weeping mothers are trampled to
+death by the hoofs of horses:--where they throw the first-born's mangled
+remains into the common burying-pit: perhaps there the son will find
+what the father sought in vain:--those who fled from before the
+resting-chamber of that melancholy house, on the façade of which was to
+be read the inscription, covered by the creepers since days long gone
+by.
+
+"Ne nos inducas in tentationem."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AGED AT SEVENTEEN
+
+
+How beautiful it is to be young! How fair is the spring! Yours is life,
+joy, hope; the meadows lavish flowers upon you; the earth's fair halo of
+love surrounds you with glory: a nation, a fatherland, mankind entrusts
+to you its future; old men are proud of you; women love you: every
+brightening day of heaven is yours.
+
+Oh, how I love the spring! how I love youth! In spring I see the fairest
+work of God, the earth, take new life; in youth I see the fairest work
+of man, his nation, reviving.
+
+"In those days" I did not yet belong to the "youth:" I was a child.
+
+Never do I remember a brighter promise of spring, than in that year;
+never were the eyes of the old men gladdened by the sight of a more
+spirited "youth" than was that of those days.
+
+Spring began very early: even at the end of February the fields were
+green, parks hastened to bedeck themselves in their leafy wings, the
+blossoms hastened to bloom and fall; the opening days of May saw fruit
+on the apple-trees; and prematurely ripe cherries were "hawked" in the
+streets, beside bouquets of late blooming violets.
+
+Of the "youths" of that year the historian has written: "These youths
+were in general very serious, very lavish in patriotic feeling, fiery
+and spirited in the defence of freedom and national dignity. The new
+tendency which manifested itself so vividly in our country was reflected
+by their impetuous and susceptible natures with all its noble yearnings,
+its virtues and excesses exaggerated. The frivolous pastimes, the
+senseless or dissolute amusements that were so fashionable in those days
+were abandoned for serious reading, gathering of information and
+investigation of current events. They had already opinions of their own,
+which not rarely they could utter with striking audacity."--I could only
+envy these lines of gold; not one word of them had any reference to me:
+for I was still but a child. During a night that followed a lovely May
+day, the weather suddenly changed: winter, who was during the days of
+his dominion, watching how the warm breezes played with the flower-bells
+of the trees, all at once returned: with the full vigor of vengeance he
+came, and in three days destroyed everything, in which man happened to
+delight. To the last leaf everything was frozen off the trees.
+
+On this most inclement of the three wintry May evenings Lorand was
+standing alone at his window, and gazing abstractedly at the street
+through the ice-flower pattern of the window-panes.
+
+Just such ice-flowers lay frozen before his soul. The lottery of fate
+has appointed his time: ten years his life would last; then he must die.
+
+From seventeen to twenty-seven is just the fairest part of life. Many
+had made their whole earthly career during that period.
+
+And what awaits him?
+
+His ardent yearning for freedom, his audacious plans, his misplaced
+confidence; friends' treason, and the consequent freezing rigor, where
+were they leading to?...
+
+Every leaf had fallen from the trees. Only ten years to live: the decree
+was unalterable.
+
+From the opponent, whom he despised, it is not possible even to accept
+as a present, that to which chance has once given him the right.
+
+And these ten years, with what will they begin? Perhaps with a long
+imprisonment? The time which is so short--(ten years are light!) will
+seem so long _there_! (ten years are heavy!) Would it not be better not
+to wait for the first day? To say: if it is time, take it away: let me
+not take the days on lease from thee! The hateful, freezing days.
+
+Why, when nature dies in this wise, man himself would love to die after
+her.
+
+If only there were not that weeping face at home, that white-haired
+head, mother and grandmother.
+
+In vain Fate is inevitable. The eighth bed was already made;--but _that_
+no one must know for ten years. Should someone learn, he might
+perpetrate the outrage of occupying earlier the eighth niche in the
+family vault; and then his successor would have nothing left but the
+church-yard grave.
+
+What a thought, a youthful spring with these frozen leaves!
+
+He did not think for the next few moments. Is it worth while to try to
+avoid the fate, which is certain? Let it come. The keystone of the arch
+had been removed, the downfall of the whole must follow. His room was
+already in darkness, but he did not light a lamp. The dancing flames of
+the fire-place gazed out sometimes above the embers, in curiosity, as if
+they would know whether any living being were there: and still he did
+not stir.
+
+In this dim twilight Lorand was thinking upon those who had passed away
+before him.
+
+That bony-faced figure, whose death face he was painting,--his ordinary
+physiognomy was terrible enough: those empty eye-sockets, into which he
+fears to gaze:--suppose between these two hollows a third was darkling,
+the place of the bullet that pierced his forehead!
+
+Lorand now knew what torture must have been theirs, who had left him
+this sorrowful bequest, before they could make up their minds to raise
+their own hands against their own lives! with what power of God they
+must have struggled, with what power of devils have made a compact! Oh,
+if they would only come for him now!
+
+Who?
+
+Those who picked the fruit that dared so early to ripen?
+
+Yes, rather those, than these quiet, bloodless faces, in their bloody
+robes. Rather those who come with clank of arms, tearing open the door
+with drawn sword, than those who with inaudible step steal in, gently
+open the door, whisperingly speak and tremblingly pronounce your name.
+
+"Lorand."
+
+"Ha! Who is that?"
+
+Not one of the dead, though her robe is white: one far worse than
+they:--a beautiful woman.
+
+It was Hermine who opened the door and entered Lorand's room so
+silently, with inaudible steps. Her ball-robe was on her: she had
+dressed for the dance in her room above, and thus dressed had descended.
+
+"Are you ready now, Lorand?"
+
+"Oh, good evening: pardon me. I will light a candle in a moment."
+
+"Never mind about that," whispered the woman. "It is quite light enough
+as it is. To-day no candle may burn in this room."
+
+"You are going to a ball," said Lorand, masking the sorrow of his soul
+by a display of good spirits: "and you wish me to accompany you?"
+
+"Fancy the thought of dancing coming into my head just now!" replied
+Hermine, coming so close to Lorand that she could whisper in his ear.
+"Did you get my letter?"
+
+"Yes, thank you. Don't be alarmed, there is no danger."
+
+"Indeed there is. I know it well. The danger is in the hands of
+Bálnokházy: therefore certain."
+
+"What great harm can happen to me?"
+
+Hermine placed her hand on Lorand's shoulder and tremblingly hissed:
+
+"They will arrest you to-night."
+
+"They may do so."
+
+"Oh no, they may not, kind Heaven! That they shall not do. You must
+escape, immediately, this hour."
+
+"Is it sure they will arrest me?"
+
+"Believe me, yes."
+
+"Then just for that reason I shall not stir from my place."
+
+"What are you saying? Why? Why not?"
+
+"Because I should be ashamed, if they who wanted me should draw me out
+from under my bed in my mother's house, like a child who has played some
+mischief."
+
+"Who is speaking now of your mother's house? You must fly far: away to
+foreign lands."
+
+"Why?" asked Lorand coldly.
+
+"Why? My God, what questions you put. I don't know how to answer! Can
+you not see that I am in despair, that every limb of my body trembles
+for my fear on your account? Believe me, I cannot possibly allow them to
+take you away from before my eyes, to imprison you for years, so that I
+shall never see you again."
+
+To appeal the more to Lorand's feelings, and to show him how her hands
+trembled she tore off her beautiful ball gloves, and grasped his hands
+in her own and then sobbed before him.
+
+As she touched him Lorand began to feel, instead of his previous
+tomblike chillness, a kind of agitating heat as if the cold bony hand of
+death had given over his hand to some other unknown demon.
+
+"What shall I do in a foreign country? I have no one, nothing, no way
+there. Everyone I love is here, in this land. There I should go mad."
+
+"You will not be alone there, because the one who loves you best on
+earth, who worships you above all, who loves you better than her health,
+her soul, better than heaven itself, goes with you and will never leave
+you."
+
+The young man could make no mistake as to whom she meant: Hermine
+encircled his young neck with her beautiful arms and overwhelmed his
+face with kisses.
+
+Lorand was no longer his own. In one hour he lost his home, his fortune,
+and his heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+I AND THE DEMON
+
+
+It was already late in the evening when Bálnokházy's butler brought me a
+letter, and then hurriedly departed, before I could read it.
+
+It was Lorand's writing. The message was short:
+
+"My dear brother:--I have been betrayed and must escape: comfort our
+dear parents. Good-bye."
+
+I leaped up from my bed:--I had already gone to bed that I might get up
+early on the morrow:--and hastened to dress.
+
+My first idea was to go to Bálnokházy. He was my uncle and relation, and
+was extremely fond of us: besides, he was very influential; he could
+accomplish anything he wished, I would tell him everything frankly, and
+beg him to do for my brother what he was capable of doing: to prevent
+his prosecution and arrest, or, if he was convicted, to secure his
+pardon. Why, to such a great man nothing could be impossible.
+
+I begged old Márton to open the door for me.
+
+"What! discipulus negligens! To slip out of the house at night is not
+proper. He who wanders about at night can be no Lieutenant Governor--at
+most a night-watchman."
+
+"No joking now; they are prosecuting my brother! I must go and help
+him."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me at once? Prosecute indeed? You should have told
+me that. Who? Perhaps the butcher clerks? If so, let us all six go with
+clubs to his aid."
+
+"No, they are not butcher clerks. What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Why, in past years the law-students were continually having brawls with
+butcher clerks."
+
+"They want to arrest him," I whispered to him, "to put him in prison,
+because he was one of the 'Parliamentary youth' lot."
+
+"Aha," said Márton, "that's where we are is it? That is beyond my
+assistance. And, what can you do?"
+
+"I must go to my uncle Bálnokházy at once and ask him to interfere."
+
+"That's surely a wise thing to do. Under those circumstances I shall go
+with you. Not because I think you would be afraid to go by yourself at
+night, but that I may be able to tell the old man by-and-bye that you
+were not in mischief."
+
+The old fellow put on a coat in a moment, and a pair of boots, then
+accompanied me to the Bálnokházys.
+
+He did not wish to come in, but told me that, on my way back, I should
+look for him at the corner beer-house, where he would wait for me.
+
+I hurried up stairs.
+
+I was greatly disappointed to find my brother's door closed: at other
+times that had always been my first place of retreat.
+
+I heard the piano in the "salon": so I went in there.
+
+Melanie was playing with the governess.
+
+They did not seem surprised that I came at so late an hour; I only
+noticed that they behaved a little more stiffly towards me than on other
+occasions.
+
+Melanie was deeply engrossed in studying the notes. I enquired whether I
+could speak with my uncle.
+
+"He has not yet come home from the club," said the governess.
+
+"And her ladyship."
+
+"She has gone to the ball."
+
+That annoyed me a little.
+
+"And when do they come home?"
+
+"The Privy Councillor at eleven o'clock, he usually plays whist till
+that hour; her ladyship probably not until after midnight. Do you wish
+to wait?"
+
+"Yes, until my uncle returns."
+
+"Then you can take supper with us."
+
+"Thank you, I have already had supper."
+
+"Do they have supper so early at the baker's?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I then sat down beside the piano, and thought for a whole hour what a
+stupid instrument the piano was; a man's head may be full of ideas, and
+it will drive them all out.
+
+Yet I had so much to ponder over. What should I say to my uncle when he
+came. With what should I begin? How could I tell him what I knew? What
+should I ask from him?
+
+But how was it possible that neither was at home at such a critical
+time? Surely they must have been informed of such a misfortune. I did
+not dare to introduce Lorand's name before the governess. Who knows what
+others are? Besides, I had no sympathy for her. For me a governess
+seemed always a most frivolous creature.
+
+In the room there was a large clock that caused me most annoyance. How
+long it took for those hands to reach ten o'clock! Then, when it did
+strike, its tone was of that aristocratic nasal quality that it must
+have acquired from the voices of the people around it.
+
+Sometimes the governess laughed, when Melanie made some curious mistake;
+Melanie, too, laughed and peeped from behind her music to see if I was
+smiling.
+
+I had not even noticed it.
+
+Then my pretty cousin poutingly tossed back her curly hair, as if she
+were annoyed that I too was beginning to play a part of indifference
+towards her.
+
+At last the street-door bell rang. From the footsteps I knew my uncle
+had come. They were so dignified.
+
+Soon the butler entered and said I could speak with his lordship, if I
+so desired.
+
+Trembling all over, I took my hat, and wished the ladies good-night.
+
+"Are you not coming back, to hear the end of the Cavatina;" inquired
+Melanie.
+
+"I cannot," I answered, and left them there.
+
+My uncle's study was on the farther side of the hall; the butler lighted
+my way with a lamp, then he put it down on a chest, that I might find my
+way back.
+
+"Well, my child, what do you want?" inquired my uncle, in that gay,
+playful tone, which we are wont to use in speaking to children to
+express that we are quite indifferent as to their affairs.
+
+I answered languidly, as if some gravestone were weighing upon my
+breast,
+
+"Dear uncle, Lorand has left us."
+
+"You know already?" he asked, putting on his many colored embroidered
+dressing-gown.
+
+"You know too?" I exclaimed, taken aback.
+
+"What, that Lorand has run away?" remarked my uncle, coolly buttoning
+together the silken folds of his dressing gown; "why I know more than
+that:--I know also that my wife has run away with him, and all my wife's
+jewels, not to mention the couple of thousand florins that were at
+home--all have run away with your brother Lorand."
+
+How I reached the street after those words; whether they opened the door
+for me; whether they led me out or kicked me out, I assure you I do not
+know. I only came to myself, when Márton seized my arm in the street and
+shouted at me:
+
+"Well sir Lieutenant-Governor, you walk right into me without even
+seeing me. I got tired of waiting in the beer-house and began to think
+that they had run you in too. Well, what is the matter? How you
+stagger."
+
+"Oh! Márton," I stammered, "I feel very faint."
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"I cannot tell anyone that."
+
+"Not to anyone? No! not to Mr. Brodfresser,[47] nor to Mr.
+Commissioner:--but to Márton, to old Márton? Has old Márton ever let out
+anything? Old Márton knows much that would be worth his while to tell
+tales about: have you ever heard of old Márton being a gossip? Has old
+Márton ever told tales against you or anyone else? And if I could help
+you in any way?"
+
+[Footnote 47: The name given to Desiderius' professor ("bread
+devourer").]
+
+There was a world of frank good-heartedness in these reproaches; besides
+I had to catch after the first straw to find a way of escape.
+
+"Well, and what did my old colleague say?--You know the reason I call
+him 'colleague,' is that my hair always acts as if it were a wig, while
+his wig always acts as it if were hair."
+
+"He said," I answered tremblingly, hanging on to his arm, "he knew more
+than I. Lorand has not merely run away, but has stolen my uncle's wife."
+
+At these words Márton commenced to roar with laughter. He pressed his
+hands upon his stomach and just roared, then turned round, as if he
+wished to give the further end of the street a taste of his laughter;
+then he remarked that it was a splendid joke, at which remark I was
+sufficiently scandalized.
+
+"And then he said--that Lorand had stolen his money."
+
+At this Márton straightened himself and raised his head very seriously.
+
+"That is bad. That is 'a mill,' as Father Fromm would say. Well, and
+what do you think of it, sir?"
+
+"I think, it cannot be true; and I want to find my brother, no matter
+what has become of him.
+
+"And when you have found him?"
+
+"Then, if that woman is holding him by one hand, I shall seize the other
+and we shall see which of us will be the stronger."
+
+Márton gave me a sound slap on the back, saying "Teufelskerl.[48] What
+are you thinking of?--would other children mind, if a beautiful woman
+ran away with their brother? But this one wishes to stand between them.
+Excellent. Well, shall we look for Master Lorand? How will you begin?"
+
+[Footnote 48: Devil's fellow: _i. e._, devil of a fellow.]
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Let me see; what have you learned at school? What can you do, if you
+are suddenly thrown back on your own resources? Which way will you
+start? Right or left: will you cry in the street, 'Who has seen my
+brother?'"
+
+Indeed I did not know how to begin.
+
+"Well,--you shall see that you can at times make use of that old fellow
+Márton. Trust yourself to me. Listen to me now, as if I were Mr.
+Brodfresser. If two of them ran away together, surely they must have
+taken a carriage. The carriage was a fiacre. Madame has always the same
+coachman, number 7. I know him well. So first of all we must find
+Móczli: that is coachman No. 7. He lives in the Zuckermandel. It's a
+cursed long way, but that's all the better, for by the time we get to
+his house we shall be all the surer to find him at home."
+
+"If he was the one who took them."
+
+"Don't play the fool now, sir studiosus. I know what cab-horses are.
+They could not take anyone as far as the border; at most as far as some
+wayside inn, where speedy country horses can be found: there the
+runaways are waiting while the fiacre is returning."
+
+In astonishment I asked what made him surmise all this: when it seemed
+to me that with speedy country horses they might already be far beyond
+the frontier.
+
+"Sir Lieutenant-Governor," was Márton's hasty reproof; "How could you
+have such ideas? You expect to become Lieutenant-Governor some day, yet
+you don't know that he who wishes to pass the frontiers must be supplied
+with a passport. No one can go without a pass from Pressburg to Vienna;
+Madame has quite surely despatched Móczli back to bring to her the
+gentleman with whose 'pass' they are to escape farther."
+
+"What gentleman?"
+
+"An actor from the theatre here, who will arrange that the young
+gentleman shall pass the frontier with his passport."
+
+"How can you figure it all out?"
+
+Márton paused for a moment, made an ugly mouth, closed his left eye, and
+hissed through his teeth, as if he would express by all this pantomime
+that there are things which cannot be held under children's noses.
+
+"Well, never mind; you do wish to be a county officer or something of
+the kind. So you must know about such things sooner or later, when you
+will have to examine people on such questions. I will tell you--I know
+because Móczli once told me just such a story about madame."
+
+"Once before?"
+
+"Certainly," said Márton chuckling wickedly. "Ha ha! Madame is a cute
+little woman. But then no one knows of it--only Móczli and I; and
+Madame's husband. Her husband has already pardoned her for it: Móczli
+was well paid; and what business is it of Márton's? All three of us hold
+our tongues, like a broiled fish. But it is not the first time it has
+happened."
+
+I do not know why, but this discovery somehow relieved my bitterness. I
+began to surmise that Lorand was not the most deeply implicated in the
+crime.
+
+"Well, let us go first of all to Móczli," said Márton; "But I have a
+promise to exact from you. Don't say a word yourself; leave the talking
+to me. For he is a cursed fellow, this Móczli; if he finds that we wish
+to get information out of him, he will lie like a book: but I will
+suddenly drive in upon him, so that he will not know whether to turn to
+the right or to the left. I will spring something on him as if I knew
+all about it, that will scare him out of his wits and then I'll press
+him close, so that it'll take his breath away, and before he knows it
+I'll have that secret squeezed out of him to the very last drop. You
+must observe how it is done, so that you can make use of similar methods
+in the future when in the position of Lieutenant-Governor you will have
+to cross-question some suspicious rascal in order to wring the truth out
+of him!"
+
+By this time we had started at a brisk pace along the banks of the
+Danube. I wasn't dressed for such a dismal night, and old Márton was
+doing his best to shield me with the wing of his coat against the
+chilling gusts that rushed against us from the river. At the same time
+he made every effort to make me believe that what we were engaged in was
+one of the finest jokes he had ever taken a hand in, and that our
+recollections of it will afford us no end of amusement in the future. At
+the foot of the castle-hill, along the banks of the Danube was a group
+of tottering houses; tottering because in spring, when the ice broke up,
+the Danube roared and dashed among them. Here lived the fiacre drivers.
+Here were the cab-horses in tumble-down stables.
+
+It was a ball-night: in the windows of the tumble-down houses candles
+were burning, for the cabmen were waiting till midnight, when they would
+again harness their horses and return to fetch their patrons from the
+ball-room.
+
+Márton looked in at one window so lighted; he had to climb up on
+something to do so, for the ground floor was built high, in order that
+the water might not enter at the windows.
+
+"He is at home," he remarked, as he stepped down, "but he is evidently
+preparing to go out again, for he has his top-coat on."
+
+The gate was open; the carriage was in the courtyard, the horses in the
+shafts, covered with rugs.
+
+Their harness had not even been taken off: they must have just arrived
+and had to start again at once.
+
+Márton motioned to me to follow him at his heels while he made his way
+into the house.
+
+The door we ran up against could not be opened unless one knew the
+tricks that made it yield. Márton seemed to be well acquainted with the
+peculiarities of the entrance to Móczli's den: first he pressed down on
+the door knob and raised the whole door bracing against it with his
+shoulder, then turning the knob and giving the door a severe kick it
+flew open and in the next moment we found ourselves in a dingy, narrow
+hole of a room smelling horribly of axle-grease, tallow and
+tobacco-smoke.
+
+On a table, which was leaning against the wall with the side where a leg
+was broken, stood a burning tallow-dip stuck into the mouth of an empty
+beer-jug, and by its dim light Móczli was seated eating--no, devouring
+his supper. With incredible rapidity he was piling in and ramming down,
+as it were, enormous slices of blood-sausage in turn with huger chunks
+of salted bread.
+
+His many-collared coat was thrown over his huge frame, and his
+broad-brimmed hat that was pressed over his eyes was still covered with
+hoar-frost that had no chance of thawing in that cold, damp room, the
+wall of which glistened like the sides of some dripping cave.
+
+Móczli was a well-fed fellow, with strongly protruding eyes, which
+seemed almost to jump out of their sockets as he stared at us for
+bursting in upon him without knocking.
+
+"Well, where does it 'burn?'" were his first words to Márton.
+
+"Gently, old fellow; don't make a noise. There is other trouble! You are
+betrayed and they will pinch the young gentleman at the frontier."
+
+Móczli was really scared for a moment. A tremendous three-cornered chunk
+of bread that he had just thrust in his mouth stuck there staring
+frightenedly at us like Móczli himself and looking for all the world as
+if a second nose was going to grow on his face; however he soon came to
+himself, continued the munching process, gulped it all down, and then
+drank a huge draught out of a monstrous glass, his protruding eyes being
+all the while fixed on me.
+
+"I surely thought there was a fire somewhere, and I must go for a
+fire-pump again with my horses.--I must always go for the pump, if a
+fire breaks out anywhere. Even if there is a fire in the mill quarter,
+it is only me they drive out: why does not the town keep horses of her
+own?"
+
+"Do you hear, Móczli," Márton interrupted, "don't talk to me now of the
+town pumps don't sprinkle your throat either, for it's not there that it
+is burning, but your back will be burning immediately, if you don't
+listen to me. Her ladyship's husband learned all. They will forestall
+the young gentleman at the frontier, and bring him back."
+
+Móczli endeavored to display a calm countenance, though his eyes belied
+him.
+
+"What 'young gentleman' do you mean, and what 'ladyship?'"
+
+Márton bent over him and whispered,
+
+"Móczli, you don't want to make a fool of yourself before me, surely.
+Was it not you that took away Bálnokházy's wife in the company of a
+young gentleman? Your number is on your back: do you think no one can
+see it?"
+
+"If I did take them off, where did I drive them to? Why to the ball."
+
+"A fine ball, indeed. You know they want to arrest the 'juratus.' He
+will find one for you soon where they play better music. Here is his
+younger brother, just come from seeing his lordship, who told him his
+wife had eloped with the young gentleman whom they would search for in
+every direction."
+
+Móczli was at this moment deeply engaged in picking his teeth. First
+with his tongue, then with his fingers, until he found a wisp of straw
+with which to clean them, and at which, like drowning people, he
+clutched to save himself.
+
+"Well, do you think I care: anyone may send for anyone else for all I
+mind. I have seen no one, have taken no one away. And if I did take
+someone, what business of mine is it to know what the one is doing with
+the other? And even if I did know that someone has eloped with someone
+else's wife, what business is it of mine? I am no 'syndic' that I should
+bother my head to ask questions about it: I carry woman or man, who
+pays, according to the tariff of fares. Otherwise I know absolutely
+nothing."
+
+"Well, good-bye, and God bless you, Móczli," said Márton hastily. "If
+you don't know about it, someone else must know about it. However, we
+didn't come here to gaze into your dreamy eyes, but to free this young
+gentleman's brother: we shall search among the other fiacres, until we
+find the right one, for it is a critical business: and if we find that
+fiacre in which the young fellow came to harm and cannot manage to
+secure his escape, I would not like to be in his shoes."
+
+"In whose shoes?" inquired Móczli, terrified.
+
+"In the young gentleman's not at all, but still less in the
+fiacre-driver's. Well, good-night, Móczli."
+
+At these words Móczli leaped up from his chair and sprang after Márton.
+
+"Wait a moment: don't be a fool. Come with me. Take your seats in my
+fiacre. But the devil take me if I have seen, heard or said anything."
+
+Therewith he removed the rugs from his horses, placed me inside the
+carriage, covering me with a rug, took Márton beside him on the box, and
+drove desperately along the bank of the Danube.
+
+Long did I see the lamps of the bridge glittering in the water; then
+suddenly the road turned abruptly, and, to judge by the almost
+intolerable shaking of the carriage and the profound darkness, we had
+entered one of those alleys, the paving of which is counted among the
+curses of civilization, the street-lamps being entrusted to the care of
+future generations.
+
+The carriage suddenly proceeded more heavily: perhaps we were ascending
+a hill: the whip was being plied more vigorously every moment on the
+horses' backs: then suddenly the carriage stopped.
+
+Móczli commenced to whistle as if to amuse himself, at which I heard the
+creaking of a gate, and we drove into some courtyard.
+
+When the carriage stopped, the coachman leaped off the box, and
+addressed me through the window.
+
+"We are here: at the end of the courtyard is a small room; a candle is
+burning in the window. The young gentleman is there."
+
+"Is the woman with him too?" I inquired softly.
+
+"No. She is at the 'White Wolf,' waiting with the speedy peasant cart,
+until I bring the gentleman with whom she must speak first."
+
+"He cannot come yet, for the performance is not yet over."
+
+Móczli opened his eyes still further.
+
+"You know that too?"
+
+I hastened across the long dark courtyard and found the door of the
+little room referred to. A head was to be seen at the lighted window.
+Lorand was standing there melting the ice on the panes with his breath,
+that he might see when the person he was expecting arrived.
+
+Oh how he must have loved her. What a desperate struggle awaited me!
+
+When he saw me from the window, he disappeared from it, and hurried to
+meet me.
+
+At the door we met and in astonishment he asked:
+
+"How did you get here?"
+
+I said nothing, but embraced him, and determined that even if he cut me
+in pieces, I would never part from him.
+
+"Why did you come after me? How did you find your way hither?"
+
+I saw he was annoyed. He was displeased that I had come.
+
+"Those, who saw you take your seat in a carriage, directed me."
+
+He visibly shuddered.
+
+"Who saw me?"
+
+"Don't be afraid. Someone who will not betray you."
+
+"But what do you want? Why did you come after me?"
+
+"You know, dear Lorand, when we left home mother whispered in my ear,
+'take care of Lorand,' when grandmother left us here, she whispered in
+my ear, 'take care of your brother.' They will ask me to give account
+of how I loved you. And what shall I tell them, if they ask me 'where
+were you when Lorand stood in direst danger?'"
+
+Lorand was touched; he pressed me close to his heart, saying:--
+
+"But, how can you help me?"
+
+"I don't know. I only know that I shall follow you, wherever you go."
+
+This very naive answer roused Lorand to anger.
+
+"You will go to hell with me! Do I want irons on my feet to hinder my
+steps when I scarce know myself whither I shall fly? I know not how to
+rescue myself, and must I rescue you too?"
+
+Lorand was in a violent rage and strove to shake me off from him. Yet I
+would not leave go of him.
+
+"What if I intend to rescue you?"
+
+"You?" he said, looking at me, and thrusting his hands in his pockets.
+"What part of me will you defend?"
+
+"Your honor, Lorand."
+
+Lorand drew back at these words.
+
+"My honor?"
+
+"And mine:--You know that father left us one in common, one we cannot
+divide--his unsullied name. It is entirely mine, just as it is entirely
+yours."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
+
+"Let it be yours entirely: I give over my claim."
+
+This indifference towards the most sacred ideas quite embittered me. I
+was beside myself, I must break out.
+
+"Yes, because you wish to take the name of a wandering actor, and to
+elope with a woman who has a husband."
+
+"Who told you?" Lorand exclaimed, standing before me with clenched
+fists.
+
+I was far from being afraid of anyone: I answered coolly.
+
+"That woman's husband."
+
+Lorand was silent and began to walk feverishly up and down the narrow,
+short, little room. Suddenly he stopped, and half aside addressed me,
+always in the same passionate tones.
+
+"Desi, you are still a child."
+
+"I know."
+
+"There are things which cannot yet be explained to you."
+
+"On such subjects you may hold your peace."
+
+"You have spoken with that woman's husband?"
+
+"He said, you had eloped with his wife."
+
+"And that is why you came after me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now what do you want?"
+
+"I want you to leave that woman."
+
+"Have you lost your senses?"
+
+"Mine? Not yet."
+
+"You wish perhaps to hint that I have lost mine: it is possible, very
+possible."
+
+Therewith he sat down beside the table, and leaning his chin on his
+hands, began to gaze abstractedly into the candle-flames like some real
+lunatic.
+
+I stepped up to him, and laid my head on his shoulder.
+
+"Dear Lorand, you are angry with me."
+
+"No. Only tell me what else you know."
+
+"If you wish I will leave you here and return."
+
+"Do as you wish."
+
+"And what shall I tell dear mother, if she asks questions about you?"
+
+Lorand dispiritedly turned his head away from me.
+
+"You wrote to me to cheer and comfort mother and grandmother:--tell me
+then, what shall I write to them, if they enquire after you?"
+
+Lorand answered defiantly,
+
+"Write that Lorand is dead."
+
+At his answer the blood boiled within me. I seized my brother's hands
+and cried to him:
+
+"Lorand, till now the fathers were suicides in our family: do you wish
+that the mothers should continue the list?"
+
+It was a pitiless remark of mine, I knew. Lorand commenced to shiver, I
+felt it. He stood up before me and became so pale.
+
+I wished I had addressed him more gently.
+
+"My dear brother Lorand, could you bear to become responsible for a
+mother, who left her child, and for another who died for her child?"
+
+Lorand clasped his hands and bowed his head.
+
+"If you only knew what you are saying to me now?" he said with such
+bitter reproach that I can never forget it.
+
+"But I have not yet told you all I know."
+
+"What do you know? As yet you are happy--your life mere play--passion
+does not yet trouble you. But I am already lost, through what, you have
+no idea, and may you never have!"
+
+How he must love that woman!
+
+It would have cost me few words to make him hate and despise her, but I
+did not wish to break his heart. I had other means with which to steel
+his heart, that he might wake up, as from a delirious dream, to another
+life.
+
+I too had had visions about my piano-playing beauty: but I had forgotten
+that ideal for ever and ever, for being able to play, after she knew her
+mother had run away.--But that was mere childish love, a child's
+thought---there is something, however, in the heart which is awakened
+earlier, and dies later than passion, that is a feeling of honor, and I
+had as much of that as Lorand: let us see whose was the stronger.
+
+"Lorand, I don't know what enchantment it was, with which this woman
+could lure you after her. But I know that I too have a magic word, which
+will tear you from her."
+
+"Your magic word?--Do you wish to speak of mother? Do you wish to stand
+in my way with her name?--Do so.--The only effect you will produce, by
+worrying me very much, will be that I shall blow my brains out here
+before you: but from that woman you can never tear me."
+
+"I have no intention to speak of poor mother. It is a different subject
+I have in mind."
+
+"Something, or someone else."
+
+"It is Bálnokházy, for whose sake you are going to leave this woman."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Do you think I am afraid of Bálnokházy's prosecution?"
+
+"He has no intention of prosecuting you. He has been very considerate to
+his wife in similar cases. Well, don't knit your eyebrows so; I am not
+saying a word about his wife. I have no business with women. Bálnokházy
+will not prosecute you, he will merely tell the world what has happened
+to him."
+
+Lorand, with a bitter smile of scorn, asked me:
+
+"What will he relate to the world?"
+
+"That his wife broke open his safe, stole his jewels, and his ready
+money, and eloped with a young man."
+
+Lorand turned abruptly to me like one whom a snake has bitten,
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"That his faithless wife in company with a young man, whom he had
+treated like his own child, has stolen his money, and then run away,
+like a thief--with her companion in theft!"
+
+Lorand clutched at the table for support.
+
+"Don't, don't say any more."
+
+"I shall. I have seen the safes, empty, in which the family treasures
+were wont to be piled. I heard from the cabman, who handed in her
+travelling bag after her that 'it must have been full of gold, it was so
+heavy.'"
+
+Lorand's face was burning now like the clouds of a storm-swept sky at
+sunset.
+
+"Did you have the bag in your hands?" I asked him.
+
+"Not a word more!" Lorand cried, pressing my arm so that it pained me.
+"That woman shall never see me again."
+
+Then he sank upon the table and sobbed.
+
+How glad I felt that I had been able to move him.
+
+Soon he raised his tear-stained face, stood up, came to me, embraced and
+kissed me.
+
+"You have conquered!--Now tell me what else you want with me?"
+
+I was incapable of uttering a word, so oppressed was my heart in my
+delight, my anguish. It was no child's play, this. Fate is not wont to
+entrust such a struggle to a child's hands.
+
+"Brother, dear!" more I could not say: I felt as he must have when he
+brought me up from the bottom of the Danube.
+
+"You will not allow anyone," he whispered, "to utter such a calumny
+against me."
+
+"You may be sure of that."
+
+"You will not let them degrade me before mother?"
+
+"I shall defend you. You see that after all I am capable of defending
+you.--But time is precious:--they are prosecuting you for another crime
+too, you know, from which to escape is a duty. There is not a moment to
+lose. Fly!"
+
+"Whither? I cannot take new misfortunes to mother's house."
+
+"I have an idea. We have a relation of whom we have heard much, far off
+in the interior of the country, where they will never look for you,
+since we were never on good terms with him, Uncle Topándy."
+
+"That infidel?" exclaimed Lorand; then he added bitterly, "It was a good
+idea of yours, indeed: I shall have a very good place in the house of an
+atheist, who lives at enmity with the whole earth, and with Heaven
+besides."
+
+"There you will be well hidden."
+
+"Well and for ever."
+
+"Don't say that. This danger will pass away."
+
+"Listen to me, Desi," said Lorand severely. "I shall abide by what you
+say: I shall go away, without once looking behind: I shall bury myself,
+but on one condition, which you must accept, or I shall go to the
+nearest police station and report myself."
+
+"What do you wish?"
+
+"That you shall never tell either mother or grandmother, where I have
+gone to."
+
+"Never?" I inquired, frightenedly.
+
+"No, only after ten years, ten years from to-day."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Don't ask me: only give me your word of honor to keep my secret. If you
+do not do so, you will inflict a heavy sorrow on me, and on all our
+family."
+
+"But if circumstances change?"
+
+"I said, not for ten years. And, if the whole world should dance with
+delight, still keep peace and don't call for me, or put my mother on my
+tracks. I have a special reason for my desire, and that reason I cannot
+tell you."
+
+"But if they ask me, if they weep before me?"
+
+"Tell them nothing ails me, I am in a good place. I shall take another
+name, [49]Bálint Tátray. Topándy also shall know me under that name. I
+shall find my way to his place as bailiff, or servant, whichever he will
+accept me as, and then I shall write to you once every month. You will
+tell my loved ones at home what you know of me. And they will love you
+twice as well for it: they will love you in place of me."
+
+[Footnote 49: A name peculiarly Magyar.]
+
+I hesitated. It was a difficult promise.
+
+"If you love me, you must undertake it for my sake."
+
+I clung to him and said I would undertake to keep the secret. For ten
+years I would not say before mother or grandmother where their dearest
+son had gone.
+
+Would they reach the end of those ten years?
+
+"You undertake that--on your word of honor?" said Lorand, gazing deeply
+into my eyes; "on that honor by which you just now so proudly appealed
+to me? Look, the whole Áronffy name is borne by you alone. Do you
+undertake it for the honor of that whole name, not to mention this
+secret before mother or grandmother?"
+
+"I do--on my word of honor."
+
+He grasped my hand. He trusted so much to that word!
+
+"Well, now be quick. The carriage is waiting."
+
+"Carriage? With that I cannot travel far. Besides it is unnecessary. I
+have two good legs, they will carry me, if necessary, to the end of the
+world, without demanding payment afterwards."
+
+I took a little purse, on the outside of which mother had worked a
+design, from my pocket, and wished to slip it into Lorand's side-pocket
+without attracting attention.
+
+He discovered it.
+
+"What is this?"
+
+"A little money. I thought you might want it for the journey."
+
+"How did you come by it?" enquired my brother in astonishment.
+
+"Why, you know, you yourself paid me two twenties a sheet, when I copied
+those writings."
+
+"And you have kept it?"--Lorand opened the purse, and saw within it
+about twenty florins. He began to laugh.
+
+How glad I was to see him laugh now, I cannot tell you, his laughter
+infected me too, then I do not know why, but we laughed together, very
+good-spiritedly. Now as I write these words the tears stand in my
+eyes--and I did laugh so heartily.
+
+"Why, you have made a millionaire of me."
+
+Then cheerfully he put my purse into his pocket. And I did not know what
+to do in my delight at Lorand's accepting my money.
+
+"Now comrade mine, I could go to the end of the world. I don't have to
+play 'armen reisender'[50] on the way."
+
+[Footnote 50: Poor traveller.]
+
+When we stepped out again through the low door into the narrow dark
+courtyard, Márton and Móczli were standing in astonishment before us.
+Anyone could see they could not comprehend what they had seen by
+peeping through the window.
+
+"I am here," said Móczli, touching the brim of his hat, "where shall I
+drive, sir?"
+
+"Just drive where you were told to," said Lorand, "take him for whom you
+were sent, to her who sent you for him.--I am going in another
+direction."
+
+At these words Márton grasped my arm so savagely I almost cried out with
+pain. It was his peculiar method of showing his approval.
+
+"Very good, sir," said Móczli, without asking any further questions, and
+clambering up onto the box.
+
+"Stop a moment," Lorand exclaimed, taking out his purse. "Let no one say
+that you were paid for any services you did me with other people's
+money."
+
+"Wha-at?" roughly grumbled Móczli. "Pay me? Am I a 'Hanák fuvaros'[51]
+that someone should pay me for helping a 'juratus' to escape? That has
+never happened yet."
+
+[Footnote 51: A Slavonian coachman who hires out his coach and
+carriages.]
+
+With that he whipped up his horses, and drove out of the courtyard.
+
+"That's the trump for you," said Márton, "that's Móczli. I know Móczli,
+he's a sharp fellow, without him we should never have found our way
+here. Well, sir, and whither now?"
+
+This remark was made to Lorand. My brother was acquainted with the
+jesting old fellow, and had often heard his humorous anecdotes, when he
+came to see me.
+
+"At all events away from Pressburg, old man."
+
+"But which way? I think the best would be over the bridge, through the
+park."
+
+"But very many people pass there. Someone might recognize me."
+
+"Then straight along the Danube, down-stream; by morning you will reach
+the ferry at Mühlau, where they will ferry you over for two kreuzers.
+Have you some change? You must always have that. Men on foot must
+always pay in copper, or they will be suspected. It's a pity I didn't
+know sooner, I could have lent you a passport. You might have travelled
+as a baker's assistant."
+
+"I shall travel as a 'legátus.'[52]"
+
+[Footnote 52: A travelling preacher. A kind of missionary sent out by
+the "Legatio."]
+
+"That will do finely."
+
+Meantime we reached the end of the street. Lorand wished to bid us
+farewell.
+
+"Oho!" said Márton, "we shall accompany you to the outskirts of the
+town; we cannot leave you alone until you are in a secure place, on the
+high-road. Do you know what? You two go on in advance and I shall remain
+close behind, pretending to be a little drunk. Patrols are in the
+street. If I sing loudly they will waste their attention on me, and will
+not bother you. If necessary, I shall pitch into them, and while they
+are running me in, you can go on. To you, Master Lorand, I give my stick
+for the journey. It's a good, honest stick. I have tramped all over
+Germany with it. Well, God bless you."
+
+The old fellow squeezed Lorand's hand.
+
+"I have a mind to say something. But I shall say nothing. It is well
+just as it is,--I shall say nothing. God bless you, sir."
+
+Therewith the old man dropped back, and began to brawl some yodling air
+in the street, and to thump the doors with his fists, in accompaniment,
+like some drunken reveller.
+
+"Hai-dia-do."
+
+Taking each other's hand we hastened on. The streets were already very
+dark here.
+
+At the end of the town are barracks, before which we had to pass: the
+cry of the sentinel sounded in the distance. "Who goes there? Guard
+out!" and soon behind our backs we heard the squadron of horsemen
+clattering on the pavement.
+
+Márton did just as he had said. He pitched into the guard. Soon we heard
+a dream-disturbing uproar, as he fell into a noisy discussion with the
+armed authorities.
+
+"I am a citizen! A peaceful, harmless citizen! Fugias Mathias (this to
+us)! Ten glasses of beer are not the world! I am a citizen, Fugias
+Mathias is my name! I will pay for every thing. If I have broken any
+bottles I will pay for them. Who says I am shouting? I am singing.
+'Hai-dia-do;' let any one who doesn't like it try to sing more
+beautifully himself!"
+
+We were already outside of the town, and still we heard the terrible
+noise which he made in his self-sacrifice for our sakes.
+
+As we came out into the open, we were both able to breathe more freely;
+the starry sky is a good shelter.
+
+The cold, too, compelled us to hasten. We had walked a good half-hour
+among the vineyards, when suddenly something occurred to Lorand.
+
+"How long do you wish to accompany me?"
+
+"Until day breaks. In this darkness I should not dare to return to the
+town alone."
+
+Now he became anxious for me too. What could he do with me? Should he
+let me go home alone at midnight through these clusters of houses in
+that suburb of ill-repute. Or should he take me miles on his way with
+him? From there I should have to return alone in any case.
+
+At that moment a carriage approached rapidly, and as it passed before
+us, somebody leaped down upon us from the back seat, and laughing came
+where we were beside the hedge.
+
+In him we recognized old Márton.
+
+"I have found you after all," said the old fellow, smiling. "What a fine
+time I have had. They really thought I was drunk. I quarrelled with
+them. That was the 'gaude!' They tugged and pulled, and beat my back
+with the flat of their sabres: it was something glorious!"
+
+"Well, how did you escape?" I asked, not finding that entertainment to
+the accompaniment of sabre-blows so glorious.
+
+"When I saw a carriage approaching, I leaped out from their midst and
+climbed up behind:--nor did they give me a long chase. I soon got away
+from them."
+
+The good old man was quite content with the fine amusement which he had
+procured for himself.
+
+"But now we must really say adieu, Master Lorand. Don't go the same way
+as the carriage went: cut across the road here in the hills to the lower
+road; you can breakfast at the first inn you come to: you will reach it
+by dawn. Then go in the direction of the sunrise."
+
+We embraced each other. We had to part. And who knew for how long?
+
+Márton was nervous. "Let us go! Let Lorand too hurry on _his_ way."
+
+Why, ten years is a very long way. By that time we should be growing
+old.
+
+"Love mother in my place. Then remember your word of honor." Lorand
+whispered these words. Then he kissed me and in a few moments had
+disappeared from my sight down the lower road among the hills.
+
+Who knew when I should see him again?
+
+Márton's laugh awoke me from my reverie.
+
+"You know--" he inquired with a voice that showed his inclination to
+laugh--"You know ha! ha--you know why I told Master Lorand not to go in
+the same direction as the carriage?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did you not recognize the coachman? It was Móczli."
+
+"Móczli?"
+
+"Do you know who was inside the carriage?--Guess!--Well, it was Madame."
+
+"Bálnokházy's wife?"
+
+"The same--with that certain actor."
+
+"With whose passport Lorand was to have eloped?"
+
+"Well if one is on his way to elope--it is all the same:--one must have
+a companion, if not the one, then the other.'"
+
+It was all a fable to me. But such a mysterious fable that it sent a
+cold chill all over me.
+
+"But where could they go?"
+
+"Where?--Well, as far as the frontier, perhaps. Anyhow, as far as the
+contents of that bag, which Móczli handed into the carriage after her
+ladyship, will last.--Hai-dia-do."
+
+Now it was really exuberance of spirits that made old Márton sing in
+Tyrolese manner, that refrain, "hai-hai-dia-hia-do."
+
+He actually danced on the dusty road--a galop.
+
+Was it possible? That madonna face, than which I have never seen a more
+beautiful, more enchanting--either before or since that day!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"PAROLE D'HONNEUR"
+
+
+Two days after Lorand's disappearance a travelling coach stopped before
+Mr. Fromm's house. From the window I recognized coach-horses and
+coachman: it was ours.
+
+Some one of our party had arrived.
+
+I hastened down into the street, where Father Fromm was already trying
+very excitedly to turn the leather curtain that was fastened round the
+coach....
+
+No, not "some one!" the whole family was here! All who had remained at
+home. Mother, grandmother, and the Fromms' Fanny.
+
+Actually mother had come: poor mother!
+
+We had to lift her from the carriage: she was utterly broken down. She
+seemed ten years older than when I had last seen her.
+
+When she had descended, she leaned upon Fanny on the one side, on the
+other upon me.
+
+"Only let us go in, into the house!" grandmother urged us on, convinced
+that poor mother would collapse in the street.
+
+All who had arrived were very quiet: they scarcely answered me, when I
+greeted them. We led mother up into the room, where we had had our first
+reception.
+
+Mother Fromm and grandmother Fromm were not knitting stockings on this
+occasion; it seemed they were prepared for this appearance. They too
+received my parents very quietly and solemnly: as if everyone were
+convinced that the first word addressed by anyone to this broken-down,
+propped up figure would immediately reduce it to ashes, as the story
+goes about some figures they have found in old tombs. And yet she had
+come on this long, long journey. She had not waited for the weather to
+grow warmer. She had started in the teeth of a raw, freezing spring
+wind, when she heard that Lorand was gone.
+
+Oh, is there any plummet to sound the depths of a mother's love?
+
+Poor mother did try so hard to appear strong. It was so evident, that
+she was struggling to combat with her nervous attacks, just in the very
+moment which awoke every memory before her mind.
+
+"Quietly, my daughter--quietly," said grandmother. "You know what you
+promised: you promised to be strong. You know there is need of strength.
+Don't give yourself over. Sit down."
+
+Mother sat down near the table where they led her, then let her head
+fall on her two arms, and, as she had promised not to weep--she did not
+weep.
+
+It was piteous to see her sorrowful figure as, in this strange house,
+she was leaning over the table with her face buried in her hands in mute
+despair; determined, however, not to cry, for so she had promised.
+
+Everyone kept at a distance from her: great sorrow commands great
+respect. Only one person ventured to remain close to her, one of whom I
+had not even taken notice as yet,--Fanny.
+
+When she had taken off her travelling cloak I found she was dressed
+entirely in blue. Once that had been my mother's favorite color; father
+too had been exceedingly fond of it. She stood at mother's side and
+whispered something into her ear, at which mother raised her head and,
+like one who returns from the other world, sighed deeply, seemed to come
+to herself, and said with a peaceful smile, turning to the host and
+hostess:
+
+"Pardon me, I was exceedingly abstracted." Merely to hear her speak
+agonized me greatly. Then she turned to Fanny, embraced her, kissed her
+forehead twice, and said to the Fromms,
+
+"You will agree, will you not, to Fanny's staying a little longer with
+me? She is already like a child of my own."
+
+I was no longer jealous of Fanny. I saw how happy she made mother, if
+she could embrace her.
+
+Fanny again whispered something in mother's ear, at which mother rose,
+and seemed quite herself again: she approached Mrs. Fromm resolutely,
+with no faltering steps, and grasping both her hands, said, "I thank
+you," and once again repeated whisperingly, "I thank you."
+
+All this I regarded speechlessly from a corner. I feared my mother's
+gaze inexpressibly.
+
+Then grandmother interrupted,
+
+"We have no time to lose, my daughter. If you are capable of coming at
+once, come."
+
+Mother nodded assent with her head, and gazed continually upon Fanny.
+
+"Meanwhile Fanny remains here," added grandmother. "But Desiderius comes
+with us."
+
+At these words mother looked at me, as if it had only just occurred to
+her that I too was here, still it was Fanny's fair curls only that she
+continued stroking.
+
+Father Fromm hurriedly sent Henrik for a cab. Not a soul asked us where
+we were going. Everyone wondered, where, and why? What purpose? But,
+only I knew what would be the end of to-day's journey.
+
+I did not distress myself about it. I waited merely until my turn should
+come. I knew nothing could happen without me.
+
+The cab was there, and the Fromms led mother down the steps. They set
+her down first of all, and, when we were all seated; Father Fromm called
+to the cabman:
+
+"To the house of Bálnokházy!"
+
+He knew well that we must go there now. During the whole journey there
+we did not exchange a single word: what could those two have said to me?
+
+When we stopped before Bálnokházy's residence, it seemed to me, my
+mother was endowed with a quite youthful strength; she went before us,
+her face burning, her step elastic, her head carried on high.
+
+I don't know whether it was our good fortune, or whether my parents'
+arrival had been announced previously, but the P. C. was at home, when
+we came to look for him.
+
+I was curious to see with what countenance he would receive us.
+
+I knew already much about him, that I ought never to have known.
+
+As we stepped into his room, he came to meet us, with more courtesy than
+pleasure apparent on his countenance. Some kind of displeasure strove to
+display itself thereon, but it was just as if he had studied the
+expression for hours in the mirror; it seemed to be an artificial,
+affected, calculated displeasure.
+
+Mother straightway hastened to him, and taking both his hands,
+impetuously introduced the conversation with these words:
+
+"Where is my son Lorand?"
+
+My right honorable uncle shrugged his shoulders, and with gracious mien
+answered this mother's passionate outburst:
+
+"My dear lady cousin, it is I who ought to urge that question; for it is
+my duty to prosecute your son. And if I answer that I do not know where
+he is, I think thereby I shall display the most kinsmanlike feeling."
+
+"Why prosecute my son?" said mother, tremblingly. "Is it possible to
+eternally ruin anyone for a mere schoolboy escapade?"
+
+"Not one but many 'schoolboy escapades' justify me in my action: it is
+not merely in my official capacity that I am bound to prosecute him."
+
+As he said this, Bálnokházy fixed his eyes sharply upon me: I did not
+wince before him. I knew I had the right and the power to withstand his
+gaze. Soon my turn would come.
+
+"What?" asked mother. "What reason could you have to prosecute him?"
+
+Bálnokházy shrugged his shoulders more than ever, bitterly smiling.
+
+"I scarcely know, in truth, how to tell you this story, if you don't
+know already. I thought you were acquainted with all the facts. He who
+told you the news of the young man's disappearance, wrote to you also
+the reasons for it."
+
+"Yes," said mother, "I know all. The misfortune is great: but there is
+no ignominy."
+
+"Indeed?" interrupted Bálnokházy, drawing his shoulders derisively
+together: "I did not know that such conduct was not considered
+ignominious in the provinces. Indeed I did not. A young man, a law
+student, a mere stripling, shows his gratitude for the fatherly
+thoughtfulness of a man of position,--who had received him into his
+house as a kinsman, treating him as one of the family,--by seducing and
+eloping with his wife, and helping her to break open his money-chest,
+and steal his jewelry, disappearing with the shameless woman beyond the
+confines of the country. Oh, really, I did not know that they did not
+consider that a crime deserving of prosecution!"
+
+Poor mother was shattered at this double accusation, as if she had been
+twice struck by thunder-bolts, and deadly pale clutched at grandmother's
+hand. The latter had herself in this moment grown as white as her
+grizzled hair. She took up the conversation in mother's place, for
+mother was no longer capable of speaking.
+
+"What do you say? Lorand a seducer of women?"
+
+"To my sorrow, he is. He has eloped with my wife."
+
+"And thief?"
+
+"A harsh word, but I can give him no other name."
+
+"For God's sake, gently, sir!"
+
+"Well, you can see that hitherto I have behaved very quietly. I have not
+even made a noise about my loss: yet, besides the destruction of my
+honor, I have other losses.
+
+"This faithless deed has robbed me and my daughter of 5,000 florins.[53]
+If the matter only touched me, I would disdain to notice it: but that
+sum was the savings of my little daughter."
+
+[Footnote 53: Above £415--$2,000.]
+
+"Sir, that sum shall be repaid you," said grandmother, "but I beg you
+not to say another word on the subject before this lady. You can see you
+are killing her with it."
+
+As she was speaking, Bálnokházy gazed intently at me, and in his gaze
+were many questions, all of which I could very well have answered.
+
+"I am surprised," he said at last, "that these revelations are entirely
+new to you. I thought that the same person who had acquainted you with
+Lorand's disappearance, had unfolded to you therewith all those critical
+circumstances, which caused his disappearance, seeing that I related all
+myself to that person."
+
+Now mother and grandmother too turned their gaze upon me.
+
+Grandmother addressed me: "You did not write a word about all this to
+us."
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor did you mention a word about it here when we arrived."
+
+"Yet I told it all myself to my nephew."
+
+"Why don't you answer?" queried my grandmother impetuously.
+
+Mother could not speak: she merely wrung her hands.
+
+"Because I had certain information that this accusation was groundless."
+
+"Oho! you young imp!" exclaimed Bálnokházy in proud, haughty tones.
+
+"From beginning to end groundless," I repeated calmly; although every
+muscle of mine was trembling from excitement. But you should have seen,
+how mother and grandmother rushed into my arms: how they grasped one my
+right, the other my left hand, as drowning men clutch at the rescuer's
+hands, and how that proud angry man stood before me with flashing eyes.
+All sobriety had left the three, together they cried to me in voices of
+impetuousity, of anger, of madness, of hope, of joy: "speak! tell us
+what you know."
+
+"I will tell you.--When his lordship acquainted me with these two
+terrible charges against Lorand, I at once started off to find my
+brother. Two honorable poor men came in my way to help me find him: two
+poor workmen, who left their work to help me to save a lost life. The
+same will be my witness that what I relate is all true and happened just
+as I tell you: one is Márton Braun, the baker's man, the other Matthias
+Fleck."
+
+"My wife's coachman," interrupted the P. C.
+
+"Yes. He conducted me to where Lorand was temporarily concealed. He
+related to me that her ladyship was elsewhere. He had taken her ladyship
+across the frontier--without Lorand. My brother started at the same time
+on foot, without money, towards the interior of Hungary: Márton and I
+accompanied him into the hills, and my pocket money, which he accepted
+from me, was the only money he had with him, and Márton's walking stick
+was the only travelling companion that accompanied him further."
+
+I noticed that mother kneeled beside me and kissed me.
+
+That kiss I received for Lorand's sake.
+
+"It is not true!" yelled Bálnokházy; "he disappeared with my wife. I
+have certain information that this woman passed the frontier with a
+young smooth-faced man and arrived with him in Vienna. That was Lorand."
+
+"It was not Lorand, but another."
+
+"Who could it have been?"
+
+"Is it possible that you should not know? Well, I can tell you. That
+smoothed-faced man who accompanied her ladyship to Vienna was the German
+actor Bleissberg;--and not for the first time."
+
+Ha, ha! I had stabbed him to the heart: right to the middle of the
+liver, where pride dwells. I had thrust such a dart into him, as he
+would never be able to draw out. I did not care if he slew me now.
+
+And he looked as if he felt very much like doing it--but who would have
+dared touch me and face the wrath of those two women--no--lionesses,
+standing next to me on either side! They seemed ready to tear anyone to
+pieces who ventured as much as lay a finger on me.
+
+"Let us go," said mother, pressing my hand. "We have nothing more to do
+here."--Mother passed out first: they took me in the middle and
+grandmother, turning back addressed a categorical "adieu" to Bálnokházy,
+whom we left to himself.
+
+My cousin Melanie was playing that cavatina even now, though now I did
+not care to stop and listen to it. That piano was a good idea after all;
+quarrels and disputes in the house were prevented thereby from being
+heard in the street.
+
+When we were again seated in the cab, mother pressed me passionately to
+her, and smothered me with kisses.
+
+Oh, how I feared her kisses! She kissed me because she would soon ask
+questions about Lorand. And I could not answer them.
+
+"You were obedient: you took care of your poor brother: you helped him:
+my dear child." Thus she kept whispering continually to me.
+
+I dared not be affected.
+
+"Tell me now, where is Lorand?"
+
+I had known she would ask that. In anguish I drew away from her and kept
+looking around me.
+
+"Where is Lorand?"
+
+Grandmother remarked my anguish.
+
+"Leave him alone," she hinted to mother. "We are not yet in a
+sufficiently safe place: the driver might hear. Wait until we get home."
+
+So I had time until we arrived home. What would happen there? How could
+I avoid answering their questions.
+
+Scarcely had we returned to Master Fromm's house, scarce had Fanny
+brought us into a room which had been prepared for my parents, when my
+poor mother again fell upon my neck, and with melancholy gladness asked
+me:
+
+"You know where Lorand is?"
+
+How easy it would have been for me to answer "I know not!" But what
+should I have gained thereby? Had I done so, I could never have told her
+what Lorand wrote from a distance, how he greeted and kissed them a
+thousand times!
+
+"I know, mother dear."
+
+"Tell me quickly, where he is."
+
+"He is in a safe place, mother dear," said I encouragingly, and hastened
+to tell all I might relate.
+
+"Lorand is in his native land in a safe place, where he has nothing to
+fear: with a relation of ours, who will love and protect him."
+
+"But when will you tell us where he is?"
+
+"One day, soon, mother dear."
+
+"But when? When? Why not at once? When?"
+
+"Soon,--in ten years."--I could scarce utter the words.
+
+Both were horrified at my utterance.
+
+"Desi, do you wish to play some joke upon us?"
+
+"If it were only a joke? It is true: a very heavy truth! I promised
+Lorand to tell neither mother nor grandmother, for ten years, where he
+is living."
+
+Grandmother seemed to understand it all: she hinted with a look to Fanny
+to leave us alone: she thought that I did not wish to reveal it before
+Fanny.
+
+"Don't go Fanny," I said to her. "Even in your absence I cannot say more
+than I have already said."
+
+"Are you in your senses then?" grandmother sternly addressed me thinking
+harsh words might do much with me. "Do you wish to play mysteries with
+us: surely you don't think we shall betray him?"
+
+"Desi," said mother, in that quiet, sweet voice of hers. "Be good."
+
+So, they were deceived in me. I was no longer that good child, who could
+be frightened by strong words, and tamed by a sweet tongue,--I had
+become a hard, cruel unfeeling boy:--they could not force me to
+confession.
+
+"That I cannot tell you."
+
+"Why not? Not even to us?" they asked both together.
+
+"Why not? That I do not know myself. But not even to you can I tell it.
+Lorand made me give him my word of honor, not to betray his
+whereabouts--not to his mother and grandmother. He said he had a great
+reason to ask this, and said any neglect of my promise would produce
+great misfortune. I gave him my word, and that word I must keep."
+
+Poor mother fell on her knees before me, embraced me, showered kisses
+upon me, and begged me so to tell her where Lorand was. She called me
+her dear "only" son: then burst into tears: and I,--could be so cruel as
+to answer to her every word, "No--no--no."
+
+I cannot describe this scene. I am incapable of reflecting thereupon. At
+last mother fainted, grandmother cursed me, and I left the room, and
+leaned against the door post.
+
+During this indescribable scene the whole household hastened to nurse my
+mother, who was suffering terrible pain; then they came to me one by
+one, and tried in turn their powers of persuasion upon me. First of all
+came Mother Fromm, to beg me very kindly to say that one word that would
+cure my mother at once; then came Grandmother Fromm with awful threats:
+then Father Fromm, who endeavored to persuade me with sage reasoning,
+declaring that my honor would really be greatest if I should now break
+my word!
+
+It was all quite useless. Surely no one knew how to beg, as my mother
+begged kneeling before me! No one could curse as my terrible grandmother
+had done, and no one knew the wickedness of my character as well as I
+did myself.
+
+Let them only give me peace! I could not tell them.
+
+Last of all Fanny came to me: leaned upon my shoulder, and began to
+stroke my hair.
+
+"Dear Desi."
+
+I jerked my shoulder to be rid of her.
+
+"'Dear Desi,' indeed!--Call me 'wicked, bad, cursed Desi!'--that is what
+I am."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Because no other name is possible. I promised because I was _obliged_
+to promise: and now I am keeping my word, because I promised."
+
+"Your poor mother says she will die, if you do not tell her where Lorand
+is."
+
+"And Lorand told me he will die if I do tell her. He told me that, when
+I discovered his whereabouts to mother or grandmother, he will either
+report himself at the nearest military station, or will shoot himself,
+according as he feels inclined. And in our family such promises are not
+wont to dissolve in thin air."
+
+"What might have been his reason for exacting such a promise from you?"
+
+"I do not know. But I know he would not have done it without cause. I
+beg you to leave me."
+
+"Wait a moment," said Fanny, standing before me. "You said Lorand made
+you swear not to tell your mother or grandmother where he had gone to.
+He did not forbid you to tell another?"
+
+"Naturally not," I answered with irritated pride. "He knew all along
+that there has not yet been born into the world that other who could
+force the truth out of me with red-hot pincers."
+
+"But that other has been born," interrupted Fanny with wild earnestness.
+"Just twelve years, eight months and five days ago."
+
+I looked at her.
+
+"I should tell you? is that what you think?"
+
+I admired her audacity.
+
+"Certainly, me. For your parole forbids you to speak only to your mother
+and grandmother. You can tell me: and I shall tell them. You will not
+have told anybody anything, and they still will know it."
+
+"Well, and are you 'nobody?'"
+
+Fanny gazed into my eyes, became serious, and with trembling lips said:
+
+"If you wish it--I am nobody. As if I had never been born."
+
+From that moment Fanny began to be "someone," in my eyes.
+
+Her little sophism pleased me. Perhaps on these terms we might come to
+an agreement.
+
+"You have asked something very difficult of me, Fanny; but it is not
+impossible. Only you must wait a little: give me time to think it over.
+Until I have done so, be our go-between. Go in and tell grandmother what
+you have recommended to me, and that I said in answer, 'it is well.'"
+
+I was cunning. I was dissembling. I thought in that moment, that, if
+Fanny should burst in childish glee into the neighboring room, and in
+triumphant voice proclaim the concession she had wrung out of me, I
+might tell her on her return the name of some place that did not exist,
+and so throw the responsibility off my own shoulders.
+
+But she did not do that.
+
+She went back quietly, and waited long, until her friends had retired by
+the opposite door: then she came and whispered:--
+
+"I have been long: but I did not wish to speak before my mother. Now
+your parents are alone: go and speak."
+
+"Something more first. Go back, Fanny, and say that I can tell them the
+truth, only on the condition that mother and grandmother promise not to
+seek him out, until I show them a letter from Lorand, in which he
+invites them to come to him: nor to send others in search of him: and,
+if they wish to send a letter to him, they must first give it to me,
+that I may send it off to him, and they never show, even by a look, to
+anyone that they know aught of Lorand's whereabouts."
+
+Fanny nodded assent, and returned into the neighboring room.
+
+A few minutes later she came out again, and held open the door before
+me.
+
+"Come in."
+
+I went in. She shut the door after me, and then, taking my hand, led me
+to mother's bedside.
+
+Poor dear mother was now quiet, and pale as death. She seemed to beckon
+me to her with her eyes. I went to her side, and kissed her hand.
+
+Fanny bent over me, and held her face near my lips, that I might whisper
+in her ear what I knew.
+
+I told her all in a few words. She then bent over mother's pillow and
+whispered in her ear what she had heard from me.
+
+Mother sighed and seemed to be calmed. Then grandmother bent over dear
+mother, that she might learn from her all that had been said.
+
+As she heard it, her grey-headed figure straightened, and clasping her
+two hands above her head, she panted in wild prophetic ecstasy:
+
+"O Lord God! who entrustest Thy will to children: may it come to pass,
+as Thou hast ordained!"
+
+Then she came to me and embraced me.
+
+"Did you counsel Lorand to go there?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Did you know what you were doing? It was the will of God. Every day you
+must pray now for your brother."
+
+"And you must keep silent for him. For when he is discovered, my brother
+will die and I cannot live without him."
+
+The storm became calm: they again made peace with me. Mother, some
+minutes later, fell asleep, and slumbered sweetly. Grandmother motioned
+to Fanny and to me to leave her to herself.
+
+We let down the window-blinds and left the room.
+
+As we stepped out, I said to Fanny:
+
+"Remember, my honor has been put into your hands."
+
+The girl gazed into my eyes with ardent enthusiasm and said:
+
+"I shall guard it as I guard mine own."
+
+That was no child's answer, but the answer of a maiden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A GLANCE INTO A PISTOL-BARREL
+
+
+The weather changed very rapidly, for all the world as if two evil
+demons were fighting for the earth: one with fire, the other with ice.
+It was the middle of May; it had become so sultry that the earth, which
+last week had been frozen to dry bones, now began to crack.
+
+The wanderer who disappeared from our sight we shall find on that plain
+of Lower Hungary, where there are as many high roads as cart-ruts.
+
+It is evening, but the sun had just set, and left a cloudless ruddy sky
+behind it. On the horizon two or three towers are to be seen so far
+distant that the traveller who is hurrying before us cannot hope to
+reach any one of them by nightfall.
+
+The dust had not so overlaid him, nor had the sun so tanned his face
+that we cannot recognize in these handsome noble features the pride of
+the youth of Pressburg, Lorand.
+
+The long journey he has accomplished has evidently not impaired the
+strength of his muscles, for the horseman who is coming behind him, has
+to ride hard to overtake him.
+
+The latter leaned back in his shortened stirrups, after the manner of
+hussars, and wore a silver-buttoned jacket, a greasy hat, and ragged red
+trousers. Thrown half over his shoulders was a garment of wolf-skins;
+around his waist was a wide belt from which two pistol-barrels gleamed,
+while in the leg of one of his boots a silver-chased knife was thrust.
+The horse's harness was glittering with silver, just as the ragged,
+stained garments of its master.
+
+The rider approached at a trot, but the traveller had not yet thought
+it worth while to look back and see who was coming after him. Presently
+he came up to the solitary figure, trudging along, doggedly.
+
+"Good evening, student."
+
+Lorand looked up at him.
+
+"Good evening, gypsy."
+
+At these words the horseman drew aside his skin-mantle that the student
+might see the pistol-barrels, and consider that even if he were a gypsy,
+he was something more than a mere musician. But Lorand did not betray
+the slightest emotion: he did not even take down from his shoulder the
+stick, on which he was carrying his boots. He was walking bare-footed.
+It was cheaper.
+
+"Oh, you are proud of your red boots!" sneered the rider, looking down
+at Lorand's bare-feet.
+
+"It's easy for you to say so," was Lorand's sharp reply; "sitting on
+that hack."
+
+But "hack" means a kind of four-footed animal which this rider found no
+pleasure in hearing mentioned.[54]
+
+[Footnote 54: The Magyar word has a double meaning; besides a horse it
+means a peculiar whipping-bench with which gypsies used to be
+particularly well acquainted.]
+
+"My own training," he said proudly, as if in self-defence against this
+cutting remark.
+
+"I know. I knew that even in my scapegrace days."
+
+"Well, and where are you hobbling to now, student?"
+
+"I am going to Csege, gypsy, to preach."
+
+"What do you get from the 'legatio' for that, student?"
+
+"Twenty silver florins, gypsy."
+
+"Do you know what, student? I have an idea--don't go just yet to Csege,
+but turn aside here to the shepherd's where you see that fold. Wait
+there for me till to-morrow, when I shall come back, and preach your
+sermon to me: I have never yet heard anything of the kind, and I'll give
+you forty florins for it."
+
+"Oh no, gypsy; do you turn aside to yonder fold. Don't go just now to
+the farm, but wait a week for me; when I shall come back; then you can
+fiddle my favorite tune, and I'll give you ten florins for it."
+
+"I am no musician," replied the horseman, extending his chest.
+
+"What's that rural fife doing at your side?" The gypsy roared at the
+idea of calling his musket a "rural fife!" Many had paid dearly so as
+not to hear its notes!
+
+"You student, you are a deuce of a fellow. Take a draught from my
+'noggin.'"
+
+"No, thanks, gypsy; it isn't spiritual enough to go with my sermon."[55]
+
+[Footnote 55: Lorand really quoted a sentence from a popular ditty, but
+it is impossible in such cases to do proper justice to the original.
+
+The whole passage between Lorand and the gypsy is full of allusions
+intelligible only to Hungarians, _in Hungarian_, a proper rendering of
+which, in my opinion, baffles all attempts. Of course the force of the
+original is lost, but it is unavoidable.]
+
+The gypsy laughed still more loudly.
+
+"Well, good night, student."
+
+He drove his spurs into his horse and galloped on along the high-road.
+
+Then the evening drew in quietly. Lorand reached a grassy mound, shaded
+by juniper bushes. This spot he chose for his night-camp in preference
+to the wine-reeking, stenching rooms of the way-side inns. Putting on
+his boots, he drew from his wallet some bread and bacon, and commenced
+eating. He found it good: he was hungry and young.
+
+Scarcely had he finished his repast when, along the same road on which
+the horseman had come, rapidly approached a five-in-hand. The three
+leaders were supplied with bells and their approach could be heard from
+afar off.
+
+Lorand called out to the coachman,
+
+"Stop a moment, fellow-countryman."
+
+The coachman pulled up his horses.
+
+"Quickly," he said to Lorand, with a hoarse voice, "get up at once, sir
+'legatus,' beside me. The horses will not stand."
+
+"That was not what I wanted to say," remarked Lorand. "I did not want to
+ask you to take me up, but to tell you to be on your guard, for a
+highwayman has just gone on in front, and it would be ill to meet with
+him."
+
+"Have you much money?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor have I. Then why should we fear the robber?"
+
+"Perhaps those who are sitting inside the carriage?"
+
+"Her ladyship is sitting within and is now asleep. If I awake her and
+frighten her, and then we don't find the highwayman she will break the
+whip over my back. Get up here. It will be good to travel as far as
+Lankadomb in a carriage, 'sblood.'"
+
+"Do you live at Lankadomb?" asked Lorand in a tone of surprise.
+
+"Yes. I am Topándy's servant. He is a very fine fellow, and is very fond
+of people who preach."
+
+"I know him by reputation."
+
+"Well, if you know him by reputation, you will do well to make his
+personal acquaintance, too. Get up, now."
+
+Lorand put the meeting down as a lucky chance. Topándy's weakness was to
+capture men of a priestly turn of mind, keep them at his house and annoy
+them. That was just what he wanted, a pretext for meeting him.
+
+He clambered up beside the coachman and under the brilliance of the
+starry heaven, the five steeds, with merry tinkling of bells, rattled
+the carriage along the turfy road.
+
+The coachman told him they had come from Debreczen: they wished to reach
+Lankadomb in the morning, but on the way they would pass an inn, where
+the horses would receive feed, while her ladyship would have some cold
+lunch: and then they would proceed on their journey. Her ladyship always
+loved to travel by night, for then it was not so hot: besides she was
+not afraid of anything.
+
+It was about midnight when the carriage drew up at the inn mentioned.
+
+Lorand leaped down from the box, and hastened first into the inn, not
+wishing to meet the lady who was within the carriage. His heart beat
+loudly, when he caught a glimpse of that silver-harnessed horse in the
+inn-yard, saddled and bridled. The steed was not fastened up, but quite
+loose, and it gave a peculiar neigh as the coach arrived, at which there
+stepped out from a dark door the same man whom Lorand had met on the
+plain.
+
+He was utterly astonished to see Lorand.
+
+"You are here already, student?"
+
+"You can see it with your own eyes, gypsy."
+
+"How did you come so quickly?"
+
+"Why, I ride on a dragon: I am a necromancer."
+
+By this time the occupants of the carriage had entered: her ladyship and
+a plump, red-faced maid-servant. The former was wrapped in a thick fur
+cloak, her head bound with a silken kerchief; the latter wore a short
+red mantle, fastened round her neck with a kerchief of many colors,
+while her hair was tied with ribbons. Her two hands were full of cold
+viands.
+
+"So that was it, eh?" said the rider, as he perceived them. "They
+brought you in their carriage." Then, he allowed the new-comers to enter
+the parlor peacefully, while he himself took his horse, and, leading it
+to the pump, pumped some water into the trough.
+
+Lorand began to think he was not the rascal he thought him, and he now
+proceeded into the parlor.
+
+Her ladyship threw back her fur cloak, took off the silken kerchief and
+put two candles before her. She trimmed them both, like one who "loves
+the beautiful."
+
+You might have called her face very beautiful: she had lively, sparkling
+eyes, strong brown complexion, rosy lips, and arched eyebrows: it was
+right that such light as there was in the room should burn before her.
+
+In the darkness, on the long bench at the other end of the table, sat
+Lorand, who had ordered a bottle of wine, rather to avoid sitting there
+for nothing, than to drink the sour vintage of the Lowland.
+
+Beside the bar, on a straw mattress, was sleeping a Slavonian pedler of
+holy images, and a wandering jack-of-all-trades; at the bar the
+bushy-headed host grinned with doubtful pleasure over such guests, who
+brought their own eatables and drinkables with them, and only came to
+show their importance.
+
+Lorand had time enough calmly to take in this "ladyship," in whose
+carriage he had come so far, and under whose roof he would probably live
+later.
+
+She must be a lively, good-natured creature. She shared every morsel
+with her servant, and sent what remained to the coachman. Perhaps if she
+had known she had another nameless travelling companion, she would have
+invited him to the repast. As she ate she poured some rye-whiskey into
+her tin plate; to this she added figs, raisins and sugar, and then
+lighted it. This beverage is called in our country "krampampuli." It
+must be very healthy on a night journey for a healthy stomach.
+
+When the repast was over, the door leading to the courtyard opened: and
+there entered the rogue who had been left outside, his hat pressed over
+his eyes, and in his hand one of his pistols that he had taken from his
+girdle.
+
+"Under the table! under the bed! all whose lives are dear to them!" he
+cried, standing in the doorway. At these terrible words the Slavonian
+and the other who were sleeping on the floor clambered up into the
+chimney-place, the host disappeared into the cellar, banging the door
+after him, while the servant hid herself under the bench; then the
+robber stepped up to the table and extinguished both candles with his
+hat, so that there remained no light on the table save that of the
+burning spirit.
+
+The latter gave a weird light. When sugar burns in spirits, a sepulchral
+light appears on everything: living faces look like faces of the dead;
+all color disappears from them, the ruddiness of the countenance, the
+brilliance of the lips, the glitter of the eyes,--all turn green. It is
+as if phantoms rose from the grave and were gazing at one another.
+
+Lorand watched the scene in horror.
+
+This gay, smiling woman's face became at once like that of one raised
+from the tomb; and that other who stood face to face with her, weapon in
+hand, was like Death himself, with black beard and black eyelids.
+
+Yet for one moment it seemed to Lorand as if both were laughing--the
+face of the dead and the face of Death, but it was only for a moment;
+and perhaps, too, that was merely an illusion.
+
+Then the robber addressed her in a strong, authoritative voice:
+
+"Your money, quickly!"
+
+The woman took her purse, and without a word threw it down on the table
+before him.
+
+The robber snatched it up and by the light of the spirit began to
+examine its contents.
+
+"What is this?" he asked wrathfully.
+
+"Money," replied the lady briefly, beginning to make a tooth-pick from a
+chicken bone with her silver-handled antique knife.
+
+"Money! But how much?" bawled the thief.
+
+"Four hundred florins."
+
+"Four hundred florins," he shrieked, casting the purse down on the
+table. "Did I come here for four hundred florins? Have I been lounging
+about here a week for four hundred florins? Where is the rest?"
+
+"The rest?" said the lady. "Oh, that is being made at Vienna."
+
+"No joking, now. I know there were two thousand florins in this purse."
+
+"If all that has ever been in that purse were here now, it would be
+enough for both of us."
+
+"The devil take you!" cried the thief, beating the table with his fist
+so that the spirit flame flickered in the plate. "I don't understand
+jokes. In this purse just now there were two thousand florins, the price
+of the wool you sold day before yesterday at Debreczen. What has become
+of the rest?"
+
+"Come here, I'll give you an account of it," said the lady, counting on
+her fingers with the point of the knife. "Two hundred I gave to the
+furrier--four hundred to the saddler--three hundred to the grocer--three
+hundred to the tailor:--two hundred I spent in the market: count how
+much remains."
+
+"None of your arithmetic for me. I only want money, much money! Where is
+much money?"
+
+"As I said already, at Körmöcz, in the mint."
+
+"Enough of your foolery!" threatened the highwayman. "For if I begin to
+search, you won't thank me for it."
+
+"Well, search the carriage over; all you find in it is yours."
+
+"I shan't search the coach, but you, too, to your skin."
+
+"What?" cried the woman, in a passion; and at that moment her face, with
+her knitted eyebrows, became like that of a mythical Fury. "Try
+it,"--with these words dashing the knife down into the table, which it
+pierced to the depth of an inch.
+
+The thief began to speak in a less presumptuous tone.
+
+"What else will you give me?"
+
+"What else, indeed?" said the lady, throwing herself defiantly back in
+her chair. "The devil and his son."
+
+"You have a bracelet on your arm."
+
+"There you are!" said the woman, unclasping the emerald trinket from her
+arm, and dashing it on the table.
+
+The thief began to look at it critically.
+
+"What is it worth?"
+
+"I received it as a present: you can get a drink of wine for it in the
+nearest inn you reach."
+
+"And there is a beautiful ring sparkling on your finger."
+
+"Let it sparkle."
+
+"I don't believe it cannot come off."
+
+"It will not come off, for I shall not give it." At this moment the
+thief suddenly grasped the woman's hand in which she held the knife,
+seizing it by the wrist, and while she was writhing in desperate
+struggle against the iron grip, with his other hand thrust the end of
+his pistol in her mouth.
+
+This awful scene had till now made upon Lorand the impression of the
+quarrel of a tipsy husband with his obstinate wife, who answers all his
+provocations with jesting: the lady seemed incapable of being
+frightened, the thief of frightening. Some unnatural indifference seemed
+to give the lie to that scene, which youthful imagination would picture
+so differently. The meeting of a thief with an unprotected lady, at
+night, in an inn on the plain! It was impossible that they should speak
+so to one another.
+
+But as the robber seized the lady's hand, and leaning across the table,
+drew her by sheer force towards him, continually threatening the
+screaming woman with a pistol, the young man's blood suddenly boiled up
+within him. He leaped forward from the darkness, unnoticed by the thief,
+crept toward him and seized the rascal's right hand, in which he held
+the pistol, while with his other hand he tore the second pistol from the
+man's belt.
+
+The highwayman, like some infuriated beast, turned upon his assailant,
+and strove to free his arm from the other's grip.
+
+He felt he had to do with one whose wrist was as firm as his own.
+
+"Student!" he snarled, with lips tightly drawn like a wolf, and gnashing
+his gleaming white teeth.
+
+"Don't stir," said Lorand, pointing the pistol at his forehead.
+
+The thief saw plainly that the pistol was not cocked: nor could Lorand
+have cocked it in this short time. Lorand, as a matter of fact, in his
+excitement had not thought of it.
+
+So the highwayman suddenly ducked his head and like a wall-breaking,
+battering ram, dealt such a blow with his head to Lorand, that the
+latter fell back on to the bench, and while he was forced to let go of
+the rascal with his left, he was obliged with his armed right hand to
+defend himself against the coming attack.
+
+Then the robber pointed the barrel of the second pistol at his forehead.
+
+"Now it is my turn to say, 'don't stir,' student."
+
+In that short moment, as Lorand gazed into the barrel of the pistol that
+was levelled at his forehead, there flashed through his mind this
+thought:
+
+"Now is the moment for checkmating the curse of fate and avoiding the
+threatened suicide. He who loses his life in the defence of persecuted
+and defenceless travellers dies as a man of honor. Let us see this
+death."
+
+He rose suddenly before the levelled weapon.
+
+"Don't move or you are a dead man," the thief cried again to him.
+
+But Lorand, face to face with the pistol levelled within a foot of his
+head calmly put his finger to the trigger of the weapon he himself held
+and drew it back.
+
+At this the thief suddenly sprang back and rushed to the door, so
+alarmed that at first he attempted to open it the wrong way.
+
+Lorand took careful aim at him.
+
+But as he stretched out his arm, the lady sprang up from the table,
+crept to him and seized his arm, shrieking:
+
+"Don't kill him, oh, don't!"
+
+Lorand gazed at her in astonishment.
+
+The beautiful woman's face was convulsed in a torture of terror: the
+staring look in her beautiful eyes benumbed the young man's sinews. As
+she threw herself upon his bosom and held down his arms, the embrace
+quite crippled him.
+
+The highwayman, seeing he could escape, after much fumbling undid the
+bolt of the door. When he was at last able to open it, his gypsy humor
+returned to take the place of his fear. He thrust his dishevelled head
+in at the half-opened door, and remarked in that broken voice which is
+peculiarly that of the terrified man:
+
+"A plague upon you, you devil's cur of a student: student, inky-fingered
+student. Had my pistol been loaded, as the other was, which was in your
+hand, I would have just given you a pass to hell. Just fall into my
+hands again! I know that...."
+
+Then he suddenly withdrew his head, affording a very humorous
+illustration to his threat: and like one pursued he ran out into the
+court. A few moments later a clatter of hoofs was heard--the robber was
+making his escape. When he reached the road he began to swear godlessly,
+reproaching and cursing every student, legatus, and hound of a priest,
+who, instead of praising God at home, prowled about the high-roads, and
+spoiled a hard working man's business. Even after he was far down the
+road his loud cursing could still be heard. For weeks that swearing
+would fill the air in the bog of Lankadomb, where he had made himself at
+home in the wild creature's unapproachable lair.
+
+To Lorand this was all quite bewildering.
+
+The arrogant, almost jesting, conversation, by the light of that
+mysterious flame, between a murderous robber and his victim:--the
+inexplicable riddle that a night-prowling highwayman should have entered
+a house with an empty pistol, while in his belt was another,
+loaded:--and then that woman, that incomprehensible figure, who had
+laughed at a robber to his face, who had threatened him with a knife as
+he pressed her to his bosom, and who, could she have freed herself,
+would surely have dealt him such a blow as she had dealt the
+table:--that she, when her rescuer was going to shoot her assailant,
+should have torn aside his hand in terror and defended the miscreant
+with her own body!
+
+What could be the solution of such a riddle?
+
+Meanwhile the lady had again lighted the candles: again a gentle light
+was thrown on all things. Lorand gazed at her. In place of her previous
+green-blue face, which had gazed on him with the wild look of madness, a
+smiling, good-humored countenance was presented. She asked in a humorous
+tone:
+
+"Well, so you are a student, what kind of student? Where did you come
+from?"
+
+"I came with you, sitting beside the coachman."
+
+"Do you wish to come to Lankadomb?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps to Sárvölgyi's? He loves prayers."
+
+"Oh no. But to Mr. Topándy."
+
+"I cannot advise that: he is very rude to such as you. You are
+accustomed to preach. Don't go there."
+
+"Still I am going there: and if you don't care to let me sit on the box,
+I shall go on foot, as I have done until to-day."
+
+"Do you know what? What you would get there would not be much. The
+money, which that man left here, you have by you as it is. Keep it for
+yourself: I give it to you. Then go back to the college."
+
+"Madame, I am not accustomed to live on presents," said Lorand, proudly
+refusing the proffered purse.
+
+The woman was astonished. This is a curious legatus, thought she, who
+does not live by presents.
+
+Her ladyship began to perceive that in this young man's dust-stained
+features there was something of that which makes distinctions between
+man. She began to be surprised at this proud and noble gaze.
+
+Perhaps she was reflecting as to what kind of phenomenon it could be,
+who with unarmed hand had dared to attack an armed robber, in order to
+free from his clutch a strange woman in whom he had no interest, and
+then refused to accept the present he had so well deserved.
+
+Lorand saw that he had allowed a breach to open in his heart through
+which anyone could easily see the secret of his character. He hastened
+to cover his error.
+
+"I cannot accept a present, your ladyship, because I wish more. I am not
+a preaching legatus, but an expelled school-boy. I am in search of a
+position where I can earn my living by the work of my hands. When I
+protected your ladyship it occurred to me, 'This lady may have need for
+some farm steward or bailiff. She may recommend me to her husband.' I
+shall be a faithful servant, and I have given a proof of my
+faithfulness, for I have no written testimonials."
+
+"You wish to be Topándy's steward? Do you know what a godless man he
+is?"
+
+"That is why I am in search of him. I started direct for him. They
+expelled me from school for my godlessness. We cannot accuse each other
+of anything."
+
+"You have committed some crime, then, and that is why you avoid the eyes
+of the world? Confess what you have done. Murdered? Confess. I shall not
+be afraid of you for it, nor shall I tell any one. I promise that you
+shall be welcomed, whatever the crime may be. I have said so. Have you
+committed murder?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Beaten your father or mother?"
+
+"No, madame:--My crime is that I have instigated the youth against their
+superiors."
+
+"What superiors? Against the magistrate?"
+
+"Even superior to the magistrate."
+
+"Perhaps against the priest. Well, Topándy will be delighted. He is a
+great fool in this matter."
+
+The woman uttered these words laughingly; then suddenly a dark shadow
+crossed her face. With wandering glance she stepped up to the young man,
+and, putting her hand gently on his arm, asked him in a whisper:
+
+"Do you know how to pray?"
+
+Lorand looked at her, aghast.
+
+"To pray from a book--could you teach some one to pray from a book?
+Would it require a long time?"
+
+Lorand looked with ever-increasing wonder at the questioner.
+
+"Very well--I did not say anything! Come with us. The coachman is
+already cracking his whip. Will you sit inside with us, or do you prefer
+to sit outside beside the coachman in the open? It is better so; I
+should prefer it myself. Well, let us go."
+
+The servant, who had crawled out from under the bench, had already
+collected the silver and crockery; her ladyship paid mine host, and they
+soon took their seats again in the carriage:--and both thought deeply
+the whole way. The young man, of that woman, who playfully defied a
+thief, and struggled for a ring; then of that robber, who came with an
+empty pistol, and again of that woman, who when he spoke of the powers
+that be, understood nothing but a magistrate, and had inquired whether
+he knew how to pray from a book;--and who meanwhile wore golden
+bracelets, ate from silver, was dressed in silk and carried the fire of
+youth in her eyes. While the woman thought of that young man who could
+fight like a hero; was ready to work like a day laborer, to throw money
+away like a noble, to fascinate women like an angel, and to blaspheme
+the powers that be like a devil!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHICH WILL CONVERT THE OTHER?
+
+
+In the morning the coach rolled into the courtyard of the castle of
+Lankadomb.[56]
+
+[Footnote 56: _i. e._, Orchard-hill.]
+
+Topándy was waiting on the terrace, and ran to meet the young lady,
+helped her out of the coach and kissed her hand very courteously. At
+Lorand, who descended from his seat beside the coachman, he gazed with
+questioning wonder.
+
+The lady answered in his place:
+
+"I have brought an expelled student, who desires to be steward on your
+estate. You must accept him."
+
+Then, trusting to the hurrying servants to bring her travelling rugs and
+belongings after her, she ascended into the castle, without further
+waste of words, leaving Lorand alone with Topándy.
+
+Topándy turned to the young fellow with his usual satirical humor.
+
+"Well, fellow, you've got a fine recommendation! An expelled student;
+that's saying a good deal. You want to be steward, or bailiff, or
+præfectus here, do you? It's all the same; choose which title you
+please. Have you a smattering of the trade?"
+
+"I was brought up to a farm life: it is surely no hieroglyphic to me."
+
+"Bravo! So I shall tell you what my steward has to do. Can you plough
+with a team of four? Can you stack hay, standing on the top of the
+sheaves? Can you keep order among a dozen reapers? Can you...?"
+
+Lorand was not taken aback by his questions. He merely replied to each
+one, "yes."
+
+"That's splendid," said Topándy. "Many renowned and well-versed
+gentlemen of business have come to me, to recommend themselves as farm
+bailiffs, in buckled shoes; but when I asked them if they could heap
+dung on dung carts, they all ran away. I am pleased my questions about
+that did not knock you over. Do you know what the 'conventio'[57] will
+be?"
+
+[Footnote 57: The payment. The honorarium.]
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But how much do _you_ expect?"
+
+"Until I can make myself useful, nothing; afterwards, as much as is
+required from one day to the next."
+
+"Well said; but have you no claims to bailiff's lodgings, office, or
+something else? That shall be left entirely to your own discretion. On
+my estate, the steward may lodge where he likes--either in the ox-stall,
+in the cow-shed, or in the buffalo stable. I don't mind; I leave it
+entirely to your choice."
+
+Topándy looked at him with wicked eyes, as he waited for the answer.
+
+Lorand, however, with the most serious countenance, merely answered that
+his presence would be required most in the ox-stall, so he would take up
+his quarters there.
+
+"So on that point we are agreed," said Topándy, with a loud laugh. "We
+shall soon see on what terms of friendship we shall stand. I accept the
+terms; when you are tired of them, don't trouble to say so. There is the
+gate."
+
+"I shall not turn in that direction."
+
+"Good! I admire your determination. Now come with me; you will receive
+at once your provisions for five days--take them with you. The shepherd
+will teach you how to cook and prepare your meals."
+
+Lorand did not make a single grimace at these peculiar conditions
+attached to the office of steward; he acquiesced in everything, as if he
+found everything most correct.
+
+"Well, come with me, Sir bailiff!"
+
+So he led him into the castle, without even so much as inquiring his
+name. He thought that in any case he would disappear in a day or two.
+
+Her ladyship was just in the ante-room, where breakfast was usually
+served.
+
+While Topándy was explaining to Lorand the various quarters from which
+he might choose a bedroom, her ladyship had got the coffee ready, for
+déjeuner, and had laid the fine tablecloth on the round table, on which
+had been placed three cups, and just so many knives, forks and napkins.
+
+As Topándy stepped into the room, letting Lorand in after him, her
+ladyship was engaged in pouring out the coffee from the silver pot into
+the cups, while the rich buffalo milk boiled away merrily on the
+glittering white tripod before her. Topándy placed himself in the
+nearest seat, leaving Lorand to stand and wait until her ladyship had
+time to weigh out his rations for him.
+
+"That is not your place!" exclaimed the fair lady.
+
+Topándy sprang up suddenly.
+
+"Pardon. Whose place is this?"
+
+"That gentleman's!" she answered, and nodded at Lorand, both her hands
+being occupied.
+
+"Please take a seat, sir," said Topándy, making room for Lorand.
+
+"You will always sit there," said the lady, putting down the coffee-pot
+and pointing to the place which had been laid on her left. "At
+breakfast, at dinner, at supper."
+
+This had a different sound from what the gentleman of the house had
+said. Rather different from garlic and black bread.
+
+"This will be your room here on the right," continued the lady. "The
+butler's name is George; he will be your servant. And John is the
+coachman, who will stand at your orders."
+
+Lorand's wonder only increased. He wished to make some remark, but he
+did not know himself what he wanted to say. Topándy, however, burst
+into a Homeric laugh, in which he quite lost himself.
+
+"Why, brother, didn't you tell me you had already arranged matters with
+the lady? You would have saved me so much trouble. If matters stand so,
+sleep on my sofa, and drink from my glass!"
+
+Lorand wished to play the proud beggar. He raised his head defiantly.
+
+"I shall sleep in the hay, and shall drink from----"
+
+"I advise you to do as I tell you," said the lady, making both men wince
+with the flash of her gaze.
+
+"Surely, brother," continued Topándy, "I can give you no better counsel
+than that. Well, let us sit down, and drink 'Brotherhood' with a glass
+of cognac."
+
+Lorand thought it wise to give way before the commanding gaze of the
+lady, and to accept the proffered place, while the latter laughed
+outright in sudden good-humor. She was so lovable, so natural, so
+pleasant, when she laughed like that, Topándy could not forbear from
+kissing her hands.
+
+The lady laughingly, and with jesting prudery, extended the other hand
+toward Lorand.
+
+"Well, the other too! Don't be bashful!"
+
+Lorand kissed the other hand.
+
+Upon this, she clapped her hands over her head, and burst into laughter.
+
+"See, see! I have brought you a letter from town," said the lady,
+drawing out her purse. "It's a good thing the thief left me this, or
+your letter would have been lost as well."
+
+"Thief?" asked Topándy earnestly. "What thief?"
+
+"Why, at the 'Skull-smasher' inn, where we stopped to water our horses,
+a thief attacked us, and then wanted to empty our pockets. I threw him
+my money and my bracelet, but he wanted to tear this ring from my
+finger, too. That I would not give up. Then he caught hold of my hand,
+and to prevent my screaming, thrust the butt-end of his pistol into my
+mouth--the fool!"
+
+The lady related all this with such an air of indifference that Topándy
+could not make out whether she was joking or not.
+
+"What fable is this?"
+
+"Fable indeed!" was the exclamation that greeted him on two sides, on
+the one from her ladyship, on the other from the neat little maid, the
+latter crying out how much she had been frightened; that she was still
+all of a tremble; the former turned back her sleeve and held out her arm
+to Topándy.
+
+"See how my arm got scratched by the grasp of the robber! and look here,
+how bruised my mouth is from the pistol," said she, parting her rosy
+lips, behind which two rows of pearly teeth glistened. "It's a good
+thing he didn't knock out my teeth."
+
+"Well, that would have been a pity. But how did you get away from him,"
+asked Topándy, in an anxious tone.
+
+"Well, I don't know whether you would ever have seen me again, if this
+young man had not dashed to our assistance; for he sprang forward and
+snatched the pistol from the hand of the robber,--who immediately took
+to his heels and ran away."
+
+Topándy again shook his head, and said it was hard to believe.
+
+"No doubt he still has the pistol in his pocket."
+
+"Give it to me."
+
+"But don't fool with it; it might go off and hurt somebody."
+
+Lorand handed the pistol in question to Topándy. The barrel was of
+bronze, highly chased in silver.
+
+"Curious!" exclaimed Topándy, examining the ornamentation. "This pistol
+bears the Sárvölgyi arms."
+
+Without another word he put the weapon in his pocket, and shook hands
+with Lorand across the table.
+
+"My boy, you are a fine fellow. I honor you for so bravely defending my
+people. Now I have the more reason in agreeing to your living
+henceforward under the same roof with me; unless you fear it may,
+through fault of mine, fall in upon you. What was the robber like?" he
+said, turning again to the women.
+
+"We could not see him, because he put out the candle and ran away."
+
+Lorand was struck by the fact that the woman did not seem inclined to
+recall the robber's features, which she must, however have been able to
+see by the help of the spirit-lamp; he noticed, too, that she did not
+utter a word about the robber's being a gypsy.
+
+"I don't know what he was like," she repeated, with a meaning look at
+Lorand. "Neither of us could see, for it was dark. For the same reason
+our deliverer could not shoot at him, because it was difficult to aim in
+the dark. If he had missed him, the robber might have murdered us all."
+
+"A fine adventure," muttered Topándy. "I shall not allow you to travel
+alone at night another time. I shall go armed myself. I shall not put up
+with the existence of that den in the marsh any longer or it will always
+be occupied by such as mean to harm us. As soon as the Tisza overflows,
+I shall set fire to the reeds about the place, when the stack will catch
+fire, too."
+
+During this conversation the woman had produced the letter.
+
+"There it is," she cried, handing it to Topándy.
+
+"A lady's handwriting!" exclaimed Topándy, glancing at the direction.
+
+"What, you can tell by the letters whether it is the writing of a man or
+a woman?" queried the beautiful lady, throwing a curious glance at the
+writing.
+
+Lorand looked at it, too, and it seemed to him as if he had seen the
+writing before, but he could not remember where.
+
+It was a strange hand; the characters did not resemble the writing of
+any of his lady acquaintances, and yet he must have seen it somewhere.
+
+You may cast about and reflect long, Lorand, before you discover whose
+writing it is. You never thought of her who wrote this letter. You never
+even noticed her existence! It is the writing of Fanny, of the jolly
+little exchange-girl. It was Desi who once showed you that handwriting
+for a moment, when your mother sent her love in Fanny's letter. Now the
+unknown hand had written to Topándy to the effect that a young man would
+appear before him, bespattered and ragged. He was not to ask whence he
+came, or whither he went; but he was to look well at the noble face, and
+he would know from it that the youth was not obliged to avoid
+persecution of the world for some base crime.
+
+Topándy gazed long at the youthful face before him. Could this be the
+one she meant?
+
+The story of the Parliamentary society of the young men was well known
+to him.
+
+He asked no questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After the first day Lorand felt himself quite at home in Topándy's home.
+
+Topándy treated him as a duke would treat his only son, whom he was
+training to be his heir; Lorand's conduct toward Topándy was that of a
+poor man's son, learning to make himself useful in his father's home.
+Each found many extraordinary traits in the other, and each would have
+loved to probe to the depths of the other's peculiarities.
+
+Lorand remarked in his uncle a deep, unfathomable feeling underlying his
+seeming godlessness. Topándy, on his side, suspected that some dark
+shadow had prematurely crossed the serenity of the young man's mind.
+Each tried to pierce the depths of the other's soul--but in vain.
+
+Her ladyship had on the first day confided her life secret to Lorand.
+When he endeavored to pay her the compliment of kissing her hand after
+supper, she withdrew her hand and refused to accept this mark of
+respect.
+
+"My dear boy, don't kiss my hand, or 'my ladyship' me any more. I am but
+a poor gypsy girl. My parents, were simple camp-folk; my name is Czipra.
+I am a domestic servant here, whom the master has dressed up, out of
+caprice, in silks and laces, and he makes the servants call me 'madame,'
+on which account they subsequently mock me,--of course, only behind my
+back, for if they did it to my face I should strike them; but don't you
+laugh at me behind my back. I am an orphan gypsy girl, and my master
+picked me up out of the gutter. He is very kind to me, and I would die
+for him, if fate so willed. That's how matters stand, do you
+understand?"
+
+The gypsy girl glanced with dimmed eyes at Topándy, who smilingly
+listened to her frank confession, as though he approved of it. Then, as
+if she had gained her master's consent, she turned again to Lorand:
+
+"So call me simply 'Czipra.'"
+
+"All right, Czipra, my sister," said Lorand, holding out his hand.
+
+"Well now, that is nice of you to add that;" upon which she pressed
+Lorand's hand, and left the men to themselves.
+
+Topándy turned the conversation, and spoke no more to Lorand of Czipra.
+He first of all wished to find out what impression the discovery would
+make upon the young man.
+
+The following days enlightened him.
+
+Lorand, from that day, far from showing more familiarity, manifested
+greater deference towards the reputed lady of the house. Since she had
+confessed her true position to him, moreover he treated her as one who
+knew well that the smallest slight would doubly hurt one who was not in
+a position to complain. He was kind and attentive to the woman, who,
+beneath the appearance of happiness, was wretched, though innocent. To
+the uninitiated, she was the lady of the house; to the better informed,
+she was the favorite of her master, and that was nought but a maiden in
+the disguise of wife, and Lorand was able to read the riddle aright.
+
+If Topándy watched him, he in his turn observed Topándy; he saw that
+Topándy did not watch, nor was jealous of the girl. He consented to her
+traveling alone, confided the greater part of his fortune to her,
+overwhelmed her with presents, but beyond this did not trouble about
+her. Still he showed a certain affection which did not arise from mere
+habit. He would not brook the least harm to her from anybody, making the
+whole household fear her as much as the master, and if by chance they
+hesitated as to their duty to one or the other, it was always Czipra who
+had a prior claim on their services.
+
+Topándy at once perceived that Lorand did not run after a fair face, nor
+after the face of any woman, who was not difficult to conquer, because
+she was not guarded, and who might be easily got rid of, being but a
+gypsy girl. His heart was either fully occupied by one object only, or
+it was an infinite void which nothing could fill. Topándy led a
+boisterous life, when he fell in with his chums, but when alone he was
+quite another man. To fathom nature's mysteries was a passion with him.
+In a corner of the basement of the castle there was a chemical
+laboratory, where he passed his time with making physical experiments;
+he labored with instruments, he probed the secrets of the stars, and of
+the earth; at such times he only cared to have Lorand at his side; in
+him he found a being capable of sharing his scientific researches,
+though he did not share in his doubts.
+
+"All is matter!" such had for centuries been the motto of the
+naturalist, and therefore the naturalist had ever found a kindred spirit
+in the agnostic.
+
+Often did Czipra come upon the two men at their quiet pursuits and watch
+them for hours together; and though she did not understand what in this
+higher science went beyond her comprehension, yet she could take
+pleasure in observing Cartesius' diving imps; she dared to sit upon the
+insulators, and her joy was boundless when Lorand at such a time,
+approaching her with his finger, called forth electric sparks from her
+dress or hands. She found enjoyment, too, in peering through the great
+telescopes at the heavenly wonders. Lorand was always ready to answer
+her questions; but the poor girl was far from understanding all. Yet
+how rapturous the thought of knowing all! Once when Lorand was
+explaining to her the properties of the sun-spectrum, the girl sighed
+and, suddenly bending down to Lorand, whispered blushingly:
+
+"Teach me to read."
+
+Lorand looked at her in amazement. Topándy, looking over his shoulder,
+asked her:
+
+"Tell me, what would be the use of teaching you to read?"
+
+The girl clasped her hands to her bosom:
+
+"I should like to learn to pray."
+
+"What? To pray? And what would you pray for? Is there anything that you
+cannot do without?"
+
+"There is."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"That is what I should like to know by praying."
+
+"And you do not know yourself what it is?"
+
+"I cannot express what it is."
+
+"And do you know anybody who could give it you?"
+
+The girl pointed to the sky.
+
+Topándy shrugged his shoulders at her.
+
+"Bah! you goose, reading is not for girls. Women are best off when they
+know nothing."
+
+Then he laughed in her face.
+
+Czipra ran weeping out of the laboratory.
+
+Lorand pitied the poor creature, who, dressed in silks and finery, did
+not know her letters, and who was incapable of raising her voice to God.
+He was in a mood, through long solitude, for pitying others; under a
+strange name, known to nobody, separated from the world, he was able to
+forget the lofty dreams to which a smooth career had pointed, and which
+fate, at his first steps, had mocked. He had given up the idea that the
+world should acknowledge this title: "a great patriot, who is the holder
+of a high office." He who does not desire this should keep to the
+ploughshare. Ambition should only have well-regulated roads, and success
+should only begin with a lower office in the state. But he whose hobby
+it is to murmur, will find a fine career in field labor; and he who
+wishes to bury himself, will find himself supplied, in life, with a
+beautiful, romantic, flowery wheat-covered cemetery by the fields, from
+the centre of which the happy dead creatures of life cheerfully mock at
+those who weary themselves and create a disturbance--with the idea that
+they are doing something, whereas their end is the same as that of the
+rest of mankind.
+
+Lorand was even beginning to grow indifferent to the awful obligation
+that lay before him at the end of the appointed time. It was still afar
+off. Before then a man might die peacefully and quietly; perhaps that
+other who guarded the secret might pass away ere then. And perhaps the
+years at the plough would harden the skin of a man's soul, as it did of
+his face and hands, so that he would come to ridicule a wager, which in
+his youthful over-enthusiasm he would have fulfilled; a wager the
+refusal to accept which would merely win the commendation of everybody.
+And if any one could say the reverse, how could he find him to say it to
+his face? As regards his family at home, he was fairly at his ease. He
+often received letters from Dezsö (Desiderius), under another address;
+they were all well at home, and treated the fate of the expelled son
+with good grace. He also learned that Madame Bálnokházy had not returned
+to her husband, but had gone abroad with that actor with whom she had
+previously been acquainted. This also he had wiped out from his memory.
+His whole mind was a perfect blank in which there was room for other
+people's misfortunes.
+
+It was impossible not to remark how Czipra became attached to him in her
+simplicity. She had a feeling which she had never felt before, a feeling
+of shame, if some impudent jest was made at her expense by one of
+Topándy's guests, in the presence of Lorand.
+
+Once, when Topándy and Lorand were amusing themselves at greater length
+with optical experiments in the lonely scientific apartment, Lorand took
+the liberty of introducing the subject.
+
+"Is it true that that girl has grown up without any knowledge whatever?"
+
+"Surely; she knows neither God nor alphabet."
+
+"Why don't you allow the poor child to learn to know them?"
+
+"What, her alphabet? Because in my eyes it is quite superfluous. A mad
+idea once occurred to me of picking some naked gypsy child out of the
+streets, with the intention of making a happy being therefrom. What is
+happiness in the world? Ease and ignorance. Had I a child of my own, I
+should do the same with it. The secret of life is to have a good
+appetite, sound sleep, and a good heart. If I reflect what bitternesses
+have been my lot my whole life, I find the cause of each one was what I
+have learned. Many a night did I lie awake in agonized distraction,
+while my servants were snoring in peace. I desired to see before me a
+person as happy as it was my ideal to be; a person free from those
+distressing tortures, which the civilized world has discovered for the
+persecution of man by man. Well, I have begun by telling you why I did
+not teach Czipra her alphabet."
+
+"And God?"
+
+Topándy took his eyes off the telescope, with which he had just been
+gazing at the starry sky.
+
+"I don't know Him myself."
+
+Lorand turned from him with a distressed air. Topándy remarked it.
+
+"My dear boy, my dear twenty-year-old child, probably you know more than
+I do; if you know Him, I beg you to teach me."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders, then began to discuss scientific
+subjects.
+
+"Does Dollond's telescope show stars in the Milky Way?"
+
+"Yes, a million twinkling stars o'erspread the Milky Way, each several
+star a sun."
+
+"Does it dissipate the mist in the head of the Northern Hound?"
+
+"The mist remains as it was before--a round cloudy mass with a ring of
+mist around it."
+
+"Perhaps Gregory's telescope, just arrived from Vienna, magnifies
+better?"
+
+"Bring it here. Since its arrival there has been no clear weather, to
+enable us to make experiments with it."
+
+Topándy gazed at the heavens through the new telescope with great
+interest.
+
+"Ah," he remarked in a tone of surprise. "This is a splendid instrument;
+the star-mist thins, some tiny stars appear out of the ring."
+
+"And the mass itself?"
+
+"That remains mist. Not even this telescope can disperse its atoms."
+
+"Well, shall we not experiment with Chevalier's microscope now?"
+
+"That is a good idea; get it ready."
+
+"What shall we put under it? A rhinchites?"
+
+"That will do."
+
+Lorand lit the spirit-lamp, which threw light on the subject under the
+magnifying glass; then he first looked into it himself, to find the
+correct focus. Enraptured, he cried out:
+
+"Look here! That fabled armor of Homer's _Iliad_ is not to be compared
+with this little insect's wing-shields. They are nothing but emerald and
+enamelled gold."
+
+"Indeed it is so."
+
+"And now listen to me: between the two wings of this little insect there
+is a tiny parasite or worm, which in its turn has two eyes, a life, and
+life-blood flowing in its veins, and in this worm's stomach other worms
+are living, impenetrable to the eye of this microscope."
+
+"I understand," said the atheist, glancing into Lorand's eyes. "You are
+explaining to me that the immensity of the world of creation reaching to
+awful eternity is only equalled by the immensity of the descent to the
+shapeless nonentity; and that is your God!"
+
+The sublime calm of Lorand's face indicated that that was his idea.
+
+"My dear boy," said Topándy, placing his two hands on Lorand's shoulder,
+"with that idea I have long been acquainted. I, too, fall down before
+immensity, and recognize that we represent but one class in the upward
+direction towards the stars, and one degree in the descent to the moth
+and rust that corrupt; and perhaps that worm, that I killed in order to
+take rapt pleasure in its wings, thought itself the middle of eternity
+round which the world is whirling like Plato's featherless two-footed
+animals; and when at the door of death it uttered its last cry, it
+probably thought that this cry for vengeance would be noted by some one,
+as when at Warsaw four thousand martyrs sang with their last breath,
+'All is not yet lost.'"
+
+"That is not my faith, sir. The history of the ephemeral insect is the
+history of a day,--that of a man means a whole life; the history of
+nations means centuries, that of the world eternity; and in eternity
+justice comes to each one in irremediable and unalterable succession."
+
+"I grant that, my boy; and I allow, too, that the comets are certainly
+claimants to the world whose suits have been deferred to this long
+justice, who one day will all recover their inheritances, from which
+some tyrant sun has driven them out; but you must also acknowledge, my
+child, that for us, the thoughtful worms, or stars, if you like, which
+can express their thoughts in spirited curses, providence has no care.
+For everything, everything there is a providence: be it so, I believe
+it. But for the living kind there is none, unless we take into account
+the rare occasions when a plague visits mankind, because it is too
+closely spread over the earth and requires thinning."
+
+"Sir, many misfortunes have I suffered on earth, very many, and such as
+fate distributes indiscriminately; but it has never destroyed--my
+faith."
+
+"No misfortune has ever attacked me. It is not suffering that has made
+me sceptical. My life has always been to my taste. Should some one
+divide up his property in reward for prayer, I should not benefit one
+crumb from it.--It is hypocrites who have forcibly driven me this way.
+Perhaps, were I not surrounded by such, I should keep silence about my
+unbelief, I should not scandalize others with it, I should not seek to
+persecute the world's hypocrites with what they call blasphemy. Believe
+me, my boy, of a million men, all but one regard Providence as a rich
+creditor, from whom they may always borrow--but when it is a question of
+paying the interest, then only that one remembers it."
+
+"And that one is enough to hallow the ideal!"
+
+"That one?--but you will not be that one!"
+
+Lorand, astonished, asked:
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because, if you remain long in my vicinity, you must without fail turn
+into such a universal disbeliever as I am."
+
+Lorand smiled to himself.
+
+"My child," said Topándy, "you will not catch the infection from me, who
+am always sneering and causing scandals, but from that other who prays
+to the sound of bells."
+
+"You mean Sárvölgyi?"
+
+"Whom else could I mean? You will meet this man every day. And in the
+end you will say just as I do--'If one must go to heaven in this wise, I
+had rather remain here?'"
+
+"Well, and what is this Sárvölgyi?"
+
+"A hypocrite, who lies to all the saints in turn, and would deceive the
+eyes of the archangels if they did not look after themselves."
+
+"You have a very low opinion of the man."
+
+"A low opinion? That is the only good thing in my heart, that I despise
+the fellow."
+
+"Simply because he is pious? In the world of to-day, however, it is a
+kind of courage to dare to show one's piety outwardly before a world of
+scepticism and indifference. I should like to defend him against you."
+
+"Would you? Very well. Let us start at once. Draw up a chair and listen
+to me. I shall be the devil's advocate. I shall tell you a story
+concerning this fellow; I was merely a simple witness to the whole. The
+man never did me any harm. I tell you once again that I have no
+complaint to make either against mankind or against any beings that may
+exist above or below. Sit beside me, my boy."
+
+Lorand first of all stirred up the fire in the fire-place, and put out
+the spirit lamp of the microscope, so that the room was lighted only by
+the red glare of the log-fire and the moon, which was now rising above
+the horizon and shed her pale radiance through the window.
+
+"In my younger days I had a very dear friend, a relation, with whom I
+had always gone to school and such fast comrades were we that even in
+the class-room we sat always side by side. My comrade was unapproachably
+first in the class, and I came next; sometime between us like a dividing
+wall came this fellow Sárvölgyi, who was even then a great flatterer and
+sneak, and in this way sometimes drove me out of my place--and young
+schoolboys think a great deal of their own particular places. Of course
+I was even then so godless that they could not make sufficient
+complaints against me. Later, during the French war, as the schools
+suffered much, we were both sent together to Heidelberg. The devil
+brought Sárvölgyi after us. His parents were parvenues. What our parents
+did they were always bound to imitate. They might have sent their boy to
+Jena, Berlin, or Nineveh; but he must come just where we were."
+
+"You have never mentioned your friend's name," said Lorand, who had
+listened in anguish to the commencement of the story.
+
+"Indeed?--Why there's really no need for the name. He was a friend of
+mine. As far as the story is concerned it doesn't matter what they
+called him. Still that you may not think I am relating a fable, I may as
+well tell you his name. It was Lörincz Áronffy."
+
+A cold numbness seized Lorand when he heard his father's name. Then his
+heart began suddenly to beat at a furious pace. He felt he was standing
+before the crypt door, whose secret he had so often striven to fathom.
+
+"I never knew a fairer figure, a nobler nature, a warmer heart than he
+had," continued Topándy. "I admired and loved him, not merely as my
+relation, but as the ideal of the young men of the day. The common
+knowledge of all kinds of little secrets, such as only young people
+understand among themselves, united us more closely in that bond of
+friendship which is usually deferred until later days. At that time
+there broke out all over Europe those liberal political views, which had
+such a fascinating influence generally on young men. Here too there was
+an awakening of what is called national feeling; great philosophers even
+turned against one another with quite modern opposition in public as
+well as in private life. All this made more intimate the relations which
+had till then been mere childish habit.
+
+"We were two years at the academy; those two years were passed amidst
+enough noise and pleasure. Had we money, we spent it together; had we
+none, we starved together. For one another we went empty-handed, for one
+another, we fought, and were put in prison. Then we met Sárvölgyi very
+seldom; the academy is a great forest and men are not forced together as
+on the benches of a grammar-school.
+
+"Just at the very climax of the French war, the idea struck us to edit a
+written newspaper among ourselves."
+
+(Lorand began to listen with still greater interest.)
+
+"We travestied with humorous score in our paper all that the
+'Augsburger' delivered with great pathos: those who read laughed at it.
+
+"However, there came an end to our amusement, when one fine day we
+received the 'consilium abeundi.'
+
+"I was certainly not very much annoyed. So much transcendental science,
+so much knowledge of the world had been driven into me already, that I
+longed to go home to the company of the village sexton, who, still
+believed that anecdotes and fables were the highest science.
+
+"Only two days were allowed us at Heidelberg to collect our belongings
+and say adieu to our so-called 'treasures.' During these two days I only
+saw Áronffy twice: once on the morning of the first day, when he came
+to me in a state of great excitement, and said, 'I have the scoundrel by
+the ear who betrayed us!--If I don't return, follow in my tracks and
+avenge me.' I asked him why he did not choose me for his second, but he
+replied: 'Because you also are interested and must follow me.' And then
+on the evening of the second day he came home again, quite dispirited
+and out of sorts! I spoke to him; he would scarcely answer; and when I
+finally insisted: 'perhaps you killed someone?' he answered
+determinedly, 'Yes.'"
+
+"And who was that man?" inquired Lorand, taken aback.
+
+"Don't interrupt me. You shall know soon," Topándy muttered.
+
+"From that day Áronffy was completely changed. The good-humored,
+spirited young fellow became suddenly a quiet, serious, sedate man, who
+would never join us in any amusement. He avoided the world, and I
+remarked that in the world he did his best to avoid me.
+
+"I thought I knew why that was. I thought I knew the secret of his
+earnestness. He had murdered a man whom he had challenged to a duel.
+That weighed upon his mind. He could not be cold-blooded enough to drive
+even such a bagatelle from his head. Other people count it a 'bravour,'
+or at most suffer from the persecutions of others--not of themselves. He
+would soon forget it, I thought, as he grew older.
+
+"Yet my dear friend remained year by year a serious-minded man, and when
+later on I met him, his society was for me so unenjoyable that I never
+found any pleasure in frequenting it.
+
+"Still, as soon as he returned home, he got married. Even before our
+trip to Heidelberg he had become engaged to a very pleasant, pretty, and
+quiet young girl. They were in love with each other. Still Áronffy
+remained always gloomy. In the first year of his marriage a son was born
+to him. Later another. They say both the sons were handsome, clever
+boys. Yet that never brightened him. Immediately after the honeymoon he
+went to the war, and behaved there like one who thinks the sooner he is
+cut off the better. Later, all the news I received of him confirmed my
+idea that Áronffy was suffering from an incurable mental disease.--Does
+a man, the candle of whose life we have snuffed out deserve that?"
+
+"What was the name of the man he murdered?" demanded Lorand with renewed
+disquietude.
+
+"As I have told you, you shall know soon: the story will not run away
+from me! only listen further.
+
+"One day--it might have been twelve years since the day we shook off the
+dust of the Heidelberg school from our boots--I received a parcel from
+Heidelberg, from the Local Council, which informed me that a certain Dr.
+Stoppelfeld had left me this packet in his will.
+
+"Stoppelfeld? I racked my brains to discover who it might be that from
+beyond the border had left me something in his testament. Finally it
+occurred to me that a long light-haired medical student, who was famous
+in his days among the drinking clubs, had attended the same lectures as
+we had. If I was not deceived, we had drunk together and fought a duel.
+
+"I undid the packet, and found within it a letter addressed to me.
+
+"I have that letter still, but I know every word by heart so often have
+I read it. Its contents were as follows:
+
+"'MY DEAR COMRADE:
+
+"'You may remember that, on the day before your departure from
+Heidelberg, one of our young colleagues, Lörincz Áronffy, looked among
+his acquaintances for seconds in some affair of honor. As it happened I
+was the first he addressed. I naturally accepted the invitation, and
+asked his reason and business. As you too know them--he told me so--I
+shall not write them here. He informed me, too, why he did not choose
+you as his second, and at the same time bound me to promise, if he
+should fall in the duel, to tell you that you might follow the matter
+up. I accepted, and went with him to the challenged. I explained that
+in such a case a duel was customary, and in fact necessary; if he wished
+to avoid it, he would be forced to leave the academy. The challenged did
+not refuse the challenge, but said that as he was of weak constitution,
+shortsighted and without practice with any kind of weapons, he chose the
+American duel of drawing lots!'"
+
+... Topándy glanced by chance at Lorand's face, and thought that the
+change of color he saw on his countenance was the reflection of the
+flickering flame in the fire-place.
+
+"The letter continued:
+
+"'At our academy at that time there was a great rage for that stupid
+kind of duel, where two men draw lots and the one whose name comes out,
+must blow his brains out after a fixed time. Asses! At that time I had
+already enough common sense, when summoned to act as second in such
+cases, to try to persuade the principals to fix a longer period,
+calculating quite rightly that within ten or twelve years the bitterest
+enemies would become reconciled, and might even become good friends: the
+successful principal might be magnanimous, and give his opponent his
+life, or the unsuccessful adversary might forget in his well-being, such
+a ridiculous obligation.
+
+"'In this case I arranged a period of sixteen years between the parties.
+I knew my men: sixteen years were necessary for the education of the
+traitorous schoolfox[58] into a man of honor, or for his proud, upright
+young adversary to reach the necessary pitch of _sang froid_ that would
+make a settlement of their difference feasible.
+
+[Footnote 58: _i. e._, Schoolfox, a term of contempt.]
+
+"'Áronffy objected at first: "At once or never!" but he had finally to
+accept the decision of the seconds: and we drew lots.
+
+"'Áronffy's name came out.'"
+
+... Lorand was staring at the narrator with fixed eyes, and had no
+feeling for the world outside, as he listened in rapt awe to this story
+of the past.
+
+"'The name that was drawn out we gave to the successful party, who had
+the right to send this card, after sixteen years were passed, to his
+adversary, in order if the latter deferred the fulfilment of his
+obligation, to remind him thereof.
+
+"'Then we parted company, you went home and I thought we should forget
+the matter as many others have done.
+
+"'But I was deceived. To this, the hour of my death, it has always
+remained in my memory, has always agonized and persecuted me. I inquired
+of my acquaintances in Hungary about the two adversaries, and all I
+learned only increased my anguish. Áronffy was a proud and earnest man.
+It is surely stupidity for a man to kill himself, when he is happy and
+faring well: yet a proud man would far rather the worms gnawed his body
+than his soul, and could not endure the idea of giving up to a man, whom
+yesterday he had the right to despise, of his own accord, that right of
+contempt. He can die, but he cannot be disgraced. He is a fool for his
+pains: but it is consistent.'"
+
+Lorand was shuddering all over.
+
+"'I am in my death-struggles,' continued Stoppelfeld's letter: 'I know
+the day, the hour in which I shall end all; but that thought does not
+calm me so much, seeing that I cannot go myself and seek that man, who
+holds Áronffy in his hands, to tell him: "Sir, twelve years have passed.
+Your opponent has suffered twelve years already because of a terrible
+obligation: for him every pleasure of life has been embittered, before
+him the future eternity has been overclouded; be contented with that
+sacrifice, and do not ask for the greatest too. Give back one man to his
+family, to his country, and to God--" But I cannot go. I must sit here
+motionless and count the beats of my pulse, and reckon how many remain
+till the last.
+
+"'And that is why I came to you: you know both, and were a good friend
+to one: go, speak, and act. Perhaps I am a ridiculous fool: I am afraid
+of my own shadow; but it agonizes and horrifies me; it will not let me
+die. Take this inheritance from me. Let me rest peacefully in my ashes.
+So may God bless you! The man who has Áronffy's word, as far as I know,
+is a very gracious man, it will be easy for you to persuade him--his
+name is Sárvölgyi.'"
+
+... At these words Topándy rose from his seat and went to the window,
+opening both sides of it: so heavy was the air within the room. The cold
+light of the moon shone on Lorand's brow.
+
+Topándy, standing then at the window, continued the thrilling story he
+had commenced. He could not sit still to relate it. Nor did he speak as
+if his words were for Lorand alone, but as if he wished the dumb trees
+to hear it too, and the wondering moon, and the shivering stars and the
+shooting meteors that they might gainsay if possible the earthy worm who
+was speaking.
+
+"I at once hurried across to the fellow. I was now going with tender,
+conciliatory countenance to a man whose threshold I had never crossed,
+whom I had never greeted when we met. I first offered him my hand that
+there might be peace between us. I began to appraise his graciousness,
+his virtues. I begged him to pardon the annoyances I had previously
+caused him; whatever atonement he might demand from me I would be glad
+to fulfill.
+
+"The fellow received me with gracious obeisance, and grasped my hand. He
+said, upon his soul, he could not recall any annoyance he had ever
+suffered from me. On the contrary he calculated how much good I had done
+him in my life, beginning from his school-boy years:--I merely replied
+that I certainly could not remember it.
+
+"I hastened to come straight to the point. I told him that I had been
+brought to his home by an affair the settlement of which I owed to a
+good old friend, and asked him to read the letter that I had received
+that day.
+
+"Sárvölgyi read the letter to the end. I watched his face all the time
+he was reading it. He did not cease for a moment that stereotyped smile
+of tenderness which gives me the shivers whenever I see it in my
+recollections.
+
+"When he was through with the letter, he quietly folded it and gave it
+back.
+
+"'Have you not discovered,' he said to me with pious face, 'that the man
+who wrote that letter is--mad?'
+
+"'Mad?' I asked, aghast.
+
+"'Without doubt,' answered Sárvölgyi; 'he himself writes that he has a
+disease of the nerves, sees visions, and is afraid of his shadow. The
+whole story is--a fable. I never had any conflict with our friend
+Áronffy, which would have given occasion for an American or even a
+Chinese duel. From beginning to end it is--a poem.'
+
+"I knew it was no poem: Áronffy had had a duel, but I had never known
+with whom. I had never asked him about it any more after he had, to my
+question, 'perhaps you have murdered someone?' answered, 'Yes.' Plainly
+he had meant himself. I tried to penetrate more deeply into that man's
+heart.
+
+"'Sir, neighbor, friend,--be a man! be the Christian you wish to be
+thought: consider that this fellow-man of ours has a dearly-loved
+family. If you have that card which the seconds gave you twelve years
+ago, don't agonize or terrify him any more; write to him that "the
+account is settled," and give over to him that horrible deed of
+contract. I shall honor you till my death for it. I know that in any
+case you will do it one day before it is too late. You will not take
+advantage of that horrible power which blind fate has delivered into
+your hand, by sending him his card empty to remind him that the time is
+up. You would pardon him then too. But do so now. This man's life during
+its period of summer, has been clouded by this torturing obligation,
+which has hung continuously above his happiness; let the autumn sunbeams
+shine upon his head. Give, give him a hand of reconciliation now, at
+once!'
+
+"Sárvölgyi insisted that he had never had any kind of 'cartell': how
+could I imagine that he would have the heart to maintain his revenge for
+years? His past and present life repudiated any such charge. He had
+never had any quarrel with Áronffy, and, had there been one, he would
+long ago have been reconciled to him.
+
+"I did not yet let the fellow out of my hands. I told him to think what
+he was doing. Áronffy had once told me that, should he perish in this
+affair, I was to continue the matter. I too knew a kind of duel, which
+surpassed even the American, because it destroyed a man by pin-pricks.
+So take care you don't receive for your eternal adversary the
+neighboring heathen in exchange for the pious, quiet and distant
+Áronffy.
+
+"Sárvölgyi swore he knew nothing of the affair. He called God and all
+the saints to witness that he had not the very remotest share in
+Áronffy's danger.
+
+"'Well, and why is Áronffy so low-spirited?'
+
+"'--As if you should not know that,' said the Pharisee, making a face of
+surprise: 'not know anything about it?
+
+"'Well I will whisper it to you in confidence. Áronffy has not been
+happy in his family life. You know, of course, that when he came home he
+married, and immediately joined the rebel army. With a corps of
+volunteers he fought till the end of the war, and returned again to his
+family. But he has still that worm in his soul.'"
+
+It was well that the fire had already died out:--well that a dark cloud
+rolled up before the moon:--well that the narrator could not see the
+face of his listener, when he said that:
+
+"And I was fool enough to believe him. I credited the calumny with which
+the good fame of the angelically pure wife of an honorable man had been
+defiled. Yes, I allowed myself to be deceived in this underhand way! I
+allowed myself to rest calm in the belief that there is many a sad man
+on the earth, whose wife is beautiful.
+
+"Still, once I met by chance Áronffy's mother, and produced before her
+the letter which had been accredited a fable. Her ladyship was very
+grateful, but begged me not to say a word about it to Áronffy.
+
+"I believe that from that day she paid great attention to her son's
+behavior.
+
+"Four years I had managed to keep myself at a respectful distance from
+Sárvölgyi's person.
+
+"But there came a day in the year, marked with red in my calendar, the
+anniversary of our departure from Heidelberg.
+
+"Three days after that sixteenth anniversary I received a letter, which
+informed me that Áronffy had on that red-letter day killed himself in
+his family circle."
+
+The narrator here held silence, and, hanging down his hands, gazed out
+into the brilliant night; profound silence reigned in the room, only the
+large "grandfather's clock" ticked the past and future.
+
+"I don't know what I should have done, had I met the hypocrite then: but
+just at that time he was away on a journey: he left behind a letter for
+me, in which he wrote that he, too, was sorry our unfortunate
+friend--our friend indeed!--had met with such a sad end: certainly
+family circumstances had brought him to it. He pitied his weakness of
+mind, and promised to pray for his soul!
+
+"How pious.
+
+"He killed a man in cold blood, after having tortured him for sixteen
+years! Sent him the sentence of death in a letter! Forced the gracious,
+quiet, honorable man and father to cut short his life with his own hand!
+
+"With a cold, smiling countenance he took advantage of the fiendish
+power which fate and the too sensitive feeling of honor of a lofty soul
+had given into his hand; and then shrugged his shoulders, clasped his
+hands, turned his eyes to heaven, and said 'there is no room for the
+suicide with God.'
+
+"Who is he, who gives a true man into the hands of the deceiver, that he
+may choke with his right hand his breath, with his left his soul.
+
+"Well, philosopher, come; defend this pious man against me! Tell me what
+you have learned."
+
+But the philosopher did not say what he had learned. Half dead and
+wholly insensible he lay back in his chair while the moon shone upon his
+upturned face with its full brilliance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+TWO GIRLS
+
+
+Eight years had passed.
+
+The young man who buried himself on the plains had become a man, his
+face had lengthened, his beard grown round it; few of his old
+acquaintances would have recognized him. Even he himself had long ago
+become accustomed to his assumed name.
+
+In Topándy's house the old order of things continued: Czipra did the
+honors, presiding at the head of the table: Lorand managed the farm,
+living in the house, sitting at the table, speaking to the comrades who
+came and went "per tu";[59] with them he drank and amused himself.
+
+[Footnote 59: A sign of intimacy--addressing a person as "thou."]
+
+Drank and amused himself!
+
+What else should a young man do, who has no aim in life?
+
+With Czipra, tête-à-tête, he spoke also "per tu;" before others he
+miladyed her.
+
+Once at supper Topándy said to Czipra and Lorand:
+
+"Children, in a few days another child will come to the house. The devil
+has carried off a very dear relation of mine with whom I was on such
+excellent terms that we never spoke to one another. I should not,
+logically, believe there is a devil in the world, should I? But for the
+short period during which he had carried that fellow away, I am willing
+to acquiesce in his existence. To-day I have received a lamentable
+letter from his daughter, written in a beautiful tone of sorrow; the
+poor child writes that immediately after her father's death the house
+was swooped down upon by those Sadducees who trample all piety under
+foot, the so-called creditors. They have seized everything and put it
+under seals; even her own piano; they have even put up at auction the
+pictures she drew with her own hand; and have actually sold the
+'Gedenkbuch,'[60] in which so many clever and famous men had written so
+much absurdity: the tobacconist bought it for ten florins for the sake
+of its title-page. The poor girl has hitherto been educated by the nuns,
+to whom three quarters' payment is due, and her position is such that
+she has no roof except her parasol beneath which she may take shelter.
+She has a mother in name, but her company she cannot frequent, for
+certain reasons; she has tried her other relations and acquaintances in
+turn, but they have all well-founded reasons for not undertaking to
+burden their families in this manner; she cannot go into service, not
+having been educated to it. Well, it occurred to her that she had,
+somewhere in the far regions of Asia, a half-mad relation--that is your
+humble servant: it would be a good plan to find him out at once, and
+take up her abode with him as a princess. I entirely indorse my niece's
+argument: and have already sent her the money necessary for the journey,
+have paid the fees due, and have enabled her to appear among us in the
+style befitting her rank."
+
+[Footnote 60: An album in which one writes something "as a souvenir."]
+
+Topándy laughed loudly at his own production.
+
+It was only himself that laughed: the others did not share in it.
+
+"Well, there will be one more young lady in the house: a refined,
+graceful, sentimental woman-in-white, before whom people must take great
+care what they say, and who will probably correct the behavior of all of
+us."
+
+Czipra pushed her chair back angrily from the table.
+
+"Oh, don't be afraid. She will not correct you. You may be sure of that.
+You have absolute authority in the house, as you know already: what you
+command or order is accomplished, and against your will not even a cat
+comes to our table. You remain what you were: mistress of life and
+death in the house. When you wish it, there is washing in the house, and
+everybody is obliged to render an account even of his last shirt; what
+you do not like in the place, you may throw out of the window, and you
+can buy what you wish. The new young lady will not take away from you a
+single one of those keys which hang on that silver chain dangling from
+your red girdle; and if only she does not entice away our young friend,
+she will be unable to set up any opposition against you. And even in
+that event I shall defend you."
+
+Czipra shrugged her shoulders defiantly.
+
+"Let her do as she pleases."
+
+"And we two shall do as we please, shall we not?"
+
+"You," said Czipra, looking sharply at Topándy with her black eyes. "You
+will soon be doing what that young lady likes. I foresee it all. As soon
+as she puts her foot in, everybody will do as she does. When she smiles,
+everybody will smile at her in return. If she speaks German, the whole
+house will use that language; if she walks on her tip-toes, the whole
+house will walk so; if her head aches, everybody in the house will speak
+in whispers; not as when poor Czipra had a burning fever and nine men
+came to her bed to sing a funeral song, and offered her brandy."
+
+Topándy laughed still more loudly at these invectives: the poor gypsy
+girl fixed her two burning eyes on Lorand's face and kept them there
+till they turned into two orbs swimming in water. Then she sprang up,
+threw down her chair and fled from the room.
+
+Topándy calmly picked up the overthrown chair and put it in its place,
+then he went after Czipra and a minute later brought her back on his arm
+into the dining-room, with an exceedingly humorous expression, and a
+courtesy worthy of a Spanish grandee, which the poor foolish gypsy girl
+did not understand in the least.
+
+So readily did she lose her temper, and so readily did she recover it
+again. She sat down again in her place, and jested and laughed,--always
+and continuously at the expense of the finely-educated new-comer.
+
+Lorand was curious to know the name of the new member of the family.
+
+"The daughter of one Bálnokházy, P. C." said Topándy, "Melanie, if I
+remember well."
+
+Lorand was perplexed. A face from the past! How strange that he should
+meet her there?
+
+Still it was so long since they had seen each other, that she would
+probably not recognize him.
+
+Melanie was to arrive to-morrow evening. Early in the morning Czipra
+visited Lorand in his own room.
+
+She found the young man before his looking-glass.
+
+"Oho!" she said laughing, "you are holding counsel with your glass to
+see whether you are handsome enough? Handsome indeed you are: how often
+must I say so? Believe me for once."
+
+But Lorand was not taking counsel with his glass on that point: he was
+trying to see if he had changed enough.
+
+"Come now," said Czipra with a certain indifference. "I will make you
+pretty myself: you must be even more handsome, so that young lady's eyes
+may not be riveted upon me. Sit down, I will arrange your hair."
+
+Lorand had glorious chestnut-brown curls, smooth as silk. Madame
+Bálnokházy had once fallen madly in love with those locks and Czipra was
+wont to arrange them every morning with her own hands: it was one of her
+privileges, and she understood it so well.
+
+Lorand was philosopher enough to allow others to do him a service, and
+permitted Czipra's fine fingers the privilege of playing among his
+locks.
+
+"Don't be afraid: you will be handsome to-day!" said Czipra, in naive
+reproach to the young fellow.
+
+Lorand jestingly put his arm round her waist.
+
+"It will be all of no avail, my dear Czipra, because we have to thrash
+corn to-day, and my hair will all be full of dust. Rather, if you wish
+to do me a favor, cut off my hair."
+
+Czipra was ready for that, too. She was Lorand's "friseur" and Topándy's
+"coiffeur." She found it quite natural.
+
+"Well, and how do you wish your hair? Short? Shall I leave the curls in
+front?"
+
+"Give me the scissors: I will soon show you," said Lorand, and, taking
+them from Czipra's hand, he gathered together the locks upon his
+forehead with one hand and with the other cropped them quite short,
+throwing what he had cut to the ground.--"So with the rest."
+
+Czipra drew back in horror at this ruthless deed, feeling as pained as
+if those scissors had been thrust into her own body. Those beautiful
+silken curls on the ground! And now the rest must of course be cut just
+as short.
+
+Lorand sat down before her in a chair, from which he could look into the
+glass, and motioned to her to commence. Czipra could scarcely force
+herself to do so. So to destroy the beauty of that fair head, over which
+she had so often stealthily posed in a reverie! To crop close that thick
+growth of hair, which, when her fingers had played among its electric
+curls, had made her always feel as if her own soul were wrapt together
+with it. And she was to close-crop it like the head of some convict!
+
+Yet there was a kind of satisfaction in the thought that another would
+not so readily take notice of him. She would make him so ugly that he
+would not quickly win the heart of the new-comer. Away with that
+Samsonian strength, down to the last solitary hair! This thought lent a
+merciless power to her scissors.
+
+And when Lorand's head was closely shaven, he was indeed curious to see.
+It looked so very funny that he laughed at himself when he turned to the
+glass.
+
+The girl too laughed with him. She could not prevent herself from
+laughing to his face; then she turned away from him, leaned out of the
+window, and burst into another fit of laughter.
+
+Really it would have been difficult to distinguish whether she was
+laughing or crying.
+
+"Thank you, Czipra, my dear," said Lorand, putting his arm round the
+girl's waist. "Don't wait with dinner for me to-day, for I shall be
+outside on the threshing-floor."
+
+Thereupon he left the room.
+
+Czipra, left to herself, before anyone could have entered, kneeled down
+on the floor, and swept up from the floor with her hands the curls she
+had cut off. Every one: not a single hair must remain for another. Then
+she hid the whole lovely cluster in her bosom. Perhaps she would never
+take them out again....
+
+With that instinct, which nature has given to women only, Czipra felt
+that the new-comer would be her antagonist, her rival in everything,
+that the outcome would be a struggle for life and death between them.
+
+The whole day long she worried herself with ideas about the new
+adversary's appearance. Perhaps she was some doll used to proud and
+noble attitudinising: let her come! It would be fine to take her pride
+down. An easy task, to crush an oppressed mind. She would steal away
+from the house, or fall into sickness by dint of much annoyance, and
+grow old before her time.
+
+Or perhaps she was some spoiled, sensitive, fragile chit, who came here
+to weep over her past, who would find some hidden reproach in every
+word, and would feel her position more and more unendurable day by day.
+Such a creature, too, would droop her head in shame--so that every
+morning her pillow would be bedewed with tears. For she need not reckon
+on pity! Or perhaps she would be just the opposite: a light-hearted,
+gay, sprightly bird, who would find herself at home in every position.
+If only to-day were cheerful, she would not weep for yesterday, or be
+anxious for the morrow. Care would be taken to clip the wings of her
+good humor: a far greater triumph would it be to make a weeping face of
+a smiling one.
+
+Or perhaps a languid, idle, good-for-nothing domestic delicacy, who
+liked only to make toilettes, to sit for hours together before the
+mirror, and in the evening read novels by lamp-light. What a jest it
+would be to mock her, to make her stare at country work, to spoil her
+precious hands in the skin-roughening house-keeping work, and to laugh
+at her clumsiness.
+
+Be she what she might, she might be quite sure of finding an adversary
+who would accept no cry for mercy.
+
+Oh, it was wise to beware of Czipra! Czipra had two hearts, one good,
+the other bad: with the one she loved, with the other she hated, and the
+stronger she loved with the one, the stronger she hated with the other.
+She could be a very good, quiet, blessed creature, whose faults must be
+discovered and seen through a magnifying-glass: but if that other heart
+were once awakened, the old one would never be found again.
+
+Every drop of Czipra's blood wished that every drop of "that other's"
+blood should change to tears.
+
+This is how they awaited Melanie at Lankadomb.
+
+Evening had not yet drawn in, when the carriage, which had been sent for
+Melanie to Tiszafüred station, arrived.
+
+The traveler did not wait till some one came to receive her; she stepped
+out of the carriage unaided and found the verandah alone. Topándy met
+her in the doorway. They embraced, and he led her into the lobby.
+
+Czipra was waiting for her there.
+
+The gypsy girl was wearing a pure white dress, white apron, and no
+jewels at all. She had done her best to be simple, that she might
+surprise that town girl. Of course, she might have been robed in silk
+and lace, for she had enough and to spare.
+
+Yet she ought to have known that the new-comer could not be stylishly
+dressed, for she was in mourning.
+
+Melanie had on the most simple black dress, without any decoration, only
+round her neck and wrists were crochet lace trimmings.
+
+She was just as simple as Czipra. Her beautiful pale face, with its
+still childish features, her calm quiet look,--all beamed sympathy
+around her.
+
+"My daughter, Czipra," said Topándy, introducing them.
+
+Melanie, with that graciousness which is the mark of all ladies, offered
+her hand to the girl, and greeted her gently.
+
+"Good evening, Czipra."
+
+Czipra bitterly inquired:
+
+"A foolish name, is it not?"
+
+"On the contrary, the name of a goddess, Czipra."
+
+"What goddess? Pagan?"--the idea did not please Czipra: she knit her
+eyebrows and nodded in disapproval.
+
+"A holy woman of the Bible was called by this name, Zipporah,[61] the
+wife of Moses."
+
+[Footnote 61: This play upon names is really only feasible in Magyar,
+where Zipporah-Czippora.]
+
+"Of the Bible?" The gypsy girl caught at the word, and looked with
+flashing eyes at Topándy, as who would say "Do you hear that?"--Only
+then did she take Melanie's hand, but after that she did not release her
+hold of it any more.
+
+"We must know much more of that holy woman of the Bible! Come with me. I
+will show you your room."
+
+Czipra remarked that they had kissed each other. Topándy shrugged his
+shoulders, laughed, and let them go alone.
+
+The newly arrived girl did not display the least embarrassment in her
+dealing with Czipra: on the contrary, she behaved as if they had been
+friends from childhood.
+
+She at once addressed Czipra in the greatest confidence, when the latter
+had taken her to the room set apart for her use.
+
+"You will have much trouble with me, my dear Czipra, at first, for I am
+very clumsy. I know now that I have learned nothing, with which I can do
+good to myself or others. I am so helpless. But you will be all the
+cleverer, I know: I shall soon learn from you. Oh, you will often find
+fault with me, when I make mistakes; but when one girl reproaches
+another it does not matter. You will teach me housekeeping, will you
+not?"
+
+"You would like to learn?"
+
+"Of course. One cannot remain for ever a burden to one's relations; only
+in case I learn can I be of use, if some poor man takes me as his wife;
+if not I must take service with some stranger, and must know these
+things anyhow."
+
+There was much bitterness in these words; but the orphan of the ruined
+gentleman said them with such calm, such peace of mind, that every
+string of Czipra's heart was relaxed as when a damp mist affects the
+strings of a harp.
+
+Meanwhile they had brought Melanie's travelling-trunk: there was only
+one, and no bonnet-boxes--almost incredible!
+
+"Very well,--so begin at once to put your own things in order. Here are
+the wardrobes for your robes and linen. Keep them all neat. The young
+lady, whose stockings the chamber-maid has to look for, some in one
+room, some in another, will never make a good housekeeper."
+
+Melanie drew her only trunk beside her and opened it: she took out her
+upper-dresses.
+
+There were only four, one of calico, one of batiste, then one ordinary,
+and one for special occasions.
+
+"They have become a little crumpled in packing. Please have them bring
+me an iron; I must iron them before I hang them up."
+
+"Do you wish to iron them yourself?"
+
+"Naturally. There are not many of them: those I must make
+respectable--the servant can heat the iron. Oh, they must last a long
+time."
+
+"Why haven't you brought more with you?"
+
+Melanie's face for a moment flushed a full rose--then she answered this
+indiscreet inquiry calmly:
+
+"Simply, my dear Czipra, because the rest were seized by our creditors,
+who claimed them as a debt."
+
+"Couldn't you have anticipated them?"
+
+Melanie clasped her hands on her breast, and said with the astonishment
+of moral aversion:
+
+"How? By doing so I should have swindled them."
+
+Czipra recollected herself.
+
+"True; you are right."
+
+Czipra helped Melanie to put her things in the cupboards. With a woman's
+critical eye, she examined everything. She found the linen not fine
+enough, though the work on it pleased her well. That was Melanie's own
+handiwork. As regards books, there was only one in the trunk, a
+prayer-book. Czipra opened it and looked into it. There were steel
+plates in it. The portrait of a beautiful woman, seven stars round her
+head, raising her tear-stained eyes to Heaven: and the picture of a
+kneeling youth, round the fair bowed head of whom the light of Heaven
+was pouring. Long did she gaze at the pictures. Who could those figures
+be?
+
+There were no jewels at all among the new-comer's treasures.
+
+Czipra remarked that Melanie's ear-rings were missing.
+
+"You have left your earrings behind too?" she asked, hiding any want of
+tenderness in the question by delivering it in a whisper.
+
+"Our solicitor told me," said Melanie, with downcast eyes, "that those
+earrings also were paid for by creditors' money:--and he was right. I
+gave them to him."
+
+"But the holes in your ears will grow together; I shall give you some of
+mine."
+
+Therewith she ran to her room, and in a few moments returned with a pair
+of earrings.
+
+Melanie did not attempt to hide her delight at the gift.
+
+"Why, my own had just such sapphires, only the stones were not so
+large."
+
+And she kissed Czipra, and allowed her to place the earrings in her
+ears.
+
+With the earrings came a brooch. Czipra pinned it in Melanie's collar,
+and her eyes rested on the pretty collar itself: she tried it, looked at
+it closely and could not discover "how it was made."
+
+"Don't you know that work? it is crochet, quite a new kind of
+fancy-work, but very easy. Come, I will show you right away."
+
+Thereupon she took out two crochet needles and a reel of cotton from her
+work-case, and began to explain the work to Czipra: then she gave it to
+her to try. Her first attempt was very successful. Czipra had learned
+something from the new-comer, and remarked that she would learn much
+more from her.
+
+Czipra spent an hour with Melanie and an hour later came to the
+conclusion that she was only now beginning--to be a girl.
+
+At supper they appeared with their arms round each other's necks.
+
+The first evening was one of unbounded delight to Czipra.
+
+This girl did not represent any one of those hateful pictures she had
+conjured up in the witches' kettle of her imagination. She was no rival;
+she was not a great lady, she was a companion, a child of seventeen
+years, with whom she could prattle away the time, and before whom she
+must not choose her words so nicely, seeing that she was not so
+sensitive to insult. And it seemed that Melanie liked the idea of there
+being a girl in the house, whose presence threw a gleam of pleasure on
+the solitude.
+
+Czipra might also be content with Melanie's conduct towards Lorand. Her
+eyes never rested on the young man's face, although they did not avoid
+his gaze. She treated him indifferently, and the whole day only
+exchanged words with him when she thanked him for filling her glass with
+water.
+
+And indeed Lorand had reduced his external advantages to such a severe
+simplicity by wearing his hair closely cropped, and his every movement
+was marked by that languid, lazy stooping attitude which is usually the
+special peculiarity of those who busy themselves with agricultural work,
+that Melanie's eyes had no reason to be fixed specially upon him.
+
+Oh, the eyes of a young girl of seventeen summers cannot discover manly
+beauty under such a dust-stained, neglected exterior.
+
+Lorand felt relieved that Melanie did not recognize him. Not a single
+trace of surprise showed itself on her face, not a single searching
+glance betrayed the fact that she thought of the original of a
+well-known countenance when she saw this man who had met her by chance
+far away from home. Lorand's face, his gait, his voice, all were strange
+to her. The face had grown older, the gait was that of a farmer, the old
+beautiful voice had deepened into a perfect baritone.
+
+Nor did they meet often, except at dinner, supper and breakfast. Melanie
+passed the rest of the day without a break, by Czipra's side.
+
+Czipra was six years her senior, and she made a good protectress; that
+continuous woman's chattering, of which Topándy had said, that, if one
+hour passed without its being heard, he should think he had come to the
+land of the dead:--a man grew to like that after awhile. And side by
+side with the quick-handed, quick-tongued maiden, whose every limb was
+full of electric springiness, was that charming clumsiness of the
+neophyte,--such a contrast! How they laughed together when Melanie came
+to announce that she had forgotten to put yeast in the cake, both her
+hands covered with sticky leaven, for all the world as if she were
+wearing winter gloves; or when, at Cizpra's command, she tried to take a
+little yellow downy chicken from the cold courtyard to a warm room,
+keeping up the while a lively duel with the jealous brood-hen, till
+finally Melanie was obliged to run.
+
+How much two girls can laugh together over a thousand such humorous
+nothings!
+
+And how they could chatter over a thousand still more humorous
+nothings, when of an evening, by moonlight, they opened the window
+looking out on the garden, and lying on the worked window-cushions,
+talked till midnight, of all the things in which no one else was
+interested?
+
+Melanie could tell many new things to Czipra which the latter delighted
+to hear.
+
+There was one thing which they had touched on once or twice jestingly,
+and which Czipra would have particularly loved to extract from her.
+
+Melanie, now and again forgetting herself, would sigh deeply.
+
+"Did that sigh speak to someone afar off?"
+
+Or when at dinner she left the daintiest titbit on her plate.
+
+"Did some one think just now of some one far away, who is perhaps
+famishing?"
+
+"Oh, that 'some one' is not famishing"--whispered Melanie in answer.
+
+So there was "somebody" after all.
+
+That made Czipra glad.
+
+That evening during the conversation she introduced the subject.
+
+"Who is that 'some one?'"
+
+"He is a very excellent youth: and is on close terms with many foreign
+princes. In a short time he won himself great fame. Everyone exalts him.
+He came often to our house during papa's life-time, and they intended me
+to be his bride even in my early days."
+
+"Handsome?" inquired Czipra. That was the chief thing to know.
+
+Melanie answered this question merely with her eyes. But Czipra might
+have been content with the answer. He was at any rate as handsome a man
+in Melanie's eyes as Lorand was in hers.
+
+"Shall you be his wife?"
+
+At this question Melanie held up her fine left hand before Czipra,
+raising the fourth finger higher than the rest. On it was a ring.
+
+Czipra drew the ring off her finger and looked closely at it. She saw
+letters inside it. If she only knew those!
+
+"Is this his name?"
+
+"His initials."
+
+"He is called?"
+
+"Joseph Gyáli."
+
+Czipra put the ring on again. She was very contented with this
+discovery. The ring of an old love, who was a handsome man, excellent,
+and celebrated, was there on her finger. Peace was hallowed. Now she
+believed thoroughly in Melanie, she believed that the indifference
+Melanie showed towards Lorand was no mere pretence. The field was
+already occupied by another.
+
+But if she was quite at rest as regards Melanie, she could be less
+assured as to the peaceful intentions of Lorand's eyes.
+
+How those eyes feasted themselves every day on Melanie's countenance!
+
+Of course, who could be indignant if men's eyes were attracted by the
+"beautiful?" It has ever been their privilege.
+
+But it is the marvellous gift of woman's eyes to be able to tell the
+distinction between look and look. Through the prism of jealousy the
+eye-beam is refracted to its primary colors; and this wonderful optical
+analysis says: this is the twinkle of curiosity, that the coquettish
+ogle, this the fire of love, that the dark-blue of abstraction.
+
+Czipra had not studied optics, but this optical analysis she understood
+very well.
+
+She did not seem to be paying attention; it seemed as if she did not
+notice, as if her eyes were not at work; yet she saw and knew
+everything.
+
+Lorand's eyes feasted upon the beautiful maiden's figure.
+
+Every time he saw her, they dwelt upon her: as the bee feasts upon the
+invisible honey of the flower, and slowly a suspicion dawned upon
+Czipra. Every glance was a home-returning bee who brings home the honey
+of love to a humming heart.
+
+Besides, Czipra might have known it from the fact that Lorand, ever
+since Melanie came to the house, had been more reserved towards her. He
+had found his presence everywhere more needful, that he might be so much
+less at home.
+
+Czipra could not bear the agony long.
+
+Once finding Lorand alone, she turned to him in wanton sarcasm.
+
+"It is certain, my friend Bálint," (that was Lorand's alias) "that we
+are casting glances at that young girl in vain, for she has a fiancé
+already."
+
+"Indeed?" said Lorand, caressing the girl's round chin, for all the
+world as if he was touching some delicate flower-bud.
+
+"Why all this tenderness at once? If I were to look so much at a girl, I
+would long ago have taken care to see if she had a ring on her
+finger:--it is generally an engagement ring."
+
+"Well, and do I look very much at that girl?" enquired Lorand in a
+jesting tone.
+
+"As often as I look at you."
+
+That was reproach and confession all in one. Czipra tried to dispose of
+the possible effect of this gentle speech at once, by laughing
+immediately.
+
+"My friend Bálint! That young lady's fiancé is a very great man. The
+favorite of foreign princes, rides in a carriage, and is called 'My
+Lord.' He is a very handsome man, too: though not so handsome as you. A
+fine, pretty cavalier."
+
+"I congratulate her!" said Lorand, smiling.
+
+"Of course it is true; Melanie herself told me.--She told me his name,
+too--Joseph Gyáli."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Lorand, smilingly and good-humoredly pinching Czipra's cheek, went on
+his way. He smiled, but with the poisonous arrow sticking in his heart!
+
+Oh, Czipra did herself a bad turn when she mentioned that name before
+Lorand!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+IF HE LOVES, THEN LET HIM LOVE!
+
+
+Lorand's whole being revolted at what Czipra had told him. That girl was
+the bride of that fatal adversary! of that man for whose sake he was to
+die! And that man would laugh when they stealthily transferred him, the
+victim too sensible of honor, to the crypt, when he would dance with his
+newly won bride till morning dawned, and delight in the smile of that
+face, which could not even weep for the lost one.
+
+That thought led to eternal damnation. No, no: not to damnation: further
+than that, there and back again, back to that unspeakable circle, where
+feelings of honor remain in the background, and moral insensibility
+rules the day. That thought was able to drive out of Lorand's heart the
+conviction, that when an honorable man has given his life or his honor
+into the hands of an adversary, of the two only the latter can be
+chosen.
+
+From that hour he pursued quite a different path of life.
+
+Now the work in the fields might go on without his supervision: there
+was no longer such need of his presence. He had far more time for
+staying at home.
+
+Nor did he keep himself any farther away from the girls: he went after
+them and sought them; he was spirited in conversation, choice in his
+dress, and that he might display his shrewdness, he courted both girls
+at the same time, the one out of courtesy, the other for love.
+
+Topándy watched them smilingly. He did not mind whatever turn the affair
+took. He was as fond of Czipra as he was of Melanie, and fonder of the
+boy than either. Of the three there would be only one pair; he would
+give his blessing to whichever two should come together. It was a
+lottery! Heaven forbid that a strange hand should draw lots for one.
+
+But Czipra was already quite clear about everything, It was not for her
+sake that Lorand stayed at home.
+
+She herself was forced to acknowledge the important part which Melanie
+played in the house, with her thoughtful, refined, modest behavior; she
+was so sensible, so clever in everything. In the most delicate situation
+she could so well maintain a woman's dignity, while side by side she
+displayed a maiden's innocence. When his comrades were at the table,
+Topándy strove always by ambiguous jokes, delivered in his cynical, good
+humor, to bring a blush to the cheeks of the girls, who were obliged to
+do the honors at table; on such occasions Czipra noisily called him to
+order, while Melanie cleverly and spiritedly avoided the arrow-point of
+the jest, without opposing to it any foolish prudery, or cold
+insensibility;--and how this action made her queen of every heart!
+
+Without doubt she was the monarch of the house: the dearest, most
+beautiful, and cleverest;--hers was every triumph.
+
+And on such occasions Czipra was desperate.
+
+"Yet all in vain! For, however clever, and beautiful, and enchanting
+that other, I am still the real one. I feel and know it:--but I cannot
+prove it! If we could only tear out our hearts and compare them;--but
+that is impossible."
+
+Czipra was forced to see that everybody sported with her, while they
+behaved seriously with that other.
+
+And that completely poisoned her soul.
+
+Without any mental refinement, supplied with only so much of the
+treasure of moral reserve, as nature and instinct had grafted into her
+heart, with only a dreamy suspicion about the lofty ideas of religion
+and virtue, this girl was capable of murdering her whom they loved
+better than herself.
+
+Murder, but not as the fabled queen murdered the fairy Hófehérke,[62]
+because the gnomes whispered untiringly in her ear "Thou art beautiful,
+fair queen: but Hófehérke is still more beautiful." Czipra wished to
+murder her but not so that she might die and then live again.
+
+[Footnote 62: Little Snow-white, the step-daughter of the queen, who
+commanded her huntsman to bring her the eyes and liver of Hófehérke,
+thinking she would thus become the most beautiful of all, but he brought
+her those of a wild beast. The queen thought her rival was dead, but her
+magic mirror told her she was living still beyond hill and sea.]
+
+She was a gypsy girl, a heathen, and in love. Inherited tendencies,
+savage breeding, and passion had brought her to a state where she could
+have such ideas.
+
+It was a hellish idea, the counsel of a restless devil who had stolen
+into a defenceless woman's heart.
+
+Once it occurred to her to turn the rooms in the castle upside down; she
+found fault with the servants, drove them from their ordinary lodgings,
+dispersed them in other directions, chased the gentlemen from their
+rooms, under the pretext that the wall-papers were already very much
+torn: then had the papers torn off and the walls re-plastered. She
+turned everything so upside down that Topándy ran away to town, until
+the rooms should be again reduced to order.
+
+The castle had four fronts, and therefore there were two corridors
+crossing through at right angles: the chief door of the one opened on
+the courtyard, that of the other led into the garden. The rooms opened
+right and left from the latter corridor.
+
+During this great disorder Czipra moved Lorand into one of the vis-à-vis
+rooms. The opposite room she arranged as Melanie's temporary chamber. Of
+course it would not last long; the next day but one, order would be
+restored, and everyone could go back to his usual place.
+
+And then it was that wicked thoughts arose in her heart: "if he loves,
+then let him love!"
+
+At supper only three were sitting at table. Lorand was more abstracted
+than usual, and scarcely spoke a word to them: if Czipra addressed him,
+there was such embarrassment in his reply, that it was impossible not to
+remark it.
+
+But Czipra was in a particularly jesting mood to-day.
+
+"My friend Bálint, you are sleepy. Yet you had better take care of us at
+night, lest someone steal us."
+
+"Lock your door well, my dear Czipra, if you are afraid."
+
+"How can I lock my door," said Czipra smiling light-heartedly, "when
+those cursed servants have so ruined the lock of every door at this side
+of the house that they would fly open at one push."
+
+"Very well, I shall take care of you."
+
+Therewith Lorand wished them good night, took his candle and went out.
+
+Czipra hurried Melanie too to depart.
+
+"Let us go to bed in good time, as we must be early afoot to-morrow."
+
+This evening the customary conversation at the window did not take
+place.
+
+The two girls shook hands and wished each other good night. Melanie
+departed to her room. Czipra was sleeping in the room next to hers.
+
+When Melanie had shut the door behind her, Czipra blew out the candle in
+her own room, and remained in darkness. With her clothes on she threw
+herself on her bed, and then, resting her head on her elbow, listened.
+
+Suddenly she thought the opposite room door gently opened.
+
+The beating of her heart almost pierced through her bosom.
+
+"If he loves, then let him love."
+
+Then she rose from her bed, and, holding her breath, slipped to the door
+and looked through the keyhole into Melanie's room.[63]
+
+[Footnote 63: This was of course through the door that communicated
+between the rooms of Melanie and Czipra.]
+
+The candle was still burning there.
+
+But from her position she could not see Melanie. From the rustling of
+garments she suspected that Melanie was taking off her dress. Now with
+quiet steps she approached the table, on which the candle was burning.
+She had a white dressing-gown on, her hair half let down, in her hand
+that little black book, in which Czipra had so often admired those
+"Glory" pictures without daring to ask what they were.
+
+Melanie reached the table, and laying the little prayer-book on the
+shelf of her mirror, kneeled down, and, clasping her two hands together,
+rested against the corner of the table and prayed.
+
+In that moment her whole figure was one halo of glory.
+
+She was beautiful as a praying seraph, like one of those white phantoms
+who rise with their airy figures to Heaven, palm-branches of glory in
+their hands.
+
+Czipra was annihilated.
+
+She saw now that there was some superhuman phenomenon, before which
+every passion bowed the knee, every purpose froze to crystals;--the
+figure of a praying maiden! He who stole a look at that sight lost every
+sinful emotion from his heart.
+
+Czipra beat her breast in dumb agony. "She can fly, while I can only
+crawl on the ground."
+
+When the girl had finished her prayer she opened the book to find those
+two glory-bright pictures, which she kissed several times in happy
+rapture:--as the sufferer kisses his benefactor's hands, the orphan his
+father's and mother's portraits, the miserable defenceless man the face
+of God, who defends in the form of a column of cloud him who bows his
+head under its shadow.
+
+Czipra tore her hair in her despair and beat her brow upon the floor,
+writhing like a worm.
+
+At the noise she made Melanie darted up and hastened to the door to see
+what was the matter with Czipra.
+
+As soon as she noticed Melanie's approach, Czipra slunk away from her
+place and before Melanie could open the door and enter, dashed through
+the other door into the corridor.
+
+Here another shock awaited her.
+
+In the corner of the corridor she found Lorand sitting beside a table.
+On the table a lamp was burning; before Lorand lay a book, beside him,
+resting against his chair, a "tomahawk."[64]
+
+[Footnote 64: The Magyar weapon is the so-called "fokos," which is much
+smaller than a tomahawk, but is set on a long handle like a walking
+stick, and only to be used with the hand in dealing blows, not for
+throwing purposes.]
+
+"What are you doing here?" inquired Czipra, starting back.
+
+"I am keeping guard over you," answered Lorand. "As you said your doors
+cannot be locked, I shall stay here till morning lest some one break in
+upon you."
+
+Czipra slunk back to her room. She met Melanie, who, candle in hand,
+hastened towards her, and asked what was the matter.
+
+"Nothing, nothing. I heard a noise outside. It frightened me."
+
+No need of simulation, for she trembled in every limb.
+
+"You afraid?" said Melanie, surprised. "See, I am not afraid. It will be
+good for me to come to you and sleep with you to-night."
+
+"Yes, it will," assented Czipra. "You can sleep on my bed."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I?" Czipra inquired with a determined glance. "Oh, just here!"
+
+And therewith she threw herself on the floor before the bed.
+
+Melanie, alarmed, drew near to her, seized her arm, and tried to raise
+her. She asked her: "Czipra, what is the matter with you? Tell me what
+has happened?"--Czipra did not answer, did not move, did not open her
+eyes.
+
+Melanie seeing she could not reanimate her, rose in despair, and,
+clasping her hands, panted:
+
+"Great Heavens! what has happened?"--Then Czipra suddenly started up and
+began to laugh.
+
+"Ha ha! Now I just managed to frighten you."
+
+Therewith rolling uncontrolledly on the floor, she laughed continuously
+like one who has succeeded in playing a good joke on her companion.
+
+"How startled I was!" panted Melanie, pressing her hands to her heaving
+breast.
+
+"Sleep in my bed," Czipra said. "I shall sleep here on the floor. You
+know I am accustomed to sleep on the ground, covered with rugs.
+
+    "'My mother was a gypsy maid
+    She taught me to sleep on the ground,
+    In winter to walk with feet unbound;
+    In a ragged tent my home was made.'"
+
+She sang Melanie this bizarre song twice in her peculiar melancholy
+strain, and then suddenly threw around her the rug which lay on the bed,
+put one arm under her head, and remained quite motionless; she would not
+reply any longer to a single word of Melanie's.
+
+The next day Topándy returned from town; scarce had he taken off his
+traveling-cloak, when Czipra burst in upon him.
+
+She seized his hand violently, and gazing wildly into his eyes, said:
+
+"Sir, I cannot live longer under such conditions. I shall kill myself.
+Teach me to pray."
+
+Topándy looked at her in astonishment and shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.
+
+"Whatever possessed you to break in so upon me? Do you think I come from
+some pilgrimage to Bodajk,[65] all my pockets full of saints' fiddles,
+of beads, and of gingerbread-saints? Or am I a Levite? Am I a 'monk'
+that you look to me for prayer?"
+
+[Footnote 65: A place visited by pilgrims, like Lourdes, etc., it is in
+Fehérmegye (white county).]
+
+"Teach me to pray. I have long enough besought you to do so, and I can
+wait no longer."
+
+"Go and don't worry me. I don't know myself where to find what you
+want."
+
+"It is not true. You know how to read. You have been taught everything.
+You only deny knowledge of God, because you are ashamed before Him; but
+I long to see His face! Oh, teach me to pray!"
+
+"I know nothing, my dear, except the soldier's prayer."[66]
+
+[Footnote 66: _i. e._, Blasphemy.]
+
+"Very well. I shall learn that."
+
+"I can recite it to you."
+
+"Well, tell it to me."
+
+Czipra acted as she had seen Melanie do: she kneeled down before the
+table: clasping her hands devotedly and resting against the edge of the
+table.
+
+Topándy turned his head curiously: she was taking the matter seriously.
+
+Then he stood before her, put his two hands behind him, and began to
+recite to her the soldier's prayer.
+
+    "Adjon Isten három 'B'-ét,
+    Három 'F'-ét, három 'P'-ét.
+    Bort, búzát, békességet,
+    Fát, füvet, feleséget,
+    Pipát, puskát, patrontást,
+    Es egy butykos pálinkát!
+    Ikétum, pikétum, holt! berdo! vivát!"[67]
+
+[Footnote 67: "God grant three 'B-s,' three 'F-s,' and three 'P-s.'
+Wine, wheat, peace, wood, grass, wife, pipe, rifle, cartridge-case, and
+a little cask of brandy.... Hurrah! hurrar!" It is quite impossible to
+render the verse into English in any manner that would reproduce the
+original, so I have given the original Magyar with a literal
+translation.]
+
+The poor little creature muttered the first sentences with such pitiable
+devotion after that godless mouth:--but, when the thing began to take a
+definitely jesting turn, she suddenly leaped up from her knees in a
+rage, and before Topándy could defend himself, dealt him such a healthy
+box on the ears that it made them sing; then she darted out and banged
+the door after her.
+
+Topándy became like a pillar of salt in his astonishment. He knew that
+Czipra had a quick hand, but that she would ever dare to raise that tiny
+hand against her master and benefactor, because of a mere trifling jest,
+he was quite incapable of understanding.
+
+She must be in some great trouble.
+
+Though he never said a word, nor did Czipra, about the blow he had
+received, and though when next they met they were the same towards one
+another as they had ever been, Topándy ventured to make a jest at table
+about this humorous scene, saying to Lorand:
+
+"Bálint, ask Czipra to repeat that prayer which she has learned from me:
+but first seize her two hands."
+
+"Oho!" threatened Czipra, her face burning red. "Just play some more of
+your jokes upon me. Your lives are in my hands: one day I shall put
+belladonna in the food, and poison us all together."
+
+Topándy smilingly drew her towards him, smoothing her head; Czipra
+sensitively pressed her master's hand to her lips, and covered it with
+kisses;--then put him aside and went out into the kitchen,--to break
+plates, and tear the servants' hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THAT RING
+
+
+The tenth year came: it was already on the wane. And Lorand began to be
+indifferent to the prescribed fatal hour.
+
+He was in love.
+
+This one thought drove all others from his mind. Weariness of life,
+atheism, misanthropy,--all disappeared from his path like
+will-o'-the-wisps before the rays of the sun.
+
+And Melanie liked the young fellow in return.
+
+She had no strong passions, and was a prudent girl, yet she confessed to
+herself that this young man pleased her. His features were noble, his
+manner gentle, his position secure enough to enable him to keep a wife.
+
+Many a time did she walk with Lorand under the shade of the beautiful
+sycamores, while Czipra sat alone beside her "czimbalom" and thrashed
+out the old souvenirs of the plain,--alone.
+
+Lorand found it no difficult task to remark that Melanie gladly
+frequented the spots he chose, and listened cheerfully to the little
+confessions of a sympathetic heart. Yet he was himself always
+reserved.--And that ring was always there on her finger. If only that
+magic band might drop down from there! Two years had already passed
+since her father's death had thrown her into mourning; she had long
+since taken off black dresses; nor could she complain against "the bread
+of orphanhood." For Topándy supplied her with all that a woman holds
+dear, just as if she had been his own child.
+
+One afternoon Lorand found courage enough to take hold of Melanie's
+hand. They were standing on a bridge that spanned the brook which was
+winding through the park, and, leaning upon its railing, were gazing at
+the flowers floating on the water--or perhaps at each other's reflection
+in the watery mirror.
+
+Lorand grasped Melanie's hand and asked:
+
+"Why are you always so sad? Whither do those everlasting sighs fly?"
+
+Melanie looked into the youth's face with her large, bright eyes, and
+knew from his every feature that heart had dictated that question to
+heart.
+
+"You see, I have enough reason for being sad in that no one has ever
+asked me that question; and that had someone asked me I could never have
+answered it."
+
+"Perhaps the question is forbidden?"
+
+"I have allowed him, whom I allowed to remark that I have a grief, also
+to ask me the reason of it. You see, I have a mother, and yet I have
+none."
+
+The girl here turned half aside.
+
+Lorand understood her well:--but that was just the subject about which
+he desired to know more; why, his own fate was bound up with it.
+
+"What do you mean, Melanie?"
+
+"If I tell you that, you will discover that I can have no secret any
+more in this world from you."
+
+Lorand said not a word, but put his two hands together with a look of
+entreaty.
+
+"About ten years have passed since mother left home one evening, never
+to return again. Public talk connected her departure with the
+disappearance of a young man, who lived with us, and who, on account of
+some political crime, was obliged to fly the same evening."
+
+"His name?" inquired Lorand.
+
+"Lorand Áronffy, a distant relation of ours. He was considered very
+handsome."
+
+"And since then you have heard no news of your mother?"
+
+"Never a word. I believe she is somewhere in Germany under a false name,
+as an actress, and is seeking the world, in order to hide herself from
+the world."
+
+"And what became of the young man? She is no longer with him?"
+
+"As far as I know he went away to the East Indies, and from thence wrote
+to his brother Desiderius, leaving him his whole fortune--since that
+time he has never written any news of himself. Probably he is dead."
+
+Lorand breathed freely again. Nothing was known of him. People thought
+he had gone to India.
+
+"In a few weeks will come again the anniversary of that unfortunate day
+on which I lost my mother, my mother who is still living: and that day
+always approaches me veiled: feelings of sorrow, shame, and loneliness
+involuntarily oppress my spirit. You now know my most awful secret, and
+you will not condemn me for it?"
+
+Lorand gently drew her delicate little hand towards his lips, and kissed
+its rosy finger-tips, while all the time he fixed his eyes entreatingly
+on that ring which was on one of her fingers.
+
+Melanie understood the inquiry which had been so warmly expressed in
+that eloquent look.
+
+"You ask me, do you not, whether I have not some even more awful
+secret?"
+
+Lorand tacitly answered in the affirmative.
+
+Melanie drew the ring off her finger and held it up in her hand.
+
+"It is true--but it is for me no longer a living secret. I am already
+dead to the person to whom this secret once bound me. When he asked my
+hand, I was still rich, my father was a man of powerful influence. Now I
+am poor, an orphan and alone. Such rings are usually forgotten."
+
+At that moment the ring fell out of her hand and missing the bridge
+dropped into the water, disappearing among the leaves of the
+water-lilies.
+
+"Shall I get it out?" inquired Lorand.
+
+Melanie gazed at him, as if in reverie, and said:
+
+"Leave it there...."
+
+Lorand, beside himself with happiness, pressed to his lips the beautiful
+hand left in his possession, and showered hot kisses, first on the
+hand, then on its owner. From the blossoming trees flowers fluttered
+down upon their heads, and they returned with wreathed brows like bride
+and bridegroom.
+
+Lorand spoke that day with Topándy, asking him whether a long time would
+be required to build the steward's house, which had so long been
+planned.
+
+"Oho!" said Topándy, smiling, "I understand. It may so happen that the
+steward will marry, and then he must have a separate lodging where he
+may take his wife. It will be ready in three weeks."
+
+Lorand was quite happy.
+
+He saw his love reciprocated, and his life freed from its dark horror.
+
+Melanie had not merely convinced him that in him she recognized Lorand
+Áronffy no more, but also calmed him by the assurance that everyone
+believed the Lorand Áronffy of yore to be long dead and done for: no one
+cared about him any longer; his brother had taken his property, with the
+one reservation that he always sent him secretly a due portion of the
+income. Besides that one person, no one knew anything. And he would be
+silent for ever, when he knew that upon his further silence depended his
+brother's life.
+
+Love had stolen the steely strength of Lorand's mind away.
+
+He had become quite reconciled to the idea that to keep an engagement,
+which bound anyone to violate the laws of God, of man, and of nature,
+was mere folly.
+
+Who could accuse him to his face if he did not keep it? Who could
+recognize him again? In this position, with this face, under this
+name,--was he not born again? Was that not a quite different man whose
+life he was now leading? Had he not already ended that life which he had
+played away _then_?
+
+He would be a fool who carried his feeling of honor to such extremes in
+relations with dishonorable men; and, finally, if there were the man who
+would say "it is a crime," was there no God to say "it was virtue?"
+
+He found a strong fortress for this self-defence in the walls of their
+family vault, in the interior of which his grandmother had uttered such
+an awful curse against the last inhabitant. Why, that implied an
+obligation upon him too. And this obligation was also strong. Two
+opposing obligations neutralize each other. It was his duty rather to
+fulfil that which he owed to a parent, than that which he owed to his
+murderer.
+
+These are all fine sophisms. Lorand sought in them the means of escape.
+
+And then in those beautiful eyes. Could he, on whom those two stars
+smiled, die? Could he wish for annihilation, at the very gate of Heaven?
+
+And he found no small joy in the thought that he was to take that Heaven
+away from the opponent, who would love to bury him down in the cold
+earth.
+
+Lorand began to yield himself to his fate. He desired to live. He began
+to suspect that there was some happiness in the world. Calm, secret
+happiness, only known to those two beings who have given it to each
+other by mutual exchange.
+
+We often see this phenomenon in life. A handsome cavalier, who was the
+lion of society, disappears from the perfumed drawing-room world, and
+years after can scarcely be recognized in the country farmer, with his
+rough appearance and shabby coat. A happy family life has wrought this
+change in him. It is not possible that this same happy feeling which
+could produce that out of the brilliant, buttoned dress-coat, could let
+down the young man's pride of character, and give him in its stead an
+easy-going, wide and water-proof work-a-day blouse, could give him
+towards the world indifference and want of interest? Let his opponent
+cry from end to end of the country with mocking guffaws that Lorand
+Áronffy is no cavalier, no gentleman; the smile of his wife will be
+compensation for his lost pride.
+
+Now the only thing he required was the eternal silence of the one man,
+who was permitted to know of his whereabouts, his brother.
+
+Should he make everything known to him?--give entirely into his hands
+the duel he had accepted, his marriage and the power that held sway over
+his life, that he might keep off the threatening terror which had
+hitherto kept him far from brother and parents?
+
+It was a matter that must be well considered and reflected upon.
+
+Lorand became very meditative some days later.
+
+Once after dinner Czipra grasped his hand and said playfully:
+
+"You are thinking very deeply about something. You are pale. Come, I
+will tell you your fortune."
+
+"My fortune?"
+
+"Of course: I shall read the cards for you: you know
+
+    "'A gypsy woman was my mother,
+    Taught me to read the cards of fortune,
+    In that surpassing many wishes.'"
+
+"Very well, my dear Czipra: then tell me my fortune."
+
+Czipra was delighted to be able to see Lorand once more alone in her
+strange room. She made him sit down on the velvet camp-stool, took her
+place on the tiger-skin and drew her cards from her pocket. For two
+years she had always had them by her. They were her sole counsellors,
+friends, science, faith, worship--the sooth-saying cards.
+
+A person, especially a woman, must believe something!
+
+At first she shuffled the cards, then, placing them on her hand offered
+them to Lorand.
+
+"Here they are, cut them: the one, whose future is being told, must cut.
+Not with the left hand, that is not good. With the right hand, towards
+you."
+
+Lorand did so, to please her.
+
+Czipra piled the cards in packs before her.
+
+Then, resting her elbows on her knees and laying her beautiful
+sun-goldened face upon her hand she very carefully examined the
+well-known picture-cards.
+
+The knave of hearts came just in the middle.
+
+"Some journey is before you," the gypsy girl began to explain, with a
+serious face. "You will meet the mourning woman. Great delight. The
+queen of hearts is in the same row:--well met. But the queen of
+jealousy[68] and the murderer[68] stand between them and separate them.
+The dog[68] means faithfulness, the cat[68] slyness. The queen of
+melancholy stands beside the dog.--Take care of yourself, for some
+woman, who is angered, wishes to kill you."
+
+[Footnote 68: These prophecies are made with Magyar cards and the gypsy
+girl pointing at certain cards, gives an interpretation of her own to
+them.]
+
+Lorand looked with such a pitying glance at Czipra that she could not
+help reading the young man's thoughts.
+
+She too replied tacitly. She pressed three fingers to her bosom, and
+silently intimated that she was not "that" girl. The yellow-robed woman,
+the queen of jealousy in the cards, was some one else. She placed her
+pointing fingers to the green-robed--that queen of melancholy. And
+Lorand remarked that Czipra had long been wearing a green robe, like the
+green-robed lady in the fortune-telling cards.
+
+Czipra suddenly mixed the cards together:
+
+"Let us try once more. Cut three times in succession. That is right."
+
+She placed the cards out again in packs.
+
+Lorand noticed that as the cards came side by side, Czipra's face
+suddenly flushed; her eyes began to blaze with unwonted fire.
+
+"See, the queen of melancholy is just beside you, on the far side the
+murderer. The queen of jealousy and the queen of hearts are in the
+opposite corner. On the other side the old lady. Above your head a
+burning house. Beware of some great misfortune. Some one wishes to cause
+you great sorrow, but some one will defend you."
+
+Lorand did not wish to embitter the poor girl by laughing in her face at
+her simplicity.
+
+"Get up now, Czipra, enough of this play."
+
+Czipra gathered the cards up sadly. But she did not accept Lorand's
+proffered hand, she rose alone.
+
+"Well, what shall I do, when I don't understand anything else?"
+
+"Come, play my favorite air for me on the czimbalom. It is such a long
+time since I heard it."
+
+Czipra was accustomed to acquiesce: she immediately took her seat beside
+her instrument, and began to beat out upon it that lowland reverie, of
+which so many had wonderingly said that a poet's and an artist's soul
+had blended therein.
+
+At the sound of music Topándy and Melanie came in from the adjoining
+rooms. Melanie stood behind Czipra; Topándy drew a chair beside her, and
+smoked furiously.
+
+Czipra struck the responsive strings and meantime remarked that Lorand
+all the while fixed his eyes in happy rapture upon the place where she
+sat; though not upon her face, but beyond, above, upon the face of that
+girl standing behind her. Suddenly the czimbalom-sticks fell from her
+hand. She covered her face with her two hands and said panting:
+
+"Ah--this pipe-smoke is killing me."
+
+For answer Topándy blew a long mouthful playfully into the girl's
+face.--She must accustom herself to it: and then he hinted to Lorand
+that they should leave that room and go where unlimited freedom ruled.
+
+But Czipra began to put the strings of the czimbalom out of tune with
+her tuning-key.
+
+"Why did you do that?" inquired Melanie.
+
+"Because I shall never play on this instrument again."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You will see it will be so: the cards always foretell a coffin for me;
+if you do not believe me, come and see for yourself."
+
+Therewith she spread the cards again out on the table, and in sad
+triumph pointed to the picture portrayed by the cards.
+
+"See, now the coffin is here under the girl in green."
+
+"Why, that is not you," said Melanie, half jestingly, half
+encouragingly, "but you are here."
+
+And she pointed with her hand to the queen of hearts.
+
+But Czipra--saw something other than what had been shown her. She
+suddenly seized Melanie's tender wrist with her iron-strong right hand,
+and pointed with her ill-foreboding first finger to that still whiter
+blank circle remaining on the white finger of her white hand.
+
+"Where has _that_ ring gone to?"
+
+Melanie's face flushed deeply at these words, while Czipra's turned
+deathly pale. The black depths of hell were to be seen in the gypsy
+girl's wide-opened eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE YELLOW-ROBED WOMAN IN THE CARDS
+
+
+Lorand deferred as long as possible the time for coming to an agreement
+with Desiderius as to what they should both do, when the fatal ten years
+had passed by.
+
+His mother and grandmother would be sure to press the latter, when the
+defined period was over, to tell them of Lorand's whereabouts. But if
+they learned the story and sought him out, there would be an end to his
+saving alias: the happy man who was living in the person of Bálint
+Tátray would be obliged to yield place to Lorand Áronffy who would have
+to choose between death and the sneers of the world.
+
+When he had made Desiderius undertake, ten years before, not to betray
+his whereabouts to his parents, he had always calculated and intended to
+fulfil his fatal obligation. Desiderius alone would be acquainted with
+the end, and would still keep from the two mothers the secret history of
+his brother. They had during this time become accustomed to knowing that
+he was far from them, and his brother would, to the day of their death,
+always put them under the happy delusion that their son would once again
+knock at the door, and would show them the letters his brother had
+written; while he would in reality long have gone to the place, from
+whence men bring no messages back to the light of the sun. Yet the good
+peaceful mothers would every day lay a place at table for the son they
+expected, when the glass had long burst of its own accord.
+
+In place of this cold, clean, transparent dream is now that hot chaos.
+What should he do now that he wished to live, to enjoy life, to see
+happy days?
+
+Wherever he would go, in the street, in the field, in the house,
+everywhere he would feel himself walking in that labyrinth; everywhere
+that endless chain would clank after him, which began again where it had
+ended.
+
+He did not even notice, when some one passed him, whether he greeted him
+or not.
+
+To escape, to exchange his word of honor for his life, to shut out the
+whole world from his secret--what has pride to say to that?--what the
+memory of the father who in a like case bowed before his self-pride and
+cast his life and happiness as a sacrifice before the feet of his honor?
+What would the tears of the two mothers say?--how could tender-handed
+love fight alone against so strong adversaries?
+
+How could Bálint Tátray shake off from himself that whole world which
+cleaved like a sea of mud to Lorand Áronffy?
+
+As he proceeded in deep reflection beside the village houses, his hat
+pressed firmly down over his eyes, he did not even notice that from the
+other direction a lady was crossing the rough road, making straight for
+him, until as she came beside him she addressed him with affected
+gaiety:
+
+"Good day, Lorand."
+
+The young fellow, startled at hearing his name, looked up amazed and
+gazed into the speaker's face.
+
+She, with the cheery smile of undoubted recognition, grasped his hand.
+
+"Yes, yes! I recognized you again after so long a time had passed,
+though you know me no more, my dear Lorand."
+
+Oh! Lorand knew her well enough! And that woman--was Madame
+Bálnokházy....
+
+Her face still possessed the beautiful noble features of yore; only in
+her manner the noblewoman's graceful dignity had given way to a certain
+unpleasant freedom which is the peculiarity of such women as are often
+compelled to save themselves from all kinds of delicate situations by
+humorous levity.
+
+She was dressed for a journey, quite fashionably, albeit a little
+creased.
+
+"You here?" inquired Lorand, astonished.
+
+"Certainly: quite by accident. I have just left my carriage at the
+Sárvölgyi's. I have won a big suit in chancery, and have come to the
+'old man' to see if I could sell him the property, which he said he was
+ready to purchase. Then I shall take my daughter home with me."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Of course--poor thing, she has lived long enough in orphan state in the
+house of a half-madman. But be so kind as to give me your arm to lean
+on: why I believe you are still afraid of me: it is so difficult, you
+know, for some one who is not used to it, to walk along these muddy
+rough country roads.--I am going to sell my property which I have won,
+because we must go to live in Vienna."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Because Melanie's intended lives there too."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Perhaps you would know him too,--you were once good friends--Pepi
+Gyáli!"
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Oh, he has made a great career! An extraordinarily famous man. Quite a
+wonder, that young man!"
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"But you only taunt me with your series of 'indeeds.' Tell me how you
+came here. How have I found you?"
+
+"I am steward here on Mr. Topándy's estate!"
+
+"Steward! Ha ha! To your kinsman?"
+
+"He does not know I am his kinsman."
+
+"So you are incognito? Ever since _then_? Just like me: I have used six
+names since that day. That is famous. And now we meet by chance. So much
+the better; at least you can lead me to Topándy's house: the atheist's
+dogs will not tear me to pieces if I am under your protection.--But
+after that you must help again to defend me."
+
+Lorand was displeased by the fact that this woman turned into jest
+those memories in which the shame of both lay buried.
+
+Topándy was on the verandah of the castle in company with the girls when
+Lorand led in the strange lady.
+
+Lorand went first to Melanie:
+
+"Here is the one you have so often sighed after," ... then turning to
+Topándy--"Madame Bálnokházy."
+
+For a moment Melanie was taken aback. She merely stared in astonishment
+at the new arrival, as if it were difficult to recognize her at once,
+while her mother, with a passion quite dramatic, rushed towards her,
+embraced her, clasped her to her bosom, and covered her with kisses. She
+sobbed and kneeled before her; as one may see times without number in
+the closing scene of the fifth act of any pathetic drama.
+
+"How beautiful you have become! What an angel! My darling, only, beloved
+Melanie!--for whom I prayed every day, of whom every day I
+dreamed.--Well, tell me, have you thought sometimes of me?"
+
+Melanie whispered in her mother's ear:
+
+"Later, when we are alone."
+
+The woman understood that well ("later when we are alone, we can talk of
+cold, prosaic things: but when they see us, let us weep, faint, and
+embrace.") This scene of meeting was going to begin anew, only Topándy
+was good enough to kindly request her ladyship to step into the room,
+where space was confined, and circumstances are more favorable to
+dramatic episodes. Madame Bálnokházy then became gay and talkative. She
+thanked Topándy (the old atheistical fool) thousands, millions of times,
+for giving a place of refuge to her child, for guarding her only
+treasure. Then she looked around to see whom else she had to thank. She
+saw Czipra.
+
+"Why," she said to Lorand, "you have not yet introduced me to your
+wife."
+
+Everybody became embarrassed--with the exception of Topándy, who
+answered with calm humor:
+
+"She is my ward, and has been so many years."
+
+"Oh! A thousand apologies for my clumsiness. I certainly thought she was
+already married."
+
+Madame Bálnokházy had time to remark that Czipra's eyes, when they
+looked upon Lorand, seemed like the eyes of faithfulness: and she had a
+delicious opportunity of cutting to the heart two, if not three people.
+
+"Well, it seems to me what is not may be, may it not, 'Lorand?'"
+
+"Lorand!" cried three voices in one.
+
+"There we are! Well I have betrayed you now. But what is the ultimate
+good of secrecy here between good friends and relations? Yes, he is
+Lorand Áronffy, a dear relation of ours. And you had not yet recognized
+him, Melanie?"
+
+Melanie turned as white as the wall.
+
+Lorand answered not a word.
+
+Instead of answering he stepped nearer to Topándy, who grasped his hand,
+and drew him towards him.
+
+Madame Bálnokházy did not allow anyone else to utter a word.
+
+"I shall not be a burden long, my dear uncle. I have taken up my
+residence here in the neighborhood, with Mr. Sárvölgyi, who is going to
+buy our property; we have just won an important suit in chancery."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+Madame Bálnokházy did not explain the genesis of the suit in chancery
+any further to Topándy, who had himself now fallen into that bad habit
+of saying, "indeed" to everything, as Lorand did.
+
+"For that purpose I must enjoy myself a few days here."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"I hope, dear uncle, you will not deny me the pleasure of being able to
+have Melanie all this time by my side. I should surely have found it
+much more proper to take up my quarters directly here in your house, if
+Sárvölgyi had not been kind enough to previously offer his hospitality."
+
+"Indeed?" (Topándy knew sometimes how to say very mocking "indeeds.")
+
+"So please don't offer any objections to my request that I may take
+Melanie to myself for these few days. Later on I shall bring her back
+again, and leave her here until fortune desires you to let us go
+forever."
+
+At this point Madame Bálnokházy put on an extremely matronly face. She
+wished him to understand what she meant.
+
+"I find your wish very natural," said Topándy briefly, looking again in
+the woman's face as one who would say "What else do you know for our
+amusement?"
+
+"Till then I render you endless thanks for taking the part of my poor
+deserted orphan. Heaven will reward you for your goodness."
+
+"I didn't do it for payment."
+
+Madame Bálnokházy laughed modestly, as though in doubt whether to
+understand a joke when the inhabitants of higher spheres were under
+consideration.
+
+"Dear uncle, you are still as jesting as ever in certain respects."
+
+"As godless--you wished to say, did you not? Indeed I have changed but
+little in my old age."
+
+"Oh we know you well!" said the lady in a voice of absolute grace: "you
+only show that outwardly, but everyone knows your heart."
+
+"And runs before it when he can, does he not?"
+
+"Oh, no: quite the contrary," said Madame apologetically, "don't
+misinterpret our present departures to prove how much we all think of
+that beneficial public life which you are leading. I shall whisper one
+word to you, which will convince you of our most sincere respect for
+you."
+
+That one word she did whisper to Topándy, resting her gloved hand on his
+shoulder--:
+
+"I wish to ask my dear uncle to give Melanie away, when Heaven brings
+round the happy day."
+
+At these words Topándy smiled: and, putting Madame Bálnokházy's hand
+under his arm, said:
+
+"With pleasure. I will do more. If on that certain day of Heaven the sun
+shines as I desire it, this my godless hand shall make two people happy.
+But if that day of Heaven be illumined otherwise than I wish, I shall
+give 'quantum satis' of blessing, love congratulatory verses, long sighs
+and all that costs nothing. So what I shall answer to this question
+depends upon that happy day."
+
+Madame Bálnokházy clasped Topándy's hand to her heart and with eyes
+upturned to Heaven, prayed that Providence might bless so good a
+relation's choice with good humor, and then drew Melanie too towards
+him, that she might render thanks to her good uncle for the gracious
+care he had bestowed upon her.
+
+Lorand gazed at the group dispiritedly, while Czipra, unnoticed, escaped
+from the room.
+
+"And now perhaps Lorand will be so kind as to accompany us to
+Sárvölgyi's house."
+
+"As far as the gate."
+
+"Where is your dear friend, Melanie, that beautiful dear creature? Take
+a short leave of her. But where has she gone to?"
+
+Lorand did not move a muscle to go and look for Czipra.
+
+"Well we shall meet the dear child again soon," said Madame Bálnokházy,
+noticing that they were waiting in vain. "Give me your arm, Lorand."
+
+She leaned on Lorand's right arm, and motioned to Melanie to take her
+position on the other side; but the girl did not do so. Instead she
+clasped her mother's arm, and so they went along the street, the mother
+waving back affectionately to Topándy, who gazed after them out of the
+window.
+
+Melanie did not utter a single word the whole way.
+
+"The old fellow, it seems, is on bad terms with Sárvölgyi?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is he still as iconoclastic, as godless, as ever?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you have been able to stand it so long?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet you were always so pious, so god-fearing; are you still?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"So Topándy and Sárvölgyi are living on terms of open enmity?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yet you will visit us several times, while we are here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heaven be praised that once I hear a 'no' from you! That heap of
+_yes's_ began already to make me nervous. Then you too are among _his_
+opponents?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Meantime they had reached the gate of Sárvölgyi's house. Here Lorand
+stopped and would proceed no further.
+
+Madame Bálnokházy clasped Melanie's hand that she might not go in front.
+
+"Well, my dear Lorand, and are you not going to take leave of us even?"
+
+Lorand gazed at Melanie, who did not even raise her eyes.
+
+"Good-bye, Madame," said Lorand briefly. He raised his hat and was gone.
+
+Madame Bálnokházy cast one glance after him with those beautiful
+expressive eyes.--Those beautiful expressive eyes just then were full to
+the brim of relentless hatred.
+
+When Lorand reached home Czipra was waiting for him at the door.
+
+Raising her first finger, she whispered in his ear:
+
+"That was the yellow-robed woman!"
+
+Yet she had nothing yellow on her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FINGER-POST OF DEATH
+
+
+Lorand threw himself exhausted into his arm-chair.
+
+There was an end to every attempt at escape.
+
+He had been recognized by the very woman who ought to detest him more
+bitterly than anyone in the world.
+
+Nemesis! the liberal hand of everlasting justice!
+
+He had deserted that woman in the middle of the road, on which they were
+flying together passionately into degradation, and now that he wished to
+return to life, that woman blocked his way.
+
+There was no hope of pity. Besides, who would accept it--from such a
+hand? At such a price? Such a present must be refused, were it life
+itself.
+
+Farewell calm happy life! Farewell, intoxicating love!
+
+There was only one way, a direct one--to the opened tomb.
+
+They would laugh over the fallen, but at least not to his face.
+
+The father had departed that way, albeit he had a loving wife, and
+growing children:--but he was alone in the world. He owed nobody any
+duty.
+
+There were two enfeebled, frail shadows on earth, to which he owed a
+duty of care; but they would soon follow him, they had no very long
+course to run.
+
+Fate must be accomplished.
+
+The father's blood besprinkled the sons. One spirit drew the other after
+it by the hand, till at last all would be there at home together.
+
+Only a few days more remained.
+
+These few days he must be gay and cheerful: must deceive every eye and
+heart, that followed attentively him who approached the end of his
+journey,--that no one might suspect anything.
+
+There was still one more precaution to be taken.
+
+Desiderius might arrive before the fatal day. In his last letter he had
+hinted at it. That must be prevented. The meeting must be arranged
+otherwise.
+
+He hurriedly wrote a letter to his brother to come to meet him at
+Szolnok on the day before the anniversary, and wait for him at the inn.
+He gave as his reason the cynicism of Topándy. He did not wish to
+introduce him as a discord in that tender scene. Then they could meet,
+and from there could go together to visit their parents.
+
+The plan was quite intelligible and natural. Lorand at once despatched
+the letter to the post.
+
+So does the cautious traveler drive from his route at the outset, the
+obstacles which might delay him.
+
+Scarcely had he sent the letter off when Topándy entered his room.
+
+Lorand went to meet him. Topándy embraced and kissed him.
+
+"I thank you that you chose my home as a place of refuge from your
+prosecutors, my dear Lorand; but there is no need longer to keep in
+hiding. Later events have long washed out what happened ten years ago,
+and you may return to the world without being disturbed."
+
+"I have known that long since: why, we read the newspapers; but I prefer
+to remain here. I am quite satisfied with this world."
+
+"You have a mother and a brother from whom you have no reason to hide."
+
+"I only wish to meet them when I can introduce myself to them as a happy
+man."
+
+"That depends on yourself."
+
+"A few days will prove it."
+
+"Be as quick as you can with it. Let only one thought possess your mind:
+Melanie is now in Sárvölgyi's house. The great spiritual delight it will
+afford me to think of the hypocrite's death-face which that Pharisee
+will make when that trivial woman discloses to him that the young man,
+who is living in the neighborhood, is Lörincz Áronffy's son, can only be
+surpassed by my anxiety for you, caused by his knowledge of the fact.
+For, believe me, he will leave no stone unturned to prevent you, who
+will remind him of that night when we spoke of great and little things,
+from being able to strike root in this world. He will even talk Melanie
+over."
+
+Lorand, shrugging his shoulders, said with light-hearted indifference:
+
+"Melanie is not the only girl on this earth."
+
+"Well said. I don't care. You are my son: and she whom you bring here is
+my daughter. Only bring her; the sooner the better."
+
+"It will not take a week."
+
+"Better still. If you want to act, act quickly. In such cases, either
+quickly or not at all; either courageously or never."
+
+"There will be no lack of courage."
+
+Topándy spoke of marriage, Lorand of a pistol.
+
+"Well in a week's time I shall be able to give my blessing on your
+choice."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Topándy did not wish to dive further into Lorand's secret. He suspected
+the young fellow was choosing between two girls, and did not imagine
+that he had already chosen a third:--the one with the down-turned
+torch.[69]
+
+Lorand during the following days was as cheerful as a bridegroom during
+the week preceding his marriage--so cheerful!--as his father had been
+the evening before his death.
+
+[Footnote 69: The torch, which should have been held upright for the
+marriage festivities, would be held upside down for the festivities of
+death, just as the life would be reversed.]
+
+The last day but one came: May again, but not so chilly as ten years
+before. The air in the park was flower-perfumed, full of lark trills,
+and nightingale ditties.
+
+Czipra was chasing butterflies on the lawn.
+
+Ever since Melanie had left the house, Czipra's sprightly mood had
+returned. She too played in the lovely spring, with the playful birds of
+song.
+
+Lorand allowed her to draw him into her circle of playmates:
+
+"How does this hyacinth look in my hair?"
+
+"It suits you admirably, Czipra."
+
+The gypsy girl took off Lorand's hat, and crowned it with a wreath of
+leaves, then put it back again, changing its position again and again
+until she found out how it suited him best.
+
+Then she pressed his hand under her arm, laid her burning face upon his
+shoulder, and thus strolled about with him.
+
+Poor girl! She had forgotten, forgiven everything already!
+
+Six days had passed since that ruling rival had left the house: Lorand
+was not sad, did not pine after her, he was good-humored, witty, and
+playful; he enjoyed himself. Czipra believed their stars were once more
+approaching each other.
+
+Lorand, the smiling and gay Lorand, was thinking that he had but one
+more day to live; and then--adieu to the perfumed fields, adieu to the
+songster's echo, adieu to the beautiful, love-lorn gypsy girl!
+
+They went arm-in-arm across the bridge, that little bridge that spanned
+the brook. They stopped in the middle of the bridge and leaning upon the
+railing looked down into the water;--in the self same place where
+Melanie's engagement ring fell into the water. They gazed down into the
+water-mirror, and the smooth surface reflected their figures; the gypsy
+girl still wore a green dress, and a rose-colored sash, but Lorand still
+saw Melanie's face in that mirror.
+
+In this place her hand had been in his: in that place she had said of
+the lost ring "leave it alone:" in that place he had clasped her in his
+arms!
+
+And to-morrow even that would cause no pain!
+
+Topándy now joined them.
+
+"Do you know what, Lorand?" said the old Manichean cheerily: "I thought
+I would accompany you this afternoon to Szolnok. We must celebrate the
+day you meet your brother: we must drink to it!"
+
+"Will you not take me with you?" inquired Czipra half in jest.
+
+"No!" was the simultaneous reply from both sides.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it is not fit for you _there_.--There is no room for you
+_there_!"
+
+Both replied the same.
+
+Topándy meant "You cannot take part in men's carousals; who knows what
+will become of you?" while Lorand--meant something else.
+
+"Well, and when will Lorand return?" inquired Czipra eagerly.
+
+"He must first return to his parents," answered Topándy.
+
+(--"Thither indeed" thought Lorand, "to father and grandfather"--)
+
+"But he will not remain _there_ forever?"
+
+At that both men laughed loudly. What kind of expression was that word
+"forever" in one's mouth? Is there a measure for time?
+
+"What will you bring me when you return?" inquired the girl childishly.
+
+Lorand was merciless enough to jest: he tore down a leaf which was
+round, like a small coin; placing that on the palm of her hand, he said:
+
+"Something no greater than the circumference of this leaf."
+
+Two understood that he meant "a ring," but what he meant was a "bullet"
+in the centre of his forehead.
+
+How pitiless are the jests of a man ready for death.
+
+Their happy dalliance was interrupted by the butler who came to announce
+that a young gentleman was waiting to speak with Master Lorand.
+
+Lorand's heart beat fast! It must be Desi!
+
+Had he not received the letter? Had he not acceded to his brother's
+request? He had after all come one day sooner than his deliberate
+permission had allowed.
+
+Lorand hastened up to the castle.
+
+Topándy called after him:
+
+"If it is a good friend of yours bring him down here into the park: he
+must dine with us."
+
+"We shall wait here by the bridge," Czipra added: and there she remained
+on the bridge, she did not herself know why, gazing at those plants on
+the surface of the water, that were hiding Melanie's ring.
+
+Lorand hastened along the corridors in despondent mood: if his brother
+had really come, his last hours would be doubly embittered.
+
+That simulation, that comedy of cynical frivolity, would be difficult to
+play before him.
+
+The new arrival was waiting for him in the reception room.
+
+When Lorand opened the door and stood face to face with him, an entirely
+new surprise awaited him.
+
+The young cavalier who had thus hastened to find him was not his brother
+Desi, but--Pepi Gyáli.
+
+Pepi was no taller, no more manly-looking than he had been ten years
+before; he had still that childish face, those tiny features, the same
+refined movements. He was still as strict an adherent to fashion: and if
+time had wrought a change in him, it was only to be seen in a certain,
+distinguished bearing,--that of those who often have the opportunity of
+playing the protector toward their former friends.
+
+"Good day, dear Lorand," he said in a gay tone, anticipating Lorand. "Do
+you still recognize me?"
+
+("Ah," thought Lorand: "you are here as the finger-post of death.")
+
+"I did not want to avoid you: as soon as I knew from the Bálnokházys
+that you were here, I came to find you."
+
+After all it was "_she_" that had put him on Lorand's track!
+
+"I have business here with Sárvölgyi in Madame Bálnokházy's interest--a
+legal agreement."
+
+Lorand's only thought, while Gyáli was uttering these words, was--how
+to behave himself in the presence of this man.
+
+"I hope," said the visitor tenderly extending his hand to Lorand, "that
+that old wrangle which happened ten years ago has long been forgotten by
+you--as it has by me."
+
+("He wishes to make me recollect it, if perchance I had forgotten.")
+
+"And we shall again be faithful comrades and true."
+
+One thought ran like lightning in a moment through Lorand's brain. "If I
+kick this fellow out now as would be my method, everyone would clearly
+understand the origin of the catastrophe, and take it as satisfaction
+for an insult. No, they must have no such triumph: this wretch must see
+that the man who is gazing into the face of his own death is in no way
+behind him, who burns to persecute him to the end with exquisiteness, in
+cheerful mood."
+
+So Lorand did not get angry, did not show any sullenness or melancholy,
+but, as he was wont to do in student days of yore, slapped the dandy's
+open hand and grasped it in manly fashion.
+
+"So glad to see you, Pepi. Why the devil should I not have recognised
+you? Only I imagined that you would have aged as much as I have since
+that time, and now you stand before me the same as ever. I almost asked
+you what we had to learn for to-morrow?"
+
+"I am glad of that! Nothing has caused me any displeasure in my life
+except the fact that we parted in anger--we, the gay comrades!--and
+quarrelled!--why? for a dirty newspaper! The devil take them all!--Taken
+all together they are not worth a quarrel between two comrades. Well,
+not a word more about it!"
+
+"Well, my boy, very well, if your intentions are good. In any case we
+are country fellows who can stand a good deal from one another. To-day
+we calumniate each other, to-morrow we carouse together."
+
+Ha, ha, ha!
+
+"But you must introduce me to the old man. I hear he is a gay old fool.
+He does not like priests. Why I can tell him enough tales about priests
+to keep him going for a week. Come, introduce me. I know his mouth will
+never cease laughing, once I begin upon him."
+
+"Naturally it is understood that you will remain here with us."
+
+"Of course. Old Sárvölgyi, as it is, had made sour faces enough at the
+unusual invasion of guests: and he has a cursedly sullen housekeeper.
+Besides it is disagreeable always to have to say nice things to the two
+ladies: that's not why a fellow comes to the country. _A propos_, I hear
+you have a beautiful gypsy girl here."
+
+"You know that too, already?"
+
+"I hope you are not jealous of her?"
+
+"What, the devil! of a gypsy girl?"
+
+("Well just try it with her," thought Lorand, "at any rate you will get
+'per procura,' that box on the ears which I cannot give you.")
+
+"Ha, ha! we shall not fight a duel for a gypsy girl, shall we, my boy?"
+
+"Nor for any other girl."
+
+"You have become a wise man like me: I like that. A woman is only a
+woman. Among others, what do you say to Madame Bálnokházy? I find she is
+still more beautiful than her daughter. _Ma foi_, on my word of honor!
+Those ten years on the stage have only done her good. I believe she is
+still in love with you."
+
+"That's quite natural," said Lorand in jesting scorn.
+
+In the meantime they had reached the park; they found Topándy and Czipra
+by the bridge. Lorand introduced Pepi Gyáli as his old school-fellow.
+
+That name fairly magnetized Czipra.--Melanie's fiancé!--So the lover had
+come after his bride. What a kind fellow this Pepi Gyáli was! A really
+most amiable young man!
+
+Gyáli quite misunderstood the favorable impression his name and
+appearance made on Czipra: he was ready to attribute it to his
+irresistible charms.
+
+After briefly making the acquaintance of the old man, he very rapidly
+took over the part of courtier, which every cavalier according to the
+rules of the world is bound to do; besides, she was a gypsy girl,
+and--Lorand was not jealous.
+
+"You have in one moment explained to me something over which I have
+racked my brains a whole day."
+
+"What can that be?" inquired Czipra curiously.
+
+"How it is that some one can prefer fried fish and fried rolls at
+Sárvölgyi's to cabbage at Topándy's?"
+
+"Who may that someone be?"
+
+"Why, I could not understand that Miss Melanie was able to persuade
+herself to change this house for that; now I know: she must have put up
+with a great persecution here."
+
+"Persecution?" said Czipra, astonished:--the gentlemen too stared at the
+speaker.--"Who would have persecuted her?"
+
+"Who? Why these eyes!" said Gyáli, gazing flatteringly into Czipra's
+eyes. "The poor girl could not stand the rivalry. It is quite natural
+that the moon, however sweet and poetic a phenomenon, always flees
+before the sun."
+
+To Czipra this speech was very surprising. There are many who do not
+like overburdened sweetness.
+
+"Ah, Melanie is far more beautiful than I," she said, casting her eyes
+down, and growing very serious.
+
+"Well it is my bounden duty to believe in that, as in all the miracles
+of the apostles: but I cannot help it, if you have made a heretic of
+me."
+
+Czipra turned her head aside and gazed down into the water with eyes of
+insulted pride: while Lorand, who was standing behind Gyáli, thought
+within himself:
+
+("If I take you by the neck and drown you in that water, you would
+deserve it, and it will do good to my soul: but I should know I had
+murdered you: and no one should ever be able to boast of _that_? My name
+shall never be connected with yours in death.")
+
+For Lorand might well have known that Gyáli's appearance on that day
+had no other object than that of reminding Lorand of his awful
+obligation.
+
+"My dear boy," said Lorand patting Gyáli's shoulder playfully, "I must
+show what a general I should have made. I have an important journey this
+afternoon to Szolnok."
+
+"Well, go; don't bother yourself on my account. Do exactly as you
+please."
+
+"That's not how matters lie, Pepi: you must not stay here in the
+meantime."
+
+"The devil! Perhaps you will turn me out?"
+
+"Oh dear no! To-night we shall have a glorious carnival at Szolnok, in
+honor of my regeneration. All the gay fellows of the neighborhood are
+invited to it. You must come with us too."
+
+"Ha! Your regeneration carnival!" cried Gyáli, in a voice of ecstasy,
+the while gazing at Czipra apologetically. "Albeit other magnets draw me
+hither with overpowering force--I must go there without fail. I must
+deliver a 'toast' at your 'regeneration' festival, Lorand."
+
+"My brother Desi will also be there."
+
+"Oho! little Desi? That little rebel. Well all the better. We shall have
+much in common with him; of old he was an amusing boy, with his serious
+face. Well I shall go with you. I sacrifice myself. I capitulate. Well
+we shall go to Szolnok to-night."
+
+Why, anyone might have seen plainly--had he not come that day just to
+revel in the agony of Lorand?
+
+"Yes, Pepi," Lorand assured him, "we shall be gay as we were once ten
+years ago. Much hidden joy awaits us: we shall break in suddenly upon
+it. Well, you are coming with us."
+
+"Without fail: only be so good as to send some one next door for my
+traveling-cloak. I shall go with you to your 'regeneration' fête!"
+
+And once again he grasped Lorand's hand tenderly, as one who was
+incapable of expressing in words all the good wishes with which his
+heart was brimming over.
+
+"You see I should have been a good general after all," said Lorand
+smiling. "How beautifully I captured the besieging army."
+
+"Oh, not at all; the blockade is still being kept up."
+
+"But starvation will be a difficult matter where the garrison is well
+nourished."
+
+The poor gypsy girl did not understand a word of all this jesting, which
+was uttered for her edification: and if she had understood it, was she
+not a gypsy girl, just to be sported with in this manner?
+
+Were not Topándy and his comrades wont to jest with her after this
+manner.
+
+But Czipra did not laugh over these jests as much as she had done at
+other times.
+
+It exercised a distasteful influence upon her heart, when this young
+dandy spoke so lightly of Melanie, and even slighted her before the eyes
+of another girl. Did all men speak so of their loved ones? And do men
+speak so of every girl?
+
+Topándy turned the conversation. He knew his man at the first glance: he
+had many weak sides. He began to "my lord" him, and made inquiries about
+those foreign princes, whose plenipotentiary minister M. Gyáli was
+pleased to be.
+
+That had its effect.
+
+Gyáli became at once a different person: he strove to maintain an
+imposing bearing with a view to raising his dignity, for all the world
+as if he had swallowed a poker; he straightened his eyebrows, put his
+hands behind him under the tails of his lilac-colored dress-coat and
+formed his mouth into the true diplomatic shape.
+
+It was a supreme opportunity for being able to display his grandiose
+achievements. Let that other see how high he had flown, while others had
+remained fastened to the earth.
+
+"I have just concluded a splendid business for his Excellency, the
+Prince of Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein."
+
+"A ruling prince, of course?" inquired Topándy, in naïve wonder.
+
+"Why, you know that."
+
+"Of course, of course. His possessions lie just where the corners of the
+great principalities of Lippedetmold, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and
+Reuss-major meet."
+
+Oh, Gyáli must have been very full of self-confidence when he answered
+to the old magistrate's peculiar geographical definition, "yes."
+
+"Your lordship has already doubtless found an excellent situation in the
+Principality?"
+
+"I have an order and a title, the gift of His Excellency."
+
+"Of course it may lead to more."
+
+"Oh yes. In return for my winning His Excellency's domains, which he
+inherited on his mother's side, he will settle on me 5,000 acres of
+land."
+
+"In Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein?"
+
+"No: here in the Magyar country."
+
+"I thought in Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein: for that is a beautiful country."
+
+Gyáli began to see that it was after all something more than simplicity
+that could give utterance to such easily recognized exaggeration; and
+when the old man began to inform him, in which section of which chapter
+of the Corpus Juris would be found inscribed His Excellency's Magyar
+"indigenatus," etc., etc., Gyáli began to feel exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and began to again change the course of the conversation.
+He chattered on about His Excellency being a fine, free-thinking man,
+related a hundred anecdotes about him, how he turned out the Jesuits
+from his possessions, what jokes he had played on the monks, how he
+persecuted the pietists, and other such things as might be very
+inconvenient incumbrances to the Principality of
+Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein,--in the case of any such principality existing
+in the world.
+
+The theme lasted the whole of dinner time.
+
+Czipra wanted to do all she could to-day for herself. For the
+farewell-dinner she sought out all that she had found Lorand liked, and
+Lorand was ungrateful enough to allow Gyáli the field of compliment to
+himself: he could not say one good word to her.
+
+Yet who knew when he would sit at that table again?
+
+Dinner over, Lorand spent a few minutes in running over the house: to
+give instructions to every servant as to what was to be done in the
+fields, the garden and the forest before his return in two weeks' time.
+He gave everyone a tip to drink to his health; for to-morrow he was to
+celebrate a great festival.
+
+Topándy, too, was looking over the preparations for the journey. Czipra
+was the lady of the house: it was her task, as it had always been, to
+amuse the guest who remained alone. Topándy never troubled himself to
+amuse anyone, for whose entertainment he was responsible. Czipra was
+there, he must listen to what she had to say.
+
+In the meantime the butler, who had been sent to Sárvölgyi's to bring
+Gyáli's traveling cloak, came back.
+
+He brought also a letter from the young lady for Lorand.
+
+"From the young lady?"
+
+Lorand took the letter from him and told him to take the cloak up to the
+guest's room.
+
+He himself hastened to his own room.
+
+As he passed through the saloon, Gyáli met him, coming from Czipra's
+room. The dandy's face was peculiarly flurried.
+
+"My dear friend," he said to Lorand, "that gypsy girl of yours is a
+regular female panther, and you have trained her well, I can tell
+you.--Where is there a looking-glass?"
+
+"Yes she is," replied Lorand. He scarcely knew why he said it: he heard,
+but only unconsciously.
+
+Only that letter! Melanie's letter!
+
+He was in such a hurry to reach his room with it. Once there and alone,
+he shut the door, kissed the fine rose-colored note, and its azure-blue
+letters, the red seal upon it; and clasped it to his breast, as if he
+would find out from his heart what was in it.
+
+Well, and what could be in it?
+
+Lorand put the letter down before him and laid his fist heavily upon it.
+
+"Must I know what is in that letter?
+
+"Suppose she writes that she loves me, and awaits happiness from me,
+that her love can outbalance a whole lost world, that she is ready to
+follow me across the sea, beyond the mocking sneers of acquaintances,
+and to disappear with me among the hosts of forgotten figures!
+
+"No. I shall not break open this letter.
+
+"My last step shall not be hesitating.
+
+"And if what seems such a chance meeting is nought but a well planned
+revenge? If they have all along been agreed and have only come here
+together that they may force me to confess that I am humiliated, that I
+beg for happiness, for love, that I am afraid of death because I am in
+love with the smiling faces of life; and when I have confessed that,
+they will laugh in my face, and will leave me to the contempt of the
+whole world, of my own self....
+
+"Let them marry each other!"
+
+Lorand took the beautiful note and locked it up in the drawer of his
+table, unopened, unread.
+
+His last thought must be that perhaps he had been loved, and that last
+thought would be lightened by the uncertainty: only "perhaps."
+
+And now to prepare for that journey.
+
+It was Lorand's wont to carry two good pistols on a journey. These he
+carefully loaded afresh, then hid them in his own traveling trunk.
+
+He left his servant to pack in the trunk as much linen as would be
+enough for two weeks, for they were going to journey farther.
+
+Topándy had two carriages ready, his traveling coach and a wagon.
+
+When the carriages drove up, Lorand put on his traveling cloak, lit his
+pipe and went down into the courtyard.
+
+Czipra was arranging all matters in the carriages, the trunks were bound
+on tightly and the wine-case with its twenty-four bottles of choice
+wine, packed away in a sure place.
+
+"You are a good girl after all, Czipra," said Lorand, tenderly patting
+the girl's back.
+
+"After all?"
+
+Was he really so devoted to that pipe that he could not take it from his
+mouth for one single moment?
+
+Yet she had perhaps deserved a farewell kiss.
+
+"Sit with my uncle in the coach, Pepi," said Lorand to the dandy, "with
+me you might risk your life. I might turn you over into the ditch
+somewhere and break your neck. And it would be a pity for such a
+promising youth."
+
+Lorand sprang up onto the seat and took the reins in his hands.
+
+"Well, adieu, Czipra!"--The coach went first, the wagon following.
+
+Czipra stood at the street-door and gazed from there at the disappearing
+youth, as long as she could see him, resting her head sadly against the
+doorpost.
+
+But he did not glance back once.
+
+He was going at a gallop towards his doom.
+
+And when evening overtakes the travelers, and the night's million lights
+have appeared, and the tiny glowworms are twinkling in the ditches and
+hedges, the young fellow will have time enough to think on that theme:
+that eternal law rules alike over the worlds and the atoms--but what is
+the fate of the intermediate worms? that of the splendid fly? that of
+ambitious men and nations struggling for their existence? "Fate gives
+justice into the two hands of the evil one, that while with the right he
+extinguishes his life, with the left he may stifle the soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+FANNY
+
+
+Some wise man, who was a poet too, once said: "the best fame for a woman
+is to have no fame at all." I might add: "the best life history is that,
+which has no history."
+
+Such is the romance of Fanny's life and of mine.
+
+Eight years had passed since they brought a little girl from
+Fürsten-Allee to take my place: the little girl had grown into a big
+girl,--and was still occupying my place.
+
+How I envied her those first days, when I had to yield my place to her,
+that place veiled with holy memories in our family's mourning circle, in
+mother's sorrowing heart; and how I blessed fate, that I was able to
+fill that place with her.
+
+My career led me to distant districts, and every year I could spend but
+a month or two at home; mother would have aged, grandmother have grown
+mad from the awful solitude had Heaven not sent a guardian angel into
+their midst.
+
+How much I have to thank Fanny for.
+
+For every smile of mother's face, for every new day of grandmother's
+life--I had only Fanny to thank.
+
+Every year when I returned for the holidays I found long-enduring happy
+peace at home.
+
+Where everyone had so much right every day madly to curse fate, mankind,
+the whole world; where sorrow should have ruled in every thought;--I
+found nothing but peace, patience, and hope.
+
+It was she who assured them that there was a limit to suffering, she who
+encouraged them with renewed hopes, she who allured them by a thousand
+possible variations on the theme of chance gladness, that might come
+to-morrow or perhaps the day after.
+
+And she did everything for all the world as if she never thought of
+herself.
+
+What a sacrifice it must be for a fair lively girl to sacrifice the most
+brilliant years of her youth to the nursing of two sorrow-laden women,
+to suffering with them, to enduring their heaviness of disposition.
+
+Yet she was only a substitute girl in the house.
+
+When I left Pressburg and the Fromm's house her parents wished to take
+her home; but Fanny begged them to leave her there one year longer, she
+was so fond of that poor suffering mother.
+
+And then every year she begged for another year; so she remained in our
+small home until she was a full-grown maiden.
+
+Yes Pressburg is a gay, noisy town. The Fromm's house was open before
+the world and the flower ought to open in spring--the young girl has a
+right to live and enjoy life.
+
+Fanny voluntarily shut herself off from life. There was no merriment in
+our house.
+
+My parents often assured her they would take her to some entertainments,
+and would go with her.
+
+"For my sake? You would go to amusements that I might enjoy myself?
+Would that be an amusement for me? Let us stay at home.--There will be
+time for that later."
+
+And when she victimized herself, she did it so that no one could see she
+was a victim.
+
+There are many good patient-hearted girls, whose lips never complain,
+but hollow eyes, pale faces, and clouded dispositions utter silent
+complaints and give evidence of buried ambitions.
+
+Fanny's face was always rosy and smiling: her eyes cheerful and fiery,
+her disposition always gay, frank and contented; her every feature
+proved that what she did she did from her heart and her heart was well
+pleased. Her happy ever-gay presence enlightened the while gloomy circle
+around her, as when some angel walks in the darkness, with a halo of
+glory around his figure.
+
+From year to year I found matters so at home when I returned for the
+holidays: and from year to year one definite idea grew and took shape in
+our minds mutually.
+
+We never spoke of it: but we all knew.
+
+She knew--I knew, her parents knew and so did mine; nor did we think
+anything else could happen. It was only a question of time. We were so
+sure about it that we never spoke of it.
+
+After finishing my course of studies, I became a lawyer; and, when I
+received my first appointment in a treasury office, one day I drew
+Fanny's hand within mine, and said to her:
+
+"Fanny dear, you remember the story of Jacob in the Bible?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you not think Jacob was an excellent fellow, in that he could serve
+seven years to win his wife?"
+
+"I cannot deny that he was."
+
+"Then you must acknowledge that I am still more excellent for I have
+already served eight years--to win you."
+
+Fanny looked up at me with those eyes of the summer-morning smile, and
+with childish happiness replied:
+
+"And to prove your excellence still further, you must wait two years
+more."
+
+"Why?" I asked, downcast.
+
+"Why?" she said with quiet earnestness. "Do you not know there is a
+vacant place at our table; and until that is filled, there can be no
+gladness in this house. Could you be happy, if you had to read every day
+in your mother's eyes the query, 'where is that other?' All your
+gladness would wound that suffering heart, and every dumb look she gave
+would be a reproach for our gladness. Oh, Desi, no marriage is possible
+here, as long as mourning lasts."
+
+And as she said this to prevent me loving her, she only forced me to
+love her the more.
+
+"How far above me you are!"
+
+"Why those two short years will fly away, as the rest. Our thoughts for
+each other do not date from yesterday, and, as we grow old, we shall
+have time enough to grow happy. I shall wait, and in this waiting I have
+enough gladness."
+
+Oh how I would have loved to kiss her for those words: but that face was
+so holy before me, I should have considered it a sacrilege to touch it
+with my lips.
+
+"We remain then as we were."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Not a word of it for two years yet, when you are released from your
+word of honor you gave to Lorand, and may discover his whereabouts. Why
+this long secrecy? That I cannot understand. I have never had any
+ambition to dive more deeply into your secret than you yourselves have
+allowed me to: but if you made a promise, keep it; and if by this
+promise you have thrown your family, yourself, and me into ten years'
+mourning, let us wear it until it falls from us."
+
+I grasped the dear girl's hand, I acknowledged how terribly right she
+was; then with her gay, playful humor she hurried back to mother, and no
+one could have fancied from her face, that she could be serious for a
+moment.
+
+I risked one more audacious attempt in this matter.
+
+I wrote to Lorand, putting before him that the horizon all round was
+already so clear, that he might march round the country to the sound of
+trumpets, announcing that he is so and so, without finding anyone to
+arrest him, as it was the same whether it was ten years or eight, he
+might let us off the last two years, and admit us to him.
+
+Lorand wrote back these short lines in answer:
+
+"We do not bargain about that for which we gave our word of honor."
+
+It was a very brief refusal.
+
+I troubled him no more with that request. I waited and endured, while
+the days passed.... Ah, Lorand, for your sake I sacrificed two years of
+heaven on earth!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE FATAL DAY!
+
+
+It had come at last!
+
+We had already begun to count the days that remained.
+
+One week before the final day, I received a letter from Lorand, in which
+he begged me not to go to meet him at Lankadomb, but rather to give a
+rendezvous in Szolnok: he did not wish the scene of rapture to be
+spoiled by the sarcasms of Topándy.
+
+I was just as well pleased.
+
+For days all had been ready for the journey. I hunted up everything in
+the way of a souvenir which I had still from those days ten years before
+when I had parted from Lorand, even down to that last scrap of
+paper,[70] which now occupied my every thought.
+
+[Footnote 70: The paper of Madame Bálnokházy's letter which was used for
+the fatal lot-drawing.]
+
+It would have been labor lost on my part to tell the ladies how bad the
+roads in the lowlands are at that time of year, that in any case Lorand
+would come to them a day later. Nor indeed did I try to dissuade them
+from making the journey. Which of them would have remained home at such
+a time? Which of them would have given up a single moment of that day,
+when she might once more embrace Lorand? They both came to me.
+
+We arrived at Szolnok one day before Lorand: I only begged them to
+remain in their room until I had spoken with Lorand.
+
+They promised and remained the whole day in one room of the inn, while
+I strolled the whole day about the courtyard on the watch for every
+arriving carriage.
+
+An unusual number of guests came on that day to the inn: gay companions
+of Topándy from the neighborhood, to whom Lorand had given a rendezvous
+there. Some I knew personally, the others by reputation; the latter's
+acquaintance too was soon made.
+
+It struck me as peculiar that Lorand had written to me that he did not
+wish the elegiac tone of our first gathering to be disturbed by the
+voice of the stoics of Lankadomb, yet he had invited the whole Epicurean
+alliance here--a fact which was likely to give a dithyrambic tone to our
+meeting.
+
+Well, amusement there must be. I like fellows who amuse themselves.
+
+It was late evening when a five-horsed coach drove into the
+courtyard--in the first to get out I recognized Gyáli.
+
+What did he want among us?
+
+After him stepped out a brisk old man whose moustache and eyebrows I
+remembered of old. It was my uncle, Topándy.
+
+Remarkable!
+
+Topándy came straight towards me.
+
+So serious was his face, when, as he reached me, he grasped my hand,
+that he made me feel quite confused.
+
+"You are Desiderius Áronffy?" he said: and with his two hands seized my
+shoulders, that he might look into my eyes. "Though you do not say so, I
+recognize you. It is just as if I saw your departed father before me.
+The very image!"
+
+Many had already told me that I was very like what my father had been in
+his young days.
+
+Topándy embraced me feelingly.
+
+"Where is Lorand?" I inquired. "Has he not come?"
+
+"He is coming behind us in a wagon," he answered, and his voice betrayed
+the greatest emotion. "He will soon be here. He does not like a coach.
+Remain here and wait for him."
+
+Then he turned to his comrades who were buzzing around him.
+
+"Let us go and wait inside, comrades. Let us leave these young fellows
+to themselves when they meet. You know that such a scene requires no
+audience. Well, right about face, quick march!"
+
+Therewith he drove all the fellows from the corridor: indeed did not
+give Gyáli time to say how glad he was to meet me again.
+
+The gathering became all the more unintelligible to me.
+
+Why, if Topándy himself knew best what there was to be felt in that
+hour, what necessity had we to avoid him?
+
+Now the wagon could be heard! The two steeds galloped into the courtyard
+at a smart pace with the light road-cart. He was driving himself.
+
+I scarcely recognized him. His great whiskers, his closely-cropped hair,
+his dust-covered face made quite a different figure before me from that
+which I had been wont to draw in my album,--as I had thought to see, as
+mother or grandmother directed me, saying "that is missing, that feature
+is other, that is more, that is less, that is different," times without
+number we had amused ourselves with that.
+
+Lorand was unlike any portrait of him I had drawn. He was a muscular,
+powerful, rough country cavalier.
+
+As he leaped out of the wagon, we hastened to each other.
+
+The centre of the courtyard was not the place to play an impassioned
+scene in. Besides neither of us like comedy playing.
+
+"Good evening, old fellow."
+
+"Good evening, brother."
+
+That was all we said to each other: we shook hands, kissed each other,
+and hurried in from the courtyard, straight to the room filled with
+roysterers.
+
+They received Lorand with wall-shaking "hurrahs," and Lorand greeted
+them all in turn.
+
+Some embittered county orator wished to deliver a speech in his honor,
+but Lorand told him to keep that until wine was on the table: dry toasts
+were not to his taste.
+
+Then he again returned to my side and took my face in his hands.
+
+"By Jove! old fellow, you have quite grown up! I thought you were still
+a child going to school. You are half a head taller than I am. Why I
+shall live to see you married without my knowing or hearing anything
+about it."
+
+I took Lorand's arm and drew him into a corner.
+
+"Lorand, mother and grandmother are here too."
+
+He wrenched his arm out of my hand.
+
+"Who told you to do that?" he growled irritatedly.
+
+"Quietly, my dear Lorand. I have committed no blunder even in
+formalities. It will be ten years to-morrow since you told me I might in
+ten years tell mother where you are. Then you wrote to me to be at
+Szolnok to-day. I have kept my promise to mother as regards telling her
+to-morrow and to you by my appearance here. Szolnok is two days distant
+from our home:--so I had to bring them here in order to do justice to
+both my promises."
+
+Lorand became unrestrainedly angry.
+
+"A curse upon every pettifogger in the world! You have swindled me out
+of my most evident right."
+
+"But, dear Lorand, are you annoyed that the poor dear ones can see you
+one day earlier?"
+
+"That's right, begin like that.--Fool, we wanted to have a jolly evening
+all to ourselves, and you have spoilt it."
+
+"But you can enjoy yourselves as long as you like."
+
+"Indeed? 'As long as we like,' and I must go in a tipsy drunken state to
+introduce myself to mother?"
+
+"It is not your habit to be drunk."
+
+"What do you know? I'm fairly uproarious once I begin at it. It was a
+foolish idea of yours, old fellow."
+
+"Well, do you know what? Put the meeting first, after that the
+carousal."
+
+"I have told you once for all that we shall make no bargains, sir
+advocate. No transactions here, sir advocate!"
+
+"Don't 'sir advocate' me!"
+
+"Wait a moment. If you could be so cursedly exact in your calculation of
+days, I shall complete your astronomical and chronological studies. Take
+out your watch and compare it with mine. It was just 11:45 by the
+convent clock in Pressburg, when you gave me your word. To-morrow
+evening at 11:45 you are free from your obligation to me: then you can
+do with me what you like."
+
+I found his tone very displeasing and turned aside.
+
+"Well don't be dispirited," said Lorand, drawing me towards him and
+embracing me. "Let us not be angry with each other: we have not been so
+hitherto. But you see the position I am in. I have gathered together a
+pack of dissolute scamps and atheists, not knowing you would bring
+mother with you, and they have been my faithful comrades ten years. I
+have passed many bad, many good days with them: I cannot say to them
+'Go, my mother is here.' Nor can I sit here among them till morning with
+religious face. In the morning we shall all be 'soaked.' Even if I
+conquer the wine, my head will be heavy after it. I have need of the few
+hours I asked you for to collect myself, before I can step into my dear
+ones' presence with a clear head. Explain to them how matters stand."
+
+"They know already, and will not ask after you until to-morrow."
+
+"Very well. There is peace between us, old fellow."
+
+When the company saw we had explained matters to each other, they all
+crowded round us, and such a noise arose that I don't know even now what
+it was all about. I merely know that once or twice Pepi Gyáli wished to
+catch my eye to begin some conversation, and that at such times I asked
+the nearest man, "How long do you intend to amuse yourselves in this
+manner?" "How are you?" and similar surprising imbecilities.
+
+Meanwhile the long table in the middle of the room had been laid: the
+wines had been piled up, the savory victuals were brought in; outside
+in the corridors a gypsy band was striking up a lively air, and
+everybody tried to get a seat.
+
+I had to sit at the head of the table, near Lorand. On Lorand's left sat
+Topándy, on his right, beside me, Pepi Gyáli.
+
+"Well, old fellow, you too will drink with us to-day?" said Lorand to me
+playfully, putting his arms familiarly round my neck.
+
+"No, you know I never drink wine."
+
+"Never? Not to-day either? Not even to my health?"
+
+I looked at him. Why did he wish to make me drink to-day especially?
+
+"No, Lorand. You know I am bound by a promise not to drink wine, and a
+man of honor always keeps his promises, however absurd."
+
+I shall never forget the look which Lorand gave me at these words.
+
+"You are right, old fellow:" and he grasped my hand. "A man of honor
+keeps his promises, however absurd...."
+
+And as he said so, he was so serious, he gazed with such alarming
+coldness into the eyes of Gyáli, who sat next to him. But Pepi merely
+smiled. He could smile so tenderly with those handsome girlish round
+lips of his.
+
+Lorand patted him on the shoulder.
+
+"Do you hear, Pepi? My brother refused to drink wine, because a man of
+honor keeps his promises. You are right, Desi. Let him who says
+something keep his word."
+
+Then the banquet began.
+
+It is a peculiar study for an abstainer to look on at a midnight
+carousal, with a perfectly sober head, and to be the only audience and
+critic at this "divina comedia" where everyone acts unwittingly.
+
+The first act commenced with the toasts. He to whom God had given
+rhetorical talent raises his glass, begs for silence,--which at first he
+receives and later not receiving tries to assure for himself by his
+stentorian voice;--and with a very serious face, utters very serious
+phrases:--one is a master of grace, another of pathos: a third quotes
+from the classics, a fourth humorizes, and himself laughs at his
+success, while everybody finishes the scene with clinking of glasses,
+and embraces, to the accompaniment of clarion "hurrahs."
+
+Later come more fiery declamations, general outbursts of patriotic
+bitterness. Brains become more heated, everyone sits upon his favorite
+hobby-horse, and makes it leap beneath him; the socialist, the artist,
+the landlord, the champion of order, everyone begins to speak of his own
+particular theme--without keeping to the strict rules of conversation
+that one waits until the other has finished: rather they all talk at
+once, one interrupting the other, until finally he who has commenced
+some thrilling refrain hands over the leadership to all: the song
+becomes general, and each one is convinced from hearing his own vocal
+powers, that nowhere on earth can more lovely singing be heard.
+
+And meantime the table becomes covered with empty bottles.
+
+Then the paroxysm grows by degrees to a climax. He who previously
+delivered an oration now babbles, comes to a standstill, and, cuts short
+his discomfiture by swearing; there sits one who had already three times
+begun upon some speech, but his bitterness, mourning for the past, so
+effectually chokes his over-ardent feelings that he bursts into tears,
+amidst general laughter. Another who has already embraced all his
+comrades in turn, breaks in among the gypsies and kisses them one after
+the other, swearing brotherhood to the bass fiddler and the clarinetist.
+At the farther end of the table sits a choleric fellow, whose habit it
+is always to end in riotous fights, and he begins his freaks by striking
+the table with his fist, and swearing he will kill the man who has
+worried him. Luckily he does not know with whom he is angry. The gay
+singer is not content with giving full play to his throat, helping it
+out with his hands and feet: he begins to dash bottles and plates
+against the wall, and is delighted that so many smashed bottles give
+evidence of his triumph. With a half crushed hat he dances in the middle
+of the room quite alone, in the happy conviction that everybody is
+looking at him, while a blessed comrade had come to the pass of dropping
+his head back upon the back of his chair, only waking up when they
+summon him to drink with him--though he does not know whether he is
+drinking wine or tanner's ooze.
+
+But the fever does not increase indefinitely.
+
+Like other attacks of fever, it has a crisis, beyond which a turn sets
+in!
+
+After midnight the uproarious clamor subsided. The first heating
+influence of the wine had already worked itself out. One or two who
+could not fight with it, gave in and lay down to sleep, while the others
+remained in their places, continuing the drinking-bout, not for the sake
+of inebriety, merely out of principle, that they might show they would
+not allow themselves to be overcome by wine.
+
+This is where the real heroes' part begins, of those whom the first
+glass did not loosen, nor the tenth tie their tongues.
+
+Now they begin to drink quietly and to tell anecdotes between the
+rounds.
+
+One man does not interrupt another, but when one has finished his story,
+another says, "I know one still better than that," and begins: "the
+matter happened here or there, I myself being present."
+
+The anecdotes at times reached the utmost pitch of obscenity and at such
+times I was displeased to hear Lorand laugh over such jokes as expressed
+contempt for womankind.
+
+I was only calmed by the thought that "our own" were long in bed--it was
+after midnight--and so it were impossible for mother or someone else out
+of curiosity to be listening at the keyhole, waiting for Lorand's voice.
+
+All at once Lorand took over the lead in the conversation.
+
+He introduced the question "Which is the most celebrated drinking nation
+in the world?"
+
+He himself for his part immediately said he considered the Germans were
+the most renowned drinkers.
+
+This assertion naturally met with great national opposition.
+
+They would not surrender the Magyar priority in this respect either.
+
+Two peacefully-inclined spirits interfered, trying to produce a united
+feeling by accepting the Englishman, then the Servian as the first in
+drinking matters--a proviso which naturally did not satisfy either of
+the disputing parties. Lorand, alone against the united opinion of the
+whole company, had the audacity to assert that the Germans were the
+greatest drinkers in the world. He produced celebrated examples to prove
+his theory.
+
+"Listen to me! Once Prince Batthyány sent two barrels of old Göncz wine
+to the Brothers of Hybern. But the duty to be paid on good Magyar wine
+beyond the Lajta[71] was terrible. The recipients would have had to pay
+for the wine twenty gold pieces[72]--a nice sum. So the Brothers, to
+avoid paying and to prevent the wine being lost, drank the contents of
+the two barrels outside the frontier."
+
+[Footnote 71: A river near Pressburg, the boundary between Austria and
+Hungary.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Probably 200 florins.]
+
+Ah, they could produce drinkers three times or four times as great, this
+side of the Lajta!
+
+But Lorand would not give in.
+
+"Well, your namesake, Pépó Henneberg," related Lorand, turning to Gyáli,
+"introduced the custom of drawing a string through the ears of his
+guests, who sat down at a long table with him, and compelled them all to
+drain their beakers to the dregs, whenever he drank, under penalty of
+losing the ends of their ears."
+
+"With us that is impossible, for we have no holes bored in our ears!"
+cried one.
+
+"We drink without compulsion!" replied another.
+
+"The Magyar does all a German can do!"
+
+That assertion, loudly shouted, was general.
+
+"Even draining glasses as they did at Wartburg?" cried Lorand.
+
+"What the devil was the custom at Wartburg?"
+
+"The revellers at Wartburg, when they were in high spirits used to load
+a pistol, and then to fill the barrel to the brim with wine: then they
+cocked the trigger, and drained this curious glass one after another for
+friendship's sake."
+
+(I see you, Lorand!)
+
+"Well, which of you is inclined to follow the German cavaliers'
+example?"
+
+Topándy interrupted.
+
+"I for one am not, and Heaven forbid you should be."
+
+"I am."
+
+--Which remark came from Gyáli, not Lorand.
+
+I looked at him. The fellow had remained sober. He had only tasted the
+wine, while others had drunk it.
+
+"If you are inclined, let us try," said Lorand.
+
+"With pleasure, only you must do it first."
+
+"I shall do so, but you will not follow me."
+
+"If you do it, I shall too. But I think you will not do it before me."
+
+One idea flashed clearly before me and chilled my whole body. I saw all:
+I understood all now: the mystery of ten years was no longer a secret to
+me: I saw the refugee, I saw the pursuer, and I had both in my hand, in
+such an iron grip, as if God had lent me for the moment the hand of an
+archangel.
+
+You just talk away.
+
+Lorand's face was a feverish red.
+
+"Well, well, you scamp! Let us bet, if you like."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Twenty bottles of champagne, which we shall drink too."
+
+"I accept the wager."
+
+"Whoever withdraws from the jest loses the bet."
+
+"Here's the money!"
+
+Both took their purses and placed each a hundred florins on the table.
+
+I too produced my purse and took a crumpled paper out of it:--but it was
+no banknote.
+
+Lorand cried to the waiter.
+
+"Take my pistols out of my trunk."
+
+The waiter placed both before him.
+
+"Are they really loaded?" inquired Gyáli.
+
+"Look into the barrels, where the steel head of the bullets are smiling
+at you."
+
+Gyáli found it wiser to believe than to look into the pistol barrels.
+
+"Well, the bet stands; whichever of us cannot drink out his portion pays
+for the champagne."
+
+Lorand seized his glass to pour the red wine that was in it into the
+pistol-barrel.
+
+The whole company was silent: some agonized restraint ruled their
+intoxicated nerves: every eye was rested on Lorand as if they wished to
+check the mad jest before its completion. On Topándy's forehead heavy
+beads of sweat glistened.
+
+I quietly placed my hand on Lorand's, in which he held the weapon and
+amid profound silence asked:
+
+"Would it not be good to draw lots to see who shall do it first?"
+
+Both looked at me in confusion when I mentioned drawing lots.
+
+Could their secret have been discovered?
+
+"Only if you draw lots about it," I continued quietly, "don't omit to be
+quite sure about the writing of each other's name, lest there be a
+repetition of that farce which took place ten years ago, when you drew
+lots as to who was to dance with the white elephant."
+
+I saw Gyáli turn as white as paper.
+
+"What farce?" he panted, beginning to rise from his chair.
+
+"You always were a jesting boy, Pepi: at that time you made me draw lots
+for you, and told me to put both the one I had drawn and the other in
+the grate: but instead of doing so I threw the dance programme in the
+fire, and put those papers aside and kept them. You, instead of your
+own, wrote my brother's name on the paper, and so whichever was drawn,
+Lorand Áronffy must have come out of the hat. Look, the two lottery
+tickets are still in my possession, those same two pieces of paper, a
+sheet of note paper torn in two, both with the same name on them, and on
+the other side the writing of Madame Bálnokházy."
+
+Gyáli rose from his seat like one who had seen a ghost, and gazed at me
+with a look of stone.
+
+Yet I had not threatened him. I had merely playfully jested with him. I
+smilingly spread out the two pieces of lilac-colored papers, which so
+exactly fitted together.
+
+But Lorand with flashing eyes glared at him, and as the dignified
+upright figure stood opposite him, threw the contents of the glass he
+held in his hand into the fellow's face, so that the red wine splashed
+all over his laced white waistcoat.
+
+Gyáli with his serviette wiped from his face the traces of insult and
+with dignified coldness said:
+
+"With men in such a condition no dispute is possible. We cannot answer
+the taunts of drunken men."
+
+Therewith he began to back towards the door.
+
+Everybody, in amazement at this scene, allowed him to go: for all the
+world as if everyone had suddenly begun to be sober, and at the first
+surprise no one knew how to think what should now happen.
+
+But I ... I was not drunk. I had no need to become sober.
+
+I leaped up from my place, with one bound came up to the departing man,
+and seized him before he could reach the door, just as a furious tiger
+fastens up a miserable dormouse.
+
+"I am not drunk! I have never drunk wine, you know," I cried losing all
+self-restraint, and pressing him against the wall so that he shivered
+like a bat.--"I shall be the one to throw that cursed forgery in your
+face, miserable wretch!"
+
+And I know well that that single blow would have been the last chapter
+in his life--which would have been a great pity, not as far as he was
+concerned, but for my own sake--had not Heaven sent a guardian angel to
+check me in my wickedness.
+
+Suddenly someone behind seized the hand raised to strike. I looked back,
+and my arm dropped useless at my side.
+
+It was Fanny who had seized my arm.
+
+"Desi," cried my darling in a frightened voice: "This hand is mine: you
+must not defile it."
+
+I felt she was right. I allowed my uncontrollable anger to be overcome;
+with my left hand I threw the trembling wretch out of the door--I do not
+know where he fell--and then I turned round to clasp Fanny to my breast.
+
+Already mother and grandmother were in the room.
+
+The poor women had spent the whole evening of agony in the neighboring
+room, keeping perfectly still, so as not to betray their presence there,
+with the intention of listening for Lorand's voice: and they had
+trembled through that last awful scene, of which they could hear every
+word. When they heard my cry of rage, they could restrain themselves no
+longer, but rushed in, and threw themselves among the revellers with a
+cry of "My son, my son."
+
+Everyone rose at their honored presence: this solemn picture, two
+kneeling women embracing a son snatched from the jaws of death.
+
+The surprising horror had reduced everyone to soberness: all tipsiness,
+all winy drowsiness, had passed away.
+
+"Lorand, Lorand," sobbed mother, pressing him frantically to her breast,
+while grandmother, unable to speak or to weep, clutched his hand.
+
+"Oh Lorand, dear...."
+
+But Lorand grasped the two ladies' hands and led them towards me.
+
+"It is him you must embrace, not me: his is the triumph."
+
+Then he caught sight of that sweet angel bowed upon my shoulder, who was
+still holding my hand in hers: he recollected those words with which
+Fanny a moment before had betrayed our secret. "This hand is mine"--and
+he smiled at me.
+
+"Is that the way matters stand? Then you have your reward in your hands,
+... and you can leave these two weeping women to me."
+
+Therewith he threw himself on his face upon the floor before them, and
+embracing their feet kissed the dust beneath them.
+
+"Oh, my darlings! My loved ones."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THAT LETTER
+
+
+What those who had so long waited, spoke and thought during that night
+cannot be written down. These are sacred matters, not to be exposed to
+the public gaze.
+
+Lorand confessed all, and was pardoned for all.
+
+And he was as happy in that pardon as a child who had been again
+received into favor.
+
+Lorand indeed felt as if he were beginning his life now at the point
+where ten years before it had been interrupted, and as if all that
+happened during ten years had been merely a dream, of which only the
+heavy beard of manhood remained.
+
+It was very late in the morning when he and Desiderius woke. Sleep had
+proved very pleasant for once.
+
+Sleep--and in place of death too.
+
+"Well old fellow," said Lorand to his brother, "I owe you one more
+adventurous joke, with which I wish to surprise you."
+
+The threat was uttered so good-humoredly that Desiderius had no cause to
+be frightened, but he said quietly: "Tell me what it is."
+
+Lorand laughed.
+
+"I shall not go home with you now."
+
+"Well, and what shall you do?" inquired Desiderius quite as astonished
+as Lorand had expected.
+
+"I shall escape from you," he said, shaking his head good-humoredly.
+
+"Ah, that is an audacious enterprise! But tell me, where are you going
+to escape to?"
+
+"Ha, ha! I shall not merely tell you where I am going, but I shall take
+you with me to look after me henceforward as you have done hitherto."
+
+"You are very wise to do so.--May I know whither?"
+
+"Back to Lankadomb."
+
+"To Lankadomb? Perhaps you have lost something there?"
+
+"Yes, my senses.--Well don't look at me so curiously as if you wished to
+ask whether I ever had any. You and this little girl quite understand
+each other. I see that mother and grandmother too are sufficiently in
+love with her to give her to you: but my blessing has yet to come, old
+man--that you have not received yet."
+
+"Hope assures me that perhaps I have softened your hard heart."
+
+"Not all at once. I shall tell you something."
+
+"I am all ears."
+
+"In my will I passed over all my worldly wealth to you: the sealed
+letter is in your possession. As far as I know you, I believe I shall
+cause you endless joy by asking back my will from you, and telling you
+that you will now be poorer by half your wealth, for the other half I
+require."
+
+"I know that without waiting for you to teach me. But what has your old
+testament to do with the gospel of my heart?"
+
+"Oh your head must be very dense, old fellow, if you don't understand
+yet. Then listen to my ultimatum. I refuse to give my consent to your
+marrying--before me."
+
+Desiderius threw himself on Lorand's neck; he understood now.
+
+"There is somebody you love?"
+
+Lorand assented with a smile.
+
+"Of course there is. But--you know how that blackguard (by Jove, you
+gave him a powerful shaking!) confused my calculation for an entire
+life. I could not make her understand about that of which the
+continuation begins only to-day. Still, all the more reason for
+hastening. A half hour is necessary to tell another all about it, half
+an hour in a carriage: they will remain here meanwhile. We shall fly to
+Topándy at Lankadomb: by evening we shall have finished all, and
+to-morrow we shall be here again, like two flying madmen, who are
+striving to see which can carry the other off more rapidly towards the
+goal--where happiness awaits him. I shall drive the horses to Lankadomb,
+you can drive them back."
+
+"Poor horses!"
+
+Desiderius did not dare to go himself with these glad tidings to his
+mother. He entrusted Fanny to prepare her for them--perhaps so much
+delight would have killed her.
+
+They told her Lorand had official business which called him to Lankadomb
+for one day; and they started together with Topándy.
+
+Topándy was let into the secret, and considered it his duty to go with
+Lorand--he might be required to give the bride away.
+
+The world around Lorand had changed--at least so he thought, but the
+change in reality was within him.
+
+He was indeed born again: he had become quite a different man from the
+Lorand of yesterday. The noisy good-humor of yesterday badly concealed
+the resolve that despised death, just as the dreaminess of to-day openly
+betrayed the happiness that filled his heart.
+
+The whole way Desiderius could scarcely get one word from him, but he
+might easily read in his face all upon which he was meditating: and if
+he did utter once or twice encomiums on the beautiful May fields,
+Desiderius could see that his heart too felt spring within it.
+
+How beautiful it was to live again, to be happy and gay, to have hopes,
+expect good in the future, to love and be proud in one's love, to go
+with head erect, to be all in all to someone!
+
+At noon they arrived at Lankadomb.
+
+Czipra ran out to meet them and clapped her hands.
+
+"You were driven away; how did you get back so soon? Well no one
+expected you to dinner."
+
+Lorand was the first to leap off the cart, and tenderly offered his hand
+to the girl.
+
+"We have arrived, my dear Czipra. Even if you did not expect us to
+dinner, you can give us some of your own."
+
+"Oh, no," said the girl in a whisper, blushing at the same time, "I have
+been accustomed to eat at the servant's table, when you were not at
+home, and you have brought a guest too. Who is that gentleman?"
+
+"My brother, Desi, a very good fellow. Kiss him, Czipra."
+
+Czipra did not wait to be told twice, and Desiderius returned the kiss.
+
+"Now give him a room: to-day we shall stay here. Send up water to my
+room, we have got very dusty on the way, although we wished to be
+handsome to-day."
+
+"Indeed?"--Czipra took Desiderius' hand, and as she led him to his room,
+asked him the whole history of his life: where he lived: why he had not
+visited Lorand sooner: was he married already, and would he ever come
+back there again?
+
+Desiderius had learned from Lorand's letters about Czipra that he might
+readily answer any question the poor girl might ask, and might at first
+sight tell her every secret of his heart. Czipra was delighted.
+
+Lorand, however, did not wait for Topándy, who was coming behind, but
+rushed to his room.
+
+That letter, that letter!--it had been on his mind the whole way.
+
+His first duty was to take it out of the closed drawer and read it over.
+
+He did not deliberate long now whether to break the seal or not: and the
+envelope tore in his hand, as the seal would not yield.
+
+And then he read the following words:
+
+"SIR:
+
+"That minute, in which I learned your name, raised a barrier for ever
+between us. The recollections which are a burden upon you, cannot be
+continued by an alliance between us. You who dragged my mother down
+into misfortune, and then faithlessly deserted her, cannot insure me
+happiness, or expect faithfulness from me. I shall weep over Bálint
+Tátray, as my departed to whom my dream gave being, and whom cold truth
+has buried; but Lorand Áronffy I do not know. It is my duty to tell you
+so, and if you are, as I believe, a man of honor, you will consider it
+your duty, should we ever meet in life, never again to make mention of
+what was Bálint Tátray.
+                        Good-bye,
+                                                            "MELANIE."
+
+Lorand fell back in his chair broken-hearted.
+
+That was the contents of the letter he had kissed--the letter which, on
+the threshold of the house of death he had not dared to open, lest the
+happiness which would beam upon him should shake the firmness of his
+tread. Ah, they wished to make death easy for him! To write such a
+letter to him! To utter such words to one she had loved!...
+
+"Why, she is right. I was not the Joseph of the Bible: but does not love
+begin with pardon? Did I blame her for the possession of that ring she
+let fall in the water? And from whom could she know that my crime was
+worse than that which hung round that ring?
+
+"And if I were steeped in that crime with which she charges me, how can
+an angel, who may know nothing of what happens in hell, put such a
+thought in these cold-blooded words.
+
+"They wished to kill me.
+
+"They wished to close the door behind me, as Johanna of Naples did to
+her husband, when he was struggling with his assassins.
+
+"And they wished to wash clean the murderer's hands, throwing upon me
+the charge of having killed myself because my love was despised.
+
+"They knew everything well, they calculated all with cold mercilessness.
+They waited for the hour to come, and whetted the knife before I took it
+in my hands.
+
+"And yet I can never hate her! She has plunged the dagger into my heart,
+and I remember only the kiss she gave...."
+
+That moment he felt a quiet pressure on his shoulder.
+
+Confused, he looked up. Czipra was standing behind him. The poor gypsy
+girl could not allow anyone else to wait on Lorand: she had herself
+brought him the water.
+
+The girl's face betrayed a tender fear: she might long have been
+observing him, unknown to him.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked in trembling anxiety.
+
+Lorand could not speak. He merely showed her the letter he had read.
+
+Czipra could not understand the writing. She did not know how one could
+poison another with dumb letters, could wound his heart to its depths,
+and murder it. She merely saw that the letter made Lorand ill.
+
+She recognized that rose-colored paper, those fine characters.
+
+"Melanie wrote that."
+
+By way of reply Lorand in bitter inexpressible pain turned his gaze
+towards the letter.
+
+And the gypsy girl knew what that gaze said, knew what was written in
+that letter: with a wild beast's passion she tore it from Lorand's hand
+and passionately shred it into fragments and cast it on the ground, then
+trampled upon its pieces, as one tramples upon running spiders.
+
+Thereupon she hid her face in her hands and wept in Lorand's stead.
+
+Lorand went towards her and taking her hand, said sadly:
+
+"You see, such are not the gypsy girls whose faces are brown, who are
+born under tents, and who cut cards, and make that their religion."
+
+Then with Czipra's hand in his he walked long up and down his room
+without a word. Neither knew what to say to the other. They merely
+reflected how they could comfort each other's sorrow--and could not find
+a way.
+
+This melancholy reverie was interrupted by Topándy's arrival.
+
+"Now I beg you, Czipra, if you love me--" said Lorand.
+
+If she loved him?
+
+"To say not a single word to anybody of what you have seen. Nothing has
+happened to me.--If from this moment you ever see me sad, ask me 'What
+is the matter?' and I shall confess to you. But _that_ pale face shall
+never be among those for which I mourn."
+
+Czipra was rejoiced at these words.
+
+"Let us show cheerful faces before my uncle and brother. Let us be
+good-humored. No one shall see the sting within us."
+
+"And who knows, perhaps the bee will die for it--" Czipra departed with
+a cheery face as she said that. At the door she turned back once more:
+
+"The cards told me all that last night. Till midnight I kept cutting
+them. But the murderer always threatens you albeit the green-robed girl
+always defends you.--See, I am so mad--but there is nothing else in
+which I can believe."
+
+"There will be something else, Czipra," said Lorand. "Now I am going
+away with my brother to celebrate his marriage, then I shall return
+again."
+
+Thereupon there was no more need to insist on Czipra's being
+good-humored the whole day. Her good-humor came voluntarily.
+
+Poor girl, so little was required to make her happy.
+
+Lorand, as soon as Czipra was gone, collected from the floor the torn,
+trampled paper fragments, carefully put them together on the table,
+until the note was complete, then read it over once again.
+
+Before the door of his room he heard steps, and gay talk intermingled
+with laughter. Topándy and Desiderius had come to see him. Lorand blew
+the fragments off the table: they flew in all directions: he opened the
+door and joined the group, a third smiling figure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE UNCONSCIOUS PHANTOM
+
+
+What were they laughing at so much?
+
+"Do you know what counsel Czipra gave us?" said Topándy. "As she did not
+expect us to dinner, she advised us to go to Sárvölgyi's, where there
+will be a great banquet to-day. They are expecting somebody."
+
+"Who will probably not arrive in time for dinner," added Desiderius.
+
+Czipra joined the conversation from the extreme end of the corridor.
+
+"The old housekeeper from Sárvölgyi's was here to visit me. She asked
+for the loan of a pie-dish and ice: for Mr. Gyáli is expected to arrive
+to-day from Szolnok."
+
+"Bravo!" was Topándy's remark.
+
+"And as I see you have left the young gentleman behind, just go
+yourselves to taste Mistress Boris's pies, or she will overwhelm me
+again with curses."
+
+"We shall go, Czipra," said Lorand: "Yes, yes, don't laugh at the idea.
+Get your hat, Desi: you are well enough dressed for a country call: let
+us go across to Sárvölgyi's."
+
+"To Sárvölgyi's?" said Czipra, clasping her hands, and coming closer to
+Lorand. "You will go to Sárvölgyi's?"
+
+"Not just for Sárvölgyi's sake," said Lorand very seriously,--"who is in
+other respects a very righteous pious fellow; but for the sake of his
+guests, who are old friends of Desi's.--Why, I have not yet told you,
+Desi. Madame Bálnokházy and her daughter are staying here with Sárvölgyi
+on a matter of some legal business. You cannot overlook them, if you
+are in the same village with them."
+
+"I might go away without seeing them," replied Desiderius indifferently;
+"but I don't mind paying them a visit, lest they should think I had
+purposely avoided them. Have you spoken with them already?"
+
+"Oh yes. We are on very good terms with one another."
+
+Lorand sacrificed the caution he had once exercised in never writing a
+word to Desiderius about Melanie. It seemed Desi did not run after her
+either; what had his childish ideal come to? Another ideal had taken its
+place.
+
+"Besides, seeing that Gyáli is the ladies' solicitor, and seeing that
+you, my dear friend, have '_manupropria_' despatched Gyáli out of
+Szolnok--he immediately took the post-chaise and is already in Pest, or
+perhaps farther--it is your official duty to give an explanation to
+those who are waiting for their solicitor and to tell them where you
+have put their man--if you have courage enough to do so."
+
+Desiderius at first drew back, but later his calm confidence and courage
+immediately confirmed his resolution.
+
+"What do you say,--if I have courage? You shall soon see. And you shall
+see, too, what a lawyer-like defence I am able to improvise. I wager
+that if I put the case before them, they will give the verdict in our
+favor."
+
+"Do so, I beseech you," said Lorand, soliciting his brother with
+humorously clasped hands.
+
+"I shall do so."
+
+"Well be quick: get your hat, and let us go."
+
+Desiderius with determined steps went in search of his hat.
+
+Czipra laughed after him. She saw how ridiculous it would be. He was
+going to calumniate the bridegroom before the bride. With what words she
+herself did not know: but she gathered from the gentlemen's talk that
+Gyáli had been driven from the company the night before for some
+flagrant dishonor. Since two days she too had detested that fellow.
+
+Lorand meanwhile gazed after his brother with eyes flashing with a
+desire for vengeance.
+
+Topándy grasped Lorand's hand.
+
+"If I believed in cherubim, I should say: a persecuting angel had taken
+up his abode in you, to whisper that idea to you. Do you know,
+Desiderius is the very double of what your father was when he came home
+from the academy: the same face, figure, depth of voice, the same
+lightning fire in his eyes, and that same murderous frown, and you are
+now going to take that boy before Sárvölgyi that he may relate an awful
+story of a man who wished to murder a good friend in the most devilish
+manner, just as he did!"
+
+"Hush! Desi of that knows not a word."
+
+"So much the better. A living being, who does not suspect that to the
+man whom he is visiting, he is the most horrible phantom from the other
+world! The murdered father, risen up in the son!--It will make me
+acknowledge one of the ideas I have hitherto denied--the existence of
+hell."
+
+Desiderius returned.
+
+"Look at us, my dear Czipra," said Lorand to the girl, who was always
+fluttering around him: "are we handsome enough? Will the eyes of the
+beautiful rest upon us?"
+
+"Go," answered Czipra, pushing Lorand in playful anger, "as if you
+didn't know yourselves! Rather take care you don't get lost there. Such
+handsome fellows are readily snapped up."
+
+"No, Czipra, we shall return to you," said Lorand, pressing Czipra so
+tenderly to him, that Desiderius considered as superfluous any further
+questions as to why Lorand had brought him there. He approved his
+brother's choice: the girl was beautiful, natural, good-humored and, so
+it seemed, in love with him. What more could be required?--"Don't be
+afraid, Czipra; nobody's beautiful blue eyes shall detain us there."
+
+"I was not afraid for your sakes of beautiful eyes," replied Czipra,
+"but of Mistress Boris's pies:--such pies cannot be got here."
+
+Thereat all three laughed--finally Desiderius too, though he did not
+know what kind of mythological monster such a sadly bewitched cake might
+be, which came from Mistress Boris's hand.
+
+Topándy embraced the two young fellows. He was sorry he could not
+accompany them, but begged Lorand notwithstanding to remain as long as
+he liked.
+
+Czipra followed them to the door. Lorand there grasped her hand, and
+tenderly kissed it. The girl did not know whether to be ashamed or
+delighted.
+
+Thrice did Lorand turn round, before they reached Sárvölgyi's home, to
+wave his hand to Czipra.
+
+Desiderius did not require any further enlightenment on that point. He
+thought he understood all quite well.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mistress Boris meanwhile had a fine job at her house.
+
+"He was a fool who conceived the idea of ordering a banquet for an
+indefinite time:--not to know whether he, for whom one must wait, will
+come at one, at two, at three,--in the evening, or after midnight."
+
+Twenty times she ran out to the door to see whether he was coming
+already or not. Every sound of carriage wheels, every dog-bark enticed
+her out into the road, from whence she returned each time more furious,
+pouring forth invectives over the spoiling of all her dishes.
+
+"Perhaps that gypsy girl again! Devil take the gypsy girl! She is quite
+capable of giving this guest a breakfast there first, and then letting
+him go. It would be madness surely, seeing that the town gentleman is
+the fiancé of the young lady here: but the gypsy girl too has cursed
+bright eyes. Besides she is very cunning, capable of bewitching any man.
+The damned gypsy girl,--her spells make her cakes always rise
+beautifully, while mine wither away in the boiling fat--although they
+are made of the same flour, and the same yeast."
+
+It would not have been good for any one of the domestics to show herself
+within sight of Mistress Borcsa[73] at that moment.
+
+[Footnote 73: Boris.]
+
+"Well, my master has again burdened me with a guest who thinks the clock
+strikes midday in the evening. It was a pity he did not invite him for
+yesterday, in that case he might have turned up to-day. Why, I ought to
+begin cooking everything afresh.
+
+"I may say, he is a fine bridegroom for a young lady, who lets people
+wait for him. If I were the bridegroom of such a beautiful young lady, I
+should come to dinner half a day earlier, not half a day later. There
+will be nice scenes, if he has his cooking ever done at home. But of
+course at Vienna that is not the case, everybody lives on restaurant
+fare. There one may dine at six in the afternoon. At any rate, what
+midday diners leave is served up again for the benefit of later
+comers:--thanks, very much."
+
+Finally the last bark which Mistress Boris did not deign even to notice
+from the kitchen, heralded the approach of manly footsteps in the
+verandah: and when in answer to the bell Mistress Boris rushed to the
+door, to her great astonishment she beheld, not the gentleman from
+Vienna, but the one from across the way, with a strange young gentleman.
+
+"May I speak with the master?" inquired Lorand of the fiery Amazon.
+
+"Of course. He is within. Haven't you brought the gentleman from
+Vienna?"
+
+"He will only come after dinner," said Lorand, who dared to jest even
+with Mistress Boris.
+
+Then they went in, leaving Mistress Boris behind, the prey of doubt.
+
+"Was it real or in jest? What do _they_ want here? Why did they not
+bring him whom they took away? Will they remain here long?"
+
+The whole party had gathered in the grand salon.
+
+They too thought that the steps they heard brought the one they were
+expecting--and very impatiently too.
+
+Gyáli had informed them he would take a carriage and return, as soon as
+he could escape from the revelry at Szolnok. Melanie and her mother were
+dressed in silk: on Melanie's wavy curls could be seen the traces of a
+mother's careful hand: and Madame Bálnokházy herself made a very
+impressive picture, while Sárvölgyi had put on his very best.
+
+They must have prepared for a very great festival here to-day!
+
+But when the door opened before the three figures that courteously
+hastened to greet the new-comer, and the two brothers stepped in, all
+three smiling faces turned to expressions of alarm.
+
+"You still dare to approach me?"--that was Melanie's alarm.
+
+"You are not dead yet?" inquired Madame Bálnokházy's look of Lorand.
+
+"You have risen again?" was the question to be read in Sárvölgyi's fixed
+stare that settled on Desiderius' face.
+
+"My brother, Desiderius,"--said Lorand in a tone of unembarrassed
+confidence, introducing his brother. "He heard from me of the ladies
+being here, so perhaps Mr. Sárvölgyi will pardon us, if, in accordance
+with my brother's request, we steal a few moments' visit."
+
+"With pleasure: please sit down. I am very glad to see you," said
+Sárvölgyi, in a husky tone, as if some invisible hand were choking his
+throat.
+
+"Desiderius has grown a big boy, has he not?" said Lorand, taking a seat
+between Madame Bálnokházy and Melanie, while Desiderius sat opposite
+Sárvölgyi, who could not take his eyes off the lad.
+
+"Big and handsome," affirmed Madame Bálnokházy. "How small he was when
+he danced with Melanie!"
+
+"And how jealous he was of certain persons!"
+
+At these words three people hinted to Lorand not to continue, Madame
+Bálnokházy, Melanie and Desiderius. How indiscreet these country people
+are!
+
+Desiderius found his task especially difficult, after such a beginning.
+
+But Lorand was really in a good humor. The sight of his darling of
+yesterday, dressed in such magnificence to celebrate the day on which
+her poor wretched cast-off lover was to blow his brains out, roused such
+a joy in his heart that it was impossible not to show it in his words.
+So he continued:
+
+"Yes, believe me: the lively scamp was actually jealous of me. He almost
+killed me--yet we are very true to our memories."
+
+Desiderius could not comprehend what madness had come over his brother,
+that he wished to bring him and Melanie together into such a false
+position. Perhaps it would be good to start the matter at once and
+interrupt the conversation.
+
+On Madame Bálnokházy's face could be read a certain contemptuous scorn,
+when she looked at Lorand, as if she would say: "Well, after all, prose
+has conquered the poetry of honor, a man may live after the day of his
+death, if he has only the phlegm necessary thereto. Flight is shameful
+but useful,--yet you are as good as killed for all that."
+
+This scorn would soon be wiped away from that beautiful face.
+
+"Mesdames," said Desiderius in cold tranquillity. "Beyond paying my
+respects, I have another reason which made it my duty to come here. I
+must explain why your solicitor has not returned to-day, and why he will
+not return for some time."
+
+"Great Heavens! No misfortune has befallen him?" cried Madame Bálnokházy
+in nervous trepidation.
+
+"On that point you may be quite reassured, Madame: he is hale and
+healthy; only a slight change in his plans has taken place: he is just
+now flying west instead of east."
+
+"What can be the reason?"
+
+"I am the cause, which drove him away, I must confess."
+
+"You?" said Madame Bálnokházy, astonished.
+
+"If you will allow me, and have the patience for it, I will go very far
+back in history to account for this peculiar climax."
+
+Lorand remarked that Melanie was not much interested to hear what they
+were saying of Gyáli. She was indifferent to him: why, they were already
+affianced.
+
+So he began to say pretty things to her: went into raptures about her
+beautiful curls, her blooming complexion, and various other things which
+it costs nothing to praise.
+
+As long as he had been her lover, he had never told her how beautiful
+she was. She might have understood his meaning. Those whom we flatter we
+no longer love.
+
+Desiderius continued the story he had begun.
+
+"Just ten years have passed since they began to prosecute the young men
+of the Parliament in Pressburg on account of the publication of the
+Parliamentary journal. There was only one thing they could not find out,
+viz:--who it was that originally produced the first edition to be
+copied: at last one of his most intimate friends betrayed the young man
+in question."
+
+"That is ancient history already, my dear boy," said Madame Bálnokházy
+in a tone of indifference.
+
+"Yet its consequences have an influence even to this day; and I beg you
+kindly to listen to my story to the end, and then pass a verdict on it.
+You must know your men."
+
+(What an innocent child Desiderius was! Why, he did not seem even to
+suspect that the man of whom he spoke was the designated son-in-law of
+Madame Bálnokházy.)
+
+"The one, who was betrayed by his friend, was my brother Lorand, and the
+one who betrayed his friend, was Gyáli."
+
+"That is not at all certain," said Madame. "In such cases appearances
+and passion often prove deceptive mirrors. It is possible that someone
+else betrayed Mr. Áronffy, perhaps some fickle woman, to whom he babbled
+of all his secrets and who handed it on to her ambitious husband as a
+means of supporting his own merits."
+
+"I know positively that my assertion is correct," answered Desiderius,
+"for a magnanimous lady, who guarded my brother with her fairy power,
+hearing of this betrayal from her influential husband, informed Lorand
+thereof in a letter written by her own hand."
+
+Madame Bálnokházy bit her lips. The undeserved compliment smote her to
+the heart. She was the magnanimous fairy, of whom Desiderius spoke, and
+that fickle woman of whom she had spoken herself. The barrister was a
+master of repartee.
+
+Melanie, fortunately, did not hear this, for Lorand just then
+entertained her with a wonderful story: how that, curiously enough, when
+the young lady had been at Topándy's, the hyacinths had been covered
+with lovely clusters of fairy bells, and how, one week later, their
+place had been taken by ugly clusters of berries. How could flowers
+change so suddenly?
+
+"Very well," said Madame Bálnokházy, "let us admit that when Gyáli and
+Áronffy were students together, the one played the traitor on the other.
+What happened then?"
+
+"I only learned last night what really happened. That evening I was on a
+visit to Lorand, and found Gyáli there. They appeared to be joking. They
+playfully disputed as to who, at the farewell dance, was to be the
+partner of that very honorable lady, who may often be seen in your
+company. The two students disputed in my presence as to who was to dance
+with the 'aunt.'"
+
+"Of course, as a piece of unusual good fortune."
+
+"Naturally. As neither wished to give the other preference, they finally
+decided to entrust the verdict to lot; on the table was a small piece of
+paper, the only writing material to be found in Lorand's room after a
+careful rummaging, as all the rest had just been burned. This piece of
+lilac-colored paper was torn in two, and both wrote one name: these two
+pieces they put in a hat and called upon me to draw out one. I did so
+and read out Lorand's name."
+
+"Do you intend to relate how your brother enjoyed himself at that
+dance?"
+
+Melanie had not heard anything.
+
+"I have no intention of saying a single word more about that day--and I
+shall at once leap over ten years. But I must hasten to explain that the
+drawing had nothing to do with dancing with the 'aunt' but was the
+lottery of an 'American duel' caused by a conflict between Gyáli and
+Lorand."
+
+Desiderius did not remark how the coppery spots on Sárvölgyi's face
+swelled at the words "American duel," and then how they lost their color
+again.
+
+"One moment, my dear boy," interrupted Madame Bálnokházy. "Before you
+continue: allow me to ask one question: is it customary to speak in
+society of duels that have not yet taken place?"
+
+"Certainly, if one of the principals has by his cowardly conduct made
+the duel impossible."
+
+"Cowardly conduct?" said Madame Bálnokházy, darting a piercing side
+glance at Lorand. "That applies to you."
+
+But Lorand was just relating to Melanie how the day-before-yesterday,
+when the beautiful moonlight shone upon the piano, which had remained
+open as the young lady had left it, soft fairy voices began suddenly to
+rise from it. Though that was surely no spirit playing on the keys, but
+Czipra's tame white weasel that, hunting night moths, ran along them.
+
+"Yes," said Desiderius in answer to the lady. "One of the principals who
+accepted the condition gave evidence of such conduct on that occasion as
+must shut him out from all honorable company. Gyáli wrote in forged
+writing on that ticket the name of Lorand instead of his own."
+
+Madame Bálnokházy incredulously pursed her lips.
+
+"How can you prove that?"
+
+"I did not cast into the fire, as Gyáli bade me, the two tickets, but
+in their stead the dance programme I had brought with me, the two
+tickets I put away and have kept until to-day, suspecting that perhaps
+there might be some rather important reason for this calculating
+slyness."
+
+"Pardon me; but a very serious charge is being raised against an absent
+person, who cannot defend himself, and to defend whom is therefore the
+duty of the next and nearest person, even at the price of great
+indulgence. Have you any proof, any authentic evidence, that either one
+of the tickets you have kept is forged?"
+
+Madame Bálnokházy had gone to great extremes in doubting the
+faithfulness and truth-telling of a man,--but rather too far. She had to
+deal with a barrister.
+
+"The similarity admits of no doubt, Madame. Since these two slips are
+nothing but two halves that fit together, of that same letter in which
+Lorand's good-hearted fairy informed him of Gyáli's treachery; on the
+opposite side of the slips is still to be seen the handwriting of that
+deeply honored lady: the date and watermark are still on them."
+
+Madame's bosom heaved with anger. This youth of twenty-three had
+annihilated her just as calmly, as he would have burnt that piece of
+paper of which they were speaking.
+
+Desiderius quietly produced his pocket-book and rummaged for the fatal
+slips of paper.
+
+"Never mind. I believe it," panted Madame Bálnokházy, whose face in that
+moment was like a furious Medusa head. "I believe what you say. I have
+no doubts about it:" therewith she rose from her seat and turned to the
+window.
+
+Desiderius too rose from his chair, seeing the sitting was interrupted,
+but could not resist the temptation of pouring out the overflowing
+bitterness of his heart before somebody; and, as Madame was displeased
+and Melanie was chatting with Lorand of trifles, he was obliged to
+address his words directly to his only hearer, to Sárvölgyi, who
+remained still sitting, like one enchanted, while his gaze rested ever
+upon Desiderius' face. This face, drunken with rage and terror, could
+not tear itself from the object of its fears.
+
+"And this fellow has allowed his dearest friend to go through life for
+ten years haunted with the thought of death, has allowed him to hide
+himself in strangers' houses, avoiding his mother's embraces. It did not
+occur to him once to say 'Live on; don't persecute yourself; we were
+children, we have played together. I merely played a joke on you.'..."
+
+Sárvölgyi turned livid with a deathly pallor.
+
+"Sir, you are a Christian, who believes in God, and in those who are
+saints: tell me, is there any torture of hell that could be punishment
+enough for so ruining a youth?"
+
+Sárvölgyi tremblingly strove to raise himself on his quivering hand. He
+thought his last hour had come.
+
+"There is none!" answered Desiderius to himself. "This fellow kept his
+hatred till the last day, and when the final anniversary came, he
+actually sought out his victim to remind him of his awful obligation.
+Oh, sir, perhaps you do not know what a terrible fatality there is in
+this respect in our family? So died grandfather, so it was that our
+dearly loved father left us; so good, so noble-hearted, but who in a
+bitter moment, amidst the happiness of his family turned his hand
+against his own life. At night we stealthily took him out to burial.
+Without prayer, without blessing, we put him down into the crypt, where
+he filled the seventh place; and that night my grandmother, raving,
+cursed him who should occupy the eighth place in the row of
+blood-victims."
+
+Sárvölgyi's face became convulsed like that of a galvanized corpse.
+Desiderius thought deep sympathy had so affected the righteous man and
+continued all the more passionately:
+
+"That fellow, who knew it well, and who was acquainted with our family's
+unfortunate ill-luck, in cold blood led his friend to the eighth coffin,
+to the cursed coffin--with the words 'Lie down there in it!'"
+
+Sárvölgyi's lips trembled as if he would cry "pity: say nothing more!"
+
+"He went with him down to the gate of death, opened the dark door before
+him, and asked him banteringly 'is the pistol loaded?' and when Lorand
+took his place amid the revellers: bade him fulfil his obligation--the
+perjured hound called him to his obligation!"
+
+Sárvölgyi, all pale, rose at this awful scene:--for all the world as if
+Lörincz Áronffy himself had come to relate the history of his own death
+to his murderer.
+
+"Then I seized Lorand's arm with my one hand, and with the other held
+before the wretch's eyes the evidence of his cursed falseness. His evil
+conscience bade him fly. I reached him, seized his throat...."
+
+Sárvölgyi in abject terror sank back in his chair, while Madame
+Bálnokházy, rushing from the window, passionately cried "and killed
+him?"
+
+Desiderius, gazing haughtily at her, answered calmly: "No, I merely cast
+him out from the society of honorable men."
+
+To Lorand it was a savage pleasure to look at those three faces, as
+Desiderius spoke. The dumb passion which inflamed Madame Bálnokházy's
+face, the convulsive terror on the features of the fatal adversary,
+strove with each other to fill his heart with a great delight.
+
+And Melanie? What had she felt during this narration, which made such an
+ugly figure of the man to whom fate allotted her?
+
+Lorand's eyes were intent upon her face too.
+
+The young girl was not so transfixed by the subject of the tale as by
+the speaker. Desiderius in the heat of passion, was twice as handsome as
+he was otherwise. His every feature was lighted with noble passion. Who
+knows--perhaps the beautiful girl was thinking it would be no very
+pleasant future to be the bride of Gyáli after such a scandal! Perhaps
+there returned to her memory some fragments of those fair days at
+Pressburg, when she and Desiderius had sighed so often side by side.
+That boy had been very much in love with his beautiful cousin. He was
+more handsome and more spirited than his brother. Perhaps her thoughts
+were such. Who knows?
+
+At any rate, it is certain that when Desiderius answered Madame's
+question with such calm contempt--"I cast him out, I did not kill
+him,"--on Melanie's face could be remarked a certain radiance, though
+not caused by delight that her fiancé's life had been spared.
+
+Lorand remarked it, and hastened to spoil the smile.
+
+"Certainly you would have killed him, Desi, had not your good angel,
+your dear Fanny, luckily for you, intervened, and grasped your arm,
+saying 'this hand is mine. You must not defile it.'"
+
+The smile disappeared from Melanie's face.
+
+"And now," said Desiderius, addressing his remarks directly to
+Sárvölgyi; "be my judge, sir. What had a man, who with such sly
+deception, with such cold mercilessness, desired to kill, to destroy, to
+induce a heart in which the same blood flows as in mine--to commit a
+crime against the living God, what, I ask, had such a man deserved from
+me? Have I not a right to drive that man from every place, where he
+dares to appear in the light of the sun, until I compel him to walk
+abroad at night when men do not see him, among strangers who do not know
+him;--to destroy him morally with just as little mercy as he displayed
+towards Lorand?--Would that be a crime?"
+
+"Great Heavens! Something has happened to Mr. Sárvölgyi," cried Madame
+Bálnokházy suddenly.
+
+And indeed Sárvölgyi was very pale, his limbs were almost powerless, but
+he did not faint. He put his hands behind him, lest they should remark
+how they trembled, and strove to smile.
+
+"Sir," he said in a hesitating voice, which often refused to serve him:
+"although I have nothing to say against it, yet you have told your story
+at an unfortunate time and in an ill-chosen place:--this young lady is
+Mr. Gyáli's fiancée and to-day we had prepared for the wedding."
+
+"I am heartily glad that I prevented it," said Desiderius, without being
+in the least disturbed at this discovery. "I think I am doing my
+relations a good service by staying them at the point where they would
+have fallen over a precipice."
+
+"You are a master-hand at that," said Madame Bálnokházy with scornful
+bitterness. She remembered how he had done her a service by a similar
+intervention--just ten years ago. "Well, as you have succeeded so
+perfectly in rescuing us from the precipice, perhaps we may hope for the
+honor of your presence at the friendly conclusion of this spoiled
+matrimonial banquet?"
+
+Madame Bálnokházy's wandering life had whetted her cynicism.
+
+It was a direct hint for them to go.
+
+"We are very much obliged for the kind invitation," replied Lorand
+courteously, paying her back in the same coin of sweetness, "but they
+are expecting us at home."
+
+"Hearts too, which one may not trifle with," continued Desiderius.
+
+"Then, of course, we should not think of stealing you away," continued
+Madame Bálnokházy, touched to the quick. "Kindly greet, in our names,
+dear Czipra and dear Fanny. We are very fond indeed of the good girls,
+and wish you much good fortune with them. The arms of Áronffy, too, find
+an explanation therein: the half-moon will in one case mean a
+horse-shoe, in the other a bread-roll. Adieu, dear Lorand! Adieu, dear
+Desi!"
+
+Then arm-in-arm they departed and hurried home to Topándy's house.
+
+Madame's last outburst had thrown Desiderius into an entirely good
+humor. That was the first thing about which he began to converse with
+Topándy. Madame Bálnokházy had congratulated the Áronffy arms on the
+possession of a "horse-shoe" and a "roll," a gypsy girl and a baker's
+daughter!
+
+But Lorand did not laugh at it:--what a fathomless deep hatred that
+woman must treasure in her heart against him, that she could break out
+so! And was she not right that woman who had desired the young man to
+embrace her, and thus embracing her to rush on to the precipice, into
+shame and death, and damnation, if he could love really:--had she no
+right to scorn, him who had fled before the romantic crimes of passion
+and had allowed her to fall alone?
+
+At dinner Desiderius related to Topándy what he had said at Sárvölgyi's.
+His face beamed like that of some young student who was glorying in his
+first duel.
+
+But he could not understand the effect his narration had caused.
+Topándy's face became suddenly more determined, more serious; he gazed
+often at Lorand.
+
+Once Desiderius too looked up at his brother, who was wiping his
+tear-stained eyes with his handkerchief.
+
+"You are weeping?" inquired Desiderius.
+
+"What are you thinking of? I was only wiping my brow. Continue your
+story."
+
+When they rose from table Topándy called Lorand aside.
+
+"This young fellow knows nothing of what I related to you?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing."
+
+"So he has not the slightest suspicion that in that moment he plunged
+the knife into the heart of his father's murderer?"
+
+"No. Nor shall he ever know it. A double mission has been entrusted to
+us, to be happy and to wreak vengeance. Neither of us can undertake both
+at once. He has started to be happy, his heart is full of sweetness, he
+is innocent, unsuspicious, enthusiastic: let him be happy: God forbid
+his days should be poisoned by such agonizing thoughts as will not let
+me rest!--I am enough myself for revenge, embittered as I am from head
+to foot. The secret is known only to us, to grandmother and the Pharisee
+himself. We shall complete the reckoning without the aid of happy men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE DAY OF GLADNESS
+
+
+"Let us go back at once to your darling," said Lorand next morning to
+his brother. "My affair is already concluded."
+
+Desiderius did not ask "how concluded?" but thought it easy to account
+for this speech. It could easily be concluded between Topándy and
+Lorand, as the former was the girl's adopted father: Lorand had only to
+disclose to him everything about which it had been his melancholy duty
+to keep silence until the day of the catastrophe, which he was awaiting,
+had arrived.
+
+Nor could Desiderius suspect that the word "concluded" referred to the
+visit they had paid together to Sárvölgyi. How could he have imagined
+that Melanie, who had been introduced to him as Gyáli's fiancée, had one
+week before filled Lorand's whole soul with a holy light.
+
+And that light had indeed been extinguished forever.
+
+Even if they had not succeeded in murdering Lorand they had made a dead
+man of him, such a dead man as walks, throws himself into the affairs of
+the world, enjoys himself and laughs--who only knows himself the day of
+his death.
+
+Desiderius ventured to ask "When?"
+
+He always thought of Czipra.
+
+Lorand answered lightly:
+
+"When we return."
+
+"Whence?"
+
+"From your wedding."
+
+"Why, you said yours must precede mine."
+
+"You are again playing the advocate!" retorted Lorand. "I referred not
+to the execution, but to the arrangements. My banns have been called
+before yours; that was my desire. Now it is your business to carry your
+affair through before I do mine. Your affair of the heart can easily be
+concluded in three days."
+
+"An excellent explanation! And your marriage requires longer
+preparations?"
+
+"Much longer."
+
+"What obstacle can Czipra present?"
+
+"An obstacle which you know very well: Czipra is still--a heathen. Now
+the first requisite here for marriage is the birth-certificate. You know
+well that Topándy has hitherto brought the poor girl up in an
+uncivilized manner. I cannot present her to mother in this state. She
+must learn to know the principles of religion, and just so much of the
+alphabet as is necessary for a country lady--and you must realize that
+several weeks are necessary for that. That is what we must wait for."
+
+Desiderius had to acknowledge that Lorand's excuse was well-grounded.
+
+And perhaps Lorand was not jesting? Perhaps he thought the poor girl
+loved him with her whole soul, and would be happy to possess these
+fragments of a broken heart. Yet he had not told her anything. Czipra
+had seen him in desperation over that letter: as far as the faithful,
+loving girl was concerned, it would have been merely an insult, if the
+idol of her heart had offered her his hand the next moment, out of mere
+offended pride; and, while she offered him impassioned love, given her
+merely cold revenge in return.
+
+This feeling of revenge must soften. Every impulse guided to the old
+state of things.
+
+Meantime the marriage of Desiderius would be a good influence. He was
+marrying Fanny. The young couple would, during their honeymoon, visit
+Lankadomb: true love was an education in itself: and then--even
+cemeteries grow verdant in spring.
+
+The two young men reached Szolnok punctually at noon.
+
+And thence they returned home.
+
+Home, sweet home! At home in a beloved mother's house. A man visits many
+gay places where people enjoy themselves: finds himself at times in
+glorious palaces; builds himself a nest, and rears a house of his
+own:--but even then some sweet enchantment overcomes his heart when he
+steps over the threshold of that quiet dwelling where a loving mother's
+guardian hand has protected every souvenir of his childhood,--so that he
+finds everything as he left it long ago, and sees and feels that, while
+he has lived through the changing events of a period in his life, that
+loving heart has still clung to that last moment, and that the
+intervening time has been but as the eternal remembrance of one hour
+spent within those walls.
+
+There are his childhood's toys piled up; he would love to sit down once
+more among them, and play with them: there are the books that delighted
+his childhood's days; he would love to read them anew, and learn again
+what he had long forgotten, what was in those days such great knowledge.
+
+Lorand spent a happy week at home, in the course of which Mrs. Fromm
+took Fanny back to Pressburg.
+
+As Desiderius had asked for Fanny's hand, it was only proper that he
+should take his bride away from her parents' house.
+
+One week later the whole Áronffy family started to fetch the bride; only
+Desiderius' mother remained at home.
+
+In the little house in Prince's Avenue the same old faces all awaited
+them, only they were ten years older. Old Márton hastened, as erstwhile,
+to open the carriage door; only his moving crest was as white as that of
+a cockatoo. Father Fromm, too, was waiting at the door, but could no
+longer run to meet his guests, for his left arm and leg were paralyzed:
+he leaned upon a long bony young man, who had spent much pains in trying
+to twist into a moustache by the aid of cunning unguents the few hairs
+on his upper lip, that would not under any circumstances consent to
+grow. It was easy to recognize Henrik in the young fellow who would
+have loved so much to smile, only that cursed waxed moustache would not
+allow his mouth to open very far.
+
+"Welcome, welcome," sounded from all sides. Father Fromm opened his arms
+to receive the grandmother: Henrik leaped on to Desiderius' neck, while
+old Márton slouched up to Lorand, and, nudging him with his elbows, said
+with a humorous smile, "Well, no harm came of it, you see."
+
+"No, old fellow. And I have to thank this good stick for it," said
+Lorand, producing from under his coat Márton's walking stick, for which
+he had had made a beautiful silver handle in place of the previous
+dog's-foot.
+
+The old fellow was beside himself with delight that they thought so much
+of his relics.
+
+"Is it true," he asked, "that you fought two highwaymen with this stick?
+Master Desiderius wrote to say so."
+
+"No, only one."
+
+"And you knocked him down?"
+
+"It was impossible for he ran away. Now I have done my walking, and give
+back the stick with thanks."
+
+But it was not the silver handle that delighted Márton so. He took the
+returned stick into the shop, like some trophy, and related to the
+assistants, how Master Lorand had, with that alone, knocked down three
+highwaymen. He would not have surrendered that stick for a whole
+Mecklenburg full of every kind of cane.
+
+Old Grandmother Fromm, too, was still alive and counted it a great
+triumph that she had just finished the hundredth pair of stockings for
+Fanny's trousseau.
+
+And last, but not least, Fanny, even more beautiful, even more
+amiable!--as if she had not seen Desiderius and his grandmother for an
+eternity!
+
+"Well, you will be our daughter!"
+
+And they all loved Desiderius so.
+
+"What a handsome man he has grown," complimented Grandmother Fromm.
+
+"What a good fellow!"--remarked Mother Fromm.
+
+"What a clever fellow! How learned!" was Father Fromm's encomium.
+
+"And what a muscular rascal!" said Henrik, overcome with astonishment
+that another boy too had grown as large as he. "Do you remember how one
+evening you threw me on to the bed? How angry I was with you then!"
+
+"Do you remember how the first evening you put away the cake for
+Henrik?" said grandmamma. "How you blushed then!"
+
+"Do you remember," interrupted Father Fromm, "the first time you
+addressed me in German? How I laughed at you then!"
+
+"Well, and do you remember me?" said Fanny playfully, putting her hand
+on her fiancé's arm.
+
+"When first you kissed me here," retorted Desiderius, looking into her
+beaming eyes.
+
+"How you feared me then!"
+
+"Well, and do you remember," said the young fellow in a voice void of
+feeling, "when I stood resting against the doorpost, and you came to
+drag my secret out of me. How I loved you then!"
+
+Lorand stepped up to them, and laying his hands on their shoulders, said
+with a sigh:
+
+"Forgive me for standing so long in your path!"
+
+At that everyone's eyes filled with tears, everyone knew why.
+
+Father Fromm, deeply moved, exclaimed:
+
+"How happy I am,--my God!" and then as if he considered his happiness
+too great, he turned to Henrik, "if only you were otherwise! but look,
+my dear boy: nothing has come of him! _fuit negligens_. If he too had
+learned, he would already be an '_archivarius_!' That is what I wanted
+to make of him. What a fine title! An '_archivarius_!' But what has
+become of him? An '_asinus_!' _Quantus asinus_! I ought to have made a
+baker of him. He did not wish to be other, the fool: the '_perversus
+homo_.' Now he is nothing but a '_pistor_.'"
+
+At this grievous charge poor Henrik would have longed to sink into the
+earth for very shame, a longing which would have met with opposition,
+not only from the ground-floor inhabitants, but also from the assistants
+working in the underground cellars.
+
+Lorand took Henrik's part.
+
+"Never mind, Henrik. At any rate in both families there is a
+good-for-nothing who can do nothing except produce bread: I am the
+peasant, you the baker: I thresh the wheat, you bake bread of it: let
+the high and mighty feast on their pride."
+
+Then the common good-humor of the high and mighty put a good tone on the
+conversation. Father Fromm actually made peace though slowly with fate,
+and agreed that it was just as well Henrik could continue his father's
+business. He might find some respite in the fact that at least his
+second child would become a "lady."
+
+Desiderius had a joy in store for him in that he was to meet his
+erstwhile Rector,[74] who was to give away the bride. The old fellow had
+still the same military mien, the same harsh voice, and was still as
+sincerely fond of Desiderius and the two families as ever.
+
+[Footnote 74: The director of the school when he was educated at
+Pressburg.]
+
+Lorand was to be Desiderius' best man.
+
+In this official position he was obliged to stand on the bridegroom's
+left, while the latter swore before the altar, to provide for the
+bride's happiness "till death us do part," receiving in trust a faithful
+hand which even in death would not loosen its hold on his. He was the
+first to praise the bride for repeating after the minister so
+courageously and clearly those words, at which the voices of girls are
+wont to tremble. He was the first to raise his glass to the happy
+couple's health: he opened the ball with the bride: and one day later,
+it was he who took her back on his arm to his mother's home, saying:
+
+"Dear sister-in-law, step into the house from which your calm face has
+driven all signs of mourning: embrace her who awaits you--the good
+mother who has to-day for the first time exchanged her black gown for
+that blue one in which we knew her in days of happiness. Never has bride
+brought a richer dowry to a bridegroom's home, than you have to ours.
+God bless you for it."
+
+And even Lorand did not know how much that hand which pressed his so
+gently had done for him.
+
+It is the fate of such deeds to succeed and remain obscure.
+
+"Let the children spend their happy honeymoon in the country," was the
+opinion of the elder lady. "They must grow accustomed to being their own
+masters, too."
+
+But the idea met with the most strenuous opposition from Desiderius'
+mother and Fanny. The mother's prayers were so beautiful, the bride so
+irresistible, that the other two, the grandmother and Lorand, finally
+allowed themselves to be persuaded, and agreed that the mother should
+stay with Desiderius.
+
+"But we two must leave," whispered grandmother to Lorand.
+
+She had already noticed that Lorand's face was not fit to be present in
+that peaceful life.
+
+His gaiety was only for others: a grandmother's eyes could not be
+deceived.
+
+While the others were engaged with their own happiness, the old lady
+took Lorand's hand and, without a word of "whither," they went down
+together to the garden, to the stream flowing beside the garden: to the
+melancholy house built on the bank of the stream.
+
+Ten years had passed and the creeper had again crawled over the crypt
+door: the green leaves covered the motto. The two juniper trees had
+bowed their green branches together over the cupola.
+
+They stayed there, her head leaning on his bosom.
+
+How much they must have said to one another, tacitly, without a single
+word! How they must have understood each other's unspoken thoughts!
+
+Deep silence reigned around: but within, inside the closed, rusted,
+creeper-covered door, it seemed as if someone beckoned with invisible
+finger, saying to the elder boy, "one great debt is not yet paid."
+
+One hour later they returned to the house, where they were welcomed by
+boisterous voices of noisy gladness--master and servant were all merry
+and rejoicing.
+
+"I must hasten on my way," said Lorand to his mother.
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"Back to Lankadomb."
+
+"You will bring me a new joy."
+
+"Yes, a new joy for you, mother,--and for you, too," he said pressing
+his grandmother's hand.
+
+She understood what that handclasp meant.
+
+The murderer lived still.--The account was not yet balanced! Lorand
+kissed his happy relations. The old lady accompanied him to the
+carriage, where she kissed his forehead.
+
+"Go."
+
+And in that kiss there was the weight of a blessing that urged him to
+his difficult duty.
+
+"Go--and wreak vengeance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE MAD JEST
+
+
+Let us leave the happy ones to rejoice.
+
+Let us follow that other youth, in whom all that sweet strength for
+action, which might have brought a mutually-loving heart into the
+ecstasy of happiness, had changed into a bitter passion, capable of
+driving a mutually-hating soul to destruction.
+
+It was evening when he reached Lankadomb.
+
+Topándy was already very impatient. Czipra informed him she would not
+give Lorand even time to rest himself, but took him at once with her to
+the laboratory, where they had been wont to be together, to study alone
+the mysteries of mankind and nature.
+
+The old fellow seemed to be in an extraordinarily good humor, which in
+his case was generally a sign of excitement.
+
+"Well, my dear boy," he said, "I have succeeded in getting myself
+tangled up in a mess. I will explain it to you. I have always desired to
+make the acquaintance of the county prison by reason of some meritorious
+stupidity; so finally I have committed something which will aid my
+purpose."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Yes, indeed:--for two years at least. Ha ha! I have perpetrated such a
+mad jest that I am myself entirely contented. Of course they will
+imprison me, but that does not matter."
+
+"What have you done now, uncle?"
+
+"Just listen, it is a long story. First I must begin by saying that
+Melanie is already married."
+
+"So much the better."
+
+"I only hope it is for her--for me it is. But it is the turning-point
+of my fate too: so just listen to the end, to all the little trifling
+incidents of the tale--as Mistress Boris related them to Czipra, and
+Czipra to me. They all belong to the complete picture."
+
+"I am all ears," said Lorand, sitting down, and determining to show a
+very indifferent face when they related before him the tale of Melanie's
+marriage.
+
+"Well, after you left here, they knowing nothing of your departure,
+Madame Bálnokházy said to her daughter: 'Just for mere obstinacy's sake
+you must marry Gyáli: let these men see how much we care for their
+fables!'--therewith she wrote a letter herself to Gyáli to come back
+immediately to Lankadomb, and show himself: they were awaiting him with
+open arms. He must not be afraid of the brothers Áronffy. He must look
+into their faces as behooved a man of dignity. To provide against any
+possible insults, he must protect himself with a couple of
+pocket-pistols: such things he must always carry in his pocket, to
+display beneath the nose of anyone who attempted to frighten him with
+his gigantic stature!--Gyáli shortly appeared in the village again, and
+very ostentatiously drove up and down before my window, driving the
+horses himself with the ladies sitting behind, as if he hoped to take
+the greatest revenge upon me in this way. I merely said: 'If you are
+satisfied with him, it is nothing to me.' It seems that in the world of
+to-day the ladies like the man, upon whom others have spat, whom others
+have insulted and kicked out!--they know all--well, I had no wish to
+quarrel with their taste.
+
+"I determined just for that reason not to do anything mad. I would be
+clever. I would look down upon the world's madness with contemplative
+philosophy, and merely carry out the clever jest of annulling my
+previous will in which I had made Melanie my heiress, and which had been
+stored away in the county archive room, making another which I shall
+keep here at home, in which not a single mention is made of my niece.
+
+"The wedding was solemnized with great pomp.
+
+"Sárvölgyi did not complain of the expense incurred. He thought to
+revenge himself on me. He collected all the friends he could from the
+vicinity: I too received a lithographed invitation. Look at that!"
+
+Topándy took the vellum from his pocket-book and handed it to Lorand.
+
+     DEAR MR. TOPÁNDY:
+
+     It will give me great pleasure if you and your nephew Lorand
+     Áronffy will accept our invitation to the wedding of my daughter
+     Melanie and Joseph Gyáli, at Mr. Sárvölgyi's house.
+
+     EMILIA BÁLNOKHÁZY.
+
+"Keep half for yourself."
+
+"Thanks: I don't want even the whole."
+
+"Well, it just happened to be Sunday. Sárvölgyi chose that day, because
+it would cost so much less to array the village folk in holiday garb. He
+had the bells rung, so did the Vicar: every window and door was full of
+curious on-lookers. I too took my seat on the verandah to see the sight.
+
+"The long line of carriages started. First the bridegroom with
+Sárvölgyi, after them the bride, dressed in a white lawn robe, and
+wearing, if I am not mistaken, many theatrical jewels."
+
+Lorand interrupted impatiently:
+
+"You evidently think, uncle, that I shall write all this for some
+fashion-paper, as you are telling me in such detail about the costumes."
+
+"I have learned it from English novel-writers: if a man wants to
+convince his hearers that something is true history and no fable, he
+must describe externals in detail, that they may see what an eye-witness
+he was.--Well, I shall leave out all description of the horses'
+trappings.
+
+"As the long convoy proceeded up the street, a carriage drawn by four
+horses clattered up from the opposite end, a county court official
+beside the coachman, behind, two gentlemen, one lean, the other
+thickset.
+
+"When this equipage met the wedding procession, the lean gentleman
+stopped his carriage and called out to Sárvölgyi's coachman to bring his
+coach to a standstill.
+
+"The lean man leaped down from his carriage, the stout man after him,
+the official following them, and stepped up to the bridegroom.
+
+"'Are you Joseph Gyáli?' inquired the lean man, without any prefix.
+
+"'I am,' he said, looking at the dust-covered man with angry hauteur,
+not comprehending by what right anyone could dare to stop him at such a
+time and to address him so curtly.
+
+"But the lean man seized the door of the carriage and said to the
+bridegroom:
+
+"'Well, sir, have you any soul?'
+
+"Our dear friend could not comprehend what new form of greeting it was,
+to ask a man on the road whether he had a soul.
+
+"But the lean man seemed to wish to know that at any cost.
+
+"'Sir, have you any soul?'
+
+"'What?'
+
+"Have you any soul, that you can lead an innocent maiden to the altar,
+in the position in which you are?'
+
+"'Who are you? And how dare you to address me?'
+
+"'I am Miklós Daruszegi, county court magistrate, and have come to
+arrest you, in consequence of a proclamation of the High Court of
+Justice in Vienna, which has sent us instructions to arrest you wherever
+you may be found on the charge of several forgeries and deceits, _in
+flagrante_, and not to accept bail!'
+
+"'But, sir--!'
+
+"'There is no chance for resistance. You knew already in Vienna to what
+charge you were liable, and you came directly to Hungary in the hope
+that if you could ally yourself with some propertied lady, your
+honorable person might be defended, thus practising fresh deceit against
+others. And now again I ask you, whether you have the soul to wish, on
+the prison's threshold, to drag an innocent maiden with you?'"
+
+"Poor Melanie!"--whispered Lorand.
+
+"Poor Melanie naturally fainted, and the poor P. C.'s widow was beside
+herself with rage: poor Sárvölgyi wept like a child: all the guests
+fled back to the house, and the bridegroom was compelled to descend from
+the bridal coach, and take his place in the magistrate's muddy chaise,
+still wearing his costume covered with decorations: they supplied him
+with a rug, it is true, to cover himself with, but the heron-plumed hat
+remained on his head for the public wonder.
+
+"I truly sympathised with the poor creatures! Still it seems I have
+survived that pain too.--If only it had not happened in the street!
+Before the eyes of so many men! If I at least had not seen it! If only I
+might give a romantic version of the catastrophe. But such a prosaic
+ending! A bridegroom arrested for the forgery of documents at the church
+door!--His tragedy is surely over!"
+
+"But according to that, Melanie did not become his wife?" said Lorand.
+"Melanie has not been married at all."
+
+Topándy shook his head.
+
+"You are an impatient audience, nephew. Still I shall not hurry the
+performance. You must wait till I send a glass of absinthe down my
+throat, for my stomach turns at the very thought of what I am about to
+relate."
+
+And he was not joking: he looked among the many chemicals for the bottle
+bearing the label "absynthium," and drank a small glass of it. Then he
+poured one out for Lorand.
+
+"You must drink too."
+
+"I could not drink it, uncle," said Lorand, full of other thoughts.
+
+"But drink this glass, I tell you: until you do I shall not continue.
+What I am going to say is strong poison, and this is the antidote."
+
+So Lorand drank, that he might hear what happened.
+
+"Well, my dear boy. You must dispense with the idea that Melanie is not
+a wife: Melanie two days ago married--Sárvölgyi!"
+
+"Oh, that is only a jest!" exclaimed Lorand incredulously.
+
+"Of course it is a jest: only a very mad one. Who could take such
+things seriously? Sárvölgyi was jesting when he said to Madame
+Bálnokházy: 'Madame, there is a scandal--your daughter is neither a miss
+nor a Mrs. She is burdened both by loss and contempt. You cannot appear
+any more before the world after such a scandal. I have a good idea: we
+are trying to agree now about a property; let us shake hands, and the
+bargain's made, the property and the price of purchase remain in the
+same hands.'--Madame Bálnokházy too was jesting when she said to her
+daughter: 'My dear Melanie, we have fallen up to our necks in the mire,
+we cannot be very particular about the hand that is to drag us out.
+Lorand will never come back again, Gyáli has deceived us; but only tit
+for tat,--for we deceived him with that tale of the regained property in
+which only one man believes,--honorable Sárvölgyi. If you accept his
+offer, you will be a lady of position, if not, you can come with me as a
+wandering actress. We can take our revenge upon them, for they hate
+Sárvölgyi too. And after all Sárvölgyi is a very pleasant fellow.'--And
+surely Melanie was jesting when two days later she said to the priest
+before the altar that in the whole world there was only one man whom she
+could deem worthy of her love, and he was Sárvölgyi.--I believe it was
+all a jest--but so it happened."
+
+Lorand covered his face with his hands.
+
+"A jest indeed, a fine jest fit to stir one's blood," Topándy angrily
+burst out. "That girl, whom I so loved, whom I treated as my child, who
+was to me an image of what they call womanly purity, throws herself away
+upon my most detested enemy, a loathsome corpse, whose body, soul, and
+spirit had already decayed. Why if she had returned broken-hearted to
+me, and said, 'I have erred,' I should have still received her with open
+arms: she should not thus have prostituted the feeling which I held for
+her.
+
+"Oh, my friend, there is nothing more repulsive in this round world,
+than a woman who can make herself thus loathed."
+
+Lorand's silence gave assent to this sentence.
+
+"And now follows the madness I committed.
+
+"I said: if you jest, let me jest too. My house was at that moment full
+of gay companions, who were helping me to curse. But what is the value
+of curses? A mad idea occurred to me. I said: 'If you are holding a
+marriage feast yonder, I shall hold one here.' You remember there was an
+old mangled-eared ass, used by the shepherd to carry the hides of
+slaughtered oxen, called by my servants, out of ridicule, Sárvölgyi.
+Then there was a beautiful thoroughbred colt, which Melanie chose
+betimes to bear her name. I dressed the ass and foal up as bridegroom
+and bride, one of the drunken revellers dressed as a 'monk' and at the
+same time that Sárvölgyi and Melanie went to their wedding, here, in my
+courtyard, I parodied the holy ceremony in the persons of those two
+animals."
+
+Lorand was horror stricken.
+
+"It was a mad idea: I acknowledge it," continued Topándy. "To ridicule
+religious ceremonies! That will cost me two years at least in the county
+prison: I shall not defend myself--I have deserved it. I shall put up
+with it. I knew it when I carried out this raving jest--I knew what the
+outcome would be. But if they had promised me all the good things that
+lie between the guardian of the Northern Dog-star and the emerald wings
+of the vine-dresser beetle, or if they had threatened me with all that
+exists down to the middle of the earth, down to hell, I should have done
+it, when once I had thought it out. I wanted a hellish revenge, and
+there it was. How hellish it was you may imagine from the fact that the
+jovial fellows at once sobered, disappeared from the house; and since
+then one or two have written to beg me not to betray their presence here
+on that occasion. I am only pleased you were not here then."
+
+"And I am sorry I was not. Had I been, it would not have happened."
+
+"Don't say that, my dear boy. Don't think too well of yourself. You
+don't know what you would have felt, had you seen pass before you in a
+carriage her whom we had idolized with him whom we detest so. It
+destroyed my reason. And even now I feel a terrible void in my soul.
+That girl occupied such a large place therein. I feel it is still more
+painful for me that I perpetrated such a trivial jest in her name, in
+her memory.--Still, it has happened and we cannot recall it. We have
+begun the campaign of hatred, and don't know ourselves where it will
+end. Now let us speak of other things. During my imprisonment you will
+take over the farm and remain here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But you have still another difficult matter to get through first."
+
+"I know."
+
+"Oh dear no. Why do you always wish to discover my thoughts? You cannot
+know of what I am thinking."
+
+"Czipra...."
+
+"That is not quite it. Though it did occur to me to ask how could I
+leave a young man and a young girl here all alone. Yet in that matter I
+have my own logic: the young man either has a heart or none at all. If
+he has a heart, he will either keep his distance from the girl, or, if
+he has loved her, he will not ask who her father and mother were or what
+her dowry is. He will estimate her at her own value for her own self--a
+faithful woman. If he has no heart, the girl must see to having more:
+she must defend herself. If neither has a heart,--well a daily
+occurrence will occur once more. Who has ever grieved over it? I have
+nothing to say in the matter. He who knows himself to be an animal,
+nothing more, is right: he who considers himself a higher being, a man,
+a noble man, is right too: and he who wishes to be an angel, is only
+vain. Whether you make the girl your mistress or your wife, is the
+affair of you two: it all depends which category of the physical world
+you desire to belong to. The one says, 'I, a male ass, wish to graze
+with you, a female-ass, on thistles;' or, 'I, a man, wish to be your
+god, woman, to care for you.' It is, as I say, a matter of taste and
+ideas. I entrust it to you. But I have matter for serious anxiety here.
+Have you not remarked that here, round Lankadomb, an enormous number of
+robberies take place?"
+
+"Perhaps not more than elsewhere: only we do not know about the
+misfortunes of others."
+
+"Oh, dear, no; our neighborhood is in reality the home of a far-reaching
+robber-band, whose dealings I have long followed with great attention.
+These marshes here around us afford excellent shelter to those who like
+to avoid the world."
+
+"That is so everywhere. Fugitive servants, marauding shepherds, bandits,
+who visit country houses to ask a drink of wine, bacon and bread,--I
+have met them often enough: I gave them from my purse as much as I
+pleased, and they went on their way peacefully."
+
+"Here we have to deal with quite a different lot. Czipra might know more
+about it, if she chose to speak. That tent-dwelling army, out of whose
+midst I took her to myself, is lurking around us, and is more malicious
+than report says. They conceal their deeds splendidly, they are very
+cunning and careful. They are not confined to human society, they can
+winter among the reeds, and so are more difficult to get at than the
+mounted highwaymen, who hasten to enjoy the goods they have purloined in
+the inns. They have never dared to attack me at home, for they know I am
+ready to receive them. Still, they have often indirectly laid me under
+obligation. They have often robbed Czipra, when she went anywhere alone.
+You were yourself a witness to one such event. I suspect that the
+robber-chief who strove with Czipra in the inn was Czipra's own father."
+
+"Heavens! I wonder if that can be so."
+
+"Czipra always closed their mouths with a couple of hundred florins, and
+then they remained quiet. Perhaps she threatened them in case they
+annoyed me. It may be that up to the present they have not molested us
+in order to please her. But it may be, too, that they have another
+reason for making Lankadomb their centre of operations. Do you remember
+that on the pistol you wrenched from that robber were engraved the arms
+of Sárvölgyi?"
+
+"What are you hinting at, uncle?"
+
+"I think Sárvölgyi is the chieftain of the whole highwayman-band."
+
+"What brought you to that idea?"
+
+"The fact that he is such a pious man. Still, let us not go into that
+now. The gist of the matter is, that I would like to relieve our
+district of this suspicious guest, before I begin my long visit."
+
+"How?"
+
+"We must burn up that old hay-rick, of which I have said so many times
+that it has inhabitants summer and winter."
+
+"Do you think that will drive them from our neighborhood?"
+
+"I am quite sure of it. This class is cowardly. They will soon turn out
+of any place where war is declared against them: they only dare to brawl
+as long as they find people are afraid of them: wolf-like they tear to
+pieces only those they find defenceless: but one wisp of burning straw
+will annihilate them. We must set the rick on fire."
+
+"We could have done so already; but it is difficult to reach it, on
+account of the old peat-quarries."
+
+"Which our dangerous neighbors have covered with wolf traps, so that one
+cannot approach the rick within rifle-shot."
+
+"I often wished to go there, but you would not allow me."
+
+"It would have been an unreasonable audacity. Those who dwell there
+could shoot down, from secure hiding-places, any who approached it,
+before the latter could do them any harm. I have a simpler plan: we two
+shall take our seats in the punt, row down the dyke, and when we come
+against the rick, we shall set it on fire with explosive bullets. The
+rick is mine, no longer rented: all whom it may concern must seek
+lodging elsewhere."
+
+Lorand said it was a good plan: whatever Topándy desired he would agree
+to. He might declare war against the bandits, for all he cared.
+
+That evening, guided by moonlight, they poled their way to the centre of
+the marsh: Lorand himself directed the shots, and was lucky enough to
+lodge his first shell in the side of the rick. Soon the dry mass of hay
+was flaming like a burning pyramid in the midst of the morass. The two
+besiegers had reached home long before the blazing rick had time to
+light up the district far. As they watched, all at once the flame
+scattered, exploding millions of sparks up to heaven, and the fragments
+of the burning rick were strewed on the water's surface by the wind.
+Surely hidden gunpowder had caused that explosion.
+
+At that moment no one was at home in this barbarous dwelling. Not a
+single voice was heard during the burning, save the howling of the
+terrified wolves round about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+WHILE THE MUSIC SOUNDS
+
+
+At Lankadomb the order of things had changed.
+
+After the famous scandal, Topándy's dwelling was very quiet--no guest
+crossed its threshold: while at Sárvölgyi's house there was an
+entertainment every evening, sounds of music until dawn of day.
+
+They wished to show that they were in a gay mood.
+
+Sárvölgyi began to win fame among the gypsies. These wandering musicians
+began to reckon his house among one of their happy asylums, so that even
+the bands of neighboring towns came to frequent it, one handing on the
+news of it to the other.
+
+The young wife loved amusement, and her husband was glad if he could
+humor her--perhaps he had other thoughts, too?
+
+Sárvölgyi himself did not allow his course of life to be disturbed:
+after ten o'clock he regularly left the company, going first to
+devotions and these having been attended to, to sleep.
+
+His spouse remained under the care of her mother--in very good hands.
+
+And, after all, Sárvölgyi was no intolerable husband: he did not
+persecute his young wife with signs of tenderness or jealousy.
+
+In reality he acted as one who merely wished, under the guise of
+marriage to save a victim, to free an innocent, caluminated, unfortunate
+girl in the most humane way from desperation.
+
+It was a good deed,--friendship, nothing more.
+
+Sárvölgyi's bedroom was separated from the rest of the dwelling house by
+a kind of corridor, bricked in, where the musicians were usually placed,
+for the obvious reason that the sun-burnt artists are passionately fond
+of chewing tobacco.
+
+This mistaken arrangement was the cause of two evils: firstly, the
+master of the house, lying on his bed, could hear all night long the
+beautiful waltzes and mazurkas to which his wife was dancing; secondly,
+being obliged to pass through the gypsies on his way from the ball-room
+to his bedroom, he came in for so many expressions of gratitude on their
+part that his quiet retirement gave rise to a most striking uproar,
+disagreeable alike to himself, to his wife, and his guests.
+
+He called the brown worthies to order often enough: "Don't express your
+gratitude, don't kiss my hand. I am not going away anywhere:" but they
+would not allow themselves to be cheated of their opportunity for
+grateful speeches.
+
+One night in particular an old, one-eyed czimbalom-player, whose sole
+remaining eye was bound up--he had only joined the band that day--would
+not permit himself to be over-awed: he seized the master's hand, kissed
+every finger of it in turn, then every nail: "God recompense you for
+what you intend to give, multiply your family like the sparrows in the
+fields: may your life be like honey...."
+
+"All right, foolish daddy," interrupted Sárvölgyi. "A truce to your
+blessings. Get you gone. Mistress Borcsa will give you a glass of wine
+as a reward."
+
+But the gypsy would not yield: he hobbled after the master into his
+bedroom, opening the door vigorously, and thrusting in his shaggy head.
+
+"But if God call from the world of shadows..."
+
+"Go to hell: enough of your gratitude."
+
+But the czimbalom-player merely closed the door from the inside and
+followed his righteous benefactor.
+
+"Golden-winged angels in a wagon of diamonds...."
+
+"Get out this moment!" cried Sárvölgyi, hastily looking for a stick to
+drive the flatterer out of his room.
+
+But at that moment the gypsy sprang upon him like a panther, grasping
+his throat with one hand and placing a pointed knife against his chest
+with the other.
+
+"Oh!"--panted the astonished Sárvölgyi. "Who are you? What do you want?"
+
+"Who am I?" murmured the fiend in reply, looking like the panther when
+it has set its teeth in its victim's neck. "I am Kandur,[75] the mad
+Kandur. Have you ever seen a mad Kandur? That is what I am. Don't you
+know me now?"
+
+[Footnote 75: Tom-cat.]
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"What do I want? Your bones and your skin: your black blood. You
+highwayman! You robber!"
+
+So saying, he tore the bandage from his eye: there was nothing amiss
+with that eye.
+
+"Do you know me now, herdsman?"
+
+It would have been in vain to scream. Outside the most uproarious music
+could be heard: no one would have heard the cry for help. Besides the
+assailed had another reason for holding his peace.
+
+"Well, what do you want with me? What have I done to you? Why do you
+attack me?"
+
+"What have you done?" said the gypsy, gnashing his teeth so that
+Sárvölgyi shivered--this gnashing of human teeth is a terrible sound.
+"What have you done? You ask that? Have you not robbed me? Eh?"
+
+"I robbed you? Don't lose your senses. Let go of my throat. You see, I
+am in your hands anyhow. Talk sense. What has happened to you?"
+
+"What has happened to me? Oh yes--act as if you had not seen that
+beautiful illumination the day before yesterday evening--that's
+right--when the rick was burned down, and then the gunpowder dispersed
+the fire, so that nothing but a black pit remained for mad Kandur."
+
+"I saw it."
+
+"That was your work," cried the fiend, raising high the flashing knife.
+
+"Now, Kandur, have some sense. Why should _I_ have set it on fire?"
+
+"Because no one else could have known that my money was stored away
+there. Who else would have dreamed I had money, but you? You who always
+changed my bank-note into silver and gold, giving me one silver florin
+for a small bank-note, and one gold piece for a large one. How do I know
+what was the value of each?--You knew I collected money. You knew how I
+collected, and why--for I told you. My daughter is in a certain
+gentleman's house; they are making a fool of her there. They are
+bringing her up like a duchess, until they have plucked her
+blossoms,--and then they will throw her away like a wash-rag. I wished
+to buy her off! I had already a pot of silver and a milk-pail of gold. I
+wanted to take her away with me to Turkey, to Tartary, where heathens
+dwell; and she would be a real duchess, a gypsy duchess! I shall murder,
+rob, and break into houses until I have a pot full of silver, and a pail
+full of gold. The gypsy girl will want it as her dowry. I shall not
+leave her for you, you white-faced porcelain tribe! I shall take her
+away to some place where they will not say 'Away gypsy! off gypsy! Kiss
+my hand, eat carrion, gypsy, gypsy!'--Give me my money."
+
+"Kandur."
+
+"Don't gape, or tire your mouth. Give me a pot of silver, and a pail of
+gold."
+
+"All right, Kandur, you shall get your money--a pot of silver and a pail
+of gold. But now let me have my say. It was not I who took your money,
+not I who set the rick on fire."
+
+"Who then?"
+
+"Why those people yonder."
+
+"Topándy, and the young gentleman?"
+
+"Certainly. The day before yesterday evening I saw them in a punt on the
+moat, starting for the morass, and I saw them when they returned
+again--the rick was then already burning. Each of them had a gun: but I
+did not hear a single shot, so they were not after game."
+
+"The devil and all his hell-hounds destroy them!"
+
+"Why, Kandur, your daughter was mad after that young gentleman--she
+certainly confessed to him that her father was collecting treasures: so
+the young gentleman took off daughter and money too--he will shortly
+return the empty pot."
+
+"Then I shall kill him."
+
+"What did you say, Kandur?"
+
+"I shall kill him, even if he has a hundred souls. Long ago I promised
+him, when first we met. But now I wish to drink of his blood. Did you
+see whether the old mastiff too was there at the robbing?"
+
+"Topándy? A plague upon my eyes, if I did not see him. There were two of
+them, they took no one with them, not even a dog: they rowed along here
+beside the gardens. I looked long after them, and waited till they
+should return. May every saint be merciless to me, if I don't speak the
+truth!"
+
+"Then I shall murder both."
+
+"But be careful: they go armed."
+
+"What?--If I wish I can have a whole host. If I wish I can ravish the
+whole village in broad daylight. You do not yet know who Kandur is."
+
+"I know well who you are, Kandur," said Sárvölgyi, carefully studying
+the robber's browned face. "Why we are old acquaintances. It is not you
+who are responsible for the deeds you have done, but society. Humankind
+rose up against you, you merely defended yourself as best you could.
+That is why I always took your part, Kandur."
+
+"No nonsense for me now," interrupted the robber hastily. "I don't mind
+what I am. I am a highwayman. I like the name."
+
+"You had no ignoble pretext for robbing,--but the saving of your
+daughter from the whirlpool of crime. The aim was a laudable one,
+Kandur: besides you were particular as to whom you fleeced."
+
+"Don't try to save me--you'll have enough to do to save yourself soon in
+hell, before the devil's tribunal--you may lie his two eyes out, if you
+want. I have been a highwayman, have killed and robbed--even clergymen.
+I want to kill now, too."
+
+"I shall pray for your soul."
+
+"The devil! Man, do you think I care? Prayer is just about as potent
+with you as with me. Better give a pile of money to enable me to collect
+a band. My men must have money."
+
+"All right, Kandur: don't be angry, Kandur:--you know I'm awfully fond
+of you. I have not persecuted you like others. I have always spoken
+gently to you and have always sheltered you from your persecutors. No
+one ever dared to look for you in my house."
+
+"No more babbling--just give over the money."
+
+"Very well, Kandur. Hold your cap."
+
+Sárvölgyi stepped up to a very strong iron safe, and unfastening the
+locks one by one, raised its heavy door--placing the candle on a chair
+beside him.
+
+The robber's eyes gleamed. Sufficient silver to fill many pots was piled
+up there.
+
+"Which will you have? silver or bank-notes?"
+
+"Silver," whispered the robber.
+
+"Then hold your cap."
+
+Kandur held his lamb-skin cap in his two hands like a pouch, and placed
+his knife between his teeth.
+
+Sárvölgyi dived deeply into the silver pile with his hand, and when he
+drew it back, he held before the robber's nose a double-barrelled
+pistol, ready cocked.
+
+It was a fine precaution--a pistol beautifully covered up by a heap of
+coins.
+
+The robber staggered back, and forgot to withdraw the knife from his
+mouth. And so he stood before Sárvölgyi, a knife between his teeth, his
+eyes wide opened, and his two hands stretched before him in
+self-defence.
+
+"You see," said Sárvölgyi calmly, "I might shoot you now, did I wish.
+You are entirely in my power. But see, I spoke the truth to you.--Hold
+your cap and take the money."
+
+He put the pistol down beside him and took out a goodly pile of dollars.
+
+"A plague upon your jesting eyes!" hissed the robber through the knife.
+"Why do you frighten a fellow? The darts of Heaven destroy you!"
+
+He was still trembling, so frightened had he been.
+
+The loaded weapon in another's hand had driven away all his courage.
+
+The robber could only be audacious, not courageous.
+
+"Hold your cap."
+
+Sárvölgyi shovelled the heap of silver coins into the robber's cap.
+
+"Now perhaps you can believe it is not fear that makes me confide in
+you?"
+
+"A plague upon you. How you alarmed me!"
+
+"Well, now collect your wits and listen to me."
+
+The robber stuffed the money into his pockets and listened with
+contracted eyebrows.
+
+"You may see it was not I who stole your money; for, had I done so, I
+should just now have planted two bullets in your carcass, one in your
+heart, the other in your skull. And I should have got one hundred gold
+pieces by it, that being the price on your head."
+
+The robber smiled bashfully, like one who is flattered. He took it as a
+compliment that the county had put a price of one hundred gold pieces on
+his head.
+
+"You may be quite sure that it was not I, but those folks yonder, who
+took away your money."
+
+"The highwaymen!"
+
+"You are right--highwaymen:--worse even than that. Atheists! The earth
+will be purified if they are wiped out. He who kills them is doing as
+just an action as the man that shoots a wolf or a hawk."
+
+"True, true;" Kandur nodded assent.
+
+"This rogue who stole away your daughter laid a snare for another
+innocent creature. He must have two, one for his right hand, the other
+for his left. And when the persecuted innocent girl escaped from the
+deceiver to my house and became my wife, those folks yonder swore deadly
+revenge against me. Because I rescued an innocent soul from the cave of
+crime, they thrice wished to slay me. Once they poured poison into my
+drinking-well. Fortunately the horses drank of the water first and all
+fell sick from it. Then they drove mad dogs out in the streets, when I
+was walking there, to tear me to pieces. They sent me letters, which,
+had I opened them, would have gone off in my hands and blown me to
+pieces. These malicious fellows wish to kill me."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"That young stripling thinks that if he succeeds he can carry off my
+wife too, so as to have her for his mistress one day, Czipra, your
+daughter, the next."
+
+"You make my anger boil within me!"
+
+"They acknowledge neither God nor law. They do as they please. When did
+you last see your daughter?"
+
+"Two weeks ago."
+
+"Did you not see how worn she is? That cursed fellow has enchanted her
+and is spoiling her."
+
+"I'll spoil his head!"
+
+"What will you do with him?"
+
+Kandur showed, with the knife in his hand, what he would do--bury that
+in his heart and twist it round therein.
+
+"How will you get at him? He has always a gun in the daytime: he acts as
+if he were going a-shooting. At night the castle is strongly locked, and
+they are always on the lookout for an attack,--they too are audacious
+fellows."
+
+"Just leave it to me. Don't have any fears. What Kandur undertakes is
+well executed. Crick, crick: that's how I shall break both the fellows'
+necks."
+
+"You are a clever rascal. You showed that in your way of getting at me!
+You may do the same there, by dressing your men as fiddlers and
+clarinet-players."
+
+"Oh ho! Don't think of it. Kandur doesn't play the same joke twice. I
+shall find the man I want."
+
+"I've still something to say. It would be good if you could have them
+under control before they die."
+
+"I know--make them confess where they have put my money which they
+stole?"
+
+"Don't begin with that. Supposing they will not confess?"
+
+"Have no fears on that score. I know how to drive screws under
+finger-nails, to strap up heads, so that a man would even confess to
+treasures hidden in his father's coffin."
+
+"Listen to me. Do what I say. Don't try long to trace your stolen money:
+it's not much--a couple of thousand florins. If you don't find it, I
+shall give you as much--as much as you can carry in your knapsack. You
+can, however, find something else there."
+
+"What?"
+
+"A letter, sealed with five black seals."
+
+"A letter? with five black seals?"
+
+"And to prevent them making a fool of you, and blinding you with some
+other letter which you cannot read, note the arms on the respective
+seals. On the first is a fish-tailed mermaid, holding a half-moon in her
+hand--those are the Áronffy arms:--on the second a stork, three ears of
+corn in its talons--those are the High Sheriff's arms: on the third a
+semi-circle, from which a unicorn is proceeding,--those are the Nyárády
+arms; the fourth is a crown in a hand holding a sword--those are the
+lawyer's arms. The fifth, which must be in the middle, bears Topándy's
+arms,--a crowned snake."
+
+The robber reckoned after him on his fingers:
+
+"Mermaid with half moon--stork with ears of corn--a half circle with
+unicorn--crown with sword-hand--snake with crown. I shall not forget.
+And what do you want the letter for?"
+
+"That too I shall explain to you, that you may see into the innermost
+depths of my thoughts and may judge how seriously I long to see the
+completion of that which I have entrusted to you. That letter is
+Topándy's latest will. While my wife was living with him, Topándy,
+believing she would wed his nephew, left his fortune to his niece and
+her future husband, and handed it in to the county court to be guarded.
+But when his niece became my wife, he wrote a new will, and had all
+those, whose arms I have mentioned, sign it; then he sealed it but did
+not send it to the court like the former one; he kept it here to make
+the jest all the greater, thinking we stand by the former will. Then,
+the latter will comes to light, making void the former--and excluding my
+wife from all."
+
+"Aha! I see now what a clever fellow you are!"
+
+"Well, could that five-sealed letter come into my hands, and old Topándy
+die by chance, without being able to write another will--well, you know
+what that little paper might be worth in my hands?"
+
+"Of course. Castle, property, everything. All that would fall to
+you--the old will would give it you. I understand: I see--now I know
+what a wise fellow you are!"
+
+"Do you believe now that if you come to me with that letter...."
+
+The robber bent nearer confidingly, and whispered in his ear:
+
+"And with the news that your neighbors died suddenly and could not write
+another."
+
+"Then you need have no fear as to how much money you will get in place
+of what they stole. You may go off with your daughter to Tartary, where
+no one will prosecute you."
+
+"Excellent--couldn't be better. Leave the rest to me. Two days later
+Kandur will have no need to indulge in such work."
+
+Then he began to count on his fingers, as if he were reckoning to
+himself.
+
+"Well, in the first place, I get money--in the second, I have my
+revenge--in the third, I take away Czipra,--in the fourth, I shall have
+my fill of human blood,--in the fifth, I get money again.--It shall be
+done."
+
+The two shook hands on the bargain. The robber left by the same door
+through which he had entered; Sárvölgyi went to bed, like one who has
+done his business well; and in the corridor the gypsies still played the
+newest waltz, which Melanie and Madame Bálnokházy were enjoying with
+flushed faces amidst the gay assembly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE ENCHANTMENT OF LOVE
+
+
+How many secrets there are under the sun, awaiting discovery!
+
+Books have been written about the superstitions of nations long since
+passed away: men of science have collected the enchantments of people
+from all quarters of the globe: yet of one thing they have not spoken
+yet: of that unending myth, which lives unceasingly and is born again in
+woman's heart and in the heated atmosphere of love.
+
+Sweet are the enchantments of love!
+
+"If I drink unseen from thy glass, and thou dost drain it after
+me:--thou drinkest love therefrom, and shalt pine for me, darling, as I
+have pined for thee.
+
+"If at night I awake in dreams of thee and turn my pillow under my head:
+thou too wilt have as sweet dreams of me, as I of thee, my darling.
+
+"If I bind my ring to a lock of thy hair thou hast given me, and cast
+the same into a glass, as often as it beats against the side of the
+glass, so many years wilt thou love me, darling.
+
+"If I can sew a lock of my hair into the edge of thy linen garment, thy
+heart will pine for me, as often as thou puttest the same on, my
+darling.
+
+"If, in thinking of thee, I pricked my finger, thou wert then faithless
+to me, darling.
+
+"If the door opens of itself, thou wert then thinking of me, and thy
+sigh opened the door, my darling.
+
+"If a star shoots in the sky, and I suddenly utter thy name as it
+shoots, thou must then at once think of me, darling.
+
+"If my ear tingles, I hear news of thee: if my cheeks burn, thou art
+speaking of me, my darling.
+
+"If my scissors fall down and remain upright, I shall see thee soon,
+darling.
+
+"If the candle runs down upon me, then thou dost love another, my
+darling.
+
+"If my ring turns upon my finger, then thou wilt be the cause of my
+death, darling."
+
+In every object, in every thought lives the mythology of love, like the
+old-world deities with which poets personified grass, wood, stream,
+ocean and sky.
+
+The petals of the flowers speak of it, ask whether he loves or not: the
+birds of song on the house-tops: everything converses of love: and what
+maiden is there who does not believe what they say?
+
+Poor maidens!
+
+If they but knew how little men deserved that the world of prose should
+receive its polytheism of love from them!
+
+Poor Czipra!
+
+What a slave she was to her master!
+
+Her slavery was greater than that of the Creole maiden whose every limb
+grows tired in the service of her master:--every thought of hers served
+her lord.
+
+From morn till even, nothing but hope, envy, tender flattery, trembling
+anxiety, the ecstasy of delight, the bitterness of resignation, the
+burning ravings of passion, and cold despair, striving unceasingly with
+each other, interchanging, gaining new sustenance from every word, every
+look of the youth she worshipped.
+
+And then from twilight till dawn ever the same struggle, even in dreams.
+
+"If I were thy dog, you would not treat me so."
+
+That is what she once said to Lorand.
+
+And why? Perhaps because he passed her without so much as shaking hands
+with her.
+
+And at another time:
+
+"Were I in Heaven, I could not be happier."
+
+Perhaps a fleeting embrace had made her happy again.
+
+How little is enough to bring happiness or sorrow to poor maidens.
+
+One day an old gypsy woman came by chance into the courtyard.
+
+In the country it is not the custom to drive away these poor vagrants:
+they receive corn, and scraps of meat: they must live, too.
+
+Then they tell fortunes. Who would not wish to have his fortune so
+cheaply.
+
+And the gypsy woman's deceitful eye very soon finds out whose fortune to
+tell, and how to tell it.
+
+But Czipra was not glad to see her.
+
+She was annoyed at the idea that the woman might recognize her by her
+red-brown complexion, and her burning black eyes, and might betray her
+origin before the servants. She tried to escape notice.
+
+But the gypsy woman did remark the beautiful girl and addressed her as
+"my lady."
+
+"I kiss your dear little feet, my lady."
+
+"My lady? Don't you see I am a servant, and cook in the kitchen: my
+sleeves are tucked up and I wear an apron."
+
+"But surely not. A serving maid does not hold her head so upright and
+cannot show her anger so. If your ladyship frowns on me I feel like
+hiding in the corner, just to escape from the anger in your eyes."
+
+"Well if you know so much, you must also know that I am married, fool!"
+
+The gypsy woman slyly winked.
+
+"I am no fool: my eyes are not bad. I know the wild dove from the tame.
+You are no married woman, young lady: you are still a maiden. I have
+looked into the eyes of many girls and women: I know which is which. A
+girl's eye lurks beneath the eyelids, as if she were looking always out
+of an ambuscade, as if she were always afraid somebody would notice her.
+A woman's eye always flashes as if she were looking for somebody. When a
+girl says in jest 'I am a married woman,' she blushes: if she were a
+woman, she would smile. You are certainly still unmarried, young lady."
+
+Czipra was annoyed at having opened a conversation with her. She felt
+that her face was really burning. She hastened to the open fire-place,
+driving the servant away that she might put her burning face down to the
+flaming fire.
+
+The gypsy woman became more obtrusive, seeing she had put the girl to
+confusion. She sidled up to her.
+
+"I see more, beautiful young lady. The girl that blushes quickly has
+much sorrow and many desires. Your ladyship has joy and sorrow too."
+
+"Oh, away with you!" exclaimed Czipra hastily.
+
+It is not so easy to get rid of a gypsy woman, once she has firmly
+planted her foot.
+
+"Yet I know a very good remedy for that."
+
+"I have already told you to be off."
+
+"Which will make the bridegroom as tame as a lamb that always runs after
+its mistress."
+
+"I don't want your remedies."
+
+"It is no potion I am talking of, merely an enchantment."
+
+"Throw her out!" Czipra commanded the servants.
+
+"You won't throw me out, girls: rather listen to what I say. Which of
+you would like to know what you must do to enchant the young fellows so
+that even if every particle of them were full of falsity, they could not
+deceive you in their affection. Well, Susie: I see you're laughing at
+it. And you, Kati? Why, I saw your Joseph speaking to the bailiff's
+daughter at the fence: this spell would do him no harm."
+
+All the grinning serving-maids, instead of rescuing Czipra from the
+woman, only assisted the latter in her siege. They surrounded her and
+even cut off Czipra's way, waiting curiously for what the gypsy would
+say.
+
+"It is a harmless remedy, and costs nothing."
+
+The gypsy woman drew nearer to Czipra.
+
+"When at midnight the nightingale sings below your window, take notice
+on what branch it sat. Go out bare-footed, break down that branch, set
+it in a flower-pot, put it in your window, sprinkle it with water from
+your mouth: before the branch droops, your lover will return, and will
+never leave you again."
+
+The girls laughed loudly at the gypsy woman's enchantment.
+
+The woman held her hand out before Czipra in cringing supplication.
+
+"Dear, beautiful young lady, scorn not to reward me with something for
+the blessing of God."
+
+Czipra's pocket was always full of all kinds of small coins, of all
+values, according to the custom of those days--when one man had to be
+paid in coppers, another in silver. Czipra filled her hand and began to
+search among the mass for the smallest copper, a kreutzer,[76] as the
+correct alms for a beggar.
+
+[Footnote 76: One-half of a penny.]
+
+"Golden lady," the gypsy woman thanked her. "I have just such a girl at
+home for sale, not so beautiful as you, but just as tall. She too has a
+bridegroom, who will take her off as soon as he can."
+
+Czipra now began to choose from the silver coins.
+
+"But he cannot take her, for we have not money enough to pay the
+priest."
+
+Czipra picked out the largest of the silver coins and gave it to the
+gypsy woman.
+
+The latter blessed her for it. "May God reward you with a handsome
+bridegroom, true in love till death!"
+
+Then she shuffled on her way from the house.
+
+Czipra reflectingly hummed to herself the refrain:
+
+    "A gypsy woman was my mother."
+
+And Czipra meditated.
+
+How prettily thought speaks! If only the tongue could utter all the dumb
+soul speaks to itself!
+
+"Why art thou what thou art?
+
+"Whether another's or mine, if only I had never seen thee!
+
+"Either love me in return, or do not ask me to love thee at all.
+
+"Be either cold or warm, but not lukewarm.
+
+"If in passing me, thou didst neither look at me, nor turn away, that
+would be good too: if sitting beside me thou shouldst draw me to thee,
+thou wouldst make me happy:--thou comest, smilest into mine eyes,
+graspest my hand, speakest tenderly to me, and then passest by.
+
+"A hundred times I think that, if thou dost not address me, I shall
+address thee: if thou dost not ask me, I shall look into thine eyes, and
+shall ask thee:
+
+"'Dost thou love me?'
+
+"If thou lovest, love truly.
+
+"Why, I do not ask thee to bring down the moon from the heavens to me:
+merely, to pluck the rose from the branch.
+
+"If thou pluckest it, thou canst tear it, and scatter its leaves upon
+the earth, thou must not wear it in thy hat, and answer with blushes, if
+they ask thee who gave it thee. Thou canst destroy it and tear it. A
+gypsy girl gave it.
+
+"If thou lovest, why dost thou not love truly? If thou dost not love me,
+why dost thou follow me?
+
+"If thou knewest thou didst not love me, why didst thou decoy me into
+thy net?
+
+"He has cast a spell upon me: yet I would be of the race of witches.
+
+"I know nothing. I am no wizard, my eye has no power.
+
+"If I address him once, I kill him and myself.
+
+"Or perhaps only myself.
+
+"And shall I not speak?"
+
+The poor girl's heart was full of reverie, but her eyes, her mouth, and
+her hand were busy with domestic work: she did not sit to gaze at the
+stars, to mourn over her instrument: she looked to her work, and they
+said "she is an enthusiastic housekeeper."
+
+"Good day, Czipra."
+
+She had even observed that Lorand was approaching her from behind, when
+she was whipping out cream in the corridor, and he greeted her very
+tenderly.
+
+She expected him at least to stop as long as at other times to ask what
+she was cooking; and she would have answered with another question:
+
+"Tell me now, what do you like?"
+
+But he did not even stop: he had come upon her quite by chance, and as
+he could not avoid her, uttered a mere "good day:" then passed by. He
+was looking for Topándy.
+
+Topándy was waiting for him in his room and was busy reading a letter he
+had just opened.
+
+"Well, my boy," he said, handing Lorand the letter, "That is the
+overture of the opera."
+
+Lorand took the letter, which began: "I offer my respects to Mr. ----"
+
+"This is a summons?"
+
+"You may see from the greeting. The High Sheriff informs me that
+to-morrow morning he will be here to hold the legal inquiry: you must
+give orders to the servants for to-morrow."
+
+"Sir, you still continue to take it as a joke."
+
+"And a curious joke too. How well I shall sweep the streets! Ha, ha!"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"In chains too. I always mocked my swine-herd, who for a year and a half
+wore out the county court's chains. Ever since he walks with a shambling
+step, as if one leg was always trying to avoid knocking the other with
+the chain. Now we can both laugh at each other."
+
+"It would be good to engage a lawyer."
+
+"It will certainly be better to send a sucking pig to the gaoler.
+Against such pricks, my boy, there is no kicking. This is like a cold
+bath: if a man enters slowly, bit by bit, his teeth chatter: if he
+springs in at once, it is even pleasant. Let us talk of more serious
+matters."
+
+"I just came because I wish to speak to my uncle about a very serious
+matter."
+
+"Well, out with it."
+
+"I intend to marry Czipra."
+
+Topándy looked long into the young fellow's face, and then said coldly,
+
+"Why will you marry her?"
+
+"Because she is an honest, good girl."
+
+Topándy shook his head.
+
+"That is not sufficient reason for marrying her."
+
+"And is faithful to me. I owe her many debts of gratitude. When I was
+ill, no sister could have nursed me more tenderly: if I was sad, her
+sorrow exceeded my own."
+
+"That is not sufficient reason, either."
+
+"And because I am raised above the prejudices of the world."
+
+"Aha! magnanimity! Liberal ostentation? That is not sufficient reason
+either for taking Czipra to wife. The neighboring Count took his
+housekeeper to wife, just in order that people might speak of him: you
+have not even the merit of originality. Still not sufficient reason for
+marrying her."
+
+"I shall take her to wife, because I love her...."
+
+Topándy immediately softened: his usual strain of sarcastic scorn gave
+way to a gentler impulse.
+
+"That's another thing. That is the only reason that can justify your
+marriage with her. How long have you loved her?"
+
+"I cannot count the days. I was always pleased to see her: I always knew
+I loved her like a good sister. The other I worshipped as an angel: and
+as soon as she ceased to be an angel for me, as a mere woman I felt none
+of the former fire towards her: nothing remained, not even smoke nor
+ashes. But this girl, whose every foible I know, whose beauty was
+enhanced by no reverie, whom I only saw as she really is,--I love her
+now, as a faithful woman, who repays love in true coin: and I shall
+marry her--not out of gratitude, but because she has filled my heart."
+
+"If that is all you want, you will find that. What shall you do first?"
+
+"I shall first write to my mother, and tell her I have found this rough
+diamond whom she must accept as her daughter: then I shall take Czipra
+to her, and she shall stay there until she is baptized and I take her
+away again."
+
+"I am very thankful that you will take all the burden of this ceremony
+off my shoulders. What must be done by priests, do without my seeing it.
+When shall you tell Czipra?"
+
+"As soon as mother's answer comes back."
+
+"And if your mother opposes the marriage?"
+
+"I shall answer for that."
+
+"Still it is possible. She may have other aims for you. What should you
+do then?"
+
+"Then?" said Lorand reflectively: after a long pause he added: "Poor
+mother has had so much sorrow on my account."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"She has pardoned me all."
+
+"She loves you better than her other son."
+
+"And I love her better than I loved my father."
+
+"That is a hard saying."
+
+"But if she said 'You must give up forever either this girl or me,' I
+would answer her, and my heart would break, 'Mother, tear me from your
+heart, but I shall go with my wife.'"
+
+Topándy offered his hand to Lorand.
+
+"That was well said."
+
+"But I have no anxiety about it. Mountebank pride never found a place in
+our family: we have sought for happiness, not for vain connections, and
+Czipra belongs to those girls whom women love even better than men. I
+have a good friend at home, my brother, and my dear sister-in-law will
+use her influence in my favor."
+
+"And you have an advocate elsewhere, in one who, despite all his
+godlessness, has a man's feelings, and will say: 'The girl has no name;
+here is mine, let her take that.'"
+
+Topándy did not try to prevent Lorand from kissing his hand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Poor Czipra! Why did she not hear this?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+WHEN THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS
+
+
+The night following upon this day was a sleepless one for Czipra.
+
+Every door of the castle was already closed: it was Lorand's custom to
+look for himself and see that the bolts were firmly fastened. Then he
+would knock at Czipra's door and bid her good-night; Czipra reciprocated
+the good wish, and Lorand turned into his room. The last creaking door
+was silent.
+
+"Good night! Good night! But who gives the good night?"
+
+Every day Czipra felt more strongly what an interminable void can exist
+in a heart which lacks--God.
+
+If it sorrows, to whom shall it complain?--if it has aspirations to whom
+can it pray? if terrors threaten it, to whom shall it appeal for help
+and courage? if in despair, from whom shall it ask hope?
+
+When the heavy beating of her heart prevents a poor girl from closing
+her eyes, she tosses sleeplessly where she lies, agonised with unknown
+suspicions, and there is no one before her mind, from whom she can ask,
+"Lord, is this a presentiment of my approaching death, or my approaching
+health? What annoys, what terrifies, what allures, what fills my heart
+with a sweet thrill? Oh, Lord, be with me."
+
+The poor neglected girl only felt this, but could not express it.
+
+She knelt on her bed, clasped her hands on her breast, raised her face,
+and collected every thought of her heart--how ought one to pray? What
+may be that word, which should bring God nearer? What sayings, what
+enchantments could bring the Great Being, the all-powerful, down from
+the heavens? What philosophy was that, which all men concealed from one
+another and only spoke of to each other in secret, in the form of
+letters, which opened to erring humanity the road leading to the home of
+an invisible being? How did it begin? How end? What an awful
+heart-agony, not to know how to pray,--just to kneel so with a heart
+full of crying aspirations, and dumb lips! How weak the voice of a
+sobbing sigh, how terribly far the starry heavens--who could hear there?
+
+Yet there is One who hears!
+
+And there is One who notes the unexpressed prayer of the silent
+suppliant, One who hears the unuttered words.
+
+Poor girl! She did not imagine that this feeling, this exaltation, was
+prayer--not the words, not the sermon, not addresses, not the amens. He
+who sees into hearts--reads from hearts, does not estimate the elegance
+of words.
+
+In the same hour that the suffering girl knelt thus dumbly before the
+Lord of all happiness, that man whom she had worshipped in her heart so
+long, whom she must worship forever, was sitting just as sleeplessly
+beside his writing-table, separated from her only by two walls, and was
+thinking and writing about her, and often wiped his eyes that filled
+betimes with tears.
+
+He was writing to his mother about his engagement.
+
+About the poor gypsy girl.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the dim light of the beautiful starry night twelve horsemen were
+following in each others' tracks among the reeds of the morass.
+
+Kandur was leading them.
+
+Each man had a gun on his shoulder, a pistol in his girdle.
+
+Along the winding road the mare Farao, treading lightly, led them: she
+too seemed to hasten, and sometimes broke through the reeds, making a
+short cut, as if she too were goaded on by some thirst for vengeance.
+
+Among the willows, wills-o'-the-wisps were dancing.
+
+They surrounded the horsemen, and followed their movements. Kandur smote
+at them with his lash.
+
+"On the return journey we shall be two more!" he muttered between his
+teeth.
+
+When they reached the lair there was merely a black stubbled ground left
+where the hay-rick stood before.
+
+In all directions shapeless burnt masses lay about.
+
+These were the ruins of the highwaymen's palace.
+
+And the tears flow from their eyes, as they see their haunt thus
+destroyed.
+
+All twelve had reached the burnt dwelling.
+
+"See what the robbers have made of it," said Kandur to his comrades.
+"They have stolen all we had collected, the riches we were to take with
+us to another land, and then they have set the dwelling on fire. They
+came here in a boat: they found out the way to our palace. We shall now
+return the visit. Are you all here?"
+
+"Yes," muttered the comrades. "We are all here."
+
+"Dismount. Now for the punts."
+
+The robbers dismounted.
+
+"No need to tether the horses, they cannot get away anywhere. One man
+may remain here to guard them. Who wishes to stay?"
+
+All were silent.
+
+"Some one must guard the horses, lest the wolves attack them while we
+are away."
+
+To which an old robber answered:
+
+"Then you should have brought a herd-boy with you, for we didn't come
+here to guard horses."
+
+"Very well, mate, I only wished to know whether anyone of us would like
+to remain behind. Whether anyone's 'sandal-strap was unloosed.' Does
+each one know his own business? Come up one by one, and let me tell each
+one his duty once more. Kanyó and Fosztó."[77]
+
+[Footnote 77: Pilferer.]
+
+Two of the men stepped forward.
+
+"You two will guard the two doors of the servants' quarter when we
+arrive. Death to him who tries to escape by door or window."
+
+"We know."
+
+"Csutor[78] and Disznós.[79] you will be in ambush before the
+hunting-box, and anyone who attempts to come out to the rescue, must be
+killed."
+
+[Footnote 78: Nightshade.]
+
+[Footnote 79: Swinish.]
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Bogrács![80] You will occupy the street-door, and if any peasant dares
+to approach you must shoot him: you alone are sufficient to keep
+peasants off."
+
+[Footnote 80: Kettle.]
+
+"Quite sufficient!" said the robber with great self-reliance.
+
+"Korvé[81] and Pofók.[81] You must take your stand opposite the first
+verandah, near the well, and if anyone wishes to escape by the first
+door, fire at him. But don't waste powder.--You others, Vasgyúró,[82]
+Hentes,[83] Piócza,[84] Agyaras,[85] will come with me through the
+garden, and will stay behind in the bushes until I give the sign. If I
+whistle once, that's for you. If I can get in quietly, by craft, without
+being obliged to fire a shot, that will be the best. I have planned the
+way. I think it will succeed. So three will come with me, one will
+remain in the doorway. Have the halters ready, to throw upon his neck,
+drag him to the ground and bind him. The black-bearded strong man must
+be dealt with suddenly, with the butt of your gun on his head, if not
+otherwise. But we must take the old man alive, for we shall make him
+confess."
+
+[Footnote 81: Blub-cheeked.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Bully.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Butcher.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Leech.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Wild-boar.]
+
+"Just leave him to me," said a fellow with a pox-pitted face, in a tone
+of entire confidence.
+
+"I shall be there too," continued Kandur: "and if we cannot enter the
+castle stealthily, if some one should make a noise, if those within wake
+up, then the first whistle is for you four: two come with me to break
+open the garden door. Have you got the 'jimmies'?"
+
+"Yes," said a robber, displaying the crowbars.
+
+"Piócza, and Agyaras, your business is to answer any fire of people from
+the windows.--If I whistle twice, that means that something's up, then
+you must run from all sides to help me. If I cannot break open the door,
+or if those robbers defend themselves well, set the roof on fire over
+their heads and give them a dose of singeing. That will do just as well.
+Don't forget the tarred hay."
+
+"Ha ha! The gentlemen will be warm."
+
+"Well Pofók, perhaps you're cold? You'll soon get warm. Hither with the
+canteen. Let's drink a little Dutch courage first. Begin. Hentes. A long
+draught of brandy is, you know, good before a feast."
+
+The tin went round and returned to Kandur almost empty.
+
+"Look, I have hardly left you any," said the last drinker in a tone of
+apologetic modesty.
+
+"To-day I don't drink brandy. The private must drink that he may be
+blind when he receives orders, but the general must not drink, that he
+may see to give orders. I shall drink something else when it is all
+over. Now look to the masking."
+
+They understood what that meant.
+
+Each one took off his sheepskin jacket, reversed it and put it on again.
+Then dipping their hands in the strewn ashes, they blackened their
+faces, making themselves unrecognizable.
+
+Only Kandur did not mask himself.
+
+"Let them recognize me. And anyone who does not recognize me, shall
+learn from my own lips, 'I am Kandur, the mad Kandur, who will drink thy
+blood, and tear out thy entrails. Know who I am!' How I shall look into
+their eyes! How I shall gnash upon them with my teeth, when they are
+bound. How tenderly I shall say to the young gentleman: 'Well, my boy,
+my gypsy child, were you in the garden? Did you see a wolf? Were you
+afraid of it? Shoo! Shoo!'"[86]
+
+[Footnote 86: A favorite child-verse in Hungary.]
+
+Farao was impatiently pawing the scorched grass.
+
+"You too are looking for what is no more, Farao," the robber said,
+patting his horse's neck. "Don't grieve. To-morrow you shall stand up to
+your knees in provender, and then you shall carry your master on your
+back. Don't grieve, Farao."
+
+The robbers had completed their disguises.
+
+"Now take up the boats."
+
+Hidden among the reeds lay two skiffs, light affairs, each cut out of a
+piece of tree trunk: just such as would hold two men, and such as two
+men could carry on their shoulders over dry ground.
+
+The robber-band put the skiffs into the water and started one after the
+other on their way; they went down until they reached the stream leading
+to the great dyke, by which they could punt down to the park of
+Lankadomb, just where the shooting-box was.
+
+It was about midnight when they reached it.
+
+On the right of Lankadomb the dogs were baying restlessly, but the
+hounds of the castle watchman did not answer them. They were sleeping.
+Some vagrant gypsy woman had fed them well that evening on poisoned
+swine-flesh.
+
+The robbers reached the castle courtyard noiselessly, unnoticed, and
+each one at once took the place allotted to him, as Kandur had directed.
+
+The silence of deep sleep reigned in the house.
+
+When everyone was in his place, Kandur crept on his stomach among the
+bushes, which formed a grove under Czipra's window that looked on to the
+garden, and putting an acacia leaf into his mouth, began to imitate the
+song of the nightingale.
+
+It was an artistic masterpiece which the wild son of the plains had,
+with the aid of a leaf, stolen from the mouth of the sweetest of
+song-birds.
+
+All those fairy warblings, those plaintive challenging tones, those
+enchanting trills, which no one has ever written down, he could imitate
+so faithfully, so naturally, that he deceived even his lurking comrades.
+
+"Cursed bird," they muttered, "it too has turned to whistling."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Czipra was sleeping peacefully.
+
+That invisible hand, which she had sought, had closed her eyes and sent
+sweet dreams to her heart. Perhaps, had she been able to sleep that
+sleep through undisturbed, she would have awakened to a happy day.
+
+The nightingale was warbling under her window.
+
+The nightingale! The song-bird of love! Why was it entrusted with
+singing at night when every other bird is sitting on its nest, and
+hiding its head under its wing. Who had sent it, saying, "Rise and
+announce that love is always waking?"
+
+Who had entrusted it to awake the sleepers?
+
+Why, even the popular song says:
+
+    "Sleep is better far than love
+    For sleep is tranquillity;
+    Love is anguish of the heart."
+
+Fly away, bird of song!
+
+Czipra tried to sleep again. The bird's song did not allow her.
+
+She rose, leaned upon her elbows and continued to listen.
+
+And there came back to her mind that old gypsy woman's enchantment,--the
+enchantment of love.
+
+"At midnight--the nightingale ... barefooted--... plant it in a
+flower-pot ... before it droops, thy lover will return, and will never
+leave thee."
+
+Ah! who would walk in the open at night?
+
+The nightingale continued:
+
+"Go out bare-footed and tear down the branch."
+
+No, no. How ridiculous it would be! If somebody should see her, and tell
+others, they would laugh at her for her pains.
+
+The nightingale began its song anew.
+
+Malicious bird, that will not allow sleep!
+
+Yet how easy it would be to try: a little branch in a flower-pot. Who
+could know what it was? A girl's innocent jest, with which she does harm
+to no one. Love's childish enchantment.
+
+It would be easy to attempt it.
+
+And if it were true? If there were something in it? How often people
+say, "this or that woman has given her husband something to make him
+love her so truly, and not even see her faults?" If it were true?
+
+How often people wondered, how two people could love each other? With
+what did they enchant each other? If it were true?
+
+Suppose there were spirits that could be captured with a talisman, which
+would do all one bade them?
+
+Czipra involuntarily shuddered: she did not know why, but her whole body
+trembled and shivered.
+
+"No, not so," she said to herself. "If he does not give heart for
+heart,--mine must not deceive him. If he cannot love me because I
+deserve it, he must not love me for my spells. If he does not love, he
+must not despise me. Away, bird of song, I do not want thee."
+
+Then she drew the coverlet over her head and turned to the wall. But
+sleep did not return again: the trembling did not pass: and the singing
+bird in the bushes did not hold his peace.
+
+It had come right under the window; it sang, "Come, come."
+
+Sometimes it seemed as if the song of the nightingale contained the
+words "Czipra, Czipra, Czipra!"
+
+The warm mist of passion swept away the maiden's reason.
+
+Her heart beat so, it almost burst her bosom, and her every limb
+trembled.
+
+She was no longer mistress of her mind.
+
+She left her bed, and therewith left that magic circle which the
+inspiration of the Lord forms around those who fly to Him for
+protection, and which guards them so well from all apparitions of the
+lower world.
+
+"Go bare-footed!"
+
+Why it was only a few steps from the door to the bushes.
+
+Who could see her? What could happen in so short a time?
+
+It was merely the satisfaction of an innocent desire.
+
+It was no deed of darkness.
+
+Every nerve was trembling.
+
+She was merely going to break a little branch, and yet she felt as if
+she was about to commit the most heinous crime, for which she needed the
+shield of a sleepless night.
+
+She opened the door very quietly so that it should not creak.
+
+Lorand was sleeping in the room vis-à-vis: perhaps he might hear
+something.
+
+She darted with bare feet before Lorand's door, she carefully undid the
+bolt of the door leading into the garden and turned the key with such
+precaution that it did not make a sound.
+
+Noiselessly she opened the door and peered out.
+
+It was a quiet night of reveries: the stars, as is their wont when seen
+through falling dew, were changing their colors, flashing green and red.
+
+The nightingale was now cooing in the bushes, as it does when it has
+found its mate.
+
+Czipra looked around her. It was a deep slumbering night: no one could
+see her now.
+
+Yet she drew her linen garment closer round her, and was ashamed to show
+her bare feet to the starry night.
+
+Ah! it would last only a minute.
+
+The grass was warm and soft, wet with dew as far as the bushes: no sharp
+pebble would hurt her feet, no cracking stick betray her footsteps.
+
+She stepped out into the open, and left the door ajar behind her.
+
+She trembled so, she feared she would fall, and looked around her: for
+all the world like someone bent on thieving.
+
+She crept quietly towards the bushes.
+
+The nightingale was warbling there in the thickest part.
+
+She must pierce farther in, must quietly put the leaves aside, to see on
+which branch the bird was singing.
+
+She could not see.
+
+Again she listened: the warbling lured her further.
+
+It must be near to her: it was warbling there, perhaps she could grasp
+it with her hand.
+
+But as she bent the bough, a fierce figure sprang up before her and
+grasped the hand she had stretched out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE NIGHT-STRUGGLE
+
+
+The dark figure, which seized Czipra's hand so suddenly, stared with a
+blood-thirsty grin into his victim's face, whose every limb shuddered
+with terror at her assailant.
+
+"What do you want?" panted the girl in a choking, scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"What do I want?" he hissed in answer. "I want to cut your gander's
+throat, you goose! Do you want a nightingale?"
+
+Then he whistled a shrill whistle.
+
+His mates leaped out suddenly from their ambush at the sound of the
+whistle.
+
+At that moment Czipra recovered her self control in sheer despair: she
+suddenly tore her hand from the robber's grasp, and in three bounds,
+like a terrified deer, reached the threshold of the door she had left
+open.
+
+But the wolf had followed in her tracks and reached her at the door. The
+girl had no time to close it in his face.
+
+"Don't whine!" hissed Kandur, seizing the girl's arm with one hand, with
+the other attempting to close her mouth.
+
+But terror had made Czipra frantic: tearing down the robber's hand from
+her mouth, she pushed him back from the door, and with shrill cries
+awoke the echoes of the night.
+
+"Lorand, help! Robbers!"
+
+"Silence, you dog, or I'll stab you!" thundered the robber, pointing a
+knife at the girl's breast.
+
+The knife did not frighten Czipra: as she struggled unceasingly and
+desperately with the robber, she cried "Lorand! Lorand! Murder! Help!"
+
+"Damn you!" exclaimed the robber thrusting his knife into the maiden's
+bosom.
+
+Czipra suddenly seized the knife with her two hands.
+
+At that moment Lorand appeared beside her.
+
+At the first cry he had rushed from his room and, unarmed, hastened to
+Czipra's aid.
+
+The girl was still struggling with the robber, holding him back, by
+sheer force, from entering the door.
+
+Lorand sprang towards her, and dealt the intruder such a blow with his
+fist in the face, that two of his teeth were broken.
+
+Two shots rang out, followed by a heavy fall and a cry of cursing.
+
+Topándy had fired from the window and one of the four robbers fell on
+his face mortally wounded, while another, badly hit, floundered and
+collapsed near the corridor.
+
+The two shots, the noise behind his back, and the unexpected blow
+confused Kandur; he retreated from the door, leaving his knife in
+Czipra's hand.
+
+Lorand quickly utilized this opportunity to close the door, fasten the
+chain, and draw the bolt.
+
+The next moment the robbers' vehement attack could be heard, as they
+fell upon the door with crowbars.
+
+"Come, let us get away," said Lorand, taking Czipra's hand.
+
+The girl faintly answered.
+
+"Oh! I cannot walk. I am fainting."
+
+"Are you wounded?" asked Lorand, alarmed. It was dark, he could not see.
+
+The girl fell against the wall.
+
+Lorand at once took her in his arms and carried her into his room.
+
+The lamp was still burning: he had just finished his letters.
+
+He laid the wounded girl upon his bed.
+
+He was terrified to see her covered with blood.
+
+"Are you badly wounded?"
+
+"Oh, no," said the girl: "see, the knife only went in so deep."
+
+And she displayed the robber's knife, showing on the blade how far it
+had penetrated.
+
+Lorand clasped his hands in despair.
+
+"Here is a kerchief, press it on the wound to prevent the blood
+flowing."
+
+"Go, go!" panted the girl. "Look after your own safety. They want to
+kill you. They want to murder you."
+
+"Aha! let the wretches come! I shall face them without running!" said
+Lorand, whose only care was for Czipra: he quickly tried to stem the
+flow of blood from the wound in the girl's breast with a handkerchief.
+"Lie quiet. Put your head here. Here, here, not so high. Is it very
+painful?"
+
+On the girl's neck was a chain made of hair: this was in the way, so he
+wished to tear it off.
+
+"No, no, don't touch it," panted the girl, "that must remain there as
+long as I live. Go, get a weapon, and defend yourself."
+
+The blows of the crowbars redoubled in force, and the bullets that broke
+through the closed windows dislodged the plaster from the walls; shot
+followed shot.
+
+Lorand had no other care than to see if the wounded girl's pillows were
+well arranged.
+
+"Lorand," said the girl breathlessly. "Leave me. They are numerous.
+Escape. Put the lamp out, and when everything is dark--then leave me
+alone."
+
+Certainly it would be good to extinguish the lamp, because the robbers
+were aiming into that room on account of it.
+
+"Lorand! Where are you? Lorand," Topándy's voice sounded in the
+corridor.
+
+At that sound Lorand began to realize the danger that threatened the
+whole household.
+
+"Come and take your gun!" said the old man standing in the doorway. His
+face was just as contemptuous as ever. There was not the least trace of
+excitement, fright or anger upon it.
+
+Lorand rose from his kneeling posture beside the bed.
+
+"Don't waste time putting your boots on!" bawled the old fellow. "Our
+guests are come. We must meet them. Where is Czipra? She can load our
+weapons while we fire."
+
+"Czipra cannot, for she is wounded."
+
+Topándy then discovered for the first time that Czipra was lying there.
+
+"A shot?" he asked of Lorand.
+
+"A knife thrust."
+
+"Only a knife thrust? That will heal. Czipra can stand that, can't you,
+my child? We'll soon repay the wretches. Remain here, Czipra, quietly,
+and don't move. We two will manage it. Bring your weapon and ammunition,
+Lorand. Bring the lamp out into the corridor. Here they can spy directly
+upon us. Luckily the brigands are not used to handle guns; they only
+waste powder."
+
+"But can we leave Czipra here alone?" asked Lorand anxiously.
+
+Czipra clasped her hands and looked at him.
+
+"Go," she panted. "Go away: if you don't I shall get up from here and
+look out for myself."
+
+"Don't be afraid. They cannot come here," said Topándy; then, lifting
+the lamp from the table himself, and taking Lorand's hand, he drew him
+out from the room.
+
+In the corridor they halted to decide on a plan of action.
+
+"The villains are still numerous," said Topándy: "yet I've accounted for
+two of them already. I have been round the rooms, and see that every
+exit is barred. They cannot enter, for the doors have been made just for
+such people, and the windows are protected by bolts and shutters. I have
+eight charges myself: even if they break in, before anyone can come this
+far, there will be no one left.--But something else may happen. If the
+wretches see we are defending ourselves well they will set the house on
+fire over us and so compel us to rush into the open. Then the advantage
+is theirs. So your business is to take a double-barrelled gun and
+ascend to the roof. My butler and the cook have hidden themselves away
+and I cannot entice them out: if they were here I should send one of
+them with you."
+
+The robbers were beating the door angrily with their crowbars.
+
+"In a moment!" exclaimed Topándy jokingly.--"The rogues seem to be
+impatient."
+
+"And what shall I do on the roof?" asked Lorand.
+
+"Wait patiently! I shall tell you in good time. No Turk is chasing
+you.--You go up and make your exit upon the roof by means of the attic
+window: then you crawl round on all fours along the gutter, without
+trying to shoot: leave them to pound upon all four doors. I shall join
+in the serenade, when necessary. But if you see they are beginning to
+strike lights and set straw on fire, you must put a stop to it. The
+gutter will defend you against their fire, they cannot see you, but when
+they start a blaze, you can accurately aim at each one. That is what I
+wanted to say."
+
+"Very well," said Lorand, taking his cartridges from his gun-case.
+
+"You'd better use shot instead of bullets," remarked Topándy. "It's
+easier to hit with shot when one is shooting in the dark, especially in
+the case of a large company. A little _sang froid_, my boy--you know:
+all of life is a play."
+
+Lorand grasped the old man's hand and hurried up to the garret.
+
+There in the dark he could only feel his way. For a long time he
+wandered aimlessly about, striking matches to discover his whereabouts,
+until he came upon the attic window, which he raised with his head and
+so came out on the roof.
+
+Then he slid down softly on his stomach as far as the gutter.
+
+Below him the ball was in progress. The thunder of crowbars, the
+cracking of panels, the strong blows dealt to the tune of oaths; fresh
+oaths, thunder, pole-axe blows upon the wall. The robbers, unable to
+break in the doors, were trying to dislodge their posts.
+
+And in the distance no noise, no sign of help. The cowardly neighbors,
+shutting themselves in, were crouching in their own houses: nor could
+one blame unarmed men for not coming to the rescue. A gun is a terrible
+menace.
+
+Silence reigned in the servants' hall. They too dared not come out.
+Courage is not for poor men.
+
+In the whole courtyard there were but two men who had stout hearts in
+their bosoms.
+
+The third courageous heart was that of a girl, who lay wounded.
+
+As he thought of this, Lorand became the victim of an excited passion.
+He felt his head swimming: he felt that he could not remain there, for
+sooner or later he must leap down.
+
+Leap down!
+
+An idea occurred to him. A difficult feat, but once thought out, it
+could be accomplished.
+
+He scrambled up the roof again: cut away one of those long dry ropes
+which in the garrets of many houses stretch from one rafter to another,
+tied to one end of it the weight of an old clock lying idle in the
+attic, and returned again to the roof.
+
+Not far from the house there stood an old sycamore tree: one of its
+spreading branches bent so near to the house that Lorand could certainly
+reach it by a cast of the rope. The lead-weighted rope, like a lasso,
+swung over and around the branch and fastened itself on it firmly.
+
+Lorand looped the other end of the rope round a rafter.
+
+Then, throwing his gun over his shoulder, and seizing the rope with both
+his hands, he leaned his whole weight on it, to see if it would hold.
+
+When he was convinced that the rope would bear his weight, he began to
+clamber over from the roof to the sycamore tree, suspended in the air,
+on the slender rope.
+
+Those below could not see him as they were under the verandah, nor could
+they notice the noise because of their own efforts: the little
+disturbance caused by the shaking of a branch and the dropping of a
+figure from the tree was drowned by the shaking of doors, and the
+discharge of firearms.
+
+Lorand reached the ground without mishap.
+
+The sycamore tree stood at a corner of the castle, about thirty paces
+from the besieged door.
+
+Lorand could not see the robbers from this position: the northern side
+of the verandah was overgrown with creepers which covered the windows.
+
+He must get nearer to them.
+
+The bushes under Czipra's window offered him a suitable position, being
+about ten paces from the door, which was plainly visible from them.
+
+Lorand cocked both triggers, and started alone with one gun against the
+whole robber-band.
+
+When he reached the bushes he could see the rascals well.
+
+They were four in number.
+
+Two were trying the effect of the "jimmy" on the heavy iron-bound door,
+while a third, the wounded one, though he could no longer stand, still
+took part in the siege, notwithstanding his wounds. He put the barrel
+of his gun into the breaches made and fired over and over, so as to
+prevent the people inside from defending the door.
+
+Sometimes single shots answered him from within, but without hitting
+anybody or anything.
+
+The fourth robber, crowbar in hand, was striving to break down the
+door-supports. That was Vasgyúró.
+
+On the other side of the courtyard Lorand saw two armed figures keeping
+guard over the servants' hall. It was six to one.
+
+And there were still more than that altogether.
+
+The door was very shaky already: the hinges were breaking. Lorand
+thought he heard his name called from within.
+
+"Now, all together," thundered the robbers in self-encouragement,
+exerting all their united force on the crowbars. "More force! More!"
+
+Lorand calmly raised his gun to his shoulder and fired twice among them
+in quick succession.
+
+No cry of pain followed the two shots--merely the thud of two heavy
+bodies. They were so thoroughly killed, they had no time to complain.
+
+The one in whose hands the crowbar remained dropped it behind him, as he
+darted away.
+
+The man who had been previously wounded began to cry for assistance.
+
+"Don't shout," exclaimed the fifth robber. "You'll alarm the others."
+
+Then putting two fingers in his mouth he whistled shrilly twice.
+
+Lorand saw that at this double whistle the two robbers running hastily
+came in his direction, while the din that arose on the farther side of
+the castle informed him of an attack from that side too. So he was
+between three fires.
+
+He did not lose his presence of mind.
+
+Before the new-comers arrived he had just time to load both
+barrels:--the bushes hid him from anyone who might even stand face to
+face, so that he could take no sure aim.
+
+Haste, care and courage!
+
+Lorand had often read stories of famous lion-hunters, but had been
+unable to believe them: unable to imagine how a lonely man in a wild
+waste, far from every human aid, defended only by a bush, could be
+courageous enough to cover the oldest male among a group of lions
+seeking their prey, and at a distance of ten paces fire into his heart.
+Not to hit his heart meant death to the hunter. But he is sure he will
+succeed, and sure, too, that the whole group will flee, once his victim
+has fallen.
+
+What presence of mind was required for that daring deed! What a strong
+heart, what a cool hand!
+
+Now in this awful moment Lorand knew that all this was possible. A man
+feels the extent of his manliness, left all to himself in the midst of
+danger.
+
+He too was hunting, matched against the most dangerous of all beasts of
+prey--the beasts called "men."
+
+Two he had already laid low. He had found his mark as well as the
+lion-hunter had found his.
+
+He heard steps of the animals he was hunting approaching his ambuscade
+on two sides: and the leader of all stood there under cover, leaning
+against a pillar of the verandah, ready to spring, ten paces away. He
+had only two charges, with which he had to defend himself against attack
+from three sides.
+
+Dangerous sport!
+
+One of the robbers who hurried from the servants' hall disappeared among
+the trees in the garden, while the other remained behind.
+
+Lorand quietly aimed at the first: he had to aim low for fear of firing
+above him in the dark.
+
+It was well that he had followed his uncle's advice to use shot instead
+of bullets. The shot lamed both the robber's legs: he fell in his flight
+and stumbled among the bushes.
+
+The one who followed was alarmed, and standing in the distance fired in
+Lorand's direction.
+
+Lorand, after his shot, immediately fell on his knees: and it was very
+lucky he did so, for in the next moment Kandur discharged both his
+barrels from beside the pillar, and the aim was true, as Lorand
+discovered from the fact that the bullets dislodged leaves just above
+his head, that came fluttering down upon him.
+
+Then he turned to the third side.
+
+There had come from that direction at the call of the whistle Korvé,
+Pofók, and Bogrács, who had been guarding the street-door and the other
+exit from the castle.
+
+At the moment they turned into the garden their comrade Fosztó, seeing
+Kanyó fall, stood still and fired his double-barrelled gun and pistols
+in the direction of Lorand's hiding-place. It was quite natural they
+should think some aid had arrived from the shooting-box, for the bullets
+whistled just over their heads: so they began to fire back: Fosztó,
+alarmed, and not understanding this turn of affairs, fled.
+
+Old Kandur's hoarse voice could not attract their attention amidst the
+random firing. He cried furiously: "Don't shoot at one another, you
+asses!"
+
+They did not understand, perhaps did not hear at all in the confusion.
+
+Lorand hastened to enlighten them.
+
+Taking aim at the three villains, who were firing wildly into the night,
+he sent his second charge into their midst from the bushes, whence they
+least expected it.
+
+This shot had a final effect. Perhaps several were wounded, one at any
+rate reeled badly, and the other two took to flight: then, finding their
+comrade could not keep up with them, they picked him up and dragged him
+along, disappearing in a moment in the thickest part of the park.
+
+Only the old lion remained behind, alone, old Kandur, the robber,
+burning with rage. He caught a glimpse of Lorand's face by the flash of
+the second discharge, recognized in him the man he sought, whom he
+hated, whose blood he thirsted after: that foe, whom he remembered with
+curses, whom he had promised to tear to pieces, to torture to death, who
+was here again in his way, and had with his unaided power broken up the
+whole opposing army, for all the world like the archangel himself.
+
+Kandur knew well he must not allow him time to load again.
+
+It was not a moment for shooting:--but for a pitched battle, hand to
+hand.
+
+Nor did the robber load his weapon: he rushed unarmed from his ambuscade
+as he saw Lorand standing before him, and threw himself in foaming
+passion upon the youth.
+
+Lorand saw that here, among the bushes, he had no further use for his
+gun, so he threw it away, and received his foe unarmed.
+
+Now it was face to face!
+
+As they clutched each other their eyes met.
+
+"You devil!" muttered Kandur, gnashing his teeth; "you have stolen my
+gold, and my girl. Now I shall repay you."
+
+Lorand now knew that the robber was Czipra's father.
+
+He had tried to murder his own daughter.
+
+This idea excited such rage in Lorand's heart that he brought the robber
+to his knees with one wrench.
+
+But the other was soon on his feet again.
+
+"Oho! You are strong too? You gentlemen live well: you have strength.
+The ox is also strong, and yet the wolf pulls him down."
+
+And with renewed passion he threw himself on Lorand.
+
+But Lorand did not allow him to come close enough to grasp his wrist. He
+was a practised wrestler, and was able to keep his opponent an arm's
+length away.
+
+"So you won't let me come near you? You won't let me kiss you, eh? Won't
+let me bite out a little piece of your beautiful face?"
+
+The wild creature stretched out his neck in his effort to get at Lorand.
+
+The struggle was desperate. Lorand was aided by the freshness of his
+youthful strength, his _sang froid_, and practised skill: the robber's
+strength was redoubled by passion, his muscles were tough, and his
+attacks impetuous, unexpected, and surprising like those of some savage
+beast.
+
+Neither uttered a sound. Lorand did not call for help, thinking his
+cries might bring the robbers back: and Kandur was afraid the house
+party might come out.
+
+Or perhaps neither thought of any such thing: each was occupied with the
+idea of overthrowing his opponent with his own hand.
+
+Kandur merely muttered through his teeth, though his passion did not
+deter his devilish humor. Lorand did not say a single word.
+
+The place was ill-adapted for such a struggle.
+
+Amid the hindering bushes they stumbled hither and thither; they could
+not move freely, nor could they turn much, each one fearing that to turn
+would be fatal.
+
+"Come, come away," muttered Kandur, dragging Lorand away from the
+bushes. "Come onto the grass."
+
+Lorand agreed.
+
+They passed out into the open.
+
+There the robber madly threw himself upon Lorand again.
+
+He tried no more to throw him, but to drag him after him, with all his
+might.
+
+Lorand did not understand what his foe wished.
+
+Always further, further:--
+
+Lorand twice threw him, but the robber clung to him and scrambled up
+again, dragging him always further away.
+
+Suddenly Lorand perceived what his opponent's intention was.
+
+A few weeks previously he had told his uncle that a steward's house was
+required: and Topándy had dug a lime-pit in the garden, where it would
+not be in the way. Only yesterday they had filled it to the brim with
+lime.
+
+The robber wished to drag Lorand with him into it.
+
+The young fellow planted his feet firmly and held back with all his
+might.
+
+Kandur's eyes flashed with the stress of passion, when he saw in his
+opponent's terrified face that he knew what his intention was.
+
+"Well, how do you like the dance, young gentleman? This will be the
+wedding-dance now! The bridegroom with the bride--together into the
+lime-pit. Come, come with me! There in the slacked lime the skin will
+leave our bodies: I shall put on yours, you mine: how pretty we two
+shall be!"
+
+The robber laughed.
+
+Lorand gathered all his strength to resist the mad attempt.
+
+Kandur suddenly caught Lorand's right arm with both of his, clung to him
+like a leech, and with a devilish smile said, "Come now, come
+along!"--and drew Lorand nearer, nearer to the edge of the pit. A couple
+of blows which Lorand dealt with his disengaged fist upon his skull were
+unnoticed: it was as hard as iron.
+
+They had reached the edge of the pit.
+
+Then Lorand suddenly put his left arm round the robber's waist, raised
+him in the air, then screwing him round his right arm, flung him over
+his head.
+
+This acrobatic feat required such an effort that he himself fell on his
+back--but it succeeded.
+
+The robber, feeling himself in the air, lost his head, and left hold of
+Lorand's arm for a moment, with the intention of gripping his hair; in
+that moment he was thrown off and fell alone into the lime-pit.
+
+Lorand leaped up at once from the ground and, tired out, leaned against
+the trunk of a tree, searching for his opponent everywhere, and not
+finding him.
+
+A minute later from amidst the white lime-mud there rose an awful figure
+which clambered out on the opposite side of the pit, and with a yell of
+pain rushed away into the courtyard and out into the street.
+
+Lorand, exhausted and half dazed, listened to that beast-like howl
+gradually diminishing in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE SPIDER IN THE CORNER
+
+
+That day about noon the old gypsy woman who told Czipra her fortune had
+shuffled into Sárvölgyi's courtyard, and finding the master out on the
+terrace, thanked him that he did not set his dogs upon her--did not tear
+her to pieces.
+
+"I wish you a very good day, sir, and every blessing that is on earth or
+in Heaven."
+
+Mistress Borcsa looked out from the kitchen.
+
+"Well, it's just lucky you didn't wish what is in hell! And what is in
+the water! Gypsy, don't leave us a blessing without fish to go with it,
+for fish is wanted here twice a week."
+
+"Don't listen to Mistress Boris' jokes."
+
+"Good day, my daughter," said the master gently.
+
+"Well he actually calls the ragged gypsy woman 'my daughter,'" grumbled
+the old housekeeper. "Blood is thicker than water."
+
+"Well, what have you brought, Marcsa?"
+
+"Csicsa sent to say he will come with his twelve musicians this evening:
+he begs you to pay him in advance as the musicians must hire a
+conveyance--then," she continued, dropping her voice to a tone of
+jesting flattery,--"a little suckling pig for supper, if possible."
+
+"Very well, Marcsa," said Sárvölgyi, with polite gentility. "Everything
+shall be in order. Come here towards evening. You shall get payment and
+sucking pig too."
+
+Yet this overflowing magnanimity was not at all in conformity with the
+well-established habits of the devotee. Close-fisted niggardliness
+displayed itself in his every feature and warred against this unnatural
+outbreak.
+
+The gypsy woman kissed his hand and thanked him. But Mistress Boris saw
+the moment had arrived for a ministerial process against this abuse of
+royal prerogative; so she came out from the kitchen, a pan in one hand,
+a cooking-spoon in the other.
+
+She began her invective with the following Magyar "_quousque tandem_!"
+
+"The devil take your insatiable stomachs! When were they ever full? When
+did I ever hear you say 'I've eaten well, I'm satisfied!' I don't know
+what has come over the master, that, ever since he became a married man,
+he has nothing better to do with his income than to stuff gypsies with
+it!"
+
+"Don't listen to her, Marcsa," said the pious man softly, "that's a way
+she has. Come this evening, and you shall have your sucking pig."
+
+"Sucking pig!" exclaimed Mistress Boris. "I should like to know where
+they'll find a sucking pig hereabouts. As if all those the two sows had
+littered were not already devoured!"
+
+"There is one left," said Sárvölgyi coolly, "one that is continually in
+the way all over the place."
+
+"Yes, but that one I shall not give," protested Mistress Boris. "I
+shan't give it up for all the gypsies in the world. My little tame
+sucking pig which I brought up on milk and breadcrumbs. They shan't
+touch that. I won't give up that!"
+
+"It is enough if I give it," said Sárvölgyi, harshly.
+
+"What, you will make a present of it? Didn't you present me with it in
+its young days, when it was the size of a fist? And now you want to take
+it back?"
+
+"Don't make a noise. I'll give you two of the same size in place of it."
+
+"I don't want any larger one, or any other one: I am no trader. I want
+my own sucking pig; I won't give it up for a whole herd,--the little one
+I brought up myself on milk and bread-crumbs! It is so accustomed to me
+now that it always answers my call, and pulls at my apron: it plays
+with me. As clever, as a child, for all the world as if it were no pig
+at all, but a human being."
+
+Mistress Borcsa burst into tears. She always had her pet animals, after
+the fashion of old servants, who, being on good terms with nobody in the
+world, tame some hen or other animal set aside for eating purposes, and
+defend its life cleverly and craftily; not allowing it to be killed;
+until finally the merciless master passes the sentence that the favorite
+too must be killed. How they weep then! The poor, old maid-servants
+cannot touch a morsel of it.
+
+"Stop whining, Borcsa!" roared Sárvölgyi, frowning. "You will do what I
+order. The pig must be caught and given to Marcsa."
+
+The pig, unsuspicious of danger, was wandering about in the courtyard.
+
+"Well, _I_ shall not catch it," whimpered Mistress Boris.
+
+"Marcsa'll do that."
+
+The gypsy woman did not wait to be told a second time: but, at once
+taking a basket off her arms, squatted down and began to shake the
+basket, uttering some such enticing words as "_Pocza, poczo, net, net!_"
+
+Nor was Mistress Borcsa idle: as soon as she remarked this device, she
+commenced the counteracting spell. "Shoo! Shoo!"--and with her pan and
+cooking-spoon she tried to frighten her _protêgé_ away from the vicinity
+of the castle, despite the stamping protests of Sárvölgyi, who saw open
+rebellion in this disregard for his commands.
+
+Then the two old women commenced to drive the pig up and down the yard,
+the one enticing, the other "shooing," and creating a delightful uproar.
+
+But, such is the ingratitude of adopted pigs! The foolish animal,
+instead of listening to its benefactor's words and flying for protection
+among the beds of spinach, greedily answered to the call of the charmer,
+and with ears upright trotted towards the basket to discover what might
+be in it.
+
+The gypsy woman caught its hind legs.
+
+Mistress Borcsa screamed, Marcsa grunted, and the pig squealed loudest
+of all.
+
+"Kill it at once to stop its cries!" cried Sárvölgyi. "What a horrible
+noise over a pig!"
+
+"Don't kill it! Don't make it squeal while I am listening," exclaimed
+Borcsa in a terrified passion: then she ran back into the kitchen, and
+stopped her ears lest she should hear them killing her favorite pig.
+
+She came out again as soon as the squeals of her _protêgé_ had ceased,
+and with uncontrollable fury took up a position before Sárvölgyi. The
+gypsy woman smilingly pointed to the murdered innocent.
+
+Mistress Borcsa then said in a panting rage to Sárvölgyi:
+
+"Miser who gives one day, and takes back--a curse upon such as you!"
+
+"Zounds! good-for-nothing!" bawled the righteous fellow. "How dare you
+say such a thing to me?"
+
+"From to-day I am no longer your servant," said the old woman, trembling
+with passion. "Here is the cooking-spoon, here the pan: cook your own
+dinner, for your wife knows less about it than you do. My husband lives
+in the neighboring village: I left him in his young days because he beat
+me twice a day; now I shall go back to the honest fellow, even if he
+beat me thrice a day."
+
+Mistress Borcsa was in reality not jesting, and to prove it she at once
+gathered up her bed, brought out her trunks, piled all her possessions
+onto a barrow, and wheeled them out without saying so much as "good
+bye."
+
+Sárvölgyi tried to prevent this wholesale rebellion forcibly by seizing
+Mistress Borcsa's arm to hold her back.
+
+"You shall remain here: you cannot go away. You are engaged for a whole
+year. You will not get a kreutzer if you go away."
+
+But Mistress Borcsa proved that she was in earnest, as she forcibly tore
+her arm from Sárvölgyi's grasp.
+
+"I don't want your money," she said, wheeling her barrow further. "What
+you wish to keep back from my salary may remain for the
+master's--coffin-nails."
+
+"What, you cursed witch!" exclaimed Sárvölgyi. "What did you dare to say
+to me?"
+
+Mistress Borcsa was already outside the gate. She thrust her head in
+again, and said:
+
+"I made a mistake. I ought to have said that the money you keep from me
+may remain--to buy a rope."
+
+Sárvölgyi, enraged, ran to his room to fetch a stick, but before he came
+out with it, Mistress Borcsa was already wheeling her vehicle far away
+on the other side of the street, and it would not have been fitting for
+a gentleman to scamper after her before the eyes of the whole village,
+and to commence a combat of doubtful issue in the middle of the street
+with the irritated Amazon.
+
+The nearest village was not far from Lankadomb; yet before she reached
+it, Mistress Borcsa's soul was brimming over with wrath.
+
+Every man would consider it beneath his dignity to submit tamely to such
+a dishonor.
+
+As she reached the village of her birth, she made straight for the
+courtyard of her former husband's house.
+
+Old Kólya recognized his wife as she came up trundling the squeaking
+barrow, and wondering thrust his head out at the kitchen door.
+
+"Is that you, Boris?"
+
+"It is: you might see, if you had eyes."
+
+"You've come back?"
+
+Instead of replying Mistress Boris bawled to her husband.
+
+"Take one end of this trunk and help me to drag it in. Take hold now. Do
+you think I came here to admire your finely curled moustache?"
+
+"Well, why else did you come, Boris?" said the old man very
+phlegmatically, without so much as taking his hand from behind his back.
+
+"You want to quarrel with me again, I see; well, let's be over with it
+quickly: take a stick and beat me, then let us talk sense."
+
+At this Kólya took pity on his wife and helped her to drag the trunk in.
+
+"I am no longer such a quarreller, Boris," he answered. "Ever since I
+became a man with a responsible position I have never annoyed anyone. I
+am a watchman."
+
+"So much the better: if you are an official, I can at any rate tell you
+what trouble brought me here."
+
+"So it was only trouble drove you here?"
+
+"Certainly. They robbed and stole from me. They have taken away my
+yellow-flowered calico kerchief, a red 'Home-sweet-Home' handkerchief,
+which I had intended for you, a silver-crossed string of beads, twelve
+dollars, ten gold pieces, twenty-two silver buttons, four pairs of
+silver buckles, and a scolloped-eared, pi-bald, eight-week-old pig...."
+
+"Whew!" exclaimed Kólya as he heard of so much loss. "This is a pretty
+business. Well, who stole them?"
+
+"No one else than the cursed gypsy woman Marcsa, who lives here in this
+village."
+
+"We shall call her to account as soon as she appears."
+
+"Naturally. She went there while I was weeding in the garden; she
+prowled about and stole."
+
+"Well I'll soon have her by the ears, only let her come here."
+
+Not a word of the whole story of the theft was true: but Mistress Boris
+reasoned as follows:
+
+"You must come here first, gypsy woman, with that scolloped-eared pig:
+if they find it in your possession, they will put you in jail, and ask
+you what you did with the rest. Whether your innocence is proved or not,
+the pig-joint will in the meanwhile become uneatable, and won't come
+into your stomachs. You may say you got it as a present,--no one will
+believe you, and the magistrate will not order such a gentleman as
+Sárvölgyi to come here and witness in your favor."
+
+Kólya allowed himself to be made a participant in his wife's anger, and
+went at once to inform the servants of the magistrate, who was sitting
+in the village.
+
+Towards evening Kólya, in ambush at the end of the village, spied the
+gypsy woman as she came sauntering by Lankadomb, carrying on her arm a
+large basket as if it were some great weight.
+
+Kólya said nothing to her, he merely let her pass before him, and
+followed her on the other side of the street, until she reached the
+middle of the market-place, where many loiterers sauntered and listened
+to the tales of his wife.
+
+"Halt, Marcsa!" cried Kólya, standing in the gypsy woman's way.
+
+"What do you want?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"What have you in your basket?"
+
+"What should I have? A pig which you shall not taste, is in it."
+
+"Of course. Has not the pig scolloped ears?"
+
+"Suppose it has?"
+
+"You speak lightly. Let me look at the pig."
+
+"Well look--then go blind. Have you never seen such an animal? Have a
+look at it."
+
+The gypsy woman uncovered the basket, in which lay the unhappy victim,
+reposing on its stomach, its scolloped ears still standing up straight.
+
+A crowd began to collect round the disputants.
+
+Mistress Boris burst in among them.
+
+"There it is! That was my pig!"
+
+"As much as the shadow of the Turkish Sultan's horse was yours. Off with
+you: don't look at it so hard, else you will be bewitched by it and your
+child will be like it."
+
+The loiterers began to laugh at that; they were always ready to laugh at
+any rough jest.
+
+The laughter enraged Kólya: he seized the much-discussed pig's hind legs
+and before the gypsy woman could prevent him, had torn it out of the
+basket.
+
+But the pig was heavier than such animals are wont to be at that age,
+so that Kólya bumped the noble creature's nose against the ground.
+
+As he did so a dollar rolled out of the pig's mouth.
+
+"Oho!--the thalers are here too!"
+
+At these words the gypsy woman took up her basket and began to run away.
+When they seized her, she scratched and bit, and tried her best to
+escape, till finally they bound her hands behind her.
+
+Kólya was beside himself with astonishment.
+
+There was quite a heap of silver money sewn into that pig. Loads of
+silver.
+
+Mistress Boris herself did not understand it.
+
+This must be reported to the magistrate.
+
+Kólya, accompanied by a large crowd, conducted Marcsa to the
+magistrate's house, where the clerks, pending that official's arrival,
+took the accused in charge, and shut her up in a dark cell, which had
+only one narrow window looking out on the henyard.
+
+When the magistrate returned towards midnight, only the vacant cell was
+there without the gypsy woman. She had been able to creep out through
+the narrow opening, and had gone off.
+
+The magistrate, when he saw the "_corpus delicti_," was himself of the
+opinion that the pig was in reality Mistress Boris's property, while the
+money that had been hidden in its inside must have come also from
+Sárvölgyi's house. There might be some great robbery in progress yonder.
+He immediately gave orders for three mounted constables to start off for
+Lankadomb; he ordered a carriage for himself, and a few minutes after
+the departure of the constables, was on his way in their tracks with his
+solicitor and servant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The spider was already sitting in its web.
+
+As night fell, Sárvölgyi hastened the ladies off to bed, for they were
+going to leave for Pest and so had to wake early.
+
+When all was quiet in the house, he himself went round the yard and
+locked the doors: then he closed the door of each room separately.
+
+Finally he piled his arms on his table--two guns, two pistols, and a
+hunting-knife.
+
+He was loath to believe the old gossip. Suppose Kandur should, in the
+course of his feast of blood be whetted for more slaughter, and wish to
+slice up betrayer after betrayed?
+
+In the presence of twelve robbers, he could not even trust an ally.
+
+The night watchman had already called "Eleven."
+
+Sárvölgyi was sitting beside his window.
+
+The windows were protected on the street side by iron shutters, with a
+round slit in the middle, through which one could look out into the
+street.
+
+Sárvölgyi opened the casements in order to hear better, and awaited the
+events to which the night should give birth.
+
+It was a still warm evening towards the end of spring.
+
+All nature seemed to sleep; no leaf moved in the warm night air: only at
+times could be heard a faint sound, as if wood and field had shuddered
+in their dreams, and a long-drawn sigh had rustled the tops of the
+poplars, dying away in the reed-forest.
+
+Then, suddenly, the hounds all along the village began to bay and howl.
+
+The bark of a hound is generally a soothing sound; but when the vigilant
+house-guard has an uneasy feeling, and changes his bark to a long
+whining howl, it inspires disquietude and anxiety.
+
+Only the spider in the web rejoiced at the sound of danger! They were
+coming!
+
+The hounds' uproar lasted long: but finally it too ceased; and there
+followed the dreamy, quiet night, undisturbed by even a breath of wind.
+
+Only the nightingales sang, those sweet fanciful songsters of the night,
+far and near in the garden bushes.
+
+Sárvölgyi listened long--but not to the nightingale's song. What next
+would happen?
+
+Then the stillness of the night was broken by an awful cry as when a
+girl in the depth of night meets her enemy face to face.
+
+A minute later again that cry--still more horrible, more anguished. As
+if a knife had been thrust into the maiden's breast.
+
+Then two shots resounded:--and a volley of oaths.
+
+All these midnight sounds came from above Topándy's castle.
+
+Then a sound of heavy firing, varied by noisy oaths. The spider in the
+web started. The web had been disturbed. The stealthy attack had not
+succeeded.
+
+Yet they were many--they could surely overcome two. The peasants did not
+dare to aid where bullets whistled.
+
+Then the firing died away: other sounds were heard: blows of crowbars on
+the heavy door: the thunder of the pole-axe on the stone wall, here and
+there a single shot, the flash of which could not be seen in the night.
+Certainly they were firing in at doors and out through windows. That was
+why no flash could be seen.
+
+But how long it lasted! A whole eternity before they could deal with
+those two men! From the roots of Sárvölgyi's sparse hair hot beads of
+sweat were dripping down.
+
+Not in yet? Why cannot they break in the door?
+
+Suddenly the light of two brilliant flashes illuminated the night for a
+moment: then two deafening reports, that could be produced only by a
+weapon of heavy calibre. So easy to pick out the dull thunder roar from
+those other crackling splutterings that followed at once.
+
+What was that? Could they be fighting in the open? Could they have come
+out into the courtyard? Could they have received aid from some
+unexpected quarter?
+
+The crack of fire-arms lasted a few minutes longer. Twice again could be
+heard that particular roar, and then all was quiet again.
+
+Were they done for already?
+
+For a long time no sound, far or near.
+
+Sárvölgyi looked and listened in restless impatience. He wished to
+pierce the night with his eyes, he wished to hear voices through this
+numbing stillness. He put his ear to the opening in the iron shutter.
+
+Some one knocked at the shutter from without.
+
+Startled, he looked out.
+
+The old gypsy woman was there: creeping along beside the wall she had
+come this far unnoticed.
+
+"Sárvölgyi," said the woman in a loud whisper: "Sárvölgyi, do you hear?
+They have seized the money: the magistrate has it. Take care!"
+
+Then she disappeared as noiselessly as she had come.
+
+In a moment the sweat on Sárvölgyi's body turned to ice. His teeth
+chattered from fever.
+
+What the gypsy woman had said was, for him, the terror of death.
+
+The most evident proof was in the hands of the law: before the awful
+deed had been accomplished, the hand that directed it had been betrayed.
+
+And perhaps the terrible butchery was now in its last stage. They were
+torturing the victims! Pouring upon them the hellish vengeance of
+wounded wild beasts! Tearing them limb from limb! Looking with their
+hands that dripped with blood among the documents for the letter with
+five seals.
+
+Already all was betrayed! Fever shook his every limb. Why that great
+stillness outside? What secret could this monstrous night hide that it
+kept such silence as this?
+
+Suddenly the silence was broken by a wild creature's howl.
+
+No it was no animal. Only a man could howl so, when agony had changed
+him to a mad beast, who in the fury of his pain had forgotten human
+voice.
+
+The noise sounded first in the distance, beyond the garden of the
+castle, but presently approached, and a figure of horror ran howling
+down the street.
+
+A figure of horror indeed!
+
+A man, white from head to foot.
+
+All his clothes, every finger of his hand, was white: every hair of his
+head, his beard, moustache, his whole face was white, glistening,
+shining white, and as he ran he left white footsteps behind him.
+
+Was it a spirit?
+
+The horror rushed up to Sárvölgyi's door, rattling the latch and in a
+voice of raving anger began to howl as he shook the door.
+
+"Let me in! Let me in! I am dying!"
+
+Sárvölgyi's face, in his agony of terror, became like that of a damned
+soul.
+
+That was Kandur's voice! That was Kandur's figure. But so white!
+
+Perhaps the naked soul of one on the way to hell?
+
+The horrible figure thundered continuously at the door and cried:
+
+"Let me in! Give me to drink! I am burning! Bathe me in oil! Help me to
+undress! I am dying! I am in hell! Help! Drag me out of it!"
+
+All through the street they could hear his cries.
+
+Then the damned soul began to curse, and beat the door with his fist,
+because they would not open to him.
+
+"A plague upon you, cursed accomplice. You shut me out and won't let me
+in? Thrust me into the tanpit of hell and leave me there? My skin is
+peeling off! I am going blind! An ulcer upon your soul!"
+
+The writhing figure tore off his clothes, which burned his limbs like a
+shirt of Nessus, and while so doing the hidden silver coins he had
+received from Sárvölgyi fell to the ground.
+
+"Devil take you, money and all!" he shouted, dashing the coins against
+the door. "Here's your cursed money! Pick it up!"
+
+Then he staggered on, leaning against the railing and howling in pain:
+
+"Help! Help! A fortune for a glass of water! Only let me live until I
+can drag that fellow with me! Help, man, help!"
+
+A deathly numbness possessed Sárvölgyi. If that figure of horror were no
+"spirit," he must hasten to make him so. He would betray all. That was
+the greatest danger. He must not live.
+
+He could not see him from the window. Perhaps if he opened the shutters,
+he could fire at him. He was a highwayman: who could call Sárvölgyi to
+account for shooting him? He had done it in self-defence.
+
+If only his hands would not tremble so! It was impossible to hit him
+with a pistol except by placing the barrel to his forehead.
+
+Should he go out to him?
+
+Who would dare to go out to meet that demon face to face? Could the
+spider leave its web?
+
+While he hesitated, while he struggled to measure the distance from door
+to window and back, a new sound was heard in the street:--three horsemen
+came trotting up from the end of the village, and in them Sárvölgyi
+recognized, from their uniforms, the country police.
+
+Then the bell began to ring, and the peasants came out of their doors,
+armed with pitchforks and clubs: noisy crowds collected. In their midst
+were one or two bound figures whom they drove forward with blows: they
+had seized the robbers.
+
+The battle was irremediably lost. The chief criminal saw the toils
+closing in on him but had no time to make his escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+I BELIEVE....!
+
+
+Day was dawning.
+
+Topándy had not left Czipra since she had been wounded. He sat alone
+beside her bed.
+
+Servants and domestics had other things to do now: they were standing
+before the magistrate, face to face with the captured robbers. The
+magisterial inquiry demanded the presence of them all.
+
+Topándy was alone with the wounded girl.
+
+"Where is Lorand?" whispered Czipra.
+
+"He drove over to the neighboring village to bring a doctor for you."
+
+"No harm has come to him?"
+
+"You might have heard his voice through the window, when all was over.
+He could not come in, because the door was closed. His first care was to
+bring a surgeon for you."
+
+The girl sighed.
+
+"If he comes too late...."
+
+"Don't fret about that. Your wound is not fatal; only be calm."
+
+"I know better," said the girl in a flush of fever. "I feel that I shall
+not live."
+
+"Don't worry, Czipra, you will get better," said Topándy, taking the
+girl's hand.
+
+And then the girl locked her five fingers in those of Topándy, so that
+they were clasped like two hands in prayer.
+
+"Sir, I know I am standing on the brink of the grave. I have now grasped
+your hand. I have clasped it, as people at prayer are wont to clasp
+their hands. Can you let me go down to the grave without teaching me
+one prayer. This night the murderer's knife has pierced my heart to
+liberate yours. Does not my heart deserve the accomplishment of its last
+wish? Does not that God, who this night has liberated us both, me from
+life, you from death, deserve our thanks?"
+
+Topándy was moved. He said:
+
+"Repeat after me."
+
+And he said to her the Lord's Prayer.
+
+The girl devoutly and between gasps repeated it after him.
+
+How beautiful it is! What great words those are!
+
+First she repeated it after him, then again said it over, sentence by
+sentence, asking "what does this or that phrase mean?" "Why do we say
+'our Father?' What is meant by 'Thy Kingdom?' Will he forgive us our
+trespasses, if we forgive them that trespass against us? Will he deliver
+us from every evil? What power there is in that 'Amen!'"--Then a third
+time she repeated it alone before Topándy, without a single omission.
+
+"Now I feel easier," she said, her face beaming with happiness.
+
+The atheist turned aside and wept.
+
+The shutters let in the rays of the sun through the holes the bullets
+had made.
+
+"Is that sunset?" whispered the girl.
+
+"No, my child, it is sunrise."
+
+"I thought it was evening already."
+
+Topándy opened one shutter that Czipra might see the morning light of
+the sun.
+
+Then he returned to the sick girl, whose face burned with fever.
+
+"Lorand will be here immediately," he assured her gently.
+
+"I shall soon be far away," sighed the girl with burning lips.
+
+It seemed so long till Lorand returned!
+
+The girl asked no more questions about him: but she was alert at the
+opening of every door or rattling of carriages in the street, and each
+time became utterly despondent, when it was not he after all.
+
+How late he was!
+
+Yet Lorand had come as quickly as four fleet-footed steeds could gallop.
+
+Fever made the girl's imagination more irritable.
+
+"If some misfortune should befall him on the way? If he should meet the
+defeated robbers? If he should be upset on one of the rickety bridges?"
+
+Pictures of horror followed each other in quick succession in her
+feverish brain. She trembled for Lorand.
+
+Then it occurred to her that he could defend himself against terrors.
+Why, he knew how to pray.
+
+She clasped her hands across her breast and closed her eyes.
+
+As she said "Amen" to herself she heard the rattling of wheels in the
+courtyard, and then the well-known steps approaching along the corridor.
+
+What a relief that was!
+
+She felt that her prayer had been heard. How happy are those who believe
+in it!
+
+The door opened and the youth she worshipped stepped in, hastening to
+her bed and taking her hand.
+
+"You see, I was lucky: I found him on the road. That is a good sign."
+
+Czipra smiled.
+
+Her eyes seemed to ask him, "Nothing has happened to you?"
+
+The surgeon examined the wound, bandaged it and told the girl to be
+quiet, not to move or talk much.
+
+"Is there any hope?" asked Lorand in a whisper.
+
+"God and nature may help."
+
+The doctor had to leave to look after the wounded robbers. Lorand and
+his uncle remained beside Czipra.
+
+Lorand sat on the side of her bed and held her hand in his. The doctor
+had brought some cooling draught for her, which he gave the sufferer
+himself.
+
+How Czipra blessed the knife that had given her that wound!
+
+She alone knew how far it had penetrated.
+
+The others thought such a narrow little wound was not enough to cut a
+life in two.
+
+Topándy was writing a letter on Lorand's writing-table: and when asked
+"to whom?" he said "To the priest."
+
+Yet he was not wont to correspond with such.
+
+Czipra thought this too was all on her account.
+
+Why, she had not yet been christened.
+
+What a mysterious house it was, the door of which was now to open before
+her!
+
+Perhaps a whole palace, in the brilliant rooms of which the eye was
+blinded, as it looked down them?
+
+Soon steps were heard again outside. Perhaps the clergyman was coming.
+
+She was mistaken.
+
+In the new-comer she recognized a figure she had seen long before--Mr.
+Buczkay, the lawyer.
+
+Despite the customary roundness of that official's face, there were
+traces of pity on it, pity for the young girl, victim of so dreadful a
+crime.
+
+He called Topándy aside and began to whisper to him.
+
+Czipra could not hear what they were saying: but a look which the two
+men cast in her direction, betrayed to her the subject of their
+discourse.
+
+The judges were here and were putting the law into force upon the
+guilty.--They were examining into the events, from beginning to
+end.--They must know all.--They had taken the depositions of the others
+already: now it was her turn.--They would come with their documents, and
+ask her "Where did you walk? Why did you leave your room at night? Why
+did you open the house-door? Whom were you looking for outside in the
+garden?"
+
+What could she answer to those terrible questions?
+
+Should she burden her conscience with lies, before the eyes of God whom
+she would call as a witness from Heaven, and to whom she would raise her
+supplicating hands for pity, when the day of reckoning came?
+
+Or should she confess all?
+
+Should she tell how she had loved him: how mad she was: how she started
+in search of a charm, with which she wished to overcome the heart of her
+darling?
+
+She could not confess that! Rather the last drop of blood from her
+heart, than that secret.
+
+Or should she maintain an obdurate silence? That, however, would create
+suspicion that she, the robber's daughter, had opened the door for her
+robber father, and had plotted with workers of wickedness.
+
+What a desperate situation!
+
+And then again it occurred to her that she too could defend herself
+against terrors: she knew now how to pray. So she took refuge in the
+sanctuary of the Great Lord, and, embracing the pillars of his throne,
+prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
+
+Scarce a quarter of an hour after the lawyer's departure, some one else
+came.
+
+It was Michael Daruszegi, the magistrate.
+
+The girl trembled as she saw him. The confessor had come!
+
+Topándy sprang up from his seat and went to meet him.
+
+Czipra plainly heard what he said in a subdued voice.
+
+"The doctor has forbidden her to speak: in her present condition you
+cannot cross-question her."
+
+Czipra breathed freely again. He was defending her!
+
+"In any case I can answer for her, for I was present from the very
+beginning," said Lorand to the magistrate. "Czipra heard the noise in
+the garden, and was daring enough, as was her wont, to go out and see
+what was the matter. At the door she met the robber face to face: she
+barred his way, and immediately cried out for me: then she struggled
+with him until I came to her help."
+
+How pleased Czipra was at that explanation, all the more because she saw
+by Lorand's face that he really believed it.
+
+"I have no more questions to ask the young lady," said Daruszegi. "This
+matter is really over in any case."
+
+"Over?" asked Topándy astonished.
+
+"Yes, over: explained, judged, and executed."
+
+"How?"
+
+"The robber chief, Kandur, before he died in agony, made such serious
+and perfectly consistent confessions as, combined with other
+circumstances, compromised your neighbor in the greatest measure."
+
+"Sárvölgyi?" inquired Topándy with glistening eyes.
+
+"Yes.--So far indeed that I was compelled to extend the magisterial
+inquiry to his person too. I started with my colleague to find him. We
+found the two ladies in a state of the greatest consternation. They came
+before us, and expressed their deep anxiety at not finding Sárvölgyi
+anywhere in the house: they had discovered his room open and unoccupied.
+His bedroom we did indeed find empty, his weapons were laid out on the
+table, the key of his money-chest was left in it, and the door of the
+room open.--What could have become of him?--We wanted to enter the door
+of the dining-room opposite. It was locked. The ladies declared that
+room was generally locked. The key was inside in the lock. That room has
+two other doors, one opening on to the kitchen, one on to the verandah.
+We looked at them too. In both cases the key was inside, in the lock.
+Some one must be in the room! I called upon the person within, in the
+name of the law to open the door to us. No answer came. I repeated the
+command, but the door was not opened: so I was compelled to have it
+finally broken open by force; and when the sunlight burst through into
+the dark room, what horrible sight do you think met our startled gaze?
+The lord of the house was hanging there above the table in the place of
+the chandelier: the chair under his feet that he had kicked away proved
+that he had taken his own life...."
+
+Topándy at these words raised his hands in ecstasy above his head.
+
+"There is a God of justice in Heaven! He has smitten him with his own
+hand."
+
+Then he clasped his hands together with emotion and slipped towards the
+head of Czipra's bed.
+
+"Come, my child, say: 'I believe in God'--I shall say it first."
+
+The doctor had not forbidden that.
+
+Czipra devoutly waited for the words of wonder.
+
+What a great, what a comforting world of thoughts.
+
+A God who is a Father, a mother who is a maiden. A God who will be man
+for man's sake, and who suffered at man's hands, who died and rose again
+promises true justice, forgiveness for sins, resurrection, life eternal!
+
+"What is that life eternal?"
+
+If only some one could have answered!
+
+The atheist was kneeling down beside the girl's bed when the priest
+arrived.
+
+He did not rise, was not embarrassed at his presence.
+
+"See, reverend sir, here is a neophyte, waiting for the baptismal water:
+I have just taught her the 'credo.'"
+
+The girl gave him a look full of gratitude. What happiness glittered in
+those eyes of ecstasy!
+
+"Who will be the god-parents?" asked the clergyman.
+
+"One, the magistrate,--if he will be so kind: the other, I."
+
+Czipra looked appealingly, first at Topándy, then at Lorand.
+
+Topándy understood the unspoken question.
+
+"Lorand cannot be. In a few minutes you shall know why."
+
+The minister performed the ceremony with that briefness which
+consideration for a wounded person required.
+
+When it was over, Topándy shook hands with the minister.
+
+"If my hand has sinned at times against yours, I now ask your pardon."
+
+"The debt has been paid by that clasp of your hand," said the priest.
+
+"Your hand must now pronounce a blessing on us."
+
+"Willingly."
+
+"I do not ask it for myself: I await my punishment: I am going before my
+judge and shall not murmur against him. I want the blessing for those
+whom I love. This young fellow yesterday asked of me this maiden's hand.
+They have long loved each other, and deserve each other's love:--give
+them the blessing of faith, father. Do you agree, Czipra?"
+
+The poor girl covered her burning face with her two hands, and, when
+Lorand stepped towards her and took her hand, began to sob violently.
+
+"Don't you love me? Will you not be my wife?"
+
+Czipra turned her head on one side.
+
+"Ah, you are merely jesting with me. You want to tease, to ridicule a
+wretched creature who is nothing but a gypsy girl."
+
+Lorand drew the girl's hand to his heart when she accused him of jesting
+with her. Something within told him the girl had a right to believe
+that, and the thought wrung his heart.
+
+"How could you misunderstand me? Do you think I would play a jest upon
+you--and now?"
+
+Topándy interrupted kindly.
+
+"How could I jest with God now, when I am preparing to enter his
+presence?"
+
+"How could I jest with your heart?" said Lorand.
+
+"And with a dying girl," panted Czipra.
+
+"No, no, you will not die, you will get well again, and we shall be
+happy."
+
+"You say that now when I am dying," said the girl with sad reproach.
+"You tell me the whole beautiful world is thine, now, when of that world
+I shall have nothing but the clod of earth, which you will throw upon
+me."
+
+"No, my child," said Topándy, "Lorand asked your hand of me yesterday
+evening, and was only awaiting his mother's approval to tell you
+yourself his feelings towards you."
+
+A quick flash of joy darted over the girl's face, and then it darkened
+again.
+
+"Why, I know," she said brushing aside her tangled curls from her face,
+"I know your intentions are good. You are doing with me what people do
+with sick children. 'Get well! We'll buy you beautiful clothes, golden
+toys, we'll take you to places of amusement, for journeys--we shall be
+good-humored--will never annoy you:--only get well.' You want to give
+the poor girl pleasure, to make her better, I thank you for that too."
+
+"You will not believe me," said Lorand, "but you will believe the
+minister's word. See last night I wrote a letter to mother about you: it
+lies sealed on my writing-table. Reverend sir, be so kind as to open and
+read it before her. She will believe you if you tell her we are not
+cajoling her."
+
+The minister opened the letter, while Czipra, holding Lorand's hand,
+listened with rapt attention to the words that were read:
+
+
+     "MY DEAR MOTHER:
+
+     "After the many sorrows and pains I have continuously caused
+     throughout my life to the tenderest of mothers' hearts, to-day I
+     can send you news of joy.
+
+     "I am about to marry.
+
+     "I am taking to wife one who has loved me as a poor, nameless,
+     homeless youth, for myself alone, and whom I love for her faithful
+     heart, her soul pure as tried gold, still better than she loves me.
+
+     "My darling has neither rank nor wealth: her parents were gypsies.
+
+     "I shall not laud her to you in poetic phrases: these I do not
+     understand. I can only feel, but not express my feelings.
+
+     "No other letter of recommendation can be required of you, save
+     that I love her.
+
+     "Our love has hitherto only caused both of us pain: now I desire
+     happiness for both of us.
+
+     "Your blessing will make the cup of this happiness full.
+
+     "You are good. You love me, you rejoice in my joy.
+
+     "You know me. You know what lessons life has taught me.
+
+     "You know that Fate always ordained wisely and providentially for
+     me.
+
+     "No miracle is needed to make you, my mother, the best of mothers,
+     who love me so, and are calm and peaceful in God, clasp together
+     those hands of blessing which from my earliest days you have never
+     taken off my head.
+
+     "Include in your prayer, beside my name, the name of my faithful
+     darling, Czipra, too.
+
+     "I believe in your blessing as in every word of my religion, as in
+     the forgiveness of sins, as in the world to come.
+
+     "But if you are not what God made you,--quiet and loving, a mother
+     always ready to give her blessing with the halo of eternal love
+     round your brow,--if you are cold, quick to anger, a woman of
+     vengeance, proud of the coronet of a family blazon, one who wishes
+     herself to rule Fate, and if the curses of such a merciless lady
+     burden the girl whom I love, then so much the worse, I shall take
+     her to wife with her dowry of curses--for I love her.
+
+     "... God intercede between our hearts.
+
+                        "Your loving son,
+                                                             "LORAND."
+
+As the minister read, Czipra at each sentence pressed Lorand's hand
+closer to her heart. She could neither speak nor weep: it was more than
+her spirit could bear. Every line, every phrase opened a Paradise before
+her, full of gladness of the other world: her soul's idol loved her:
+loved her for love's sake: loved her for herself: loved her because she
+made him happy: raised her to his own level: was not ashamed of her
+wretched origin: could understand a heart's sensitiveness: commended her
+name to his mother's prayers: and was ready to maintain his love amidst
+his mother's curses.
+
+A heart cannot bear such glory!
+
+She did not care about anything now: about her wound: about life, or
+death: she felt only that glow of health which coursed through every
+sinew of her body and possessed every thought of her soul.
+
+"I believe!" she said in rapture, rising where she lay: and in those
+words was everything: everything in which people are wont to believe,
+from the love of God to the love of man.
+
+She did not care about anything now. She had no thought for men's eyes
+or men's words: but, as she uttered these words, she fell suddenly on
+Lorand's neck, drew him with the force of delight to her heart, and
+covered him with her kisses.
+
+The wound reopened in her breast, and as the girl's kisses covered the
+face of the man she loved, her blood covered his bosom.
+
+Each time her impassioned lips kissed him, a fresh gush of blood spurted
+from that faithful heart, which had always been filled with thoughts of
+him only, which had beat only for him, which had, to save him, received
+the murderer's knife:--the poor "green-robed" faithful girl.
+
+And as she pressed her last kiss upon the lips of her darling, ... she
+knew already what was the meaning of eternity....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE BRIDAL FEAST
+
+
+"Poor Czipra! I thought you would bury us all, and now it is I that must
+give you that one clod of earth the only gift you asked from the whole
+beautiful world."
+
+Topándy himself saw after the sad arrangements.
+
+Lorand could not speak: he was beside himself with grief.
+
+He merely said he would like to have his darling embalmed and to take
+her to his family property, there to bury her.
+
+This wish of his must be fulfilled.
+
+It would be a sad surprise for his mother, to whom Topándy only the day
+before had written that her son was bringing home a new daughter-in-law.
+
+When Lorand had asked Topándy for Czipra's hand, he immediately wrote to
+Mrs. Áronffy, thinking that what Lorand himself wrote to his mother
+would be in a proud strain. He anticipated his nephew's letter, told his
+mother quietly and restrainedly in order that Lorand's letter might be
+no surprise to her.
+
+Now he must write again to her, telling that the bride was coming, and
+the family vault must be ready for her reception.
+
+And curiously Topándy felt no pain in his heart as he thought over it.
+
+"Death is after all the best solution of life!"
+
+He did not shed a single tear upon the letter he wrote: he sealed it and
+looked for a servant to despatch it.
+
+But other thoughts occupied him.
+
+He sought the magistrate.
+
+"My dear sir, when do you want to lock me up?"
+
+"When you like, sir."
+
+"Would you not take me to gaol immediately?"
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+"How many years have they given me?"
+
+"Only two."
+
+"I expected more. Well, then I can take this letter myself into the
+town."
+
+"Will Mr. Áronffy remain here?"
+
+"No. He will take his dead love home to the country. I have asked the
+doctor to embalm her, and I have a lead casket which I prepared for
+myself with the intention of continuing my opposition to the ordinance
+of God within it: now I have no need of it. I will lend it to Czipra.
+That is her dowry."
+
+An hour later he went in search of Lorand, who was still guarding his
+dead darling. The magistrate was there too.
+
+"My dear sir," he said to the officer. "I am not going to the gaol now."
+
+"Not yet?" inquired Daruszegi. "Very well."
+
+"Not now, nor at any other time. A greater master has given me
+orders--in a different direction."
+
+They began to look at him in astonishment.
+
+His face was much paler than usual: but still that good-humored irony
+and light-hearted smile was there.
+
+"Lorand, my boy, there will be two funerals here."
+
+"Who is the second dead person?" asked Daruszegi.
+
+"I am."
+
+Then he drew from his breast his left hand which he had hitherto held
+thrust in his coat.
+
+"An hour ago I wrote a letter to your mother. As I was sealing it the
+hot wax dripped onto my nail, and see how my hand has blackened since."
+
+The tips of his left hand were blue and swollen.
+
+"The doctor, quickly," cried Daruszegi to his servant.
+
+"Never mind. It is already unnecessary," said Topándy, falling languidly
+into an arm-chair. "In two hours it is over. I cannot live more than two
+hours. In twenty minutes this swelling will reach my shoulder, and the
+way from thence to the heart is short."
+
+The doctor, who hastened to appear, confirmed Topándy's opinion.
+
+"There is nothing to be done," he said.
+
+Lorand, horror-stricken, hastened to take care of his uncle: the old
+fellow embraced the neck of the youth kneeling beside him.
+
+"You philosopher, you were right after all, you see. There is One who
+takes thought for two-legged featherless animals too. If I had
+known,--'Knock and it shall be opened unto you:' I should long have
+knocked at the door and cried, 'O Lord, let me in!'"
+
+Topándy would not allow himself to be undressed and put to bed.
+
+"Draw my chair beside Czipra. Let me learn from her how a dead man must
+behave. My death will not be so fine as hers: I shall not breathe my
+soul into the soul of my loved one: yet I shall be a gay
+travelling-companion."
+
+Pain interrupted his words.
+
+When it ceased, he laughed at himself.
+
+"How a foolish mass of flesh protests! It will not allow itself to be
+overlorded. Yet we were only guests here! '_Animula, vagula, blandula.
+Hospes comesque corporis. Quae nunc adibis loca? Frigidula, palidula,
+undula! Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos._' Certainly you will be '_extra
+dominium_' immediately. And my lord Stomach, his Grace, and my lord
+Heart, his Excellency, and my lord Head, his Royal Highness all must
+resign office."
+
+The doctor declared he must be suffering terrible agony all the time he
+was jesting and laughing; and he laughed when other people would have
+gnashed their teeth and cried aloud.
+
+"We have disputed often, Lorand," said the old man, always in a fainter
+voice, "about that German savant who asserted that the inhabitants of
+other planets are much nobler men than we here on earth. If he asks what
+has become of me, tell him I have advanced. I have gone to a planet
+where there are no peasants: barons clean earls' boots. Don't laugh at
+me, I beg, if I am talking foolishly.--But death dictates very curious
+verses."
+
+The hand-grasp with which he greeted Lorand, proved that it was his
+last.
+
+After that his hand drooped, his eyes languished, his face became ever
+more and more yellow.
+
+Once again he raised his eyes.
+
+They met Lorand's gaze.
+
+He wished to smile: in a whisper, straining desperately he said:
+
+"Immediately now ... I shall know--what is--in the foggy spots of the
+Northern Dog-star:--and in the eyeless worm's----entrails."
+
+Then, suddenly, with a forced final spasmodic effort, he seized the arms
+of his chair, and rose, lifted up his right arm, and turned to the
+magistrate.
+
+"Sir," he cried in a strong full-toned voice, "I have appealed."
+
+He fell back in the arm-chair.
+
+Some minutes later every wrinkle disappeared from his face, it became as
+smooth as marble, and calm, as those of dead persons are wont to be.
+
+Lorand was standing there with clasped hands between his two dear dead
+ones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the morrow at dawn Lorand rose for his journey and stepped into the
+cart with a closed lead coffin. So he took home his dead bride.
+
+The second letter which Topándy had written to his mother, the sealing
+of which had sealed his own fate, had not been posted, and could not
+have prepared them for his coming.
+
+At home they had received only the first letter.
+
+When that letter of good tidings arrived it caused feelings of
+intoxicated delight and triumph throughout the whole house.
+
+After all they loved him still best of all. He was the favorite child
+of his mother and grandmother. No word of Desiderius is required for his
+heart was already united to his darling: and good Fanny was doubly happy
+in the idea that she would not be the only happy woman in the house.
+
+With what joy they awaited him!
+
+Could he ever have doubted that the one he loved would be loved by
+all?--no need to speak of her virtues: everybody knew them: all he need
+say was "I love her."
+
+It was certainly very well he did not send his mother that letter, in
+which he had written of Czipra and requested his mother's
+blessing:--well that he had not wounded the dearest mother's heart with
+those final words--"but if you curse her whom I love--"
+
+Curse her whom he loves!
+
+Why should they do so? That letter brought a holiday to the house. They
+arranged the country dwelling afresh: Desiderius took up his residence
+in the town, handing over to his elder brother his birthright.
+
+The eldest lady put off her mourning. Lorand's bride must not see
+anything that could recall sad thoughts. Everything sad was buried under
+the earth.
+
+Desiderius could relate so much that was pleasant of the gypsy girl:
+Lorand's letters during the past ten years of silence always spoke of
+the poor despised diamond, whose faithful attachment had been the sunny
+side of Lorand's life. They read the bundles of letters again and again:
+it was a study for the two mothers. Where Lorand had been giving merely
+a passing hint, they could make great explanations, all pointing to
+Czipra.
+
+Providence had ordered it so!
+
+After the first meeting in the inn, it had all been ordained that Lorand
+should save Czipra from the murderer's knife, in order to be happy with
+her later.
+
+... Why the gypsy girl was happy already.
+
+Topándy's letter informed them that, immediately after the despatch of
+the letter, Lorand would wed Czipra, and they would come home together
+to the house of his parents.
+
+So the day was known, they might even reckon the hour when they would
+arrive.
+
+Desiderius remained in town to await Lorand. He promised to bring them
+out, however late they came, even in the night.
+
+The ladies waited up until midnight. They waited outside under the
+verandah. It was a beautiful warm moonlit night.
+
+The good grandmother, embracing Fanny's shoulder, related to her how
+many, many years ago they had waited one night for the two brothers to
+come, but that was a very awful night, and the waiting was very
+sorrowful. The wind howled among the acacias, clouds chased each other
+across the sky, hounds howled in the village, a hay-wain rattled in at
+the gate--and in it was hidden the coffin.--And the populace was very
+suspicious: they thought the ice would break its bounds, if a dead man
+were taken over it.
+
+But now it was quite a different world. The air was still, not a breath
+of air: man and beast sleeps, only those are awake who await a bride.
+
+How different the weather!
+
+Then, all at once, a wain had stood at the gate: the servants hastened
+to open it.
+
+A hay-wain now rattled in at the gate, as it did then.
+
+And after the wain, on foot, the two brothers, hand in hand.
+
+The women rushed to meet them, Lorand was the first whom everyone
+embraced and kissed.
+
+"And your wife?" asked every lip.
+
+Lorand pointed speechlessly to the wain, and could not tell them.
+
+Desiderius answered in his place.
+
+"We have brought his wife here in her coffin."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+WHEN WE HAD GROWN OLD
+
+
+Seventeen years have passed since Lorand returned home again.
+
+What old people we have become since then!
+
+Besides, seventeen years is a long time:--and seventeen heavy years!
+
+I have rarely seen people grow old so slowly as did our contemporaries.
+
+We live in a time when we sigh with relief as each day passes by--only
+because it is now over! And we will not believe that what comes after it
+will bring still worse days.
+
+We descend continuously further and further down, in faith, in hope, in
+charity towards one another: our wealth is dissipated, our spirits
+languish, our strength decays, our united life falls into disunion: it
+is not indifference, but "ennui" with which we look at the events of the
+days.
+
+One year to the day, after poor Czipra's death Lorand went with his
+musket on his shoulder to a certain entertainment where death may be had
+for the asking.
+
+I shall not recall the fame of those who are gone--why should I? Very
+few know of it.
+
+Lorand was a good soldier.
+
+That he would have been in any case, he had naturally every attribute
+required for it: heroic courage, athletic strength, hot blood, a soul
+that never shrank. War would in any case have been a delight for
+him:--and in his present state of mind!
+
+Broken-hearted and crushed, his first love contemptuously trampling him
+in the dust, his second murdered in the fervor of her passion, his soul
+weighed with the load of melancholia, and that grievous fate which bore
+down and overshadowed his family: always haunted by that terrible
+foreboding that, sooner or later, he must still find his way to that
+eighth resting-place, that empty niche.
+
+When the wars began his lustreless spirit burst into brilliance. When he
+put on his uniform, he came to me, and, grasping my hand, said with
+flashing eyes:
+
+"I am bargaining in the market where a man may barter his worn-out life
+at a profit of a hundred per cent."
+
+Yet he did not barter his.
+
+Rumor talked of his boldness, people sang of his heroic deeds, he
+received fame and wreaths, only he could not find what he sought: a
+glorious death.
+
+Of the regiment which he joined, in the end only a tenth part remained.
+He was among those who were not even wounded.
+
+Yet how many bullets had swept over his head!
+
+How he looked for those whistling heralds of death, how he waited for
+the approach of those whirring missiles to whom the transportation of a
+man to another world in a moment is nothing! They knew him well already
+and did not annoy him.
+
+These buzzing bees of the battlefield, like the real bees, whir past the
+ear of him who walks undaunted among them, and sting him who fears them.
+
+Once a bullet pierced his helmet.
+
+How often I heard him say:
+
+"Why not an inch lower?"
+
+Finally, in one battle a piece of an exploded shell maimed his arm, and
+when he fell from his horse, disabled by a sword-cut, a Cossack pierced
+him through with his lance.
+
+Yet even that did not kill him.
+
+For weeks he lay unconscious in the public hospital, under a tent, until
+I came to fetch him home. Fanny nursed him. He recovered.
+
+When he was better again, the war was over.
+
+How many times I heard him say:
+
+"What bad people you are, for loving me so! What a bad turn you did me,
+when you brought me away from the scene of battle, brother! How
+merciless you were Fanny, to watch beside me! What a vain task it was on
+your part to keep me alive! How angry I am with you: what detestable
+people you are!--just for loving me so!"
+
+Yet we still loved him.
+
+And then we grew old peacefully.
+
+We buried kind grandmother, and then dear mother too: we remained alone
+together, and never parted.
+
+Lorand always lived with us: as long as we lived in town he did not
+leave the house sometimes for weeks together.
+
+The new order of things compelled me to give up the career which father
+had held to be the most brilliant aim of life. I threw over my yearning
+for diplomacy, and went to the plough.
+
+I became a good husbandman.
+
+I am that still.
+
+Then too Lorand remained with us.
+
+His was no longer a life, merely a counting of days.
+
+It was piteous to know it and to see him.
+
+A strapping figure, whose calling was to be a hero!
+
+A warm heart, that might have been a paradise on earth to some woman!
+
+A refined, fiery temperament that might have been the leading spirit of
+some country.
+
+Who quietly without love or happiness, faded leaf by leaf and did not
+await anything from the morrow.
+
+Yet he feared the coming days.
+
+Often he chided me for wanting to brick up the door of that lonely
+building there beside the brook.
+
+Lest my children should ask, "what can dwell within it?" Lest they try
+to discover the meaning of that hidden inscription as I had tried in my
+childish days.
+
+Lorand did not agree with the idea.
+
+"There is still one lodging vacant in it."
+
+And that was a horror to us all.
+
+To him, to us too.
+
+Every evening we parted as if saying a last adieu.
+
+Nothing in life gave him pleasure. He took part in nothing which
+interested other men. He did not play cards, or drink wine: he was ever
+sober and of unchanging mood. He read nothing but mathematical books. I
+could never persuade him to take a newspaper in his hand.
+
+"The whole history of the world is one lie."
+
+Every day, winter and summer, early in the morning, before anyone had
+risen, he walked out to the cemetery, to where Czipra lay "under the
+perfumed herb-roots:" spent some minutes there and then returned,
+bringing in summer a blade of living grass, in winter of dried grass
+from her grave.
+
+He had a diary, in which nought was written, except the date: and pinned
+underneath, in place of writing, was the dry blade of grass.
+
+The history of a life contained in thousands of grass-blades, each blade
+representing a day.
+
+Could there be a sadder book?
+
+The only things that interested him, were fruit trees and bees.
+
+Animals and plants do not deceive him who loves them.
+
+The whole day long he guarded his trees and his saplings, and waged war
+against the insects: and all day long he learned the philosophy of life
+from those grand constitutional monarchists, the bees.
+
+There are many men, particularly to-day, in our country, who know how to
+kill time: Lorand merely struggled with time, and every day as it passed
+was a defeat for him.
+
+He never went shooting, he said it was not good for him to take a loaded
+gun in his hand.
+
+At night one of my children always slept in his room.
+
+"I am afraid of myself," he confessed to me.
+
+He was afraid of himself and of that quiet house, down there beside the
+brook.
+
+"I would love to sleep there under the perfumed herb-roots."
+
+A life wasted!
+
+One beautiful summer afternoon my little son rushed to me with the news
+that his uncle Lorand was lying on the floor in the middle of the room,
+and would not rise.
+
+With the worst suspicions, I hastened to his side.
+
+When I entered his room, he was lying, not on the floor, but on the bed.
+
+He lay face downward on the bed.
+
+"What is the matter?" I asked, taking his hand.
+
+"Nothing at all:--only I am dying slowly."
+
+"Great heavens! What have you done?"
+
+"Don't be alarmed. It was not my hand."
+
+"Then what is the matter?"
+
+"A bee-sting. Laugh at me--I shall die from it."
+
+In the morning he had said that robber bees had attacked his hives, and
+he was going to destroy them. A strange bee had stung him on the temple.
+
+"But not there ... not there ..." he panted, breathing feverishly: "not
+into the eighth resting-place--out yonder under the perfumed herb-roots.
+There let us lie in the dust one beside the other. Brick up that door.
+Good night."
+
+Then he closed his eyes and never opened them again.
+
+Before I could call Fanny to his side he was dead.
+
+The valiant hero who had struggled single-handed against whole troops,
+the man of iron whom neither the sword nor the lance could kill, in ten
+minutes perished from the prick of a tiny little insect.
+
+God moves among us!
+
+When the last moment of temptation had come, when weariness of life was
+about to arm his hand with the curse of his forefathers, He had sent the
+very tiniest of his flying minions, and had carried him up on the wings
+of a bee to the place where the happy ones dwell.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And we are still growing older: who knows how long it will last?
+
+
+FINIS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jókai
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jókai
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Debts of Honor
+
+Author: Maurus Jókai
+
+Translator: Arthur B. Yolland
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2007 [EBook #22757]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEBTS OF HONOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<h2>WORKS OF MAURUS J&Oacute;KAI</h2>
+
+<h3 style="color: #fb6808;">HUNGARIAN EDITION</h3>
+
+<h1>DEBTS OF HONOR</h1>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Translated from the Hungarian</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>By</i></p>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Arthur B. Yolland</span></h2>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 111px;">
+<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="111" height="180" alt="publisher's logo" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK</p>
+<p class="center">DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1900, by <span class="smcap">Doubleday &amp; McClure Co.</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="TRANSLATORS_NOTE" id="TRANSLATORS_NOTE"></a>TRANSLATOR'S NOTE</h2>
+
+
+<p>In rendering into English this novel of Dr. <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Jokai&quot; has been changed to &quot;J&oacute;kai&quot;">J&oacute;kai's</span>, which many of his
+countrymen consider his masterpiece, I have been fortunate enough to
+secure the collaboration of my friend, Mr. Zolt&aacute;n Dunay, a former
+colleague, whose excellent knowledge of the English language and
+literature marked him out as the most competent and desirable
+collaborator.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">Arthur B. <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Yoland&quot; has been changed to &quot;Yolland&quot;">Yolland</span></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Budapest</span>, 1898.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="chappg"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Journal of Desiderius</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Girl Substitute</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">30</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">My Right Honorable Uncle</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">59</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Atheist and the Hypocrite</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">71</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Wild-Creature's Haunt</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">Fruits Prematurely Ripe</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Secret Writings</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">122</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The End of the Beginning</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">131</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">Aged at Seventeen</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">143</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">X.</td>
+<td class="chapname">I and the Demon</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">148</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">"Parole d'Honneur"</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">172</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">A Glance into a Pistol Barrel</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">185</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">Which Will Convert the Other</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">199</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">Two Girls</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">If He Loves, then Let Him Love</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">240</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">That Ring</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">249</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Yellow-robed Woman in the Cards</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">258</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Finger-post of Death</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">266</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">Fanny</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">281</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Fatal Day!</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">285</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">That Letter</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">299</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Unconscious Phantom</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">306</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Day of Gladness</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">322</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXIV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Mad Jest</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">330</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">While the Music Sounds</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">341</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXVI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Enchantment of Love</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">351</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXVII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">When the Nightingale Sings</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">360</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXVIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Night Struggle</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">370</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXIX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Spider in the Corner</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">383</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">I Believe...!</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">397</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXXI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">The Bridal Feast</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">407</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XXXII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">When We Had Grown Old</td>
+<td class="chappg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">413</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h1><a name="DEBTS_OF_HONOR" id="DEBTS_OF_HONOR"></a>DEBTS OF HONOR</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JOURNAL OF DESIDERIUS</h3>
+
+
+<p>At that time I was but ten years old, my brother Lorand sixteen; our
+dear mother was still young, and father, I well remember, no more than
+thirty-six. Our grandmother, on my father's side, was also of our party,
+and at that time was some sixty years of age; she had lovely thick hair,
+of the pure whiteness of snow. In my childhood I had often thought how
+dearly the angels must love those who keep their hair so beautiful and
+white; and used to have the childish belief that one's hair grows white
+from abundance of joy.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, we never had any sorrow; it seemed as if our whole family
+had contracted some secret bond of unity, whereby each member thereof
+bound himself to cause as much joy and as little sorrow as possible to
+the others.</p>
+
+<p>I never heard any quarrelling in our family. I never saw a passionate
+face, never an anger that lasted till the morrow, never a look at all
+reproachful. My mother, grandmother, father, my brother and I, lived
+like those who understand each other's thoughts, and only strive to
+excel one another in the expression of their love.</p>
+
+<p>To confess the truth, I loved none of our family so much as I did my
+brother. Nevertheless I should have been thrown into some little doubt,
+if some one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> had asked me which of them I should choose, if I must part
+from three of the four and keep only one for myself. But could we only
+have remained together, without death to separate us or disturb our
+sweet contentment, until ineffable eternity, in such a case I had chosen
+for my constant companion only my brother. He was so good to me. For he
+was terribly strong. I thought there could not be a stronger fellow in
+the whole town. His school-fellows feared his fists, and never dared to
+cross his path; yet he did not look so powerful; he was rather slender,
+with a tender girl-like countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Even now I can hardly stop speaking of him.</p>
+
+<p>As I was saying, our family was very happy. We never suffered from want,
+living in a fine house with every comfort. Even the very servants had
+plenty. Torn clothes were always replaced by new ones and as to
+friends&mdash;why the jolly crowds that would make the house fairly ring with
+merry-making on name-days<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> and on similar festive occasions proved
+that there was no lack of them. That every one had a feeling of high
+esteem for us I could tell by the respectful greetings addressed to us
+from every direction.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> In Hungary persons celebrate the name-day of the saint
+after whom they are called with perhaps more ceremony than their
+birthday.</p></div>
+
+<p>My father was a very serious man; quiet and not talkative. He had a pale
+face, a long black beard, and thick eyebrows. Sometimes he contracted
+his eyebrows, and then we might have been afraid of him; but his idea
+always was, that nobody should fear him; not more than once a year did
+it happen that he cast an angry look at some one. However, I never saw
+him in a good humor. On the occasion of our most festive banquets, when
+our guests were bursting into peals of laughter at sprightly jests, he
+would sit there at the end of the table as one who heard naught. If dear
+mother leaned affectionately on his shoulder, or Lorand kissed his face,
+or if I nestled to his breast and plied him, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>child-guise, with
+queries on unanswerable topics, at such a time his beautiful, melancholy
+eyes would beam with such inexpressible love, such enchanting sweetness
+would well out from them! But a smile came there never at any time, nor
+did any one cause him to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>He was not one of those men who, when wine or good humor unloosens their
+tongue, become loquacious, and tell all that lies hidden in their heart,
+speak of the past and future, chatter and boast. No, he never used
+gratuitous words. There was some one else in our family just as serious,
+our grandmother; she was just as taciturn, just as careful about
+contracting her thick eyebrows, which were already white at that time;
+just as careful about uttering words of anger; just as incapable of
+laughing or even smiling. I often remarked that her eyes were fixed
+unremittingly on his face; and sometimes I found myself possessed of the
+childish idea that my father was always so grave in his behavior because
+he knew that his mother was gazing at him. If afterward their eyes met
+by chance, it seemed as if they had discovered each other's
+thoughts&mdash;some old, long-buried thoughts, of which they were the
+guardians; and I often saw how my old grandmother would rise from her
+everlasting knitting, and come to father as he sat among us thus
+abstracted, scarce remarking that mother, Lorand, and I were beside him,
+caressing and pestering him; she would kiss his forehead, and his
+countenance would seem to change in a moment: he would become more
+affectionate, and begin to converse with us; thereupon grandmother would
+kiss him afresh and return to her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>It is only now that I recall all these incidents. At that time I found
+nothing remarkable in them.</p>
+
+<p>One evening our whole family circle was surprised by the unusually good
+humor that had come over father. To each one of us he was very tender,
+very affectionate; entered into a long conversation with Lorand, asked
+him of his school-work, imparted to him information on subjects of which
+as yet he had but a faulty knowledge; took me on his knee and smoothed
+my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> head; addressed questions to me in Latin, and praised me for
+answering them correctly; kissed our dear mother more than once, and
+after supper was over related merry tales of the old days. When we began
+to laugh at them, he laughed too. It was such a pleasure to me to have
+seen my father laugh once. It was such a novel sensation that I almost
+trembled with joy.</p>
+
+<p>Only our old grandmother remained serious. The brighter father's face
+became, the more closely did those white eyebrows contract. Not for a
+single moment did she take her eyes off father's face; and, as often as
+he looked at her with his merry, smiling countenance, a cold shudder ran
+through her ancient frame. Nor could she let father's unusual gayety
+pass without comment.</p>
+
+<p>"How good-humored you are to-day, my son!"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow I shall take the children to the country," he answered; "the
+prospect of that has always been a source of great joy to me."</p>
+
+<p>We were to go to the country! The words had a pleasant sound for us
+also. We ran to father, to kiss him for his kindness; how happy he had
+made us by this promise! His face showed that he knew it well.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you must go to bed early, so as not to oversleep in the morning;
+the carriage will be here at daybreak."</p>
+
+<p>To go to bed is only too easy, but to fall asleep is difficult when one
+is still a child, and has received a promise of being taken to the
+country. We had a beautiful and pleasant country property, not far from
+town; my brother was as fond as I was of being there. Mother and
+grandmother never came with us. Why, we knew not; they said they did not
+like the country. We were indeed surprised at this. Not to like the
+country&mdash;to wander in the fields, on flowery meadows; to breathe the
+precious perfumed air; to gather round one the beautiful, sagacious, and
+useful domestic animals? Can there be any one in the world who does not
+love that? Child, I know there is none.</p>
+
+<p>My brother was all excitement for the chase. How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> he would enter forest
+and reeds! what beautiful green-necked wild duck he would shoot. How
+many multi-colored birds' eggs he would bring home to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go with you, too," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; some ill might befall you. You can remain at home in the garden to
+angle in the brook, and catch tiny little fishes."</p>
+
+<p>"And we shall cook them for dinner." What a splendid idea! Long, long we
+remained awake; first Lorand, then I, was struck by some idea which had
+to be mentioned; and so each prevented the other from sleeping. Oh! how
+great the gladness that awaited us on the morrow!</p>
+
+<p>Late in the night a noise as of fire arms awoke me. It is true that I
+always dreamed of guns. I had seen Lorand at the chase, and feared he
+would shoot himself.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you shot, Lorand?" I asked half asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Remain quite still," said my brother, who was lying in the bed near me,
+and had risen at the noise. "I shall see what has happened outside."
+With these words he went out.</p>
+
+<p>Several rooms divided our bedroom from that of our parents. I heard no
+sound except the opening of doors here and there.</p>
+
+<p>Soon Lorand returned. He told me merely to sleep on peacefully&mdash;a high
+wind had risen and had slammed to a window that had remained open; the
+glass was all broken into fragments; that had caused the great noise.</p>
+
+<p>And therewith he proceeded to dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you dressing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the broken window must be mended with something to prevent the
+draught coming in; it is in mother's bedroom. You can sleep on
+peacefully."</p>
+
+<p>Then he placed his hand on my head, and that hand was like ice.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it cold outside, Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why does your hand tremble so?"</p>
+
+<p>"True; it is very cold. Sleep on, little Desi."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he went out he left an intermediate door open for a moment; and in
+that moment the sound of mother's laughter reached my ears. That
+well-known ringing sweet voice, that indicates those <i>na&iuml;ve</i> women who
+among their children are themselves the greatest children.</p>
+
+<p>What could cause mother to laugh so loudly at this late hour of the
+night? Because the window was broken? At that time I did not yet know
+that there is a horrible affliction which attacks women with agonies of
+hell, and amidst these heart-rending agonies forces them to laugh
+incessantly.</p>
+
+<p>I comforted myself with what my brother had said, and forcibly buried my
+head in my pillow that I might compel myself to fall asleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was already late in the morning when I awoke again. This time also my
+brother had awakened me. He was already quite dressed.</p>
+
+<p>My first thought was of our visit to the country.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the carriage already here? Why did you not wake me earlier? Why, you
+are actually dressed!"</p>
+
+<p>I also immediately hastened to get up, and began to dress; my brother
+helped me, and answered not a word to my constant childish prattling. He
+was very serious, and often gazed in directions where there was nothing
+to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one has annoyed you, Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>My brother did not reply, only drew me to his side and combed my hair.
+He gazed at me incessantly with a sad expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Has some evil befallen you, Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>No sign, even of the head, of assent or denial; he merely tied my
+neckerchief quietly into a bow.</p>
+
+<p>We disputed over the coat I should wear; I wished to put on a blue one.
+Lorand, on the contrary, wished me to wear a dark green one.</p>
+
+<p>I resisted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we are going to the country! There the blue doublet will be just
+the thing. Why don't you give it to me? Because you have none like it!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand said nothing; he merely looked at me with those great reproachful
+eyes of his. It was enough for me. I allowed him to dress me in the dark
+green coat. And yet I would continually grumble about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are dressing me as if we were to go to an examination or to a
+funeral."</p>
+
+<p>At these words Lorand suddenly pressed me to him, folding me in his
+embrace, then knelt down before me and began to weep, and sob so that
+his tears bedewed my hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, what is the matter?" I asked in terror; but he could not speak
+for weeping. "Don't weep, Lorand. Did I annoy you? Don't be angry."</p>
+
+<p>Long did he weep, all the time holding me in his arms. Then suddenly he
+heaved a deep and terrifying sigh, and in a low voice stammered in my
+ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Father&mdash;is&mdash;dead."</p>
+
+<p>I was one of those children who could not weep; who learn that only with
+manhood. At such a time when I should have wept, I only felt as if some
+worm were gnawing into my heart, as if some languor had seized me, which
+deprived me of all feeling expressed by the five senses&mdash;my brother wept
+for me. Finally, he kissed me and begged me to recover myself. But I was
+not beside myself. I saw and heard everything. I was like a log of wood,
+incapable of any movement.</p>
+
+<p>It was unfortunate that I was not gifted with the power of showing how I
+suffered.</p>
+
+<p>But my mind could not fathom the depths of that thought. Our father was
+dead!</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday evening he was still talking with us; embracing and kissing
+us; he had promised to take us to the country, and to-day he was not: he
+was dead. Quite incomprehensible! In my childhood I had often racked my
+brains with the question, "What is there beyond the world?" Void. Well,
+and what surrounds that void? Many times this distracting thought drove
+me almost to madness. Now this same maddening dilemma seized upon me.
+How could it be that my father was dead?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let us go to mother!" was my next thought.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall go soon after her. She has already departed."</p>
+
+<p>"Whither?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the country."</p>
+
+<p>"But, why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did she laugh so in the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is ill."</p>
+
+<p>This was still more incomprehensible to my poor intellect.</p>
+
+<p>A thought then occurred to me. My face became suddenly brighter.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, of course you are joking; you are fooling me. You merely wished
+to alarm me. We are all going away to the country to enjoy ourselves!
+and you only wished to take the drowsiness from my eyes when you told me
+father was dead."</p>
+
+<p>At these words Lorand clasped his hands, and, with motionless, agonized
+face, groaned out:</p>
+
+<p>"Desi, don't torture me; don't torture me with your smiling face."</p>
+
+<p>This caused me to be still more alarmed. I began to tremble, seized one
+of his arms, and implored him not to be angry. Of course, I believed
+what he said.</p>
+
+<p>He could see that I believed, for all my limbs were trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go to him, Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>My brother merely gazed at me as if he were horrified at what I had
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"To father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. What if I speak to him, and he awakes?"</p>
+
+<p>At this suggestion Lorand's two eyes became like fire. It seems as if he
+were forcibly holding back the rush of a great flood of tears. Then
+between his teeth he murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"He will never awake again."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I would like to kiss him."</p>
+
+<p>"His hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"His hand and his face."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You may kiss only his hand," said my brother firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I say so," was his stern reply. The unaccustomed ring of his
+voice was quite alarming. I told him I would obey him; only let him take
+me to father.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come along. Give me your hand."</p>
+
+<p>Then taking my hand, he led me through two rooms.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> In the third,
+grandmother met us.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> In Hungary the houses are built so that one room always
+leads into the other; the whole house can often be traversed without the
+necessity of going into a corridor or passage.</p></div>
+
+<p>I saw no change in her countenance; only her thick white eyebrows were
+deeply contracted.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand went to her and softly whispered something to her which I did not
+hear; but I saw plainly that he indicated me with his eyes. Grandmother
+quietly indicated her consent or refusal with her head; then she came to
+me, took my head in her two hands, and looked long into my face, moving
+her head gently. Then she murmured softly:</p>
+
+<p>"Just the way <i>he</i> looked as a child."</p>
+
+<p><span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark at the beginning of this sentence has been deleted.">Then</span> she threw herself face foremost upon the floor, sobbing bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand seized my hand and drew me with him into the fourth room.</p>
+
+<p>There lay the coffin. It was still open; only the winding-sheet covered
+the whole.</p>
+
+<p>Even to-day I have no power to describe the coffin in which I saw my
+father. Many know what that is; and no one would wish to learn from me.
+Only an old serving-maid was in the chamber; no one else was watching.
+My brother pressed my head to his bosom. And so we stood there a long
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly my brother told me to kiss my father's hand, and then we must
+go. I obeyed him; he raised the edge of the winding-sheet; I saw two
+wax-like hands put together; two hands in which I could not have
+recognized those strong muscular hands, upon the shapely fingers of
+which in my younger days I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>had so often played with the wonderful
+signet-rings, drawing them off one after the other.</p>
+
+<p>I kissed both hands. It was such a pleasure! Then I looked at my brother
+with agonized pleading. I longed so to kiss the face. He understood my
+look and drew me away.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me. Don't let us remain longer." And that was such terrible
+agony to me! My brother told me to wait in my room, and not to move from
+it until he had ordered the carriage which was to take us away.</p>
+
+<p>"Whither?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Away to the country. Remain here and don't go anywhere else." And to
+keep me secure he locked the door upon me.</p>
+
+<p>Then I fell a-thinking. Why should we go to the country now that our
+father was lying dead? Why must I remain meanwhile in that room? Why do
+none of our acquaintances come to see us? Why do those who go about the
+house whisper so quietly? Why do they not toll the bell when so great a
+one lies dead in the house?</p>
+
+<p>All this distracted my brain entirely. To nothing could I give myself an
+answer, and no one came to me from whom I could have demanded the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Once, not long after (to me it seemed an age, though, if the truth be
+known, it was probably only a half-hour or so), I heard the old
+serving-maid, who had been watching in yonder chamber, tripping past the
+corridor window. Evidently some one else had taken her place.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was now as indifferent as it always was. Her eyes were cried
+out; but I am sure I had seen her weep every day, whether in good or in
+bad humor; it was all one with her. I addressed her through the window:</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Susie, come here."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want, dear little Desi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Susie, tell me truly, why am I not allowed to kiss my father's face?"</p>
+
+<p>The old servant shrugged her shoulders, and with cynical indifference
+replied:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor little fool. Why, because&mdash;because he has no head, poor fellow."</p>
+
+<p>I did not dare to tell my brother on his return what I had heard from
+old Susie.</p>
+
+<p>I told him it was the cold air, when he asked why I trembled so.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he merely put my overcoat on, and said, "Let us go to the
+carriage."</p>
+
+<p>I asked him if our grandmother was not coming with us. He replied that
+she would remain behind. We two took our seats in one carriage; a second
+was waiting before the door.</p>
+
+<p>To me the whole incident seemed as a dream. The rainy, gloomy weather,
+the houses that flew past us, the people who looked wonderingly out of
+the windows, the one or two familiar faces that passed us by, and in
+their astonished gaze upon us forgot to greet us. It was as if each one
+of them asked himself: "Why has the father of these boys no head?" Then
+the long poplar-trees at the end of the town, so bent by the wind as if
+they were bowing their heads under the weight of some heavy thought; and
+the murmuring waves under the bridge, across which we went, murmuring as
+if they too were taking counsel over some deep secret, which had so oft
+been intrusted to them, and which as yet no one had discovered&mdash;why was
+it that some dead people had no heads? Something prompted me so, to turn
+with this awful question to my brother. I overcame the demon, and did
+not ask him. Often children, who hold pointed knives before their eyes,
+or look down from a high bridge into the water, are told, "Beware, or
+the devil will push you." Such was my feeling in relation to this
+question. In my hand was the handle, the point was in my heart. I was
+sitting upon the brim, and gazing down into the whirlpool. Something
+called upon me to thrust myself into the living reality, to lose my head
+in it. And yet I was able to restrain myself. During the whole journey
+neither my brother nor I spoke a word.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at our country-house our physician met us, and told us
+that mother was even worse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> than she had been; the sight of us would
+only aggravate her illness; so it would be good for us to remain in our
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Our grandmother arrived two hours after us. Her arrival was the signal
+for a universal whispering among the domestics, as if they would make
+ready for something extraordinary which the whole world must not know.
+Then we sat down to dinner quite unexpectedly, far earlier than usual.
+No one could eat; we only gazed at each course in turn. After dinner my
+brother in his turn began to hold a whispered conference with
+grandmother. As far as I could gather from the few words I caught, they
+were discussing whether he should take his gun with him or not. Lorand
+wished to take it, but grandmother objected. Finally, however, they
+agreed that he should take gun and cartridges, but should not load the
+weapon until he saw a necessity for it.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean while I staggered about from room to room. It seemed as if
+everybody had considerations of more importance than that of looking
+after me.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, however, when I saw my brother making him ready for a
+journey, despair seized hold of me:</p>
+
+<p>"Take me with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you don't even know where I am going."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind; I will go anywhere, only take me with you; for I cannot
+remain all by myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will ask grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>My brother exchanged a few words with my grandmother, and then came back
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You may come with me. Take your stick and coat."</p>
+
+<p>He slung his gun on his shoulder and took his dog with him.</p>
+
+<p>Once again this thought agonized me afresh: "Father is dead, and we go
+for an afternoon's shooting, with grandmother's consent as if nothing
+had happened."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We went down through the gardens, all along the loam-pits; my brother
+seemed to be choosing a route where we should meet with no one. He kept
+the dog on the leash to prevent its wandering away. We went a long way,
+roaming among maize-fields and shrubs, without the idea once occurring
+to Lorand to take the gun down from his shoulder. He kept his eyes
+continually on the ground, and would always silence the dog, when the
+animal scented game.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime we had left the village far behind us. I was already quite
+tired out, and yet I did not utter a syllable to suggest our returning.
+I would rather have gone to the end of the world than return home.</p>
+
+<p>It was already twilight when we reached a small poplar wood. Here my
+brother suggested a little rest. We sat down side by side on the trunk
+of a felled tree. Lorand offered me some cakes he had brought in his
+wallet for me. How it pained me that he thought I wanted anything to
+eat. Then he threw the cake to the hound. The hound picked it up and,
+disappearing behind the bushes, we heard him scratch on the ground as he
+buried it. Not even he wanted to eat. Next we watched the sunset. Our
+village church-tower was already invisible, so far had we wandered, and
+yet I did not ask whether we should return.</p>
+
+<p>The weather became suddenly gloomy; only after sunset did the clouds
+open, that the dying sun might radiate the heavens with its
+storm-burdened red fire. The wind suddenly rose. I remarked to my
+brother that an ugly wind was blowing, and he answered that it was good
+for us. How this great wind could be good for us, I was unable to
+discover.</p>
+
+<p>When later the heavens gradually changed from fire red to purple, from
+purple to gray, from gray to black, Lorand loaded his gun, and let the
+hound loose. He took my hand. I must now say not a single word, but
+remain motionless. In this way we waited long that boisterous night.</p>
+
+<p>I racked my brain to discover the reason why we were there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On a sudden our hound began to whine in the distance&mdash;such a whine as I
+had never yet heard.</p>
+
+<p>Some minutes later he came reeling back to us; whimpering and whining,
+he leaped up at us, licked our hands, and then raced off again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let us go," said Lorand, shouldering his gun.</p>
+
+<p>Hurriedly we followed the hound's track, and soon came out upon the
+high-road.</p>
+
+<p>In the gloom a hay-cart drawn by four oxen, was quietly making its way
+to its destination.</p>
+
+<p>"God be praised!" said the old farm-laborer, as he recognized my
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>"For ever and ever."</p>
+
+<p>After a slight pause my brother asked him if there was anything wrong?</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't fear, it will be all right.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>Thereupon we quietly sauntered along behind the hay-wagon.</p>
+
+<p>My brother uncovered his head, and so proceeded on his way bareheaded;
+he said he was very warm. We walked silently for a distance until the
+old laborer came back to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Not tired, Master Desi?" he asked; "you might take a seat on the cart."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you thinking of, John?" said Lorand; "on this cart?"</p>
+
+<p>"True; true, indeed," said the aged servant. Then he quietly crossed
+himself, and went forward to the oxen.</p>
+
+<p>When we came near the village, old John again came toward us.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be better now if the young gentlemen go home through the
+gardens; it will be much easier for me to get through the village
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they are still on guard?" asked Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they know already. One cannot take it amiss; the poor fellows
+have twice in ten years had their hedges broken down by the hail."</p>
+
+<p>"Stupidity!" answered my brother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"May be," sighed the old serving-man. "Still the poor man thinks so."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand nudged the old retainer so that he would not speak before me.</p>
+
+<p>My brain became only more confused thereat.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand told him that we would soon pass through the gardens; however,
+after John had advanced a good distance with the cart we followed in his
+tracks again, keeping steadily on until we came to the first row of
+houses beginning the village. Here my brother began to thread his way
+more cautiously, and in the dark I heard distinctly the click of the
+trigger as he cocked his gun.</p>
+
+<p>The cart proceeded quietly before us to the end of the long village
+street.</p>
+
+<p>Above the workhouse about six men armed with pitchforks met us.</p>
+
+<p>My brother said we must make our way behind a hedge, and bade me hold
+our dog's mouth lest he should bark when the others passed.</p>
+
+<p>The pitchforked guards passed near the cart, and advanced before us too.
+I heard how the one said to the other:</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, <i>that</i> is the reason this cursed wind is blowing so furiously!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That</i>" was the reason! What was the reason?</p>
+
+<p>As they passed, my brother took my hand and said: "Now let us hasten,
+that we may be home before the wagon."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he ran with me across a long cottage-court, lifted me over a
+hedge, climbing after me himself; then through two or three more strange
+gardens, everywhere stepping over the hedges; and at last we reached our
+own garden.</p>
+
+<p>But, in Heaven's name, had we committed some sin, that we ran thus,
+skulking from hiding-place to hiding-place?</p>
+
+<p>As we reached the courtyard, the wagon was just entering. Three
+retainers waited for it in the yard, and immediately closed the gate
+after it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grandmother stood outside on the terrace and kissed us when we arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Again there followed a short whispering between my brother and the
+domestics; whereupon the latter seized pitchforks and began to toss down
+the hay from the wain.</p>
+
+<p>Could they not do so by daylight?</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother sat down on a bench on the terrace, and drew my head to her
+bosom. Lorand leaned his elbows upon the rail of the terrace and watched
+the work.</p>
+
+<p>The hay was tossed into a heap and the high wind drove the chaff on to
+the terrace, but no one told the servants to be more careful.</p>
+
+<p>This midnight work was, for me, so mysterious.</p>
+
+<p>Only once I saw that Lorand turned round as he stood, and began to weep;
+thereupon grandmother rose, and they fell each upon the other's breast.</p>
+
+<p>I clutched their garments and gazed up at them trembling. Not a single
+lamp burned upon the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" whispered grandmother, "don't weep so loudly," she was herself
+choking with sobs. "Come, let us go."</p>
+
+<p>With that she took my hand, and, leaning upon my brother's arm, came
+down with us into the courtyard, down to the wagon, which stood before
+the garden gate. Two or more heaps of straw hid <i>it</i> from the eye; it
+was visible only when we reached the bottom of the wagon.</p>
+
+<p>On that wagon lay the coffin of my father.</p>
+
+<p>So this it was that in the dead of night we had stealthily brought into
+the village, that we had in so skulking a manner escorted, and had so
+concealed; and of which we had spoken in whispers. This it was that we
+had wept over in secret&mdash;my father's coffin. The four retainers lifted
+it from the wagon, then carried it on their shoulders toward the garden.
+We went after it, with bared heads and silent tongues.</p>
+
+<p>A tiny rivulet flowed through our garden; near this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> rivulet was a
+little round building, whose gaudy door I had never seen open.</p>
+
+<p>From my earliest days, when I was unable to rise from the ground if once
+I sat down, the little round building had always been in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>I had always loved it, always feared to be near it; I had so longed to
+know what might be within it. As a little knickerbockered child I would
+pick the colored gravel-stones from the mortar, and play with them in
+the dust; and if perchance one stone struck the iron door, I would run
+away from the echo the blow produced.</p>
+
+<p>In my older days it was again only around this building that I would
+mostly play, and would remark that upon its fa&ccedil;ade were written great
+letters, on which the ivy, that so actively clambered up the walls,
+scarcely grew. At that time how I longed to know what those letters
+could mean!</p>
+
+<p>When the first holiday after I had made the acquaintance of those
+letters came, and they took me again to our country-seat, one after
+another I spelled out the ancient letters of the inscription on that
+mysterious little house, and pieced them together in my mind. But I
+could not arrive at their meaning; for they were written in some foreign
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Many, many times I wrote those words in the dust even before I
+understood them:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"NE NOS INDUCAS IN TENTATIONEM."
+</p>
+
+<p>I strove to reach one year earlier than my school-fellows the so-called
+"student class," where Latin was taught.</p>
+
+<p>My most elementary acquaintance with the Latin tongue had always for its
+one aim the discovery of the meaning of that saying. Finally I solved
+the mystery&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Lead us not into temptation." It is a sentence of the Lord's Prayer,
+which I myself had repeated a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> thousand times; and now I knew its
+meaning still less than before.</p>
+
+<p>And still more began to come to me a kind of mysterious abhorrence of
+that building, above whose door was to be found the prayer that God
+might guard us against temptations.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this was the very dwelling of temptations?</p>
+
+<p>We know what children understand by "temptations."</p>
+
+<p>To-day I saw this door open, and knew that this building was our family
+vault.</p>
+
+<p>This door, which hitherto I had only seen covered with ivy, was now
+swung open, and through the open porch glittered the light of a lamp.
+The two great Virginia creepers which were planted before the crypt hid
+the glass so that it was not visible from the garden. The brightness was
+only for us.</p>
+
+<p>The four men set the coffin down on the steps; we followed after it.</p>
+
+<p>So this was that house where temptations dwell; and all our prayers were
+in vain; "lead us not into temptation." Yet to temptation we were forced
+to come. Down a few steps we descended, under a low, plastered arch,
+which glittered green from the moisture of the earth. In the wall were
+built deep niches, four on either side, and six of them were already
+filled<span title="Transcriber's Note: A comma at the end of this sentence has been replaced with a period">.</span> Before them stood slabs of marble, with inscriptions telling of
+those who had fallen asleep. The four servants placed the coffin they
+had brought on their shoulders in the seventh niche; then the aged
+retainer clasped his hands, and with simple devotion repeated the Lord's
+Prayer; the other three men softly murmured after him: "Amen. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>Then they left us to ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother all this while had without a word, without a movement, stood
+in the depth of the crypt, holding our hands within her own; but when we
+were alone, in a frenzy she darted to the coffined niche and flung
+herself to the ground before it.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! I cannot tell what she said as she raved there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> She wept and
+sobbed, flinging reproaches&mdash;at the dead! She scolded, as one reproves a
+child that has cut itself with a knife. She asked why he did <i>this</i>. And
+again she heaped grave calumny upon him, called him coward, wretch,
+threatened him with God, with God's wrath, and with eternal
+damnation;&mdash;then asked pardon of him, babbled out words of conciliation,
+called him back, called him dear, sweet, and good; related to him what a
+faithful, dear, loving wife waited at home, with his two sweet
+children,&mdash;how could he forget them? Then with gracious, reverent words
+begged him to turn Christian, to come to God, to learn to believe, to
+hope, to love; to trust to the boundless mercy; to take his rest in the
+paths of Heaven. And then she uttered a scream, tore the tresses of her
+dove-white hair, and cursed God. Methought it was the night of the Last
+Judgment.</p>
+
+<p>Every fire-breathing monster of the Revelation, the very disgorging of
+the dead from the rent earth, were as naught to me compared with the
+terror which that hour heaped upon my head.</p>
+
+<p>'Twas hither we had brought father, who died suddenly, in the prime of
+life. Hither we had brought him, in stealth, and slinking; here we had
+concealed him without any Christian ceremony, without psalm or toll of
+bell; no priest's blessing followed him to his grave, as it follows even
+the poorest beggar; and now here, in the house of the dead, grandmother
+had cursed the departed, and anathematized the other world, on whose
+threshold we stand, and in her mad despair was knocking at the door of
+the mysterious country as she beat upon the coffin-lid with her fist.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in my mature age, when my head, too, is almost covered with
+winter's snow, I see that our presence there was essential; drop by drop
+we were to drain to the dregs this most bitter cup, which I would had
+never fallen to our lot!</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother fell down before the niche and laid her forehead upon the
+coffin's edge; her long white hair fell trailing over her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Long, very long, she lay, and then she rose; her face was no more
+distorted, her eyes no longer filled with tears. She turned toward us
+and said we should remain a little longer here.</p>
+
+<p>She herself sat down upon the lowest step of the stone staircase, and
+placed the lamp in front of her, while we two remained standing before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>She looked not at us, only peered intensely and continuously with her
+large black eyes into the light of the lamp, as if she would conjure
+therefrom something that had long since passed away.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she seized our hands, and drew us toward her to the
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the scions of a most unhappy house, every member of which dies
+by his own hand."</p>
+
+<p>So this was that secret that hung, like a veil of mourning before the
+face of every adult member of our family! We continuously saw our elders
+so, as if some mist of melancholy moved between us; and this was that
+mist.</p>
+
+<p>"This was the doom of God, a curse of man upon us!" continued
+grandmother, now no longer with terrifying voice. Besides, she spoke as
+calmly as if she were merely reciting to us the history of some strange
+family. "Your great-grandfather. Job <span title="Transcriber's Note: The spelling of &quot;&Aacute;ronffy&quot; has been corrected">&Aacute;ronffy</span>, he who lies in the first
+niche, bequeathed this terrible inheritance to his heirs; and it was a
+brother's hand that hurled this curse at his head. Oh, this is an
+unhappy earth on which we dwell! In other happy lands there are
+murderous quarrels between man and man; brothers part in wrath from one
+another; the 'mine and thine,'<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> jealousy, pride, envy, sow tares among
+them. But this accursed earth of ours ever creates bloodshed; this
+damned soil, which we are wont to call our 'dear homeland,' whose pure
+harvest we call love of home, whose tares we call treason, while every
+one thinks his own harvest the pure one, his brother's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>the tares, and,
+for that, brother slays brother! Oh! you cannot understand it yet.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> That is, the disputes as to the superiority of each other's
+possessions, or as to each other's right to possession.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Your great-grandfather lived in those days when great men thought that
+what is falling in decay must be built afresh. Great contention arose
+therefrom, much knavery, much disillusion; finally the whole had to be
+wiped out.</p>
+
+<p>"Job's parents educated him at academies in Germany; there his soul
+became filled with foreign freedom of thought; he became an enthusiastic
+partisan of common human liberty. When he returned, this selfsame idea
+was in strife with an equally great one, national feeling. He joined his
+fortunes with the former idea, as he considered it the just one. In what
+patriots called relics of antiquity he saw only the vices of the
+departed. His elder brother stood face to face with him; they met on the
+common field of strife, and then began between them the unending feud.
+They had been such good brothers, never had they deserted each other in
+time of trouble; and on this thorn-covered field they must swear eternal
+enmity. Your great-grandfather belonged to the victorious, his brother
+to the conquered army. But the victory was not sweet.</p>
+
+<p>"Job gained a powerful, high position, he basked in the sunshine of
+power, but he lost that which was&mdash;nothing; merely the smiles of his old
+acquaintances. He was a seigneur, from afar they greeted him, but did
+not hurry to take his hand; and those who of yore at times of meeting
+would kiss his face from right and left, now after his change of dignity
+would stand before him, and bow their greetings askance with cold
+obeisance. Then there was one man who did not even bow, but sought a
+meeting only that he might provoke him with his obstinate sullenness,
+and gaze upon him with his piercing eyes&mdash;his own brother. Yet they were
+both honorable, good men, true Christians, benefactors of the poor, the
+darlings of their family, and once so fond of each other! Oh, this
+sorrowful earth here below us!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then this new order of things that had been built up for ten years,
+fell into ruins, and Joseph II. on his death-bed drew a red line through
+his whole life-work; what had happened till then faded into mere
+remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>"The earth re-echoed with the shouts of rejoicing&mdash;this earth, this
+bitter earth. Job for his part wended his way to the Turkish bath in
+Buda, and, that he might meet with his brother no more, opened his
+arteries and bled to death.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet they were both good Christians; true men in life, faithful to
+honor, no evil-doers, no godless men; in heart and deed they worshipped
+God; but still the one brother took his own life, that he might meet no
+more with the other; and the other said of him: 'He deserved his fate.'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this earth that is drenched with the flow of our tears!"</p>
+
+<p>Here grandmother paused, as if she would collect in her mind the
+memories of a greater and heavier affliction.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound reached us down there&mdash;even the crypt door was closed; the
+moaning of the wind did not reach so far; no sound, only the beating of
+the hearts of three living beings.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother sought with her eyes the date written upon the arch, which
+the moisture that had sweated out from the lime had rendered illegible.</p>
+
+<p>"In this year they built this house of sorrow. Job was the first
+inhabitant thereof. Just as now, without priest, without toll of bell,
+hidden in a wooden chest of other form, they brought him here; and with
+him began that melancholy line of victims, whose legacy was that one
+should draw the other after him. The shedding of blood by one's own hand
+is a terrible legacy. That blood besprinkles children and brothers. That
+malicious tempter who directed the father's hand to strike the sharp
+knife home into his own heart stands there in ambush forever behind his
+successors' backs; he is ever whispering to them;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> 'Thy father was a
+suicide, thy brother himself sought out death; over thy head, too,
+stands the sentence; wherever thou runnest from before it, thou canst
+not save thyself; thou carriest with thyself thy own murderer in thine
+own right hand.' He tempts and lures the undecided ones with blades
+whetted to brilliancy, with guns at full cock, with poison-drinks of
+awful hue, with deep-flowing streams. Oh, it is indeed horrible!</p>
+
+<p>"And nothing keeps them back! they never think of the love, the
+everlasting sorrow of those whom they leave behind here to sorrow over
+their melancholy death. They never think of Him whom they will meet
+there beyond the grave, and who will ask them: 'Why did you come before
+I summoned you?'</p>
+
+<p>"In vain was written upon the front of this house of sorrow, 'Lead us
+not into temptation.' You can see. Seven have already taken up their
+abode here. All the seven have cast at the feet of Providence that
+treasure, an account of which will be asked for in Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"Job left three children: &Aacute;kos, <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Gero&quot; has been changed to &quot;Ger&ouml;&quot;">Ger&ouml;</span>, and <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Kalman&quot; has been changed to &quot;K&aacute;lm&aacute;n&quot;">K&aacute;lm&aacute;n</span>. &Aacute;kos was the eldest,
+and he married earliest. He was a good man, but thoughtless and
+passionate. One summer he lost his whole fortune at cards and was
+ruined. But even poverty did not drive him to despair. He said to his
+wife and children: 'Till now we were our own masters; now we shall be
+the servants of others. Labor is not a disgrace. I shall go and act as
+steward to some landowner.' The other two brothers, when they heard of
+their elder's misfortune, conferred together, went to him, and said:
+'Brother, still two-thirds of our father's wealth is left; come, let us
+divide it anew.'</p>
+
+<p>"And each of them gave him a third of his property, that they might be
+on equal terms again.</p>
+
+<p>"That night &Aacute;kos shot himself in the head.</p>
+
+<p>"The stroke of misfortune he could bear, but the kindness of his
+brothers set him so against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> himself that when he was freed from the
+cares of life he did not wish to know further the enjoyments thereof.</p>
+
+<p>"<span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Akos&quot; has been changed to &quot;&Aacute;kos&quot;">&Aacute;kos</span> left behind two children, a girl and a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl had lived some sixteen summers&mdash;very beautiful, very good.
+Look! there is her tomb: 'Struck down in her sixteenth year!' She loved;
+became unhappy; and died.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot understand it yet!</p>
+
+<p>"So already three lay in the solitary vault.</p>
+
+<p>"Ger&ouml; was your grandfather&mdash;my good, never-to-be-forgotten husband. No
+tear wells in my eyes as I think of him; every thought that leads me
+back to him is sweet to me; and I know that he was a man of high
+principles; that every deed of his&mdash;his last deed, too&mdash;was proper and
+right, it is as it should be. It happened before my very eyes; and I did
+not seize his hand to stay his action."</p>
+
+<p>How my old grandmother's eyes flashed in this moment! A glowing warmth,
+hitherto unknown to me, seemed to pervade my whole being; some
+glimmering ray of enthusiasm&mdash;I knew not what! How the dead can inspire
+one with enthusiasm!</p>
+
+<p>"Your grandfather was the very opposite of his own father; as it is
+likely to happen in hundreds, nay, in thousands of cases that the sons
+restore to the East the fame and glory that their fathers gathered in
+the West.</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't understand that, either!</p>
+
+<p>"Ger&ouml; was in union with those who, under the leadership of a priest of
+high rank, wished at the end of the last century, to prepare the country
+for another century. No success crowned their efforts; they fell with
+him&mdash;and fell without a head. One afternoon your grandfather was sitting
+in the family circle&mdash;it was toward the end of dinner&mdash;when a strange
+officer entered in the midst of us, and, with a face utterly incapable
+of an expression of remorse, informed Ger&ouml; that he had orders to put him
+under guard. Ger&ouml; displayed a calm face, merely begged the stranger to
+allow him to drink his black coffee. His request was granted without
+demur.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> My husband calmly stirred his coffee, and entered into
+conversation with the stranger, who did not seem to be of an angry
+disposition. Indeed, he assured my husband that no harm would come of
+this incident. My husband peacefully sipped his coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"Then having finished it, he put down his cup, wiped his beautiful long
+beard, turned to me, drew me to his breast, and kissed me on both
+cheeks, not touching my mouth. 'Educate our boy well,' he stammered.
+Then, turning to the stranger: 'Sir, pray do not trouble yourself
+further on my account. I am a dead man; you will be welcome at my
+funeral.'</p>
+
+<p>"Two minutes later he breathed his last. And I had clearly seen, for I
+sat beside him, how with his thumb he opened the seal of the ring he
+wore on his little finger, how he shook a white powder therefrom into
+the cup standing before him, how he stirred it slowly till it dissolved,
+and then sipped it up little by little; but I could not stay his hand,
+could not call to him, 'Don't do it! Cling to life!'"</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother was staring before her, with the ecstatic smile of madness.
+Oh! I was so frightened that even now my mind wanders at the
+remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>This smile of madness is so contagious! Slowly nodding with her gray
+head, she again fell all in a heap. It was apparent that some time must
+elapse before this recollection, once risen in her mind, could settle to
+rest again. After what seemed to us hours she slowly raised herself
+again and continued her tragic narrative.</p>
+
+<p>"He was already the fourth dweller in this house of temptations.</p>
+
+<p>"After his death his brother K&aacute;lm&aacute;n came to join our circle. To the end
+he remained single; very early in life he was deceived, and from that
+moment became a hater of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>"His gloom grew year by year more incurable; he avoided every
+distraction, every gathering; his favorite haunt was this garden&mdash;this
+place here. He planted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> the beautiful juniper-trees before the door;
+such trees were in those days great rarities.</p>
+
+<p>"He made no attempt to conceal from us&mdash;in fact, he often declared
+openly to us that his end could be none other than his brothers' had
+been.</p>
+
+<p>"The pistol, with which &Aacute;kos had shot himself, he kept by him as a
+souvenir, and in sad jest declared it was his inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he would wander for hours together in reverie, in melancholy,
+until the falling snow confined him to his room. He detested the winter
+greatly. When the first snowflake fell, his ill-humor turned to the
+agony of despair; he loathed the atmosphere of his rooms and everything
+to be found within the four walls. We so strongly advised him to winter
+in Italy, that he finally gave in to the proposal. We carefully packed
+his trunks; ordered his post-chaise. One morning, as everything stood
+ready for departure, he said that, before going for this long journey,
+he would once again take leave of his brothers. In his travelling-suit
+he came down here to the vault, and closed the iron door after him,
+enjoining that no one should disturb him. So we waited behind; and, as
+hour after hour passed by and still he did not appear, we went after
+him. We forced open the closed door, and there found him lying in the
+middle of the tomb&mdash;he had gone to the country where there is no more
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>"He had shot himself in the heart, with the same pistol as his brother,
+as he had foretold.</p>
+
+<p>"Only two male members of the family remained: my son and the son of
+&Aacute;kos. L&ouml;rincz&mdash;that was the name of &Aacute;kos' son&mdash;was reared too kindly by
+his poor, good mother; she loved him excessively, and thereby spoiled
+him. The boy became very fastidious and sensitive. He was eleven years
+old when his mother noticed that she could not command his obedience.
+Once the child played some prank, a mere trifle; how can a child of
+eleven years commit any great offence? His mother thought she must
+rebuke him. The boy laughed at the rebuke; he could not believe his
+mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> was angry; then, in consequence, his mother boxed his ears. The
+boy left the room; behind the garden there was a fishpond; in that he
+drowned himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, is it necessary to take one's life for such a thing? For one
+blow, given by the soft hand of a mother to a little child, to take such
+a terrible revenge! to cut the thread of life, which as yet he knew not;
+How many children are struck by a mother, and the next day received into
+her bosom, with mutual forgiveness and a renewal of reciprocal love?
+Why, a blow from a mother is merely one proof of a mother's love. But it
+brought him to take his life."</p>
+
+<p>The cold perspiration stood out in beads all over me.</p>
+
+<p>That bitterness I, too, feel in myself. I also am a child, just as old
+as that other was; I have never yet been beaten. Once my parents were
+compelled to rebuke me for wanton petulance; and from head to foot I was
+pervaded through and through by one raving idea: "If they beat me I
+should take my own life." So I am also infected with the hereditary
+disease&mdash;the awful spirit is holding out his hand over me; captured,
+accursed, he is taking me with him. I am betrayed to him! Only instead
+of thrashing me, they had punished me with fasting fare; otherwise, I
+also should already be in this house.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother clasped her hands across her knees and continued her story.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father was older at the time of this event&mdash;seventeen years of
+age. Ever since his birth the world has been rife with discord and
+revolutions; all the nations of the world pursued a bitter warfare one
+against another. I scarce expected my only son would live to be old
+enough to join the army. Thither, thither, where death with a scythe in
+both hands was cutting down the ranks of the armed warriors; thither,
+where the children of weeping mothers were being trampled on by horses'
+hoofs; thither, thither, where they were casting into a common grave the
+mangled remains of darling first-borns; only not hither, not into this
+awful house, into these horrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> ranks of tempting spectres! Yes, I
+rejoiced when I knew that he was standing before the foe's cannons; and
+when the news of one great conflict after another spread like a dark
+cloud over the country, with sorrowful tranquillity, I lay in wait for
+the lightning-stroke which, bursting from the cloud, should dart into my
+heart with the news: 'Thy son is dead! They have slain him, as a hero is
+slain!' But it was not so. The wars ceased. My son returned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not true; don't believe what I said,&mdash;'If only the news of
+his death had come instead!'</p>
+
+<p>"No; surely I rejoiced, surely I wept in my joy and happiness, when I
+could clasp him anew in my arms, and I blessed God for not having taken
+him away. Yet, why did I rejoice? Why did I triumph before the world,
+saying, 'See, what a fine, handsome son I have! a dauntless warrior,
+fame and honor he has brought home with him. My pride&mdash;my gladness? Now
+they lie here! What did I gain with him&mdash;he, too, followed the rest! He,
+too! he, whom I loved best of all&mdash;he whose every Paradise was here on
+earth!"</p>
+
+<p>My brother wept; I shivered with cold.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly, like a lunatic, grandmother seized our hands, and leaped
+up from her sitting-place.</p>
+
+<p>"Look yonder! there is still <i>one</i> empty niche&mdash;room for <i>one</i> coffin.
+Look well at that place; then go forth into the world and think upon
+what the mouth of this dark hollow said.</p>
+
+<p>"I had thought of making you swear here never to forsake God, never to
+continue the misfortunes of this family; but why this oath? That some
+one should take with him to the other world one sin more, in that in the
+hour of his death he forswore himself? What oath would bind him who
+says: 'The mercy of God I desire not'?</p>
+
+<p>"But instead, I brought you here and related you the history of your
+family. Later you shall know still more therefrom, that is yet secret
+and obscure before you. Now look once more around you, and then&mdash;let us
+go out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now you know what is the meaning of this melancholy house, whose door
+the ivy enters with the close of a man's life from time to time. You
+know that the family brings its suicides hither to burial, because
+elsewhere they have no place. But you know also that in this awful
+sleeping-room there is space for only <i>one</i> person more, and the second
+will find no other resting-place than the grave-ditch!"</p>
+
+<p>With these words grandmother passionately thrust us both from her. In
+terror we fell into each other's arms before her frenzied gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with a shrill cry, she rushed toward us and embraced us both with
+all the might of a lunatic; wept and gasped, till finally she fainted
+utterly away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GIRL SUBSTITUTE<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a></h3>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> In former days it was the custom for a Magyar and a German
+family to interchange children, with a view to their learning the two
+languages perfectly. So Fanny Fromm is interchanged with Desiderius
+<span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Aronffy&quot; has been changed to &quot;&Aacute;ronffy&quot;">&Aacute;ronffy</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p>A pleasant old custom was then in fashion in our town: the interchange
+of children,&mdash;perhaps it is in fashion still. In our many-tongued
+fatherland one town is German-speaking, the other Magyar-speaking, and,
+being brothers, after all to understand each other was a necessity.
+Germans must learn Magyar and Magyars, German. And peace is restored.</p>
+
+<p>So a method of temporarily exchanging children grew up: German parents
+wrote to Magyar towns, Magyar parents to German towns, to the respective
+school directors, to ask if there were any pupils who could be
+interchanged. In this manner one child was given for another, a kind,
+gentle, womanly thought!</p>
+
+<p>The child left home, father, mother, brother, only to find another home
+among strangers: another mother, other brothers and sisters, and his
+absence did not leave a void at home; child replaced child; and if the
+adopted mother devoted a world of tenderness to the pilgrim, it was with
+the idea that her own was being thus treated in the far distance; for a
+mother's love cannot be bought at a price but only gained by love.</p>
+
+<p>It was an institution that only a woman's thought could found: so
+different from that frigid system invented by men which founded
+nunneries, convents, and closed colleges for the benefit of susceptible
+young <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>hearts where all memory of family life was permanently wiped out
+of their minds.</p>
+
+<p>After that unhappy day, which, like the unmovable star, could never go
+so far into the distance as to be out of sight, grandmother more than
+once said to us in the presence of mother, that it would not be good for
+us to remain in this town; we must be sent somewhere else.</p>
+
+<p>Mother long opposed the idea. She did not wish to part from us. Yet the
+doctors advised the same course. When the spasms seized her, for days we
+were not allowed to visit her, as it made her condition far worse.</p>
+
+<p>At last she gave her consent, and it was decided that we two should be
+sent to Pressburg. My brother, who was already too old to be exchanged,
+went to the home of a Privy Councillor, who was paid for taking him in,
+and my place was to be taken by a still younger child than myself, by a
+little German girl, Fanny, the daughter of Henry Fromm, baker.
+Grandmother was to take us in a carriage&mdash;in those days in Hungary we
+had only heard rumors of steamboats&mdash;and to bring the girl substitute
+back with her.</p>
+
+<p>For a week the whole household sewed, washed, ironed and packed for us;
+we were supplied with winter and summer clothing: on the last day
+provisions were prepared for our journey, as if we had intended to make
+a voyage to the end of the world, and in the evening we took supper in
+good time, that we might rise early, as we had to start before daybreak.
+That was my first departure from my home. Many a time since then have I
+had to say adieu to what was dearest to me; many sorrows, more than I
+could express, have afflicted me: but that first parting caused me the
+greatest pain of all, as is proved by the fact that after so long an
+interval I remember it so well. In the solitude of my own chamber, I
+bade farewell separately to all those little trifles that surrounded me:
+God bless the good old clock that hast so oft awakened me. Beautiful
+raven, whom I taught to speak and to say "Lorand," on whom wilt thou
+play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> thy sportive tricks? Poor old doggy, maybe thou wilt not be living
+when I return? Forsooth old Susie herself will say to me, "I shall never
+see you again Master Desi." And till now I always thought I was angry
+with Susie; but now I remark that it will be hard to leave her.</p>
+
+<p>And my dear mother, the invalid, and grandmother, already so
+grey-haired!</p>
+
+<p>Thus the bitter strains swept onward along the strings of my soul, from
+lifeless objects to living, from favorite animals to human
+acquaintances, and then to those with whom we were bound soul to soul,
+finally dragging one with them to the presence of the dead and buried. I
+was sorely troubled by the thought that we were not allowed to enter,
+even for one moment, that solitary house, round the door of which the
+ivy was entwining anew. We might have whispered "God be with thee! I
+have come to see thee!" I must leave the place without being able to say
+to him a single word of love. And perhaps he would know without words.
+Perhaps the only joy of that poor soul, who could not lie in a
+consecrated chamber, who could not find the way to heaven because he had
+not waited till the guardian angel came for him, was when he saw that
+his sons love him still.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, I cannot sleep, because I have not been able to take my leave
+of that house beside the stream."</p>
+
+<p>My brother sighed and turned in his bed.</p>
+
+<p>My whole life long I have been a sound sleeper (what child is not?) but
+never did it seem such a burden to rise as on the morning of our
+departure. Two days later a strange child would be sleeping in that bed.
+Once more we met together at breakfast, which we had to eat by
+candle-light as the day had not yet dawned.</p>
+
+<p>Dear mother often rose from her seat to kiss and embrace Lorand,
+overwhelmed him with caresses, and made him promise to write much; if
+anything happened to him, he must write and tell it at once, and must
+always consider that bad news would afflict two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> hearts at home. She
+only spoke to me to bid me drink my coffee warm, as the morning air
+would be chilly.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother, too, concerned herself entirely with Lorand: they enquired
+whether he had all he required for the journey, whether he had taken his
+certificates with him&mdash;and a thousand other matters. I was rather
+surprised than jealous at all this, for as a rule the youngest son gets
+all the petting.</p>
+
+<p>When our carriage drove up we took our travelling coats and said adieu
+in turn to the household. Mother, leaning on Lorand's shoulder, came
+with us to the gate whispering every kind of tender word to him; thrice
+she embraced and kissed him. And then came my turn.</p>
+
+<p>She embraced me and kissed me on the cheek, then tremblingly whispered
+in my ear these words:</p>
+
+<p>"My darling boy,&mdash;take care of your brother Lorand!" I take care of
+Lorand? the child of the young man? the weak of the strong? the later
+born guide the elder. The whole journey long this idea distracted me,
+and I could not explain it to myself.</p>
+
+<p>Of the impressions of the journey I retain no very clear recollections:
+I think I slept very much in the carriage. The journey to Pressburg
+lasted from early morning till late evening; only as twilight came on
+did a new thought begin to keep me awake, a thought to which as yet I
+had paid no attention: "What kind of a child could it be, for whom I was
+now being exchanged? Who was to usurp my place at table, in my bed-room,
+and in my mother's heart? Was she small or large? beautiful or ugly?
+obedient or contrary? had she brothers or sisters, to whom I was to be a
+brother? was she as much afraid of me as I was of her?"</p>
+
+<p>For I was very much afraid of her.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, I dreaded the thought of the child who was meeting me at the
+cross-roads with the avowed intention of taking my place as my mother's
+child, giving me instead her own parents. Were they reigning princes,
+still the loss would be mine. I confess that I felt a kind of sweet
+bitterness in the idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> that my substitute might be some dull, malicious
+creature, whose actions would often cause mother to remember me. But if,
+on the contrary, she were some quiet, angelic soul, who would soon steal
+my mother's love from me! In every respect I trembled with fear of that
+creature who had been born that she might be exchanged for me.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening grandmother told us that the town which we were going to
+was visible. I was sitting with my back to the horses, and so I was
+obliged to turn round in order to see. In the distance I could see the
+four-columned white skeleton of a building, which was first apparent to
+the eye.</p>
+
+<p>"What a gigantic charnel-house," I remarked to grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no charnel-house, my child, but it is the ruin of the citadel of
+(Pressburg) Pozsony."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> Pozsony. A town in Hungary is called by the Germans
+Pressburg.</p></div>
+
+<p>A curious ruin it is. This first impression ever remained in my mind: I
+regarded it as a charnel-house.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite late when we entered the town, which was very large
+compared to ours. I had never seen such elegant display in shop-windows
+before and it astonished me as I noticed that there were paved sidewalks
+reserved for pedestrians. They must be all fine lords who live in this
+city.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fromm, the baker, to whose house I was to be taken, had informed us
+that we need not go to an hotel as he had room for all of us, and would
+gladly welcome us, especially as the expense of the journey was borne by
+us. We found his residence by following the written address. He owned a
+fine four-storied house in the F&uuml;rsten allee,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> with his open shop in
+front on the sign of which peaceful lions were painted in gold holding
+rolls and cakes between their teeth.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> Princes avenue.</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Fromm himself was waiting for us outside his shop door, and hastened
+to open the carriage door him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>self. He was a round-faced, portly little
+man, with a short black moustache, black eyebrows, and close-cropped,
+thick, flour-white hair. The good fellow helped grandmother to alight
+from the carriage: shook hands with Lorand, and began to speak to them
+in German: when I alighted, he put his hand on my head with a peculiar
+smile:</p>
+
+<p>"Iste puer?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he patted me on the cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Bonus, bonus."</p>
+
+<p>His addressing me in Latin had two advantages; firstly, as I could not
+speak German, nor he Magyar, this use of a neutral tongue removed all
+suspicions of our being deaf and dumb; secondly, it at once inspired me
+with a genuine respect for the honest fellow, who had dabbled in the
+sciences, and had, beyond his technical knowledge of his own business,
+some acquaintance with the language of Cicero. Mr. Fromm made room for
+grandmother and Lorand to pass before him up a narrow stone staircase,
+while he kept his hand continuously on my head, as if that were the part
+of me by which he could best hold me.</p>
+
+<p>"Veni puer. Hic puer secundus, filius meus."</p>
+
+<p>So there was a boy in the house, a new terror for me.</p>
+
+<p>"Est studiosus."</p>
+
+<p>What, that boy! That was good news: we could go to school together.</p>
+
+<p>"Meus filius magnus asinus."</p>
+
+<p>That was a fine acknowledgment from a father.</p>
+
+<p>"Nescit pensum nunquam scit."</p>
+
+<p>Then he discontinued to speak of the young student, and pantomimically
+described something, from which I gathered that "meus filius," on this
+occasion was condemned to starve, until he had learnt his lessons, and
+was confined to his room.</p>
+
+<p>This was no pleasant idea to me.</p>
+
+<p>Well, and what about "mea filia?"</p>
+
+<p>I had never seen a house that was like Mr. Fromm's inside. Our home was
+only one-storied, with wide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> rooms, and broad corridors, a courtyard and
+a garden: here we had to enter first by a narrow hall: then to ascend a
+winding stair, that would not admit two abreast. Then followed a rapid
+succession of small and large doors, so that when we came out upon the
+balconied corridor, and I gazed down into the deep, narrow courtyard, I
+could not at all imagine how I had reached that point, and still less
+how I could ever find my way out. "Father" Fromm led us directly from
+the corridor into the reception room, where two candles were burning
+(two in our honor), and the table laid for "gouter." It seemed they had
+expected us earlier. Two women were seated at the window, Mrs. Fromm and
+her mother. Mrs. Fromm was a tall slender person; she had grey curls (I
+don't know why I should not call them "Schneckles," for that is their
+name) in front, large blue eyes, a sharp German nose, a prominent chin
+and a wart below her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>The "Gross-mamma" was the exact counterpart of Mrs. Fromm, only about
+thirty years older, a little more slender, and sharper in feature: she
+had also grey "Schneckles"&mdash;though I did not know until ten years later
+that they were not her own:&mdash;she too had that wart, though in her case
+it was on the chin.</p>
+
+<p>In a little low chair was sitting that certain personage with whom they
+wished to exchange me.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny was my junior by a year:&mdash;she resembled neither father nor mother,
+with the exception that the family wart, in the form of a little brown
+freckle, was imprinted in the middle of her left cheek. During the whole
+time that elapsed before our arrival here I had been filled with
+prejudices against her, prejudices which the sight of her made only more
+alarming. She had an ever-smiling, pink and white face, mischievous blue
+eyes, and a curious snub-nose; when she smiled, little dimples formed in
+her cheeks and her mouth was ever ready to laugh. When she did laugh,
+her double row of white teeth sparkled; in a word she was as ugly as the
+devil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>All three were busy knitting as we entered. When the door opened, they
+all put down their knitting. I kissed the hands of both the elder
+ladies, who embraced me in return, but my attention was entirely devoted
+to the little lively witch, who did not wait a moment, but ran to meet
+grandmother, threw herself upon her neck, and kissed her passionately;
+then, bowing and curtseying before us, kissed Lorand twice, actually
+gazing the while into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>A cold chill seized me. If this little snub-nosed devil dared to go so
+far as to kiss me, I did not know what would become of me in my terror.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I could not avoid this dilemma in any way. The terrible little
+witch, having done with the others, rushed upon me, embraced me, and
+kissed me so passionately that I was quite ashamed; then twining her arm
+in mine, dragged me to the little arm-chair from which she had just
+risen, and compelled me to sit down, though we could scarcely find room
+in it for us both. Then she told many things to me in that unknown
+tongue, the only result of which was to persuade me that my poor good
+mother would have a noisy baggage to take the place of her quiet,
+obedient little son; I felt sure her days would be embittered by that
+restless tongue. Her mouth did not stop for one moment, yet I must
+confess that she had a voice like a bell.</p>
+
+<p>That was again a family peculiarity. Mother Fromm was endowed with an
+inexhaustible store of that treasure called eloquence: and a sharp,
+strong voice, too, which forbade the interruption of any one else, with
+a flow like that of the purling stream. The grandmamma had an equally
+generous gift, only she had no longer any voice: only every second word
+was audible, like one of those barrel-organs, in which an occasional
+note, instead of sounding, merely blows.</p>
+
+<p>Our business was to listen quietly.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, that was all the easier, as I could not suspect what was
+the subject of this flow of barbarian words; all I understood was that,
+when the ladies spoke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> to me, they addressed me as "Istok,"<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> a jest
+which I found quite out of place, not knowing that it was the German for
+"Why don't you eat?" For you must know the coffee was brought
+immediately, with very fine little cakes, prepared especially for us
+under the personal supervision of Father Fromm.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> "Issdoch," the German for "but eat." (Why don't you eat?)
+While Istok is a nickname for Stephan in Magyar.</p></div>
+
+<p>Even that little snub-nosed demon said "Issdoch," seized a cake, dipped
+it in my coffee, and forcibly crammed it into my mouth, when I did not
+wish to understand her words.</p>
+
+<p>But I was not at all hungry. All kinds of things were brought onto the
+table, but I did not want anything. Father Fromm kept calling out
+continually in student guise "Comedi! Comedi!" a remark which called
+forth indignant remonstrances from mamma and grossmamma; how could he
+call his own dear "Kugelhuff"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> a "comedy!!!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> A cake eaten everywhere in Hungary.</p></div>
+
+<p>Fanny in sooth required no coaxing. At first sight anyone could see that
+she was the spoiled child of the family, to whom everything was allowed.
+She tried everything, took a double portion of everything and only after
+taking what she required did she ask "darf ich?"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a>&mdash;and I understood
+immediately from the tone of her voice and the nodding of her head, that
+she meant to ask "if she might."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> i.&nbsp;e., darf ich, "may I?"</p></div>
+
+<p>Then instead of finishing her share she had the audacity to place her
+leavings on my plate, an action which called forth rebuke enough from
+Grossmamma. I did not understand what she said, but I strongly suspected
+that she abused her for wishing to accustom the "new child" to eating a
+great deal. Generally speaking, I had brought from home the suspicion
+that, when two people were speaking German before me, they were surely
+hatching some secret plot against me, the end of which would be, either
+that I would not get <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>something, or would not be taken somewhere, where
+I wished to go.</p>
+
+<p>I would not have tasted anything the little snub-nose gave me, if only
+for the reason that it was she who had given it. How could she dare to
+touch my plate with those dirty little hands of hers, that were just
+like cats-paws?</p>
+
+<p>Then she gave everything I would not accept to the little kitten;
+however, the end of it all was, that she again turned to me, and asked
+me to play with the kitten.</p>
+
+<p>Incomprehensible audacity! To ask me, who was already a school-student,
+to play with a tiny kitten.</p>
+
+<p>"Shoo!" I said to the malicious creature; a remark which,
+notwithstanding the fact that it seemed to belong to some
+strange-tongued nationality, the animal understood, for it immediately
+leaped down off the table and ran away. This caused the little snub-nose
+to get angry with me, and she took her sensitive revenge upon me, by
+going across to my grandmother, whom she tenderly caressed, kissing her
+hand, and then nestled to her bosom, turning her back on me; once or
+twice she looked back at me, and if at the moment my eye was on her,
+sulkily flung back her head; as if that was any great misfortune to me.</p>
+
+<p>Little imp! She actually occupied my place beside my grandmother&mdash;and
+before my eyes too.</p>
+
+<p>Well, and why did I gaze at her, if I was so very angry with her? I will
+tell you truly; it was only that I might see to what extremes she would
+carry her audacity. I would far rather have been occupied in the
+fruitless task of attempting to discover something intelligent in a
+conversation that was being carried on before me in a strange tongue: an
+effort that is common to all men who have a grain of human curiosity
+flowing in their veins, and that, as is well-known, always remains
+unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>Still one combination of mine did succeed. That name "Henrik"
+often struck my ear. Father Fromm was called Henrik, but he
+himself uttered the name:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> that therefore could not be other than
+his son. My grandmother spoke of him in pitiful tones, whereas
+Father Fromm assumed a look of inexorable severity, when he gave
+information on this subject; and as he spoke I gathered frequently
+the words "prosodia,"&mdash;"pensum"&mdash;"labor"&mdash;"vocabularium"&mdash;and
+many other terms common to dog-Latin: among which words like
+"secunda"&mdash;"tertia"&mdash;"carcer" served as a sufficiently trustworthy
+compass to direct me to the following conclusion: My friend Henrik might
+not put in an appearance to-day at supper, because he did not know his
+lessons, and was to remain imprisoned in the house until he could
+improve his standing by learning to repeat, in the language of a people
+long since dead, the names of a host of eatables.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Henrik!</p>
+
+<p>I never had any patience with the idea of anyone's starving, and
+moreover starving by way of punishment. I could understand anyone being
+done to death at once: but the idea of condemning anyone in cold blood
+to starve, to wrestle with his own body, to strive with his own heart
+and stomach, I always regarded as cruelty. I deemed that if I took one
+of those little cakes, which that audacious girl had piled up before me
+so forcibly, and put it in my pocket, it would not be wasted.</p>
+
+<p>I waited cautiously until nobody was looking my way, and then slipped
+the cake into my pocket without accident.</p>
+
+<p>Without accident? I only remarked it, when that little snub-nose laughed
+to herself. Just at that moment she had squinted towards me. But she
+immediately closed her mouth with her hand, giggling between her
+fingers, the while her malicious, deceitful eyes smiled into mine. What
+would she think? Perhaps that I am too great a coward to eat at table,
+and too insatiable to be satisfied with what I received. Oh! how ashamed
+I was before her! I would have been capable of any sacrifice to secure
+her secrecy, perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> even of kissing her, if she would not tell
+anyone.... I was so frightened.</p>
+
+<p>My fright was only increased by the grandmother, who first looked at the
+cake-dish, and then looked at each plate on the table in turn,
+subsequently resetting her gaze upon that cake-dish; then she gazed up
+to the ceiling, as if making some calculation, which she followed up by
+considerable shaking of her head.</p>
+
+<p>Who could not understand that dumb speech? She had counted the cakes;
+calculated how many each had devoured; how many had been put on the
+dish, had added and subtracted, with the result that one cake was
+missing: what had become of it? An inquisition would follow: the cake
+would be looked for, and found in my pocket, and then no water could
+ever wash away my shame.</p>
+
+<p>Every moment I expected that little demoniacal curiosity to point to me
+with that never-resting hand of hers, and proclaim: "there in the new
+child's pocket is the cake."</p>
+
+<p>She was already by my side, and I saw that father, mother and
+Grandmother Fromm turned to me all with inquiring looks, and addressed
+some terrible "interpellatio" to me, which I did not understand, but
+could suspect what it was. And Lorand and grandmother did not come to my
+aid to explain what it all meant.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of which snub-nose swept up to me and, repeating the same
+question, explained it by pantomimic gestures; laying one hand upon the
+other, then placing her head upon them, gently closed her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, she was asking, if I were sleepy? It was remarkable, how this
+insufferable creature could make me understand everything.</p>
+
+<p>Never did that question come more opportunely. I breathed more freely.
+Besides, I made up my mind never to call her "snub-nose devil" any more.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother allowed me to go: little Fanny was to show me to my room: I
+was to sleep with Henrik:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> I said good-night to all in turn, and so
+distracted was I that I kissed even Fanny's hand. And the little bundle
+of malice did not prevent me, she merely laughed at me for it.</p>
+
+<p>This girl had surely been born merely to annoy me.</p>
+
+<p>She took a candle in her hand and told me to follow her: she would lead
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed her.</p>
+
+<p>We had not quite reached the head of the corridor when the draught blew
+out the candle.</p>
+
+<p>We were in complete darkness, for there was no lamp burning here of an
+evening on the staircase, only a red glimmer, reflected probably from
+the bakery-chimney, lit up the darkness, and even that disappeared as we
+left the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny laughed when the candle went out, and tried for a time to blow the
+spark into a flame: not succeeding, she put down the candle-stick, and
+leaning upon my arm assured me that she could show me the way in this
+manner too.</p>
+
+<p>Then, without waiting for a remark from me, she took me with her into
+the pitchy darkness. At first she spoke, to encourage me, and then began
+to sing, perhaps to make me understand better; and felt with her hands
+for the doors, and with her feet for the steps of the staircase.
+Meanwhile I continually reflected: "this terrible malicious trifler is
+plotting to lead me into some flour-bin, shut the door upon me, and
+leave me there till the morning: or to let me step in the darkness into
+some flue, where I shall fall up to my neck into the rising dough;&mdash;for
+of that everything is full."</p>
+
+<p>Poor, kind, good Fanny! I was so angry with you, I hated you so when I
+first saw you!... And now, as we grow old....</p>
+
+<p>I should never have believed that anyone could lead me in such
+subterranean darkness through that winding labyrinth, where even in
+broad daylight I often entirely lost my whereabouts. I only wondered
+that this extraordinarily audacious girl could refrain from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> pulling my
+hair as she led me through that darkness, her arm in mine, though she
+had such a painful opportunity of doing so. Yes, I quite expected her to
+do so.</p>
+
+<p>Finally we reached a door, before which there was no need of a lamp to
+assure a man of the room he was seeking. Through the door burst that
+most sorrowful of all human sounds, the sound of a child audibly
+wrestling with some unintelligible verse, twenty, fifty, a thousand
+times repeated anew, and anew, without becoming intelligible, while the
+verse had not yet taken its place in the child's head. Through the
+boards sounded afar a spiral Latin phrase.</p>
+
+<p>"His atacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque." Then again:</p>
+
+<p>"His acatem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque."</p>
+
+<p>And again the same.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny placed her ear against the door and seized my hand as a hint to be
+quiet. Then she laughed aloud. How can anyone find an amusing subject in
+a poor hard-brained "studiosus," who cannot grasp that rule, inevitable
+in every career in life, that the second syllable of dropax, antrax,
+climax "et caethra graeca" in the first case is long, in the second
+short&mdash;a rule extremely useful to a man later in life when he gets into
+some big scrape?</p>
+
+<p>But Fanny found it extremely ridiculous. Then she opened the door and
+nodded to me to follow her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a small room under the staircase. Within were two beds, placed
+face to face; on one I recognized my own pillows which I had brought
+with me, so that must be my sleeping place. Beside the window was a
+writing-table on which was burning a single candle, its wick so badly
+trimmed as to prove that he who should have trimmed it had been so
+deeply engaged in work that he had not remarked whether darkness or
+light surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p>Weeping, his head buried in his hands, my friend Henrik was sitting at
+that table; as the door opened he raised his head from the book over
+which he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> poring. He greatly resembled his mother and grandmother:
+he had just such a pronounced nose; but he had bristly hair, like his
+father, only black and not so closely cropped. He, too, had the family
+wart, actually in the middle of his nose.</p>
+
+<p>As he looked up from his book, in a moment his countenance changed
+rapidly from fear to delight, from delight to suspicion. The poor boy
+thought he had gained a respite, and that the messenger had come with
+the white serviette to invite him to supper: he smiled at Fanny
+entreating compassion, and then, when he saw me, became embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny approached him with an enquiring air, placed one hand on his
+thigh, with the other pointed to the open book, probably intending to
+ask him whether he knew his lessons.</p>
+
+<p>The great lanky boy rose obediently before his little confessor, who
+scarce reached to his shoulder, and proceeded to put himself to rights.
+He handed the book to Fanny, casting a farewell glance at the
+disgusting, insufferable words; and with a great gulp by which he hoped
+to remove all obstacles from the way of the lines he had to utter,
+cleared his throat and began:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"His abacem, phylacem ..."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny shook her head. It was not good.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik was frightened. He began again:</p>
+
+<p>"His abacem, coracem...."</p>
+
+<p>Again it was wrong. The poor boy began over five or six times, but could
+not place those pagan words in the correct order, and as the mischievous
+girl shook her head each time he made a mistake, he finally became so
+confused that he could not even begin; then he reddened with anger, and,
+gnashing his teeth, tore the graceless book out of Fanny's hand, threw
+it down upon the table and commenced an assault upon the heathen words,
+and with glaring eyes read the million-times repeated incantation: "His
+abacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem facemque," striking the back of his
+head with clinched fist at every word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fanny burst into uncontrollable laughter at this scene.</p>
+
+<p>I, however, was very sorry for my companion. My learning had been easy
+enough, and I regarded him with the air of a lord who looks from his
+coach window at the bare-footed passers-by.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny was unmerciful to him.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik looked up at her, and though I did not understand her words, I
+understood from his eyes that he was asking for something to eat.</p>
+
+<p>The strong-headed sister actually refused his request.</p>
+
+<p>I wished to prove my goodness of heart&mdash;my vanity also inclined me to
+inform this mischievous creature that I had not put away the bun for my
+own sake&mdash;So I stepped up to Henrik and, placing my hand on his shoulder
+with condescending friendliness, pressed into his hand the cake I had
+reserved for him.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik cast a glance at me like some wild beast which has an aversion to
+petting, then flung the bun under the table with such violence that it
+broke into pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"Dummer kerl!"<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> "Stupid fellow!"</p></div>
+
+<p>I remember well, that was the first title of respect I received from
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Planting his knuckles on the top of my head, he performed a tattoo with
+the same all over my head.</p>
+
+<p>That is called, in slang, "holz-birn."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> By this process of
+"knuckling" the larger boys showed their contempt for the smaller, and
+it belongs to that kind of teasing which no self-respecting boy ever
+would allow to pass unchallenged. And before this girl, too!</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> Literally "Wild-pear" (<i>wood-pear</i>) a method of
+"knuckling" down the younger boys.</p></div>
+
+<p>Henrik was taller than I, by a head, but I did not mind. I grasped him
+by the waist, and grappled with him. He wished to drag me in the
+direction of my bed, in order to throw me on to it, but with a quick
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>movement I cast him on his own bed, and holding his two hands tight on
+his chest, cried to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Pick up the bun immediately!"</p>
+
+<p>Henrik kicked and snarled for a moment, then began to laugh, and to my
+astonishment begged me, in student tongue, to release him: "We should be
+good friends." I released him, we shook hands, and the fellow became
+quite lively.</p>
+
+<p>What astonished me most was that, at the time I was throwing her
+brother, Fanny did not come to his aid nor tear out my eyes, she merely
+laughed, and screamed her approval. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>After this we all three looked for the fragments of Henrik's broken bun,
+which the good fellow with an expression of contentment dispatched on
+its natural way; then Fanny produced a couple of secreted apples which
+she had "sneaked" for him. I found it remarkable beyond words that this
+impertinent child's thoughts ran in the same direction as my own.</p>
+
+<p>From that hour Henrik and I were always fast friends; we are so to this
+day. When we got into bed I was curious as to the dreams I should have
+in the strange house. There is a widely-spread belief that what one
+dreams the first night in a new house will in reality come to pass.</p>
+
+<p>I dreamed of the little snub-nose.</p>
+
+<p>She was an angel with wings, beautiful dappled wings, such as I had read
+of not long since in the legend of V&ouml;r&ouml;smarty.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> All around me she
+fluttered: but I could not move, my feet were so heavy, albeit there was
+something from which I ought to escape, until she seized my hand and
+then I could run so lightly that I did not touch the earth even with the
+tips of my feet.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> A great Hungarian poet who lived and died in the early
+part of this century. He wrote legends and made a remarkable translation
+of some of Shakespeare's works.</p></div>
+
+<p>How I worried over that dream! A snub-nosed angel&mdash; What mocking dreams
+a man has, to be sure.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we were early astir; to me it seemed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>all the earlier, as
+the window of our little room looked out on to the narrow courtyard,
+where the day dawned so slowly, but M&aacute;rton, the principal assistant, was
+told off to brawl at the schoolboy's door, when breakfast was being
+prepared:</p>
+
+<p>"Surgendum disciple!"</p>
+
+<p>I could not think what kind of an assault it was, that awoke me from my
+dream, when first I heard the clamorous clarion call. But Henrik jumped
+to his feet at once, and roused me from my bed, explaining, half in
+student language, half by gesture, that we should go down now to the
+bakery to see how the buns and cakes were baked. There was no need to
+dress; we might go in our night clothes, as the bakers wear quite
+similar costumes. I was curious, and easily persuaded to do anything; we
+put on our slippers and went down together to the bakery.</p>
+
+<p>It was an agreeable place; from afar it betrayed itself by that sweet
+confectionery smell, which makes a man imagine that if he breathes it in
+long enough he will satisfy his hunger therewith. Everything in the
+whole place was as white as snow; everything so clean; great bins full
+of flour; huge vessels full of swelling dough, from which six
+white-dressed, white-aproned assistants were forming every conceivable
+kind of cake and bun; piled upon the shelves of the gigantic white oven
+the first supply was gradually baking, filling the whole room with a
+most agreeable odor.</p>
+
+<p>Master M&aacute;rton, when he caught sight of me, began to welcome me in a kind
+of broken Hungarian "Jo reggelt jo reggelt!"<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Good morning.</p></div>
+
+<p>He had a curious knack of putting the whole of his scalp into motion
+whenever he moved his eyebrows up or down; a comical peculiarity of
+which he availed himself whenever he wished to make anyone laugh, and
+saw that his words did not have the desired effect.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik set to work and competed with the baker's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>assistants; he was
+clever at making dainty little titbits of cakes quite as clever as
+anyone there; and pleasure beamed on his face when the old assistant
+praised his efforts.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," M&aacute;rton said to me, "what a ready assistant he would make! In
+two years he might be free. But the old man is determined he shall learn
+and study; he wants to make a councillor of him." With these words
+M&aacute;rton, by a movement of his eyebrows, sent the whole of the skin on his
+head to form a bunch on the crown, for all the world as if it had been a
+wig on springs.</p>
+
+<p>"Councillor, indeed! a councillor who gnaws pens when he is hungry!
+Thanks; not if they gave me the tower of St. Michael. A councillor, who,
+with paper in hand and pen behind ear, goes to visit the bakers in turn,
+and weighs their loaves in the balance to see if they are correct
+weight."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that M&aacute;rton did not take into consideration any other duties
+that a councillor might have besides the examining of bakers'
+loaves&mdash;and that one could hardly gain his approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, if you take a little pains for their sake, you will find them as
+gentle as lambs. Give them a 'heitige striozts,'<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> or All Saints Day,
+and you will secure your object. Such is Mr. Dintenklek." At this point
+M&aacute;rton could not refrain from breaking out into an unmelodious
+"Gassenhauer"<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> the refrain of which was, "Alas! Mr. Dintenklek."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> A kind of dainty bit suitable to this "holy" occasion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> A popular air sung in the streets.</p></div>
+
+<p>Two or three assistants joined in the refrain, of which I did not
+understand a word; but as M&aacute;rton uttered the final words, "Alas Mr.
+Dintenklek," his gestures were such as to lead me to suspect that this
+Mr. Dintenklek must be some very ridiculous figure in the eye of baker's
+assistants.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course, Henrik must learn law. The old man says he, too, might
+have become a councillor if he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>had concluded his studies at school.
+What a blessing he did not. As it is, he almost murders us with his
+learning. He is always showing off how much Latin he knows. Yes, the old
+man Latinizes."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this M&aacute;rton could scarcely control the skin of his head, so
+often did he have to twitch his eyebrows in order to express the above
+opinion, which he held about his master's pedantry.</p>
+
+<p>Then with a sudden suspicion he turned to me:</p>
+
+<p>"You don't wish to be a councillor, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>I earnestly assured him that, on the contrary, I was preparing for a
+vacancy in the county.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! lieutenant-governor? That is different, quite another thing;
+travelling in a coach. No putting on of mud boots when it is muddy. That
+I allow." And, in order to show how deep a respect he bore towards my
+presumptive office position, he drew his eyebrows up so high that his
+cap fell back upon his neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough of dough-kneading for the present, Master Henrik. Go back to
+your room and write out your 'pensum,' for you will again be forbidden
+breakfast, if it is not ready."</p>
+
+<p>Henrik did not listen to him, but worked away for all the world as if he
+was not being addressed.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile M&aacute;rton was cutting a large piece of dough into bits of exactly
+equal size, out of which the "Vienna" rolls were to be formed. This
+delicate piece of work needs an accurate eye to avoid cheating either
+one's master or the public.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, he is at home here; he does not want his books. And there is
+nothing more beautiful, more refined than our art; nothing more
+remunerative; we deal with the blessing of God, for we prepare the daily
+bread. The Lord's Prayer includes the baker, 'Give us this day our daily
+bread.' Is there any mention anywhere of butchers, of tailors or of
+cobblers? Well, does anyone pray for meat, for coats, or for books? Let
+me hear about him. But they do pray for their daily bread, don't they?
+And does the prayer-book<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> say anything concerning councillors? What? Who
+knows anything on that score?"</p>
+
+<p>Some young assistant interrupted: "Why, of course, 'but deliver us from
+the evil one.'"</p>
+
+<p>This caused everybody to laugh; it caused Henrik to spoil his buns,
+which had to be kneaded afresh. He was annoyed by the idea that he had
+learned all he had merely in order to be ridiculed here in the bakery.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, yes," remarked Master M&aacute;rton, smiling. "It is a great misfortune
+that a man is never asked how he wishes to die, but a still greater
+misfortune if he is not asked how he wishes to live. My father destined
+me to be a butcher. I learned the whole trade. Then I suddenly grew
+tired of all that ox-slaughtering, and cow-skinning. I was always
+fascinated by these beautiful brown-backed rolls in the shop-window;
+whenever I passed before the confectionery window, the pleasant warm
+bread-odors just invited me in:&mdash;until at last I deserted my trade, and
+joined Father Fromm. At that time my moustache and beard were already
+sprouting, but I have never regretted my determination. Whenever I look
+at my clean, white shirt, I am delighted at the idea that I have not to
+sprinkle it with blood, and wear the blood-stained garment the rest of
+the day. Everyone should follow his own bent, should he not, Henrik?"</p>
+
+<p>"True," muttered the youth in a tone of anger. "And yet the butcher's
+trade is as far above the councillor's as the weather-cock on St.
+Michael's tower is above our own vane. I do not like blood on my hands,
+yet at least I could wash it off; but if a drop of ink gets on my finger
+from my pen, for three days no pumice stone would induce it to depart.
+Yes, it is a glorious thing to be a baker's assistant."</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton now busied himself in shovelling several dozen loaves of white
+bread into the heated oven. Meantime the whole "m&eacute;nage" commenced with
+one voice to sing a peculiar air, which I had already heard several
+times resounding through the bakers' windows.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It runs as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh, the kneading trough is fine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Very beautiful and fine.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Straight and crooked, round in form<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thin and long, three-legged too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here's a stork, and here's a 'ticker,'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While here's a pair of snuffers too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stork and ticker, snuffers too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bottles, tipsy Michael with them.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bottles, tipsy Michael with them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stork and ticker, snuffers too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thin and long, three-legged too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Straight and crooked, round in form.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh! the kneading trough is fine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Very beautiful and fine."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>They sang this air with such a passionate earnestness that, to this day
+I must believe, was caused, not by the beauty of the verses, or the
+corresponding melody, but rather by some superstitious feeling that
+their chanting would prevent the plague infecting the bread while it was
+baking, or perhaps the air served as an hour-glass telling them by its
+termination that now was the time to take the bread out of the oven. As
+they who are wont to use the Lord's Prayer for the boiling of eggs&mdash;God
+save the mark.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik joined in. I saw he had no longer any idea of finishing his
+school tasks, and when the "Oh, the kneading trough" began anew, I left
+him in the bakery, and went upstairs to our room. On the table lay
+Henrik's unfortunate exercise-book open, full of corrections made in a
+different ink; of the new exercise only the first line had been begun.
+Immediately I collected the words wanted from a dictionary, and wrote
+the translation down on a piece of paper.</p>
+
+<p>Not till an hour later did he return from the scene of his operations,
+and even then did not know to what he should turn his hand first. Great
+was his delight, then, to see the task already finished; he merely had
+to copy it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He gazed at me with a curious peevishness and said: "Guter kerl."<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> Good fellow.</p></div>
+
+<p>From his countenance I could not gather what he had said but the word
+kerl made me prepare myself for a repetition of the struggle of
+yesterday, for which I did not feel the least inclination.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely was the copying ready when the steps of Father Fromm resounded
+on the staircase. Henrik hastily thrust my writing into his pockets and
+was poring over the open book, when the old man halted before the door,
+so that when he opened it, such a noise resounded in the room as if
+Henrik were trying to drive an army of locusts out of the country: "his
+abacem."</p>
+
+<p>"Ergo, ergo; quomodo?" said the old man, placing the palm of his hand
+upon my head. I saw that this was his manner of showing affection.</p>
+
+<p>I ventured to utter my first German word, answering his query with a
+"Guter morgen;"<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> at which the old fellow shook his head and laughed.
+I could not imagine why. Perhaps I had expressed myself badly, or had
+astonished him with my rapid progress?</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> Correctly, "Guten Morgen" (wunsch ich): "I wish (you) (a)
+good morning."</p></div>
+
+<p>He did not enlighten me on the subject; instead he turned with a severe
+confessorial face to Henrik: "No ergo! Quid ergo? Quid seis? Habes
+pensum? Nebulo!"</p>
+
+<p>Henrik tried whether he could move the skin of his head like Master
+M&aacute;rton did, when he spoke of Mr. Fromm's Latin. For the sake of greater
+security he first of all displayed the written exercise to his father,
+thinking it better to leave his weaker side until later.</p>
+
+<p>Father Fromm gazed at the deep learning with a critical eye, then
+graciously expressed his approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Bonus, Bonus."</p>
+
+<p>But the lesson?</p>
+
+<p>That bitter piece!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even yesterday, when he had only to recite them to the little snub-nose,
+Henrik did not know the verses, and to-day, the book was in the old
+man's hand! If he had merely taken the book in his hands! But with his
+disengaged hand he held a ruler with the evident intention of
+immediately pulling the boy up, if he made a mistake.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Henrik, of course, did not know a single word. He gazed ever
+askance at Father Fromm's ruler, and when he reached the first obstacle,
+as the old fellow raised the ruler, probably merely with the intention
+of striking Henrik's mental capacity into action by startling him,
+Henrik was no more to be seen; he was under the bed, where he had
+managed to hide his long body with remarkable agility; nor would he come
+forth until Father Fromm promised he would not hurt him, and would take
+him to breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>And Father Fromm kept the conditions of the armistice, only verbally
+denouncing the boy as he wriggled out of his fortress; I did not
+understand what he said, I only gathered by his grimaces and gestures
+that he was annoyed over the matter&mdash;by my presence.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was spent in visiting professors. The director was a
+strongly-built, bony-faced, moustached man, with a high, bald forehead,
+broad-chested, and when he spoke, he did not spare his voice, but always
+talked as if he were preaching. He was very well satisfied with our
+school certificates, and made no secret of it. He assured grandmother he
+would take care of us and deal severely with us. He would not allow us
+to go astray in this town. He would often visit us at our homes; that
+was his custom; and any student convicted of disorderliness would be
+punished.</p>
+
+<p>"Are the boys musicians?" he asked grandmother in harsh tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; the one plays the piano, the other the violin."</p>
+
+<p>The director struck the middle of the table with his fist: "I am
+sorry&mdash;but I cannot allow violin playing under any circumstances."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand ventured to ask, "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, indeed? Because that is the fountain-head of all mischief. The
+book, not the violin, is for the student. What do you wish to be? a
+gypsy, or a scholar? The violin betrays students into every kind of
+mischief. How do I know? Why, I see examples of it every day. The
+student takes the violin under his coat, and goes with it to the inn,
+where he plays for other students who dance there till morning with
+loose girls. So I break into fragments every violin I find. I don't ask
+whether it was dear; I dash it to the ground. I have already smashed
+violins of high value."</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother saw it would be wiser not to allow Lorand to answer, so she
+hastened to anticipate him:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is not the elder boy, sir, who plays the violin, but this
+younger one; besides, neither has been so trained as to wish to go to
+any undesirable place of amusement."</p>
+
+<p>"That does not matter. The little one has still less need of scraping.
+Besides, I know the student; at home he makes saintly faces, as if he
+would not disturb water, but when once let loose, be it in an inn, be it
+in a coffee-house, there he will sit beside his beer, and join in a
+competition, to see who is the greatest tippler, shout and sing
+'Gaudeamus igitur.' That is why I don't allow students to carry violins
+under their top-coats to inns, under any circumstances. I break the
+violin in pieces, and have the top-coat cut into a covert-coat. A
+student with a top-coat! That's only for an army officer. Then, I cannot
+suffer anyone to wear sharp-pointed boots which are especially made for
+dancing; flat-toed boots are for honest men; no one must come to my
+school in pointed boots, for I put his foot on the bench and cut away
+the points."</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother hurried her visit to prevent Lorand having an opportunity of
+giving answer to the worthy man, who carried his zeal in the defence of
+morality to such a pitch as to break up violins, have top-coats cut
+down, and cut off the points of pointed boots.</p>
+
+<p>It was a good habit of mine (long, long ago, in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> childhood days), to
+regard as sacred anything a man, who had the right to my obedience,
+might say. When we came away from the director's presence, I whispered
+to Lorand in a distressed tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Your boots seem to me a little too pointed."</p>
+
+<p>"Henceforward I shall have them made still more pointed," replied
+Lorand,&mdash;an answer with which I was not at all satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>In my eyes every serious man was surrounded by a "nimbus" of
+infallibility; no one had ever enlightened me on the fact that
+serious-minded men had themselves once been young, and had learned the
+student jargon of Heidelberg; that this director himself, after a noisy
+youth, had arrived at the idea that every young man has malicious
+propensities, and that what seems good in him is only make-believe, and
+so he must be treated with the severity of military discipline.</p>
+
+<p>Then we proceeded to pay a visit to my class-master, who was the exact
+opposite of the director: a slight, many-cornered little man, with long
+hair brushed back, smooth shaved face, and such a thin, sweet voice that
+one might have taken every word of his as a supplication. And he was so
+familiar in his dealings with us. He received us in a dressing gown, but
+when he saw a lady was with us, he hastily changed that for a black
+coat, and asked pardon&mdash;why, I do not know.</p>
+
+<p>Then he attempted to drive a host of little children out of his room,
+but without success. They clung to his hands and arms and he could not
+shake them off; he called out to some lady to come and help him. A
+sleepy face appeared at the other door, and suddenly withdrew on seeing
+us. Finally, at grandmother's request, he allowed the children to
+remain.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Schmuck was an excellent "paterfamilias," and took great care of
+children. His study was crammed with toys; he received us with great
+tenderness, and I remember well that he patted me on the head.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother immediately became more confident of this good man than she
+had been of his colleague,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> whom we had previously visited. For he was
+so fond of his own children. To him she related the secret that made her
+heart sad; explained why we were in mourning; told him that father was
+unfortunately dead, and that we were the sole hopes of our sickly
+mother; that up till now our behaviors had been excellent, and finally
+asked him to take care of me, the younger.</p>
+
+<p>The good fellow clasped his hands and assured grandmother that he would
+make a great man of me, especially if I would come to him privately;
+that he might devote particular attention to the development of my
+talents. This private tuition would not come to more than seven florins
+a month. And that is not much for the whetting of one's mind; as much
+might be paid even for the grinding of scissors.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother, her spirits depressed by the previous reception, timidly
+ventured to introduce the remark that I had a certain inclination for
+the violin, but she did not know whether it was allowed?</p>
+
+<p>The good man did not allow her to speak further. "Of course, of course.
+Music ennobles the soul, music calms the inclinations of the mind. Even
+in the days of Pythagoras lectures were closed by music. He who indulges
+in music is always in the society of good spirits. And here it will be
+very cheap; it will not cost more than six florins<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> a month, as my
+children have a music-master of their own."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> 1 florin equals 2s English money or 40 cents.</p></div>
+
+<p>Dear grandmother, seeing his readiness to acquiesce, thought it good to
+make some more requests (this is always the way with a discontented
+people, too, when it meets with ready acquiescence in the powers that
+be). She remarked that perhaps I might be allowed to learn dancing.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, nothing could be more natural," was the answer of the gracious
+man. "Dancing goes hand-in-hand with music; even in Greek days it was
+the choral revellers that were accompanied by the harp. In the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>classics
+there is frequent mention of the dance. With the Romans it belonged to
+culture, and according to tradition even holy David danced. In the world
+of to-day it is just indispensable, especially to a young man. An
+innocent enjoyment! One form of bodily exercise. It is indispensable
+that the young man of to-day shall step, walk, stand properly, and be
+able to bow and dance, and not betray at once, on his appearance, that
+he has come from some school of pedantry. And in this respect I obey the
+tendency of the age. My own children all learn to dance, and as the
+dancing-master comes here in any case my young friend may as well join
+my children; it will not cost more than five florins."</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother was extraordinarily contented with the bargain; she found
+everything quite cheap.</p>
+
+<p>"By co&ouml;peration everything becomes cheap. A true mental 'm&eacute;nage.' Many
+learn together, and each pays a trifle. If you wish my young friend to
+learn drawing, it will not cost more than four florins; four hours
+weekly, together with the others. Perhaps you will not find it
+superfluous, that our young friend should make acquaintance with the
+more important European languages; he can learn, under the supervision
+o&pound; mature teachers, English and French, at a cost of not more than three
+florins, three hours a week. And if my young friend has a few hours to
+spare, he cannot do better than spend them in the gymnasium; gymnastic
+exercise is healthy, it encourages the development of the muscles along
+with that of the brain, and it does not cost anything, only ten florins
+entrance fee."</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother was quite overcome by this thoughtfulness. She left
+everything in order and paid in advance.</p>
+
+<p>I do not wish anyone to come to the conclusion, from the facts stated
+above, that in course of time I shall come to boast what a Paganini I
+became in time, what a Mezzofanti as a linguist, what a Buonarotti in
+art, what a Vestris in the dance, or what a Michael Toddy in fencing:&mdash;I
+hasten to remark that I do not even yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> understand anything of all
+these things. I have only to relate how they taught them to me.</p>
+
+<p>When I went to my private lessons&mdash;"together with the others"&mdash;the
+professor was not at home; we indulged in an hour's wrestling.</p>
+
+<p>When I went to my dancing lessons&mdash;"together with the others"&mdash;the
+dancing master was missing: again an hour's wrestling.</p>
+
+<p>During the French lessons we again wrestled, and during the drawing and
+violin hours we spent our time exactly as we did during the other hours;
+so that when the gymnastic lessons came round we had no more heart for
+wrestling.</p>
+
+<p>I did just learn to swim,&mdash;in secret, seeing that it was prohibited, and
+truly without paying:&mdash;unless I may count as a forfeit penalty that mass
+of water I swallowed once, when I was nearly drowned in the Danube. None
+even dared to acquaint the people at home with the fact; Lorand saved
+me, but he never boasted of his feat.</p>
+
+<p>As we left the house of this very kind man, who quite overcame
+grandmother and us, with his gracious and amiable demeanors, Lorand
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"From this hour I begin to greatly esteem the first professor: he is a
+noble, straight-forward fellow."</p>
+
+<p>I did not understand his meaning&mdash;that is, I did not wish to understand.
+Perhaps he wished to slight "my" professor.</p>
+
+<p>According to my ethical principles it was purely natural that each
+student should admire and love that professor who was the director of
+his own class, and if one class is secretly at war with another, the
+only reason can be that the professor of one class is the opponent of
+the other. My kingdom is the foe of thy kingdom, so my soldiers are the
+enemies of thy soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>I began to look at Lorand in the light of some such hostile soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the events that followed drove all these ideas out of my
+head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>MY RIGHT HONORABLE UNCLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>We were invited to dine with the Privy Councillor B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, at whose
+house my brother was to take up his residence.</p>
+
+<p>He was some very distant relation of ours; however, he received a
+payment for Lorand's board, seven hundred florins, a nice sum of money
+in those days.</p>
+
+<p>My pride was the greatest that my brother was living in a privy
+councillor's house, and, if my school-fellows asked me where I lived, I
+never omitted to mention the fact that "my brother was living with
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, P.&nbsp;C.," while I myself had taken up my abode merely with a
+baker.</p>
+
+<p>Baker Fromm was indeed very sorry that we were not dining "at home." At
+least they might have left me alone there. That he did not turn to stone
+as he uttered these words was not my fault; at least I fixed upon him
+such basilisk eyes as I was capable of. What an idea! To refuse a dinner
+with my P.&nbsp;C. uncle for his sake! Grandmother, too, discovered that I
+also must be presented there.</p>
+
+<p>We ordered a carriage for 1:30; of course we could not with decency go
+to the P.&nbsp;C.'s on foot. Grandmother fastened my embroidered shirt under
+my waistcoat, and I was vain enough to allow the little pugnose to
+arrange my tie. She really could make pretty bows, I thought. As I gazed
+at myself in the looking-glass, I found that I should be a handsome boy
+when I had put on my silver-buttoned attila.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> And if only my hair
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>was curled! Still I was completely convinced that in the whole town
+there did not exist any more such silver-buttoned attilas as mine.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> The coat worn by the hussars, forming part, as it does, of
+all real Magyar <i>lev&eacute;e</i> dresses.</p></div>
+
+<p>Only it annoyed me to watch the little pugnose careering playfully round
+me. How she danced round me, without any attempt to conceal the fact
+that I took her fancy; and how that hurt my pride!</p>
+
+<p>At the bottom of the stairs the comical Henrik was waiting for me, with
+a large brush in his hand. He assured me that my attila had become
+floury&mdash;surely from Fanny's apron, for that was always floury&mdash;and that
+he must brush it off. I only begged him not to touch my collar with the
+hair brush; for that a silk brush was required, as it was velvet.</p>
+
+<p>I believe I set some store by the fact that the collar of my attila was
+velvet.</p>
+
+<p>From the arched doorway old M&aacute;rton, too, called after me, as we took our
+seats, "Good appetite, Master Sheriff!" and five or six times moved his
+cap up and down on the top of his head.</p>
+
+<p>How I should have loved to break his nose! Why is he compromising me
+here before my brother? He might know that when I am in full dress I
+deserve far greater respect from when he sees me before him in my night
+clothes.&mdash;But so it is with those whose business lies in flour.</p>
+
+<p>But let us speak no more of bakers; let us soar into higher regions.</p>
+
+<p>Our carriage stopped somewhere in the neighborhood of the House of
+Parliament, where there was a two-storied house, in which the P.&nbsp;C.
+lived.</p>
+
+<p>The butler&mdash;pardon! the chamberlain&mdash;was waiting for us downstairs at
+the gate (it is possible that it was not for us he was waiting). He
+conducted us up the staircase; from the staircase to the porch; from the
+porch to the anteroom; from the anteroom to the drawing-room, where our
+host was waiting to receive us.</p>
+
+<p>I used to think that at home we were elegant people&mdash;that we lodged and
+lived in style; but how poor I felt we were as we went through the rooms
+of the B&aacute;lnok<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>h&aacute;zys. The splendor only incited my admiration and wonder,
+which was abruptly terminated by the arrival of the host and hostess and
+their daughter, Melanie, by three different doors. The P.&nbsp;C. was a tall,
+portly man, broad-shouldered, with black eyebrows, ruddy cheeks, a
+coal-black moustache curled upward; he formed the very ideal I had
+pictured to myself of a P.&nbsp;C. His hair also was of a beautiful black,
+fashionably dressed.</p>
+
+<p>He greeted us in a voice rich and stentorian; kissed grandmother;
+offered his hand to my brother, who shook it; while he allowed me to
+kiss his hand.</p>
+
+<p>What an enormous turquoise ring there was on his finger!</p>
+
+<p>Then my right honorable aunt came into our presence. I can say that
+since that day I have never seen a more beautiful woman. She was then
+twenty-three years of age; I know quite surely. Her beautiful face, its
+features preserved with the enamel of youth, seemed almost that of a
+young girl; her long blonde tresses waved around it; her lips, of
+graceful symmetry, always ready for a smile; her large, dark blue, and
+melancholy eyes shadowed by her long eyelashes; her whole form seemed
+not to walk&mdash;rather fluttered and glided; and the hand which she gave me
+to kiss was transparent as alabaster.</p>
+
+<p>My cousin Melanie was truly a little angel. Her first appearance, to me,
+was a phenomenon. Methinks no imagination could picture anything more
+lovely, more ethereal than her whole form. She was not yet more than
+eight years of age, but her stature gave her the appearance of some ten
+years. She was slender, and surely must have had some hidden wings, else
+it were impossible she could have fluttered as she did upon those
+symmetrical feet. Her face was fine and <i>distingu&eacute;</i>, her eyes artful and
+brilliant; her lips were endowed with such gifts already&mdash;not merely of
+speaking four or five languages&mdash;such silent gifts as brought me beside
+myself. That child-mouth could smile enchantingly with encouraging
+calmness, could proudly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> despise, could pout with displeasure, could
+offer tacit requests, could muse in silent melancholy, could indulge in
+enthusiastic rapture&mdash;could love and hate.</p>
+
+<p>How often have I dreamed of that lovely mouth! how often seen it in my
+waking hours! how many horrible Greek words have I learned while musing
+thereon!</p>
+
+<p>I could not describe that dinner at the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys to the end. Melanie
+sat beside me, and my whole attention was directed toward her.</p>
+
+<p>How refined was her behavior! how much elegance there was in every
+movement of hers! I could not succeed in learning enough from her. When,
+after eating, she wiped her lips with the napkin, it was as if spirits
+were exchanging kisses with the mist. Oh, how interminably silly and
+clumsy I was beside her! My hand trembled when I had to take some dish.
+Terrible was the thought that I might perchance drop the spoon from my
+hand and stain her white muslin dress with the sauce. She, for her part,
+seemed not to notice me; or, on the contrary, rather, was quite sure of
+the fact that beside her was sitting now a living creature, whom she had
+conquered, rendered dumb and transformed. If I offered her something,
+she could refuse so gracefully; and if I filled her glass, she was so
+polite when she thanked me.</p>
+
+<p>No one busied himself very particularly with me. A young boy at my age
+is just the most useless article; too big to be played with, and not big
+enough to be treated seriously. And the worst of it is that he feels it
+himself. Every boy of twelve years has the same ambition&mdash;"If only I
+were older already!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, I say, "If I could only be twelve years old still!" Yet at
+that time it was a great burden to me. And how many years have passed
+since then!</p>
+
+<p>Only toward the end of dinner, when the younger generation also were
+allowed to sip some sweet wine from their tiny glasses, did I find the
+attention of the company drawn toward me; and it was a curious case.</p>
+
+<p>The butler filled my glass also. The clear golden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>-colored liquor
+scintillated so temptingly before me in the cut glass, my little
+neighbor would so enchantingly deepen the ruddiness of her lips with the
+liquor from her glass, that an extraordinarily rash idea sprang up
+within me.</p>
+
+<p>I determined to raise my glass, clink glasses with Melanie, and say to
+her, "Your health, dear cousin Melanie." The blood rushed into my
+temples as I conceived the idea.</p>
+
+<p>I was already about to take my glass, when I cast one look at Melanie's
+face, and in that moment she gazed upon me with such disheartening pride
+that in terror I withdrew my hand from my glass. It was probably this
+hesitating movement of mine that attracted the P.&nbsp;C.'s attention, for he
+deigned to turn to me with the following condescending remark (intended
+perhaps for an offer):</p>
+
+<p>"Well, nephew, won't you try this wine?" With undismayed determination I
+answered:</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you don't wish to drink wine?"</p>
+
+<p>Cato did not utter the phrase "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa
+Catoni," with more resolution than that with which I answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! you will never drink wine? We shall see how you keep your word in
+the course of time!"</p>
+
+<p>And that is why I kept my word. Till to-day I have never touched wine.
+Probably that first fit of obstinacy caused my determination; in a word,
+slighted in the first glass, I never touched again any kind of pressed,
+distilled, or burnt beverage. So perhaps my house lost in me an
+after-dinner celebrity.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ashamed, nephew," encouragingly continued my uncle; "this wine
+is allowed to the young also, if they dip choice Pressburg biscuits in
+it; it is a very celebrated biscuit, prepared by M. Fromm."</p>
+
+<p>My blood rose to my cheeks. M. Fromm! My host! Immediately the
+conversation will turn upon him, and they will mention that I am living
+with him;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> furthermore, they will relate that he has a little pug-nosed
+daughter, that they are going to exchange me with her. I should sink
+beneath the earth for very shame before my cousin Melanie! And surely,
+one has only to fear something and it will indeed come to pass.
+Grandmother was thoughtless enough to discover immediately what I wished
+to conceal, with these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Desiderius is going to live with that very man."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha ha!" laughed uncle, in high humor (his laughter penetrated my very
+marrow). "With the celebrated 'Zwieback'<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> baker! Why, he can teach my
+nephew to bake Pressburg biscuits."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> Biscuit.</p></div>
+
+<p>How I was scalded and reduced to nothing, how I blushed before Melanie!
+The idea of my learning to bake biscuits from M. Fromm! I should never
+be able to wash myself clean of that suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>In my despair I found myself looking at Lorand. He also was looking at
+me. His gaze has remained lividly imprinted in my memory. I understood
+what he said with his eyes. He called me coward, miserable, and
+sensitive, for allowing the jests of great men to bring blushes to my
+cheeks. He was a democrat always!</p>
+
+<p>When he saw that I was blushing, he turned obstinately toward
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, to reply for me.</p>
+
+<p>But I was not the only one who read his thoughts in his eyes; another
+also read therein, and before he could have spoken, my beautiful aunt
+took the words out of his mouth, and with lofty dignity replied to her
+husband:</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks the baker is just as good a man as the privy councillor."</p>
+
+<p>I shivered at the bold statement. I imagined that for these words the
+whole company would be arrested and thrown into prison.</p>
+
+<p>B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, with smiling tenderness, bent down to his wife's hand and,
+kissing it, said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As a man, truly, just as good a man; but as a baker, a better baker
+than I."</p>
+
+<p>Now it was Lorand's turn to crimson. He riveted his eyes upon my aunt's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>My right honorable uncle hastened immediately to close the rencontre
+with a vanquishing kiss upon my aunt's snow-white hand, a fact which
+convinced me that their mutual love was endless. In general, I behaved
+with remarkable respect toward that great relation of ours, who lived in
+such beautiful apartments, and whose titles would not be contained in
+three lines.</p>
+
+<p>I was completely persuaded that B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, my uncle, had few superiors
+in celebrity in the world, for personal beauty (except, perhaps, my
+brother Lorand) none; his wife was the most beautiful and happiest woman
+under the sun; and my cousin Melanie such an angel that, if she did not
+raise me up to heaven, I should surely never reach those climes.</p>
+
+<p>And if some one had said to me then, "Let us begin at the beginning;
+that rich hair on B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's head is but a wig," I should have
+demanded pardon for interrupting: I can find nothing of the least
+importance to say against the wearing of wigs. They are worn by those
+who have need of them; by those whose heads would be cold without them,
+who catch rheumatism easily with uncovered head. Finally, it is nought
+else but a head-covering for one of &aelig;sthetic tastes; a cap made of hair.</p>
+
+<p>This is all true, all earnest truth; and yet I was greatly embittered
+against that some one who discovered to me for the first time that my
+uncle B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy wore a wig, and painted his moustache (with some
+colored unguent, of course, nothing else). And I am still the enemy of
+that some one who repeated that before me. He might have left me in
+happy ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>Even if some one had said that this showy wealth, which indicated a
+noble affluence, was also such a mere wig as the other, covering the
+baldness of his riches; if some one had said that these hand-kissing
+companions, in whose every word was melody when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> they spoke the one to
+the other, that they did not love, but hated and despised one another;
+if some one had said that this lovely, ideal angel of mine even&mdash;but no
+farther, not so much at once!</p>
+
+<p>At the end of dinner our noble relations were so gracious as to permit
+my cousin Melanie to play the piano before us. She was only eight years
+old as yet, still she could play as beautifully as other girls of nine
+years.</p>
+
+<p>I had very rarely heard a piano; at home mother played sometimes, though
+she did not much care for it. Lorand merely murdered the scales, which
+was not at all entertaining for me.</p>
+
+<p>My cousin Melanie executed opera selections, and a French quadrille
+which excited my extremest admiration. My beautiful aunt laid stress
+upon the fact that she had only studied two years. A very intricate plan
+began to develop within me.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie played the piano, I the violin. Nothing could be more natural
+than that I should come here with my violin to play an obligato to
+Melanie's piano; and if afterward we played violin and piano together
+perseveringly for eight or nine years, it would be impossible that we
+should not in the end reach the goal of life on that road.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence I strove to display my usefulness by turning over the
+leaves of the music for her; and my pride was greatly hurt by the fact
+that my noble relations did not ask grandmother how I understood how to
+read music. Finally the end came to this, as to every good thing; my
+cousin Melanie was not quite "up" in the remaining pieces, though I
+would have listened even to half-learned pieces, but my grandmother was
+getting ready to return to the Fromms'. The B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys asked her to
+spend the night with them, but she replied that she had been there
+before, and that I was there too; and she would remain with the younger.
+I detested myself so for the idea that I was a drag upon my good
+grandmother; why, I ought to have kissed the dust upon her feet for
+those words:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I shall remain with the younger." My brother I envied, who for his part
+was "at home" with the P.&nbsp;C.</p>
+
+<p>When I kissed my relations' hands at parting, B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy thrust a silver
+dollar<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> into my hand, adding with magnificent munificence:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> Thaler.</p></div>
+
+<p>"For a little poppy-cake, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Why, it is true, that in Pressburg very fine poppy-biscuits are made;
+and it is also true, that many poppy-goodies might be bought, a few at a
+time, for a dollar; likewise I cannot deny that so much money had never
+been in my hand, as my very own, to spend as I liked. I would not have
+exchanged it for two other dollars, if it had not been given me before
+Melanie. I felt that it degraded me in her eyes. I could not discover
+what to do with that dollar. I scarce dared to look at Melanie when he
+departed; still I remarked that she did not look at me either when I
+left.</p>
+
+<p>At the door Lorand seized my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Desi," said he severely, "that thing that the P.&nbsp;C. thrust into your
+hand you must give to the butler, when he opens the carriage door."</p>
+
+<p>I liked the idea. By that they would know who I was; and my eyes would
+no longer be downcast before cousin Melanie.</p>
+
+<p>But, when I thrust the dollar into the butler's hand, I was so
+embarrassed by his matter-of-fact grandeur that any one who had seen us
+might have thought the butler had presented me with something. I hoped
+uncle would not exclude me from his house for that.</p>
+
+<p>Long did that quadrille sound in my ears; long did that
+phenomenon-pianist haunt me; how long I cannot tell!</p>
+
+<p>She was the standard of my ambition, the prize of a long race, which
+must be won. In my imagination the whole world thronged before her. I
+saw the roads by which one might reach her.</p>
+
+<p>I too wished to be a man like them. I would learn diligently; I would be
+the first "eminence" in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>school, my teacher would take pride in me,
+and would say at the public examination: "This will be a great man some
+day." I would pass my barrister's exams, with distinction; would serve
+my time under a sheriff; would court the acquaintance of great men of
+distinction; would win their favor by my gentle, humble conduct; I would
+be ready to serve; any work intrusted to me I would punctually perform;
+would not mix in evil company; would make my talent shine; would write
+odes of encomium, panegyrics, on occasions of note; till finally, I
+should myself, like my uncle, become "secretarius," "assessor,"
+"septemvir," and "consiliarius."</p>
+
+<p>Ha, ha, ha!</p>
+
+<p>When we returned to Master Fromm's, the delicate attention of little
+Miss Pugnose was indeed burdensome. She would prattle all kinds of
+nonsense. She asked of what the fine dinner consisted; whether it was
+true that the daughter of the "consiliarius" had a doll that danced,
+played the guitar, and nodded its head. Ridiculous! As if people of such
+an age as Melanie and I interested themselves in dolls! I told Henrik to
+interpret this to her; I observed that it put her in a bad temper, and
+rejoiced that I had got rid of her.</p>
+
+<p>I remarked that I must go and study, and the lesson was long. So I went
+to my room and began to study. Two hours later I observed that nothing
+of what I had learnt remained in my head; every place was full of that
+councillor's daughter.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening we again assembled in Master Fromm's dining-room. Fanny
+again sat next to me, was again in good humor, treating me as familiarly
+as if we had been the oldest acquaintances; I was already frightened of
+her. It would be dreadful for the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys to suspect that one had a
+baker's daughter as an acquaintance, always ready to jump upon one's
+neck when she saw one.</p>
+
+<p>Well, fortunately she would be taken away next day, and then would be
+far away, as long as I remained in the house; we should be like two
+opposite poles, that avoid each other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Before bedtime grandmother came into the room once more. She gave me my
+effects, counted over my linen. She gave me pocket-money, promising to
+send me some every month with Lorand's.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I beg you," she whispered in my ear, "take care of Lorand!"</p>
+
+<p>Again that word!</p>
+
+<p>Again that hint that I, the child, must take care of my brother, the
+young man! But the second time the meaning, which the first time I had
+not understood, burst at once clearly upon me; at first I thought,
+"Perhaps some mistaken wisdom or serious conduct on my part has deserved
+this distinction of looking after my brother." Now I discovered that the
+best guardian was eternal love; and mother and grandmother knew well
+that I loved Lorand better than he loved himself.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed, what cause had they to fear for him? And from what could I
+defend him?</p>
+
+<p>Was he not living in the best place in the world? And did I not live far
+from him?</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother exacted from me a promise to write a diary of all that
+happened about us, and to send the same to her at the end of each month.
+I was to write all about Lorand too; for he himself was a very bad
+letter-writer.</p>
+
+<p>I promised.</p>
+
+<p>Then we kissed and took leave. They had to start early in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>But the next day, when the carriage stood at the door, I was waiting
+ready dressed for them.</p>
+
+<p>The whole Fromm family came down to the carriage to say adieu to the
+travellers.</p>
+
+<p>That girl who was going to occupy my place was sad herself. Methought
+she was much more winning, when sadness made her eyes downcast.</p>
+
+<p>One could see from her eyes that she had been weeping, that she was even
+now forcibly restraining herself from weeping. She spoke a few short
+words to me, and then disappeared behind grandmother in the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>The whip cracked, the horses started, and my sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>stitute departed for my
+dear home, while I remained in her place.</p>
+
+<p>As I pondered for the first time over my great isolation, in a place
+where everybody was a stranger to me, and did not even understand my
+speech, at once all thought of the great man, the violin-virtuoso, the
+first eminence, the P.&nbsp;C., the heroic lover, disappeared from within me;
+I leaned my head against the wall, and would have wept could I have done
+so.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ATHEIST AND THE HYPOCRITE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Let us leave for a while the journal of the student child, and examine
+the circumstances of the family circle, whose history we are relating.</p>
+
+<p>There was living at Lankadomb an old heretic Samuel Top&aacute;ndy by name, who
+was related equally to the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy and &Aacute;ronffy families;
+notwithstanding this, the latter would never visit him on account of his
+conspicuously bad habits. His surroundings were of the most unfortunate
+description, and in distant parts it was told of him that he was an
+atheist of the most pronounced type.</p>
+
+<p>But do not let any one think that the more modern freedom of thought had
+perhaps made Top&aacute;ndy cling to things long past, or that out of mental
+rationalism he had attempted, as a philosopher, to place his mind far
+beyond the visible tenets of religion. He was an atheist merely for his
+own amusement, that, by his denial of God, he might annoy those
+people&mdash;priests and the powers that be&mdash;with whom he came in contact.</p>
+
+<p>For to annoy, and successfully annoy, has always been held as an
+amusement among frail humanity. And what can more successfully annoy
+than the ridiculing of that which a man worships?</p>
+
+<p>The County Court had just put in a judicial "deed of execution," and had
+sent a magistrate, and a lawyer, supported by a posse of twelve armed
+gendarmes, for the purpose of putting an end, once for all, to those
+scandals, by which Top&aacute;ndy had for years been arousing the indignation
+of the souls of the faithful, causing them to send complaint after
+complaint in to the court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy offered cigars to the official "bailiffs." The magistrate,
+Michael Daruszegi, a young man of thirty, appeared to be still younger
+from his fair face. They had sent the under, not the chief magistrate,
+because he was a new hand, and would be more zealous. There is more
+firmness in a young man, and firmness was necessary when face to face
+with the disbeliever in God.</p>
+
+<p>"We did not come here to smoke, sir," was the dry reply of the young
+officer. "We are on official business."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take official business. Don't 'sir' me, my dear fellow, but
+come, let us drink a 'chartreuse,' and then tell your business, in
+company with the lawyer, to my steward. If money is required, break open
+the granaries, take as much wheat as will settle your claims, then dine
+with me; there will be some more good fellows, who are coming for a
+little music. And to-morrow morning we can make out the report and enter
+it in the protocol."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this he kept continuous hold on the "bailiff's" wrist, and
+led him inward into the inner room: and as he was far stronger by nature
+than the latter, it practically amounted to the leader of the attacking
+force being taken prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"I protest! I forbid every kind of confidence! This is serious
+business!"</p>
+
+<p>In vain did the magistrate protest against his enforced march.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the second part of the "legale testimonium;" Mr. Francis Butzkay,
+the lawyer, came to his aid with his stumpy, short-limbed figure: he had
+gazed for a time in passive inactivity at the fruitless struggle of his
+principal with the "in causam vocatus."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope the gentleman will not give cause for the use of force; for we
+shall fetter him hand and foot in such a manner that no better safeguard
+will be necessary." So saying, our friend the lawyer smiled
+complaisantly, all over his round face, looking, with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> long
+moustache, for all the world like the moon, when a long cloud is
+crossing its surface.</p>
+
+<p>"Fetters indeed!" Top&aacute;ndy guffawed, "I should just like to see you! I
+beg you, pray put those fetters on me, merely for the sake of novelty,
+that I may be able to say: I also have had chains on me: at any rate on
+one of my legs, or one of my arms. It would be a damned fine amusement."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," exclaimed the magistrate, freeing his hand. "You must learn to
+respect in us the 'powers that be.' We are your judges, sent by the
+County Court, entrusted with the task of putting an end to those
+scandals caused by you, which have filled every Christian soul with
+righteous indignation."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy raised his eyes in astonishment at the envoys of the "powers
+that be."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho, so it is not a case of a 'deed of execution?'"</p>
+
+<p>"By no means. It is a far more important matter that is at stake. The
+Court considers the atheistical irreligious 'attentats' have gone too
+far and therefore has sent us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;To preach me a sermon? No, sir magistrate, now you must really bring
+those irons, and put me in chains, and bind me, for unbound I will not
+listen to your sermon. Hold me down if you wish to preach words of
+devotion to me, for otherwise I shall bite, like a wild animal."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate retreated, in spite of his youthful daring; but the
+lawyer only smiled gently and did not even take his hands from behind
+his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, sir, you must not get mad, or we shall have to take you to the
+R&oacute;kus hospital,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> and put the strait-jacket on you."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> A hospital in Pest.</p></div>
+
+<p>"The devil blight you!" roared Top&aacute;ndy, making for the two judges, and
+then retiring before the undisturbed smiling countenance of the lawyer.
+"Well, and what complaint has the Court to make of me? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Have I stolen
+anything from anybody? Have I committed incendiarism? Have I committed a
+murder, that they come down so hard upon me?"</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was a ready speaker: immediately he answered with:</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, you have committed a theft: you have stolen the welfare of
+others' souls. Certainly you are an incendiary: you have set fire to the
+peace of <span title="Transcriber's Note: A period after &quot;faithful&quot; has been deleted">faithful</span> souls. Certainly you are a murderer: you have murdered
+the souls entrusted to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy, seeing there was no escape, turned entreatingly to the
+gendarmes who accompanied the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, cherubims without wings, two of you come here and seize me, that
+I may not run away."</p>
+
+<p>They obeyed him and laid hands on him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear magistrate, fire away."</p>
+
+<p>The worthy magistrate was annoyed, that this sorry business could not in
+any way assume a serious aspect.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place I come to see the execution of that judgment which
+the honorable Court has passed upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"I bow my head,"&mdash;growled Top&aacute;ndy in a tone of derisive subservience.</p>
+
+<p>"You have in your household youths and young girls growing up in various
+branches of service, who, born here, have never yet been baptized,
+thanks to your sinful neglect."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, the general drying up of wells...."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't interrupt me," bawled the magistrate. "You should have produced
+your defence then and there, when and where you were accused; but as you
+did not appear at the appointed time, and obstinately procrastinated,
+you must listen to the sentence. All those boys and girls brought up
+within your premises must be taken into the country town and baptized
+according to the ordinances of religion."</p>
+
+<p>"Could not the matter be finished here at once by the spring?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was beside himself with anger. But the good lawyer only
+smiled and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, sir, show a little common sense. The County Court compels none,
+against his will, to be a Christian: still one must belong to some
+religion. So if your lordship will not take the trouble to go with his
+household to the 'pater,' well, we shall take him to the rabbi: that
+will do just as well."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy laughingly shook a menacing fist at the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a great gibbet! You always manage me. Well, let us rather go to
+the 'pater' than to the rabbi; but at least let my servants keep their
+old names."</p>
+
+<p>"That is also inadmissible," answered the magistrate severely. "You have
+given your servants names, of a kind not usually borne by men. One is
+called Pir&oacute;k,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> another Czinke:<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> the name of one little girl&mdash;God
+save the mark&mdash;is Beelzebub! Who would register such names as these?
+They will all receive respectable names to be found in the Christian
+calendar; and any one, who dares to call them by the names they have
+hitherto borne shall pay as great a fine as if he had purposely
+calumniated a fellow-man. How many are there whom you have kept back in
+this manner from the water of Christianity?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> Chaffinch.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> Titmouse, names of birds given as pet names to these
+servants.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Four butlers, three maid-servants and two parrots."</p>
+
+<p>"Perjurer! Your every word is spittle in the face of the true
+believers."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, gag me. I beg you to save me from perjury."</p>
+
+<p>"Kindly call the people in question."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy turned round and called to his butler who stood behind him:</p>
+
+<p>"Produce Pir&oacute;k, Esterg&aacute;lyos,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> Sepr&uuml;ny&eacute;l,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>Kakukf&uuml;,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> and
+Macskal&aacute;b;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> comfort them with the news that they are going to enter
+Heaven, and will receive a fur-coat, a pair of boots, and a good gourd,
+from which the wine will never fail: all the gift of the honorable
+County Court."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> Turner.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> Broom.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> Thyme.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> Catsfoot.</p></div>
+
+<p>"For my part," said the young representative of the law, standing on
+tip-toe, "I must ask you seriously to answer, with the moderation due to
+our presence, have you hidden any one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whether I have stolen away someone on hell's account? No, my dear
+fellow, I don't court Satan's acquaintance either: let him catch men for
+himself, if he can."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a mandatum for your examination on oath."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your mandatum in your pocket, and measure out thirty florins'
+worth of oats from my granary: that's the fine. For I don't intend to be
+examined on oath."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. If you bid me, I will swear: I'm a rare hand at it; I can
+swear for half an hour at a stretch without repeating myself."</p>
+
+<p>Again the smiling lawyer intervened:</p>
+
+<p>"Give us your word of honor, then, that besides those produced, there is
+no servant in your household who has not yet been baptized."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I give you my word of honor that there is not 'in my household'
+even a living creature who is a pagan."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy's word of honor only just escaped being broken for that
+gypsy-girl, whom he had bought in her sixth year from encamping gypsies
+for two dollars and a sucking pig, now, ten years later, did not belong
+any more to the household, but presided at table when gentlefolk came to
+dinner. But she still bore that heathen name, which she had received in
+the reedy thicket. She was still called Czipra.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And the godless fellow had snatched her away from the water of
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>"Has the honorable Court any other complaint to make against me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. Not merely do you force your household to be pagan, but
+you are accused of disturbing in their religious services others who
+make no secret of their devout feelings."</p>
+
+<p>"For example?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just opposite you is the courtyard of Mr. Nepomuk John S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a>
+who is a very righteous man."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> Mud-valley.</p></div>
+
+<p>"As far as I know, quite the opposite: he is always praying, a fact
+which proves that his sins must be very numerous."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not your business to judge him. In our common world it is a
+merit, if someone dares to display to the public eye the fact that he
+still respects religion, and it is the duty of the law to protect him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and how have I scandalized the good fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not long ago Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi had a large Saint Nepomuk painted on the
+fa&ccedil;ade of his house, in oils on a sheet of bronze, and before the chief
+figure he was himself painted, in a kneeling position."</p>
+
+<p>"I know: I saw it."</p>
+
+<p>"From the lips of St. Nepomuk was flowing down in 'lapidarig' letters to
+the kneeling figure the following Latin saying: 'Mi fili, ego te nunquam
+deseram.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I read the words."</p>
+
+<p>"An iron grating was placed before the picture, and covered the whole
+niche, that infamous hands might not be able to touch it."</p>
+
+<p>"A very wise idea."</p>
+
+<p>"One morning following a very stormy night, to the astonishment of all,
+the Latin inscription had disappeared from the picture, and in its place
+there stood: 'Soon thou wilt pass from before me, thou old hypocrite!'"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it, if the person in question changed his views."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly you can help it. The painter who prepared that picture,
+upon being cross-questioned, confessed and publicly affirmed that, in
+consideration of a certain sum of money paid by you, he had painted the
+latter inscription in oils, and over it, in water-colours, the former:
+so that the first shower washed off the upper surface from the picture,
+making the honest, zealous fellow an object of ridicule and contempt in
+his own house. Do you believe, sir, that such practical jokes are not
+punished by the hand of justice?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in the habit of believing much."</p>
+
+<p>"Among other things, however, you are bound to believe that justice will
+condemn you, first to pay a fine for blackmail; secondly, to pay for the
+repairs your tricks have made necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see an atom of plaintiff's counsel here."</p>
+
+<p>"Because plaintiff left the amount due him to the pleasure of the Court,
+to be devoted to charitable purposes."</p>
+
+<p>"Good: then please break into the granaries."</p>
+
+<p>"That we shall not do," interrupted the lawyer: "later on we shall take
+it out of the 'regalia.'"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, good magistrate. Do you believe all that is in the Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a true Christian."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I appeal to your faith. In one place it stands that some invisible
+hand wrote, in the room of some pagan king&mdash;Belshazzar, if the story be
+true,&mdash;the following words,'Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.' If that hand could
+write then, why could it not now have written that second saying? And if
+it was the rain that washed away the righteous fellow's words, you must
+accuse the rain, for the fault lies there."</p>
+
+<p>"These are indeed very weighty counter-charges: and you might have
+declared them all before the Court, to which you were summoned: you
+might have appealed even to the septemvirate, but as you did not ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>pear
+then, you must bear the consequences of your obstinacy."</p>
+
+<p>"Good; I shall pay the price," said Top&aacute;ndy laughing:&mdash;"But it was a
+good joke on my part after all, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate showed an angry countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be other good jokes, too. Kindly wait until the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the list of crimes still longer?"</p>
+
+<p>"A severe enquiry into the sources would never find an end. The gravest
+charge against you is the profanation of holy places."</p>
+
+<p>"I profane some holy place? Why, for twenty years I have not been in the
+precincts even of a church steeple."</p>
+
+<p>"You desecrated a place used long ago for holy ceremonies by riotous
+revels."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean that, do you? Let us make distinctions, if you please.
+Great is the difference between place and place. Do you mean the convent
+of the Red Brothers? That is no church. The late Emperor Joseph drove
+them out, and their property was put up to auction by the State,
+together with all the buildings situate thereon. Thus it was that I came
+into possession of the convent garden: I was there at the auction; I bid
+and it was knocked down to me. There were buildings on it, but whether
+any kind of church had been there I do not know, for they took away all
+the movables, and I found only bare walls. No kind of 'servitus'
+(engagement), as to what I would use the building for, had been included
+in the agreement of purchase. In this matter I know of others who were
+no more scrupulous. I know of a convent at Maria-Eich,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> where in
+place of the ancient altar stands the peasant-chimney, and here the
+Swabian, into whose hands this honorable antiquity passed, keeps his
+maize; why, in a town beside the Danube may be seen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>what was once a
+convent, the 'aerarium' of which has been turned into a hospital."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> A place in Austria where sacred relics exist.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Examples cannot help you. If the Swabian peasant keeps 'the blessing of
+God' in that place, from which they had once prayed for it, that is not
+profanity: the 'aerarium' too is pursuing an office of righteousness, in
+nursing bodily sufferings in the place where once mental sufferings
+gained comfort; but you have had disgusting pictures painted all over
+the walls that have come into your possession."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, the subjects are all chosen from classical
+literature: illustrations to the poems of Beranger and Lafontaine&mdash;'Mon
+Cur&eacute;,' 'Les Clefs Du Paradis,' 'Les Capulier,' 'Les Cordeliers Du
+Catalogue,' etc. Every subject a pious one."</p>
+
+<p>"I know: I am acquainted with the originals of them. You may cover the
+walls of your own rooms with them, if you please: but I have brought
+four stone-workers with me, who, according to the judgment of the Court,
+are to erase all those pictures."</p>
+
+<p>"Genuine iconoclasm!" guffawed Top&aacute;ndy, who found great amusement in
+arousing a whole county against him by his caprices. <span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the beginning of this sentence.">"</span>Iconoclasts!
+Picture-destroyers!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is something else we are going to destroy!" continued the
+magistrate. "In that place there was a crypt. What has become of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a crypt still."</p>
+
+<p>"What is in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is usually in a crypt: dead men of hallowed memory, who are lying
+in wooden coffins and waiting for the great awakening."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate made a face of doubt. He did not know whether to believe
+or not.</p>
+
+<p>"And when you and your revelling companions hold your Bacchanalia
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I object to the word <span title="Transcriber's Note: A single quote has been added after &quot;'Bacchanalia.&quot;">'Bacchanalia.'</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"True, it is still more. I should have used a stronger expression for
+that riot, when in scandalous undress, carrying in front a steak on a
+spit, the whole company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> sings low songs such as 'Meg&aacute;lljon Kend'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a>
+and 'Hetes, nyloczas,'<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> and in this guise makes scandalous
+processions from castle to cloister."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> "Stop (you)," "Kend" being the pleasant abbreviation for
+"Kegyed," one method of addressing (literally "your grace"),
+corresponding to our "you."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> "Seven and eight," referring to the number on the playing
+cards: the Austrian National Hymn is sung by great patriots to these
+words: the "king" and "ace" being the highest two cards, come together;
+and this is in Magyar kir&aacute;ly (king), diszno (ace); is also "swein."</p></div>
+
+<p>"The authorities must indeed be greatly embittered against me, if they
+see anything scandalous in the fact that a body of good-humored men
+undress to the skin, when they are warm. As far as the so-called low
+songs are concerned, they have such innocent words, they might be
+printed in a book, while the melodies are very pious."</p>
+
+<p>"The scandal is just that, that you parody pious songs, setting them to
+trivial words. Tell me what is the good of singing the eight cards of
+the pack<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> as a hymn. And if you are in a good humor, why do you go
+with it to the crypt?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> In Magyar cards the pack begins with the 7.</p></div>
+
+<p>"You know we go there for a little mumony feast."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for a little 'Mumon,'" interrupted the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I meant," said the atheist, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" roared the magistrate, who now began to understand the enigma of
+the dead lying in their wooden coffins: "perhaps that is a cellar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course: I never had a better cellar than that."</p>
+
+<p>"And the dead, and the coffins?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-five round coffins, full of wine. Come, my dear sir, taste them
+all. I assure you you won't regret it."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was now really in a fury: fury made a lion of him, so
+that he was quite capable of tearing his wrists by sheer force out of
+the imprisoning hands.</p>
+
+<p>"An end to all familiarity! You stand before the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>authority of the law,
+with whom you cannot trifle. Give me the keys of the cloister, that I
+may clean the profaned place."</p>
+
+<p>"Please break open the door."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you not be sorry to ruin a patent lock?" suggested the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, promise me that you will taste at least 'one' brand: then I will
+open the door, for I don't intend to open any door under the title of
+'cloister,' but any number under the title of 'cellar;' and in that case
+I shall pay in ready money."</p>
+
+<p>The worthy lawyer tugged at the magistrate's sleeve; prudence yielded,
+and there are bounds to severity, too.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, the lawyer will taste the wine, but I am no drinker."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy whispered some words in his butler's ears, whereupon that worthy
+suddenly disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, my dear fellow, we are agreed at last: now I should like to
+see the account of how much I owe to the county for my slight upon the
+Brotherhood."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the calculation: two hundred florins with costs, which amount
+to three florins, thirty kreuzer."</p>
+
+<p>(This happened thirty years ago.)</p>
+
+<p>"Further?"</p>
+
+<p>"Further, the repair of the damage caused by you, the expenses of the
+present expedition, the daily pay and sustenance of the stone-masons
+aforesaid: making in all a sum total of two hundred and forty-three
+florins, forty kreuzers."</p>
+
+<p>"A large sum, but I shall produce it from somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>With the words Top&aacute;ndy drew out from his chest a drawer, and carrying it
+bodily as it was, put it down on the great walnut table, before the
+authorities of the law.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is!"</p>
+
+<p>The interesting members of the law first drew back in alarm, and then
+commenced to roar with laughter. That drawer was filled with&mdash;I cannot
+express it in one word&mdash;but generally speaking&mdash;with paper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A great variety of aged bank notes, some before the depreciation of
+value, others of a late date, still in currency: long bank-notes, black
+bank-notes, red spotted bank-notes; then, old cards: Hungarian, Swiss,
+French; old theatre-tickets, market pictures, the well-known product of
+street-humor; the tailor riding on a goat, the devil taking off bad
+women, a portrait of the long-moustached mayor of Nuremberg: a pile of
+envelopes, all heaped together in a huddle.</p>
+
+<p>That was Top&aacute;ndy's savings bank.</p>
+
+<p>He would always spend silver and gold money, but money paid to him in
+bank-notes, which he had to accept, he would put by year by year among
+this collection of cards, funny pictures, and theatrical programmes;
+this heap of value was never disturbed except when, as at present, some
+enforced visit had to be put up with, some so-called "execution."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, help yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" cried the magistrate. "Must we pick out the value from the
+non-value in this rubbish?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now I am not so well-informed an expert as to distinguish what is
+recalled from what is still in circulation. Still my good friend is
+right, it is my duty to count out, yours to receive."</p>
+
+<p>Then he plunged his hand into the treasure-heap, and counted over the
+bits of paper.</p>
+
+<p>"This is good, this is not. This is still new, this is surely torn.
+Here's a five florin, here a ten florin note. This is the Knave of
+Hearts."</p>
+
+<p>A little discussion occurred when he counted a label that had been
+removed from an old champagne bottle, as a ten florin note.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen took exception to that: it must be thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>"What, is this not money? It must be money. It is a French bank-note.
+There is written on it ten florins. Cliquot will pay if you take it to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Then he began to explain several comical pictures, and bargained with
+the authorities&mdash;how much would they give for them? he had paid a big
+price for them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Finally the worthy lawyer had again to intervene: otherwise this
+liquidation might have lasted till the following evening; then, after a
+strict search in a critical manner, he withdrew two hundred and
+forty-three florins from the pile.</p>
+
+<p>"A little water if you please, I should like to wash my hands," said the
+lawyer after his work, feeling like one who has separated the raw wheat
+from the tares.</p>
+
+<p>"Like Pilate after passing judgment," jested Top&aacute;ndy. "You shall have
+all you want at once. Already there is an end to the legal manipulation:
+we are no longer 'legale testimonium' and 'incattus,' but guest and
+host."</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid," repudiated the magistrate retiring towards the door. "We
+did not come in that guise. We do not wish to trouble you any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Trouble indeed!" said the accused, guffawing. "What, do you think this
+matter has been any trouble to me?&mdash;on the contrary, the most exquisite
+amusement! This annoyance of the county against me I would not sell for
+a thousand florins. It was glorious. 'Execution!' Legally erased
+pictures! An investigation into my private behavior! I shall live for a
+year on this joke. And you will see, my friends, I shall do so again
+soon. I shall find out some plan for getting them to take me in irons to
+the Court: a battalion of soldiers shall come for me, and they shall
+make me the son of the warden! Ha! ha! May I be damned if I don't
+succeed in my project! If they would but put me in prison for a year,
+and make me saw wood in the courtyard of the County Court, and clean the
+boots of the Lieutenant Governor. That is a capital idea! I shall not
+die until I reach that."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime a butler arrived with the water, while a second opened
+another door and invited the guests with much ceremony to partake in the
+pleasure of the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship invites the honorable gentlemen's company at d&eacute;jeuner."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate looked in perplexity at the lawyer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> who turned to the
+basin and hid his laughing face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You are married?" the magistrate enquired of Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear no," he answered, "she is not my wife, but my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"But we are invited to dinner in the neighborhood."</p>
+
+<p>"By Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi? That does not matter. If a man wishes to dine at
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's, he will be wise to have d&eacute;jeuner first. Besides I have your
+word to drink a glass as a 'conditio sine qua non;' besides a chivalrous
+man cannot refuse the invitation of a lady."</p>
+
+<p>The last pretext was conclusive; it was impossible to refuse a lady's
+invitation, even if a man has armed force at his command. He is obliged
+to yield to the superior power.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate allowed the third attempt to succeed, and was dragged by
+the arm into the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy audibly bade the butlers look after the wants of the gendarmes
+and stone-masons, and give them enough to eat and drink: and, when our
+friend, the magistrate, prepared to object, interrupted him with:
+"Kindly remember the 'execution' is over, and consider that those good
+fellows are tearing off plaster from the cloister walls, and the
+paint-dust will go to their lungs: and it shall not be my fault if any
+harm touches the upholders of public security. This way, if you please:
+here comes my sister."</p>
+
+<p>Through the opposite door came the above mentioned "ladyship."</p>
+
+<p>She could not have been taken for more than fifteen years old: she was
+wearing a pure white dress, trimmed with lace, according to the fashion
+of the time, and bound round her slender waist with a broad rose-colored
+riband; her complexion was brunette, and pale, in contrast to her ruddy
+round lips, which allowed to flash between their velvet surfaces the
+most lovely pearly set of teeth imaginable: her two thick eyebrows
+almost met on her brow, and below her long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> eyelashes two restless black
+eyes beamed forth: like coal, that is partly aglow.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Magistrate was surprised that Top&aacute;ndy had such a young sister.</p>
+
+<p>"My guests," said Top&aacute;ndy, presenting the servants of the law to her
+ladyship.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I know," remarked the young lady in a gay light-hearted tone. "You
+have come to put in an 'execution' against his lordship. You did quite
+right: you ought to treat him so. You don't know the hundredth part of
+his godless dealings. For did you know, you would long since have
+beheaded him three times over."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate found this sincere expression of sisterly opinion most
+remarkable; still, notwithstanding that he took his seat beside her
+ladyship.</p>
+
+<p>The table was piled with cold viands and old wines.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship entertained the magistrate with conversation and tasty
+tit-bits, meanwhile the lawyer was quietly drinking his glasses with the
+host,&mdash;nor was it necessary to ask him to help himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me," remarked her ladyship: "if this man ever reaches hell,
+they will give him a special room, so great are his merits. I have
+already grown tired of trying to reform him."</p>
+
+<p>"Has your ladyship been staying long in this house?" enquired the
+magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ten years already."</p>
+
+<p>("How old could the lady have been then?" the magistrate thought to
+himself: but he could not answer.)</p>
+
+<p>"Just imagine what he does. A few days ago he put up an old saint among
+the vines as a scarecrow, with a broken hat on his head."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate turned with a movement of scorn towards the accused. It
+would not be good for him if that, too, came to the ears of the Court.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak, for you do not understand what you're saying," replied
+Top&aacute;ndy by way of explanation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> "It was an ugly statue of Pilate, a
+relic of the ancient Calvary."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> Many such Calvaries exist in Hungary: they may be seen by
+the roadside, and are used as places of pilgrimage by pious peasants and
+others: there is always a picture of Christ crucified or a figure of the
+same.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Well, and wasn't that holy?" enquired the flashing-eyed damsel.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate began to rise from his chair. (Her ladyship must have had
+a curious education if she did not even know who Pilate was.)</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy broke out in unrestrained laughter. Then, as if he desired by an
+earnest word to repair the insult his language had given, he said to the
+lady with a pious face:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you are right, was it not a gracious act on my part to give a
+permanent occupation to such an honest fellow, who had been degraded
+from office; and as he was bare-headed I gave him a hat to protect him
+against changes of the weather. However, don't treat our friend to a
+series of incriminations, but rather to that deer-steak; you see he does
+not venture to taste it."</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship did as she was told.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was obliged to eat: in the first place because it was a
+beautiful woman that offered the viands to him, secondly because
+everything she offered was so good. He had to drink, too, because she
+kept filling his glass and calling on him to "clink" with her, herself
+setting the example. She drained that sparkling liquor from her glass
+just as if it had been pure water. And those wines were truly remarkably
+strong. The magistrate could not refuse the appeal of her ladyship's
+beautiful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Forbidden fruit is sweet." The magistrate experienced the truth of the
+saying keenly, in so far as one may place among forbidden fruit the
+<i>d&eacute;jeuner</i> of which a man partakes in the house of a godless fellow,
+destroying his appetite for the ensuing dinner to which he is invited by
+a pious man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The courses seemed endless: cold viands were followed by hot, and the
+beautiful young damsel could offer so kindly, that the magistrate was
+powerless to resist.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a little of this 'majoraine' sausage. I myself made it yesterday
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was astonished. Her ladyship busied herself with such
+things? When the sausage had disappeared, he made a remark about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet no one would imagine that these delicate hands could busy
+themselves with other things than sewing, piano-playing, and the turning
+over of gold-bordered leaves. Have you read the almanacs of the
+parliament?"</p>
+
+<p>At this question Top&aacute;ndy burst into loud laughter, while the lawyer
+covered his mouth with his napkin, the laughter stuck in his throat: the
+magistrate could not imagine what there could be to ridicule in this
+question.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship answered quite unconsciously:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! there are some fine airs in it: I know them. If you will listen, I
+will sing them."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate thought there must be some misunderstanding: still, if
+her ladyship cared to sing, he would be only too delighted to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Which do you want 'Vienna Town' or 'Rose-bud?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Both," said the host, "and into the bargain the latest parliamentary
+air, 'Come Down from the Cross, and Fly to the Poplar-tree.' But let us
+go out of the dining-room to hear the songs; the forks and plates are
+rattling too much here: we'll go to my sister's room. There she will
+sing to the accompaniment of a Magyar piano. Have you ever seen a Magyar
+piano, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember having done so."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is beautiful: you must hear it. My sister plays it
+wonderfully."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate offered his arm to her ladyship, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the company entered
+the next room, which was the lady's apartment.</p>
+
+<p>It was an elegant, finely-decorated room, with mahogany and ebony
+furniture, richly carved and gilded, with huge glass-panelled chests,
+and heavy silk curtains yet there was a striking difference between this
+room and those of other ladies; all these expensive draperies, as far as
+their form and ordering was concerned, did not at all correspond with
+the usual appanage of a boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>In one corner stood a loom of mahogany, richly inlaid with ivory: it was
+still covered with some half-finished work, in which flowers,
+butterflies, and birds had been worked with remarkable refinement.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said the lady, "this is my work-table. I am responsible also
+for that table-cloth on which we breakfasted to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed she had received an unusual education.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the loom was a spinning wheel.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is my library," said the lady, pointing to the cupboards
+against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Through the glass panels was to be seen a host of every kind of culinary
+bottles. On the bottom shelf the great folios; every kind of vinegar
+that grows in hot-houses; the second row was full of preserved
+cucumbers; and then on the top shelf different sorts of confitures in
+brilliant perfection; last of all, a row of fruit extracts was visible,
+in colors as numerous as the bottles that contained them.</p>
+
+<p>"A magnificent library!" said the lawyer. But the magistrate could not
+yet clearly make out what kind of lady it might be, who called such
+things a library.</p>
+
+<p>The heavy velvet curtains, which made a kind of tent of the alcove, also
+had their secret: the young lady; raised the curtain and said naively,</p>
+
+<p>"This is my sleeping place."</p>
+
+<p>An embroidered quilt laid out on a plank, nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, a curious, most remarkable education.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the bed stood a large copper cage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This is my pet bird," said the fair lady, pointing at the creature
+within.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large black cock, which rose angrily as the strangers
+approached, and crowed in an agonized manner, shaking its red comb
+furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, this is my old comrade, who takes care of me! and is at the
+same time my clock, waking me at daybreak." And the lady's look became
+quite tender, as she placed her hand on the wrathful creature. At her
+gentle touch the bird clucked his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"When I go outside, he accompanies me, loose, like a dog."</p>
+
+<p>The black monster, as long as he saw strangers, only noted in quiet
+tones the fact that he had remarked their presence, but as soon as
+Top&aacute;ndy stepped forward, he suddenly broke out into a clarion cry, as if
+he wished to arouse every hen-roost in the property to the fact that
+there was a fox in the garden. Every feather on his neck stood bolt
+upright, like a Spanish shirt-collar.</p>
+
+<p>"He will soon be quiet," the young lady assured the guests:&mdash;"for he
+will listen to music."</p>
+
+<p>So we are about to see the Magyar piano? It was but a "czimbalom."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a>
+It is true that it was a marvellous work of art, inlaid with ebony and
+mother-of-pearl; the nails on which the strings were stretched were of
+silver, the groundwork a mosaic of coloured woods; the two drumsticks
+lying upon the strings had handles of red coral; the stand on which the
+"czimbalom" rested was a marvellously perfected specimen of the
+carpenter's art, giving a strong tone to the instrument; and before it
+was a little, round, armless chair covered with red velvet, its feet
+golden tiger-claws. Yet it was certainly strange that a young lady
+should play the "czimbalom," that country instrument <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>which they are
+wont to carry under the covering of a ragged coat, and to place upon
+inn-tables, or up-turned barrels.&mdash;Here it appeared among mahogany
+furniture, to serve as accompaniment to a young lady's voice, while she
+herself with her delicate fingers beat the melody out of the plaintive
+instrument for all the world as if she were seated beside a piano.
+Incongruous enough, for we have always thought of the "czimbalom-artist"
+as a gawky bushy-bearded fellow with the indispensable short-stemmed
+clay-pipe&mdash;all burned out and being sucked only for its bitter taste.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> The peculiar and characteristic Magyar instrument which is
+indispensable to every gypsy orchestra, taking the place of harp and
+piano. It is in the form of a zither of large size, played with padded
+sticks, and forms the foundation of these wandering bands.</p></div>
+
+<p>And the whole "czimbalom" playing is such a jest, so grotesque; the
+player's arms jerk and wave continuously; his whole shoulder and head
+are in perpetual motion; whereas, with the piano, the five fingers do
+all; the artist's relation to the piano is that of my lord to his
+children, whom he addresses from a far-off height; the czimbalom-player
+is "<i>per tu</i>" with his instrument.</p>
+
+<p>But the young lady had the grace of one born to the instrument. As she
+took the sticks in her hands and struck a chord upon the outstretched
+strings, her face assumed a new expression; so far, we must confess,
+there had been much "naivet&eacute;" in it, now she felt at home; this was her
+world.</p>
+
+<p>She sang two songs to the guests, both taken from what are called in our
+country "Parliamentary airs;" they used to break forth in "juratus"
+coffee-houses, during the sitting of Parliament, when there was more
+spirit in the youths of the country than now.</p>
+
+<p>The one had a fine impassioned refrain: "From Vienna town, from west to
+east, the wind hath a cold blast." The end of it was that the Danube
+water is bitter, for at Pressburg many bitter tears have flowed into it,
+"Which the great ones of our land have shed, because Rag&aacute;lyi was not
+sent to be ambassador." Now patriots are more sparing with their tears;
+but in those days much bitterness was expressed with the air of "Vienna
+town."</p>
+
+<p>The other air was "Rose-bud, laurel," which had also a pretty refrain;
+it is full of such expressions as "altars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> of freedom," "angels of
+freedom," "wreaths of freedom," and other such mythological things. How
+the strings responded to the young woman's touch, what expression was in
+her refrain! It was as if she felt the meaning of those beautiful
+"flosculi" best of all, and must suffer more than all for them.</p>
+
+<p>Then she introduced a third parliamentary song, the contents of which
+were satirical; but the satire was purely local and personal, and would
+not be intelligible to people of modern days.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was inexpressibly pleased by it: he asked for it again. Someone
+had ridiculed the priests in it, but in such a manner that no one,
+unless he had had it explained could understand it.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was quite enraptured by the simple instrument; he would
+never have believed that anyone could play it with such masterly skill.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," he asked her ladyship, not being able any longer to conceal
+his astonishment, "where you learned to play this instrument."</p>
+
+<p>At these words her ladyship broke into such a fit of laughter, that, if
+she had not suddenly steadied herself with her feet against the
+czimbalom stand, she would have fallen over. As it was, her hair being,
+according to the fashion of the day, coiled up "&agrave; la Giraffe" round a
+high comb, and the comb falling from her head, her two tresses of raven
+hair fell waving over her shoulders to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>At this the young lady discontinued laughing, and not succeeding at all
+in her efforts to place her dishevelled hair around the comb again,
+suddenly twisted it together on her head and fastened it with a spindle
+she snatched from the spinning wheel.</p>
+
+<p>Then to recover her previous high spirits, she again took up the
+czimbalom sticks, and began to play some quiet melody on the instrument.</p>
+
+<p>It was no song, no variations on well-known airs; it was some marvellous
+reverie; a frameless picture, a landscape without horizon. A plaint, in
+a voice rather playful over something serious that is long past, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+that can never come back again, avowed to no one by word of mouth, only
+handed down from generation to generation on the resounding strings&mdash;the
+song of the beggar who denies that he has ever been king:&mdash;the song of
+the wanderer, who denies that he ever had a home and yet remembers it,
+and the pain of the recollection is heard in the song. No one knows or
+understands, perhaps not even the player, who merely divines it and
+meditates thereon. It is the desert wind, of which no one knows whence
+it comes and whither it goes; the driving cloud, of which no one knows
+whence it arose, and whither it disappears. A homeless, unsubstantial,
+immaterial bitterness ... a flowerless, echoless, roadless desert ...
+full of mirages.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate would have listened till evening, no matter what became
+of the neighbor's dinner, if Top&aacute;ndy had not interrupted him with the
+sceptical remark that this lengthened steel wire has far more soul than
+a certain two-footed creature, who affirms that he was the image of God.</p>
+
+<p>And thus he again drew the attention of the worthy gentleman to the fact
+that he was in the home of a denier of God.</p>
+
+<p>Then they heard the mid-day curfew, which made the black cock, with
+fluttering wings, begin his monotonous clarion, for all the world like
+the bugle call of some watch-tower, whose <i>taran-tara!</i> gives the sign
+to its inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>At this the lady's face suddenly lost its sad expression of melancholy;
+she put down the czimbalom-sticks, leaped up from her chair, and with
+natural sincerity asked,</p>
+
+<p>"It was a beautiful song, was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it was. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! that you may not ask."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer had to call the magistrate's attention to the fact that it
+was already time to depart, as there was still another "entertainment"
+in store for them.</p>
+
+<p>At this they all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry that it was my fortune to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> your acquaintance, on
+such an occasion as the present," said the young officer of the law, as
+he bade farewell, and shook hands with his host.</p>
+
+<p>"But I rejoice at the honor, and I hope I may have the pleasure of
+seeing you again&mdash;on the occasion of the next 'execution'."</p>
+
+<p>Then the magistrate turned to her ladyship, to thank her for her kind
+hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>To do so he sought the young lady's hand with intention to kiss it; but
+before he could fulfill his intention, her ladyship suddenly threw her
+arms around his neck and imprinted as healthy a kiss on his face as
+anyone could possibly wish for.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was rather frightened than rejoiced at this unexpected
+present. Her ladyship had indeed peculiar habits. He scarcely knew how
+he arrived in the road; true, the wine had affected his head a little,
+for he was not used to it.</p>
+
+<p>From Top&aacute;ndy's castle to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's residence one had to cross a long
+field of clover.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer led his colleague as far as the gate of this field by the
+arm, sauntering along by his side. But, as soon as they were within the
+garden, Mr. Buczkay said to the magistrate:</p>
+
+<p>"Please go in front, I will follow behind; I must remain behind a little
+to laugh myself out."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he sat down on the ground, clasped his hands over his stomach,
+and commenced to guffaw; he threw himself flat upon the grass, kicking
+the earth with his feet, and shouting with merriment the while.</p>
+
+<p>The young officer of the law was beside himself with vexation, as he
+reflected: "This man is horribly tipsy; how can I enter the house of
+such a righteous man with a drunken fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>Then when Mr. Buczkay had given satisfaction to the demands of his
+nature, according to which his merriment, repressed almost to the
+bursting point, was obliged to break loose in a due proportion of
+laughter, he rose again from the earth, dusted his clothes, and with the
+most serious countenance under the sun said, "Well, we can proceed
+now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house was unlike Magyar country residences, in that the
+latter had their doors night and day on the latch, with at most a couple
+of bulldogs on guard in the courtyard&mdash;and these were there only with
+the intention of imprinting the marks of their muddy paws on the coats
+of guests by way of tenderness. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's residence was completely
+encircled with a stone wall, like some town building: the gate and small
+door always closed, and the stone wall crowned with a continuous row of
+iron nails:&mdash;and,&mdash;what is unheard of in country residences&mdash;there was a
+bell at the door which he who desired to enter had to ring.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen rang for a good quarter of an hour at that door, and the
+lawyer was convinced that no one would come to open it; finally
+footsteps were heard in the hall, and a hoarse, shrill woman's voice
+began to make enquiries of those without.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are 'we'?"</p>
+
+<p>"The guests."</p>
+
+<p>"What guests?"</p>
+
+<p>"The magistrate and the lawyer."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon the bolts were slipped back with difficulty, and the
+questioner appeared. She was, as far as age was concerned, a little
+"beyond the vintage." She wore a dirty white kitchen apron, and below
+that a second blue kitchen apron, and below that again a third dappled
+apron. It was this woman's custom to put on as many dirty aprons as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, Mistress Boris," was the lawyer's greeting. "Why, you hardly
+wished to let us in."</p>
+
+<p>"I crave your pardon. I heard the bell ring, but could not come at once.
+I had to wait until the fish was ready. Besides, so many bad men are
+hereabouts, wandering beggars, 'Arme Reisenden,'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> that one must
+always keep the door closed, and ask 'who is there?'"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> Poor travellers.</p></div>
+
+<p>"It is well, my dear Boris. Now go and look after <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>that fish, that it
+may not burn; we shall soon find the master somewhere. Has he finished
+his devotions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but he has surely commenced anew. The bells are ringing the
+death-toll, and at such times he is accustomed to say one extra prayer
+for the departed soul. Don't disturb him, I beg, or he will grumble the
+whole day."</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris conducted the gentlemen into a large room, which, to
+judge from the table ready laid, served as dining room, though the
+intruder might have taken it for an oratory, so full was it of pictures
+of those hallowed ones, whom we like to drag down to ourselves, it being
+too fatiguing to rise up to them.</p>
+
+<p>And in that idea there is much that is sublime. A picture of Christ in
+the mourning widow's chamber; a "mater dolorosa," in the distracted
+mother's home; a "kerchief" of the Holy Virgin, spotlessly white, like
+the glorious spirit, above the bed of olden times, are surely elevating,
+and honorable presences, the recollections which lead us to them are
+holy and imperishable, as is the devotion which bows the knee before
+them. But a repugnant sight is the home of the Pharisee, who surrounds
+himself with holy images that men may behold them.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi allowed his guests to wait a long time, though they were, as
+it happened, not at all impatient.</p>
+
+<p>Great ringing of bells announced his coming; this being a sign he was
+accustomed to give to the kitchen, that the dinner could be served. Soon
+he appeared.</p>
+
+<p>He was a tall, dry man, of slight stature, and so small was his head
+that one could scarce believe it could serve for the same purposes as
+another man's. His smoothly shaven face did not betray his age; the skin
+of his cheeks was oil yellow, his mouth small, his shoulders rounded,
+his nose large, mal-formed and unpleasantly crooked.</p>
+
+<p>He shook hands very cordially with his guests; he had long had the honor
+of the lawyer's acquaintance, but it was his supreme pleasure to see the
+magistrate to-day for the first time. But he was extremely courte<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>ous,
+not a feature of his countenance betraying any emotion.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate seemed determined not to say a word. So the brunt of the
+conversation fell on the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"We have happily concluded the 'execution'."</p>
+
+<p>That was naturally the most convenient topic for the commencement of the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry enough that it had to be so," sighed S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. "Apart from
+the fact that Top&aacute;ndy is unceasingly persecuting me, I respect and like
+him very much. I only wish he would turn over a new leaf. He would be an
+excellent fellow. I know I made a great mistake when I accused him out
+of mere self-love. I am sorry I did so. I ought to have followed the
+command of scripture, 'If he smite thee on thy right cheek, offer him
+thy left cheek also.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Under such circumstances there would be very few criminal processes for
+the courts to consider."</p>
+
+<p>"I confess I rejoiced this morning when the commission of execution
+arrived. I felt an inward happiness, due to the fact that this foe of
+mine had fallen, that he was trampled under my feet. I thought: he is
+now gnashing his teeth and snapping at the heels of justice that stamp
+upon his head. And I was glad if it. Yet my gladness was sinful, for no
+one may rejoice at the destruction of the fallen, and the righteous
+cannot be glad at the danger of a fellow creature. It was a sin for
+which I must atone."</p>
+
+<p>The simplest atonement, thought the lawyer, would be for him to return
+the amount of the fine.</p>
+
+<p>"For this I have inflicted a punishment upon myself," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi,
+piously bowing his head. "Oh, I have always punished myself for any
+misdemeanor, I now condemn myself to one day's fasting. My punishment
+will be, to sit here beside the table and watch the whole dinner,
+without touching anything myself."</p>
+
+<p>It will be very fine! thought the lawyer. He is determined to fast,
+while we have taken our fill yonder. So we shall all look at the whole
+dinner, without tast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>ing anything,&mdash;and Mistress Boris will sweep us out
+of the house.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend the magistrate's head is doubtless aching after his great
+official fatigue!" S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi said, hitting the nail right on the head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed true," remarked the lawyer assuringly. The young official
+was in need rather of rest than of feasting. There are good, blessed
+mortals, whom two glasses of wine immediately send to sleep, and to whom
+it is the most exquisite torture to be obliged to remain awake.</p>
+
+<p>"My suggestion is," said the lawyer, "that it would be good for the
+magistrate to repose in an armchair and rest himself, until the cleaning
+of the cloister is finished, and we can again take our seats in the
+carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep is the gift of Heaven," said the man of piety: "it would be a sin
+to steal it from a fellow-man. Kindly make yourself comfortable at once
+in this room."</p>
+
+<p>It was an extremely difficult process to make oneself comfortable on
+that apology for an arm-chair; it seemed to have been prepared as a
+resting place for ascetics and body-torturers: still the magistrate sat
+down in it, craved pardon,&mdash;and fell asleep. And then he dreamed that he
+saw before him again that laid-out table, where one guest sat two yards
+from the other while all round holy pictures were hanging on the walls,
+with their faces turned away, as if they did not wish to gaze upon the
+scene. In the middle of the room there was hanging from the ceiling a
+heavy chandelier with twelve branches, and on it was swaying the host
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>What a cursed foolery is a dream! The host was actually sitting there
+vis-&agrave;-vis with the lawyer, at the other end of the long table; for
+Mistress Boris had so laid the places. And as the magistrate's place
+remained empty, host and guest sat so far apart that the one was
+incapable of helping the other.</p>
+
+<p>At last the door opened, with such a delicate creaking that the lawyer
+thought somebody was ringing to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> admitted:&mdash;It was Mistress Boris
+bringing in the soup.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer was determined to make some sacrifice, in order to maintain
+the dignity of the "legale testimonium," by dining a second time. He
+thought himself capable of this heroic deed.</p>
+
+<p>He was deceived.</p>
+
+<p>There is a peculiarity of the Magyar which has not yet been the subject
+of song: his stomach will not stand certain things.</p>
+
+<p>This a stranger cannot understand: it is a "specificum."</p>
+
+<p>When V&ouml;r&ouml;smarty sang that "in the great world outside there is no place
+for thee,"<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> he found it unnecessary to add the reason for that, which
+every man knows without his telling them:&mdash;"in every land abroad they
+cook with butter."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> From the celebrated Sz&oacute;zat (appeal) calling on the
+Hungarian to be true to his fatherland.</p></div>
+
+<p>A Magyar stomach detests what is buttery. He becomes melancholy and
+sickly from it; he runs away from the very mention of it, and if some
+sly housekeeper deceitfully gives him buttery things to eat, all his
+life long he considers that as an attempt upon his life, and will never
+again sit down to such a poison-mixer's table.</p>
+
+<p>You may place him where you like abroad, still he will long to return
+from the cursed butter-smelling world, and if he cannot he grows thin
+and fades away: and like the giraffe in the European climate, he cannot
+reproduce his kind in a foreign land. Roughly speaking, all his
+neighbors cook with butter, oil and dripping: and "be harsh or kind, the
+hand of fate, here thou must live, here die."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> Also from the "Sz&oacute;zat."</p></div>
+
+<p>The lawyer was a true Magyar of the first water. And when he perceived
+that the crab soup was made with butter, he put down his spoon beside
+his plate and said he could not eat crabs. Since he had learned that the
+crab was nought else but a bee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>tle living in water, and since a company
+had been formed in Germany for making beetles into preserves for
+dessert, he had been unable to look with undismayed eye upon these
+retrograde monsters.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach, take it away, Boris," sighed the host. He himself was not eating,
+for was he not atoning for his sins?</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris removed the dish with an expression of violent anger.</p>
+
+<p>Just imagine a housekeeper, whose every ambition is the kitchen, when
+her first dish is despatched away from the table without being touched.</p>
+
+<p>The second dish&mdash;eggs stuffed with sardines&mdash;suffered the same fate.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer declared on his word of honor that they had buried his
+grandfather for tasting a dish of sardines, and that every female in the
+family immediately went into spasms from the smell of the same. He would
+rather eat a whale than a sardine.</p>
+
+<p>"Take this away, too, Mistress Boris. No one will touch it." Mistress
+Boris began to mutter under her breath that it was absurd and affected
+to turn up one's nose at these respectable eatables, which were quite as
+good as those they had eaten in their grandfather's house. Her last
+words were rather drowned by the creaking of the door as she went out.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed some kind of salad, with bread crumbs. The lawyer had in
+his university days received such a dangerous fever from eating such
+stuff, that it would indeed be a fatal enterprise to tackle it now.</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for the housekeeper. She attacked Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi:</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you not to cook a fasting dinner? Didn't I say so? You
+think everyone is as devout as you are in keeping Friday? Now you have
+it. Now I am disgraced."</p>
+
+<p>"It is part of the punishment I have inflicted on myself," answered
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, with humble acquiescence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The devil take your punishment; it is me that will come in for ridicule
+if they hear about it yonder. You become more of a fool every day."</p>
+
+<p>"Say what is on your tongue, my good Boris; heaven will order you to do
+penance as well as me."</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris slammed the door after her, and cried outside in bitter
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer swore to himself that he would eat whatever followed, even if
+it were poison.</p>
+
+<p>It was worse: it was fish.</p>
+
+<p>We have medical certificates to enable us to assert that whenever the
+lawyer ate fish he promptly had to go to bed. He was forced to say that
+if they chased him from the house with boiling water he could not
+venture to put his teeth into it.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris said nothing now. She actually kept silent. As we all
+know, the last stage but one of a woman's anger is when she is silent,
+and cannot utter a word. There is one stage more, which was imminent.
+The lawyer thought the dinner was over, and with true sincerity begged
+Mistress Boris to prepare a little coffee for him and the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>Boris left the room without a word, placing the coffee machine before
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi himself; he did not allow anyone else to make it, and occupied
+himself with the preparations till Mistress Boris came back.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate was just dreaming that that fellow swinging from the
+ceiling turned to him, and said "will you have a cup of coffee?" It did
+him good starting from his doze, to see his host, not on the chandelier,
+but sitting in a chair before him, saying: "Will you have a cup of
+coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate hastened to taste it, with a view to driving the
+sleepiness from his eyes, and the lawyer poured some out for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that moment Mistress Boris entered with a dish of omelette.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris with a face betraying the last stage of anger, approached
+the lawyer:&mdash;she smiled tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>It is not the pleasantest sight in the world when a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> lady with a plate
+of omelette in her hand, smiles tenderly upon a man who is well aware of
+the fact that only a hair's breadth separates him from the catastrophe
+of having the whole dish dashed on his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Kindly help yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer felt a cold shiver run down his back.</p>
+
+<p>"You will surely like this!&mdash;omelette."</p>
+
+<p>"I see, my dear woman, that it is omelette," whispered the lawyer; "but
+no one of my family could enjoy omelette after black coffee."</p>
+
+<p>The catastrophe had not yet arrived. The lawyer had his eyes already
+shut, waiting for the inevitable; but the storm, to his astonishment,
+passed over his head.</p>
+
+<p>There was something else to attract the thunderbolt. The magistrate had
+again taken his seat at the table, and was putting sugar in his coffee;
+he could not have any such excuse.</p>
+
+<p>"Kindly help yourself ..."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate's hair stood on end at her awful look. He saw that this
+relentless dragon of the apocalypse would devour him, if he did not
+stuff himself to death with the omelette. Yet it was utterly impossible.
+He could not have eaten a morsel even if confronting the stake or the
+gallows.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon, a thousand pardons, my dear woman," he panted, drawing his
+chair farther away from the threatening horror: "I feel so unwell that I
+cannot take dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Then the storm broke.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris put the dish down on the table, placed her two hands on
+her thighs, and exploded:</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not," she panted, her voice thick with rage. "Of course
+you can't dine here, because you were simply crammed over yonder by&mdash;the
+gypsy girl."</p>
+
+<p>The hot coffee stuck in the throats of the two guests at these words! In
+the lawyer's from uncontrollable laughter, in the magistrate's from
+still more uncontrollable consternation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This woman had indeed wreaked a monstrous vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>The good magistrate felt like a boy thrashed at school, who fears that
+his folks at home may learn the whole truth.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily the sergeant of gendarmes entered with the news that the unholy
+pictures had been already erased from the walls, and the carriages were
+waiting. He too "got it" outside, for, as he made inquiries after his
+masters, Mistress Boris told him severely to go to the depths of hell:
+"he too smelt of wine; of course, that gypsy girl had given him also to
+drink!"</p>
+
+<p>That gypsy girl!</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate, in spite of his crestfallen dejection, felt an actual
+sense of pleasure at being rid of this cursed house and district.</p>
+
+<p>Only when they were well on their dusty way along the highroad did he
+address his companion:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear old man, that fine lady was only a gypsy girl after all.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Surely, my dear fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did you not tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you did not ask me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is why you lay on your stomach and laughed, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally."</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate heaved a deep sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"At least, I implore you, don't tell my wife that the gypsy girl kissed
+me!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WILD CREATURE'S HAUNT</h3>
+
+
+<p>In those days the Tisza regulations did not exist&mdash;that plain around
+Lankadomb where now turnips are hoed with four-bladed machines was at
+that time still covered by an impenetrable marsh, that came right up to
+Top&aacute;ndy's garden, from which it was separated by a broad ditch. This
+ditch wound in a meandering, narrow course to the great waste of rushes,
+and in dry summer gave the appearance of a rivulet conveying the water
+of the marsh down to the Tisza. When the heavy rains came, naturally the
+stream flowed back along the same route.</p>
+
+<p>The whole marsh covered some ten or twelve square miles. Here after a
+heavy frost, they used to cut reeds, and on the occasion of great
+hunting matches<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> they would drive up masses of foxes and wolves; and
+all the huntsmen of the neighborhood might lie in wait in its expanse
+for fowl from morn till eve, and if they pleased, might roam at will in
+a canoe and destroy the swarms of winged inhabitants of the fen: no one
+would interrupt them.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> A hunting match in which the vassals of the landlord form
+a ring of great extent and advancing and narrowing the circle by
+degrees, drive the animals together towards a place where they can be
+conveniently shot. (Walter Scott.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Some ancestor of Top&aacute;ndy had given the peasantry permission to cut peat
+in the bog, but the present proprietor had discontinued this industry,
+because it completely defiled the place: the ditches caused by the old
+diggings became swampy morasses, so that neither man nor beast could
+pass among them without danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Anyone with good eyes could still descry from the castle tower that
+enormous hay-rick which they had filled up ten or twelve years before in
+the middle of the marsh; it was just in the height of summer and they
+had mown the hillocks in the marsh; then followed a mild winter, and
+neither man nor sleigh could reach it. The hay was lost, it was not
+worth the trouble of getting; so they had left it there, and it was
+already brown, its top moss-covered and overgrown with weeds.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy would often say to his hunting comrades, who, looking through a
+telescope, remarked the hay-rick in the marsh:</p>
+
+<p>"Someone must be living in that rick; often of an evening have I seen
+smoke coming from it. It might be an excellent place for a dwelling.
+Rain cannot penetrate it, in winter it keeps out the cold, in summer the
+heat. I would live in it myself."</p>
+
+<p>They often tried to reach it while out hunting; but every attempt was a
+failure; the ground about the rick was so clogged with turfy peat that
+to approach it by boat was impossible, and one who trusted himself on
+foot came so near being engulfed that his companions could scarcely haul
+him out of the bog with a rope. Finally they acquiesced in the idea that
+here within distinct view of the castle, some wild creature, born of
+man, had made his dwelling among the wolves and other wild beasts; a
+creature whom it would be a pity to disturb, as he never interfered with
+anybody.</p>
+
+<p>The most enterprising hunter, therefore, even in broad daylight avoided
+the neighborhood of the suspicious hay-rick; who then would be so
+audacious as to dare to seek it out by night when the circled moon
+foretelling rain, was flooding the marsh-land with a silvery, misty
+radiance, adding a new terror to the face of the landscape; when the
+exhalations of the marsh were sluggishly spreading a vaporous heaviness
+over the lowland; while the eerie habitants of the bog (whose time of
+sleep is by day, their active life at night) the millions of frogs and
+other creatures were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> re&euml;choing their cries, announcing the whereabouts
+of the slimy pools, where foul gases are lord and master; when the
+he-wolf was howling to his comrades; and when, all at once, some
+mysterious-faced cloud drew out before the moon, and whispered to her
+something that made all nature tremble, so that for one moment all was
+silent, a death-like silence, more terrible than all the night voices
+speaking at once;&mdash;at such a time whose steps were those that sounded in
+the depths of the morass?</p>
+
+<p>A horseman was making his way by the moonlight, in solitude.</p>
+
+<p>His steed struggled along up to the hocks in the swamp which showed no
+paths at all; the tracks were immediately sucked up by the mud:&mdash;nothing
+lay before to show the way, save the broken reed. No sign remained that
+anyone had ever passed there before.</p>
+
+<p>The sagacious mare carefully noted the marks from time to time,
+instinctively scenting the route, that tracks trodden by wild beasts
+should not lead her astray; cleverly she picked out with her sharp eyes
+the places where the ground was still firm; at times she would leap from
+one clod of peat to another. The space between these spots might be
+overgrown by green grass, with yellow flowers dotted here and there, but
+the sagacious animal knew, felt, perhaps had even experienced, that the
+depth there was deceptive; it was one of those peat-diggings, filled in
+by mud and overgrown by the green of water-moss; he who stepped thereon
+would be swallowed up in an instant. Then she trotted on picking her way
+among the dangerous places.</p>
+
+<p>And the rider?</p>
+
+<p>He was asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Asleep on horseback, while his steed was going with him through an
+accursed spot: where to right and left were graves, where below was hell
+and around him the gloom of night. The horseman was sleeping, his head
+nodding backwards and forwards, swaying to and fro. Sometimes he
+started, as those who travel in carriages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> are wont to do when the
+jolting is more pronounced than ordinary, and then settled down again.
+Though asleep he kept his seat as if he had grown to the saddle. His
+hands seemed wide awake for all he held the reins in one and a
+double-barrelled gun in the other.</p>
+
+<p>By the light of the moon his dark face seemed even darker; his long,
+crisp, curly hair, his hat pressed down over his eyes, his black beard
+and moustache, his strongly aquiline nose, all proclaimed his gypsy
+origin. He wore a threadbare blue doublet, braided with cords, which
+were buttoned here and there at random, and over this was fastened some
+tattered lambskin covering.</p>
+
+<p>The rider was really fast asleep: surely he must have travelled at such
+a pace that he had no time, or thought for sleep, and now, strangely
+enough, he felt at home.</p>
+
+<p>Here, where no one could pursue him, he bowed his head upon his horse's
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>And the horse seemed to know that his master was sleeping, for he did
+not shake himself once, even to rid himself of the crowds of biting,
+sucking insects that preyed upon his skin, knowing that such a motion
+would wake his master.</p>
+
+<p>As the mare broke through a clump of marsh-willows, in the darkness of
+the willow forest, little dancing fire-flies came before her in scores,
+leaping from grass to grass, from tree to tree, dissolving one into the
+other, then leaping apart and dancing alone; their flames assumed a
+pale, lustreless brilliance in the darkness, like some fire of mystery
+or the burning gases of some moldering corpses.</p>
+
+<p>The mare merely snorted at the sight of these flickering midnight
+flames; surely she had often met them, in journeys across the marsh, and
+already knew their caprices: how they lurked about the living animals,
+how they ran after her if she passed before them, how they fluttered
+around, how they danced beside her continuously, how they leaped across
+above her head, how they strove to lead her astray from the right path.</p>
+
+<p>There they were darting around the heads of horse and horseman as if
+they were burning night-moths;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> one lighted upon the horseman's hat, and
+swayed with it, as he nodded his head.</p>
+
+<p>The steed snorted and breathed hard upon those living lights. But the
+snorting awakened the rider. He gazed askance at his brilliant
+demon-companions, one of which was on the brim of his hat; he dug the
+spurs into the mare's flanks, to make her leap more speedily from among
+the jeering spirits of the night.</p>
+
+<p>When they came to a turn in the track, the crowd of graveyard
+mystery-lights parted in twain: most of them joined the rushing
+air-current, while some careful guardians remained constantly about the
+rider, now before, now behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Darting from the willows, a cold breeze swept over the plain: before it
+every mystery-light fled back into the darkness, and still kept up its
+ghostly dance. Who knows what kind of amusement that was to them?</p>
+
+<p>The horseman was sleeping again. The terrible hay-rick was now so near
+that one might have gone straight to it, but the steed knew better;
+instead, she went around the spot in a half-circle, until she reached a
+little lake that cut off the hay-rick. Here she halted on the water's
+edge and began to toss her head, with a view to quietly awakening the
+rider from his sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The latter looked up, dismounted, took saddle and bridle off his horse,
+and patted her on the back. Therewith the steed leaped into the water,
+which reached to her neck, and swam to the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Why did she not cross over dry ground? Why did she go only through the
+water? The horseman meanwhile squatted down among the broom, rested his
+gun upon his knee, made sure that it was cocked and that the powder had
+not fallen from the pan, and noiselessly crouched down, gazing after the
+retreating steed, as she reached the opposite bank. Suddenly she drew in
+her tail, bristled her mane, pricked up her ears. Her eyes flashed fire,
+her nostrils expanded. Slowly and cautiously she stepped forward, so as
+to make no noise, bowed her head to the earth, like some scenting hound,
+and stopped to listen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the southern side of the hay-rick,&mdash;the side away from the
+village,&mdash;there was a narrow entrance cut into the pile of hay: a
+plaited door of willow-twigs covered it, and the twigs were plaited
+together in their turn with sedges to make the color harmonize with that
+of the rick. This was done so perfectly that no one looking at it, even
+from a short distance, would have suspected anything. As the steed
+reached the vicinity of the door, she cautiously gazed upon it: below
+the willow-door there was an opening, through which something had broken
+in.</p>
+
+<p>The mare knew already what it was. She scented it. A she-wolf had taken
+up her abode there in the absence of the usual occupants, she had young
+ones with her, and was just now giving suck; otherwise she would have
+noticed the horse's approach; the whining of the whelps could be heard
+from the outside. The mare seized the door with her teeth, and suddenly
+wrenched it from its place.</p>
+
+<p>From the hollow of the hay-rick a lean, hungry wolf crept out. At first
+in wonder she raised her eyes, which shone in the green light,
+astonished at this disturbance of her repose; and she seemed to take
+counsel within herself, whether this was the continuation of her sweet
+dreams. The providential joint had come very opportunely to the mother
+of seven whelps. Two or three of these were still clinging to her
+hanging udders, and left her only that she might prepare herself for the
+fight. The old animal merely yawned loudly,&mdash;in a man it would be called
+a laugh,&mdash;a yawn that declared her delight in robbery, and with her
+slatternly tail beat her lean, hollow sides. The mare, seeing that her
+foe was in no hurry for the combat, came nearer, bowed her head to the
+earth, and in this manner stepped slowly forward, sniffing at the enemy;
+when the wolf seemed in the act of springing on her neck she suddenly
+turned, and dealt a savage kick at the wolf's chin that broke one of its
+great front teeth. Then the furious wild creature, snarling and hissing,
+darted upon the steed, which at the second attack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> kicked so viciously
+with both hind legs that the wolf turned a complete somersault in the
+air; but this only served to make it more furious: gnashing its teeth,
+its mouth foaming and bloody, it sprang a third time upon the mare, only
+to receive from the sharp hoof a long wound in its breast; but that was
+not all: before it could rise from the ground, the mare dealt another
+blow that crushed one of its fore paws.</p>
+
+<p>The wolf then gave up the battle. Terrified, with broken teeth and feet,
+it hobbled off from the scene of the encounter, and soon appeared on the
+roof of the rick. The coward had sought a place of refuge from the
+victorious foe, whither that foe could not follow it.</p>
+
+<p>The steed galloped round the rick: she wished to deceive her enemy, who
+merely sat on the roof licking its broken leg, its bruised side, and
+bloody jaws.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the proud mare halted, with a haughtier look than man is
+capable of, as who might say: "You are not coming?"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she seized one of the whelps in her teeth. They had slunk out
+of the hollow, whining after their mother. She shook it cruelly in the
+air, then dashed it to the ground violently so that in a moment its
+cries ceased.</p>
+
+<p>The mother-wolf hissed with agonized fury on the roof of the rick.</p>
+
+<p>The mare seized another one of the whelps and shook it in the air.</p>
+
+<p>As she grasped the third by the neck, the mother, mad with rage, leaped
+down upon her from the pile and, with the energy of despair, made so
+fierce an assault that her claws reached the steed's neck; but her
+crushed leg could take no hold, and she fell in a heap at the mare's
+feet; the triumphant foe then trampled to death first the old mother,
+then all the whelps. At last, proudly whinnying, she galloped in frisky
+triumph around the rick, and then quickly swam back to the place where
+she had left her master.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Farao, is there anything the matter?" said the horseman,
+embracing his horse's head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The horse replied to the question with a familiar neigh, and rubbed her
+nose against her master's hip.</p>
+
+<p>The horseman thereupon tied saddle and bridle together into one bundle,
+and leaped upon his steed's back, who then, without harness of any kind,
+readily swam with him to the place she had already visited, and halted
+before the opening in the rick. The master dismounted. The steed, thus
+freed, rolled on the grass, neighing and whinnying, then leaped up,
+shook herself, and with great delight grazed in the rich swampy pasture.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy was not surprised to see the bloody signs of the late
+struggle. He had many a time discovered dead wolves in the track of his
+grazing horse.</p>
+
+<p>"This will serve splendidly for a skin-cloak, as the old one is torn."</p>
+
+<p>Then something occurred to him.</p>
+
+<p>"This was a female: so the male must be here somewhere&mdash;I know where.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span>
+The rick was surrounded by wolf-ditches in double rows, so made that the
+inner ditch corresponded to the space left between the two outer ones:
+the whole crafty work of defence was covered over with thin brush and
+reeds, which had been overgrown by process of time by moss, so that even
+a man might have been deceived by their appearance. Here was the reason
+why the steed had not approached the rick in a straight line. This was a
+fortified place, and the only entrance to the stronghold was that lake
+which lay before it: that was the gate. The she-wolf, too, had
+undoubtedly come across the water, but the male had not been so prudent
+and had entrapped himself in one of the ditches.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy at once noticed that one ditch had been broken in, and, as he
+gazed down into the depths, two blazing blood-red eyes told him that
+what he was looking for was there.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are in a fine position, old fellow: in the morning I shall
+come for you: and I'll ask for your skin, if you'll give it to me. If
+you give, you give; if you don't give, I take. That is the order of
+things in the world. I have none, you have: I want it, you don't.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> One
+of us must die for the other's sake: that one must be you."</p>
+
+<p>Then it occurred to him to remove the skin of the she-wolf at once, for,
+if he left it to cool, the work would be more difficult. He stretched
+the fur on poles and left it to dry in the moonlight; the carcass he
+dragged to the end of the rick and buried it there; then he made a fire
+of rushes, took his seven days' old bread and rancid bacon from his
+greasy wallet and ate. As the darting flames threw a flickering light
+upon his face, he looked no more peaceful than that wild creature, whose
+hollow he had usurped.</p>
+
+<p>It was just a sagacious, courageous, wily, resolute&mdash;<i>animal</i> face.</p>
+
+<p>"Either you eat me, or I eat you." That was its meaning. "You have, I
+have not; I want, you don't:&mdash;if you give, you give; if you don't, I
+take."</p>
+
+<p>At every bite with his brilliant white teeth into the bread and bacon,
+you could see it in his face; his gnashing teeth, and ravenous eyes
+declared it.</p>
+
+<p>That bacon, and bread, had surely cost something, if not money.</p>
+
+<p>Money? How could the gypsy purchase for money? Why, when he took that
+bright dollar from his knapsack, people would ask him where he got it.
+Should he show one of those red-eyed bank-notes, they would at once
+arrest, imprison him: whom had he murdered to obtain them?</p>
+
+<p>Yet he has dollars and bank-notes in plenty. He gathers them from his
+leathern purse with his hands, and scatters them around him on the
+grass.</p>
+
+<p>Bright silver and gold coins glitter around him in the firelight. He
+gazes at the curious notes of the imperial banks, and fears within
+himself that he cannot make out the worth of any of them. Then he sweeps
+them all together in one heap, along with snail shells and rush-seeds.
+After a while the man enters the hollow interior of the rick, and draws
+from the hay a large, sooty copper vessel, partly moldy with the mold of
+money. He pours the new pile in with two full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> hands. Then he raises the
+cauldron to see how much heavier it has become.</p>
+
+<p>Is he satisfied with his work?</p>
+
+<p>He buries his treasure once more in the depths of the rick; he himself
+knows not how much there might be. Then he attacks anew the hard, stale
+bread, the rancid bacon, and devours it to the last morsel. Perhaps some
+ready-prepared banquet awaited him on the morrow. Or perhaps he is
+accustomed to feasting only every third day. At last he stretches
+himself out on the grass, and calls to Farao.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, graze about my head, let me hear you crunch the grass."</p>
+
+<p>And quickly he fell asleep beside her, as it were one whose brain was of
+the quietest and his conscience the most peaceful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>"FRUITS PREMATURELY RIPE"</h3>
+
+
+<p>At first I was invited to my P.&nbsp;C. uncle's every Sunday to dinner: later
+I went without invitation. As soon as I was let out of school, I
+hastened thither. I persuaded myself that I went to visit my brother. I
+found an excuse, too, in the idea that I must make progress in art, and
+that it was in any case an excellent use of time, and a very good
+"entr&eacute;e" to art, if I played waltzes and quadrilles of an afternoon from
+five to eight on the violin to Melanie's accompaniment on the piano,
+while the rest of the company danced to our music.</p>
+
+<p>For the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys had company every day. Such a change of faces that I
+could scarcely remember who and what they all were. Gay young men and
+ladies they were, who loved to enjoy themselves: every day there was a
+dance there.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes others would change places with Melanie at the piano: a piece
+of good fortune for me, for she was able to then have a dance&mdash;with me.</p>
+
+<p>I have never seen any one dance more beautifully than she; she fluttered
+above the floor, and could make the waltz more agreeable than any one
+else before or after her. That was my favorite dance. I was exclusively
+by her side at such times, and we could not gaze except into each
+other's eyes. I did not like the quadrille so well: in that one is
+always taking the hands of different persons, and changing partners; and
+what interest had I in those other lady-dancers?</p>
+
+<p>And I thought Melanie, too, rejoiced at the same thing that pleased me.</p>
+
+<p>And, if by chance&mdash;a very rare event&mdash;the P.&nbsp;C. had no company, we still
+had our dance. There were al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>ways two gentlemen and two lady dancers in
+the house party; the beautiful wife of the P.&nbsp;C. and Fra&uuml;lein Matild,
+the governess: Lorand and Pepi<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> A nickname for Joseph.</p></div>
+
+<p>Pepi was the son of a court agent at Vienna, and his father was a very
+good friend of B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy; his mother had once been ballet-dancer at the
+Vienna opera&mdash;a fact I only learned later.</p>
+
+<p>Pepi was a handsome young fellow "en miniature;" he was a member of the
+same class as Lorand, a law student in the first year, yet he was no
+taller than I. Every feature of his face was fine and tender, his mouth,
+small, like that of a girl, yet never in all my life have I met one
+capable of such backbiting as was he with his pretty mouth.</p>
+
+<p>How I envied that little mortal his gift for conversation, his profound
+knowledge, his easy gestures, his freedom of manners, that familiarity
+with which he could treat women! His beauty was plastic!</p>
+
+<p>I felt within myself that such ought a man to be in life, if he would be
+happy.</p>
+
+<p>The only thing I did not like in him was that he was always paying
+compliments to Melanie: he might have desisted from that. He surely must
+have remarked on what terms I was with her.</p>
+
+<p>His custom was, in the quadrille, when the solo-dancing gentlemen
+returned to their lady partners, to anticipate me and dance the turn
+with Melanie. He considered it a very good joke, and I scowled at him
+several times. But once, when he wished to do the same, I seized his
+arm, and pushed him away; I was only a grammar-school boy, and he was a
+first-year law student; still I did push him away.</p>
+
+<p>With this heroic deed of mine not only myself but my cousin Melanie also
+was contented. That evening we danced right up till nine o'clock. I
+always with Melanie, and Lorand with her mother.</p>
+
+<p>When the company dispersed, we went down to Lo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>rand's room on the ground
+floor, Pepi accompanying us.</p>
+
+<p>I thought he was going to pick a quarrel with me, and vowed inwardly I
+would thrash him.</p>
+
+<p>But instead he merely laughed at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Only imagine," he said, throwing himself on Lorand's bed, "this boy is
+jealous of me."</p>
+
+<p>My brother laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>It was truly ridiculous: one boy jealous of another.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I was surely jealous, but chivalrous too. I think I had read in
+some novel that it was the custom to reply in some such manner to like
+ridicule:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I forbid you to take that lady's name in vain."</p>
+
+<p>They laughed all the more.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he is a delightful fellow, this Desi," said Pepi. "See, Lorand, he
+will cause you a deal of trouble. If he learns to smoke, he will be
+quite an Othello."</p>
+
+<p>This insinuation hit me on a sensitive spot. I had never yet tasted that
+ambrosia, which was to make me a full-grown man; for as every one knows,
+it is the pipe-stem which is the dividing line between boyhood and
+manhood; he who could take that in his mouth was a man. I had already
+often been teased about that.</p>
+
+<p>I must vindicate myself.</p>
+
+<p>On my brother's table stood the tobacco-box full of Turkish tobacco, so
+by way of reply I went and filled a church warden, lit and began to
+smoke it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my child, that will be too strong," sneered Pepi, "take it away
+from him, Lorand. Look how pale he is getting: remove it from him at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>But I continued smoking: the smoke burned and bit the skin of my tongue;
+still I held the stem between my teeth, until the tobacco was burned
+out.</p>
+
+<p>That was my first and last pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate, drink a glass of water," Lorand said.</p>
+
+<p>"No thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go home, for it will soon be dark."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid in the streets."</p>
+
+<p>Yet I felt like one who is a little tipsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any appetite?" inquired Pepi scornfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Just enough to eat a gingerbread-hussar like you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand laughed uncontrollably at this remark of mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Gingerbread-hussar! you have got it from him, Pepi."</p>
+
+<p>I was quite flushed with pride at being able to make Lorand laugh.</p>
+
+<p>But Pepi, on the contrary, became quite serious.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, ho, old fellow," (when he spoke seriously to me he always addressed
+me "old fellow," and on other occasions as "my child"). "Never be afraid
+of me; now Lorand might have reason to be: we both want what is ready;
+we do not court your little girl, but her mother. If the old wigged
+councillor is not jealous of us, don't you be so."</p>
+
+<p>I expected Lorand to smite that fair mouth for this despicable calumny.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of which he merely said, half muttering:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't; before the child..."</p>
+
+<p>Pepi did not allow himself to be called to order.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, my dear Desi: and I can tell you that you will have a far
+more grateful part to play around Melanie, if she marries someone else."</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed I went home. This cynicism was something quite new to my
+mind. Not only my stomach, but my whole soul turned sick. How could I
+measure the bitterness of the idea that Lorand was paying court to a
+married woman? Such a thing was not to be seen in the circle in which we
+had been brought up. Such a case had been mentioned in our town,
+perhaps, as the scandal of the century, but only in whispers that the
+innocent might not hear: neither the man nor the woman could have shown
+their faces in our street. Surely no one would have spoken another word
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>And Lorand had been so confused when Pepi uttered this foul thing to his
+face before me. He did not deny it, nor was he angry.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at home in an agony of shame. The street-door was already
+closed: so I had to pass in by the shop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> door. I wished to open it
+softly that the bell should not betray my coming, but Father Fromm was
+waiting for me. He was extremely angry: he stopped my way.</p>
+
+<p>"Discipulus negligens! Do you know 'quote hora?' Decem. Every day to
+wander out of doors till after nine, hoc non pergit.&mdash;Scio, scio, what
+you wish to say. You were at the P.&nbsp;C.'s. That is 'unum et idem' for me.
+The other 'asinus' has been learning his lessons ever since midday, so
+much has he to do, while you have not even so much as glanced at them;
+do you wish to be a greater 'asinus' than he? Now I say 'semel propter
+semper,' 'finis' to the carnival! Don't go any more a-dancing; for if
+you stay out once more, 'ego tibi umsicabo.' Now 'pergus, dixi.'"</p>
+
+<p>Old M&aacute;rton during this well-deserved drubbing kept moving the scalp of
+his head back and forth in assent, and then came after me with a candle,
+to light me along the corridor to the door of my room, singing behind me
+these jesting verses:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hab i ti nid gsagt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Komm um halbe Acht?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Und du Kummst mir jetzt um halbe naini<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jetzt ist de Vater z'haus, kannst nimmer aini."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> "Did I not tell thee, 'come at half-past seven?' and thou
+comest now at half-past eight? Now the father is at home, thou canst no
+more come in."</p></div>
+
+<p>And after me he called out "Prosit, Sir Lieutenant-Governor." I had no
+desire to be angry with him. I felt too sad to quarrel with any one.</p>
+
+<p>Henrik was indeed slaving away at the table, and the candle, burnt to
+the end, proved that he had been at it a long time.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, Desi," he said good humoredly. "You come late; a terrible
+amount of 'labor' awaits you to-morrow. I have finished mine: you will
+be behind with yours, so I have written the exercises in your place.
+Look and see if it is good."</p>
+
+<p>I was humbled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That heavy-headed boy, on whom I had been wont to look down from such a
+height, whose work I had prepared in play, work which he would have
+broken his head over, had now in my place finished the work I had
+neglected. What had become of me?</p>
+
+<p>"I waited for you with a little pleasant surprise," said Henrik, taking
+from his drawer something which he held in his hand before me. "Now
+guess what it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care what it is."</p>
+
+<p>I was in a bad humor, I longed to lay my head on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you care. Fanny has written a letter from her new home. She
+has written to you in Magyar, about your dear mother."</p>
+
+<p>These words roused me from my lethargy.</p>
+
+<p>"Show me: give it me to read."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, you are delighted after all."</p>
+
+<p>I tore the letter from him.</p>
+
+<p>First Fanny wrote to her parents in German, on the last page in Magyar
+to me. She had already made such progress.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote that they often spoke of me at home; I was a bad boy not to
+write mother a letter: she was very ill and it was her sole delight to
+be able to speak of me. As often as her parents or brother wrote to
+Fanny, she would add a few lines after opening the letter, in my name,
+then take it to my mother and read it to her, as if I had written. How
+delighted she was! She did not know my German writing, so she readily
+believed it was I who had written. But I must be a good boy and write
+myself, for some day mother and grandmother would discover the deceit
+and would be angry.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was almost bursting.</p>
+
+<p>I pored over the letter I had read, and sobbed bitterly as I had never
+before done in my life.</p>
+
+<p>My dear only mother! thou saint, thou martyr! who sufferest, weepest,
+and anguishest so much for my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> sake, while I mix in a society where they
+mock women, and mothers! Canst thou forgive me?</p>
+
+<p>When I had cried myself out, my face was covered with tears. Henrik
+raised me from my seat upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me this letter," I panted; and I kissed him for giving it to me.</p>
+
+<p>Many great historical documents have been torn up since then, but that
+letter is still in my possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I cannot go to bed. I will stay up until morning and finish the
+work I have neglected. I thank you for what you have written in my
+stead, but I cannot accept it. I shall do it myself. I shall do
+everything in which I am behindhand."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, Desi, my boy, but you see our candle has burned down; and
+grandmother is already asleep, so I cannot ask her for one. Still, if
+you do wish to sit up, go down to the bakehouse, they are working all
+night, as to-morrow is Saturday: take your ink, paper, and books with
+you. There you can write and learn your lessons."</p>
+
+<p>I did so. I descended to the court, washed my head beside the fountain,
+then took my books and writing material and descended to the bakehouse,
+begging M&aacute;rton to allow me to work there by lamp-light. M&aacute;rton irritated
+me the whole night with his satire, the assistants jostled me, and drove
+me from my place; they sang the "Kneading-trough" air, and many other
+street-songs: and amid all these abominations I studied till morning;
+what is more, I finished all my work.</p>
+
+<p>That night, I know, was one of the turning-points in my life.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later came Sunday: I met Pepi in the street.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, old fellow: are you not coming to-day to see little Melanie?
+There will be a great dance-rehearsal."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot: I have too much to do."</p>
+
+<p>Pepi laughed loudly. "Very well, old fellow."</p>
+
+<p>His laughter did not affect me in the least.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But when you have learned all there is to learn will you come again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. For then I shall write a letter to my mother."</p>
+
+<p>Some good spirit must have whispered to this fellow not to laugh at
+these words, for he could not have anticipated the box on the ears I
+would have given him, because he could not for an instant forget that I
+was a grammar-school boy, and he a first-year law student.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECRET WRITINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>One evening Lorand came to me and laid before me a bundle of papers
+covered with fine writing.</p>
+
+<p>"Copy this quite clearly by to-morrow morning. Don't show the original
+to any one, and, when you have finished, lock it up in your trunk with
+the copy, until I come for it."</p>
+
+<p>I set to work in a moment and never rose from my task until I had
+completed it.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning Lorand came for it, read it through, and said: "Very good,"
+handing me two pieces of twenty.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take it," he said, "It is not my gift, but the gift of someone else: in
+fact, it is not a gift, but a fixed contract-price. Honorable work
+deserves honorable payment. For every installment<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> you copy, you get
+two pieces of twenty. It is not only you that are doing it: many of your
+school-fellows are occupied in the same work."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, A printed sheet of sixteen pages.</p></div>
+
+<p>Then I was pleased with the two pieces of twenty.</p>
+
+<p>My uneasiness at receiving money from anybody except my parents, who
+alone were entitled to make me presents, was only equalled by my
+pleasure at the possession of my first earnings, the knowledge that I
+was at last capable of earning something, that at last the tree of life
+was bearing fruit, which I might reach and pluck for myself.</p>
+
+<p>I accepted the work and its reward. Every second day, punctually at
+seven o'clock in the evening, Lorand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>would come to me, give me the
+matter to be copied, 'matter written, as I recognized, in his own hand
+writing,' and next day in the morning would come for the manuscript.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote by night, when Henrik was already asleep: but, had he been
+awake, he could not have known what I was writing, for it was in Magyar.</p>
+
+<p>And what was in these secret writings?</p>
+
+<p>The journal of the House of Parliament. It was the year 1836. Speeches
+held in Parliament could not be read in print; the provisional censor
+ruled the day, and a few scarecrow national papers fed their reading
+public on stories of the Zummalacarregu type.</p>
+
+<p>So the public helped itself.</p>
+
+<p>In those days shorthand was unknown in our country; four or five
+quick-fingered young men occupied a bench in the gallery of the House,
+and "skeletonized" the speeches they heard. At the end of a sitting they
+pieced their fragments together: in one would be found what was missing
+in the other: thus they made the speeches complete. They wrote the
+result out themselves four times, and then each one provided for the
+copying forty times, of his own copy. The journals of Parliament, thus
+written, were preserved by the patriots, who were members at that
+time,&mdash;and are probably still in preservation.</p>
+
+<p>The man of to-day, who sighs after the happy days of old, will not
+understand how dangerous an enterprise, was the attempt made by certain
+young men "in the glorious age of noble freedom," to make the public
+familiar, through their handwriting, with the speeches delivered in
+Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>These writings had a regenerating influence upon me.</p>
+
+<p>An entirely new world opened out before me: new ideas, new impulses
+arose within my mind and heart. The name of that world which opened out
+before me was "home." It was marvellous to listen for the first time to
+the full meaning of "home." Till then I had had no idea of "home:" now
+every day I passed my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> nights with it:&mdash;the lines, which I wrote down
+night after night, were imprinted upon those white pages, that are left
+vacant in the mind of a child. Nor was I the only one impressed.</p>
+
+<p>There is still deeply engraved on my memory that kindling influence, by
+which the spirit of the youth of that age was transformed through the
+writing of those pages.</p>
+
+<p>One month later I had no more dreams of becoming Privy-Councillor:&mdash;then
+I knew not how I could ever approach my cousin Melanie.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the school authorities discovered where the parliamentary
+speeches were reproduced. It was done by the school children, that
+hundred-handed typesetting machine.</p>
+
+<p>The danger had already spread far; finding no ordinary outlet, it had
+found its way through twelve-year-old children: hands of children
+supplied the deficiency of the press.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>The writing of some (among them mine) was recognized. We were accused
+before the school tribunal.</p>
+
+<p>I was in that frame of mind that I could not fear. The elder boys they
+tried to frighten with greater things, and yet they did not give way: I
+would at least do no worse. I was able to grasp it all with my child's
+mind, the fact that we, who had merely copied for money, could not be
+severely punished. Probably we never understood what might be in those
+writings lying before us. We merely piled up letter after letter. But
+the gravest danger threatened those who had brought those original
+writings before us.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-two of the students of the college were called up for trial.</p>
+
+<p>On that day armed soldiers guarded the streets that led to the
+council-chamber, because the rumor ran that the young members of
+parliament wished to free the culprits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the day in question there were no lessons&mdash;merely the accused and
+their judges were present in the school building.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that I did not fear, even when under the surveillance of
+the pedellus,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> I had to wait in the ante-room of the school tribunal.
+And I knew well what was threatening. They would exclude either me or
+Lorand from the school.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> Warden of the school.</p></div>
+
+<p>That idea was terrible for me.</p>
+
+<p>I had heard thrilling stories of expelled students. How, at such times,
+they rang that cracked bell, which was used only to proclaim, to the
+whole town, that an expelled student was being escorted by his fellows
+out of the town, with songs of penitence. How the poor student became
+thenceforth a wanderer his whole lifetime through, whom no school would
+receive, who dared not return to his father's house. Now I merely
+shrugged my shoulders when I thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>At other times the least rebuke would break my spirit, and drive me to
+despair; now&mdash;I was resolved not even to ask for pardon. As I waited in
+the ante-room, I met the professors, one after another, as they passed
+through into the council-chamber. Fittingly I greeted them. Some of them
+did not so much as look at me. As Mr. Schmuck passed by he saw me, came
+forward, and very tenderly addressed me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my child, and you have come here too. Don't be afraid: only look
+at me always. I shall do all I can for you, as I promised to your dear,
+good grandmother. Oh how your devoted grandmother would weep if she knew
+in what a position you now stand. Well, well, don't cry: don't be
+afraid. I intend to treat you as if you were my own child: only look at
+me always."</p>
+
+<p>I was glad when he went away. I was angry that he wished to soften me. I
+must be strong to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The director also noticed me, and called out in harsh tones:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, famous fiddler: now you can show us what kind of a gypsy<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> you
+are."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> The czig&aacute;ny (gypsy) is celebrated for his sneaking
+cowardice, and his fiddle playing, he being a naturally gifted musician,
+as any one who has heard czig&aacute;ny music in Budapest can testify.</p></div>
+
+<p>That pleased me better.</p>
+
+<p>I would be no gypsy!</p>
+
+<p>The examination began: my school-fellows, the greater part of whom were
+unknown to me, as they were students of a higher class, were called in
+one by one into the tribunal chamber, and one by one they were
+dismissed; then the pedellus led them into another room, that they might
+not tell those without what they had been asked, and what they had
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>I had time enough to scrutinize their faces as they came out.</p>
+
+<p>Each one was unusually flushed, and brought with him the impression of
+what had passed within.</p>
+
+<p>One looked obstinate, another dejected. Some smiled bitterly: others
+could not raise their eyes to look at their fellows. Each one was
+suffering from some nervous perturbation which made his face a glaring
+contrast to the gaping, frozen features without.</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly relieved at not seeing Lorand among the accused. They did
+not know one of the chief leaders of the secret-writing conspiracy.</p>
+
+<p>But when they left me to the last, I was convinced they were on the
+right track; the copyers one after another had confessed from whom they
+had received the matter for copying. I was the last link in the chain,
+and behind me stood Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>But the chain would snap in two, and after me they would not find
+Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>For that one thing I was prepared.</p>
+
+<p>At last, after long waiting, my turn came. I was as stupefied, as
+benumbed, as if I had already passed through the ordeal.</p>
+
+<p>No thought of mother or grandmother entered my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>head; merely the one
+idea that I must protect Lorand with body and soul: and then I felt as
+if that thought had turned me to stone: let them beat themselves against
+that stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Desiderius &Aacute;ronffy," said the director, "tell us whose writing is
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mine," I answered calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is well that you have confessed at once: there is no necessity to
+compare your writing, to equivocate, as was the case with the
+others.&mdash;What did you write it for?"</p>
+
+<p>"For money."</p>
+
+<p>One professor-judge laughed outright, a second angrily struck his fist
+upon the table, a third played with his pen. Mr. Schmuck sat in his
+chair with a sweet smile, and putting his hands together twirled his
+thumbs.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you did not understand the question, my son," said the director
+in a harsh dry voice. "It is not that I wished to know for how much you
+wrote that trash: but with what object."</p>
+
+<p>"I understood well, and answered accordingly. They gave me writings to
+copy, they paid me for them: I accepted the payment because it was
+honorable earnings."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not know they were secret writings?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not know it was forbidden to write what it was permitted to say
+for the hearing of the whole public, in the presence of the
+representative of the King and the Prince Palatine."</p>
+
+<p>At this answer of mine one of the younger professors uttered a sound
+that greatly resembled a choked laugh. The director looked sternly at
+him, rebuked with his eyes the sympathetic demonstration, and then
+bawled angrily at me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't play the fool!"</p>
+
+<p>The only result of this was that I gazed still more closely at him, and
+was already resolved not to move aside, even if he drove a coach and
+four at me. I had trembled before him when he had rebuked me for my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+violin-playing; but now, when real danger threatened me, I did not wince
+at his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me, who gave into your hands that writing, which you copied?"</p>
+
+<p>I clenched my teeth. I would not answer. He might cut me in two without
+finding within me what he sought.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, won't you answer my question?"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, what would have been easier than to relate how some gentleman,
+whom I did not know, came to me; he had a beard that reached to his
+knees, wore spectacles, and a green overcoat: they must then try to find
+the man, if they could:&mdash;but then&mdash;I could not any longer have gazed
+into the questioning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>No! I would not lie: nor would I play the traitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you answer?" the director cried at me for the third time.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ho ho, that is a fine statement. Perhaps you don't know the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but will not betray him."</p>
+
+<p>I thought that, at this answer of mine, the director would surely take
+up his inkstand and hurl it at my head.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not: he took a pinch of snuff from his snuff-box, and looked
+askance at his neighbor, Schmuck, as much as to say, "It is what I
+expected from him."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Mr. Schmuck ceased to twirl his thumbs and turning to me with
+a tender face he addressed me with soothing tones:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Desider, don't be alarmed without cause: don't imagine that
+some severe punishment awaits you or him from whom you received the
+writing. It was an error, surely, but not a crime, and will only become
+a crime in case you obstinately hold back some of the truth. Believe me,
+I shall take care that no harm befall you; but in that case it is
+necessary you should answer our questions openly."</p>
+
+<p>These words of assurance began to move me from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> my purpose. They were
+said so sweetly, I began to believe in them.</p>
+
+<p>But the director suddenly interrupted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary! I am forced to contradict the honored professor, and
+to deny what he has brought forward for the defence of these criminal
+young men. Grievous and of great moment is the offence they have
+committed, and the chief causers thereof shall be punished with the
+utmost rigor of the law."</p>
+
+<p>These words were uttered in a voice of anger and of implacable severity;
+but all at once it dawned upon me, that this severe man was he who
+wished to save us, while that assuring, tender paterfamilias was just
+the one who desired to ruin us.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Schmuck continued to twirl his thumbs.</p>
+
+<p>The director then turned again to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Why will you not name the man who entrusted you with that matter for
+copying?"</p>
+
+<p>I gave the only answer possible. "When I copied these writings I could
+not know I was engaged on forbidden work. Now it has been told me that
+it was a grievous offence, though I cannot tell why. Still I must
+believe it. I have no intention of naming the man who entrusted that
+work to me, because the punishment of me who did not know its object,
+will be far lighter than that of him, who knew."</p>
+
+<p>"But only think, my dear child, what a risk you take upon your own
+shoulders," said Mr. Schmuck in gracious tones; "think, by your obduracy
+you make yourself the guilty accomplice in a crime, of which you were
+before innocent."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," I answered, turning towards him: "did you not teach me the heroic
+story of Mucius Sc&aelig;vola? did you not yourself teach me to recite
+'Romanus sum civis?'</p>
+
+<p>"Do with me what you please: I shall not prove a traitor: if the Romans
+had courage, so have I to say 'longus post me ordo idem petentium
+decus.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Get you hence," brawled the director; and the pedellus led me away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two hours afterwards they told me I might go home; I was saved. Just
+that implacable director had proved himself the best in his efforts to
+rescue us. One or two "primani," who had amused the tribunal with some
+very broad lies, were condemned to a few days' lock-up. That was all.</p>
+
+<p>I thought that was the end of the joke. When they let me go I hurried to
+Lorand. I was proudly conscious of my successful attempt to rescue my
+elder brother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE END OF THE BEGINNING</h3>
+
+
+<p>Her ladyship, the beautiful wife of B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, was playing with her
+parrot, when her husband entered her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The lady was very fond of this creature&mdash;I mean of the parrot.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear," said B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, "has Kok&oacute; learned already to utter
+Lorand's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he will soon learn. By the bye, do you know that Parliament is
+dissolved. Mr. B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy may now take his seat in peace beside his
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"As far as I am concerned, it may dissolve."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps you will be interested so far; the good dancers will now
+go home. The young men of Parliament will disperse to their several
+homes."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to detain them."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. Why, Lorand will remain here. But even Lorand will with
+difficulty be able to remain here. He must fly."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"What I ought not to say out. Nor would I tell anyone other than you, my
+dear, as we agreed. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Partly. You are referring to the matter of secret journalism?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear, and to other matters which I have heard from you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, from me. I told you frankly, what Lorand related to me in
+confidence, believing that I shared his enthusiastic ideas. I told you
+that you might use your knowledge for your own elevation. They were
+gifts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> of honor, as far as you are concerned, but I bound you not to
+bring any disgrace upon him from whom I learned the facts, and to inform
+me if any danger should threaten him."</p>
+
+<p>B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy bent nearer to his wife and whispered in her ear:</p>
+
+<p>"To-night arrests will take place."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom will they arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Several leaders of the Parliamentary youths, particularly those
+responsible for the dissemination of the written newspaper."</p>
+
+<p>"How can that affect Lorand? He has burned every writing; no piece of
+paper can be found in his room. The newspaper fragments, if they have
+come into strange hands, cannot be compared with his handwriting. If
+hitherto he wrote with letters leaning forwards, he will now lean them
+backwards: no one will be able to find any similarity in the
+handwritings. His brother, who copied them, has confessed nothing
+against him."</p>
+
+<p>"True enough; but I am inclined to think that he has not destroyed
+everything he has written in this town. Once he wrote some lines in the
+album of a friend. A poem or some such stupidity; and that album has
+somehow come into the hands of justice."</p>
+
+<p>"And who gave it over?" enquired the lady passionately.</p>
+
+<p>"As it happens, the owner of the album himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Gy&aacute;li?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same, my dear. He too thought that one must use a good friend's
+shoulders to elevate himself."</p>
+
+<p>Madam B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy bit her pretty lips until blood came.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not help Lorand further?" she inquired, turning suddenly to her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is just what I am racking my brain to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you save him?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I cannot do, but I shall allow him to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"To escape?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Surely there is no other choice, than either to let himself be
+arrested, or to escape secretly."</p>
+
+<p>"But in this matter we have made no agreement. It was not this you
+promised me."</p>
+
+<p>"My darling, don't place any confidence in great men's promises. The
+whole world over, diplomacy consists of deceit: you deceive me, I
+deceive you: you betrayed Lorand's confidence, and Lorand deserved it:
+why did he confide in you so? You cannot deny that I am the most polite
+husband in the world. A young man pays his addresses to my wife: I see
+it, and know it; I am not angry; I do not make him leap out of the
+window, I do not point my pistol at him: I merely slap him on the
+shoulder with perfect nonchalance, and say, 'my dear boy, you will be
+arrested to-night in your bed.'"</p>
+
+<p>B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy could laugh most jovially at such sallies of humor. The whole
+of his beautiful white teeth could be seen as he roared with
+laughter&mdash;(even the gold wire that held them in place.)</p>
+
+<p>My lady Hermine rose from beside him, and seemed to be greatly
+irritated.</p>
+
+<p>"You are only playing the innocent before me, but I know quite surely
+that you put Gy&aacute;li up to handing over the album to the treasury."</p>
+
+<p>"You only wish to make yourself believe that, my dear, so that when
+Lorand disappears from the house, you may not be compelled to be angry
+with Gy&aacute;li, but with me; for of course somebody must remain in the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"Your insults cannot hurt me."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not wish to hurt you. My every effort was and always will be to
+make your life, my dear, ever more agreeable. Have I ever showed
+jealousy? Have I not behaved towards you like a father to a daughter
+about to be married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't remind me of that, sir. That is your most ungracious trait. It is
+true that you yourself have introduced into our house young men of every
+class of society. It is true that you have never guarded me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> against
+them:&mdash;but then in a short time, when you began to remark that I felt
+some affection towards some of them, you discovered always choice
+methods to make me despise and abhor them. Had you shut me up and
+guarded me with the severity of a convent, you would have shown me more
+consideration. But you are playing a dangerous game, sir: maybe the time
+will come when I shall not cast out him whom I have hated!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that will be your own business, my dear. But the first business
+is to tell our relation Lorand that by ten o'clock this evening he must
+not be found here: for at that hour they will come to arrest him."</p>
+
+<p>Hermine walked up and down her room in anger.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is all your work: it is useless for you to defend yourself,"
+said she, tossing away her husband's hat from the arm-chair, and then
+throwing herself in a spiritless manner into it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I have no intention of defending myself," said B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy,
+good-humoredly picking up his rolling hat. "Of course I had a little
+share in it: why, you know it well enough, my dear. A man's first
+business is to create a career. I have to rise: you approve of that
+yourself; it is a man's duty to make use of every circumstance that
+comes to hand. Had I not done so, I should be a mere magistrate,
+somewhere in Szabolcs, who at the end of every three years kisses the
+hands of all the 'powers that be,' that they may not turn him out of
+office.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a> The present chancellor, Adam Reviczky, was one class ahead
+of me in the school. He too was the head of his class, as I was of mine.
+Every year I took his place: at every desk, where I sat in the first
+place, I found his name carved, and always carved, it out, putting mine
+in its place. He reached the height of the 'parabola,' and is now about
+to descend. Who knows what may happen next? At such times we must not
+mind if we make celebrated men of a few lads, whom at other times we did
+not remark."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a> Every three years new magistrates and officials were
+elected to the various posts in the counties.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>"But consider, Lorand is a relation of ours."</p>
+
+<p>"That only concerns me, not you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, notwithstanding, terrible to ruin the career of a young man."</p>
+
+<p>"What will happen to him? He will fly away to the country to some friend
+of his, where no one will search for him. At most he will be prohibited
+from being 'called to the bar.' But it will not prevent him from being
+elected lawyer to the county court at the first renovation.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> Besides,
+Lorand is a handsome fellow: and the harm the persecution of men has
+done him will soon be repaired by the aid of women."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> As explained above.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Leave me to myself. I shall think about the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be deeply obliged to you. But, remember, please, ten o'clock
+this evening must not find here&mdash;the dear relation."</p>
+
+<p>Hermine hastened to her jewel-case with ostentation. B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, as he
+turned in the doorway, could see with what feverish anxiety she unlocked
+it and fumbled among her jewels.</p>
+
+<p>With a smile on his face the husband went away. It is a fine instance of
+the irony of fate, when a woman is obliged to pawn her jewels in order
+to help someone escape whom she has loved, and whom she would love still
+to see about her,&mdash;to send him a hundred miles from her side.</p>
+
+<p>Hermine did indeed collect her jewels, and threw them into a
+travelling-bag.</p>
+
+<p>Then she sat down at her writing-table, and very hurriedly wrote
+something on some lilac-coloured letter paper on which the initials of
+her name had been stamped; this she folded up, sealed it and sent it by
+her butler to Lorand's room.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand had not yet stirred from the house that day; he did not know that
+part of the Parliamentary youth, gaining an inkling of the movement
+against them, had hurried to depart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When he had read the letter of the P.&nbsp;C.'s wife, he begged the butler to
+go to Mr. Gy&aacute;li and ask him in his name to pay him a visit at once: he
+must speak a few words to him without fail.</p>
+
+<p>When the butler had gone, Lorand began to walk swiftly up and down his
+room. He was in search of something which he could not find, an idea.</p>
+
+<p>He sat again, driving his fist into his hand: then sprang up anew and
+hastened to the window, as if in impatient expectation of the new-comer.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a thought came to him: he began to put on gloves, fine, white
+kid gloves. Then he tried to clench his fist in them without tearing
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he does not wish to touch, with uncovered hands, him for whom he
+is waiting!</p>
+
+<p>At last the street door opened, and steps made direct for his door.</p>
+
+<p>Only let him come! but he, whom he expected did not come alone: the
+first to open his door was not Pepi Gy&aacute;li, but his brother, Desiderius.
+By chance they had met.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand received his brother in a very spiritless manner. It was not he
+whom he wished to see now. Yet he rushed to embrace Lorand with a face
+beaming triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what has happened, that you are beaming so?"</p>
+
+<p>"The school tribunal has acquitted me: yet I drew everything on myself
+and did not throw any suspicion on you."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you would be insulted if I praised you for it. Every ordinary
+man of honor would have done the same. It is just as little a merit not
+to be a traitor as it is a great ignominy to be one. Am I not right?
+Pepi,&mdash;my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>Pepi Gy&aacute;li decided that Lorand could not have heard of his treachery and
+would not know it until he was placed in some safe place. He answered
+naturally enough that no greater disgrace existed on earth than that of
+treachery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But why did you summon me in such haste," he enquired, offering his
+hand confidently to Lorand; the latter allowed him to grasp his hand&mdash;on
+which was a glove.</p>
+
+<p>"I merely wished to ask you if you would take my <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;vis-&aacute;-vis&quot; has been changed to &quot;vis-&agrave;-vis&quot;">vis-&agrave;-vis</span> in the ball
+to-night following my farewell banquet?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the greatest pleasure. You need not even have asked me. Where you
+are, I must be also."</p>
+
+<p>"Go upstairs, Desi, to the governess and ask her whether she intends to
+come to the ball to-night, or if the lady of the house is going alone."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius listlessly sauntered out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>He thought that to-day was scarcely a suitable day to conclude with a
+ball; still he did go upstairs to the governess.</p>
+
+<p>The young lady answered that she was not going for Melanie had a
+difficult "Cavatina" to learn that evening, but her ladyship was getting
+ready, and the stout aunt was going with her.</p>
+
+<p>As Desiderius shut the door after him, Lorand stood with crossed arms
+before the dandy, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what kind of dance it is, in which I have invited you to be
+my <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;vis-&aacute;-vis&quot; has been changed to &quot;vis-&agrave;-vis&quot;">vis-&agrave;-vis</span>?"</p>
+
+<p>"What kind?" asked Pepi with a playful expression.</p>
+
+<p>"A kind of dance at which one of us must die." Therewith he handed him
+the lilac-coloured letter which Hermine had written to him: "Read that."</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li read these lines:</p>
+
+<p>"Gy&aacute;li handed over the album-leaf you wrote on. All is betrayed."</p>
+
+<p>The dandy smiled, and placed his hands behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what do you want with me?" he enquired with cool assurance.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think I want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to abuse me? We are alone, no one will hear us. If you wish
+to be rough with me, I shall shout and collect a crowd in the street:
+that will also be bad for you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I intend to do neither. You see I have put gloves on, that I may not
+befoul myself by touching you. Yet you can imagine that it is not
+customary to make a present of such a debt."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to fight a duel with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and at once: I shall not allow you out of my sight until you have
+given me satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't expect that. Because you are a Hercules, and I a titmouse, don't
+think I am overawed by your knitted eyebrows. If you so desire, I am
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"I like that."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know that as the challenged, I have the right to choose weapons
+and method."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will find it quite natural that I have no intention of being
+pummelled into a loaf of bread and devoured by you. I recommend the
+American duel. Let us put our names into a hat and he whose name is
+drawn is compelled to shoot himself."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was staggered. He recalled that night in the crypt.</p>
+
+<p>"One of us must die; you said so yourself," remarked Gy&aacute;li. "Good, I am
+not afraid of it. Let us draw lots, and then he whom fate chooses, must
+die."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gazed moodily before him, as if he were regarding things
+happening miles away.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand your hesitation: there are others whom you would spare.
+Well, let us fix a definite time for dying. How long can those, of whom
+you are thinking, live? Let us say ten years. He, whose name is drawn
+must shoot himself&mdash;to-day ten years."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," cried Lorand in a tone of vexation, "this is merely a cowardly
+subterfuge by which you wish to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Brave lion, you will fall just as soon, if you die, as the mouse. Your
+whole valor consists in being able to pin, with a round pin, a tiny
+little fly to the bottom of a box, but if you find an opponent, like
+yourself, you draw back before him."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not draw back," said Lorand irritated; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> there appeared
+before his soul all those figures, which, pointing their fingers
+threateningly, rose before him from the depths of the earth. Headless
+phantoms returned to the seven cold beds; and the eighth was bespoken.</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so," sighed Lorand: "let us write our names." Therewith he began
+to look for paper. But not a morsel was there in his room: all had been
+burned, clean <span title="Transcriber's Note: Two lines in the original text were printed out of order">paper too, that the water mark might not betray him. At
+last he came across Hermine's note. There was</span> no other alternative.
+Tearing it in two,&mdash;one part he threw to Gy&aacute;li, on the other he
+inscribed his own name.</p>
+
+<p>Then they folded the pieces of paper and put them into a hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Who shall draw?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are the challenger."</p>
+
+<p>"But you proposed the method."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment. Let us entrust the drawing of lots to a third party."</p>
+
+<p>"To whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is your brother, Desi."</p>
+
+<p>"Desi?"&mdash;Lorand felt a twitching pain at his heart:&mdash;"that one's own
+brother should draw one's death warrant!"</p>
+
+<p>"As yet his hand is innocent. Nor shall he know for what he is drawing.
+I will tell him some tale. And so both of us may be tranquil during the
+drawing of lots."</p>
+
+<p>Just at that moment Desiderius opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>He related that the governess was not going, but the stout aunt was to
+accompany "auntie" to the ball. And the "fra&uuml;lein" had sent Lorand a
+written dance-programme, which Desiderius had torn up on the way.</p>
+
+<p>He tore it up because he was angry that other people were in so
+frivolous a mood at a time when he felt so exalted. For that reason he
+had no intention of handing over the programme.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing of the stout aunt, Pepi laughed and then began to feign horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens, Lorand: the seven fat kine of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Old Testament will be
+there in one: and one of us must dance with this monster. One of us will
+have to move from its place that mountain, which even Mahomet could not
+induce to stir, and waltz with it. Please undertake it for my sake."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was annoyed by the ill-timed jest which he did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to be sure I cannot make the sacrifice: it must be either you or
+I. I don't mind, let's draw lots for it, and see who must dance this
+evening with the tower of St. Stephen's."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well,"&mdash;Lorand now understood what the other wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"Desi will draw lots for us."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Just step outside a moment, Desi, that you may not see on
+which paper which of our names was written." Desiderius stepped outside.</p>
+
+<p>"He must not see that the tickets are already prepared," murmured
+Lorand:&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You may come in now."</p>
+
+<p>"In this hat are both our names," said Gy&aacute;li, holding the hat before
+Desiderius: "draw one of them out: open it, read it, and then put both
+names into the fire. The one whose name you draw will do the honors to
+the Cochin-China Emperor's white elephant."</p>
+
+<p>The two foes turned round toward the window. Lorand gazed out, while
+Gy&aacute;li played with his watch-chain.</p>
+
+<p>The child unsuspectingly stepped up to the hat that served as the "urna
+sortis," and drew out one of the pieces of paper.</p>
+
+<p>He opened it and read the name,</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand &Aacute;ronffy."</p>
+
+<p>"Put them in the fire," said Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius threw two pieces of lilac paper into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>They were cold May days; outside the face of nature had been distorted,
+and it was freezing; in Lorand's fire-place a fire was blazing. The two
+pieces of paper were at once burnt up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Only they were not those on which the two young men had written their
+names. Desiderius, without being noticed, had changed them for the dance
+programme, which he had cast into the fire. He kept the two fatal
+signatures to himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had a very good reason for doing so, and a still better reason for
+saying nothing about it.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Desi."</p>
+
+<p>He thanked him for drawing that lot.</p>
+
+<p>Pepi Gy&aacute;li took up his hat and said to Lorand in playful jesting:</p>
+
+<p>"The white elephant is yours. Good night." And he went away unharmed.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my dear Desi, you must go home," said Lorand, gently grasping
+his brother's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why I have only just come."</p>
+
+<p>"I have much to do, and it must be done to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it: I will sit down in a corner, and not say a word; I came to see
+you. I will be silent and watch you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took his brother in his arms and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to pay a visit somewhere where you could not come with me."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius listlessly felt for his cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I did so want to be with you this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow will do as well."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was afraid that the officers of justice might come any moment for
+him. For his part he did not mind: but he did not wish his brother to be
+present.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius sorrowfully returned home.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand remained by himself.</p>
+
+<p>By himself? Oh no. There around him were the others&mdash;seven in number:
+those headless dead.</p>
+
+<p>Well, fate is inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Family misfortune is inherited. One is destroyed by the family disease,
+another by the hereditary curse.</p>
+
+<p>And again the cause is the "sorrowful soil beneath them."</p>
+
+<p>From that there is no escape.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A terrible inheritance is the self-shed blood, which besprinkles the
+heads of sons and grandsons!</p>
+
+<p>And his inheritance was&mdash;the pistol, with which his father had killed
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>It were vain for the whole Heaven to be here on earth. He must leave it,
+must go, where the others had gone.</p>
+
+<p>The eighth niche was still empty, but was already bespoken.</p>
+
+<p>For later comers there was room only in the ditch of the graveyard.</p>
+
+<p>And there were still ten years left to think thereon! But ten years is a
+long time. Meanwhile that field might open where an honourable death,
+grasping a scythe in its two hands, cuts a way through the ranks of
+armed warriors:&mdash;where the children of weeping mothers are trampled to
+death by the hoofs of horses:&mdash;where they throw the first-born's mangled
+remains into the common burying-pit: perhaps there the son will find
+what the father sought in vain:&mdash;those who fled from before the
+resting-chamber of that melancholy house, on the fa&ccedil;ade of which was to
+be read the inscription, covered by the creepers since days long gone
+by.</p>
+
+<p>"Ne nos inducas in tentationem."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>AGED AT SEVENTEEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>How beautiful it is to be young! How fair is the spring! Yours is life,
+joy, hope; the meadows lavish flowers upon you; the earth's fair halo of
+love surrounds you with glory: a nation, a fatherland, mankind entrusts
+to you its future; old men are proud of you; women love you: every
+brightening day of heaven is yours.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how I love the spring! how I love youth! In spring I see the fairest
+work of God, the earth, take new life; in youth I see the fairest work
+of man, his nation, reviving.</p>
+
+<p>"In those days" I did not yet belong to the "youth:" I was a child.</p>
+
+<p>Never do I remember a brighter promise of spring, than in that year;
+never were the eyes of the old men gladdened by the sight of a more
+spirited "youth" than was that of those days.</p>
+
+<p>Spring began very early: even at the end of February the fields were
+green, parks hastened to bedeck themselves in their leafy wings, the
+blossoms hastened to bloom and fall; the opening days of May saw fruit
+on the apple-trees; and prematurely ripe cherries were "hawked" in the
+streets, beside bouquets of late blooming violets.</p>
+
+<p>Of the "youths" of that year the historian has written: "These youths
+were in general very serious, very lavish in patriotic feeling, fiery
+and spirited in the defence of freedom and national dignity. The new
+tendency which manifested itself so vividly in our country was reflected
+by their impetuous and susceptible natures with all its noble yearnings,
+its virtues and excesses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> exaggerated. The frivolous pastimes, the
+senseless or dissolute amusements that were so fashionable in those days
+were abandoned for serious reading, gathering of information and
+investigation of current events. They had already opinions of their own,
+which not rarely they could utter with striking audacity."&mdash;I could only
+envy these lines of gold; not one word of them had any reference to me:
+for I was still but a child. During a night that followed a lovely May
+day, the weather suddenly changed: winter, who was during the days of
+his dominion, watching how the warm breezes played with the flower-bells
+of the trees, all at once returned: with the full vigor of vengeance he
+came, and in three days destroyed everything, in which man happened to
+delight. To the last leaf everything was frozen off the trees.</p>
+
+<p>On this most inclement of the three wintry May evenings Lorand was
+standing alone at his window, and gazing abstractedly at the street
+through the ice-flower pattern of the window-panes.</p>
+
+<p>Just such ice-flowers lay frozen before his soul. The lottery of fate
+has appointed his time: ten years his life would last; then he must die.</p>
+
+<p>From seventeen to twenty-seven is just the fairest part of life. Many
+had made their whole earthly career during that period.</p>
+
+<p>And what awaits him?</p>
+
+<p>His ardent yearning for freedom, his audacious plans, his misplaced
+confidence; friends' treason, and the consequent freezing rigor, where
+were they leading to?...</p>
+
+<p>Every leaf had fallen from the trees. Only ten years to live: the decree
+was unalterable.</p>
+
+<p>From the opponent, whom he despised, it is not possible even to accept
+as a present, that to which chance has once given him the right.</p>
+
+<p>And these ten years, with what will they begin? Perhaps with a long
+imprisonment? The time which is so short&mdash;(ten years are light!) will
+seem so long <i>there</i>! (ten years are heavy!) Would it not be better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> not
+to wait for the first day? To say: if it is time, take it away: let me
+not take the days on lease from thee! The hateful, freezing days.</p>
+
+<p>Why, when nature dies in this wise, man himself would love to die after
+her.</p>
+
+<p>If only there were not that weeping face at home, that white-haired
+head, mother and grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>In vain Fate is inevitable. The eighth bed was already made;&mdash;but <i>that</i>
+no one must know for ten years. Should someone learn, he might
+perpetrate the outrage of occupying earlier the eighth niche in the
+family vault; and then his successor would have nothing left but the
+church-yard grave.</p>
+
+<p>What a thought, a youthful spring with these frozen leaves!</p>
+
+<p>He did not think for the next few moments. Is it worth while to try to
+avoid the fate, which is certain? Let it come. The keystone of the arch
+had been removed, the downfall of the whole must follow. His room was
+already in darkness, but he did not light a lamp. The dancing flames of
+the fire-place gazed out sometimes above the embers, in curiosity, as if
+they would know whether any living being were there: and still he did
+not stir.</p>
+
+<p>In this dim twilight Lorand was thinking upon those who had passed away
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>That bony-faced figure, whose death face he was painting,&mdash;his ordinary
+physiognomy was terrible enough: those empty eye-sockets, into which he
+fears to gaze:&mdash;suppose between these two hollows a third was darkling,
+the place of the bullet that pierced his forehead!</p>
+
+<p>Lorand now knew what torture must have been theirs, who had left him
+this sorrowful bequest, before they could make up their minds to raise
+their own hands against their own lives! with what power of God they
+must have struggled, with what power of devils have made a compact! Oh,
+if they would only come for him now!</p>
+
+<p>Who?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Those who picked the fruit that dared so early to ripen?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, rather those, than these quiet, bloodless faces, in their bloody
+robes. Rather those who come with clank of arms, tearing open the door
+with drawn sword, than those who with inaudible step steal in, gently
+open the door, whisperingly speak and tremblingly pronounce your name.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Who is that?"</p>
+
+<p>Not one of the dead, though her robe is white: one far worse than
+they:&mdash;a beautiful woman.</p>
+
+<p>It was Hermine who opened the door and entered Lorand's room so
+silently, with inaudible steps. Her ball-robe was on her: she had
+dressed for the dance in her room above, and thus dressed had descended.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready now, Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good evening: pardon me. I will light a candle in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that," whispered the woman. "It is quite light enough
+as it is. To-day no candle may burn in this room."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to a ball," said Lorand, masking the sorrow of his soul
+by a display of good spirits: "and you wish me to accompany you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fancy the thought of dancing coming into my head just now!" replied
+Hermine, coming so close to Lorand that she could whisper in his ear.
+"Did you get my letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thank you. Don't be alarmed, there is no danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed there is. I know it well. The danger is in the hands of
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy: therefore certain.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"What great harm can happen to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Hermine placed her hand on Lorand's shoulder and tremblingly hissed:</p>
+
+<p>"They will arrest you to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"They may do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, they may not, kind Heaven! That they shall not do. You must
+escape, immediately, this hour."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is it sure they will arrest me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then just for that reason I shall not stir from my place."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you saying? Why? Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I should be ashamed, if they who wanted me should draw me out
+from under my bed in my mother's house, like a child who has played some
+mischief."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is speaking now of your mother's house? You must fly far: away to
+foreign lands."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Lorand coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? My God, what questions you put. I don't know how to answer! Can
+you not see that I am in despair, that every limb of my body trembles
+for my fear on your account? Believe me, I cannot possibly allow them to
+take you away from before my eyes, to imprison you for years, so that I
+shall never see you again."</p>
+
+<p>To appeal the more to Lorand's feelings, and to show him how her hands
+trembled she tore off her beautiful ball gloves, and grasped his hands
+in her own and then sobbed before him.</p>
+
+<p>As she touched him Lorand began to feel, instead of his previous
+tomblike chillness, a kind of agitating heat as if the cold bony hand of
+death had given over his hand to some other unknown demon.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do in a foreign country? I have no one, nothing, no way
+there. Everyone I love is here, in this land. There I should go mad."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not be alone there, because the one who loves you best on
+earth, who worships you above all, who loves you better than her health,
+her soul, better than heaven itself, goes with you and will never leave
+you."</p>
+
+<p>The young man could make no mistake as to whom she meant: Hermine
+encircled his young neck with her beautiful arms and overwhelmed his
+face with kisses.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was no longer his own. In one hour he lost his home, his fortune,
+and his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>I AND THE DEMON</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was already late in the evening when B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's butler brought me a
+letter, and then hurriedly departed, before I could read it.</p>
+
+<p>It was Lorand's writing. The message was short:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear brother:&mdash;I have been betrayed and must escape: comfort our
+dear parents. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>I leaped up from my bed:&mdash;I had already gone to bed that I might get up
+early on the morrow:&mdash;and hastened to dress.</p>
+
+<p>My first idea was to go to B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy. He was my uncle and relation, and
+was extremely fond of us: besides, he was very influential; he could
+accomplish anything he wished, I would tell him everything frankly, and
+beg him to do for my brother what he was capable of doing: to prevent
+his prosecution and arrest, or, if he was convicted, to secure his
+pardon. Why, to such a great man nothing could be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>I begged old M&aacute;rton to open the door for me.</p>
+
+<p>"What! discipulus negligens! To slip out of the house at night is not
+proper. He who wanders about at night can be no Lieutenant Governor&mdash;at
+most a night-watchman."</p>
+
+<p>"No joking now; they are prosecuting my brother! I must go and help
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you tell me at once? Prosecute indeed? You should have told
+me that. Who? Perhaps the butcher clerks? If so, let us all six go with
+clubs to his aid."</p>
+
+<p>"No, they are not butcher clerks. What are you thinking of?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, in past years the law-students were continually having brawls with
+butcher clerks."</p>
+
+<p>"They want to arrest him," I whispered to him, "to put him in prison,
+because he was one of the 'Parliamentary youth' lot."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha," said M&aacute;rton, "that's where we are is it? That is beyond my
+assistance. And, what can you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must go to my uncle B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy at once and ask him to interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"That's surely a wise thing to do. Under those circumstances I shall go
+with you. Not because I think you would be afraid to go by yourself at
+night, but that I may be able to tell the old man by-and-bye that you
+were not in mischief."</p>
+
+<p>The old fellow put on a coat in a moment, and a pair of boots, then
+accompanied me to the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys.</p>
+
+<p>He did not wish to come in, but told me that, on my way back, I should
+look for him at the corner beer-house, where he would wait for me.</p>
+
+<p>I hurried up stairs.</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly disappointed to find my brother's door closed: at other
+times that had always been my first place of retreat.</p>
+
+<p>I heard the piano in the "salon": so I went in there.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie was playing with the governess.</p>
+
+<p>They did not seem surprised that I came at so late an hour; I only
+noticed that they behaved a little more stiffly towards me than on other
+occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie was deeply engrossed in studying the notes. I enquired whether I
+could speak with my uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"He has not yet come home from the club," said the governess.</p>
+
+<p>"And her ladyship."</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone to the ball."</p>
+
+<p>That annoyed me a little.</p>
+
+<p>"And when do they come home?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Privy Councillor at eleven o'clock, he usually plays whist till
+that hour; her ladyship probably not until after midnight. Do you wish
+to wait?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, until my uncle returns."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can take supper with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, I have already had supper."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they have supper so early at the baker's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I then sat down beside the piano, and thought for a whole hour what a
+stupid instrument the piano was; a man's head may be full of ideas, and
+it will drive them all out.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I had so much to ponder over. What should I say to my uncle when he
+came. With what should I begin? How could I tell him what I knew? What
+should I ask from him?</p>
+
+<p>But how was it possible that neither was at home at such a critical
+time? Surely they must have been informed of such a misfortune. I did
+not dare to introduce Lorand's name before the governess. Who knows what
+others are? Besides, I had no sympathy for her. For me a governess
+seemed always a most frivolous creature.</p>
+
+<p>In the room there was a large clock that caused me most annoyance. How
+long it took for those hands to reach ten o'clock! Then, when it did
+strike, its tone was of that aristocratic nasal quality that it must
+have acquired from the voices of the people around it.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the governess laughed, when Melanie made some curious mistake;
+Melanie, too, laughed and peeped from behind her music to see if I was
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>I had not even noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>Then my pretty cousin poutingly tossed back her curly hair, as if she
+were annoyed that I too was beginning to play a part of indifference
+towards her.</p>
+
+<p>At last the street-door bell rang. From the footsteps I knew my uncle
+had come. They were so dignified.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the butler entered and said I could speak with his lordship, if I
+so desired.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling all over, I took my hat, and wished the ladies good-night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you not coming back, to hear the end of the Cavatina;" inquired
+Melanie.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," I answered, and left them there.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle's study was on the farther side of the hall; the butler lighted
+my way with a lamp, then he put it down on a chest, that I might find my
+way back.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my child, what do you want?" inquired my uncle, in that gay,
+playful tone, which we are wont to use in speaking to children to
+express that we are quite indifferent as to their affairs.</p>
+
+<p>I answered languidly, as if some gravestone were weighing upon my
+breast,</p>
+
+<p>"Dear uncle, Lorand has left us."</p>
+
+<p>"You know already?" he asked, putting on his many colored embroidered
+dressing-gown.</p>
+
+<p>"You know too?" I exclaimed, taken aback.</p>
+
+<p>"What, that Lorand has run away?" remarked my uncle, coolly buttoning
+together the silken folds of his dressing gown; "why I know more than
+that:&mdash;I know also that my wife has run away with him, and all my wife's
+jewels, not to mention the couple of thousand florins that were at
+home&mdash;all have run away with your brother Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>How I reached the street after those words; whether they opened the door
+for me; whether they led me out or kicked me out, I assure you I do not
+know. I only came to myself, when M&aacute;rton seized my arm in the street and
+shouted at me:</p>
+
+<p>"Well sir Lieutenant-Governor, you walk right into me without even
+seeing me. I got tired of waiting in the beer-house and began to think
+that they had run you in too. Well, what is the matter? How you
+stagger."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! M&aacute;rton," I stammered, "I feel very faint."</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell anyone that."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to anyone? No! not to Mr. Brodfresser,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> nor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>to Mr.
+Commissioner:&mdash;but to M&aacute;rton, to old M&aacute;rton? Has old M&aacute;rton ever let out
+anything? Old M&aacute;rton knows much that would be worth his while to tell
+tales about: have you ever heard of old M&aacute;rton being a gossip? Has old
+M&aacute;rton ever told tales against you or anyone else? And if I could help
+you in any way?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> The name given to Desiderius' professor ("bread
+devourer").</p></div>
+
+<p>There was a world of frank good-heartedness in these reproaches; besides
+I had to catch after the first straw to find a way of escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what did my old colleague say?&mdash;You know the reason I call
+him 'colleague,' is that my hair always acts as if it were a wig, while
+his wig always acts as it if were hair."</p>
+
+<p>"He said," I answered tremblingly, hanging on to his arm, "he knew more
+than I. Lorand has not merely run away, but has stolen my uncle's wife."</p>
+
+<p>At these words M&aacute;rton commenced to roar with laughter. He pressed his
+hands upon his stomach and just roared, then turned round, as if he
+wished to give the further end of the street a taste of his laughter;
+then he remarked that it was a splendid joke, at which remark I was
+sufficiently scandalized.</p>
+
+<p>"And then he said&mdash;that Lorand had stolen his money."</p>
+
+<p>At this M&aacute;rton straightened himself and raised his head very seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"That is bad. That is 'a mill,' as Father Fromm would say. Well, and
+what do you think of it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think, it cannot be true; and I want to find my brother, no matter
+what has become of him.</p>
+
+<p>"And when you have found him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, if that woman is holding him by one hand, I shall seize the other
+and we shall see which of us will be the stronger."</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton gave me a sound slap on the back, saying "Teufelskerl.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> What
+are you thinking of?&mdash;would other children mind, if a beautiful woman
+ran away with their brother? But this one wishes to stand be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>tween them.
+Excellent. Well, shall we look for Master Lorand? How will you begin?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> Devil's fellow: <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, devil of a fellow.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see; what have you learned at school? What can you do, if you
+are suddenly thrown back on your own resources? Which way will you
+start? Right or left: will you cry in the street, 'Who has seen my
+brother?'"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed I did not know how to begin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well,&mdash;you shall see that you can at times make use of that old fellow
+M&aacute;rton. Trust yourself to me. Listen to me now, as if I were Mr.
+Brodfresser. If two of them ran away together, surely they must have
+taken a carriage. The carriage was a fiacre. Madame has always the same
+coachman, number 7. I know him well. So first of all we must find
+M&oacute;czli: that is coachman No. 7. He lives in the Zuckermandel. It's a
+cursed long way, but that's all the better, for by the time we get to
+his house we shall be all the surer to find him at home."</p>
+
+<p>"If he was the one who took them."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't play the fool now, sir studiosus. I know what cab-horses are.
+They could not take anyone as far as the border; at most as far as some
+wayside inn, where speedy country horses can be found: there the
+runaways are waiting while the fiacre is returning."</p>
+
+<p>In astonishment I asked what made him surmise all this: when it seemed
+to me that with speedy country horses they might already be far beyond
+the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Lieutenant-Governor," was M&aacute;rton's hasty reproof; "How could you
+have such ideas? You expect to become Lieutenant-Governor some day, yet
+you don't know that he who wishes to pass the frontiers must be supplied
+with a passport. No one can go without a pass from Pressburg to Vienna;
+Madame has quite surely despatched M&oacute;czli back to bring to her the
+gentleman with whose 'pass' they are to escape farther."</p>
+
+<p>"What gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"An actor from the theatre here, who will arrange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> that the young
+gentleman shall pass the frontier with his passport."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you figure it all out?"</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton paused for a moment, made an ugly mouth, closed his left eye, and
+hissed through his teeth, as if he would express by all this pantomime
+that there are things which cannot be held under children's noses.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, never mind; you do wish to be a county officer or something of
+the kind. So you must know about such things sooner or later, when you
+will have to examine people on such questions. I will tell you&mdash;I know
+because M&oacute;czli once told me just such a story about madame."</p>
+
+<p>"Once before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said M&aacute;rton chuckling <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;wickerly&quot; has been changed to &quot;wickedly&quot;">wickedly</span>. "Ha ha! Madame is a cute
+little woman. But then no one knows of it&mdash;only M&oacute;czli and I; and
+Madame's husband. Her husband has already pardoned her for it: M&oacute;czli
+was well paid; and what business is it of M&aacute;rton's? All three of us hold
+our tongues, like a broiled fish. But it is not the first time it has
+happened."</p>
+
+<p>I do not know why, but this discovery somehow relieved my bitterness. I
+began to surmise that Lorand was not the most deeply implicated in the
+crime.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us go first of all to M&oacute;czli," said M&aacute;rton; "But I have a
+promise to exact from you. Don't say a word yourself; leave the talking
+to me. For he is a cursed fellow, this M&oacute;czli; if he finds that we wish
+to get information out of him, he will lie like a book: but I will
+suddenly drive in upon him, so that he will not know whether to turn to
+the right or to the left. I will spring something on him as if I knew
+all about it, that will scare him out of his wits and then I'll press
+him close, so that it'll take his breath away, and before he knows it
+I'll have that secret squeezed out of him to the very last drop. You
+must observe how it is done, so that you can make use of similar methods
+in the future when in the position of Lieutenant-Governor you will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> have
+to cross-question some suspicious rascal in order to wring the truth out
+of him!<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>By this time we had started at a brisk pace along the banks of the
+Danube. I wasn't dressed for such a dismal night, and old M&aacute;rton was
+doing his best to shield me with the wing of his coat against the
+chilling gusts that rushed against us from the river. At the same time
+he made every effort to make me believe that what we were engaged in was
+one of the finest jokes he had ever taken a hand in, and that our
+recollections of it will afford us no end of amusement in the future. At
+the foot of the castle-hill, along the banks of the Danube was a group
+of tottering houses; tottering because in spring, when the ice broke up,
+the Danube roared and dashed among them. Here lived the fiacre drivers.
+Here were the cab-horses in tumble-down stables.</p>
+
+<p>It was a ball-night: in the windows of the tumble-down houses candles
+were burning, for the cabmen were waiting till midnight, when they would
+again harness their horses and return to fetch their patrons from the
+ball-room.</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton looked in at one window so lighted; he had to climb up on
+something to do so, for the ground floor was built high, in order that
+the water might not enter at the windows.</p>
+
+<p>"He is at home," he remarked, as he stepped down, "but he is evidently
+preparing to go out again, for he has his top-coat on."</p>
+
+<p>The gate was open; the carriage was in the courtyard, the horses in the
+shafts, covered with rugs.</p>
+
+<p>Their harness had not even been taken off: they must have just arrived
+and had to start again at once.</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton motioned to me to follow him at his heels while he made his way
+into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The door we ran up against could not be opened unless one knew the
+tricks that made it yield. M&aacute;rton seemed to be well acquainted with the
+peculiarities of the entrance to M&oacute;czli's den: first he pressed down on
+the door knob and raised the whole door bracing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> against it with his
+shoulder, then turning the knob and giving the door a severe kick it
+flew open and in the next moment we found ourselves in a dingy, narrow
+hole of a room smelling horribly of axle-grease, tallow and
+tobacco-smoke.</p>
+
+<p>On a table, which was leaning against the wall with the side where a leg
+was broken, stood a burning tallow-dip stuck into the mouth of an empty
+beer-jug, and by its dim light M&oacute;czli was seated eating&mdash;no, devouring
+his supper. With incredible rapidity he was piling in and ramming down,
+as it were, enormous slices of blood-sausage in turn with huger chunks
+of salted bread.</p>
+
+<p>His many-collared coat was thrown over his huge frame, and his
+broad-brimmed hat that was pressed over his eyes was still covered with
+hoar-frost that had no chance of thawing in that cold, damp room, the
+wall of which glistened like the sides of some dripping cave.</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli was a well-fed fellow, with strongly protruding eyes, which
+seemed almost to jump out of their sockets as he stared at us for
+bursting in upon him without knocking.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where does it 'burn?'" were his first words to M&aacute;rton.</p>
+
+<p>"Gently, old fellow; don't make a noise. There is other trouble! You are
+betrayed and they will pinch the young gentleman at the frontier."</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli was really scared for a moment. A tremendous three-cornered chunk
+of bread that he had just thrust in his mouth stuck there staring
+frightenedly at us like M&oacute;czli himself and looking for all the world as
+if a second nose was going to grow on his face; however he soon came to
+himself, continued the munching process, gulped it all down, and then
+drank a huge draught out of a monstrous glass, his protruding eyes being
+all the while fixed on me.</p>
+
+<p>"I surely thought there was a fire somewhere, and I must go for a
+fire-pump again with my horses.&mdash;I must always go for the pump, if a
+fire breaks out anywhere. Even if there is a fire in the mill quarter,
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> is only me they drive out: why does not the town keep horses of her
+own?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear, M&oacute;czli," M&aacute;rton interrupted, "don't talk to me now of the
+town pumps don't sprinkle your throat either, for it's not there that it
+is burning, but your back will be burning immediately, if you don't
+listen to me. Her ladyship's husband learned all. They will forestall
+the young gentleman at the frontier, and bring him back."</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli endeavored to display a calm countenance, though his eyes belied
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"What 'young gentleman' do you mean, and what 'ladyship?'"</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton bent over him and whispered,</p>
+
+<p>"M&oacute;czli, you don't want to make a fool of yourself before me, surely.
+Was it not you that took away B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's wife in the company of a
+young gentleman? Your number is on your back: do you think no one can
+see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I did take them off, where did I drive them to? Why to the ball."</p>
+
+<p>"A fine ball, indeed. You know they want to arrest the 'juratus.' He
+will find one for you soon where they play better music. Here is his
+younger brother, just come from seeing his lordship, who told him his
+wife had eloped with the young gentleman whom they would search for in
+every direction."</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli was at this moment deeply engaged in picking his teeth. First
+with his tongue, then with his fingers, until he found a wisp of straw
+with which to clean them, and at which, like drowning people, he
+clutched to save himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, do you think I care: anyone may send for anyone else for all I
+mind. I have seen no one, have taken no one away. And if I did take
+someone, what business of mine is it to know what the one is doing with
+the other? And even if I did know that someone has eloped with someone
+else's wife, what business is it of mine? I am no 'syndic' that I should
+bother my head to ask questions about it: I carry woman or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> man, who
+pays, according to the tariff of fares. Otherwise I know absolutely
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good-bye, and God bless you, M&oacute;czli," said M&aacute;rton hastily. "If
+you don't know about it, someone else must know about it. However, we
+didn't come here to gaze into your dreamy eyes, but to free this young
+gentleman's brother: we shall search among the other fiacres, until we
+find the right one, for it is a critical business: and if we find that
+fiacre in which the young fellow came to harm and cannot manage to
+secure his escape, I would not like to be in his shoes."</p>
+
+<p>"In whose shoes?" inquired M&oacute;czli, terrified.</p>
+
+<p>"In the young gentleman's not at all, but still less in the
+fiacre-driver's. Well, good-night, M&oacute;czli."</p>
+
+<p>At these words M&oacute;czli leaped up from his chair and sprang after M&aacute;rton.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment: don't be a fool. Come with me. Take your seats in my
+fiacre. But the devil take me if I have seen, heard or said anything."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he removed the rugs from his horses, placed me inside the
+carriage, covering me with a rug, took M&aacute;rton beside him on the box, and
+drove desperately along the bank of the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>Long did I see the lamps of the bridge glittering in the water; then
+suddenly the road turned abruptly, and, to judge by the almost
+intolerable shaking of the carriage and the profound darkness, we had
+entered one of those alleys, the paving of which is counted among the
+curses of civilization, the street-lamps being entrusted to the care of
+future generations.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage suddenly proceeded more heavily: perhaps we were ascending
+a hill: the whip was being plied more vigorously every moment on the
+horses' backs: then suddenly the carriage stopped.</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli commenced to whistle as if to amuse himself, at which I heard the
+creaking of a gate, and we drove into some courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>When the carriage stopped, the coachman leaped off the box, and
+addressed me through the window.</p>
+
+<p>"We are here: at the end of the courtyard is a small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> room; a candle is
+burning in the window. The young gentleman is there."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the woman with him too?" I inquired softly.</p>
+
+<p>"No. She is at the 'White Wolf,' waiting with the speedy peasant cart,
+until I bring the gentleman with whom she must speak first."</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot come yet, for the performance is not yet over."</p>
+
+<p>M&oacute;czli opened his eyes still further.</p>
+
+<p>"You know that too?"</p>
+
+<p>I hastened across the long dark courtyard and found the door of the
+little room referred to. A head was to be seen at the lighted window.
+Lorand was standing there melting the ice on the panes with his breath,
+that he might see when the person he was expecting arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Oh how he must have loved her. What a desperate struggle awaited me!</p>
+
+<p>When he saw me from the window, he disappeared from it, and hurried to
+meet me.</p>
+
+<p>At the door we met and in astonishment he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"How did you get here?"</p>
+
+<p>I said nothing, but embraced him, and determined that even if he cut me
+in pieces, I would never part from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you come after me? How did you find your way hither?"</p>
+
+<p>I saw he was annoyed. He was displeased that I had come.</p>
+
+<p>"Those, who saw you take your seat in a carriage, directed me."</p>
+
+<p>He visibly shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"Who saw me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid. Someone who will not betray you."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you want? Why did you come after me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know, dear Lorand, when we left home mother whispered in my ear,
+'take care of Lorand,' when grandmother left us here, she whispered in
+my ear,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> 'take care of your brother.' They will ask me to give account
+of how I loved you. And what shall I tell them, if they ask me 'where
+were you when Lorand stood in direst danger?'"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was touched; he pressed me close to his heart, saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But, how can you help me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I only know that I shall follow you, wherever you go."</p>
+
+<p>This very naive answer roused Lorand to anger.</p>
+
+<p>"You will go to hell with me! Do I want irons on my feet to hinder my
+steps when I scarce know myself whither I shall fly? I know not how to
+rescue myself, and must I rescue you too?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was in a violent rage and strove to shake me off from him. Yet I
+would not leave go of him.</p>
+
+<p>"What if I intend to rescue you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You?" he said, looking at me, and thrusting his hands in his pockets.
+"What part of me will you defend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your honor, Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand drew back at these words.</p>
+
+<p>"My honor?"</p>
+
+<p>"And mine:&mdash;You know that father left us one in common, one we cannot
+divide&mdash;his unsullied name. It is entirely mine, just as it is entirely
+yours."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand shrugged his shoulders indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be yours entirely: I give over my claim."</p>
+
+<p>This indifference towards the most sacred ideas quite embittered me. I
+was beside myself, I must break out.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, because you wish to take the name of a wandering actor, and to
+elope with a woman who has a husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you?" Lorand exclaimed, standing before me with clenched
+fists.</p>
+
+<p>I was far from being afraid of anyone: I answered coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"That woman's husband."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was silent and began to walk feverishly up and down the narrow,
+short, little room. Suddenly he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> stopped, and half aside addressed me,
+always in the same passionate tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Desi, you are still a child."</p>
+
+<p>"I know."</p>
+
+<p>"There are things which cannot yet be explained to you."</p>
+
+<p>"On such subjects you may hold your peace."</p>
+
+<p>"You have spoken with that woman's husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said, you had eloped with his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is why you came after me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Now what do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to leave that woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you lost your senses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mine? Not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish perhaps to hint that I have lost mine: it is possible, very
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he sat down beside the table, and leaning his chin on his
+hands, began to gaze abstractedly into the candle-flames like some real
+lunatic.</p>
+
+<p>I stepped up to him, and laid my head on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Lorand, you are angry with me."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Only tell me what else you know."</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish I will leave you here and return."</p>
+
+<p>"Do as you wish."</p>
+
+<p>"And what shall I tell dear mother, if she asks questions about you?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand dispiritedly turned his head away from me.</p>
+
+<p>"You wrote to me to cheer and comfort mother and grandmother:&mdash;tell me
+then, what shall I write to them, if they enquire after you?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand answered defiantly,</p>
+
+<p>"Write that Lorand is dead."</p>
+
+<p>At his answer the blood boiled within me. I seized my brother's hands
+and cried to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, till now the fathers were suicides in our family: do you wish
+that the mothers should continue the list?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a pitiless remark of mine, I knew. Lorand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> commenced to shiver, I
+felt it. He stood up before me and became so pale.</p>
+
+<p>I wished I had addressed him more gently.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear brother Lorand, could you bear to become responsible for a
+mother, who left her child, and for another who died for her child?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand clasped his hands and bowed his head.</p>
+
+<p>"If you only knew what you are saying to me now?" he said with such
+bitter reproach that I can never forget it.</p>
+
+<p>"But I have not yet told you all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know? As yet you are happy&mdash;your life mere play&mdash;passion
+does not yet trouble you. But I am already lost, through what, you have
+no idea, and may you never have!"</p>
+
+<p>How he must love that woman!</p>
+
+<p>It would have cost me few words to make him hate and despise her, but I
+did not wish to break his heart. I had other means with which to steel
+his heart, that he might wake up, as from a delirious dream, to another
+life.</p>
+
+<p>I too had had visions about my piano-playing beauty: but I had forgotten
+that ideal for ever and ever, for being able to play, after she knew her
+mother had run away.&mdash;But that was mere childish love, a child's
+thought&mdash;-there is something, however, in the heart which is awakened
+earlier, and dies later than passion, that is a feeling of honor, and I
+had as much of that as Lorand: let us see whose was the stronger.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, I don't know what enchantment it was, with which this woman
+could lure you after her. But I know that I too have a magic word, which
+will tear you from her."</p>
+
+<p>"Your magic word?&mdash;Do you wish to speak of mother? Do you wish to stand
+in my way with her name?&mdash;Do so.&mdash;The only effect you will produce, by
+worrying me very much, will be that I shall blow my brains out here
+before you: but from that woman you can never tear me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention to speak of poor mother. It is a different subject
+I have in mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Something, or someone else."</p>
+
+<p>"It is B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, for whose sake you are going to leave this woman."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I am afraid of B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's prosecution?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has no intention of prosecuting you. He has been very considerate to
+his wife in similar cases. Well, don't knit your eyebrows so; I am not
+saying a word about his wife. I have no business with women. B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy
+will not prosecute you, he will merely tell the world what has happened
+to him."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, with a bitter smile of scorn, asked me:</p>
+
+<p>"What will he relate to the world?"</p>
+
+<p>"That his wife broke open his safe, stole his jewels, and his ready
+money, and eloped with a young man."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand turned abruptly to me like one whom a snake has bitten,</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"That his faithless wife in company with a young man, whom he had
+treated like his own child, has stolen his money, and then run away,
+like a thief&mdash;with her companion in theft!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand clutched at the table for support.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, don't say any more."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall. I have seen the safes, empty, in which the family treasures
+were wont to be piled. I heard from the cabman, who handed in her
+travelling bag after her that 'it must have been full of gold, it was so
+heavy.'"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's face was burning now like the clouds of a storm-swept sky at
+sunset.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you have the bag in your hands?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word more!" Lorand cried, pressing my arm so that it pained me.
+"That woman shall never see me again."</p>
+
+<p>Then he sank upon the table and sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>How glad I felt that I had been able to move him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Soon he raised his tear-stained face, stood up, came to me, embraced and
+kissed me.</p>
+
+<p>"You have conquered!&mdash;Now tell me what else you want with me?"</p>
+
+<p>I was incapable of uttering a word, so oppressed was my heart in my
+delight, my anguish. It was no child's play, this. Fate is not wont to
+entrust such a struggle to a child's hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother, dear!" more I could not say: I felt as he must have when he
+brought me up from the bottom of the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not allow anyone," he whispered, "to utter such a calumny
+against me."</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not let them degrade me before mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall defend you. You see that after all I am capable of defending
+you.&mdash;But time is precious:&mdash;they are prosecuting you for another crime
+too, you know, from which to escape is a duty. There is not a moment to
+lose. Fly!<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Whither? I cannot take new misfortunes to mother's house."</p>
+
+<p>"I have an idea. We have a relation of whom we have heard much, far off
+in the interior of the country, where they will never look for you,
+since we were never on good terms with him, Uncle Top&aacute;ndy."</p>
+
+<p>"That infidel?" exclaimed Lorand; then he added bitterly, "It was a good
+idea of yours, indeed: I shall have a very good place in the house of an
+atheist, who lives at enmity with the whole earth, and with Heaven
+besides."</p>
+
+<p>"There you will be well hidden."</p>
+
+<p>"Well and for ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that. This danger will pass away."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, Desi," said Lorand severely. "I shall abide by what you
+say: I shall go away, without once looking behind: I shall bury myself,
+but on one condition, which you must accept, or I shall go to the
+nearest police station and report myself."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you wish?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That you shall never tell either mother or grandmother, where I have
+gone to."</p>
+
+<p>"Never?" I inquired, frightenedly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, only after ten years, ten years from to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me: only give me your word of honor to keep my secret. If you
+do not do so, you will inflict a heavy sorrow on me, and on all our
+family."</p>
+
+<p>"But if circumstances change?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said, not for ten years. And, if the whole world should dance with
+delight, still keep peace and don't call for me, or put my mother on my
+tracks. I have a special reason for my desire, and that reason I cannot
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"But if they ask me, if they weep before me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them nothing ails me, I am in a good place. I shall take another
+name, <a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a>B&aacute;lint T&aacute;tray. Top&aacute;ndy also shall know me under that name. I
+shall find my way to his place as bailiff, or servant, whichever he will
+accept me as, and then I shall write to you once every month. You will
+tell my loved ones at home what you know of me. And they will love you
+twice as well for it: they will love you in place of me."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> A name peculiarly <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Maygar&quot; has been changed to &quot;Magyar&quot;">Magyar</span>.</p></div>
+
+<p>I hesitated. It was a difficult promise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you love me, you must undertake it for my sake."</p>
+
+<p>I clung to him and said I would undertake to keep the secret. For ten
+years I would not say before mother or grandmother where their dearest
+son had gone.</p>
+
+<p>Would they reach the end of those ten years?</p>
+
+<p>"You undertake that&mdash;on your word of honor?" said Lorand, gazing deeply
+into my eyes; <span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to this sentence.">"</span>on that honor by which you just now so proudly appealed
+to me? Look, the whole &Aacute;ronffy name is borne by you alone. Do you
+undertake it for the honor of that whole name, not to mention this
+secret before mother or grandmother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do&mdash;on my word of honor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He grasped my hand. He trusted so much to that word!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now be quick. The carriage is waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"Carriage? With that I cannot travel far. Besides it is unnecessary. I
+have two good legs, they will carry me, if necessary, to the end of the
+world, without demanding payment afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>I took a little purse, on the outside of which mother had worked a
+design, from my pocket, and wished to slip it into Lorand's side-pocket
+without attracting attention.</p>
+
+<p>He discovered it.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little money. I thought you might want it for the journey."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come by it?" enquired my brother in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you know, you yourself paid me two twenties a sheet, when I copied
+those writings."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have kept it?"&mdash;Lorand opened the purse, and saw within it
+about twenty florins. He began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>How glad I was to see him laugh now, I cannot tell you, his laughter
+infected me too, then I do not know why, but we laughed together, very
+good-spiritedly. Now as I write these words the tears stand in my
+eyes&mdash;and I did laugh so heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you have made a millionaire of me."</p>
+
+<p>Then cheerfully he put my purse into his pocket. And I did not know what
+to do in my delight at Lorand's accepting my money.</p>
+
+<p>"Now comrade mine, I could go to the end of the world. I don't have to
+play 'armen reisender'<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> on the way."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> Poor traveller.</p></div>
+
+<p>When we stepped out again through the low door into the narrow dark
+courtyard, M&aacute;rton and M&oacute;czli were standing in astonishment before us.
+Anyone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>could see they could not comprehend what they had seen by
+peeping through the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here," said M&oacute;czli, touching the brim of his hat, "where shall I
+drive, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just drive where you were told to," said Lorand, "take him for whom you
+were sent, to her who sent you for him.&mdash;I am going in another
+direction."</p>
+
+<p>At these words M&aacute;rton grasped my arm so savagely I almost cried out with
+pain. It was his peculiar method of showing his approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, sir," said M&oacute;czli, without asking any further questions, and
+clambering up onto the box.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment," Lorand exclaimed, taking out his purse. "Let no one say
+that you were paid for any services you did me with other people's
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"Wha-at?" roughly grumbled M&oacute;czli. "Pay me? Am I a 'Han&aacute;k fuvaros'<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a>
+that someone should pay me for helping a 'juratus' to escape? That has
+never happened yet."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a> A Slavonian coachman who hires out his coach and
+carriages.</p></div>
+
+<p>With that he whipped up his horses, and drove out of the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the trump for you," said M&aacute;rton, "that's M&oacute;czli. I know M&oacute;czli,
+he's a sharp fellow, without him we should never have found our way
+here. Well, sir, and whither now?"</p>
+
+<p>This remark was made to Lorand. My brother was acquainted with the
+jesting old fellow, and had often heard his humorous anecdotes, when he
+came to see me.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events away from Pressburg, old man."</p>
+
+<p>"But which way? I think the best would be over the bridge, through the
+park."</p>
+
+<p>"But very many people pass there. Someone might recognize me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then straight along the Danube, down-stream; by morning you will reach
+the ferry at M&uuml;hlau, where they will ferry you over for two kreuzers.
+Have you some change? You must always have that. Men on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>foot must
+always pay in copper, or they will be suspected. It's a pity I didn't
+know sooner, I could have lent you a passport. You might have travelled
+as a baker's assistant."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall travel as a 'leg&aacute;tus.'<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a>"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> A travelling preacher. A kind of missionary sent out by
+the "Legatio."</p></div>
+
+<p>"That will do finely."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime we reached the end of the street. Lorand wished to bid us
+farewell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said M&aacute;rton, "we shall accompany you to the outskirts of the
+town; we cannot leave you alone until you are in a secure place, on the
+high-road. Do you know what? You two go on in advance and I shall remain
+close behind, pretending to be a little drunk. Patrols are in the
+street. If I sing loudly they will waste their attention on me, and will
+not bother you. If necessary, I shall pitch into them, and while they
+are running me in, you can go on. To you, Master Lorand, I give my stick
+for the journey. It's a good, honest stick. I have tramped all over
+Germany with it. Well, God bless you."</p>
+
+<p>The old fellow squeezed Lorand's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a mind to say something. But I shall say nothing. It is well
+just as it is,&mdash;I shall say nothing. God bless you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith the old man dropped back, and began to brawl some yodling air
+in the street, and to thump the doors with his fists, in accompaniment,
+like some drunken reveller.</p>
+
+<p>"Hai-dia-do."</p>
+
+<p>Taking each other's hand we hastened on. The streets were already very
+dark here.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the town are barracks, before which we had to pass: the
+cry of the sentinel sounded in the distance. "Who goes there? Guard
+out!" and soon behind our backs we heard the squadron of horsemen
+clattering on the pavement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton did just as he had said. He pitched into the guard. Soon we heard
+a dream-disturbing uproar, as he fell into a noisy discussion with the
+armed authorities.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a citizen! A peaceful, harmless citizen! Fugias Mathias (this to
+us)! Ten glasses of beer are not the world! I am a citizen, Fugias
+Mathias is my name! I will pay for every thing. If I have broken any
+bottles I will pay for them. Who says I am shouting? I am singing.
+'Hai-dia-do;' let any one who doesn't like it try to sing more
+beautifully himself!"</p>
+
+<p>We were already outside of the town, and still we heard the terrible
+noise which he made in his self-sacrifice for our sakes.</p>
+
+<p>As we came out into the open, we were both able to breathe more freely;
+the starry sky is a good shelter.</p>
+
+<p>The cold, too, compelled us to hasten. We had walked a good half-hour
+among the vineyards, when suddenly something occurred to Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"How long do you wish to accompany me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until day breaks. In this darkness I should not dare to return to the
+town alone."</p>
+
+<p>Now he became anxious for me too. What could he do with me? Should he
+let me go home alone at midnight through these clusters of houses in
+that suburb of ill-repute. Or should he take me miles on his way with
+him? From there I should have to return alone in any case.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a carriage approached rapidly, and as it passed before
+us, somebody leaped down upon us from the back seat, and laughing came
+where we were beside the hedge.</p>
+
+<p>In him we recognized old M&aacute;rton.</p>
+
+<p>"I have found you after all," said the old fellow, smiling. "What a fine
+time I have had. They really thought I was drunk. I quarrelled with
+them. That was the 'gaude!' They tugged and pulled, and beat my back
+with the flat of their sabres: it was something glorious!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how did you escape?" I asked, not finding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> that entertainment to
+the accompaniment of sabre-blows so glorious.</p>
+
+<p>"When I saw a carriage approaching, I leaped out from their midst and
+climbed up behind:&mdash;nor did they give me a long chase. I soon got away
+from them."</p>
+
+<p>The good old man was quite content with the fine amusement which he had
+procured for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"But now we must really say adieu, Master Lorand. Don't go the same way
+as the carriage went: cut across the road here in the hills to the lower
+road; you can breakfast at the first inn you come to: you will reach it
+by dawn. Then go in the direction of the sunrise."</p>
+
+<p>We embraced each other. We had to part. And who knew for how long?</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton was nervous. "Let us go! Let Lorand too hurry on <i>his</i> way."</p>
+
+<p>Why, ten years is a very long way. By that time we should be growing
+old.</p>
+
+<p>"Love mother in my place. Then remember your word of honor." Lorand
+whispered these words. Then he kissed me and in a few moments had
+disappeared from my sight down the lower road among the hills.</p>
+
+<p>Who knew when I should see him again?</p>
+
+<p>M&aacute;rton's laugh awoke me from my reverie.</p>
+
+<p>"You know&mdash;" he inquired with a voice that showed his inclination to
+laugh&mdash;"You know ha! ha&mdash;you know why I told Master Lorand not to go in
+the same direction as the carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not recognize the coachman? It was M&oacute;czli."</p>
+
+<p>"M&oacute;czli?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who was inside the carriage?&mdash;Guess!&mdash;Well, it was Madame."</p>
+
+<p>"B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same&mdash;with that certain actor."</p>
+
+<p>"With whose passport Lorand was to have eloped?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well if one is on his way to elope&mdash;it is all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> same:&mdash;one must have
+a companion, if not the one, then the other.'"</p>
+
+<p>It was all a fable to me. But such a mysterious fable that it sent a
+cold chill all over me.</p>
+
+<p>"But where could they go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?&mdash;Well, as far as the frontier, perhaps. Anyhow, as far as the
+contents of that bag, which M&oacute;czli handed into the carriage after her
+ladyship, will last.&mdash;Hai-dia-do."</p>
+
+<p>Now it was really exuberance of spirits that made old M&aacute;rton sing in
+Tyrolese manner, that refrain, "hai-hai-dia-hia-do."</p>
+
+<p>He actually danced on the dusty road&mdash;a galop.</p>
+
+<p>Was it possible? That madonna face, than which I have never seen a more
+beautiful, more enchanting&mdash;either before or since that day!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>"PAROLE D'HONNEUR"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Two days after Lorand's disappearance a travelling coach stopped before
+Mr. Fromm's house. From the window I recognized coach-horses and
+coachman: it was ours.</p>
+
+<p>Some one of our party had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened down into the street, where Father Fromm was already trying
+very excitedly to turn the leather curtain that was fastened round the
+coach....</p>
+
+<p>No, not "some one!" the whole family was here! All who had remained at
+home. Mother, grandmother, and the Fromms' Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>Actually mother had come: poor mother!</p>
+
+<p>We had to lift her from the carriage: she was utterly broken down. She
+seemed ten years older than when I had last seen her.</p>
+
+<p>When she had descended, she leaned upon Fanny on the one side, on the
+other upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Only let us go in, into the house!" grandmother urged us on, convinced
+that poor mother would collapse in the street.</p>
+
+<p>All who had arrived were very quiet: they scarcely answered me, when I
+greeted them. We led mother up into the room, where we had had our first
+reception.</p>
+
+<p>Mother Fromm and grandmother Fromm were not knitting stockings on this
+occasion; it seemed they were prepared for this appearance. They too
+received my parents very quietly and solemnly: as if everyone were
+convinced that the first word addressed by anyone to this broken-down,
+propped up figure would immediately reduce it to ashes, as the story
+goes about some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> figures they have found in old tombs. And yet she had
+come on this long, long journey. She had not waited for the weather to
+grow warmer. She had started in the teeth of a raw, freezing spring
+wind, when she heard that Lorand was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, is there any plummet to sound the depths of a mother's love?</p>
+
+<p>Poor mother did try so hard to appear strong. It was so evident, that
+she was struggling to combat with her nervous attacks, just in the very
+moment which awoke every memory before her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Quietly, my daughter&mdash;quietly," said grandmother. "You know what you
+promised: you promised to be strong. You know there is need of strength.
+Don't give yourself over. Sit down."</p>
+
+<p>Mother sat down near the table where they led her, then let her head
+fall on her two arms, and, as she had promised not to weep&mdash;she did not
+weep.</p>
+
+<p>It was piteous to see her sorrowful figure as, in this strange house,
+she was leaning over the table with her face buried in her hands in mute
+despair; determined, however, not to cry, for so she had promised.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone kept at a distance from her: great sorrow commands great
+respect. Only one person ventured to remain close to her, one of whom I
+had not even taken notice as yet,&mdash;Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>When she had taken off her travelling cloak I found she was dressed
+entirely in blue. Once that had been my mother's favorite color; father
+too had been exceedingly fond of it. She stood at mother's side and
+whispered something into her ear, at which mother raised her head and,
+like one who returns from the other world, sighed deeply, seemed to come
+to herself, and said with a peaceful smile, turning to the host and
+hostess:</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, I was exceedingly abstracted." Merely to hear her speak
+agonized me greatly. Then she turned to Fanny, embraced her, kissed her
+forehead twice, and said to the Fromms,</p>
+
+<p>"You will agree, will you not, to Fanny's staying a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> little longer with
+me? She is already like a child of my own."</p>
+
+<p>I was no longer jealous of Fanny. I saw how happy she made mother, if
+she could embrace her.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny again whispered something in mother's ear, at which mother rose,
+and seemed quite herself again: she approached Mrs. Fromm resolutely,
+with no faltering steps, and grasping both her hands, said, "I thank
+you," and once again repeated whisperingly, "I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>All this I regarded speechlessly from a corner. I feared my mother's
+gaze inexpressibly.</p>
+
+<p>Then grandmother interrupted,</p>
+
+<p>"We have no time to lose, my daughter. If you are capable of coming at
+once, come."</p>
+
+<p>Mother nodded assent with her head, and gazed continually upon Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile Fanny remains here," added grandmother. "But Desiderius comes
+with us."</p>
+
+<p>At these words mother looked at me, as if it had only just occurred to
+her that I too was here, still it was Fanny's fair curls only that she
+continued stroking.</p>
+
+<p>Father Fromm hurriedly sent Henrik for a cab. Not a soul asked us where
+we were going. Everyone wondered, where, and why? What purpose? But,
+only I knew what would be the end of to-day's journey.</p>
+
+<p>I did not distress myself about it. I waited merely until my turn should
+come. I knew nothing could happen without me.</p>
+
+<p>The cab was there, and the Fromms led mother down the steps. They set
+her down first of all, and, when we were all seated; Father Fromm called
+to the cabman:</p>
+
+<p>"To the house of B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy!"</p>
+
+<p>He knew well that we must go there now. During the whole journey there
+we did not exchange a single word: what could those two have said to me?</p>
+
+<p>When we stopped before B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's residence, it seemed to me, my
+mother was endowed with a quite youthful strength; she went before us,
+her face burning, her step elastic, her head carried on high.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I don't know whether it was our good fortune, or whether my parents'
+arrival had been announced previously, but the P.&nbsp;C. was at home, when
+we came to look for him.</p>
+
+<p>I was curious to see with what countenance he would receive us.</p>
+
+<p>I knew already much about him, that I ought never to have known.</p>
+
+<p>As we stepped into his room, he came to meet us, with more courtesy than
+pleasure apparent on his countenance. Some kind of displeasure strove to
+display itself thereon, but it was just as if he had studied the
+expression for hours in the mirror; it seemed to be an artificial,
+affected, calculated <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;dispeasure&quot; has been changed to &quot;displeasure&quot;">displeasure</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Mother straightway hastened to him, and taking both his hands,
+impetuously introduced the conversation with these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my son Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>My right honorable uncle shrugged his shoulders, and with gracious mien
+answered this mother's passionate outburst:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear lady cousin, it is I who ought to urge that question; for it is
+my duty to prosecute your son. And if I answer that I do not know where
+he is, I think thereby I shall display the most kinsmanlike feeling."</p>
+
+<p>"Why prosecute my son?" said mother, tremblingly. "Is it possible to
+eternally ruin anyone for a mere schoolboy escapade?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not one but many 'schoolboy escapades' justify me in my action: it is
+not merely in my official capacity that I am bound to prosecute him."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this, B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy fixed his eyes sharply upon me: I did not
+wince before him. I knew I had the right and the power to withstand his
+gaze. Soon my turn would come.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked mother. "What reason could you have to prosecute him?"</p>
+
+<p>B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy shrugged his shoulders more than ever, bitterly smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know, in truth, how to tell you this story,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> if you don't
+know already. I thought you were acquainted with all the facts. He who
+told you the news of the young man's disappearance, wrote to you also
+the reasons for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said mother, "I know all. The misfortune is great: but there is
+no ignominy."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" interrupted B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, drawing his shoulders derisively
+together: "I did not know that such conduct was not considered
+ignominious in the provinces. Indeed I did not. A young man, a law
+student, a mere stripling, shows his gratitude for the fatherly
+thoughtfulness of a man of position,&mdash;who had received him into his
+house as a kinsman, treating him as one of the family,&mdash;by seducing and
+eloping with his wife, and helping her to break open his money-chest,
+and steal his jewelry, disappearing with the shameless woman beyond the
+confines of the country. Oh, really, I did not know that they did not
+consider that a crime deserving of prosecution!"</p>
+
+<p>Poor mother was shattered at this double accusation, as if she had been
+twice struck by thunder-bolts, and deadly pale clutched at grandmother's
+hand. The latter had herself in this moment grown as white as her
+grizzled hair. She took up the conversation in mother's place, for
+mother was no longer capable of speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say? Lorand a seducer of women?"</p>
+
+<p>"To my sorrow, he is. He has eloped with my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"And thief?"</p>
+
+<p>"A harsh word, but I can give him no other name."</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, gently, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can see that hitherto I have behaved very quietly. I have not
+even made a noise about my loss: yet, besides the destruction of my
+honor, I have other losses.</p>
+
+<p>"This faithless deed has robbed me and my daughter of 5,000 florins.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a>
+If the matter only touched me, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>would disdain to notice it: but that
+sum was the savings of my little daughter."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> Above &pound;415&mdash;$2,000.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Sir, that sum shall be repaid you," said grandmother, "but I beg you
+not to say another word on the subject before this lady. You can see you
+are killing her with it."</p>
+
+<p>As she was speaking, B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy gazed intently at me, and in his gaze
+were many questions, all of which I could very well have answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I am surprised," he said at last, "that these revelations are entirely
+new to you. I thought that the same person who had acquainted you with
+Lorand's disappearance, had unfolded to you therewith all those critical
+circumstances, which caused his disappearance, seeing that I related all
+myself to that person."</p>
+
+<p>Now mother and grandmother too turned their gaze upon me.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother addressed me: "You did not write a word about all this to
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did you mention a word about it here when we arrived."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I told it all myself to my nephew."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you answer?" queried my grandmother impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>Mother could not speak: she merely wrung her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I had certain information that this accusation was groundless."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! you young imp!" exclaimed B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy in proud, haughty tones.</p>
+
+<p>"From beginning to end groundless," I repeated calmly; although every
+muscle of mine was trembling from excitement. But you should have seen,
+how mother and grandmother rushed into my arms: how they grasped one my
+right, the other my left hand, as drowning men clutch at the rescuer's
+hands, and how that proud angry man stood before me with flashing eyes.
+All sobriety had left the three, together they cried to me in voices of
+impetuousity, of anger, of mad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>ness, of hope, of joy: "speak! tell us
+what you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you.&mdash;When his lordship acquainted me with these two
+terrible charges against Lorand, I at once started off to find my
+brother. Two honorable poor men came in my way to help me find him: two
+poor workmen, who left their work to help me to save a lost life. The
+same will be my witness that what I relate is all true and happened just
+as I tell you: one is M&aacute;rton Braun, the baker's man, the other Matthias
+Fleck."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife's coachman," interrupted the P.&nbsp;C.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He conducted me to where Lorand was temporarily concealed. He
+related to me that her ladyship was elsewhere. He had taken her ladyship
+across the frontier&mdash;without Lorand. My brother started at the same time
+on foot, without money, towards the interior of Hungary: M&aacute;rton and I
+accompanied him into the hills, and my pocket money, which he accepted
+from me, was the only money he had with him, and M&aacute;rton's walking stick
+was the only travelling companion that accompanied him further."</p>
+
+<p>I noticed that mother kneeled beside me and kissed me.</p>
+
+<p>That kiss I received for Lorand's sake.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not true!" yelled B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy; "he disappeared with my wife. I
+have certain information that this woman passed the frontier with a
+young smooth-faced man and arrived with him in Vienna. That was Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>"It was not Lorand, but another."</p>
+
+<p>"Who could it have been?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible that you should not know? Well, I can tell you. That
+smoothed-faced man who accompanied her ladyship to Vienna was the German
+actor Bleissberg;&mdash;and not for the first time."</p>
+
+<p>Ha, ha! I had stabbed him to the heart: right to the middle of the
+liver, where pride dwells. I had thrust such a dart into him, as he
+would never be able to draw out. I did not care if he slew me now.</p>
+
+<p>And he looked as if he felt very much like doing it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>&mdash;but who would have
+dared touch me and face the wrath of those two women&mdash;no&mdash;lionesses,
+standing next to me on either side! They seemed ready to tear anyone to
+pieces who ventured as much as lay a finger on me.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," said mother, pressing my hand. "We have nothing more to do
+here."&mdash;Mother passed out first: they took me in the middle and
+grandmother, turning back addressed a categorical "adieu" to B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy,
+whom we left to himself.</p>
+
+<p>My cousin Melanie was playing that cavatina even now, though now I did
+not care to stop and listen to it. That piano was a good idea after all;
+quarrels and disputes in the house were prevented thereby from being
+heard in the street.</p>
+
+<p>When we were again seated in the cab, mother pressed me passionately to
+her, and smothered me with kisses.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how I feared her kisses! She kissed me because she would soon ask
+questions about Lorand. And I could not answer them.</p>
+
+<p>"You were obedient: you took care of your poor brother: you helped him:
+my dear child." Thus she kept whispering continually to me.</p>
+
+<p>I dared not be affected.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me now, where is Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>I had known she would ask that. In anguish I drew away from her and kept
+looking around me.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Lorand?"</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother remarked my anguish.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave him alone," she hinted to mother. "We are not yet in a
+sufficiently safe place: the driver might hear. Wait until we get home."</p>
+
+<p>So I had time until we arrived home. What would happen there? How could
+I avoid answering their questions.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had we returned to Master Fromm's house, scarce had Fanny
+brought us into a room which had been prepared for my parents, when my
+poor mother again fell upon my neck, and with melancholy gladness asked
+me:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You know where Lorand is?"</p>
+
+<p>How easy it would have been for me to answer "I know not!" But what
+should I have gained thereby? Had I done so, I could never have told her
+what Lorand wrote from a distance, how he greeted and kissed them a
+thousand times!</p>
+
+<p>"I know, mother dear.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Tell me quickly, where he is."</p>
+
+<p>"He is in a safe place, mother dear," said I encouragingly, and hastened
+to tell all I might relate.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand is in his native land in a safe place, where he has nothing to
+fear: with a relation of ours, who will love and protect him."</p>
+
+<p>"But when will you tell us where he is?"</p>
+
+<p>"One day, soon, mother dear."</p>
+
+<p>"But when? When? Why not at once? When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Soon,&mdash;in ten years."&mdash;I could scarce utter the words.</p>
+
+<p>Both were horrified at my utterance.</p>
+
+<p>"Desi, do you wish to play some joke upon us?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it were only a joke? It is true: a very heavy truth! I promised
+Lorand to tell neither mother nor grandmother, for ten years, where he
+is living."</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother seemed to understand it all: she hinted with a look to Fanny
+to leave us alone: she thought that I did not wish to reveal it before
+Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go Fanny," I said to her. "Even in your absence I cannot say more
+than I have already said."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in your senses then?" grandmother sternly addressed me thinking
+harsh words might do much with me. "Do you wish to play mysteries with
+us: surely you don't think we shall betray him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Desi," said mother, in that quiet, sweet voice of hers. "Be good."</p>
+
+<p>So, they were deceived in me. I was no longer that good child, who could
+be frightened by strong words, and tamed by a sweet tongue,&mdash;I had
+become a hard, cruel unfeeling boy:&mdash;they could not force me to
+confession.</p>
+
+<p>"That I cannot tell you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Not even to us?" they asked both together.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? That I do not know myself. But not even to you can I tell it.
+Lorand made me give him my word of honor, not to betray his
+whereabouts&mdash;not to his mother and grandmother. He said he had a great
+reason to ask this, and said any neglect of my promise would produce
+great misfortune. I gave him my word, and that word I must keep."</p>
+
+<p>Poor mother fell on her knees before me, embraced me, showered kisses
+upon me, and begged me so to tell her where Lorand was. She called me
+her dear "only" son: then burst into tears: and I,&mdash;could be so cruel as
+to answer to her every word, "No&mdash;no&mdash;no."</p>
+
+<p>I cannot describe this scene. I am incapable of reflecting thereupon. At
+last mother fainted, grandmother cursed me, and I left the room, and
+leaned against the door post.</p>
+
+<p>During this indescribable scene the whole household hastened to nurse my
+mother, who was suffering terrible pain; then they came to me one by
+one, and tried in turn their powers of persuasion upon me. First of all
+came Mother Fromm, to beg me very kindly to say that one word that would
+cure my mother at once; then came Grandmother Fromm with awful threats:
+then Father Fromm, who endeavored to persuade me with sage reasoning,
+declaring that my honor would really be greatest if I should now break
+my word!</p>
+
+<p>It was all quite useless. Surely no one knew how to beg, as my mother
+begged kneeling before me! No one could curse as my terrible grandmother
+had done, and no one knew the wickedness of my character as well as I
+did myself.</p>
+
+<p>Let them only give me peace! I could not tell them.</p>
+
+<p>Last of all Fanny came to me: leaned upon my shoulder, and began to
+stroke my hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Desi."</p>
+
+<p>I jerked my shoulder to be rid of her.</p>
+
+<p>"'Dear Desi,' indeed!&mdash;Call me 'wicked, bad, cursed Desi!'&mdash;that is what
+I am."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because no other name is possible. I promised because I was <i>obliged</i>
+to promise: and now I am keeping my word, because I promised."</p>
+
+<p>"Your poor mother says she will die, if you do not tell her where Lorand
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"And Lorand told me he will die if I do tell her. He told me that, when
+I discovered his whereabouts to mother or grandmother, he will either
+report himself at the nearest military station, or will shoot himself,
+according as he feels inclined. And in our family such promises are not
+wont to dissolve in thin air."</p>
+
+<p>"What might have been his reason for exacting such a promise from you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know. But I know he would not have done it without cause. I
+beg you to leave me."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," said Fanny, standing before me. "You said Lorand made
+you swear not to tell your mother or grandmother where he had gone to.
+He did not forbid you to tell another?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally not," I answered with irritated pride. "He knew all along
+that there has not yet been born into the world that other who could
+force the truth out of me with red-hot pincers."</p>
+
+<p>"But that other has been born," interrupted Fanny with wild earnestness.
+"Just twelve years, eight months and five days ago."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>"I should tell you? is that what you think?"</p>
+
+<p>I admired her audacity.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, me. For your parole forbids you to speak only to your mother
+and grandmother. You can tell me: and I shall tell them. You will not
+have told anybody anything, and they still will know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and are you 'nobody?'"</p>
+
+<p>Fanny gazed into my eyes, became serious, and with trembling lips said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish it&mdash;I am nobody. As if I had never been born."</p>
+
+<p>From that moment Fanny began to be "someone," in my eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Her little sophism pleased me. Perhaps on these terms we might come to
+an agreement.</p>
+
+<p>"You have asked something very difficult of me, Fanny; but it is not
+impossible. Only you must wait a little: give me time to think it over.
+Until I have done so, be our go-between. Go in and tell grandmother what
+you have recommended to me, and that I said in answer, 'it is well.'"</p>
+
+<p>I was cunning. I was dissembling. I thought in that moment, that, if
+Fanny should burst in childish glee into the neighboring room, and in
+triumphant voice proclaim the concession she had wrung out of me, I
+might tell her on her return the name of some place that did not exist,
+and so throw the responsibility off my own shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not do that.</p>
+
+<p>She went back quietly, and waited long, until her friends had retired by
+the opposite door: then she came and whispered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been long: but I did not wish to speak before my mother. Now
+your parents are alone: go and speak."</p>
+
+<p>"Something more first. Go back, Fanny, and say that I can tell them the
+truth, only on the condition that mother and grandmother promise not to
+seek him out, until I show them a letter from Lorand, in which he
+invites them to come to him: nor to send others in search of him: and,
+if they wish to send a letter to him, they must first give it to me,
+that I may send it off to him, and they never show, even by a look, to
+anyone that they know aught of Lorand's whereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny nodded assent, and returned into the neighboring room.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later she came out again, and held open the door before
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in."</p>
+
+<p>I went in. She shut the door after me, and then, taking my hand, led me
+to mother's bedside.</p>
+
+<p>Poor dear mother was now quiet, and pale as death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> She seemed to beckon
+me to her with her eyes. I went to her side, and kissed her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny bent over me, and held her face near my lips, that I might whisper
+in her ear what I knew.</p>
+
+<p>I told her all in a few words. She then bent over mother's pillow and
+whispered in her ear what she had heard from me.</p>
+
+<p>Mother sighed and seemed to be calmed. Then grandmother bent over dear
+mother, that she might learn from her all that had been said.</p>
+
+<p>As she heard it, her grey-headed figure straightened, and clasping her
+two hands above her head, she panted in wild prophetic ecstasy:</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord God! who entrustest Thy will to children: may it come to pass,
+as Thou hast ordained!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she came to me and embraced me.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you counsel Lorand to go there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know what you were doing? It was the will of God. Every day you
+must pray now for your brother."</p>
+
+<p>"And you must keep silent for him. For when he is discovered, my brother
+will die and I cannot live without him."</p>
+
+<p>The storm became calm: they again made peace with me. Mother, some
+minutes later, fell asleep, and slumbered sweetly. Grandmother motioned
+to Fanny and to me to leave her to herself.</p>
+
+<p>We let down the window-blinds and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>As we stepped out, I said to Fanny:</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, my honor has been put into your hands."</p>
+
+<p>The girl gazed into my eyes with ardent enthusiasm and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall guard it as I guard mine own."</p>
+
+<p>That was no child's answer, but the answer of a maiden.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>A GLANCE INTO A PISTOL-BARREL</h3>
+
+
+<p>The weather changed very rapidly, for all the world as if two evil
+demons were fighting for the earth: one with fire, the other with ice.
+It was the middle of May; it had become so sultry that the earth, which
+last week had been frozen to dry bones, now began to crack.</p>
+
+<p>The wanderer who disappeared from our sight we shall find on that plain
+of Lower Hungary, where there are as many high roads as cart-ruts.</p>
+
+<p>It is evening, but the sun had just set, and left a cloudless ruddy sky
+behind it. On the horizon two or three towers are to be seen so far
+distant that the traveller who is hurrying before us cannot hope to
+reach any one of them by nightfall.</p>
+
+<p>The dust had not so overlaid him, nor had the sun so tanned his face
+that we cannot recognize in these handsome noble features the pride of
+the youth of Pressburg, Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>The long journey he has accomplished has evidently not impaired the
+strength of his muscles, for the horseman who is coming behind him, has
+to ride hard to overtake him.</p>
+
+<p>The latter leaned back in his shortened stirrups, after the manner of
+hussars, and wore a silver-buttoned jacket, a greasy hat, and ragged red
+trousers. Thrown half over his shoulders was a garment of wolf-skins;
+around his waist was a wide belt from which two pistol-barrels gleamed,
+while in the leg of one of his boots a silver-chased knife was thrust.
+The horse's harness was glittering with silver, just as the ragged,
+stained garments of its master.</p>
+
+<p>The rider approached at a trot, but the traveller had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> not yet thought
+it worth while to look back and see who was coming after him. Presently
+he came up to the solitary figure, trudging along, doggedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, student."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looked up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, gypsy."</p>
+
+<p>At these words the horseman drew aside his skin-mantle that the student
+might see the pistol-barrels, and consider that even if he were a gypsy,
+he was something more than a mere musician. But Lorand did not betray
+the slightest emotion: he did not even take down from his shoulder the
+stick, on which he was carrying his boots. He was walking bare-footed.
+It was cheaper.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are proud of your red boots!" sneered the rider, looking down
+at Lorand's bare-feet.</p>
+
+<p>"It's easy for you to say so," was Lorand's sharp reply; "sitting on
+that hack."</p>
+
+<p>But "hack" means a kind of four-footed animal which this rider found no
+pleasure in hearing mentioned.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> The Magyar word has a double meaning; besides a horse it
+means a peculiar whipping-bench with which gypsies used to be
+particularly well acquainted.</p></div>
+
+<p>"My own training," he said proudly, as if in self-defence against this
+cutting remark.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I knew that even in my scapegrace days."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and where are you hobbling to now, student?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Csege, gypsy, to preach."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you get from the 'legatio' for that, student?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty silver florins, gypsy."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what, student? I have an idea&mdash;don't go just yet to Csege,
+but turn aside here to the shepherd's where you see that fold. Wait
+there for me till to-morrow, when I shall come back, and preach your
+sermon to me: I have never yet heard anything of the kind, and I'll give
+you forty florins for it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, gypsy; do you turn aside to yonder fold. Don't go just now to
+the farm, but wait a week for me; when I shall come back; then you can
+fiddle my favorite tune, and I'll give you ten florins for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am no musician," replied the horseman, extending his chest.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that rural fife doing at your side?" The gypsy roared at the
+idea of calling his musket a "rural fife!" Many had paid dearly so as
+not to hear its notes!</p>
+
+<p>"You student, you are a deuce of a fellow. Take a draught from my
+'noggin.'"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks, gypsy; it isn't spiritual enough to go with my sermon."<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> Lorand really quoted a sentence from a popular ditty, but
+it is impossible in such cases to do proper justice to the original.
+</p><p>
+The whole passage between Lorand and the gypsy is full of allusions
+intelligible only to Hungarians, <i>in Hungarian</i>, a proper rendering of
+which, in my opinion, baffles all attempts. Of course the force of the
+original is lost, but it is unavoidable.</p></div>
+
+<p>The gypsy laughed still more loudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good night, student."</p>
+
+<p>He drove his spurs into his horse and galloped on along the high-road.</p>
+
+<p>Then the evening drew in quietly. Lorand reached a grassy mound, shaded
+by juniper bushes. This spot he chose for his night-camp in preference
+to the wine-reeking, stenching rooms of the way-side inns. Putting on
+his boots, he drew from his wallet some bread and bacon, and commenced
+eating. He found it good: he was hungry and young.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he finished his repast when, along the same road on which
+the horseman had come, rapidly approached a five-in-hand. The three
+leaders were supplied with bells and their approach could be heard from
+afar off.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand called out to the coachman,</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment, fellow-countryman."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The coachman pulled up his horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Quickly," he said to Lorand, with a hoarse voice, "get up at once, sir
+'legatus,' beside me. The horses will not stand."</p>
+
+<p>"That was not what I wanted to say," remarked Lorand. "I did not want to
+ask you to take me up, but to tell you to be on your guard, for a
+highwayman has just gone on in front, and it would be ill to meet with
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you much money?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have I. Then why should we fear the robber?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps those who are sitting inside the carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship is sitting within and is now asleep. If I awake her and
+frighten her, and then we don't find the highwayman she will break the
+whip over my back. Get up here. It will be good to travel as far as
+Lankadomb in a carriage, 'sblood.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you live at Lankadomb?" asked Lorand in a tone of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I am Top&aacute;ndy's servant. He is a very fine fellow, and is very fond
+of people who preach."</p>
+
+<p>"I know him by reputation."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you know him by reputation, you will do well to make his
+personal acquaintance, too. Get up, now."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand put the meeting down as a lucky chance. Top&aacute;ndy's weakness was to
+capture men of a priestly turn of mind, keep them at his house and annoy
+them. That was just what he wanted, a pretext for meeting him.</p>
+
+<p>He clambered up beside the coachman and under the brilliance of the
+starry heaven, the five steeds, with merry tinkling of bells, rattled
+the carriage along the turfy road.</p>
+
+<p>The coachman told him they had come from Debreczen: they wished to reach
+Lankadomb in the morning, but on the way they would pass an inn, where
+the horses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> would receive feed, while her ladyship would have some cold
+lunch: and then they would proceed on their journey. Her ladyship always
+loved to travel by night, for then it was not so hot: besides she was
+not afraid of anything.</p>
+
+<p>It was about midnight when the carriage drew up at the inn mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand leaped down from the box, and hastened first into the inn, not
+wishing to meet the lady who was within the carriage. His heart beat
+loudly, when he caught a glimpse of that silver-harnessed horse in the
+inn-yard, saddled and bridled. The steed was not fastened up, but quite
+loose, and it gave a peculiar neigh as the coach arrived, at which there
+stepped out from a dark door the same man whom Lorand had met on the
+plain.</p>
+
+<p>He was utterly astonished to see Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"You are here already, student?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can see it with your own eyes, gypsy."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come so quickly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I ride on a dragon: I am a necromancer."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the occupants of the carriage had entered: her ladyship and
+a plump, red-faced maid-servant. The former was wrapped in a thick fur
+cloak, her head bound with a silken kerchief; the latter wore a short
+red mantle, fastened round her neck with a kerchief of many colors,
+while her hair was tied with ribbons. Her two hands were full of cold
+viands.</p>
+
+<p>"So that was it, eh?" said the rider, as he perceived them. "They
+brought you in their carriage." Then, he allowed the new-comers to enter
+the parlor peacefully, while he himself took his horse, and, leading it
+to the pump, pumped some water into the trough.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand began to think he was not the rascal he thought him, and he now
+proceeded into the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship threw back her fur cloak, took off the silken kerchief and
+put two candles before her. She trimmed them both, like one who "loves
+the beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>You might have called her face very beautiful: she had lively, sparkling
+eyes, strong brown complexion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> rosy lips, and arched eyebrows: it was
+right that such light as there was in the room should burn before her.</p>
+
+<p>In the darkness, on the long bench at the other end of the table, sat
+Lorand, who had ordered a bottle of wine, rather to avoid sitting there
+for nothing, than to drink the sour vintage of the Lowland.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the bar, on a straw mattress, was sleeping a Slavonian pedler of
+holy images, and a wandering jack-of-all-trades; at the bar the
+bushy-headed host grinned with doubtful pleasure over such guests, who
+brought their own eatables and drinkables with them, and only came to
+show their importance.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand had time enough calmly to take in this "ladyship," in whose
+carriage he had come so far, and under whose roof he would probably live
+later.</p>
+
+<p>She must be a lively, good-natured creature. She shared every morsel
+with her servant, and sent what remained to the coachman. Perhaps if she
+had known she had another nameless travelling companion, she would have
+invited him to the repast. As she ate she poured some rye-whiskey into
+her tin plate; to this she added figs, raisins and sugar, and then
+lighted it. This beverage is called in our country "krampampuli." It
+must be very healthy on a night journey for a healthy stomach.</p>
+
+<p>When the repast was over, the door leading to the courtyard opened: and
+there entered the rogue who had been left outside, his hat pressed over
+his eyes, and in his hand one of his pistols that he had taken from his
+girdle.</p>
+
+<p>"Under the table! under the bed! all whose lives are dear to them!" he
+cried, standing in the doorway. At these terrible words the Slavonian
+and the other who were sleeping on the floor clambered up into the
+chimney-place, the host disappeared into the cellar, banging the door
+after him, while the servant hid herself under the bench; then the
+robber stepped up to the table and extinguished both candles with his
+hat, so that there remained no light on the table save that of the
+burning spirit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The latter gave a weird light. When sugar burns in spirits, a sepulchral
+light appears on everything: living faces look like faces of the dead;
+all color disappears from them, the ruddiness of the countenance, the
+brilliance of the lips, the glitter of the eyes,&mdash;all turn green. It is
+as if phantoms rose from the grave and were gazing at one another.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand watched the scene in horror.</p>
+
+<p>This gay, smiling woman's face became at once like that of one raised
+from the tomb; and that other who stood face to face with her, weapon in
+hand, was like Death himself, with black beard and black eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>Yet for one moment it seemed to Lorand as if both were laughing&mdash;the
+face of the dead and the face of Death, but it was only for a moment;
+and perhaps, too, that was merely an illusion.</p>
+
+<p>Then the robber addressed her in a strong, authoritative voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Your money, quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>The woman took her purse, and without a word threw it down on the table
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>The robber snatched it up and by the light of the spirit began to
+examine its contents.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" he asked wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Money," replied the lady briefly, beginning to make a tooth-pick from a
+chicken bone with her silver-handled antique knife.</p>
+
+<p>"Money! But how much?" bawled the thief.</p>
+
+<p>"Four hundred florins."</p>
+
+<p>"Four hundred florins," he shrieked, casting the purse down on the
+table. "Did I come here for four hundred florins? Have I been lounging
+about here a week for four hundred florins? Where is the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"The rest?" said the lady. "Oh, that is being made at Vienna."</p>
+
+<p>"No joking, now. I know there were two thousand florins in this purse."</p>
+
+<p>"If all that has ever been in that purse were here now, it would be
+enough for both of us."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take you!" cried the thief, beating the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> table with his fist
+so that the spirit flame flickered in the plate. "I don't understand
+jokes. In this purse just now there were two thousand florins, the price
+of the wool you sold day before yesterday at Debreczen. What has become
+of the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, I'll give you an account of it," said the lady, counting on
+her fingers with the point of the knife. "Two hundred I gave to the
+furrier&mdash;four hundred to the saddler&mdash;three hundred to the grocer&mdash;three
+hundred to the tailor:&mdash;two hundred I spent in the market: count how
+much remains."</p>
+
+<p>"None of your arithmetic for me. I only want money, much money! Where is
+much money?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I said already, at K&ouml;rm&ouml;cz, in the mint."</p>
+
+<p>"Enough of your foolery!" threatened the highwayman. "For if I begin to
+search, you won't thank me for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, search the carriage over; all you find in it is yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't search the coach, but you, too, to your skin."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" cried the woman, in a passion; and at that moment her face, with
+her knitted eyebrows, became like that of a mythical Fury. "Try
+it,"&mdash;with these words dashing the knife down into the table, which it
+pierced to the depth of an inch.</p>
+
+<p>The thief began to speak in a less presumptuous tone.</p>
+
+<p>"What else will you give me?"</p>
+
+<p>"What else, indeed?" said the lady, throwing herself defiantly back in
+her chair. "The devil and his son."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a bracelet on your arm."</p>
+
+<p>"There you are!" said the woman, unclasping the emerald trinket from her
+arm, and dashing it on the table.</p>
+
+<p>The thief began to look at it critically.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it worth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I received it as a present: you can get a drink of wine for it in the
+nearest inn you reach."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And there is a beautiful ring sparkling on your finger."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it sparkle."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it cannot come off."</p>
+
+<p>"It will not come off, for I shall not give it." At this moment the
+thief suddenly grasped the woman's hand in which she held the knife,
+seizing it by the wrist, and while she was writhing in desperate
+struggle against the iron grip, with his other hand thrust the end of
+his pistol in her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>This awful scene had till now made upon Lorand the impression of the
+quarrel of a tipsy husband with his obstinate wife, who answers all his
+provocations with jesting: the lady seemed incapable of being
+frightened, the thief of frightening. Some unnatural indifference seemed
+to give the lie to that scene, which youthful imagination would picture
+so differently. The meeting of a thief with an unprotected lady, at
+night, in an inn on the plain! It was impossible that they should speak
+so to one another.</p>
+
+<p>But as the robber seized the lady's hand, and leaning across the table,
+drew her by sheer force towards him, continually threatening the
+screaming woman with a pistol, the young man's blood suddenly boiled up
+within him. He leaped forward from the darkness, unnoticed by the thief,
+crept toward him and seized the rascal's right hand, in which he held
+the pistol, while with his other hand he tore the second pistol from the
+man's belt.</p>
+
+<p>The highwayman, like some infuriated beast, turned upon his assailant,
+and strove to free his arm from the other's grip.</p>
+
+<p>He felt he had to do with one whose wrist was as firm as his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Student!" he snarled, with lips tightly drawn like a wolf, and gnashing
+his gleaming white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stir," said Lorand, pointing the pistol at his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>The thief saw plainly that the pistol was not cocked: nor could Lorand
+have cocked it in this short time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> Lorand, as a matter of fact, in his
+excitement had not thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>So the highwayman suddenly ducked his head and like a wall-breaking,
+battering ram, dealt such a blow with his head to Lorand, that the
+latter fell back on to the bench, and while he was forced to let go of
+the rascal with his left, he was obliged with his armed right hand to
+defend himself against the coming attack.</p>
+
+<p>Then the robber pointed the barrel of the second pistol at his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it is my turn to say, 'don't stir,' student."</p>
+
+<p>In that short moment, as Lorand gazed into the barrel of the pistol that
+was levelled at his forehead, there flashed through his mind this
+thought:</p>
+
+<p>"Now is the moment for checkmating the curse of fate and avoiding the
+threatened suicide. He who loses his life in the defence of persecuted
+and defenceless travellers dies as a man of honor. Let us see this
+death."</p>
+
+<p>He rose suddenly before the levelled weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't move or you are a dead man," the thief cried again to him.</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand, face to face with the pistol levelled within a foot of his
+head calmly put his finger to the trigger of the weapon he himself held
+and drew it back.</p>
+
+<p>At this the thief suddenly sprang back and rushed to the door, so
+alarmed that at first he attempted to open it the wrong way.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took careful aim at him.</p>
+
+<p>But as he stretched out his arm, the lady sprang up from the table,
+crept to him and seized his arm, shrieking:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't kill him, oh, don't!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gazed at her in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful woman's face was convulsed in a torture of terror: the
+staring look in her beautiful eyes benumbed the young man's sinews. As
+she threw herself upon his bosom and held down his arms, the embrace
+quite crippled him.</p>
+
+<p>The highwayman, seeing he could escape, after much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> fumbling undid the
+bolt of the door. When he was at last able to open it, his gypsy humor
+returned to take the place of his fear. He thrust his dishevelled head
+in at the half-opened door, and remarked in that broken voice which is
+peculiarly that of the terrified man:</p>
+
+<p>"A plague upon you, you devil's cur of a student: student, inky-fingered
+student. Had my pistol been loaded, as the other was, which was in your
+hand, I would have just given you a pass to hell. Just fall into my
+hands again! I know that...."</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly withdrew his head, affording a very humorous
+illustration to his threat: and like one pursued he ran out into the
+court. A few moments later a clatter of hoofs was heard&mdash;the robber was
+making his escape. When he reached the road he began to swear godlessly,
+reproaching and cursing every student, legatus, and hound of a priest,
+who, instead of praising God at home, prowled about the high-roads, and
+spoiled a hard working man's business. Even after he was far down the
+road his loud cursing could still be heard. For weeks that swearing
+would fill the air in the bog of Lankadomb, where he had made himself at
+home in the wild creature's unapproachable lair.</p>
+
+<p>To Lorand this was all quite bewildering.</p>
+
+<p>The arrogant, almost jesting, conversation, by the light of that
+mysterious flame, between a murderous robber and his victim:&mdash;the
+inexplicable riddle that a night-prowling highwayman should have entered
+a house with an empty pistol, while in his belt was another,
+loaded:&mdash;and then that woman, that incomprehensible figure, who had
+laughed at a robber to his face, who had threatened him with a knife as
+he pressed her to his bosom, and who, could she have freed herself,
+would surely have dealt him such a blow as she had dealt the
+table:&mdash;that she, when her rescuer was going to shoot her assailant,
+should have torn aside his hand in terror and defended the miscreant
+with her own body!</p>
+
+<p>What could be the solution of such a riddle?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the lady had again lighted the candles:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> again a gentle light
+was thrown on all things. Lorand gazed at her. In place of her previous
+green-blue face, which had gazed on him with the wild look of madness, a
+smiling, good-humored countenance was presented. She asked in a humorous
+tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so you are a student, what kind of student? Where did you come
+from?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came with you, sitting beside the coachman."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to come to Lankadomb?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's? He loves prayers."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no. But to Mr. Top&aacute;ndy."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot advise that: he is very rude to such as you. You are
+accustomed to preach. Don't go there."</p>
+
+<p>"Still I am going there: and if you don't care to let me sit on the box,
+I shall go on foot, as I have done until to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what? What you would get there would not be much. The
+money, which that man left here, you have by you as it is. Keep it for
+yourself: I give it to you. Then go back to the college."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, I am not accustomed to live on presents," said Lorand, proudly
+refusing the proffered purse.</p>
+
+<p>The woman was astonished. This is a curious legatus, thought she, who
+does not live by presents.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship began to perceive that in this young man's dust-stained
+features there was something of that which makes distinctions between
+man. She began to be surprised at this proud and noble gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps she was reflecting as to what kind of phenomenon it could be,
+who with unarmed hand had dared to attack an armed robber, in order to
+free from his clutch a strange woman in whom he had no interest, and
+then refused to accept the present he had so well deserved.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand saw that he had allowed a breach to open in his heart through
+which anyone could easily see the secret of his character. He hastened
+to cover his error.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot accept a present, your ladyship, because I wish more. I am not
+a preaching legatus, but an ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>pelled school-boy. I am in search of a
+position where I can earn my living by the work of my hands. When I
+protected your ladyship it occurred to me, 'This lady may have need for
+some farm steward or bailiff. She may recommend me to her husband.' I
+shall be a faithful servant, and I have given a proof of my
+faithfulness, for I have no written testimonials."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish to be Top&aacute;ndy's steward? Do you know what a godless man he
+is?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is why I am in search of him. I started direct for him. They
+expelled me from school for my godlessness. We cannot accuse each other
+of anything."</p>
+
+<p>"You have committed some crime, then, and that is why you avoid the eyes
+of the world? Confess what you have done. Murdered? Confess. I shall not
+be afraid of you for it, nor shall I tell any one. I promise that you
+shall be welcomed, whatever the crime may be. I have said so. Have you
+committed murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Beaten your father or mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, madame:&mdash;My crime is that I have instigated the youth against their
+superiors."</p>
+
+<p>"What superiors? Against the magistrate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even superior to the magistrate."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps against the priest. Well, Top&aacute;ndy will be delighted. He is a
+great fool in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>The woman uttered these words laughingly; then suddenly a dark shadow
+crossed her face. With wandering glance she stepped up to the young man,
+and, putting her hand gently on his arm, asked him in a whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how to pray?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looked at her, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"To pray from a book&mdash;could you teach some one to pray from a book?
+Would it require a long time?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looked with ever-increasing wonder at the questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well&mdash;I did not say anything! Come with us. The coachman is
+already cracking his whip. Will you sit inside with us, or do you prefer
+to sit outside beside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> the coachman in the open? It is better so; I
+should prefer it myself. Well, let us go."</p>
+
+<p>The servant, who had crawled out from under the bench, had already
+collected the silver and crockery; her ladyship paid mine host, and they
+soon took their seats again in the <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;carrriage&quot; has been changed to &quot;carriage&quot;">carriage</span>:&mdash;and both thought deeply
+the whole way. The young man, of that woman, who playfully defied a
+thief, and struggled for a ring; then of that robber, who came with an
+empty pistol, and again of that woman, who when he spoke of the powers
+that be, understood nothing but a magistrate, and had inquired whether
+he knew how to pray from a book;&mdash;and who meanwhile wore golden
+bracelets, ate from silver, was dressed in silk and carried the fire of
+youth in her eyes. While the woman thought of that young man who could
+fight like a hero; was ready to work like a day laborer, to throw money
+away like a noble, to fascinate women like an angel, and to blaspheme
+the powers that be like a devil!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHICH WILL CONVERT THE OTHER?</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the morning the coach rolled into the courtyard of the castle of
+Lankadomb.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, Orchard-hill.</p></div>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was waiting on the terrace, and ran to meet the young lady,
+helped her out of the coach and kissed her hand very courteously. At
+Lorand, who descended from his seat beside the coachman, he gazed with
+questioning wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The lady answered in his place:</p>
+
+<p>"I have brought an expelled student, who desires to be steward on your
+estate. You must accept him."</p>
+
+<p>Then, trusting to the hurrying servants to bring her travelling rugs and
+belongings after her, she ascended into the castle, without further
+waste of words, leaving Lorand alone with Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy turned to the young fellow with his usual satirical humor.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, fellow, you've got a fine recommendation! An expelled student;
+that's saying a good deal. You want to be steward, or bailiff, or
+pr&aelig;fectus here, do you? It's all the same; choose which title you
+please. Have you a smattering of the trade?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was brought up to a farm life: it is surely no hieroglyphic to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo! So I shall tell you what my steward has to do. Can you plough
+with a team of four? Can you stack hay, standing on the top of the
+sheaves? Can you keep order among a dozen reapers? Can you...?<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand was not taken aback by his questions. He merely replied to each
+one, "yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's splendid," said Top&aacute;ndy. "Many renowned and well-versed
+gentlemen of business have come to me, to recommend themselves as farm
+bailiffs, in buckled shoes; but when I asked them if they could heap
+dung on dung carts, they all ran away. I am pleased my questions about
+that did not knock you over. Do you know what the 'conventio'<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> will
+be?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> The payment. The honorarium.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But how much do <i>you</i> expect?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until I can make myself useful, nothing; afterwards, as much as is
+required from one day to the next."</p>
+
+<p>"Well said; but have you no claims to bailiff's lodgings, office, or
+something else? That shall be left entirely to your own discretion. On
+my estate, the steward may lodge where he likes&mdash;either in the ox-stall,
+in the cow-shed, or in the buffalo stable. I don't mind; I leave it
+entirely to your choice."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy looked at him with wicked eyes, as he waited for the answer.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, however, with the most serious countenance, merely answered that
+his presence would be required most in the ox-stall, so he would take up
+his quarters there.</p>
+
+<p>"So on that point we are agreed," said Top&aacute;ndy, with a loud laugh. "We
+shall soon see on what terms of friendship we shall stand. I accept the
+terms; when you are tired of them, don't trouble to say so. There is the
+gate."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not turn in that direction."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! I admire your determination. Now come with me; you will receive
+at once your provisions for five days&mdash;take them with you. The shepherd
+will teach you how to cook and prepare your meals."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did not make a single grimace at these peculiar conditions
+attached to the office of steward; he acquiesced in everything, as if he
+found everything most correct.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, come with me, Sir bailiff!"</p>
+
+<p>So he led him into the castle, without even so much as inquiring his
+name. He thought that in any case he would disappear in a day or two.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship was just in the ante-room, where breakfast was usually
+served.</p>
+
+<p>While Top&aacute;ndy was explaining to Lorand the various quarters from which
+he might choose a bedroom, her ladyship had got the coffee ready, for
+d&eacute;jeuner, and had laid the fine tablecloth on the round table, on which
+had been placed three cups, and just so many knives, forks and napkins.</p>
+
+<p>As Top&aacute;ndy stepped into the room, letting Lorand in after him, her
+ladyship was engaged in pouring out the coffee from the silver pot into
+the cups, while the rich buffalo milk boiled away merrily on the
+glittering white tripod before her. Top&aacute;ndy placed himself in the
+nearest seat, leaving Lorand to stand and wait until her ladyship had
+time to weigh out his rations for him.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not your place!" exclaimed the fair lady.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy sprang up suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon. Whose place is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"That gentleman's!" she answered, and nodded at Lorand, both her hands
+being occupied.</p>
+
+<p>"Please take a seat, sir," said Top&aacute;ndy, making room for Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"You will always sit there," said the lady, putting down the coffee-pot
+and pointing to the place which had been laid on her left. "At
+breakfast, at dinner, at supper."</p>
+
+<p>This had a different sound from what the gentleman of the house had
+said. Rather different from garlic and black bread.</p>
+
+<p>"This will be your room here on the right," continued the lady. "The
+butler's name is George; he will be your servant. And John is the
+coachman, who will stand at your orders."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's wonder only increased. He wished to make some remark, but he
+did not know himself what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> wanted to say. Top&aacute;ndy, however, burst
+into a Homeric laugh, in which he quite lost himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, brother, didn't you tell me you had already arranged matters with
+the lady? You would have saved me so much trouble. If matters stand so,
+sleep on my sofa, and drink from my glass!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand wished to play the proud beggar. He raised his head defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sleep in the hay, and shall drink from&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I advise you to do as I tell you," said the lady, making both men wince
+with the flash of her gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, brother," continued Top&aacute;ndy, "I can give you no better counsel
+than that. Well, let us sit down, and drink 'Brotherhood' with a glass
+of cognac."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand thought it wise to give way before the commanding gaze of the
+lady, and to accept the proffered place, while the latter laughed
+outright in sudden good-humor. She was so lovable, so natural, so
+pleasant, when she laughed like that, Top&aacute;ndy could not forbear from
+kissing her hands.</p>
+
+<p>The lady laughingly, and with jesting prudery, extended the other hand
+toward Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the other too! Don't be bashful!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand kissed the other hand.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this, she clapped her hands over her head, and burst into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"See, see! I have brought you a letter from town," said the lady,
+drawing out her purse. "It's a good thing the thief left me this, or
+your letter would have been lost as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Thief?" asked Top&aacute;ndy earnestly. "What thief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, at the 'Skull-smasher' inn, where we stopped to water our horses,
+a thief attacked us, and then wanted to empty our pockets. I threw him
+my money and my bracelet, but he wanted to tear this ring from my
+finger, too. That I would not give up. Then he caught hold of my hand,
+and to prevent my screaming, thrust the butt-end of his pistol into my
+mouth&mdash;the fool!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The lady related all this with such an air of indifference that Top&aacute;ndy
+could not make out whether she was joking or not.</p>
+
+<p>"What fable is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fable indeed!" was the exclamation that greeted him on two sides, on
+the one from her ladyship, on the other from the neat little maid, the
+latter crying out how much she had been frightened; that she was still
+all of a tremble; the former turned back her sleeve and held out her arm
+to Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>"See how my arm got scratched by the grasp of the robber! and look here,
+how bruised my mouth is from the pistol," said she, parting her rosy
+lips, behind which two rows of pearly teeth glistened. "It's a good
+thing he didn't knock out my teeth."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that would have been a pity. But how did you get away from him,"
+asked Top&aacute;ndy, in an anxious tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know whether you would ever have seen me again, if this
+young man had not dashed to our assistance; for he sprang forward and
+snatched the pistol from the hand of the robber,&mdash;who immediately took
+to his heels and ran away."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy again shook his head, and said it was hard to believe.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt he still has the pistol in his pocket."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But don't fool with it; it might go off and hurt somebody."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand handed the pistol in question to Top&aacute;ndy. The barrel was of
+bronze, highly chased in silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Curious!" exclaimed Top&aacute;ndy, examining the ornamentation. <span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the beginning of this sentence.">"</span>This pistol
+bears the S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi arms."</p>
+
+<p>Without another word he put the weapon in his pocket, and shook hands
+with Lorand across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"My boy, you are a fine fellow. I honor you for so bravely defending my
+people. Now I have the more reason in agreeing to your living
+henceforward under the same roof with me; unless you fear it may,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+through fault of mine, fall in upon you. What was the robber like?" he
+said, turning again to the women.</p>
+
+<p>"We could not see him, because he put out the candle and ran away."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was struck by the fact that the woman did not seem inclined to
+recall the robber's features, which she must, however have been able to
+see by the help of the spirit-lamp; he noticed, too, that she did not
+utter a word about the robber's being a gypsy.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what he was like," she repeated, with a meaning look at
+Lorand. "Neither of us could see, for it was dark. For the same reason
+our deliverer could not shoot at him, because it was difficult to aim in
+the dark. If he had missed him, the robber might have murdered us all."</p>
+
+<p>"A fine adventure," muttered Top&aacute;ndy. "I shall not allow you to travel
+alone at night another time. I shall go armed myself. I shall not put up
+with the existence of that den in the marsh any longer or it will always
+be occupied by such as mean to harm us. As soon as the Tisza overflows,
+I shall set fire to the reeds about the place, when the stack will catch
+fire, too."</p>
+
+<p>During this conversation the woman had produced the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is," she cried, handing it to Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>"A lady's handwriting!" exclaimed Top&aacute;ndy, glancing at the direction.</p>
+
+<p>"What, you can tell by the letters whether it is the writing of a man or
+a woman?" queried the beautiful lady, throwing a curious glance at the
+writing.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looked at it, too, and it seemed to him as if he had seen the
+writing before, but he could not remember where.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange hand; the characters did not resemble the writing of
+any of his lady acquaintances, and yet he must have seen it somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>You may cast about and reflect long, Lorand, before you discover whose
+writing it is. You never thought of her who wrote this letter. You never
+even noticed her existence! It is the writing of Fanny, of the jolly
+little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> exchange-girl. It was Desi who once showed you that handwriting
+for a moment, when your mother sent her love in Fanny's letter. Now the
+unknown hand had written to Top&aacute;ndy to the effect that a young man would
+appear before him, bespattered and ragged. He was not to ask whence he
+came, or whither he went; but he was to look well at the noble face, and
+he would know from it that the youth was not obliged to avoid
+persecution of the world for some base crime.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy gazed long at the youthful face before him. Could this be the
+one she meant?</p>
+
+<p>The story of the Parliamentary society of the young men was well known
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>He asked no questions.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>After the first day Lorand felt himself quite at home in Top&aacute;ndy's home.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy treated him as a duke would treat his only son, whom he was
+training to be his heir; Lorand's conduct toward Top&aacute;ndy was that of a
+poor man's son, learning to make himself useful in his father's home.
+Each found many extraordinary traits in the other, and each would have
+loved to probe to the depths of the other's peculiarities.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand remarked in his uncle a deep, unfathomable feeling underlying his
+seeming godlessness. Top&aacute;ndy, on his side, suspected that some dark
+shadow had prematurely crossed the serenity of the young man's mind.
+Each tried to pierce the depths of the other's soul&mdash;but in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship had on the first day confided her life secret to Lorand.
+When he endeavored to pay her the compliment of kissing her hand after
+supper, she withdrew her hand and refused to accept this mark of
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, don't kiss my hand, or 'my ladyship' me any more. I am but
+a poor gypsy girl. My parents, were simple camp-folk; my name is Czipra.
+I am a domestic servant here, whom the master has dressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> up, out of
+caprice, in silks and laces, and he makes the servants call me 'madame,'
+on which account they subsequently mock me,&mdash;of course, only behind my
+back, for if they did it to my face I should strike them; but don't you
+laugh at me behind my back. I am an orphan gypsy girl, and my master
+picked me up out of the gutter. He is very kind to me, and I would die
+for him, if fate so willed. That's how matters stand, do you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy girl glanced with dimmed eyes at Top&aacute;ndy, who smilingly
+listened to her frank confession, as though he approved of it. Then, as
+if she had gained her master's consent, she turned again to Lorand:</p>
+
+<p>"So call me simply 'Czipra.'"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Czipra, my sister," said Lorand, holding out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well now, that is nice of you to add that;" upon which she pressed
+Lorand's hand, and left the men to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy turned the conversation, and spoke no more to Lorand of Czipra.
+He first of all wished to find out what impression the discovery would
+make upon the young man.</p>
+
+<p>The following days enlightened him.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, from that day, far from showing more familiarity, manifested
+greater deference towards the reputed lady of the house. Since she had
+confessed her true position to him, moreover he treated her as one who
+knew well that the smallest slight would doubly hurt one who was not in
+a position to complain. He was kind and attentive to the woman, who,
+beneath the appearance of happiness, was wretched, though innocent. To
+the uninitiated, she was the lady of the house; to the better informed,
+she was the favorite of her master, and that was nought but a maiden in
+the disguise of wife, and Lorand was able to read the riddle aright.</p>
+
+<p>If Top&aacute;ndy watched him, he in his turn observed Top&aacute;ndy; he saw that
+Top&aacute;ndy did not watch, nor was jealous of the girl. He consented to her
+traveling alone, confided the greater part of his fortune to her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+overwhelmed her with presents, but beyond this did not trouble about
+her. Still he showed a certain affection which did not arise from mere
+habit. He would not brook the least harm to her from anybody, making the
+whole household fear her as much as the master, and if by chance they
+hesitated as to their duty to one or the other, it was always Czipra who
+had a prior claim on their services.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy at once perceived that Lorand did not run after a fair face, nor
+after the face of any woman, who was not difficult to conquer, because
+she was not guarded, and who might be easily got rid of, being but a
+gypsy girl. His heart was either fully occupied by one object only, or
+it was an infinite void which nothing could fill. Top&aacute;ndy led a
+boisterous life, when he fell in with his chums, but when alone he was
+quite another man. To fathom nature's mysteries was a passion with him.
+In a corner of the basement of the castle there was a chemical
+laboratory, where he passed his time with making physical experiments;
+he labored with instruments, he probed the secrets of the stars, and of
+the earth; at such times he only cared to have Lorand at his side; in
+him he found a being capable of sharing his scientific researches,
+though he did not share in his doubts.</p>
+
+<p>"All is matter!" such had for centuries been the motto of the
+naturalist, and therefore the naturalist had ever found a kindred spirit
+in the agnostic.</p>
+
+<p>Often did Czipra come upon the two men at their quiet pursuits and watch
+them for hours together; and though she did not understand what in this
+higher science went beyond her comprehension, yet she could take
+pleasure in observing Cartesius' diving imps; she dared to sit upon the
+insulators, and her joy was boundless when Lorand at such a time,
+approaching her with his finger, called forth electric sparks from her
+dress or hands. She found enjoyment, too, in peering through the great
+telescopes at the heavenly wonders. Lorand was always ready to answer
+her questions; but the poor girl was far from understanding all. Yet
+how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> rapturous the thought of knowing all! Once when Lorand was
+explaining to her the properties of the sun-spectrum, the girl sighed
+and, suddenly bending down to Lorand, whispered blushingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Teach me to read."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looked at her in amazement. Top&aacute;ndy, looking over his shoulder,
+asked her:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, what would be the use of teaching you to read?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl clasped her hands to her bosom:</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to learn to pray."</p>
+
+<p>"What? To pray? And what would you pray for? Is there anything that you
+cannot do without?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is."</p>
+
+<p>"What can it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I should like to know by praying."</p>
+
+<p>"And you do not know yourself what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot express what it is."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know anybody who could give it you?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl pointed to the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy shrugged his shoulders at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! you goose, reading is not for girls. Women are best off when they
+know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Then he laughed in her face.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra ran weeping out of the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand pitied the poor creature, who, dressed in silks and finery, did
+not know her letters, and who was incapable of raising her voice to God.
+He was in a mood, through long solitude, for pitying others; under a
+strange name, known to nobody, separated from the world, he was able to
+forget the lofty dreams to which a smooth career had pointed, and which
+fate, at his first steps, had mocked. He had given up the idea that the
+world should acknowledge this title: "a great patriot, who is the holder
+of a high office." He who does not desire this should keep to the
+ploughshare. Ambition should only have well-regulated roads, and success
+should only begin with a lower office in the state. But he whose hobby
+it is to murmur, will find a fine career in field labor; and he who
+wishes to bury himself, will find himself supplied, in life, with a
+beautiful, ro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>mantic, flowery wheat-covered cemetery by the fields, from
+the centre of which the happy dead creatures of life cheerfully mock at
+those who weary themselves and create a disturbance&mdash;with the idea that
+they are doing something, whereas their end is the same as that of the
+rest of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was even beginning to grow indifferent to the awful obligation
+that lay before him at the end of the appointed time. It was still afar
+off. Before then a man might die peacefully and quietly; perhaps that
+other who guarded the secret might pass away ere then. And perhaps the
+years at the plough would harden the skin of a man's soul, as it did of
+his face and hands, so that he would come to ridicule a wager, which in
+his youthful over-enthusiasm he would have fulfilled; a wager the
+refusal to accept which would merely win the commendation of everybody.
+And if any one could say the reverse, how could he find him to say it to
+his face? As regards his family at home, he was fairly at his ease. He
+often received letters from Dezs&ouml; (Desiderius), under another address;
+they were all well at home, and treated the fate of the expelled son
+with good grace. He also learned that Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy had not returned
+to her husband, but had gone abroad with that actor with whom she had
+previously been acquainted. This also he had wiped out from his memory.
+His whole mind was a perfect blank in which there was room for other
+people's misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible not to remark how Czipra became attached to him in her
+simplicity. She had a feeling which she had never felt before, a feeling
+of shame, if some impudent jest was made at her expense by one of
+Top&aacute;ndy's guests, in the presence of Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Once, when Top&aacute;ndy and Lorand were amusing themselves at greater length
+with optical experiments in the lonely scientific apartment, Lorand took
+the liberty of introducing the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that that girl has grown up without any knowledge whatever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely; she knows neither God nor alphabet."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you allow the poor child to learn to know them?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, her alphabet? Because in my eyes it is quite superfluous. A mad
+idea once occurred to me of picking some naked gypsy child out of the
+streets, with the intention of making a happy being therefrom. What is
+happiness in the world? Ease and ignorance. Had I a child of my own, I
+should do the same with it. The secret of life is to have a good
+appetite, sound sleep, and a good heart. If I reflect what bitternesses
+have been my lot my whole life, I find the cause of each one was what I
+have learned. Many a night did I lie awake in agonized distraction,
+while my servants were snoring in peace. I desired to see before me a
+person as happy as it was my ideal to be; a person free from those
+distressing tortures, which the civilized world has discovered for the
+persecution of man by man. Well, I have begun by telling you why I did
+not teach Czipra her alphabet."</p>
+
+<p>"And God?"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy took his eyes off the telescope, with which he had just been
+gazing at the starry sky.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know Him myself."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand turned from him with a distressed air. Top&aacute;ndy remarked it.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, my dear twenty-year-old child, probably you know more than
+I do; if you know Him, I beg you to teach me."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand shrugged his shoulders, then began to discuss scientific
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p>"Does Dollond's telescope show stars in the Milky Way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a million twinkling stars o'erspread the Milky Way, each several
+star a sun."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it dissipate the mist in the head of the Northern Hound?"</p>
+
+<p>"The mist remains as it was before&mdash;a round cloudy mass with a ring of
+mist around it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps Gregory's telescope, just arrived from Vienna, magnifies
+better?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Bring it here. Since its arrival there has been no clear weather, to
+enable us to make experiments with it."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy gazed at the heavens through the new telescope with great
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he remarked in a tone of surprise. "This is a splendid instrument;
+the star-mist thins, some tiny stars appear out of the ring."</p>
+
+<p>"And the mass itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"That remains mist. Not even this telescope can disperse its atoms."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, shall we not experiment with Chevalier's microscope now?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a good idea; get it ready."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall we put under it? A rhinchites?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will do."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand lit the spirit-lamp, which threw light on the subject under the
+magnifying glass; then he first looked into it himself, to find the
+correct focus. Enraptured, he cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here! That fabled armor of Homer's <i>Iliad</i> is not to be compared
+with this little insect's wing-shields. They are nothing but emerald and
+enamelled gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it is so."</p>
+
+<p>"And now listen to me: between the two wings of this little insect there
+is a tiny parasite or worm, which in its turn has two eyes, a life, and
+life-blood flowing in its veins, and in this worm's stomach other worms
+are living, impenetrable to the eye of this microscope."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said the atheist, glancing into Lorand's eyes. "You are
+explaining to me that the immensity of the world of creation reaching to
+awful eternity is only equalled by the immensity of the descent to the
+shapeless nonentity; and that is your God!"</p>
+
+<p>The sublime calm of Lorand's face indicated that that was his idea.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," said Top&aacute;ndy, placing his two hands on Lorand's shoulder,
+"with that idea I have long been acquainted. I, too, fall down before
+immensity, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> recognize that we represent but one class in the upward
+direction towards the stars, and one degree in the descent to the moth
+and rust that corrupt; and perhaps that worm, that I killed in order to
+take rapt pleasure in its wings, thought itself the middle of eternity
+round which the world is whirling like Plato's featherless two-footed
+animals; and when at the door of death it uttered its last cry, it
+probably thought that this cry for vengeance would be noted by some one,
+as when at Warsaw four thousand martyrs sang with their last breath,
+'All is not yet lost.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not my faith, sir. The history of the ephemeral insect is the
+history of a day,&mdash;that of a man means a whole life; the history of
+nations means centuries, that of the world eternity; and in eternity
+justice comes to each one in irremediable and unalterable succession."</p>
+
+<p>"I grant that, my boy; and I allow, too, that the comets are certainly
+claimants to the world whose suits have been deferred to this long
+justice, who one day will all recover their inheritances, from which
+some tyrant sun has driven them out; but you must also acknowledge, my
+child, that for us, the thoughtful worms, or stars, if you like, which
+can express their thoughts in spirited curses, providence has no care.
+For everything, everything there is a providence: be it so, I believe
+it. But for the living kind there is none, unless we take into account
+the rare occasions when a plague visits mankind, because it is too
+closely spread over the earth and requires thinning."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, many misfortunes have I suffered on earth, very many, and such as
+fate distributes indiscriminately; but it has never destroyed&mdash;my
+faith."</p>
+
+<p>"No misfortune has ever attacked me. It is not suffering that has made
+me sceptical. My life has always been to my taste. Should some one
+divide up his property in reward for prayer, I should not benefit one
+crumb from it.&mdash;It is hypocrites who have forcibly driven me this way.
+Perhaps, were I not surrounded by such, I should keep silence about my
+unbelief, I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> not scandalize others with it, I should not seek to
+persecute the world's hypocrites with what they call blasphemy. Believe
+me, my boy, of a million men, all but one regard Providence as a rich
+creditor, from whom they may always borrow&mdash;but when it is a question of
+paying the interest, then only that one remembers it."</p>
+
+<p>"And that one is enough to hallow the ideal!"</p>
+
+<p>"That one?&mdash;but you will not be that one!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, astonished, asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, if you remain long in my vicinity, you must without fail turn
+into such a universal disbeliever as I am."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand smiled to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"My child," said Top&aacute;ndy, "you will not catch the infection from me, who
+am always sneering and causing scandals, but from that other who prays
+to the sound of bells."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whom else could I mean? You will meet this man every day. And in the
+end you will say just as I do&mdash;'If one must go to heaven in this wise, I
+had rather remain here?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what is this S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hypocrite, who lies to all the saints in turn, and would deceive the
+eyes of the archangels if they did not look after themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a very low opinion of the man."</p>
+
+<p>"A low opinion? That is the only good thing in my heart, that I despise
+the fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Simply because he is pious? In the world of to-day, however, it is a
+kind of courage to dare to show one's piety outwardly before a world of
+scepticism and indifference. I should like to defend him against you."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you? Very well. Let us start at once. Draw up a chair and listen
+to me. I shall be the devil's advocate. I shall tell you a story
+concerning this fellow; I was merely a simple witness to the whole. The
+man never did me any harm. I tell you once again that I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> have no
+complaint to make either against mankind or against any beings that may
+exist above or below. Sit beside me, my boy."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand first of all stirred up the fire in the fire-place, and put out
+the spirit lamp of the microscope, so that the room was lighted only by
+the red glare of the log-fire and the moon, which was now rising above
+the horizon and shed her pale radiance through the window.</p>
+
+<p>"In my younger days I had a very dear friend, a relation, with whom I
+had always gone to school and such fast comrades were we that even in
+the class-room we sat always side by side. My comrade was unapproachably
+first in the class, and I came next; sometime between us like a dividing
+wall came this fellow S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, who was even then a great flatterer and
+sneak, and in this way sometimes drove me out of my place&mdash;and young
+schoolboys think a great deal of their own particular places. Of course
+I was even then so godless that they could not make sufficient
+complaints against me. Later, during the French war, as the schools
+suffered much, we were both sent together to Heidelberg. The devil
+brought S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi after us. His parents were parvenues. What our parents
+did they were always bound to imitate. They might have sent their boy to
+Jena, Berlin, or Nineveh; but he must come just where we were."</p>
+
+<p>"You have never mentioned your friend's name," said Lorand, who had
+listened in anguish to the commencement of the story.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?&mdash;Why there's really no need for the name. He was a friend of
+mine. As far as the story is concerned it doesn't matter what they
+called him. Still that you may not think I am relating a fable, I may as
+well tell you his name. It was L&ouml;rincz &Aacute;ronffy."</p>
+
+<p>A cold numbness seized Lorand when he heard his father's name. Then his
+heart began suddenly to beat at a furious pace. He felt he was standing
+before the crypt door, whose secret he had so often striven to fathom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I never knew a fairer figure, a nobler nature, a warmer heart than he
+had," continued Top&aacute;ndy. "I admired and loved him, not merely as my
+relation, but as the ideal of the young men of the day. The common
+knowledge of all kinds of little secrets, such as only young people
+understand among themselves, united us more closely in that bond of
+friendship which is usually deferred until later days. At that time
+there broke out all over Europe those liberal political views, which had
+such a fascinating influence generally on young men. Here too there was
+an awakening of what is called national feeling; great philosophers even
+turned against one another with quite modern opposition in public as
+well as in private life. All this made more intimate the relations which
+had till then been mere childish habit.</p>
+
+<p>"We were two years at the academy; those two years were passed amidst
+enough noise and pleasure. Had we money, we spent it together; had we
+none, we starved together. For one another we went empty-handed, for one
+another, we fought, and were put in prison. Then we met S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi very
+seldom; the academy is a great forest and men are not forced together as
+on the benches of a grammar-school.</p>
+
+<p>"Just at the very climax of the French war, the idea struck us to edit a
+written newspaper among ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>(Lorand began to listen with still greater interest.)</p>
+
+<p>"We travestied with humorous score in our paper all that the
+'Augsburger' delivered with great pathos: those who read laughed at it.</p>
+
+<p>"However, there came an end to our amusement, when one fine day we
+received the 'consilium abeundi.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was certainly not very much annoyed. So much transcendental science,
+so much knowledge of the world had been driven into me already, that I
+longed to go home to the company of the village sexton, who, still
+believed that anecdotes and fables were the highest science.</p>
+
+<p>"Only two days were allowed us at Heidelberg to collect our belongings
+and say adieu to our so-called 'treasures.' During these two days I only
+saw &Aacute;ronffy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> twice: once on the morning of the first day, when he came
+to me in a state of great excitement, and said, 'I have the scoundrel by
+the ear who betrayed us!&mdash;If I don't return, follow in my tracks and
+avenge me.' I asked him why he did not choose me for his second, but he
+replied: 'Because you also are interested and must follow me.' And then
+on the evening of the second day he came home again, quite dispirited
+and out of sorts! I spoke to him; he would scarcely answer; and when I
+finally insisted: 'perhaps you killed someone?' he answered
+determinedly, 'Yes.'"</p>
+
+<p>"And who was that man?" inquired Lorand, taken aback.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't interrupt me. You shall know soon," Top&aacute;ndy muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"From that day &Aacute;ronffy was completely changed. The good-humored,
+spirited young fellow became suddenly a quiet, serious, sedate man, who
+would never join us in any amusement. He avoided the world, and I
+remarked that in the world he did his best to avoid me.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I knew why that was. I thought I knew the secret of his
+earnestness. He had murdered a man whom he had challenged to a duel.
+That weighed upon his mind. He could not be cold-blooded enough to drive
+even such a bagatelle from his head. Other people count it a 'bravour,'
+or at most suffer from the persecutions of others&mdash;not of themselves. He
+would soon forget it, I thought, as he grew older.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet my dear friend remained year by year a serious-minded man, and when
+later on I met him, his society was for me so unenjoyable that I never
+found any pleasure in frequenting it.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, as soon as he returned home, he got married. Even before our
+trip to Heidelberg he had become engaged to a very pleasant, pretty, and
+quiet young girl. They were in love with each other. Still &Aacute;ronffy
+remained always gloomy. In the first year of his marriage a son was born
+to him. Later another. They say both the sons were handsome, clever
+boys. Yet that never brightened him. Immediately after the honey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>moon he
+went to the war, and behaved there like one who thinks the sooner he is
+cut off the better. Later, all the news I received of him confirmed my
+idea that &Aacute;ronffy was suffering from an incurable mental disease.&mdash;Does
+a man, the candle of whose life we have snuffed out deserve that?"</p>
+
+<p>"What was the name of the man he murdered?" demanded Lorand with renewed
+disquietude.</p>
+
+<p>"As I have told you, you shall know soon: the story will not run away
+from me! only listen further.</p>
+
+<p>"One day&mdash;it might have been twelve years since the day we shook off the
+dust of the Heidelberg school from our boots&mdash;I received a parcel from
+Heidelberg, from the Local Council, which informed me that a certain Dr.
+Stoppelfeld had left me this packet in his will.</p>
+
+<p>"Stoppelfeld? I racked my brains to discover who it might be that from
+beyond the border had left me something in his testament. Finally it
+occurred to me that a long light-haired medical student, who was famous
+in his days among the drinking clubs, had attended the same lectures as
+we had. If I was not deceived, we had drunk together and fought a duel.</p>
+
+<p>"I undid the packet, and found within it a letter addressed to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have that letter still, but I know every word by heart so often have
+I read it. Its contents were as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+"'<span class="smcap">My Dear Comrade</span>:
+</p>
+
+<p>"'You may remember that, on the day before your departure from
+Heidelberg, one of our young colleagues, L&ouml;rincz &Aacute;ronffy, looked among
+his acquaintances for seconds in some affair of honor. As it happened I
+was the first he addressed. I naturally accepted the invitation, and
+asked his reason and business. As you too know them&mdash;he told me so&mdash;I
+shall not write them here. He informed me, too, why he did not choose
+you as his second, and at the same time bound me to promise, if he
+should fall in the duel, to tell you that you might follow the matter
+up. I accepted, and went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> with him to the challenged. I explained that
+in such a case a duel was customary, and in fact necessary; if he wished
+to avoid it, he would be forced to leave the academy. The challenged did
+not refuse the challenge, but said that as he was of weak constitution,
+shortsighted and without practice with any kind of weapons, he chose the
+American duel of drawing lots!'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>... Top&aacute;ndy glanced by chance at Lorand's face, and thought that the
+change of color he saw on his countenance was the reflection of the
+flickering flame in the fire-place.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The letter continued:</p>
+
+<p>"'At our academy at that time there was a great rage for that stupid
+kind of duel, where two men draw lots and the one whose name comes out,
+must blow his brains out after a fixed time. Asses! At that time I had
+already enough common sense, when summoned to act as second in such
+cases, to try to persuade the principals to fix a longer period,
+calculating quite rightly that within ten or twelve years the bitterest
+enemies would become reconciled, and might even become good friends: the
+successful principal might be magnanimous, and give his opponent his
+life, or the unsuccessful adversary might forget in his well-being, such
+a ridiculous obligation.</p>
+
+<p>"'In this case I arranged a period of sixteen years between the parties.
+I knew my men: sixteen years were necessary for the education of the
+traitorous schoolfox<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> into a man of honor, or for his proud, upright
+young adversary to reach the necessary pitch of <i>sang froid</i> that would
+make a settlement of their difference feasible.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, Schoolfox, a term of contempt.</p></div>
+
+<p>"'&Aacute;ronffy objected at first: "At once or never!" but he had finally to
+accept the decision of the seconds: and we drew lots.</p>
+
+<p>"'&Aacute;ronffy's name came out.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>... Lorand was staring at the narrator with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>fixed eyes, and had no
+feeling for the world outside, as he listened in rapt awe to this story
+of the past.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"'The name that was drawn out we gave to the successful party, who had
+the right to send this card, after sixteen years were passed, to his
+adversary, in order if the latter deferred the fulfilment of his
+obligation, to remind him thereof.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then we parted company, you went home and I thought we should forget
+the matter as many others have done.</p>
+
+<p>"'But I was deceived. To this, the hour of my death, it has always
+remained in my memory, has always agonized and persecuted me. I inquired
+of my acquaintances in Hungary about the two adversaries, and all I
+learned only increased my anguish. &Aacute;ronffy was a proud and earnest man.
+It is surely stupidity for a man to kill himself, when he is happy and
+faring well: yet a proud man would far rather the worms gnawed his body
+than his soul, and could not endure the idea of giving up to a man, whom
+yesterday he had the right to despise, of his own accord, that right of
+contempt. He can die, but he cannot be disgraced. He is a fool for his
+pains: but it is consistent.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lorand was shuddering all over.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"'I am in my death-struggles,' continued Stoppelfeld's letter: 'I know
+the day, the hour in which I shall end all; but that thought does not
+calm me so much, seeing that I cannot go myself and seek that man, who
+holds &Aacute;ronffy in his hands, to tell him: "Sir, twelve years have passed.
+Your opponent has suffered twelve years already because of a terrible
+obligation: for him every pleasure of life has been embittered, before
+him the future eternity has been overclouded; be contented with that
+sacrifice, and do not ask for the greatest too. Give back one man to his
+family, to his country, and to God&mdash;" But I cannot go. I must sit here
+motionless and count the beats of my pulse, and reckon how many remain
+till the last.</p>
+
+<p>"'And that is why I came to you: you know both, and were a good friend
+to one: go, speak, and act. Per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>haps I am a ridiculous fool: I am afraid
+of my own shadow; but it agonizes and horrifies me; it will not let me
+die. Take this inheritance from me. Let me rest peacefully in my ashes.
+So may God bless you! The man who has &Aacute;ronffy's word, as far as I know,
+is a very gracious man, it will be easy for you to persuade him&mdash;his
+name is S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>... At these words Top&aacute;ndy rose from his seat and went to the window,
+opening both sides of it: so heavy was the air within the room. The cold
+light of the moon shone on Lorand's brow.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy, standing then at the window, continued the thrilling story he
+had commenced. He could not sit still to relate it. Nor did he speak as
+if his words were for Lorand alone, but as if he wished the dumb trees
+to hear it too, and the wondering moon, and the shivering stars and the
+shooting meteors that they might gainsay if possible the earthy worm who
+was speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"I at once hurried across to the fellow. I was now going with tender,
+conciliatory countenance to a man whose threshold I had never crossed,
+whom I had never greeted when we met. I first offered him my hand that
+there might be peace between us. I began to appraise his graciousness,
+his virtues. I begged him to pardon the annoyances I had previously
+caused him; whatever atonement he might demand from me I would be glad
+to fulfill.</p>
+
+<p>"The fellow received me with gracious obeisance, and grasped my hand. He
+said, upon his soul, he could not recall any annoyance he had ever
+suffered from me. On the contrary he calculated how much good I had done
+him in my life, beginning from his school-boy years:&mdash;I merely replied
+that I certainly could not remember it.</p>
+
+<p>"I hastened to come straight to the point. I told him that I had been
+brought to his home by an affair the settlement of which I owed to a
+good old friend, and asked him to read the letter that I had received
+that day.</p>
+
+<p>"<span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Sarvolgyi&quot; has been changed to &quot;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi&quot;">S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi</span> read the letter to the end. I watched his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> face all the time
+he was reading it. He did not cease for a moment that stereotyped smile
+of tenderness which gives me the shivers whenever I see it in my
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>"When he was through with the letter, he quietly folded it and gave it
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you not discovered,' he said to me with pious face, 'that the man
+who wrote that letter is&mdash;mad?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mad?' I asked, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"'Without doubt,' answered S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi; 'he himself writes that he has a
+disease of the nerves, sees visions, and is afraid of his shadow. The
+whole story is&mdash;a fable. I never had any conflict with our friend
+&Aacute;ronffy, which would have given occasion for an American or even a
+Chinese duel. From beginning to end it is&mdash;a poem.'</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it was no poem: &Aacute;ronffy had had a duel, but I had never known
+with whom. I had never asked him about it any more after he had, to my
+question, 'perhaps you have murdered someone?' answered, 'Yes.' Plainly
+he had meant himself. I tried to penetrate more deeply into that man's
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"'Sir, neighbor, friend,&mdash;be a man! be the Christian you wish to be
+thought: consider that this fellow-man of ours has a dearly-loved
+family. If you have that card which the seconds gave you twelve years
+ago, don't agonize or terrify him any more; write to him that "the
+account is settled," and give over to him that horrible deed of
+contract. I shall honor you till my death for it. I know that in any
+case you will do it one day before it is too late. You will not take
+advantage of that horrible power which blind fate has delivered into
+your hand, by sending him his card empty to remind him that the time is
+up. You would pardon him then too. But do so now. This man's life during
+its period of summer, has been clouded by this torturing obligation,
+which has hung continuously above his happiness; let the autumn sunbeams
+shine upon his head. Give, give him a hand of reconciliation now, at
+once!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi insisted that he had never had any kind of 'cartell': how
+could I imagine that he would have the heart to maintain his revenge for
+years? His past and present life repudiated any such charge. He had
+never had any quarrel with &Aacute;ronffy, and, had there been one, he would
+long ago have been reconciled to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not yet let the fellow out of my hands. I told him to think what
+he was doing. &Aacute;ronffy had once told me that, should he perish in this
+affair, I was to continue the matter. I too knew a kind of duel, which
+surpassed even the American, because it destroyed a man by pin-pricks.
+So take care you don't receive for your eternal adversary the
+neighboring heathen in exchange for the pious, quiet and distant
+&Aacute;ronffy.</p>
+
+<p>"S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi swore he knew nothing of the affair. He called God and all
+the saints to witness that he had not the very remotest share in
+&Aacute;ronffy's danger.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, and why is &Aacute;ronffy so low-spirited?'</p>
+
+<p>"'&mdash;As if you should not know that,' said the Pharisee, making a face of
+surprise: 'not know anything about it?</p>
+
+<p>"'Well I will whisper it to you in confidence. &Aacute;ronffy has not been
+happy in his family life. You know, of course, that when he came home he
+married, and immediately joined the rebel army. With a corps of
+volunteers he fought till the end of the war, and returned again to his
+family. But he has still that worm in his soul.'"</p>
+
+<p>It was well that the fire had already died out:&mdash;well that a dark cloud
+rolled up before the moon:&mdash;well that the narrator could not see the
+face of his listener, when he said that:</p>
+
+<p>"And I was fool enough to believe him. I credited the calumny with which
+the good fame of the angelically pure wife of an honorable man had been
+defiled. Yes, I allowed myself to be deceived in this underhand way! I
+allowed myself to rest calm in the belief that there is many a sad man
+on the earth, whose wife is beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, once I met by chance &Aacute;ronffy's mother, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> produced before her
+the letter which had been accredited a fable. Her ladyship was very
+grateful, but begged me not to say a word about it to &Aacute;ronffy.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that from that day she paid great attention to her son's
+behavior.</p>
+
+<p>"Four years I had managed to keep myself at a respectful distance from
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's person.</p>
+
+<p>"But there came a day in the year, marked with red in my calendar, the
+anniversary of our departure from Heidelberg.</p>
+
+<p>"Three days after that sixteenth anniversary I received a letter, which
+informed me that &Aacute;ronffy had on that red-letter day killed himself in
+his family circle."</p>
+
+<p>The narrator here held silence, and, hanging down his hands, gazed out
+into the brilliant night; profound silence reigned in the room, only the
+large "grandfather's clock" ticked the past and future.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what I should have done, had I met the hypocrite then: but
+just at that time he was away on a journey: he left behind a letter for
+me, in which he wrote that he, too, was sorry our unfortunate
+friend&mdash;our friend indeed!&mdash;had met with such a sad end: certainly
+family circumstances had brought him to it. He pitied his weakness of
+mind, and promised to pray for his soul!</p>
+
+<p>"How pious.</p>
+
+<p>"He killed a man in cold blood, after having tortured him for sixteen
+years! Sent him the sentence of death in a letter! Forced the gracious,
+quiet, honorable man and father to cut short his life with his own hand!</p>
+
+<p>"With a cold, smiling countenance he took advantage of the fiendish
+power which fate and the too sensitive feeling of honor of a lofty soul
+had given into his hand; and then shrugged his shoulders, clasped his
+hands, turned his eyes to heaven, and said 'there is no room for the
+suicide with God.'</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he, who gives a true man into the hands of the deceiver, that he
+may choke with his right hand his breath, with his left his soul.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, philosopher, come; defend this pious man against me! Tell me what
+you have learned."</p>
+
+<p>But the philosopher did not say what he had learned. Half dead and
+wholly insensible he lay back in his chair while the moon shone upon his
+upturned face with its full brilliance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO GIRLS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Eight years had passed.</p>
+
+<p>The young man who buried himself on the plains had become a man, his
+face had lengthened, his beard grown round it; few of his old
+acquaintances would have recognized him. Even he himself had long ago
+become accustomed to his assumed name.</p>
+
+<p>In Top&aacute;ndy's house the old order of things continued: Czipra did the
+honors, presiding at the head of the table: Lorand managed the farm,
+living in the house, sitting at the table, speaking to the comrades who
+came and went "per tu";<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> with them he drank and amused himself.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> A sign of intimacy&mdash;addressing a person as "thou."</p></div>
+
+<p>Drank and amused himself!</p>
+
+<p>What else should a young man do, who has no aim in life?</p>
+
+<p>With Czipra, t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te, he spoke also "per tu;" before others he
+miladyed her.</p>
+
+<p>Once at supper Top&aacute;ndy said to Czipra and Lorand:</p>
+
+<p>"Children, in a few days another child will come to the house. The devil
+has carried off a very dear relation of mine with whom I was on such
+excellent terms that we never spoke to one another. I should not,
+logically, believe there is a devil in the world, should I? But for the
+short period during which he had carried that fellow away, I am willing
+to acquiesce in his existence. To-day I have received a lamentable
+letter from his daughter, written in a beautiful tone of sorrow; the
+poor child writes that immediately after her father's death the house
+was swooped down upon by those Sad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>ducees who trample all piety under
+foot, the so-called creditors. They have seized everything and put it
+under seals; even her own piano; they have even put up at auction the
+pictures she drew with her own hand; and have actually sold the
+'Gedenkbuch,'<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> in which so many clever and famous men had written so
+much absurdity: the tobacconist bought it for ten florins for the sake
+of its title-page. The poor girl has hitherto been educated by the nuns,
+to whom three quarters' payment is due, and her position is such that
+she has no roof except her parasol beneath which she may take shelter.
+She has a mother in name, but her company she cannot frequent, for
+certain reasons; she has tried her other relations and acquaintances in
+turn, but they have all well-founded reasons for not undertaking to
+burden their families in this manner; she cannot go into service, not
+having been educated to it. Well, it occurred to her that she had,
+somewhere in the far regions of Asia, a half-mad relation&mdash;that is your
+humble servant: it would be a good plan to find him out at once, and
+take up her abode with him as a princess. I entirely indorse my niece's
+argument: and have already sent her the money necessary for the journey,
+have paid the fees due, and have enabled her to appear among us in the
+style befitting her rank."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> An album in which one writes something "as a souvenir."</p></div>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy laughed loudly at his own production.</p>
+
+<p>It was only himself that laughed: the others did not share in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there will be one more young lady in the house: a refined,
+graceful, sentimental woman-in-white, before whom people must take great
+care what they say, and who will probably correct the behavior of all of
+us."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra pushed her chair back angrily from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be afraid. She will not correct you. You may be sure of that.
+You have absolute authority in the house, as you know already: what you
+command or order is accomplished, and against your will not even a cat
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>comes to our table. You remain what you were: mistress of life and
+death in the house. When you wish it, there is washing in the house, and
+everybody is obliged to render an account even of his last shirt; what
+you do not like in the place, you may throw out of the window, and you
+can buy what you wish. The new young lady will not take away from you a
+single one of those keys which hang on that silver chain dangling from
+your red girdle; and if only she does not entice away our young friend,
+she will be unable to set up any opposition against you. And even in
+that event I shall defend you."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra shrugged her shoulders defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her do as she pleases."</p>
+
+<p>"And we two shall do as we please, shall we not?"</p>
+
+<p>"You," said Czipra, looking sharply at Top&aacute;ndy with her black eyes. "You
+will soon be doing what that young lady likes. I foresee it all. As soon
+as she puts her foot in, everybody will do as she does. When she smiles,
+everybody will smile at her in return. If she speaks German, the whole
+house will use that language; if she walks on her tip-toes, the whole
+house will walk so; if her head aches, everybody in the house will speak
+in whispers; not as when poor Czipra had a burning fever and nine men
+came to her bed to sing a funeral song, and offered her brandy."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy laughed still more loudly at these invectives: the poor gypsy
+girl fixed her two burning eyes on Lorand's face and kept them there
+till they turned into two orbs swimming in water. Then she sprang up,
+threw down her chair and fled from the room.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy calmly picked up the overthrown chair and put it in its place,
+then he went after Czipra and a minute later brought her back on his arm
+into the dining-room, with an exceedingly humorous expression, and a
+courtesy worthy of a Spanish grandee, which the poor foolish gypsy girl
+did not understand in the least.</p>
+
+<p>So readily did she lose her temper, and so readily did she recover it
+again. She sat down again in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> place, and jested and laughed,&mdash;always
+and continuously at the expense of the finely-educated new-comer.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was curious to know the name of the new member of the family.</p>
+
+<p>"The daughter of one B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, P.&nbsp;C." said Top&aacute;ndy, "Melanie, if I
+remember well."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was perplexed. A face from the past! How strange that he should
+meet her there?</p>
+
+<p>Still it was so long since they had seen each other, that she would
+probably not recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie was to arrive to-morrow evening. Early in the morning Czipra
+visited Lorand in his own room.</p>
+
+<p>She found the young man before his looking-glass.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" she said laughing, "you are holding counsel with your glass to
+see whether you are handsome enough? Handsome indeed you are: how often
+must I say so? Believe me for once."</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand was not taking counsel with his glass on that point: he was
+trying to see if he had changed enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Come now," said Czipra with a certain indifference. "I will make you
+pretty myself: you must be even more handsome, so that young lady's eyes
+may not be riveted upon me. Sit down, I will arrange your hair."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand had glorious chestnut-brown curls, smooth as silk. Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy had once fallen madly in love with those locks and Czipra was
+wont to arrange them every morning with her own hands: it was one of her
+privileges, and she understood it so well.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was philosopher enough to allow others to do him a service, and
+permitted Czipra's fine fingers the privilege of playing among his
+locks.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid: you will be handsome to-day!" said Czipra, in naive
+reproach to the young fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand jestingly put his arm round her waist.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be all of no avail, my dear Czipra, because we have to thrash
+corn to-day, and my hair will all be full of dust. Rather, if you wish
+to do me a favor, cut off my hair."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Czipra was ready for that, too. She was Lorand's "friseur" and Top&aacute;ndy's
+"coiffeur." She found it quite natural.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and how do you wish your hair? Short? Shall I leave the curls in
+front?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the scissors: I will soon show you," said Lorand, and, taking
+them from Czipra's hand, he gathered together the locks upon his
+forehead with one hand and with the other cropped them quite short,
+throwing what he had cut to the ground.&mdash;"So with the rest."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra drew back in horror at this ruthless deed, feeling as pained as
+if those scissors had been thrust into her own body. Those beautiful
+silken curls on the ground! And now the rest must of course be cut just
+as short.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand sat down before her in a chair, from which he could look into the
+glass, and motioned to her to commence. Czipra could scarcely force
+herself to do so. So to destroy the beauty of that fair head, over which
+she had so often stealthily posed in a reverie! To crop close that thick
+growth of hair, which, when her fingers had played among its electric
+curls, had made her always feel as if her own soul were wrapt together
+with it. And she was to close-crop it like the head of some convict!</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was a kind of satisfaction in the thought that another would
+not so readily take notice of him. She would make him so ugly that he
+would not quickly win the heart of the new-comer. Away with that
+Samsonian strength, down to the last solitary hair! This thought lent a
+merciless power to her scissors.</p>
+
+<p>And when Lorand's head was closely shaven, he was indeed curious to see.
+It looked so very funny that he laughed at himself when he turned to the
+glass.</p>
+
+<p>The girl too laughed with him. She could not prevent herself from
+laughing to his face; then she turned away from him, leaned out of the
+window, and burst into another fit of laughter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Really it would have been difficult to distinguish whether she was
+laughing or crying.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Czipra, my dear," said Lorand, putting his arm round the
+girl's waist. "Don't wait with dinner for me to-day, for I shall be
+outside on the threshing-floor."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra, left to herself, before anyone could have entered, kneeled down
+on the floor, and swept up from the floor with her hands the curls she
+had cut off. Every one: not a single hair must remain for another. Then
+she hid the whole lovely cluster in her bosom. Perhaps she would never
+take them out again....</p>
+
+<p>With that instinct, which nature has given to women only, Czipra felt
+that the new-comer would be her antagonist, her rival in everything,
+that the outcome would be a struggle for life and death between them.</p>
+
+<p>The whole day long she worried herself with ideas about the new
+adversary's appearance. Perhaps she was some doll used to proud and
+noble attitudinising: let her come! It would be fine to take her pride
+down. An easy task, to crush an oppressed mind. She would steal away
+from the house, or fall into sickness by dint of much annoyance, and
+grow old before her time.</p>
+
+<p>Or perhaps she was some spoiled, sensitive, fragile chit, who came here
+to weep over her past, who would find some hidden reproach in every
+word, and would feel her position more and more unendurable day by day.
+Such a creature, too, would droop her head in shame&mdash;so that every
+morning her pillow would be bedewed with tears. For she need not reckon
+on pity! Or perhaps she would be just the opposite: a light-hearted,
+gay, sprightly bird, who would find herself at home in every position.
+If only to-day were cheerful, she would not weep for yesterday, or be
+anxious for the morrow. Care would be taken to clip the wings of her
+good humor: a far greater triumph would it be to make a weeping face of
+a smiling one.</p>
+
+<p>Or perhaps a languid, idle, good-for-nothing domes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>tic delicacy, who
+liked only to make toilettes, to sit for hours together before the
+mirror, and in the evening read novels by lamp-light. What a jest it
+would be to mock her, to make her stare at country work, to spoil her
+precious hands in the skin-roughening house-keeping work, and to laugh
+at her clumsiness.</p>
+
+<p>Be she what she might, she might be quite sure of finding an adversary
+who would accept no cry for mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, it was wise to beware of Czipra! Czipra had two hearts, one good,
+the other bad: with the one she loved, with the other she hated, and the
+stronger she loved with the one, the stronger she hated with the other.
+She could be a very good, quiet, blessed creature, whose faults must be
+discovered and seen through a magnifying-glass: but if that other heart
+were once awakened, the old one would never be found again.</p>
+
+<p>Every drop of Czipra's blood wished that every drop of "that other's"
+blood should change to tears.</p>
+
+<p>This is how they awaited Melanie at Lankadomb.</p>
+
+<p>Evening had not yet drawn in, when the carriage, which had been sent for
+Melanie to Tiszaf&uuml;red station, arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The traveler did not wait till some one came to receive her; she stepped
+out of the carriage unaided and found the verandah alone. Top&aacute;ndy met
+her in the doorway. They embraced, and he led her into the lobby.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was waiting for her there.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy girl was wearing a pure white dress, white apron, and no
+jewels at all. She had done her best to be simple, that she might
+surprise that town girl. Of course, she might have been robed in silk
+and lace, for she had enough and to spare.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she ought to have known that the new-comer could not be stylishly
+dressed, for she was in mourning.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie had on the most simple black dress, without any decoration, only
+round her neck and wrists were crochet lace trimmings.</p>
+
+<p>She was just as simple as Czipra. Her beautiful pale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> face, with its
+still childish features, her calm quiet look,&mdash;all beamed sympathy
+around her.</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter, Czipra," said Top&aacute;ndy, introducing them.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie, with that graciousness which is the mark of all ladies, offered
+her hand to the girl, and greeted her gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra bitterly inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"A foolish name, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, the name of a goddess, Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>"What goddess? Pagan?"&mdash;the idea did not please Czipra: she knit her
+eyebrows and nodded in disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>"A holy woman of the Bible was called by this name, Zipporah,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> the
+wife of Moses."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> This play upon names is really only feasible in Magyar,
+where Zipporah-Czippora.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Of the Bible?" The gypsy girl caught at the word, and looked with
+flashing eyes at Top&aacute;ndy, as who would say "Do you hear that?"&mdash;Only
+then did she take Melanie's hand, but after that she did not release her
+hold of it any more.</p>
+
+<p>"We must know much more of that holy woman of the Bible! Come with me. I
+will show you your room."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra remarked that they had kissed each other. Top&aacute;ndy shrugged his
+shoulders, laughed, and let them go alone.</p>
+
+<p>The newly arrived girl did not display the least embarrassment in her
+dealing with Czipra: on the contrary, she behaved as if they had been
+friends from childhood.</p>
+
+<p>She at once addressed Czipra in the greatest confidence, when the latter
+had taken her to the room set apart for her use.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have much trouble with me, my dear Czipra, at first, for I am
+very clumsy. I know now that I have learned nothing, with which I can do
+good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>to myself or others. I am so helpless. But you will be all the
+cleverer, I know: I shall soon learn from you. Oh, you will often find
+fault with me, when I make mistakes; but when one girl reproaches
+another it does not matter. You will teach me housekeeping, will you
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would like to learn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. One cannot remain for ever a burden to one's relations; only
+in case I learn can I be of use, if some poor man takes me as his wife;
+if not I must take service with some stranger, and must know these
+things anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>There was much bitterness in these words; but the orphan of the ruined
+gentleman said them with such calm, such peace of mind, that every
+string of Czipra's heart was relaxed as when a damp mist affects the
+strings of a harp.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile they had brought Melanie's travelling-trunk: there was only
+one, and no bonnet-boxes&mdash;almost incredible!</p>
+
+<p>"Very well,&mdash;so begin at once to put your own things in order. Here are
+the wardrobes for your robes and linen. Keep them all neat. The young
+lady, whose stockings the chamber-maid has to look for, some in one
+room, some in another, will never make a good housekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>Melanie drew her only trunk beside her and opened it: she took out her
+upper-dresses.</p>
+
+<p>There were only four, one of calico, one of batiste, then one ordinary,
+and one for special occasions.</p>
+
+<p>"They have become a little crumpled in packing. Please have them bring
+me an iron; I must iron them before I hang them up."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to iron them yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. There are not many of them: those I must make
+respectable&mdash;the servant can heat the iron. Oh, they must last a long
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Why haven't you brought more with you?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie's face for a moment flushed a full rose&mdash;then she answered this
+indiscreet inquiry calmly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Simply, my dear Czipra, because the rest were seized by our creditors,
+who claimed them as a debt."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you have anticipated them?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie clasped her hands on her breast, and said with the astonishment
+of moral aversion:</p>
+
+<p>"How? By doing so I should have swindled them."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra recollected herself.</p>
+
+<p>"True; you are right."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra helped Melanie to put her things in the cupboards. With a woman's
+critical eye, she examined everything. She found the linen not fine
+enough, though the work on it pleased her well. That was Melanie's own
+handiwork. As regards books, there was only one in the trunk, a
+prayer-book. Czipra opened it and looked into it. There were steel
+plates in it. The portrait of a beautiful woman, seven stars round her
+head, raising her tear-stained eyes to Heaven: and the picture of a
+kneeling youth, round the fair bowed head of whom the light of Heaven
+was pouring. Long did she gaze at the pictures. Who could those figures
+be?</p>
+
+<p>There were no jewels at all among the new-comer's treasures.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra remarked that Melanie's ear-rings were missing.</p>
+
+<p>"You have left your earrings behind too?" she asked, hiding any want of
+tenderness in the question by delivering it in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Our solicitor told me," said Melanie, with downcast eyes, "that those
+earrings also were paid for by creditors' money:&mdash;and he was right. I
+gave them to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But the holes in your ears will grow together; I shall give you some of
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith she ran to her room, and in a few moments returned with a pair
+of earrings.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie did not attempt to hide her delight at the gift.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my own had just such sapphires, only the stones were not so
+large."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And she kissed Czipra, and allowed her to place the earrings in her
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>With the earrings came a brooch. Czipra pinned it in Melanie's collar,
+and her eyes rested on the pretty collar itself: she tried it, looked at
+it closely and could not discover "how it was made."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know that work? it is crochet, quite a new kind of
+fancy-work, but very easy. Come, I will show you right away."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon she took out two crochet needles and a reel of cotton from her
+work-case, and began to explain the work to Czipra: then she gave it to
+her to try. Her first attempt was very successful. Czipra had learned
+something from the new-comer, and remarked that she would learn much
+more from her.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra spent an hour with Melanie and an hour later came to the
+conclusion that she was only now beginning&mdash;to be a girl.</p>
+
+<p>At supper they appeared with their arms round each other's necks.</p>
+
+<p>The first evening was one of unbounded delight to Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>This girl did not represent any one of those hateful pictures she had
+conjured up in the witches' kettle of her imagination. She was no rival;
+she was not a great lady, she was a companion, a child of seventeen
+years, with whom she could prattle away the time, and before whom she
+must not choose her words so nicely, seeing that she was not so
+sensitive to insult. And it seemed that Melanie liked the idea of there
+being a girl in the house, whose presence threw a gleam of pleasure on
+the solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra might also be content with Melanie's conduct towards Lorand. Her
+eyes never rested on the young man's face, although they did not avoid
+his gaze. She treated him indifferently, and the whole day only
+exchanged words with him when she thanked him for filling her glass with
+water.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed Lorand had reduced his external advantages to such a severe
+simplicity by wearing his hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> closely cropped, and his every movement
+was marked by that languid, lazy stooping attitude which is usually the
+special peculiarity of those who busy themselves with agricultural work,
+that Melanie's eyes had no reason to be fixed specially upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the eyes of a young girl of seventeen summers cannot discover manly
+beauty under such a dust-stained, neglected exterior.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand felt relieved that Melanie did not recognize him. Not a single
+trace of surprise showed itself on her face, not a single searching
+glance betrayed the fact that she thought of the original of a
+well-known countenance when she saw this man who had met her by chance
+far away from home. Lorand's face, his gait, his voice, all were strange
+to her. The face had grown older, the gait was that of a farmer, the old
+beautiful voice had deepened into a perfect baritone.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did they meet often, except at dinner, supper and breakfast. Melanie
+passed the rest of the day without a break, by Czipra's side.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was six years her senior, and she made a good protectress; that
+continuous woman's chattering, of which Top&aacute;ndy had said, that, if one
+hour passed without its being heard, he should think he had come to the
+land of the dead:&mdash;a man grew to like that after awhile. And side by
+side with the quick-handed, quick-tongued maiden, whose every limb was
+full of electric springiness, was that charming clumsiness of the
+neophyte,&mdash;such a contrast! How they laughed together when Melanie came
+to announce that she had forgotten to put yeast in the cake, both her
+hands covered with sticky leaven, for all the world as if she were
+wearing winter gloves; or when, at Cizpra's command, she tried to take a
+little yellow downy chicken from the cold courtyard to a warm room,
+keeping up the while a lively duel with the jealous brood-hen, till
+finally Melanie was obliged to run.</p>
+
+<p>How much two girls can laugh together over a thousand such humorous
+nothings!</p>
+
+<p>And how they could chatter over a thousand still more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> humorous
+nothings, when of an evening, by moonlight, they opened the window
+looking out on the garden, and lying on the worked window-cushions,
+talked till midnight, of all the things in which no one else was
+interested?</p>
+
+<p>Melanie could tell many new things to Czipra which the latter delighted
+to hear.</p>
+
+<p>There was one thing which they had touched on once or twice jestingly,
+and which Czipra would have particularly loved to extract from her.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie, now and again forgetting herself, would sigh deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"Did that sigh speak to someone afar off?"</p>
+
+<p>Or when at dinner she left the daintiest titbit on her plate.</p>
+
+<p>"Did some one think just now of some one far away, who is perhaps
+famishing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that 'some one' is not famishing"&mdash;whispered Melanie in answer.</p>
+
+<p>So there was "somebody" after all.</p>
+
+<p>That made Czipra glad.</p>
+
+<p>That evening during the conversation she introduced the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that 'some one?'"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a very excellent youth: and is on close terms with many foreign
+princes. In a short time he won himself great fame. Everyone exalts him.
+He came often to our house during papa's life-time, and they intended me
+to be his bride even in my early days."</p>
+
+<p>"Handsome?" inquired Czipra. That was the chief thing to know.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie answered this question merely with her eyes. But Czipra might
+have been content with the answer. He was at any rate as handsome a man
+in Melanie's eyes as Lorand was in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall you be his wife?"</p>
+
+<p>At this question Melanie held up her fine left hand before Czipra,
+raising the fourth finger higher than the rest. On it was a ring.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Czipra drew the ring off her finger and looked closely at it. She saw
+letters inside it. If she only knew those!</p>
+
+<p>"Is this his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"His initials."</p>
+
+<p>"He is called?"</p>
+
+<p>"Joseph Gy&aacute;li."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra put the ring on again. She was very contented with this
+discovery. The ring of an old love, who was a handsome man, excellent,
+and celebrated, was there on her finger. Peace was hallowed. Now she
+believed thoroughly in Melanie, she believed that the indifference
+Melanie showed towards Lorand was no mere pretence. The field was
+already occupied by another.</p>
+
+<p>But if she was quite at rest as regards Melanie, she could be less
+assured as to the peaceful intentions of Lorand's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>How those eyes feasted themselves every day on Melanie's countenance!</p>
+
+<p>Of course, who could be indignant if men's eyes were attracted by the
+"beautiful?" It has ever been their privilege.</p>
+
+<p>But it is the marvellous gift of woman's eyes to be able to tell the
+distinction between look and look. Through the prism of jealousy the
+eye-beam is refracted to its primary colors; and this wonderful optical
+analysis says: this is the twinkle of curiosity, that the coquettish
+ogle, this the fire of love, that the dark-blue of abstraction.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra had not studied optics, but this optical analysis she understood
+very well.</p>
+
+<p>She did not seem to be paying attention; it seemed as if she did not
+notice, as if her eyes were not at work; yet she saw and knew
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's eyes feasted upon the beautiful maiden's figure.</p>
+
+<p>Every time he saw her, they dwelt upon her: as the bee feasts upon the
+invisible honey of the flower, and slowly a suspicion dawned upon
+Czipra. Every glance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> was a home-returning bee who brings home the honey
+of love to a humming heart.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Czipra might have known it from the fact that Lorand, ever
+since Melanie came to the house, had been more reserved towards her. He
+had found his presence everywhere more needful, that he might be so much
+less at home.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra could not bear the agony long.</p>
+
+<p>Once finding Lorand alone, she turned to him in wanton sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"It is certain, my friend B&aacute;lint," (that was Lorand's alias) "that we
+are casting glances at that young girl in vain, for she has a fianc&eacute;
+already."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" said Lorand, caressing the girl's round chin, for all the
+world as if he was touching some delicate flower-bud.</p>
+
+<p>"Why all this tenderness at once? If I were to look so much at a girl, I
+would long ago have taken care to see if she had a ring on her
+finger:&mdash;it is generally an engagement ring."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and do I look very much at that girl?" enquired Lorand in a
+jesting tone.</p>
+
+<p>"As often as I look at you."</p>
+
+<p>That was reproach and confession all in one. Czipra tried to dispose of
+the possible effect of this gentle speech at once, by laughing
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend B&aacute;lint! That young lady's fianc&eacute; is a very great man. The
+favorite of foreign princes, rides in a carriage, and is called 'My
+Lord.' He is a very handsome man, too: though not so handsome as you. A
+fine, pretty cavalier."</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate her!" said Lorand, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is true; Melanie herself told me.&mdash;She told me his name,
+too&mdash;Joseph Gy&aacute;li."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, smilingly and good-humoredly pinching Czipra's cheek, went on
+his way. He smiled, but with the poisonous arrow sticking in his heart!</p>
+
+<p>Oh, Czipra did herself a bad turn when she mentioned that name before
+Lorand!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>IF HE LOVES, THEN LET HIM LOVE!</h3>
+
+
+<p>Lorand's whole being revolted at what Czipra had told him. That girl was
+the bride of that fatal adversary! of that man for whose sake he was to
+die! And that man would laugh when they stealthily transferred him, the
+victim too sensible of honor, to the crypt, when he would dance with his
+newly won bride till morning dawned, and delight in the smile of that
+face, which could not even weep for the lost one.</p>
+
+<p>That thought led to eternal damnation. No, no: not to damnation: further
+than that, there and back again, back to that unspeakable circle, where
+feelings of honor remain in the background, and moral insensibility
+rules the day. That thought was able to drive out of Lorand's heart the
+conviction, that when an honorable man has given his life or his honor
+into the hands of an adversary, of the two only the latter can be
+chosen.</p>
+
+<p>From that hour he pursued quite a different path of life.</p>
+
+<p>Now the work in the fields might go on without his supervision: there
+was no longer such need of his presence. He had far more time for
+staying at home.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did he keep himself any farther away from the girls: he went after
+them and sought them; he was spirited in conversation, choice in his
+dress, and that he might display his shrewdness, he courted both girls
+at the same time, the one out of courtesy, the other for love.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy watched them smilingly. He did not mind whatever turn the affair
+took. He was as fond of Czipra as he was of Melanie, and fonder of the
+boy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> than either. Of the three there would be only one pair; he would
+give his blessing to whichever two should come together. It was a
+lottery! Heaven forbid that a strange hand should draw lots for one.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra was already quite clear about everything, It was not for her
+sake that Lorand stayed at home.</p>
+
+<p>She herself was forced to acknowledge the important part which Melanie
+played in the house, with her thoughtful, refined, modest behavior; she
+was so sensible, so clever in everything. In the most delicate situation
+she could so well maintain a woman's dignity, while side by side she
+displayed a maiden's innocence. When his comrades were at the table,
+Top&aacute;ndy strove always by ambiguous jokes, delivered in his cynical, good
+humor, to bring a blush to the cheeks of the girls, who were obliged to
+do the honors at table; on such occasions Czipra noisily called him to
+order, while Melanie cleverly and spiritedly avoided the arrow-point of
+the jest, without opposing to it any foolish prudery, or cold
+insensibility;&mdash;and how this action made her queen of every heart!</p>
+
+<p>Without doubt she was the monarch of the house: the dearest, most
+beautiful, and cleverest;&mdash;hers was every triumph.</p>
+
+<p>And on such occasions Czipra was desperate.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet all in vain! For, however clever, and beautiful, and enchanting
+that other, I am still the real one. I feel and know it:&mdash;but I cannot
+prove it! If we could only tear out our hearts and compare them;&mdash;but
+that is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was forced to see that everybody sported with her, while they
+behaved seriously with that other.</p>
+
+<p>And that completely poisoned her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Without any mental refinement, supplied with only so much of the
+treasure of moral reserve, as nature and instinct had grafted into her
+heart, with only a dreamy suspicion about the lofty ideas of religion
+and virtue, this girl was capable of murdering her whom they loved
+better than herself.</p>
+
+<p>Murder, but not as the fabled queen murdered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> fairy H&oacute;feh&eacute;rke,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a>
+because the gnomes whispered untiringly in her ear "Thou art beautiful,
+fair queen: but H&oacute;feh&eacute;rke is still more beautiful." Czipra wished to
+murder her but not so that she might die and then live again.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> Little Snow-white, the step-daughter of the queen, who
+commanded her huntsman to bring her the eyes and liver of H&oacute;feh&eacute;rke,
+thinking she would thus become the most beautiful of all, but he brought
+her those of a wild beast. The queen thought her rival was dead, but her
+magic mirror told her she was living still beyond hill and sea.</p></div>
+
+<p>She was a gypsy girl, a heathen, and in love. Inherited tendencies,
+savage breeding, and passion had brought her to a state where she could
+have such ideas.</p>
+
+<p>It was a hellish idea, the counsel of a restless devil who had stolen
+into a defenceless woman's heart.</p>
+
+<p>Once it occurred to her to turn the rooms in the castle upside down; she
+found fault with the servants, drove them from their ordinary lodgings,
+dispersed them in other directions, chased the gentlemen from their
+rooms, under the pretext that the wall-papers were already very much
+torn: then had the papers torn off and the walls re-plastered. She
+turned everything so upside down that Top&aacute;ndy ran away to town, until
+the rooms should be again reduced to order.</p>
+
+<p>The castle had four fronts, and therefore there were two corridors
+crossing through at right angles: the chief door of the one opened on
+the courtyard, that of the other led into the garden. The rooms opened
+right and left from the latter corridor.</p>
+
+<p>During this great disorder Czipra moved Lorand into one of the vis-&agrave;-vis
+rooms. The opposite room she arranged as Melanie's temporary chamber. Of
+course it would not last long; the next day but one, order would be
+restored, and everyone could go back to his usual place.</p>
+
+<p>And then it was that wicked thoughts arose in her heart: "if he loves,
+then let him love!"</p>
+
+<p>At supper only three were sitting at table. Lorand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>was more abstracted
+than usual, and scarcely spoke a word to them: if Czipra addressed him,
+there was such embarrassment in his reply, that it was impossible not to
+remark it.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra was in a particularly jesting mood to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend B&aacute;lint, you are sleepy. Yet you had better take care of us at
+night, lest someone steal us."</p>
+
+<p>"Lock your door well, my dear Czipra, if you are afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I lock my door," said Czipra smiling light-heartedly, "when
+those cursed servants have so ruined the lock of every door at this side
+of the house that they would fly open at one push."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I shall take care of you."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith Lorand wished them good night, took his candle and went out.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra hurried Melanie too to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go to bed in good time, as we must be early afoot to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>This evening the customary conversation at the window did not take
+place.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls shook hands and wished each other good night. Melanie
+departed to her room. Czipra was sleeping in the room next to hers.</p>
+
+<p>When Melanie had shut the door behind her, Czipra blew out the candle in
+her own room, and remained in darkness. With her clothes on she threw
+herself on her bed, and then, resting her head on her elbow, listened.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she thought the opposite room door gently opened.</p>
+
+<p>The beating of her heart almost pierced through her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>"If he loves, then let him love."</p>
+
+<p>Then she rose from her bed, and, holding her breath, slipped to the door
+and looked through the keyhole into Melanie's room.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> This was of course through the door that communicated
+between the rooms of Melanie and Czipra.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>The candle was still burning there.</p>
+
+<p>But from her position she could not see Melanie. From the rustling of
+garments she suspected that Melanie was taking off her dress. Now with
+quiet steps she approached the table, on which the candle was burning.
+She had a white dressing-gown on, her hair half let down, in her hand
+that little black book, in which Czipra had so often admired those
+"Glory" pictures without daring to ask what they were.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie reached the table, and laying the little prayer-book on the
+shelf of her mirror, kneeled down, and, clasping her two hands together,
+rested against the corner of the table and prayed.</p>
+
+<p>In that moment her whole figure was one halo of glory.</p>
+
+<p>She was beautiful as a praying seraph, like one of those white phantoms
+who rise with their airy figures to Heaven, palm-branches of glory in
+their hands.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was annihilated.</p>
+
+<p>She saw now that there was some superhuman phenomenon, before which
+every passion bowed the knee, every purpose froze to crystals;&mdash;the
+figure of a praying maiden! He who stole a look at that sight lost every
+sinful emotion from his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra beat her breast in dumb agony. "She can fly, while I can only
+crawl on the ground."</p>
+
+<p>When the girl had finished her prayer she opened the book to find those
+two glory-bright pictures, which she kissed several times in happy
+rapture:&mdash;as the sufferer kisses his benefactor's hands, the orphan his
+father's and mother's portraits, the miserable defenceless man the face
+of God, who defends in the form of a column of cloud him who bows his
+head under its shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra tore her hair in her despair and beat her brow upon the floor,
+writhing like a worm.</p>
+
+<p>At the noise she made Melanie darted up and hastened to the door to see
+what was the matter with Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she noticed Melanie's approach, Czipra slunk away from her
+place and before Melanie could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> open the door and enter, dashed through
+the other door into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>Here another shock awaited her.</p>
+
+<p>In the corner of the corridor she found Lorand sitting beside a table.
+On the table a lamp was burning; before Lorand lay a book, beside him,
+resting against his chair, a "tomahawk."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> The Magyar weapon is the so-called "fokos," which is much
+smaller than a tomahawk, but is set on a long handle like a walking
+stick, and only to be used with the hand in dealing blows, not for
+throwing purposes.</p></div>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?" inquired Czipra, starting back.</p>
+
+<p>"I am keeping guard over you," answered Lorand. "As you said your doors
+cannot be locked, I shall stay here till morning lest some one break in
+upon you."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra slunk back to her room. She met Melanie, who, candle in hand,
+hastened towards her, and asked what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, nothing. I heard a noise outside. It frightened me."</p>
+
+<p>No need of simulation, for she trembled in every limb.</p>
+
+<p>"You afraid?" said Melanie, surprised. "See, I am not afraid. It will be
+good for me to come to you and sleep with you to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it will," assented Czipra. "You can sleep on my bed."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" Czipra inquired with a determined glance. "Oh, just here!"</p>
+
+<p>And therewith she threw herself on the floor before the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie, alarmed, drew near to her, seized her arm, and tried to raise
+her. She asked her: "Czipra, what is the matter with you? Tell me what
+has happened?"&mdash;Czipra did not answer, did not move, did not open her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie seeing she could not reanimate her, rose in despair, and,
+clasping her hands, panted:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens! what has happened?"&mdash;Then Czipra suddenly started up and
+began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha ha! Now I just managed to frighten you."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith rolling uncontrolledly on the floor, she laughed continuously
+like one who has succeeded in playing a good joke on her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"How startled I was!" panted Melanie, pressing her hands to her heaving
+breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep in my bed," Czipra said. "I shall sleep here on the floor. You
+know I am accustomed to sleep on the ground, covered with rugs.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'My mother was a gypsy maid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She taught me to sleep on the ground,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In winter to walk with feet unbound;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In a ragged tent my home was made.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>She sang Melanie this bizarre song twice in her peculiar melancholy
+strain, and then suddenly threw around her the rug which lay on the bed,
+put one arm under her head, and remained quite motionless; she would not
+reply any longer to a single word of Melanie's.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Top&aacute;ndy returned from town; scarce had he taken off his
+traveling-cloak, when Czipra burst in upon him.</p>
+
+<p>She seized his hand violently, and gazing wildly into his eyes, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I cannot live longer under such conditions. I shall kill myself.
+Teach me to pray."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy looked at her in astonishment and shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever possessed you to break in so upon me? Do you think I come from
+some pilgrimage to Bodajk,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> all my pockets full of saints' fiddles,
+of beads, and of gingerbread-saints? Or am I a Levite? Am I a 'monk'
+that you look to me for prayer?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> A place visited by pilgrims, like Lourdes, etc., it is in
+Feh&eacute;rmegye (white county).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>"Teach me to pray. I have long enough besought you to do so, and I can
+wait no longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and don't worry me. I don't know myself where to find what you
+want."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not true. You know how to read. You have been taught everything.
+You only deny knowledge of God, because you are ashamed before Him; but
+I long to see His face! Oh, teach me to pray!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing, my dear, except the soldier's prayer."<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, Blasphemy.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Very well. I shall learn that."</p>
+
+<p>"I can recite it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell it to me."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra acted as she had seen Melanie do: she kneeled down before the
+table: clasping her hands devotedly and resting against the edge of the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy turned his head curiously: she was taking the matter seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Then he stood before her, put his two hands behind him, and began to
+recite to her the soldier's prayer.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Adjon Isten h&aacute;rom 'B'-&eacute;t,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">H&aacute;rom 'F'-&eacute;t, h&aacute;rom 'P'-&eacute;t.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bort, b&uacute;z&aacute;t, b&eacute;kess&eacute;get<span title="Transcriber's Note: An extra comma has been deleted">,</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">F&aacute;t, f&uuml;vet, feles&eacute;get,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pip&aacute;t, pusk&aacute;t, patront&aacute;st,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Es egy butykos p&aacute;link&aacute;t!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ik&eacute;tum, pik&eacute;tum, holt! berdo! viv&aacute;t!"<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> "God grant three 'B-s,' three 'F-s,' and three 'P-s.'
+Wine, wheat, peace, wood, grass, wife, pipe, rifle, cartridge-case, and
+a little cask of brandy.... Hurrah! hurrar!" It is quite impossible to
+render the verse into English in any manner that would reproduce the
+original, so I have given the original Magyar with a literal
+translation.</p></div>
+
+<p>The poor little creature muttered the first sentences with such pitiable
+devotion after that godless mouth:&mdash;but, when the thing began to take a
+definitely jesting turn, she suddenly leaped up from her knees in a
+rage, and before Top&aacute;ndy could defend himself, dealt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>him such a healthy
+box on the ears that it made them sing; then she darted out and banged
+the door after her.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy became like a pillar of salt in his astonishment. He knew that
+Czipra had a quick hand, but that she would ever dare to raise that tiny
+hand against her master and benefactor, because of a mere trifling jest,
+he was quite incapable of understanding.</p>
+
+<p>She must be in some great trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Though he never said a word, nor did Czipra, about the blow he had
+received, and though when next they met they were the same towards one
+another as they had ever been, Top&aacute;ndy ventured to make a jest at table
+about this humorous scene, saying to Lorand:</p>
+
+<p>"B&aacute;lint, ask Czipra to repeat that prayer which she has learned from me:
+but first seize her two hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" threatened Czipra, her face burning red. "Just play some more of
+your jokes upon me. Your lives are in my hands: one day I shall put
+belladonna in the food, and poison us all together."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy smilingly drew her towards him, smoothing her head; Czipra
+sensitively pressed her master's hand to her lips, and covered it with
+kisses;&mdash;then put him aside and went out into the kitchen,&mdash;to break
+plates, and tear the servants' hair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THAT RING</h3>
+
+
+<p>The tenth year came: it was already on the wane. And Lorand began to be
+indifferent to the prescribed fatal hour.</p>
+
+<p>He was in love.</p>
+
+<p>This one thought drove all others from his mind. Weariness of life,
+atheism, misanthropy,&mdash;all disappeared from his path like
+will-o'-the-wisps before the rays of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>And Melanie liked the young fellow in return.</p>
+
+<p>She had no strong passions, and was a prudent girl, yet she confessed to
+herself that this young man pleased her. His features were noble, his
+manner gentle, his position secure enough to enable him to keep a wife.</p>
+
+<p>Many a time did she walk with Lorand under the shade of the beautiful
+sycamores, while Czipra sat alone beside her "czimbalom" and thrashed
+out the old souvenirs of the plain,&mdash;alone.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand found it no difficult task to remark that Melanie gladly
+frequented the spots he chose, and listened cheerfully to the little
+confessions of a sympathetic heart. Yet he was himself always
+reserved.&mdash;And that ring was always there on her finger. If only that
+magic band might drop down from there! Two years had already passed
+since her father's death had thrown her into mourning; she had long
+since taken off black dresses; nor could she complain against "the bread
+of orphanhood." For Top&aacute;ndy supplied her with all that a woman holds
+dear, just as if she had been his own child.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Lorand found courage enough to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> take hold of Melanie's
+hand. They were standing on a bridge that spanned the brook which was
+winding through the park, and, leaning upon its railing, were gazing at
+the flowers floating on the water&mdash;or perhaps at each other's reflection
+in the watery mirror.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand grasped Melanie's hand and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you always so sad? Whither do those everlasting sighs fly?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie looked into the youth's face with her large, bright eyes, and
+knew from his every feature that heart had dictated that question to
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, I have enough reason for being sad in that no one has ever
+asked me that question; and that had someone asked me I could never have
+answered it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the question is forbidden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have allowed him, whom I allowed to remark that I have a grief, also
+to ask me the reason of it. You see, I have a mother, and yet I have
+none."</p>
+
+<p>The girl here turned half aside.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand understood her well:&mdash;but that was just the subject about which
+he desired to know more; why, his own fate was bound up with it.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Melanie?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I tell you that, you will discover that I can have no secret any
+more in this world from you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand said not a word, but put his two hands together with a look of
+entreaty.</p>
+
+<p>"About ten years have passed since mother left home one evening, never
+to return again. Public talk connected her departure with the
+disappearance of a young man, who lived with us, and who, on account of
+some political crime, was obliged to fly the same evening."</p>
+
+<p>"His name?" inquired Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand &Aacute;ronffy, a distant relation of ours. He was considered very
+handsome."</p>
+
+<p>"And since then you have heard no news of your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a word. I believe she is somewhere in Germany under a false name,
+as an actress, and is seeking the world, in order to hide herself from
+the world."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And what became of the young man? She is no longer with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"As far as I know he went away to the East Indies, and from thence wrote
+to his brother Desiderius, leaving him his whole fortune&mdash;since that
+time he has never written any news of himself. Probably he is dead."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand breathed freely again. Nothing was known of him. People thought
+he had gone to India.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few weeks will come again the anniversary of that unfortunate day
+on which I lost my mother, my mother who is still living: and that day
+always approaches me veiled: feelings of sorrow, shame, and loneliness
+involuntarily oppress my spirit. You now know my most awful secret, and
+you will not condemn me for it?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gently drew her delicate little hand towards his lips, and kissed
+its rosy finger-tips, while all the time he fixed his eyes entreatingly
+on that ring which was on one of her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie understood the inquiry which had been so warmly expressed in
+that eloquent look.</p>
+
+<p>"You ask me, do you not, whether I have not some even more awful
+secret?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand tacitly answered in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie drew the ring off her finger and held it up in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true&mdash;but it is for me no longer a living secret. I am already
+dead to the person to whom this secret once bound me. When he asked my
+hand, I was still rich, my father was a man of powerful influence. Now I
+am poor, an orphan and alone. Such rings are usually forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the ring fell out of her hand and missing the bridge
+dropped into the water, disappearing among the leaves of the
+water-lilies.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I get it out?" inquired Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie gazed at him, as if in reverie, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Leave it there...."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, beside himself with happiness, pressed to his lips the beautiful
+hand left in his possession, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> showered hot kisses, first on the
+hand, then on its owner. From the blossoming trees flowers fluttered
+down upon their heads, and they returned with wreathed brows like bride
+and bridegroom.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand spoke that day with Top&aacute;ndy, asking him whether a long time would
+be required to build the steward's house, which had so long been
+planned.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said Top&aacute;ndy, smiling, "I understand. It may so happen that the
+steward will marry, and then he must have a separate lodging where he
+may take his wife. It will be ready in three weeks."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was quite happy.</p>
+
+<p>He saw his love reciprocated, and his life freed from its dark horror.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie had not merely convinced him that in him she recognized Lorand
+&Aacute;ronffy no more, but also calmed him by the assurance that everyone
+believed the Lorand &Aacute;ronffy of yore to be long dead and done for: no one
+cared about him any longer; his brother had taken his property, with the
+one reservation that he always sent him secretly a due portion of the
+income. Besides that one person, no one knew anything. And he would be
+silent for ever, when he knew that upon his further silence depended his
+brother's life.</p>
+
+<p>Love had stolen the steely strength of Lorand's mind away.</p>
+
+<p>He had become quite reconciled to the idea that to keep an engagement,
+which bound anyone to violate the laws of God, of man, and of nature,
+was mere folly.</p>
+
+<p>Who could accuse him to his face if he did not keep it? Who could
+recognize him again? In this position, with this face, under this
+name,&mdash;was he not born again? Was that not a quite different man whose
+life he was now leading? Had he not already ended that life which he had
+played away <i>then</i>?</p>
+
+<p>He would be a fool who carried his feeling of honor to such extremes in
+relations with dishonorable men; and, finally, if there were the man who
+would say "it is a crime," was there no God to say "it was virtue?"</p>
+
+<p>He found a strong fortress for this self-defence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> in the walls of their
+family vault, in the interior of which his grandmother had uttered such
+an awful curse against the last inhabitant. Why, that implied an
+obligation upon him too. And this obligation was also strong. Two
+opposing obligations neutralize each other. It was his duty rather to
+fulfil that which he owed to a parent, than that which he owed to his
+murderer.</p>
+
+<p>These are all fine sophisms. Lorand sought in them the means of escape.</p>
+
+<p>And then in those beautiful eyes. Could he, on whom those two stars
+smiled, die? Could he wish for annihilation, at the very gate of Heaven?</p>
+
+<p>And he found no small joy in the thought that he was to take that Heaven
+away from the opponent, who would love to bury him down in the cold
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand began to yield himself to his fate. He desired to live. He began
+to suspect that there was some happiness in the world. Calm, secret
+happiness, only known to those two beings who have given it to each
+other by mutual exchange.</p>
+
+<p>We often see this phenomenon in life. A handsome cavalier, who was the
+lion of society, disappears from the perfumed drawing-room world, and
+years after can scarcely be recognized in the country farmer, with his
+rough appearance and shabby coat. A happy family life has wrought this
+change in him. It is not possible that this same happy feeling which
+could produce that out of the brilliant, buttoned dress-coat, could let
+down the young man's pride of character, and give him in its stead an
+easy-going, wide and water-proof work-a-day blouse, could give him
+towards the world indifference and want of interest? Let his opponent
+cry from end to end of the country with mocking guffaws that Lorand
+&Aacute;ronffy is no cavalier, no gentleman; the smile of his wife will be
+compensation for his lost pride.</p>
+
+<p>Now the only thing he required was the eternal silence of the one man,
+who was permitted to know of his whereabouts, his brother.</p>
+
+<p>Should he make everything known to him?&mdash;give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> entirely into his hands
+the duel he had accepted, his marriage and the power that held sway over
+his life, that he might keep off the threatening terror which had
+hitherto kept him far from brother and parents?</p>
+
+<p>It was a matter that must be well considered and reflected upon.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand became very meditative some days later.</p>
+
+<p>Once after dinner Czipra grasped his hand and said playfully:</p>
+
+<p>"You are thinking very deeply about something. You are pale. Come, I
+will tell you your fortune.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"My fortune?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course: I shall read the cards for you: you know</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'A gypsy woman was my mother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Taught me to read the cards of fortune,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In that surpassing many wishes.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Very well, my dear Czipra: then tell me my fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was delighted to be able to see Lorand once more alone in her
+strange room. She made him sit down on the velvet camp-stool, took her
+place on the tiger-skin and drew her cards from her pocket. For two
+years she had always had them by her. They were her sole counsellors,
+friends, science, faith, worship&mdash;the sooth-saying cards.</p>
+
+<p>A person, especially a woman, must believe something!</p>
+
+<p>At first she shuffled the cards, then, placing them on her hand offered
+them to Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they are, cut them: the one, whose future is being told, must cut.
+Not with the left hand, that is not good. With the right hand, towards
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did so, to please her.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra piled the cards in packs before her.</p>
+
+<p>Then, resting her elbows on her knees and laying her beautiful
+sun-goldened face upon her hand she very carefully examined the
+well-known picture-cards.</p>
+
+<p>The knave of hearts came just in the middle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Some journey is before you," the gypsy girl began to explain, with a
+serious face. "You will meet the mourning woman. Great delight. The
+queen of hearts is in the same row:&mdash;well met. But the queen of
+jealousy<a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> and the murderer<a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> stand between them and separate them.
+The dog<a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> means faithfulness, the cat<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> slyness. The queen of
+melancholy stands beside the dog.&mdash;Take care of yourself, for some
+woman, who is angered, wishes to kill you."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> These prophecies are made with Magyar cards and the gypsy
+girl pointing at certain cards, gives an interpretation of her own to
+them.</p></div>
+
+<p>Lorand looked with such a pitying glance at Czipra that she could not
+help reading the young man's thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>She too replied tacitly. She pressed three fingers to her bosom, and
+silently intimated that she was not "that" girl. The yellow-robed woman,
+the queen of jealousy in the cards, was some one else. She placed her
+pointing fingers to the green-robed&mdash;that queen of melancholy. And
+Lorand remarked that Czipra had long been wearing a green robe, like the
+green-robed lady in the fortune-telling cards.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra suddenly mixed the cards together:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us try once more. Cut three times in succession. That is right."</p>
+
+<p>She placed the cards out again in packs.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand noticed that as the cards came side by side, Czipra's face
+suddenly flushed; her eyes began to blaze with unwonted fire.</p>
+
+<p>"See, the queen of melancholy is just beside you, on the far side the
+murderer. The queen of jealousy and the queen of hearts are in the
+opposite corner. On the other side the old lady. Above your head a
+burning house. Beware of some great misfortune. Some one wishes to cause
+you great sorrow, but some one will defend you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did not wish to embitter the poor girl by laughing in her face at
+her simplicity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Get up now, Czipra, enough of this play."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra gathered the cards up sadly. But she did not accept Lorand's
+proffered hand, she rose alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what shall I do, when I don't understand anything else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, play my favorite air for me on the czimbalom. It is such a long
+time since I heard it."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was accustomed to acquiesce: she immediately took her seat beside
+her instrument, and began to beat out upon it that lowland reverie, of
+which so many had wonderingly said that a poet's and an artist's soul
+had blended therein.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of music Top&aacute;ndy and Melanie came in from the adjoining
+rooms. Melanie stood behind Czipra; Top&aacute;ndy drew a chair beside her, and
+smoked furiously.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;shruck&quot; has been changed to &quot;struck&quot;">struck</span> the responsive strings and meantime remarked that Lorand
+all the while fixed his eyes in happy rapture upon the place where she
+sat; though not upon her face, but beyond, above, upon the face of that
+girl standing behind her. Suddenly the czimbalom-sticks fell from her
+hand. She covered her face with her two hands and said panting:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;this pipe-smoke is killing me."</p>
+
+<p>For answer Top&aacute;ndy blew a long mouthful playfully into the girl's
+face.&mdash;She must accustom herself to it: and then he hinted to Lorand
+that they should leave that room and go where unlimited freedom ruled.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra began to put the strings of the czimbalom out of tune with
+her tuning-key.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do that?" inquired Melanie.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I shall never play on this instrument again."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will see it will be so: the cards always foretell a coffin for me;
+if you do not believe me, come and see for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith she spread the cards again out on the table, and in sad
+triumph pointed to the picture portrayed by the cards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"See, now the coffin is here under the girl in green."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is not you," said Melanie, half jestingly, half
+encouragingly, "but you are here."</p>
+
+<p>And she pointed with her hand to the queen of hearts.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra&mdash;saw something other than what had been shown her. She
+suddenly seized Melanie's tender wrist with her iron-strong right hand,
+and pointed with her ill-foreboding first finger to that still whiter
+blank circle remaining on the white finger of her white hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Where has <i>that</i> ring gone to?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie's face flushed deeply at these words, while Czipra's turned
+deathly pale. The black depths of hell were to be seen in the gypsy
+girl's wide-opened eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE YELLOW-ROBED WOMAN IN THE CARDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Lorand deferred as long as possible the time for coming to an agreement
+with Desiderius as to what they should both do, when the fatal ten years
+had passed by.</p>
+
+<p>His mother and grandmother would be sure to press the latter, when the
+defined period was over, to tell them of Lorand's whereabouts. But if
+they learned the story and sought him out, there would be an end to his
+saving alias: the happy man who was living in the person of B&aacute;lint
+T&aacute;tray would be obliged to yield place to Lorand &Aacute;ronffy who would have
+to choose between death and the sneers of the world.</p>
+
+<p>When he had made Desiderius undertake, ten years before, not to betray
+his whereabouts to his parents, he had always calculated and intended to
+fulfil his fatal obligation. Desiderius alone would be acquainted with
+the end, and would still keep from the two mothers the secret history of
+his brother. They had during this time become accustomed to knowing that
+he was far from them, and his brother would, to the day of their death,
+always put them under the happy delusion that their son would once again
+knock at the door, and would show them the letters his brother had
+written; while he would in reality long have gone to the place, from
+whence men bring no messages back to the light of the sun. Yet the good
+peaceful mothers would every day lay a place at table for the son they
+expected, when the glass had long burst of its own accord.</p>
+
+<p>In place of this cold, clean, transparent dream is now that hot chaos.
+What should he do now that he wished to live, to enjoy life, to see
+happy days?</p>
+
+<p>Wherever he would go, in the street, in the field, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> the house,
+everywhere he would feel himself walking in that labyrinth; everywhere
+that endless chain would clank after him, which began again where it had
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>He did not even notice, when some one passed him, whether he greeted him
+or not.</p>
+
+<p>To escape, to exchange his word of honor for his life, to shut out the
+whole world from his secret&mdash;what has pride to say to that?&mdash;what the
+memory of the father who in a like case bowed before his self-pride and
+cast his life and happiness as a sacrifice before the feet of his honor?
+What would the tears of the two mothers say?&mdash;how could tender-handed
+love fight alone against so strong adversaries?</p>
+
+<p>How could B&aacute;lint T&aacute;tray shake off from himself that whole world which
+cleaved like a sea of mud to Lorand &Aacute;ronffy?</p>
+
+<p>As he proceeded in deep reflection beside the village houses, his hat
+pressed firmly down over his eyes, he did not even notice that from the
+other direction a lady was crossing the rough road, making straight for
+him, until as she came beside him she addressed him with affected
+gaiety:</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>The young fellow, startled at hearing his name, looked up amazed and
+gazed into the speaker's face.</p>
+
+<p>She, with the cheery smile of undoubted recognition, grasped his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! I recognized you again after so long a time had passed,
+though you know me no more, my dear Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>Oh! Lorand knew her well enough! And that woman&mdash;was Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy....</p>
+
+<p>Her face still possessed the beautiful noble features of yore; only in
+her manner the noblewoman's graceful dignity had given way to a certain
+unpleasant freedom which is the peculiarity of such women as are often
+compelled to save themselves from all kinds of delicate situations by
+humorous levity.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed for a journey, quite fashionably, albeit a little
+creased.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You here?" inquired Lorand, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly: quite by accident. I have just left my carriage at the
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's. I have won a big suit in chancery, and have come to the
+'old man' to see if I could sell him the property, which he said he was
+ready to purchase. Then I shall take my daughter home with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course&mdash;poor thing, she has lived long enough in orphan state in the
+house of a half-madman. But be so kind as to give me your arm to lean
+on: why I believe you are still afraid of me: it is so difficult, you
+know, for some one who is not used to it, to walk along these muddy
+rough country roads.&mdash;I am going to sell my property which I have won,
+because we must go to live in Vienna."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because Melanie's intended lives there too."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you would know him too,&mdash;you were once good friends&mdash;Pepi
+Gy&aacute;li!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he has made a great career! An extraordinarily famous man. Quite a
+wonder, that young man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"But you only taunt me with your series of 'indeeds.' Tell me how you
+came here. How have I found you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am steward here on Mr. Top&aacute;ndy's estate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Steward! Ha ha! To your kinsman?"</p>
+
+<p>"He does not know I am his kinsman."</p>
+
+<p>"So you are incognito? Ever since <i>then</i>? Just like me: I have used six
+names since that day. That is famous. And now we meet by chance. So much
+the better; at least you can lead me to Top&aacute;ndy's house: the atheist's
+dogs will not tear me to pieces if I am under your protection.&mdash;But
+after that you must help again to defend me."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was displeased by the fact that this woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> turned into jest
+those memories in which the shame of both lay buried.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was on the verandah of the castle in company with the girls when
+Lorand led in the strange lady.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand went first to Melanie:</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the one you have so often sighed after," ... then turning to
+Top&aacute;ndy&mdash;"Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Melanie was taken aback. She merely stared in astonishment
+at the new arrival, as if it were difficult to recognize her at once,
+while her mother, with a passion quite dramatic, rushed towards her,
+embraced her, clasped her to her bosom, and covered her with kisses. She
+sobbed and kneeled before her; as one may see times without number in
+the closing scene of the fifth act of any pathetic drama.</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful you have become! What an angel! My darling, only, beloved
+Melanie!&mdash;for whom I prayed every day, of whom every day I
+dreamed.&mdash;Well, tell me, have you thought sometimes of me?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie whispered in her mother's ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Later, when we are alone."</p>
+
+<p>The woman understood that well ("later when we are alone, we can talk of
+cold, prosaic things: but when they see us, let us weep, faint, and
+embrace.") This scene of meeting was going to begin anew, only Top&aacute;ndy
+was good enough to kindly request her ladyship to step into the room,
+where space was confined, and circumstances are more favorable to
+dramatic episodes. Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy then became gay and talkative. She
+thanked Top&aacute;ndy (the old atheistical fool) thousands, millions of times,
+for giving a place of refuge to her child, for guarding her only
+treasure. Then she looked around to see whom else she had to thank. She
+saw Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," she said to Lorand, "you have not yet introduced me to your
+wife."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Everybody became embarrassed&mdash;with the exception of Top&aacute;ndy, who
+answered with calm humor:</p>
+
+<p>"She is my ward, and has been so many years."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! A thousand apologies for my clumsiness. I certainly thought she was
+already married."</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy had time to remark that Czipra's eyes, when they
+looked upon Lorand, seemed like the eyes of faithfulness: and she had a
+delicious opportunity of cutting to the heart two, if not three people.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it seems to me what is not may be, may it not, 'Lorand?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand!" cried three voices in one.</p>
+
+<p>"There we are! Well I have betrayed you now. But what is the ultimate
+good of secrecy here between good friends and relations? Yes, he is
+Lorand &Aacute;ronffy, a dear relation of ours. And you had not yet recognized
+him, Melanie?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie turned as white as the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand answered not a word.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of answering he stepped nearer to Top&aacute;ndy, who grasped his hand,
+and drew him towards him.</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy did not allow anyone else to utter a word.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not be a burden long, my dear uncle. I have taken up my
+residence here in the neighborhood, with Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, who is going to
+buy our property; we have just won an important suit in chancery."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy did not explain the genesis of the suit in chancery
+any further to Top&aacute;ndy, who had himself now fallen into that bad habit
+of saying, "indeed" to everything, as Lorand did.</p>
+
+<p>"For that purpose I must enjoy myself a few days here."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, dear uncle, you will not deny me the pleasure of being able to
+have Melanie all this time by my side. I should surely have found it
+much more proper to take up my quarters directly here in your house, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi had not been kind enough to previously offer his hospitality."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" (Top&aacute;ndy knew sometimes how to say very mocking "indeeds.")</p>
+
+<p>"So please don't offer any objections to my request that I may take
+Melanie to myself for these few days. Later on I shall bring her back
+again, and leave her here until fortune desires you to let us go
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>At this point Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy put on an extremely matronly face. She
+wished him to understand what she meant.</p>
+
+<p>"I find your wish very natural," said Top&aacute;ndy briefly, looking again in
+the woman's face as one who would say "What else do you know for our
+amusement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Till then I render you endless thanks for taking the part of my poor
+deserted orphan. Heaven will reward you for your goodness."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't do it for payment."</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy laughed modestly, as though in doubt whether to
+understand a joke when the inhabitants of higher spheres were under
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear uncle, you are still as jesting as ever in certain respects."</p>
+
+<p>"As godless&mdash;you wished to say, did you not? Indeed I have changed but
+little in my old age."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh we know you well!" said the lady in a voice of absolute grace: "you
+only show that outwardly, but everyone knows your heart."</p>
+
+<p>"And runs before it when he can, does he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no: quite the contrary," said Madame apologetically, "don't
+misinterpret our present departures to prove how much we all think of
+that beneficial public life which you are leading. I shall whisper one
+word to you, which will convince you of our most sincere respect for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>That one word she did whisper to Top&aacute;ndy, resting her gloved hand on his
+shoulder&mdash;:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to ask my dear uncle to give Melanie away, when Heaven brings
+round the happy day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At these words Top&aacute;ndy smiled: and, putting Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's hand
+under his arm, said:</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure. I will do more. If on that certain day of Heaven the sun
+shines as I desire it, this my godless hand shall make two people happy.
+But if that day of Heaven be illumined otherwise than I wish, I shall
+give 'quantum satis' of blessing, love congratulatory verses, long sighs
+and all that costs nothing. So what I shall answer to this question
+depends upon that happy day."</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy clasped Top&aacute;ndy's hand to her heart and with eyes
+upturned to Heaven, prayed that Providence might bless so good a
+relation's choice with good humor, and then drew Melanie too towards
+him, that she might render thanks to her good uncle for the gracious
+care he had bestowed upon her.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gazed at the group dispiritedly, while Czipra, unnoticed, escaped
+from the room.</p>
+
+<p>"And now perhaps Lorand will be so kind as to accompany us to
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house."</p>
+
+<p>"As far as the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your dear friend, Melanie, that beautiful dear creature? Take
+a short leave of her. But where has she gone to?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did not move a muscle to go and look for Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>"Well we shall meet the dear child again soon," said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy,
+noticing that they were waiting in vain. "Give me your arm, Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>She leaned on Lorand's right arm, and motioned to Melanie to take her
+position on the other side; but the girl did not do so. Instead she
+clasped her mother's arm, and so they went along the street, the mother
+waving back affectionately to Top&aacute;ndy, who gazed after them out of the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie did not utter a single word the whole way.</p>
+
+<p>"The old fellow, it seems, is on bad terms with S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he still as iconoclastic, as godless, as ever?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have been able to stand it so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you were always so pious, so god-fearing; are you still?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"So Top&aacute;ndy and S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi are living on terms of open enmity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you will visit us several times, while we are here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven be praised that once I hear a 'no' from you! That heap of
+<i>yes's</i> began already to make me nervous. Then you too are among <i>his</i>
+opponents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime they had reached the gate of S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house. Here Lorand
+stopped and would proceed no further.</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy clasped Melanie's hand that she might not go in front.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear Lorand, and are you not going to take leave of us even?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gazed at Melanie, who did not even raise her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Madame," said Lorand briefly. He raised his hat and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy cast one glance after him with those beautiful
+expressive eyes.&mdash;Those beautiful expressive eyes just then were full to
+the brim of relentless hatred.</p>
+
+<p>When Lorand reached home Czipra was waiting for him at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Raising her first finger, she whispered in his ear:</p>
+
+<p>"That was the yellow-robed woman!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet she had nothing yellow on her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FINGER-POST OF DEATH</h3>
+
+
+<p>Lorand threw himself exhausted into his arm-chair.</p>
+
+<p>There was an end to every attempt at escape.</p>
+
+<p>He had been recognized by the very woman who ought to detest him more
+bitterly than anyone in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Nemesis! the liberal hand of everlasting justice!</p>
+
+<p>He had deserted that woman in the middle of the road, on which they were
+flying together passionately into degradation, and now that he wished to
+return to life, that woman blocked his way.</p>
+
+<p>There was no hope of pity. Besides, who would accept it&mdash;from such a
+hand? At such a price? Such a present must be refused, were it life
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>Farewell calm happy life! Farewell, intoxicating love!</p>
+
+<p>There was only one way, a direct one&mdash;to the opened tomb.</p>
+
+<p>They would laugh over the fallen, but at least not to his face.</p>
+
+<p>The father had departed that way, albeit he had a loving wife, and
+growing children:&mdash;but he was alone in the world. He owed nobody any
+duty.</p>
+
+<p>There were two enfeebled, frail shadows on earth, to which he owed a
+duty of care; but they would soon follow him, they had no very long
+course to run.</p>
+
+<p>Fate must be accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>The father's blood besprinkled the sons. One spirit drew the other after
+it by the hand, till at last all would be there at home together.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few days more remained.</p>
+
+<p>These few days he must be gay and cheerful: must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> deceive every eye and
+heart, that followed attentively him who approached the end of his
+journey,&mdash;that no one might suspect anything.</p>
+
+<p>There was still one more precaution to be taken.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius might arrive before the fatal day. In his last letter he had
+hinted at it. That must be prevented. The meeting must be arranged
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>He hurriedly wrote a letter to his brother to come to meet him at
+Szolnok on the day before the anniversary, and wait for him at the inn.
+He gave as his reason the cynicism of Top&aacute;ndy. He did not wish to
+introduce him as a discord in that tender scene. Then they could meet,
+and from there could go together to visit their parents.</p>
+
+<p>The plan was quite intelligible and natural. Lorand at once despatched
+the letter to the post.</p>
+
+<p>So does the cautious traveler drive from his route at the outset, the
+obstacles which might delay him.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he sent the letter off when Top&aacute;ndy entered his room.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand went to meet him. Top&aacute;ndy embraced and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you that you chose my home as a place of refuge from your
+prosecutors, my dear Lorand; but there is no need longer to keep in
+hiding. Later events have long washed out what happened ten years ago,
+and you may return to the world without being disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have known that long since: why, we read the newspapers; but I prefer
+to remain here. I am quite satisfied with this world."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a mother and a brother from whom you have no reason to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish to meet them when I can introduce myself to them as a happy
+man."</p>
+
+<p>"That depends on yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"A few days will prove it."</p>
+
+<p>"Be as quick as you can with it. Let only one thought possess your mind:
+Melanie is now in S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house. The great spiritual delight it will
+afford me to think of the hypocrite's death-face which that Pharisee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+will make when that trivial woman discloses to him that the young man,
+who is living in the neighborhood, is L&ouml;rincz &Aacute;ronffy's son, can only be
+surpassed by my anxiety for you, caused by his knowledge of the fact.
+For, believe me, he will leave no stone unturned to prevent you, who
+will remind him of that night when we spoke of great and little things,
+from being able to strike root in this world. He will even talk Melanie
+over."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, shrugging his shoulders, said with light-hearted indifference:</p>
+
+<p>"Melanie is not the only girl on this earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Well said. I don't care. You are my son: and she whom you bring here is
+my daughter. Only bring her; the sooner the better."</p>
+
+<p>"It will not take a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Better still. If you want to act, act quickly. In such cases, either
+quickly or not at all; either courageously or never."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be no lack of courage."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy spoke of marriage, Lorand of a pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Well in a week's time I shall be able to give my blessing on your
+choice."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy did not wish to dive further into Lorand's secret. He suspected
+the young fellow was choosing between two girls, and did not imagine
+that he had already chosen a third:&mdash;the one with the down-turned
+torch.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a></p>
+
+<p>Lorand during the following days was as cheerful as a bridegroom during
+the week preceding his marriage&mdash;so cheerful!&mdash;as his father had been
+the evening before his death.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> The torch, which should have been held upright for the
+marriage festivities, would be held upside down for the festivities of
+death, just as the life would be reversed.</p></div>
+
+<p>The last day but one came: May again, but not so chilly as ten years
+before. The air in the park was flower-perfumed, full of lark trills,
+and nightingale ditties.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Czipra was chasing butterflies on the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since Melanie had left the house, Czipra's sprightly mood had
+returned. She too played in the lovely spring, with the playful birds of
+song.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand allowed her to draw him into her circle of playmates:</p>
+
+<p>"How does this hyacinth look in my hair?"</p>
+
+<p>"It suits you admirably, Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy girl took off Lorand's hat, and crowned it with a wreath of
+leaves, then put it back again, changing its position again and again
+until she found out how it suited him best.</p>
+
+<p>Then she pressed his hand under her arm, laid her burning face upon his
+shoulder, and thus strolled about with him.</p>
+
+<p>Poor girl! She had forgotten, forgiven everything already!</p>
+
+<p>Six days had passed since that ruling rival had left the house: Lorand
+was not sad, did not pine after her, he was good-humored, witty, and
+playful; he enjoyed himself. Czipra believed their stars were once more
+approaching each other.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, the smiling and gay Lorand, was thinking that he had but one
+more day to live; and then&mdash;adieu to the perfumed fields, adieu to the
+songster's echo, adieu to the beautiful, love-lorn gypsy girl!</p>
+
+<p>They went arm-in-arm across the bridge, that little bridge that spanned
+the brook. They stopped in the middle of the bridge and leaning upon the
+railing looked down into the water;&mdash;in the self same place where
+Melanie's engagement ring fell into the water. They gazed down into the
+water-mirror, and the smooth surface reflected their figures; the gypsy
+girl still wore a green dress, and a rose-colored sash, but Lorand still
+saw Melanie's face in that mirror.</p>
+
+<p>In this place her hand had been in his: in that place she had said of
+the lost ring "leave it alone:" in that place he had clasped her in his
+arms!</p>
+
+<p>And to-morrow even that would cause no pain!</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy now joined them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what, Lorand?" said the old Manichean cheerily: "I thought
+I would accompany you this afternoon to Szolnok. We must celebrate the
+day you meet your brother: we must drink to it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not take me with you?" inquired Czipra half in jest.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" was the simultaneous reply from both sides.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is not fit for you <i>there</i>.&mdash;There is no room for you
+<i>there</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Both replied the same.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy meant "You cannot take part in men's carousals; who knows what
+will become of you?" while Lorand&mdash;meant something else.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and when will Lorand return?" inquired Czipra eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"He must first return to his parents," answered Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>(&mdash;"Thither indeed" thought Lorand, "to father and grandfather"&mdash;)</p>
+
+<p>"But he will not remain <i>there</i> forever?"</p>
+
+<p>At that both men laughed loudly. What kind of expression was that word
+"forever" in one's mouth? Is there a measure for time?</p>
+
+<p>"What will you bring me when you return?" inquired the girl childishly.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was merciless enough to jest: he tore down a leaf which was
+round, like a small coin; placing that on the palm of her hand, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Something no greater than the circumference of this leaf."</p>
+
+<p>Two understood that he meant "a ring," but what he meant was a "bullet"
+in the centre of his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>How pitiless are the jests of a man ready for death.</p>
+
+<p>Their happy dalliance was interrupted by the butler who came to announce
+that a young gentleman was waiting to speak with Master Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's heart beat fast! It must be Desi!</p>
+
+<p>Had he not received the letter? Had he not acceded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> to his brother's
+request? He had after all come one day sooner than his deliberate
+permission had allowed.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand hastened up to the castle.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy called after him:</p>
+
+<p>"If it is a good friend of yours bring him down here into the park: he
+must dine with us."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall wait here by the bridge," Czipra added: and there she remained
+on the bridge, she did not herself know why, gazing at those plants on
+the surface of the water, that were hiding Melanie's ring.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand hastened along the corridors in despondent mood: if his brother
+had really come, his last hours would be doubly embittered.</p>
+
+<p>That simulation, that comedy of cynical frivolity, would be difficult to
+play before him.</p>
+
+<p>The new arrival was waiting for him in the reception room.</p>
+
+<p>When Lorand opened the door and stood face to face with him, an entirely
+new surprise awaited him.</p>
+
+<p>The young cavalier who had thus hastened to find him was not his brother
+Desi, but&mdash;Pepi Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<p>Pepi was no taller, no more manly-looking than he had been ten years
+before; he had still that childish face, those tiny features, the same
+refined movements<span title="Transcriber's Note: A missing period has been added to the end of this sentence">.</span> He was still as strict an adherent to fashion: and if
+time had wrought a change in him, it was only to be seen in a certain,
+distinguished bearing,&mdash;that of those who often have the opportunity of
+playing the protector toward their former friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, dear Lorand," he said in a gay tone, anticipating Lorand. "Do
+you still recognize me?"</p>
+
+<p>("Ah," thought Lorand: "you are here as the finger-post of death.")</p>
+
+<p>"I did not want to avoid you: as soon as I knew from the B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zys
+that you were here, I came to find you."</p>
+
+<p>After all it was "<i>she</i>" that had put him on Lorand's track!</p>
+
+<p>"I have business here with S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi in Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's interest&mdash;a
+legal agreement."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's only thought, while Gy&aacute;li was uttering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> these words, was&mdash;how
+to behave himself in the presence of this man.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said the visitor tenderly extending his hand to Lorand, "that
+that old wrangle which happened ten years ago has long been forgotten by
+you&mdash;as it has by me."</p>
+
+<p>("He wishes to make me recollect it, if perchance I had forgotten.")</p>
+
+<p>"And we shall again be faithful comrades and true."</p>
+
+<p>One thought ran like lightning in a moment through Lorand's brain. "If I
+kick this fellow out now as would be my method, everyone would clearly
+understand the origin of the catastrophe, and take it as satisfaction
+for an insult. No, they must have no such triumph: this wretch must see
+that the man who is gazing into the face of his own death is in no way
+behind him, who burns to persecute him to the end with exquisiteness, in
+cheerful mood."</p>
+
+<p>So Lorand did not get angry, did not show any sullenness or melancholy,
+but, as he was wont to do in student days of yore, slapped the dandy's
+open hand and grasped it in manly fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"So glad to see you, Pepi. Why the devil should I not have recognised
+you? Only I imagined that you would have aged as much as I have since
+that time, and now you stand before me the same as ever. I almost asked
+you what we had to learn for to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad of that! Nothing has caused me any displeasure in my life
+except the fact that we parted in anger&mdash;we, the gay comrades!&mdash;and
+quarrelled!&mdash;why? for a dirty newspaper! The devil take them all!&mdash;Taken
+all together they are not worth a quarrel between two comrades. Well,
+not a word more about it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my boy, very well, if your intentions are good. In any case we
+are country fellows who can stand a good deal from one another. To-day
+we calumniate each other, to-morrow we carouse together."</p>
+
+<p>Ha, ha, ha!</p>
+
+<p>"But you must introduce me to the old man. I hear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> he is a gay old fool.
+He does not like priests. Why I can tell him enough tales about priests
+to keep him going for a week. Come, introduce me. I know his mouth will
+never cease laughing, once I begin upon him."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally it is understood that you will remain here with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Old S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, as it is, had made sour faces enough at the
+unusual invasion of guests: and he has a cursedly sullen housekeeper.
+Besides it is disagreeable always to have to say nice things to the two
+ladies: that's not why a fellow comes to the country. <i>A propos</i>, I hear
+you have a beautiful gypsy girl here."</p>
+
+<p>"You know that too, already?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are not jealous of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, the devil! of a gypsy girl?"</p>
+
+<p>("Well just try it with her," thought Lorand, "at any rate you will get
+'per procura,' that box on the ears which I cannot give you.")</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! we shall not fight a duel for a gypsy girl, shall we, my boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor for any other girl."</p>
+
+<p>"You have become a wise man like me: I like that. A woman is only a
+woman. Among others, what do you say to Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy? I find she is
+still more beautiful than her daughter. <i>Ma foi</i>, on my word of honor!
+Those ten years on the stage have only done her good. I believe she is
+still in love with you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite natural," said Lorand in jesting scorn.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime they had reached the park; they found Top&aacute;ndy and Czipra
+by the bridge. Lorand introduced Pepi Gy&aacute;li as his old school-fellow.</p>
+
+<p>That name fairly magnetized Czipra.&mdash;Melanie's fianc&eacute;!&mdash;So the lover had
+come after his bride. What a kind fellow this Pepi Gy&aacute;li was! A really
+most amiable young man!</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li quite misunderstood the favorable impression his name and
+appearance made on Czipra: he was ready to attribute it to his
+irresistible charms.</p>
+
+<p>After briefly making the acquaintance of the old man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> he very rapidly
+took over the part of courtier, which every cavalier according to the
+rules of the world is bound to do; besides, she was a gypsy girl,
+and&mdash;Lorand was not jealous.</p>
+
+<p>"You have in one moment explained to me something over which I have
+racked my brains a whole day."</p>
+
+<p>"What can that be?" inquired Czipra curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"How it is that some one can prefer fried fish and fried rolls at
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's to cabbage at Top&aacute;ndy's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who may that someone be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I could not understand that Miss Melanie was able to persuade
+herself to change this house for that; now I know: she must have put up
+with a great persecution here."</p>
+
+<p>"Persecution?" said Czipra, astonished:&mdash;the gentlemen too stared at the
+speaker.&mdash;"Who would have persecuted her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Why these eyes!" said Gy&aacute;li, gazing flatteringly into Czipra's
+eyes. "The poor girl could not stand the rivalry. It is quite natural
+that the moon, however sweet and poetic a phenomenon, always flees
+before the sun."</p>
+
+<p>To Czipra this speech was very surprising. There are many who do not
+like overburdened sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Melanie is far more beautiful than I," she said, casting her eyes
+down, and growing very serious.</p>
+
+<p>"Well it is my bounden duty to believe in that, as in all the miracles
+of the apostles: but I cannot help it, if you have made a heretic of
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra turned her head aside and gazed down into the water with eyes of
+insulted pride: while Lorand, who was standing behind Gy&aacute;li, thought
+within himself:</p>
+
+<p>("If I take you by the neck and drown you in that water, you would
+deserve it, and it will do good to my soul: but I should know I had
+murdered you: and no one should ever be able to boast of <i>that</i>? My name
+shall never be connected with yours in death.")</p>
+
+<p>For Lorand might well have known that Gy&aacute;li's ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>pearance on that day
+had no other object than that of reminding Lorand of his awful
+obligation.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," said Lorand patting Gy&aacute;li's shoulder playfully, "I must
+show what a general I should have made. I have an important journey this
+afternoon to Szolnok."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go; don't bother yourself on my account. Do exactly as you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not how matters lie, Pepi: you must not stay here in the
+meantime."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil! Perhaps you will turn me out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear no! To-night we shall have a glorious carnival at Szolnok, in
+honor of my regeneration. All the gay fellows of the neighborhood are
+invited to it. You must come with us too."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Your regeneration carnival!" cried Gy&aacute;li, in a voice of ecstasy,
+the while gazing at Czipra apologetically. "Albeit other magnets draw me
+hither with overpowering force&mdash;I must go there without fail. I must
+deliver a 'toast' at your 'regeneration' festival, Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother Desi will also be there."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! little Desi? That little rebel. Well all the better. We shall have
+much in common with him; of old he was an amusing boy, with his serious
+face. Well I shall go with you. I sacrifice myself. I capitulate. Well
+we shall go to Szolnok to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Why, anyone might have seen plainly&mdash;had he not come that day just to
+revel in the agony of Lorand?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Pepi," Lorand assured him, "we shall be gay as we were once ten
+years ago. Much hidden joy awaits us: we shall break in suddenly upon
+it. Well, you are coming with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Without fail: only be so good as to send some one next door for my
+traveling-cloak. I shall go with you to your 'regeneration' f&ecirc;te!"</p>
+
+<p>And once again he grasped Lorand's hand tenderly, as one who was
+incapable of expressing in words all the good wishes with which his
+heart was brimming over.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You see I should have been a good general after all," said Lorand
+smiling. "How beautifully I captured the besieging army."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not at all; the blockade is still being kept up."</p>
+
+<p>"But starvation will be a difficult matter where the garrison is well
+nourished."</p>
+
+<p>The poor gypsy girl did not understand a word of all this jesting, which
+was uttered for her edification: and if she had understood it, was she
+not a gypsy girl, just to be sported with in this manner?</p>
+
+<p>Were not Top&aacute;ndy and his comrades wont to jest with her after this
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra did not laugh over these jests as much as she had done at
+other times.</p>
+
+<p>It exercised a distasteful influence upon her heart, when this young
+dandy spoke so lightly of Melanie, and even slighted her before the eyes
+of another girl. Did all men speak so of their loved ones? And do men
+speak so of every girl?</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy turned the conversation. He knew his man at the first glance: he
+had many weak sides. He began to "my lord" him, and made inquiries about
+those foreign princes, whose plenipotentiary minister M. Gy&aacute;li was
+pleased to be.</p>
+
+<p>That had its effect.</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li became at once a different person: he strove to maintain an
+imposing bearing with a view to raising his dignity, for all the world
+as if he had swallowed a poker; he straightened his eyebrows, put his
+hands behind him under the tails of his lilac-colored dress-coat and
+formed his mouth into the true diplomatic shape.</p>
+
+<p>It was a supreme opportunity for being able to display his grandiose
+achievements. Let that other see how high he had flown, while others had
+remained fastened to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just concluded a splendid business for his Excellency, the
+Prince of Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein."</p>
+
+<p>"A ruling prince, of course?" inquired Top&aacute;ndy, in na&iuml;ve wonder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, you know that."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course. His possessions lie just where the corners of the
+great principalities of Lippedetmold, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and
+Reuss-major meet."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, Gy&aacute;li must have been very full of self-confidence when he answered
+to the old magistrate's peculiar geographical definition, "yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Your lordship has already doubtless found an excellent situation in the
+Principality?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have an order and a title, the gift of His Excellency."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it may lead to more."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. In return for my winning His Excellency's domains, which he
+inherited on his mother's side, he will settle on me 5,000 acres of
+land."</p>
+
+<p>"In Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein?"</p>
+
+<p>"No: here in the Magyar country."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought in Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein: for that is a beautiful country."</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li began to see that it was after all something more than simplicity
+that could give utterance to such easily recognized exaggeration; and
+when the old man began to inform him, in which section of which chapter
+of the Corpus Juris would be found inscribed His Excellency's Magyar
+"indigenatus," etc., etc., Gy&aacute;li began to feel exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and began to again change the course of the conversation.
+He chattered on about His Excellency being a fine, free-thinking man,
+related a hundred anecdotes about him, how he turned out the Jesuits
+from his possessions, what jokes he had played on the monks, how he
+persecuted the pietists, and other such things as might be very
+inconvenient incumbrances to the Principality of
+Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein,&mdash;in the case of any such principality existing
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The theme lasted the whole of dinner time.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra wanted to do all she could to-day for herself. For the
+farewell-dinner she sought out all that she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> found Lorand liked, and
+Lorand was ungrateful enough to allow Gy&aacute;li the field of compliment to
+himself: he could not say one good word to her.</p>
+
+<p>Yet who knew when he would sit at that table again?</p>
+
+<p>Dinner over, Lorand spent a few minutes in running over the house: to
+give instructions to every servant as to what was to be done in the
+fields, the garden and the forest before his return in two weeks' time.
+He gave everyone a tip to drink to his health; for to-morrow he was to
+celebrate a great festival.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy, too, was looking over the preparations for the journey. Czipra
+was the lady of the house: it was her task, as it had always been, to
+amuse the guest who remained alone. Top&aacute;ndy never troubled himself to
+amuse anyone, for whose entertainment he was responsible. Czipra was
+there, he must listen to what she had to say.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the butler, who had been sent to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's to bring
+Gy&aacute;li's traveling cloak, came back.</p>
+
+<p>He brought also a letter from the young lady for Lorand<span title="Transcriber's Note: A missing period has been added to the end of this sentence">.</span></p>
+
+<p>"From the young lady?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took the letter from him and told him to take the cloak up to the
+guest's room.</p>
+
+<p>He himself hastened to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>As he passed through the saloon, Gy&aacute;li met him, coming from Czipra's
+room. The dandy's face was peculiarly flurried.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," he said to Lorand, "that gypsy girl of yours is a
+regular female panther, and you have trained her well, I can tell
+you.&mdash;Where is there a looking-glass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes she is," replied Lorand. He scarcely knew why he said it: he heard,
+but only unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>Only that letter! Melanie's letter!</p>
+
+<p>He was in such a hurry to reach his room with it. Once there and alone,
+he shut the door, kissed the fine rose-colored note, and its azure-blue
+letters, the red seal upon it; and clasped it to his breast, as if he
+would find out from his heart what was in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Well, and what could be in it?</p>
+
+<p>Lorand put the letter down before him and laid his fist heavily upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I know what is in that letter?</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose she writes that she loves me, and awaits happiness from me,
+that her love can outbalance a whole lost world, that she is ready to
+follow me across the sea, beyond the mocking sneers of acquaintances,
+and to disappear with me among the hosts of forgotten figures!</p>
+
+<p>"No. I shall not break open this letter.</p>
+
+<p>"My last step shall not be hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"And if what seems such a chance meeting is nought but a well planned
+revenge? If they have all along been agreed and have only come here
+together that they may force me to confess that I am humiliated, that I
+beg for happiness, for love, that I am afraid of death because I am in
+love with the smiling faces of life; and when I have confessed that,
+they will laugh in my face, and will leave me to the contempt of the
+whole world, of my own self....</p>
+
+<p>"Let them marry each other!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took the beautiful note and locked it up in the drawer of his
+table, unopened, unread.</p>
+
+<p>His last thought must be that perhaps he had been loved, and that last
+thought would be lightened by the uncertainty: only "perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>And now to prepare for that journey.</p>
+
+<p>It was Lorand's wont to carry two good pistols on a journey. These he
+carefully loaded afresh, then hid them in his own traveling trunk.</p>
+
+<p>He left his servant to pack in the trunk as much linen as would be
+enough for two weeks, for they were going to journey farther.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy had two carriages ready, his traveling coach and a wagon.</p>
+
+<p>When the carriages drove up, Lorand put on his traveling cloak, lit his
+pipe and went down into the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was arranging all matters in the carriages, the trunks were bound
+on tightly and the wine-case with its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> twenty-four bottles of choice
+wine, packed away in a sure place.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good girl after all, Czipra," said Lorand, tenderly patting
+the girl's back.</p>
+
+<p>"After all?"</p>
+
+<p>Was he really so devoted to that pipe that he could not take it from his
+mouth for one single moment?</p>
+
+<p>Yet she had perhaps deserved a farewell kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit with my uncle in the coach, Pepi," said Lorand to the dandy, "with
+me you might risk your life. I might turn you over into the ditch
+somewhere and break your neck. And it would be a pity for such a
+promising youth."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand sprang up onto the seat and took the reins in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, adieu, Czipra!"&mdash;The coach went first, the wagon following.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra stood at the street-door and gazed from there at the disappearing
+youth, as long as she could see him, resting her head sadly against the
+doorpost.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not glance back once.</p>
+
+<p>He was going at a gallop towards his doom.</p>
+
+<p>And when evening overtakes the travelers, and the night's million lights
+have appeared, and the tiny glowworms are twinkling in the ditches and
+hedges, the young fellow will have time enough to think on that theme:
+that eternal law rules alike over the worlds and the atoms&mdash;but what is
+the fate of the intermediate worms? that of the splendid fly? that of
+ambitious men and nations struggling for their existence? "Fate gives
+justice into the two hands of the evil one, that while with the right he
+extinguishes his life, with the left he may stifle the soul."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>FANNY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some wise man, who was a poet too, once said: "the best fame for a woman
+is to have no fame at all." I might add: "the best life history is that,
+which has no history."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the romance of Fanny's life and of mine.</p>
+
+<p>Eight years had passed since they brought a little girl from
+F&uuml;rsten-Allee to take my place: the little girl had grown into a big
+girl,&mdash;and was still occupying my place.</p>
+
+<p>How I envied her those first days, when I had to yield my place to her,
+that place veiled with holy memories in our family's mourning circle, in
+mother's sorrowing heart; and how I blessed fate, that I was able to
+fill that place with her.</p>
+
+<p>My career led me to distant districts, and every year I could spend but
+a month or two at home; mother would have aged, grandmother have grown
+mad from the awful solitude had Heaven not sent a guardian angel into
+their midst.</p>
+
+<p>How much I have to thank Fanny for.</p>
+
+<p>For every smile of mother's face, for every new day of grandmother's
+life&mdash;I had only Fanny to thank.</p>
+
+<p>Every year when I returned for the holidays I found long-enduring happy
+peace at home.</p>
+
+<p>Where everyone had so much right every day madly to curse fate, mankind,
+the whole world; where sorrow should have ruled in every thought;&mdash;I
+found nothing but peace, patience, and hope.</p>
+
+<p>It was she who assured them that there was a limit to suffering, she who
+encouraged them with renewed hopes, she who allured them by a thousand
+possible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> variations on the theme of chance gladness, that might come
+to-morrow or perhaps the day after.</p>
+
+<p>And she did everything for all the world as if she never thought of
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>What a sacrifice it must be for a fair lively girl to sacrifice the most
+brilliant years of her youth to the nursing of two sorrow-laden women,
+to suffering with them, to enduring their heaviness of disposition.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she was only a substitute girl in the house.</p>
+
+<p>When I left Pressburg and the Fromm's house her parents wished to take
+her home; but Fanny begged them to leave her there one year longer, she
+was so fond of that poor suffering mother.</p>
+
+<p>And then every year she begged for another year; so she remained in our
+small home until she was a full-grown maiden.</p>
+
+<p>Yes Pressburg is a gay, noisy town. The Fromm's house was open before
+the world and the flower ought to open in spring&mdash;the young girl has a
+right to live and enjoy life.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny voluntarily shut herself off from life. There was no merriment in
+our house.</p>
+
+<p>My parents often assured her they would take her to some entertainments,
+and would go with her.</p>
+
+<p>"For my sake? You would go to amusements that I might enjoy myself?
+Would that be an amusement for me? Let us stay at home.&mdash;There will be
+time for that later."</p>
+
+<p>And when she victimized herself, she did it so that no one could see she
+was a victim.</p>
+
+<p>There are many good patient-hearted girls, whose lips never complain,
+but hollow eyes, pale faces, and clouded dispositions utter silent
+complaints and give evidence of buried ambitions.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny's face was always rosy and smiling: her eyes cheerful and fiery,
+her disposition always gay, frank and contented; her every feature
+proved that what she did she did from her heart and her heart was well
+pleased. Her happy ever-gay presence enlightened the while gloomy circle
+around her, as when some angel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> walks in the darkness, with a halo of
+glory around his figure.</p>
+
+<p>From year to year I found matters so at home when I returned for the
+holidays: and from year to year one definite idea grew and took shape in
+our minds mutually.</p>
+
+<p>We never spoke of it: but we all knew.</p>
+
+<p>She knew&mdash;I knew, her parents knew and so did mine; nor did we think
+anything else could happen. It was only a question of time. We were so
+sure about it that we never spoke of it.</p>
+
+<p>After finishing my course of studies, I became a lawyer; and, when I
+received my first appointment in a treasury office, one day I drew
+Fanny's hand within mine, and said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"Fanny dear, you remember the story of Jacob in the Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think Jacob was an excellent fellow, in that he could serve
+seven years to win his wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot deny that he was."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must acknowledge that I am still more excellent for I have
+already served eight years&mdash;to win you."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny looked up at me with those eyes of the summer-morning smile, and
+with childish happiness replied:</p>
+
+<p>"And to prove your excellence still further, you must wait two years
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" I asked, downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she said with quiet earnestness. "Do you not know there is a
+vacant place at our table; and until that is filled, there can be no
+gladness in this house. Could you be happy, if you had to read every day
+in your mother's eyes the query, 'where is that other?' All your
+gladness would wound that suffering heart, and every dumb look she gave
+would be a reproach for our gladness. Oh, Desi, no marriage is possible
+here, as long as mourning lasts."</p>
+
+<p>And as she said this to prevent me loving her, she only forced me to
+love her the more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How far above me you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why those two short years will fly away, as the rest. Our thoughts for
+each other do not date from yesterday, and, as we grow old, we shall
+have time enough to grow happy. I shall wait, and in this waiting I have
+enough gladness."</p>
+
+<p>Oh how I would have loved to kiss her for those words: but that face was
+so holy before me, I should have considered it a sacrilege to touch it
+with my lips.</p>
+
+<p>"We remain then as we were."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word of it for two years yet, when you are released from your
+word of honor you gave to Lorand, and may discover his whereabouts. Why
+this long secrecy? That I cannot understand. I have never had any
+ambition to dive more deeply into your secret than you yourselves have
+allowed me to: but if you made a promise, keep it; and if by this
+promise you have thrown your family, yourself, and me into ten years'
+mourning, let us wear it until it falls from us."</p>
+
+<p>I grasped the dear girl's hand, I acknowledged how terribly right she
+was; then with her gay, playful humor she hurried back to mother, and no
+one could have fancied from her face, that she could be serious for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>I risked one more audacious attempt in this matter.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote to Lorand, putting before him that the horizon all round was
+already so clear, that he might march round the country to the sound of
+trumpets, announcing that he is so and so, without finding anyone to
+arrest him, as it was the same whether it was ten years or eight, he
+might let us off the last two years, and admit us to him.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand wrote back these short lines in answer:</p>
+
+<p>"We do not bargain about that for which we gave our word of honor."</p>
+
+<p>It was a very brief refusal.</p>
+
+<p>I troubled him no more with that request. I waited and endured, while
+the days passed.... Ah, Lorand, for your sake I sacrificed two years of
+heaven on earth!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FATAL DAY!</h3>
+
+
+<p>It had come at last!</p>
+
+<p>We had already begun to count the days that remained.</p>
+
+<p>One week before the final day, I received a letter from Lorand, in which
+he begged me not to go to meet him at Lankadomb, but rather to give a
+rendezvous in Szolnok: he did not wish the scene of rapture to be
+spoiled by the sarcasms of Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>I was just as well pleased.</p>
+
+<p>For days all had been ready for the journey. I hunted up everything in
+the way of a souvenir which I had still from those days ten years before
+when I had parted from Lorand, even down to that last scrap of
+paper,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> which now occupied my every thought.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> The paper of Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's letter which was used for
+the fatal lot-drawing.</p></div>
+
+<p>It would have been labor lost on my part to tell the ladies how bad the
+roads in the lowlands are at that time of year, that in any case Lorand
+would come to them a day later. Nor indeed did I try to dissuade them
+from making the journey. Which of them would have remained home at such
+a time? Which of them would have given up a single moment of that day,
+when she might once more embrace Lorand? They both came to me.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at Szolnok one day before Lorand: I only begged them to
+remain in their room until I had spoken with Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>They promised and remained the whole day in one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>room of the inn, while
+I strolled the whole day about the courtyard on the watch for every
+arriving carriage.</p>
+
+<p>An unusual number of guests came on that day to the inn: gay companions
+of Top&aacute;ndy from the neighborhood, to whom Lorand had given a rendezvous
+there. Some I knew personally, the others by reputation; the latter's
+acquaintance too was soon made.</p>
+
+<p>It struck me as peculiar that Lorand had written to me that he did not
+wish the elegiac tone of our first gathering to be disturbed by the
+voice of the stoics of Lankadomb, yet he had invited the whole Epicurean
+alliance here&mdash;a fact which was likely to give a dithyrambic tone to our
+meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Well, amusement there must be. I like fellows who amuse themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was late evening when a five-horsed coach drove into the
+courtyard&mdash;in the first to get out I recognized Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<p>What did he want among us?</p>
+
+<p>After him stepped out a brisk old man whose moustache and eyebrows I
+remembered of old. It was my uncle, Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>Remarkable!</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy came straight towards me.</p>
+
+<p>So serious was his face, when, as he reached me, he grasped my hand,
+that he made me feel quite confused.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Desiderius &Aacute;ronffy?" he said: and with his two hands seized my
+shoulders, that he might look into my eyes. "Though you do not say so, I
+recognize you. It is just as if I saw your departed father before me.
+The very image!"</p>
+
+<p>Many had already told me that I was very like what my father had been in
+his young days.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy embraced me feelingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Lorand?" I inquired. "Has he not come?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is coming behind us in a wagon," he answered, and his voice betrayed
+the greatest emotion. "He will soon be here. He does not like a coach.
+Remain here and wait for him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to his comrades who were buzzing around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go and wait inside, comrades. Let us leave these young fellows
+to themselves when they meet. You know that such a scene requires no
+audience. Well, right about face, quick march!"</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he drove all the fellows from the corridor: indeed did not
+give Gy&aacute;li time to say how glad he was to meet me again.</p>
+
+<p>The gathering became all the more unintelligible to me.</p>
+
+<p>Why, if Top&aacute;ndy himself knew best what there was to be felt in that
+hour, what necessity had we to avoid him?</p>
+
+<p>Now the wagon could be heard! The two steeds galloped into the courtyard
+at a smart pace with the light road-cart. He was driving himself.</p>
+
+<p>I scarcely recognized him. His great whiskers, his closely-cropped hair,
+his dust-covered face made quite a different figure before me from that
+which I had been wont to draw in my album,&mdash;as I had thought to see, as
+mother or grandmother directed me, saying "that is missing, that feature
+is other, that is more, that is less, that is different," times without
+number we had amused ourselves with that.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was unlike any portrait of him I had drawn. He was a muscular,
+powerful, rough country cavalier.</p>
+
+<p>As he leaped out of the wagon, we hastened to each other.</p>
+
+<p>The centre of the courtyard was not the place to play an impassioned
+scene in. Besides neither of us like comedy playing.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, old fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, brother."</p>
+
+<p>That was all we said to each other: we shook hands, kissed each other,
+and hurried in from the courtyard, straight to the room filled with
+roysterers.</p>
+
+<p>They received Lorand with wall-shaking "hurrahs," and Lorand greeted
+them all in turn.</p>
+
+<p>Some embittered county orator wished to deliver a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> speech in his honor,
+but Lorand told him to keep that until wine was on the table: dry toasts
+were not to his taste.</p>
+
+<p>Then he again returned to my side and took my face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! old fellow, you have quite grown up! I thought you were still
+a child going to school. You are half a head taller than I am. Why I
+shall live to see you married without my knowing or hearing anything
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>I took Lorand's arm and drew him into a corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, mother and grandmother are here too."</p>
+
+<p>He wrenched his arm out of my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you to do that?" he growled irritatedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Quietly, my dear Lorand. I have committed no blunder even in
+formalities. It will be ten years to-morrow since you told me I might in
+ten years tell mother where you are. Then you wrote to me to be at
+Szolnok to-day. I have kept my promise to mother as regards telling her
+to-morrow and to you by my appearance here. Szolnok is two days distant
+from our home:&mdash;so I had to bring them here in order to do justice to
+both my promises.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand became unrestrainedly angry.</p>
+
+<p>"A curse upon every pettifogger in the world! You have swindled me out
+of my most evident right."</p>
+
+<p>"But, dear Lorand, are you annoyed that the poor dear ones can see you
+one day earlier?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, begin like that.&mdash;Fool, we wanted to have a jolly evening
+all to ourselves, and you have spoilt it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can enjoy yourselves as long as you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? 'As long as we like,' and I must go in a tipsy drunken state to
+introduce myself to mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not your habit to be drunk."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know? I'm fairly uproarious once I begin at it. It was a
+foolish idea of yours, old fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, do you know what? Put the meeting first, after that the
+carousal."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you once for all that we shall make no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> bargains, sir
+advocate. No transactions here, sir advocate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't 'sir advocate' me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment. If you could be so cursedly exact in your calculation of
+days, I shall complete your astronomical and chronological studies. Take
+out your watch and compare it with mine. It was just 11:45 by the
+convent clock in Pressburg, when you gave me your word. To-morrow
+evening at 11:45 you are free from your obligation to me: then you can
+do with me what you like."</p>
+
+<p>I found his tone very displeasing and turned aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Well don't be dispirited," said Lorand, drawing me towards him and
+embracing me. "Let us not be angry with each other: we have not been so
+hitherto. But you see the position I am in. I have gathered together a
+pack of dissolute scamps and atheists, not knowing you would bring
+mother with you, and they have been my faithful comrades ten years. I
+have passed many bad, many good days with them: I cannot say to them
+'Go, my mother is here.' Nor can I sit here among them till morning with
+religious face. In the morning we shall all be 'soaked.' Even if I
+conquer the wine, my head will be heavy after it. I have need of the few
+hours I asked you for to collect myself, before I can step into my dear
+ones' presence with a clear head. Explain to them how matters stand."</p>
+
+<p>"They know already, and will not ask after you until to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. There is peace between us, old fellow."</p>
+
+<p>When the company saw we had explained matters to each other, they all
+crowded round us, and such a noise arose that I don't know even now what
+it was all about. I merely know that once or twice Pepi Gy&aacute;li wished to
+catch my eye to begin some conversation, and that at such times I asked
+the nearest man, "How long do you intend to amuse yourselves in this
+manner?" "How are you?" and similar surprising imbecilities.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the long table in the middle of the room had been laid: the
+wines had been piled up, the savory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> victuals were brought in; outside
+in the corridors a gypsy band was striking up a lively air, and
+everybody tried to get a seat.</p>
+
+<p>I had to sit at the head of the table, near Lorand. On Lorand's left sat
+Top&aacute;ndy, on his right, beside me, Pepi Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, old fellow, you too will drink with us to-day?" said Lorand to me
+playfully, putting his arms familiarly round my neck.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you know I never drink wine."</p>
+
+<p>"Never? Not to-day either? Not even to my health?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him. Why did he wish to make me drink to-day especially?</p>
+
+<p>"No, Lorand. You know I am bound by a promise not to drink wine, and a
+man of honor always keeps his promises, however absurd."</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the look which Lorand gave me at these words.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, old fellow:" and he grasped my hand. "A man of honor
+keeps his promises, however absurd...."</p>
+
+<p>And as he said so, he was so serious, he gazed with such alarming
+coldness into the eyes of Gy&aacute;li, who sat next to him. But Pepi merely
+smiled. He could smile so tenderly with those handsome girlish round
+lips of his.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand patted him on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear, Pepi? My brother refused to drink wine, because a man of
+honor keeps his promises. You are right, Desi. Let him who says
+something keep his word."</p>
+
+<p>Then the banquet began.</p>
+
+<p>It is a peculiar study for an abstainer to look on at a midnight
+carousal, with a perfectly sober head, and to be the only audience and
+critic at this "divina comedia" where everyone acts unwittingly.</p>
+
+<p>The first act commenced with the toasts. He to whom God had given
+rhetorical talent raises his glass, begs for silence,&mdash;which at first he
+receives and later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> not receiving tries to assure for himself by his
+stentorian voice;&mdash;and with a very serious face, utters very serious
+phrases:&mdash;one is a master of grace, another of pathos: a third quotes
+from the classics, a fourth humorizes, and himself laughs at his
+success, while everybody finishes the scene with clinking of glasses,
+and embraces, to the accompaniment of clarion "hurrahs."</p>
+
+<p>Later come more fiery declamations, general outbursts of patriotic
+bitterness. Brains become more heated, everyone sits upon his favorite
+hobby-horse, and makes it leap beneath him; the socialist, the artist,
+the landlord, the champion of order, everyone begins to speak of his own
+particular theme&mdash;without keeping to the strict rules of conversation
+that one waits until the other has finished: rather they all talk at
+once, one interrupting the other, until finally he who has commenced
+some thrilling refrain hands over the leadership to all: the song
+becomes general, and each one is convinced from hearing his own vocal
+powers, that nowhere on earth can more lovely singing be heard.</p>
+
+<p>And meantime the table becomes covered with empty bottles.</p>
+
+<p>Then the paroxysm grows by degrees to a climax. He who previously
+delivered an oration now babbles, comes to a standstill, and, cuts short
+his discomfiture by swearing; there sits one who had already three times
+begun upon some speech, but his bitterness, mourning for the past, so
+effectually chokes his over-ardent feelings that he bursts into tears,
+amidst general laughter. Another who has already embraced all his
+comrades in turn, breaks in among the gypsies and kisses them one after
+the other, swearing brotherhood to the bass fiddler and the clarinetist.
+At the farther end of the table sits a choleric fellow, whose habit it
+is always to end in riotous fights, and he begins his freaks by striking
+the table with his fist, and swearing he will kill the man who has
+worried him. Luckily he does not know with whom he is angry. The gay
+singer is not content with giving full play to his throat, helping it
+out with his hands and feet: he begins to dash bottles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> and plates
+against the wall, and is delighted that so many smashed bottles give
+evidence of his triumph. With a half crushed hat he dances in the middle
+of the room quite alone, in the happy conviction that everybody is
+looking at him, while a blessed comrade had come to the pass of dropping
+his head back upon the back of his chair, only waking up when they
+summon him to drink with him&mdash;though he does not know whether he is
+drinking wine or tanner's ooze.</p>
+
+<p>But the fever does not increase indefinitely.</p>
+
+<p>Like other attacks of fever, it has a crisis, beyond which a turn sets
+in!</p>
+
+<p>After midnight the uproarious clamor subsided. The first heating
+influence of the wine had already worked itself out. One or two who
+could not fight with it, gave in and lay down to sleep, while the others
+remained in their places, continuing the drinking-bout, not for the sake
+of inebriety, merely out of principle, that they might show they would
+not allow themselves to be overcome by wine.</p>
+
+<p>This is where the real heroes' part begins, of those whom the first
+glass did not loosen, nor the tenth tie their tongues.</p>
+
+<p>Now they begin to drink quietly and to tell anecdotes between the
+rounds.</p>
+
+<p>One man does not interrupt another, but when one has finished his story,
+another says, "I know one still better than that," and begins: "the
+matter happened here or there, I myself being present."</p>
+
+<p>The anecdotes at times reached the utmost pitch of obscenity and at such
+times I was displeased to hear Lorand laugh over such jokes as expressed
+contempt for womankind.</p>
+
+<p>I was only calmed by the thought that "our own" were long in bed&mdash;it was
+after midnight&mdash;and so it were impossible for mother or someone else out
+of curiosity to be listening at the keyhole, waiting for Lorand's voice.</p>
+
+<p>All at once Lorand took over the lead in the conversation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He introduced the question "Which is the most celebrated drinking nation
+in the world?"</p>
+
+<p>He himself for his part immediately said he considered the Germans were
+the most renowned drinkers.</p>
+
+<p>This assertion naturally met with great national opposition.</p>
+
+<p>They would not surrender the Magyar priority in this respect either.</p>
+
+<p>Two peacefully-inclined spirits interfered, trying to produce a united
+feeling by accepting the Englishman, then the Servian as the first in
+drinking matters&mdash;a proviso which naturally did not satisfy either of
+the disputing parties. Lorand, alone against the united opinion of the
+whole company, had the audacity to assert that the Germans were the
+greatest drinkers in the world. He produced celebrated examples to prove
+his theory.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me! Once Prince Batthy&aacute;ny sent two barrels of old G&ouml;ncz wine
+to the Brothers of Hybern. But the duty to be paid on good Magyar wine
+beyond the Lajta<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> was terrible. The recipients would have had to pay
+for the wine twenty gold pieces<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a>&mdash;a nice sum. So the Brothers, to
+avoid paying and to prevent the wine being lost, drank the contents of
+the two barrels outside the frontier."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> A river near Pressburg, the boundary between Austria and
+Hungary.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> Probably 200 florins.</p></div>
+
+<p>Ah, they could produce drinkers three times or four times as great, this
+side of the Lajta!</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand would not give in.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your namesake, P&eacute;p&oacute; Henneberg," related Lorand, turning to Gy&aacute;li,
+"introduced the custom of drawing a string through the ears of his
+guests, who sat down at a long table with him, and compelled them all to
+drain their beakers to the dregs, whenever he drank, under penalty of
+losing the ends of their ears."</p>
+
+<p>"With us that is impossible, for we have no holes bored in our ears!"
+cried one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We drink without compulsion!" replied another.</p>
+
+<p>"The Magyar does all a German can do!"</p>
+
+<p>That assertion, loudly shouted, was general.</p>
+
+<p>"Even draining glasses as they did at Wartburg?<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span> cried Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil was the custom at Wartburg?"</p>
+
+<p>"The revellers at Wartburg, when they were in high spirits used to load
+a pistol, and then to fill the barrel to the brim with wine: then they
+cocked the trigger, and drained this curious glass one after another for
+friendship's sake."</p>
+
+<p>(I see you, Lorand!)</p>
+
+<p>"Well, which of you is inclined to follow the German cavaliers'
+example?"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"I for one am not, and Heaven forbid you should be."</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;Which remark came from Gy&aacute;li, not Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him. The fellow had remained sober. He had only tasted the
+wine, while others had drunk it.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are inclined, let us try," said Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, only you must do it first."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do so, but you will not follow me."</p>
+
+<p>"If you do it, I shall too. But I think you will not do it before me."</p>
+
+<p>One idea flashed clearly before me and chilled my whole body. I saw all:
+I understood all now: the mystery of ten years was no longer a secret to
+me: I saw the refugee, I saw the pursuer, and I had both in my hand, in
+such an iron grip, as if God had lent me for the moment the hand of an
+archangel.</p>
+
+<p>You just talk away.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's face was a feverish red.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, you scamp! Let us bet, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty bottles of champagne, which we shall drink too."</p>
+
+<p>"I accept the wager."</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever withdraws from the jest loses the bet."</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the money!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Both took their purses and placed each a hundred florins on the table.</p>
+
+<p>I too produced my purse and took a crumpled paper out of it:&mdash;but it was
+no banknote.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand cried to the waiter.</p>
+
+<p>"Take my pistols out of my trunk."</p>
+
+<p>The waiter placed both before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Are they really loaded?" inquired Gy&aacute;li.</p>
+
+<p>"Look into the barrels, where the steel head of the bullets are smiling
+at you."</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li found it wiser to believe than to look into the pistol barrels.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the bet stands; whichever of us cannot drink out his portion pays
+for the champagne."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand seized his glass to pour the red wine that was in it into the
+pistol-barrel.</p>
+
+<p>The whole company was silent: some agonized restraint ruled their
+intoxicated nerves: every eye was rested on Lorand as if they wished to
+check the mad jest before its completion. On Top&aacute;ndy's forehead heavy
+beads of sweat glistened.</p>
+
+<p>I quietly placed my hand on Lorand's, in which he held the weapon and
+amid profound silence asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not be good to draw lots to see who shall do it first?"</p>
+
+<p>Both looked at me in confusion when I mentioned drawing lots.</p>
+
+<p>Could their secret have been discovered?</p>
+
+<p>"Only if you draw lots about it," I continued quietly, "don't omit to be
+quite sure about the writing of each other's name, lest there be a
+repetition of that farce which took place ten years ago, when you drew
+lots as to who was to dance with the white elephant."</p>
+
+<p>I saw Gy&aacute;li turn as white as paper.</p>
+
+<p>"What farce?" he panted, beginning to rise from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"You always were a jesting boy, Pepi: at that time you made me draw lots
+for you, and told me to put both the one I had drawn and the other in
+the grate: but instead of doing so I threw the dance programme in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+fire, and put those papers aside and kept them. You, instead of your
+own, wrote my brother's name on the paper, and so whichever was drawn,
+Lorand &Aacute;ronffy must have come out of the hat. Look, the two lottery
+tickets are still in my possession, those same two pieces of paper, a
+sheet of note paper torn in two, both with the same name on them, and on
+the other side the writing of Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy."</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li rose from his seat like one who had seen a ghost, and gazed at me
+with a look of stone.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I had not threatened him. I had merely playfully jested with him. I
+smilingly spread out the two pieces of lilac-colored papers, which so
+exactly fitted together.</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand with flashing eyes glared at him, and as the dignified
+upright figure stood opposite him, threw the contents of the glass he
+held in his hand into the fellow's face, so that the red wine splashed
+all over his laced white waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li with his serviette wiped from his face the traces of insult and
+with dignified coldness said:</p>
+
+<p>"With men in such a condition no dispute is possible. We cannot answer
+the taunts of drunken men."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he began to back towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody, in amazement at this scene, allowed him to go: for all the
+world as if everyone had suddenly begun to be sober, and at the first
+surprise no one knew how to think what should now happen.</p>
+
+<p>But I ... I was not drunk. I had no need to become sober.</p>
+
+<p>I leaped up from my place, with one bound came up to the departing man,
+and seized him before he could reach the door, just as a furious tiger
+fastens up a miserable dormouse.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not drunk! I have never drunk wine, you know," I cried losing all
+self-restraint, and pressing him against the wall so that he shivered
+like a bat.&mdash;"I shall be the one to throw that cursed forgery in your
+face, miserable wretch!"</p>
+
+<p>And I know well that that single blow would have been the last chapter
+in his life&mdash;which would have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> a great pity, not as far as he was
+concerned, but for my own sake&mdash;had not Heaven sent a guardian angel to
+check me in my wickedness.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly someone behind seized the hand raised to strike. I looked back,
+and my arm dropped useless at my side.</p>
+
+<p>It was Fanny who had seized my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Desi," cried my darling in a frightened voice: "This hand is mine: you
+must not defile it."</p>
+
+<p>I felt she was right. I allowed my uncontrollable anger to be overcome;
+with my left hand I threw the trembling wretch out of the door&mdash;I do not
+know where he fell&mdash;and then I turned round to clasp Fanny to my breast.</p>
+
+<p>Already mother and grandmother were in the room.</p>
+
+<p>The poor women had spent the whole evening of agony in the neighboring
+room, keeping perfectly still, so as not to betray their presence there,
+with the intention of listening for Lorand's voice: and they had
+trembled through that last awful scene, of which they could hear every
+word. When they heard my cry of rage, they could restrain themselves no
+longer, but rushed in, and threw themselves among the revellers with a
+cry of "My son, my son."</p>
+
+<p>Everyone rose at their honored presence: this solemn picture, two
+kneeling women embracing a son snatched from the jaws of death.</p>
+
+<p>The surprising horror had reduced everyone to soberness: all tipsiness,
+all winy drowsiness, had passed away.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, Lorand," sobbed mother, pressing him frantically to her breast,
+while grandmother, unable to speak or to weep, clutched his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh Lorand, dear...."</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand grasped the two ladies' hands and led them towards me.</p>
+
+<p>"It is him you must embrace, not me: his is the triumph."</p>
+
+<p>Then he caught sight of that sweet angel bowed upon my shoulder, who was
+still holding my hand in hers: he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> recollected those words with which
+Fanny a moment before had betrayed our secret. "This hand is mine"&mdash;and
+he smiled at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the way matters stand? Then you have your reward in your hands,
+... and you can leave these two weeping women to me."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith he threw himself on his face upon the floor before them, and
+embracing their feet kissed the dust beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my darlings! My loved ones."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THAT LETTER</h3>
+
+
+<p>What those who had so long waited, spoke and thought during that night
+cannot be written down. These are sacred matters, not to be exposed to
+the public gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand confessed all, and was pardoned for all.</p>
+
+<p>And he was as happy in that pardon as a child who had been again
+received into favor.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand indeed felt as if he were beginning his life now at the point
+where ten years before it had been interrupted, and as if all that
+happened during ten years had been merely a dream, of which only the
+heavy beard of manhood remained.</p>
+
+<p>It was very late in the morning when he and Desiderius woke. Sleep had
+proved very pleasant for once.</p>
+
+<p>Sleep&mdash;and in place of death too.</p>
+
+<p>"Well old fellow," said Lorand to his brother, "I owe you one more
+adventurous joke, with which I wish to surprise you."</p>
+
+<p>The threat was uttered so good-humoredly that Desiderius had no cause to
+be frightened, but he said quietly: "Tell me what it is."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go home with you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what shall you do?" inquired Desiderius quite as astonished
+as Lorand had expected.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall escape from you," he said, shaking his head good-humoredly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is an audacious enterprise! But tell me, where are you going
+to escape to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! I shall not merely tell you where I am go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>ing, but I shall take
+you with me to look after me henceforward as you have done hitherto."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very wise to do so.&mdash;May I know whither?"</p>
+
+<p>"Back to Lankadomb."</p>
+
+<p>"To Lankadomb? Perhaps you have lost something there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my senses.&mdash;Well don't look at me so curiously as if you wished to
+ask whether I ever had any. You and this little girl quite understand
+each other. I see that mother and grandmother too are sufficiently in
+love with her to give her to you: but my blessing has yet to come, old
+man&mdash;that you have not received yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Hope assures me that perhaps I have softened your hard heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Not all at once. I shall tell you something."</p>
+
+<p>"I am all ears."</p>
+
+<p>"In my will I passed over all my worldly wealth to you: the sealed
+letter is in your possession. As far as I know you, I believe I shall
+cause you endless joy by asking back my will from you, and telling you
+that you will now be poorer by half your wealth, for the other half I
+require."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that without waiting for you to teach me. But what has your old
+testament to do with the gospel of my heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh your head must be very dense, old fellow, if you don't understand
+yet. Then listen to my ultimatum. I refuse to give my consent to your
+marrying&mdash;before me."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius threw himself on Lorand's neck; he understood now.</p>
+
+<p>"There is somebody you love?"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand assented with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course there is. But&mdash;you know how that blackguard (by Jove, you
+gave him a powerful shaking!) confused my calculation for an entire
+life. I could not make her understand about that of which the
+continuation begins only to-day. Still, all the more reason for
+hastening. A half hour is necessary to tell an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>other all about it, half
+an hour in a carriage: they will remain here meanwhile. We shall fly to
+Top&aacute;ndy at Lankadomb: by evening we shall have finished all, and
+to-morrow we shall be here again, like two flying madmen, who are
+striving to see which can carry the other off more rapidly towards the
+goal&mdash;where happiness awaits him. I shall drive the horses to Lankadomb,
+you can drive them back."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor horses!"</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius did not dare to go himself with these glad tidings to his
+mother. He entrusted Fanny to prepare her for them&mdash;perhaps so much
+delight would have killed her.</p>
+
+<p>They told her Lorand had official business which called him to Lankadomb
+for one day; and they started together with Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was let into the secret, and considered it his duty to go with
+Lorand&mdash;he might be required to give the bride away.</p>
+
+<p>The world around Lorand had changed&mdash;at least so he thought, but the
+change in reality was within him.</p>
+
+<p>He was indeed born again: he had become quite a different man from the
+Lorand of yesterday. The noisy good-humor of yesterday badly concealed
+the resolve that despised death, just as the dreaminess of to-day openly
+betrayed the happiness that filled his heart.</p>
+
+<p>The whole way Desiderius could scarcely get one word from him, but he
+might easily read in his face all upon which he was meditating: and if
+he did utter once or twice encomiums on the beautiful May fields,
+Desiderius could see that his heart too felt spring within it.</p>
+
+<p>How beautiful it was to live again, to be happy and gay, to have hopes,
+expect good in the future, to love and be proud in one's love, to go
+with head erect, to be all in all to someone!</p>
+
+<p>At noon they arrived at Lankadomb.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra ran out to meet them and clapped her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You were driven away; how did you get back so soon? Well no one
+expected you to dinner."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand was the first to leap off the cart, and tenderly offered his hand
+to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"We have arrived, my dear Czipra. Even if you did not expect us to
+dinner, you can give us some of your own."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said the girl in a whisper, blushing at the same time, "I have
+been accustomed to eat at the servant's table, when you were not at
+home, and you have brought a guest too. Who is that gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"My brother, Desi, a very good fellow. Kiss him, Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra did not wait to be told twice, and Desiderius returned the kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"Now give him a room: to-day we shall stay here. Send up water to my
+room, we have got very dusty on the way, although we wished to be
+handsome to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"&mdash;Czipra took Desiderius' hand, and as she led him to his room,
+asked him the whole history of his life: where he lived: why he had not
+visited Lorand sooner: was he married already, and would he ever come
+back there again?</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius had learned from Lorand's letters about Czipra that he might
+readily answer any question the poor girl might ask, and might at first
+sight tell her every secret of his heart. Czipra was delighted.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, however, did not wait for Top&aacute;ndy, who was coming behind, but
+rushed to his room.</p>
+
+<p>That letter, that letter!&mdash;it had been on his mind the whole way.</p>
+
+<p>His first duty was to take it out of the closed drawer and read it over.</p>
+
+<p>He did not deliberate long now whether to break the seal or not: and the
+envelope tore in his hand, as the seal would not yield.</p>
+
+<p>And then he read the following words:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"That minute, in which I learned your name, raised a barrier for ever
+between us. The recollections which are a burden upon you, cannot be
+continued by an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> alliance between us. You who dragged my mother down
+into misfortune, and then faithlessly deserted her, cannot insure me
+happiness, or expect faithfulness from me. I shall weep over B&aacute;lint
+T&aacute;tray, as my departed to whom my dream gave being, and whom cold truth
+has buried; but Lorand &Aacute;ronffy I do not know. It is my duty to tell you
+so, and if you are, as I believe, a man of honor, you will consider it
+your duty, should we ever meet in life, never again to make mention of
+what was B&aacute;lint T&aacute;tray.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Good-bye,</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">Melanie</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lorand fell back in his chair broken-hearted.</p>
+
+<p>That was the contents of the letter he had kissed&mdash;the letter which, on
+the threshold of the house of death he had not dared to open, lest the
+happiness which would beam upon him should shake the firmness of his
+tread. Ah, they wished to make death easy for him! To write such a
+letter to him! To utter such words to one she had loved!...</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she is right. I was not the Joseph of the Bible: but does not love
+begin with pardon? Did I blame her for the possession of that ring she
+let fall in the water? And from whom could she know that my crime was
+worse than that which hung round that ring?</p>
+
+<p>"And if I were steeped in that crime with which she charges me, how can
+an angel, who may know nothing of what happens in hell, put such a
+thought in these cold-blooded words.</p>
+
+<p>"They wished to kill me.</p>
+
+<p>"They wished to close the door behind me, as Johanna of Naples did to
+her husband, when he was struggling with his assassins.</p>
+
+<p>"And they wished to wash clean the murderer's hands, throwing upon me
+the charge of having killed myself because my love was despised.</p>
+
+<p>"They knew everything well, they calculated all with cold mercilessness.
+They waited for the hour to come, and whetted the knife before I took it
+in my hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And yet I can never hate her! She has plunged the dagger into my heart,
+and I remember only the kiss she gave...."</p>
+
+<p>That moment he felt a quiet pressure on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Confused, he looked up. Czipra was standing behind him. The poor gypsy
+girl could not allow anyone else to wait on Lorand: she had herself
+brought him the water.</p>
+
+<p>The girl's face betrayed a tender fear: she might long have been
+observing him, unknown to him.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" she asked in trembling anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand could not speak. He merely showed her the letter he had read.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra could not understand the writing. She did not know how one could
+poison another with dumb letters, could wound his heart to its depths,
+and murder it. She merely saw that the letter made Lorand ill.</p>
+
+<p>She recognized that rose-colored paper, those fine characters.</p>
+
+<p>"Melanie wrote that."</p>
+
+<p>By way of reply Lorand in bitter inexpressible pain turned his gaze
+towards the letter.</p>
+
+<p>And the gypsy girl knew what that gaze said, knew what was written in
+that letter: with a wild beast's passion she tore it from Lorand's hand
+and passionately shred it into fragments and cast it on the ground, then
+trampled upon its pieces, as one tramples upon running spiders.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon she hid her face in her hands and wept in Lorand's stead.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand went towards her and taking her hand, said sadly:</p>
+
+<p>"You see, such are not the gypsy girls whose faces are brown, who are
+born under tents, and who cut cards, and make that their religion."</p>
+
+<p>Then with Czipra's hand in his he walked long up and down his room
+without a word. Neither knew what to say to the other. They merely
+reflected how they could comfort each other's sorrow&mdash;and could not find
+a way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This melancholy reverie was interrupted by Top&aacute;ndy's arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I beg you, Czipra, if you love me&mdash;" said Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>If she loved him?</p>
+
+<p>"To say not a single word to anybody of what you have seen. Nothing has
+happened to me.&mdash;If from this moment you ever see me sad, ask me 'What
+is the matter?' and I shall confess to you. But <i>that</i> pale face shall
+never be among those for which I mourn."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra was rejoiced at these words.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us show cheerful faces before my uncle and brother. Let us be
+good-humored. No one shall see the sting within us."</p>
+
+<p>"And who knows, perhaps the bee will die for it&mdash;" Czipra departed with
+a cheery face as she said that. At the door she turned back once more:</p>
+
+<p>"The cards told me all that last night. Till midnight I kept cutting
+them. But the murderer always threatens you albeit the green-robed girl
+always defends you.&mdash;See, I am so mad&mdash;but there is nothing else in
+which I can believe."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be something else, Czipra," said Lorand. "Now I am going
+away with my brother to celebrate his marriage, then I shall return
+again."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon there was no more need to insist on Czipra's being
+good-humored the whole day. Her good-humor came voluntarily.</p>
+
+<p>Poor girl, so little was required to make her happy.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, as soon as Czipra was gone, collected from the floor the torn,
+trampled paper fragments, carefully put them together on the table,
+until the note was complete, then read it over once again.</p>
+
+<p>Before the door of his room he heard steps, and gay talk intermingled
+with laughter. Top&aacute;ndy and Desiderius had come to see him. Lorand blew
+the fragments off the table: they flew in all directions: he opened the
+door and joined the group, a third smiling figure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE UNCONSCIOUS PHANTOM</h3>
+
+
+<p>What were they laughing at so much?</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what counsel Czipra gave us?" said Top&aacute;ndy. "As she did not
+expect us to dinner, she advised us to go to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's, where there
+will be a great banquet to-day. They are expecting somebody."</p>
+
+<p>"Who will probably not arrive in time for dinner," added Desiderius.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra joined the conversation from the extreme end of the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"The old housekeeper from S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's was here to visit me. She asked
+for the loan of a pie-dish and ice: for Mr. Gy&aacute;li is expected to arrive
+to-day from Szolnok."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" was Top&aacute;ndy's remark.</p>
+
+<p>"And as I see you have left the young gentleman behind, just go
+yourselves to taste Mistress Boris's pies, or she will overwhelm me
+again with curses."</p>
+
+<p><span title="Transcriber's Note: An apostrophe at the beginning of this sentence has been changed to a quotation mark.">"</span>We shall go, Czipra," said Lorand: "Yes, yes, don't laugh at the idea.
+Get your hat, Desi: you are well enough dressed for a country call: let
+us go across to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's."</p>
+
+<p>"To S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's?" said Czipra, clasping her hands, and coming closer to
+Lorand. "You will go to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not just for S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's sake," said Lorand very seriously,&mdash;"who is in
+other respects a very righteous pious fellow; but for the sake of his
+guests, who are old friends of Desi's.&mdash;Why, I have not yet told you,
+Desi. Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy and her daughter are staying here with S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi
+on a matter of some legal business. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> cannot overlook them, if you
+are in the same village with them."</p>
+
+<p>"I might go away without seeing them," replied Desiderius indifferently;
+"but I don't mind paying them a visit, lest they should think I had
+purposely avoided them. Have you spoken with them already?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. We are on very good terms with one another."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand sacrificed the caution he had once exercised in never writing a
+word to Desiderius about Melanie. It seemed Desi did not run after her
+either; what had his childish ideal come to? Another ideal had taken its
+place.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, seeing that Gy&aacute;li is the ladies' solicitor, and seeing that
+you, my dear friend, have '<i>manupropria</i>' despatched Gy&aacute;li out of
+Szolnok&mdash;he immediately took the post-chaise and is already in Pest, or
+perhaps farther&mdash;it is your official duty to give an explanation to
+those who are waiting for their solicitor and to tell them where you
+have put their man&mdash;if you have courage enough to do so."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius at first drew back, but later his calm confidence and courage
+immediately confirmed his resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say,&mdash;if I have courage? You shall soon see. And you shall
+see, too, what a lawyer-like defence I am able to improvise. I wager
+that if I put the case before them, they will give the verdict in our
+favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so, I beseech you," said Lorand, soliciting his brother with
+humorously clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Well be quick: get your hat, and let us go."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius with determined steps went in search of his hat.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra laughed after him. She saw how ridiculous it would be. He was
+going to calumniate the bridegroom before the bride. With what words she
+herself did not know: but she gathered from the gentlemen's talk that
+Gy&aacute;li had been driven from the company the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> night before for some
+flagrant dishonor. Since two days she too had detested that fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand meanwhile gazed after his brother with eyes flashing with a
+desire for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy grasped Lorand's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"If I believed in cherubim, I should say: a persecuting angel had taken
+up his abode in you, to whisper that idea to you. Do you know,
+Desiderius is the very double of what your father was when he came home
+from the academy: the same face, figure, depth of voice, the same
+lightning fire in his eyes, and that same murderous frown, and you are
+now going to take that boy before S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi that he may relate an awful
+story of a man who wished to murder a good friend in the most devilish
+manner, just as he did!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Desi of that knows not a word."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better. A living being, who does not suspect that to the
+man whom he is visiting, he is the most horrible phantom from the other
+world! The murdered father, risen up in the son!&mdash;It will make me
+acknowledge one of the ideas I have hitherto denied&mdash;the existence of
+hell."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at us, my dear Czipra," said Lorand to the girl, who was always
+fluttering around him: "are we handsome enough? Will the eyes of the
+beautiful rest upon us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go," answered Czipra, pushing Lorand in playful anger, "as if you
+didn't know yourselves! Rather take care you don't get lost there. Such
+handsome fellows are readily snapped up."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Czipra, we shall return to you," said Lorand, pressing Czipra so
+tenderly to him, that Desiderius considered as superfluous any further
+questions as to why Lorand had brought him there. He approved his
+brother's choice: the girl was beautiful, natural, good-humored and, so
+it seemed, in love with him. What more could be required?&mdash;"Don't be
+afraid, Czipra; nobody's beautiful blue eyes shall detain us there."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not afraid for your sakes of beautiful eyes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> replied Czipra,
+"but of Mistress Boris's pies:&mdash;such pies cannot be got here."</p>
+
+<p>Thereat all three laughed&mdash;finally Desiderius too, though he did not
+know what kind of mythological monster such a sadly bewitched cake might
+be, which came from Mistress Boris's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy embraced the two young fellows. He was sorry he could not
+accompany them, but begged Lorand notwithstanding to remain as long as
+he liked.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra followed them to the door. Lorand there grasped her hand, and
+tenderly kissed it. The girl did not know whether to be ashamed or
+delighted.</p>
+
+<p>Thrice did Lorand turn round, before they reached S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's home, to
+wave his hand to Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius did not require any further enlightenment on that point. He
+thought he understood all quite well.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mistress Boris meanwhile had a fine job at her house.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a fool who conceived the idea of ordering a banquet for an
+indefinite time:&mdash;not to know whether he, for whom one must wait, will
+come at one, at two, at three,&mdash;in the evening, or after midnight."</p>
+
+<p>Twenty times she ran out to the door to see whether he was coming
+already or not. Every sound of carriage wheels, every dog-bark enticed
+her out into the road, from whence she returned each time more furious,
+pouring forth invectives over the spoiling of all her dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that gypsy girl again! Devil take the gypsy girl! She is quite
+capable of giving this guest a breakfast there first, and then letting
+him go. It would be madness surely, seeing that the town gentleman is
+the fianc&eacute; of the young lady here: but the gypsy girl too has cursed
+bright eyes. Besides she is very cunning, capable of bewitching any man.
+The damned gypsy girl,&mdash;her spells make her cakes always rise
+beautifully, while mine wither away in the boiling fat&mdash;although they
+are made of the same flour, and the same yeast."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It would not have been good for any one of the domestics to show herself
+within sight of Mistress Borcsa<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> at that moment.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> Boris.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Well, my master has again burdened me with a guest who thinks the clock
+strikes midday in the evening. It was a pity he did not invite him for
+yesterday, in that case he might have turned up to-day. Why, I ought to
+begin cooking everything afresh.</p>
+
+<p>"I may say, he is a fine bridegroom for a young lady, who lets people
+wait for him. If I were the bridegroom of such a beautiful young lady, I
+should come to dinner half a day earlier, not half a day later. There
+will be nice scenes, if he has his cooking ever done at home. But of
+course at Vienna that is not the case, everybody lives on restaurant
+fare. There one may dine at six in the afternoon. At any rate, what
+midday diners leave is served up again for the benefit of later
+comers:&mdash;thanks, very much."</p>
+
+<p>Finally the last bark which Mistress Boris did not deign even to notice
+from the kitchen, heralded the approach of manly footsteps in the
+verandah: and when in answer to the bell Mistress Boris rushed to the
+door, to her great astonishment she beheld, not the gentleman from
+Vienna, but the one from across the way, with a strange young gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"May I speak with the master?" inquired Lorand of the fiery Amazon.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. He is within. Haven't you brought the gentleman from
+Vienna?"</p>
+
+<p>"He will only come after dinner," said Lorand, who dared to jest even
+with Mistress Boris.</p>
+
+<p>Then they went in, leaving Mistress Boris behind, the prey of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it real or in jest? What do <i>they</i> want here? Why did they not
+bring him whom they took away? Will they remain here long?"</p>
+
+<p>The whole party had gathered in the grand salon.</p>
+
+<p>They too thought that the steps they heard brought the one they were
+expecting&mdash;and very impatiently too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gy&aacute;li had informed them he would take a carriage and return, as soon as
+he could escape from the revelry at Szolnok. Melanie and her mother were
+dressed in silk: on Melanie's wavy curls could be seen the traces of a
+mother's careful hand: and Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy herself made a very
+impressive picture, while S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi had put on his very best.</p>
+
+<p>They must have prepared for a very great festival here to-day!</p>
+
+<p>But when the door opened before the three figures that courteously
+hastened to greet the new-comer, and the two brothers stepped in, all
+three smiling faces turned to expressions of alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"You still dare to approach me?"&mdash;that was Melanie's alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not dead yet?" inquired Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's look of Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"You have risen again?" was the question to be read in S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's fixed
+stare that settled on Desiderius' face.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother, Desiderius,"&mdash;said Lorand in a tone of unembarrassed
+confidence, introducing his brother. "He heard from me of the ladies
+being here, so perhaps Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi will pardon us, if, in accordance
+with my brother's request, we steal a few moments' visit."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure: please sit down. I am very glad to see you," said
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, in a husky tone, as if some invisible hand were choking his
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Desiderius has grown a big boy, has he not?" said Lorand, taking a seat
+between Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy and Melanie, while Desiderius sat opposite
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, who could not take his eyes off the lad.</p>
+
+<p>"Big and handsome," affirmed Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy. "How small he was when
+he danced with Melanie!"</p>
+
+<p>"And how jealous he was of certain persons!"</p>
+
+<p>At these words three people hinted to Lorand not to continue, Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, Melanie and Desiderius. How indiscreet these country people
+are!</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius found his task especially difficult, after such a beginning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Lorand was really in a good humor. The sight of his darling of
+yesterday, dressed in such magnificence to celebrate the day on which
+her poor wretched cast-off lover was to blow his brains out, roused such
+a joy in his heart that it was impossible not to show it in his words.
+So he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, believe me: the lively scamp was actually jealous of me. He almost
+killed me&mdash;yet we are very true to our memories."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius could not comprehend what madness had come over his brother,
+that he wished to bring him and Melanie together into such a false
+position. Perhaps it would be good to start the matter at once and
+interrupt the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>On Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's face could be read a certain contemptuous scorn,
+when she looked at Lorand, as if she would say: "Well, after all, prose
+has conquered the poetry of honor, a man may live after the day of his
+death, if he has only the phlegm necessary thereto. Flight is shameful
+but useful,&mdash;yet you are as good as killed for all that."</p>
+
+<p>This scorn would soon be wiped away from that beautiful face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mesdames," said Desiderius in cold tranquillity. "Beyond paying my
+respects, I have another reason which made it my duty to come here. I
+must explain why your solicitor has not returned to-day, and why he will
+not return for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens! No misfortune has befallen him?" cried Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy
+in nervous trepidation.</p>
+
+<p>"On that point you may be quite reassured, Madame: he is hale and
+healthy; only a slight change in his plans has taken place: he is just
+now flying west instead of east."</p>
+
+<p>"What can be the reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the cause, which drove him away, I must confess."</p>
+
+<p>"You?" said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will allow me, and have the patience for it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> I will go very far
+back in history to account for this peculiar climax."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand remarked that Melanie was not much interested to hear what they
+were saying of Gy&aacute;li. She was indifferent to him: why, they were already
+affianced.</p>
+
+<p>So he began to say pretty things to her: went into raptures about her
+beautiful curls, her blooming complexion, and various other things which
+it costs nothing to praise.</p>
+
+<p>As long as he had been her lover, he had never told her how beautiful
+she was. She might have understood his meaning. Those whom we flatter we
+no longer love.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius continued the story he had begun.</p>
+
+<p>"Just ten years have passed since they began to prosecute the young men
+of the Parliament in Pressburg on account of the publication of the
+Parliamentary journal. There was only one thing they could not find out,
+viz:&mdash;who it was that originally produced the first edition to be
+copied: at last one of his most intimate friends betrayed the young man
+in question."</p>
+
+<p>"That is ancient history already, my dear boy," said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy
+in a tone of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet its consequences have an influence even to this day; and I beg you
+kindly to listen to my story to the end, and then pass a verdict on it.
+You must know your men."</p>
+
+<p>(What an innocent child Desiderius was! Why, he did not seem even to
+suspect that the man of whom he spoke was the designated son-in-law of
+Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy.)</p>
+
+<p>"The one, who was betrayed by his friend, was my brother Lorand, and the
+one who betrayed his friend, was Gy&aacute;li."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not at all certain," said Madame. "In such cases appearances
+and passion often prove deceptive mirrors. It is possible that someone
+else betrayed Mr. &Aacute;ronffy, perhaps some fickle woman, to whom he babbled
+of all his secrets and who handed it on to her am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>bitious husband as a
+means of supporting his own merits."</p>
+
+<p>"I know positively that my assertion is correct," answered Desiderius,
+"for a magnanimous lady, who guarded my brother with her fairy power,
+hearing of this betrayal from her influential husband, informed Lorand
+thereof in a letter written by her own hand."</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy bit her lips. The undeserved compliment smote her to
+the heart. She was the magnanimous fairy, of whom Desiderius spoke, and
+that fickle woman of whom she had spoken herself. The barrister was a
+master of repartee.</p>
+
+<p>Melanie, fortunately, did not hear this, for Lorand just then
+entertained her with a wonderful story: how that, curiously enough, when
+the young lady had been at Top&aacute;ndy's, the hyacinths had been covered
+with lovely clusters of fairy bells, and how, one week later, their
+place had been taken by ugly clusters of berries. How could flowers
+change so suddenly?</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, "let us admit that when Gy&aacute;li and
+&Aacute;ronffy were students together, the one played the traitor on the other.
+What happened then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only learned last night what really happened. That evening I was on a
+visit to Lorand, and found Gy&aacute;li there. They appeared to be joking. They
+playfully disputed as to who, at the farewell dance, was to be the
+partner of that very honorable lady, who may often be seen in your
+company. The two students disputed in my presence as to who was to dance
+with the 'aunt.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, as a piece of unusual good fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. As neither wished to give the other preference, they finally
+decided to entrust the verdict to lot; on the table was a small piece of
+paper, the only writing material to be found in Lorand's room after a
+careful rummaging, as all the rest had just been burned. This piece of
+lilac-colored paper was torn in two, and both wrote one name: these two
+pieces they put in a hat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> and called upon me to draw out one. I did so
+and read out Lorand's name."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you intend to relate how your brother enjoyed himself at that
+dance?"</p>
+
+<p>Melanie had not heard anything.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention of saying a single word more about that day&mdash;and I
+shall at once leap over ten years. But I must hasten to explain that the
+drawing had nothing to do with dancing with the 'aunt' but was the
+lottery of an 'American duel' caused by a conflict between Gy&aacute;li and
+Lorand."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius did not remark how the coppery spots on S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's face
+swelled at the words "American duel," and then how they lost their color
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, my dear boy," interrupted Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy. "Before you
+continue: allow me to ask one question: is it customary to speak in
+society of duels that have not yet taken place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if one of the principals has by his cowardly conduct made
+the duel impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Cowardly conduct?" said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, darting a piercing side
+glance at Lorand. "That applies to you."</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand was just relating to Melanie how the day-before-yesterday,
+when the beautiful moonlight shone upon the piano, which had remained
+open as the young lady had left it, soft fairy voices began suddenly to
+rise from it. Though that was surely no spirit playing on the keys, but
+Czipra's tame white weasel that, hunting night moths, ran along them.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Desiderius in answer to the lady. "One of the principals who
+accepted the condition gave evidence of such conduct on that occasion as
+must shut him out from all honorable company. Gy&aacute;li wrote in forged
+writing on that ticket the name of Lorand instead of his own."</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy incredulously pursed her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you prove that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not cast into the fire, as Gy&aacute;li bade me, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> two tickets, but
+in their stead the dance programme I had brought with me, the two
+tickets I put away and have kept until to-day, suspecting that perhaps
+there might be some rather important reason for this calculating
+slyness."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me; but a very serious charge is being raised against an absent
+person, who cannot defend himself, and to defend whom is therefore the
+duty of the next and nearest person, even at the price of great
+indulgence. Have you any proof, any authentic evidence, that either one
+of the tickets you have kept is forged?"</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy had gone to great extremes in doubting the
+faithfulness and truth-telling of a man,&mdash;but rather too far. She had to
+deal with a barrister.</p>
+
+<p>"The similarity admits of no doubt, Madame. Since these two slips are
+nothing but two halves that fit together, of that same letter in which
+Lorand's good-hearted fairy informed him of Gy&aacute;li's treachery; on the
+opposite side of the slips is still to be seen the handwriting of that
+deeply honored lady: the date and watermark are still on them."</p>
+
+<p>Madame's bosom heaved with anger. This youth of twenty-three had
+annihilated her just as calmly, as he would have burnt that piece of
+paper of which they were speaking.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius quietly produced his pocket-book and rummaged for the fatal
+slips of paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. I believe it," panted Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, whose face in that
+moment was like a furious Medusa head. "I believe what you say. I have
+no doubts about it:" therewith she rose from her seat and turned to the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius too rose from his chair, seeing the sitting was interrupted,
+but could not resist the temptation of pouring out the overflowing
+bitterness of his heart before somebody; and, as Madame was displeased
+and Melanie was chatting with Lorand of trifles, he was obliged to
+address his words directly to his only hearer, to <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lygi&quot; has been changed to &quot;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi&quot;">S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi</span>, who
+remained still sitting, like one enchanted, while his gaze rested ever
+upon Desiderius'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> face. This <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;faze&quot; has been changed to &quot;face&quot;">face</span>, drunken with rage and terror, could
+not tear itself from the object of its fears.</p>
+
+<p>"And this fellow has allowed his dearest friend to go through life for
+ten years haunted with the thought of death, has allowed him to hide
+himself in strangers' houses, avoiding his mother's embraces. It did not
+occur to him once to say 'Live on; don't persecute yourself; we were
+children, we have played together. I merely played a joke on you.'..."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi turned livid with a deathly pallor.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, you are a Christian, who believes in God, and in those who are
+saints: tell me, is there any torture of hell that could be punishment
+enough for so ruining a youth?"</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi tremblingly strove to raise himself on his quivering hand. He
+thought his last hour had come.</p>
+
+<p>"There is none!" answered Desiderius to himself. "This fellow kept his
+hatred till the last day, and when the final anniversary came, he
+actually sought out his victim to remind him of his awful obligation.
+Oh, sir, perhaps you do not know what a terrible fatality there is in
+this respect in our family? So died grandfather, so it was that our
+dearly loved father left us; so good, so noble-hearted, but who in a
+bitter moment, amidst the happiness of his family turned his hand
+against his own life. At night we stealthily took him out to burial.
+Without prayer, without blessing, we put him down into the crypt, where
+he filled the seventh place; and that night my grandmother, raving,
+cursed him who should occupy the eighth place in the row of
+blood-victims."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's face became convulsed like that of a galvanized corpse.
+Desiderius thought deep sympathy had so affected the righteous man and
+continued all the more passionately:</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow, who knew it well, and who was acquainted with our family's
+unfortunate ill-luck, in cold blood led his friend to the eighth coffin,
+to the cursed coffin&mdash;with the words 'Lie down there in it!'"</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's lips trembled as if he would cry "pity: say nothing more!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He went with him down to the gate of death, opened the dark door before
+him, and asked him banteringly 'is the pistol loaded?' and when Lorand
+took his place amid the revellers: bade him fulfil his obligation&mdash;the
+perjured hound called him to his obligation!"</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, all pale, rose at this awful scene:&mdash;for all the world as if
+L&ouml;rincz &Aacute;ronffy himself had come to relate the history of his own death
+to his murderer.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I seized Lorand's arm with my one hand, and with the other held
+before the wretch's eyes the evidence of his cursed falseness. His evil
+conscience bade him fly. I reached him, seized his throat...."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi in abject terror sank back in his chair, while Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, rushing from the window, passionately cried "and killed
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius, gazing haughtily at her, answered calmly: "No, I merely cast
+him out from the society of honorable men."</p>
+
+<p>To Lorand it was a savage pleasure to look at those three faces, as
+Desiderius spoke. The dumb passion which inflamed Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's
+face, the convulsive terror on the features of the fatal adversary,
+strove with each other to fill his heart with a great delight.</p>
+
+<p>And Melanie? What had she felt during this narration, which made such an
+ugly figure of the man to whom fate allotted her?</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's eyes were intent upon her face too.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl was not so transfixed by the subject of the tale as by
+the speaker. Desiderius in the heat of passion, was twice as handsome as
+he was otherwise. His every feature was lighted with noble passion. Who
+knows&mdash;perhaps the beautiful girl was thinking it would be no very
+pleasant future to be the bride of Gy&aacute;li after such a scandal! Perhaps
+there returned to her memory some fragments of those fair days at
+Pressburg, when she and Desiderius had sighed so often side by side.
+That boy had been very much in love with his beautiful cousin. He was
+more handsome and more spirited than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> his brother. Perhaps her thoughts
+were such. Who knows?</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, it is certain that when Desiderius answered Madame's
+question with such calm contempt&mdash;"I cast him out, I did not kill
+him,"&mdash;on Melanie's face could be remarked a certain radiance, though
+not caused by delight that her fianc&eacute;'s life had been spared.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand remarked it, and hastened to spoil the smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly you would have killed him, Desi, had not your good angel,
+your dear Fanny, luckily for you, intervened, and grasped your arm,
+saying 'this hand is mine. You must not defile it.'"</p>
+
+<p>The smile disappeared from Melanie's face.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said Desiderius, addressing his remarks directly to
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi; "be my judge, sir. What had a man, who with such sly
+deception, with such cold mercilessness, desired to kill, to destroy, to
+induce a heart in which the same blood flows as in mine&mdash;to commit a
+crime against the living God, what, I ask, had such a man deserved from
+me? Have I not a right to drive that man from every place, where he
+dares to appear in the light of the sun, until I compel him to walk
+abroad at night when men do not see him, among strangers who do not know
+him;&mdash;to destroy him morally with just as little mercy as he displayed
+towards Lorand?&mdash;Would that be a crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens! Something has happened to Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi," cried Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi was very pale, his limbs were almost powerless, but
+he did not faint. He put his hands behind him, lest they should remark
+how they trembled, and strove to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he said in a hesitating voice, which often refused to serve him:
+"although I have nothing to say against it, yet you have told your story
+at an unfortunate time and in an ill-chosen place:&mdash;this young lady is
+Mr. Gy&aacute;li's fianc&eacute;e and to-day we had prepared for the wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"I am heartily glad that I prevented it," said Desiderius, without being
+in the least disturbed at this dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>covery. "I think I am doing my
+relations a good service by staying them at the point where they would
+have fallen over a precipice."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a master-hand at that," said Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy with scornful
+bitterness. She remembered how he had done her a service by a similar
+intervention&mdash;just ten years ago. "Well, as you have succeeded so
+perfectly in rescuing us from the precipice, perhaps we may hope for the
+honor of your presence at the friendly conclusion of this spoiled
+matrimonial banquet?"</p>
+
+<p>Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy's wandering life had whetted her cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>It was a direct hint for them to go.</p>
+
+<p>"We are very much obliged for the kind invitation," replied Lorand
+courteously, paying her back in the same coin of sweetness, "but they
+are expecting us at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Hearts too, which one may not trifle with," continued Desiderius.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, of course, we should not think of stealing you away," continued
+Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy, touched to the quick. "Kindly greet, in our names,
+dear Czipra and dear Fanny. We are very fond indeed of the good girls,
+and wish you much good fortune with them. The arms of &Aacute;ronffy, too, find
+an explanation therein: the half-moon will in one case mean a
+horse-shoe, in the other a bread-roll. Adieu, dear Lorand! Adieu, dear
+Desi!"</p>
+
+<p>Then arm-in-arm they departed and hurried home to Top&aacute;ndy's house.</p>
+
+<p>Madame's last outburst had thrown Desiderius into an entirely good
+humor. That was the first thing about which he began to converse with
+Top&aacute;ndy. Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy had congratulated the &Aacute;ronffy arms on the
+possession of a "horse-shoe" and a "roll," a gypsy girl and a baker's
+daughter!</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand did not laugh at it:&mdash;what a fathomless deep hatred that
+woman must treasure in her heart against him, that she could break out
+so! And was she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> not right that woman who had desired the young man to
+embrace her, and thus embracing her to rush on to the precipice, into
+shame and death, and damnation, if he could love really:&mdash;had she no
+right to scorn, him who had fled before the romantic crimes of passion
+and had allowed her to fall alone?</p>
+
+<p>At dinner Desiderius related to Top&aacute;ndy what he had said at S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's.
+His face beamed like that of some young student who was glorying in his
+first duel.</p>
+
+<p>But he could not understand the effect his narration had caused.
+Top&aacute;ndy's face became suddenly more determined, more serious; he gazed
+often at Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Once Desiderius too looked up at his brother, who was wiping his
+tear-stained eyes with his handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"You are weeping?" inquired Desiderius.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you thinking of? I was only wiping my brow. Continue your
+story."</p>
+
+<p>When they rose from table Top&aacute;ndy called Lorand aside.</p>
+
+<p>"This young fellow knows nothing of what I related to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"So he has not the slightest suspicion that in that moment he plunged
+the knife into the heart of his father's murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Nor shall he ever know it. A double mission has been entrusted to
+us, to be happy and to wreak vengeance. Neither of us can undertake both
+at once. He has started to be happy, his heart is full of sweetness, he
+is innocent, unsuspicious, enthusiastic: let him be happy: God forbid
+his days should be poisoned by such agonizing thoughts as will not let
+me rest!&mdash;I am enough myself for revenge, embittered as I am from head
+to foot. The secret is known only to us, to grandmother and the Pharisee
+himself. We shall complete the reckoning without the aid of happy men."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DAY OF GLADNESS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Let us go back at once to your darling," said Lorand next morning to
+his brother. "My affair is already concluded."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius did not ask "how concluded?" but thought it easy to account
+for this speech. It could easily be concluded between Top&aacute;ndy and
+Lorand, as the former was the girl's adopted father: Lorand had only to
+disclose to him everything about which it had been his melancholy duty
+to keep silence until the day of the catastrophe, which he was awaiting,
+had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Nor could Desiderius suspect that the word "concluded" referred to the
+visit they had paid together to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. How could he have imagined
+that Melanie, who had been introduced to him as Gy&aacute;li's fianc&eacute;e, had one
+week before filled Lorand's whole soul with a holy light.</p>
+
+<p>And that light had indeed been extinguished forever.</p>
+
+<p>Even if they had not succeeded in murdering Lorand they had made a dead
+man of him, such a dead man as walks, throws himself into the affairs of
+the world, enjoys himself and laughs&mdash;who only knows himself the day of
+his death.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius ventured to ask "When?"</p>
+
+<p>He always thought of Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand answered lightly:</p>
+
+<p>"When we return."</p>
+
+<p>"Whence?"</p>
+
+<p>"From your wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you said yours must precede mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You are again playing the advocate!" retorted Lorand. "I referred not
+to the execution, but to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> arrangements. My banns have been called
+before yours; that was my desire. Now it is your business to carry your
+affair through before I do mine. Your affair of the heart can easily be
+concluded in three days."</p>
+
+<p>"An excellent explanation! And your marriage requires longer
+preparations?"</p>
+
+<p>"Much longer."</p>
+
+<p>"What obstacle can Czipra present?"</p>
+
+<p>"An obstacle which you know very well: Czipra is still&mdash;a heathen. Now
+the first requisite here for marriage is the birth-certificate. You know
+well that Top&aacute;ndy has hitherto brought the poor girl up in an
+uncivilized manner. I cannot present her to mother in this state. She
+must learn to know the principles of religion, and just so much of the
+alphabet as is necessary for a country lady&mdash;and you must realize that
+several weeks are necessary for that. That is what we must wait for."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius had to acknowledge that Lorand's excuse was well-grounded.</p>
+
+<p>And perhaps Lorand was not jesting? Perhaps he thought the poor girl
+loved him with her whole soul, and would be happy to possess these
+fragments of a broken heart. Yet he had not told her anything. Czipra
+had seen him in desperation over that letter: as far as the faithful,
+loving girl was concerned, it would have been merely an insult, if the
+idol of her heart had offered her his hand the next moment, out of mere
+offended pride; and, while she offered him impassioned love, given her
+merely cold revenge in return.</p>
+
+<p>This feeling of revenge must soften. Every impulse guided to the old
+state of things.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the marriage of Desiderius would be a good influence. He was
+marrying Fanny. The young couple would, during their honeymoon, visit
+Lankadomb: true love was an education in itself: and then&mdash;even
+cemeteries grow verdant in spring.</p>
+
+<p>The two young men reached Szolnok punctually at noon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And thence they returned home.</p>
+
+<p>Home, sweet home! At home in a beloved mother's house. A man visits many
+gay places where people enjoy themselves: finds himself at times in
+glorious palaces; builds himself a nest, and rears a house of his
+own:&mdash;but even then some sweet enchantment overcomes his heart when he
+steps over the threshold of that quiet dwelling where a loving mother's
+guardian hand has protected every souvenir of his childhood,&mdash;so that he
+finds everything as he left it long ago, and sees and feels that, while
+he has lived through the changing events of a period in his life, that
+loving heart has still clung to that last moment, and that the
+intervening time has been but as the eternal remembrance of one hour
+spent within those walls.</p>
+
+<p>There are his childhood's toys piled up; he would love to sit down once
+more among them, and play with them: there are the books that delighted
+his childhood's days; he would love to read them anew, and learn again
+what he had long forgotten, what was in those days such great knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand spent a happy week at home, in the course of which Mrs. Fromm
+took Fanny back to Pressburg.</p>
+
+<p>As Desiderius had asked for Fanny's hand, it was only proper that he
+should take his bride away from her parents' house.</p>
+
+<p>One week later the whole &Aacute;ronffy family started to fetch the bride; only
+Desiderius' mother remained at home.</p>
+
+<p>In the little house in Prince's Avenue the same old faces all awaited
+them, only they were ten years older. Old M&aacute;rton hastened, as erstwhile,
+to open the carriage door; only his moving crest was as white as that of
+a cockatoo. Father Fromm, too, was waiting at the door, but could no
+longer run to meet his guests, for his left arm and leg were paralyzed:
+he leaned upon a long bony young man, who had spent much pains in trying
+to twist into a moustache by the aid of cunning unguents the few hairs
+on his upper lip, that would not under any circumstances consent to
+grow. It was easy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> to recognize Henrik in the young fellow who would
+have loved so much to smile, only that cursed waxed moustache would not
+allow his mouth to open very far.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, welcome," sounded from all sides. Father Fromm opened his arms
+to receive the grandmother: Henrik leaped on to Desiderius' neck, while
+old M&aacute;rton slouched up to Lorand, and, nudging him with his elbows, said
+with a humorous smile, "Well, no harm came of it, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"No, old fellow. And I have to thank this good stick for it," said
+Lorand, producing from under his coat M&aacute;rton's walking stick, for which
+he had had made a beautiful silver handle in place of the previous
+dog's-foot.</p>
+
+<p>The old fellow was beside himself with delight that they thought so much
+of his relics.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true," he asked, "that you fought two highwaymen with this stick?
+Master Desiderius wrote to say so."</p>
+
+<p>"No, only one."</p>
+
+<p>"And you knocked him down?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was impossible for he ran away. Now I have done my walking, and give
+back the stick with thanks."</p>
+
+<p>But it was not the silver handle that delighted M&aacute;rton so. He took the
+returned stick into the shop, like some trophy, and related to the
+assistants, how Master Lorand had, with that alone, knocked down three
+highwaymen. He would not have surrendered that stick for a whole
+Mecklenburg full of every kind of cane.</p>
+
+<p>Old Grandmother Fromm, too, was still alive and counted it a great
+triumph that she had just finished the hundredth pair of stockings for
+Fanny's trousseau.</p>
+
+<p>And last, but not least, Fanny, even more beautiful, even more
+amiable!&mdash;as if she had not seen Desiderius and his grandmother for an
+eternity!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you will be our daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>And they all loved Desiderius so.</p>
+
+<p>"What a handsome man he has grown," complimented Grandmother Fromm.</p>
+
+<p>"What a good fellow!"&mdash;remarked Mother Fromm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What a clever fellow! How learned!" was Father Fromm's encomium.</p>
+
+<p>"And what a muscular rascal!" said Henrik, overcome with astonishment
+that another boy too had grown as large as he. "Do you remember how one
+evening you threw me on to the bed? How angry I was with you then!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember how the first evening you put away the cake for
+Henrik?" said grandmamma. "How you blushed then!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember," interrupted Father Fromm, "the first time you
+addressed me in German? How I laughed at you then!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and do you remember me?" said Fanny playfully, putting her hand
+on her fianc&eacute;'s arm.</p>
+
+<p>"When first you kissed me here," retorted Desiderius, looking into her
+beaming eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"How you feared me then!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and do you remember," said the young fellow in a voice void of
+feeling, "when I stood resting against the doorpost, and you came to
+drag my secret out of me. How I loved you then!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand stepped up to them, and laying his hands on their shoulders, said
+with a sigh:</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me for standing so long in your path!"</p>
+
+<p>At that everyone's eyes filled with tears, everyone knew why.</p>
+
+<p>Father Fromm, deeply moved, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"How happy I am,&mdash;my God!" and then as if he considered his happiness
+too great, he turned to Henrik, "if only you were otherwise! but look,
+my dear boy: nothing has come of him! <i>fuit negligens</i>. If he too had
+learned, he would already be an '<i>archivarius</i>!' That is what I wanted
+to make of him. What a fine title! An '<i>archivarius</i>!' But what has
+become of him? An '<i>asinus</i>!' <i>Quantus asinus</i>! I ought to have made a
+baker of him. He did not wish to be other, the fool: the '<i>perversus
+homo</i>.' Now he is nothing but a '<i>pistor</i>.'"</p>
+
+<p>At this grievous charge poor Henrik would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> longed to sink into the
+earth for very shame, a longing which would have met with opposition,
+not only from the ground-floor inhabitants, but also from the assistants
+working in the underground cellars.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took Henrik's part.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Henrik. At any rate in both families there is a
+good-for-nothing who can do nothing except produce bread: I am the
+peasant, you the baker: I thresh the wheat, you bake bread of it: let
+the high and mighty feast on their pride."</p>
+
+<p>Then the common good-humor of the high and mighty put a good tone on the
+conversation. Father Fromm actually made peace though slowly with fate,
+and agreed that it was just as well Henrik could continue his father's
+business. He might find some respite in the fact that at least his
+second child would become a "lady."</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius had a joy in store for him in that he was to meet his
+erstwhile Rector,<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> who was to give away the bride. The old fellow had
+still the same military mien, the same harsh voice, and was still as
+sincerely fond of Desiderius and the two families as ever.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> The director of the school when he was educated at
+Pressburg.</p></div>
+
+<p>Lorand was to be Desiderius' best man.</p>
+
+<p>In this official position he was obliged to stand on the bridegroom's
+left, while the latter swore before the altar, to provide for the
+bride's happiness "till death us do part," receiving in trust a faithful
+hand which even in death would not loosen its hold on his. He was the
+first to praise the bride for repeating after the minister so
+courageously and clearly those words, at which the voices of girls are
+wont to tremble. He was the first to raise his glass to the happy
+couple's health: he opened the ball with the bride: and one day later,
+it was he who took her back on his arm to his mother's home, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear sister-in-law, step into the house from which your calm face has
+driven all signs of mourning: em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>brace her who awaits you&mdash;the good
+mother who has to-day for the first time exchanged her black gown for
+that blue one in which we knew her in days of happiness. Never has bride
+brought a richer dowry to a bridegroom's home, than you have to ours.
+God bless you for it."</p>
+
+<p>And even Lorand did not know how much that hand which pressed his so
+gently had done for him.</p>
+
+<p>It is the fate of such deeds to succeed and remain obscure.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the children spend their happy honeymoon in the country," was the
+opinion of the elder lady. "They must grow accustomed to being their own
+masters, too."</p>
+
+<p>But the idea met with the most strenuous opposition from Desiderius'
+mother and Fanny. The mother's prayers were so beautiful, the bride so
+irresistible, that the other two, the grandmother and Lorand, finally
+allowed themselves to be persuaded, and agreed that the mother should
+stay with Desiderius.</p>
+
+<p>"But we two must leave," whispered grandmother to Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>She had already noticed that Lorand's face was not fit to be present in
+that peaceful life.</p>
+
+<p>His gaiety was only for others: a grandmother's eyes could not be
+deceived.</p>
+
+<p>While the others were engaged with their own happiness, the old lady
+took Lorand's hand and, without a word of "whither," they went down
+together to the garden, to the stream flowing beside the garden: to the
+melancholy house built on the bank of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Ten years had passed and the creeper had again crawled over the crypt
+door: the green leaves covered the motto. The two juniper trees had
+bowed their green branches together over the cupola.</p>
+
+<p>They stayed there, her head leaning on his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>How much they must have said to one another, tacitly, without a single
+word! How they must have understood each other's unspoken thoughts!</p>
+
+<p>Deep silence reigned around: but within, inside the closed, rusted,
+creeper-covered door, it seemed as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> someone beckoned with invisible
+finger, saying to the elder boy, "one great debt is not yet paid."</p>
+
+<p>One hour later they returned to the house, where they were welcomed by
+boisterous voices of noisy gladness&mdash;master and servant were all merry
+and rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>"I must hasten on my way," said Lorand to his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Whither?"</p>
+
+<p>"Back to Lankadomb."</p>
+
+<p>"You will bring me a new joy."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a new joy for you, mother,&mdash;and for you, too," he said pressing
+his grandmother's hand.</p>
+
+<p>She understood what that handclasp meant.</p>
+
+<p>The murderer lived still.&mdash;The account was not yet balanced! Lorand
+kissed his happy relations. The old lady accompanied him to the
+carriage, where she kissed his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Go."</p>
+
+<p>And in that kiss there was the weight of a blessing that urged him to
+his difficult duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Go&mdash;and wreak vengeance."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MAD JEST</h3>
+
+
+<p>Let us leave the happy ones to rejoice.</p>
+
+<p>Let us follow that other youth, in whom all that sweet strength for
+action, which might have brought a mutually-loving heart into the
+ecstasy of happiness, had changed into a bitter passion, capable of
+driving a mutually-hating soul to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening when he reached Lankadomb.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was already very impatient. Czipra informed him she would not
+give Lorand even time to rest himself, but took him at once with her to
+the laboratory, where they had been wont to be together, to study alone
+the mysteries of mankind and nature.</p>
+
+<p>The old fellow seemed to be in an extraordinarily good humor, which in
+his case was generally a sign of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear boy," he said, "I have succeeded in getting myself
+tangled up in a mess. I will explain it to you. I have always desired to
+make the acquaintance of the county prison by reason of some meritorious
+stupidity; so finally I have committed something which will aid my
+purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed:&mdash;for two years at least. Ha ha! I have perpetrated such a
+mad jest that I am myself entirely contented. Of course they will
+imprison me, but that does not matter."</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done now, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just listen, it is a long story. First I must begin by saying that
+Melanie is already married."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better."</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope it is for her&mdash;for me it is. But it is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> turning-point
+of my fate too: so just listen to the end, to all the little trifling
+incidents of the tale&mdash;as Mistress Boris related them to Czipra, and
+Czipra to me. They all belong to the complete picture."</p>
+
+<p>"I am all ears," said Lorand, sitting down, and determining to show a
+very indifferent face when they related before him the tale of Melanie's
+marriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after you left here, they knowing nothing of your departure,
+Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy said to her daughter: 'Just for mere obstinacy's sake
+you must marry Gy&aacute;li: let these men see how much we care for their
+fables!'&mdash;therewith she wrote a letter herself to Gy&aacute;li to come back
+immediately to Lankadomb, and show himself: they were awaiting him with
+open arms. He must not be afraid of the brothers &Aacute;ronffy. He must look
+into their faces as behooved a man of dignity. To provide against any
+possible insults, he must protect himself with a couple of
+pocket-pistols: such things he must always carry in his pocket, to
+display beneath the nose of anyone who attempted to frighten him with
+his gigantic stature!&mdash;Gy&aacute;li shortly appeared in the village again, and
+very ostentatiously drove up and down before my window, driving the
+horses himself with the ladies sitting behind, as if he hoped to take
+the greatest revenge upon me in this way. I merely said: 'If you are
+satisfied with him, it is nothing to me.' It seems that in the world of
+to-day the ladies like the man, upon whom others have spat, whom others
+have insulted and kicked out!&mdash;they know all&mdash;well, I had no wish to
+quarrel with their taste.</p>
+
+<p>"I determined just for that reason not to do anything mad. I would be
+clever. I would look down upon the world's madness with contemplative
+philosophy, and merely carry out the clever jest of annulling my
+previous will in which I had made Melanie my heiress, and which had been
+stored away in the county archive room, making another which I shall
+keep here at home, in which not a single mention is made of my niece.</p>
+
+<p>"The wedding was solemnized with great pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi did not complain of the expense incurred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> He thought to
+revenge himself on me. He collected all the friends he could from the
+vicinity: I too received a lithographed invitation. Look at that!"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy took the vellum from his pocket-book and handed it to Lorand.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Topandy&quot; has been changed to &quot;Top&aacute;ndy&quot;">Top&aacute;ndy</span></span>:</p>
+
+<p>It will give me great pleasure if you and your nephew Lorand
+<span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Aronffy&quot; has been changed to &quot;&Aacute;ronffy&quot;">&Aacute;ronffy</span> will accept our invitation to the wedding of my daughter
+Melanie and Joseph Gy&aacute;li, at Mr. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign"><span class="smcap">Emilia <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Balnokhazy&quot; has been changed to &quot;B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy&quot;">B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy</span></span>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Keep half for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks: I don't want even the whole."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it just happened to be Sunday. S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi chose that day, because
+it would cost so much less to array the village folk in holiday garb. He
+had the bells rung, so did the Vicar: every window and door was full of
+curious on-lookers. I too took my seat on the verandah to see the sight.</p>
+
+<p>"The long line of carriages started. First the bridegroom with
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, after them the bride, dressed in a white lawn robe, and
+wearing, if I am not mistaken, many theatrical jewels."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand interrupted impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>"You evidently think, uncle, that I shall write all this for some
+fashion-paper, as you are telling me in such detail about the costumes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have learned it from English novel-writers: if a man wants to
+convince his hearers that something is true history and no fable, he
+must describe externals in detail, that they may see what an eye-witness
+he was.&mdash;Well, I shall leave out all description of the horses'
+trappings.</p>
+
+<p>"As the long convoy proceeded up the street, a carriage drawn by four
+horses clattered up from the opposite end, a county court official
+beside the coachman, behind, two gentlemen, one lean, the other
+thickset.</p>
+
+<p>"When this equipage met the wedding procession, the lean gentleman
+stopped his carriage and called out to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's coachman to bring his
+coach to a standstill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The lean man leaped down from his carriage, the stout man after him,
+the official following them, and stepped up to the bridegroom.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are you Joseph <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Gy&aacute;lil&quot; has been changed to &quot;Gy&aacute;li&quot;">Gy&aacute;li?</span>' inquired the lean man, without any prefix.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am,' he said, looking at the dust-covered man with angry hauteur,
+not comprehending by what right anyone could dare to stop him at such a
+time and to address him so curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"But the lean man seized the door of the carriage and said to the
+bridegroom:</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, sir, have you any soul?'</p>
+
+<p>"Our dear friend could not comprehend what new form of greeting it was,
+to ask a man on the road whether he had a soul.</p>
+
+<p>"But the lean man seemed to wish to know that at any cost.</p>
+
+<p>"'Sir, have you any soul?'</p>
+
+<p>"'What?'</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any soul, that you can lead an innocent maiden to the altar,
+in the position in which you are?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Who are you? And how dare you to address me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I am Mikl&oacute;s Daruszegi, county court magistrate, and have come to
+arrest you, in consequence of a proclamation of the High Court of
+Justice in Vienna, which has sent us instructions to arrest you wherever
+you may be found on the charge of several forgeries and deceits, <i>in
+flagrante</i>, and not to accept bail!'</p>
+
+<p>"'But, sir&mdash;!'</p>
+
+<p>"'There is no chance for resistance. You knew already in Vienna to what
+charge you were liable, and you came directly to Hungary in the hope
+that if you could ally yourself with some propertied lady, your
+honorable person might be defended, thus practising fresh deceit against
+others. And now again I ask you, whether you have the soul to wish, on
+the prison's threshold, to drag an innocent maiden with you?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Melanie!"&mdash;whispered Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Melanie naturally fainted, and the poor P.&nbsp;C.'s widow was beside
+herself with rage: poor S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> wept like a child: all the guests
+fled back to the house, and the bridegroom was compelled to descend from
+the bridal coach, and take his place in the magistrate's muddy chaise,
+still wearing his costume covered with decorations: they supplied him
+with a rug, it is true, to cover himself with, but the heron-plumed hat
+remained on his head for the public wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"I truly sympathised with the poor creatures! Still it seems I have
+survived that pain too.&mdash;If only it had not happened in the street!
+Before the eyes of so many men! If I at least had not seen it! If only I
+might give a romantic version of the catastrophe. But such a prosaic
+ending! A bridegroom arrested for the forgery of documents at the church
+door!&mdash;His tragedy is surely over!"</p>
+
+<p>"But according to that, Melanie did not become his wife?" said Lorand.
+"Melanie has not been married at all."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You are an impatient audience, nephew. Still I shall not hurry the
+performance. You must wait till I send a glass of absinthe down my
+throat, for my stomach turns at the very thought of what I am about to
+relate."</p>
+
+<p>And he was not joking: he looked among the many chemicals for the bottle
+bearing the label "absynthium," and drank a small glass of it. Then he
+poured one out for Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"You must drink too."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not drink it, uncle," said Lorand, full of other thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"But drink this glass, I tell you: until you do I shall not continue.
+What I am going to say is strong poison, and this is the antidote."</p>
+
+<p>So Lorand drank, that he might hear what happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear boy. You must dispense with the idea that Melanie is not
+a wife: Melanie two days ago married&mdash;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is only a jest!" exclaimed Lorand incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is a jest: only a very mad one. Who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> could take such
+things seriously? S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi was jesting when he said to Madame
+B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy: 'Madame, there is a scandal&mdash;your daughter is neither a miss
+nor a Mrs. She is burdened both by loss and contempt. You cannot appear
+any more before the world after such a scandal. I have a good idea: we
+are trying to agree now about a property; let us shake hands, and the
+bargain's made, the property and the price of purchase remain in the
+same hands.'&mdash;Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy too was jesting when she said to her
+daughter: 'My dear Melanie, we have fallen up to our necks in the mire,
+we cannot be very particular about the hand that is to drag us out.
+Lorand will never come back again, Gy&aacute;li has deceived us; but only tit
+for tat,&mdash;for we deceived him with that tale of the regained property in
+which only one man believes,&mdash;honorable S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. If you accept his
+offer, you will be a lady of position, if not, you can come with me as a
+wandering actress. We can take our revenge upon them, for they hate
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi too. And after all S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi is a very pleasant fellow.'&mdash;And
+surely Melanie was jesting when two days later she said to the priest
+before the altar that in the whole world there was only one man whom she
+could deem worthy of her love, and he was S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi.&mdash;I believe it was
+all a jest&mdash;but so it happened."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand covered his face with his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"A jest indeed, a fine jest fit to stir one's blood," Top&aacute;ndy angrily
+burst out. "That girl, whom I so loved, whom I treated as my child, who
+was to me an image of what they call womanly purity, throws herself away
+upon my most detested enemy, a loathsome corpse, whose body, soul, and
+spirit had already decayed. Why if she had returned broken-hearted to
+me, and said, 'I have erred,' I should have still received her with open
+arms: she should not thus have prostituted the feeling which I held for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my friend, there is nothing more repulsive in this round world,
+than a woman who can make herself thus loathed."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand's silence gave assent to this sentence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And now follows the madness I committed.</p>
+
+<p>"I said: if you jest, let me jest too. My house was at that moment full
+of gay companions, who were helping me to curse. But what is the value
+of curses? A mad idea occurred to me. I said: 'If you are holding a
+marriage feast yonder, I shall hold one here.' You remember there was an
+old mangled-eared ass, used by the shepherd to carry the hides of
+slaughtered oxen, called by my servants, out of ridicule, S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi.
+Then there was a beautiful thoroughbred colt, which Melanie chose
+betimes to bear her name. I dressed the ass and foal up as bridegroom
+and bride, one of the drunken revellers dressed as a 'monk' and at the
+same time that S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi and Melanie went to their wedding, here, in my
+courtyard, I parodied the holy ceremony in the persons of those two
+animals."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was horror stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a mad idea: I acknowledge it," continued Top&aacute;ndy. "To ridicule
+religious ceremonies! That will cost me two years at least in the county
+prison: I shall not defend myself&mdash;I have deserved it. I shall put up
+with it. I knew it when I carried out this raving jest&mdash;I knew what the
+outcome would be. But if they had promised me all the good things that
+lie between the guardian of the Northern Dog-star and the emerald wings
+of the vine-dresser beetle, or if they had threatened me with all that
+exists down to the middle of the earth, down to hell, I should have done
+it, when once I had thought it out. I wanted a hellish revenge, and
+there it was. How hellish it was you may imagine from the fact that the
+jovial fellows at once sobered, disappeared from the house; and since
+then one or two have written to beg me not to betray their presence here
+on that occasion. I am only pleased you were not here then."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am sorry I was not. Had I been, it would not have happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that, my dear boy. Don't think too well of yourself. You
+don't know what you would have felt, had you seen pass before you in a
+carriage her whom we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> had idolized with him whom we detest so. It
+destroyed my reason. And even now I feel a terrible void in my soul.
+That girl occupied such a large place therein. I feel it is still more
+painful for me that I perpetrated such a trivial jest in her name, in
+her memory.&mdash;Still, it has happened and we cannot recall it. We have
+begun the campaign of hatred, and don't know ourselves where it will
+end. Now let us speak of other things. During my imprisonment you will
+take over the farm and remain here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have still another difficult matter to get through first."</p>
+
+<p>"I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear no. Why do you always wish to discover my thoughts? You cannot
+know of what I am thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"Czipra...."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not quite it. Though it did occur to me to ask how could I
+leave a young man and a young girl here all alone. Yet in that matter I
+have my own logic: the young man either has a heart or none at all. If
+he has a heart, he will either keep his distance from the girl, or, if
+he has loved her, he will not ask who her father and mother were or what
+her dowry is. He will estimate her at her own value for her own self&mdash;a
+faithful woman. If he has no heart, the girl must see to having more:
+she must defend herself. If neither has a heart,&mdash;well a daily
+occurrence will occur once more. Who has ever grieved over it? I have
+nothing to say in the matter. He who knows himself to be an animal,
+nothing more, is right: he who considers himself a higher being, a man,
+a noble man, is right too: and he who wishes to be an angel, is only
+vain. Whether you make the girl your mistress or your wife, is the
+affair of you two: it all depends which category of the physical world
+you desire to belong to. The one says, 'I, a male ass, wish to graze
+with you, a female-ass, on thistles;' or, 'I, a man, wish to be your
+god, woman, to care for you.' It is, as I say, a matter of taste and
+ideas. I entrust it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> to you. But I have matter for serious anxiety here.
+Have you not remarked that here, round Lankadomb, an enormous number of
+robberies take place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not more than elsewhere: only we do not know about the
+misfortunes of others."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no; our neighborhood is in reality the home of a far-reaching
+robber-band, whose dealings I have long followed with great attention.
+These marshes here around us afford excellent shelter to those who like
+to avoid the world."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so everywhere. Fugitive servants, marauding shepherds, bandits,
+who visit country houses to ask a drink of wine, bacon and bread,&mdash;I
+have met them often enough: I gave them from my purse as much as I
+pleased, and they went on their way peacefully."</p>
+
+<p>"Here we have to deal with quite a different lot. Czipra might know more
+about it, if she chose to speak. That tent-dwelling army, out of whose
+midst I took her to myself, is lurking around us, and is more malicious
+than report says. They conceal their deeds splendidly, they are very
+cunning and careful. They are not confined to human society, they can
+winter among the reeds, and so are more difficult to get at than the
+mounted highwaymen, who hasten to enjoy the goods they have purloined in
+the inns. They have never dared to attack me at home, for they know I am
+ready to receive them. Still, they have often indirectly laid me under
+obligation. They have often robbed Czipra, when she went anywhere alone.
+You were yourself a witness to one such event. I suspect that the
+robber-chief who strove with Czipra in the inn was Czipra's own father."</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! I wonder if that can be so."</p>
+
+<p>"Czipra always closed their mouths with a couple of hundred florins, and
+then they remained quiet. Perhaps she threatened them in case they
+annoyed me. It may be that up to the present they have not molested us
+in order to please her. But it may be, too, that they have another
+reason for making Lankadomb their centre of operations. Do you remember
+that on the pistol you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> wrenched from that robber were engraved the arms
+of S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi?"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you hinting at, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi is the chieftain of the whole highwayman-band."</p>
+
+<p>"What brought you to that idea?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fact that he is such a pious man. Still, let us not go into that
+now. The gist of the matter is, that I would like to relieve our
+district of this suspicious guest, before I begin my long visit."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must burn up that old hay-rick, of which I have said so many times
+that it has inhabitants summer and winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that will drive them from our neighborhood?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure of it. This class is cowardly. They will soon turn out
+of any place where war is declared against them: they only dare to brawl
+as long as they find people are afraid of them: wolf-like they tear to
+pieces only those they find defenceless: but one wisp of burning straw
+will annihilate them. We must set the rick on fire."</p>
+
+<p>"We could have done so already; but it is difficult to reach it, on
+account of the old peat-quarries."</p>
+
+<p>"Which our dangerous neighbors have covered with wolf traps, so that one
+cannot approach the rick within rifle-shot."</p>
+
+<p>"I often wished to go there, but you would not allow me."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been an unreasonable audacity. Those who dwell there
+could shoot down, from secure hiding-places, any who approached it,
+before the latter could do them any harm. I have a simpler plan: we two
+shall take our seats in the punt, row down the dyke, and when we come
+against the rick, we shall set it on fire with explosive bullets. The
+rick is mine, no longer rented: all whom it may concern must seek
+lodging elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand said it was a good plan: whatever Top&aacute;ndy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> desired he would agree
+to. He might declare war against the bandits, for all he cared.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, guided by moonlight, they poled their way to the centre of
+the marsh: Lorand himself directed the shots, and was lucky enough to
+lodge his first shell in the side of the rick. Soon the dry mass of hay
+was flaming like a burning pyramid in the midst of the morass. The two
+besiegers had reached home long before the blazing rick had time to
+light up the district far. As they watched, all at once the flame
+scattered, exploding millions of sparks up to heaven, and the fragments
+of the burning rick were strewed on the water's surface by the wind.
+Surely hidden gunpowder had caused that explosion.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment no one was at home in this barbarous dwelling. Not a
+single voice was heard during the burning, save the howling of the
+terrified wolves round about.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>WHILE THE MUSIC SOUNDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>At Lankadomb the order of things had changed.</p>
+
+<p>After the famous scandal, Top&aacute;ndy's dwelling was very quiet&mdash;no guest
+crossed its threshold: while at S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house there was an
+entertainment every evening, sounds of music until dawn of day.</p>
+
+<p>They wished to show that they were in a gay mood.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi began to win fame among the gypsies. These wandering musicians
+began to reckon his house among one of their happy asylums, so that even
+the bands of neighboring towns came to frequent it, one handing on the
+news of it to the other.</p>
+
+<p>The young wife loved amusement, and her husband was glad if he could
+humor her&mdash;perhaps he had other thoughts, too?</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi himself did not allow his course of life to be disturbed:
+after ten o'clock he regularly left the company, going first to
+devotions and these having been attended to, to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>His spouse remained under the care of her mother&mdash;in very good hands.</p>
+
+<p>And, after all, S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi was no intolerable husband: he did not
+persecute his young wife with signs of tenderness or jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>In reality he acted as one who merely wished, under the guise of
+marriage to save a victim, to free an innocent, caluminated, unfortunate
+girl in the most humane way from desperation.</p>
+
+<p>It was a good deed,&mdash;friendship, nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's bedroom was separated from the rest of the dwelling house by
+a kind of corridor, bricked in, where the musicians were usually placed,
+for the obvi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>ous reason that the sun-burnt artists are passionately fond
+of chewing tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>This mistaken arrangement was the cause of two evils: firstly, the
+master of the house, lying on his bed, could hear all night long the
+beautiful waltzes and mazurkas to which his wife was dancing; secondly,
+being obliged to pass through the gypsies on his way from the ball-room
+to his bedroom, he came in for so many expressions of gratitude on their
+part that his quiet retirement gave rise to a most striking uproar,
+disagreeable alike to himself, to his wife, and his guests.</p>
+
+<p>He called the brown worthies to order often enough: "Don't express your
+gratitude, don't kiss my hand. I am not going away anywhere:" but they
+would not allow themselves to be cheated of their opportunity for
+grateful speeches.</p>
+
+<p>One night in particular an old, one-eyed czimbalom-player, whose sole
+remaining eye was bound up&mdash;he had only joined the band that day&mdash;would
+not permit himself to be over-awed: he seized the master's hand, kissed
+every finger of it in turn, then every nail: "God recompense you for
+what you intend to give, multiply your family like the sparrows in the
+fields: may your life be like honey...."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, foolish daddy," interrupted S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. "A truce to your
+blessings. Get you gone. Mistress Borcsa will give you a glass of wine
+as a reward."</p>
+
+<p>But the gypsy would not yield: he hobbled after the master into his
+bedroom, opening the door vigorously, and thrusting in his shaggy head.</p>
+
+<p>"But if God call from the world of shadows..."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to hell: enough of your gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>But the czimbalom-player merely closed the door from the inside and
+followed his righteous benefactor.</p>
+
+<p>"Golden-winged angels in a wagon of diamonds...."</p>
+
+<p>"Get out this moment!" cried S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, hastily looking for a stick to
+drive the flatterer out of his room.</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment the gypsy sprang upon him like a panther, grasping
+his throat with one hand and placing a pointed knife against his chest
+with the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"&mdash;panted the astonished S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. "Who are you? What do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who am I?" murmured the fiend in reply, looking like the panther when
+it has set its teeth in its victim's neck. "I am Kandur,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> the mad
+Kandur. Have you ever seen a mad Kandur? That is what I am. Don't you
+know me now?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> Tom-cat.</p></div>
+
+<p>"What do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I want? Your bones and your skin: your black blood. You
+highwayman! You robber!"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he tore the bandage from his eye: there was nothing amiss
+with that eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know me now, herdsman?"</p>
+
+<p>It would have been in vain to scream. Outside the most uproarious music
+could be heard: no one would have heard the cry for help. Besides the
+assailed had another reason for holding his peace.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you want with me? What have I done to you? Why do you
+attack me?"</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done?" said the gypsy, gnashing his teeth so that
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi shivered&mdash;this gnashing of human teeth is a terrible sound.
+"What have you done? You ask that? Have you not robbed me? Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I robbed you? Don't lose your senses. Let go of my throat. You see, I
+am in your hands anyhow. Talk sense. What has happened to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened to me? Oh yes&mdash;act as if you had not seen that
+beautiful illumination the day before yesterday evening&mdash;that's
+right&mdash;when the rick was burned down, and then the gunpowder dispersed
+the fire, so that nothing but a black pit remained for mad Kandur."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it."</p>
+
+<p>"That was your work," cried the fiend, raising high the flashing knife.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Kandur, have some sense. Why should <i>I</i> have set it on fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because no one else could have known that my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>money was stored away
+there. Who else would have dreamed I had money, but you? You who always
+changed my bank-note into silver and gold, giving me one silver florin
+for a small bank-note, and one gold piece for a large one. How do I know
+what was the value of each?&mdash;You knew I collected money. You knew how I
+collected, and why&mdash;for I told you. My daughter is in a certain
+gentleman's house; they are making a fool of her there. They are
+bringing her up like a duchess, until they have plucked her
+blossoms,&mdash;and then they will throw her away like a wash-rag. I wished
+to buy her off! I had already a pot of silver and a milk-pail of gold. I
+wanted to take her away with me to Turkey, to Tartary, where heathens
+dwell; and she would be a real duchess, a gypsy duchess! I shall murder,
+rob, and break into houses until I have a pot full of silver, and a pail
+full of gold. The gypsy girl will want it as her dowry. I shall not
+leave her for you, you white-faced porcelain tribe! I shall take her
+away to some place where they will not say 'Away gypsy! off gypsy! Kiss
+my hand, eat carrion, gypsy, gypsy!'&mdash;Give me my money."</p>
+
+<p>"Kandur."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't gape, or tire your mouth. Give me a pot of silver, and a pail of
+gold."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Kandur, you shall get your money&mdash;a pot of silver and a pail
+of gold. But now let me have my say. It was not I who took your money,
+not I who set the rick on fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Who then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why those people yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Top&aacute;ndy, and the young gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. The day before yesterday evening I saw them in a punt on the
+moat, starting for the morass, and I saw them when they returned
+again&mdash;the rick was then already burning. Each of them had a gun: but I
+did not hear a single shot, so they were not after game."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil and all his hell-hounds destroy them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Kandur, your daughter was mad after that young gentleman&mdash;she
+certainly confessed to him that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> her father was collecting treasures: so
+the young gentleman took off daughter and money too&mdash;he will shortly
+return the empty pot."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall kill him."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say, Kandur?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall kill him, even if he has a hundred souls. Long ago I promised
+him, when first we met. But now I wish to drink of his blood. Did you
+see whether the old mastiff too was there at the robbing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Top&aacute;ndy? A plague upon my eyes, if I did not see him. There were two of
+them, they took no one with them, not even a dog: they rowed along here
+beside the gardens. I looked long after them, and waited till they
+should return. May every saint be merciless to me, if I don't speak the
+truth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall murder both."</p>
+
+<p>"But be careful: they go armed."</p>
+
+<p>"What?&mdash;If I wish I can have a whole host. If I wish I can ravish the
+whole village in broad daylight. You do not yet know who Kandur is."</p>
+
+<p>"I know well who you are, Kandur," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, carefully studying
+the robber's browned face. "Why we are old acquaintances. It is not you
+who are responsible for the deeds you have done, but society. Humankind
+rose up against you, you merely defended yourself as best you could.
+That is why I always took your part, Kandur."</p>
+
+<p>"No nonsense for me now," interrupted the robber hastily. "I don't mind
+what I am. I am a highwayman. I like the name."</p>
+
+<p>"You had no ignoble pretext for robbing,&mdash;but the saving of your
+daughter from the whirlpool of crime. The aim was a laudable one,
+Kandur: besides you were particular as to whom you fleeced."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try to save me&mdash;you'll have enough to do to save yourself soon in
+hell, before the devil's tribunal&mdash;you may lie his two eyes out, if you
+want. I have been a highwayman, have killed and robbed&mdash;even clergymen.
+I want to kill now, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall pray for your soul."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The devil! Man, do you think I care? Prayer is just about as potent
+with you as with me. Better give a pile of money to enable me to collect
+a band. My men must have money."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Kandur: don't be angry, Kandur:&mdash;you know I'm awfully fond
+of you. I have not persecuted you like others. I have always spoken
+gently to you and have always sheltered you from your persecutors. No
+one ever dared to look for you in my house."</p>
+
+<p>"No more babbling&mdash;just give over the money."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Kandur. Hold your cap."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi stepped up to a very strong iron safe, and unfastening the
+locks one by one, raised its heavy door&mdash;placing the candle on a chair
+beside him.</p>
+
+<p>The robber's eyes gleamed. Sufficient silver to fill many pots was piled
+up there.</p>
+
+<p>"Which will you have? silver or bank-notes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silver," whispered the robber.</p>
+
+<p>"Then hold your cap."</p>
+
+<p>Kandur held his lamb-skin cap in his two hands like a pouch, and placed
+his knife between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi dived deeply into the silver pile with his hand, and when he
+drew it back, he held before the robber's nose a double-barrelled
+pistol, ready cocked.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine precaution&mdash;a pistol beautifully covered up by a heap of
+coins.</p>
+
+<p>The robber staggered back, and forgot to withdraw the knife from his
+mouth. And so he stood before S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, a knife between his teeth, his
+eyes wide opened, and his two hands stretched before him in
+self-defence.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi calmly, "I might shoot you now, did I wish.
+You are entirely in my power. But see, I spoke the truth to you.&mdash;Hold
+your cap and take the money."</p>
+
+<p>He put the pistol down beside him and took out a goodly pile of dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"A plague upon your jesting eyes!" hissed the robber through the knife.
+"Why do you frighten a fellow? The darts of Heaven destroy you!"</p>
+
+<p>He was still trembling, so frightened had he been.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The loaded weapon in another's hand had driven away all his courage.</p>
+
+<p>The robber could only be audacious, not courageous.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your cap."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi shovelled the heap of silver coins into the robber's cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Now perhaps you can believe it is not fear that makes me confide in
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"A plague upon you. How you alarmed me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now collect your wits and listen to me."</p>
+
+<p>The robber stuffed the money into his pockets and listened with
+contracted eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"You may see it was not I who stole your money; for, had I done so, I
+should just now have planted two bullets in your carcass, one in your
+heart, the other in your skull. And I should have got one hundred gold
+pieces by it, that being the price on your head."</p>
+
+<p>The robber smiled bashfully, like one who is flattered. He took it as a
+compliment that the county had put a price of one hundred gold pieces on
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be quite sure that it was not I, but those folks yonder, who
+took away your money."</p>
+
+<p>"The highwaymen!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are right&mdash;highwaymen:&mdash;worse even than that. Atheists! The earth
+will be purified if they are wiped out. He who kills them is doing as
+just an action as the man that shoots a wolf or a hawk."</p>
+
+<p>"True, true;" Kandur nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>"This rogue who stole away your daughter laid a snare for another
+innocent creature. He must have two, one for his right hand, the other
+for his left. And when the persecuted innocent girl escaped from the
+deceiver to my house and became my wife, those folks yonder swore deadly
+revenge against me. Because I rescued an innocent soul from the cave of
+crime, they thrice wished to slay me. Once they poured poison into my
+drinking-well. Fortunately the horses drank of the water first and all
+fell sick from it. Then they drove mad dogs out in the streets, when I
+was walking there, to tear me to pieces. They sent me letters, which,
+had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> I opened them, would have gone off in my hands and blown me to
+pieces. These malicious fellows wish to kill me."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"That young stripling thinks that if he succeeds he can carry off my
+wife too, so as to have her for his mistress one day, Czipra, your
+daughter, the next."</p>
+
+<p>"You make my anger boil within me!"</p>
+
+<p>"They acknowledge neither God nor law. They do as they please. When did
+you last see your daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not see how worn she is? That cursed fellow has enchanted her
+and is spoiling her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll spoil his head!"</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do with him?"</p>
+
+<p>Kandur showed, with the knife in his hand, what he would do&mdash;bury that
+in his heart and twist it round therein.</p>
+
+<p>"How will you get at him? He has always a gun in the daytime: he acts as
+if he were going a-shooting. At night the castle is strongly locked, and
+they are always on the lookout for an attack,&mdash;they too are audacious
+fellows."</p>
+
+<p>"Just leave it to me. Don't have any fears. What Kandur undertakes is
+well executed. Crick, crick: that's how I shall break both the fellows'
+necks."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a clever rascal. You showed that in your way of getting at me!
+You may do the same there, by dressing your men as fiddlers and
+clarinet-players."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh ho! Don't think of it. Kandur doesn't play the same joke twice. I
+shall find the man I want."</p>
+
+<p>"I've still something to say. It would be good if you could have them
+under control before they die."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;make them confess where they have put my money which they
+stole?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't begin with that. Supposing they will not confess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have no fears on that score. I know how to drive screws under
+finger-nails, to strap up heads, so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> a man would even confess to
+treasures hidden in his father's coffin."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me. Do what I say. Don't try long to trace your stolen money:
+it's not much&mdash;a couple of thousand florins. If you don't find it, I
+shall give you as much&mdash;as much as you can carry in your knapsack. You
+can, however, find something else there."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"A letter, sealed with five black seals."</p>
+
+<p>"A letter? with five black seals?"</p>
+
+<p>"And to prevent them making a fool of you, and blinding you with some
+other letter which you cannot read, note the arms on the respective
+seals. On the first is a fish-tailed mermaid, holding a half-moon in her
+hand&mdash;those are the &Aacute;ronffy arms:&mdash;on the second a stork, three ears of
+corn in its talons&mdash;those are the High Sheriff's arms: on the third a
+semi-circle, from which a unicorn is proceeding,&mdash;those are the Ny&aacute;r&aacute;dy
+arms; the fourth is a crown in a hand holding a sword&mdash;those are the
+lawyer's arms. The fifth, which must be in the middle, bears Top&aacute;ndy's
+arms,&mdash;a crowned snake."</p>
+
+<p>The robber reckoned after him on his fingers:</p>
+
+<p>"Mermaid with half moon&mdash;stork with ears of corn&mdash;a half circle with
+unicorn&mdash;crown with sword-hand&mdash;snake with crown. I shall not forget.
+And what do you want the letter for?"</p>
+
+<p>"That too I shall explain to you, that you may see into the innermost
+depths of my thoughts and may judge how seriously I long to see the
+completion of that which I have entrusted to you. That letter is
+Top&aacute;ndy's latest will. While my wife was living with him, Top&aacute;ndy,
+believing she would wed his nephew, left his fortune to his niece and
+her future husband, and handed it in to the county court to be guarded.
+But when his niece became my wife, he wrote a new will, and had all
+those, whose arms I have mentioned, sign it; then he sealed it but did
+not send it to the court like the former one; he kept it here to make
+the jest all the greater,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> thinking we stand by the former will. Then,
+the latter will comes to light, making void the former&mdash;and excluding my
+wife from all."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! I see now what a clever fellow you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, could that five-sealed letter come into my hands, and old Top&aacute;ndy
+die by chance, without being able to write another will&mdash;well, you know
+what that little paper might be worth in my hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Castle, property, everything. All that would fall to
+you&mdash;the old will would give it you. I understand: I see&mdash;now I know
+what a wise fellow you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe now that if you come to me with that letter...."</p>
+
+<p>The robber bent nearer confidingly, and whispered in his ear:</p>
+
+<p>"And with the news that your neighbors died suddenly and could not write
+another."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you need have no fear as to how much money you will get in place
+of what they stole. You may go off with your daughter to Tartary, where
+no one will prosecute you."</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent&mdash;couldn't be better. Leave the rest to me. Two days later
+Kandur will have no need to indulge in such work."</p>
+
+<p>Then he began to count on his fingers, as if he were reckoning to
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in the first place, I get money&mdash;in the second, I have my
+revenge&mdash;in the third, I take away Czipra,&mdash;in the fourth, I shall have
+my fill of human blood,&mdash;in the fifth, I get money again.&mdash;It shall be
+done."</p>
+
+<p>The two shook hands on the bargain. The robber left by the same door
+through which he had entered; S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi went to bed, like one who has
+done his business well; and in the corridor the gypsies still played the
+newest waltz, which Melanie and Madame B&aacute;lnokh&aacute;zy were enjoying with
+flushed faces amidst the gay assembly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ENCHANTMENT OF LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>How many secrets there are under the sun, awaiting discovery!</p>
+
+<p>Books have been written about the superstitions of nations long since
+passed away: men of science have collected the enchantments of people
+from all quarters of the globe: yet of one thing they have not spoken
+yet: of that unending myth, which lives unceasingly and is born again in
+woman's heart and in the heated atmosphere of love.</p>
+
+<p>Sweet are the enchantments of love!</p>
+
+<p>"If I drink unseen from thy glass, and thou dost drain it after
+me:&mdash;thou drinkest love therefrom, and shalt pine for me, darling, as I
+have pined for thee.</p>
+
+<p>"If at night I awake in dreams of thee and turn my pillow under my head:
+thou too wilt have as sweet dreams of me, as I of thee, my darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If I bind my ring to a lock of thy hair thou hast given me, and cast
+the same into a glass, as often as it beats against the side of the
+glass, so many years wilt thou love me, darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If I can sew a lock of my hair into the edge of thy linen garment, thy
+heart will pine for me, as often as thou puttest the same on, my
+darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If, in thinking of thee, I pricked my finger, thou wert then faithless
+to me, darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If the door opens of itself, thou wert then thinking of me, and thy
+sigh opened the door, my darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If a star shoots in the sky, and I suddenly utter thy name as it
+shoots, thou must then at once think of me, darling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If my ear tingles, I hear news of thee: if my cheeks burn, thou art
+speaking of me, my darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If my scissors fall down and remain upright, I shall see thee soon,
+darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If the candle runs down upon me, then thou dost love another, my
+darling.</p>
+
+<p>"If my ring turns upon my finger, then thou wilt be the cause of my
+death, darling."</p>
+
+<p>In every object, in every thought lives the mythology of love, like the
+old-world deities with which poets personified grass, wood, stream,
+ocean and sky.</p>
+
+<p>The petals of the flowers speak of it, ask whether he loves or not: the
+birds of song on the house-tops: everything converses of love: and what
+maiden is there who does not believe what they say?</p>
+
+<p>Poor maidens!</p>
+
+<p>If they but knew how little men deserved that the world of prose should
+receive its polytheism of love from them!</p>
+
+<p>Poor Czipra!</p>
+
+<p>What a slave she was to her master!</p>
+
+<p>Her slavery was greater than that of the Creole maiden whose every limb
+grows tired in the service of her master:&mdash;every thought of hers served
+her lord.</p>
+
+<p>From morn till even, nothing but hope, envy, tender flattery, trembling
+anxiety, the ecstasy of delight, the bitterness of resignation, the
+burning ravings of passion, and cold despair, striving unceasingly with
+each other, interchanging, gaining new sustenance from every word, every
+look of the youth she worshipped.</p>
+
+<p>And then from twilight till dawn ever the same struggle, even in dreams.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were thy dog, you would not treat me so."</p>
+
+<p>That is what she once said to Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>And why? Perhaps because he passed her without so much as shaking hands
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>And at another time:</p>
+
+<p>"Were I in Heaven, I could not be happier."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a fleeting embrace had made her happy again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How little is enough to bring happiness or sorrow to poor maidens.</p>
+
+<p>One day an old gypsy woman came by chance into the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>In the country it is not the custom to drive away these poor vagrants:
+they receive corn, and scraps of meat: they must live, too.</p>
+
+<p>Then they tell fortunes. Who would not wish to have his fortune so
+cheaply.</p>
+
+<p>And the gypsy woman's deceitful eye very soon finds out whose fortune to
+tell, and how to tell it.</p>
+
+<p>But Czipra was not glad to see her.</p>
+
+<p>She was annoyed at the idea that the woman might recognize her by her
+red-brown complexion, and her burning black eyes, and might betray her
+origin before the servants. She tried to escape notice.</p>
+
+<p>But the gypsy woman did remark the beautiful girl and addressed her as
+"my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"I kiss your dear little feet, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"My lady? Don't you see I am a servant, and cook in the kitchen: my
+sleeves are tucked up and I wear an apron."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely not. A serving maid does not hold her head so upright and
+cannot show her anger so. If your ladyship frowns on me I feel like
+hiding in the corner, just to escape from the anger in your eyes.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Well if you know so much, you must also know that I am married, fool!"</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman slyly winked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am no fool: my eyes are not bad. I know the wild dove from the tame.
+You are no married woman, young lady: you are still a maiden. I have
+looked into the eyes of many girls and women: I know which is which. A
+girl's eye lurks beneath the eyelids, as if she were looking always out
+of an ambuscade, as if she were always afraid somebody would notice her.
+A woman's eye always flashes as if she were looking for somebody. When a
+girl says in jest 'I am a married woman,' she blushes: if she were a
+woman, she would smile. You are certainly still unmarried, young lady."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Czipra was annoyed at having opened a conversation with her. She felt
+that her face was really burning. She hastened to the open fire-place,
+driving the servant away that she might put her burning face down to the
+flaming fire.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman became more obtrusive, seeing she had put the girl to
+confusion. She sidled up to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I see more, beautiful young lady. The girl that blushes quickly has
+much sorrow and many desires. Your ladyship has joy and sorrow too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, away with you!" exclaimed Czipra hastily.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so easy to get rid of a gypsy woman, once she has firmly
+planted her foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I know a very good remedy for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I have already told you to be off."</p>
+
+<p>"Which will make the bridegroom as tame as a lamb that always runs after
+its mistress."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want your remedies."</p>
+
+<p>"It is no potion I am talking of, merely an enchantment."</p>
+
+<p>"Throw her out!" Czipra commanded the servants.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't throw me out, girls: rather listen to what I say. Which of
+you would like to know what you must do to enchant the young fellows so
+that even if every particle of them were full of falsity, they could not
+deceive you in their affection. Well, Susie: I see you're laughing at
+it. And you, Kati? Why, I saw your Joseph speaking to the bailiff's
+daughter at the fence: this spell would do him no harm."</p>
+
+<p>All the grinning serving-maids, instead of rescuing Czipra from the
+woman, only assisted the latter in her siege. They surrounded her and
+even cut off Czipra's way, waiting curiously for what the gypsy would
+say.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a harmless remedy, and costs nothing."</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman drew nearer to Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>"When at midnight the nightingale sings below your window, take notice
+on what branch it sat. Go out bare-footed, break down that branch, set
+it in a flower-pot, put it in your window, sprinkle it with water from
+your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> mouth: before the branch droops, your lover will return, and will
+never leave you again."</p>
+
+<p>The girls laughed loudly at the gypsy woman's enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>The woman held her hand out before Czipra in cringing supplication.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, beautiful young lady, scorn not to reward me with something for
+the blessing of God."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra's pocket was always full of all kinds of small coins, of all
+values, according to the custom of those days&mdash;when one man had to be
+paid in coppers, another in silver. Czipra filled her hand and began to
+search among the mass for the smallest copper, a kreutzer,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> as the
+correct alms for a beggar.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> One-half of a penny.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Golden lady," the gypsy woman thanked her. "I have just such a girl at
+home for sale, not so beautiful as you, but just as tall. She too has a
+bridegroom, who will take her off as soon as he can."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra now began to choose from the silver coins.</p>
+
+<p>"But he cannot take her, for we have not money enough to pay the
+priest."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra picked out the largest of the silver coins and gave it to the
+gypsy woman.</p>
+
+<p>The latter blessed her for it. "May God reward you with a handsome
+bridegroom, true in love till death!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she shuffled on her way from the house.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra reflectingly hummed to herself the refrain:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A gypsy woman was my mother."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And Czipra meditated.</p>
+
+<p>How prettily thought speaks! If only the tongue could utter all the dumb
+soul speaks to itself!</p>
+
+<p>"Why art thou what thou art?</p>
+
+<p>"Whether another's or mine, if only I had never seen thee!</p>
+
+<p>"Either love me in return, or do not ask me to love thee at all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Be either cold or warm, but not lukewarm.</p>
+
+<p>"If in passing me, thou didst neither look at me, nor turn away, that
+would be good too: if sitting beside me thou shouldst draw me to thee,
+thou wouldst make me happy:&mdash;thou comest, smilest into mine eyes,
+graspest my hand, speakest tenderly to me, and then passest by.</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred times I think that, if thou dost not address me, I shall
+address thee: if thou dost not ask me, I shall look into thine eyes, and
+shall ask thee:</p>
+
+<p>"'Dost thou love me?'</p>
+
+<p>"If thou lovest, love truly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I do not ask thee to bring down the moon from the heavens to me:
+merely, to pluck the rose from the branch.</p>
+
+<p>"If thou pluckest it, thou canst tear it, and scatter its leaves upon
+the earth, thou must not wear it in thy hat, and answer with blushes, if
+they ask thee who gave it thee. Thou canst destroy it and tear it. A
+gypsy girl gave it.</p>
+
+<p>"If thou lovest, why dost thou not love truly? If thou dost not love me,
+why dost thou follow me?</p>
+
+<p>"If thou knewest thou didst not love me, why didst thou decoy me into
+thy net?</p>
+
+<p>"He has cast a spell upon me: yet I would be of the race of witches.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing. I am no wizard, my eye has no power.</p>
+
+<p>"If I address him once, I kill him and myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Or perhaps only myself.</p>
+
+<p>"And shall I not speak?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor girl's heart was full of reverie, but her eyes, her mouth, and
+her hand were busy with domestic work: she did not sit to gaze at the
+stars, to mourn over her instrument: she looked to her work, and they
+said "she is an enthusiastic housekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>She had even observed that Lorand was approaching her from behind, when
+she was whipping out cream in the corridor, and he greeted her very
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>She expected him at least to stop as long as at other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> times to ask what
+she was cooking; and she would have answered with another question:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me now, what do you like?"</p>
+
+<p>But he did not even stop: he had come upon her quite by chance, and as
+he could not avoid her, uttered a mere "good day:" then passed by. He
+was looking for Top&aacute;ndy.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was waiting for him in his room and was busy reading a letter he
+had just opened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my boy," he said, handing Lorand the letter, "That is the
+overture of the opera."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand took the letter, which began: "I offer my respects to Mr. &mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"This is a summons?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may see from the greeting. The High Sheriff informs me that
+to-morrow morning he will be here to hold the legal inquiry: you must
+give orders to the servants for to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, you still continue to take it as a joke."</p>
+
+<p>"And a curious joke too. How well I shall sweep the streets! Ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"In chains too. I always mocked my swine-herd, who for a year and a half
+wore out the county court's chains. Ever since he walks with a shambling
+step, as if one leg was always trying to avoid knocking the other with
+the chain. Now we can both laugh at each other."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be good to engage a lawyer."</p>
+
+<p>"It will certainly be better to send a sucking pig to the gaoler.
+Against such pricks, my boy, there is no kicking. This is like a cold
+bath: if a man enters slowly, bit by bit, his teeth chatter: if he
+springs in at once, it is even pleasant. Let us talk of more serious
+matters."</p>
+
+<p>"I just came because I wish to speak to my uncle about a very serious
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, out with it."</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to marry Czipra."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy looked long into the young fellow's face, and then said coldly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why will you marry her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is an honest, good girl."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not sufficient reason for marrying her."</p>
+
+<p>"And is faithful to me. I owe her many debts of gratitude. When I was
+ill, no sister could have nursed me more tenderly: if I was sad, her
+sorrow exceeded my own."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not sufficient reason, either."</p>
+
+<p>"And because I am raised above the prejudices of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! magnanimity! Liberal ostentation? That is not sufficient reason
+either for taking Czipra to wife. The neighboring Count took his
+housekeeper to wife, just in order that people might speak of him: you
+have not even the merit of originality. Still not sufficient reason for
+marrying her."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall take her to wife, because I love her...."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy immediately softened: his usual strain of sarcastic scorn gave
+way to a gentler impulse.</p>
+
+<p>"That's another thing. That is the only reason that can justify your
+marriage with her. How long have you loved her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot count the days. I was always pleased to see her: I always knew
+I loved her like a good sister. The other I worshipped as an angel: and
+as soon as she ceased to be an angel for me, as a mere woman I felt none
+of the former fire towards her: nothing remained, not even smoke nor
+ashes. But this girl, whose every foible I know, whose beauty was
+enhanced by no reverie, whom I only saw as she really is,&mdash;I love her
+now, as a faithful woman, who repays love in true coin: and I shall
+marry her&mdash;not out of gratitude, but because she has filled my heart."</p>
+
+<p>"If that is all you want, you will find that. What shall you do first?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall first write to my mother, and tell her I have found this rough
+diamond whom she must accept as her daughter: then I shall take Czipra
+to her, and she shall stay there until she is baptized and I take her
+away again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am very thankful that you will take all the burden of this ceremony
+off my shoulders. What must be done by priests, do without my seeing it.
+When shall you tell Czipra?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as mother's answer comes back."</p>
+
+<p>"And if your mother opposes the marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall answer for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Still it is possible. She may have other aims for you. What should you
+do then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then?" said Lorand reflectively: after a long pause he added: "Poor
+mother has had so much sorrow on my account."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that."</p>
+
+<p>"She has pardoned me all."</p>
+
+<p>"She loves you better than her other son."</p>
+
+<p>"And I love her better than I loved my father."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a hard saying."</p>
+
+<p>"But if she said 'You must give up forever either this girl or me,' I
+would answer her, and my heart would break, 'Mother, tear me from your
+heart, but I shall go with my wife.'"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy offered his hand to Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"That was well said."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have no anxiety about it. Mountebank pride never found a place in
+our family: we have sought for happiness, not for vain connections, and
+Czipra belongs to those girls whom women love even better than men. I
+have a good friend at home, my brother, and my dear sister-in-law will
+use her influence in my favor."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have an advocate elsewhere, in one who, despite all his
+godlessness, has a man's feelings, and will say: 'The girl has no name;
+here is mine, let her take that.'"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy did not try to prevent Lorand from kissing his hand.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Poor Czipra! Why did she not hear this?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEN THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The night following upon this day was a sleepless one for Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>Every door of the castle was already closed: it was Lorand's custom to
+look for himself and see that the bolts were firmly fastened. Then he
+would knock at Czipra's door and bid her good-night; Czipra reciprocated
+the good wish, and Lorand turned into his room. The last creaking door
+was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night! Good night! But who gives the good night?"</p>
+
+<p>Every day Czipra felt more strongly what an interminable void can exist
+in a heart which lacks&mdash;God.</p>
+
+<p>If it sorrows, to whom shall it complain?&mdash;if it has aspirations to whom
+can it pray? if terrors threaten it, to whom shall it appeal for help
+and courage? if in despair, from whom shall it ask hope?</p>
+
+<p>When the heavy beating of her heart prevents a poor girl from closing
+her eyes, she tosses sleeplessly where she lies, agonised with unknown
+suspicions, and there is no one before her mind, from whom she can ask,
+"Lord, is this a presentiment of my approaching death, or my approaching
+health? What annoys, what terrifies, what allures, what fills my heart
+with a sweet thrill? Oh, Lord, be with me."</p>
+
+<p>The poor neglected girl only felt this, but could not express it.</p>
+
+<p>She knelt on her bed, clasped her hands on her breast, raised her face,
+and collected every thought of her heart&mdash;how ought one to pray? What
+may be that word, which should bring God nearer? What sayings, what
+enchantments could bring the Great Being, the all-powerful, down from
+the heavens? What philosophy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> was that, which all men concealed from one
+another and only spoke of to each other in secret, in the form of
+letters, which opened to erring humanity the road leading to the home of
+an invisible being? How did it begin? How end? What an awful
+heart-agony, not to know how to pray,&mdash;just to kneel so with a heart
+full of crying aspirations, and dumb lips! How weak the voice of a
+sobbing sigh, how terribly far the starry heavens&mdash;who could hear there?</p>
+
+<p>Yet there is One who hears!</p>
+
+<p>And there is One who notes the unexpressed prayer of the silent
+suppliant, One who hears the unuttered words.</p>
+
+<p>Poor girl! She did not imagine that this feeling, this exaltation, was
+prayer&mdash;not the words, not the sermon, not addresses, not the amens. He
+who sees into hearts&mdash;reads from hearts, does not estimate the elegance
+of words.</p>
+
+<p>In the same hour that the suffering girl knelt thus dumbly before the
+Lord of all happiness, that man whom she had worshipped in her heart so
+long, whom she must worship forever, was sitting just as sleeplessly
+beside his writing-table, separated from her only by two walls, and was
+thinking and writing about her, and often wiped his eyes that filled
+betimes with tears.</p>
+
+<p>He was writing to his mother about his engagement.</p>
+
+<p>About the poor gypsy girl.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the dim light of the beautiful starry night twelve horsemen were
+following in each others' tracks among the reeds of the morass.</p>
+
+<p>Kandur was leading them.</p>
+
+<p>Each man had a gun on his shoulder, a pistol in his girdle.</p>
+
+<p>Along the winding road the mare Farao, treading lightly, led them: she
+too seemed to hasten, and sometimes broke through the reeds, making a
+short cut, as if she too were goaded on by some thirst for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>Among the willows, wills-o'-the-wisps were dancing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They surrounded the horsemen, and followed their movements. Kandur smote
+at them with his lash.</p>
+
+<p>"On the return journey we shall be two more!" he muttered between his
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the lair there was merely a black stubbled ground left
+where the hay-rick stood before.</p>
+
+<p>In all directions shapeless burnt masses lay about.</p>
+
+<p>These were the ruins of the highwaymen's palace.</p>
+
+<p>And the tears flow from their eyes, as they see their haunt thus
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>All twelve had reached the burnt dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"See what the robbers have made of it," said Kandur to his comrades.
+"They have stolen all we had collected, the riches we were to take with
+us to another land, and then they have set the dwelling on fire. They
+came here in a boat: they found out the way to our palace. We shall now
+return the visit. Are you all here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," muttered the comrades. "We are all here."</p>
+
+<p>"Dismount. Now for the punts."</p>
+
+<p>The robbers dismounted.</p>
+
+<p>"No need to tether the horses, they cannot get away anywhere. One man
+may remain here to guard them. Who wishes to stay?"</p>
+
+<p>All were silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one must guard the horses, lest the wolves attack them while we
+are away."</p>
+
+<p>To which an old robber answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Then you should have brought a herd-boy with you, for we didn't come
+here to guard horses."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, mate, I only wished to know whether anyone of us would like
+to remain behind. Whether anyone's 'sandal-strap was unloosed.' Does
+each one know his own business? Come up one by one, and let me tell each
+one his duty once more. Kany&oacute; and Foszt&oacute;."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> Pilferer.</p></div>
+
+<p>Two of the men stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"You two will guard the two doors of the servants' <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>quarter when we
+arrive. Death to him who tries to escape by door or window."</p>
+
+<p>"We know."</p>
+
+<p>"Csutor<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> and Diszn&oacute;s.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> you will be in ambush before the
+hunting-box, and anyone who attempts to come out to the rescue, must be
+killed."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> Nightshade.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> Swinish.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Bogr&aacute;cs!<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> You will occupy the street-door, and if any peasant dares
+to approach you must shoot him: you alone are sufficient to keep
+peasants off."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> Kettle.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Quite sufficient!" said the robber with great self-reliance.</p>
+
+<p>"Korv&eacute;<a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> and <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Pofok&quot; has been changed to &quot;Pof&oacute;k&quot;">Pof&oacute;k</span>.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> You must take your stand opposite the first
+verandah, near the well, and if anyone wishes to escape by the first
+door, fire at him. But don't waste powder.&mdash;You others, <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Vasgyur&oacute;&quot; has been changed to &quot;Vasgy&uacute;r&oacute;&quot;">Vasgy&uacute;r&oacute;</span>,<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a>
+Hentes,<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> Pi&oacute;cza,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> Agyaras,<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> will come with me through the
+garden, and will stay behind in the bushes until I give the sign. If I
+whistle once, that's for you. If I can get in quietly, by craft, without
+being obliged to fire a shot, that will be the best. I have planned the
+way. I think it will succeed. So three will come with me, one will
+remain in the doorway. Have the halters ready, to throw upon his neck,
+drag him to the ground and bind him. The black-bearded strong man must
+be dealt with suddenly, with the butt of your gun on his head, if not
+otherwise. But we must take the old man alive, for we shall make him
+confess."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> Blub-cheeked.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> Bully.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> Butcher.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> Leech.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> Wild-boar.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Just leave him to me," said a fellow with a pox-pitted face, in a tone
+of entire confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be there too," continued Kandur: "and if we cannot enter the
+castle stealthily, if some one should make a noise, if those within wake
+up, then the first whistle is for you four: two come with me to break
+open the garden door. Have you got the 'jimmies'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said a robber, displaying the crowbars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pi&oacute;cza, and Agyaras, your business is to answer any fire of people from
+the windows.&mdash;If I whistle twice, that means that something's up, then
+you must run from all sides to help me. If I cannot break open the door,
+or if those robbers defend themselves well, set the roof on fire over
+their heads and give them a dose of singeing. That will do just as well.
+Don't forget the tarred hay."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha ha! The gentlemen will be warm."</p>
+
+<p>"Well Pof&oacute;k, perhaps you're cold? You'll soon get warm. Hither with the
+canteen. Let's drink a little Dutch courage first. Begin. Hentes. A long
+draught of brandy is, you know, good before a feast."</p>
+
+<p>The tin went round and returned to Kandur almost empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, I have hardly left you any," said the last drinker in a tone of
+apologetic modesty.</p>
+
+<p>"To-day I don't drink brandy. The private must drink that he may be
+blind when he receives orders, but the general must not drink, that he
+may see to give orders. I shall drink something else when it is all
+over. Now look to the masking."</p>
+
+<p>They understood what that meant.</p>
+
+<p>Each one took off his sheepskin jacket, reversed it and put it on again.
+Then dipping their hands in the strewn ashes, they blackened their
+faces, making themselves unrecognizable.</p>
+
+<p>Only Kandur did not mask himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Let them recognize me. And anyone who does not recognize me, shall
+learn from my own lips, 'I am Kandur, the mad Kandur, who will drink thy
+blood, and tear out thy entrails. Know who I am!' How I shall look into
+their eyes! How I shall gnash upon them with my teeth, when they are
+bound. How tenderly I shall say to the young gentleman: 'Well, my boy,
+my gypsy child, were you in the garden? Did you see a wolf? Were you
+afraid of it? Shoo! Shoo!'"<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> A favorite child-verse in Hungary.</p></div>
+
+<p>Farao was impatiently pawing the scorched grass.</p>
+
+<p>"You too are looking for what is no more, Farao," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>the robber said,
+patting his horse's neck. "Don't grieve. To-morrow you shall stand up to
+your knees in provender, and then you shall carry your master on your
+back. Don't grieve, Farao."</p>
+
+<p>The robbers had completed their disguises.</p>
+
+<p>"Now take up the boats."</p>
+
+<p>Hidden among the reeds lay two skiffs, light affairs, each cut out of a
+piece of tree trunk: just such as would hold two men, and such as two
+men could carry on their shoulders over dry ground.</p>
+
+<p>The robber-band put the skiffs into the water and started one after the
+other on their way; they went down until they reached the stream leading
+to the great dyke, by which they could punt down to the park of
+Lankadomb, just where the shooting-box was.</p>
+
+<p>It was about midnight when they reached it.</p>
+
+<p>On the right of Lankadomb the dogs were baying restlessly, but the
+hounds of the castle watchman did not answer them. They were sleeping.
+Some vagrant gypsy woman had fed them well that evening on poisoned
+swine-flesh.</p>
+
+<p>The robbers reached the castle courtyard noiselessly, unnoticed, and
+each one at once took the place allotted to him, as Kandur had directed.</p>
+
+<p>The silence of deep sleep reigned in the house.</p>
+
+<p>When everyone was in his place, Kandur crept on his stomach among the
+bushes, which formed a grove under Czipra's window that looked on to the
+garden, and putting an acacia leaf into his mouth, began to imitate the
+song of the nightingale.</p>
+
+<p>It was an artistic masterpiece which the wild son of the plains had,
+with the aid of a leaf, stolen from the mouth of the sweetest of
+song-birds.</p>
+
+<p>All those fairy warblings, those plaintive challenging tones, those
+enchanting trills, which no one has ever written down, he could imitate
+so faithfully, so naturally, that he deceived even his lurking comrades.</p>
+
+<p>"Cursed bird," they muttered, "it too has turned to whistling."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Czipra was sleeping peacefully.</p>
+
+<p>That invisible hand, which she had sought, had closed her eyes and sent
+sweet dreams to her heart. Perhaps, had she been able to sleep that
+sleep through undisturbed, she would have awakened to a happy day.</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale was warbling under her window.</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale! The song-bird of love! Why was it entrusted with
+singing at night when every other bird is sitting on its nest, and
+hiding its head under its wing. Who had sent it, saying, "Rise and
+announce that love is always waking?"</p>
+
+<p>Who had entrusted it to awake the sleepers?</p>
+
+<p>Why, even the popular song says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Sleep is better far than love<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For sleep is tranquillity;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Love is anguish of the heart."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Fly away, bird of song!</p>
+
+<p>Czipra tried to sleep again. The bird's song did not allow her.</p>
+
+<p>She rose, leaned upon her elbows and continued to listen.</p>
+
+<p>And there came back to her mind that old gypsy woman's enchantment,&mdash;the
+enchantment of love.</p>
+
+<p>"At midnight&mdash;the nightingale ... barefooted&mdash;... plant it in a
+flower-pot ... before it droops, thy lover will return, and will never
+leave thee."</p>
+
+<p>Ah! who would walk in the open at night?</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Go out bare-footed and tear down the branch."</p>
+
+<p>No, no. How ridiculous it would be! If somebody should see her, and tell
+others, they would laugh at her for her pains.</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale began its song anew.</p>
+
+<p>Malicious bird, that will not allow sleep!</p>
+
+<p>Yet how easy it would be to try: a little branch in a flower-pot. Who
+could know what it was? A girl's innocent jest, with which she does harm
+to no one. Love's childish enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>It would be easy to attempt it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And if it were true? If there were something in it? How often people
+say, "this or that woman has given her husband something to make him
+love her so truly, and not even see her faults?" If it were true?</p>
+
+<p>How often people wondered, how two people could love each other? With
+what did they enchant each other? If it were true?</p>
+
+<p>Suppose there were spirits that could be captured with a talisman, which
+would do all one bade them?</p>
+
+<p>Czipra involuntarily shuddered: she did not know why, but her whole body
+trembled and shivered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not so," she said to herself. "If he does not give heart for
+heart,&mdash;mine must not deceive him. If he cannot love me because I
+deserve it, he must not love me for my spells. If he does not love, he
+must not despise me. Away, bird of song, I do not want thee."</p>
+
+<p>Then she drew the coverlet over her head and turned to the wall. But
+sleep did not return again: the trembling did not pass: and the singing
+bird in the bushes did not hold his peace.</p>
+
+<p>It had come right under the window; it sang, "Come, come."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it seemed as if the song of the nightingale contained the
+words "Czipra, Czipra, Czipra!"</p>
+
+<p>The warm mist of passion swept away the maiden's reason.</p>
+
+<p>Her heart beat so, it almost burst her bosom, and her every limb
+trembled.</p>
+
+<p>She was no longer mistress of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>She left her bed, and therewith left that magic circle which the
+inspiration of the Lord forms around those who fly to Him for
+protection, and which guards them so well from all apparitions of the
+lower world.</p>
+
+<p>"Go bare-footed!"</p>
+
+<p>Why it was only a few steps from the door to the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Who could see her? What could happen in so short a time?</p>
+
+<p>It was merely the satisfaction of an innocent desire.</p>
+
+<p>It was no deed of darkness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Every nerve was trembling.</p>
+
+<p>She was merely going to break a little branch, and yet she felt as if
+she was about to commit the most heinous crime, for which she needed the
+shield of a sleepless night.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door very quietly so that it should not creak.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was sleeping in the room vis-&agrave;-vis: perhaps he might hear
+something.</p>
+
+<p>She darted with bare feet before Lorand's door, she carefully undid the
+bolt of the door leading into the garden and turned the key with such
+precaution that it did not make a sound.</p>
+
+<p>Noiselessly she opened the door and peered out.</p>
+
+<p>It was a quiet night of reveries: the stars, as is their wont when seen
+through falling dew, were changing their colors, flashing green and red.</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale was now cooing in the bushes, as it does when it has
+found its mate.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra looked around her. It was a deep slumbering night: no one could
+see her now.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she drew her linen garment closer round her, and was ashamed to show
+her bare feet to the starry night.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! it would last only a minute.</p>
+
+<p>The grass was warm and soft, wet with dew as far as the bushes: no sharp
+pebble would hurt her feet, no cracking stick betray her footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>She stepped out into the open, and left the door ajar behind her.</p>
+
+<p>She trembled so, she feared she would fall, and looked around her: for
+all the world like someone bent on thieving.</p>
+
+<p>She crept quietly towards the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>The nightingale was warbling there in the thickest part.</p>
+
+<p>She must pierce farther in, must quietly put the leaves aside, to see on
+which branch the bird was singing.</p>
+
+<p>She could not see.</p>
+
+<p>Again she listened: the warbling lured her further.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It must be near to her: it was warbling there, perhaps she could grasp
+it with her hand.</p>
+
+<p>But as she bent the bough, a fierce figure sprang up before her and
+grasped the hand she had stretched out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NIGHT-STRUGGLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The dark figure, which seized Czipra's hand so suddenly, stared with a
+blood-thirsty grin into his victim's face, whose every limb shuddered
+with terror at her assailant.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" panted the girl in a choking, scarcely audible
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What do I want?" he hissed in answer. "I want to cut your gander's
+throat, you goose! Do you want a nightingale?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he whistled a shrill whistle.</p>
+
+<p>His mates leaped out suddenly from their ambush at the sound of the
+whistle.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Czipra recovered her self control in sheer despair: she
+suddenly tore her hand from the robber's grasp, and in three bounds,
+like a terrified deer, reached the threshold of the door she had left
+open.</p>
+
+<p>But the wolf had followed in her tracks and reached her at the door. The
+girl had no time to close it in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't whine!" hissed Kandur, seizing the girl's arm with one hand, with
+the other attempting to close her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>But terror had made Czipra frantic: tearing down the robber's hand from
+her mouth, she pushed him back from the door, and with shrill cries
+awoke the echoes of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, help! Robbers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, you dog, or I'll stab you!" thundered the robber, pointing a
+knife at the girl's breast.</p>
+
+<p>The knife did not frighten Czipra: as she struggled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> unceasingly and
+desperately with the robber, she cried "Lorand! Lorand! Murder! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>"Damn you!" exclaimed the robber thrusting his knife into the maiden's
+bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra suddenly seized the knife with her two hands.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Lorand appeared beside her.</p>
+
+<p>At the first cry he had rushed from his room and, unarmed, hastened to
+Czipra's aid.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was still struggling with the robber, holding him back, by
+sheer force, from entering the door.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand sprang towards her, and dealt the intruder such a blow with his
+fist in the face, that two of his teeth were broken.</p>
+
+<p>Two shots rang out, followed by a heavy fall and a cry of cursing.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy had fired from the window and one of the four robbers fell on
+his face mortally wounded, while another, badly hit, floundered and
+collapsed near the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>The two shots, the noise behind his back, and the unexpected blow
+confused Kandur; he retreated from the door, leaving his knife in
+Czipra's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand quickly utilized this opportunity to close the door, fasten the
+chain, and draw the bolt.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment the robbers' vehement attack could be heard, as they
+fell upon the door with crowbars.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, let us get away," said Lorand, taking Czipra's hand.</p>
+
+<p>The girl faintly answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I cannot walk. I am fainting."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you wounded?" asked Lorand, alarmed. It was dark, he could not see.</p>
+
+<p>The girl fell against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand at once took her in his arms and carried her into his room.</p>
+
+<p>The lamp was still burning: he had just finished his letters.</p>
+
+<p>He laid the wounded girl upon his bed.</p>
+
+<p>He was terrified to see her covered with blood.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you badly wounded?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said the girl: "see, the knife only went in so deep."</p>
+
+<p>And she displayed the robber's knife, showing on the blade how far it
+had penetrated.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand clasped his hands in despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a kerchief, press it on the wound to prevent the blood
+flowing."</p>
+
+<p>"Go, go!" panted the girl. "Look after your own safety. They want to
+kill you. They want to murder you."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! let the wretches come! I shall face them without running!" said
+Lorand, whose only care was for Czipra: he quickly tried to stem the
+flow of blood from the wound in the girl's breast with a handkerchief.
+"Lie quiet. Put your head here. Here, here, not so high. Is it very
+painful?"</p>
+
+<p>On the girl's neck was a chain made of hair: this was in the way, so he
+wished to tear it off.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, don't touch it," panted the girl, "that must remain there as
+long as I live. Go, get a weapon, and defend yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The blows of the crowbars redoubled in force, and the bullets that broke
+through the closed windows dislodged the plaster from the walls; shot
+followed shot.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand had no other care than to see if the wounded girl's pillows were
+well arranged.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand," said the girl breathlessly. "Leave me. They are numerous.
+Escape. Put the lamp out, and when everything is dark&mdash;then leave me
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>Certainly it would be good to extinguish the lamp, because the robbers
+were aiming into that room on account of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand! Where are you? Lorand," Top&aacute;ndy's voice sounded in the
+corridor.</p>
+
+<p>At that sound Lorand began to realize the danger that threatened the
+whole household.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and take your gun!" said the old man standing in the doorway. His
+face was just as contemptuous as ever. There was not the least trace of
+excitement, fright or anger upon it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lorand rose from his kneeling posture beside the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't waste time putting your boots on!" bawled the old fellow. "Our
+guests are come. We must meet them. Where is Czipra? She can load our
+weapons while we fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Czipra cannot, for she is wounded."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy then discovered for the first time that Czipra was lying there.</p>
+
+<p>"A shot?" he asked of Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"A knife thrust."</p>
+
+<p>"Only a knife thrust? That will heal. Czipra can stand that, can't you,
+my child? We'll soon repay the wretches. Remain here, Czipra, quietly,
+and don't move. We two will manage it. Bring your weapon and ammunition,
+Lorand. Bring the lamp out into the corridor. Here they can spy directly
+upon us. Luckily the brigands are not used to handle guns; they only
+waste powder."</p>
+
+<p>"But can we leave Czipra here alone?" asked Lorand anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra clasped her hands and looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Go," she panted. "Go away: if you don't I shall get up from here and
+look out for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid. They cannot come here," said Top&aacute;ndy; then, lifting
+the lamp from the table himself, and taking Lorand's hand, he drew him
+out from the room.</p>
+
+<p>In the corridor they halted to decide on a plan of action.</p>
+
+<p>"The villains are still numerous," said Top&aacute;ndy: "yet I've accounted for
+two of them already. I have been round the rooms, and see that every
+exit is barred. They cannot enter, for the doors have been made just for
+such people, and the windows are protected by bolts and shutters. I have
+eight charges myself: even if they break in, before anyone can come this
+far, there will be no one left.&mdash;But something else may happen. If the
+wretches see we are defending ourselves well they will set the house on
+fire over us and so compel us to rush into the open. Then the advantage
+is theirs. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> your business is to take a double-barrelled gun and
+ascend to the roof. My butler and the cook have hidden themselves away
+and I cannot entice them out: if they were here I should send one of
+them with you."</p>
+
+<p>The robbers were beating the door angrily with their crowbars.</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment!" exclaimed Top&aacute;ndy jokingly.&mdash;"The rogues seem to be
+impatient."</p>
+
+<p>"And what shall I do on the roof?" asked Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait patiently! I shall tell you in good time. No Turk is chasing
+you.&mdash;You go up and make your exit upon the roof by means of the attic
+window: then you crawl round on all fours along the gutter, without
+trying to shoot: leave them to pound upon all four doors. I shall join
+in the serenade, when necessary. But if you see they are beginning to
+strike lights and set straw on fire, you must put a stop to it. The
+gutter will defend you against their fire, they cannot see you, but when
+they start a blaze, you can accurately aim at each one. That is what I
+wanted to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Lorand, taking his cartridges from his gun-case.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better use shot instead of bullets," remarked Top&aacute;ndy. "It's
+easier to hit with shot when one is shooting in the dark, especially in
+the case of a large company. A little <i>sang froid</i>, my boy&mdash;you know:
+all of life is a play."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand grasped the old man's hand and hurried up to the garret.</p>
+
+<p>There in the dark he could only feel his way. For a long time he
+wandered aimlessly about, striking matches to discover his whereabouts,
+until he came upon the attic window, which he raised with his head and
+so came out on the roof.</p>
+
+<p>Then he slid down softly on his stomach as far as the gutter.</p>
+
+<p>Below him the ball was in progress. The thunder of crowbars, the
+cracking of panels, the strong blows dealt to the tune of oaths; fresh
+oaths, thunder, pole-axe blows upon the wall. The robbers, unable to
+break in the doors, were trying to dislodge their posts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And in the distance no noise, no sign of help. The cowardly neighbors,
+shutting themselves in, were crouching in their own houses: nor could
+one blame unarmed men for not coming to the rescue. A gun is a terrible
+menace.</p>
+
+<p>Silence reigned in the servants' hall. They too dared not come out.
+Courage is not for poor men.</p>
+
+<p>In the whole courtyard there were but two men who had stout hearts in
+their bosoms.</p>
+
+<p>The third courageous heart was that of a girl, who lay wounded.</p>
+
+<p>As he thought of this, Lorand became the victim of an excited passion.
+He felt his head swimming: he felt that he could not remain there, for
+sooner or later he must leap down.</p>
+
+<p>Leap down!</p>
+
+<p>An idea occurred to him. A difficult feat, but once thought out, it
+could be accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>He scrambled up the roof again: cut away one of those long dry ropes
+which in the garrets of many houses stretch from one rafter to another,
+tied to one end of it the weight of an old clock lying idle in the
+attic, and returned again to the roof.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the house there stood an old sycamore tree: one of its
+spreading branches bent so near to the house that Lorand could certainly
+reach it by a cast of the rope. The lead-weighted rope, like a lasso,
+swung over and around the branch and fastened itself on it firmly.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand looped the other end of the rope round a rafter.</p>
+
+<p>Then, throwing his gun over his shoulder, and seizing the rope with both
+his hands, he leaned his whole weight on it, to see if it would hold.</p>
+
+<p>When he was convinced that the rope would bear his weight, he began to
+clamber over from the roof to the sycamore tree, suspended in the air,
+on the slender rope.</p>
+
+<p>Those below could not see him as they were under the verandah, nor could
+they notice the noise because of their own efforts: the little
+disturbance caused by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> the shaking of a branch and the dropping of a
+figure from the tree was drowned by the shaking of doors, and the
+discharge of firearms.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand reached the ground without mishap.</p>
+
+<p>The sycamore tree stood at a corner of the castle, about thirty paces
+from the besieged door.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand could not see the robbers from this position: the northern side
+of the verandah was overgrown with creepers which covered the windows.</p>
+
+<p>He must get nearer to them.</p>
+
+<p>The bushes under Czipra's window offered him a suitable position, being
+about ten paces from the door, which was plainly visible from them.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand cocked both triggers, and started alone with one gun against the
+whole robber-band.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the bushes he could see the rascals well.</p>
+
+<p>They were four in number.</p>
+
+<p>Two were trying the effect of the "jimmy" on the heavy iron-bound door,
+while a third, the wounded one, though he could no longer stand, still
+took part in the siege, <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;nothwithstanding&quot; has been changed to &quot;notwithstanding&quot;">notwithstanding</span> his wounds. He put the barrel
+of his gun into the breaches made and fired over and over, so as to
+prevent the people inside from defending the door.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes single shots answered him from within, but without hitting
+anybody or anything.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth robber, crowbar in hand, was striving to break down the
+door-supports. That was Vasgy&uacute;r&oacute;.</p>
+
+<p>On the other side of the courtyard Lorand saw two armed figures keeping
+guard over the servants' hall. It was six to one.</p>
+
+<p>And there were still more than that altogether.</p>
+
+<p>The door was very shaky already: the hinges were breaking. Lorand
+thought he heard his name called from within.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, all together," thundered the robbers in self-encouragement,
+exerting all their united force on the crowbars. "More force! More!"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand calmly raised his gun to his shoulder and fired twice among them
+in quick succession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No cry of pain followed the two shots&mdash;merely the thud of two heavy
+bodies. They were so thoroughly killed, they had no time to complain.</p>
+
+<p>The one in whose hands the crowbar remained dropped it behind him, as he
+darted away.</p>
+
+<p>The man who had been previously wounded began to cry for assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't shout," exclaimed the fifth robber. "You'll alarm the others."</p>
+
+<p>Then putting two fingers in his mouth he whistled shrilly twice.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand saw that at this double whistle the two robbers running hastily
+came in his direction, while the din that arose on the farther side of
+the castle informed him of an attack from that side too. So he was
+between three fires.</p>
+
+<p>He did not lose his presence of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Before the new-comers arrived he had just time to load both
+barrels:&mdash;the bushes hid him from anyone who might even stand face to
+face, so that he could take no sure aim.</p>
+
+<p>Haste, care and courage!</p>
+
+<p>Lorand had often read stories of famous lion-hunters, but had been
+unable to believe them: unable to imagine how a lonely man in a wild
+waste, far from every human aid, defended only by a bush, could be
+courageous enough to cover the oldest male among a group of lions
+seeking their prey, and at a distance of ten paces fire into his heart.
+Not to hit his heart meant death to the hunter. But he is sure he will
+succeed, and sure, too, that the whole group will flee, once his victim
+has fallen.</p>
+
+<p>What presence of mind was required for that daring deed! What a strong
+heart, what a cool hand!</p>
+
+<p>Now in this awful moment Lorand knew that all this was possible. A man
+feels the extent of his manliness, left all to himself in the midst of
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>He too was hunting, matched against the most dangerous of all beasts of
+prey&mdash;the beasts called "men."</p>
+
+<p>Two he had already laid low. He had found his mark as well as the
+lion-hunter had found his.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He heard steps of the animals he was hunting approaching his ambuscade
+on two sides: and the leader of all stood there under cover, leaning
+against a pillar of the verandah, ready to spring, ten paces away. He
+had only two charges, with which he had to defend himself against attack
+from three sides.</p>
+
+<p>Dangerous sport!</p>
+
+<p>One of the robbers who hurried from the servants' hall disappeared among
+the trees in the garden, while the other remained behind.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand quietly aimed at the first: he had to aim low for fear of firing
+above him in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>It was well that he had followed his uncle's advice to use shot instead
+of bullets. The shot lamed both the robber's legs: he fell in his flight
+and stumbled among the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>The one who followed was alarmed, and standing in the distance fired in
+Lorand's direction.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, after his shot, immediately fell on his knees: and it was very
+lucky he did so, for in the next moment Kandur discharged both his
+barrels from beside the pillar, and the aim was true, as Lorand
+discovered from the fact that the bullets dislodged leaves just above
+his head, that came fluttering down upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to the third side.</p>
+
+<p>There had come from that direction at the call of the whistle Korv&eacute;,
+Pof&oacute;k, and Bogr&aacute;cs, who had been guarding the street-door and the other
+exit from the castle.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment they turned into the garden their comrade <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;Foszt&ograve;&quot; has been changed to &quot;Foszt&oacute;&quot;">Foszt&oacute;</span>, seeing
+Kany&oacute; fall, stood still and fired his double-barrelled gun and pistols
+in the direction of Lorand's hiding-place. It was quite natural they
+should think some aid had arrived from the shooting-box, for the bullets
+whistled just over their heads: so they began to fire back: Foszt&oacute;,
+alarmed, and not understanding this turn of affairs, fled.</p>
+
+<p>Old Kandur's hoarse voice could not attract their attention amidst the
+random firing. He cried furiously: "Don't shoot at one another, you
+asses!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They did not understand, perhaps did not hear at all in the confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand hastened to enlighten them.</p>
+
+<p>Taking aim at the three villains, who were firing wildly into the night,
+he sent his second charge into their midst from the bushes, whence they
+least expected it.</p>
+
+<p>This shot had a final effect. Perhaps several were wounded, one at any
+rate reeled badly, and the other two took to flight: then, finding their
+comrade could not keep up with them, they picked him up and dragged him
+along, disappearing in a moment in the thickest part of the park.</p>
+
+<p>Only the old lion remained behind, alone, old Kandur, the robber,
+burning with rage. He caught a glimpse of Lorand's face by the flash of
+the second discharge, recognized in him the man he sought, whom he
+hated, whose blood he thirsted after: that foe, whom he remembered with
+curses, whom he had promised to tear to pieces, to torture to death, who
+was here again in his way, and had with his unaided power broken up the
+whole opposing army, for all the world like the archangel himself.</p>
+
+<p>Kandur knew well he must not allow him time to load again.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a moment for shooting:&mdash;but for a pitched battle, hand to
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did the robber load his weapon: he rushed unarmed from his ambuscade
+as he saw Lorand standing before him, and threw himself in foaming
+passion upon the youth.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand saw that here, among the bushes, he had no further use for his
+gun, so he threw it away, and received his foe unarmed.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was face to face!</p>
+
+<p>As they clutched each other their eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>"You devil!" muttered Kandur, gnashing his teeth; "you have stolen my
+gold, and my girl. Now I shall repay you."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand now knew that the robber was Czipra's father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had tried to murder his own daughter.</p>
+
+<p>This idea excited such rage in Lorand's heart that he brought the robber
+to his knees with one wrench.</p>
+
+<p>But the other was soon on his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! You are strong too? You gentlemen live well: you have strength.
+The ox is also strong, and yet the wolf pulls him down."</p>
+
+<p>And with renewed passion he threw himself on Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>But Lorand did not allow him to come close enough to grasp his wrist. He
+was a practised wrestler, and was able to keep his opponent an arm's
+length away.</p>
+
+<p>"So you won't let me come near you? You won't let me kiss you, eh? Won't
+let me bite out a little piece of your beautiful face?"</p>
+
+<p>The wild creature stretched out his neck in his effort to get at Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle was desperate. Lorand was aided by the freshness of his
+youthful strength, his <i>sang froid</i>, and practised skill: the robber's
+strength was redoubled by passion, his muscles were tough, and his
+attacks impetuous, unexpected, and surprising like those of some savage
+beast.</p>
+
+<p>Neither uttered a sound. Lorand did not call for help, thinking his
+cries might bring the robbers back: and Kandur was afraid the house
+party might come out.</p>
+
+<p>Or perhaps neither thought of any such thing: each was occupied with the
+idea of overthrowing his opponent with his own hand.</p>
+
+<p>Kandur merely muttered through his teeth, though his passion did not
+deter his devilish humor. Lorand did not say a single word.</p>
+
+<p>The place was ill-adapted for such a struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Amid the hindering bushes they stumbled hither and thither; they could
+not move freely, nor could they turn much, each one fearing that to turn
+would be fatal.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come away," muttered Kandur, dragging Lorand away from the
+bushes. "Come onto the grass<span title="Transcriber's Note: A comma at the end of this sentence has been changed to a period">.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Lorand agreed.</p>
+
+<p>They passed out into the open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There the robber madly threw himself upon Lorand again.</p>
+
+<p>He tried no more to throw him, but to drag him after him, with all his
+might.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did not understand what his foe wished.</p>
+
+<p>Always further, further:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Lorand twice threw him, but the robber clung to him and scrambled up
+again, dragging him always further away.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Lorand perceived what his opponent's intention was.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks previously he had told his uncle that a steward's house was
+required: and Top&aacute;ndy had dug a lime-pit in the garden, where it would
+not be in the way. Only yesterday they had filled it to the brim with
+lime.</p>
+
+<p>The robber wished to drag Lorand with him into it.</p>
+
+<p>The young fellow planted his feet firmly and held back with all his
+might.</p>
+
+<p>Kandur's eyes flashed with the stress of passion, when he saw in his
+opponent's terrified face that he knew what his intention was.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how do you like the dance, young gentleman? This will be the
+wedding-dance now! The bridegroom with the bride&mdash;together into the
+lime-pit. Come, come with me! There in the slacked lime the skin will
+leave our bodies: I shall put on yours, you mine: how pretty we two
+shall be!"</p>
+
+<p>The robber laughed.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand gathered all his strength to resist the mad attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Kandur suddenly caught Lorand's right arm with both of his, clung to him
+like a leech, and with a devilish smile said, "Come now, come
+along!"&mdash;and drew Lorand nearer, nearer to the edge of the pit. A couple
+of blows which Lorand dealt with his disengaged fist upon his skull were
+unnoticed: it was as hard as iron.</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the edge of the pit.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lorand suddenly put his left arm round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> robber's waist, raised
+him in the air, then screwing him round his right arm, flung him over
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>This acrobatic feat required such an effort that he himself fell on his
+back&mdash;but it succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>The robber, feeling himself in the air, lost his head, and left hold of
+Lorand's arm for a moment, with the intention of gripping his hair; in
+that moment he was thrown off and fell alone into the lime-pit.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand leaped up at once from the ground and, tired out, leaned against
+the trunk of a tree, searching for his opponent everywhere, and not
+finding him.</p>
+
+<p>A minute later from amidst the white lime-mud there rose an awful figure
+which clambered out on the opposite side of the pit, and with a yell of
+pain rushed away into the courtyard and out into the street.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, exhausted and half dazed, listened to that beast-like howl
+gradually diminishing in the distance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SPIDER IN THE CORNER</h3>
+
+
+<p>That day about noon the old gypsy woman who told Czipra her fortune had
+shuffled into S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's courtyard, and finding the master out on the
+terrace, thanked him that he did not set his dogs upon her&mdash;did not tear
+her to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you a very good day, sir, and every blessing that is on earth or
+in Heaven."</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa looked out from the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's just lucky you didn't wish what is in hell! And what is in
+the water! Gypsy, don't leave us a blessing without fish to go with it,
+for fish is wanted here twice a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't listen to Mistress Boris' jokes."</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, my daughter," said the master gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well he actually calls the ragged gypsy woman 'my daughter,'" grumbled
+the old housekeeper. "Blood is thicker than water."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what have you brought, Marcsa?"</p>
+
+<p>"Csicsa sent to say he will come with his twelve musicians this evening:
+he begs you to pay him in advance as the musicians must hire a
+conveyance&mdash;then," she continued, dropping her voice to a tone of
+jesting flattery,&mdash;"a little suckling pig for supper, if possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Marcsa," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, with polite gentility. "Everything
+shall be in order. Come here towards evening. You shall get payment and
+sucking pig too."</p>
+
+<p>Yet this overflowing magnanimity was not at all in conformity with the
+well-established habits of the devotee. Close-fisted niggardliness
+displayed itself in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> every feature and warred against this unnatural
+outbreak.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman kissed his hand and thanked him. But Mistress Boris saw
+the moment had arrived for a ministerial process against this abuse of
+royal prerogative; so she came out from the kitchen, a pan in one hand,
+a cooking-spoon in the other.</p>
+
+<p>She began her invective with the following Magyar "<i>quousque tandem</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take your insatiable stomachs! When were they ever full? When
+did I ever hear you say 'I've eaten well, I'm satisfied!' I don't know
+what has come over the master, that, ever since he became a married man,
+he has nothing better to do with his income than to stuff gypsies with
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't listen to her, Marcsa," said the pious man softly, "that's a way
+she has. Come this evening, and you shall have your sucking pig."</p>
+
+<p>"Sucking pig!" exclaimed Mistress Boris. "I should like to know where
+they'll find a sucking pig hereabouts. As if all those the two sows had
+littered were not already devoured!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one left," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi coolly, "one that is continually in
+the way all over the place."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but that one I shall not give," protested Mistress Boris. "I
+shan't give it up for all the gypsies in the world. My little tame
+sucking pig which I brought up on milk and breadcrumbs. They shan't
+touch that. I won't give up that!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is enough if I give it," said S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"What, you will make a present of it? Didn't you present me with it in
+its young days, when it was the size of a fist? And now you want to take
+it back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make a noise. I'll give you two of the same size in place of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any larger one, or any other one: I am no trader. I want
+my own sucking pig; I won't give it up for a whole herd,&mdash;the little one
+I brought up myself on milk and bread-crumbs! It is so accustomed to me
+now that it always answers my call, and pulls at my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> apron: it plays
+with me. As clever, as a child, for all the world as if it were no pig
+at all, but a human being.<span title="Transcriber's Note: A quotation mark has been added to the end of this sentence.">"</span></p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa burst into tears. She always had her pet animals, after
+the fashion of old servants, who, being on good terms with nobody in the
+world, tame some hen or other animal set aside for eating purposes, and
+defend its life cleverly and craftily; not allowing it to be killed;
+until finally the merciless master passes the sentence that the favorite
+too must be killed. How they weep then! The poor, old maid-servants
+cannot touch a morsel of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop whining, Borcsa!" roared S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, frowning. "You will do what I
+order. The pig must be caught and given to Marcsa."</p>
+
+<p>The pig, unsuspicious of danger, was wandering about in the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, <i>I</i> shall not catch it," whimpered Mistress Boris.</p>
+
+<p>"Marcsa'll do that."</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman did not wait to be told a second time: but, at once
+taking a basket off her arms, squatted down and began to shake the
+basket, uttering some such enticing words as "<i>Pocza, poczo, net, net!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Mistress Borcsa idle: as soon as she remarked this device, she
+commenced the counteracting spell. "Shoo! Shoo!"&mdash;and with her pan and
+cooking-spoon she tried to frighten her <i>prot&ecirc;g&eacute;</i> away from the vicinity
+of the castle, despite the stamping protests of S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, who saw open
+rebellion in this disregard for his commands.</p>
+
+<p>Then the two old women commenced to drive the pig up and down the yard,
+the one enticing, the other "shooing," and creating a delightful uproar.</p>
+
+<p>But, such is the ingratitude of adopted pigs! The foolish animal,
+instead of listening to its benefactor's words and flying for protection
+among the beds of spinach, greedily answered to the call of the charmer,
+and with ears upright trotted towards the basket to discover what might
+be in it.</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman caught its hind legs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa screamed, Marcsa grunted, and the pig squealed loudest
+of all.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill it at once to stop its cries!" cried S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. "What a horrible
+noise over a pig!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't kill it! Don't make it squeal while I am listening," exclaimed
+Borcsa in a terrified passion: then she ran back into the kitchen, and
+stopped her ears lest she should hear them killing her favorite pig.</p>
+
+<p>She came out again as soon as the squeals of her <i>prot&ecirc;g&eacute;</i> had ceased,
+and with uncontrollable fury took up a position before S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. The
+gypsy woman smilingly pointed to the murdered innocent.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa then said in a panting rage to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi:</p>
+
+<p>"Miser who gives one day, and takes back&mdash;a curse upon such as you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Zounds! good-for-nothing!" bawled the righteous fellow. "How dare you
+say such a thing to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"From to-day I am no longer your servant," said the old woman, trembling
+with passion. "Here is the cooking-spoon, here the pan: cook your own
+dinner, for your wife knows less about it than you do. My husband lives
+in the neighboring village: I left him in his young days because he beat
+me twice a day; now I shall go back to the honest fellow, even if he
+beat me thrice a day."</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa was in reality not jesting, and to prove it she at once
+gathered up her bed, brought out her trunks, piled all her possessions
+onto a barrow, and wheeled them out without saying so much as "good
+bye."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi tried to prevent this wholesale rebellion forcibly by seizing
+Mistress Borcsa's arm to hold her back.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall remain here: you cannot go away. You are engaged for a whole
+year. You will not get a kreutzer if you go away."</p>
+
+<p>But Mistress Borcsa proved that she was in earnest, as she forcibly tore
+her arm from S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want your money," she said, wheeling her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> barrow further. "What
+you wish to keep back from my salary may remain for the
+master's&mdash;coffin-nails."</p>
+
+<p>"What, you cursed witch!" exclaimed <span title="Transcriber's Note: &quot;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgy&quot; has been changed to &quot;S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi.&quot;">S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi.</span> "What did you dare to say
+to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Borcsa was already outside the gate. She thrust her head in
+again, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I made a mistake. I ought to have said that the money you keep from me
+may remain&mdash;to buy a rope."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, enraged, ran to his room to fetch a stick, but before he came
+out with it, Mistress Borcsa was already wheeling her vehicle far away
+on the other side of the street, and it would not have been fitting for
+a gentleman to scamper after her before the eyes of the whole village,
+and to commence a combat of doubtful issue in the middle of the street
+with the irritated Amazon.</p>
+
+<p>The nearest village was not far from Lankadomb; yet before she reached
+it, Mistress Borcsa's soul was brimming over with wrath.</p>
+
+<p>Every man would consider it beneath his dignity to submit tamely to such
+a dishonor.</p>
+
+<p>As she reached the village of her birth, she made straight for the
+courtyard of her former husband's house.</p>
+
+<p>Old K&oacute;lya recognized his wife as she came up trundling the squeaking
+barrow, and wondering thrust his head out at the kitchen door.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Boris?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is: you might see, if you had eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"You've come back?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying Mistress Boris bawled to her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Take one end of this trunk and help me to drag it in. Take hold now. Do
+you think I came here to admire your finely curled moustache?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why else did you come, Boris?" said the old man very
+phlegmatically, without so much as taking his hand from behind his back.</p>
+
+<p>"You want to quarrel with me again, I see; well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> let's be over with it
+quickly: take a stick and beat me, then let us talk sense."</p>
+
+<p>At this K&oacute;lya took pity on his wife and helped her to drag the trunk in.</p>
+
+<p>"I am no longer such a quarreller, Boris," he answered. "Ever since I
+became a man with a responsible position I have never annoyed anyone. I
+am a watchman."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better: if you are an official, I can at any rate tell you
+what trouble brought me here."</p>
+
+<p>"So it was only trouble drove you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. They robbed and stole from me. They have taken away my
+yellow-flowered calico kerchief, a red 'Home-sweet-Home' handkerchief,
+which I had intended for you, a silver-crossed string of beads, twelve
+dollars, ten gold pieces, twenty-two silver buttons, four pairs of
+silver buckles, and a scolloped-eared, pi-bald, eight-week-old pig...."</p>
+
+<p>"Whew!" exclaimed K&oacute;lya as he heard of so much loss. "This is a pretty
+business. Well, who stole them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one else than the cursed gypsy woman Marcsa, who lives here in this
+village."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall call her to account as soon as she appears."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. She went there while I was weeding in the garden; she
+prowled about and stole."</p>
+
+<p>"Well I'll soon have her by the ears, only let her come here."</p>
+
+<p>Not a word of the whole story of the theft was true: but Mistress Boris
+reasoned as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"You must come here first, gypsy woman, with that scolloped-eared pig:
+if they find it in your possession, they will put you in jail, and ask
+you what you did with the rest. Whether your innocence is proved or not,
+the pig-joint will in the meanwhile become uneatable, and won't come
+into your stomachs. You may say you got it as a present,&mdash;no one will
+believe you, and the magistrate will not order such a gentleman as
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi to come here and witness in your favor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>K&oacute;lya allowed himself to be made a participant in his wife's anger, and
+went at once to inform the servants of the magistrate, who was sitting
+in the village.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening K&oacute;lya, in ambush at the end of the village, spied the
+gypsy woman as she came sauntering by Lankadomb, carrying on her arm a
+large basket as if it were some great weight.</p>
+
+<p>K&oacute;lya said nothing to her, he merely let her pass before him, and
+followed her on the other side of the street, until she reached the
+middle of the market-place, where many loiterers sauntered and listened
+to the tales of his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt, Marcsa!" cried K&oacute;lya, standing in the gypsy woman's way.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you in your basket?"</p>
+
+<p>"What should I have? A pig which you shall not taste, is in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Has not the pig scolloped ears?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose it has?"</p>
+
+<p>"You speak lightly. Let me look at the pig."</p>
+
+<p>"Well look&mdash;then go blind. Have you never seen such an animal? Have a
+look at it."</p>
+
+<p>The gypsy woman uncovered the basket, in which lay the unhappy victim,
+reposing on its stomach, its scolloped ears still standing up straight.</p>
+
+<p>A crowd began to collect round the disputants.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris burst in among them.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is! That was my pig!"</p>
+
+<p>"As much as the shadow of the Turkish Sultan's horse was yours. Off with
+you: don't look at it so hard, else you will be bewitched by it and your
+child will be like it."</p>
+
+<p>The loiterers began to laugh at that; they were always ready to laugh at
+any rough jest.</p>
+
+<p>The laughter enraged K&oacute;lya: he seized the much-discussed pig's hind legs
+and before the gypsy woman could prevent him, had torn it out of the
+basket.</p>
+
+<p>But the pig was heavier than such animals are wont<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> to be at that age,
+so that K&oacute;lya bumped the noble creature's nose against the ground.</p>
+
+<p>As he did so a dollar rolled out of the pig's mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!&mdash;the thalers are here too!"</p>
+
+<p>At these words the gypsy woman took up her basket and began to run away.
+When they seized her, she scratched and bit, and tried her best to
+escape, till finally they bound her hands behind her.</p>
+
+<p>K&oacute;lya was beside himself with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>There was quite a heap of silver money sewn into that pig. Loads of
+silver.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress Boris herself did not understand it.</p>
+
+<p>This must be reported to the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>K&oacute;lya, accompanied by a large crowd, conducted Marcsa to the
+magistrate's house, where the clerks, pending that official's arrival,
+took the accused in charge, and shut her up in a dark cell, which had
+only one narrow window looking out on the henyard.</p>
+
+<p>When the magistrate returned towards midnight, only the vacant cell was
+there without the gypsy woman. She had been able to creep out through
+the narrow opening, and had gone off.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate, when he saw the "<i>corpus delicti</i>," was himself of the
+opinion that the pig was in reality Mistress Boris's property, while the
+money that had been hidden in its inside must have come also from
+S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's house. There might be some great robbery in progress yonder.
+He immediately gave orders for three mounted constables to start off for
+Lankadomb; he ordered a carriage for himself, and a few minutes after
+the departure of the constables, was on his way in their tracks with his
+solicitor and servant.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The spider was already sitting in its web.</p>
+
+<p>As night fell, S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi hastened the ladies off to bed, for they were
+going to leave for Pest and so had to wake early.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When all was quiet in the house, he himself went round the yard and
+locked the doors: then he closed the door of each room separately.</p>
+
+<p>Finally he piled his arms on his table&mdash;two guns, two pistols, and a
+hunting-knife.</p>
+
+<p>He was loath to believe the old gossip. Suppose Kandur should, in the
+course of his feast of blood be whetted for more slaughter, and wish to
+slice up betrayer after betrayed?</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of twelve robbers, he could not even trust an ally.</p>
+
+<p>The night watchman had already called "Eleven."</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi was sitting beside his window.</p>
+
+<p>The windows were protected on the street side by iron shutters, with a
+round slit in the middle, through which one could look out into the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi opened the casements in order to hear better, and awaited the
+events to which the night should give birth.</p>
+
+<p>It was a still warm evening towards the end of spring.</p>
+
+<p>All nature seemed to sleep; no leaf moved in the warm night air: only at
+times could be heard a faint sound, as if wood and field had shuddered
+in their dreams, and a long-drawn sigh had rustled the tops of the
+poplars, dying away in the reed-forest.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, the hounds all along the village began to bay and howl.</p>
+
+<p>The bark of a hound is generally a soothing sound; but when the vigilant
+house-guard has an uneasy feeling, and changes his bark to a long
+whining howl, it inspires disquietude and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Only the spider in the web rejoiced at the sound of danger! They were
+coming!</p>
+
+<p>The hounds' uproar lasted long: but finally it too ceased; and there
+followed the dreamy, quiet night, undisturbed by even a breath of wind.</p>
+
+<p>Only the nightingales sang, those sweet fanciful songsters of the night,
+far and near in the garden bushes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span title="Transcriber's Note: A missing paragraph break has been inserted">S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi</span> listened long&mdash;but not to the nightingale's song. What next
+would happen?</p>
+
+<p>Then the stillness of the night was broken by an awful cry as when a
+girl in the depth of night meets her enemy face to face.</p>
+
+<p>A minute later again that cry&mdash;still more horrible, more anguished. As
+if a knife had been thrust into the maiden's breast.</p>
+
+<p>Then two shots resounded:&mdash;and a volley of oaths.</p>
+
+<p>All these midnight sounds came from above Top&aacute;ndy's castle.</p>
+
+<p>Then a sound of heavy firing, varied by noisy oaths. The spider in the
+web started. The web had been disturbed. The stealthy attack had not
+succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>Yet they were many&mdash;they could surely overcome two. The peasants did not
+dare to aid where bullets whistled.</p>
+
+<p>Then the firing died away: other sounds were heard: blows of crowbars on
+the heavy door: the thunder of the pole-axe on the stone wall, here and
+there a single shot, the flash of which could not be seen in the night.
+Certainly they were firing in at doors and out through windows. That was
+why no flash could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>But how long it lasted! A whole eternity before they could deal with
+those two men! From the roots of S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's sparse hair hot beads of
+sweat were dripping down.</p>
+
+<p>Not in yet? Why cannot they break in the door?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the light of two brilliant flashes illuminated the night for a
+moment: then two deafening reports, that could be produced only by a
+weapon of heavy calibre. So easy to pick out the dull thunder roar from
+those other crackling splutterings that followed at once.</p>
+
+<p>What was that? Could they be fighting in the open? Could they have come
+out into the courtyard? Could they have received aid from some
+unexpected quarter?</p>
+
+<p>The crack of fire-arms lasted a few minutes longer. Twice again could be
+heard that particular roar, and then all was quiet again.</p>
+
+<p>Were they done for already?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For a long time no sound, far or near.</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi looked and listened in restless impatience. He wished to
+pierce the night with his eyes, he wished to hear voices through this
+numbing stillness. He put his ear to the opening in the iron shutter.</p>
+
+<p>Some one knocked at the shutter from without.</p>
+
+<p>Startled, he looked out.</p>
+
+<p>The old gypsy woman was there: creeping along beside the wall she had
+come this far unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>"S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi," said the woman in a loud whisper: "S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi, do you hear?
+They have seized the money: the magistrate has it. Take care!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she disappeared as noiselessly as she had come.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the sweat on S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's body turned to ice. His teeth
+chattered from fever.</p>
+
+<p>What the gypsy woman had said was, for him, the terror of death.</p>
+
+<p>The most evident proof was in the hands of the law: before the awful
+deed had been accomplished, the hand that directed it had been betrayed.</p>
+
+<p>And perhaps the terrible butchery was now in its last stage. They were
+torturing the victims! Pouring upon them the hellish vengeance of
+wounded wild beasts! Tearing them limb from limb! Looking with their
+hands that dripped with blood among the documents for the letter with
+five seals.</p>
+
+<p>Already all was betrayed! Fever shook his every limb. Why that great
+stillness outside? What secret could this monstrous night hide that it
+kept such silence as this?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the silence was broken by a wild creature's howl.</p>
+
+<p>No it was no animal. Only a man could howl so, when agony had changed
+him to a mad beast, who in the fury of his pain had forgotten human
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>The noise sounded first in the distance, beyond the garden of the
+castle, but presently approached, and a figure of horror ran howling
+down the street.</p>
+
+<p>A figure of horror indeed!</p>
+
+<p>A man, white from head to foot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>All his clothes, every finger of his hand, was white: every hair of his
+head, his beard, moustache, his whole face was white, glistening,
+shining white, and as he ran he left white footsteps behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Was it a spirit?</p>
+
+<p>The horror rushed up to S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's door, rattling the latch and in a
+voice of raving anger began to howl as he shook the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me in! Let me in! I am dying!"</p>
+
+<p>S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi's face, in his agony of terror, became like that of a damned
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>That was Kandur's voice! That was Kandur's figure. But so white!</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the naked soul of one on the way to hell?</p>
+
+<p>The horrible figure thundered continuously at the door and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me in! Give me to drink! I am burning! Bathe me in oil! Help me to
+undress! I am dying! I am in hell! Help! Drag me out of it!"</p>
+
+<p>All through the street they could hear his cries.</p>
+
+<p>Then the damned soul began to curse, and beat the door with his fist,
+because they would not open to him.</p>
+
+<p>"A plague upon you, cursed accomplice. You shut me out and won't let me
+in? Thrust me into the tanpit of hell and leave me there? My skin is
+peeling off! I am going blind! An ulcer upon your soul!"</p>
+
+<p>The writhing figure tore off his clothes, which burned his limbs like a
+shirt of Nessus, and while so doing the hidden silver coins he had
+received from S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi fell to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Devil take you, money and all!" he shouted, dashing the coins against
+the door. "Here's your cursed money! Pick it up!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he staggered on, leaning against the railing and howling in pain:</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help! A fortune for a glass of water! Only let me live until I
+can drag that fellow with me! Help, man, help!"</p>
+
+<p>A deathly numbness possessed S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi. If that figure of horror were no
+"spirit," he must hasten to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> make him so. He would betray all. That was
+the greatest danger. He must not live.</p>
+
+<p>He could not see him from the window. Perhaps if he opened the shutters,
+he could fire at him. He was a highwayman: who could call S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi to
+account for shooting him? He had done it in self-defence.</p>
+
+<p>If only his hands would not tremble so! It was impossible to hit him
+with a pistol except by placing the barrel to his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Should he go out to him?</p>
+
+<p>Who would dare to go out to meet that demon face to face? Could the
+spider leave its web?</p>
+
+<p>While he hesitated, while he struggled to measure the distance from door
+to window and back, a new sound was heard in the street:&mdash;three horsemen
+came trotting up from the end of the village, and in them S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi
+recognized, from their uniforms, the country police.</p>
+
+<p>Then the bell began to ring, and the peasants came out of their doors,
+armed with pitchforks and clubs: noisy crowds collected. In their midst
+were one or two bound figures whom they drove forward with blows: they
+had seized the robbers.</p>
+
+<p>The battle was irremediably lost. The chief criminal saw the toils
+closing in on him but had no time to make his escape.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>I BELIEVE....!</h3>
+
+
+<p>Day was dawning.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy had not left Czipra since she had been wounded. He sat alone
+beside her bed.</p>
+
+<p>Servants and domestics had other things to do now: they were standing
+before the magistrate, face to face with the captured robbers. The
+magisterial inquiry demanded the presence of them all.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was alone with the wounded girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Lorand?" whispered Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>"He drove over to the neighboring village to bring a doctor for you."</p>
+
+<p>"No harm has come to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"You might have heard his voice through the window, when all was over.
+He could not come in, because the door was closed. His first care was to
+bring a surgeon for you."</p>
+
+<p>The girl sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"If he comes too late...."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fret about that. Your wound is not fatal; only be calm."</p>
+
+<p>"I know better," said the girl in a flush of fever. "I feel that I shall
+not live."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry, Czipra, you will get better," said Top&aacute;ndy, taking the
+girl's hand.</p>
+
+<p>And then the girl locked her five fingers in those of Top&aacute;ndy, so that
+they were clasped like two hands in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I know I am standing on the brink of the grave. I have now grasped
+your hand. I have clasped it, as people at prayer are wont to clasp
+their hands. Can you let me go down to the grave without teaching me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+one prayer. This night the murderer's knife has pierced my heart to
+liberate yours. Does not my heart deserve the accomplishment of its last
+wish? Does not that God, who this night has liberated us both, me from
+life, you from death, deserve our thanks?"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was moved. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"Repeat after me."</p>
+
+<p>And he said to her the Lord's Prayer.</p>
+
+<p>The girl devoutly and between gasps repeated it after him.</p>
+
+<p>How beautiful it is! What great words those are!</p>
+
+<p>First she repeated it after him, then again said it over, sentence by
+sentence, asking "what does this or that phrase mean?" "Why do we say
+'our Father?' What is meant by 'Thy Kingdom?' Will he forgive us our
+trespasses, if we forgive them that trespass against us? Will he deliver
+us from every evil? What power there is in that 'Amen!'"&mdash;Then a third
+time she repeated it alone before Top&aacute;ndy, without a single omission.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I feel easier," she said, her face beaming with happiness.</p>
+
+<p>The atheist turned aside and wept.</p>
+
+<p>The shutters let in the rays of the sun through the holes the bullets
+had made.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that sunset?" whispered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my child, it is sunrise."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was evening already."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy opened one shutter that Czipra might see the morning light of
+the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Then he returned to the sick girl, whose face burned with fever.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand will be here immediately," he assured her gently.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall soon be far away," sighed the girl with burning lips.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed so long till Lorand returned!</p>
+
+<p>The girl asked no more questions about him: but she was alert at the
+opening of every door or rattling of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> carriages in the street, and each
+time became utterly despondent, when it was not he after all.</p>
+
+<p>How late he was!</p>
+
+<p>Yet Lorand had come as quickly as four fleet-footed steeds could gallop.</p>
+
+<p>Fever made the girl's imagination more irritable.</p>
+
+<p>"If some misfortune should befall him on the way? If he should meet the
+defeated robbers? If he should be upset on one of the rickety bridges?"</p>
+
+<p>Pictures of horror followed each other in quick succession in her
+feverish brain. She trembled for Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Then it occurred to her that he could defend himself against terrors.
+Why, he knew how to pray.</p>
+
+<p>She clasped her hands across her breast and closed her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As she said "Amen" to herself she heard the rattling of wheels in the
+courtyard, and then the well-known steps approaching along the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>What a relief that was!</p>
+
+<p>She felt that her prayer had been heard. How happy are those who believe
+in it!</p>
+
+<p>The door opened and the youth she worshipped stepped in, hastening to
+her bed and taking her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, I was lucky: I found him on the road. That is a good sign."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra smiled.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes seemed to ask him, "Nothing has happened to you?"</p>
+
+<p>The surgeon examined the wound, bandaged it and told the girl to be
+quiet, not to move or talk much.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any hope?" asked Lorand in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"God and nature may help."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor had to leave to look after the wounded robbers. Lorand and
+his uncle remained beside Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand sat on the side of her bed and held her hand in his. The doctor
+had brought some cooling draught for her, which he gave the sufferer
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>How Czipra blessed the knife that had given her that wound!</p>
+
+<p>She alone knew how far it had penetrated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The others thought such a narrow little wound was not enough to cut a
+life in two.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy was writing a letter on Lorand's writing-table: and when asked
+"to whom?" he said "To the priest."</p>
+
+<p>Yet he was not wont to correspond with such.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra thought this too was all on her account.</p>
+
+<p>Why, she had not yet been christened.</p>
+
+<p>What a mysterious house it was, the door of which was now to open before
+her!</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a whole palace, in the brilliant rooms of which the eye was
+blinded, as it looked down them?</p>
+
+<p>Soon steps were heard again outside. Perhaps the clergyman was coming.</p>
+
+<p>She was mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>In the new-comer she recognized a figure she had seen long before&mdash;Mr.
+Buczkay, the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the customary roundness of that official's face, there were
+traces of pity on it, pity for the young girl, victim of so dreadful a
+crime.</p>
+
+<p>He called Top&aacute;ndy aside and began to whisper to him.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra could not hear what they were saying: but a look which the two
+men cast in her direction, betrayed to her the subject of their
+discourse.</p>
+
+<p>The judges were here and were putting the law into force upon the
+guilty.&mdash;They were examining into the events, from beginning to
+end.&mdash;They must know all.&mdash;They had taken the depositions of the others
+already: now it was her turn.&mdash;They would come with their documents, and
+ask her "Where did you walk? Why did you leave your room at night? Why
+did you open the house-door? Whom were you looking for outside in the
+garden?"</p>
+
+<p>What could she answer to those terrible questions?</p>
+
+<p>Should she burden her conscience with lies, before the eyes of God whom
+she would call as a witness from Heaven, and to whom she would raise her
+supplicating hands for pity, when the day of reckoning came?</p>
+
+<p>Or should she confess all?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Should she tell how she had loved him: how mad she was: how she started
+in search of a charm, with which she wished to overcome the heart of her
+darling?</p>
+
+<p>She could not confess that! Rather the last drop of blood from her
+heart, than that secret.</p>
+
+<p>Or should she maintain an obdurate silence? That, however, would create
+suspicion that she, the robber's daughter, had opened the door for her
+robber father, and had plotted with workers of wickedness.</p>
+
+<p>What a desperate situation!</p>
+
+<p>And then again it occurred to her that she too could defend herself
+against terrors: she knew now how to pray. So she took refuge in the
+sanctuary of the Great Lord, and, embracing the pillars of his throne,
+prayed, and prayed, and prayed.</p>
+
+<p>Scarce a quarter of an hour after the lawyer's departure, some one else
+came.</p>
+
+<p>It was Michael Daruszegi, the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>The girl trembled as she saw him. The confessor had come!</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy sprang up from his seat and went to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra plainly heard what he said in a subdued voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor has forbidden her to speak: in her present condition you
+cannot cross-question her."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra breathed freely again. He was defending her!</p>
+
+<p>"In any case I can answer for her, for I was present from the very
+beginning," said Lorand to the magistrate. "Czipra heard the noise in
+the garden, and was daring enough, as was her wont, to go out and see
+what was the matter. At the door she met the robber face to face: she
+barred his way, and immediately cried out for me: then she struggled
+with him until I came to her help."</p>
+
+<p>How pleased Czipra was at that explanation, all the more because she saw
+by Lorand's face that he really believed it.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no more questions to ask the young lady,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> said Daruszegi. "This
+matter is really over in any case."</p>
+
+<p>"Over?" asked Top&aacute;ndy astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, over: explained, judged, and executed."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"The robber chief, Kandur, before he died in agony, made such serious
+and perfectly consistent confessions as, combined with other
+circumstances, compromised your neighbor in the greatest measure."</p>
+
+<p>"S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi?" inquired Top&aacute;ndy with glistening eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes.&mdash;So far indeed that I was compelled to extend the magisterial
+inquiry to his person too. I started with my colleague to find him. We
+found the two ladies in a state of the greatest consternation. They came
+before us, and expressed their deep anxiety at not finding S&aacute;rv&ouml;lgyi
+anywhere in the house: they had discovered his room open and unoccupied.
+His bedroom we did indeed find empty, his weapons were laid out on the
+table, the key of his money-chest was left in it, and the door of the
+room open.&mdash;What could have become of him?&mdash;We wanted to enter the door
+of the dining-room opposite. It was locked. The ladies declared that
+room was generally locked. The key was inside in the lock. That room has
+two other doors, one opening on to the kitchen, one on to the verandah.
+We looked at them too. In both cases the key was inside, in the lock.
+Some one must be in the room! I called upon the person within, in the
+name of the law to open the door to us. No answer came. I repeated the
+command, but the door was not opened: so I was compelled to have it
+finally broken open by force; and when the sunlight burst through into
+the dark room, what horrible sight do you think met our startled gaze?
+The lord of the house was hanging there above the table in the place of
+the chandelier: the chair under his feet that he had kicked away proved
+that he had taken his own life...."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy at these words raised his hands in ecstasy above his head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There is a God of justice in Heaven! He has smitten him with his own
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>Then he clasped his hands together with emotion and slipped towards the
+head of Czipra's bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my child, say: 'I believe in God'&mdash;I shall say it first."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor had not forbidden that.</p>
+
+<p>Czipra devoutly waited for the words of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>What a great, what a comforting world of thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>A God who is a Father, a mother who is a maiden. A God who will be man
+for man's sake, and who suffered at man's hands, who died and rose again
+promises true justice, forgiveness for sins, resurrection, life eternal!</p>
+
+<p>"What is that life eternal?"</p>
+
+<p>If only some one could have answered!</p>
+
+<p>The atheist was kneeling down beside the girl's bed when the priest
+arrived.</p>
+
+<p>He did not rise, was not embarrassed at his presence.</p>
+
+<p>"See, reverend sir, here is a neophyte, waiting for the baptismal water:
+I have just taught her the 'credo.'"</p>
+
+<p>The girl gave him a look full of gratitude. What happiness glittered in
+those eyes of ecstasy!</p>
+
+<p>"Who will be the god-parents?" asked the clergyman.</p>
+
+<p>"One, the magistrate,&mdash;if he will be so kind: the other, I."</p>
+
+<p>Czipra looked appealingly, first at Top&aacute;ndy, then at Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy understood the unspoken question.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand cannot be. In a few minutes you shall know why."</p>
+
+<p>The minister performed the ceremony with that briefness which
+consideration for a wounded person required.</p>
+
+<p>When it was over, Top&aacute;ndy shook hands with the minister.</p>
+
+<p>"If my hand has sinned at times against yours, I now ask your pardon."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The debt has been paid by that clasp of your hand," said the priest.</p>
+
+<p>"Your hand must now pronounce a blessing on us."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not ask it for myself: I await my punishment: I am going before my
+judge and shall not murmur against him. I want the blessing for those
+whom I love. This young fellow yesterday asked of me this maiden's hand.
+They have long loved each other, and deserve each other's love:&mdash;give
+them the blessing of faith, father. Do you agree, Czipra?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor girl covered her burning face with her two hands, and, when
+Lorand stepped towards her and took her hand, began to sob violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you love me? Will you not be my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>Czipra turned her head on one side.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you are merely jesting with me. You want to tease, to ridicule a
+wretched creature who is nothing but a gypsy girl."</p>
+
+<p>Lorand drew the girl's hand to his heart when she accused him of jesting
+with her. Something within told him the girl had a right to believe
+that, and the thought wrung his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"How could you misunderstand me? Do you think I would play a jest upon
+you&mdash;and now?"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy interrupted kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"How could I jest with God now, when I am preparing to enter his
+presence?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could I jest with your heart?" said Lorand.</p>
+
+<p>"And with a dying girl," panted Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, you will not die, you will get well again, and we shall be
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>"You say that now when I am dying," said the girl with sad reproach.
+"You tell me the whole beautiful world is thine, now, when of that world
+I shall have nothing but the clod of earth, which you will throw upon
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my child," said Top&aacute;ndy, "Lorand asked your hand of me yesterday
+evening, and was only awaiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> his mother's approval to tell you
+yourself his feelings towards you."</p>
+
+<p>A quick flash of joy darted over the girl's face, and then it darkened
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I know," she said brushing aside her tangled curls from her face,
+"I know your intentions are good. You are doing with me what people do
+with sick children. 'Get well! We'll buy you beautiful clothes, golden
+toys, we'll take you to places of amusement, for journeys&mdash;we shall be
+good-humored&mdash;will never annoy you:&mdash;only get well.' You want to give
+the poor girl pleasure, to make her better, I thank you for that too."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not believe me," said Lorand, "but you will believe the
+minister's word. See last night I wrote a letter to mother about you: it
+lies sealed on my writing-table. Reverend sir, be so kind as to open and
+read it before her. She will believe you if you tell her we are not
+cajoling her."</p>
+
+<p>The minister opened the letter, while Czipra, holding Lorand's hand,
+listened with rapt attention to the words that were read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Mother</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"After the many sorrows and pains I have continuously caused
+throughout my life to the tenderest of mothers' hearts, to-day I
+can send you news of joy.</p>
+
+<p>"I am about to marry.</p>
+
+<p>"I am taking to wife one who has loved me as a poor, nameless,
+homeless youth, for myself alone, and whom I love for her faithful
+heart, her soul pure as tried gold, still better than she loves me.</p>
+
+<p>"My darling has neither rank nor wealth: her parents were gypsies.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not laud her to you in poetic phrases: these I do not
+understand. I can only feel, but not express my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>"No other letter of recommendation can be required of you, save
+that I love her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Our love has hitherto only caused both of us pain: now I desire
+happiness for both of us.</p>
+
+<p>"Your blessing will make the cup of this happiness full.</p>
+
+<p>"You are good. You love me, you rejoice in my joy.</p>
+
+<p>"You know me. You know what lessons life has taught me.</p>
+
+<p>"You know that Fate always ordained wisely and providentially for
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"No miracle is needed to make you, my mother, the best of mothers,
+who love me so, and are calm and peaceful in God, clasp together
+those hands of blessing which from my earliest days you have never
+taken off my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Include in your prayer, beside my name, the name of my faithful
+darling, Czipra, too.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in your blessing as in every word of my religion, as in
+the forgiveness of sins, as in the world to come.</p>
+
+<p>"But if you are not what God made you,&mdash;quiet and loving, a mother
+always ready to give her blessing with the halo of eternal love
+round your brow,&mdash;if you are cold, quick to anger, a woman of
+vengeance, proud of the coronet of a family blazon, one who wishes
+herself to rule Fate, and if the curses of such a merciless lady
+burden the girl whom I love, then so much the worse, I shall take
+her to wife with her dowry of curses&mdash;for I love her.</p>
+
+<p>"... God intercede between our hearts.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Your loving son,</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">Lorand</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the minister read, Czipra at each sentence pressed Lorand's hand
+closer to her heart. She could neither speak nor weep: it was more than
+her spirit could bear. Every line, every phrase opened a Paradise before
+her, full of gladness of the other world: her soul's idol loved her:
+loved her for love's sake: loved her for herself: loved her because she
+made him happy: raised her to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> his own level: was not ashamed of her
+wretched origin: could understand a heart's sensitiveness: commended her
+name to his mother's prayers: and was ready to maintain his love amidst
+his mother's curses.</p>
+
+<p>A heart cannot bear such glory!</p>
+
+<p>She did not care about anything now: about her wound: about life, or
+death: she felt only that glow of health which coursed through every
+sinew of her body and possessed every thought of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe!" she said in rapture, rising where she lay: and in those
+words was everything: everything in which people are wont to believe,
+from the love of God to the love of man.</p>
+
+<p>She did not care about anything now. She had no thought for men's eyes
+or men's words: but, as she uttered these words, she fell suddenly on
+Lorand's neck, drew him with the force of delight to her heart, and
+covered him with her kisses.</p>
+
+<p>The wound reopened in her breast, and as the girl's kisses covered the
+face of the man she loved, her blood covered his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Each time her impassioned lips kissed him, a fresh gush of blood spurted
+from that faithful heart, which had always been filled with thoughts of
+him only, which had beat only for him, which had, to save him, received
+the murderer's knife:&mdash;the poor "green-robed" faithful girl.</p>
+
+<p>And as she pressed her last kiss upon the lips of her darling, ... she
+knew already what was the meaning of eternity....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BRIDAL FEAST</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Poor Czipra! I thought you would bury us all, and now it is I that must
+give you that one clod of earth the only gift you asked from the whole
+beautiful world."</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy himself saw after the sad arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand could not speak: he was beside himself with grief.</p>
+
+<p>He merely said he would like to have his darling embalmed and to take
+her to his family property, there to bury her.</p>
+
+<p>This wish of his must be fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a sad surprise for his mother, to whom Top&aacute;ndy only the day
+before had written that her son was bringing home a new daughter-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>When Lorand had asked Top&aacute;ndy for Czipra's hand, he immediately wrote to
+Mrs. &Aacute;ronffy, thinking that what Lorand himself wrote to his mother
+would be in a proud strain. He anticipated his nephew's letter, told his
+mother quietly and restrainedly in order that Lorand's letter might be
+no surprise to her.</p>
+
+<p>Now he must write again to her, telling that the bride was coming, and
+the family vault must be ready for her reception.</p>
+
+<p>And curiously Top&aacute;ndy felt no pain in his heart as he thought over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Death is after all the best solution of life!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not shed a single tear upon the letter he wrote: he sealed it and
+looked for a servant to despatch it.</p>
+
+<p>But other thoughts occupied him.</p>
+
+<p>He sought the magistrate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir, when do you want to lock me up?"</p>
+
+<p>"When you like, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you not take me to gaol immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How many years have they given me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only two."</p>
+
+<p>"I expected more. Well, then I can take this letter myself into the
+town."</p>
+
+<p>"Will Mr. &Aacute;ronffy remain here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He will take his dead love home to the country. I have asked the
+doctor to embalm her, and I have a lead casket which I prepared for
+myself with the intention of continuing my opposition to the ordinance
+of God within it: now I have no need of it. I will lend it to Czipra.
+That is her dowry."</p>
+
+<p>An hour later he went in search of Lorand, who was still guarding his
+dead darling. The magistrate was there too.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," he said to the officer. "I am not going to the gaol now."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet?" inquired Daruszegi. "Very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Not now, nor at any other time. A greater master has given me
+orders&mdash;in a different direction."</p>
+
+<p>They began to look at him in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>His face was much paler than usual: but still that good-humored irony
+and light-hearted smile was there.</p>
+
+<p>"Lorand, my boy, there will be two funerals here."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the second dead person?" asked Daruszegi.</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>Then he drew from his breast his left hand which he had hitherto held
+thrust in his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"An hour ago I wrote a letter to your mother. As I was sealing it the
+hot wax dripped onto my nail, and see how my hand has blackened since."</p>
+
+<p>The tips of his left hand were blue and swollen.</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor, quickly," cried Daruszegi to his servant.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. It is already unnecessary," said Top&aacute;ndy, falling languidly
+into an arm-chair. "In two hours it is over. I cannot live more than two
+hours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> In twenty minutes this swelling will reach my shoulder, and the
+way from thence to the heart is short."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, who hastened to appear, confirmed Top&aacute;ndy's opinion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be done," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand, horror-stricken, hastened to take care of his uncle: the old
+fellow embraced the neck of the youth kneeling beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"You philosopher, you were right after all, you see. There is One who
+takes thought for two-legged featherless animals too. If I had
+known,&mdash;'Knock and it shall be opened unto you:' I should long have
+knocked at the door and cried, 'O Lord, let me in!'"</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy would not allow himself to be undressed and put to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Draw my chair beside Czipra. Let me learn from her how a dead man must
+behave. My death will not be so fine as hers: I shall not breathe my
+soul into the soul of my loved one: yet I shall be a gay
+travelling-companion."</p>
+
+<p>Pain interrupted his words.</p>
+
+<p>When it ceased, he laughed at himself.</p>
+
+<p>"How a foolish mass of flesh protests! It will not allow itself to be
+overlorded. Yet we were only guests here! '<i>Animula, vagula, blandula.
+Hospes comesque corporis. Quae nunc adibis loca? Frigidula, palidula,
+undula! Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos.</i>' Certainly you will be '<i>extra
+dominium</i>' immediately. And my lord Stomach, his Grace, and my lord
+Heart, his Excellency, and my lord Head, his Royal Highness all must
+resign office."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor declared he must be suffering terrible agony all the time he
+was jesting and laughing; and he laughed when other people would have
+gnashed their teeth and cried aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"We have disputed often, Lorand," said the old man, always in a fainter
+voice, "about that German savant who asserted that the inhabitants of
+other planets are much nobler men than we here on earth. If he asks what
+has become of me, tell him I have ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>vanced. I have gone to a planet
+where there are no peasants: barons clean earls' boots. Don't laugh at
+me, I beg, if I am talking foolishly.&mdash;But death dictates very curious
+verses."</p>
+
+<p>The hand-grasp with which he greeted Lorand, proved that it was his
+last.</p>
+
+<p>After that his hand drooped, his eyes languished, his face became ever
+more and more yellow.</p>
+
+<p>Once again he raised his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They met Lorand's gaze.</p>
+
+<p>He wished to smile: in a whisper, straining desperately he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately now ... I shall know&mdash;what is&mdash;in the foggy spots of the
+Northern Dog-star:&mdash;and in the eyeless worm's&mdash;&mdash;entrails."</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, with a forced final spasmodic effort, he seized the arms
+of his chair, and rose, lifted up his right arm, and turned to the
+magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he cried in a strong full-toned voice, "I have appealed."</p>
+
+<p>He fell back in the arm-chair.</p>
+
+<p>Some minutes later every wrinkle disappeared from his face, it became as
+smooth as marble, and calm, as those of dead persons are wont to be.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was standing there with clasped hands between his two dear dead
+ones.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On the morrow at dawn Lorand rose for his journey and stepped into the
+cart with a closed lead coffin. So he took home his dead bride.</p>
+
+<p>The second letter which Top&aacute;ndy had written to his mother, the sealing
+of which had sealed his own fate, had not been posted, and could not
+have prepared them for his coming.</p>
+
+<p>At home they had received only the first letter.</p>
+
+<p>When that letter of good tidings arrived it caused feelings of
+intoxicated delight and triumph throughout the whole house.</p>
+
+<p>After all they loved him still best of all. He was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> favorite child
+of his mother and grandmother. No word of Desiderius is required for his
+heart was already united to his darling: and good Fanny was doubly happy
+in the idea that she would not be the only happy woman in the house.</p>
+
+<p>With what joy they awaited him!</p>
+
+<p>Could he ever have doubted that the one he loved would be loved by
+all?&mdash;no need to speak of her virtues: everybody knew them: all he need
+say was "I love her."</p>
+
+<p>It was certainly very well he did not send his mother that letter, in
+which he had written of Czipra and requested his mother's
+blessing:&mdash;well that he had not wounded the dearest mother's heart with
+those final words&mdash;"but if you curse her whom I love&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Curse her whom he loves!</p>
+
+<p>Why should they do so? That letter brought a holiday to the house. They
+arranged the country dwelling afresh: Desiderius took up his residence
+in the town, handing over to his elder brother his birthright.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest lady put off her mourning. Lorand's bride must not see
+anything that could recall sad thoughts. Everything sad was buried under
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius could relate so much that was pleasant of the gypsy girl:
+Lorand's letters during the past ten years of silence always spoke of
+the poor despised diamond, whose faithful attachment had been the sunny
+side of Lorand's life. They read the bundles of letters again and again:
+it was a study for the two mothers. Where Lorand had been giving merely
+a passing hint, they could make great explanations, all pointing to
+Czipra.</p>
+
+<p>Providence had ordered it so!</p>
+
+<p>After the first meeting in the inn, it had all been ordained that Lorand
+should save Czipra from the murderer's knife, in order to be happy with
+her later.</p>
+
+<p>... Why the gypsy girl was happy already.</p>
+
+<p>Top&aacute;ndy's letter informed them that, immediately after the despatch of
+the letter, Lorand would wed Czipra, and they would come home together
+to the house of his parents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So the day was known, they might even reckon the hour when they would
+arrive.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius remained in town to await Lorand. He promised to bring them
+out, however late they came, even in the night.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies waited up until midnight. They waited outside under the
+verandah. It was a beautiful warm moonlit night.</p>
+
+<p>The good grandmother, embracing Fanny's shoulder, related to her how
+many, many years ago they had waited one night for the two brothers to
+come, but that was a very awful night, and the waiting was very
+sorrowful. The wind howled among the acacias, clouds chased each other
+across the sky, hounds howled in the village, a hay-wain rattled in at
+the gate&mdash;and in it was hidden the coffin.&mdash;And the populace was very
+suspicious: they thought the ice would break its bounds, if a dead man
+were taken over it.</p>
+
+<p>But now it was quite a different world. The air was still, not a breath
+of air: man and beast sleeps, only those are awake who await a bride.</p>
+
+<p>How different the weather!</p>
+
+<p>Then, all at once, a wain had stood at the gate: the servants hastened
+to open it.</p>
+
+<p>A hay-wain now rattled in at the gate, as it did then.</p>
+
+<p>And after the wain, on foot, the two brothers, hand in hand.</p>
+
+<p>The women rushed to meet them, Lorand was the first whom everyone
+embraced and kissed.</p>
+
+<p>"And your wife?" asked every lip.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand pointed speechlessly to the wain, and could not tell them.</p>
+
+<p>Desiderius answered in his place.</p>
+
+<p>"We have brought his wife here in her coffin."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEN WE HAD GROWN OLD</h3>
+
+
+<p>Seventeen years have passed since Lorand returned home again.</p>
+
+<p>What old people we have become since then!</p>
+
+<p>Besides, seventeen years is a long time:&mdash;and seventeen heavy years!</p>
+
+<p>I have rarely seen people grow old so slowly as did our contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>We live in a time when we sigh with relief as each day passes by&mdash;only
+because it is now over! And we will not believe that what comes after it
+will bring still worse days.</p>
+
+<p>We descend continuously further and further down, in faith, in hope, in
+charity towards one another: our wealth is dissipated, our spirits
+languish, our strength decays, our united life falls into disunion: it
+is not indifference, but "ennui" with which we look at the events of the
+days.</p>
+
+<p>One year to the day, after poor Czipra's death Lorand went with his
+musket on his shoulder to a certain entertainment where death may be had
+for the asking.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not recall the fame of those who are gone&mdash;why should I? Very
+few know of it.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand was a good soldier.</p>
+
+<p>That he would have been in any case, he had naturally every attribute
+required for it: heroic courage, athletic strength, hot blood, a soul
+that never shrank. War would in any case have been a delight for
+him:&mdash;and in his present state of mind!</p>
+
+<p>Broken-hearted and crushed, his first love contemptuously trampling him
+in the dust, his second murdered in the fervor of her passion, his soul
+weighed with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> load of melancholia, and that grievous fate which bore
+down and overshadowed his family: always haunted by that terrible
+foreboding that, sooner or later, he must still find his way to that
+eighth resting-place, that empty niche.</p>
+
+<p>When the wars began his lustreless spirit burst into brilliance. When he
+put on his uniform, he came to me, and, grasping my hand, said with
+flashing eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"I am bargaining in the market where a man may barter his worn-out life
+at a profit of a hundred per cent."</p>
+
+<p>Yet he did not barter his.</p>
+
+<p>Rumor talked of his boldness, people sang of his heroic deeds, he
+received fame and wreaths, only he could not find what he sought: a
+glorious death.</p>
+
+<p>Of the regiment which he joined, in the end only a tenth part remained.
+He was among those who were not even wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Yet how many bullets had swept over his head!</p>
+
+<p>How he looked for those whistling heralds of death, how he waited for
+the approach of those whirring missiles to whom the transportation of a
+man to another world in a moment is nothing! They knew him well already
+and did not annoy him.</p>
+
+<p>These buzzing bees of the battlefield, like the real bees, whir past the
+ear of him who walks undaunted among them, and sting him who fears them.</p>
+
+<p>Once a bullet pierced his helmet.</p>
+
+<p>How often I heard him say:</p>
+
+<p>"Why not an inch lower?"</p>
+
+<p>Finally, in one battle a piece of an exploded shell maimed his arm, and
+when he fell from his horse, disabled by a sword-cut, a Cossack pierced
+him through with his lance.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even that did not kill him.</p>
+
+<p>For weeks he lay unconscious in the public hospital, under a tent, until
+I came to fetch him home. Fanny nursed him. He recovered.</p>
+
+<p>When he was better again, the war was over.</p>
+
+<p>How many times I heard him say:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What bad people you are, for loving me so! What a bad turn you did me,
+when you brought me away from the scene of battle, brother! How
+merciless you were Fanny, to watch beside me! What a vain task it was on
+your part to keep me alive! How angry I am with you: what detestable
+people you are!&mdash;just for loving me so!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet we still loved him.</p>
+
+<p>And then we grew old peacefully.</p>
+
+<p>We buried kind grandmother, and then dear mother too: we remained alone
+together, and never parted.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand always lived with us: as long as we lived in town he did not
+leave the house sometimes for weeks together.</p>
+
+<p>The new order of things compelled me to give up the career which father
+had held to be the most brilliant aim of life. I threw over my yearning
+for diplomacy, and went to the plough.</p>
+
+<p>I became a good husbandman.</p>
+
+<p>I am that still.</p>
+
+<p>Then too Lorand remained with us.</p>
+
+<p>His was no longer a life, merely a counting of days.</p>
+
+<p>It was piteous to know it and to see him.</p>
+
+<p>A strapping figure, whose calling was to be a hero!</p>
+
+<p>A warm heart, that might have been a paradise on earth to some woman!</p>
+
+<p>A refined, fiery temperament that might have been the leading spirit of
+some country.</p>
+
+<p>Who quietly without love or happiness, faded leaf by leaf and did not
+await anything from the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he feared the coming days.</p>
+
+<p>Often he chided me for wanting to brick up the door of that lonely
+building there beside the brook.</p>
+
+<p>Lest my children should ask, "what can dwell within it?" Lest they try
+to discover the meaning of that hidden inscription as I had tried in my
+childish days.</p>
+
+<p>Lorand did not agree with the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"There is still one lodging vacant in it."</p>
+
+<p>And that was a horror to us all.</p>
+
+<p>To him, to us too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Every evening we parted as if saying a last adieu.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing in life gave him pleasure. He took part in nothing which
+interested other men. He did not play cards, or drink wine: he was ever
+sober and of unchanging mood. He read nothing but mathematical books. I
+could never persuade him to take a newspaper in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole history of the world is one lie."</p>
+
+<p>Every day, winter and summer, early in the morning, before anyone had
+risen, he walked out to the cemetery, to where Czipra lay "under the
+perfumed herb-roots:" spent some minutes there and then returned,
+bringing in summer a blade of living grass, in winter of dried grass
+from her grave.</p>
+
+<p>He had a diary, in which nought was written, except the date: and pinned
+underneath, in place of writing, was the dry blade of grass.</p>
+
+<p>The history of a life contained in thousands of grass-blades, each blade
+representing a day.</p>
+
+<p>Could there be a sadder book?</p>
+
+<p>The only things that interested him, were fruit trees and bees.</p>
+
+<p>Animals and plants do not deceive him who loves them.</p>
+
+<p>The whole day long he guarded his trees and his saplings, and waged war
+against the insects: and all day long he learned the philosophy of life
+from those grand constitutional monarchists, the bees.</p>
+
+<p>There are many men, particularly to-day, in our country, who know how to
+kill time: Lorand merely struggled with time, and every day as it passed
+was a defeat for him.</p>
+
+<p>He never went shooting, he said it was not good for him to take a loaded
+gun in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>At night one of my children always slept in his room.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid of myself," he confessed to me.</p>
+
+<p>He was afraid of himself and of that quiet house, down there beside the
+brook.</p>
+
+<p>"I would love to sleep there under the perfumed herb-roots."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A life wasted!</p>
+
+<p>One beautiful summer afternoon my little son rushed to me with the news
+that his uncle Lorand was lying on the floor in the middle of the room,
+and would not rise.</p>
+
+<p>With the worst suspicions, I hastened to his side.</p>
+
+<p>When I entered his room, he was lying, not on the floor, but on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>He lay face downward on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" I asked, taking his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all:&mdash;only I am dying slowly."</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens! What have you done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed. It was not my hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"A bee-sting. Laugh at me&mdash;I shall die from it."</p>
+
+<p>In the morning he had said that robber bees had attacked his hives, and
+he was going to destroy them. A strange bee had stung him on the temple.</p>
+
+<p>"But not there ... not there ..." he panted, breathing feverishly: "not
+into the eighth resting-place&mdash;out yonder under the perfumed herb-roots.
+There let us lie in the dust one beside the other. Brick up that door.
+Good night."</p>
+
+<p>Then he closed his eyes and never opened them again.</p>
+
+<p>Before I could call Fanny to his side he was dead.</p>
+
+<p>The valiant hero who had struggled single-handed against whole troops,
+the man of iron whom neither the sword nor the lance could kill, in ten
+minutes perished from the prick of a tiny little insect.</p>
+
+<p>God moves among us!</p>
+
+<p>When the last moment of temptation had come, when weariness of life was
+about to arm his hand with the curse of his forefathers, He had sent the
+very tiniest of his flying minions, and had carried him up on the wings
+of a bee to the place where the happy ones dwell.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And we are still growing older: who knows how long it will last?</p>
+
+<h2>FINIS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jókai
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jokai
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Debts of Honor
+
+Author: Maurus Jokai
+
+Translator: Arthur B. Yolland
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2007 [EBook #22757]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEBTS OF HONOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WORKS OF MAURUS JOKAI
+
+HUNGARIAN EDITION
+
+DEBTS OF HONOR
+
+_Translated from the Hungarian_
+
+_By_ ARTHUR B. YOLLAND
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+Copyright, 1900, by
+DOUBLEDAY & MCCLURE CO.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
+
+
+In rendering into English this novel of Dr. Jokai's, which many of his
+countrymen consider his masterpiece, I have been fortunate enough to
+secure the collaboration of my friend, Mr. Zoltan Dunay, a former
+colleague, whose excellent knowledge of the English language and
+literature marked him out as the most competent and desirable
+collaborator.
+
+ARTHUR B. YOLLAND.
+BUDAPEST, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+     I.   The Journal of Desiderius                        1
+    II.   The Girl Substitute                             30
+   III.   My Right Honorable Uncle                        59
+    IV.   The Atheist and the Hypocrite                   71
+     V.   The Wild-Creature's Haunt                      104
+    VI.   Fruits Prematurely Ripe                        114
+   VII.   The Secret Writings                            122
+  VIII.   The End of the Beginning                       131
+    IX.   Aged at Seventeen                              143
+     X.   I and the Demon                                148
+    XI.   "Parole d'Honneur"                             172
+   XII.   A Glance into a Pistol Barrel                  185
+  XIII.   Which Will Convert the Other                   199
+   XIV.   Two Girls                                      225
+    XV.   If He Loves, then Let Him Love                 240
+   XVI.   That Ring                                      249
+  XVII.   The Yellow-robed Woman in the Cards            258
+ XVIII.   The Finger-post of Death                       266
+   XIX.   Fanny                                          281
+    XX.   The Fatal Day!                                 285
+   XXI.   That Letter                                    299
+  XXII.   The Unconscious Phantom                        306
+ XXIII.   The Day of Gladness                            322
+  XXIV.   The Mad Jest                                   330
+   XXV.   While the Music Sounds                         341
+  XXVI.   The Enchantment of Love                        351
+ XXVII.   When the Nightingale Sings                     360
+XXVIII.   The Night Struggle                             370
+  XXIX.   The Spider in the Corner                       383
+   XXX.   I Believe...!                                  397
+  XXXI.   The Bridal Feast                               407
+ XXXII.   When We Had Grown Old                          413
+
+
+
+
+DEBTS OF HONOR
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE JOURNAL OF DESIDERIUS
+
+
+At that time I was but ten years old, my brother Lorand sixteen; our
+dear mother was still young, and father, I well remember, no more than
+thirty-six. Our grandmother, on my father's side, was also of our party,
+and at that time was some sixty years of age; she had lovely thick hair,
+of the pure whiteness of snow. In my childhood I had often thought how
+dearly the angels must love those who keep their hair so beautiful and
+white; and used to have the childish belief that one's hair grows white
+from abundance of joy.
+
+It is true, we never had any sorrow; it seemed as if our whole family
+had contracted some secret bond of unity, whereby each member thereof
+bound himself to cause as much joy and as little sorrow as possible to
+the others.
+
+I never heard any quarrelling in our family. I never saw a passionate
+face, never an anger that lasted till the morrow, never a look at all
+reproachful. My mother, grandmother, father, my brother and I, lived
+like those who understand each other's thoughts, and only strive to
+excel one another in the expression of their love.
+
+To confess the truth, I loved none of our family so much as I did my
+brother. Nevertheless I should have been thrown into some little doubt,
+if some one had asked me which of them I should choose, if I must part
+from three of the four and keep only one for myself. But could we only
+have remained together, without death to separate us or disturb our
+sweet contentment, until ineffable eternity, in such a case I had chosen
+for my constant companion only my brother. He was so good to me. For he
+was terribly strong. I thought there could not be a stronger fellow in
+the whole town. His school-fellows feared his fists, and never dared to
+cross his path; yet he did not look so powerful; he was rather slender,
+with a tender girl-like countenance.
+
+Even now I can hardly stop speaking of him.
+
+As I was saying, our family was very happy. We never suffered from want,
+living in a fine house with every comfort. Even the very servants had
+plenty. Torn clothes were always replaced by new ones and as to
+friends--why the jolly crowds that would make the house fairly ring with
+merry-making on name-days[1] and on similar festive occasions proved
+that there was no lack of them. That every one had a feeling of high
+esteem for us I could tell by the respectful greetings addressed to us
+from every direction.
+
+[Footnote 1: In Hungary persons celebrate the name-day of the saint
+after whom they are called with perhaps more ceremony than their
+birthday.]
+
+My father was a very serious man; quiet and not talkative. He had a pale
+face, a long black beard, and thick eyebrows. Sometimes he contracted
+his eyebrows, and then we might have been afraid of him; but his idea
+always was, that nobody should fear him; not more than once a year did
+it happen that he cast an angry look at some one. However, I never saw
+him in a good humor. On the occasion of our most festive banquets, when
+our guests were bursting into peals of laughter at sprightly jests, he
+would sit there at the end of the table as one who heard naught. If dear
+mother leaned affectionately on his shoulder, or Lorand kissed his face,
+or if I nestled to his breast and plied him, in child-guise, with
+queries on unanswerable topics, at such a time his beautiful, melancholy
+eyes would beam with such inexpressible love, such enchanting sweetness
+would well out from them! But a smile came there never at any time, nor
+did any one cause him to laugh.
+
+He was not one of those men who, when wine or good humor unloosens their
+tongue, become loquacious, and tell all that lies hidden in their heart,
+speak of the past and future, chatter and boast. No, he never used
+gratuitous words. There was some one else in our family just as serious,
+our grandmother; she was just as taciturn, just as careful about
+contracting her thick eyebrows, which were already white at that time;
+just as careful about uttering words of anger; just as incapable of
+laughing or even smiling. I often remarked that her eyes were fixed
+unremittingly on his face; and sometimes I found myself possessed of the
+childish idea that my father was always so grave in his behavior because
+he knew that his mother was gazing at him. If afterward their eyes met
+by chance, it seemed as if they had discovered each other's
+thoughts--some old, long-buried thoughts, of which they were the
+guardians; and I often saw how my old grandmother would rise from her
+everlasting knitting, and come to father as he sat among us thus
+abstracted, scarce remarking that mother, Lorand, and I were beside him,
+caressing and pestering him; she would kiss his forehead, and his
+countenance would seem to change in a moment: he would become more
+affectionate, and begin to converse with us; thereupon grandmother would
+kiss him afresh and return to her knitting.
+
+It is only now that I recall all these incidents. At that time I found
+nothing remarkable in them.
+
+One evening our whole family circle was surprised by the unusually good
+humor that had come over father. To each one of us he was very tender,
+very affectionate; entered into a long conversation with Lorand, asked
+him of his school-work, imparted to him information on subjects of which
+as yet he had but a faulty knowledge; took me on his knee and smoothed
+my head; addressed questions to me in Latin, and praised me for
+answering them correctly; kissed our dear mother more than once, and
+after supper was over related merry tales of the old days. When we began
+to laugh at them, he laughed too. It was such a pleasure to me to have
+seen my father laugh once. It was such a novel sensation that I almost
+trembled with joy.
+
+Only our old grandmother remained serious. The brighter father's face
+became, the more closely did those white eyebrows contract. Not for a
+single moment did she take her eyes off father's face; and, as often as
+he looked at her with his merry, smiling countenance, a cold shudder ran
+through her ancient frame. Nor could she let father's unusual gayety
+pass without comment.
+
+"How good-humored you are to-day, my son!"
+
+"To-morrow I shall take the children to the country," he answered; "the
+prospect of that has always been a source of great joy to me."
+
+We were to go to the country! The words had a pleasant sound for us
+also. We ran to father, to kiss him for his kindness; how happy he had
+made us by this promise! His face showed that he knew it well.
+
+"Now you must go to bed early, so as not to oversleep in the morning;
+the carriage will be here at daybreak."
+
+To go to bed is only too easy, but to fall asleep is difficult when one
+is still a child, and has received a promise of being taken to the
+country. We had a beautiful and pleasant country property, not far from
+town; my brother was as fond as I was of being there. Mother and
+grandmother never came with us. Why, we knew not; they said they did not
+like the country. We were indeed surprised at this. Not to like the
+country--to wander in the fields, on flowery meadows; to breathe the
+precious perfumed air; to gather round one the beautiful, sagacious, and
+useful domestic animals? Can there be any one in the world who does not
+love that? Child, I know there is none.
+
+My brother was all excitement for the chase. How he would enter forest
+and reeds! what beautiful green-necked wild duck he would shoot. How
+many multi-colored birds' eggs he would bring home to me.
+
+"I will go with you, too," I said.
+
+"No; some ill might befall you. You can remain at home in the garden to
+angle in the brook, and catch tiny little fishes."
+
+"And we shall cook them for dinner." What a splendid idea! Long, long we
+remained awake; first Lorand, then I, was struck by some idea which had
+to be mentioned; and so each prevented the other from sleeping. Oh! how
+great the gladness that awaited us on the morrow!
+
+Late in the night a noise as of fire arms awoke me. It is true that I
+always dreamed of guns. I had seen Lorand at the chase, and feared he
+would shoot himself.
+
+"What have you shot, Lorand?" I asked half asleep.
+
+"Remain quite still," said my brother, who was lying in the bed near me,
+and had risen at the noise. "I shall see what has happened outside."
+With these words he went out.
+
+Several rooms divided our bedroom from that of our parents. I heard no
+sound except the opening of doors here and there.
+
+Soon Lorand returned. He told me merely to sleep on peacefully--a high
+wind had risen and had slammed to a window that had remained open; the
+glass was all broken into fragments; that had caused the great noise.
+
+And therewith he proceeded to dress.
+
+"Why are you dressing?"
+
+"Well, the broken window must be mended with something to prevent the
+draught coming in; it is in mother's bedroom. You can sleep on
+peacefully."
+
+Then he placed his hand on my head, and that hand was like ice.
+
+"Is it cold outside, Lorand?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then why does your hand tremble so?"
+
+"True; it is very cold. Sleep on, little Desi."
+
+As he went out he left an intermediate door open for a moment; and in
+that moment the sound of mother's laughter reached my ears. That
+well-known ringing sweet voice, that indicates those _naive_ women who
+among their children are themselves the greatest children.
+
+What could cause mother to laugh so loudly at this late hour of the
+night? Because the window was broken? At that time I did not yet know
+that there is a horrible affliction which attacks women with agonies of
+hell, and amidst these heart-rending agonies forces them to laugh
+incessantly.
+
+I comforted myself with what my brother had said, and forcibly buried my
+head in my pillow that I might compel myself to fall asleep.
+
+It was already late in the morning when I awoke again. This time also my
+brother had awakened me. He was already quite dressed.
+
+My first thought was of our visit to the country.
+
+"Is the carriage already here? Why did you not wake me earlier? Why, you
+are actually dressed!"
+
+I also immediately hastened to get up, and began to dress; my brother
+helped me, and answered not a word to my constant childish prattling. He
+was very serious, and often gazed in directions where there was nothing
+to be seen.
+
+"Some one has annoyed you, Lorand?"
+
+My brother did not reply, only drew me to his side and combed my hair.
+He gazed at me incessantly with a sad expression.
+
+"Has some evil befallen you, Lorand?"
+
+No sign, even of the head, of assent or denial; he merely tied my
+neckerchief quietly into a bow.
+
+We disputed over the coat I should wear; I wished to put on a blue one.
+Lorand, on the contrary, wished me to wear a dark green one.
+
+I resisted him.
+
+"Why, we are going to the country! There the blue doublet will be just
+the thing. Why don't you give it to me? Because you have none like it!"
+
+Lorand said nothing; he merely looked at me with those great reproachful
+eyes of his. It was enough for me. I allowed him to dress me in the dark
+green coat. And yet I would continually grumble about it.
+
+"Why, you are dressing me as if we were to go to an examination or to a
+funeral."
+
+At these words Lorand suddenly pressed me to him, folding me in his
+embrace, then knelt down before me and began to weep, and sob so that
+his tears bedewed my hair.
+
+"Lorand, what is the matter?" I asked in terror; but he could not speak
+for weeping. "Don't weep, Lorand. Did I annoy you? Don't be angry."
+
+Long did he weep, all the time holding me in his arms. Then suddenly he
+heaved a deep and terrifying sigh, and in a low voice stammered in my
+ear:
+
+"Father--is--dead."
+
+I was one of those children who could not weep; who learn that only with
+manhood. At such a time when I should have wept, I only felt as if some
+worm were gnawing into my heart, as if some languor had seized me, which
+deprived me of all feeling expressed by the five senses--my brother wept
+for me. Finally, he kissed me and begged me to recover myself. But I was
+not beside myself. I saw and heard everything. I was like a log of wood,
+incapable of any movement.
+
+It was unfortunate that I was not gifted with the power of showing how I
+suffered.
+
+But my mind could not fathom the depths of that thought. Our father was
+dead!
+
+Yesterday evening he was still talking with us; embracing and kissing
+us; he had promised to take us to the country, and to-day he was not: he
+was dead. Quite incomprehensible! In my childhood I had often racked my
+brains with the question, "What is there beyond the world?" Void. Well,
+and what surrounds that void? Many times this distracting thought drove
+me almost to madness. Now this same maddening dilemma seized upon me.
+How could it be that my father was dead?
+
+"Let us go to mother!" was my next thought.
+
+"We shall go soon after her. She has already departed."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To the country."
+
+"But, why?"
+
+"Because she is ill."
+
+"Then why did she laugh so in the night?"
+
+"Because she is ill."
+
+This was still more incomprehensible to my poor intellect.
+
+A thought then occurred to me. My face became suddenly brighter.
+
+"Lorand, of course you are joking; you are fooling me. You merely wished
+to alarm me. We are all going away to the country to enjoy ourselves!
+and you only wished to take the drowsiness from my eyes when you told me
+father was dead."
+
+At these words Lorand clasped his hands, and, with motionless, agonized
+face, groaned out:
+
+"Desi, don't torture me; don't torture me with your smiling face."
+
+This caused me to be still more alarmed. I began to tremble, seized one
+of his arms, and implored him not to be angry. Of course, I believed
+what he said.
+
+He could see that I believed, for all my limbs were trembling.
+
+"Let us go to him, Lorand."
+
+My brother merely gazed at me as if he were horrified at what I had
+said.
+
+"To father?"
+
+"Yes. What if I speak to him, and he awakes?"
+
+At this suggestion Lorand's two eyes became like fire. It seems as if he
+were forcibly holding back the rush of a great flood of tears. Then
+between his teeth he murmured:
+
+"He will never awake again."
+
+"Yet I would like to kiss him."
+
+"His hand?"
+
+"His hand and his face."
+
+"You may kiss only his hand," said my brother firmly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I say so," was his stern reply. The unaccustomed ring of his
+voice was quite alarming. I told him I would obey him; only let him take
+me to father.
+
+"Well, come along. Give me your hand."
+
+Then taking my hand, he led me through two rooms.[2] In the third,
+grandmother met us.
+
+[Footnote 2: In Hungary the houses are built so that one room always
+leads into the other; the whole house can often be traversed without the
+necessity of going into a corridor or passage.]
+
+I saw no change in her countenance; only her thick white eyebrows were
+deeply contracted.
+
+Lorand went to her and softly whispered something to her which I did not
+hear; but I saw plainly that he indicated me with his eyes. Grandmother
+quietly indicated her consent or refusal with her head; then she came to
+me, took my head in her two hands, and looked long into my face, moving
+her head gently. Then she murmured softly:
+
+"Just the way _he_ looked as a child."
+
+Then she threw herself face foremost upon the floor, sobbing bitterly.
+
+Lorand seized my hand and drew me with him into the fourth room.
+
+There lay the coffin. It was still open; only the winding-sheet covered
+the whole.
+
+Even to-day I have no power to describe the coffin in which I saw my
+father. Many know what that is; and no one would wish to learn from me.
+Only an old serving-maid was in the chamber; no one else was watching.
+My brother pressed my head to his bosom. And so we stood there a long
+time.
+
+Suddenly my brother told me to kiss my father's hand, and then we must
+go. I obeyed him; he raised the edge of the winding-sheet; I saw two
+wax-like hands put together; two hands in which I could not have
+recognized those strong muscular hands, upon the shapely fingers of
+which in my younger days I had so often played with the wonderful
+signet-rings, drawing them off one after the other.
+
+I kissed both hands. It was such a pleasure! Then I looked at my brother
+with agonized pleading. I longed so to kiss the face. He understood my
+look and drew me away.
+
+"Come with me. Don't let us remain longer." And that was such terrible
+agony to me! My brother told me to wait in my room, and not to move from
+it until he had ordered the carriage which was to take us away.
+
+"Whither?" I asked.
+
+"Away to the country. Remain here and don't go anywhere else." And to
+keep me secure he locked the door upon me.
+
+Then I fell a-thinking. Why should we go to the country now that our
+father was lying dead? Why must I remain meanwhile in that room? Why do
+none of our acquaintances come to see us? Why do those who go about the
+house whisper so quietly? Why do they not toll the bell when so great a
+one lies dead in the house?
+
+All this distracted my brain entirely. To nothing could I give myself an
+answer, and no one came to me from whom I could have demanded the truth.
+
+Once, not long after (to me it seemed an age, though, if the truth be
+known, it was probably only a half-hour or so), I heard the old
+serving-maid, who had been watching in yonder chamber, tripping past the
+corridor window. Evidently some one else had taken her place.
+
+Her face was now as indifferent as it always was. Her eyes were cried
+out; but I am sure I had seen her weep every day, whether in good or in
+bad humor; it was all one with her. I addressed her through the window:
+
+"Aunt Susie, come here."
+
+"What do you want, dear little Desi?"
+
+"Susie, tell me truly, why am I not allowed to kiss my father's face?"
+
+The old servant shrugged her shoulders, and with cynical indifference
+replied:
+
+"Poor little fool. Why, because--because he has no head, poor fellow."
+
+I did not dare to tell my brother on his return what I had heard from
+old Susie.
+
+I told him it was the cold air, when he asked why I trembled so.
+
+Thereupon he merely put my overcoat on, and said, "Let us go to the
+carriage."
+
+I asked him if our grandmother was not coming with us. He replied that
+she would remain behind. We two took our seats in one carriage; a second
+was waiting before the door.
+
+To me the whole incident seemed as a dream. The rainy, gloomy weather,
+the houses that flew past us, the people who looked wonderingly out of
+the windows, the one or two familiar faces that passed us by, and in
+their astonished gaze upon us forgot to greet us. It was as if each one
+of them asked himself: "Why has the father of these boys no head?" Then
+the long poplar-trees at the end of the town, so bent by the wind as if
+they were bowing their heads under the weight of some heavy thought; and
+the murmuring waves under the bridge, across which we went, murmuring as
+if they too were taking counsel over some deep secret, which had so oft
+been intrusted to them, and which as yet no one had discovered--why was
+it that some dead people had no heads? Something prompted me so, to turn
+with this awful question to my brother. I overcame the demon, and did
+not ask him. Often children, who hold pointed knives before their eyes,
+or look down from a high bridge into the water, are told, "Beware, or
+the devil will push you." Such was my feeling in relation to this
+question. In my hand was the handle, the point was in my heart. I was
+sitting upon the brim, and gazing down into the whirlpool. Something
+called upon me to thrust myself into the living reality, to lose my head
+in it. And yet I was able to restrain myself. During the whole journey
+neither my brother nor I spoke a word.
+
+When we arrived at our country-house our physician met us, and told us
+that mother was even worse than she had been; the sight of us would
+only aggravate her illness; so it would be good for us to remain in our
+room.
+
+Our grandmother arrived two hours after us. Her arrival was the signal
+for a universal whispering among the domestics, as if they would make
+ready for something extraordinary which the whole world must not know.
+Then we sat down to dinner quite unexpectedly, far earlier than usual.
+No one could eat; we only gazed at each course in turn. After dinner my
+brother in his turn began to hold a whispered conference with
+grandmother. As far as I could gather from the few words I caught, they
+were discussing whether he should take his gun with him or not. Lorand
+wished to take it, but grandmother objected. Finally, however, they
+agreed that he should take gun and cartridges, but should not load the
+weapon until he saw a necessity for it.
+
+In the mean while I staggered about from room to room. It seemed as if
+everybody had considerations of more importance than that of looking
+after me.
+
+In the afternoon, however, when I saw my brother making him ready for a
+journey, despair seized hold of me:
+
+"Take me with you."
+
+"Why, you don't even know where I am going."
+
+"I don't mind; I will go anywhere, only take me with you; for I cannot
+remain all by myself."
+
+"Well, I will ask grandmother."
+
+My brother exchanged a few words with my grandmother, and then came back
+to me.
+
+"You may come with me. Take your stick and coat."
+
+He slung his gun on his shoulder and took his dog with him.
+
+Once again this thought agonized me afresh: "Father is dead, and we go
+for an afternoon's shooting, with grandmother's consent as if nothing
+had happened."
+
+We went down through the gardens, all along the loam-pits; my brother
+seemed to be choosing a route where we should meet with no one. He kept
+the dog on the leash to prevent its wandering away. We went a long way,
+roaming among maize-fields and shrubs, without the idea once occurring
+to Lorand to take the gun down from his shoulder. He kept his eyes
+continually on the ground, and would always silence the dog, when the
+animal scented game.
+
+Meantime we had left the village far behind us. I was already quite
+tired out, and yet I did not utter a syllable to suggest our returning.
+I would rather have gone to the end of the world than return home.
+
+It was already twilight when we reached a small poplar wood. Here my
+brother suggested a little rest. We sat down side by side on the trunk
+of a felled tree. Lorand offered me some cakes he had brought in his
+wallet for me. How it pained me that he thought I wanted anything to
+eat. Then he threw the cake to the hound. The hound picked it up and,
+disappearing behind the bushes, we heard him scratch on the ground as he
+buried it. Not even he wanted to eat. Next we watched the sunset. Our
+village church-tower was already invisible, so far had we wandered, and
+yet I did not ask whether we should return.
+
+The weather became suddenly gloomy; only after sunset did the clouds
+open, that the dying sun might radiate the heavens with its
+storm-burdened red fire. The wind suddenly rose. I remarked to my
+brother that an ugly wind was blowing, and he answered that it was good
+for us. How this great wind could be good for us, I was unable to
+discover.
+
+When later the heavens gradually changed from fire red to purple, from
+purple to gray, from gray to black, Lorand loaded his gun, and let the
+hound loose. He took my hand. I must now say not a single word, but
+remain motionless. In this way we waited long that boisterous night.
+
+I racked my brain to discover the reason why we were there.
+
+On a sudden our hound began to whine in the distance--such a whine as I
+had never yet heard.
+
+Some minutes later he came reeling back to us; whimpering and whining,
+he leaped up at us, licked our hands, and then raced off again.
+
+"Now let us go," said Lorand, shouldering his gun.
+
+Hurriedly we followed the hound's track, and soon came out upon the
+high-road.
+
+In the gloom a hay-cart drawn by four oxen, was quietly making its way
+to its destination.
+
+"God be praised!" said the old farm-laborer, as he recognized my
+brother.
+
+"For ever and ever."
+
+After a slight pause my brother asked him if there was anything wrong?
+
+"You needn't fear, it will be all right."
+
+Thereupon we quietly sauntered along behind the hay-wagon.
+
+My brother uncovered his head, and so proceeded on his way bareheaded;
+he said he was very warm. We walked silently for a distance until the
+old laborer came back to us.
+
+"Not tired, Master Desi?" he asked; "you might take a seat on the cart."
+
+"What are you thinking of, John?" said Lorand; "on this cart?"
+
+"True; true, indeed," said the aged servant. Then he quietly crossed
+himself, and went forward to the oxen.
+
+When we came near the village, old John again came toward us.
+
+"It will be better now if the young gentlemen go home through the
+gardens; it will be much easier for me to get through the village
+alone."
+
+"Do you think they are still on guard?" asked Lorand.
+
+"Of course they know already. One cannot take it amiss; the poor fellows
+have twice in ten years had their hedges broken down by the hail."
+
+"Stupidity!" answered my brother.
+
+"May be," sighed the old serving-man. "Still the poor man thinks so."
+
+Lorand nudged the old retainer so that he would not speak before me.
+
+My brain became only more confused thereat.
+
+Lorand told him that we would soon pass through the gardens; however,
+after John had advanced a good distance with the cart we followed in his
+tracks again, keeping steadily on until we came to the first row of
+houses beginning the village. Here my brother began to thread his way
+more cautiously, and in the dark I heard distinctly the click of the
+trigger as he cocked his gun.
+
+The cart proceeded quietly before us to the end of the long village
+street.
+
+Above the workhouse about six men armed with pitchforks met us.
+
+My brother said we must make our way behind a hedge, and bade me hold
+our dog's mouth lest he should bark when the others passed.
+
+The pitchforked guards passed near the cart, and advanced before us too.
+I heard how the one said to the other:
+
+"Faith, _that_ is the reason this cursed wind is blowing so furiously!"
+
+"_That_" was the reason! What was the reason?
+
+As they passed, my brother took my hand and said: "Now let us hasten,
+that we may be home before the wagon."
+
+Therewith he ran with me across a long cottage-court, lifted me over a
+hedge, climbing after me himself; then through two or three more strange
+gardens, everywhere stepping over the hedges; and at last we reached our
+own garden.
+
+But, in Heaven's name, had we committed some sin, that we ran thus,
+skulking from hiding-place to hiding-place?
+
+As we reached the courtyard, the wagon was just entering. Three
+retainers waited for it in the yard, and immediately closed the gate
+after it.
+
+Grandmother stood outside on the terrace and kissed us when we arrived.
+
+Again there followed a short whispering between my brother and the
+domestics; whereupon the latter seized pitchforks and began to toss down
+the hay from the wain.
+
+Could they not do so by daylight?
+
+Grandmother sat down on a bench on the terrace, and drew my head to her
+bosom. Lorand leaned his elbows upon the rail of the terrace and watched
+the work.
+
+The hay was tossed into a heap and the high wind drove the chaff on to
+the terrace, but no one told the servants to be more careful.
+
+This midnight work was, for me, so mysterious.
+
+Only once I saw that Lorand turned round as he stood, and began to weep;
+thereupon grandmother rose, and they fell each upon the other's breast.
+
+I clutched their garments and gazed up at them trembling. Not a single
+lamp burned upon the terrace.
+
+"Sh!" whispered grandmother, "don't weep so loudly," she was herself
+choking with sobs. "Come, let us go."
+
+With that she took my hand, and, leaning upon my brother's arm, came
+down with us into the courtyard, down to the wagon, which stood before
+the garden gate. Two or more heaps of straw hid _it_ from the eye; it
+was visible only when we reached the bottom of the wagon.
+
+On that wagon lay the coffin of my father.
+
+So this it was that in the dead of night we had stealthily brought into
+the village, that we had in so skulking a manner escorted, and had so
+concealed; and of which we had spoken in whispers. This it was that we
+had wept over in secret--my father's coffin. The four retainers lifted
+it from the wagon, then carried it on their shoulders toward the garden.
+We went after it, with bared heads and silent tongues.
+
+A tiny rivulet flowed through our garden; near this rivulet was a
+little round building, whose gaudy door I had never seen open.
+
+From my earliest days, when I was unable to rise from the ground if once
+I sat down, the little round building had always been in my mind.
+
+I had always loved it, always feared to be near it; I had so longed to
+know what might be within it. As a little knickerbockered child I would
+pick the colored gravel-stones from the mortar, and play with them in
+the dust; and if perchance one stone struck the iron door, I would run
+away from the echo the blow produced.
+
+In my older days it was again only around this building that I would
+mostly play, and would remark that upon its facade were written great
+letters, on which the ivy, that so actively clambered up the walls,
+scarcely grew. At that time how I longed to know what those letters
+could mean!
+
+When the first holiday after I had made the acquaintance of those
+letters came, and they took me again to our country-seat, one after
+another I spelled out the ancient letters of the inscription on that
+mysterious little house, and pieced them together in my mind. But I
+could not arrive at their meaning; for they were written in some foreign
+tongue.
+
+Many, many times I wrote those words in the dust even before I
+understood them:
+
+"NE NOS INDUCAS IN TENTATIONEM."
+
+I strove to reach one year earlier than my school-fellows the so-called
+"student class," where Latin was taught.
+
+My most elementary acquaintance with the Latin tongue had always for its
+one aim the discovery of the meaning of that saying. Finally I solved
+the mystery--
+
+"Lead us not into temptation." It is a sentence of the Lord's Prayer,
+which I myself had repeated a thousand times; and now I knew its
+meaning still less than before.
+
+And still more began to come to me a kind of mysterious abhorrence of
+that building, above whose door was to be found the prayer that God
+might guard us against temptations.
+
+Perhaps this was the very dwelling of temptations?
+
+We know what children understand by "temptations."
+
+To-day I saw this door open, and knew that this building was our family
+vault.
+
+This door, which hitherto I had only seen covered with ivy, was now
+swung open, and through the open porch glittered the light of a lamp.
+The two great Virginia creepers which were planted before the crypt hid
+the glass so that it was not visible from the garden. The brightness was
+only for us.
+
+The four men set the coffin down on the steps; we followed after it.
+
+So this was that house where temptations dwell; and all our prayers were
+in vain; "lead us not into temptation." Yet to temptation we were forced
+to come. Down a few steps we descended, under a low, plastered arch,
+which glittered green from the moisture of the earth. In the wall were
+built deep niches, four on either side, and six of them were already
+filled. Before them stood slabs of marble, with inscriptions telling of
+those who had fallen asleep. The four servants placed the coffin they
+had brought on their shoulders in the seventh niche; then the aged
+retainer clasped his hands, and with simple devotion repeated the Lord's
+Prayer; the other three men softly murmured after him: "Amen. Amen."
+
+Then they left us to ourselves.
+
+Grandmother all this while had without a word, without a movement, stood
+in the depth of the crypt, holding our hands within her own; but when we
+were alone, in a frenzy she darted to the coffined niche and flung
+herself to the ground before it.
+
+Oh! I cannot tell what she said as she raved there. She wept and
+sobbed, flinging reproaches--at the dead! She scolded, as one reproves a
+child that has cut itself with a knife. She asked why he did _this_. And
+again she heaped grave calumny upon him, called him coward, wretch,
+threatened him with God, with God's wrath, and with eternal
+damnation;--then asked pardon of him, babbled out words of conciliation,
+called him back, called him dear, sweet, and good; related to him what a
+faithful, dear, loving wife waited at home, with his two sweet
+children,--how could he forget them? Then with gracious, reverent words
+begged him to turn Christian, to come to God, to learn to believe, to
+hope, to love; to trust to the boundless mercy; to take his rest in the
+paths of Heaven. And then she uttered a scream, tore the tresses of her
+dove-white hair, and cursed God. Methought it was the night of the Last
+Judgment.
+
+Every fire-breathing monster of the Revelation, the very disgorging of
+the dead from the rent earth, were as naught to me compared with the
+terror which that hour heaped upon my head.
+
+'Twas hither we had brought father, who died suddenly, in the prime of
+life. Hither we had brought him, in stealth, and slinking; here we had
+concealed him without any Christian ceremony, without psalm or toll of
+bell; no priest's blessing followed him to his grave, as it follows even
+the poorest beggar; and now here, in the house of the dead, grandmother
+had cursed the departed, and anathematized the other world, on whose
+threshold we stand, and in her mad despair was knocking at the door of
+the mysterious country as she beat upon the coffin-lid with her fist.
+
+Now, in my mature age, when my head, too, is almost covered with
+winter's snow, I see that our presence there was essential; drop by drop
+we were to drain to the dregs this most bitter cup, which I would had
+never fallen to our lot!
+
+Grandmother fell down before the niche and laid her forehead upon the
+coffin's edge; her long white hair fell trailing over her.
+
+Long, very long, she lay, and then she rose; her face was no more
+distorted, her eyes no longer filled with tears. She turned toward us
+and said we should remain a little longer here.
+
+She herself sat down upon the lowest step of the stone staircase, and
+placed the lamp in front of her, while we two remained standing before
+her.
+
+She looked not at us, only peered intensely and continuously with her
+large black eyes into the light of the lamp, as if she would conjure
+therefrom something that had long since passed away.
+
+All at once she seized our hands, and drew us toward her to the
+staircase.
+
+"You are the scions of a most unhappy house, every member of which dies
+by his own hand."
+
+So this was that secret that hung, like a veil of mourning before the
+face of every adult member of our family! We continuously saw our elders
+so, as if some mist of melancholy moved between us; and this was that
+mist.
+
+"This was the doom of God, a curse of man upon us!" continued
+grandmother, now no longer with terrifying voice. Besides, she spoke as
+calmly as if she were merely reciting to us the history of some strange
+family. "Your great-grandfather. Job Aronffy, he who lies in the first
+niche, bequeathed this terrible inheritance to his heirs; and it was a
+brother's hand that hurled this curse at his head. Oh, this is an
+unhappy earth on which we dwell! In other happy lands there are
+murderous quarrels between man and man; brothers part in wrath from one
+another; the 'mine and thine,'[3] jealousy, pride, envy, sow tares among
+them. But this accursed earth of ours ever creates bloodshed; this
+damned soil, which we are wont to call our 'dear homeland,' whose pure
+harvest we call love of home, whose tares we call treason, while every
+one thinks his own harvest the pure one, his brother's the tares, and,
+for that, brother slays brother! Oh! you cannot understand it yet.
+
+[Footnote 3: That is, the disputes as to the superiority of each other's
+possessions, or as to each other's right to possession.]
+
+"Your great-grandfather lived in those days when great men thought that
+what is falling in decay must be built afresh. Great contention arose
+therefrom, much knavery, much disillusion; finally the whole had to be
+wiped out.
+
+"Job's parents educated him at academies in Germany; there his soul
+became filled with foreign freedom of thought; he became an enthusiastic
+partisan of common human liberty. When he returned, this selfsame idea
+was in strife with an equally great one, national feeling. He joined his
+fortunes with the former idea, as he considered it the just one. In what
+patriots called relics of antiquity he saw only the vices of the
+departed. His elder brother stood face to face with him; they met on the
+common field of strife, and then began between them the unending feud.
+They had been such good brothers, never had they deserted each other in
+time of trouble; and on this thorn-covered field they must swear eternal
+enmity. Your great-grandfather belonged to the victorious, his brother
+to the conquered army. But the victory was not sweet.
+
+"Job gained a powerful, high position, he basked in the sunshine of
+power, but he lost that which was--nothing; merely the smiles of his old
+acquaintances. He was a seigneur, from afar they greeted him, but did
+not hurry to take his hand; and those who of yore at times of meeting
+would kiss his face from right and left, now after his change of dignity
+would stand before him, and bow their greetings askance with cold
+obeisance. Then there was one man who did not even bow, but sought a
+meeting only that he might provoke him with his obstinate sullenness,
+and gaze upon him with his piercing eyes--his own brother. Yet they were
+both honorable, good men, true Christians, benefactors of the poor, the
+darlings of their family, and once so fond of each other! Oh, this
+sorrowful earth here below us!
+
+"Then this new order of things that had been built up for ten years,
+fell into ruins, and Joseph II. on his death-bed drew a red line through
+his whole life-work; what had happened till then faded into mere
+remembrance.
+
+"The earth re-echoed with the shouts of rejoicing--this earth, this
+bitter earth. Job for his part wended his way to the Turkish bath in
+Buda, and, that he might meet with his brother no more, opened his
+arteries and bled to death.
+
+"Yet they were both good Christians; true men in life, faithful to
+honor, no evil-doers, no godless men; in heart and deed they worshipped
+God; but still the one brother took his own life, that he might meet no
+more with the other; and the other said of him: 'He deserved his fate.'
+
+"Oh, this earth that is drenched with the flow of our tears!"
+
+Here grandmother paused, as if she would collect in her mind the
+memories of a greater and heavier affliction.
+
+Not a sound reached us down there--even the crypt door was closed; the
+moaning of the wind did not reach so far; no sound, only the beating of
+the hearts of three living beings.
+
+Grandmother sought with her eyes the date written upon the arch, which
+the moisture that had sweated out from the lime had rendered illegible.
+
+"In this year they built this house of sorrow. Job was the first
+inhabitant thereof. Just as now, without priest, without toll of bell,
+hidden in a wooden chest of other form, they brought him here; and with
+him began that melancholy line of victims, whose legacy was that one
+should draw the other after him. The shedding of blood by one's own hand
+is a terrible legacy. That blood besprinkles children and brothers. That
+malicious tempter who directed the father's hand to strike the sharp
+knife home into his own heart stands there in ambush forever behind his
+successors' backs; he is ever whispering to them; 'Thy father was a
+suicide, thy brother himself sought out death; over thy head, too,
+stands the sentence; wherever thou runnest from before it, thou canst
+not save thyself; thou carriest with thyself thy own murderer in thine
+own right hand.' He tempts and lures the undecided ones with blades
+whetted to brilliancy, with guns at full cock, with poison-drinks of
+awful hue, with deep-flowing streams. Oh, it is indeed horrible!
+
+"And nothing keeps them back! they never think of the love, the
+everlasting sorrow of those whom they leave behind here to sorrow over
+their melancholy death. They never think of Him whom they will meet
+there beyond the grave, and who will ask them: 'Why did you come before
+I summoned you?'
+
+"In vain was written upon the front of this house of sorrow, 'Lead us
+not into temptation.' You can see. Seven have already taken up their
+abode here. All the seven have cast at the feet of Providence that
+treasure, an account of which will be asked for in Heaven.
+
+"Job left three children: Akos, Geroe, and Kalman. Akos was the eldest,
+and he married earliest. He was a good man, but thoughtless and
+passionate. One summer he lost his whole fortune at cards and was
+ruined. But even poverty did not drive him to despair. He said to his
+wife and children: 'Till now we were our own masters; now we shall be
+the servants of others. Labor is not a disgrace. I shall go and act as
+steward to some landowner.' The other two brothers, when they heard of
+their elder's misfortune, conferred together, went to him, and said:
+'Brother, still two-thirds of our father's wealth is left; come, let us
+divide it anew.'
+
+"And each of them gave him a third of his property, that they might be
+on equal terms again.
+
+"That night Akos shot himself in the head.
+
+"The stroke of misfortune he could bear, but the kindness of his
+brothers set him so against himself that when he was freed from the
+cares of life he did not wish to know further the enjoyments thereof.
+
+"Akos left behind two children, a girl and a boy.
+
+"The girl had lived some sixteen summers--very beautiful, very good.
+Look! there is her tomb: 'Struck down in her sixteenth year!' She loved;
+became unhappy; and died.
+
+"You cannot understand it yet!
+
+"So already three lay in the solitary vault.
+
+"Geroe was your grandfather--my good, never-to-be-forgotten husband. No
+tear wells in my eyes as I think of him; every thought that leads me
+back to him is sweet to me; and I know that he was a man of high
+principles; that every deed of his--his last deed, too--was proper and
+right, it is as it should be. It happened before my very eyes; and I did
+not seize his hand to stay his action."
+
+How my old grandmother's eyes flashed in this moment! A glowing warmth,
+hitherto unknown to me, seemed to pervade my whole being; some
+glimmering ray of enthusiasm--I knew not what! How the dead can inspire
+one with enthusiasm!
+
+"Your grandfather was the very opposite of his own father; as it is
+likely to happen in hundreds, nay, in thousands of cases that the sons
+restore to the East the fame and glory that their fathers gathered in
+the West.
+
+"But you don't understand that, either!
+
+"Geroe was in union with those who, under the leadership of a priest of
+high rank, wished at the end of the last century, to prepare the country
+for another century. No success crowned their efforts; they fell with
+him--and fell without a head. One afternoon your grandfather was sitting
+in the family circle--it was toward the end of dinner--when a strange
+officer entered in the midst of us, and, with a face utterly incapable
+of an expression of remorse, informed Geroe that he had orders to put him
+under guard. Geroe displayed a calm face, merely begged the stranger to
+allow him to drink his black coffee. His request was granted without
+demur. My husband calmly stirred his coffee, and entered into
+conversation with the stranger, who did not seem to be of an angry
+disposition. Indeed, he assured my husband that no harm would come of
+this incident. My husband peacefully sipped his coffee.
+
+"Then having finished it, he put down his cup, wiped his beautiful long
+beard, turned to me, drew me to his breast, and kissed me on both
+cheeks, not touching my mouth. 'Educate our boy well,' he stammered.
+Then, turning to the stranger: 'Sir, pray do not trouble yourself
+further on my account. I am a dead man; you will be welcome at my
+funeral.'
+
+"Two minutes later he breathed his last. And I had clearly seen, for I
+sat beside him, how with his thumb he opened the seal of the ring he
+wore on his little finger, how he shook a white powder therefrom into
+the cup standing before him, how he stirred it slowly till it dissolved,
+and then sipped it up little by little; but I could not stay his hand,
+could not call to him, 'Don't do it! Cling to life!'"
+
+Grandmother was staring before her, with the ecstatic smile of madness.
+Oh! I was so frightened that even now my mind wanders at the
+remembrance.
+
+This smile of madness is so contagious! Slowly nodding with her gray
+head, she again fell all in a heap. It was apparent that some time must
+elapse before this recollection, once risen in her mind, could settle to
+rest again. After what seemed to us hours she slowly raised herself
+again and continued her tragic narrative.
+
+"He was already the fourth dweller in this house of temptations.
+
+"After his death his brother Kalman came to join our circle. To the end
+he remained single; very early in life he was deceived, and from that
+moment became a hater of mankind.
+
+"His gloom grew year by year more incurable; he avoided every
+distraction, every gathering; his favorite haunt was this garden--this
+place here. He planted the beautiful juniper-trees before the door;
+such trees were in those days great rarities.
+
+"He made no attempt to conceal from us--in fact, he often declared
+openly to us that his end could be none other than his brothers' had
+been.
+
+"The pistol, with which Akos had shot himself, he kept by him as a
+souvenir, and in sad jest declared it was his inheritance.
+
+"Here he would wander for hours together in reverie, in melancholy,
+until the falling snow confined him to his room. He detested the winter
+greatly. When the first snowflake fell, his ill-humor turned to the
+agony of despair; he loathed the atmosphere of his rooms and everything
+to be found within the four walls. We so strongly advised him to winter
+in Italy, that he finally gave in to the proposal. We carefully packed
+his trunks; ordered his post-chaise. One morning, as everything stood
+ready for departure, he said that, before going for this long journey,
+he would once again take leave of his brothers. In his travelling-suit
+he came down here to the vault, and closed the iron door after him,
+enjoining that no one should disturb him. So we waited behind; and, as
+hour after hour passed by and still he did not appear, we went after
+him. We forced open the closed door, and there found him lying in the
+middle of the tomb--he had gone to the country where there is no more
+winter.
+
+"He had shot himself in the heart, with the same pistol as his brother,
+as he had foretold.
+
+"Only two male members of the family remained: my son and the son of
+Akos. Loerincz--that was the name of Akos' son--was reared too kindly by
+his poor, good mother; she loved him excessively, and thereby spoiled
+him. The boy became very fastidious and sensitive. He was eleven years
+old when his mother noticed that she could not command his obedience.
+Once the child played some prank, a mere trifle; how can a child of
+eleven years commit any great offence? His mother thought she must
+rebuke him. The boy laughed at the rebuke; he could not believe his
+mother was angry; then, in consequence, his mother boxed his ears. The
+boy left the room; behind the garden there was a fishpond; in that he
+drowned himself.
+
+"Well, is it necessary to take one's life for such a thing? For one
+blow, given by the soft hand of a mother to a little child, to take such
+a terrible revenge! to cut the thread of life, which as yet he knew not;
+How many children are struck by a mother, and the next day received into
+her bosom, with mutual forgiveness and a renewal of reciprocal love?
+Why, a blow from a mother is merely one proof of a mother's love. But it
+brought him to take his life."
+
+The cold perspiration stood out in beads all over me.
+
+That bitterness I, too, feel in myself. I also am a child, just as old
+as that other was; I have never yet been beaten. Once my parents were
+compelled to rebuke me for wanton petulance; and from head to foot I was
+pervaded through and through by one raving idea: "If they beat me I
+should take my own life." So I am also infected with the hereditary
+disease--the awful spirit is holding out his hand over me; captured,
+accursed, he is taking me with him. I am betrayed to him! Only instead
+of thrashing me, they had punished me with fasting fare; otherwise, I
+also should already be in this house.
+
+Grandmother clasped her hands across her knees and continued her story.
+
+"Your father was older at the time of this event--seventeen years of
+age. Ever since his birth the world has been rife with discord and
+revolutions; all the nations of the world pursued a bitter warfare one
+against another. I scarce expected my only son would live to be old
+enough to join the army. Thither, thither, where death with a scythe in
+both hands was cutting down the ranks of the armed warriors; thither,
+where the children of weeping mothers were being trampled on by horses'
+hoofs; thither, thither, where they were casting into a common grave the
+mangled remains of darling first-borns; only not hither, not into this
+awful house, into these horrible ranks of tempting spectres! Yes, I
+rejoiced when I knew that he was standing before the foe's cannons; and
+when the news of one great conflict after another spread like a dark
+cloud over the country, with sorrowful tranquillity, I lay in wait for
+the lightning-stroke which, bursting from the cloud, should dart into my
+heart with the news: 'Thy son is dead! They have slain him, as a hero is
+slain!' But it was not so. The wars ceased. My son returned.
+
+"No, it is not true; don't believe what I said,--'If only the news of
+his death had come instead!'
+
+"No; surely I rejoiced, surely I wept in my joy and happiness, when I
+could clasp him anew in my arms, and I blessed God for not having taken
+him away. Yet, why did I rejoice? Why did I triumph before the world,
+saying, 'See, what a fine, handsome son I have! a dauntless warrior,
+fame and honor he has brought home with him. My pride--my gladness? Now
+they lie here! What did I gain with him--he, too, followed the rest! He,
+too! he, whom I loved best of all--he whose every Paradise was here on
+earth!"
+
+My brother wept; I shivered with cold.
+
+Then suddenly, like a lunatic, grandmother seized our hands, and leaped
+up from her sitting-place.
+
+"Look yonder! there is still _one_ empty niche--room for _one_ coffin.
+Look well at that place; then go forth into the world and think upon
+what the mouth of this dark hollow said.
+
+"I had thought of making you swear here never to forsake God, never to
+continue the misfortunes of this family; but why this oath? That some
+one should take with him to the other world one sin more, in that in the
+hour of his death he forswore himself? What oath would bind him who
+says: 'The mercy of God I desire not'?
+
+"But instead, I brought you here and related you the history of your
+family. Later you shall know still more therefrom, that is yet secret
+and obscure before you. Now look once more around you, and then--let us
+go out.
+
+"Now you know what is the meaning of this melancholy house, whose door
+the ivy enters with the close of a man's life from time to time. You
+know that the family brings its suicides hither to burial, because
+elsewhere they have no place. But you know also that in this awful
+sleeping-room there is space for only _one_ person more, and the second
+will find no other resting-place than the grave-ditch!"
+
+With these words grandmother passionately thrust us both from her. In
+terror we fell into each other's arms before her frenzied gaze.
+
+Then, with a shrill cry, she rushed toward us and embraced us both with
+all the might of a lunatic; wept and gasped, till finally she fainted
+utterly away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE GIRL SUBSTITUTE[4]
+
+
+[Footnote 4: In former days it was the custom for a Magyar and a German
+family to interchange children, with a view to their learning the two
+languages perfectly. So Fanny Fromm is interchanged with Desiderius
+Aronffy.]
+
+A pleasant old custom was then in fashion in our town: the interchange
+of children,--perhaps it is in fashion still. In our many-tongued
+fatherland one town is German-speaking, the other Magyar-speaking, and,
+being brothers, after all to understand each other was a necessity.
+Germans must learn Magyar and Magyars, German. And peace is restored.
+
+So a method of temporarily exchanging children grew up: German parents
+wrote to Magyar towns, Magyar parents to German towns, to the respective
+school directors, to ask if there were any pupils who could be
+interchanged. In this manner one child was given for another, a kind,
+gentle, womanly thought!
+
+The child left home, father, mother, brother, only to find another home
+among strangers: another mother, other brothers and sisters, and his
+absence did not leave a void at home; child replaced child; and if the
+adopted mother devoted a world of tenderness to the pilgrim, it was with
+the idea that her own was being thus treated in the far distance; for a
+mother's love cannot be bought at a price but only gained by love.
+
+It was an institution that only a woman's thought could found: so
+different from that frigid system invented by men which founded
+nunneries, convents, and closed colleges for the benefit of susceptible
+young hearts where all memory of family life was permanently wiped out
+of their minds.
+
+After that unhappy day, which, like the unmovable star, could never go
+so far into the distance as to be out of sight, grandmother more than
+once said to us in the presence of mother, that it would not be good for
+us to remain in this town; we must be sent somewhere else.
+
+Mother long opposed the idea. She did not wish to part from us. Yet the
+doctors advised the same course. When the spasms seized her, for days we
+were not allowed to visit her, as it made her condition far worse.
+
+At last she gave her consent, and it was decided that we two should be
+sent to Pressburg. My brother, who was already too old to be exchanged,
+went to the home of a Privy Councillor, who was paid for taking him in,
+and my place was to be taken by a still younger child than myself, by a
+little German girl, Fanny, the daughter of Henry Fromm, baker.
+Grandmother was to take us in a carriage--in those days in Hungary we
+had only heard rumors of steamboats--and to bring the girl substitute
+back with her.
+
+For a week the whole household sewed, washed, ironed and packed for us;
+we were supplied with winter and summer clothing: on the last day
+provisions were prepared for our journey, as if we had intended to make
+a voyage to the end of the world, and in the evening we took supper in
+good time, that we might rise early, as we had to start before daybreak.
+That was my first departure from my home. Many a time since then have I
+had to say adieu to what was dearest to me; many sorrows, more than I
+could express, have afflicted me: but that first parting caused me the
+greatest pain of all, as is proved by the fact that after so long an
+interval I remember it so well. In the solitude of my own chamber, I
+bade farewell separately to all those little trifles that surrounded me:
+God bless the good old clock that hast so oft awakened me. Beautiful
+raven, whom I taught to speak and to say "Lorand," on whom wilt thou
+play thy sportive tricks? Poor old doggy, maybe thou wilt not be living
+when I return? Forsooth old Susie herself will say to me, "I shall never
+see you again Master Desi." And till now I always thought I was angry
+with Susie; but now I remark that it will be hard to leave her.
+
+And my dear mother, the invalid, and grandmother, already so
+grey-haired!
+
+Thus the bitter strains swept onward along the strings of my soul, from
+lifeless objects to living, from favorite animals to human
+acquaintances, and then to those with whom we were bound soul to soul,
+finally dragging one with them to the presence of the dead and buried. I
+was sorely troubled by the thought that we were not allowed to enter,
+even for one moment, that solitary house, round the door of which the
+ivy was entwining anew. We might have whispered "God be with thee! I
+have come to see thee!" I must leave the place without being able to say
+to him a single word of love. And perhaps he would know without words.
+Perhaps the only joy of that poor soul, who could not lie in a
+consecrated chamber, who could not find the way to heaven because he had
+not waited till the guardian angel came for him, was when he saw that
+his sons love him still.
+
+"Lorand, I cannot sleep, because I have not been able to take my leave
+of that house beside the stream."
+
+My brother sighed and turned in his bed.
+
+My whole life long I have been a sound sleeper (what child is not?) but
+never did it seem such a burden to rise as on the morning of our
+departure. Two days later a strange child would be sleeping in that bed.
+Once more we met together at breakfast, which we had to eat by
+candle-light as the day had not yet dawned.
+
+Dear mother often rose from her seat to kiss and embrace Lorand,
+overwhelmed him with caresses, and made him promise to write much; if
+anything happened to him, he must write and tell it at once, and must
+always consider that bad news would afflict two hearts at home. She
+only spoke to me to bid me drink my coffee warm, as the morning air
+would be chilly.
+
+Grandmother, too, concerned herself entirely with Lorand: they enquired
+whether he had all he required for the journey, whether he had taken his
+certificates with him--and a thousand other matters. I was rather
+surprised than jealous at all this, for as a rule the youngest son gets
+all the petting.
+
+When our carriage drove up we took our travelling coats and said adieu
+in turn to the household. Mother, leaning on Lorand's shoulder, came
+with us to the gate whispering every kind of tender word to him; thrice
+she embraced and kissed him. And then came my turn.
+
+She embraced me and kissed me on the cheek, then tremblingly whispered
+in my ear these words:
+
+"My darling boy,--take care of your brother Lorand!" I take care of
+Lorand? the child of the young man? the weak of the strong? the later
+born guide the elder. The whole journey long this idea distracted me,
+and I could not explain it to myself.
+
+Of the impressions of the journey I retain no very clear recollections:
+I think I slept very much in the carriage. The journey to Pressburg
+lasted from early morning till late evening; only as twilight came on
+did a new thought begin to keep me awake, a thought to which as yet I
+had paid no attention: "What kind of a child could it be, for whom I was
+now being exchanged? Who was to usurp my place at table, in my bed-room,
+and in my mother's heart? Was she small or large? beautiful or ugly?
+obedient or contrary? had she brothers or sisters, to whom I was to be a
+brother? was she as much afraid of me as I was of her?"
+
+For I was very much afraid of her.
+
+Naturally, I dreaded the thought of the child who was meeting me at the
+cross-roads with the avowed intention of taking my place as my mother's
+child, giving me instead her own parents. Were they reigning princes,
+still the loss would be mine. I confess that I felt a kind of sweet
+bitterness in the idea that my substitute might be some dull, malicious
+creature, whose actions would often cause mother to remember me. But if,
+on the contrary, she were some quiet, angelic soul, who would soon steal
+my mother's love from me! In every respect I trembled with fear of that
+creature who had been born that she might be exchanged for me.
+
+Towards evening grandmother told us that the town which we were going to
+was visible. I was sitting with my back to the horses, and so I was
+obliged to turn round in order to see. In the distance I could see the
+four-columned white skeleton of a building, which was first apparent to
+the eye.
+
+"What a gigantic charnel-house," I remarked to grandmother.
+
+"It is no charnel-house, my child, but it is the ruin of the citadel of
+(Pressburg) Pozsony."[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: Pozsony. A town in Hungary is called by the Germans
+Pressburg.]
+
+A curious ruin it is. This first impression ever remained in my mind: I
+regarded it as a charnel-house.
+
+It was quite late when we entered the town, which was very large
+compared to ours. I had never seen such elegant display in shop-windows
+before and it astonished me as I noticed that there were paved sidewalks
+reserved for pedestrians. They must be all fine lords who live in this
+city.
+
+Mr. Fromm, the baker, to whose house I was to be taken, had informed us
+that we need not go to an hotel as he had room for all of us, and would
+gladly welcome us, especially as the expense of the journey was borne by
+us. We found his residence by following the written address. He owned a
+fine four-storied house in the Fuersten allee,[6] with his open shop in
+front on the sign of which peaceful lions were painted in gold holding
+rolls and cakes between their teeth.
+
+[Footnote 6: Princes avenue.]
+
+Mr. Fromm himself was waiting for us outside his shop door, and hastened
+to open the carriage door himself. He was a round-faced, portly little
+man, with a short black moustache, black eyebrows, and close-cropped,
+thick, flour-white hair. The good fellow helped grandmother to alight
+from the carriage: shook hands with Lorand, and began to speak to them
+in German: when I alighted, he put his hand on my head with a peculiar
+smile:
+
+"Iste puer?"
+
+Then he patted me on the cheeks.
+
+"Bonus, bonus."
+
+His addressing me in Latin had two advantages; firstly, as I could not
+speak German, nor he Magyar, this use of a neutral tongue removed all
+suspicions of our being deaf and dumb; secondly, it at once inspired me
+with a genuine respect for the honest fellow, who had dabbled in the
+sciences, and had, beyond his technical knowledge of his own business,
+some acquaintance with the language of Cicero. Mr. Fromm made room for
+grandmother and Lorand to pass before him up a narrow stone staircase,
+while he kept his hand continuously on my head, as if that were the part
+of me by which he could best hold me.
+
+"Veni puer. Hic puer secundus, filius meus."
+
+So there was a boy in the house, a new terror for me.
+
+"Est studiosus."
+
+What, that boy! That was good news: we could go to school together.
+
+"Meus filius magnus asinus."
+
+That was a fine acknowledgment from a father.
+
+"Nescit pensum nunquam scit."
+
+Then he discontinued to speak of the young student, and pantomimically
+described something, from which I gathered that "meus filius," on this
+occasion was condemned to starve, until he had learnt his lessons, and
+was confined to his room.
+
+This was no pleasant idea to me.
+
+Well, and what about "mea filia?"
+
+I had never seen a house that was like Mr. Fromm's inside. Our home was
+only one-storied, with wide rooms, and broad corridors, a courtyard and
+a garden: here we had to enter first by a narrow hall: then to ascend a
+winding stair, that would not admit two abreast. Then followed a rapid
+succession of small and large doors, so that when we came out upon the
+balconied corridor, and I gazed down into the deep, narrow courtyard, I
+could not at all imagine how I had reached that point, and still less
+how I could ever find my way out. "Father" Fromm led us directly from
+the corridor into the reception room, where two candles were burning
+(two in our honor), and the table laid for "gouter." It seemed they had
+expected us earlier. Two women were seated at the window, Mrs. Fromm and
+her mother. Mrs. Fromm was a tall slender person; she had grey curls (I
+don't know why I should not call them "Schneckles," for that is their
+name) in front, large blue eyes, a sharp German nose, a prominent chin
+and a wart below her mouth.
+
+The "Gross-mamma" was the exact counterpart of Mrs. Fromm, only about
+thirty years older, a little more slender, and sharper in feature: she
+had also grey "Schneckles"--though I did not know until ten years later
+that they were not her own:--she too had that wart, though in her case
+it was on the chin.
+
+In a little low chair was sitting that certain personage with whom they
+wished to exchange me.
+
+Fanny was my junior by a year:--she resembled neither father nor mother,
+with the exception that the family wart, in the form of a little brown
+freckle, was imprinted in the middle of her left cheek. During the whole
+time that elapsed before our arrival here I had been filled with
+prejudices against her, prejudices which the sight of her made only more
+alarming. She had an ever-smiling, pink and white face, mischievous blue
+eyes, and a curious snub-nose; when she smiled, little dimples formed in
+her cheeks and her mouth was ever ready to laugh. When she did laugh,
+her double row of white teeth sparkled; in a word she was as ugly as the
+devil.
+
+All three were busy knitting as we entered. When the door opened, they
+all put down their knitting. I kissed the hands of both the elder
+ladies, who embraced me in return, but my attention was entirely devoted
+to the little lively witch, who did not wait a moment, but ran to meet
+grandmother, threw herself upon her neck, and kissed her passionately;
+then, bowing and curtseying before us, kissed Lorand twice, actually
+gazing the while into his eyes.
+
+A cold chill seized me. If this little snub-nosed devil dared to go so
+far as to kiss me, I did not know what would become of me in my terror.
+
+Yet I could not avoid this dilemma in any way. The terrible little
+witch, having done with the others, rushed upon me, embraced me, and
+kissed me so passionately that I was quite ashamed; then twining her arm
+in mine, dragged me to the little arm-chair from which she had just
+risen, and compelled me to sit down, though we could scarcely find room
+in it for us both. Then she told many things to me in that unknown
+tongue, the only result of which was to persuade me that my poor good
+mother would have a noisy baggage to take the place of her quiet,
+obedient little son; I felt sure her days would be embittered by that
+restless tongue. Her mouth did not stop for one moment, yet I must
+confess that she had a voice like a bell.
+
+That was again a family peculiarity. Mother Fromm was endowed with an
+inexhaustible store of that treasure called eloquence: and a sharp,
+strong voice, too, which forbade the interruption of any one else, with
+a flow like that of the purling stream. The grandmamma had an equally
+generous gift, only she had no longer any voice: only every second word
+was audible, like one of those barrel-organs, in which an occasional
+note, instead of sounding, merely blows.
+
+Our business was to listen quietly.
+
+For my part, that was all the easier, as I could not suspect what was
+the subject of this flow of barbarian words; all I understood was that,
+when the ladies spoke to me, they addressed me as "Istok,"[7] a jest
+which I found quite out of place, not knowing that it was the German for
+"Why don't you eat?" For you must know the coffee was brought
+immediately, with very fine little cakes, prepared especially for us
+under the personal supervision of Father Fromm.
+
+[Footnote 7: "Issdoch," the German for "but eat." (Why don't you eat?)
+While Istok is a nickname for Stephan in Magyar.]
+
+Even that little snub-nosed demon said "Issdoch," seized a cake, dipped
+it in my coffee, and forcibly crammed it into my mouth, when I did not
+wish to understand her words.
+
+But I was not at all hungry. All kinds of things were brought onto the
+table, but I did not want anything. Father Fromm kept calling out
+continually in student guise "Comedi! Comedi!" a remark which called
+forth indignant remonstrances from mamma and grossmamma; how could he
+call his own dear "Kugelhuff"[8] a "comedy!!!"
+
+[Footnote 8: A cake eaten everywhere in Hungary.]
+
+Fanny in sooth required no coaxing. At first sight anyone could see that
+she was the spoiled child of the family, to whom everything was allowed.
+She tried everything, took a double portion of everything and only after
+taking what she required did she ask "darf ich?"[9]--and I understood
+immediately from the tone of her voice and the nodding of her head, that
+she meant to ask "if she might."
+
+[Footnote 9: i. e., darf ich, "may I?"]
+
+Then instead of finishing her share she had the audacity to place her
+leavings on my plate, an action which called forth rebuke enough from
+Grossmamma. I did not understand what she said, but I strongly suspected
+that she abused her for wishing to accustom the "new child" to eating a
+great deal. Generally speaking, I had brought from home the suspicion
+that, when two people were speaking German before me, they were surely
+hatching some secret plot against me, the end of which would be, either
+that I would not get something, or would not be taken somewhere, where
+I wished to go.
+
+I would not have tasted anything the little snub-nose gave me, if only
+for the reason that it was she who had given it. How could she dare to
+touch my plate with those dirty little hands of hers, that were just
+like cats-paws?
+
+Then she gave everything I would not accept to the little kitten;
+however, the end of it all was, that she again turned to me, and asked
+me to play with the kitten.
+
+Incomprehensible audacity! To ask me, who was already a school-student,
+to play with a tiny kitten.
+
+"Shoo!" I said to the malicious creature; a remark which,
+notwithstanding the fact that it seemed to belong to some
+strange-tongued nationality, the animal understood, for it immediately
+leaped down off the table and ran away. This caused the little snub-nose
+to get angry with me, and she took her sensitive revenge upon me, by
+going across to my grandmother, whom she tenderly caressed, kissing her
+hand, and then nestled to her bosom, turning her back on me; once or
+twice she looked back at me, and if at the moment my eye was on her,
+sulkily flung back her head; as if that was any great misfortune to me.
+
+Little imp! She actually occupied my place beside my grandmother--and
+before my eyes too.
+
+Well, and why did I gaze at her, if I was so very angry with her? I will
+tell you truly; it was only that I might see to what extremes she would
+carry her audacity. I would far rather have been occupied in the
+fruitless task of attempting to discover something intelligent in a
+conversation that was being carried on before me in a strange tongue: an
+effort that is common to all men who have a grain of human curiosity
+flowing in their veins, and that, as is well-known, always remains
+unsuccessful.
+
+Still one combination of mine did succeed. That name "Henrik"
+often struck my ear. Father Fromm was called Henrik, but he
+himself uttered the name: that therefore could not be other than
+his son. My grandmother spoke of him in pitiful tones, whereas
+Father Fromm assumed a look of inexorable severity, when he gave
+information on this subject; and as he spoke I gathered frequently
+the words "prosodia,"--"pensum"--"labor"--"vocabularium"--and
+many other terms common to dog-Latin: among which words like
+"secunda"--"tertia"--"carcer" served as a sufficiently trustworthy
+compass to direct me to the following conclusion: My friend Henrik might
+not put in an appearance to-day at supper, because he did not know his
+lessons, and was to remain imprisoned in the house until he could
+improve his standing by learning to repeat, in the language of a people
+long since dead, the names of a host of eatables.
+
+Poor Henrik!
+
+I never had any patience with the idea of anyone's starving, and
+moreover starving by way of punishment. I could understand anyone being
+done to death at once: but the idea of condemning anyone in cold blood
+to starve, to wrestle with his own body, to strive with his own heart
+and stomach, I always regarded as cruelty. I deemed that if I took one
+of those little cakes, which that audacious girl had piled up before me
+so forcibly, and put it in my pocket, it would not be wasted.
+
+I waited cautiously until nobody was looking my way, and then slipped
+the cake into my pocket without accident.
+
+Without accident? I only remarked it, when that little snub-nose laughed
+to herself. Just at that moment she had squinted towards me. But she
+immediately closed her mouth with her hand, giggling between her
+fingers, the while her malicious, deceitful eyes smiled into mine. What
+would she think? Perhaps that I am too great a coward to eat at table,
+and too insatiable to be satisfied with what I received. Oh! how ashamed
+I was before her! I would have been capable of any sacrifice to secure
+her secrecy, perhaps even of kissing her, if she would not tell
+anyone.... I was so frightened.
+
+My fright was only increased by the grandmother, who first looked at the
+cake-dish, and then looked at each plate on the table in turn,
+subsequently resetting her gaze upon that cake-dish; then she gazed up
+to the ceiling, as if making some calculation, which she followed up by
+considerable shaking of her head.
+
+Who could not understand that dumb speech? She had counted the cakes;
+calculated how many each had devoured; how many had been put on the
+dish, had added and subtracted, with the result that one cake was
+missing: what had become of it? An inquisition would follow: the cake
+would be looked for, and found in my pocket, and then no water could
+ever wash away my shame.
+
+Every moment I expected that little demoniacal curiosity to point to me
+with that never-resting hand of hers, and proclaim: "there in the new
+child's pocket is the cake."
+
+She was already by my side, and I saw that father, mother and
+Grandmother Fromm turned to me all with inquiring looks, and addressed
+some terrible "interpellatio" to me, which I did not understand, but
+could suspect what it was. And Lorand and grandmother did not come to my
+aid to explain what it all meant.
+
+Instead of which snub-nose swept up to me and, repeating the same
+question, explained it by pantomimic gestures; laying one hand upon the
+other, then placing her head upon them, gently closed her eyes.
+
+Oh, she was asking, if I were sleepy? It was remarkable, how this
+insufferable creature could make me understand everything.
+
+Never did that question come more opportunely. I breathed more freely.
+Besides, I made up my mind never to call her "snub-nose devil" any more.
+
+Grandmother allowed me to go: little Fanny was to show me to my room: I
+was to sleep with Henrik: I said good-night to all in turn, and so
+distracted was I that I kissed even Fanny's hand. And the little bundle
+of malice did not prevent me, she merely laughed at me for it.
+
+This girl had surely been born merely to annoy me.
+
+She took a candle in her hand and told me to follow her: she would lead
+the way.
+
+I obeyed her.
+
+We had not quite reached the head of the corridor when the draught blew
+out the candle.
+
+We were in complete darkness, for there was no lamp burning here of an
+evening on the staircase, only a red glimmer, reflected probably from
+the bakery-chimney, lit up the darkness, and even that disappeared as we
+left the corridor.
+
+Fanny laughed when the candle went out, and tried for a time to blow the
+spark into a flame: not succeeding, she put down the candle-stick, and
+leaning upon my arm assured me that she could show me the way in this
+manner too.
+
+Then, without waiting for a remark from me, she took me with her into
+the pitchy darkness. At first she spoke, to encourage me, and then began
+to sing, perhaps to make me understand better; and felt with her hands
+for the doors, and with her feet for the steps of the staircase.
+Meanwhile I continually reflected: "this terrible malicious trifler is
+plotting to lead me into some flour-bin, shut the door upon me, and
+leave me there till the morning: or to let me step in the darkness into
+some flue, where I shall fall up to my neck into the rising dough;--for
+of that everything is full."
+
+Poor, kind, good Fanny! I was so angry with you, I hated you so when I
+first saw you!... And now, as we grow old....
+
+I should never have believed that anyone could lead me in such
+subterranean darkness through that winding labyrinth, where even in
+broad daylight I often entirely lost my whereabouts. I only wondered
+that this extraordinarily audacious girl could refrain from pulling my
+hair as she led me through that darkness, her arm in mine, though she
+had such a painful opportunity of doing so. Yes, I quite expected her to
+do so.
+
+Finally we reached a door, before which there was no need of a lamp to
+assure a man of the room he was seeking. Through the door burst that
+most sorrowful of all human sounds, the sound of a child audibly
+wrestling with some unintelligible verse, twenty, fifty, a thousand
+times repeated anew, and anew, without becoming intelligible, while the
+verse had not yet taken its place in the child's head. Through the
+boards sounded afar a spiral Latin phrase.
+
+"His atacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque." Then again:
+
+"His acatem, panacem, phylacem, coracem que facemque."
+
+And again the same.
+
+Fanny placed her ear against the door and seized my hand as a hint to be
+quiet. Then she laughed aloud. How can anyone find an amusing subject in
+a poor hard-brained "studiosus," who cannot grasp that rule, inevitable
+in every career in life, that the second syllable of dropax, antrax,
+climax "et caethra graeca" in the first case is long, in the second
+short--a rule extremely useful to a man later in life when he gets into
+some big scrape?
+
+But Fanny found it extremely ridiculous. Then she opened the door and
+nodded to me to follow her.
+
+It was a small room under the staircase. Within were two beds, placed
+face to face; on one I recognized my own pillows which I had brought
+with me, so that must be my sleeping place. Beside the window was a
+writing-table on which was burning a single candle, its wick so badly
+trimmed as to prove that he who should have trimmed it had been so
+deeply engaged in work that he had not remarked whether darkness or
+light surrounded him.
+
+Weeping, his head buried in his hands, my friend Henrik was sitting at
+that table; as the door opened he raised his head from the book over
+which he was poring. He greatly resembled his mother and grandmother:
+he had just such a pronounced nose; but he had bristly hair, like his
+father, only black and not so closely cropped. He, too, had the family
+wart, actually in the middle of his nose.
+
+As he looked up from his book, in a moment his countenance changed
+rapidly from fear to delight, from delight to suspicion. The poor boy
+thought he had gained a respite, and that the messenger had come with
+the white serviette to invite him to supper: he smiled at Fanny
+entreating compassion, and then, when he saw me, became embarrassed.
+
+Fanny approached him with an enquiring air, placed one hand on his
+thigh, with the other pointed to the open book, probably intending to
+ask him whether he knew his lessons.
+
+The great lanky boy rose obediently before his little confessor, who
+scarce reached to his shoulder, and proceeded to put himself to rights.
+He handed the book to Fanny, casting a farewell glance at the
+disgusting, insufferable words; and with a great gulp by which he hoped
+to remove all obstacles from the way of the lines he had to utter,
+cleared his throat and began:--
+
+"His abacem, phylacem ..."
+
+Fanny shook her head. It was not good.
+
+Henrik was frightened. He began again:
+
+"His abacem, coracem...."
+
+Again it was wrong. The poor boy began over five or six times, but could
+not place those pagan words in the correct order, and as the mischievous
+girl shook her head each time he made a mistake, he finally became so
+confused that he could not even begin; then he reddened with anger, and,
+gnashing his teeth, tore the graceless book out of Fanny's hand, threw
+it down upon the table and commenced an assault upon the heathen words,
+and with glaring eyes read the million-times repeated incantation: "His
+abacem, panacem, phylacem, coracem facemque," striking the back of his
+head with clinched fist at every word.
+
+Fanny burst into uncontrollable laughter at this scene.
+
+I, however, was very sorry for my companion. My learning had been easy
+enough, and I regarded him with the air of a lord who looks from his
+coach window at the bare-footed passers-by.
+
+Fanny was unmerciful to him.
+
+Henrik looked up at her, and though I did not understand her words, I
+understood from his eyes that he was asking for something to eat.
+
+The strong-headed sister actually refused his request.
+
+I wished to prove my goodness of heart--my vanity also inclined me to
+inform this mischievous creature that I had not put away the bun for my
+own sake--So I stepped up to Henrik and, placing my hand on his shoulder
+with condescending friendliness, pressed into his hand the cake I had
+reserved for him.
+
+Henrik cast a glance at me like some wild beast which has an aversion to
+petting, then flung the bun under the table with such violence that it
+broke into pieces.
+
+"Dummer kerl!"[10]
+
+[Footnote 10: "Stupid fellow!"]
+
+I remember well, that was the first title of respect I received from
+him.
+
+Planting his knuckles on the top of my head, he performed a tattoo with
+the same all over my head.
+
+That is called, in slang, "holz-birn."[11] By this process of
+"knuckling" the larger boys showed their contempt for the smaller, and
+it belongs to that kind of teasing which no self-respecting boy ever
+would allow to pass unchallenged. And before this girl, too!
+
+[Footnote 11: Literally "Wild-pear" (_wood-pear_) a method of
+"knuckling" down the younger boys.]
+
+Henrik was taller than I, by a head, but I did not mind. I grasped him
+by the waist, and grappled with him. He wished to drag me in the
+direction of my bed, in order to throw me on to it, but with a quick
+movement I cast him on his own bed, and holding his two hands tight on
+his chest, cried to him:
+
+"Pick up the bun immediately!"
+
+Henrik kicked and snarled for a moment, then began to laugh, and to my
+astonishment begged me, in student tongue, to release him: "We should be
+good friends." I released him, we shook hands, and the fellow became
+quite lively.
+
+What astonished me most was that, at the time I was throwing her
+brother, Fanny did not come to his aid nor tear out my eyes, she merely
+laughed, and screamed her approval. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying
+herself.
+
+After this we all three looked for the fragments of Henrik's broken bun,
+which the good fellow with an expression of contentment dispatched on
+its natural way; then Fanny produced a couple of secreted apples which
+she had "sneaked" for him. I found it remarkable beyond words that this
+impertinent child's thoughts ran in the same direction as my own.
+
+From that hour Henrik and I were always fast friends; we are so to this
+day. When we got into bed I was curious as to the dreams I should have
+in the strange house. There is a widely-spread belief that what one
+dreams the first night in a new house will in reality come to pass.
+
+I dreamed of the little snub-nose.
+
+She was an angel with wings, beautiful dappled wings, such as I had read
+of not long since in the legend of Voeroesmarty.[12] All around me she
+fluttered: but I could not move, my feet were so heavy, albeit there was
+something from which I ought to escape, until she seized my hand and
+then I could run so lightly that I did not touch the earth even with the
+tips of my feet.
+
+[Footnote 12: A great Hungarian poet who lived and died in the early
+part of this century. He wrote legends and made a remarkable translation
+of some of Shakespeare's works.]
+
+How I worried over that dream! A snub-nosed angel-- What mocking dreams
+a man has, to be sure.
+
+The next day we were early astir; to me it seemed all the earlier, as
+the window of our little room looked out on to the narrow courtyard,
+where the day dawned so slowly, but Marton, the principal assistant, was
+told off to brawl at the schoolboy's door, when breakfast was being
+prepared:
+
+"Surgendum disciple!"
+
+I could not think what kind of an assault it was, that awoke me from my
+dream, when first I heard the clamorous clarion call. But Henrik jumped
+to his feet at once, and roused me from my bed, explaining, half in
+student language, half by gesture, that we should go down now to the
+bakery to see how the buns and cakes were baked. There was no need to
+dress; we might go in our night clothes, as the bakers wear quite
+similar costumes. I was curious, and easily persuaded to do anything; we
+put on our slippers and went down together to the bakery.
+
+It was an agreeable place; from afar it betrayed itself by that sweet
+confectionery smell, which makes a man imagine that if he breathes it in
+long enough he will satisfy his hunger therewith. Everything in the
+whole place was as white as snow; everything so clean; great bins full
+of flour; huge vessels full of swelling dough, from which six
+white-dressed, white-aproned assistants were forming every conceivable
+kind of cake and bun; piled upon the shelves of the gigantic white oven
+the first supply was gradually baking, filling the whole room with a
+most agreeable odor.
+
+Master Marton, when he caught sight of me, began to welcome me in a kind
+of broken Hungarian "Jo reggelt jo reggelt!"[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: Good morning.]
+
+He had a curious knack of putting the whole of his scalp into motion
+whenever he moved his eyebrows up or down; a comical peculiarity of
+which he availed himself whenever he wished to make anyone laugh, and
+saw that his words did not have the desired effect.
+
+Henrik set to work and competed with the baker's assistants; he was
+clever at making dainty little titbits of cakes quite as clever as
+anyone there; and pleasure beamed on his face when the old assistant
+praised his efforts.
+
+"You see," Marton said to me, "what a ready assistant he would make! In
+two years he might be free. But the old man is determined he shall learn
+and study; he wants to make a councillor of him." With these words
+Marton, by a movement of his eyebrows, sent the whole of the skin on his
+head to form a bunch on the crown, for all the world as if it had been a
+wig on springs.
+
+"Councillor, indeed! a councillor who gnaws pens when he is hungry!
+Thanks; not if they gave me the tower of St. Michael. A councillor, who,
+with paper in hand and pen behind ear, goes to visit the bakers in turn,
+and weighs their loaves in the balance to see if they are correct
+weight."
+
+It seemed that Marton did not take into consideration any other duties
+that a councillor might have besides the examining of bakers'
+loaves--and that one could hardly gain his approval.
+
+"Yet, if you take a little pains for their sake, you will find them as
+gentle as lambs. Give them a 'heitige striozts,'[14] or All Saints Day,
+and you will secure your object. Such is Mr. Dintenklek." At this point
+Marton could not refrain from breaking out into an unmelodious
+"Gassenhauer"[15] the refrain of which was, "Alas! Mr. Dintenklek."
+
+[Footnote 14: A kind of dainty bit suitable to this "holy" occasion.]
+
+[Footnote 15: A popular air sung in the streets.]
+
+Two or three assistants joined in the refrain, of which I did not
+understand a word; but as Marton uttered the final words, "Alas Mr.
+Dintenklek," his gestures were such as to lead me to suspect that this
+Mr. Dintenklek must be some very ridiculous figure in the eye of baker's
+assistants.
+
+"Why, of course, Henrik must learn law. The old man says he, too, might
+have become a councillor if he had concluded his studies at school.
+What a blessing he did not. As it is, he almost murders us with his
+learning. He is always showing off how much Latin he knows. Yes, the old
+man Latinizes."
+
+As he said this Marton could scarcely control the skin of his head, so
+often did he have to twitch his eyebrows in order to express the above
+opinion, which he held about his master's pedantry.
+
+Then with a sudden suspicion he turned to me:
+
+"You don't wish to be a councillor, I suppose?"
+
+I earnestly assured him that, on the contrary, I was preparing for a
+vacancy in the county.
+
+"Oho! lieutenant-governor? That is different, quite another thing;
+travelling in a coach. No putting on of mud boots when it is muddy. That
+I allow." And, in order to show how deep a respect he bore towards my
+presumptive office position, he drew his eyebrows up so high that his
+cap fell back upon his neck.
+
+"Enough of dough-kneading for the present, Master Henrik. Go back to
+your room and write out your 'pensum,' for you will again be forbidden
+breakfast, if it is not ready."
+
+Henrik did not listen to him, but worked away for all the world as if he
+was not being addressed.
+
+Meanwhile Marton was cutting a large piece of dough into bits of exactly
+equal size, out of which the "Vienna" rolls were to be formed. This
+delicate piece of work needs an accurate eye to avoid cheating either
+one's master or the public.
+
+"You see, he is at home here; he does not want his books. And there is
+nothing more beautiful, more refined than our art; nothing more
+remunerative; we deal with the blessing of God, for we prepare the daily
+bread. The Lord's Prayer includes the baker, 'Give us this day our daily
+bread.' Is there any mention anywhere of butchers, of tailors or of
+cobblers? Well, does anyone pray for meat, for coats, or for books? Let
+me hear about him. But they do pray for their daily bread, don't they?
+And does the prayer-book say anything concerning councillors? What? Who
+knows anything on that score?"
+
+Some young assistant interrupted: "Why, of course, 'but deliver us from
+the evil one.'"
+
+This caused everybody to laugh; it caused Henrik to spoil his buns,
+which had to be kneaded afresh. He was annoyed by the idea that he had
+learned all he had merely in order to be ridiculed here in the bakery.
+
+"Ha, yes," remarked Master Marton, smiling. "It is a great misfortune
+that a man is never asked how he wishes to die, but a still greater
+misfortune if he is not asked how he wishes to live. My father destined
+me to be a butcher. I learned the whole trade. Then I suddenly grew
+tired of all that ox-slaughtering, and cow-skinning. I was always
+fascinated by these beautiful brown-backed rolls in the shop-window;
+whenever I passed before the confectionery window, the pleasant warm
+bread-odors just invited me in:--until at last I deserted my trade, and
+joined Father Fromm. At that time my moustache and beard were already
+sprouting, but I have never regretted my determination. Whenever I look
+at my clean, white shirt, I am delighted at the idea that I have not to
+sprinkle it with blood, and wear the blood-stained garment the rest of
+the day. Everyone should follow his own bent, should he not, Henrik?"
+
+"True," muttered the youth in a tone of anger. "And yet the butcher's
+trade is as far above the councillor's as the weather-cock on St.
+Michael's tower is above our own vane. I do not like blood on my hands,
+yet at least I could wash it off; but if a drop of ink gets on my finger
+from my pen, for three days no pumice stone would induce it to depart.
+Yes, it is a glorious thing to be a baker's assistant."
+
+Marton now busied himself in shovelling several dozen loaves of white
+bread into the heated oven. Meantime the whole "menage" commenced with
+one voice to sing a peculiar air, which I had already heard several
+times resounding through the bakers' windows.
+
+It runs as follows:
+
+    "Oh, the kneading trough is fine,
+    Very beautiful and fine.
+
+    Straight and crooked, round in form
+    Thin and long, three-legged too,
+    Here's a stork, and here's a 'ticker,'
+    While here's a pair of snuffers too,
+    Stork and ticker, snuffers too,
+    Bottles, tipsy Michael with them.
+    Bottles, tipsy Michael with them,
+    Stork and ticker, snuffers too,
+    Thin and long, three-legged too,
+    Straight and crooked, round in form.
+
+    Oh! the kneading trough is fine,
+    Very beautiful and fine."
+
+They sang this air with such a passionate earnestness that, to this day
+I must believe, was caused, not by the beauty of the verses, or the
+corresponding melody, but rather by some superstitious feeling that
+their chanting would prevent the plague infecting the bread while it was
+baking, or perhaps the air served as an hour-glass telling them by its
+termination that now was the time to take the bread out of the oven. As
+they who are wont to use the Lord's Prayer for the boiling of eggs--God
+save the mark.
+
+Henrik joined in. I saw he had no longer any idea of finishing his
+school tasks, and when the "Oh, the kneading trough" began anew, I left
+him in the bakery, and went upstairs to our room. On the table lay
+Henrik's unfortunate exercise-book open, full of corrections made in a
+different ink; of the new exercise only the first line had been begun.
+Immediately I collected the words wanted from a dictionary, and wrote
+the translation down on a piece of paper.
+
+Not till an hour later did he return from the scene of his operations,
+and even then did not know to what he should turn his hand first. Great
+was his delight, then, to see the task already finished; he merely had
+to copy it.
+
+He gazed at me with a curious peevishness and said: "Guter kerl."[16]
+
+[Footnote 16: Good fellow.]
+
+From his countenance I could not gather what he had said but the word
+kerl made me prepare myself for a repetition of the struggle of
+yesterday, for which I did not feel the least inclination.
+
+Scarcely was the copying ready when the steps of Father Fromm resounded
+on the staircase. Henrik hastily thrust my writing into his pockets and
+was poring over the open book, when the old man halted before the door,
+so that when he opened it, such a noise resounded in the room as if
+Henrik were trying to drive an army of locusts out of the country: "his
+abacem."
+
+"Ergo, ergo; quomodo?" said the old man, placing the palm of his hand
+upon my head. I saw that this was his manner of showing affection.
+
+I ventured to utter my first German word, answering his query with a
+"Guter morgen;"[17] at which the old fellow shook his head and laughed.
+I could not imagine why. Perhaps I had expressed myself badly, or had
+astonished him with my rapid progress?
+
+[Footnote 17: Correctly, "Guten Morgen" (wunsch ich): "I wish (you) (a)
+good morning."]
+
+He did not enlighten me on the subject; instead he turned with a severe
+confessorial face to Henrik: "No ergo! Quid ergo? Quid seis? Habes
+pensum? Nebulo!"
+
+Henrik tried whether he could move the skin of his head like Master
+Marton did, when he spoke of Mr. Fromm's Latin. For the sake of greater
+security he first of all displayed the written exercise to his father,
+thinking it better to leave his weaker side until later.
+
+Father Fromm gazed at the deep learning with a critical eye, then
+graciously expressed his approval.
+
+"Bonus, Bonus."
+
+But the lesson?
+
+That bitter piece!
+
+Even yesterday, when he had only to recite them to the little snub-nose,
+Henrik did not know the verses, and to-day, the book was in the old
+man's hand! If he had merely taken the book in his hands! But with his
+disengaged hand he held a ruler with the evident intention of
+immediately pulling the boy up, if he made a mistake.
+
+Poor Henrik, of course, did not know a single word. He gazed ever
+askance at Father Fromm's ruler, and when he reached the first obstacle,
+as the old fellow raised the ruler, probably merely with the intention
+of striking Henrik's mental capacity into action by startling him,
+Henrik was no more to be seen; he was under the bed, where he had
+managed to hide his long body with remarkable agility; nor would he come
+forth until Father Fromm promised he would not hurt him, and would take
+him to breakfast.
+
+And Father Fromm kept the conditions of the armistice, only verbally
+denouncing the boy as he wriggled out of his fortress; I did not
+understand what he said, I only gathered by his grimaces and gestures
+that he was annoyed over the matter--by my presence.
+
+The morning was spent in visiting professors. The director was a
+strongly-built, bony-faced, moustached man, with a high, bald forehead,
+broad-chested, and when he spoke, he did not spare his voice, but always
+talked as if he were preaching. He was very well satisfied with our
+school certificates, and made no secret of it. He assured grandmother he
+would take care of us and deal severely with us. He would not allow us
+to go astray in this town. He would often visit us at our homes; that
+was his custom; and any student convicted of disorderliness would be
+punished.
+
+"Are the boys musicians?" he asked grandmother in harsh tones.
+
+"Oh, yes; the one plays the piano, the other the violin."
+
+The director struck the middle of the table with his fist: "I am
+sorry--but I cannot allow violin playing under any circumstances."
+
+Lorand ventured to ask, "Why not?"
+
+"Why not, indeed? Because that is the fountain-head of all mischief. The
+book, not the violin, is for the student. What do you wish to be? a
+gypsy, or a scholar? The violin betrays students into every kind of
+mischief. How do I know? Why, I see examples of it every day. The
+student takes the violin under his coat, and goes with it to the inn,
+where he plays for other students who dance there till morning with
+loose girls. So I break into fragments every violin I find. I don't ask
+whether it was dear; I dash it to the ground. I have already smashed
+violins of high value."
+
+Grandmother saw it would be wiser not to allow Lorand to answer, so she
+hastened to anticipate him:
+
+"Why, it is not the elder boy, sir, who plays the violin, but this
+younger one; besides, neither has been so trained as to wish to go to
+any undesirable place of amusement."
+
+"That does not matter. The little one has still less need of scraping.
+Besides, I know the student; at home he makes saintly faces, as if he
+would not disturb water, but when once let loose, be it in an inn, be it
+in a coffee-house, there he will sit beside his beer, and join in a
+competition, to see who is the greatest tippler, shout and sing
+'Gaudeamus igitur.' That is why I don't allow students to carry violins
+under their top-coats to inns, under any circumstances. I break the
+violin in pieces, and have the top-coat cut into a covert-coat. A
+student with a top-coat! That's only for an army officer. Then, I cannot
+suffer anyone to wear sharp-pointed boots which are especially made for
+dancing; flat-toed boots are for honest men; no one must come to my
+school in pointed boots, for I put his foot on the bench and cut away
+the points."
+
+Grandmother hurried her visit to prevent Lorand having an opportunity of
+giving answer to the worthy man, who carried his zeal in the defence of
+morality to such a pitch as to break up violins, have top-coats cut
+down, and cut off the points of pointed boots.
+
+It was a good habit of mine (long, long ago, in my childhood days), to
+regard as sacred anything a man, who had the right to my obedience,
+might say. When we came away from the director's presence, I whispered
+to Lorand in a distressed tone:
+
+"Your boots seem to me a little too pointed."
+
+"Henceforward I shall have them made still more pointed," replied
+Lorand,--an answer with which I was not at all satisfied.
+
+In my eyes every serious man was surrounded by a "nimbus" of
+infallibility; no one had ever enlightened me on the fact that
+serious-minded men had themselves once been young, and had learned the
+student jargon of Heidelberg; that this director himself, after a noisy
+youth, had arrived at the idea that every young man has malicious
+propensities, and that what seems good in him is only make-believe, and
+so he must be treated with the severity of military discipline.
+
+Then we proceeded to pay a visit to my class-master, who was the exact
+opposite of the director: a slight, many-cornered little man, with long
+hair brushed back, smooth shaved face, and such a thin, sweet voice that
+one might have taken every word of his as a supplication. And he was so
+familiar in his dealings with us. He received us in a dressing gown, but
+when he saw a lady was with us, he hastily changed that for a black
+coat, and asked pardon--why, I do not know.
+
+Then he attempted to drive a host of little children out of his room,
+but without success. They clung to his hands and arms and he could not
+shake them off; he called out to some lady to come and help him. A
+sleepy face appeared at the other door, and suddenly withdrew on seeing
+us. Finally, at grandmother's request, he allowed the children to
+remain.
+
+Mr. Schmuck was an excellent "paterfamilias," and took great care of
+children. His study was crammed with toys; he received us with great
+tenderness, and I remember well that he patted me on the head.
+
+Grandmother immediately became more confident of this good man than she
+had been of his colleague, whom we had previously visited. For he was
+so fond of his own children. To him she related the secret that made her
+heart sad; explained why we were in mourning; told him that father was
+unfortunately dead, and that we were the sole hopes of our sickly
+mother; that up till now our behaviors had been excellent, and finally
+asked him to take care of me, the younger.
+
+The good fellow clasped his hands and assured grandmother that he would
+make a great man of me, especially if I would come to him privately;
+that he might devote particular attention to the development of my
+talents. This private tuition would not come to more than seven florins
+a month. And that is not much for the whetting of one's mind; as much
+might be paid even for the grinding of scissors.
+
+Grandmother, her spirits depressed by the previous reception, timidly
+ventured to introduce the remark that I had a certain inclination for
+the violin, but she did not know whether it was allowed?
+
+The good man did not allow her to speak further. "Of course, of course.
+Music ennobles the soul, music calms the inclinations of the mind. Even
+in the days of Pythagoras lectures were closed by music. He who indulges
+in music is always in the society of good spirits. And here it will be
+very cheap; it will not cost more than six florins[18] a month, as my
+children have a music-master of their own."
+
+[Footnote 18: 1 florin equals 2s English money or 40 cents.]
+
+Dear grandmother, seeing his readiness to acquiesce, thought it good to
+make some more requests (this is always the way with a discontented
+people, too, when it meets with ready acquiescence in the powers that
+be). She remarked that perhaps I might be allowed to learn dancing.
+
+"Why, nothing could be more natural," was the answer of the gracious
+man. "Dancing goes hand-in-hand with music; even in Greek days it was
+the choral revellers that were accompanied by the harp. In the classics
+there is frequent mention of the dance. With the Romans it belonged to
+culture, and according to tradition even holy David danced. In the world
+of to-day it is just indispensable, especially to a young man. An
+innocent enjoyment! One form of bodily exercise. It is indispensable
+that the young man of to-day shall step, walk, stand properly, and be
+able to bow and dance, and not betray at once, on his appearance, that
+he has come from some school of pedantry. And in this respect I obey the
+tendency of the age. My own children all learn to dance, and as the
+dancing-master comes here in any case my young friend may as well join
+my children; it will not cost more than five florins."
+
+Grandmother was extraordinarily contented with the bargain; she found
+everything quite cheap.
+
+"By cooeperation everything becomes cheap. A true mental 'menage.' Many
+learn together, and each pays a trifle. If you wish my young friend to
+learn drawing, it will not cost more than four florins; four hours
+weekly, together with the others. Perhaps you will not find it
+superfluous, that our young friend should make acquaintance with the
+more important European languages; he can learn, under the supervision
+oL mature teachers, English and French, at a cost of not more than three
+florins, three hours a week. And if my young friend has a few hours to
+spare, he cannot do better than spend them in the gymnasium; gymnastic
+exercise is healthy, it encourages the development of the muscles along
+with that of the brain, and it does not cost anything, only ten florins
+entrance fee."
+
+Grandmother was quite overcome by this thoughtfulness. She left
+everything in order and paid in advance.
+
+I do not wish anyone to come to the conclusion, from the facts stated
+above, that in course of time I shall come to boast what a Paganini I
+became in time, what a Mezzofanti as a linguist, what a Buonarotti in
+art, what a Vestris in the dance, or what a Michael Toddy in fencing:--I
+hasten to remark that I do not even yet understand anything of all
+these things. I have only to relate how they taught them to me.
+
+When I went to my private lessons--"together with the others"--the
+professor was not at home; we indulged in an hour's wrestling.
+
+When I went to my dancing lessons--"together with the others"--the
+dancing master was missing: again an hour's wrestling.
+
+During the French lessons we again wrestled, and during the drawing and
+violin hours we spent our time exactly as we did during the other hours;
+so that when the gymnastic lessons came round we had no more heart for
+wrestling.
+
+I did just learn to swim,--in secret, seeing that it was prohibited, and
+truly without paying:--unless I may count as a forfeit penalty that mass
+of water I swallowed once, when I was nearly drowned in the Danube. None
+even dared to acquaint the people at home with the fact; Lorand saved
+me, but he never boasted of his feat.
+
+As we left the house of this very kind man, who quite overcame
+grandmother and us, with his gracious and amiable demeanors, Lorand
+said:
+
+"From this hour I begin to greatly esteem the first professor: he is a
+noble, straight-forward fellow."
+
+I did not understand his meaning--that is, I did not wish to understand.
+Perhaps he wished to slight "my" professor.
+
+According to my ethical principles it was purely natural that each
+student should admire and love that professor who was the director of
+his own class, and if one class is secretly at war with another, the
+only reason can be that the professor of one class is the opponent of
+the other. My kingdom is the foe of thy kingdom, so my soldiers are the
+enemies of thy soldiers.
+
+I began to look at Lorand in the light of some such hostile soldier.
+
+Fortunately the events that followed drove all these ideas out of my
+head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY RIGHT HONORABLE UNCLE
+
+
+We were invited to dine with the Privy Councillor Balnokhazy, at whose
+house my brother was to take up his residence.
+
+He was some very distant relation of ours; however, he received a
+payment for Lorand's board, seven hundred florins, a nice sum of money
+in those days.
+
+My pride was the greatest that my brother was living in a privy
+councillor's house, and, if my school-fellows asked me where I lived, I
+never omitted to mention the fact that "my brother was living with
+Balnokhazy, P. C.," while I myself had taken up my abode merely with a
+baker.
+
+Baker Fromm was indeed very sorry that we were not dining "at home." At
+least they might have left me alone there. That he did not turn to stone
+as he uttered these words was not my fault; at least I fixed upon him
+such basilisk eyes as I was capable of. What an idea! To refuse a dinner
+with my P. C. uncle for his sake! Grandmother, too, discovered that I
+also must be presented there.
+
+We ordered a carriage for 1:30; of course we could not with decency go
+to the P. C.'s on foot. Grandmother fastened my embroidered shirt under
+my waistcoat, and I was vain enough to allow the little pugnose to
+arrange my tie. She really could make pretty bows, I thought. As I gazed
+at myself in the looking-glass, I found that I should be a handsome boy
+when I had put on my silver-buttoned attila.[19] And if only my hair
+was curled! Still I was completely convinced that in the whole town
+there did not exist any more such silver-buttoned attilas as mine.
+
+[Footnote 19: The coat worn by the hussars, forming part, as it does, of
+all real Magyar _levee_ dresses.]
+
+Only it annoyed me to watch the little pugnose careering playfully round
+me. How she danced round me, without any attempt to conceal the fact
+that I took her fancy; and how that hurt my pride!
+
+At the bottom of the stairs the comical Henrik was waiting for me, with
+a large brush in his hand. He assured me that my attila had become
+floury--surely from Fanny's apron, for that was always floury--and that
+he must brush it off. I only begged him not to touch my collar with the
+hair brush; for that a silk brush was required, as it was velvet.
+
+I believe I set some store by the fact that the collar of my attila was
+velvet.
+
+From the arched doorway old Marton, too, called after me, as we took our
+seats, "Good appetite, Master Sheriff!" and five or six times moved his
+cap up and down on the top of his head.
+
+How I should have loved to break his nose! Why is he compromising me
+here before my brother? He might know that when I am in full dress I
+deserve far greater respect from when he sees me before him in my night
+clothes.--But so it is with those whose business lies in flour.
+
+But let us speak no more of bakers; let us soar into higher regions.
+
+Our carriage stopped somewhere in the neighborhood of the House of
+Parliament, where there was a two-storied house, in which the P. C.
+lived.
+
+The butler--pardon! the chamberlain--was waiting for us downstairs at
+the gate (it is possible that it was not for us he was waiting). He
+conducted us up the staircase; from the staircase to the porch; from the
+porch to the anteroom; from the anteroom to the drawing-room, where our
+host was waiting to receive us.
+
+I used to think that at home we were elegant people--that we lodged and
+lived in style; but how poor I felt we were as we went through the rooms
+of the Balnokhazys. The splendor only incited my admiration and wonder,
+which was abruptly terminated by the arrival of the host and hostess and
+their daughter, Melanie, by three different doors. The P. C. was a tall,
+portly man, broad-shouldered, with black eyebrows, ruddy cheeks, a
+coal-black moustache curled upward; he formed the very ideal I had
+pictured to myself of a P. C. His hair also was of a beautiful black,
+fashionably dressed.
+
+He greeted us in a voice rich and stentorian; kissed grandmother;
+offered his hand to my brother, who shook it; while he allowed me to
+kiss his hand.
+
+What an enormous turquoise ring there was on his finger!
+
+Then my right honorable aunt came into our presence. I can say that
+since that day I have never seen a more beautiful woman. She was then
+twenty-three years of age; I know quite surely. Her beautiful face, its
+features preserved with the enamel of youth, seemed almost that of a
+young girl; her long blonde tresses waved around it; her lips, of
+graceful symmetry, always ready for a smile; her large, dark blue, and
+melancholy eyes shadowed by her long eyelashes; her whole form seemed
+not to walk--rather fluttered and glided; and the hand which she gave me
+to kiss was transparent as alabaster.
+
+My cousin Melanie was truly a little angel. Her first appearance, to me,
+was a phenomenon. Methinks no imagination could picture anything more
+lovely, more ethereal than her whole form. She was not yet more than
+eight years of age, but her stature gave her the appearance of some ten
+years. She was slender, and surely must have had some hidden wings, else
+it were impossible she could have fluttered as she did upon those
+symmetrical feet. Her face was fine and _distingue_, her eyes artful and
+brilliant; her lips were endowed with such gifts already--not merely of
+speaking four or five languages--such silent gifts as brought me beside
+myself. That child-mouth could smile enchantingly with encouraging
+calmness, could proudly despise, could pout with displeasure, could
+offer tacit requests, could muse in silent melancholy, could indulge in
+enthusiastic rapture--could love and hate.
+
+How often have I dreamed of that lovely mouth! how often seen it in my
+waking hours! how many horrible Greek words have I learned while musing
+thereon!
+
+I could not describe that dinner at the Balnokhazys to the end. Melanie
+sat beside me, and my whole attention was directed toward her.
+
+How refined was her behavior! how much elegance there was in every
+movement of hers! I could not succeed in learning enough from her. When,
+after eating, she wiped her lips with the napkin, it was as if spirits
+were exchanging kisses with the mist. Oh, how interminably silly and
+clumsy I was beside her! My hand trembled when I had to take some dish.
+Terrible was the thought that I might perchance drop the spoon from my
+hand and stain her white muslin dress with the sauce. She, for her part,
+seemed not to notice me; or, on the contrary, rather, was quite sure of
+the fact that beside her was sitting now a living creature, whom she had
+conquered, rendered dumb and transformed. If I offered her something,
+she could refuse so gracefully; and if I filled her glass, she was so
+polite when she thanked me.
+
+No one busied himself very particularly with me. A young boy at my age
+is just the most useless article; too big to be played with, and not big
+enough to be treated seriously. And the worst of it is that he feels it
+himself. Every boy of twelve years has the same ambition--"If only I
+were older already!"
+
+Now, however, I say, "If I could only be twelve years old still!" Yet at
+that time it was a great burden to me. And how many years have passed
+since then!
+
+Only toward the end of dinner, when the younger generation also were
+allowed to sip some sweet wine from their tiny glasses, did I find the
+attention of the company drawn toward me; and it was a curious case.
+
+The butler filled my glass also. The clear golden-colored liquor
+scintillated so temptingly before me in the cut glass, my little
+neighbor would so enchantingly deepen the ruddiness of her lips with the
+liquor from her glass, that an extraordinarily rash idea sprang up
+within me.
+
+I determined to raise my glass, clink glasses with Melanie, and say to
+her, "Your health, dear cousin Melanie." The blood rushed into my
+temples as I conceived the idea.
+
+I was already about to take my glass, when I cast one look at Melanie's
+face, and in that moment she gazed upon me with such disheartening pride
+that in terror I withdrew my hand from my glass. It was probably this
+hesitating movement of mine that attracted the P. C.'s attention, for he
+deigned to turn to me with the following condescending remark (intended
+perhaps for an offer):
+
+"Well, nephew, won't you try this wine?" With undismayed determination I
+answered:
+
+"No."
+
+"Perhaps you don't wish to drink wine?"
+
+Cato did not utter the phrase "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa
+Catoni," with more resolution than that with which I answered:
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Oho! you will never drink wine? We shall see how you keep your word in
+the course of time!"
+
+And that is why I kept my word. Till to-day I have never touched wine.
+Probably that first fit of obstinacy caused my determination; in a word,
+slighted in the first glass, I never touched again any kind of pressed,
+distilled, or burnt beverage. So perhaps my house lost in me an
+after-dinner celebrity.
+
+"Don't be ashamed, nephew," encouragingly continued my uncle; "this wine
+is allowed to the young also, if they dip choice Pressburg biscuits in
+it; it is a very celebrated biscuit, prepared by M. Fromm."
+
+My blood rose to my cheeks. M. Fromm! My host! Immediately the
+conversation will turn upon him, and they will mention that I am living
+with him; furthermore, they will relate that he has a little pug-nosed
+daughter, that they are going to exchange me with her. I should sink
+beneath the earth for very shame before my cousin Melanie! And surely,
+one has only to fear something and it will indeed come to pass.
+Grandmother was thoughtless enough to discover immediately what I wished
+to conceal, with these words:
+
+"Desiderius is going to live with that very man."
+
+"Ha ha!" laughed uncle, in high humor (his laughter penetrated my very
+marrow). "With the celebrated 'Zwieback'[20] baker! Why, he can teach my
+nephew to bake Pressburg biscuits."
+
+[Footnote 20: Biscuit.]
+
+How I was scalded and reduced to nothing, how I blushed before Melanie!
+The idea of my learning to bake biscuits from M. Fromm! I should never
+be able to wash myself clean of that suspicion.
+
+In my despair I found myself looking at Lorand. He also was looking at
+me. His gaze has remained lividly imprinted in my memory. I understood
+what he said with his eyes. He called me coward, miserable, and
+sensitive, for allowing the jests of great men to bring blushes to my
+cheeks. He was a democrat always!
+
+When he saw that I was blushing, he turned obstinately toward
+Balnokhazy, to reply for me.
+
+But I was not the only one who read his thoughts in his eyes; another
+also read therein, and before he could have spoken, my beautiful aunt
+took the words out of his mouth, and with lofty dignity replied to her
+husband:
+
+"Methinks the baker is just as good a man as the privy councillor."
+
+I shivered at the bold statement. I imagined that for these words the
+whole company would be arrested and thrown into prison.
+
+Balnokhazy, with smiling tenderness, bent down to his wife's hand and,
+kissing it, said:
+
+"As a man, truly, just as good a man; but as a baker, a better baker
+than I."
+
+Now it was Lorand's turn to crimson. He riveted his eyes upon my aunt's
+face.
+
+My right honorable uncle hastened immediately to close the rencontre
+with a vanquishing kiss upon my aunt's snow-white hand, a fact which
+convinced me that their mutual love was endless. In general, I behaved
+with remarkable respect toward that great relation of ours, who lived in
+such beautiful apartments, and whose titles would not be contained in
+three lines.
+
+I was completely persuaded that Balnokhazy, my uncle, had few superiors
+in celebrity in the world, for personal beauty (except, perhaps, my
+brother Lorand) none; his wife was the most beautiful and happiest woman
+under the sun; and my cousin Melanie such an angel that, if she did not
+raise me up to heaven, I should surely never reach those climes.
+
+And if some one had said to me then, "Let us begin at the beginning;
+that rich hair on Balnokhazy's head is but a wig," I should have
+demanded pardon for interrupting: I can find nothing of the least
+importance to say against the wearing of wigs. They are worn by those
+who have need of them; by those whose heads would be cold without them,
+who catch rheumatism easily with uncovered head. Finally, it is nought
+else but a head-covering for one of aesthetic tastes; a cap made of hair.
+
+This is all true, all earnest truth; and yet I was greatly embittered
+against that some one who discovered to me for the first time that my
+uncle Balnokhazy wore a wig, and painted his moustache (with some
+colored unguent, of course, nothing else). And I am still the enemy of
+that some one who repeated that before me. He might have left me in
+happy ignorance.
+
+Even if some one had said that this showy wealth, which indicated a
+noble affluence, was also such a mere wig as the other, covering the
+baldness of his riches; if some one had said that these hand-kissing
+companions, in whose every word was melody when they spoke the one to
+the other, that they did not love, but hated and despised one another;
+if some one had said that this lovely, ideal angel of mine even--but no
+farther, not so much at once!
+
+At the end of dinner our noble relations were so gracious as to permit
+my cousin Melanie to play the piano before us. She was only eight years
+old as yet, still she could play as beautifully as other girls of nine
+years.
+
+I had very rarely heard a piano; at home mother played sometimes, though
+she did not much care for it. Lorand merely murdered the scales, which
+was not at all entertaining for me.
+
+My cousin Melanie executed opera selections, and a French quadrille
+which excited my extremest admiration. My beautiful aunt laid stress
+upon the fact that she had only studied two years. A very intricate plan
+began to develop within me.
+
+Melanie played the piano, I the violin. Nothing could be more natural
+than that I should come here with my violin to play an obligato to
+Melanie's piano; and if afterward we played violin and piano together
+perseveringly for eight or nine years, it would be impossible that we
+should not in the end reach the goal of life on that road.
+
+In consequence I strove to display my usefulness by turning over the
+leaves of the music for her; and my pride was greatly hurt by the fact
+that my noble relations did not ask grandmother how I understood how to
+read music. Finally the end came to this, as to every good thing; my
+cousin Melanie was not quite "up" in the remaining pieces, though I
+would have listened even to half-learned pieces, but my grandmother was
+getting ready to return to the Fromms'. The Balnokhazys asked her to
+spend the night with them, but she replied that she had been there
+before, and that I was there too; and she would remain with the younger.
+I detested myself so for the idea that I was a drag upon my good
+grandmother; why, I ought to have kissed the dust upon her feet for
+those words:
+
+"I shall remain with the younger." My brother I envied, who for his part
+was "at home" with the P. C.
+
+When I kissed my relations' hands at parting, Balnokhazy thrust a silver
+dollar[21] into my hand, adding with magnificent munificence:
+
+[Footnote 21: Thaler.]
+
+"For a little poppy-cake, you know."
+
+Why, it is true, that in Pressburg very fine poppy-biscuits are made;
+and it is also true, that many poppy-goodies might be bought, a few at a
+time, for a dollar; likewise I cannot deny that so much money had never
+been in my hand, as my very own, to spend as I liked. I would not have
+exchanged it for two other dollars, if it had not been given me before
+Melanie. I felt that it degraded me in her eyes. I could not discover
+what to do with that dollar. I scarce dared to look at Melanie when he
+departed; still I remarked that she did not look at me either when I
+left.
+
+At the door Lorand seized my hand.
+
+"Desi," said he severely, "that thing that the P. C. thrust into your
+hand you must give to the butler, when he opens the carriage door."
+
+I liked the idea. By that they would know who I was; and my eyes would
+no longer be downcast before cousin Melanie.
+
+But, when I thrust the dollar into the butler's hand, I was so
+embarrassed by his matter-of-fact grandeur that any one who had seen us
+might have thought the butler had presented me with something. I hoped
+uncle would not exclude me from his house for that.
+
+Long did that quadrille sound in my ears; long did that
+phenomenon-pianist haunt me; how long I cannot tell!
+
+She was the standard of my ambition, the prize of a long race, which
+must be won. In my imagination the whole world thronged before her. I
+saw the roads by which one might reach her.
+
+I too wished to be a man like them. I would learn diligently; I would be
+the first "eminence" in the school, my teacher would take pride in me,
+and would say at the public examination: "This will be a great man some
+day." I would pass my barrister's exams, with distinction; would serve
+my time under a sheriff; would court the acquaintance of great men of
+distinction; would win their favor by my gentle, humble conduct; I would
+be ready to serve; any work intrusted to me I would punctually perform;
+would not mix in evil company; would make my talent shine; would write
+odes of encomium, panegyrics, on occasions of note; till finally, I
+should myself, like my uncle, become "secretarius," "assessor,"
+"septemvir," and "consiliarius."
+
+Ha, ha, ha!
+
+When we returned to Master Fromm's, the delicate attention of little
+Miss Pugnose was indeed burdensome. She would prattle all kinds of
+nonsense. She asked of what the fine dinner consisted; whether it was
+true that the daughter of the "consiliarius" had a doll that danced,
+played the guitar, and nodded its head. Ridiculous! As if people of such
+an age as Melanie and I interested themselves in dolls! I told Henrik to
+interpret this to her; I observed that it put her in a bad temper, and
+rejoiced that I had got rid of her.
+
+I remarked that I must go and study, and the lesson was long. So I went
+to my room and began to study. Two hours later I observed that nothing
+of what I had learnt remained in my head; every place was full of that
+councillor's daughter.
+
+In the evening we again assembled in Master Fromm's dining-room. Fanny
+again sat next to me, was again in good humor, treating me as familiarly
+as if we had been the oldest acquaintances; I was already frightened of
+her. It would be dreadful for the Balnokhazys to suspect that one had a
+baker's daughter as an acquaintance, always ready to jump upon one's
+neck when she saw one.
+
+Well, fortunately she would be taken away next day, and then would be
+far away, as long as I remained in the house; we should be like two
+opposite poles, that avoid each other.
+
+Before bedtime grandmother came into the room once more. She gave me my
+effects, counted over my linen. She gave me pocket-money, promising to
+send me some every month with Lorand's.
+
+"Then I beg you," she whispered in my ear, "take care of Lorand!"
+
+Again that word!
+
+Again that hint that I, the child, must take care of my brother, the
+young man! But the second time the meaning, which the first time I had
+not understood, burst at once clearly upon me; at first I thought,
+"Perhaps some mistaken wisdom or serious conduct on my part has deserved
+this distinction of looking after my brother." Now I discovered that the
+best guardian was eternal love; and mother and grandmother knew well
+that I loved Lorand better than he loved himself.
+
+And indeed, what cause had they to fear for him? And from what could I
+defend him?
+
+Was he not living in the best place in the world? And did I not live far
+from him?
+
+Grandmother exacted from me a promise to write a diary of all that
+happened about us, and to send the same to her at the end of each month.
+I was to write all about Lorand too; for he himself was a very bad
+letter-writer.
+
+I promised.
+
+Then we kissed and took leave. They had to start early in the morning.
+
+But the next day, when the carriage stood at the door, I was waiting
+ready dressed for them.
+
+The whole Fromm family came down to the carriage to say adieu to the
+travellers.
+
+That girl who was going to occupy my place was sad herself. Methought
+she was much more winning, when sadness made her eyes downcast.
+
+One could see from her eyes that she had been weeping, that she was even
+now forcibly restraining herself from weeping. She spoke a few short
+words to me, and then disappeared behind grandmother in the carriage.
+
+The whip cracked, the horses started, and my substitute departed for my
+dear home, while I remained in her place.
+
+As I pondered for the first time over my great isolation, in a place
+where everybody was a stranger to me, and did not even understand my
+speech, at once all thought of the great man, the violin-virtuoso, the
+first eminence, the P. C., the heroic lover, disappeared from within me;
+I leaned my head against the wall, and would have wept could I have done
+so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ATHEIST AND THE HYPOCRITE
+
+
+Let us leave for a while the journal of the student child, and examine
+the circumstances of the family circle, whose history we are relating.
+
+There was living at Lankadomb an old heretic Samuel Topandy by name, who
+was related equally to the Balnokhazy and Aronffy families;
+notwithstanding this, the latter would never visit him on account of his
+conspicuously bad habits. His surroundings were of the most unfortunate
+description, and in distant parts it was told of him that he was an
+atheist of the most pronounced type.
+
+But do not let any one think that the more modern freedom of thought had
+perhaps made Topandy cling to things long past, or that out of mental
+rationalism he had attempted, as a philosopher, to place his mind far
+beyond the visible tenets of religion. He was an atheist merely for his
+own amusement, that, by his denial of God, he might annoy those
+people--priests and the powers that be--with whom he came in contact.
+
+For to annoy, and successfully annoy, has always been held as an
+amusement among frail humanity. And what can more successfully annoy
+than the ridiculing of that which a man worships?
+
+The County Court had just put in a judicial "deed of execution," and had
+sent a magistrate, and a lawyer, supported by a posse of twelve armed
+gendarmes, for the purpose of putting an end, once for all, to those
+scandals, by which Topandy had for years been arousing the indignation
+of the souls of the faithful, causing them to send complaint after
+complaint in to the court.
+
+Topandy offered cigars to the official "bailiffs." The magistrate,
+Michael Daruszegi, a young man of thirty, appeared to be still younger
+from his fair face. They had sent the under, not the chief magistrate,
+because he was a new hand, and would be more zealous. There is more
+firmness in a young man, and firmness was necessary when face to face
+with the disbeliever in God.
+
+"We did not come here to smoke, sir," was the dry reply of the young
+officer. "We are on official business."
+
+"The devil take official business. Don't 'sir' me, my dear fellow, but
+come, let us drink a 'chartreuse,' and then tell your business, in
+company with the lawyer, to my steward. If money is required, break open
+the granaries, take as much wheat as will settle your claims, then dine
+with me; there will be some more good fellows, who are coming for a
+little music. And to-morrow morning we can make out the report and enter
+it in the protocol."
+
+As he said this he kept continuous hold on the "bailiff's" wrist, and
+led him inward into the inner room: and as he was far stronger by nature
+than the latter, it practically amounted to the leader of the attacking
+force being taken prisoner.
+
+"I protest! I forbid every kind of confidence! This is serious
+business!"
+
+In vain did the magistrate protest against his enforced march.
+
+Soon the second part of the "legale testimonium;" Mr. Francis Butzkay,
+the lawyer, came to his aid with his stumpy, short-limbed figure: he had
+gazed for a time in passive inactivity at the fruitless struggle of his
+principal with the "in causam vocatus."
+
+"I hope the gentleman will not give cause for the use of force; for we
+shall fetter him hand and foot in such a manner that no better safeguard
+will be necessary." So saying, our friend the lawyer smiled
+complaisantly, all over his round face, looking, with his long
+moustache, for all the world like the moon, when a long cloud is
+crossing its surface.
+
+"Fetters indeed!" Topandy guffawed, "I should just like to see you! I
+beg you, pray put those fetters on me, merely for the sake of novelty,
+that I may be able to say: I also have had chains on me: at any rate on
+one of my legs, or one of my arms. It would be a damned fine amusement."
+
+"Sir," exclaimed the magistrate, freeing his hand. "You must learn to
+respect in us the 'powers that be.' We are your judges, sent by the
+County Court, entrusted with the task of putting an end to those
+scandals caused by you, which have filled every Christian soul with
+righteous indignation."
+
+Topandy raised his eyes in astonishment at the envoys of the "powers
+that be."
+
+"Oho, so it is not a case of a 'deed of execution?'"
+
+"By no means. It is a far more important matter that is at stake. The
+Court considers the atheistical irreligious 'attentats' have gone too
+far and therefore has sent us--"
+
+"--To preach me a sermon? No, sir magistrate, now you must really bring
+those irons, and put me in chains, and bind me, for unbound I will not
+listen to your sermon. Hold me down if you wish to preach words of
+devotion to me, for otherwise I shall bite, like a wild animal."
+
+The magistrate retreated, in spite of his youthful daring; but the
+lawyer only smiled gently and did not even take his hands from behind
+his back.
+
+"Really, sir, you must not get mad, or we shall have to take you to the
+Rokus hospital,[22] and put the strait-jacket on you."
+
+[Footnote 22: A hospital in Pest.]
+
+"The devil blight you!" roared Topandy, making for the two judges, and
+then retiring before the undisturbed smiling countenance of the lawyer.
+"Well, and what complaint has the Court to make of me? Have I stolen
+anything from anybody? Have I committed incendiarism? Have I committed a
+murder, that they come down so hard upon me?"
+
+The magistrate was a ready speaker: immediately he answered with:
+
+"Certainly, you have committed a theft: you have stolen the welfare of
+others' souls. Certainly you are an incendiary: you have set fire to the
+peace of faithful souls. Certainly you are a murderer: you have murdered
+the souls entrusted to you!"
+
+Topandy, seeing there was no escape, turned entreatingly to the
+gendarmes who accompanied the magistrate.
+
+"Boys, cherubims without wings, two of you come here and seize me, that
+I may not run away."
+
+They obeyed him and laid hands on him.
+
+"Well, my dear magistrate, fire away."
+
+The worthy magistrate was annoyed, that this sorry business could not in
+any way assume a serious aspect.
+
+"In the first place I come to see the execution of that judgment which
+the honorable Court has passed upon you."
+
+"I bow my head,"--growled Topandy in a tone of derisive subservience.
+
+"You have in your household youths and young girls growing up in various
+branches of service, who, born here, have never yet been baptized,
+thanks to your sinful neglect."
+
+"Excuse me, the general drying up of wells...."
+
+"Don't interrupt me," bawled the magistrate. "You should have produced
+your defence then and there, when and where you were accused; but as you
+did not appear at the appointed time, and obstinately procrastinated,
+you must listen to the sentence. All those boys and girls brought up
+within your premises must be taken into the country town and baptized
+according to the ordinances of religion."
+
+"Could not the matter be finished here at once by the spring?"
+
+The magistrate was beside himself with anger. But the good lawyer only
+smiled and said:
+
+"Pray, sir, show a little common sense. The County Court compels none,
+against his will, to be a Christian: still one must belong to some
+religion. So if your lordship will not take the trouble to go with his
+household to the 'pater,' well, we shall take him to the rabbi: that
+will do just as well."
+
+Topandy laughingly shook a menacing fist at the lawyer.
+
+"You're a great gibbet! You always manage me. Well, let us rather go to
+the 'pater' than to the rabbi; but at least let my servants keep their
+old names."
+
+"That is also inadmissible," answered the magistrate severely. "You have
+given your servants names, of a kind not usually borne by men. One is
+called Pirok,[23] another Czinke:[24] the name of one little girl--God
+save the mark--is Beelzebub! Who would register such names as these?
+They will all receive respectable names to be found in the Christian
+calendar; and any one, who dares to call them by the names they have
+hitherto borne shall pay as great a fine as if he had purposely
+calumniated a fellow-man. How many are there whom you have kept back in
+this manner from the water of Christianity?"
+
+[Footnote 23: Chaffinch.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Titmouse, names of birds given as pet names to these
+servants.]
+
+"Four butlers, three maid-servants and two parrots."
+
+"Perjurer! Your every word is spittle in the face of the true
+believers."
+
+"Oh, gag me. I beg you to save me from perjury."
+
+"Kindly call the people in question."
+
+Topandy turned round and called to his butler who stood behind him:
+
+"Produce Pirok, Estergalyos,[25] Sepruenyel,[26] then Kakukfue,[27] and
+Macskalab;[28] comfort them with the news that they are going to enter
+Heaven, and will receive a fur-coat, a pair of boots, and a good gourd,
+from which the wine will never fail: all the gift of the honorable
+County Court."
+
+[Footnote 25: Turner.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Broom.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Thyme.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Catsfoot.]
+
+"For my part," said the young representative of the law, standing on
+tip-toe, "I must ask you seriously to answer, with the moderation due to
+our presence, have you hidden any one?"
+
+"Whether I have stolen away someone on hell's account? No, my dear
+fellow, I don't court Satan's acquaintance either: let him catch men for
+himself, if he can."
+
+"I have a mandatum for your examination on oath."
+
+"Keep your mandatum in your pocket, and measure out thirty florins'
+worth of oats from my granary: that's the fine. For I don't intend to be
+examined on oath."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Of course. If you bid me, I will swear: I'm a rare hand at it; I can
+swear for half an hour at a stretch without repeating myself."
+
+Again the smiling lawyer intervened:
+
+"Give us your word of honor, then, that besides those produced, there is
+no servant in your household who has not yet been baptized."
+
+"Well, I give you my word of honor that there is not 'in my household'
+even a living creature who is a pagan."
+
+Topandy's word of honor only just escaped being broken for that
+gypsy-girl, whom he had bought in her sixth year from encamping gypsies
+for two dollars and a sucking pig, now, ten years later, did not belong
+any more to the household, but presided at table when gentlefolk came to
+dinner. But she still bore that heathen name, which she had received in
+the reedy thicket. She was still called Czipra.
+
+And the godless fellow had snatched her away from the water of
+Christianity.
+
+"Has the honorable Court any other complaint to make against me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Not merely do you force your household to be pagan, but
+you are accused of disturbing in their religious services others who
+make no secret of their devout feelings."
+
+"For example?"
+
+"Just opposite you is the courtyard of Mr. Nepomuk John Sarvoelgyi,[29]
+who is a very righteous man."
+
+[Footnote 29: Mud-valley.]
+
+"As far as I know, quite the opposite: he is always praying, a fact
+which proves that his sins must be very numerous."
+
+"It is not your business to judge him. In our common world it is a
+merit, if someone dares to display to the public eye the fact that he
+still respects religion, and it is the duty of the law to protect him."
+
+"Well, and how have I scandalized the good fellow?"
+
+"Not long ago Mr. Sarvoelgyi had a large Saint Nepomuk painted on the
+facade of his house, in oils on a sheet of bronze, and before the chief
+figure he was himself painted, in a kneeling position."
+
+"I know: I saw it."
+
+"From the lips of St. Nepomuk was flowing down in 'lapidarig' letters to
+the kneeling figure the following Latin saying: 'Mi fili, ego te nunquam
+deseram.'"
+
+"I read the words."
+
+"An iron grating was placed before the picture, and covered the whole
+niche, that infamous hands might not be able to touch it."
+
+"A very wise idea."
+
+"One morning following a very stormy night, to the astonishment of all,
+the Latin inscription had disappeared from the picture, and in its place
+there stood: 'Soon thou wilt pass from before me, thou old hypocrite!'"
+
+
+"I can't help it, if the person in question changed his views."
+
+"Why, certainly you can help it. The painter who prepared that picture,
+upon being cross-questioned, confessed and publicly affirmed that, in
+consideration of a certain sum of money paid by you, he had painted the
+latter inscription in oils, and over it, in water-colours, the former:
+so that the first shower washed off the upper surface from the picture,
+making the honest, zealous fellow an object of ridicule and contempt in
+his own house. Do you believe, sir, that such practical jokes are not
+punished by the hand of justice?"
+
+"I am not in the habit of believing much."
+
+"Among other things, however, you are bound to believe that justice will
+condemn you, first to pay a fine for blackmail; secondly, to pay for the
+repairs your tricks have made necessary."
+
+"I don't see an atom of plaintiff's counsel here."
+
+"Because plaintiff left the amount due him to the pleasure of the Court,
+to be devoted to charitable purposes."
+
+"Good: then please break into the granaries."
+
+"That we shall not do," interrupted the lawyer: "later on we shall take
+it out of the 'regalia.'"
+
+Topandy laughed.
+
+"My dear, good magistrate. Do you believe all that is in the Bible?"
+
+"I am a true Christian."
+
+"Then I appeal to your faith. In one place it stands that some invisible
+hand wrote, in the room of some pagan king--Belshazzar, if the story be
+true,--the following words,'Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.' If that hand could
+write then, why could it not now have written that second saying? And if
+it was the rain that washed away the righteous fellow's words, you must
+accuse the rain, for the fault lies there."
+
+"These are indeed very weighty counter-charges: and you might have
+declared them all before the Court, to which you were summoned: you
+might have appealed even to the septemvirate, but as you did not appear
+then, you must bear the consequences of your obstinacy."
+
+"Good; I shall pay the price," said Topandy laughing:--"But it was a
+good joke on my part after all, wasn't it?"
+
+The magistrate showed an angry countenance.
+
+"There will be other good jokes, too. Kindly wait until the end."
+
+"Is the list of crimes still longer?"
+
+"A severe enquiry into the sources would never find an end. The gravest
+charge against you is the profanation of holy places."
+
+"I profane some holy place? Why, for twenty years I have not been in the
+precincts even of a church steeple."
+
+"You desecrated a place used long ago for holy ceremonies by riotous
+revels."
+
+"Oh, you mean that, do you? Let us make distinctions, if you please.
+Great is the difference between place and place. Do you mean the convent
+of the Red Brothers? That is no church. The late Emperor Joseph drove
+them out, and their property was put up to auction by the State,
+together with all the buildings situate thereon. Thus it was that I came
+into possession of the convent garden: I was there at the auction; I bid
+and it was knocked down to me. There were buildings on it, but whether
+any kind of church had been there I do not know, for they took away all
+the movables, and I found only bare walls. No kind of 'servitus'
+(engagement), as to what I would use the building for, had been included
+in the agreement of purchase. In this matter I know of others who were
+no more scrupulous. I know of a convent at Maria-Eich,[30] where in
+place of the ancient altar stands the peasant-chimney, and here the
+Swabian, into whose hands this honorable antiquity passed, keeps his
+maize; why, in a town beside the Danube may be seen what was once a
+convent, the 'aerarium' of which has been turned into a hospital."
+
+[Footnote 30: A place in Austria where sacred relics exist.]
+
+"Examples cannot help you. If the Swabian peasant keeps 'the blessing of
+God' in that place, from which they had once prayed for it, that is not
+profanity: the 'aerarium' too is pursuing an office of righteousness, in
+nursing bodily sufferings in the place where once mental sufferings
+gained comfort; but you have had disgusting pictures painted all over
+the walls that have come into your possession."
+
+"I beg your pardon, the subjects are all chosen from classical
+literature: illustrations to the poems of Beranger and Lafontaine--'Mon
+Cure,' 'Les Clefs Du Paradis,' 'Les Capulier,' 'Les Cordeliers Du
+Catalogue,' etc. Every subject a pious one."
+
+"I know: I am acquainted with the originals of them. You may cover the
+walls of your own rooms with them, if you please: but I have brought
+four stone-workers with me, who, according to the judgment of the Court,
+are to erase all those pictures."
+
+"Genuine iconoclasm!" guffawed Topandy, who found great amusement in
+arousing a whole county against him by his caprices. "Iconoclasts!
+Picture-destroyers!"
+
+"There is something else we are going to destroy!" continued the
+magistrate. "In that place there was a crypt. What has become of it?"
+
+"It is a crypt still."
+
+"What is in it?"
+
+"What is usually in a crypt: dead men of hallowed memory, who are lying
+in wooden coffins and waiting for the great awakening."
+
+The magistrate made a face of doubt. He did not know whether to believe
+or not.
+
+"And when you and your revelling companions hold your Bacchanalia
+there?"
+
+"I object to the word 'Bacchanalia.'"
+
+"True, it is still more. I should have used a stronger expression for
+that riot, when in scandalous undress, carrying in front a steak on a
+spit, the whole company sings low songs such as 'Megalljon Kend'[31]
+and 'Hetes, nyloczas,'[32] and in this guise makes scandalous
+processions from castle to cloister."
+
+[Footnote 31: "Stop (you)," "Kend" being the pleasant abbreviation for
+"Kegyed," one method of addressing (literally "your grace"),
+corresponding to our "you."]
+
+[Footnote 32: "Seven and eight," referring to the number on the playing
+cards: the Austrian National Hymn is sung by great patriots to these
+words: the "king" and "ace" being the highest two cards, come together;
+and this is in Magyar kiraly (king), diszno (ace); is also "swein."]
+
+"The authorities must indeed be greatly embittered against me, if they
+see anything scandalous in the fact that a body of good-humored men
+undress to the skin, when they are warm. As far as the so-called low
+songs are concerned, they have such innocent words, they might be
+printed in a book, while the melodies are very pious."
+
+"The scandal is just that, that you parody pious songs, setting them to
+trivial words. Tell me what is the good of singing the eight cards of
+the pack[33] as a hymn. And if you are in a good humor, why do you go
+with it to the crypt?"
+
+[Footnote 33: In Magyar cards the pack begins with the 7.]
+
+"You know we go there for a little mumony feast."
+
+"Yes, for a little 'Mumon,'" interrupted the lawyer.
+
+"That's just what I meant," said the atheist, laughing.
+
+"What?" roared the magistrate, who now began to understand the enigma of
+the dead lying in their wooden coffins: "perhaps that is a cellar?"
+
+"Of course: I never had a better cellar than that."
+
+"And the dead, and the coffins?"
+
+"Twenty-five round coffins, full of wine. Come, my dear sir, taste them
+all. I assure you you won't regret it."
+
+The magistrate was now really in a fury: fury made a lion of him, so
+that he was quite capable of tearing his wrists by sheer force out of
+the imprisoning hands.
+
+"An end to all familiarity! You stand before the authority of the law,
+with whom you cannot trifle. Give me the keys of the cloister, that I
+may clean the profaned place."
+
+"Please break open the door."
+
+"Would you not be sorry to ruin a patent lock?" suggested the lawyer.
+
+"Well, promise me that you will taste at least 'one' brand: then I will
+open the door, for I don't intend to open any door under the title of
+'cloister,' but any number under the title of 'cellar;' and in that case
+I shall pay in ready money."
+
+The worthy lawyer tugged at the magistrate's sleeve; prudence yielded,
+and there are bounds to severity, too.
+
+"Very well, the lawyer will taste the wine, but I am no drinker."
+
+Topandy whispered some words in his butler's ears, whereupon that worthy
+suddenly disappeared.
+
+"So you see, my dear fellow, we are agreed at last: now I should like to
+see the account of how much I owe to the county for my slight upon the
+Brotherhood."
+
+"Here is the calculation: two hundred florins with costs, which amount
+to three florins, thirty kreuzer."
+
+(This happened thirty years ago.)
+
+"Further?"
+
+"Further, the repair of the damage caused by you, the expenses of the
+present expedition, the daily pay and sustenance of the stone-masons
+aforesaid: making in all a sum total of two hundred and forty-three
+florins, forty kreuzers."
+
+"A large sum, but I shall produce it from somewhere."
+
+With the words Topandy drew out from his chest a drawer, and carrying it
+bodily as it was, put it down on the great walnut table, before the
+authorities of the law.
+
+"Here it is!"
+
+The interesting members of the law first drew back in alarm, and then
+commenced to roar with laughter. That drawer was filled with--I cannot
+express it in one word--but generally speaking--with paper.
+
+A great variety of aged bank notes, some before the depreciation of
+value, others of a late date, still in currency: long bank-notes, black
+bank-notes, red spotted bank-notes; then, old cards: Hungarian, Swiss,
+French; old theatre-tickets, market pictures, the well-known product of
+street-humor; the tailor riding on a goat, the devil taking off bad
+women, a portrait of the long-moustached mayor of Nuremberg: a pile of
+envelopes, all heaped together in a huddle.
+
+That was Topandy's savings bank.
+
+He would always spend silver and gold money, but money paid to him in
+bank-notes, which he had to accept, he would put by year by year among
+this collection of cards, funny pictures, and theatrical programmes;
+this heap of value was never disturbed except when, as at present, some
+enforced visit had to be put up with, some so-called "execution."
+
+"Please, help yourselves."
+
+"What?" cried the magistrate. "Must we pick out the value from the
+non-value in this rubbish?"
+
+"Now I am not so well-informed an expert as to distinguish what is
+recalled from what is still in circulation. Still my good friend is
+right, it is my duty to count out, yours to receive."
+
+Then he plunged his hand into the treasure-heap, and counted over the
+bits of paper.
+
+"This is good, this is not. This is still new, this is surely torn.
+Here's a five florin, here a ten florin note. This is the Knave of
+Hearts."
+
+A little discussion occurred when he counted a label that had been
+removed from an old champagne bottle, as a ten florin note.
+
+The gentlemen took exception to that: it must be thrown away.
+
+"What, is this not money? It must be money. It is a French bank-note.
+There is written on it ten florins. Cliquot will pay if you take it to
+him."
+
+Then he began to explain several comical pictures, and bargained with
+the authorities--how much would they give for them? he had paid a big
+price for them.
+
+Finally the worthy lawyer had again to intervene: otherwise this
+liquidation might have lasted till the following evening; then, after a
+strict search in a critical manner, he withdrew two hundred and
+forty-three florins from the pile.
+
+"A little water if you please, I should like to wash my hands," said the
+lawyer after his work, feeling like one who has separated the raw wheat
+from the tares.
+
+"Like Pilate after passing judgment," jested Topandy. "You shall have
+all you want at once. Already there is an end to the legal manipulation:
+we are no longer 'legale testimonium' and 'incattus,' but guest and
+host."
+
+"God forbid," repudiated the magistrate retiring towards the door. "We
+did not come in that guise. We do not wish to trouble you any longer."
+
+"Trouble indeed!" said the accused, guffawing. "What, do you think this
+matter has been any trouble to me?--on the contrary, the most exquisite
+amusement! This annoyance of the county against me I would not sell for
+a thousand florins. It was glorious. 'Execution!' Legally erased
+pictures! An investigation into my private behavior! I shall live for a
+year on this joke. And you will see, my friends, I shall do so again
+soon. I shall find out some plan for getting them to take me in irons to
+the Court: a battalion of soldiers shall come for me, and they shall
+make me the son of the warden! Ha! ha! May I be damned if I don't
+succeed in my project! If they would but put me in prison for a year,
+and make me saw wood in the courtyard of the County Court, and clean the
+boots of the Lieutenant Governor. That is a capital idea! I shall not
+die until I reach that."
+
+In the meantime a butler arrived with the water, while a second opened
+another door and invited the guests with much ceremony to partake in the
+pleasure of the table.
+
+"Her ladyship invites the honorable gentlemen's company at dejeuner."
+
+The magistrate looked in perplexity at the lawyer, who turned to the
+basin and hid his laughing face in his hands.
+
+"You are married?" the magistrate enquired of Topandy.
+
+"Oh dear no," he answered, "she is not my wife, but my sister."
+
+"But we are invited to dinner in the neighborhood."
+
+"By Mr. Sarvoelgyi? That does not matter. If a man wishes to dine at
+Sarvoelgyi's, he will be wise to have dejeuner first. Besides I have your
+word to drink a glass as a 'conditio sine qua non;' besides a chivalrous
+man cannot refuse the invitation of a lady."
+
+The last pretext was conclusive; it was impossible to refuse a lady's
+invitation, even if a man has armed force at his command. He is obliged
+to yield to the superior power.
+
+The magistrate allowed the third attempt to succeed, and was dragged by
+the arm into the dining-room.
+
+Topandy audibly bade the butlers look after the wants of the gendarmes
+and stone-masons, and give them enough to eat and drink: and, when our
+friend, the magistrate, prepared to object, interrupted him with:
+"Kindly remember the 'execution' is over, and consider that those good
+fellows are tearing off plaster from the cloister walls, and the
+paint-dust will go to their lungs: and it shall not be my fault if any
+harm touches the upholders of public security. This way, if you please:
+here comes my sister."
+
+Through the opposite door came the above mentioned "ladyship."
+
+She could not have been taken for more than fifteen years old: she was
+wearing a pure white dress, trimmed with lace, according to the fashion
+of the time, and bound round her slender waist with a broad rose-colored
+riband; her complexion was brunette, and pale, in contrast to her ruddy
+round lips, which allowed to flash between their velvet surfaces the
+most lovely pearly set of teeth imaginable: her two thick eyebrows
+almost met on her brow, and below her long eyelashes two restless black
+eyes beamed forth: like coal, that is partly aglow.
+
+Sir Magistrate was surprised that Topandy had such a young sister.
+
+"My guests," said Topandy, presenting the servants of the law to her
+ladyship.
+
+"Oh! I know," remarked the young lady in a gay light-hearted tone. "You
+have come to put in an 'execution' against his lordship. You did quite
+right: you ought to treat him so. You don't know the hundredth part of
+his godless dealings. For did you know, you would long since have
+beheaded him three times over."
+
+The magistrate found this sincere expression of sisterly opinion most
+remarkable; still, notwithstanding that he took his seat beside her
+ladyship.
+
+The table was piled with cold viands and old wines.
+
+Her ladyship entertained the magistrate with conversation and tasty
+tit-bits, meanwhile the lawyer was quietly drinking his glasses with the
+host,--nor was it necessary to ask him to help himself.
+
+"Believe me," remarked her ladyship: "if this man ever reaches hell,
+they will give him a special room, so great are his merits. I have
+already grown tired of trying to reform him."
+
+"Has your ladyship been staying long in this house?" enquired the
+magistrate.
+
+"Oh, ten years already."
+
+("How old could the lady have been then?" the magistrate thought to
+himself: but he could not answer.)
+
+"Just imagine what he does. A few days ago he put up an old saint among
+the vines as a scarecrow, with a broken hat on his head."
+
+The magistrate turned with a movement of scorn towards the accused. It
+would not be good for him if that, too, came to the ears of the Court.
+
+"Do not speak, for you do not understand what you're saying," replied
+Topandy by way of explanation. "It was an ugly statue of Pilate, a
+relic of the ancient Calvary."[34]
+
+[Footnote 34: Many such Calvaries exist in Hungary: they may be seen by
+the roadside, and are used as places of pilgrimage by pious peasants and
+others: there is always a picture of Christ crucified or a figure of the
+same.]
+
+"Well, and wasn't that holy?" enquired the flashing-eyed damsel.
+
+The magistrate began to rise from his chair. (Her ladyship must have had
+a curious education if she did not even know who Pilate was.)
+
+Topandy broke out in unrestrained laughter. Then, as if he desired by an
+earnest word to repair the insult his language had given, he said to the
+lady with a pious face:
+
+"Well, if you are right, was it not a gracious act on my part to give a
+permanent occupation to such an honest fellow, who had been degraded
+from office; and as he was bare-headed I gave him a hat to protect him
+against changes of the weather. However, don't treat our friend to a
+series of incriminations, but rather to that deer-steak; you see he does
+not venture to taste it."
+
+Her ladyship did as she was told.
+
+The magistrate was obliged to eat: in the first place because it was a
+beautiful woman that offered the viands to him, secondly because
+everything she offered was so good. He had to drink, too, because she
+kept filling his glass and calling on him to "clink" with her, herself
+setting the example. She drained that sparkling liquor from her glass
+just as if it had been pure water. And those wines were truly remarkably
+strong. The magistrate could not refuse the appeal of her ladyship's
+beautiful eyes.
+
+"Forbidden fruit is sweet." The magistrate experienced the truth of the
+saying keenly, in so far as one may place among forbidden fruit the
+_dejeuner_ of which a man partakes in the house of a godless fellow,
+destroying his appetite for the ensuing dinner to which he is invited by
+a pious man.
+
+The courses seemed endless: cold viands were followed by hot, and the
+beautiful young damsel could offer so kindly, that the magistrate was
+powerless to resist.
+
+"Just a little of this 'majoraine' sausage. I myself made it yesterday
+evening."
+
+The magistrate was astonished. Her ladyship busied herself with such
+things? When the sausage had disappeared, he made a remark about it.
+
+"Yet no one would imagine that these delicate hands could busy
+themselves with other things than sewing, piano-playing, and the turning
+over of gold-bordered leaves. Have you read the almanacs of the
+parliament?"
+
+At this question Topandy burst into loud laughter, while the lawyer
+covered his mouth with his napkin, the laughter stuck in his throat: the
+magistrate could not imagine what there could be to ridicule in this
+question.
+
+Her ladyship answered quite unconsciously:
+
+"Oh! there are some fine airs in it: I know them. If you will listen, I
+will sing them."
+
+The magistrate thought there must be some misunderstanding: still, if
+her ladyship cared to sing, he would be only too delighted to listen.
+
+"Which do you want 'Vienna Town' or 'Rose-bud?'"
+
+"Both," said the host, "and into the bargain the latest parliamentary
+air, 'Come Down from the Cross, and Fly to the Poplar-tree.' But let us
+go out of the dining-room to hear the songs; the forks and plates are
+rattling too much here: we'll go to my sister's room. There she will
+sing to the accompaniment of a Magyar piano. Have you ever seen a Magyar
+piano, my friend?"
+
+"I don't remember having done so."
+
+"Well, it is beautiful: you must hear it. My sister plays it
+wonderfully."
+
+The magistrate offered his arm to her ladyship, and the company entered
+the next room, which was the lady's apartment.
+
+It was an elegant, finely-decorated room, with mahogany and ebony
+furniture, richly carved and gilded, with huge glass-panelled chests,
+and heavy silk curtains yet there was a striking difference between this
+room and those of other ladies; all these expensive draperies, as far as
+their form and ordering was concerned, did not at all correspond with
+the usual appanage of a boudoir.
+
+In one corner stood a loom of mahogany, richly inlaid with ivory: it was
+still covered with some half-finished work, in which flowers,
+butterflies, and birds had been worked with remarkable refinement.
+
+"You see," said the lady, "this is my work-table. I am responsible also
+for that table-cloth on which we breakfasted to-day."
+
+Indeed she had received an unusual education.
+
+Beside the loom was a spinning wheel.
+
+"And this is my library," said the lady, pointing to the cupboards
+against the wall.
+
+Through the glass panels was to be seen a host of every kind of culinary
+bottles. On the bottom shelf the great folios; every kind of vinegar
+that grows in hot-houses; the second row was full of preserved
+cucumbers; and then on the top shelf different sorts of confitures in
+brilliant perfection; last of all, a row of fruit extracts was visible,
+in colors as numerous as the bottles that contained them.
+
+"A magnificent library!" said the lawyer. But the magistrate could not
+yet clearly make out what kind of lady it might be, who called such
+things a library.
+
+The heavy velvet curtains, which made a kind of tent of the alcove, also
+had their secret: the young lady; raised the curtain and said naively,
+
+"This is my sleeping place."
+
+An embroidered quilt laid out on a plank, nothing more.
+
+Indeed, a curious, most remarkable education.
+
+Beside the bed stood a large copper cage.
+
+"This is my pet bird," said the fair lady, pointing at the creature
+within.
+
+It was a large black cock, which rose angrily as the strangers
+approached, and crowed in an agonized manner, shaking its red comb
+furiously.
+
+"You see, this is my old comrade, who takes care of me! and is at the
+same time my clock, waking me at daybreak." And the lady's look became
+quite tender, as she placed her hand on the wrathful creature. At her
+gentle touch the bird clucked his satisfaction.
+
+"When I go outside, he accompanies me, loose, like a dog."
+
+The black monster, as long as he saw strangers, only noted in quiet
+tones the fact that he had remarked their presence, but as soon as
+Topandy stepped forward, he suddenly broke out into a clarion cry, as if
+he wished to arouse every hen-roost in the property to the fact that
+there was a fox in the garden. Every feather on his neck stood bolt
+upright, like a Spanish shirt-collar.
+
+"He will soon be quiet," the young lady assured the guests:--"for he
+will listen to music."
+
+So we are about to see the Magyar piano? It was but a "czimbalom."[35]
+It is true that it was a marvellous work of art, inlaid with ebony and
+mother-of-pearl; the nails on which the strings were stretched were of
+silver, the groundwork a mosaic of coloured woods; the two drumsticks
+lying upon the strings had handles of red coral; the stand on which the
+"czimbalom" rested was a marvellously perfected specimen of the
+carpenter's art, giving a strong tone to the instrument; and before it
+was a little, round, armless chair covered with red velvet, its feet
+golden tiger-claws. Yet it was certainly strange that a young lady
+should play the "czimbalom," that country instrument which they are
+wont to carry under the covering of a ragged coat, and to place upon
+inn-tables, or up-turned barrels.--Here it appeared among mahogany
+furniture, to serve as accompaniment to a young lady's voice, while she
+herself with her delicate fingers beat the melody out of the plaintive
+instrument for all the world as if she were seated beside a piano.
+Incongruous enough, for we have always thought of the "czimbalom-artist"
+as a gawky bushy-bearded fellow with the indispensable short-stemmed
+clay-pipe--all burned out and being sucked only for its bitter taste.
+
+[Footnote 35: The peculiar and characteristic Magyar instrument which is
+indispensable to every gypsy orchestra, taking the place of harp and
+piano. It is in the form of a zither of large size, played with padded
+sticks, and forms the foundation of these wandering bands.]
+
+And the whole "czimbalom" playing is such a jest, so grotesque; the
+player's arms jerk and wave continuously; his whole shoulder and head
+are in perpetual motion; whereas, with the piano, the five fingers do
+all; the artist's relation to the piano is that of my lord to his
+children, whom he addresses from a far-off height; the czimbalom-player
+is "_per tu_" with his instrument.
+
+But the young lady had the grace of one born to the instrument. As she
+took the sticks in her hands and struck a chord upon the outstretched
+strings, her face assumed a new expression; so far, we must confess,
+there had been much "naivete" in it, now she felt at home; this was her
+world.
+
+She sang two songs to the guests, both taken from what are called in our
+country "Parliamentary airs;" they used to break forth in "juratus"
+coffee-houses, during the sitting of Parliament, when there was more
+spirit in the youths of the country than now.
+
+The one had a fine impassioned refrain: "From Vienna town, from west to
+east, the wind hath a cold blast." The end of it was that the Danube
+water is bitter, for at Pressburg many bitter tears have flowed into it,
+"Which the great ones of our land have shed, because Ragalyi was not
+sent to be ambassador." Now patriots are more sparing with their tears;
+but in those days much bitterness was expressed with the air of "Vienna
+town."
+
+The other air was "Rose-bud, laurel," which had also a pretty refrain;
+it is full of such expressions as "altars of freedom," "angels of
+freedom," "wreaths of freedom," and other such mythological things. How
+the strings responded to the young woman's touch, what expression was in
+her refrain! It was as if she felt the meaning of those beautiful
+"flosculi" best of all, and must suffer more than all for them.
+
+Then she introduced a third parliamentary song, the contents of which
+were satirical; but the satire was purely local and personal, and would
+not be intelligible to people of modern days.
+
+Topandy was inexpressibly pleased by it: he asked for it again. Someone
+had ridiculed the priests in it, but in such a manner that no one,
+unless he had had it explained could understand it.
+
+The magistrate was quite enraptured by the simple instrument; he would
+never have believed that anyone could play it with such masterly skill.
+
+"Tell me," he asked her ladyship, not being able any longer to conceal
+his astonishment, "where you learned to play this instrument."
+
+At these words her ladyship broke into such a fit of laughter, that, if
+she had not suddenly steadied herself with her feet against the
+czimbalom stand, she would have fallen over. As it was, her hair being,
+according to the fashion of the day, coiled up "a la Giraffe" round a
+high comb, and the comb falling from her head, her two tresses of raven
+hair fell waving over her shoulders to the floor.
+
+At this the young lady discontinued laughing, and not succeeding at all
+in her efforts to place her dishevelled hair around the comb again,
+suddenly twisted it together on her head and fastened it with a spindle
+she snatched from the spinning wheel.
+
+Then to recover her previous high spirits, she again took up the
+czimbalom sticks, and began to play some quiet melody on the instrument.
+
+It was no song, no variations on well-known airs; it was some marvellous
+reverie; a frameless picture, a landscape without horizon. A plaint, in
+a voice rather playful over something serious that is long past, and
+that can never come back again, avowed to no one by word of mouth, only
+handed down from generation to generation on the resounding strings--the
+song of the beggar who denies that he has ever been king:--the song of
+the wanderer, who denies that he ever had a home and yet remembers it,
+and the pain of the recollection is heard in the song. No one knows or
+understands, perhaps not even the player, who merely divines it and
+meditates thereon. It is the desert wind, of which no one knows whence
+it comes and whither it goes; the driving cloud, of which no one knows
+whence it arose, and whither it disappears. A homeless, unsubstantial,
+immaterial bitterness ... a flowerless, echoless, roadless desert ...
+full of mirages.
+
+The magistrate would have listened till evening, no matter what became
+of the neighbor's dinner, if Topandy had not interrupted him with the
+sceptical remark that this lengthened steel wire has far more soul than
+a certain two-footed creature, who affirms that he was the image of God.
+
+And thus he again drew the attention of the worthy gentleman to the fact
+that he was in the home of a denier of God.
+
+Then they heard the mid-day curfew, which made the black cock, with
+fluttering wings, begin his monotonous clarion, for all the world like
+the bugle call of some watch-tower, whose _taran-tara!_ gives the sign
+to its inhabitants.
+
+At this the lady's face suddenly lost its sad expression of melancholy;
+she put down the czimbalom-sticks, leaped up from her chair, and with
+natural sincerity asked,
+
+"It was a beautiful song, was it not?"
+
+"Indeed it was. What is it?"
+
+"Hush! that you may not ask."
+
+The lawyer had to call the magistrate's attention to the fact that it
+was already time to depart, as there was still another "entertainment"
+in store for them.
+
+At this they all laughed.
+
+"I am very sorry that it was my fortune to make your acquaintance, on
+such an occasion as the present," said the young officer of the law, as
+he bade farewell, and shook hands with his host.
+
+"But I rejoice at the honor, and I hope I may have the pleasure of
+seeing you again--on the occasion of the next 'execution'."
+
+Then the magistrate turned to her ladyship, to thank her for her kind
+hospitality.
+
+To do so he sought the young lady's hand with intention to kiss it; but
+before he could fulfill his intention, her ladyship suddenly threw her
+arms around his neck and imprinted as healthy a kiss on his face as
+anyone could possibly wish for.
+
+The magistrate was rather frightened than rejoiced at this unexpected
+present. Her ladyship had indeed peculiar habits. He scarcely knew how
+he arrived in the road; true, the wine had affected his head a little,
+for he was not used to it.
+
+From Topandy's castle to Sarvoelgyi's residence one had to cross a long
+field of clover.
+
+The lawyer led his colleague as far as the gate of this field by the
+arm, sauntering along by his side. But, as soon as they were within the
+garden, Mr. Buczkay said to the magistrate:
+
+"Please go in front, I will follow behind; I must remain behind a little
+to laugh myself out."
+
+Thereupon he sat down on the ground, clasped his hands over his stomach,
+and commenced to guffaw; he threw himself flat upon the grass, kicking
+the earth with his feet, and shouting with merriment the while.
+
+The young officer of the law was beside himself with vexation, as he
+reflected: "This man is horribly tipsy; how can I enter the house of
+such a righteous man with a drunken fellow?"
+
+Then when Mr. Buczkay had given satisfaction to the demands of his
+nature, according to which his merriment, repressed almost to the
+bursting point, was obliged to break loose in a due proportion of
+laughter, he rose again from the earth, dusted his clothes, and with the
+most serious countenance under the sun said, "Well, we can proceed
+now."
+
+Sarvoelgyi's house was unlike Magyar country residences, in that the
+latter had their doors night and day on the latch, with at most a couple
+of bulldogs on guard in the courtyard--and these were there only with
+the intention of imprinting the marks of their muddy paws on the coats
+of guests by way of tenderness. Sarvoelgyi's residence was completely
+encircled with a stone wall, like some town building: the gate and small
+door always closed, and the stone wall crowned with a continuous row of
+iron nails:--and,--what is unheard of in country residences--there was a
+bell at the door which he who desired to enter had to ring.
+
+The gentlemen rang for a good quarter of an hour at that door, and the
+lawyer was convinced that no one would come to open it; finally
+footsteps were heard in the hall, and a hoarse, shrill woman's voice
+began to make enquiries of those without.
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"We are."
+
+"Who are 'we'?"
+
+"The guests."
+
+"What guests?"
+
+"The magistrate and the lawyer."
+
+Thereupon the bolts were slipped back with difficulty, and the
+questioner appeared. She was, as far as age was concerned, a little
+"beyond the vintage." She wore a dirty white kitchen apron, and below
+that a second blue kitchen apron, and below that again a third dappled
+apron. It was this woman's custom to put on as many dirty aprons as
+possible.
+
+"Good day, Mistress Boris," was the lawyer's greeting. "Why, you hardly
+wished to let us in."
+
+"I crave your pardon. I heard the bell ring, but could not come at once.
+I had to wait until the fish was ready. Besides, so many bad men are
+hereabouts, wandering beggars, 'Arme Reisenden,'[36] that one must
+always keep the door closed, and ask 'who is there?'"
+
+[Footnote 36: Poor travellers.]
+
+"It is well, my dear Boris. Now go and look after that fish, that it
+may not burn; we shall soon find the master somewhere. Has he finished
+his devotions?"
+
+"Yes; but he has surely commenced anew. The bells are ringing the
+death-toll, and at such times he is accustomed to say one extra prayer
+for the departed soul. Don't disturb him, I beg, or he will grumble the
+whole day."
+
+Mistress Boris conducted the gentlemen into a large room, which, to
+judge from the table ready laid, served as dining room, though the
+intruder might have taken it for an oratory, so full was it of pictures
+of those hallowed ones, whom we like to drag down to ourselves, it being
+too fatiguing to rise up to them.
+
+And in that idea there is much that is sublime. A picture of Christ in
+the mourning widow's chamber; a "mater dolorosa," in the distracted
+mother's home; a "kerchief" of the Holy Virgin, spotlessly white, like
+the glorious spirit, above the bed of olden times, are surely elevating,
+and honorable presences, the recollections which lead us to them are
+holy and imperishable, as is the devotion which bows the knee before
+them. But a repugnant sight is the home of the Pharisee, who surrounds
+himself with holy images that men may behold them.
+
+Sarvoelgyi allowed his guests to wait a long time, though they were, as
+it happened, not at all impatient.
+
+Great ringing of bells announced his coming; this being a sign he was
+accustomed to give to the kitchen, that the dinner could be served. Soon
+he appeared.
+
+He was a tall, dry man, of slight stature, and so small was his head
+that one could scarce believe it could serve for the same purposes as
+another man's. His smoothly shaven face did not betray his age; the skin
+of his cheeks was oil yellow, his mouth small, his shoulders rounded,
+his nose large, mal-formed and unpleasantly crooked.
+
+He shook hands very cordially with his guests; he had long had the honor
+of the lawyer's acquaintance, but it was his supreme pleasure to see the
+magistrate to-day for the first time. But he was extremely courteous,
+not a feature of his countenance betraying any emotion.
+
+The magistrate seemed determined not to say a word. So the brunt of the
+conversation fell on the lawyer.
+
+"We have happily concluded the 'execution'."
+
+That was naturally the most convenient topic for the commencement of the
+conversation.
+
+"I am sorry enough that it had to be so," sighed Sarvoelgyi. "Apart from
+the fact that Topandy is unceasingly persecuting me, I respect and like
+him very much. I only wish he would turn over a new leaf. He would be an
+excellent fellow. I know I made a great mistake when I accused him out
+of mere self-love. I am sorry I did so. I ought to have followed the
+command of scripture, 'If he smite thee on thy right cheek, offer him
+thy left cheek also.'"
+
+"Under such circumstances there would be very few criminal processes for
+the courts to consider."
+
+"I confess I rejoiced this morning when the commission of execution
+arrived. I felt an inward happiness, due to the fact that this foe of
+mine had fallen, that he was trampled under my feet. I thought: he is
+now gnashing his teeth and snapping at the heels of justice that stamp
+upon his head. And I was glad if it. Yet my gladness was sinful, for no
+one may rejoice at the destruction of the fallen, and the righteous
+cannot be glad at the danger of a fellow creature. It was a sin for
+which I must atone."
+
+The simplest atonement, thought the lawyer, would be for him to return
+the amount of the fine.
+
+"For this I have inflicted a punishment upon myself," said Sarvoelgyi,
+piously bowing his head. "Oh, I have always punished myself for any
+misdemeanor, I now condemn myself to one day's fasting. My punishment
+will be, to sit here beside the table and watch the whole dinner,
+without touching anything myself."
+
+It will be very fine! thought the lawyer. He is determined to fast,
+while we have taken our fill yonder. So we shall all look at the whole
+dinner, without tasting anything,--and Mistress Boris will sweep us out
+of the house.
+
+"My friend the magistrate's head is doubtless aching after his great
+official fatigue!" Sarvoelgyi said, hitting the nail right on the head.
+
+"It is indeed true," remarked the lawyer assuringly. The young official
+was in need rather of rest than of feasting. There are good, blessed
+mortals, whom two glasses of wine immediately send to sleep, and to whom
+it is the most exquisite torture to be obliged to remain awake.
+
+"My suggestion is," said the lawyer, "that it would be good for the
+magistrate to repose in an armchair and rest himself, until the cleaning
+of the cloister is finished, and we can again take our seats in the
+carriage."
+
+"Sleep is the gift of Heaven," said the man of piety: "it would be a sin
+to steal it from a fellow-man. Kindly make yourself comfortable at once
+in this room."
+
+It was an extremely difficult process to make oneself comfortable on
+that apology for an arm-chair; it seemed to have been prepared as a
+resting place for ascetics and body-torturers: still the magistrate sat
+down in it, craved pardon,--and fell asleep. And then he dreamed that he
+saw before him again that laid-out table, where one guest sat two yards
+from the other while all round holy pictures were hanging on the walls,
+with their faces turned away, as if they did not wish to gaze upon the
+scene. In the middle of the room there was hanging from the ceiling a
+heavy chandelier with twelve branches, and on it was swaying the host
+himself.
+
+What a cursed foolery is a dream! The host was actually sitting there
+vis-a-vis with the lawyer, at the other end of the long table; for
+Mistress Boris had so laid the places. And as the magistrate's place
+remained empty, host and guest sat so far apart that the one was
+incapable of helping the other.
+
+At last the door opened, with such a delicate creaking that the lawyer
+thought somebody was ringing to be admitted:--It was Mistress Boris
+bringing in the soup.
+
+The lawyer was determined to make some sacrifice, in order to maintain
+the dignity of the "legale testimonium," by dining a second time. He
+thought himself capable of this heroic deed.
+
+He was deceived.
+
+There is a peculiarity of the Magyar which has not yet been the subject
+of song: his stomach will not stand certain things.
+
+This a stranger cannot understand: it is a "specificum."
+
+When Voeroesmarty sang that "in the great world outside there is no place
+for thee,"[37] he found it unnecessary to add the reason for that, which
+every man knows without his telling them:--"in every land abroad they
+cook with butter."
+
+[Footnote 37: From the celebrated Szozat (appeal) calling on the
+Hungarian to be true to his fatherland.]
+
+A Magyar stomach detests what is buttery. He becomes melancholy and
+sickly from it; he runs away from the very mention of it, and if some
+sly housekeeper deceitfully gives him buttery things to eat, all his
+life long he considers that as an attempt upon his life, and will never
+again sit down to such a poison-mixer's table.
+
+You may place him where you like abroad, still he will long to return
+from the cursed butter-smelling world, and if he cannot he grows thin
+and fades away: and like the giraffe in the European climate, he cannot
+reproduce his kind in a foreign land. Roughly speaking, all his
+neighbors cook with butter, oil and dripping: and "be harsh or kind, the
+hand of fate, here thou must live, here die."[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: Also from the "Szozat."]
+
+The lawyer was a true Magyar of the first water. And when he perceived
+that the crab soup was made with butter, he put down his spoon beside
+his plate and said he could not eat crabs. Since he had learned that the
+crab was nought else but a beetle living in water, and since a company
+had been formed in Germany for making beetles into preserves for
+dessert, he had been unable to look with undismayed eye upon these
+retrograde monsters.
+
+"Ach, take it away, Boris," sighed the host. He himself was not eating,
+for was he not atoning for his sins?
+
+Mistress Boris removed the dish with an expression of violent anger.
+
+Just imagine a housekeeper, whose every ambition is the kitchen, when
+her first dish is despatched away from the table without being touched.
+
+The second dish--eggs stuffed with sardines--suffered the same fate.
+
+The lawyer declared on his word of honor that they had buried his
+grandfather for tasting a dish of sardines, and that every female in the
+family immediately went into spasms from the smell of the same. He would
+rather eat a whale than a sardine.
+
+"Take this away, too, Mistress Boris. No one will touch it." Mistress
+Boris began to mutter under her breath that it was absurd and affected
+to turn up one's nose at these respectable eatables, which were quite as
+good as those they had eaten in their grandfather's house. Her last
+words were rather drowned by the creaking of the door as she went out.
+
+Then followed some kind of salad, with bread crumbs. The lawyer had in
+his university days received such a dangerous fever from eating such
+stuff, that it would indeed be a fatal enterprise to tackle it now.
+
+This was too much for the housekeeper. She attacked Mr. Sarvoelgyi:
+
+"Didn't I tell you not to cook a fasting dinner? Didn't I say so? You
+think everyone is as devout as you are in keeping Friday? Now you have
+it. Now I am disgraced."
+
+"It is part of the punishment I have inflicted on myself," answered
+Sarvoelgyi, with humble acquiescence.
+
+"The devil take your punishment; it is me that will come in for ridicule
+if they hear about it yonder. You become more of a fool every day."
+
+"Say what is on your tongue, my good Boris; heaven will order you to do
+penance as well as me."
+
+Mistress Boris slammed the door after her, and cried outside in bitter
+disappointment.
+
+The lawyer swore to himself that he would eat whatever followed, even if
+it were poison.
+
+It was worse: it was fish.
+
+We have medical certificates to enable us to assert that whenever the
+lawyer ate fish he promptly had to go to bed. He was forced to say that
+if they chased him from the house with boiling water he could not
+venture to put his teeth into it.
+
+Mistress Boris said nothing now. She actually kept silent. As we all
+know, the last stage but one of a woman's anger is when she is silent,
+and cannot utter a word. There is one stage more, which was imminent.
+The lawyer thought the dinner was over, and with true sincerity begged
+Mistress Boris to prepare a little coffee for him and the magistrate.
+
+Boris left the room without a word, placing the coffee machine before
+Sarvoelgyi himself; he did not allow anyone else to make it, and occupied
+himself with the preparations till Mistress Boris came back.
+
+The magistrate was just dreaming that that fellow swinging from the
+ceiling turned to him, and said "will you have a cup of coffee?" It did
+him good starting from his doze, to see his host, not on the chandelier,
+but sitting in a chair before him, saying: "Will you have a cup of
+coffee?"
+
+The magistrate hastened to taste it, with a view to driving the
+sleepiness from his eyes, and the lawyer poured some out for himself.
+
+Just at that moment Mistress Boris entered with a dish of omelette.
+
+Mistress Boris with a face betraying the last stage of anger, approached
+the lawyer:--she smiled tenderly.
+
+It is not the pleasantest sight in the world when a lady with a plate
+of omelette in her hand, smiles tenderly upon a man who is well aware of
+the fact that only a hair's breadth separates him from the catastrophe
+of having the whole dish dashed on his head.
+
+"Kindly help yourself."
+
+The lawyer felt a cold shiver run down his back.
+
+"You will surely like this!--omelette."
+
+"I see, my dear woman, that it is omelette," whispered the lawyer; "but
+no one of my family could enjoy omelette after black coffee."
+
+The catastrophe had not yet arrived. The lawyer had his eyes already
+shut, waiting for the inevitable; but the storm, to his astonishment,
+passed over his head.
+
+There was something else to attract the thunderbolt. The magistrate had
+again taken his seat at the table, and was putting sugar in his coffee;
+he could not have any such excuse.
+
+"Kindly help yourself ..."
+
+The magistrate's hair stood on end at her awful look. He saw that this
+relentless dragon of the apocalypse would devour him, if he did not
+stuff himself to death with the omelette. Yet it was utterly impossible.
+He could not have eaten a morsel even if confronting the stake or the
+gallows.
+
+"Pardon, a thousand pardons, my dear woman," he panted, drawing his
+chair farther away from the threatening horror: "I feel so unwell that I
+cannot take dinner."
+
+Then the storm broke.
+
+Mistress Boris put the dish down on the table, placed her two hands on
+her thighs, and exploded:
+
+"No, of course not," she panted, her voice thick with rage. "Of course
+you can't dine here, because you were simply crammed over yonder by--the
+gypsy girl."
+
+The hot coffee stuck in the throats of the two guests at these words! In
+the lawyer's from uncontrollable laughter, in the magistrate's from
+still more uncontrollable consternation.
+
+This woman had indeed wreaked a monstrous vengeance.
+
+The good magistrate felt like a boy thrashed at school, who fears that
+his folks at home may learn the whole truth.
+
+Luckily the sergeant of gendarmes entered with the news that the unholy
+pictures had been already erased from the walls, and the carriages were
+waiting. He too "got it" outside, for, as he made inquiries after his
+masters, Mistress Boris told him severely to go to the depths of hell:
+"he too smelt of wine; of course, that gypsy girl had given him also to
+drink!"
+
+That gypsy girl!
+
+The magistrate, in spite of his crestfallen dejection, felt an actual
+sense of pleasure at being rid of this cursed house and district.
+
+Only when they were well on their dusty way along the highroad did he
+address his companion:
+
+"Well, my dear old man, that fine lady was only a gypsy girl after all."
+
+"Surely, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then why did you not tell me?"
+
+"Because you did not ask me."
+
+"That is why you lay on your stomach and laughed, is it?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+The magistrate heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"At least, I implore you, don't tell my wife that the gypsy girl kissed
+me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WILD CREATURE'S HAUNT
+
+
+In those days the Tisza regulations did not exist--that plain around
+Lankadomb where now turnips are hoed with four-bladed machines was at
+that time still covered by an impenetrable marsh, that came right up to
+Topandy's garden, from which it was separated by a broad ditch. This
+ditch wound in a meandering, narrow course to the great waste of rushes,
+and in dry summer gave the appearance of a rivulet conveying the water
+of the marsh down to the Tisza. When the heavy rains came, naturally the
+stream flowed back along the same route.
+
+The whole marsh covered some ten or twelve square miles. Here after a
+heavy frost, they used to cut reeds, and on the occasion of great
+hunting matches[39] they would drive up masses of foxes and wolves; and
+all the huntsmen of the neighborhood might lie in wait in its expanse
+for fowl from morn till eve, and if they pleased, might roam at will in
+a canoe and destroy the swarms of winged inhabitants of the fen: no one
+would interrupt them.
+
+[Footnote 39: A hunting match in which the vassals of the landlord form
+a ring of great extent and advancing and narrowing the circle by
+degrees, drive the animals together towards a place where they can be
+conveniently shot. (Walter Scott.)]
+
+Some ancestor of Topandy had given the peasantry permission to cut peat
+in the bog, but the present proprietor had discontinued this industry,
+because it completely defiled the place: the ditches caused by the old
+diggings became swampy morasses, so that neither man nor beast could
+pass among them without danger.
+
+Anyone with good eyes could still descry from the castle tower that
+enormous hay-rick which they had filled up ten or twelve years before in
+the middle of the marsh; it was just in the height of summer and they
+had mown the hillocks in the marsh; then followed a mild winter, and
+neither man nor sleigh could reach it. The hay was lost, it was not
+worth the trouble of getting; so they had left it there, and it was
+already brown, its top moss-covered and overgrown with weeds.
+
+Topandy would often say to his hunting comrades, who, looking through a
+telescope, remarked the hay-rick in the marsh:
+
+"Someone must be living in that rick; often of an evening have I seen
+smoke coming from it. It might be an excellent place for a dwelling.
+Rain cannot penetrate it, in winter it keeps out the cold, in summer the
+heat. I would live in it myself."
+
+They often tried to reach it while out hunting; but every attempt was a
+failure; the ground about the rick was so clogged with turfy peat that
+to approach it by boat was impossible, and one who trusted himself on
+foot came so near being engulfed that his companions could scarcely haul
+him out of the bog with a rope. Finally they acquiesced in the idea that
+here within distinct view of the castle, some wild creature, born of
+man, had made his dwelling among the wolves and other wild beasts; a
+creature whom it would be a pity to disturb, as he never interfered with
+anybody.
+
+The most enterprising hunter, therefore, even in broad daylight avoided
+the neighborhood of the suspicious hay-rick; who then would be so
+audacious as to dare to seek it out by night when the circled moon
+foretelling rain, was flooding the marsh-land with a silvery, misty
+radiance, adding a new terror to the face of the landscape; when the
+exhalations of the marsh were sluggishly spreading a vaporous heaviness
+over the lowland; while the eerie habitants of the bog (whose time of
+sleep is by day, their active life at night) the millions of frogs and
+other creatures were reechoing their cries, announcing the whereabouts
+of the slimy pools, where foul gases are lord and master; when the
+he-wolf was howling to his comrades; and when, all at once, some
+mysterious-faced cloud drew out before the moon, and whispered to her
+something that made all nature tremble, so that for one moment all was
+silent, a death-like silence, more terrible than all the night voices
+speaking at once;--at such a time whose steps were those that sounded in
+the depths of the morass?
+
+A horseman was making his way by the moonlight, in solitude.
+
+His steed struggled along up to the hocks in the swamp which showed no
+paths at all; the tracks were immediately sucked up by the mud:--nothing
+lay before to show the way, save the broken reed. No sign remained that
+anyone had ever passed there before.
+
+The sagacious mare carefully noted the marks from time to time,
+instinctively scenting the route, that tracks trodden by wild beasts
+should not lead her astray; cleverly she picked out with her sharp eyes
+the places where the ground was still firm; at times she would leap from
+one clod of peat to another. The space between these spots might be
+overgrown by green grass, with yellow flowers dotted here and there, but
+the sagacious animal knew, felt, perhaps had even experienced, that the
+depth there was deceptive; it was one of those peat-diggings, filled in
+by mud and overgrown by the green of water-moss; he who stepped thereon
+would be swallowed up in an instant. Then she trotted on picking her way
+among the dangerous places.
+
+And the rider?
+
+He was asleep.
+
+Asleep on horseback, while his steed was going with him through an
+accursed spot: where to right and left were graves, where below was hell
+and around him the gloom of night. The horseman was sleeping, his head
+nodding backwards and forwards, swaying to and fro. Sometimes he
+started, as those who travel in carriages are wont to do when the
+jolting is more pronounced than ordinary, and then settled down again.
+Though asleep he kept his seat as if he had grown to the saddle. His
+hands seemed wide awake for all he held the reins in one and a
+double-barrelled gun in the other.
+
+By the light of the moon his dark face seemed even darker; his long,
+crisp, curly hair, his hat pressed down over his eyes, his black beard
+and moustache, his strongly aquiline nose, all proclaimed his gypsy
+origin. He wore a threadbare blue doublet, braided with cords, which
+were buttoned here and there at random, and over this was fastened some
+tattered lambskin covering.
+
+The rider was really fast asleep: surely he must have travelled at such
+a pace that he had no time, or thought for sleep, and now, strangely
+enough, he felt at home.
+
+Here, where no one could pursue him, he bowed his head upon his horse's
+neck.
+
+And the horse seemed to know that his master was sleeping, for he did
+not shake himself once, even to rid himself of the crowds of biting,
+sucking insects that preyed upon his skin, knowing that such a motion
+would wake his master.
+
+As the mare broke through a clump of marsh-willows, in the darkness of
+the willow forest, little dancing fire-flies came before her in scores,
+leaping from grass to grass, from tree to tree, dissolving one into the
+other, then leaping apart and dancing alone; their flames assumed a
+pale, lustreless brilliance in the darkness, like some fire of mystery
+or the burning gases of some moldering corpses.
+
+The mare merely snorted at the sight of these flickering midnight
+flames; surely she had often met them, in journeys across the marsh, and
+already knew their caprices: how they lurked about the living animals,
+how they ran after her if she passed before them, how they fluttered
+around, how they danced beside her continuously, how they leaped across
+above her head, how they strove to lead her astray from the right path.
+
+There they were darting around the heads of horse and horseman as if
+they were burning night-moths; one lighted upon the horseman's hat, and
+swayed with it, as he nodded his head.
+
+The steed snorted and breathed hard upon those living lights. But the
+snorting awakened the rider. He gazed askance at his brilliant
+demon-companions, one of which was on the brim of his hat; he dug the
+spurs into the mare's flanks, to make her leap more speedily from among
+the jeering spirits of the night.
+
+When they came to a turn in the track, the crowd of graveyard
+mystery-lights parted in twain: most of them joined the rushing
+air-current, while some careful guardians remained constantly about the
+rider, now before, now behind him.
+
+Darting from the willows, a cold breeze swept over the plain: before it
+every mystery-light fled back into the darkness, and still kept up its
+ghostly dance. Who knows what kind of amusement that was to them?
+
+The horseman was sleeping again. The terrible hay-rick was now so near
+that one might have gone straight to it, but the steed knew better;
+instead, she went around the spot in a half-circle, until she reached a
+little lake that cut off the hay-rick. Here she halted on the water's
+edge and began to toss her head, with a view to quietly awakening the
+rider from his sleep.
+
+The latter looked up, dismounted, took saddle and bridle off his horse,
+and patted her on the back. Therewith the steed leaped into the water,
+which reached to her neck, and swam to the other side.
+
+Why did she not cross over dry ground? Why did she go only through the
+water? The horseman meanwhile squatted down among the broom, rested his
+gun upon his knee, made sure that it was cocked and that the powder had
+not fallen from the pan, and noiselessly crouched down, gazing after the
+retreating steed, as she reached the opposite bank. Suddenly she drew in
+her tail, bristled her mane, pricked up her ears. Her eyes flashed fire,
+her nostrils expanded. Slowly and cautiously she stepped forward, so as
+to make no noise, bowed her head to the earth, like some scenting hound,
+and stopped to listen.
+
+On the southern side of the hay-rick,--the side away from the
+village,--there was a narrow entrance cut into the pile of hay: a
+plaited door of willow-twigs covered it, and the twigs were plaited
+together in their turn with sedges to make the color harmonize with that
+of the rick. This was done so perfectly that no one looking at it, even
+from a short distance, would have suspected anything. As the steed
+reached the vicinity of the door, she cautiously gazed upon it: below
+the willow-door there was an opening, through which something had broken
+in.
+
+The mare knew already what it was. She scented it. A she-wolf had taken
+up her abode there in the absence of the usual occupants, she had young
+ones with her, and was just now giving suck; otherwise she would have
+noticed the horse's approach; the whining of the whelps could be heard
+from the outside. The mare seized the door with her teeth, and suddenly
+wrenched it from its place.
+
+From the hollow of the hay-rick a lean, hungry wolf crept out. At first
+in wonder she raised her eyes, which shone in the green light,
+astonished at this disturbance of her repose; and she seemed to take
+counsel within herself, whether this was the continuation of her sweet
+dreams. The providential joint had come very opportunely to the mother
+of seven whelps. Two or three of these were still clinging to her
+hanging udders, and left her only that she might prepare herself for the
+fight. The old animal merely yawned loudly,--in a man it would be called
+a laugh,--a yawn that declared her delight in robbery, and with her
+slatternly tail beat her lean, hollow sides. The mare, seeing that her
+foe was in no hurry for the combat, came nearer, bowed her head to the
+earth, and in this manner stepped slowly forward, sniffing at the enemy;
+when the wolf seemed in the act of springing on her neck she suddenly
+turned, and dealt a savage kick at the wolf's chin that broke one of its
+great front teeth. Then the furious wild creature, snarling and hissing,
+darted upon the steed, which at the second attack kicked so viciously
+with both hind legs that the wolf turned a complete somersault in the
+air; but this only served to make it more furious: gnashing its teeth,
+its mouth foaming and bloody, it sprang a third time upon the mare, only
+to receive from the sharp hoof a long wound in its breast; but that was
+not all: before it could rise from the ground, the mare dealt another
+blow that crushed one of its fore paws.
+
+The wolf then gave up the battle. Terrified, with broken teeth and feet,
+it hobbled off from the scene of the encounter, and soon appeared on the
+roof of the rick. The coward had sought a place of refuge from the
+victorious foe, whither that foe could not follow it.
+
+The steed galloped round the rick: she wished to deceive her enemy, who
+merely sat on the roof licking its broken leg, its bruised side, and
+bloody jaws.
+
+All at once the proud mare halted, with a haughtier look than man is
+capable of, as who might say: "You are not coming?"
+
+Suddenly she seized one of the whelps in her teeth. They had slunk out
+of the hollow, whining after their mother. She shook it cruelly in the
+air, then dashed it to the ground violently so that in a moment its
+cries ceased.
+
+The mother-wolf hissed with agonized fury on the roof of the rick.
+
+The mare seized another one of the whelps and shook it in the air.
+
+As she grasped the third by the neck, the mother, mad with rage, leaped
+down upon her from the pile and, with the energy of despair, made so
+fierce an assault that her claws reached the steed's neck; but her
+crushed leg could take no hold, and she fell in a heap at the mare's
+feet; the triumphant foe then trampled to death first the old mother,
+then all the whelps. At last, proudly whinnying, she galloped in frisky
+triumph around the rick, and then quickly swam back to the place where
+she had left her master.
+
+"Well, Farao, is there anything the matter?" said the horseman,
+embracing his horse's head.
+
+The horse replied to the question with a familiar neigh, and rubbed her
+nose against her master's hip.
+
+The horseman thereupon tied saddle and bridle together into one bundle,
+and leaped upon his steed's back, who then, without harness of any kind,
+readily swam with him to the place she had already visited, and halted
+before the opening in the rick. The master dismounted. The steed, thus
+freed, rolled on the grass, neighing and whinnying, then leaped up,
+shook herself, and with great delight grazed in the rich swampy pasture.
+
+The gypsy was not surprised to see the bloody signs of the late
+struggle. He had many a time discovered dead wolves in the track of his
+grazing horse.
+
+"This will serve splendidly for a skin-cloak, as the old one is torn."
+
+Then something occurred to him.
+
+"This was a female: so the male must be here somewhere--I know where."
+The rick was surrounded by wolf-ditches in double rows, so made that the
+inner ditch corresponded to the space left between the two outer ones:
+the whole crafty work of defence was covered over with thin brush and
+reeds, which had been overgrown by process of time by moss, so that even
+a man might have been deceived by their appearance. Here was the reason
+why the steed had not approached the rick in a straight line. This was a
+fortified place, and the only entrance to the stronghold was that lake
+which lay before it: that was the gate. The she-wolf, too, had
+undoubtedly come across the water, but the male had not been so prudent
+and had entrapped himself in one of the ditches.
+
+The gypsy at once noticed that one ditch had been broken in, and, as he
+gazed down into the depths, two blazing blood-red eyes told him that
+what he was looking for was there.
+
+"Well, you are in a fine position, old fellow: in the morning I shall
+come for you: and I'll ask for your skin, if you'll give it to me. If
+you give, you give; if you don't give, I take. That is the order of
+things in the world. I have none, you have: I want it, you don't. One
+of us must die for the other's sake: that one must be you."
+
+Then it occurred to him to remove the skin of the she-wolf at once, for,
+if he left it to cool, the work would be more difficult. He stretched
+the fur on poles and left it to dry in the moonlight; the carcass he
+dragged to the end of the rick and buried it there; then he made a fire
+of rushes, took his seven days' old bread and rancid bacon from his
+greasy wallet and ate. As the darting flames threw a flickering light
+upon his face, he looked no more peaceful than that wild creature, whose
+hollow he had usurped.
+
+It was just a sagacious, courageous, wily, resolute--_animal_ face.
+
+"Either you eat me, or I eat you." That was its meaning. "You have, I
+have not; I want, you don't:--if you give, you give; if you don't, I
+take."
+
+At every bite with his brilliant white teeth into the bread and bacon,
+you could see it in his face; his gnashing teeth, and ravenous eyes
+declared it.
+
+That bacon, and bread, had surely cost something, if not money.
+
+Money? How could the gypsy purchase for money? Why, when he took that
+bright dollar from his knapsack, people would ask him where he got it.
+Should he show one of those red-eyed bank-notes, they would at once
+arrest, imprison him: whom had he murdered to obtain them?
+
+Yet he has dollars and bank-notes in plenty. He gathers them from his
+leathern purse with his hands, and scatters them around him on the
+grass.
+
+Bright silver and gold coins glitter around him in the firelight. He
+gazes at the curious notes of the imperial banks, and fears within
+himself that he cannot make out the worth of any of them. Then he sweeps
+them all together in one heap, along with snail shells and rush-seeds.
+After a while the man enters the hollow interior of the rick, and draws
+from the hay a large, sooty copper vessel, partly moldy with the mold of
+money. He pours the new pile in with two full hands. Then he raises the
+cauldron to see how much heavier it has become.
+
+Is he satisfied with his work?
+
+He buries his treasure once more in the depths of the rick; he himself
+knows not how much there might be. Then he attacks anew the hard, stale
+bread, the rancid bacon, and devours it to the last morsel. Perhaps some
+ready-prepared banquet awaited him on the morrow. Or perhaps he is
+accustomed to feasting only every third day. At last he stretches
+himself out on the grass, and calls to Farao.
+
+"Come here, graze about my head, let me hear you crunch the grass."
+
+And quickly he fell asleep beside her, as it were one whose brain was of
+the quietest and his conscience the most peaceful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"FRUITS PREMATURELY RIPE"
+
+
+At first I was invited to my P. C. uncle's every Sunday to dinner: later
+I went without invitation. As soon as I was let out of school, I
+hastened thither. I persuaded myself that I went to visit my brother. I
+found an excuse, too, in the idea that I must make progress in art, and
+that it was in any case an excellent use of time, and a very good
+"entree" to art, if I played waltzes and quadrilles of an afternoon from
+five to eight on the violin to Melanie's accompaniment on the piano,
+while the rest of the company danced to our music.
+
+For the Balnokhazys had company every day. Such a change of faces that I
+could scarcely remember who and what they all were. Gay young men and
+ladies they were, who loved to enjoy themselves: every day there was a
+dance there.
+
+Sometimes others would change places with Melanie at the piano: a piece
+of good fortune for me, for she was able to then have a dance--with me.
+
+I have never seen any one dance more beautifully than she; she fluttered
+above the floor, and could make the waltz more agreeable than any one
+else before or after her. That was my favorite dance. I was exclusively
+by her side at such times, and we could not gaze except into each
+other's eyes. I did not like the quadrille so well: in that one is
+always taking the hands of different persons, and changing partners; and
+what interest had I in those other lady-dancers?
+
+And I thought Melanie, too, rejoiced at the same thing that pleased me.
+
+And, if by chance--a very rare event--the P. C. had no company, we still
+had our dance. There were always two gentlemen and two lady dancers in
+the house party; the beautiful wife of the P. C. and Frauelein Matild,
+the governess: Lorand and Pepi[40] Gyali.
+
+[Footnote 40: A nickname for Joseph.]
+
+Pepi was the son of a court agent at Vienna, and his father was a very
+good friend of Balnokhazy; his mother had once been ballet-dancer at the
+Vienna opera--a fact I only learned later.
+
+Pepi was a handsome young fellow "en miniature;" he was a member of the
+same class as Lorand, a law student in the first year, yet he was no
+taller than I. Every feature of his face was fine and tender, his mouth,
+small, like that of a girl, yet never in all my life have I met one
+capable of such backbiting as was he with his pretty mouth.
+
+How I envied that little mortal his gift for conversation, his profound
+knowledge, his easy gestures, his freedom of manners, that familiarity
+with which he could treat women! His beauty was plastic!
+
+I felt within myself that such ought a man to be in life, if he would be
+happy.
+
+The only thing I did not like in him was that he was always paying
+compliments to Melanie: he might have desisted from that. He surely must
+have remarked on what terms I was with her.
+
+His custom was, in the quadrille, when the solo-dancing gentlemen
+returned to their lady partners, to anticipate me and dance the turn
+with Melanie. He considered it a very good joke, and I scowled at him
+several times. But once, when he wished to do the same, I seized his
+arm, and pushed him away; I was only a grammar-school boy, and he was a
+first-year law student; still I did push him away.
+
+With this heroic deed of mine not only myself but my cousin Melanie also
+was contented. That evening we danced right up till nine o'clock. I
+always with Melanie, and Lorand with her mother.
+
+When the company dispersed, we went down to Lorand's room on the ground
+floor, Pepi accompanying us.
+
+I thought he was going to pick a quarrel with me, and vowed inwardly I
+would thrash him.
+
+But instead he merely laughed at me.
+
+"Only imagine," he said, throwing himself on Lorand's bed, "this boy is
+jealous of me."
+
+My brother laughed too.
+
+It was truly ridiculous: one boy jealous of another.
+
+Yes, I was surely jealous, but chivalrous too. I think I had read in
+some novel that it was the custom to reply in some such manner to like
+ridicule:
+
+"Sir, I forbid you to take that lady's name in vain."
+
+They laughed all the more.
+
+"Why, he is a delightful fellow, this Desi," said Pepi. "See, Lorand, he
+will cause you a deal of trouble. If he learns to smoke, he will be
+quite an Othello."
+
+This insinuation hit me on a sensitive spot. I had never yet tasted that
+ambrosia, which was to make me a full-grown man; for as every one knows,
+it is the pipe-stem which is the dividing line between boyhood and
+manhood; he who could take that in his mouth was a man. I had already
+often been teased about that.
+
+I must vindicate myself.
+
+On my brother's table stood the tobacco-box full of Turkish tobacco, so
+by way of reply I went and filled a church warden, lit and began to
+smoke it.
+
+"Now, my child, that will be too strong," sneered Pepi, "take it away
+from him, Lorand. Look how pale he is getting: remove it from him at
+once."
+
+But I continued smoking: the smoke burned and bit the skin of my tongue;
+still I held the stem between my teeth, until the tobacco was burned
+out.
+
+That was my first and last pipe.
+
+"At any rate, drink a glass of water," Lorand said.
+
+"No thank you."
+
+"Well, go home, for it will soon be dark."
+
+"I am not afraid in the streets."
+
+Yet I felt like one who is a little tipsy.
+
+"Have you any appetite?" inquired Pepi scornfully.
+
+"Just enough to eat a gingerbread-hussar like you."
+
+Lorand laughed uncontrollably at this remark of mine.
+
+"Gingerbread-hussar! you have got it from him, Pepi."
+
+I was quite flushed with pride at being able to make Lorand laugh.
+
+But Pepi, on the contrary, became quite serious.
+
+"Ho, ho, old fellow," (when he spoke seriously to me he always addressed
+me "old fellow," and on other occasions as "my child"). "Never be afraid
+of me; now Lorand might have reason to be: we both want what is ready;
+we do not court your little girl, but her mother. If the old wigged
+councillor is not jealous of us, don't you be so."
+
+I expected Lorand to smite that fair mouth for this despicable calumny.
+
+Instead of which he merely said, half muttering:
+
+"Don't; before the child..."
+
+Pepi did not allow himself to be called to order.
+
+"It is true, my dear Desi: and I can tell you that you will have a far
+more grateful part to play around Melanie, if she marries someone else."
+
+Then indeed I went home. This cynicism was something quite new to my
+mind. Not only my stomach, but my whole soul turned sick. How could I
+measure the bitterness of the idea that Lorand was paying court to a
+married woman? Such a thing was not to be seen in the circle in which we
+had been brought up. Such a case had been mentioned in our town,
+perhaps, as the scandal of the century, but only in whispers that the
+innocent might not hear: neither the man nor the woman could have shown
+their faces in our street. Surely no one would have spoken another word
+to them.
+
+And Lorand had been so confused when Pepi uttered this foul thing to his
+face before me. He did not deny it, nor was he angry.
+
+I arrived at home in an agony of shame. The street-door was already
+closed: so I had to pass in by the shop door. I wished to open it
+softly that the bell should not betray my coming, but Father Fromm was
+waiting for me. He was extremely angry: he stopped my way.
+
+"Discipulus negligens! Do you know 'quote hora?' Decem. Every day to
+wander out of doors till after nine, hoc non pergit.--Scio, scio, what
+you wish to say. You were at the P. C.'s. That is 'unum et idem' for me.
+The other 'asinus' has been learning his lessons ever since midday, so
+much has he to do, while you have not even so much as glanced at them;
+do you wish to be a greater 'asinus' than he? Now I say 'semel propter
+semper,' 'finis' to the carnival! Don't go any more a-dancing; for if
+you stay out once more, 'ego tibi umsicabo.' Now 'pergus, dixi.'"
+
+Old Marton during this well-deserved drubbing kept moving the scalp of
+his head back and forth in assent, and then came after me with a candle,
+to light me along the corridor to the door of my room, singing behind me
+these jesting verses:
+
+    "Hab i ti nid gsagt
+    Komm um halbe Acht?
+    Und du Kummst mir jetzt um halbe naini
+    Jetzt ist de Vater z'haus, kannst nimmer aini."[41]
+
+[Footnote 41: "Did I not tell thee, 'come at half-past seven?' and thou
+comest now at half-past eight? Now the father is at home, thou canst no
+more come in."]
+
+And after me he called out "Prosit, Sir Lieutenant-Governor." I had no
+desire to be angry with him. I felt too sad to quarrel with any one.
+
+Henrik was indeed slaving away at the table, and the candle, burnt to
+the end, proved that he had been at it a long time.
+
+"Welcome, Desi," he said good humoredly. "You come late; a terrible
+amount of 'labor' awaits you to-morrow. I have finished mine: you will
+be behind with yours, so I have written the exercises in your place.
+Look and see if it is good."
+
+I was humbled.
+
+That heavy-headed boy, on whom I had been wont to look down from such a
+height, whose work I had prepared in play, work which he would have
+broken his head over, had now in my place finished the work I had
+neglected. What had become of me?
+
+"I waited for you with a little pleasant surprise," said Henrik, taking
+from his drawer something which he held in his hand before me. "Now
+guess what it is."
+
+"I don't care what it is."
+
+I was in a bad humor, I longed to lay my head on the bed.
+
+"Of course you care. Fanny has written a letter from her new home. She
+has written to you in Magyar, about your dear mother."
+
+These words roused me from my lethargy.
+
+"Show me: give it me to read."
+
+"You see, you are delighted after all."
+
+I tore the letter from him.
+
+First Fanny wrote to her parents in German, on the last page in Magyar
+to me. She had already made such progress.
+
+She wrote that they often spoke of me at home; I was a bad boy not to
+write mother a letter: she was very ill and it was her sole delight to
+be able to speak of me. As often as her parents or brother wrote to
+Fanny, she would add a few lines after opening the letter, in my name,
+then take it to my mother and read it to her, as if I had written. How
+delighted she was! She did not know my German writing, so she readily
+believed it was I who had written. But I must be a good boy and write
+myself, for some day mother and grandmother would discover the deceit
+and would be angry.
+
+My heart was almost bursting.
+
+I pored over the letter I had read, and sobbed bitterly as I had never
+before done in my life.
+
+My dear only mother! thou saint, thou martyr! who sufferest, weepest,
+and anguishest so much for my sake, while I mix in a society where they
+mock women, and mothers! Canst thou forgive me?
+
+When I had cried myself out, my face was covered with tears. Henrik
+raised me from my seat upon the floor.
+
+"Give me this letter," I panted; and I kissed him for giving it to me.
+
+Many great historical documents have been torn up since then, but that
+letter is still in my possession.
+
+"Now I cannot go to bed. I will stay up until morning and finish the
+work I have neglected. I thank you for what you have written in my
+stead, but I cannot accept it. I shall do it myself. I shall do
+everything in which I am behindhand."
+
+"Good, Desi, my boy, but you see our candle has burned down; and
+grandmother is already asleep, so I cannot ask her for one. Still, if
+you do wish to sit up, go down to the bakehouse, they are working all
+night, as to-morrow is Saturday: take your ink, paper, and books with
+you. There you can write and learn your lessons."
+
+I did so. I descended to the court, washed my head beside the fountain,
+then took my books and writing material and descended to the bakehouse,
+begging Marton to allow me to work there by lamp-light. Marton irritated
+me the whole night with his satire, the assistants jostled me, and drove
+me from my place; they sang the "Kneading-trough" air, and many other
+street-songs: and amid all these abominations I studied till morning;
+what is more, I finished all my work.
+
+That night, I know, was one of the turning-points in my life.
+
+Two days later came Sunday: I met Pepi in the street.
+
+"Well, old fellow: are you not coming to-day to see little Melanie?
+There will be a great dance-rehearsal."
+
+"I cannot: I have too much to do."
+
+Pepi laughed loudly. "Very well, old fellow."
+
+His laughter did not affect me in the least.
+
+"But when you have learned all there is to learn will you come again?"
+
+"No. For then I shall write a letter to my mother."
+
+Some good spirit must have whispered to this fellow not to laugh at
+these words, for he could not have anticipated the box on the ears I
+would have given him, because he could not for an instant forget that I
+was a grammar-school boy, and he a first-year law student.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SECRET WRITINGS
+
+
+One evening Lorand came to me and laid before me a bundle of papers
+covered with fine writing.
+
+"Copy this quite clearly by to-morrow morning. Don't show the original
+to any one, and, when you have finished, lock it up in your trunk with
+the copy, until I come for it."
+
+I set to work in a moment and never rose from my task until I had
+completed it.
+
+Next morning Lorand came for it, read it through, and said: "Very good,"
+handing me two pieces of twenty.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Take it," he said, "It is not my gift, but the gift of someone else: in
+fact, it is not a gift, but a fixed contract-price. Honorable work
+deserves honorable payment. For every installment[42] you copy, you get
+two pieces of twenty. It is not only you that are doing it: many of your
+school-fellows are occupied in the same work."
+
+[Footnote 42: _i. e._, A printed sheet of sixteen pages.]
+
+Then I was pleased with the two pieces of twenty.
+
+My uneasiness at receiving money from anybody except my parents, who
+alone were entitled to make me presents, was only equalled by my
+pleasure at the possession of my first earnings, the knowledge that I
+was at last capable of earning something, that at last the tree of life
+was bearing fruit, which I might reach and pluck for myself.
+
+I accepted the work and its reward. Every second day, punctually at
+seven o'clock in the evening, Lorand would come to me, give me the
+matter to be copied, 'matter written, as I recognized, in his own hand
+writing,' and next day in the morning would come for the manuscript.
+
+I wrote by night, when Henrik was already asleep: but, had he been
+awake, he could not have known what I was writing, for it was in Magyar.
+
+And what was in these secret writings?
+
+The journal of the House of Parliament. It was the year 1836. Speeches
+held in Parliament could not be read in print; the provisional censor
+ruled the day, and a few scarecrow national papers fed their reading
+public on stories of the Zummalacarregu type.
+
+So the public helped itself.
+
+In those days shorthand was unknown in our country; four or five
+quick-fingered young men occupied a bench in the gallery of the House,
+and "skeletonized" the speeches they heard. At the end of a sitting they
+pieced their fragments together: in one would be found what was missing
+in the other: thus they made the speeches complete. They wrote the
+result out themselves four times, and then each one provided for the
+copying forty times, of his own copy. The journals of Parliament, thus
+written, were preserved by the patriots, who were members at that
+time,--and are probably still in preservation.
+
+The man of to-day, who sighs after the happy days of old, will not
+understand how dangerous an enterprise, was the attempt made by certain
+young men "in the glorious age of noble freedom," to make the public
+familiar, through their handwriting, with the speeches delivered in
+Parliament.
+
+These writings had a regenerating influence upon me.
+
+An entirely new world opened out before me: new ideas, new impulses
+arose within my mind and heart. The name of that world which opened out
+before me was "home." It was marvellous to listen for the first time to
+the full meaning of "home." Till then I had had no idea of "home:" now
+every day I passed my nights with it:--the lines, which I wrote down
+night after night, were imprinted upon those white pages, that are left
+vacant in the mind of a child. Nor was I the only one impressed.
+
+There is still deeply engraved on my memory that kindling influence, by
+which the spirit of the youth of that age was transformed through the
+writing of those pages.
+
+One month later I had no more dreams of becoming Privy-Councillor:--then
+I knew not how I could ever approach my cousin Melanie.
+
+All at once the school authorities discovered where the parliamentary
+speeches were reproduced. It was done by the school children, that
+hundred-handed typesetting machine.
+
+The danger had already spread far; finding no ordinary outlet, it had
+found its way through twelve-year-old children: hands of children
+supplied the deficiency of the press.
+
+Great was the apprehension.
+
+The writing of some (among them mine) was recognized. We were accused
+before the school tribunal.
+
+I was in that frame of mind that I could not fear. The elder boys they
+tried to frighten with greater things, and yet they did not give way: I
+would at least do no worse. I was able to grasp it all with my child's
+mind, the fact that we, who had merely copied for money, could not be
+severely punished. Probably we never understood what might be in those
+writings lying before us. We merely piled up letter after letter. But
+the gravest danger threatened those who had brought those original
+writings before us.
+
+Twenty-two of the students of the college were called up for trial.
+
+On that day armed soldiers guarded the streets that led to the
+council-chamber, because the rumor ran that the young members of
+parliament wished to free the culprits.
+
+On the day in question there were no lessons--merely the accused and
+their judges were present in the school building.
+
+It is curious that I did not fear, even when under the surveillance of
+the pedellus,[43] I had to wait in the ante-room of the school tribunal.
+And I knew well what was threatening. They would exclude either me or
+Lorand from the school.
+
+[Footnote 43: Warden of the school.]
+
+That idea was terrible for me.
+
+I had heard thrilling stories of expelled students. How, at such times,
+they rang that cracked bell, which was used only to proclaim, to the
+whole town, that an expelled student was being escorted by his fellows
+out of the town, with songs of penitence. How the poor student became
+thenceforth a wanderer his whole lifetime through, whom no school would
+receive, who dared not return to his father's house. Now I merely
+shrugged my shoulders when I thought of it.
+
+At other times the least rebuke would break my spirit, and drive me to
+despair; now--I was resolved not even to ask for pardon. As I waited in
+the ante-room, I met the professors, one after another, as they passed
+through into the council-chamber. Fittingly I greeted them. Some of them
+did not so much as look at me. As Mr. Schmuck passed by he saw me, came
+forward, and very tenderly addressed me:--
+
+"Well, my child, and you have come here too. Don't be afraid: only look
+at me always. I shall do all I can for you, as I promised to your dear,
+good grandmother. Oh how your devoted grandmother would weep if she knew
+in what a position you now stand. Well, well, don't cry: don't be
+afraid. I intend to treat you as if you were my own child: only look at
+me always."
+
+I was glad when he went away. I was angry that he wished to soften me. I
+must be strong to-day.
+
+The director also noticed me, and called out in harsh tones:
+
+"Well, famous fiddler: now you can show us what kind of a gypsy[44] you
+are."
+
+[Footnote 44: The czigany (gypsy) is celebrated for his sneaking
+cowardice, and his fiddle playing, he being a naturally gifted musician,
+as any one who has heard czigany music in Budapest can testify.]
+
+That pleased me better.
+
+I would be no gypsy!
+
+The examination began: my school-fellows, the greater part of whom were
+unknown to me, as they were students of a higher class, were called in
+one by one into the tribunal chamber, and one by one they were
+dismissed; then the pedellus led them into another room, that they might
+not tell those without what they had been asked, and what they had
+answered.
+
+I had time enough to scrutinize their faces as they came out.
+
+Each one was unusually flushed, and brought with him the impression of
+what had passed within.
+
+One looked obstinate, another dejected. Some smiled bitterly: others
+could not raise their eyes to look at their fellows. Each one was
+suffering from some nervous perturbation which made his face a glaring
+contrast to the gaping, frozen features without.
+
+I was greatly relieved at not seeing Lorand among the accused. They did
+not know one of the chief leaders of the secret-writing conspiracy.
+
+But when they left me to the last, I was convinced they were on the
+right track; the copyers one after another had confessed from whom they
+had received the matter for copying. I was the last link in the chain,
+and behind me stood Lorand.
+
+But the chain would snap in two, and after me they would not find
+Lorand.
+
+For that one thing I was prepared.
+
+At last, after long waiting, my turn came. I was as stupefied, as
+benumbed, as if I had already passed through the ordeal.
+
+No thought of mother or grandmother entered my head; merely the one
+idea that I must protect Lorand with body and soul: and then I felt as
+if that thought had turned me to stone: let them beat themselves against
+that stone.
+
+"Desiderius Aronffy," said the director, "tell us whose writing is
+this?"
+
+"Mine," I answered calmly.
+
+"It is well that you have confessed at once: there is no necessity to
+compare your writing, to equivocate, as was the case with the
+others.--What did you write it for?"
+
+"For money."
+
+One professor-judge laughed outright, a second angrily struck his fist
+upon the table, a third played with his pen. Mr. Schmuck sat in his
+chair with a sweet smile, and putting his hands together twirled his
+thumbs.
+
+"I think you did not understand the question, my son," said the director
+in a harsh dry voice. "It is not that I wished to know for how much you
+wrote that trash: but with what object."
+
+"I understood well, and answered accordingly. They gave me writings to
+copy, they paid me for them: I accepted the payment because it was
+honorable earnings."
+
+"You did not know they were secret writings?"
+
+"I could not know it was forbidden to write what it was permitted to say
+for the hearing of the whole public, in the presence of the
+representative of the King and the Prince Palatine."
+
+At this answer of mine one of the younger professors uttered a sound
+that greatly resembled a choked laugh. The director looked sternly at
+him, rebuked with his eyes the sympathetic demonstration, and then
+bawled angrily at me:--
+
+"Don't play the fool!"
+
+The only result of this was that I gazed still more closely at him, and
+was already resolved not to move aside, even if he drove a coach and
+four at me. I had trembled before him when he had rebuked me for my
+violin-playing; but now, when real danger threatened me, I did not wince
+at his gaze.
+
+"Answer me, who gave into your hands that writing, which you copied?"
+
+I clenched my teeth. I would not answer. He might cut me in two without
+finding within me what he sought.
+
+"Well, won't you answer my question?"
+
+Indeed, what would have been easier than to relate how some gentleman,
+whom I did not know, came to me; he had a beard that reached to his
+knees, wore spectacles, and a green overcoat: they must then try to find
+the man, if they could:--but then--I could not any longer have gazed
+into the questioning eyes.
+
+No! I would not lie: nor would I play the traitor.
+
+"Will you answer?" the director cried at me for the third time.
+
+"I cannot answer."
+
+"Ho ho, that is a fine statement. Perhaps you don't know the man?"
+
+"I know, but will not betray him."
+
+I thought that, at this answer of mine, the director would surely take
+up his inkstand and hurl it at my head.
+
+But he did not: he took a pinch of snuff from his snuff-box, and looked
+askance at his neighbor, Schmuck, as much as to say, "It is what I
+expected from him."
+
+Thereupon Mr. Schmuck ceased to twirl his thumbs and turning to me with
+a tender face he addressed me with soothing tones:--
+
+"My dear Desider, don't be alarmed without cause: don't imagine that
+some severe punishment awaits you or him from whom you received the
+writing. It was an error, surely, but not a crime, and will only become
+a crime in case you obstinately hold back some of the truth. Believe me,
+I shall take care that no harm befall you; but in that case it is
+necessary you should answer our questions openly."
+
+These words of assurance began to move me from my purpose. They were
+said so sweetly, I began to believe in them.
+
+But the director suddenly interrupted:--
+
+"On the contrary! I am forced to contradict the honored professor, and
+to deny what he has brought forward for the defence of these criminal
+young men. Grievous and of great moment is the offence they have
+committed, and the chief causers thereof shall be punished with the
+utmost rigor of the law."
+
+These words were uttered in a voice of anger and of implacable severity;
+but all at once it dawned upon me, that this severe man was he who
+wished to save us, while that assuring, tender paterfamilias was just
+the one who desired to ruin us.
+
+Mr. Schmuck continued to twirl his thumbs.
+
+The director then turned again to me.
+
+"Why will you not name the man who entrusted you with that matter for
+copying?"
+
+I gave the only answer possible. "When I copied these writings I could
+not know I was engaged on forbidden work. Now it has been told me that
+it was a grievous offence, though I cannot tell why. Still I must
+believe it. I have no intention of naming the man who entrusted that
+work to me, because the punishment of me who did not know its object,
+will be far lighter than that of him, who knew."
+
+"But only think, my dear child, what a risk you take upon your own
+shoulders," said Mr. Schmuck in gracious tones; "think, by your obduracy
+you make yourself the guilty accomplice in a crime, of which you were
+before innocent."
+
+"Sir," I answered, turning towards him: "did you not teach me the heroic
+story of Mucius Scaevola? did you not yourself teach me to recite
+'Romanus sum civis?'
+
+"Do with me what you please: I shall not prove a traitor: if the Romans
+had courage, so have I to say 'longus post me ordo idem petentium
+decus.'"
+
+"Get you hence," brawled the director; and the pedellus led me away.
+
+Two hours afterwards they told me I might go home; I was saved. Just
+that implacable director had proved himself the best in his efforts to
+rescue us. One or two "primani," who had amused the tribunal with some
+very broad lies, were condemned to a few days' lock-up. That was all.
+
+I thought that was the end of the joke. When they let me go I hurried to
+Lorand. I was proudly conscious of my successful attempt to rescue my
+elder brother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE END OF THE BEGINNING
+
+
+Her ladyship, the beautiful wife of Balnokhazy, was playing with her
+parrot, when her husband entered her chamber.
+
+The lady was very fond of this creature--I mean of the parrot.
+
+"Well, my dear," said Balnokhazy, "has Koko learned already to utter
+Lorand's name?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Well, he will soon learn. By the bye, do you know that Parliament is
+dissolved. Mr. Balnokhazy may now take his seat in peace beside his
+wife."
+
+"As far as I am concerned, it may dissolve."
+
+"Well, perhaps you will be interested so far; the good dancers will now
+go home. The young men of Parliament will disperse to their several
+homes."
+
+"I don't wish to detain them."
+
+"Of course not. Why, Lorand will remain here. But even Lorand will with
+difficulty be able to remain here. He must fly."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"What I ought not to say out. Nor would I tell anyone other than you, my
+dear, as we agreed. Do you understand?"
+
+"Partly. You are referring to the matter of secret journalism?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, and to other matters which I have heard from you."
+
+"Yes, from me. I told you frankly, what Lorand related to me in
+confidence, believing that I shared his enthusiastic ideas. I told you
+that you might use your knowledge for your own elevation. They were
+gifts of honor, as far as you are concerned, but I bound you not to
+bring any disgrace upon him from whom I learned the facts, and to inform
+me if any danger should threaten him."
+
+Balnokhazy bent nearer to his wife and whispered in her ear:
+
+"To-night arrests will take place."
+
+"Whom will they arrest?"
+
+"Several leaders of the Parliamentary youths, particularly those
+responsible for the dissemination of the written newspaper."
+
+"How can that affect Lorand? He has burned every writing; no piece of
+paper can be found in his room. The newspaper fragments, if they have
+come into strange hands, cannot be compared with his handwriting. If
+hitherto he wrote with letters leaning forwards, he will now lean them
+backwards: no one will be able to find any similarity in the
+handwritings. His brother, who copied them, has confessed nothing
+against him."
+
+"True enough; but I am inclined to think that he has not destroyed
+everything he has written in this town. Once he wrote some lines in the
+album of a friend. A poem or some such stupidity; and that album has
+somehow come into the hands of justice."
+
+"And who gave it over?" enquired the lady passionately.
+
+"As it happens, the owner of the album himself."
+
+"Gyali?"
+
+"The same, my dear. He too thought that one must use a good friend's
+shoulders to elevate himself."
+
+Madam Balnokhazy bit her pretty lips until blood came.
+
+"Can you not help Lorand further?" she inquired, turning suddenly to her
+husband.
+
+"Why, that is just what I am racking my brain to do."
+
+"Will you save him?"
+
+"That I cannot do, but I shall allow him to escape."
+
+"To escape?"
+
+"Surely there is no other choice, than either to let himself be
+arrested, or to escape secretly."
+
+"But in this matter we have made no agreement. It was not this you
+promised me."
+
+"My darling, don't place any confidence in great men's promises. The
+whole world over, diplomacy consists of deceit: you deceive me, I
+deceive you: you betrayed Lorand's confidence, and Lorand deserved it:
+why did he confide in you so? You cannot deny that I am the most polite
+husband in the world. A young man pays his addresses to my wife: I see
+it, and know it; I am not angry; I do not make him leap out of the
+window, I do not point my pistol at him: I merely slap him on the
+shoulder with perfect nonchalance, and say, 'my dear boy, you will be
+arrested to-night in your bed.'"
+
+Balnokhazy could laugh most jovially at such sallies of humor. The whole
+of his beautiful white teeth could be seen as he roared with
+laughter--(even the gold wire that held them in place.)
+
+My lady Hermine rose from beside him, and seemed to be greatly
+irritated.
+
+"You are only playing the innocent before me, but I know quite surely
+that you put Gyali up to handing over the album to the treasury."
+
+"You only wish to make yourself believe that, my dear, so that when
+Lorand disappears from the house, you may not be compelled to be angry
+with Gyali, but with me; for of course somebody must remain in the
+house."
+
+"Your insults cannot hurt me."
+
+"I did not wish to hurt you. My every effort was and always will be to
+make your life, my dear, ever more agreeable. Have I ever showed
+jealousy? Have I not behaved towards you like a father to a daughter
+about to be married?"
+
+"Don't remind me of that, sir. That is your most ungracious trait. It is
+true that you yourself have introduced into our house young men of every
+class of society. It is true that you have never guarded me against
+them:--but then in a short time, when you began to remark that I felt
+some affection towards some of them, you discovered always choice
+methods to make me despise and abhor them. Had you shut me up and
+guarded me with the severity of a convent, you would have shown me more
+consideration. But you are playing a dangerous game, sir: maybe the time
+will come when I shall not cast out him whom I have hated!"
+
+"Well, that will be your own business, my dear. But the first business
+is to tell our relation Lorand that by ten o'clock this evening he must
+not be found here: for at that hour they will come to arrest him."
+
+Hermine walked up and down her room in anger.
+
+"And it is all your work: it is useless for you to defend yourself,"
+said she, tossing away her husband's hat from the arm-chair, and then
+throwing herself in a spiritless manner into it.
+
+"Why, I have no intention of defending myself," said Balnokhazy,
+good-humoredly picking up his rolling hat. "Of course I had a little
+share in it: why, you know it well enough, my dear. A man's first
+business is to create a career. I have to rise: you approve of that
+yourself; it is a man's duty to make use of every circumstance that
+comes to hand. Had I not done so, I should be a mere magistrate,
+somewhere in Szabolcs, who at the end of every three years kisses the
+hands of all the 'powers that be,' that they may not turn him out of
+office.[45] The present chancellor, Adam Reviczky, was one class ahead
+of me in the school. He too was the head of his class, as I was of mine.
+Every year I took his place: at every desk, where I sat in the first
+place, I found his name carved, and always carved, it out, putting mine
+in its place. He reached the height of the 'parabola,' and is now about
+to descend. Who knows what may happen next? At such times we must not
+mind if we make celebrated men of a few lads, whom at other times we did
+not remark."
+
+[Footnote 45: Every three years new magistrates and officials were
+elected to the various posts in the counties.]
+
+"But consider, Lorand is a relation of ours."
+
+"That only concerns me, not you."
+
+"It is, notwithstanding, terrible to ruin the career of a young man."
+
+"What will happen to him? He will fly away to the country to some friend
+of his, where no one will search for him. At most he will be prohibited
+from being 'called to the bar.' But it will not prevent him from being
+elected lawyer to the county court at the first renovation.[46] Besides,
+Lorand is a handsome fellow: and the harm the persecution of men has
+done him will soon be repaired by the aid of women."
+
+[Footnote 46: As explained above.]
+
+"Leave me to myself. I shall think about the matter."
+
+"I shall be deeply obliged to you. But, remember, please, ten o'clock
+this evening must not find here--the dear relation."
+
+Hermine hastened to her jewel-case with ostentation. Balnokhazy, as he
+turned in the doorway, could see with what feverish anxiety she unlocked
+it and fumbled among her jewels.
+
+With a smile on his face the husband went away. It is a fine instance of
+the irony of fate, when a woman is obliged to pawn her jewels in order
+to help someone escape whom she has loved, and whom she would love still
+to see about her,--to send him a hundred miles from her side.
+
+Hermine did indeed collect her jewels, and threw them into a
+travelling-bag.
+
+Then she sat down at her writing-table, and very hurriedly wrote
+something on some lilac-coloured letter paper on which the initials of
+her name had been stamped; this she folded up, sealed it and sent it by
+her butler to Lorand's room.
+
+Lorand had not yet stirred from the house that day; he did not know that
+part of the Parliamentary youth, gaining an inkling of the movement
+against them, had hurried to depart.
+
+When he had read the letter of the P. C.'s wife, he begged the butler to
+go to Mr. Gyali and ask him in his name to pay him a visit at once: he
+must speak a few words to him without fail.
+
+When the butler had gone, Lorand began to walk swiftly up and down his
+room. He was in search of something which he could not find, an idea.
+
+He sat again, driving his fist into his hand: then sprang up anew and
+hastened to the window, as if in impatient expectation of the new-comer.
+
+Suddenly a thought came to him: he began to put on gloves, fine, white
+kid gloves. Then he tried to clench his fist in them without tearing
+them.
+
+Perhaps he does not wish to touch, with uncovered hands, him for whom he
+is waiting!
+
+At last the street door opened, and steps made direct for his door.
+
+Only let him come! but he, whom he expected did not come alone: the
+first to open his door was not Pepi Gyali, but his brother, Desiderius.
+By chance they had met.
+
+Lorand received his brother in a very spiritless manner. It was not he
+whom he wished to see now. Yet he rushed to embrace Lorand with a face
+beaming triumph.
+
+"Well, and what has happened, that you are beaming so?"
+
+"The school tribunal has acquitted me: yet I drew everything on myself
+and did not throw any suspicion on you."
+
+"I hope you would be insulted if I praised you for it. Every ordinary
+man of honor would have done the same. It is just as little a merit not
+to be a traitor as it is a great ignominy to be one. Am I not right?
+Pepi,--my friend?"
+
+Pepi Gyali decided that Lorand could not have heard of his treachery and
+would not know it until he was placed in some safe place. He answered
+naturally enough that no greater disgrace existed on earth than that of
+treachery.
+
+"But why did you summon me in such haste," he enquired, offering his
+hand confidently to Lorand; the latter allowed him to grasp his hand--on
+which was a glove.
+
+"I merely wished to ask you if you would take my vis-a-vis in the ball
+to-night following my farewell banquet?"
+
+"With the greatest pleasure. You need not even have asked me. Where you
+are, I must be also."
+
+"Go upstairs, Desi, to the governess and ask her whether she intends to
+come to the ball to-night, or if the lady of the house is going alone."
+
+Desiderius listlessly sauntered out of the room.
+
+He thought that to-day was scarcely a suitable day to conclude with a
+ball; still he did go upstairs to the governess.
+
+The young lady answered that she was not going for Melanie had a
+difficult "Cavatina" to learn that evening, but her ladyship was getting
+ready, and the stout aunt was going with her.
+
+As Desiderius shut the door after him, Lorand stood with crossed arms
+before the dandy, and said:
+
+"Do you know what kind of dance it is, in which I have invited you to be
+my vis-a-vis?"
+
+"What kind?" asked Pepi with a playful expression.
+
+"A kind of dance at which one of us must die." Therewith he handed him
+the lilac-coloured letter which Hermine had written to him: "Read that."
+
+Gyali read these lines:
+
+"Gyali handed over the album-leaf you wrote on. All is betrayed."
+
+The dandy smiled, and placed his hands behind him.
+
+"Well, and what do you want with me?" he enquired with cool assurance.
+
+"What do you think I want?"
+
+"Do you want to abuse me? We are alone, no one will hear us. If you wish
+to be rough with me, I shall shout and collect a crowd in the street:
+that will also be bad for you."
+
+"I intend to do neither. You see I have put gloves on, that I may not
+befoul myself by touching you. Yet you can imagine that it is not
+customary to make a present of such a debt."
+
+"Do you wish to fight a duel with me?"
+
+"Yes, and at once: I shall not allow you out of my sight until you have
+given me satisfaction."
+
+"Don't expect that. Because you are a Hercules, and I a titmouse, don't
+think I am overawed by your knitted eyebrows. If you so desire, I am
+ready."
+
+"I like that."
+
+"But you know that as the challenged, I have the right to choose weapons
+and method."
+
+"Do so."
+
+"And you will find it quite natural that I have no intention of being
+pummelled into a loaf of bread and devoured by you. I recommend the
+American duel. Let us put our names into a hat and he whose name is
+drawn is compelled to shoot himself."
+
+Lorand was staggered. He recalled that night in the crypt.
+
+"One of us must die; you said so yourself," remarked Gyali. "Good, I am
+not afraid of it. Let us draw lots, and then he whom fate chooses, must
+die."
+
+Lorand gazed moodily before him, as if he were regarding things
+happening miles away.
+
+"I understand your hesitation: there are others whom you would spare.
+Well, let us fix a definite time for dying. How long can those, of whom
+you are thinking, live? Let us say ten years. He, whose name is drawn
+must shoot himself--to-day ten years."
+
+"Oh," cried Lorand in a tone of vexation, "this is merely a cowardly
+subterfuge by which you wish to escape."
+
+"Brave lion, you will fall just as soon, if you die, as the mouse. Your
+whole valor consists in being able to pin, with a round pin, a tiny
+little fly to the bottom of a box, but if you find an opponent, like
+yourself, you draw back before him."
+
+"I shall not draw back," said Lorand irritated; and there appeared
+before his soul all those figures, which, pointing their fingers
+threateningly, rose before him from the depths of the earth. Headless
+phantoms returned to the seven cold beds; and the eighth was bespoken.
+
+"Be it so," sighed Lorand: "let us write our names." Therewith he began
+to look for paper. But not a morsel was there in his room: all had been
+burned, clean paper too, that the water mark might not betray him. At
+last he came across Hermine's note. There was no other alternative.
+Tearing it in two,--one part he threw to Gyali, on the other he
+inscribed his own name.
+
+Then they folded the pieces of paper and put them into a hat.
+
+"Who shall draw?"
+
+"You are the challenger."
+
+"But you proposed the method."
+
+"Wait a moment. Let us entrust the drawing of lots to a third party."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"There is your brother, Desi."
+
+"Desi?"--Lorand felt a twitching pain at his heart:--"that one's own
+brother should draw one's death warrant!"
+
+"As yet his hand is innocent. Nor shall he know for what he is drawing.
+I will tell him some tale. And so both of us may be tranquil during the
+drawing of lots."
+
+Just at that moment Desiderius opened the door.
+
+He related that the governess was not going, but the stout aunt was to
+accompany "auntie" to the ball. And the "frauelein" had sent Lorand a
+written dance-programme, which Desiderius had torn up on the way.
+
+He tore it up because he was angry that other people were in so
+frivolous a mood at a time when he felt so exalted. For that reason he
+had no intention of handing over the programme.
+
+Hearing of the stout aunt, Pepi laughed and then began to feign horror.
+
+"Great heavens, Lorand: the seven fat kine of the Old Testament will be
+there in one: and one of us must dance with this monster. One of us will
+have to move from its place that mountain, which even Mahomet could not
+induce to stir, and waltz with it. Please undertake it for my sake."
+
+Lorand was annoyed by the ill-timed jest which he did not understand.
+
+"Well, to be sure I cannot make the sacrifice: it must be either you or
+I. I don't mind, let's draw lots for it, and see who must dance this
+evening with the tower of St. Stephen's."
+
+"Very well,"--Lorand now understood what the other wanted.
+
+"Desi will draw lots for us."
+
+"Of course. Just step outside a moment, Desi, that you may not see on
+which paper which of our names was written." Desiderius stepped outside.
+
+"He must not see that the tickets are already prepared," murmured
+Lorand:----
+
+"You may come in now."
+
+"In this hat are both our names," said Gyali, holding the hat before
+Desiderius: "draw one of them out: open it, read it, and then put both
+names into the fire. The one whose name you draw will do the honors to
+the Cochin-China Emperor's white elephant."
+
+The two foes turned round toward the window. Lorand gazed out, while
+Gyali played with his watch-chain.
+
+The child unsuspectingly stepped up to the hat that served as the "urna
+sortis," and drew out one of the pieces of paper.
+
+He opened it and read the name,
+
+"Lorand Aronffy."
+
+"Put them in the fire," said Gyali.
+
+Desiderius threw two pieces of lilac paper into the fire.
+
+They were cold May days; outside the face of nature had been distorted,
+and it was freezing; in Lorand's fire-place a fire was blazing. The two
+pieces of paper were at once burnt up.
+
+Only they were not those on which the two young men had written their
+names. Desiderius, without being noticed, had changed them for the dance
+programme, which he had cast into the fire. He kept the two fatal
+signatures to himself.
+
+He had a very good reason for doing so, and a still better reason for
+saying nothing about it.
+
+Lorand said:
+
+"Thank you, Desi."
+
+He thanked him for drawing that lot.
+
+Pepi Gyali took up his hat and said to Lorand in playful jesting:
+
+"The white elephant is yours. Good night." And he went away unharmed.
+
+"And now, my dear Desi, you must go home," said Lorand, gently grasping
+his brother's hand.
+
+"Why I have only just come."
+
+"I have much to do, and it must be done to-day."
+
+"Do it: I will sit down in a corner, and not say a word; I came to see
+you. I will be silent and watch you."
+
+Lorand took his brother in his arms and kissed him.
+
+"I have to pay a visit somewhere where you could not come with me."
+
+Desiderius listlessly felt for his cap.
+
+"Yet I did so want to be with you this evening."
+
+"To-morrow will do as well."
+
+Lorand was afraid that the officers of justice might come any moment for
+him. For his part he did not mind: but he did not wish his brother to be
+present.
+
+Desiderius sorrowfully returned home.
+
+Lorand remained by himself.
+
+By himself? Oh no. There around him were the others--seven in number:
+those headless dead.
+
+Well, fate is inevitable.
+
+Family misfortune is inherited. One is destroyed by the family disease,
+another by the hereditary curse.
+
+And again the cause is the "sorrowful soil beneath them."
+
+From that there is no escape.
+
+A terrible inheritance is the self-shed blood, which besprinkles the
+heads of sons and grandsons!
+
+And his inheritance was--the pistol, with which his father had killed
+himself.
+
+It were vain for the whole Heaven to be here on earth. He must leave it,
+must go, where the others had gone.
+
+The eighth niche was still empty, but was already bespoken.
+
+For later comers there was room only in the ditch of the graveyard.
+
+And there were still ten years left to think thereon! But ten years is a
+long time. Meanwhile that field might open where an honourable death,
+grasping a scythe in its two hands, cuts a way through the ranks of
+armed warriors:--where the children of weeping mothers are trampled to
+death by the hoofs of horses:--where they throw the first-born's mangled
+remains into the common burying-pit: perhaps there the son will find
+what the father sought in vain:--those who fled from before the
+resting-chamber of that melancholy house, on the facade of which was to
+be read the inscription, covered by the creepers since days long gone
+by.
+
+"Ne nos inducas in tentationem."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AGED AT SEVENTEEN
+
+
+How beautiful it is to be young! How fair is the spring! Yours is life,
+joy, hope; the meadows lavish flowers upon you; the earth's fair halo of
+love surrounds you with glory: a nation, a fatherland, mankind entrusts
+to you its future; old men are proud of you; women love you: every
+brightening day of heaven is yours.
+
+Oh, how I love the spring! how I love youth! In spring I see the fairest
+work of God, the earth, take new life; in youth I see the fairest work
+of man, his nation, reviving.
+
+"In those days" I did not yet belong to the "youth:" I was a child.
+
+Never do I remember a brighter promise of spring, than in that year;
+never were the eyes of the old men gladdened by the sight of a more
+spirited "youth" than was that of those days.
+
+Spring began very early: even at the end of February the fields were
+green, parks hastened to bedeck themselves in their leafy wings, the
+blossoms hastened to bloom and fall; the opening days of May saw fruit
+on the apple-trees; and prematurely ripe cherries were "hawked" in the
+streets, beside bouquets of late blooming violets.
+
+Of the "youths" of that year the historian has written: "These youths
+were in general very serious, very lavish in patriotic feeling, fiery
+and spirited in the defence of freedom and national dignity. The new
+tendency which manifested itself so vividly in our country was reflected
+by their impetuous and susceptible natures with all its noble yearnings,
+its virtues and excesses exaggerated. The frivolous pastimes, the
+senseless or dissolute amusements that were so fashionable in those days
+were abandoned for serious reading, gathering of information and
+investigation of current events. They had already opinions of their own,
+which not rarely they could utter with striking audacity."--I could only
+envy these lines of gold; not one word of them had any reference to me:
+for I was still but a child. During a night that followed a lovely May
+day, the weather suddenly changed: winter, who was during the days of
+his dominion, watching how the warm breezes played with the flower-bells
+of the trees, all at once returned: with the full vigor of vengeance he
+came, and in three days destroyed everything, in which man happened to
+delight. To the last leaf everything was frozen off the trees.
+
+On this most inclement of the three wintry May evenings Lorand was
+standing alone at his window, and gazing abstractedly at the street
+through the ice-flower pattern of the window-panes.
+
+Just such ice-flowers lay frozen before his soul. The lottery of fate
+has appointed his time: ten years his life would last; then he must die.
+
+From seventeen to twenty-seven is just the fairest part of life. Many
+had made their whole earthly career during that period.
+
+And what awaits him?
+
+His ardent yearning for freedom, his audacious plans, his misplaced
+confidence; friends' treason, and the consequent freezing rigor, where
+were they leading to?...
+
+Every leaf had fallen from the trees. Only ten years to live: the decree
+was unalterable.
+
+From the opponent, whom he despised, it is not possible even to accept
+as a present, that to which chance has once given him the right.
+
+And these ten years, with what will they begin? Perhaps with a long
+imprisonment? The time which is so short--(ten years are light!) will
+seem so long _there_! (ten years are heavy!) Would it not be better not
+to wait for the first day? To say: if it is time, take it away: let me
+not take the days on lease from thee! The hateful, freezing days.
+
+Why, when nature dies in this wise, man himself would love to die after
+her.
+
+If only there were not that weeping face at home, that white-haired
+head, mother and grandmother.
+
+In vain Fate is inevitable. The eighth bed was already made;--but _that_
+no one must know for ten years. Should someone learn, he might
+perpetrate the outrage of occupying earlier the eighth niche in the
+family vault; and then his successor would have nothing left but the
+church-yard grave.
+
+What a thought, a youthful spring with these frozen leaves!
+
+He did not think for the next few moments. Is it worth while to try to
+avoid the fate, which is certain? Let it come. The keystone of the arch
+had been removed, the downfall of the whole must follow. His room was
+already in darkness, but he did not light a lamp. The dancing flames of
+the fire-place gazed out sometimes above the embers, in curiosity, as if
+they would know whether any living being were there: and still he did
+not stir.
+
+In this dim twilight Lorand was thinking upon those who had passed away
+before him.
+
+That bony-faced figure, whose death face he was painting,--his ordinary
+physiognomy was terrible enough: those empty eye-sockets, into which he
+fears to gaze:--suppose between these two hollows a third was darkling,
+the place of the bullet that pierced his forehead!
+
+Lorand now knew what torture must have been theirs, who had left him
+this sorrowful bequest, before they could make up their minds to raise
+their own hands against their own lives! with what power of God they
+must have struggled, with what power of devils have made a compact! Oh,
+if they would only come for him now!
+
+Who?
+
+Those who picked the fruit that dared so early to ripen?
+
+Yes, rather those, than these quiet, bloodless faces, in their bloody
+robes. Rather those who come with clank of arms, tearing open the door
+with drawn sword, than those who with inaudible step steal in, gently
+open the door, whisperingly speak and tremblingly pronounce your name.
+
+"Lorand."
+
+"Ha! Who is that?"
+
+Not one of the dead, though her robe is white: one far worse than
+they:--a beautiful woman.
+
+It was Hermine who opened the door and entered Lorand's room so
+silently, with inaudible steps. Her ball-robe was on her: she had
+dressed for the dance in her room above, and thus dressed had descended.
+
+"Are you ready now, Lorand?"
+
+"Oh, good evening: pardon me. I will light a candle in a moment."
+
+"Never mind about that," whispered the woman. "It is quite light enough
+as it is. To-day no candle may burn in this room."
+
+"You are going to a ball," said Lorand, masking the sorrow of his soul
+by a display of good spirits: "and you wish me to accompany you?"
+
+"Fancy the thought of dancing coming into my head just now!" replied
+Hermine, coming so close to Lorand that she could whisper in his ear.
+"Did you get my letter?"
+
+"Yes, thank you. Don't be alarmed, there is no danger."
+
+"Indeed there is. I know it well. The danger is in the hands of
+Balnokhazy: therefore certain."
+
+"What great harm can happen to me?"
+
+Hermine placed her hand on Lorand's shoulder and tremblingly hissed:
+
+"They will arrest you to-night."
+
+"They may do so."
+
+"Oh no, they may not, kind Heaven! That they shall not do. You must
+escape, immediately, this hour."
+
+"Is it sure they will arrest me?"
+
+"Believe me, yes."
+
+"Then just for that reason I shall not stir from my place."
+
+"What are you saying? Why? Why not?"
+
+"Because I should be ashamed, if they who wanted me should draw me out
+from under my bed in my mother's house, like a child who has played some
+mischief."
+
+"Who is speaking now of your mother's house? You must fly far: away to
+foreign lands."
+
+"Why?" asked Lorand coldly.
+
+"Why? My God, what questions you put. I don't know how to answer! Can
+you not see that I am in despair, that every limb of my body trembles
+for my fear on your account? Believe me, I cannot possibly allow them to
+take you away from before my eyes, to imprison you for years, so that I
+shall never see you again."
+
+To appeal the more to Lorand's feelings, and to show him how her hands
+trembled she tore off her beautiful ball gloves, and grasped his hands
+in her own and then sobbed before him.
+
+As she touched him Lorand began to feel, instead of his previous
+tomblike chillness, a kind of agitating heat as if the cold bony hand of
+death had given over his hand to some other unknown demon.
+
+"What shall I do in a foreign country? I have no one, nothing, no way
+there. Everyone I love is here, in this land. There I should go mad."
+
+"You will not be alone there, because the one who loves you best on
+earth, who worships you above all, who loves you better than her health,
+her soul, better than heaven itself, goes with you and will never leave
+you."
+
+The young man could make no mistake as to whom she meant: Hermine
+encircled his young neck with her beautiful arms and overwhelmed his
+face with kisses.
+
+Lorand was no longer his own. In one hour he lost his home, his fortune,
+and his heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+I AND THE DEMON
+
+
+It was already late in the evening when Balnokhazy's butler brought me a
+letter, and then hurriedly departed, before I could read it.
+
+It was Lorand's writing. The message was short:
+
+"My dear brother:--I have been betrayed and must escape: comfort our
+dear parents. Good-bye."
+
+I leaped up from my bed:--I had already gone to bed that I might get up
+early on the morrow:--and hastened to dress.
+
+My first idea was to go to Balnokhazy. He was my uncle and relation, and
+was extremely fond of us: besides, he was very influential; he could
+accomplish anything he wished, I would tell him everything frankly, and
+beg him to do for my brother what he was capable of doing: to prevent
+his prosecution and arrest, or, if he was convicted, to secure his
+pardon. Why, to such a great man nothing could be impossible.
+
+I begged old Marton to open the door for me.
+
+"What! discipulus negligens! To slip out of the house at night is not
+proper. He who wanders about at night can be no Lieutenant Governor--at
+most a night-watchman."
+
+"No joking now; they are prosecuting my brother! I must go and help
+him."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me at once? Prosecute indeed? You should have told
+me that. Who? Perhaps the butcher clerks? If so, let us all six go with
+clubs to his aid."
+
+"No, they are not butcher clerks. What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Why, in past years the law-students were continually having brawls with
+butcher clerks."
+
+"They want to arrest him," I whispered to him, "to put him in prison,
+because he was one of the 'Parliamentary youth' lot."
+
+"Aha," said Marton, "that's where we are is it? That is beyond my
+assistance. And, what can you do?"
+
+"I must go to my uncle Balnokhazy at once and ask him to interfere."
+
+"That's surely a wise thing to do. Under those circumstances I shall go
+with you. Not because I think you would be afraid to go by yourself at
+night, but that I may be able to tell the old man by-and-bye that you
+were not in mischief."
+
+The old fellow put on a coat in a moment, and a pair of boots, then
+accompanied me to the Balnokhazys.
+
+He did not wish to come in, but told me that, on my way back, I should
+look for him at the corner beer-house, where he would wait for me.
+
+I hurried up stairs.
+
+I was greatly disappointed to find my brother's door closed: at other
+times that had always been my first place of retreat.
+
+I heard the piano in the "salon": so I went in there.
+
+Melanie was playing with the governess.
+
+They did not seem surprised that I came at so late an hour; I only
+noticed that they behaved a little more stiffly towards me than on other
+occasions.
+
+Melanie was deeply engrossed in studying the notes. I enquired whether I
+could speak with my uncle.
+
+"He has not yet come home from the club," said the governess.
+
+"And her ladyship."
+
+"She has gone to the ball."
+
+That annoyed me a little.
+
+"And when do they come home?"
+
+"The Privy Councillor at eleven o'clock, he usually plays whist till
+that hour; her ladyship probably not until after midnight. Do you wish
+to wait?"
+
+"Yes, until my uncle returns."
+
+"Then you can take supper with us."
+
+"Thank you, I have already had supper."
+
+"Do they have supper so early at the baker's?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I then sat down beside the piano, and thought for a whole hour what a
+stupid instrument the piano was; a man's head may be full of ideas, and
+it will drive them all out.
+
+Yet I had so much to ponder over. What should I say to my uncle when he
+came. With what should I begin? How could I tell him what I knew? What
+should I ask from him?
+
+But how was it possible that neither was at home at such a critical
+time? Surely they must have been informed of such a misfortune. I did
+not dare to introduce Lorand's name before the governess. Who knows what
+others are? Besides, I had no sympathy for her. For me a governess
+seemed always a most frivolous creature.
+
+In the room there was a large clock that caused me most annoyance. How
+long it took for those hands to reach ten o'clock! Then, when it did
+strike, its tone was of that aristocratic nasal quality that it must
+have acquired from the voices of the people around it.
+
+Sometimes the governess laughed, when Melanie made some curious mistake;
+Melanie, too, laughed and peeped from behind her music to see if I was
+smiling.
+
+I had not even noticed it.
+
+Then my pretty cousin poutingly tossed back her curly hair, as if she
+were annoyed that I too was beginning to play a part of indifference
+towards her.
+
+At last the street-door bell rang. From the footsteps I knew my uncle
+had come. They were so dignified.
+
+Soon the butler entered and said I could speak with his lordship, if I
+so desired.
+
+Trembling all over, I took my hat, and wished the ladies good-night.
+
+"Are you not coming back, to hear the end of the Cavatina;" inquired
+Melanie.
+
+"I cannot," I answered, and left them there.
+
+My uncle's study was on the farther side of the hall; the butler lighted
+my way with a lamp, then he put it down on a chest, that I might find my
+way back.
+
+"Well, my child, what do you want?" inquired my uncle, in that gay,
+playful tone, which we are wont to use in speaking to children to
+express that we are quite indifferent as to their affairs.
+
+I answered languidly, as if some gravestone were weighing upon my
+breast,
+
+"Dear uncle, Lorand has left us."
+
+"You know already?" he asked, putting on his many colored embroidered
+dressing-gown.
+
+"You know too?" I exclaimed, taken aback.
+
+"What, that Lorand has run away?" remarked my uncle, coolly buttoning
+together the silken folds of his dressing gown; "why I know more than
+that:--I know also that my wife has run away with him, and all my wife's
+jewels, not to mention the couple of thousand florins that were at
+home--all have run away with your brother Lorand."
+
+How I reached the street after those words; whether they opened the door
+for me; whether they led me out or kicked me out, I assure you I do not
+know. I only came to myself, when Marton seized my arm in the street and
+shouted at me:
+
+"Well sir Lieutenant-Governor, you walk right into me without even
+seeing me. I got tired of waiting in the beer-house and began to think
+that they had run you in too. Well, what is the matter? How you
+stagger."
+
+"Oh! Marton," I stammered, "I feel very faint."
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"I cannot tell anyone that."
+
+"Not to anyone? No! not to Mr. Brodfresser,[47] nor to Mr.
+Commissioner:--but to Marton, to old Marton? Has old Marton ever let out
+anything? Old Marton knows much that would be worth his while to tell
+tales about: have you ever heard of old Marton being a gossip? Has old
+Marton ever told tales against you or anyone else? And if I could help
+you in any way?"
+
+[Footnote 47: The name given to Desiderius' professor ("bread
+devourer").]
+
+There was a world of frank good-heartedness in these reproaches; besides
+I had to catch after the first straw to find a way of escape.
+
+"Well, and what did my old colleague say?--You know the reason I call
+him 'colleague,' is that my hair always acts as if it were a wig, while
+his wig always acts as it if were hair."
+
+"He said," I answered tremblingly, hanging on to his arm, "he knew more
+than I. Lorand has not merely run away, but has stolen my uncle's wife."
+
+At these words Marton commenced to roar with laughter. He pressed his
+hands upon his stomach and just roared, then turned round, as if he
+wished to give the further end of the street a taste of his laughter;
+then he remarked that it was a splendid joke, at which remark I was
+sufficiently scandalized.
+
+"And then he said--that Lorand had stolen his money."
+
+At this Marton straightened himself and raised his head very seriously.
+
+"That is bad. That is 'a mill,' as Father Fromm would say. Well, and
+what do you think of it, sir?"
+
+"I think, it cannot be true; and I want to find my brother, no matter
+what has become of him.
+
+"And when you have found him?"
+
+"Then, if that woman is holding him by one hand, I shall seize the other
+and we shall see which of us will be the stronger."
+
+Marton gave me a sound slap on the back, saying "Teufelskerl.[48] What
+are you thinking of?--would other children mind, if a beautiful woman
+ran away with their brother? But this one wishes to stand between them.
+Excellent. Well, shall we look for Master Lorand? How will you begin?"
+
+[Footnote 48: Devil's fellow: _i. e._, devil of a fellow.]
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Let me see; what have you learned at school? What can you do, if you
+are suddenly thrown back on your own resources? Which way will you
+start? Right or left: will you cry in the street, 'Who has seen my
+brother?'"
+
+Indeed I did not know how to begin.
+
+"Well,--you shall see that you can at times make use of that old fellow
+Marton. Trust yourself to me. Listen to me now, as if I were Mr.
+Brodfresser. If two of them ran away together, surely they must have
+taken a carriage. The carriage was a fiacre. Madame has always the same
+coachman, number 7. I know him well. So first of all we must find
+Moczli: that is coachman No. 7. He lives in the Zuckermandel. It's a
+cursed long way, but that's all the better, for by the time we get to
+his house we shall be all the surer to find him at home."
+
+"If he was the one who took them."
+
+"Don't play the fool now, sir studiosus. I know what cab-horses are.
+They could not take anyone as far as the border; at most as far as some
+wayside inn, where speedy country horses can be found: there the
+runaways are waiting while the fiacre is returning."
+
+In astonishment I asked what made him surmise all this: when it seemed
+to me that with speedy country horses they might already be far beyond
+the frontier.
+
+"Sir Lieutenant-Governor," was Marton's hasty reproof; "How could you
+have such ideas? You expect to become Lieutenant-Governor some day, yet
+you don't know that he who wishes to pass the frontiers must be supplied
+with a passport. No one can go without a pass from Pressburg to Vienna;
+Madame has quite surely despatched Moczli back to bring to her the
+gentleman with whose 'pass' they are to escape farther."
+
+"What gentleman?"
+
+"An actor from the theatre here, who will arrange that the young
+gentleman shall pass the frontier with his passport."
+
+"How can you figure it all out?"
+
+Marton paused for a moment, made an ugly mouth, closed his left eye, and
+hissed through his teeth, as if he would express by all this pantomime
+that there are things which cannot be held under children's noses.
+
+"Well, never mind; you do wish to be a county officer or something of
+the kind. So you must know about such things sooner or later, when you
+will have to examine people on such questions. I will tell you--I know
+because Moczli once told me just such a story about madame."
+
+"Once before?"
+
+"Certainly," said Marton chuckling wickedly. "Ha ha! Madame is a cute
+little woman. But then no one knows of it--only Moczli and I; and
+Madame's husband. Her husband has already pardoned her for it: Moczli
+was well paid; and what business is it of Marton's? All three of us hold
+our tongues, like a broiled fish. But it is not the first time it has
+happened."
+
+I do not know why, but this discovery somehow relieved my bitterness. I
+began to surmise that Lorand was not the most deeply implicated in the
+crime.
+
+"Well, let us go first of all to Moczli," said Marton; "But I have a
+promise to exact from you. Don't say a word yourself; leave the talking
+to me. For he is a cursed fellow, this Moczli; if he finds that we wish
+to get information out of him, he will lie like a book: but I will
+suddenly drive in upon him, so that he will not know whether to turn to
+the right or to the left. I will spring something on him as if I knew
+all about it, that will scare him out of his wits and then I'll press
+him close, so that it'll take his breath away, and before he knows it
+I'll have that secret squeezed out of him to the very last drop. You
+must observe how it is done, so that you can make use of similar methods
+in the future when in the position of Lieutenant-Governor you will have
+to cross-question some suspicious rascal in order to wring the truth out
+of him!"
+
+By this time we had started at a brisk pace along the banks of the
+Danube. I wasn't dressed for such a dismal night, and old Marton was
+doing his best to shield me with the wing of his coat against the
+chilling gusts that rushed against us from the river. At the same time
+he made every effort to make me believe that what we were engaged in was
+one of the finest jokes he had ever taken a hand in, and that our
+recollections of it will afford us no end of amusement in the future. At
+the foot of the castle-hill, along the banks of the Danube was a group
+of tottering houses; tottering because in spring, when the ice broke up,
+the Danube roared and dashed among them. Here lived the fiacre drivers.
+Here were the cab-horses in tumble-down stables.
+
+It was a ball-night: in the windows of the tumble-down houses candles
+were burning, for the cabmen were waiting till midnight, when they would
+again harness their horses and return to fetch their patrons from the
+ball-room.
+
+Marton looked in at one window so lighted; he had to climb up on
+something to do so, for the ground floor was built high, in order that
+the water might not enter at the windows.
+
+"He is at home," he remarked, as he stepped down, "but he is evidently
+preparing to go out again, for he has his top-coat on."
+
+The gate was open; the carriage was in the courtyard, the horses in the
+shafts, covered with rugs.
+
+Their harness had not even been taken off: they must have just arrived
+and had to start again at once.
+
+Marton motioned to me to follow him at his heels while he made his way
+into the house.
+
+The door we ran up against could not be opened unless one knew the
+tricks that made it yield. Marton seemed to be well acquainted with the
+peculiarities of the entrance to Moczli's den: first he pressed down on
+the door knob and raised the whole door bracing against it with his
+shoulder, then turning the knob and giving the door a severe kick it
+flew open and in the next moment we found ourselves in a dingy, narrow
+hole of a room smelling horribly of axle-grease, tallow and
+tobacco-smoke.
+
+On a table, which was leaning against the wall with the side where a leg
+was broken, stood a burning tallow-dip stuck into the mouth of an empty
+beer-jug, and by its dim light Moczli was seated eating--no, devouring
+his supper. With incredible rapidity he was piling in and ramming down,
+as it were, enormous slices of blood-sausage in turn with huger chunks
+of salted bread.
+
+His many-collared coat was thrown over his huge frame, and his
+broad-brimmed hat that was pressed over his eyes was still covered with
+hoar-frost that had no chance of thawing in that cold, damp room, the
+wall of which glistened like the sides of some dripping cave.
+
+Moczli was a well-fed fellow, with strongly protruding eyes, which
+seemed almost to jump out of their sockets as he stared at us for
+bursting in upon him without knocking.
+
+"Well, where does it 'burn?'" were his first words to Marton.
+
+"Gently, old fellow; don't make a noise. There is other trouble! You are
+betrayed and they will pinch the young gentleman at the frontier."
+
+Moczli was really scared for a moment. A tremendous three-cornered chunk
+of bread that he had just thrust in his mouth stuck there staring
+frightenedly at us like Moczli himself and looking for all the world as
+if a second nose was going to grow on his face; however he soon came to
+himself, continued the munching process, gulped it all down, and then
+drank a huge draught out of a monstrous glass, his protruding eyes being
+all the while fixed on me.
+
+"I surely thought there was a fire somewhere, and I must go for a
+fire-pump again with my horses.--I must always go for the pump, if a
+fire breaks out anywhere. Even if there is a fire in the mill quarter,
+it is only me they drive out: why does not the town keep horses of her
+own?"
+
+"Do you hear, Moczli," Marton interrupted, "don't talk to me now of the
+town pumps don't sprinkle your throat either, for it's not there that it
+is burning, but your back will be burning immediately, if you don't
+listen to me. Her ladyship's husband learned all. They will forestall
+the young gentleman at the frontier, and bring him back."
+
+Moczli endeavored to display a calm countenance, though his eyes belied
+him.
+
+"What 'young gentleman' do you mean, and what 'ladyship?'"
+
+Marton bent over him and whispered,
+
+"Moczli, you don't want to make a fool of yourself before me, surely.
+Was it not you that took away Balnokhazy's wife in the company of a
+young gentleman? Your number is on your back: do you think no one can
+see it?"
+
+"If I did take them off, where did I drive them to? Why to the ball."
+
+"A fine ball, indeed. You know they want to arrest the 'juratus.' He
+will find one for you soon where they play better music. Here is his
+younger brother, just come from seeing his lordship, who told him his
+wife had eloped with the young gentleman whom they would search for in
+every direction."
+
+Moczli was at this moment deeply engaged in picking his teeth. First
+with his tongue, then with his fingers, until he found a wisp of straw
+with which to clean them, and at which, like drowning people, he
+clutched to save himself.
+
+"Well, do you think I care: anyone may send for anyone else for all I
+mind. I have seen no one, have taken no one away. And if I did take
+someone, what business of mine is it to know what the one is doing with
+the other? And even if I did know that someone has eloped with someone
+else's wife, what business is it of mine? I am no 'syndic' that I should
+bother my head to ask questions about it: I carry woman or man, who
+pays, according to the tariff of fares. Otherwise I know absolutely
+nothing."
+
+"Well, good-bye, and God bless you, Moczli," said Marton hastily. "If
+you don't know about it, someone else must know about it. However, we
+didn't come here to gaze into your dreamy eyes, but to free this young
+gentleman's brother: we shall search among the other fiacres, until we
+find the right one, for it is a critical business: and if we find that
+fiacre in which the young fellow came to harm and cannot manage to
+secure his escape, I would not like to be in his shoes."
+
+"In whose shoes?" inquired Moczli, terrified.
+
+"In the young gentleman's not at all, but still less in the
+fiacre-driver's. Well, good-night, Moczli."
+
+At these words Moczli leaped up from his chair and sprang after Marton.
+
+"Wait a moment: don't be a fool. Come with me. Take your seats in my
+fiacre. But the devil take me if I have seen, heard or said anything."
+
+Therewith he removed the rugs from his horses, placed me inside the
+carriage, covering me with a rug, took Marton beside him on the box, and
+drove desperately along the bank of the Danube.
+
+Long did I see the lamps of the bridge glittering in the water; then
+suddenly the road turned abruptly, and, to judge by the almost
+intolerable shaking of the carriage and the profound darkness, we had
+entered one of those alleys, the paving of which is counted among the
+curses of civilization, the street-lamps being entrusted to the care of
+future generations.
+
+The carriage suddenly proceeded more heavily: perhaps we were ascending
+a hill: the whip was being plied more vigorously every moment on the
+horses' backs: then suddenly the carriage stopped.
+
+Moczli commenced to whistle as if to amuse himself, at which I heard the
+creaking of a gate, and we drove into some courtyard.
+
+When the carriage stopped, the coachman leaped off the box, and
+addressed me through the window.
+
+"We are here: at the end of the courtyard is a small room; a candle is
+burning in the window. The young gentleman is there."
+
+"Is the woman with him too?" I inquired softly.
+
+"No. She is at the 'White Wolf,' waiting with the speedy peasant cart,
+until I bring the gentleman with whom she must speak first."
+
+"He cannot come yet, for the performance is not yet over."
+
+Moczli opened his eyes still further.
+
+"You know that too?"
+
+I hastened across the long dark courtyard and found the door of the
+little room referred to. A head was to be seen at the lighted window.
+Lorand was standing there melting the ice on the panes with his breath,
+that he might see when the person he was expecting arrived.
+
+Oh how he must have loved her. What a desperate struggle awaited me!
+
+When he saw me from the window, he disappeared from it, and hurried to
+meet me.
+
+At the door we met and in astonishment he asked:
+
+"How did you get here?"
+
+I said nothing, but embraced him, and determined that even if he cut me
+in pieces, I would never part from him.
+
+"Why did you come after me? How did you find your way hither?"
+
+I saw he was annoyed. He was displeased that I had come.
+
+"Those, who saw you take your seat in a carriage, directed me."
+
+He visibly shuddered.
+
+"Who saw me?"
+
+"Don't be afraid. Someone who will not betray you."
+
+"But what do you want? Why did you come after me?"
+
+"You know, dear Lorand, when we left home mother whispered in my ear,
+'take care of Lorand,' when grandmother left us here, she whispered in
+my ear, 'take care of your brother.' They will ask me to give account
+of how I loved you. And what shall I tell them, if they ask me 'where
+were you when Lorand stood in direst danger?'"
+
+Lorand was touched; he pressed me close to his heart, saying:--
+
+"But, how can you help me?"
+
+"I don't know. I only know that I shall follow you, wherever you go."
+
+This very naive answer roused Lorand to anger.
+
+"You will go to hell with me! Do I want irons on my feet to hinder my
+steps when I scarce know myself whither I shall fly? I know not how to
+rescue myself, and must I rescue you too?"
+
+Lorand was in a violent rage and strove to shake me off from him. Yet I
+would not leave go of him.
+
+"What if I intend to rescue you?"
+
+"You?" he said, looking at me, and thrusting his hands in his pockets.
+"What part of me will you defend?"
+
+"Your honor, Lorand."
+
+Lorand drew back at these words.
+
+"My honor?"
+
+"And mine:--You know that father left us one in common, one we cannot
+divide--his unsullied name. It is entirely mine, just as it is entirely
+yours."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
+
+"Let it be yours entirely: I give over my claim."
+
+This indifference towards the most sacred ideas quite embittered me. I
+was beside myself, I must break out.
+
+"Yes, because you wish to take the name of a wandering actor, and to
+elope with a woman who has a husband."
+
+"Who told you?" Lorand exclaimed, standing before me with clenched
+fists.
+
+I was far from being afraid of anyone: I answered coolly.
+
+"That woman's husband."
+
+Lorand was silent and began to walk feverishly up and down the narrow,
+short, little room. Suddenly he stopped, and half aside addressed me,
+always in the same passionate tones.
+
+"Desi, you are still a child."
+
+"I know."
+
+"There are things which cannot yet be explained to you."
+
+"On such subjects you may hold your peace."
+
+"You have spoken with that woman's husband?"
+
+"He said, you had eloped with his wife."
+
+"And that is why you came after me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now what do you want?"
+
+"I want you to leave that woman."
+
+"Have you lost your senses?"
+
+"Mine? Not yet."
+
+"You wish perhaps to hint that I have lost mine: it is possible, very
+possible."
+
+Therewith he sat down beside the table, and leaning his chin on his
+hands, began to gaze abstractedly into the candle-flames like some real
+lunatic.
+
+I stepped up to him, and laid my head on his shoulder.
+
+"Dear Lorand, you are angry with me."
+
+"No. Only tell me what else you know."
+
+"If you wish I will leave you here and return."
+
+"Do as you wish."
+
+"And what shall I tell dear mother, if she asks questions about you?"
+
+Lorand dispiritedly turned his head away from me.
+
+"You wrote to me to cheer and comfort mother and grandmother:--tell me
+then, what shall I write to them, if they enquire after you?"
+
+Lorand answered defiantly,
+
+"Write that Lorand is dead."
+
+At his answer the blood boiled within me. I seized my brother's hands
+and cried to him:
+
+"Lorand, till now the fathers were suicides in our family: do you wish
+that the mothers should continue the list?"
+
+It was a pitiless remark of mine, I knew. Lorand commenced to shiver, I
+felt it. He stood up before me and became so pale.
+
+I wished I had addressed him more gently.
+
+"My dear brother Lorand, could you bear to become responsible for a
+mother, who left her child, and for another who died for her child?"
+
+Lorand clasped his hands and bowed his head.
+
+"If you only knew what you are saying to me now?" he said with such
+bitter reproach that I can never forget it.
+
+"But I have not yet told you all I know."
+
+"What do you know? As yet you are happy--your life mere play--passion
+does not yet trouble you. But I am already lost, through what, you have
+no idea, and may you never have!"
+
+How he must love that woman!
+
+It would have cost me few words to make him hate and despise her, but I
+did not wish to break his heart. I had other means with which to steel
+his heart, that he might wake up, as from a delirious dream, to another
+life.
+
+I too had had visions about my piano-playing beauty: but I had forgotten
+that ideal for ever and ever, for being able to play, after she knew her
+mother had run away.--But that was mere childish love, a child's
+thought---there is something, however, in the heart which is awakened
+earlier, and dies later than passion, that is a feeling of honor, and I
+had as much of that as Lorand: let us see whose was the stronger.
+
+"Lorand, I don't know what enchantment it was, with which this woman
+could lure you after her. But I know that I too have a magic word, which
+will tear you from her."
+
+"Your magic word?--Do you wish to speak of mother? Do you wish to stand
+in my way with her name?--Do so.--The only effect you will produce, by
+worrying me very much, will be that I shall blow my brains out here
+before you: but from that woman you can never tear me."
+
+"I have no intention to speak of poor mother. It is a different subject
+I have in mind."
+
+"Something, or someone else."
+
+"It is Balnokhazy, for whose sake you are going to leave this woman."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Do you think I am afraid of Balnokhazy's prosecution?"
+
+"He has no intention of prosecuting you. He has been very considerate to
+his wife in similar cases. Well, don't knit your eyebrows so; I am not
+saying a word about his wife. I have no business with women. Balnokhazy
+will not prosecute you, he will merely tell the world what has happened
+to him."
+
+Lorand, with a bitter smile of scorn, asked me:
+
+"What will he relate to the world?"
+
+"That his wife broke open his safe, stole his jewels, and his ready
+money, and eloped with a young man."
+
+Lorand turned abruptly to me like one whom a snake has bitten,
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"That his faithless wife in company with a young man, whom he had
+treated like his own child, has stolen his money, and then run away,
+like a thief--with her companion in theft!"
+
+Lorand clutched at the table for support.
+
+"Don't, don't say any more."
+
+"I shall. I have seen the safes, empty, in which the family treasures
+were wont to be piled. I heard from the cabman, who handed in her
+travelling bag after her that 'it must have been full of gold, it was so
+heavy.'"
+
+Lorand's face was burning now like the clouds of a storm-swept sky at
+sunset.
+
+"Did you have the bag in your hands?" I asked him.
+
+"Not a word more!" Lorand cried, pressing my arm so that it pained me.
+"That woman shall never see me again."
+
+Then he sank upon the table and sobbed.
+
+How glad I felt that I had been able to move him.
+
+Soon he raised his tear-stained face, stood up, came to me, embraced and
+kissed me.
+
+"You have conquered!--Now tell me what else you want with me?"
+
+I was incapable of uttering a word, so oppressed was my heart in my
+delight, my anguish. It was no child's play, this. Fate is not wont to
+entrust such a struggle to a child's hands.
+
+"Brother, dear!" more I could not say: I felt as he must have when he
+brought me up from the bottom of the Danube.
+
+"You will not allow anyone," he whispered, "to utter such a calumny
+against me."
+
+"You may be sure of that."
+
+"You will not let them degrade me before mother?"
+
+"I shall defend you. You see that after all I am capable of defending
+you.--But time is precious:--they are prosecuting you for another crime
+too, you know, from which to escape is a duty. There is not a moment to
+lose. Fly!"
+
+"Whither? I cannot take new misfortunes to mother's house."
+
+"I have an idea. We have a relation of whom we have heard much, far off
+in the interior of the country, where they will never look for you,
+since we were never on good terms with him, Uncle Topandy."
+
+"That infidel?" exclaimed Lorand; then he added bitterly, "It was a good
+idea of yours, indeed: I shall have a very good place in the house of an
+atheist, who lives at enmity with the whole earth, and with Heaven
+besides."
+
+"There you will be well hidden."
+
+"Well and for ever."
+
+"Don't say that. This danger will pass away."
+
+"Listen to me, Desi," said Lorand severely. "I shall abide by what you
+say: I shall go away, without once looking behind: I shall bury myself,
+but on one condition, which you must accept, or I shall go to the
+nearest police station and report myself."
+
+"What do you wish?"
+
+"That you shall never tell either mother or grandmother, where I have
+gone to."
+
+"Never?" I inquired, frightenedly.
+
+"No, only after ten years, ten years from to-day."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Don't ask me: only give me your word of honor to keep my secret. If you
+do not do so, you will inflict a heavy sorrow on me, and on all our
+family."
+
+"But if circumstances change?"
+
+"I said, not for ten years. And, if the whole world should dance with
+delight, still keep peace and don't call for me, or put my mother on my
+tracks. I have a special reason for my desire, and that reason I cannot
+tell you."
+
+"But if they ask me, if they weep before me?"
+
+"Tell them nothing ails me, I am in a good place. I shall take another
+name, [49]Balint Tatray. Topandy also shall know me under that name. I
+shall find my way to his place as bailiff, or servant, whichever he will
+accept me as, and then I shall write to you once every month. You will
+tell my loved ones at home what you know of me. And they will love you
+twice as well for it: they will love you in place of me."
+
+[Footnote 49: A name peculiarly Magyar.]
+
+I hesitated. It was a difficult promise.
+
+"If you love me, you must undertake it for my sake."
+
+I clung to him and said I would undertake to keep the secret. For ten
+years I would not say before mother or grandmother where their dearest
+son had gone.
+
+Would they reach the end of those ten years?
+
+"You undertake that--on your word of honor?" said Lorand, gazing deeply
+into my eyes; "on that honor by which you just now so proudly appealed
+to me? Look, the whole Aronffy name is borne by you alone. Do you
+undertake it for the honor of that whole name, not to mention this
+secret before mother or grandmother?"
+
+"I do--on my word of honor."
+
+He grasped my hand. He trusted so much to that word!
+
+"Well, now be quick. The carriage is waiting."
+
+"Carriage? With that I cannot travel far. Besides it is unnecessary. I
+have two good legs, they will carry me, if necessary, to the end of the
+world, without demanding payment afterwards."
+
+I took a little purse, on the outside of which mother had worked a
+design, from my pocket, and wished to slip it into Lorand's side-pocket
+without attracting attention.
+
+He discovered it.
+
+"What is this?"
+
+"A little money. I thought you might want it for the journey."
+
+"How did you come by it?" enquired my brother in astonishment.
+
+"Why, you know, you yourself paid me two twenties a sheet, when I copied
+those writings."
+
+"And you have kept it?"--Lorand opened the purse, and saw within it
+about twenty florins. He began to laugh.
+
+How glad I was to see him laugh now, I cannot tell you, his laughter
+infected me too, then I do not know why, but we laughed together, very
+good-spiritedly. Now as I write these words the tears stand in my
+eyes--and I did laugh so heartily.
+
+"Why, you have made a millionaire of me."
+
+Then cheerfully he put my purse into his pocket. And I did not know what
+to do in my delight at Lorand's accepting my money.
+
+"Now comrade mine, I could go to the end of the world. I don't have to
+play 'armen reisender'[50] on the way."
+
+[Footnote 50: Poor traveller.]
+
+When we stepped out again through the low door into the narrow dark
+courtyard, Marton and Moczli were standing in astonishment before us.
+Anyone could see they could not comprehend what they had seen by
+peeping through the window.
+
+"I am here," said Moczli, touching the brim of his hat, "where shall I
+drive, sir?"
+
+"Just drive where you were told to," said Lorand, "take him for whom you
+were sent, to her who sent you for him.--I am going in another
+direction."
+
+At these words Marton grasped my arm so savagely I almost cried out with
+pain. It was his peculiar method of showing his approval.
+
+"Very good, sir," said Moczli, without asking any further questions, and
+clambering up onto the box.
+
+"Stop a moment," Lorand exclaimed, taking out his purse. "Let no one say
+that you were paid for any services you did me with other people's
+money."
+
+"Wha-at?" roughly grumbled Moczli. "Pay me? Am I a 'Hanak fuvaros'[51]
+that someone should pay me for helping a 'juratus' to escape? That has
+never happened yet."
+
+[Footnote 51: A Slavonian coachman who hires out his coach and
+carriages.]
+
+With that he whipped up his horses, and drove out of the courtyard.
+
+"That's the trump for you," said Marton, "that's Moczli. I know Moczli,
+he's a sharp fellow, without him we should never have found our way
+here. Well, sir, and whither now?"
+
+This remark was made to Lorand. My brother was acquainted with the
+jesting old fellow, and had often heard his humorous anecdotes, when he
+came to see me.
+
+"At all events away from Pressburg, old man."
+
+"But which way? I think the best would be over the bridge, through the
+park."
+
+"But very many people pass there. Someone might recognize me."
+
+"Then straight along the Danube, down-stream; by morning you will reach
+the ferry at Muehlau, where they will ferry you over for two kreuzers.
+Have you some change? You must always have that. Men on foot must
+always pay in copper, or they will be suspected. It's a pity I didn't
+know sooner, I could have lent you a passport. You might have travelled
+as a baker's assistant."
+
+"I shall travel as a 'legatus.'[52]"
+
+[Footnote 52: A travelling preacher. A kind of missionary sent out by
+the "Legatio."]
+
+"That will do finely."
+
+Meantime we reached the end of the street. Lorand wished to bid us
+farewell.
+
+"Oho!" said Marton, "we shall accompany you to the outskirts of the
+town; we cannot leave you alone until you are in a secure place, on the
+high-road. Do you know what? You two go on in advance and I shall remain
+close behind, pretending to be a little drunk. Patrols are in the
+street. If I sing loudly they will waste their attention on me, and will
+not bother you. If necessary, I shall pitch into them, and while they
+are running me in, you can go on. To you, Master Lorand, I give my stick
+for the journey. It's a good, honest stick. I have tramped all over
+Germany with it. Well, God bless you."
+
+The old fellow squeezed Lorand's hand.
+
+"I have a mind to say something. But I shall say nothing. It is well
+just as it is,--I shall say nothing. God bless you, sir."
+
+Therewith the old man dropped back, and began to brawl some yodling air
+in the street, and to thump the doors with his fists, in accompaniment,
+like some drunken reveller.
+
+"Hai-dia-do."
+
+Taking each other's hand we hastened on. The streets were already very
+dark here.
+
+At the end of the town are barracks, before which we had to pass: the
+cry of the sentinel sounded in the distance. "Who goes there? Guard
+out!" and soon behind our backs we heard the squadron of horsemen
+clattering on the pavement.
+
+Marton did just as he had said. He pitched into the guard. Soon we heard
+a dream-disturbing uproar, as he fell into a noisy discussion with the
+armed authorities.
+
+"I am a citizen! A peaceful, harmless citizen! Fugias Mathias (this to
+us)! Ten glasses of beer are not the world! I am a citizen, Fugias
+Mathias is my name! I will pay for every thing. If I have broken any
+bottles I will pay for them. Who says I am shouting? I am singing.
+'Hai-dia-do;' let any one who doesn't like it try to sing more
+beautifully himself!"
+
+We were already outside of the town, and still we heard the terrible
+noise which he made in his self-sacrifice for our sakes.
+
+As we came out into the open, we were both able to breathe more freely;
+the starry sky is a good shelter.
+
+The cold, too, compelled us to hasten. We had walked a good half-hour
+among the vineyards, when suddenly something occurred to Lorand.
+
+"How long do you wish to accompany me?"
+
+"Until day breaks. In this darkness I should not dare to return to the
+town alone."
+
+Now he became anxious for me too. What could he do with me? Should he
+let me go home alone at midnight through these clusters of houses in
+that suburb of ill-repute. Or should he take me miles on his way with
+him? From there I should have to return alone in any case.
+
+At that moment a carriage approached rapidly, and as it passed before
+us, somebody leaped down upon us from the back seat, and laughing came
+where we were beside the hedge.
+
+In him we recognized old Marton.
+
+"I have found you after all," said the old fellow, smiling. "What a fine
+time I have had. They really thought I was drunk. I quarrelled with
+them. That was the 'gaude!' They tugged and pulled, and beat my back
+with the flat of their sabres: it was something glorious!"
+
+"Well, how did you escape?" I asked, not finding that entertainment to
+the accompaniment of sabre-blows so glorious.
+
+"When I saw a carriage approaching, I leaped out from their midst and
+climbed up behind:--nor did they give me a long chase. I soon got away
+from them."
+
+The good old man was quite content with the fine amusement which he had
+procured for himself.
+
+"But now we must really say adieu, Master Lorand. Don't go the same way
+as the carriage went: cut across the road here in the hills to the lower
+road; you can breakfast at the first inn you come to: you will reach it
+by dawn. Then go in the direction of the sunrise."
+
+We embraced each other. We had to part. And who knew for how long?
+
+Marton was nervous. "Let us go! Let Lorand too hurry on _his_ way."
+
+Why, ten years is a very long way. By that time we should be growing
+old.
+
+"Love mother in my place. Then remember your word of honor." Lorand
+whispered these words. Then he kissed me and in a few moments had
+disappeared from my sight down the lower road among the hills.
+
+Who knew when I should see him again?
+
+Marton's laugh awoke me from my reverie.
+
+"You know--" he inquired with a voice that showed his inclination to
+laugh--"You know ha! ha--you know why I told Master Lorand not to go in
+the same direction as the carriage?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did you not recognize the coachman? It was Moczli."
+
+"Moczli?"
+
+"Do you know who was inside the carriage?--Guess!--Well, it was Madame."
+
+"Balnokhazy's wife?"
+
+"The same--with that certain actor."
+
+"With whose passport Lorand was to have eloped?"
+
+"Well if one is on his way to elope--it is all the same:--one must have
+a companion, if not the one, then the other.'"
+
+It was all a fable to me. But such a mysterious fable that it sent a
+cold chill all over me.
+
+"But where could they go?"
+
+"Where?--Well, as far as the frontier, perhaps. Anyhow, as far as the
+contents of that bag, which Moczli handed into the carriage after her
+ladyship, will last.--Hai-dia-do."
+
+Now it was really exuberance of spirits that made old Marton sing in
+Tyrolese manner, that refrain, "hai-hai-dia-hia-do."
+
+He actually danced on the dusty road--a galop.
+
+Was it possible? That madonna face, than which I have never seen a more
+beautiful, more enchanting--either before or since that day!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"PAROLE D'HONNEUR"
+
+
+Two days after Lorand's disappearance a travelling coach stopped before
+Mr. Fromm's house. From the window I recognized coach-horses and
+coachman: it was ours.
+
+Some one of our party had arrived.
+
+I hastened down into the street, where Father Fromm was already trying
+very excitedly to turn the leather curtain that was fastened round the
+coach....
+
+No, not "some one!" the whole family was here! All who had remained at
+home. Mother, grandmother, and the Fromms' Fanny.
+
+Actually mother had come: poor mother!
+
+We had to lift her from the carriage: she was utterly broken down. She
+seemed ten years older than when I had last seen her.
+
+When she had descended, she leaned upon Fanny on the one side, on the
+other upon me.
+
+"Only let us go in, into the house!" grandmother urged us on, convinced
+that poor mother would collapse in the street.
+
+All who had arrived were very quiet: they scarcely answered me, when I
+greeted them. We led mother up into the room, where we had had our first
+reception.
+
+Mother Fromm and grandmother Fromm were not knitting stockings on this
+occasion; it seemed they were prepared for this appearance. They too
+received my parents very quietly and solemnly: as if everyone were
+convinced that the first word addressed by anyone to this broken-down,
+propped up figure would immediately reduce it to ashes, as the story
+goes about some figures they have found in old tombs. And yet she had
+come on this long, long journey. She had not waited for the weather to
+grow warmer. She had started in the teeth of a raw, freezing spring
+wind, when she heard that Lorand was gone.
+
+Oh, is there any plummet to sound the depths of a mother's love?
+
+Poor mother did try so hard to appear strong. It was so evident, that
+she was struggling to combat with her nervous attacks, just in the very
+moment which awoke every memory before her mind.
+
+"Quietly, my daughter--quietly," said grandmother. "You know what you
+promised: you promised to be strong. You know there is need of strength.
+Don't give yourself over. Sit down."
+
+Mother sat down near the table where they led her, then let her head
+fall on her two arms, and, as she had promised not to weep--she did not
+weep.
+
+It was piteous to see her sorrowful figure as, in this strange house,
+she was leaning over the table with her face buried in her hands in mute
+despair; determined, however, not to cry, for so she had promised.
+
+Everyone kept at a distance from her: great sorrow commands great
+respect. Only one person ventured to remain close to her, one of whom I
+had not even taken notice as yet,--Fanny.
+
+When she had taken off her travelling cloak I found she was dressed
+entirely in blue. Once that had been my mother's favorite color; father
+too had been exceedingly fond of it. She stood at mother's side and
+whispered something into her ear, at which mother raised her head and,
+like one who returns from the other world, sighed deeply, seemed to come
+to herself, and said with a peaceful smile, turning to the host and
+hostess:
+
+"Pardon me, I was exceedingly abstracted." Merely to hear her speak
+agonized me greatly. Then she turned to Fanny, embraced her, kissed her
+forehead twice, and said to the Fromms,
+
+"You will agree, will you not, to Fanny's staying a little longer with
+me? She is already like a child of my own."
+
+I was no longer jealous of Fanny. I saw how happy she made mother, if
+she could embrace her.
+
+Fanny again whispered something in mother's ear, at which mother rose,
+and seemed quite herself again: she approached Mrs. Fromm resolutely,
+with no faltering steps, and grasping both her hands, said, "I thank
+you," and once again repeated whisperingly, "I thank you."
+
+All this I regarded speechlessly from a corner. I feared my mother's
+gaze inexpressibly.
+
+Then grandmother interrupted,
+
+"We have no time to lose, my daughter. If you are capable of coming at
+once, come."
+
+Mother nodded assent with her head, and gazed continually upon Fanny.
+
+"Meanwhile Fanny remains here," added grandmother. "But Desiderius comes
+with us."
+
+At these words mother looked at me, as if it had only just occurred to
+her that I too was here, still it was Fanny's fair curls only that she
+continued stroking.
+
+Father Fromm hurriedly sent Henrik for a cab. Not a soul asked us where
+we were going. Everyone wondered, where, and why? What purpose? But,
+only I knew what would be the end of to-day's journey.
+
+I did not distress myself about it. I waited merely until my turn should
+come. I knew nothing could happen without me.
+
+The cab was there, and the Fromms led mother down the steps. They set
+her down first of all, and, when we were all seated; Father Fromm called
+to the cabman:
+
+"To the house of Balnokhazy!"
+
+He knew well that we must go there now. During the whole journey there
+we did not exchange a single word: what could those two have said to me?
+
+When we stopped before Balnokhazy's residence, it seemed to me, my
+mother was endowed with a quite youthful strength; she went before us,
+her face burning, her step elastic, her head carried on high.
+
+I don't know whether it was our good fortune, or whether my parents'
+arrival had been announced previously, but the P. C. was at home, when
+we came to look for him.
+
+I was curious to see with what countenance he would receive us.
+
+I knew already much about him, that I ought never to have known.
+
+As we stepped into his room, he came to meet us, with more courtesy than
+pleasure apparent on his countenance. Some kind of displeasure strove to
+display itself thereon, but it was just as if he had studied the
+expression for hours in the mirror; it seemed to be an artificial,
+affected, calculated displeasure.
+
+Mother straightway hastened to him, and taking both his hands,
+impetuously introduced the conversation with these words:
+
+"Where is my son Lorand?"
+
+My right honorable uncle shrugged his shoulders, and with gracious mien
+answered this mother's passionate outburst:
+
+"My dear lady cousin, it is I who ought to urge that question; for it is
+my duty to prosecute your son. And if I answer that I do not know where
+he is, I think thereby I shall display the most kinsmanlike feeling."
+
+"Why prosecute my son?" said mother, tremblingly. "Is it possible to
+eternally ruin anyone for a mere schoolboy escapade?"
+
+"Not one but many 'schoolboy escapades' justify me in my action: it is
+not merely in my official capacity that I am bound to prosecute him."
+
+As he said this, Balnokhazy fixed his eyes sharply upon me: I did not
+wince before him. I knew I had the right and the power to withstand his
+gaze. Soon my turn would come.
+
+"What?" asked mother. "What reason could you have to prosecute him?"
+
+Balnokhazy shrugged his shoulders more than ever, bitterly smiling.
+
+"I scarcely know, in truth, how to tell you this story, if you don't
+know already. I thought you were acquainted with all the facts. He who
+told you the news of the young man's disappearance, wrote to you also
+the reasons for it."
+
+"Yes," said mother, "I know all. The misfortune is great: but there is
+no ignominy."
+
+"Indeed?" interrupted Balnokhazy, drawing his shoulders derisively
+together: "I did not know that such conduct was not considered
+ignominious in the provinces. Indeed I did not. A young man, a law
+student, a mere stripling, shows his gratitude for the fatherly
+thoughtfulness of a man of position,--who had received him into his
+house as a kinsman, treating him as one of the family,--by seducing and
+eloping with his wife, and helping her to break open his money-chest,
+and steal his jewelry, disappearing with the shameless woman beyond the
+confines of the country. Oh, really, I did not know that they did not
+consider that a crime deserving of prosecution!"
+
+Poor mother was shattered at this double accusation, as if she had been
+twice struck by thunder-bolts, and deadly pale clutched at grandmother's
+hand. The latter had herself in this moment grown as white as her
+grizzled hair. She took up the conversation in mother's place, for
+mother was no longer capable of speaking.
+
+"What do you say? Lorand a seducer of women?"
+
+"To my sorrow, he is. He has eloped with my wife."
+
+"And thief?"
+
+"A harsh word, but I can give him no other name."
+
+"For God's sake, gently, sir!"
+
+"Well, you can see that hitherto I have behaved very quietly. I have not
+even made a noise about my loss: yet, besides the destruction of my
+honor, I have other losses.
+
+"This faithless deed has robbed me and my daughter of 5,000 florins.[53]
+If the matter only touched me, I would disdain to notice it: but that
+sum was the savings of my little daughter."
+
+[Footnote 53: Above L415--$2,000.]
+
+"Sir, that sum shall be repaid you," said grandmother, "but I beg you
+not to say another word on the subject before this lady. You can see you
+are killing her with it."
+
+As she was speaking, Balnokhazy gazed intently at me, and in his gaze
+were many questions, all of which I could very well have answered.
+
+"I am surprised," he said at last, "that these revelations are entirely
+new to you. I thought that the same person who had acquainted you with
+Lorand's disappearance, had unfolded to you therewith all those critical
+circumstances, which caused his disappearance, seeing that I related all
+myself to that person."
+
+Now mother and grandmother too turned their gaze upon me.
+
+Grandmother addressed me: "You did not write a word about all this to
+us."
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor did you mention a word about it here when we arrived."
+
+"Yet I told it all myself to my nephew."
+
+"Why don't you answer?" queried my grandmother impetuously.
+
+Mother could not speak: she merely wrung her hands.
+
+"Because I had certain information that this accusation was groundless."
+
+"Oho! you young imp!" exclaimed Balnokhazy in proud, haughty tones.
+
+"From beginning to end groundless," I repeated calmly; although every
+muscle of mine was trembling from excitement. But you should have seen,
+how mother and grandmother rushed into my arms: how they grasped one my
+right, the other my left hand, as drowning men clutch at the rescuer's
+hands, and how that proud angry man stood before me with flashing eyes.
+All sobriety had left the three, together they cried to me in voices of
+impetuousity, of anger, of madness, of hope, of joy: "speak! tell us
+what you know."
+
+"I will tell you.--When his lordship acquainted me with these two
+terrible charges against Lorand, I at once started off to find my
+brother. Two honorable poor men came in my way to help me find him: two
+poor workmen, who left their work to help me to save a lost life. The
+same will be my witness that what I relate is all true and happened just
+as I tell you: one is Marton Braun, the baker's man, the other Matthias
+Fleck."
+
+"My wife's coachman," interrupted the P. C.
+
+"Yes. He conducted me to where Lorand was temporarily concealed. He
+related to me that her ladyship was elsewhere. He had taken her ladyship
+across the frontier--without Lorand. My brother started at the same time
+on foot, without money, towards the interior of Hungary: Marton and I
+accompanied him into the hills, and my pocket money, which he accepted
+from me, was the only money he had with him, and Marton's walking stick
+was the only travelling companion that accompanied him further."
+
+I noticed that mother kneeled beside me and kissed me.
+
+That kiss I received for Lorand's sake.
+
+"It is not true!" yelled Balnokhazy; "he disappeared with my wife. I
+have certain information that this woman passed the frontier with a
+young smooth-faced man and arrived with him in Vienna. That was Lorand."
+
+"It was not Lorand, but another."
+
+"Who could it have been?"
+
+"Is it possible that you should not know? Well, I can tell you. That
+smoothed-faced man who accompanied her ladyship to Vienna was the German
+actor Bleissberg;--and not for the first time."
+
+Ha, ha! I had stabbed him to the heart: right to the middle of the
+liver, where pride dwells. I had thrust such a dart into him, as he
+would never be able to draw out. I did not care if he slew me now.
+
+And he looked as if he felt very much like doing it--but who would have
+dared touch me and face the wrath of those two women--no--lionesses,
+standing next to me on either side! They seemed ready to tear anyone to
+pieces who ventured as much as lay a finger on me.
+
+"Let us go," said mother, pressing my hand. "We have nothing more to do
+here."--Mother passed out first: they took me in the middle and
+grandmother, turning back addressed a categorical "adieu" to Balnokhazy,
+whom we left to himself.
+
+My cousin Melanie was playing that cavatina even now, though now I did
+not care to stop and listen to it. That piano was a good idea after all;
+quarrels and disputes in the house were prevented thereby from being
+heard in the street.
+
+When we were again seated in the cab, mother pressed me passionately to
+her, and smothered me with kisses.
+
+Oh, how I feared her kisses! She kissed me because she would soon ask
+questions about Lorand. And I could not answer them.
+
+"You were obedient: you took care of your poor brother: you helped him:
+my dear child." Thus she kept whispering continually to me.
+
+I dared not be affected.
+
+"Tell me now, where is Lorand?"
+
+I had known she would ask that. In anguish I drew away from her and kept
+looking around me.
+
+"Where is Lorand?"
+
+Grandmother remarked my anguish.
+
+"Leave him alone," she hinted to mother. "We are not yet in a
+sufficiently safe place: the driver might hear. Wait until we get home."
+
+So I had time until we arrived home. What would happen there? How could
+I avoid answering their questions.
+
+Scarcely had we returned to Master Fromm's house, scarce had Fanny
+brought us into a room which had been prepared for my parents, when my
+poor mother again fell upon my neck, and with melancholy gladness asked
+me:
+
+"You know where Lorand is?"
+
+How easy it would have been for me to answer "I know not!" But what
+should I have gained thereby? Had I done so, I could never have told her
+what Lorand wrote from a distance, how he greeted and kissed them a
+thousand times!
+
+"I know, mother dear."
+
+"Tell me quickly, where he is."
+
+"He is in a safe place, mother dear," said I encouragingly, and hastened
+to tell all I might relate.
+
+"Lorand is in his native land in a safe place, where he has nothing to
+fear: with a relation of ours, who will love and protect him."
+
+"But when will you tell us where he is?"
+
+"One day, soon, mother dear."
+
+"But when? When? Why not at once? When?"
+
+"Soon,--in ten years."--I could scarce utter the words.
+
+Both were horrified at my utterance.
+
+"Desi, do you wish to play some joke upon us?"
+
+"If it were only a joke? It is true: a very heavy truth! I promised
+Lorand to tell neither mother nor grandmother, for ten years, where he
+is living."
+
+Grandmother seemed to understand it all: she hinted with a look to Fanny
+to leave us alone: she thought that I did not wish to reveal it before
+Fanny.
+
+"Don't go Fanny," I said to her. "Even in your absence I cannot say more
+than I have already said."
+
+"Are you in your senses then?" grandmother sternly addressed me thinking
+harsh words might do much with me. "Do you wish to play mysteries with
+us: surely you don't think we shall betray him?"
+
+"Desi," said mother, in that quiet, sweet voice of hers. "Be good."
+
+So, they were deceived in me. I was no longer that good child, who could
+be frightened by strong words, and tamed by a sweet tongue,--I had
+become a hard, cruel unfeeling boy:--they could not force me to
+confession.
+
+"That I cannot tell you."
+
+"Why not? Not even to us?" they asked both together.
+
+"Why not? That I do not know myself. But not even to you can I tell it.
+Lorand made me give him my word of honor, not to betray his
+whereabouts--not to his mother and grandmother. He said he had a great
+reason to ask this, and said any neglect of my promise would produce
+great misfortune. I gave him my word, and that word I must keep."
+
+Poor mother fell on her knees before me, embraced me, showered kisses
+upon me, and begged me so to tell her where Lorand was. She called me
+her dear "only" son: then burst into tears: and I,--could be so cruel as
+to answer to her every word, "No--no--no."
+
+I cannot describe this scene. I am incapable of reflecting thereupon. At
+last mother fainted, grandmother cursed me, and I left the room, and
+leaned against the door post.
+
+During this indescribable scene the whole household hastened to nurse my
+mother, who was suffering terrible pain; then they came to me one by
+one, and tried in turn their powers of persuasion upon me. First of all
+came Mother Fromm, to beg me very kindly to say that one word that would
+cure my mother at once; then came Grandmother Fromm with awful threats:
+then Father Fromm, who endeavored to persuade me with sage reasoning,
+declaring that my honor would really be greatest if I should now break
+my word!
+
+It was all quite useless. Surely no one knew how to beg, as my mother
+begged kneeling before me! No one could curse as my terrible grandmother
+had done, and no one knew the wickedness of my character as well as I
+did myself.
+
+Let them only give me peace! I could not tell them.
+
+Last of all Fanny came to me: leaned upon my shoulder, and began to
+stroke my hair.
+
+"Dear Desi."
+
+I jerked my shoulder to be rid of her.
+
+"'Dear Desi,' indeed!--Call me 'wicked, bad, cursed Desi!'--that is what
+I am."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Because no other name is possible. I promised because I was _obliged_
+to promise: and now I am keeping my word, because I promised."
+
+"Your poor mother says she will die, if you do not tell her where Lorand
+is."
+
+"And Lorand told me he will die if I do tell her. He told me that, when
+I discovered his whereabouts to mother or grandmother, he will either
+report himself at the nearest military station, or will shoot himself,
+according as he feels inclined. And in our family such promises are not
+wont to dissolve in thin air."
+
+"What might have been his reason for exacting such a promise from you?"
+
+"I do not know. But I know he would not have done it without cause. I
+beg you to leave me."
+
+"Wait a moment," said Fanny, standing before me. "You said Lorand made
+you swear not to tell your mother or grandmother where he had gone to.
+He did not forbid you to tell another?"
+
+"Naturally not," I answered with irritated pride. "He knew all along
+that there has not yet been born into the world that other who could
+force the truth out of me with red-hot pincers."
+
+"But that other has been born," interrupted Fanny with wild earnestness.
+"Just twelve years, eight months and five days ago."
+
+I looked at her.
+
+"I should tell you? is that what you think?"
+
+I admired her audacity.
+
+"Certainly, me. For your parole forbids you to speak only to your mother
+and grandmother. You can tell me: and I shall tell them. You will not
+have told anybody anything, and they still will know it."
+
+"Well, and are you 'nobody?'"
+
+Fanny gazed into my eyes, became serious, and with trembling lips said:
+
+"If you wish it--I am nobody. As if I had never been born."
+
+From that moment Fanny began to be "someone," in my eyes.
+
+Her little sophism pleased me. Perhaps on these terms we might come to
+an agreement.
+
+"You have asked something very difficult of me, Fanny; but it is not
+impossible. Only you must wait a little: give me time to think it over.
+Until I have done so, be our go-between. Go in and tell grandmother what
+you have recommended to me, and that I said in answer, 'it is well.'"
+
+I was cunning. I was dissembling. I thought in that moment, that, if
+Fanny should burst in childish glee into the neighboring room, and in
+triumphant voice proclaim the concession she had wrung out of me, I
+might tell her on her return the name of some place that did not exist,
+and so throw the responsibility off my own shoulders.
+
+But she did not do that.
+
+She went back quietly, and waited long, until her friends had retired by
+the opposite door: then she came and whispered:--
+
+"I have been long: but I did not wish to speak before my mother. Now
+your parents are alone: go and speak."
+
+"Something more first. Go back, Fanny, and say that I can tell them the
+truth, only on the condition that mother and grandmother promise not to
+seek him out, until I show them a letter from Lorand, in which he
+invites them to come to him: nor to send others in search of him: and,
+if they wish to send a letter to him, they must first give it to me,
+that I may send it off to him, and they never show, even by a look, to
+anyone that they know aught of Lorand's whereabouts."
+
+Fanny nodded assent, and returned into the neighboring room.
+
+A few minutes later she came out again, and held open the door before
+me.
+
+"Come in."
+
+I went in. She shut the door after me, and then, taking my hand, led me
+to mother's bedside.
+
+Poor dear mother was now quiet, and pale as death. She seemed to beckon
+me to her with her eyes. I went to her side, and kissed her hand.
+
+Fanny bent over me, and held her face near my lips, that I might whisper
+in her ear what I knew.
+
+I told her all in a few words. She then bent over mother's pillow and
+whispered in her ear what she had heard from me.
+
+Mother sighed and seemed to be calmed. Then grandmother bent over dear
+mother, that she might learn from her all that had been said.
+
+As she heard it, her grey-headed figure straightened, and clasping her
+two hands above her head, she panted in wild prophetic ecstasy:
+
+"O Lord God! who entrustest Thy will to children: may it come to pass,
+as Thou hast ordained!"
+
+Then she came to me and embraced me.
+
+"Did you counsel Lorand to go there?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Did you know what you were doing? It was the will of God. Every day you
+must pray now for your brother."
+
+"And you must keep silent for him. For when he is discovered, my brother
+will die and I cannot live without him."
+
+The storm became calm: they again made peace with me. Mother, some
+minutes later, fell asleep, and slumbered sweetly. Grandmother motioned
+to Fanny and to me to leave her to herself.
+
+We let down the window-blinds and left the room.
+
+As we stepped out, I said to Fanny:
+
+"Remember, my honor has been put into your hands."
+
+The girl gazed into my eyes with ardent enthusiasm and said:
+
+"I shall guard it as I guard mine own."
+
+That was no child's answer, but the answer of a maiden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A GLANCE INTO A PISTOL-BARREL
+
+
+The weather changed very rapidly, for all the world as if two evil
+demons were fighting for the earth: one with fire, the other with ice.
+It was the middle of May; it had become so sultry that the earth, which
+last week had been frozen to dry bones, now began to crack.
+
+The wanderer who disappeared from our sight we shall find on that plain
+of Lower Hungary, where there are as many high roads as cart-ruts.
+
+It is evening, but the sun had just set, and left a cloudless ruddy sky
+behind it. On the horizon two or three towers are to be seen so far
+distant that the traveller who is hurrying before us cannot hope to
+reach any one of them by nightfall.
+
+The dust had not so overlaid him, nor had the sun so tanned his face
+that we cannot recognize in these handsome noble features the pride of
+the youth of Pressburg, Lorand.
+
+The long journey he has accomplished has evidently not impaired the
+strength of his muscles, for the horseman who is coming behind him, has
+to ride hard to overtake him.
+
+The latter leaned back in his shortened stirrups, after the manner of
+hussars, and wore a silver-buttoned jacket, a greasy hat, and ragged red
+trousers. Thrown half over his shoulders was a garment of wolf-skins;
+around his waist was a wide belt from which two pistol-barrels gleamed,
+while in the leg of one of his boots a silver-chased knife was thrust.
+The horse's harness was glittering with silver, just as the ragged,
+stained garments of its master.
+
+The rider approached at a trot, but the traveller had not yet thought
+it worth while to look back and see who was coming after him. Presently
+he came up to the solitary figure, trudging along, doggedly.
+
+"Good evening, student."
+
+Lorand looked up at him.
+
+"Good evening, gypsy."
+
+At these words the horseman drew aside his skin-mantle that the student
+might see the pistol-barrels, and consider that even if he were a gypsy,
+he was something more than a mere musician. But Lorand did not betray
+the slightest emotion: he did not even take down from his shoulder the
+stick, on which he was carrying his boots. He was walking bare-footed.
+It was cheaper.
+
+"Oh, you are proud of your red boots!" sneered the rider, looking down
+at Lorand's bare-feet.
+
+"It's easy for you to say so," was Lorand's sharp reply; "sitting on
+that hack."
+
+But "hack" means a kind of four-footed animal which this rider found no
+pleasure in hearing mentioned.[54]
+
+[Footnote 54: The Magyar word has a double meaning; besides a horse it
+means a peculiar whipping-bench with which gypsies used to be
+particularly well acquainted.]
+
+"My own training," he said proudly, as if in self-defence against this
+cutting remark.
+
+"I know. I knew that even in my scapegrace days."
+
+"Well, and where are you hobbling to now, student?"
+
+"I am going to Csege, gypsy, to preach."
+
+"What do you get from the 'legatio' for that, student?"
+
+"Twenty silver florins, gypsy."
+
+"Do you know what, student? I have an idea--don't go just yet to Csege,
+but turn aside here to the shepherd's where you see that fold. Wait
+there for me till to-morrow, when I shall come back, and preach your
+sermon to me: I have never yet heard anything of the kind, and I'll give
+you forty florins for it."
+
+"Oh no, gypsy; do you turn aside to yonder fold. Don't go just now to
+the farm, but wait a week for me; when I shall come back; then you can
+fiddle my favorite tune, and I'll give you ten florins for it."
+
+"I am no musician," replied the horseman, extending his chest.
+
+"What's that rural fife doing at your side?" The gypsy roared at the
+idea of calling his musket a "rural fife!" Many had paid dearly so as
+not to hear its notes!
+
+"You student, you are a deuce of a fellow. Take a draught from my
+'noggin.'"
+
+"No, thanks, gypsy; it isn't spiritual enough to go with my sermon."[55]
+
+[Footnote 55: Lorand really quoted a sentence from a popular ditty, but
+it is impossible in such cases to do proper justice to the original.
+
+The whole passage between Lorand and the gypsy is full of allusions
+intelligible only to Hungarians, _in Hungarian_, a proper rendering of
+which, in my opinion, baffles all attempts. Of course the force of the
+original is lost, but it is unavoidable.]
+
+The gypsy laughed still more loudly.
+
+"Well, good night, student."
+
+He drove his spurs into his horse and galloped on along the high-road.
+
+Then the evening drew in quietly. Lorand reached a grassy mound, shaded
+by juniper bushes. This spot he chose for his night-camp in preference
+to the wine-reeking, stenching rooms of the way-side inns. Putting on
+his boots, he drew from his wallet some bread and bacon, and commenced
+eating. He found it good: he was hungry and young.
+
+Scarcely had he finished his repast when, along the same road on which
+the horseman had come, rapidly approached a five-in-hand. The three
+leaders were supplied with bells and their approach could be heard from
+afar off.
+
+Lorand called out to the coachman,
+
+"Stop a moment, fellow-countryman."
+
+The coachman pulled up his horses.
+
+"Quickly," he said to Lorand, with a hoarse voice, "get up at once, sir
+'legatus,' beside me. The horses will not stand."
+
+"That was not what I wanted to say," remarked Lorand. "I did not want to
+ask you to take me up, but to tell you to be on your guard, for a
+highwayman has just gone on in front, and it would be ill to meet with
+him."
+
+"Have you much money?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor have I. Then why should we fear the robber?"
+
+"Perhaps those who are sitting inside the carriage?"
+
+"Her ladyship is sitting within and is now asleep. If I awake her and
+frighten her, and then we don't find the highwayman she will break the
+whip over my back. Get up here. It will be good to travel as far as
+Lankadomb in a carriage, 'sblood.'"
+
+"Do you live at Lankadomb?" asked Lorand in a tone of surprise.
+
+"Yes. I am Topandy's servant. He is a very fine fellow, and is very fond
+of people who preach."
+
+"I know him by reputation."
+
+"Well, if you know him by reputation, you will do well to make his
+personal acquaintance, too. Get up, now."
+
+Lorand put the meeting down as a lucky chance. Topandy's weakness was to
+capture men of a priestly turn of mind, keep them at his house and annoy
+them. That was just what he wanted, a pretext for meeting him.
+
+He clambered up beside the coachman and under the brilliance of the
+starry heaven, the five steeds, with merry tinkling of bells, rattled
+the carriage along the turfy road.
+
+The coachman told him they had come from Debreczen: they wished to reach
+Lankadomb in the morning, but on the way they would pass an inn, where
+the horses would receive feed, while her ladyship would have some cold
+lunch: and then they would proceed on their journey. Her ladyship always
+loved to travel by night, for then it was not so hot: besides she was
+not afraid of anything.
+
+It was about midnight when the carriage drew up at the inn mentioned.
+
+Lorand leaped down from the box, and hastened first into the inn, not
+wishing to meet the lady who was within the carriage. His heart beat
+loudly, when he caught a glimpse of that silver-harnessed horse in the
+inn-yard, saddled and bridled. The steed was not fastened up, but quite
+loose, and it gave a peculiar neigh as the coach arrived, at which there
+stepped out from a dark door the same man whom Lorand had met on the
+plain.
+
+He was utterly astonished to see Lorand.
+
+"You are here already, student?"
+
+"You can see it with your own eyes, gypsy."
+
+"How did you come so quickly?"
+
+"Why, I ride on a dragon: I am a necromancer."
+
+By this time the occupants of the carriage had entered: her ladyship and
+a plump, red-faced maid-servant. The former was wrapped in a thick fur
+cloak, her head bound with a silken kerchief; the latter wore a short
+red mantle, fastened round her neck with a kerchief of many colors,
+while her hair was tied with ribbons. Her two hands were full of cold
+viands.
+
+"So that was it, eh?" said the rider, as he perceived them. "They
+brought you in their carriage." Then, he allowed the new-comers to enter
+the parlor peacefully, while he himself took his horse, and, leading it
+to the pump, pumped some water into the trough.
+
+Lorand began to think he was not the rascal he thought him, and he now
+proceeded into the parlor.
+
+Her ladyship threw back her fur cloak, took off the silken kerchief and
+put two candles before her. She trimmed them both, like one who "loves
+the beautiful."
+
+You might have called her face very beautiful: she had lively, sparkling
+eyes, strong brown complexion, rosy lips, and arched eyebrows: it was
+right that such light as there was in the room should burn before her.
+
+In the darkness, on the long bench at the other end of the table, sat
+Lorand, who had ordered a bottle of wine, rather to avoid sitting there
+for nothing, than to drink the sour vintage of the Lowland.
+
+Beside the bar, on a straw mattress, was sleeping a Slavonian pedler of
+holy images, and a wandering jack-of-all-trades; at the bar the
+bushy-headed host grinned with doubtful pleasure over such guests, who
+brought their own eatables and drinkables with them, and only came to
+show their importance.
+
+Lorand had time enough calmly to take in this "ladyship," in whose
+carriage he had come so far, and under whose roof he would probably live
+later.
+
+She must be a lively, good-natured creature. She shared every morsel
+with her servant, and sent what remained to the coachman. Perhaps if she
+had known she had another nameless travelling companion, she would have
+invited him to the repast. As she ate she poured some rye-whiskey into
+her tin plate; to this she added figs, raisins and sugar, and then
+lighted it. This beverage is called in our country "krampampuli." It
+must be very healthy on a night journey for a healthy stomach.
+
+When the repast was over, the door leading to the courtyard opened: and
+there entered the rogue who had been left outside, his hat pressed over
+his eyes, and in his hand one of his pistols that he had taken from his
+girdle.
+
+"Under the table! under the bed! all whose lives are dear to them!" he
+cried, standing in the doorway. At these terrible words the Slavonian
+and the other who were sleeping on the floor clambered up into the
+chimney-place, the host disappeared into the cellar, banging the door
+after him, while the servant hid herself under the bench; then the
+robber stepped up to the table and extinguished both candles with his
+hat, so that there remained no light on the table save that of the
+burning spirit.
+
+The latter gave a weird light. When sugar burns in spirits, a sepulchral
+light appears on everything: living faces look like faces of the dead;
+all color disappears from them, the ruddiness of the countenance, the
+brilliance of the lips, the glitter of the eyes,--all turn green. It is
+as if phantoms rose from the grave and were gazing at one another.
+
+Lorand watched the scene in horror.
+
+This gay, smiling woman's face became at once like that of one raised
+from the tomb; and that other who stood face to face with her, weapon in
+hand, was like Death himself, with black beard and black eyelids.
+
+Yet for one moment it seemed to Lorand as if both were laughing--the
+face of the dead and the face of Death, but it was only for a moment;
+and perhaps, too, that was merely an illusion.
+
+Then the robber addressed her in a strong, authoritative voice:
+
+"Your money, quickly!"
+
+The woman took her purse, and without a word threw it down on the table
+before him.
+
+The robber snatched it up and by the light of the spirit began to
+examine its contents.
+
+"What is this?" he asked wrathfully.
+
+"Money," replied the lady briefly, beginning to make a tooth-pick from a
+chicken bone with her silver-handled antique knife.
+
+"Money! But how much?" bawled the thief.
+
+"Four hundred florins."
+
+"Four hundred florins," he shrieked, casting the purse down on the
+table. "Did I come here for four hundred florins? Have I been lounging
+about here a week for four hundred florins? Where is the rest?"
+
+"The rest?" said the lady. "Oh, that is being made at Vienna."
+
+"No joking, now. I know there were two thousand florins in this purse."
+
+"If all that has ever been in that purse were here now, it would be
+enough for both of us."
+
+"The devil take you!" cried the thief, beating the table with his fist
+so that the spirit flame flickered in the plate. "I don't understand
+jokes. In this purse just now there were two thousand florins, the price
+of the wool you sold day before yesterday at Debreczen. What has become
+of the rest?"
+
+"Come here, I'll give you an account of it," said the lady, counting on
+her fingers with the point of the knife. "Two hundred I gave to the
+furrier--four hundred to the saddler--three hundred to the grocer--three
+hundred to the tailor:--two hundred I spent in the market: count how
+much remains."
+
+"None of your arithmetic for me. I only want money, much money! Where is
+much money?"
+
+"As I said already, at Koermoecz, in the mint."
+
+"Enough of your foolery!" threatened the highwayman. "For if I begin to
+search, you won't thank me for it."
+
+"Well, search the carriage over; all you find in it is yours."
+
+"I shan't search the coach, but you, too, to your skin."
+
+"What?" cried the woman, in a passion; and at that moment her face, with
+her knitted eyebrows, became like that of a mythical Fury. "Try
+it,"--with these words dashing the knife down into the table, which it
+pierced to the depth of an inch.
+
+The thief began to speak in a less presumptuous tone.
+
+"What else will you give me?"
+
+"What else, indeed?" said the lady, throwing herself defiantly back in
+her chair. "The devil and his son."
+
+"You have a bracelet on your arm."
+
+"There you are!" said the woman, unclasping the emerald trinket from her
+arm, and dashing it on the table.
+
+The thief began to look at it critically.
+
+"What is it worth?"
+
+"I received it as a present: you can get a drink of wine for it in the
+nearest inn you reach."
+
+"And there is a beautiful ring sparkling on your finger."
+
+"Let it sparkle."
+
+"I don't believe it cannot come off."
+
+"It will not come off, for I shall not give it." At this moment the
+thief suddenly grasped the woman's hand in which she held the knife,
+seizing it by the wrist, and while she was writhing in desperate
+struggle against the iron grip, with his other hand thrust the end of
+his pistol in her mouth.
+
+This awful scene had till now made upon Lorand the impression of the
+quarrel of a tipsy husband with his obstinate wife, who answers all his
+provocations with jesting: the lady seemed incapable of being
+frightened, the thief of frightening. Some unnatural indifference seemed
+to give the lie to that scene, which youthful imagination would picture
+so differently. The meeting of a thief with an unprotected lady, at
+night, in an inn on the plain! It was impossible that they should speak
+so to one another.
+
+But as the robber seized the lady's hand, and leaning across the table,
+drew her by sheer force towards him, continually threatening the
+screaming woman with a pistol, the young man's blood suddenly boiled up
+within him. He leaped forward from the darkness, unnoticed by the thief,
+crept toward him and seized the rascal's right hand, in which he held
+the pistol, while with his other hand he tore the second pistol from the
+man's belt.
+
+The highwayman, like some infuriated beast, turned upon his assailant,
+and strove to free his arm from the other's grip.
+
+He felt he had to do with one whose wrist was as firm as his own.
+
+"Student!" he snarled, with lips tightly drawn like a wolf, and gnashing
+his gleaming white teeth.
+
+"Don't stir," said Lorand, pointing the pistol at his forehead.
+
+The thief saw plainly that the pistol was not cocked: nor could Lorand
+have cocked it in this short time. Lorand, as a matter of fact, in his
+excitement had not thought of it.
+
+So the highwayman suddenly ducked his head and like a wall-breaking,
+battering ram, dealt such a blow with his head to Lorand, that the
+latter fell back on to the bench, and while he was forced to let go of
+the rascal with his left, he was obliged with his armed right hand to
+defend himself against the coming attack.
+
+Then the robber pointed the barrel of the second pistol at his forehead.
+
+"Now it is my turn to say, 'don't stir,' student."
+
+In that short moment, as Lorand gazed into the barrel of the pistol that
+was levelled at his forehead, there flashed through his mind this
+thought:
+
+"Now is the moment for checkmating the curse of fate and avoiding the
+threatened suicide. He who loses his life in the defence of persecuted
+and defenceless travellers dies as a man of honor. Let us see this
+death."
+
+He rose suddenly before the levelled weapon.
+
+"Don't move or you are a dead man," the thief cried again to him.
+
+But Lorand, face to face with the pistol levelled within a foot of his
+head calmly put his finger to the trigger of the weapon he himself held
+and drew it back.
+
+At this the thief suddenly sprang back and rushed to the door, so
+alarmed that at first he attempted to open it the wrong way.
+
+Lorand took careful aim at him.
+
+But as he stretched out his arm, the lady sprang up from the table,
+crept to him and seized his arm, shrieking:
+
+"Don't kill him, oh, don't!"
+
+Lorand gazed at her in astonishment.
+
+The beautiful woman's face was convulsed in a torture of terror: the
+staring look in her beautiful eyes benumbed the young man's sinews. As
+she threw herself upon his bosom and held down his arms, the embrace
+quite crippled him.
+
+The highwayman, seeing he could escape, after much fumbling undid the
+bolt of the door. When he was at last able to open it, his gypsy humor
+returned to take the place of his fear. He thrust his dishevelled head
+in at the half-opened door, and remarked in that broken voice which is
+peculiarly that of the terrified man:
+
+"A plague upon you, you devil's cur of a student: student, inky-fingered
+student. Had my pistol been loaded, as the other was, which was in your
+hand, I would have just given you a pass to hell. Just fall into my
+hands again! I know that...."
+
+Then he suddenly withdrew his head, affording a very humorous
+illustration to his threat: and like one pursued he ran out into the
+court. A few moments later a clatter of hoofs was heard--the robber was
+making his escape. When he reached the road he began to swear godlessly,
+reproaching and cursing every student, legatus, and hound of a priest,
+who, instead of praising God at home, prowled about the high-roads, and
+spoiled a hard working man's business. Even after he was far down the
+road his loud cursing could still be heard. For weeks that swearing
+would fill the air in the bog of Lankadomb, where he had made himself at
+home in the wild creature's unapproachable lair.
+
+To Lorand this was all quite bewildering.
+
+The arrogant, almost jesting, conversation, by the light of that
+mysterious flame, between a murderous robber and his victim:--the
+inexplicable riddle that a night-prowling highwayman should have entered
+a house with an empty pistol, while in his belt was another,
+loaded:--and then that woman, that incomprehensible figure, who had
+laughed at a robber to his face, who had threatened him with a knife as
+he pressed her to his bosom, and who, could she have freed herself,
+would surely have dealt him such a blow as she had dealt the
+table:--that she, when her rescuer was going to shoot her assailant,
+should have torn aside his hand in terror and defended the miscreant
+with her own body!
+
+What could be the solution of such a riddle?
+
+Meanwhile the lady had again lighted the candles: again a gentle light
+was thrown on all things. Lorand gazed at her. In place of her previous
+green-blue face, which had gazed on him with the wild look of madness, a
+smiling, good-humored countenance was presented. She asked in a humorous
+tone:
+
+"Well, so you are a student, what kind of student? Where did you come
+from?"
+
+"I came with you, sitting beside the coachman."
+
+"Do you wish to come to Lankadomb?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps to Sarvoelgyi's? He loves prayers."
+
+"Oh no. But to Mr. Topandy."
+
+"I cannot advise that: he is very rude to such as you. You are
+accustomed to preach. Don't go there."
+
+"Still I am going there: and if you don't care to let me sit on the box,
+I shall go on foot, as I have done until to-day."
+
+"Do you know what? What you would get there would not be much. The
+money, which that man left here, you have by you as it is. Keep it for
+yourself: I give it to you. Then go back to the college."
+
+"Madame, I am not accustomed to live on presents," said Lorand, proudly
+refusing the proffered purse.
+
+The woman was astonished. This is a curious legatus, thought she, who
+does not live by presents.
+
+Her ladyship began to perceive that in this young man's dust-stained
+features there was something of that which makes distinctions between
+man. She began to be surprised at this proud and noble gaze.
+
+Perhaps she was reflecting as to what kind of phenomenon it could be,
+who with unarmed hand had dared to attack an armed robber, in order to
+free from his clutch a strange woman in whom he had no interest, and
+then refused to accept the present he had so well deserved.
+
+Lorand saw that he had allowed a breach to open in his heart through
+which anyone could easily see the secret of his character. He hastened
+to cover his error.
+
+"I cannot accept a present, your ladyship, because I wish more. I am not
+a preaching legatus, but an expelled school-boy. I am in search of a
+position where I can earn my living by the work of my hands. When I
+protected your ladyship it occurred to me, 'This lady may have need for
+some farm steward or bailiff. She may recommend me to her husband.' I
+shall be a faithful servant, and I have given a proof of my
+faithfulness, for I have no written testimonials."
+
+"You wish to be Topandy's steward? Do you know what a godless man he
+is?"
+
+"That is why I am in search of him. I started direct for him. They
+expelled me from school for my godlessness. We cannot accuse each other
+of anything."
+
+"You have committed some crime, then, and that is why you avoid the eyes
+of the world? Confess what you have done. Murdered? Confess. I shall not
+be afraid of you for it, nor shall I tell any one. I promise that you
+shall be welcomed, whatever the crime may be. I have said so. Have you
+committed murder?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Beaten your father or mother?"
+
+"No, madame:--My crime is that I have instigated the youth against their
+superiors."
+
+"What superiors? Against the magistrate?"
+
+"Even superior to the magistrate."
+
+"Perhaps against the priest. Well, Topandy will be delighted. He is a
+great fool in this matter."
+
+The woman uttered these words laughingly; then suddenly a dark shadow
+crossed her face. With wandering glance she stepped up to the young man,
+and, putting her hand gently on his arm, asked him in a whisper:
+
+"Do you know how to pray?"
+
+Lorand looked at her, aghast.
+
+"To pray from a book--could you teach some one to pray from a book?
+Would it require a long time?"
+
+Lorand looked with ever-increasing wonder at the questioner.
+
+"Very well--I did not say anything! Come with us. The coachman is
+already cracking his whip. Will you sit inside with us, or do you prefer
+to sit outside beside the coachman in the open? It is better so; I
+should prefer it myself. Well, let us go."
+
+The servant, who had crawled out from under the bench, had already
+collected the silver and crockery; her ladyship paid mine host, and they
+soon took their seats again in the carriage:--and both thought deeply
+the whole way. The young man, of that woman, who playfully defied a
+thief, and struggled for a ring; then of that robber, who came with an
+empty pistol, and again of that woman, who when he spoke of the powers
+that be, understood nothing but a magistrate, and had inquired whether
+he knew how to pray from a book;--and who meanwhile wore golden
+bracelets, ate from silver, was dressed in silk and carried the fire of
+youth in her eyes. While the woman thought of that young man who could
+fight like a hero; was ready to work like a day laborer, to throw money
+away like a noble, to fascinate women like an angel, and to blaspheme
+the powers that be like a devil!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHICH WILL CONVERT THE OTHER?
+
+
+In the morning the coach rolled into the courtyard of the castle of
+Lankadomb.[56]
+
+[Footnote 56: _i. e._, Orchard-hill.]
+
+Topandy was waiting on the terrace, and ran to meet the young lady,
+helped her out of the coach and kissed her hand very courteously. At
+Lorand, who descended from his seat beside the coachman, he gazed with
+questioning wonder.
+
+The lady answered in his place:
+
+"I have brought an expelled student, who desires to be steward on your
+estate. You must accept him."
+
+Then, trusting to the hurrying servants to bring her travelling rugs and
+belongings after her, she ascended into the castle, without further
+waste of words, leaving Lorand alone with Topandy.
+
+Topandy turned to the young fellow with his usual satirical humor.
+
+"Well, fellow, you've got a fine recommendation! An expelled student;
+that's saying a good deal. You want to be steward, or bailiff, or
+praefectus here, do you? It's all the same; choose which title you
+please. Have you a smattering of the trade?"
+
+"I was brought up to a farm life: it is surely no hieroglyphic to me."
+
+"Bravo! So I shall tell you what my steward has to do. Can you plough
+with a team of four? Can you stack hay, standing on the top of the
+sheaves? Can you keep order among a dozen reapers? Can you...?"
+
+Lorand was not taken aback by his questions. He merely replied to each
+one, "yes."
+
+"That's splendid," said Topandy. "Many renowned and well-versed
+gentlemen of business have come to me, to recommend themselves as farm
+bailiffs, in buckled shoes; but when I asked them if they could heap
+dung on dung carts, they all ran away. I am pleased my questions about
+that did not knock you over. Do you know what the 'conventio'[57] will
+be?"
+
+[Footnote 57: The payment. The honorarium.]
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But how much do _you_ expect?"
+
+"Until I can make myself useful, nothing; afterwards, as much as is
+required from one day to the next."
+
+"Well said; but have you no claims to bailiff's lodgings, office, or
+something else? That shall be left entirely to your own discretion. On
+my estate, the steward may lodge where he likes--either in the ox-stall,
+in the cow-shed, or in the buffalo stable. I don't mind; I leave it
+entirely to your choice."
+
+Topandy looked at him with wicked eyes, as he waited for the answer.
+
+Lorand, however, with the most serious countenance, merely answered that
+his presence would be required most in the ox-stall, so he would take up
+his quarters there.
+
+"So on that point we are agreed," said Topandy, with a loud laugh. "We
+shall soon see on what terms of friendship we shall stand. I accept the
+terms; when you are tired of them, don't trouble to say so. There is the
+gate."
+
+"I shall not turn in that direction."
+
+"Good! I admire your determination. Now come with me; you will receive
+at once your provisions for five days--take them with you. The shepherd
+will teach you how to cook and prepare your meals."
+
+Lorand did not make a single grimace at these peculiar conditions
+attached to the office of steward; he acquiesced in everything, as if he
+found everything most correct.
+
+"Well, come with me, Sir bailiff!"
+
+So he led him into the castle, without even so much as inquiring his
+name. He thought that in any case he would disappear in a day or two.
+
+Her ladyship was just in the ante-room, where breakfast was usually
+served.
+
+While Topandy was explaining to Lorand the various quarters from which
+he might choose a bedroom, her ladyship had got the coffee ready, for
+dejeuner, and had laid the fine tablecloth on the round table, on which
+had been placed three cups, and just so many knives, forks and napkins.
+
+As Topandy stepped into the room, letting Lorand in after him, her
+ladyship was engaged in pouring out the coffee from the silver pot into
+the cups, while the rich buffalo milk boiled away merrily on the
+glittering white tripod before her. Topandy placed himself in the
+nearest seat, leaving Lorand to stand and wait until her ladyship had
+time to weigh out his rations for him.
+
+"That is not your place!" exclaimed the fair lady.
+
+Topandy sprang up suddenly.
+
+"Pardon. Whose place is this?"
+
+"That gentleman's!" she answered, and nodded at Lorand, both her hands
+being occupied.
+
+"Please take a seat, sir," said Topandy, making room for Lorand.
+
+"You will always sit there," said the lady, putting down the coffee-pot
+and pointing to the place which had been laid on her left. "At
+breakfast, at dinner, at supper."
+
+This had a different sound from what the gentleman of the house had
+said. Rather different from garlic and black bread.
+
+"This will be your room here on the right," continued the lady. "The
+butler's name is George; he will be your servant. And John is the
+coachman, who will stand at your orders."
+
+Lorand's wonder only increased. He wished to make some remark, but he
+did not know himself what he wanted to say. Topandy, however, burst
+into a Homeric laugh, in which he quite lost himself.
+
+"Why, brother, didn't you tell me you had already arranged matters with
+the lady? You would have saved me so much trouble. If matters stand so,
+sleep on my sofa, and drink from my glass!"
+
+Lorand wished to play the proud beggar. He raised his head defiantly.
+
+"I shall sleep in the hay, and shall drink from----"
+
+"I advise you to do as I tell you," said the lady, making both men wince
+with the flash of her gaze.
+
+"Surely, brother," continued Topandy, "I can give you no better counsel
+than that. Well, let us sit down, and drink 'Brotherhood' with a glass
+of cognac."
+
+Lorand thought it wise to give way before the commanding gaze of the
+lady, and to accept the proffered place, while the latter laughed
+outright in sudden good-humor. She was so lovable, so natural, so
+pleasant, when she laughed like that, Topandy could not forbear from
+kissing her hands.
+
+The lady laughingly, and with jesting prudery, extended the other hand
+toward Lorand.
+
+"Well, the other too! Don't be bashful!"
+
+Lorand kissed the other hand.
+
+Upon this, she clapped her hands over her head, and burst into laughter.
+
+"See, see! I have brought you a letter from town," said the lady,
+drawing out her purse. "It's a good thing the thief left me this, or
+your letter would have been lost as well."
+
+"Thief?" asked Topandy earnestly. "What thief?"
+
+"Why, at the 'Skull-smasher' inn, where we stopped to water our horses,
+a thief attacked us, and then wanted to empty our pockets. I threw him
+my money and my bracelet, but he wanted to tear this ring from my
+finger, too. That I would not give up. Then he caught hold of my hand,
+and to prevent my screaming, thrust the butt-end of his pistol into my
+mouth--the fool!"
+
+The lady related all this with such an air of indifference that Topandy
+could not make out whether she was joking or not.
+
+"What fable is this?"
+
+"Fable indeed!" was the exclamation that greeted him on two sides, on
+the one from her ladyship, on the other from the neat little maid, the
+latter crying out how much she had been frightened; that she was still
+all of a tremble; the former turned back her sleeve and held out her arm
+to Topandy.
+
+"See how my arm got scratched by the grasp of the robber! and look here,
+how bruised my mouth is from the pistol," said she, parting her rosy
+lips, behind which two rows of pearly teeth glistened. "It's a good
+thing he didn't knock out my teeth."
+
+"Well, that would have been a pity. But how did you get away from him,"
+asked Topandy, in an anxious tone.
+
+"Well, I don't know whether you would ever have seen me again, if this
+young man had not dashed to our assistance; for he sprang forward and
+snatched the pistol from the hand of the robber,--who immediately took
+to his heels and ran away."
+
+Topandy again shook his head, and said it was hard to believe.
+
+"No doubt he still has the pistol in his pocket."
+
+"Give it to me."
+
+"But don't fool with it; it might go off and hurt somebody."
+
+Lorand handed the pistol in question to Topandy. The barrel was of
+bronze, highly chased in silver.
+
+"Curious!" exclaimed Topandy, examining the ornamentation. "This pistol
+bears the Sarvoelgyi arms."
+
+Without another word he put the weapon in his pocket, and shook hands
+with Lorand across the table.
+
+"My boy, you are a fine fellow. I honor you for so bravely defending my
+people. Now I have the more reason in agreeing to your living
+henceforward under the same roof with me; unless you fear it may,
+through fault of mine, fall in upon you. What was the robber like?" he
+said, turning again to the women.
+
+"We could not see him, because he put out the candle and ran away."
+
+Lorand was struck by the fact that the woman did not seem inclined to
+recall the robber's features, which she must, however have been able to
+see by the help of the spirit-lamp; he noticed, too, that she did not
+utter a word about the robber's being a gypsy.
+
+"I don't know what he was like," she repeated, with a meaning look at
+Lorand. "Neither of us could see, for it was dark. For the same reason
+our deliverer could not shoot at him, because it was difficult to aim in
+the dark. If he had missed him, the robber might have murdered us all."
+
+"A fine adventure," muttered Topandy. "I shall not allow you to travel
+alone at night another time. I shall go armed myself. I shall not put up
+with the existence of that den in the marsh any longer or it will always
+be occupied by such as mean to harm us. As soon as the Tisza overflows,
+I shall set fire to the reeds about the place, when the stack will catch
+fire, too."
+
+During this conversation the woman had produced the letter.
+
+"There it is," she cried, handing it to Topandy.
+
+"A lady's handwriting!" exclaimed Topandy, glancing at the direction.
+
+"What, you can tell by the letters whether it is the writing of a man or
+a woman?" queried the beautiful lady, throwing a curious glance at the
+writing.
+
+Lorand looked at it, too, and it seemed to him as if he had seen the
+writing before, but he could not remember where.
+
+It was a strange hand; the characters did not resemble the writing of
+any of his lady acquaintances, and yet he must have seen it somewhere.
+
+You may cast about and reflect long, Lorand, before you discover whose
+writing it is. You never thought of her who wrote this letter. You never
+even noticed her existence! It is the writing of Fanny, of the jolly
+little exchange-girl. It was Desi who once showed you that handwriting
+for a moment, when your mother sent her love in Fanny's letter. Now the
+unknown hand had written to Topandy to the effect that a young man would
+appear before him, bespattered and ragged. He was not to ask whence he
+came, or whither he went; but he was to look well at the noble face, and
+he would know from it that the youth was not obliged to avoid
+persecution of the world for some base crime.
+
+Topandy gazed long at the youthful face before him. Could this be the
+one she meant?
+
+The story of the Parliamentary society of the young men was well known
+to him.
+
+He asked no questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After the first day Lorand felt himself quite at home in Topandy's home.
+
+Topandy treated him as a duke would treat his only son, whom he was
+training to be his heir; Lorand's conduct toward Topandy was that of a
+poor man's son, learning to make himself useful in his father's home.
+Each found many extraordinary traits in the other, and each would have
+loved to probe to the depths of the other's peculiarities.
+
+Lorand remarked in his uncle a deep, unfathomable feeling underlying his
+seeming godlessness. Topandy, on his side, suspected that some dark
+shadow had prematurely crossed the serenity of the young man's mind.
+Each tried to pierce the depths of the other's soul--but in vain.
+
+Her ladyship had on the first day confided her life secret to Lorand.
+When he endeavored to pay her the compliment of kissing her hand after
+supper, she withdrew her hand and refused to accept this mark of
+respect.
+
+"My dear boy, don't kiss my hand, or 'my ladyship' me any more. I am but
+a poor gypsy girl. My parents, were simple camp-folk; my name is Czipra.
+I am a domestic servant here, whom the master has dressed up, out of
+caprice, in silks and laces, and he makes the servants call me 'madame,'
+on which account they subsequently mock me,--of course, only behind my
+back, for if they did it to my face I should strike them; but don't you
+laugh at me behind my back. I am an orphan gypsy girl, and my master
+picked me up out of the gutter. He is very kind to me, and I would die
+for him, if fate so willed. That's how matters stand, do you
+understand?"
+
+The gypsy girl glanced with dimmed eyes at Topandy, who smilingly
+listened to her frank confession, as though he approved of it. Then, as
+if she had gained her master's consent, she turned again to Lorand:
+
+"So call me simply 'Czipra.'"
+
+"All right, Czipra, my sister," said Lorand, holding out his hand.
+
+"Well now, that is nice of you to add that;" upon which she pressed
+Lorand's hand, and left the men to themselves.
+
+Topandy turned the conversation, and spoke no more to Lorand of Czipra.
+He first of all wished to find out what impression the discovery would
+make upon the young man.
+
+The following days enlightened him.
+
+Lorand, from that day, far from showing more familiarity, manifested
+greater deference towards the reputed lady of the house. Since she had
+confessed her true position to him, moreover he treated her as one who
+knew well that the smallest slight would doubly hurt one who was not in
+a position to complain. He was kind and attentive to the woman, who,
+beneath the appearance of happiness, was wretched, though innocent. To
+the uninitiated, she was the lady of the house; to the better informed,
+she was the favorite of her master, and that was nought but a maiden in
+the disguise of wife, and Lorand was able to read the riddle aright.
+
+If Topandy watched him, he in his turn observed Topandy; he saw that
+Topandy did not watch, nor was jealous of the girl. He consented to her
+traveling alone, confided the greater part of his fortune to her,
+overwhelmed her with presents, but beyond this did not trouble about
+her. Still he showed a certain affection which did not arise from mere
+habit. He would not brook the least harm to her from anybody, making the
+whole household fear her as much as the master, and if by chance they
+hesitated as to their duty to one or the other, it was always Czipra who
+had a prior claim on their services.
+
+Topandy at once perceived that Lorand did not run after a fair face, nor
+after the face of any woman, who was not difficult to conquer, because
+she was not guarded, and who might be easily got rid of, being but a
+gypsy girl. His heart was either fully occupied by one object only, or
+it was an infinite void which nothing could fill. Topandy led a
+boisterous life, when he fell in with his chums, but when alone he was
+quite another man. To fathom nature's mysteries was a passion with him.
+In a corner of the basement of the castle there was a chemical
+laboratory, where he passed his time with making physical experiments;
+he labored with instruments, he probed the secrets of the stars, and of
+the earth; at such times he only cared to have Lorand at his side; in
+him he found a being capable of sharing his scientific researches,
+though he did not share in his doubts.
+
+"All is matter!" such had for centuries been the motto of the
+naturalist, and therefore the naturalist had ever found a kindred spirit
+in the agnostic.
+
+Often did Czipra come upon the two men at their quiet pursuits and watch
+them for hours together; and though she did not understand what in this
+higher science went beyond her comprehension, yet she could take
+pleasure in observing Cartesius' diving imps; she dared to sit upon the
+insulators, and her joy was boundless when Lorand at such a time,
+approaching her with his finger, called forth electric sparks from her
+dress or hands. She found enjoyment, too, in peering through the great
+telescopes at the heavenly wonders. Lorand was always ready to answer
+her questions; but the poor girl was far from understanding all. Yet
+how rapturous the thought of knowing all! Once when Lorand was
+explaining to her the properties of the sun-spectrum, the girl sighed
+and, suddenly bending down to Lorand, whispered blushingly:
+
+"Teach me to read."
+
+Lorand looked at her in amazement. Topandy, looking over his shoulder,
+asked her:
+
+"Tell me, what would be the use of teaching you to read?"
+
+The girl clasped her hands to her bosom:
+
+"I should like to learn to pray."
+
+"What? To pray? And what would you pray for? Is there anything that you
+cannot do without?"
+
+"There is."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"That is what I should like to know by praying."
+
+"And you do not know yourself what it is?"
+
+"I cannot express what it is."
+
+"And do you know anybody who could give it you?"
+
+The girl pointed to the sky.
+
+Topandy shrugged his shoulders at her.
+
+"Bah! you goose, reading is not for girls. Women are best off when they
+know nothing."
+
+Then he laughed in her face.
+
+Czipra ran weeping out of the laboratory.
+
+Lorand pitied the poor creature, who, dressed in silks and finery, did
+not know her letters, and who was incapable of raising her voice to God.
+He was in a mood, through long solitude, for pitying others; under a
+strange name, known to nobody, separated from the world, he was able to
+forget the lofty dreams to which a smooth career had pointed, and which
+fate, at his first steps, had mocked. He had given up the idea that the
+world should acknowledge this title: "a great patriot, who is the holder
+of a high office." He who does not desire this should keep to the
+ploughshare. Ambition should only have well-regulated roads, and success
+should only begin with a lower office in the state. But he whose hobby
+it is to murmur, will find a fine career in field labor; and he who
+wishes to bury himself, will find himself supplied, in life, with a
+beautiful, romantic, flowery wheat-covered cemetery by the fields, from
+the centre of which the happy dead creatures of life cheerfully mock at
+those who weary themselves and create a disturbance--with the idea that
+they are doing something, whereas their end is the same as that of the
+rest of mankind.
+
+Lorand was even beginning to grow indifferent to the awful obligation
+that lay before him at the end of the appointed time. It was still afar
+off. Before then a man might die peacefully and quietly; perhaps that
+other who guarded the secret might pass away ere then. And perhaps the
+years at the plough would harden the skin of a man's soul, as it did of
+his face and hands, so that he would come to ridicule a wager, which in
+his youthful over-enthusiasm he would have fulfilled; a wager the
+refusal to accept which would merely win the commendation of everybody.
+And if any one could say the reverse, how could he find him to say it to
+his face? As regards his family at home, he was fairly at his ease. He
+often received letters from Dezsoe (Desiderius), under another address;
+they were all well at home, and treated the fate of the expelled son
+with good grace. He also learned that Madame Balnokhazy had not returned
+to her husband, but had gone abroad with that actor with whom she had
+previously been acquainted. This also he had wiped out from his memory.
+His whole mind was a perfect blank in which there was room for other
+people's misfortunes.
+
+It was impossible not to remark how Czipra became attached to him in her
+simplicity. She had a feeling which she had never felt before, a feeling
+of shame, if some impudent jest was made at her expense by one of
+Topandy's guests, in the presence of Lorand.
+
+Once, when Topandy and Lorand were amusing themselves at greater length
+with optical experiments in the lonely scientific apartment, Lorand took
+the liberty of introducing the subject.
+
+"Is it true that that girl has grown up without any knowledge whatever?"
+
+"Surely; she knows neither God nor alphabet."
+
+"Why don't you allow the poor child to learn to know them?"
+
+"What, her alphabet? Because in my eyes it is quite superfluous. A mad
+idea once occurred to me of picking some naked gypsy child out of the
+streets, with the intention of making a happy being therefrom. What is
+happiness in the world? Ease and ignorance. Had I a child of my own, I
+should do the same with it. The secret of life is to have a good
+appetite, sound sleep, and a good heart. If I reflect what bitternesses
+have been my lot my whole life, I find the cause of each one was what I
+have learned. Many a night did I lie awake in agonized distraction,
+while my servants were snoring in peace. I desired to see before me a
+person as happy as it was my ideal to be; a person free from those
+distressing tortures, which the civilized world has discovered for the
+persecution of man by man. Well, I have begun by telling you why I did
+not teach Czipra her alphabet."
+
+"And God?"
+
+Topandy took his eyes off the telescope, with which he had just been
+gazing at the starry sky.
+
+"I don't know Him myself."
+
+Lorand turned from him with a distressed air. Topandy remarked it.
+
+"My dear boy, my dear twenty-year-old child, probably you know more than
+I do; if you know Him, I beg you to teach me."
+
+Lorand shrugged his shoulders, then began to discuss scientific
+subjects.
+
+"Does Dollond's telescope show stars in the Milky Way?"
+
+"Yes, a million twinkling stars o'erspread the Milky Way, each several
+star a sun."
+
+"Does it dissipate the mist in the head of the Northern Hound?"
+
+"The mist remains as it was before--a round cloudy mass with a ring of
+mist around it."
+
+"Perhaps Gregory's telescope, just arrived from Vienna, magnifies
+better?"
+
+"Bring it here. Since its arrival there has been no clear weather, to
+enable us to make experiments with it."
+
+Topandy gazed at the heavens through the new telescope with great
+interest.
+
+"Ah," he remarked in a tone of surprise. "This is a splendid instrument;
+the star-mist thins, some tiny stars appear out of the ring."
+
+"And the mass itself?"
+
+"That remains mist. Not even this telescope can disperse its atoms."
+
+"Well, shall we not experiment with Chevalier's microscope now?"
+
+"That is a good idea; get it ready."
+
+"What shall we put under it? A rhinchites?"
+
+"That will do."
+
+Lorand lit the spirit-lamp, which threw light on the subject under the
+magnifying glass; then he first looked into it himself, to find the
+correct focus. Enraptured, he cried out:
+
+"Look here! That fabled armor of Homer's _Iliad_ is not to be compared
+with this little insect's wing-shields. They are nothing but emerald and
+enamelled gold."
+
+"Indeed it is so."
+
+"And now listen to me: between the two wings of this little insect there
+is a tiny parasite or worm, which in its turn has two eyes, a life, and
+life-blood flowing in its veins, and in this worm's stomach other worms
+are living, impenetrable to the eye of this microscope."
+
+"I understand," said the atheist, glancing into Lorand's eyes. "You are
+explaining to me that the immensity of the world of creation reaching to
+awful eternity is only equalled by the immensity of the descent to the
+shapeless nonentity; and that is your God!"
+
+The sublime calm of Lorand's face indicated that that was his idea.
+
+"My dear boy," said Topandy, placing his two hands on Lorand's shoulder,
+"with that idea I have long been acquainted. I, too, fall down before
+immensity, and recognize that we represent but one class in the upward
+direction towards the stars, and one degree in the descent to the moth
+and rust that corrupt; and perhaps that worm, that I killed in order to
+take rapt pleasure in its wings, thought itself the middle of eternity
+round which the world is whirling like Plato's featherless two-footed
+animals; and when at the door of death it uttered its last cry, it
+probably thought that this cry for vengeance would be noted by some one,
+as when at Warsaw four thousand martyrs sang with their last breath,
+'All is not yet lost.'"
+
+"That is not my faith, sir. The history of the ephemeral insect is the
+history of a day,--that of a man means a whole life; the history of
+nations means centuries, that of the world eternity; and in eternity
+justice comes to each one in irremediable and unalterable succession."
+
+"I grant that, my boy; and I allow, too, that the comets are certainly
+claimants to the world whose suits have been deferred to this long
+justice, who one day will all recover their inheritances, from which
+some tyrant sun has driven them out; but you must also acknowledge, my
+child, that for us, the thoughtful worms, or stars, if you like, which
+can express their thoughts in spirited curses, providence has no care.
+For everything, everything there is a providence: be it so, I believe
+it. But for the living kind there is none, unless we take into account
+the rare occasions when a plague visits mankind, because it is too
+closely spread over the earth and requires thinning."
+
+"Sir, many misfortunes have I suffered on earth, very many, and such as
+fate distributes indiscriminately; but it has never destroyed--my
+faith."
+
+"No misfortune has ever attacked me. It is not suffering that has made
+me sceptical. My life has always been to my taste. Should some one
+divide up his property in reward for prayer, I should not benefit one
+crumb from it.--It is hypocrites who have forcibly driven me this way.
+Perhaps, were I not surrounded by such, I should keep silence about my
+unbelief, I should not scandalize others with it, I should not seek to
+persecute the world's hypocrites with what they call blasphemy. Believe
+me, my boy, of a million men, all but one regard Providence as a rich
+creditor, from whom they may always borrow--but when it is a question of
+paying the interest, then only that one remembers it."
+
+"And that one is enough to hallow the ideal!"
+
+"That one?--but you will not be that one!"
+
+Lorand, astonished, asked:
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because, if you remain long in my vicinity, you must without fail turn
+into such a universal disbeliever as I am."
+
+Lorand smiled to himself.
+
+"My child," said Topandy, "you will not catch the infection from me, who
+am always sneering and causing scandals, but from that other who prays
+to the sound of bells."
+
+"You mean Sarvoelgyi?"
+
+"Whom else could I mean? You will meet this man every day. And in the
+end you will say just as I do--'If one must go to heaven in this wise, I
+had rather remain here?'"
+
+"Well, and what is this Sarvoelgyi?"
+
+"A hypocrite, who lies to all the saints in turn, and would deceive the
+eyes of the archangels if they did not look after themselves."
+
+"You have a very low opinion of the man."
+
+"A low opinion? That is the only good thing in my heart, that I despise
+the fellow."
+
+"Simply because he is pious? In the world of to-day, however, it is a
+kind of courage to dare to show one's piety outwardly before a world of
+scepticism and indifference. I should like to defend him against you."
+
+"Would you? Very well. Let us start at once. Draw up a chair and listen
+to me. I shall be the devil's advocate. I shall tell you a story
+concerning this fellow; I was merely a simple witness to the whole. The
+man never did me any harm. I tell you once again that I have no
+complaint to make either against mankind or against any beings that may
+exist above or below. Sit beside me, my boy."
+
+Lorand first of all stirred up the fire in the fire-place, and put out
+the spirit lamp of the microscope, so that the room was lighted only by
+the red glare of the log-fire and the moon, which was now rising above
+the horizon and shed her pale radiance through the window.
+
+"In my younger days I had a very dear friend, a relation, with whom I
+had always gone to school and such fast comrades were we that even in
+the class-room we sat always side by side. My comrade was unapproachably
+first in the class, and I came next; sometime between us like a dividing
+wall came this fellow Sarvoelgyi, who was even then a great flatterer and
+sneak, and in this way sometimes drove me out of my place--and young
+schoolboys think a great deal of their own particular places. Of course
+I was even then so godless that they could not make sufficient
+complaints against me. Later, during the French war, as the schools
+suffered much, we were both sent together to Heidelberg. The devil
+brought Sarvoelgyi after us. His parents were parvenues. What our parents
+did they were always bound to imitate. They might have sent their boy to
+Jena, Berlin, or Nineveh; but he must come just where we were."
+
+"You have never mentioned your friend's name," said Lorand, who had
+listened in anguish to the commencement of the story.
+
+"Indeed?--Why there's really no need for the name. He was a friend of
+mine. As far as the story is concerned it doesn't matter what they
+called him. Still that you may not think I am relating a fable, I may as
+well tell you his name. It was Loerincz Aronffy."
+
+A cold numbness seized Lorand when he heard his father's name. Then his
+heart began suddenly to beat at a furious pace. He felt he was standing
+before the crypt door, whose secret he had so often striven to fathom.
+
+"I never knew a fairer figure, a nobler nature, a warmer heart than he
+had," continued Topandy. "I admired and loved him, not merely as my
+relation, but as the ideal of the young men of the day. The common
+knowledge of all kinds of little secrets, such as only young people
+understand among themselves, united us more closely in that bond of
+friendship which is usually deferred until later days. At that time
+there broke out all over Europe those liberal political views, which had
+such a fascinating influence generally on young men. Here too there was
+an awakening of what is called national feeling; great philosophers even
+turned against one another with quite modern opposition in public as
+well as in private life. All this made more intimate the relations which
+had till then been mere childish habit.
+
+"We were two years at the academy; those two years were passed amidst
+enough noise and pleasure. Had we money, we spent it together; had we
+none, we starved together. For one another we went empty-handed, for one
+another, we fought, and were put in prison. Then we met Sarvoelgyi very
+seldom; the academy is a great forest and men are not forced together as
+on the benches of a grammar-school.
+
+"Just at the very climax of the French war, the idea struck us to edit a
+written newspaper among ourselves."
+
+(Lorand began to listen with still greater interest.)
+
+"We travestied with humorous score in our paper all that the
+'Augsburger' delivered with great pathos: those who read laughed at it.
+
+"However, there came an end to our amusement, when one fine day we
+received the 'consilium abeundi.'
+
+"I was certainly not very much annoyed. So much transcendental science,
+so much knowledge of the world had been driven into me already, that I
+longed to go home to the company of the village sexton, who, still
+believed that anecdotes and fables were the highest science.
+
+"Only two days were allowed us at Heidelberg to collect our belongings
+and say adieu to our so-called 'treasures.' During these two days I only
+saw Aronffy twice: once on the morning of the first day, when he came
+to me in a state of great excitement, and said, 'I have the scoundrel by
+the ear who betrayed us!--If I don't return, follow in my tracks and
+avenge me.' I asked him why he did not choose me for his second, but he
+replied: 'Because you also are interested and must follow me.' And then
+on the evening of the second day he came home again, quite dispirited
+and out of sorts! I spoke to him; he would scarcely answer; and when I
+finally insisted: 'perhaps you killed someone?' he answered
+determinedly, 'Yes.'"
+
+"And who was that man?" inquired Lorand, taken aback.
+
+"Don't interrupt me. You shall know soon," Topandy muttered.
+
+"From that day Aronffy was completely changed. The good-humored,
+spirited young fellow became suddenly a quiet, serious, sedate man, who
+would never join us in any amusement. He avoided the world, and I
+remarked that in the world he did his best to avoid me.
+
+"I thought I knew why that was. I thought I knew the secret of his
+earnestness. He had murdered a man whom he had challenged to a duel.
+That weighed upon his mind. He could not be cold-blooded enough to drive
+even such a bagatelle from his head. Other people count it a 'bravour,'
+or at most suffer from the persecutions of others--not of themselves. He
+would soon forget it, I thought, as he grew older.
+
+"Yet my dear friend remained year by year a serious-minded man, and when
+later on I met him, his society was for me so unenjoyable that I never
+found any pleasure in frequenting it.
+
+"Still, as soon as he returned home, he got married. Even before our
+trip to Heidelberg he had become engaged to a very pleasant, pretty, and
+quiet young girl. They were in love with each other. Still Aronffy
+remained always gloomy. In the first year of his marriage a son was born
+to him. Later another. They say both the sons were handsome, clever
+boys. Yet that never brightened him. Immediately after the honeymoon he
+went to the war, and behaved there like one who thinks the sooner he is
+cut off the better. Later, all the news I received of him confirmed my
+idea that Aronffy was suffering from an incurable mental disease.--Does
+a man, the candle of whose life we have snuffed out deserve that?"
+
+"What was the name of the man he murdered?" demanded Lorand with renewed
+disquietude.
+
+"As I have told you, you shall know soon: the story will not run away
+from me! only listen further.
+
+"One day--it might have been twelve years since the day we shook off the
+dust of the Heidelberg school from our boots--I received a parcel from
+Heidelberg, from the Local Council, which informed me that a certain Dr.
+Stoppelfeld had left me this packet in his will.
+
+"Stoppelfeld? I racked my brains to discover who it might be that from
+beyond the border had left me something in his testament. Finally it
+occurred to me that a long light-haired medical student, who was famous
+in his days among the drinking clubs, had attended the same lectures as
+we had. If I was not deceived, we had drunk together and fought a duel.
+
+"I undid the packet, and found within it a letter addressed to me.
+
+"I have that letter still, but I know every word by heart so often have
+I read it. Its contents were as follows:
+
+"'MY DEAR COMRADE:
+
+"'You may remember that, on the day before your departure from
+Heidelberg, one of our young colleagues, Loerincz Aronffy, looked among
+his acquaintances for seconds in some affair of honor. As it happened I
+was the first he addressed. I naturally accepted the invitation, and
+asked his reason and business. As you too know them--he told me so--I
+shall not write them here. He informed me, too, why he did not choose
+you as his second, and at the same time bound me to promise, if he
+should fall in the duel, to tell you that you might follow the matter
+up. I accepted, and went with him to the challenged. I explained that
+in such a case a duel was customary, and in fact necessary; if he wished
+to avoid it, he would be forced to leave the academy. The challenged did
+not refuse the challenge, but said that as he was of weak constitution,
+shortsighted and without practice with any kind of weapons, he chose the
+American duel of drawing lots!'"
+
+... Topandy glanced by chance at Lorand's face, and thought that the
+change of color he saw on his countenance was the reflection of the
+flickering flame in the fire-place.
+
+"The letter continued:
+
+"'At our academy at that time there was a great rage for that stupid
+kind of duel, where two men draw lots and the one whose name comes out,
+must blow his brains out after a fixed time. Asses! At that time I had
+already enough common sense, when summoned to act as second in such
+cases, to try to persuade the principals to fix a longer period,
+calculating quite rightly that within ten or twelve years the bitterest
+enemies would become reconciled, and might even become good friends: the
+successful principal might be magnanimous, and give his opponent his
+life, or the unsuccessful adversary might forget in his well-being, such
+a ridiculous obligation.
+
+"'In this case I arranged a period of sixteen years between the parties.
+I knew my men: sixteen years were necessary for the education of the
+traitorous schoolfox[58] into a man of honor, or for his proud, upright
+young adversary to reach the necessary pitch of _sang froid_ that would
+make a settlement of their difference feasible.
+
+[Footnote 58: _i. e._, Schoolfox, a term of contempt.]
+
+"'Aronffy objected at first: "At once or never!" but he had finally to
+accept the decision of the seconds: and we drew lots.
+
+"'Aronffy's name came out.'"
+
+... Lorand was staring at the narrator with fixed eyes, and had no
+feeling for the world outside, as he listened in rapt awe to this story
+of the past.
+
+"'The name that was drawn out we gave to the successful party, who had
+the right to send this card, after sixteen years were passed, to his
+adversary, in order if the latter deferred the fulfilment of his
+obligation, to remind him thereof.
+
+"'Then we parted company, you went home and I thought we should forget
+the matter as many others have done.
+
+"'But I was deceived. To this, the hour of my death, it has always
+remained in my memory, has always agonized and persecuted me. I inquired
+of my acquaintances in Hungary about the two adversaries, and all I
+learned only increased my anguish. Aronffy was a proud and earnest man.
+It is surely stupidity for a man to kill himself, when he is happy and
+faring well: yet a proud man would far rather the worms gnawed his body
+than his soul, and could not endure the idea of giving up to a man, whom
+yesterday he had the right to despise, of his own accord, that right of
+contempt. He can die, but he cannot be disgraced. He is a fool for his
+pains: but it is consistent.'"
+
+Lorand was shuddering all over.
+
+"'I am in my death-struggles,' continued Stoppelfeld's letter: 'I know
+the day, the hour in which I shall end all; but that thought does not
+calm me so much, seeing that I cannot go myself and seek that man, who
+holds Aronffy in his hands, to tell him: "Sir, twelve years have passed.
+Your opponent has suffered twelve years already because of a terrible
+obligation: for him every pleasure of life has been embittered, before
+him the future eternity has been overclouded; be contented with that
+sacrifice, and do not ask for the greatest too. Give back one man to his
+family, to his country, and to God--" But I cannot go. I must sit here
+motionless and count the beats of my pulse, and reckon how many remain
+till the last.
+
+"'And that is why I came to you: you know both, and were a good friend
+to one: go, speak, and act. Perhaps I am a ridiculous fool: I am afraid
+of my own shadow; but it agonizes and horrifies me; it will not let me
+die. Take this inheritance from me. Let me rest peacefully in my ashes.
+So may God bless you! The man who has Aronffy's word, as far as I know,
+is a very gracious man, it will be easy for you to persuade him--his
+name is Sarvoelgyi.'"
+
+... At these words Topandy rose from his seat and went to the window,
+opening both sides of it: so heavy was the air within the room. The cold
+light of the moon shone on Lorand's brow.
+
+Topandy, standing then at the window, continued the thrilling story he
+had commenced. He could not sit still to relate it. Nor did he speak as
+if his words were for Lorand alone, but as if he wished the dumb trees
+to hear it too, and the wondering moon, and the shivering stars and the
+shooting meteors that they might gainsay if possible the earthy worm who
+was speaking.
+
+"I at once hurried across to the fellow. I was now going with tender,
+conciliatory countenance to a man whose threshold I had never crossed,
+whom I had never greeted when we met. I first offered him my hand that
+there might be peace between us. I began to appraise his graciousness,
+his virtues. I begged him to pardon the annoyances I had previously
+caused him; whatever atonement he might demand from me I would be glad
+to fulfill.
+
+"The fellow received me with gracious obeisance, and grasped my hand. He
+said, upon his soul, he could not recall any annoyance he had ever
+suffered from me. On the contrary he calculated how much good I had done
+him in my life, beginning from his school-boy years:--I merely replied
+that I certainly could not remember it.
+
+"I hastened to come straight to the point. I told him that I had been
+brought to his home by an affair the settlement of which I owed to a
+good old friend, and asked him to read the letter that I had received
+that day.
+
+"Sarvoelgyi read the letter to the end. I watched his face all the time
+he was reading it. He did not cease for a moment that stereotyped smile
+of tenderness which gives me the shivers whenever I see it in my
+recollections.
+
+"When he was through with the letter, he quietly folded it and gave it
+back.
+
+"'Have you not discovered,' he said to me with pious face, 'that the man
+who wrote that letter is--mad?'
+
+"'Mad?' I asked, aghast.
+
+"'Without doubt,' answered Sarvoelgyi; 'he himself writes that he has a
+disease of the nerves, sees visions, and is afraid of his shadow. The
+whole story is--a fable. I never had any conflict with our friend
+Aronffy, which would have given occasion for an American or even a
+Chinese duel. From beginning to end it is--a poem.'
+
+"I knew it was no poem: Aronffy had had a duel, but I had never known
+with whom. I had never asked him about it any more after he had, to my
+question, 'perhaps you have murdered someone?' answered, 'Yes.' Plainly
+he had meant himself. I tried to penetrate more deeply into that man's
+heart.
+
+"'Sir, neighbor, friend,--be a man! be the Christian you wish to be
+thought: consider that this fellow-man of ours has a dearly-loved
+family. If you have that card which the seconds gave you twelve years
+ago, don't agonize or terrify him any more; write to him that "the
+account is settled," and give over to him that horrible deed of
+contract. I shall honor you till my death for it. I know that in any
+case you will do it one day before it is too late. You will not take
+advantage of that horrible power which blind fate has delivered into
+your hand, by sending him his card empty to remind him that the time is
+up. You would pardon him then too. But do so now. This man's life during
+its period of summer, has been clouded by this torturing obligation,
+which has hung continuously above his happiness; let the autumn sunbeams
+shine upon his head. Give, give him a hand of reconciliation now, at
+once!'
+
+"Sarvoelgyi insisted that he had never had any kind of 'cartell': how
+could I imagine that he would have the heart to maintain his revenge for
+years? His past and present life repudiated any such charge. He had
+never had any quarrel with Aronffy, and, had there been one, he would
+long ago have been reconciled to him.
+
+"I did not yet let the fellow out of my hands. I told him to think what
+he was doing. Aronffy had once told me that, should he perish in this
+affair, I was to continue the matter. I too knew a kind of duel, which
+surpassed even the American, because it destroyed a man by pin-pricks.
+So take care you don't receive for your eternal adversary the
+neighboring heathen in exchange for the pious, quiet and distant
+Aronffy.
+
+"Sarvoelgyi swore he knew nothing of the affair. He called God and all
+the saints to witness that he had not the very remotest share in
+Aronffy's danger.
+
+"'Well, and why is Aronffy so low-spirited?'
+
+"'--As if you should not know that,' said the Pharisee, making a face of
+surprise: 'not know anything about it?
+
+"'Well I will whisper it to you in confidence. Aronffy has not been
+happy in his family life. You know, of course, that when he came home he
+married, and immediately joined the rebel army. With a corps of
+volunteers he fought till the end of the war, and returned again to his
+family. But he has still that worm in his soul.'"
+
+It was well that the fire had already died out:--well that a dark cloud
+rolled up before the moon:--well that the narrator could not see the
+face of his listener, when he said that:
+
+"And I was fool enough to believe him. I credited the calumny with which
+the good fame of the angelically pure wife of an honorable man had been
+defiled. Yes, I allowed myself to be deceived in this underhand way! I
+allowed myself to rest calm in the belief that there is many a sad man
+on the earth, whose wife is beautiful.
+
+"Still, once I met by chance Aronffy's mother, and produced before her
+the letter which had been accredited a fable. Her ladyship was very
+grateful, but begged me not to say a word about it to Aronffy.
+
+"I believe that from that day she paid great attention to her son's
+behavior.
+
+"Four years I had managed to keep myself at a respectful distance from
+Sarvoelgyi's person.
+
+"But there came a day in the year, marked with red in my calendar, the
+anniversary of our departure from Heidelberg.
+
+"Three days after that sixteenth anniversary I received a letter, which
+informed me that Aronffy had on that red-letter day killed himself in
+his family circle."
+
+The narrator here held silence, and, hanging down his hands, gazed out
+into the brilliant night; profound silence reigned in the room, only the
+large "grandfather's clock" ticked the past and future.
+
+"I don't know what I should have done, had I met the hypocrite then: but
+just at that time he was away on a journey: he left behind a letter for
+me, in which he wrote that he, too, was sorry our unfortunate
+friend--our friend indeed!--had met with such a sad end: certainly
+family circumstances had brought him to it. He pitied his weakness of
+mind, and promised to pray for his soul!
+
+"How pious.
+
+"He killed a man in cold blood, after having tortured him for sixteen
+years! Sent him the sentence of death in a letter! Forced the gracious,
+quiet, honorable man and father to cut short his life with his own hand!
+
+"With a cold, smiling countenance he took advantage of the fiendish
+power which fate and the too sensitive feeling of honor of a lofty soul
+had given into his hand; and then shrugged his shoulders, clasped his
+hands, turned his eyes to heaven, and said 'there is no room for the
+suicide with God.'
+
+"Who is he, who gives a true man into the hands of the deceiver, that he
+may choke with his right hand his breath, with his left his soul.
+
+"Well, philosopher, come; defend this pious man against me! Tell me what
+you have learned."
+
+But the philosopher did not say what he had learned. Half dead and
+wholly insensible he lay back in his chair while the moon shone upon his
+upturned face with its full brilliance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+TWO GIRLS
+
+
+Eight years had passed.
+
+The young man who buried himself on the plains had become a man, his
+face had lengthened, his beard grown round it; few of his old
+acquaintances would have recognized him. Even he himself had long ago
+become accustomed to his assumed name.
+
+In Topandy's house the old order of things continued: Czipra did the
+honors, presiding at the head of the table: Lorand managed the farm,
+living in the house, sitting at the table, speaking to the comrades who
+came and went "per tu";[59] with them he drank and amused himself.
+
+[Footnote 59: A sign of intimacy--addressing a person as "thou."]
+
+Drank and amused himself!
+
+What else should a young man do, who has no aim in life?
+
+With Czipra, tete-a-tete, he spoke also "per tu;" before others he
+miladyed her.
+
+Once at supper Topandy said to Czipra and Lorand:
+
+"Children, in a few days another child will come to the house. The devil
+has carried off a very dear relation of mine with whom I was on such
+excellent terms that we never spoke to one another. I should not,
+logically, believe there is a devil in the world, should I? But for the
+short period during which he had carried that fellow away, I am willing
+to acquiesce in his existence. To-day I have received a lamentable
+letter from his daughter, written in a beautiful tone of sorrow; the
+poor child writes that immediately after her father's death the house
+was swooped down upon by those Sadducees who trample all piety under
+foot, the so-called creditors. They have seized everything and put it
+under seals; even her own piano; they have even put up at auction the
+pictures she drew with her own hand; and have actually sold the
+'Gedenkbuch,'[60] in which so many clever and famous men had written so
+much absurdity: the tobacconist bought it for ten florins for the sake
+of its title-page. The poor girl has hitherto been educated by the nuns,
+to whom three quarters' payment is due, and her position is such that
+she has no roof except her parasol beneath which she may take shelter.
+She has a mother in name, but her company she cannot frequent, for
+certain reasons; she has tried her other relations and acquaintances in
+turn, but they have all well-founded reasons for not undertaking to
+burden their families in this manner; she cannot go into service, not
+having been educated to it. Well, it occurred to her that she had,
+somewhere in the far regions of Asia, a half-mad relation--that is your
+humble servant: it would be a good plan to find him out at once, and
+take up her abode with him as a princess. I entirely indorse my niece's
+argument: and have already sent her the money necessary for the journey,
+have paid the fees due, and have enabled her to appear among us in the
+style befitting her rank."
+
+[Footnote 60: An album in which one writes something "as a souvenir."]
+
+Topandy laughed loudly at his own production.
+
+It was only himself that laughed: the others did not share in it.
+
+"Well, there will be one more young lady in the house: a refined,
+graceful, sentimental woman-in-white, before whom people must take great
+care what they say, and who will probably correct the behavior of all of
+us."
+
+Czipra pushed her chair back angrily from the table.
+
+"Oh, don't be afraid. She will not correct you. You may be sure of that.
+You have absolute authority in the house, as you know already: what you
+command or order is accomplished, and against your will not even a cat
+comes to our table. You remain what you were: mistress of life and
+death in the house. When you wish it, there is washing in the house, and
+everybody is obliged to render an account even of his last shirt; what
+you do not like in the place, you may throw out of the window, and you
+can buy what you wish. The new young lady will not take away from you a
+single one of those keys which hang on that silver chain dangling from
+your red girdle; and if only she does not entice away our young friend,
+she will be unable to set up any opposition against you. And even in
+that event I shall defend you."
+
+Czipra shrugged her shoulders defiantly.
+
+"Let her do as she pleases."
+
+"And we two shall do as we please, shall we not?"
+
+"You," said Czipra, looking sharply at Topandy with her black eyes. "You
+will soon be doing what that young lady likes. I foresee it all. As soon
+as she puts her foot in, everybody will do as she does. When she smiles,
+everybody will smile at her in return. If she speaks German, the whole
+house will use that language; if she walks on her tip-toes, the whole
+house will walk so; if her head aches, everybody in the house will speak
+in whispers; not as when poor Czipra had a burning fever and nine men
+came to her bed to sing a funeral song, and offered her brandy."
+
+Topandy laughed still more loudly at these invectives: the poor gypsy
+girl fixed her two burning eyes on Lorand's face and kept them there
+till they turned into two orbs swimming in water. Then she sprang up,
+threw down her chair and fled from the room.
+
+Topandy calmly picked up the overthrown chair and put it in its place,
+then he went after Czipra and a minute later brought her back on his arm
+into the dining-room, with an exceedingly humorous expression, and a
+courtesy worthy of a Spanish grandee, which the poor foolish gypsy girl
+did not understand in the least.
+
+So readily did she lose her temper, and so readily did she recover it
+again. She sat down again in her place, and jested and laughed,--always
+and continuously at the expense of the finely-educated new-comer.
+
+Lorand was curious to know the name of the new member of the family.
+
+"The daughter of one Balnokhazy, P. C." said Topandy, "Melanie, if I
+remember well."
+
+Lorand was perplexed. A face from the past! How strange that he should
+meet her there?
+
+Still it was so long since they had seen each other, that she would
+probably not recognize him.
+
+Melanie was to arrive to-morrow evening. Early in the morning Czipra
+visited Lorand in his own room.
+
+She found the young man before his looking-glass.
+
+"Oho!" she said laughing, "you are holding counsel with your glass to
+see whether you are handsome enough? Handsome indeed you are: how often
+must I say so? Believe me for once."
+
+But Lorand was not taking counsel with his glass on that point: he was
+trying to see if he had changed enough.
+
+"Come now," said Czipra with a certain indifference. "I will make you
+pretty myself: you must be even more handsome, so that young lady's eyes
+may not be riveted upon me. Sit down, I will arrange your hair."
+
+Lorand had glorious chestnut-brown curls, smooth as silk. Madame
+Balnokhazy had once fallen madly in love with those locks and Czipra was
+wont to arrange them every morning with her own hands: it was one of her
+privileges, and she understood it so well.
+
+Lorand was philosopher enough to allow others to do him a service, and
+permitted Czipra's fine fingers the privilege of playing among his
+locks.
+
+"Don't be afraid: you will be handsome to-day!" said Czipra, in naive
+reproach to the young fellow.
+
+Lorand jestingly put his arm round her waist.
+
+"It will be all of no avail, my dear Czipra, because we have to thrash
+corn to-day, and my hair will all be full of dust. Rather, if you wish
+to do me a favor, cut off my hair."
+
+Czipra was ready for that, too. She was Lorand's "friseur" and Topandy's
+"coiffeur." She found it quite natural.
+
+"Well, and how do you wish your hair? Short? Shall I leave the curls in
+front?"
+
+"Give me the scissors: I will soon show you," said Lorand, and, taking
+them from Czipra's hand, he gathered together the locks upon his
+forehead with one hand and with the other cropped them quite short,
+throwing what he had cut to the ground.--"So with the rest."
+
+Czipra drew back in horror at this ruthless deed, feeling as pained as
+if those scissors had been thrust into her own body. Those beautiful
+silken curls on the ground! And now the rest must of course be cut just
+as short.
+
+Lorand sat down before her in a chair, from which he could look into the
+glass, and motioned to her to commence. Czipra could scarcely force
+herself to do so. So to destroy the beauty of that fair head, over which
+she had so often stealthily posed in a reverie! To crop close that thick
+growth of hair, which, when her fingers had played among its electric
+curls, had made her always feel as if her own soul were wrapt together
+with it. And she was to close-crop it like the head of some convict!
+
+Yet there was a kind of satisfaction in the thought that another would
+not so readily take notice of him. She would make him so ugly that he
+would not quickly win the heart of the new-comer. Away with that
+Samsonian strength, down to the last solitary hair! This thought lent a
+merciless power to her scissors.
+
+And when Lorand's head was closely shaven, he was indeed curious to see.
+It looked so very funny that he laughed at himself when he turned to the
+glass.
+
+The girl too laughed with him. She could not prevent herself from
+laughing to his face; then she turned away from him, leaned out of the
+window, and burst into another fit of laughter.
+
+Really it would have been difficult to distinguish whether she was
+laughing or crying.
+
+"Thank you, Czipra, my dear," said Lorand, putting his arm round the
+girl's waist. "Don't wait with dinner for me to-day, for I shall be
+outside on the threshing-floor."
+
+Thereupon he left the room.
+
+Czipra, left to herself, before anyone could have entered, kneeled down
+on the floor, and swept up from the floor with her hands the curls she
+had cut off. Every one: not a single hair must remain for another. Then
+she hid the whole lovely cluster in her bosom. Perhaps she would never
+take them out again....
+
+With that instinct, which nature has given to women only, Czipra felt
+that the new-comer would be her antagonist, her rival in everything,
+that the outcome would be a struggle for life and death between them.
+
+The whole day long she worried herself with ideas about the new
+adversary's appearance. Perhaps she was some doll used to proud and
+noble attitudinising: let her come! It would be fine to take her pride
+down. An easy task, to crush an oppressed mind. She would steal away
+from the house, or fall into sickness by dint of much annoyance, and
+grow old before her time.
+
+Or perhaps she was some spoiled, sensitive, fragile chit, who came here
+to weep over her past, who would find some hidden reproach in every
+word, and would feel her position more and more unendurable day by day.
+Such a creature, too, would droop her head in shame--so that every
+morning her pillow would be bedewed with tears. For she need not reckon
+on pity! Or perhaps she would be just the opposite: a light-hearted,
+gay, sprightly bird, who would find herself at home in every position.
+If only to-day were cheerful, she would not weep for yesterday, or be
+anxious for the morrow. Care would be taken to clip the wings of her
+good humor: a far greater triumph would it be to make a weeping face of
+a smiling one.
+
+Or perhaps a languid, idle, good-for-nothing domestic delicacy, who
+liked only to make toilettes, to sit for hours together before the
+mirror, and in the evening read novels by lamp-light. What a jest it
+would be to mock her, to make her stare at country work, to spoil her
+precious hands in the skin-roughening house-keeping work, and to laugh
+at her clumsiness.
+
+Be she what she might, she might be quite sure of finding an adversary
+who would accept no cry for mercy.
+
+Oh, it was wise to beware of Czipra! Czipra had two hearts, one good,
+the other bad: with the one she loved, with the other she hated, and the
+stronger she loved with the one, the stronger she hated with the other.
+She could be a very good, quiet, blessed creature, whose faults must be
+discovered and seen through a magnifying-glass: but if that other heart
+were once awakened, the old one would never be found again.
+
+Every drop of Czipra's blood wished that every drop of "that other's"
+blood should change to tears.
+
+This is how they awaited Melanie at Lankadomb.
+
+Evening had not yet drawn in, when the carriage, which had been sent for
+Melanie to Tiszafuered station, arrived.
+
+The traveler did not wait till some one came to receive her; she stepped
+out of the carriage unaided and found the verandah alone. Topandy met
+her in the doorway. They embraced, and he led her into the lobby.
+
+Czipra was waiting for her there.
+
+The gypsy girl was wearing a pure white dress, white apron, and no
+jewels at all. She had done her best to be simple, that she might
+surprise that town girl. Of course, she might have been robed in silk
+and lace, for she had enough and to spare.
+
+Yet she ought to have known that the new-comer could not be stylishly
+dressed, for she was in mourning.
+
+Melanie had on the most simple black dress, without any decoration, only
+round her neck and wrists were crochet lace trimmings.
+
+She was just as simple as Czipra. Her beautiful pale face, with its
+still childish features, her calm quiet look,--all beamed sympathy
+around her.
+
+"My daughter, Czipra," said Topandy, introducing them.
+
+Melanie, with that graciousness which is the mark of all ladies, offered
+her hand to the girl, and greeted her gently.
+
+"Good evening, Czipra."
+
+Czipra bitterly inquired:
+
+"A foolish name, is it not?"
+
+"On the contrary, the name of a goddess, Czipra."
+
+"What goddess? Pagan?"--the idea did not please Czipra: she knit her
+eyebrows and nodded in disapproval.
+
+"A holy woman of the Bible was called by this name, Zipporah,[61] the
+wife of Moses."
+
+[Footnote 61: This play upon names is really only feasible in Magyar,
+where Zipporah-Czippora.]
+
+"Of the Bible?" The gypsy girl caught at the word, and looked with
+flashing eyes at Topandy, as who would say "Do you hear that?"--Only
+then did she take Melanie's hand, but after that she did not release her
+hold of it any more.
+
+"We must know much more of that holy woman of the Bible! Come with me. I
+will show you your room."
+
+Czipra remarked that they had kissed each other. Topandy shrugged his
+shoulders, laughed, and let them go alone.
+
+The newly arrived girl did not display the least embarrassment in her
+dealing with Czipra: on the contrary, she behaved as if they had been
+friends from childhood.
+
+She at once addressed Czipra in the greatest confidence, when the latter
+had taken her to the room set apart for her use.
+
+"You will have much trouble with me, my dear Czipra, at first, for I am
+very clumsy. I know now that I have learned nothing, with which I can do
+good to myself or others. I am so helpless. But you will be all the
+cleverer, I know: I shall soon learn from you. Oh, you will often find
+fault with me, when I make mistakes; but when one girl reproaches
+another it does not matter. You will teach me housekeeping, will you
+not?"
+
+"You would like to learn?"
+
+"Of course. One cannot remain for ever a burden to one's relations; only
+in case I learn can I be of use, if some poor man takes me as his wife;
+if not I must take service with some stranger, and must know these
+things anyhow."
+
+There was much bitterness in these words; but the orphan of the ruined
+gentleman said them with such calm, such peace of mind, that every
+string of Czipra's heart was relaxed as when a damp mist affects the
+strings of a harp.
+
+Meanwhile they had brought Melanie's travelling-trunk: there was only
+one, and no bonnet-boxes--almost incredible!
+
+"Very well,--so begin at once to put your own things in order. Here are
+the wardrobes for your robes and linen. Keep them all neat. The young
+lady, whose stockings the chamber-maid has to look for, some in one
+room, some in another, will never make a good housekeeper."
+
+Melanie drew her only trunk beside her and opened it: she took out her
+upper-dresses.
+
+There were only four, one of calico, one of batiste, then one ordinary,
+and one for special occasions.
+
+"They have become a little crumpled in packing. Please have them bring
+me an iron; I must iron them before I hang them up."
+
+"Do you wish to iron them yourself?"
+
+"Naturally. There are not many of them: those I must make
+respectable--the servant can heat the iron. Oh, they must last a long
+time."
+
+"Why haven't you brought more with you?"
+
+Melanie's face for a moment flushed a full rose--then she answered this
+indiscreet inquiry calmly:
+
+"Simply, my dear Czipra, because the rest were seized by our creditors,
+who claimed them as a debt."
+
+"Couldn't you have anticipated them?"
+
+Melanie clasped her hands on her breast, and said with the astonishment
+of moral aversion:
+
+"How? By doing so I should have swindled them."
+
+Czipra recollected herself.
+
+"True; you are right."
+
+Czipra helped Melanie to put her things in the cupboards. With a woman's
+critical eye, she examined everything. She found the linen not fine
+enough, though the work on it pleased her well. That was Melanie's own
+handiwork. As regards books, there was only one in the trunk, a
+prayer-book. Czipra opened it and looked into it. There were steel
+plates in it. The portrait of a beautiful woman, seven stars round her
+head, raising her tear-stained eyes to Heaven: and the picture of a
+kneeling youth, round the fair bowed head of whom the light of Heaven
+was pouring. Long did she gaze at the pictures. Who could those figures
+be?
+
+There were no jewels at all among the new-comer's treasures.
+
+Czipra remarked that Melanie's ear-rings were missing.
+
+"You have left your earrings behind too?" she asked, hiding any want of
+tenderness in the question by delivering it in a whisper.
+
+"Our solicitor told me," said Melanie, with downcast eyes, "that those
+earrings also were paid for by creditors' money:--and he was right. I
+gave them to him."
+
+"But the holes in your ears will grow together; I shall give you some of
+mine."
+
+Therewith she ran to her room, and in a few moments returned with a pair
+of earrings.
+
+Melanie did not attempt to hide her delight at the gift.
+
+"Why, my own had just such sapphires, only the stones were not so
+large."
+
+And she kissed Czipra, and allowed her to place the earrings in her
+ears.
+
+With the earrings came a brooch. Czipra pinned it in Melanie's collar,
+and her eyes rested on the pretty collar itself: she tried it, looked at
+it closely and could not discover "how it was made."
+
+"Don't you know that work? it is crochet, quite a new kind of
+fancy-work, but very easy. Come, I will show you right away."
+
+Thereupon she took out two crochet needles and a reel of cotton from her
+work-case, and began to explain the work to Czipra: then she gave it to
+her to try. Her first attempt was very successful. Czipra had learned
+something from the new-comer, and remarked that she would learn much
+more from her.
+
+Czipra spent an hour with Melanie and an hour later came to the
+conclusion that she was only now beginning--to be a girl.
+
+At supper they appeared with their arms round each other's necks.
+
+The first evening was one of unbounded delight to Czipra.
+
+This girl did not represent any one of those hateful pictures she had
+conjured up in the witches' kettle of her imagination. She was no rival;
+she was not a great lady, she was a companion, a child of seventeen
+years, with whom she could prattle away the time, and before whom she
+must not choose her words so nicely, seeing that she was not so
+sensitive to insult. And it seemed that Melanie liked the idea of there
+being a girl in the house, whose presence threw a gleam of pleasure on
+the solitude.
+
+Czipra might also be content with Melanie's conduct towards Lorand. Her
+eyes never rested on the young man's face, although they did not avoid
+his gaze. She treated him indifferently, and the whole day only
+exchanged words with him when she thanked him for filling her glass with
+water.
+
+And indeed Lorand had reduced his external advantages to such a severe
+simplicity by wearing his hair closely cropped, and his every movement
+was marked by that languid, lazy stooping attitude which is usually the
+special peculiarity of those who busy themselves with agricultural work,
+that Melanie's eyes had no reason to be fixed specially upon him.
+
+Oh, the eyes of a young girl of seventeen summers cannot discover manly
+beauty under such a dust-stained, neglected exterior.
+
+Lorand felt relieved that Melanie did not recognize him. Not a single
+trace of surprise showed itself on her face, not a single searching
+glance betrayed the fact that she thought of the original of a
+well-known countenance when she saw this man who had met her by chance
+far away from home. Lorand's face, his gait, his voice, all were strange
+to her. The face had grown older, the gait was that of a farmer, the old
+beautiful voice had deepened into a perfect baritone.
+
+Nor did they meet often, except at dinner, supper and breakfast. Melanie
+passed the rest of the day without a break, by Czipra's side.
+
+Czipra was six years her senior, and she made a good protectress; that
+continuous woman's chattering, of which Topandy had said, that, if one
+hour passed without its being heard, he should think he had come to the
+land of the dead:--a man grew to like that after awhile. And side by
+side with the quick-handed, quick-tongued maiden, whose every limb was
+full of electric springiness, was that charming clumsiness of the
+neophyte,--such a contrast! How they laughed together when Melanie came
+to announce that she had forgotten to put yeast in the cake, both her
+hands covered with sticky leaven, for all the world as if she were
+wearing winter gloves; or when, at Cizpra's command, she tried to take a
+little yellow downy chicken from the cold courtyard to a warm room,
+keeping up the while a lively duel with the jealous brood-hen, till
+finally Melanie was obliged to run.
+
+How much two girls can laugh together over a thousand such humorous
+nothings!
+
+And how they could chatter over a thousand still more humorous
+nothings, when of an evening, by moonlight, they opened the window
+looking out on the garden, and lying on the worked window-cushions,
+talked till midnight, of all the things in which no one else was
+interested?
+
+Melanie could tell many new things to Czipra which the latter delighted
+to hear.
+
+There was one thing which they had touched on once or twice jestingly,
+and which Czipra would have particularly loved to extract from her.
+
+Melanie, now and again forgetting herself, would sigh deeply.
+
+"Did that sigh speak to someone afar off?"
+
+Or when at dinner she left the daintiest titbit on her plate.
+
+"Did some one think just now of some one far away, who is perhaps
+famishing?"
+
+"Oh, that 'some one' is not famishing"--whispered Melanie in answer.
+
+So there was "somebody" after all.
+
+That made Czipra glad.
+
+That evening during the conversation she introduced the subject.
+
+"Who is that 'some one?'"
+
+"He is a very excellent youth: and is on close terms with many foreign
+princes. In a short time he won himself great fame. Everyone exalts him.
+He came often to our house during papa's life-time, and they intended me
+to be his bride even in my early days."
+
+"Handsome?" inquired Czipra. That was the chief thing to know.
+
+Melanie answered this question merely with her eyes. But Czipra might
+have been content with the answer. He was at any rate as handsome a man
+in Melanie's eyes as Lorand was in hers.
+
+"Shall you be his wife?"
+
+At this question Melanie held up her fine left hand before Czipra,
+raising the fourth finger higher than the rest. On it was a ring.
+
+Czipra drew the ring off her finger and looked closely at it. She saw
+letters inside it. If she only knew those!
+
+"Is this his name?"
+
+"His initials."
+
+"He is called?"
+
+"Joseph Gyali."
+
+Czipra put the ring on again. She was very contented with this
+discovery. The ring of an old love, who was a handsome man, excellent,
+and celebrated, was there on her finger. Peace was hallowed. Now she
+believed thoroughly in Melanie, she believed that the indifference
+Melanie showed towards Lorand was no mere pretence. The field was
+already occupied by another.
+
+But if she was quite at rest as regards Melanie, she could be less
+assured as to the peaceful intentions of Lorand's eyes.
+
+How those eyes feasted themselves every day on Melanie's countenance!
+
+Of course, who could be indignant if men's eyes were attracted by the
+"beautiful?" It has ever been their privilege.
+
+But it is the marvellous gift of woman's eyes to be able to tell the
+distinction between look and look. Through the prism of jealousy the
+eye-beam is refracted to its primary colors; and this wonderful optical
+analysis says: this is the twinkle of curiosity, that the coquettish
+ogle, this the fire of love, that the dark-blue of abstraction.
+
+Czipra had not studied optics, but this optical analysis she understood
+very well.
+
+She did not seem to be paying attention; it seemed as if she did not
+notice, as if her eyes were not at work; yet she saw and knew
+everything.
+
+Lorand's eyes feasted upon the beautiful maiden's figure.
+
+Every time he saw her, they dwelt upon her: as the bee feasts upon the
+invisible honey of the flower, and slowly a suspicion dawned upon
+Czipra. Every glance was a home-returning bee who brings home the honey
+of love to a humming heart.
+
+Besides, Czipra might have known it from the fact that Lorand, ever
+since Melanie came to the house, had been more reserved towards her. He
+had found his presence everywhere more needful, that he might be so much
+less at home.
+
+Czipra could not bear the agony long.
+
+Once finding Lorand alone, she turned to him in wanton sarcasm.
+
+"It is certain, my friend Balint," (that was Lorand's alias) "that we
+are casting glances at that young girl in vain, for she has a fiance
+already."
+
+"Indeed?" said Lorand, caressing the girl's round chin, for all the
+world as if he was touching some delicate flower-bud.
+
+"Why all this tenderness at once? If I were to look so much at a girl, I
+would long ago have taken care to see if she had a ring on her
+finger:--it is generally an engagement ring."
+
+"Well, and do I look very much at that girl?" enquired Lorand in a
+jesting tone.
+
+"As often as I look at you."
+
+That was reproach and confession all in one. Czipra tried to dispose of
+the possible effect of this gentle speech at once, by laughing
+immediately.
+
+"My friend Balint! That young lady's fiance is a very great man. The
+favorite of foreign princes, rides in a carriage, and is called 'My
+Lord.' He is a very handsome man, too: though not so handsome as you. A
+fine, pretty cavalier."
+
+"I congratulate her!" said Lorand, smiling.
+
+"Of course it is true; Melanie herself told me.--She told me his name,
+too--Joseph Gyali."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Lorand, smilingly and good-humoredly pinching Czipra's cheek, went on
+his way. He smiled, but with the poisonous arrow sticking in his heart!
+
+Oh, Czipra did herself a bad turn when she mentioned that name before
+Lorand!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+IF HE LOVES, THEN LET HIM LOVE!
+
+
+Lorand's whole being revolted at what Czipra had told him. That girl was
+the bride of that fatal adversary! of that man for whose sake he was to
+die! And that man would laugh when they stealthily transferred him, the
+victim too sensible of honor, to the crypt, when he would dance with his
+newly won bride till morning dawned, and delight in the smile of that
+face, which could not even weep for the lost one.
+
+That thought led to eternal damnation. No, no: not to damnation: further
+than that, there and back again, back to that unspeakable circle, where
+feelings of honor remain in the background, and moral insensibility
+rules the day. That thought was able to drive out of Lorand's heart the
+conviction, that when an honorable man has given his life or his honor
+into the hands of an adversary, of the two only the latter can be
+chosen.
+
+From that hour he pursued quite a different path of life.
+
+Now the work in the fields might go on without his supervision: there
+was no longer such need of his presence. He had far more time for
+staying at home.
+
+Nor did he keep himself any farther away from the girls: he went after
+them and sought them; he was spirited in conversation, choice in his
+dress, and that he might display his shrewdness, he courted both girls
+at the same time, the one out of courtesy, the other for love.
+
+Topandy watched them smilingly. He did not mind whatever turn the affair
+took. He was as fond of Czipra as he was of Melanie, and fonder of the
+boy than either. Of the three there would be only one pair; he would
+give his blessing to whichever two should come together. It was a
+lottery! Heaven forbid that a strange hand should draw lots for one.
+
+But Czipra was already quite clear about everything, It was not for her
+sake that Lorand stayed at home.
+
+She herself was forced to acknowledge the important part which Melanie
+played in the house, with her thoughtful, refined, modest behavior; she
+was so sensible, so clever in everything. In the most delicate situation
+she could so well maintain a woman's dignity, while side by side she
+displayed a maiden's innocence. When his comrades were at the table,
+Topandy strove always by ambiguous jokes, delivered in his cynical, good
+humor, to bring a blush to the cheeks of the girls, who were obliged to
+do the honors at table; on such occasions Czipra noisily called him to
+order, while Melanie cleverly and spiritedly avoided the arrow-point of
+the jest, without opposing to it any foolish prudery, or cold
+insensibility;--and how this action made her queen of every heart!
+
+Without doubt she was the monarch of the house: the dearest, most
+beautiful, and cleverest;--hers was every triumph.
+
+And on such occasions Czipra was desperate.
+
+"Yet all in vain! For, however clever, and beautiful, and enchanting
+that other, I am still the real one. I feel and know it:--but I cannot
+prove it! If we could only tear out our hearts and compare them;--but
+that is impossible."
+
+Czipra was forced to see that everybody sported with her, while they
+behaved seriously with that other.
+
+And that completely poisoned her soul.
+
+Without any mental refinement, supplied with only so much of the
+treasure of moral reserve, as nature and instinct had grafted into her
+heart, with only a dreamy suspicion about the lofty ideas of religion
+and virtue, this girl was capable of murdering her whom they loved
+better than herself.
+
+Murder, but not as the fabled queen murdered the fairy Hofeherke,[62]
+because the gnomes whispered untiringly in her ear "Thou art beautiful,
+fair queen: but Hofeherke is still more beautiful." Czipra wished to
+murder her but not so that she might die and then live again.
+
+[Footnote 62: Little Snow-white, the step-daughter of the queen, who
+commanded her huntsman to bring her the eyes and liver of Hofeherke,
+thinking she would thus become the most beautiful of all, but he brought
+her those of a wild beast. The queen thought her rival was dead, but her
+magic mirror told her she was living still beyond hill and sea.]
+
+She was a gypsy girl, a heathen, and in love. Inherited tendencies,
+savage breeding, and passion had brought her to a state where she could
+have such ideas.
+
+It was a hellish idea, the counsel of a restless devil who had stolen
+into a defenceless woman's heart.
+
+Once it occurred to her to turn the rooms in the castle upside down; she
+found fault with the servants, drove them from their ordinary lodgings,
+dispersed them in other directions, chased the gentlemen from their
+rooms, under the pretext that the wall-papers were already very much
+torn: then had the papers torn off and the walls re-plastered. She
+turned everything so upside down that Topandy ran away to town, until
+the rooms should be again reduced to order.
+
+The castle had four fronts, and therefore there were two corridors
+crossing through at right angles: the chief door of the one opened on
+the courtyard, that of the other led into the garden. The rooms opened
+right and left from the latter corridor.
+
+During this great disorder Czipra moved Lorand into one of the vis-a-vis
+rooms. The opposite room she arranged as Melanie's temporary chamber. Of
+course it would not last long; the next day but one, order would be
+restored, and everyone could go back to his usual place.
+
+And then it was that wicked thoughts arose in her heart: "if he loves,
+then let him love!"
+
+At supper only three were sitting at table. Lorand was more abstracted
+than usual, and scarcely spoke a word to them: if Czipra addressed him,
+there was such embarrassment in his reply, that it was impossible not to
+remark it.
+
+But Czipra was in a particularly jesting mood to-day.
+
+"My friend Balint, you are sleepy. Yet you had better take care of us at
+night, lest someone steal us."
+
+"Lock your door well, my dear Czipra, if you are afraid."
+
+"How can I lock my door," said Czipra smiling light-heartedly, "when
+those cursed servants have so ruined the lock of every door at this side
+of the house that they would fly open at one push."
+
+"Very well, I shall take care of you."
+
+Therewith Lorand wished them good night, took his candle and went out.
+
+Czipra hurried Melanie too to depart.
+
+"Let us go to bed in good time, as we must be early afoot to-morrow."
+
+This evening the customary conversation at the window did not take
+place.
+
+The two girls shook hands and wished each other good night. Melanie
+departed to her room. Czipra was sleeping in the room next to hers.
+
+When Melanie had shut the door behind her, Czipra blew out the candle in
+her own room, and remained in darkness. With her clothes on she threw
+herself on her bed, and then, resting her head on her elbow, listened.
+
+Suddenly she thought the opposite room door gently opened.
+
+The beating of her heart almost pierced through her bosom.
+
+"If he loves, then let him love."
+
+Then she rose from her bed, and, holding her breath, slipped to the door
+and looked through the keyhole into Melanie's room.[63]
+
+[Footnote 63: This was of course through the door that communicated
+between the rooms of Melanie and Czipra.]
+
+The candle was still burning there.
+
+But from her position she could not see Melanie. From the rustling of
+garments she suspected that Melanie was taking off her dress. Now with
+quiet steps she approached the table, on which the candle was burning.
+She had a white dressing-gown on, her hair half let down, in her hand
+that little black book, in which Czipra had so often admired those
+"Glory" pictures without daring to ask what they were.
+
+Melanie reached the table, and laying the little prayer-book on the
+shelf of her mirror, kneeled down, and, clasping her two hands together,
+rested against the corner of the table and prayed.
+
+In that moment her whole figure was one halo of glory.
+
+She was beautiful as a praying seraph, like one of those white phantoms
+who rise with their airy figures to Heaven, palm-branches of glory in
+their hands.
+
+Czipra was annihilated.
+
+She saw now that there was some superhuman phenomenon, before which
+every passion bowed the knee, every purpose froze to crystals;--the
+figure of a praying maiden! He who stole a look at that sight lost every
+sinful emotion from his heart.
+
+Czipra beat her breast in dumb agony. "She can fly, while I can only
+crawl on the ground."
+
+When the girl had finished her prayer she opened the book to find those
+two glory-bright pictures, which she kissed several times in happy
+rapture:--as the sufferer kisses his benefactor's hands, the orphan his
+father's and mother's portraits, the miserable defenceless man the face
+of God, who defends in the form of a column of cloud him who bows his
+head under its shadow.
+
+Czipra tore her hair in her despair and beat her brow upon the floor,
+writhing like a worm.
+
+At the noise she made Melanie darted up and hastened to the door to see
+what was the matter with Czipra.
+
+As soon as she noticed Melanie's approach, Czipra slunk away from her
+place and before Melanie could open the door and enter, dashed through
+the other door into the corridor.
+
+Here another shock awaited her.
+
+In the corner of the corridor she found Lorand sitting beside a table.
+On the table a lamp was burning; before Lorand lay a book, beside him,
+resting against his chair, a "tomahawk."[64]
+
+[Footnote 64: The Magyar weapon is the so-called "fokos," which is much
+smaller than a tomahawk, but is set on a long handle like a walking
+stick, and only to be used with the hand in dealing blows, not for
+throwing purposes.]
+
+"What are you doing here?" inquired Czipra, starting back.
+
+"I am keeping guard over you," answered Lorand. "As you said your doors
+cannot be locked, I shall stay here till morning lest some one break in
+upon you."
+
+Czipra slunk back to her room. She met Melanie, who, candle in hand,
+hastened towards her, and asked what was the matter.
+
+"Nothing, nothing. I heard a noise outside. It frightened me."
+
+No need of simulation, for she trembled in every limb.
+
+"You afraid?" said Melanie, surprised. "See, I am not afraid. It will be
+good for me to come to you and sleep with you to-night."
+
+"Yes, it will," assented Czipra. "You can sleep on my bed."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I?" Czipra inquired with a determined glance. "Oh, just here!"
+
+And therewith she threw herself on the floor before the bed.
+
+Melanie, alarmed, drew near to her, seized her arm, and tried to raise
+her. She asked her: "Czipra, what is the matter with you? Tell me what
+has happened?"--Czipra did not answer, did not move, did not open her
+eyes.
+
+Melanie seeing she could not reanimate her, rose in despair, and,
+clasping her hands, panted:
+
+"Great Heavens! what has happened?"--Then Czipra suddenly started up and
+began to laugh.
+
+"Ha ha! Now I just managed to frighten you."
+
+Therewith rolling uncontrolledly on the floor, she laughed continuously
+like one who has succeeded in playing a good joke on her companion.
+
+"How startled I was!" panted Melanie, pressing her hands to her heaving
+breast.
+
+"Sleep in my bed," Czipra said. "I shall sleep here on the floor. You
+know I am accustomed to sleep on the ground, covered with rugs.
+
+    "'My mother was a gypsy maid
+    She taught me to sleep on the ground,
+    In winter to walk with feet unbound;
+    In a ragged tent my home was made.'"
+
+She sang Melanie this bizarre song twice in her peculiar melancholy
+strain, and then suddenly threw around her the rug which lay on the bed,
+put one arm under her head, and remained quite motionless; she would not
+reply any longer to a single word of Melanie's.
+
+The next day Topandy returned from town; scarce had he taken off his
+traveling-cloak, when Czipra burst in upon him.
+
+She seized his hand violently, and gazing wildly into his eyes, said:
+
+"Sir, I cannot live longer under such conditions. I shall kill myself.
+Teach me to pray."
+
+Topandy looked at her in astonishment and shrugged his shoulders
+sarcastically.
+
+"Whatever possessed you to break in so upon me? Do you think I come from
+some pilgrimage to Bodajk,[65] all my pockets full of saints' fiddles,
+of beads, and of gingerbread-saints? Or am I a Levite? Am I a 'monk'
+that you look to me for prayer?"
+
+[Footnote 65: A place visited by pilgrims, like Lourdes, etc., it is in
+Fehermegye (white county).]
+
+"Teach me to pray. I have long enough besought you to do so, and I can
+wait no longer."
+
+"Go and don't worry me. I don't know myself where to find what you
+want."
+
+"It is not true. You know how to read. You have been taught everything.
+You only deny knowledge of God, because you are ashamed before Him; but
+I long to see His face! Oh, teach me to pray!"
+
+"I know nothing, my dear, except the soldier's prayer."[66]
+
+[Footnote 66: _i. e._, Blasphemy.]
+
+"Very well. I shall learn that."
+
+"I can recite it to you."
+
+"Well, tell it to me."
+
+Czipra acted as she had seen Melanie do: she kneeled down before the
+table: clasping her hands devotedly and resting against the edge of the
+table.
+
+Topandy turned his head curiously: she was taking the matter seriously.
+
+Then he stood before her, put his two hands behind him, and began to
+recite to her the soldier's prayer.
+
+    "Adjon Isten harom 'B'-et,
+    Harom 'F'-et, harom 'P'-et.
+    Bort, buzat, bekesseget,
+    Fat, fuevet, feleseget,
+    Pipat, puskat, patrontast,
+    Es egy butykos palinkat!
+    Iketum, piketum, holt! berdo! vivat!"[67]
+
+[Footnote 67: "God grant three 'B-s,' three 'F-s,' and three 'P-s.'
+Wine, wheat, peace, wood, grass, wife, pipe, rifle, cartridge-case, and
+a little cask of brandy.... Hurrah! hurrar!" It is quite impossible to
+render the verse into English in any manner that would reproduce the
+original, so I have given the original Magyar with a literal
+translation.]
+
+The poor little creature muttered the first sentences with such pitiable
+devotion after that godless mouth:--but, when the thing began to take a
+definitely jesting turn, she suddenly leaped up from her knees in a
+rage, and before Topandy could defend himself, dealt him such a healthy
+box on the ears that it made them sing; then she darted out and banged
+the door after her.
+
+Topandy became like a pillar of salt in his astonishment. He knew that
+Czipra had a quick hand, but that she would ever dare to raise that tiny
+hand against her master and benefactor, because of a mere trifling jest,
+he was quite incapable of understanding.
+
+She must be in some great trouble.
+
+Though he never said a word, nor did Czipra, about the blow he had
+received, and though when next they met they were the same towards one
+another as they had ever been, Topandy ventured to make a jest at table
+about this humorous scene, saying to Lorand:
+
+"Balint, ask Czipra to repeat that prayer which she has learned from me:
+but first seize her two hands."
+
+"Oho!" threatened Czipra, her face burning red. "Just play some more of
+your jokes upon me. Your lives are in my hands: one day I shall put
+belladonna in the food, and poison us all together."
+
+Topandy smilingly drew her towards him, smoothing her head; Czipra
+sensitively pressed her master's hand to her lips, and covered it with
+kisses;--then put him aside and went out into the kitchen,--to break
+plates, and tear the servants' hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THAT RING
+
+
+The tenth year came: it was already on the wane. And Lorand began to be
+indifferent to the prescribed fatal hour.
+
+He was in love.
+
+This one thought drove all others from his mind. Weariness of life,
+atheism, misanthropy,--all disappeared from his path like
+will-o'-the-wisps before the rays of the sun.
+
+And Melanie liked the young fellow in return.
+
+She had no strong passions, and was a prudent girl, yet she confessed to
+herself that this young man pleased her. His features were noble, his
+manner gentle, his position secure enough to enable him to keep a wife.
+
+Many a time did she walk with Lorand under the shade of the beautiful
+sycamores, while Czipra sat alone beside her "czimbalom" and thrashed
+out the old souvenirs of the plain,--alone.
+
+Lorand found it no difficult task to remark that Melanie gladly
+frequented the spots he chose, and listened cheerfully to the little
+confessions of a sympathetic heart. Yet he was himself always
+reserved.--And that ring was always there on her finger. If only that
+magic band might drop down from there! Two years had already passed
+since her father's death had thrown her into mourning; she had long
+since taken off black dresses; nor could she complain against "the bread
+of orphanhood." For Topandy supplied her with all that a woman holds
+dear, just as if she had been his own child.
+
+One afternoon Lorand found courage enough to take hold of Melanie's
+hand. They were standing on a bridge that spanned the brook which was
+winding through the park, and, leaning upon its railing, were gazing at
+the flowers floating on the water--or perhaps at each other's reflection
+in the watery mirror.
+
+Lorand grasped Melanie's hand and asked:
+
+"Why are you always so sad? Whither do those everlasting sighs fly?"
+
+Melanie looked into the youth's face with her large, bright eyes, and
+knew from his every feature that heart had dictated that question to
+heart.
+
+"You see, I have enough reason for being sad in that no one has ever
+asked me that question; and that had someone asked me I could never have
+answered it."
+
+"Perhaps the question is forbidden?"
+
+"I have allowed him, whom I allowed to remark that I have a grief, also
+to ask me the reason of it. You see, I have a mother, and yet I have
+none."
+
+The girl here turned half aside.
+
+Lorand understood her well:--but that was just the subject about which
+he desired to know more; why, his own fate was bound up with it.
+
+"What do you mean, Melanie?"
+
+"If I tell you that, you will discover that I can have no secret any
+more in this world from you."
+
+Lorand said not a word, but put his two hands together with a look of
+entreaty.
+
+"About ten years have passed since mother left home one evening, never
+to return again. Public talk connected her departure with the
+disappearance of a young man, who lived with us, and who, on account of
+some political crime, was obliged to fly the same evening."
+
+"His name?" inquired Lorand.
+
+"Lorand Aronffy, a distant relation of ours. He was considered very
+handsome."
+
+"And since then you have heard no news of your mother?"
+
+"Never a word. I believe she is somewhere in Germany under a false name,
+as an actress, and is seeking the world, in order to hide herself from
+the world."
+
+"And what became of the young man? She is no longer with him?"
+
+"As far as I know he went away to the East Indies, and from thence wrote
+to his brother Desiderius, leaving him his whole fortune--since that
+time he has never written any news of himself. Probably he is dead."
+
+Lorand breathed freely again. Nothing was known of him. People thought
+he had gone to India.
+
+"In a few weeks will come again the anniversary of that unfortunate day
+on which I lost my mother, my mother who is still living: and that day
+always approaches me veiled: feelings of sorrow, shame, and loneliness
+involuntarily oppress my spirit. You now know my most awful secret, and
+you will not condemn me for it?"
+
+Lorand gently drew her delicate little hand towards his lips, and kissed
+its rosy finger-tips, while all the time he fixed his eyes entreatingly
+on that ring which was on one of her fingers.
+
+Melanie understood the inquiry which had been so warmly expressed in
+that eloquent look.
+
+"You ask me, do you not, whether I have not some even more awful
+secret?"
+
+Lorand tacitly answered in the affirmative.
+
+Melanie drew the ring off her finger and held it up in her hand.
+
+"It is true--but it is for me no longer a living secret. I am already
+dead to the person to whom this secret once bound me. When he asked my
+hand, I was still rich, my father was a man of powerful influence. Now I
+am poor, an orphan and alone. Such rings are usually forgotten."
+
+At that moment the ring fell out of her hand and missing the bridge
+dropped into the water, disappearing among the leaves of the
+water-lilies.
+
+"Shall I get it out?" inquired Lorand.
+
+Melanie gazed at him, as if in reverie, and said:
+
+"Leave it there...."
+
+Lorand, beside himself with happiness, pressed to his lips the beautiful
+hand left in his possession, and showered hot kisses, first on the
+hand, then on its owner. From the blossoming trees flowers fluttered
+down upon their heads, and they returned with wreathed brows like bride
+and bridegroom.
+
+Lorand spoke that day with Topandy, asking him whether a long time would
+be required to build the steward's house, which had so long been
+planned.
+
+"Oho!" said Topandy, smiling, "I understand. It may so happen that the
+steward will marry, and then he must have a separate lodging where he
+may take his wife. It will be ready in three weeks."
+
+Lorand was quite happy.
+
+He saw his love reciprocated, and his life freed from its dark horror.
+
+Melanie had not merely convinced him that in him she recognized Lorand
+Aronffy no more, but also calmed him by the assurance that everyone
+believed the Lorand Aronffy of yore to be long dead and done for: no one
+cared about him any longer; his brother had taken his property, with the
+one reservation that he always sent him secretly a due portion of the
+income. Besides that one person, no one knew anything. And he would be
+silent for ever, when he knew that upon his further silence depended his
+brother's life.
+
+Love had stolen the steely strength of Lorand's mind away.
+
+He had become quite reconciled to the idea that to keep an engagement,
+which bound anyone to violate the laws of God, of man, and of nature,
+was mere folly.
+
+Who could accuse him to his face if he did not keep it? Who could
+recognize him again? In this position, with this face, under this
+name,--was he not born again? Was that not a quite different man whose
+life he was now leading? Had he not already ended that life which he had
+played away _then_?
+
+He would be a fool who carried his feeling of honor to such extremes in
+relations with dishonorable men; and, finally, if there were the man who
+would say "it is a crime," was there no God to say "it was virtue?"
+
+He found a strong fortress for this self-defence in the walls of their
+family vault, in the interior of which his grandmother had uttered such
+an awful curse against the last inhabitant. Why, that implied an
+obligation upon him too. And this obligation was also strong. Two
+opposing obligations neutralize each other. It was his duty rather to
+fulfil that which he owed to a parent, than that which he owed to his
+murderer.
+
+These are all fine sophisms. Lorand sought in them the means of escape.
+
+And then in those beautiful eyes. Could he, on whom those two stars
+smiled, die? Could he wish for annihilation, at the very gate of Heaven?
+
+And he found no small joy in the thought that he was to take that Heaven
+away from the opponent, who would love to bury him down in the cold
+earth.
+
+Lorand began to yield himself to his fate. He desired to live. He began
+to suspect that there was some happiness in the world. Calm, secret
+happiness, only known to those two beings who have given it to each
+other by mutual exchange.
+
+We often see this phenomenon in life. A handsome cavalier, who was the
+lion of society, disappears from the perfumed drawing-room world, and
+years after can scarcely be recognized in the country farmer, with his
+rough appearance and shabby coat. A happy family life has wrought this
+change in him. It is not possible that this same happy feeling which
+could produce that out of the brilliant, buttoned dress-coat, could let
+down the young man's pride of character, and give him in its stead an
+easy-going, wide and water-proof work-a-day blouse, could give him
+towards the world indifference and want of interest? Let his opponent
+cry from end to end of the country with mocking guffaws that Lorand
+Aronffy is no cavalier, no gentleman; the smile of his wife will be
+compensation for his lost pride.
+
+Now the only thing he required was the eternal silence of the one man,
+who was permitted to know of his whereabouts, his brother.
+
+Should he make everything known to him?--give entirely into his hands
+the duel he had accepted, his marriage and the power that held sway over
+his life, that he might keep off the threatening terror which had
+hitherto kept him far from brother and parents?
+
+It was a matter that must be well considered and reflected upon.
+
+Lorand became very meditative some days later.
+
+Once after dinner Czipra grasped his hand and said playfully:
+
+"You are thinking very deeply about something. You are pale. Come, I
+will tell you your fortune."
+
+"My fortune?"
+
+"Of course: I shall read the cards for you: you know
+
+    "'A gypsy woman was my mother,
+    Taught me to read the cards of fortune,
+    In that surpassing many wishes.'"
+
+"Very well, my dear Czipra: then tell me my fortune."
+
+Czipra was delighted to be able to see Lorand once more alone in her
+strange room. She made him sit down on the velvet camp-stool, took her
+place on the tiger-skin and drew her cards from her pocket. For two
+years she had always had them by her. They were her sole counsellors,
+friends, science, faith, worship--the sooth-saying cards.
+
+A person, especially a woman, must believe something!
+
+At first she shuffled the cards, then, placing them on her hand offered
+them to Lorand.
+
+"Here they are, cut them: the one, whose future is being told, must cut.
+Not with the left hand, that is not good. With the right hand, towards
+you."
+
+Lorand did so, to please her.
+
+Czipra piled the cards in packs before her.
+
+Then, resting her elbows on her knees and laying her beautiful
+sun-goldened face upon her hand she very carefully examined the
+well-known picture-cards.
+
+The knave of hearts came just in the middle.
+
+"Some journey is before you," the gypsy girl began to explain, with a
+serious face. "You will meet the mourning woman. Great delight. The
+queen of hearts is in the same row:--well met. But the queen of
+jealousy[68] and the murderer[68] stand between them and separate them.
+The dog[68] means faithfulness, the cat[68] slyness. The queen of
+melancholy stands beside the dog.--Take care of yourself, for some
+woman, who is angered, wishes to kill you."
+
+[Footnote 68: These prophecies are made with Magyar cards and the gypsy
+girl pointing at certain cards, gives an interpretation of her own to
+them.]
+
+Lorand looked with such a pitying glance at Czipra that she could not
+help reading the young man's thoughts.
+
+She too replied tacitly. She pressed three fingers to her bosom, and
+silently intimated that she was not "that" girl. The yellow-robed woman,
+the queen of jealousy in the cards, was some one else. She placed her
+pointing fingers to the green-robed--that queen of melancholy. And
+Lorand remarked that Czipra had long been wearing a green robe, like the
+green-robed lady in the fortune-telling cards.
+
+Czipra suddenly mixed the cards together:
+
+"Let us try once more. Cut three times in succession. That is right."
+
+She placed the cards out again in packs.
+
+Lorand noticed that as the cards came side by side, Czipra's face
+suddenly flushed; her eyes began to blaze with unwonted fire.
+
+"See, the queen of melancholy is just beside you, on the far side the
+murderer. The queen of jealousy and the queen of hearts are in the
+opposite corner. On the other side the old lady. Above your head a
+burning house. Beware of some great misfortune. Some one wishes to cause
+you great sorrow, but some one will defend you."
+
+Lorand did not wish to embitter the poor girl by laughing in her face at
+her simplicity.
+
+"Get up now, Czipra, enough of this play."
+
+Czipra gathered the cards up sadly. But she did not accept Lorand's
+proffered hand, she rose alone.
+
+"Well, what shall I do, when I don't understand anything else?"
+
+"Come, play my favorite air for me on the czimbalom. It is such a long
+time since I heard it."
+
+Czipra was accustomed to acquiesce: she immediately took her seat beside
+her instrument, and began to beat out upon it that lowland reverie, of
+which so many had wonderingly said that a poet's and an artist's soul
+had blended therein.
+
+At the sound of music Topandy and Melanie came in from the adjoining
+rooms. Melanie stood behind Czipra; Topandy drew a chair beside her, and
+smoked furiously.
+
+Czipra struck the responsive strings and meantime remarked that Lorand
+all the while fixed his eyes in happy rapture upon the place where she
+sat; though not upon her face, but beyond, above, upon the face of that
+girl standing behind her. Suddenly the czimbalom-sticks fell from her
+hand. She covered her face with her two hands and said panting:
+
+"Ah--this pipe-smoke is killing me."
+
+For answer Topandy blew a long mouthful playfully into the girl's
+face.--She must accustom herself to it: and then he hinted to Lorand
+that they should leave that room and go where unlimited freedom ruled.
+
+But Czipra began to put the strings of the czimbalom out of tune with
+her tuning-key.
+
+"Why did you do that?" inquired Melanie.
+
+"Because I shall never play on this instrument again."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You will see it will be so: the cards always foretell a coffin for me;
+if you do not believe me, come and see for yourself."
+
+Therewith she spread the cards again out on the table, and in sad
+triumph pointed to the picture portrayed by the cards.
+
+"See, now the coffin is here under the girl in green."
+
+"Why, that is not you," said Melanie, half jestingly, half
+encouragingly, "but you are here."
+
+And she pointed with her hand to the queen of hearts.
+
+But Czipra--saw something other than what had been shown her. She
+suddenly seized Melanie's tender wrist with her iron-strong right hand,
+and pointed with her ill-foreboding first finger to that still whiter
+blank circle remaining on the white finger of her white hand.
+
+"Where has _that_ ring gone to?"
+
+Melanie's face flushed deeply at these words, while Czipra's turned
+deathly pale. The black depths of hell were to be seen in the gypsy
+girl's wide-opened eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE YELLOW-ROBED WOMAN IN THE CARDS
+
+
+Lorand deferred as long as possible the time for coming to an agreement
+with Desiderius as to what they should both do, when the fatal ten years
+had passed by.
+
+His mother and grandmother would be sure to press the latter, when the
+defined period was over, to tell them of Lorand's whereabouts. But if
+they learned the story and sought him out, there would be an end to his
+saving alias: the happy man who was living in the person of Balint
+Tatray would be obliged to yield place to Lorand Aronffy who would have
+to choose between death and the sneers of the world.
+
+When he had made Desiderius undertake, ten years before, not to betray
+his whereabouts to his parents, he had always calculated and intended to
+fulfil his fatal obligation. Desiderius alone would be acquainted with
+the end, and would still keep from the two mothers the secret history of
+his brother. They had during this time become accustomed to knowing that
+he was far from them, and his brother would, to the day of their death,
+always put them under the happy delusion that their son would once again
+knock at the door, and would show them the letters his brother had
+written; while he would in reality long have gone to the place, from
+whence men bring no messages back to the light of the sun. Yet the good
+peaceful mothers would every day lay a place at table for the son they
+expected, when the glass had long burst of its own accord.
+
+In place of this cold, clean, transparent dream is now that hot chaos.
+What should he do now that he wished to live, to enjoy life, to see
+happy days?
+
+Wherever he would go, in the street, in the field, in the house,
+everywhere he would feel himself walking in that labyrinth; everywhere
+that endless chain would clank after him, which began again where it had
+ended.
+
+He did not even notice, when some one passed him, whether he greeted him
+or not.
+
+To escape, to exchange his word of honor for his life, to shut out the
+whole world from his secret--what has pride to say to that?--what the
+memory of the father who in a like case bowed before his self-pride and
+cast his life and happiness as a sacrifice before the feet of his honor?
+What would the tears of the two mothers say?--how could tender-handed
+love fight alone against so strong adversaries?
+
+How could Balint Tatray shake off from himself that whole world which
+cleaved like a sea of mud to Lorand Aronffy?
+
+As he proceeded in deep reflection beside the village houses, his hat
+pressed firmly down over his eyes, he did not even notice that from the
+other direction a lady was crossing the rough road, making straight for
+him, until as she came beside him she addressed him with affected
+gaiety:
+
+"Good day, Lorand."
+
+The young fellow, startled at hearing his name, looked up amazed and
+gazed into the speaker's face.
+
+She, with the cheery smile of undoubted recognition, grasped his hand.
+
+"Yes, yes! I recognized you again after so long a time had passed,
+though you know me no more, my dear Lorand."
+
+Oh! Lorand knew her well enough! And that woman--was Madame
+Balnokhazy....
+
+Her face still possessed the beautiful noble features of yore; only in
+her manner the noblewoman's graceful dignity had given way to a certain
+unpleasant freedom which is the peculiarity of such women as are often
+compelled to save themselves from all kinds of delicate situations by
+humorous levity.
+
+She was dressed for a journey, quite fashionably, albeit a little
+creased.
+
+"You here?" inquired Lorand, astonished.
+
+"Certainly: quite by accident. I have just left my carriage at the
+Sarvoelgyi's. I have won a big suit in chancery, and have come to the
+'old man' to see if I could sell him the property, which he said he was
+ready to purchase. Then I shall take my daughter home with me."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Of course--poor thing, she has lived long enough in orphan state in the
+house of a half-madman. But be so kind as to give me your arm to lean
+on: why I believe you are still afraid of me: it is so difficult, you
+know, for some one who is not used to it, to walk along these muddy
+rough country roads.--I am going to sell my property which I have won,
+because we must go to live in Vienna."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Because Melanie's intended lives there too."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Perhaps you would know him too,--you were once good friends--Pepi
+Gyali!"
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Oh, he has made a great career! An extraordinarily famous man. Quite a
+wonder, that young man!"
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"But you only taunt me with your series of 'indeeds.' Tell me how you
+came here. How have I found you?"
+
+"I am steward here on Mr. Topandy's estate!"
+
+"Steward! Ha ha! To your kinsman?"
+
+"He does not know I am his kinsman."
+
+"So you are incognito? Ever since _then_? Just like me: I have used six
+names since that day. That is famous. And now we meet by chance. So much
+the better; at least you can lead me to Topandy's house: the atheist's
+dogs will not tear me to pieces if I am under your protection.--But
+after that you must help again to defend me."
+
+Lorand was displeased by the fact that this woman turned into jest
+those memories in which the shame of both lay buried.
+
+Topandy was on the verandah of the castle in company with the girls when
+Lorand led in the strange lady.
+
+Lorand went first to Melanie:
+
+"Here is the one you have so often sighed after," ... then turning to
+Topandy--"Madame Balnokhazy."
+
+For a moment Melanie was taken aback. She merely stared in astonishment
+at the new arrival, as if it were difficult to recognize her at once,
+while her mother, with a passion quite dramatic, rushed towards her,
+embraced her, clasped her to her bosom, and covered her with kisses. She
+sobbed and kneeled before her; as one may see times without number in
+the closing scene of the fifth act of any pathetic drama.
+
+"How beautiful you have become! What an angel! My darling, only, beloved
+Melanie!--for whom I prayed every day, of whom every day I
+dreamed.--Well, tell me, have you thought sometimes of me?"
+
+Melanie whispered in her mother's ear:
+
+"Later, when we are alone."
+
+The woman understood that well ("later when we are alone, we can talk of
+cold, prosaic things: but when they see us, let us weep, faint, and
+embrace.") This scene of meeting was going to begin anew, only Topandy
+was good enough to kindly request her ladyship to step into the room,
+where space was confined, and circumstances are more favorable to
+dramatic episodes. Madame Balnokhazy then became gay and talkative. She
+thanked Topandy (the old atheistical fool) thousands, millions of times,
+for giving a place of refuge to her child, for guarding her only
+treasure. Then she looked around to see whom else she had to thank. She
+saw Czipra.
+
+"Why," she said to Lorand, "you have not yet introduced me to your
+wife."
+
+Everybody became embarrassed--with the exception of Topandy, who
+answered with calm humor:
+
+"She is my ward, and has been so many years."
+
+"Oh! A thousand apologies for my clumsiness. I certainly thought she was
+already married."
+
+Madame Balnokhazy had time to remark that Czipra's eyes, when they
+looked upon Lorand, seemed like the eyes of faithfulness: and she had a
+delicious opportunity of cutting to the heart two, if not three people.
+
+"Well, it seems to me what is not may be, may it not, 'Lorand?'"
+
+"Lorand!" cried three voices in one.
+
+"There we are! Well I have betrayed you now. But what is the ultimate
+good of secrecy here between good friends and relations? Yes, he is
+Lorand Aronffy, a dear relation of ours. And you had not yet recognized
+him, Melanie?"
+
+Melanie turned as white as the wall.
+
+Lorand answered not a word.
+
+Instead of answering he stepped nearer to Topandy, who grasped his hand,
+and drew him towards him.
+
+Madame Balnokhazy did not allow anyone else to utter a word.
+
+"I shall not be a burden long, my dear uncle. I have taken up my
+residence here in the neighborhood, with Mr. Sarvoelgyi, who is going to
+buy our property; we have just won an important suit in chancery."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+Madame Balnokhazy did not explain the genesis of the suit in chancery
+any further to Topandy, who had himself now fallen into that bad habit
+of saying, "indeed" to everything, as Lorand did.
+
+"For that purpose I must enjoy myself a few days here."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"I hope, dear uncle, you will not deny me the pleasure of being able to
+have Melanie all this time by my side. I should surely have found it
+much more proper to take up my quarters directly here in your house, if
+Sarvoelgyi had not been kind enough to previously offer his hospitality."
+
+"Indeed?" (Topandy knew sometimes how to say very mocking "indeeds.")
+
+"So please don't offer any objections to my request that I may take
+Melanie to myself for these few days. Later on I shall bring her back
+again, and leave her here until fortune desires you to let us go
+forever."
+
+At this point Madame Balnokhazy put on an extremely matronly face. She
+wished him to understand what she meant.
+
+"I find your wish very natural," said Topandy briefly, looking again in
+the woman's face as one who would say "What else do you know for our
+amusement?"
+
+"Till then I render you endless thanks for taking the part of my poor
+deserted orphan. Heaven will reward you for your goodness."
+
+"I didn't do it for payment."
+
+Madame Balnokhazy laughed modestly, as though in doubt whether to
+understand a joke when the inhabitants of higher spheres were under
+consideration.
+
+"Dear uncle, you are still as jesting as ever in certain respects."
+
+"As godless--you wished to say, did you not? Indeed I have changed but
+little in my old age."
+
+"Oh we know you well!" said the lady in a voice of absolute grace: "you
+only show that outwardly, but everyone knows your heart."
+
+"And runs before it when he can, does he not?"
+
+"Oh, no: quite the contrary," said Madame apologetically, "don't
+misinterpret our present departures to prove how much we all think of
+that beneficial public life which you are leading. I shall whisper one
+word to you, which will convince you of our most sincere respect for
+you."
+
+That one word she did whisper to Topandy, resting her gloved hand on his
+shoulder--:
+
+"I wish to ask my dear uncle to give Melanie away, when Heaven brings
+round the happy day."
+
+At these words Topandy smiled: and, putting Madame Balnokhazy's hand
+under his arm, said:
+
+"With pleasure. I will do more. If on that certain day of Heaven the sun
+shines as I desire it, this my godless hand shall make two people happy.
+But if that day of Heaven be illumined otherwise than I wish, I shall
+give 'quantum satis' of blessing, love congratulatory verses, long sighs
+and all that costs nothing. So what I shall answer to this question
+depends upon that happy day."
+
+Madame Balnokhazy clasped Topandy's hand to her heart and with eyes
+upturned to Heaven, prayed that Providence might bless so good a
+relation's choice with good humor, and then drew Melanie too towards
+him, that she might render thanks to her good uncle for the gracious
+care he had bestowed upon her.
+
+Lorand gazed at the group dispiritedly, while Czipra, unnoticed, escaped
+from the room.
+
+"And now perhaps Lorand will be so kind as to accompany us to
+Sarvoelgyi's house."
+
+"As far as the gate."
+
+"Where is your dear friend, Melanie, that beautiful dear creature? Take
+a short leave of her. But where has she gone to?"
+
+Lorand did not move a muscle to go and look for Czipra.
+
+"Well we shall meet the dear child again soon," said Madame Balnokhazy,
+noticing that they were waiting in vain. "Give me your arm, Lorand."
+
+She leaned on Lorand's right arm, and motioned to Melanie to take her
+position on the other side; but the girl did not do so. Instead she
+clasped her mother's arm, and so they went along the street, the mother
+waving back affectionately to Topandy, who gazed after them out of the
+window.
+
+Melanie did not utter a single word the whole way.
+
+"The old fellow, it seems, is on bad terms with Sarvoelgyi?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is he still as iconoclastic, as godless, as ever?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you have been able to stand it so long?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet you were always so pious, so god-fearing; are you still?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"So Topandy and Sarvoelgyi are living on terms of open enmity?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yet you will visit us several times, while we are here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Heaven be praised that once I hear a 'no' from you! That heap of
+_yes's_ began already to make me nervous. Then you too are among _his_
+opponents?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Meantime they had reached the gate of Sarvoelgyi's house. Here Lorand
+stopped and would proceed no further.
+
+Madame Balnokhazy clasped Melanie's hand that she might not go in front.
+
+"Well, my dear Lorand, and are you not going to take leave of us even?"
+
+Lorand gazed at Melanie, who did not even raise her eyes.
+
+"Good-bye, Madame," said Lorand briefly. He raised his hat and was gone.
+
+Madame Balnokhazy cast one glance after him with those beautiful
+expressive eyes.--Those beautiful expressive eyes just then were full to
+the brim of relentless hatred.
+
+When Lorand reached home Czipra was waiting for him at the door.
+
+Raising her first finger, she whispered in his ear:
+
+"That was the yellow-robed woman!"
+
+Yet she had nothing yellow on her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FINGER-POST OF DEATH
+
+
+Lorand threw himself exhausted into his arm-chair.
+
+There was an end to every attempt at escape.
+
+He had been recognized by the very woman who ought to detest him more
+bitterly than anyone in the world.
+
+Nemesis! the liberal hand of everlasting justice!
+
+He had deserted that woman in the middle of the road, on which they were
+flying together passionately into degradation, and now that he wished to
+return to life, that woman blocked his way.
+
+There was no hope of pity. Besides, who would accept it--from such a
+hand? At such a price? Such a present must be refused, were it life
+itself.
+
+Farewell calm happy life! Farewell, intoxicating love!
+
+There was only one way, a direct one--to the opened tomb.
+
+They would laugh over the fallen, but at least not to his face.
+
+The father had departed that way, albeit he had a loving wife, and
+growing children:--but he was alone in the world. He owed nobody any
+duty.
+
+There were two enfeebled, frail shadows on earth, to which he owed a
+duty of care; but they would soon follow him, they had no very long
+course to run.
+
+Fate must be accomplished.
+
+The father's blood besprinkled the sons. One spirit drew the other after
+it by the hand, till at last all would be there at home together.
+
+Only a few days more remained.
+
+These few days he must be gay and cheerful: must deceive every eye and
+heart, that followed attentively him who approached the end of his
+journey,--that no one might suspect anything.
+
+There was still one more precaution to be taken.
+
+Desiderius might arrive before the fatal day. In his last letter he had
+hinted at it. That must be prevented. The meeting must be arranged
+otherwise.
+
+He hurriedly wrote a letter to his brother to come to meet him at
+Szolnok on the day before the anniversary, and wait for him at the inn.
+He gave as his reason the cynicism of Topandy. He did not wish to
+introduce him as a discord in that tender scene. Then they could meet,
+and from there could go together to visit their parents.
+
+The plan was quite intelligible and natural. Lorand at once despatched
+the letter to the post.
+
+So does the cautious traveler drive from his route at the outset, the
+obstacles which might delay him.
+
+Scarcely had he sent the letter off when Topandy entered his room.
+
+Lorand went to meet him. Topandy embraced and kissed him.
+
+"I thank you that you chose my home as a place of refuge from your
+prosecutors, my dear Lorand; but there is no need longer to keep in
+hiding. Later events have long washed out what happened ten years ago,
+and you may return to the world without being disturbed."
+
+"I have known that long since: why, we read the newspapers; but I prefer
+to remain here. I am quite satisfied with this world."
+
+"You have a mother and a brother from whom you have no reason to hide."
+
+"I only wish to meet them when I can introduce myself to them as a happy
+man."
+
+"That depends on yourself."
+
+"A few days will prove it."
+
+"Be as quick as you can with it. Let only one thought possess your mind:
+Melanie is now in Sarvoelgyi's house. The great spiritual delight it will
+afford me to think of the hypocrite's death-face which that Pharisee
+will make when that trivial woman discloses to him that the young man,
+who is living in the neighborhood, is Loerincz Aronffy's son, can only be
+surpassed by my anxiety for you, caused by his knowledge of the fact.
+For, believe me, he will leave no stone unturned to prevent you, who
+will remind him of that night when we spoke of great and little things,
+from being able to strike root in this world. He will even talk Melanie
+over."
+
+Lorand, shrugging his shoulders, said with light-hearted indifference:
+
+"Melanie is not the only girl on this earth."
+
+"Well said. I don't care. You are my son: and she whom you bring here is
+my daughter. Only bring her; the sooner the better."
+
+"It will not take a week."
+
+"Better still. If you want to act, act quickly. In such cases, either
+quickly or not at all; either courageously or never."
+
+"There will be no lack of courage."
+
+Topandy spoke of marriage, Lorand of a pistol.
+
+"Well in a week's time I shall be able to give my blessing on your
+choice."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Topandy did not wish to dive further into Lorand's secret. He suspected
+the young fellow was choosing between two girls, and did not imagine
+that he had already chosen a third:--the one with the down-turned
+torch.[69]
+
+Lorand during the following days was as cheerful as a bridegroom during
+the week preceding his marriage--so cheerful!--as his father had been
+the evening before his death.
+
+[Footnote 69: The torch, which should have been held upright for the
+marriage festivities, would be held upside down for the festivities of
+death, just as the life would be reversed.]
+
+The last day but one came: May again, but not so chilly as ten years
+before. The air in the park was flower-perfumed, full of lark trills,
+and nightingale ditties.
+
+Czipra was chasing butterflies on the lawn.
+
+Ever since Melanie had left the house, Czipra's sprightly mood had
+returned. She too played in the lovely spring, with the playful birds of
+song.
+
+Lorand allowed her to draw him into her circle of playmates:
+
+"How does this hyacinth look in my hair?"
+
+"It suits you admirably, Czipra."
+
+The gypsy girl took off Lorand's hat, and crowned it with a wreath of
+leaves, then put it back again, changing its position again and again
+until she found out how it suited him best.
+
+Then she pressed his hand under her arm, laid her burning face upon his
+shoulder, and thus strolled about with him.
+
+Poor girl! She had forgotten, forgiven everything already!
+
+Six days had passed since that ruling rival had left the house: Lorand
+was not sad, did not pine after her, he was good-humored, witty, and
+playful; he enjoyed himself. Czipra believed their stars were once more
+approaching each other.
+
+Lorand, the smiling and gay Lorand, was thinking that he had but one
+more day to live; and then--adieu to the perfumed fields, adieu to the
+songster's echo, adieu to the beautiful, love-lorn gypsy girl!
+
+They went arm-in-arm across the bridge, that little bridge that spanned
+the brook. They stopped in the middle of the bridge and leaning upon the
+railing looked down into the water;--in the self same place where
+Melanie's engagement ring fell into the water. They gazed down into the
+water-mirror, and the smooth surface reflected their figures; the gypsy
+girl still wore a green dress, and a rose-colored sash, but Lorand still
+saw Melanie's face in that mirror.
+
+In this place her hand had been in his: in that place she had said of
+the lost ring "leave it alone:" in that place he had clasped her in his
+arms!
+
+And to-morrow even that would cause no pain!
+
+Topandy now joined them.
+
+"Do you know what, Lorand?" said the old Manichean cheerily: "I thought
+I would accompany you this afternoon to Szolnok. We must celebrate the
+day you meet your brother: we must drink to it!"
+
+"Will you not take me with you?" inquired Czipra half in jest.
+
+"No!" was the simultaneous reply from both sides.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it is not fit for you _there_.--There is no room for you
+_there_!"
+
+Both replied the same.
+
+Topandy meant "You cannot take part in men's carousals; who knows what
+will become of you?" while Lorand--meant something else.
+
+"Well, and when will Lorand return?" inquired Czipra eagerly.
+
+"He must first return to his parents," answered Topandy.
+
+(--"Thither indeed" thought Lorand, "to father and grandfather"--)
+
+"But he will not remain _there_ forever?"
+
+At that both men laughed loudly. What kind of expression was that word
+"forever" in one's mouth? Is there a measure for time?
+
+"What will you bring me when you return?" inquired the girl childishly.
+
+Lorand was merciless enough to jest: he tore down a leaf which was
+round, like a small coin; placing that on the palm of her hand, he said:
+
+"Something no greater than the circumference of this leaf."
+
+Two understood that he meant "a ring," but what he meant was a "bullet"
+in the centre of his forehead.
+
+How pitiless are the jests of a man ready for death.
+
+Their happy dalliance was interrupted by the butler who came to announce
+that a young gentleman was waiting to speak with Master Lorand.
+
+Lorand's heart beat fast! It must be Desi!
+
+Had he not received the letter? Had he not acceded to his brother's
+request? He had after all come one day sooner than his deliberate
+permission had allowed.
+
+Lorand hastened up to the castle.
+
+Topandy called after him:
+
+"If it is a good friend of yours bring him down here into the park: he
+must dine with us."
+
+"We shall wait here by the bridge," Czipra added: and there she remained
+on the bridge, she did not herself know why, gazing at those plants on
+the surface of the water, that were hiding Melanie's ring.
+
+Lorand hastened along the corridors in despondent mood: if his brother
+had really come, his last hours would be doubly embittered.
+
+That simulation, that comedy of cynical frivolity, would be difficult to
+play before him.
+
+The new arrival was waiting for him in the reception room.
+
+When Lorand opened the door and stood face to face with him, an entirely
+new surprise awaited him.
+
+The young cavalier who had thus hastened to find him was not his brother
+Desi, but--Pepi Gyali.
+
+Pepi was no taller, no more manly-looking than he had been ten years
+before; he had still that childish face, those tiny features, the same
+refined movements. He was still as strict an adherent to fashion: and if
+time had wrought a change in him, it was only to be seen in a certain,
+distinguished bearing,--that of those who often have the opportunity of
+playing the protector toward their former friends.
+
+"Good day, dear Lorand," he said in a gay tone, anticipating Lorand. "Do
+you still recognize me?"
+
+("Ah," thought Lorand: "you are here as the finger-post of death.")
+
+"I did not want to avoid you: as soon as I knew from the Balnokhazys
+that you were here, I came to find you."
+
+After all it was "_she_" that had put him on Lorand's track!
+
+"I have business here with Sarvoelgyi in Madame Balnokhazy's interest--a
+legal agreement."
+
+Lorand's only thought, while Gyali was uttering these words, was--how
+to behave himself in the presence of this man.
+
+"I hope," said the visitor tenderly extending his hand to Lorand, "that
+that old wrangle which happened ten years ago has long been forgotten by
+you--as it has by me."
+
+("He wishes to make me recollect it, if perchance I had forgotten.")
+
+"And we shall again be faithful comrades and true."
+
+One thought ran like lightning in a moment through Lorand's brain. "If I
+kick this fellow out now as would be my method, everyone would clearly
+understand the origin of the catastrophe, and take it as satisfaction
+for an insult. No, they must have no such triumph: this wretch must see
+that the man who is gazing into the face of his own death is in no way
+behind him, who burns to persecute him to the end with exquisiteness, in
+cheerful mood."
+
+So Lorand did not get angry, did not show any sullenness or melancholy,
+but, as he was wont to do in student days of yore, slapped the dandy's
+open hand and grasped it in manly fashion.
+
+"So glad to see you, Pepi. Why the devil should I not have recognised
+you? Only I imagined that you would have aged as much as I have since
+that time, and now you stand before me the same as ever. I almost asked
+you what we had to learn for to-morrow?"
+
+"I am glad of that! Nothing has caused me any displeasure in my life
+except the fact that we parted in anger--we, the gay comrades!--and
+quarrelled!--why? for a dirty newspaper! The devil take them all!--Taken
+all together they are not worth a quarrel between two comrades. Well,
+not a word more about it!"
+
+"Well, my boy, very well, if your intentions are good. In any case we
+are country fellows who can stand a good deal from one another. To-day
+we calumniate each other, to-morrow we carouse together."
+
+Ha, ha, ha!
+
+"But you must introduce me to the old man. I hear he is a gay old fool.
+He does not like priests. Why I can tell him enough tales about priests
+to keep him going for a week. Come, introduce me. I know his mouth will
+never cease laughing, once I begin upon him."
+
+"Naturally it is understood that you will remain here with us."
+
+"Of course. Old Sarvoelgyi, as it is, had made sour faces enough at the
+unusual invasion of guests: and he has a cursedly sullen housekeeper.
+Besides it is disagreeable always to have to say nice things to the two
+ladies: that's not why a fellow comes to the country. _A propos_, I hear
+you have a beautiful gypsy girl here."
+
+"You know that too, already?"
+
+"I hope you are not jealous of her?"
+
+"What, the devil! of a gypsy girl?"
+
+("Well just try it with her," thought Lorand, "at any rate you will get
+'per procura,' that box on the ears which I cannot give you.")
+
+"Ha, ha! we shall not fight a duel for a gypsy girl, shall we, my boy?"
+
+"Nor for any other girl."
+
+"You have become a wise man like me: I like that. A woman is only a
+woman. Among others, what do you say to Madame Balnokhazy? I find she is
+still more beautiful than her daughter. _Ma foi_, on my word of honor!
+Those ten years on the stage have only done her good. I believe she is
+still in love with you."
+
+"That's quite natural," said Lorand in jesting scorn.
+
+In the meantime they had reached the park; they found Topandy and Czipra
+by the bridge. Lorand introduced Pepi Gyali as his old school-fellow.
+
+That name fairly magnetized Czipra.--Melanie's fiance!--So the lover had
+come after his bride. What a kind fellow this Pepi Gyali was! A really
+most amiable young man!
+
+Gyali quite misunderstood the favorable impression his name and
+appearance made on Czipra: he was ready to attribute it to his
+irresistible charms.
+
+After briefly making the acquaintance of the old man, he very rapidly
+took over the part of courtier, which every cavalier according to the
+rules of the world is bound to do; besides, she was a gypsy girl,
+and--Lorand was not jealous.
+
+"You have in one moment explained to me something over which I have
+racked my brains a whole day."
+
+"What can that be?" inquired Czipra curiously.
+
+"How it is that some one can prefer fried fish and fried rolls at
+Sarvoelgyi's to cabbage at Topandy's?"
+
+"Who may that someone be?"
+
+"Why, I could not understand that Miss Melanie was able to persuade
+herself to change this house for that; now I know: she must have put up
+with a great persecution here."
+
+"Persecution?" said Czipra, astonished:--the gentlemen too stared at the
+speaker.--"Who would have persecuted her?"
+
+"Who? Why these eyes!" said Gyali, gazing flatteringly into Czipra's
+eyes. "The poor girl could not stand the rivalry. It is quite natural
+that the moon, however sweet and poetic a phenomenon, always flees
+before the sun."
+
+To Czipra this speech was very surprising. There are many who do not
+like overburdened sweetness.
+
+"Ah, Melanie is far more beautiful than I," she said, casting her eyes
+down, and growing very serious.
+
+"Well it is my bounden duty to believe in that, as in all the miracles
+of the apostles: but I cannot help it, if you have made a heretic of
+me."
+
+Czipra turned her head aside and gazed down into the water with eyes of
+insulted pride: while Lorand, who was standing behind Gyali, thought
+within himself:
+
+("If I take you by the neck and drown you in that water, you would
+deserve it, and it will do good to my soul: but I should know I had
+murdered you: and no one should ever be able to boast of _that_? My name
+shall never be connected with yours in death.")
+
+For Lorand might well have known that Gyali's appearance on that day
+had no other object than that of reminding Lorand of his awful
+obligation.
+
+"My dear boy," said Lorand patting Gyali's shoulder playfully, "I must
+show what a general I should have made. I have an important journey this
+afternoon to Szolnok."
+
+"Well, go; don't bother yourself on my account. Do exactly as you
+please."
+
+"That's not how matters lie, Pepi: you must not stay here in the
+meantime."
+
+"The devil! Perhaps you will turn me out?"
+
+"Oh dear no! To-night we shall have a glorious carnival at Szolnok, in
+honor of my regeneration. All the gay fellows of the neighborhood are
+invited to it. You must come with us too."
+
+"Ha! Your regeneration carnival!" cried Gyali, in a voice of ecstasy,
+the while gazing at Czipra apologetically. "Albeit other magnets draw me
+hither with overpowering force--I must go there without fail. I must
+deliver a 'toast' at your 'regeneration' festival, Lorand."
+
+"My brother Desi will also be there."
+
+"Oho! little Desi? That little rebel. Well all the better. We shall have
+much in common with him; of old he was an amusing boy, with his serious
+face. Well I shall go with you. I sacrifice myself. I capitulate. Well
+we shall go to Szolnok to-night."
+
+Why, anyone might have seen plainly--had he not come that day just to
+revel in the agony of Lorand?
+
+"Yes, Pepi," Lorand assured him, "we shall be gay as we were once ten
+years ago. Much hidden joy awaits us: we shall break in suddenly upon
+it. Well, you are coming with us."
+
+"Without fail: only be so good as to send some one next door for my
+traveling-cloak. I shall go with you to your 'regeneration' fete!"
+
+And once again he grasped Lorand's hand tenderly, as one who was
+incapable of expressing in words all the good wishes with which his
+heart was brimming over.
+
+"You see I should have been a good general after all," said Lorand
+smiling. "How beautifully I captured the besieging army."
+
+"Oh, not at all; the blockade is still being kept up."
+
+"But starvation will be a difficult matter where the garrison is well
+nourished."
+
+The poor gypsy girl did not understand a word of all this jesting, which
+was uttered for her edification: and if she had understood it, was she
+not a gypsy girl, just to be sported with in this manner?
+
+Were not Topandy and his comrades wont to jest with her after this
+manner.
+
+But Czipra did not laugh over these jests as much as she had done at
+other times.
+
+It exercised a distasteful influence upon her heart, when this young
+dandy spoke so lightly of Melanie, and even slighted her before the eyes
+of another girl. Did all men speak so of their loved ones? And do men
+speak so of every girl?
+
+Topandy turned the conversation. He knew his man at the first glance: he
+had many weak sides. He began to "my lord" him, and made inquiries about
+those foreign princes, whose plenipotentiary minister M. Gyali was
+pleased to be.
+
+That had its effect.
+
+Gyali became at once a different person: he strove to maintain an
+imposing bearing with a view to raising his dignity, for all the world
+as if he had swallowed a poker; he straightened his eyebrows, put his
+hands behind him under the tails of his lilac-colored dress-coat and
+formed his mouth into the true diplomatic shape.
+
+It was a supreme opportunity for being able to display his grandiose
+achievements. Let that other see how high he had flown, while others had
+remained fastened to the earth.
+
+"I have just concluded a splendid business for his Excellency, the
+Prince of Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein."
+
+"A ruling prince, of course?" inquired Topandy, in naive wonder.
+
+"Why, you know that."
+
+"Of course, of course. His possessions lie just where the corners of the
+great principalities of Lippedetmold, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and
+Reuss-major meet."
+
+Oh, Gyali must have been very full of self-confidence when he answered
+to the old magistrate's peculiar geographical definition, "yes."
+
+"Your lordship has already doubtless found an excellent situation in the
+Principality?"
+
+"I have an order and a title, the gift of His Excellency."
+
+"Of course it may lead to more."
+
+"Oh yes. In return for my winning His Excellency's domains, which he
+inherited on his mother's side, he will settle on me 5,000 acres of
+land."
+
+"In Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein?"
+
+"No: here in the Magyar country."
+
+"I thought in Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein: for that is a beautiful country."
+
+Gyali began to see that it was after all something more than simplicity
+that could give utterance to such easily recognized exaggeration; and
+when the old man began to inform him, in which section of which chapter
+of the Corpus Juris would be found inscribed His Excellency's Magyar
+"indigenatus," etc., etc., Gyali began to feel exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and began to again change the course of the conversation.
+He chattered on about His Excellency being a fine, free-thinking man,
+related a hundred anecdotes about him, how he turned out the Jesuits
+from his possessions, what jokes he had played on the monks, how he
+persecuted the pietists, and other such things as might be very
+inconvenient incumbrances to the Principality of
+Hohenelm-Weitbreitstein,--in the case of any such principality existing
+in the world.
+
+The theme lasted the whole of dinner time.
+
+Czipra wanted to do all she could to-day for herself. For the
+farewell-dinner she sought out all that she had found Lorand liked, and
+Lorand was ungrateful enough to allow Gyali the field of compliment to
+himself: he could not say one good word to her.
+
+Yet who knew when he would sit at that table again?
+
+Dinner over, Lorand spent a few minutes in running over the house: to
+give instructions to every servant as to what was to be done in the
+fields, the garden and the forest before his return in two weeks' time.
+He gave everyone a tip to drink to his health; for to-morrow he was to
+celebrate a great festival.
+
+Topandy, too, was looking over the preparations for the journey. Czipra
+was the lady of the house: it was her task, as it had always been, to
+amuse the guest who remained alone. Topandy never troubled himself to
+amuse anyone, for whose entertainment he was responsible. Czipra was
+there, he must listen to what she had to say.
+
+In the meantime the butler, who had been sent to Sarvoelgyi's to bring
+Gyali's traveling cloak, came back.
+
+He brought also a letter from the young lady for Lorand.
+
+"From the young lady?"
+
+Lorand took the letter from him and told him to take the cloak up to the
+guest's room.
+
+He himself hastened to his own room.
+
+As he passed through the saloon, Gyali met him, coming from Czipra's
+room. The dandy's face was peculiarly flurried.
+
+"My dear friend," he said to Lorand, "that gypsy girl of yours is a
+regular female panther, and you have trained her well, I can tell
+you.--Where is there a looking-glass?"
+
+"Yes she is," replied Lorand. He scarcely knew why he said it: he heard,
+but only unconsciously.
+
+Only that letter! Melanie's letter!
+
+He was in such a hurry to reach his room with it. Once there and alone,
+he shut the door, kissed the fine rose-colored note, and its azure-blue
+letters, the red seal upon it; and clasped it to his breast, as if he
+would find out from his heart what was in it.
+
+Well, and what could be in it?
+
+Lorand put the letter down before him and laid his fist heavily upon it.
+
+"Must I know what is in that letter?
+
+"Suppose she writes that she loves me, and awaits happiness from me,
+that her love can outbalance a whole lost world, that she is ready to
+follow me across the sea, beyond the mocking sneers of acquaintances,
+and to disappear with me among the hosts of forgotten figures!
+
+"No. I shall not break open this letter.
+
+"My last step shall not be hesitating.
+
+"And if what seems such a chance meeting is nought but a well planned
+revenge? If they have all along been agreed and have only come here
+together that they may force me to confess that I am humiliated, that I
+beg for happiness, for love, that I am afraid of death because I am in
+love with the smiling faces of life; and when I have confessed that,
+they will laugh in my face, and will leave me to the contempt of the
+whole world, of my own self....
+
+"Let them marry each other!"
+
+Lorand took the beautiful note and locked it up in the drawer of his
+table, unopened, unread.
+
+His last thought must be that perhaps he had been loved, and that last
+thought would be lightened by the uncertainty: only "perhaps."
+
+And now to prepare for that journey.
+
+It was Lorand's wont to carry two good pistols on a journey. These he
+carefully loaded afresh, then hid them in his own traveling trunk.
+
+He left his servant to pack in the trunk as much linen as would be
+enough for two weeks, for they were going to journey farther.
+
+Topandy had two carriages ready, his traveling coach and a wagon.
+
+When the carriages drove up, Lorand put on his traveling cloak, lit his
+pipe and went down into the courtyard.
+
+Czipra was arranging all matters in the carriages, the trunks were bound
+on tightly and the wine-case with its twenty-four bottles of choice
+wine, packed away in a sure place.
+
+"You are a good girl after all, Czipra," said Lorand, tenderly patting
+the girl's back.
+
+"After all?"
+
+Was he really so devoted to that pipe that he could not take it from his
+mouth for one single moment?
+
+Yet she had perhaps deserved a farewell kiss.
+
+"Sit with my uncle in the coach, Pepi," said Lorand to the dandy, "with
+me you might risk your life. I might turn you over into the ditch
+somewhere and break your neck. And it would be a pity for such a
+promising youth."
+
+Lorand sprang up onto the seat and took the reins in his hands.
+
+"Well, adieu, Czipra!"--The coach went first, the wagon following.
+
+Czipra stood at the street-door and gazed from there at the disappearing
+youth, as long as she could see him, resting her head sadly against the
+doorpost.
+
+But he did not glance back once.
+
+He was going at a gallop towards his doom.
+
+And when evening overtakes the travelers, and the night's million lights
+have appeared, and the tiny glowworms are twinkling in the ditches and
+hedges, the young fellow will have time enough to think on that theme:
+that eternal law rules alike over the worlds and the atoms--but what is
+the fate of the intermediate worms? that of the splendid fly? that of
+ambitious men and nations struggling for their existence? "Fate gives
+justice into the two hands of the evil one, that while with the right he
+extinguishes his life, with the left he may stifle the soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+FANNY
+
+
+Some wise man, who was a poet too, once said: "the best fame for a woman
+is to have no fame at all." I might add: "the best life history is that,
+which has no history."
+
+Such is the romance of Fanny's life and of mine.
+
+Eight years had passed since they brought a little girl from
+Fuersten-Allee to take my place: the little girl had grown into a big
+girl,--and was still occupying my place.
+
+How I envied her those first days, when I had to yield my place to her,
+that place veiled with holy memories in our family's mourning circle, in
+mother's sorrowing heart; and how I blessed fate, that I was able to
+fill that place with her.
+
+My career led me to distant districts, and every year I could spend but
+a month or two at home; mother would have aged, grandmother have grown
+mad from the awful solitude had Heaven not sent a guardian angel into
+their midst.
+
+How much I have to thank Fanny for.
+
+For every smile of mother's face, for every new day of grandmother's
+life--I had only Fanny to thank.
+
+Every year when I returned for the holidays I found long-enduring happy
+peace at home.
+
+Where everyone had so much right every day madly to curse fate, mankind,
+the whole world; where sorrow should have ruled in every thought;--I
+found nothing but peace, patience, and hope.
+
+It was she who assured them that there was a limit to suffering, she who
+encouraged them with renewed hopes, she who allured them by a thousand
+possible variations on the theme of chance gladness, that might come
+to-morrow or perhaps the day after.
+
+And she did everything for all the world as if she never thought of
+herself.
+
+What a sacrifice it must be for a fair lively girl to sacrifice the most
+brilliant years of her youth to the nursing of two sorrow-laden women,
+to suffering with them, to enduring their heaviness of disposition.
+
+Yet she was only a substitute girl in the house.
+
+When I left Pressburg and the Fromm's house her parents wished to take
+her home; but Fanny begged them to leave her there one year longer, she
+was so fond of that poor suffering mother.
+
+And then every year she begged for another year; so she remained in our
+small home until she was a full-grown maiden.
+
+Yes Pressburg is a gay, noisy town. The Fromm's house was open before
+the world and the flower ought to open in spring--the young girl has a
+right to live and enjoy life.
+
+Fanny voluntarily shut herself off from life. There was no merriment in
+our house.
+
+My parents often assured her they would take her to some entertainments,
+and would go with her.
+
+"For my sake? You would go to amusements that I might enjoy myself?
+Would that be an amusement for me? Let us stay at home.--There will be
+time for that later."
+
+And when she victimized herself, she did it so that no one could see she
+was a victim.
+
+There are many good patient-hearted girls, whose lips never complain,
+but hollow eyes, pale faces, and clouded dispositions utter silent
+complaints and give evidence of buried ambitions.
+
+Fanny's face was always rosy and smiling: her eyes cheerful and fiery,
+her disposition always gay, frank and contented; her every feature
+proved that what she did she did from her heart and her heart was well
+pleased. Her happy ever-gay presence enlightened the while gloomy circle
+around her, as when some angel walks in the darkness, with a halo of
+glory around his figure.
+
+From year to year I found matters so at home when I returned for the
+holidays: and from year to year one definite idea grew and took shape in
+our minds mutually.
+
+We never spoke of it: but we all knew.
+
+She knew--I knew, her parents knew and so did mine; nor did we think
+anything else could happen. It was only a question of time. We were so
+sure about it that we never spoke of it.
+
+After finishing my course of studies, I became a lawyer; and, when I
+received my first appointment in a treasury office, one day I drew
+Fanny's hand within mine, and said to her:
+
+"Fanny dear, you remember the story of Jacob in the Bible?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you not think Jacob was an excellent fellow, in that he could serve
+seven years to win his wife?"
+
+"I cannot deny that he was."
+
+"Then you must acknowledge that I am still more excellent for I have
+already served eight years--to win you."
+
+Fanny looked up at me with those eyes of the summer-morning smile, and
+with childish happiness replied:
+
+"And to prove your excellence still further, you must wait two years
+more."
+
+"Why?" I asked, downcast.
+
+"Why?" she said with quiet earnestness. "Do you not know there is a
+vacant place at our table; and until that is filled, there can be no
+gladness in this house. Could you be happy, if you had to read every day
+in your mother's eyes the query, 'where is that other?' All your
+gladness would wound that suffering heart, and every dumb look she gave
+would be a reproach for our gladness. Oh, Desi, no marriage is possible
+here, as long as mourning lasts."
+
+And as she said this to prevent me loving her, she only forced me to
+love her the more.
+
+"How far above me you are!"
+
+"Why those two short years will fly away, as the rest. Our thoughts for
+each other do not date from yesterday, and, as we grow old, we shall
+have time enough to grow happy. I shall wait, and in this waiting I have
+enough gladness."
+
+Oh how I would have loved to kiss her for those words: but that face was
+so holy before me, I should have considered it a sacrilege to touch it
+with my lips.
+
+"We remain then as we were."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Not a word of it for two years yet, when you are released from your
+word of honor you gave to Lorand, and may discover his whereabouts. Why
+this long secrecy? That I cannot understand. I have never had any
+ambition to dive more deeply into your secret than you yourselves have
+allowed me to: but if you made a promise, keep it; and if by this
+promise you have thrown your family, yourself, and me into ten years'
+mourning, let us wear it until it falls from us."
+
+I grasped the dear girl's hand, I acknowledged how terribly right she
+was; then with her gay, playful humor she hurried back to mother, and no
+one could have fancied from her face, that she could be serious for a
+moment.
+
+I risked one more audacious attempt in this matter.
+
+I wrote to Lorand, putting before him that the horizon all round was
+already so clear, that he might march round the country to the sound of
+trumpets, announcing that he is so and so, without finding anyone to
+arrest him, as it was the same whether it was ten years or eight, he
+might let us off the last two years, and admit us to him.
+
+Lorand wrote back these short lines in answer:
+
+"We do not bargain about that for which we gave our word of honor."
+
+It was a very brief refusal.
+
+I troubled him no more with that request. I waited and endured, while
+the days passed.... Ah, Lorand, for your sake I sacrificed two years of
+heaven on earth!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE FATAL DAY!
+
+
+It had come at last!
+
+We had already begun to count the days that remained.
+
+One week before the final day, I received a letter from Lorand, in which
+he begged me not to go to meet him at Lankadomb, but rather to give a
+rendezvous in Szolnok: he did not wish the scene of rapture to be
+spoiled by the sarcasms of Topandy.
+
+I was just as well pleased.
+
+For days all had been ready for the journey. I hunted up everything in
+the way of a souvenir which I had still from those days ten years before
+when I had parted from Lorand, even down to that last scrap of
+paper,[70] which now occupied my every thought.
+
+[Footnote 70: The paper of Madame Balnokhazy's letter which was used for
+the fatal lot-drawing.]
+
+It would have been labor lost on my part to tell the ladies how bad the
+roads in the lowlands are at that time of year, that in any case Lorand
+would come to them a day later. Nor indeed did I try to dissuade them
+from making the journey. Which of them would have remained home at such
+a time? Which of them would have given up a single moment of that day,
+when she might once more embrace Lorand? They both came to me.
+
+We arrived at Szolnok one day before Lorand: I only begged them to
+remain in their room until I had spoken with Lorand.
+
+They promised and remained the whole day in one room of the inn, while
+I strolled the whole day about the courtyard on the watch for every
+arriving carriage.
+
+An unusual number of guests came on that day to the inn: gay companions
+of Topandy from the neighborhood, to whom Lorand had given a rendezvous
+there. Some I knew personally, the others by reputation; the latter's
+acquaintance too was soon made.
+
+It struck me as peculiar that Lorand had written to me that he did not
+wish the elegiac tone of our first gathering to be disturbed by the
+voice of the stoics of Lankadomb, yet he had invited the whole Epicurean
+alliance here--a fact which was likely to give a dithyrambic tone to our
+meeting.
+
+Well, amusement there must be. I like fellows who amuse themselves.
+
+It was late evening when a five-horsed coach drove into the
+courtyard--in the first to get out I recognized Gyali.
+
+What did he want among us?
+
+After him stepped out a brisk old man whose moustache and eyebrows I
+remembered of old. It was my uncle, Topandy.
+
+Remarkable!
+
+Topandy came straight towards me.
+
+So serious was his face, when, as he reached me, he grasped my hand,
+that he made me feel quite confused.
+
+"You are Desiderius Aronffy?" he said: and with his two hands seized my
+shoulders, that he might look into my eyes. "Though you do not say so, I
+recognize you. It is just as if I saw your departed father before me.
+The very image!"
+
+Many had already told me that I was very like what my father had been in
+his young days.
+
+Topandy embraced me feelingly.
+
+"Where is Lorand?" I inquired. "Has he not come?"
+
+"He is coming behind us in a wagon," he answered, and his voice betrayed
+the greatest emotion. "He will soon be here. He does not like a coach.
+Remain here and wait for him."
+
+Then he turned to his comrades who were buzzing around him.
+
+"Let us go and wait inside, comrades. Let us leave these young fellows
+to themselves when they meet. You know that such a scene requires no
+audience. Well, right about face, quick march!"
+
+Therewith he drove all the fellows from the corridor: indeed did not
+give Gyali time to say how glad he was to meet me again.
+
+The gathering became all the more unintelligible to me.
+
+Why, if Topandy himself knew best what there was to be felt in that
+hour, what necessity had we to avoid him?
+
+Now the wagon could be heard! The two steeds galloped into the courtyard
+at a smart pace with the light road-cart. He was driving himself.
+
+I scarcely recognized him. His great whiskers, his closely-cropped hair,
+his dust-covered face made quite a different figure before me from that
+which I had been wont to draw in my album,--as I had thought to see, as
+mother or grandmother directed me, saying "that is missing, that feature
+is other, that is more, that is less, that is different," times without
+number we had amused ourselves with that.
+
+Lorand was unlike any portrait of him I had drawn. He was a muscular,
+powerful, rough country cavalier.
+
+As he leaped out of the wagon, we hastened to each other.
+
+The centre of the courtyard was not the place to play an impassioned
+scene in. Besides neither of us like comedy playing.
+
+"Good evening, old fellow."
+
+"Good evening, brother."
+
+That was all we said to each other: we shook hands, kissed each other,
+and hurried in from the courtyard, straight to the room filled with
+roysterers.
+
+They received Lorand with wall-shaking "hurrahs," and Lorand greeted
+them all in turn.
+
+Some embittered county orator wished to deliver a speech in his honor,
+but Lorand told him to keep that until wine was on the table: dry toasts
+were not to his taste.
+
+Then he again returned to my side and took my face in his hands.
+
+"By Jove! old fellow, you have quite grown up! I thought you were still
+a child going to school. You are half a head taller than I am. Why I
+shall live to see you married without my knowing or hearing anything
+about it."
+
+I took Lorand's arm and drew him into a corner.
+
+"Lorand, mother and grandmother are here too."
+
+He wrenched his arm out of my hand.
+
+"Who told you to do that?" he growled irritatedly.
+
+"Quietly, my dear Lorand. I have committed no blunder even in
+formalities. It will be ten years to-morrow since you told me I might in
+ten years tell mother where you are. Then you wrote to me to be at
+Szolnok to-day. I have kept my promise to mother as regards telling her
+to-morrow and to you by my appearance here. Szolnok is two days distant
+from our home:--so I had to bring them here in order to do justice to
+both my promises."
+
+Lorand became unrestrainedly angry.
+
+"A curse upon every pettifogger in the world! You have swindled me out
+of my most evident right."
+
+"But, dear Lorand, are you annoyed that the poor dear ones can see you
+one day earlier?"
+
+"That's right, begin like that.--Fool, we wanted to have a jolly evening
+all to ourselves, and you have spoilt it."
+
+"But you can enjoy yourselves as long as you like."
+
+"Indeed? 'As long as we like,' and I must go in a tipsy drunken state to
+introduce myself to mother?"
+
+"It is not your habit to be drunk."
+
+"What do you know? I'm fairly uproarious once I begin at it. It was a
+foolish idea of yours, old fellow."
+
+"Well, do you know what? Put the meeting first, after that the
+carousal."
+
+"I have told you once for all that we shall make no bargains, sir
+advocate. No transactions here, sir advocate!"
+
+"Don't 'sir advocate' me!"
+
+"Wait a moment. If you could be so cursedly exact in your calculation of
+days, I shall complete your astronomical and chronological studies. Take
+out your watch and compare it with mine. It was just 11:45 by the
+convent clock in Pressburg, when you gave me your word. To-morrow
+evening at 11:45 you are free from your obligation to me: then you can
+do with me what you like."
+
+I found his tone very displeasing and turned aside.
+
+"Well don't be dispirited," said Lorand, drawing me towards him and
+embracing me. "Let us not be angry with each other: we have not been so
+hitherto. But you see the position I am in. I have gathered together a
+pack of dissolute scamps and atheists, not knowing you would bring
+mother with you, and they have been my faithful comrades ten years. I
+have passed many bad, many good days with them: I cannot say to them
+'Go, my mother is here.' Nor can I sit here among them till morning with
+religious face. In the morning we shall all be 'soaked.' Even if I
+conquer the wine, my head will be heavy after it. I have need of the few
+hours I asked you for to collect myself, before I can step into my dear
+ones' presence with a clear head. Explain to them how matters stand."
+
+"They know already, and will not ask after you until to-morrow."
+
+"Very well. There is peace between us, old fellow."
+
+When the company saw we had explained matters to each other, they all
+crowded round us, and such a noise arose that I don't know even now what
+it was all about. I merely know that once or twice Pepi Gyali wished to
+catch my eye to begin some conversation, and that at such times I asked
+the nearest man, "How long do you intend to amuse yourselves in this
+manner?" "How are you?" and similar surprising imbecilities.
+
+Meanwhile the long table in the middle of the room had been laid: the
+wines had been piled up, the savory victuals were brought in; outside
+in the corridors a gypsy band was striking up a lively air, and
+everybody tried to get a seat.
+
+I had to sit at the head of the table, near Lorand. On Lorand's left sat
+Topandy, on his right, beside me, Pepi Gyali.
+
+"Well, old fellow, you too will drink with us to-day?" said Lorand to me
+playfully, putting his arms familiarly round my neck.
+
+"No, you know I never drink wine."
+
+"Never? Not to-day either? Not even to my health?"
+
+I looked at him. Why did he wish to make me drink to-day especially?
+
+"No, Lorand. You know I am bound by a promise not to drink wine, and a
+man of honor always keeps his promises, however absurd."
+
+I shall never forget the look which Lorand gave me at these words.
+
+"You are right, old fellow:" and he grasped my hand. "A man of honor
+keeps his promises, however absurd...."
+
+And as he said so, he was so serious, he gazed with such alarming
+coldness into the eyes of Gyali, who sat next to him. But Pepi merely
+smiled. He could smile so tenderly with those handsome girlish round
+lips of his.
+
+Lorand patted him on the shoulder.
+
+"Do you hear, Pepi? My brother refused to drink wine, because a man of
+honor keeps his promises. You are right, Desi. Let him who says
+something keep his word."
+
+Then the banquet began.
+
+It is a peculiar study for an abstainer to look on at a midnight
+carousal, with a perfectly sober head, and to be the only audience and
+critic at this "divina comedia" where everyone acts unwittingly.
+
+The first act commenced with the toasts. He to whom God had given
+rhetorical talent raises his glass, begs for silence,--which at first he
+receives and later not receiving tries to assure for himself by his
+stentorian voice;--and with a very serious face, utters very serious
+phrases:--one is a master of grace, another of pathos: a third quotes
+from the classics, a fourth humorizes, and himself laughs at his
+success, while everybody finishes the scene with clinking of glasses,
+and embraces, to the accompaniment of clarion "hurrahs."
+
+Later come more fiery declamations, general outbursts of patriotic
+bitterness. Brains become more heated, everyone sits upon his favorite
+hobby-horse, and makes it leap beneath him; the socialist, the artist,
+the landlord, the champion of order, everyone begins to speak of his own
+particular theme--without keeping to the strict rules of conversation
+that one waits until the other has finished: rather they all talk at
+once, one interrupting the other, until finally he who has commenced
+some thrilling refrain hands over the leadership to all: the song
+becomes general, and each one is convinced from hearing his own vocal
+powers, that nowhere on earth can more lovely singing be heard.
+
+And meantime the table becomes covered with empty bottles.
+
+Then the paroxysm grows by degrees to a climax. He who previously
+delivered an oration now babbles, comes to a standstill, and, cuts short
+his discomfiture by swearing; there sits one who had already three times
+begun upon some speech, but his bitterness, mourning for the past, so
+effectually chokes his over-ardent feelings that he bursts into tears,
+amidst general laughter. Another who has already embraced all his
+comrades in turn, breaks in among the gypsies and kisses them one after
+the other, swearing brotherhood to the bass fiddler and the clarinetist.
+At the farther end of the table sits a choleric fellow, whose habit it
+is always to end in riotous fights, and he begins his freaks by striking
+the table with his fist, and swearing he will kill the man who has
+worried him. Luckily he does not know with whom he is angry. The gay
+singer is not content with giving full play to his throat, helping it
+out with his hands and feet: he begins to dash bottles and plates
+against the wall, and is delighted that so many smashed bottles give
+evidence of his triumph. With a half crushed hat he dances in the middle
+of the room quite alone, in the happy conviction that everybody is
+looking at him, while a blessed comrade had come to the pass of dropping
+his head back upon the back of his chair, only waking up when they
+summon him to drink with him--though he does not know whether he is
+drinking wine or tanner's ooze.
+
+But the fever does not increase indefinitely.
+
+Like other attacks of fever, it has a crisis, beyond which a turn sets
+in!
+
+After midnight the uproarious clamor subsided. The first heating
+influence of the wine had already worked itself out. One or two who
+could not fight with it, gave in and lay down to sleep, while the others
+remained in their places, continuing the drinking-bout, not for the sake
+of inebriety, merely out of principle, that they might show they would
+not allow themselves to be overcome by wine.
+
+This is where the real heroes' part begins, of those whom the first
+glass did not loosen, nor the tenth tie their tongues.
+
+Now they begin to drink quietly and to tell anecdotes between the
+rounds.
+
+One man does not interrupt another, but when one has finished his story,
+another says, "I know one still better than that," and begins: "the
+matter happened here or there, I myself being present."
+
+The anecdotes at times reached the utmost pitch of obscenity and at such
+times I was displeased to hear Lorand laugh over such jokes as expressed
+contempt for womankind.
+
+I was only calmed by the thought that "our own" were long in bed--it was
+after midnight--and so it were impossible for mother or someone else out
+of curiosity to be listening at the keyhole, waiting for Lorand's voice.
+
+All at once Lorand took over the lead in the conversation.
+
+He introduced the question "Which is the most celebrated drinking nation
+in the world?"
+
+He himself for his part immediately said he considered the Germans were
+the most renowned drinkers.
+
+This assertion naturally met with great national opposition.
+
+They would not surrender the Magyar priority in this respect either.
+
+Two peacefully-inclined spirits interfered, trying to produce a united
+feeling by accepting the Englishman, then the Servian as the first in
+drinking matters--a proviso which naturally did not satisfy either of
+the disputing parties. Lorand, alone against the united opinion of the
+whole company, had the audacity to assert that the Germans were the
+greatest drinkers in the world. He produced celebrated examples to prove
+his theory.
+
+"Listen to me! Once Prince Batthyany sent two barrels of old Goencz wine
+to the Brothers of Hybern. But the duty to be paid on good Magyar wine
+beyond the Lajta[71] was terrible. The recipients would have had to pay
+for the wine twenty gold pieces[72]--a nice sum. So the Brothers, to
+avoid paying and to prevent the wine being lost, drank the contents of
+the two barrels outside the frontier."
+
+[Footnote 71: A river near Pressburg, the boundary between Austria and
+Hungary.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Probably 200 florins.]
+
+Ah, they could produce drinkers three times or four times as great, this
+side of the Lajta!
+
+But Lorand would not give in.
+
+"Well, your namesake, Pepo Henneberg," related Lorand, turning to Gyali,
+"introduced the custom of drawing a string through the ears of his
+guests, who sat down at a long table with him, and compelled them all to
+drain their beakers to the dregs, whenever he drank, under penalty of
+losing the ends of their ears."
+
+"With us that is impossible, for we have no holes bored in our ears!"
+cried one.
+
+"We drink without compulsion!" replied another.
+
+"The Magyar does all a German can do!"
+
+That assertion, loudly shouted, was general.
+
+"Even draining glasses as they did at Wartburg?" cried Lorand.
+
+"What the devil was the custom at Wartburg?"
+
+"The revellers at Wartburg, when they were in high spirits used to load
+a pistol, and then to fill the barrel to the brim with wine: then they
+cocked the trigger, and drained this curious glass one after another for
+friendship's sake."
+
+(I see you, Lorand!)
+
+"Well, which of you is inclined to follow the German cavaliers'
+example?"
+
+Topandy interrupted.
+
+"I for one am not, and Heaven forbid you should be."
+
+"I am."
+
+--Which remark came from Gyali, not Lorand.
+
+I looked at him. The fellow had remained sober. He had only tasted the
+wine, while others had drunk it.
+
+"If you are inclined, let us try," said Lorand.
+
+"With pleasure, only you must do it first."
+
+"I shall do so, but you will not follow me."
+
+"If you do it, I shall too. But I think you will not do it before me."
+
+One idea flashed clearly before me and chilled my whole body. I saw all:
+I understood all now: the mystery of ten years was no longer a secret to
+me: I saw the refugee, I saw the pursuer, and I had both in my hand, in
+such an iron grip, as if God had lent me for the moment the hand of an
+archangel.
+
+You just talk away.
+
+Lorand's face was a feverish red.
+
+"Well, well, you scamp! Let us bet, if you like."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Twenty bottles of champagne, which we shall drink too."
+
+"I accept the wager."
+
+"Whoever withdraws from the jest loses the bet."
+
+"Here's the money!"
+
+Both took their purses and placed each a hundred florins on the table.
+
+I too produced my purse and took a crumpled paper out of it:--but it was
+no banknote.
+
+Lorand cried to the waiter.
+
+"Take my pistols out of my trunk."
+
+The waiter placed both before him.
+
+"Are they really loaded?" inquired Gyali.
+
+"Look into the barrels, where the steel head of the bullets are smiling
+at you."
+
+Gyali found it wiser to believe than to look into the pistol barrels.
+
+"Well, the bet stands; whichever of us cannot drink out his portion pays
+for the champagne."
+
+Lorand seized his glass to pour the red wine that was in it into the
+pistol-barrel.
+
+The whole company was silent: some agonized restraint ruled their
+intoxicated nerves: every eye was rested on Lorand as if they wished to
+check the mad jest before its completion. On Topandy's forehead heavy
+beads of sweat glistened.
+
+I quietly placed my hand on Lorand's, in which he held the weapon and
+amid profound silence asked:
+
+"Would it not be good to draw lots to see who shall do it first?"
+
+Both looked at me in confusion when I mentioned drawing lots.
+
+Could their secret have been discovered?
+
+"Only if you draw lots about it," I continued quietly, "don't omit to be
+quite sure about the writing of each other's name, lest there be a
+repetition of that farce which took place ten years ago, when you drew
+lots as to who was to dance with the white elephant."
+
+I saw Gyali turn as white as paper.
+
+"What farce?" he panted, beginning to rise from his chair.
+
+"You always were a jesting boy, Pepi: at that time you made me draw lots
+for you, and told me to put both the one I had drawn and the other in
+the grate: but instead of doing so I threw the dance programme in the
+fire, and put those papers aside and kept them. You, instead of your
+own, wrote my brother's name on the paper, and so whichever was drawn,
+Lorand Aronffy must have come out of the hat. Look, the two lottery
+tickets are still in my possession, those same two pieces of paper, a
+sheet of note paper torn in two, both with the same name on them, and on
+the other side the writing of Madame Balnokhazy."
+
+Gyali rose from his seat like one who had seen a ghost, and gazed at me
+with a look of stone.
+
+Yet I had not threatened him. I had merely playfully jested with him. I
+smilingly spread out the two pieces of lilac-colored papers, which so
+exactly fitted together.
+
+But Lorand with flashing eyes glared at him, and as the dignified
+upright figure stood opposite him, threw the contents of the glass he
+held in his hand into the fellow's face, so that the red wine splashed
+all over his laced white waistcoat.
+
+Gyali with his serviette wiped from his face the traces of insult and
+with dignified coldness said:
+
+"With men in such a condition no dispute is possible. We cannot answer
+the taunts of drunken men."
+
+Therewith he began to back towards the door.
+
+Everybody, in amazement at this scene, allowed him to go: for all the
+world as if everyone had suddenly begun to be sober, and at the first
+surprise no one knew how to think what should now happen.
+
+But I ... I was not drunk. I had no need to become sober.
+
+I leaped up from my place, with one bound came up to the departing man,
+and seized him before he could reach the door, just as a furious tiger
+fastens up a miserable dormouse.
+
+"I am not drunk! I have never drunk wine, you know," I cried losing all
+self-restraint, and pressing him against the wall so that he shivered
+like a bat.--"I shall be the one to throw that cursed forgery in your
+face, miserable wretch!"
+
+And I know well that that single blow would have been the last chapter
+in his life--which would have been a great pity, not as far as he was
+concerned, but for my own sake--had not Heaven sent a guardian angel to
+check me in my wickedness.
+
+Suddenly someone behind seized the hand raised to strike. I looked back,
+and my arm dropped useless at my side.
+
+It was Fanny who had seized my arm.
+
+"Desi," cried my darling in a frightened voice: "This hand is mine: you
+must not defile it."
+
+I felt she was right. I allowed my uncontrollable anger to be overcome;
+with my left hand I threw the trembling wretch out of the door--I do not
+know where he fell--and then I turned round to clasp Fanny to my breast.
+
+Already mother and grandmother were in the room.
+
+The poor women had spent the whole evening of agony in the neighboring
+room, keeping perfectly still, so as not to betray their presence there,
+with the intention of listening for Lorand's voice: and they had
+trembled through that last awful scene, of which they could hear every
+word. When they heard my cry of rage, they could restrain themselves no
+longer, but rushed in, and threw themselves among the revellers with a
+cry of "My son, my son."
+
+Everyone rose at their honored presence: this solemn picture, two
+kneeling women embracing a son snatched from the jaws of death.
+
+The surprising horror had reduced everyone to soberness: all tipsiness,
+all winy drowsiness, had passed away.
+
+"Lorand, Lorand," sobbed mother, pressing him frantically to her breast,
+while grandmother, unable to speak or to weep, clutched his hand.
+
+"Oh Lorand, dear...."
+
+But Lorand grasped the two ladies' hands and led them towards me.
+
+"It is him you must embrace, not me: his is the triumph."
+
+Then he caught sight of that sweet angel bowed upon my shoulder, who was
+still holding my hand in hers: he recollected those words with which
+Fanny a moment before had betrayed our secret. "This hand is mine"--and
+he smiled at me.
+
+"Is that the way matters stand? Then you have your reward in your hands,
+... and you can leave these two weeping women to me."
+
+Therewith he threw himself on his face upon the floor before them, and
+embracing their feet kissed the dust beneath them.
+
+"Oh, my darlings! My loved ones."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THAT LETTER
+
+
+What those who had so long waited, spoke and thought during that night
+cannot be written down. These are sacred matters, not to be exposed to
+the public gaze.
+
+Lorand confessed all, and was pardoned for all.
+
+And he was as happy in that pardon as a child who had been again
+received into favor.
+
+Lorand indeed felt as if he were beginning his life now at the point
+where ten years before it had been interrupted, and as if all that
+happened during ten years had been merely a dream, of which only the
+heavy beard of manhood remained.
+
+It was very late in the morning when he and Desiderius woke. Sleep had
+proved very pleasant for once.
+
+Sleep--and in place of death too.
+
+"Well old fellow," said Lorand to his brother, "I owe you one more
+adventurous joke, with which I wish to surprise you."
+
+The threat was uttered so good-humoredly that Desiderius had no cause to
+be frightened, but he said quietly: "Tell me what it is."
+
+Lorand laughed.
+
+"I shall not go home with you now."
+
+"Well, and what shall you do?" inquired Desiderius quite as astonished
+as Lorand had expected.
+
+"I shall escape from you," he said, shaking his head good-humoredly.
+
+"Ah, that is an audacious enterprise! But tell me, where are you going
+to escape to?"
+
+"Ha, ha! I shall not merely tell you where I am going, but I shall take
+you with me to look after me henceforward as you have done hitherto."
+
+"You are very wise to do so.--May I know whither?"
+
+"Back to Lankadomb."
+
+"To Lankadomb? Perhaps you have lost something there?"
+
+"Yes, my senses.--Well don't look at me so curiously as if you wished to
+ask whether I ever had any. You and this little girl quite understand
+each other. I see that mother and grandmother too are sufficiently in
+love with her to give her to you: but my blessing has yet to come, old
+man--that you have not received yet."
+
+"Hope assures me that perhaps I have softened your hard heart."
+
+"Not all at once. I shall tell you something."
+
+"I am all ears."
+
+"In my will I passed over all my worldly wealth to you: the sealed
+letter is in your possession. As far as I know you, I believe I shall
+cause you endless joy by asking back my will from you, and telling you
+that you will now be poorer by half your wealth, for the other half I
+require."
+
+"I know that without waiting for you to teach me. But what has your old
+testament to do with the gospel of my heart?"
+
+"Oh your head must be very dense, old fellow, if you don't understand
+yet. Then listen to my ultimatum. I refuse to give my consent to your
+marrying--before me."
+
+Desiderius threw himself on Lorand's neck; he understood now.
+
+"There is somebody you love?"
+
+Lorand assented with a smile.
+
+"Of course there is. But--you know how that blackguard (by Jove, you
+gave him a powerful shaking!) confused my calculation for an entire
+life. I could not make her understand about that of which the
+continuation begins only to-day. Still, all the more reason for
+hastening. A half hour is necessary to tell another all about it, half
+an hour in a carriage: they will remain here meanwhile. We shall fly to
+Topandy at Lankadomb: by evening we shall have finished all, and
+to-morrow we shall be here again, like two flying madmen, who are
+striving to see which can carry the other off more rapidly towards the
+goal--where happiness awaits him. I shall drive the horses to Lankadomb,
+you can drive them back."
+
+"Poor horses!"
+
+Desiderius did not dare to go himself with these glad tidings to his
+mother. He entrusted Fanny to prepare her for them--perhaps so much
+delight would have killed her.
+
+They told her Lorand had official business which called him to Lankadomb
+for one day; and they started together with Topandy.
+
+Topandy was let into the secret, and considered it his duty to go with
+Lorand--he might be required to give the bride away.
+
+The world around Lorand had changed--at least so he thought, but the
+change in reality was within him.
+
+He was indeed born again: he had become quite a different man from the
+Lorand of yesterday. The noisy good-humor of yesterday badly concealed
+the resolve that despised death, just as the dreaminess of to-day openly
+betrayed the happiness that filled his heart.
+
+The whole way Desiderius could scarcely get one word from him, but he
+might easily read in his face all upon which he was meditating: and if
+he did utter once or twice encomiums on the beautiful May fields,
+Desiderius could see that his heart too felt spring within it.
+
+How beautiful it was to live again, to be happy and gay, to have hopes,
+expect good in the future, to love and be proud in one's love, to go
+with head erect, to be all in all to someone!
+
+At noon they arrived at Lankadomb.
+
+Czipra ran out to meet them and clapped her hands.
+
+"You were driven away; how did you get back so soon? Well no one
+expected you to dinner."
+
+Lorand was the first to leap off the cart, and tenderly offered his hand
+to the girl.
+
+"We have arrived, my dear Czipra. Even if you did not expect us to
+dinner, you can give us some of your own."
+
+"Oh, no," said the girl in a whisper, blushing at the same time, "I have
+been accustomed to eat at the servant's table, when you were not at
+home, and you have brought a guest too. Who is that gentleman?"
+
+"My brother, Desi, a very good fellow. Kiss him, Czipra."
+
+Czipra did not wait to be told twice, and Desiderius returned the kiss.
+
+"Now give him a room: to-day we shall stay here. Send up water to my
+room, we have got very dusty on the way, although we wished to be
+handsome to-day."
+
+"Indeed?"--Czipra took Desiderius' hand, and as she led him to his room,
+asked him the whole history of his life: where he lived: why he had not
+visited Lorand sooner: was he married already, and would he ever come
+back there again?
+
+Desiderius had learned from Lorand's letters about Czipra that he might
+readily answer any question the poor girl might ask, and might at first
+sight tell her every secret of his heart. Czipra was delighted.
+
+Lorand, however, did not wait for Topandy, who was coming behind, but
+rushed to his room.
+
+That letter, that letter!--it had been on his mind the whole way.
+
+His first duty was to take it out of the closed drawer and read it over.
+
+He did not deliberate long now whether to break the seal or not: and the
+envelope tore in his hand, as the seal would not yield.
+
+And then he read the following words:
+
+"SIR:
+
+"That minute, in which I learned your name, raised a barrier for ever
+between us. The recollections which are a burden upon you, cannot be
+continued by an alliance between us. You who dragged my mother down
+into misfortune, and then faithlessly deserted her, cannot insure me
+happiness, or expect faithfulness from me. I shall weep over Balint
+Tatray, as my departed to whom my dream gave being, and whom cold truth
+has buried; but Lorand Aronffy I do not know. It is my duty to tell you
+so, and if you are, as I believe, a man of honor, you will consider it
+your duty, should we ever meet in life, never again to make mention of
+what was Balint Tatray.
+                        Good-bye,
+                                                            "MELANIE."
+
+Lorand fell back in his chair broken-hearted.
+
+That was the contents of the letter he had kissed--the letter which, on
+the threshold of the house of death he had not dared to open, lest the
+happiness which would beam upon him should shake the firmness of his
+tread. Ah, they wished to make death easy for him! To write such a
+letter to him! To utter such words to one she had loved!...
+
+"Why, she is right. I was not the Joseph of the Bible: but does not love
+begin with pardon? Did I blame her for the possession of that ring she
+let fall in the water? And from whom could she know that my crime was
+worse than that which hung round that ring?
+
+"And if I were steeped in that crime with which she charges me, how can
+an angel, who may know nothing of what happens in hell, put such a
+thought in these cold-blooded words.
+
+"They wished to kill me.
+
+"They wished to close the door behind me, as Johanna of Naples did to
+her husband, when he was struggling with his assassins.
+
+"And they wished to wash clean the murderer's hands, throwing upon me
+the charge of having killed myself because my love was despised.
+
+"They knew everything well, they calculated all with cold mercilessness.
+They waited for the hour to come, and whetted the knife before I took it
+in my hands.
+
+"And yet I can never hate her! She has plunged the dagger into my heart,
+and I remember only the kiss she gave...."
+
+That moment he felt a quiet pressure on his shoulder.
+
+Confused, he looked up. Czipra was standing behind him. The poor gypsy
+girl could not allow anyone else to wait on Lorand: she had herself
+brought him the water.
+
+The girl's face betrayed a tender fear: she might long have been
+observing him, unknown to him.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked in trembling anxiety.
+
+Lorand could not speak. He merely showed her the letter he had read.
+
+Czipra could not understand the writing. She did not know how one could
+poison another with dumb letters, could wound his heart to its depths,
+and murder it. She merely saw that the letter made Lorand ill.
+
+She recognized that rose-colored paper, those fine characters.
+
+"Melanie wrote that."
+
+By way of reply Lorand in bitter inexpressible pain turned his gaze
+towards the letter.
+
+And the gypsy girl knew what that gaze said, knew what was written in
+that letter: with a wild beast's passion she tore it from Lorand's hand
+and passionately shred it into fragments and cast it on the ground, then
+trampled upon its pieces, as one tramples upon running spiders.
+
+Thereupon she hid her face in her hands and wept in Lorand's stead.
+
+Lorand went towards her and taking her hand, said sadly:
+
+"You see, such are not the gypsy girls whose faces are brown, who are
+born under tents, and who cut cards, and make that their religion."
+
+Then with Czipra's hand in his he walked long up and down his room
+without a word. Neither knew what to say to the other. They merely
+reflected how they could comfort each other's sorrow--and could not find
+a way.
+
+This melancholy reverie was interrupted by Topandy's arrival.
+
+"Now I beg you, Czipra, if you love me--" said Lorand.
+
+If she loved him?
+
+"To say not a single word to anybody of what you have seen. Nothing has
+happened to me.--If from this moment you ever see me sad, ask me 'What
+is the matter?' and I shall confess to you. But _that_ pale face shall
+never be among those for which I mourn."
+
+Czipra was rejoiced at these words.
+
+"Let us show cheerful faces before my uncle and brother. Let us be
+good-humored. No one shall see the sting within us."
+
+"And who knows, perhaps the bee will die for it--" Czipra departed with
+a cheery face as she said that. At the door she turned back once more:
+
+"The cards told me all that last night. Till midnight I kept cutting
+them. But the murderer always threatens you albeit the green-robed girl
+always defends you.--See, I am so mad--but there is nothing else in
+which I can believe."
+
+"There will be something else, Czipra," said Lorand. "Now I am going
+away with my brother to celebrate his marriage, then I shall return
+again."
+
+Thereupon there was no more need to insist on Czipra's being
+good-humored the whole day. Her good-humor came voluntarily.
+
+Poor girl, so little was required to make her happy.
+
+Lorand, as soon as Czipra was gone, collected from the floor the torn,
+trampled paper fragments, carefully put them together on the table,
+until the note was complete, then read it over once again.
+
+Before the door of his room he heard steps, and gay talk intermingled
+with laughter. Topandy and Desiderius had come to see him. Lorand blew
+the fragments off the table: they flew in all directions: he opened the
+door and joined the group, a third smiling figure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE UNCONSCIOUS PHANTOM
+
+
+What were they laughing at so much?
+
+"Do you know what counsel Czipra gave us?" said Topandy. "As she did not
+expect us to dinner, she advised us to go to Sarvoelgyi's, where there
+will be a great banquet to-day. They are expecting somebody."
+
+"Who will probably not arrive in time for dinner," added Desiderius.
+
+Czipra joined the conversation from the extreme end of the corridor.
+
+"The old housekeeper from Sarvoelgyi's was here to visit me. She asked
+for the loan of a pie-dish and ice: for Mr. Gyali is expected to arrive
+to-day from Szolnok."
+
+"Bravo!" was Topandy's remark.
+
+"And as I see you have left the young gentleman behind, just go
+yourselves to taste Mistress Boris's pies, or she will overwhelm me
+again with curses."
+
+"We shall go, Czipra," said Lorand: "Yes, yes, don't laugh at the idea.
+Get your hat, Desi: you are well enough dressed for a country call: let
+us go across to Sarvoelgyi's."
+
+"To Sarvoelgyi's?" said Czipra, clasping her hands, and coming closer to
+Lorand. "You will go to Sarvoelgyi's?"
+
+"Not just for Sarvoelgyi's sake," said Lorand very seriously,--"who is in
+other respects a very righteous pious fellow; but for the sake of his
+guests, who are old friends of Desi's.--Why, I have not yet told you,
+Desi. Madame Balnokhazy and her daughter are staying here with Sarvoelgyi
+on a matter of some legal business. You cannot overlook them, if you
+are in the same village with them."
+
+"I might go away without seeing them," replied Desiderius indifferently;
+"but I don't mind paying them a visit, lest they should think I had
+purposely avoided them. Have you spoken with them already?"
+
+"Oh yes. We are on very good terms with one another."
+
+Lorand sacrificed the caution he had once exercised in never writing a
+word to Desiderius about Melanie. It seemed Desi did not run after her
+either; what had his childish ideal come to? Another ideal had taken its
+place.
+
+"Besides, seeing that Gyali is the ladies' solicitor, and seeing that
+you, my dear friend, have '_manupropria_' despatched Gyali out of
+Szolnok--he immediately took the post-chaise and is already in Pest, or
+perhaps farther--it is your official duty to give an explanation to
+those who are waiting for their solicitor and to tell them where you
+have put their man--if you have courage enough to do so."
+
+Desiderius at first drew back, but later his calm confidence and courage
+immediately confirmed his resolution.
+
+"What do you say,--if I have courage? You shall soon see. And you shall
+see, too, what a lawyer-like defence I am able to improvise. I wager
+that if I put the case before them, they will give the verdict in our
+favor."
+
+"Do so, I beseech you," said Lorand, soliciting his brother with
+humorously clasped hands.
+
+"I shall do so."
+
+"Well be quick: get your hat, and let us go."
+
+Desiderius with determined steps went in search of his hat.
+
+Czipra laughed after him. She saw how ridiculous it would be. He was
+going to calumniate the bridegroom before the bride. With what words she
+herself did not know: but she gathered from the gentlemen's talk that
+Gyali had been driven from the company the night before for some
+flagrant dishonor. Since two days she too had detested that fellow.
+
+Lorand meanwhile gazed after his brother with eyes flashing with a
+desire for vengeance.
+
+Topandy grasped Lorand's hand.
+
+"If I believed in cherubim, I should say: a persecuting angel had taken
+up his abode in you, to whisper that idea to you. Do you know,
+Desiderius is the very double of what your father was when he came home
+from the academy: the same face, figure, depth of voice, the same
+lightning fire in his eyes, and that same murderous frown, and you are
+now going to take that boy before Sarvoelgyi that he may relate an awful
+story of a man who wished to murder a good friend in the most devilish
+manner, just as he did!"
+
+"Hush! Desi of that knows not a word."
+
+"So much the better. A living being, who does not suspect that to the
+man whom he is visiting, he is the most horrible phantom from the other
+world! The murdered father, risen up in the son!--It will make me
+acknowledge one of the ideas I have hitherto denied--the existence of
+hell."
+
+Desiderius returned.
+
+"Look at us, my dear Czipra," said Lorand to the girl, who was always
+fluttering around him: "are we handsome enough? Will the eyes of the
+beautiful rest upon us?"
+
+"Go," answered Czipra, pushing Lorand in playful anger, "as if you
+didn't know yourselves! Rather take care you don't get lost there. Such
+handsome fellows are readily snapped up."
+
+"No, Czipra, we shall return to you," said Lorand, pressing Czipra so
+tenderly to him, that Desiderius considered as superfluous any further
+questions as to why Lorand had brought him there. He approved his
+brother's choice: the girl was beautiful, natural, good-humored and, so
+it seemed, in love with him. What more could be required?--"Don't be
+afraid, Czipra; nobody's beautiful blue eyes shall detain us there."
+
+"I was not afraid for your sakes of beautiful eyes," replied Czipra,
+"but of Mistress Boris's pies:--such pies cannot be got here."
+
+Thereat all three laughed--finally Desiderius too, though he did not
+know what kind of mythological monster such a sadly bewitched cake might
+be, which came from Mistress Boris's hand.
+
+Topandy embraced the two young fellows. He was sorry he could not
+accompany them, but begged Lorand notwithstanding to remain as long as
+he liked.
+
+Czipra followed them to the door. Lorand there grasped her hand, and
+tenderly kissed it. The girl did not know whether to be ashamed or
+delighted.
+
+Thrice did Lorand turn round, before they reached Sarvoelgyi's home, to
+wave his hand to Czipra.
+
+Desiderius did not require any further enlightenment on that point. He
+thought he understood all quite well.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mistress Boris meanwhile had a fine job at her house.
+
+"He was a fool who conceived the idea of ordering a banquet for an
+indefinite time:--not to know whether he, for whom one must wait, will
+come at one, at two, at three,--in the evening, or after midnight."
+
+Twenty times she ran out to the door to see whether he was coming
+already or not. Every sound of carriage wheels, every dog-bark enticed
+her out into the road, from whence she returned each time more furious,
+pouring forth invectives over the spoiling of all her dishes.
+
+"Perhaps that gypsy girl again! Devil take the gypsy girl! She is quite
+capable of giving this guest a breakfast there first, and then letting
+him go. It would be madness surely, seeing that the town gentleman is
+the fiance of the young lady here: but the gypsy girl too has cursed
+bright eyes. Besides she is very cunning, capable of bewitching any man.
+The damned gypsy girl,--her spells make her cakes always rise
+beautifully, while mine wither away in the boiling fat--although they
+are made of the same flour, and the same yeast."
+
+It would not have been good for any one of the domestics to show herself
+within sight of Mistress Borcsa[73] at that moment.
+
+[Footnote 73: Boris.]
+
+"Well, my master has again burdened me with a guest who thinks the clock
+strikes midday in the evening. It was a pity he did not invite him for
+yesterday, in that case he might have turned up to-day. Why, I ought to
+begin cooking everything afresh.
+
+"I may say, he is a fine bridegroom for a young lady, who lets people
+wait for him. If I were the bridegroom of such a beautiful young lady, I
+should come to dinner half a day earlier, not half a day later. There
+will be nice scenes, if he has his cooking ever done at home. But of
+course at Vienna that is not the case, everybody lives on restaurant
+fare. There one may dine at six in the afternoon. At any rate, what
+midday diners leave is served up again for the benefit of later
+comers:--thanks, very much."
+
+Finally the last bark which Mistress Boris did not deign even to notice
+from the kitchen, heralded the approach of manly footsteps in the
+verandah: and when in answer to the bell Mistress Boris rushed to the
+door, to her great astonishment she beheld, not the gentleman from
+Vienna, but the one from across the way, with a strange young gentleman.
+
+"May I speak with the master?" inquired Lorand of the fiery Amazon.
+
+"Of course. He is within. Haven't you brought the gentleman from
+Vienna?"
+
+"He will only come after dinner," said Lorand, who dared to jest even
+with Mistress Boris.
+
+Then they went in, leaving Mistress Boris behind, the prey of doubt.
+
+"Was it real or in jest? What do _they_ want here? Why did they not
+bring him whom they took away? Will they remain here long?"
+
+The whole party had gathered in the grand salon.
+
+They too thought that the steps they heard brought the one they were
+expecting--and very impatiently too.
+
+Gyali had informed them he would take a carriage and return, as soon as
+he could escape from the revelry at Szolnok. Melanie and her mother were
+dressed in silk: on Melanie's wavy curls could be seen the traces of a
+mother's careful hand: and Madame Balnokhazy herself made a very
+impressive picture, while Sarvoelgyi had put on his very best.
+
+They must have prepared for a very great festival here to-day!
+
+But when the door opened before the three figures that courteously
+hastened to greet the new-comer, and the two brothers stepped in, all
+three smiling faces turned to expressions of alarm.
+
+"You still dare to approach me?"--that was Melanie's alarm.
+
+"You are not dead yet?" inquired Madame Balnokhazy's look of Lorand.
+
+"You have risen again?" was the question to be read in Sarvoelgyi's fixed
+stare that settled on Desiderius' face.
+
+"My brother, Desiderius,"--said Lorand in a tone of unembarrassed
+confidence, introducing his brother. "He heard from me of the ladies
+being here, so perhaps Mr. Sarvoelgyi will pardon us, if, in accordance
+with my brother's request, we steal a few moments' visit."
+
+"With pleasure: please sit down. I am very glad to see you," said
+Sarvoelgyi, in a husky tone, as if some invisible hand were choking his
+throat.
+
+"Desiderius has grown a big boy, has he not?" said Lorand, taking a seat
+between Madame Balnokhazy and Melanie, while Desiderius sat opposite
+Sarvoelgyi, who could not take his eyes off the lad.
+
+"Big and handsome," affirmed Madame Balnokhazy. "How small he was when
+he danced with Melanie!"
+
+"And how jealous he was of certain persons!"
+
+At these words three people hinted to Lorand not to continue, Madame
+Balnokhazy, Melanie and Desiderius. How indiscreet these country people
+are!
+
+Desiderius found his task especially difficult, after such a beginning.
+
+But Lorand was really in a good humor. The sight of his darling of
+yesterday, dressed in such magnificence to celebrate the day on which
+her poor wretched cast-off lover was to blow his brains out, roused such
+a joy in his heart that it was impossible not to show it in his words.
+So he continued:
+
+"Yes, believe me: the lively scamp was actually jealous of me. He almost
+killed me--yet we are very true to our memories."
+
+Desiderius could not comprehend what madness had come over his brother,
+that he wished to bring him and Melanie together into such a false
+position. Perhaps it would be good to start the matter at once and
+interrupt the conversation.
+
+On Madame Balnokhazy's face could be read a certain contemptuous scorn,
+when she looked at Lorand, as if she would say: "Well, after all, prose
+has conquered the poetry of honor, a man may live after the day of his
+death, if he has only the phlegm necessary thereto. Flight is shameful
+but useful,--yet you are as good as killed for all that."
+
+This scorn would soon be wiped away from that beautiful face.
+
+"Mesdames," said Desiderius in cold tranquillity. "Beyond paying my
+respects, I have another reason which made it my duty to come here. I
+must explain why your solicitor has not returned to-day, and why he will
+not return for some time."
+
+"Great Heavens! No misfortune has befallen him?" cried Madame Balnokhazy
+in nervous trepidation.
+
+"On that point you may be quite reassured, Madame: he is hale and
+healthy; only a slight change in his plans has taken place: he is just
+now flying west instead of east."
+
+"What can be the reason?"
+
+"I am the cause, which drove him away, I must confess."
+
+"You?" said Madame Balnokhazy, astonished.
+
+"If you will allow me, and have the patience for it, I will go very far
+back in history to account for this peculiar climax."
+
+Lorand remarked that Melanie was not much interested to hear what they
+were saying of Gyali. She was indifferent to him: why, they were already
+affianced.
+
+So he began to say pretty things to her: went into raptures about her
+beautiful curls, her blooming complexion, and various other things which
+it costs nothing to praise.
+
+As long as he had been her lover, he had never told her how beautiful
+she was. She might have understood his meaning. Those whom we flatter we
+no longer love.
+
+Desiderius continued the story he had begun.
+
+"Just ten years have passed since they began to prosecute the young men
+of the Parliament in Pressburg on account of the publication of the
+Parliamentary journal. There was only one thing they could not find out,
+viz:--who it was that originally produced the first edition to be
+copied: at last one of his most intimate friends betrayed the young man
+in question."
+
+"That is ancient history already, my dear boy," said Madame Balnokhazy
+in a tone of indifference.
+
+"Yet its consequences have an influence even to this day; and I beg you
+kindly to listen to my story to the end, and then pass a verdict on it.
+You must know your men."
+
+(What an innocent child Desiderius was! Why, he did not seem even to
+suspect that the man of whom he spoke was the designated son-in-law of
+Madame Balnokhazy.)
+
+"The one, who was betrayed by his friend, was my brother Lorand, and the
+one who betrayed his friend, was Gyali."
+
+"That is not at all certain," said Madame. "In such cases appearances
+and passion often prove deceptive mirrors. It is possible that someone
+else betrayed Mr. Aronffy, perhaps some fickle woman, to whom he babbled
+of all his secrets and who handed it on to her ambitious husband as a
+means of supporting his own merits."
+
+"I know positively that my assertion is correct," answered Desiderius,
+"for a magnanimous lady, who guarded my brother with her fairy power,
+hearing of this betrayal from her influential husband, informed Lorand
+thereof in a letter written by her own hand."
+
+Madame Balnokhazy bit her lips. The undeserved compliment smote her to
+the heart. She was the magnanimous fairy, of whom Desiderius spoke, and
+that fickle woman of whom she had spoken herself. The barrister was a
+master of repartee.
+
+Melanie, fortunately, did not hear this, for Lorand just then
+entertained her with a wonderful story: how that, curiously enough, when
+the young lady had been at Topandy's, the hyacinths had been covered
+with lovely clusters of fairy bells, and how, one week later, their
+place had been taken by ugly clusters of berries. How could flowers
+change so suddenly?
+
+"Very well," said Madame Balnokhazy, "let us admit that when Gyali and
+Aronffy were students together, the one played the traitor on the other.
+What happened then?"
+
+"I only learned last night what really happened. That evening I was on a
+visit to Lorand, and found Gyali there. They appeared to be joking. They
+playfully disputed as to who, at the farewell dance, was to be the
+partner of that very honorable lady, who may often be seen in your
+company. The two students disputed in my presence as to who was to dance
+with the 'aunt.'"
+
+"Of course, as a piece of unusual good fortune."
+
+"Naturally. As neither wished to give the other preference, they finally
+decided to entrust the verdict to lot; on the table was a small piece of
+paper, the only writing material to be found in Lorand's room after a
+careful rummaging, as all the rest had just been burned. This piece of
+lilac-colored paper was torn in two, and both wrote one name: these two
+pieces they put in a hat and called upon me to draw out one. I did so
+and read out Lorand's name."
+
+"Do you intend to relate how your brother enjoyed himself at that
+dance?"
+
+Melanie had not heard anything.
+
+"I have no intention of saying a single word more about that day--and I
+shall at once leap over ten years. But I must hasten to explain that the
+drawing had nothing to do with dancing with the 'aunt' but was the
+lottery of an 'American duel' caused by a conflict between Gyali and
+Lorand."
+
+Desiderius did not remark how the coppery spots on Sarvoelgyi's face
+swelled at the words "American duel," and then how they lost their color
+again.
+
+"One moment, my dear boy," interrupted Madame Balnokhazy. "Before you
+continue: allow me to ask one question: is it customary to speak in
+society of duels that have not yet taken place?"
+
+"Certainly, if one of the principals has by his cowardly conduct made
+the duel impossible."
+
+"Cowardly conduct?" said Madame Balnokhazy, darting a piercing side
+glance at Lorand. "That applies to you."
+
+But Lorand was just relating to Melanie how the day-before-yesterday,
+when the beautiful moonlight shone upon the piano, which had remained
+open as the young lady had left it, soft fairy voices began suddenly to
+rise from it. Though that was surely no spirit playing on the keys, but
+Czipra's tame white weasel that, hunting night moths, ran along them.
+
+"Yes," said Desiderius in answer to the lady. "One of the principals who
+accepted the condition gave evidence of such conduct on that occasion as
+must shut him out from all honorable company. Gyali wrote in forged
+writing on that ticket the name of Lorand instead of his own."
+
+Madame Balnokhazy incredulously pursed her lips.
+
+"How can you prove that?"
+
+"I did not cast into the fire, as Gyali bade me, the two tickets, but
+in their stead the dance programme I had brought with me, the two
+tickets I put away and have kept until to-day, suspecting that perhaps
+there might be some rather important reason for this calculating
+slyness."
+
+"Pardon me; but a very serious charge is being raised against an absent
+person, who cannot defend himself, and to defend whom is therefore the
+duty of the next and nearest person, even at the price of great
+indulgence. Have you any proof, any authentic evidence, that either one
+of the tickets you have kept is forged?"
+
+Madame Balnokhazy had gone to great extremes in doubting the
+faithfulness and truth-telling of a man,--but rather too far. She had to
+deal with a barrister.
+
+"The similarity admits of no doubt, Madame. Since these two slips are
+nothing but two halves that fit together, of that same letter in which
+Lorand's good-hearted fairy informed him of Gyali's treachery; on the
+opposite side of the slips is still to be seen the handwriting of that
+deeply honored lady: the date and watermark are still on them."
+
+Madame's bosom heaved with anger. This youth of twenty-three had
+annihilated her just as calmly, as he would have burnt that piece of
+paper of which they were speaking.
+
+Desiderius quietly produced his pocket-book and rummaged for the fatal
+slips of paper.
+
+"Never mind. I believe it," panted Madame Balnokhazy, whose face in that
+moment was like a furious Medusa head. "I believe what you say. I have
+no doubts about it:" therewith she rose from her seat and turned to the
+window.
+
+Desiderius too rose from his chair, seeing the sitting was interrupted,
+but could not resist the temptation of pouring out the overflowing
+bitterness of his heart before somebody; and, as Madame was displeased
+and Melanie was chatting with Lorand of trifles, he was obliged to
+address his words directly to his only hearer, to Sarvoelgyi, who
+remained still sitting, like one enchanted, while his gaze rested ever
+upon Desiderius' face. This face, drunken with rage and terror, could
+not tear itself from the object of its fears.
+
+"And this fellow has allowed his dearest friend to go through life for
+ten years haunted with the thought of death, has allowed him to hide
+himself in strangers' houses, avoiding his mother's embraces. It did not
+occur to him once to say 'Live on; don't persecute yourself; we were
+children, we have played together. I merely played a joke on you.'..."
+
+Sarvoelgyi turned livid with a deathly pallor.
+
+"Sir, you are a Christian, who believes in God, and in those who are
+saints: tell me, is there any torture of hell that could be punishment
+enough for so ruining a youth?"
+
+Sarvoelgyi tremblingly strove to raise himself on his quivering hand. He
+thought his last hour had come.
+
+"There is none!" answered Desiderius to himself. "This fellow kept his
+hatred till the last day, and when the final anniversary came, he
+actually sought out his victim to remind him of his awful obligation.
+Oh, sir, perhaps you do not know what a terrible fatality there is in
+this respect in our family? So died grandfather, so it was that our
+dearly loved father left us; so good, so noble-hearted, but who in a
+bitter moment, amidst the happiness of his family turned his hand
+against his own life. At night we stealthily took him out to burial.
+Without prayer, without blessing, we put him down into the crypt, where
+he filled the seventh place; and that night my grandmother, raving,
+cursed him who should occupy the eighth place in the row of
+blood-victims."
+
+Sarvoelgyi's face became convulsed like that of a galvanized corpse.
+Desiderius thought deep sympathy had so affected the righteous man and
+continued all the more passionately:
+
+"That fellow, who knew it well, and who was acquainted with our family's
+unfortunate ill-luck, in cold blood led his friend to the eighth coffin,
+to the cursed coffin--with the words 'Lie down there in it!'"
+
+Sarvoelgyi's lips trembled as if he would cry "pity: say nothing more!"
+
+"He went with him down to the gate of death, opened the dark door before
+him, and asked him banteringly 'is the pistol loaded?' and when Lorand
+took his place amid the revellers: bade him fulfil his obligation--the
+perjured hound called him to his obligation!"
+
+Sarvoelgyi, all pale, rose at this awful scene:--for all the world as if
+Loerincz Aronffy himself had come to relate the history of his own death
+to his murderer.
+
+"Then I seized Lorand's arm with my one hand, and with the other held
+before the wretch's eyes the evidence of his cursed falseness. His evil
+conscience bade him fly. I reached him, seized his throat...."
+
+Sarvoelgyi in abject terror sank back in his chair, while Madame
+Balnokhazy, rushing from the window, passionately cried "and killed
+him?"
+
+Desiderius, gazing haughtily at her, answered calmly: "No, I merely cast
+him out from the society of honorable men."
+
+To Lorand it was a savage pleasure to look at those three faces, as
+Desiderius spoke. The dumb passion which inflamed Madame Balnokhazy's
+face, the convulsive terror on the features of the fatal adversary,
+strove with each other to fill his heart with a great delight.
+
+And Melanie? What had she felt during this narration, which made such an
+ugly figure of the man to whom fate allotted her?
+
+Lorand's eyes were intent upon her face too.
+
+The young girl was not so transfixed by the subject of the tale as by
+the speaker. Desiderius in the heat of passion, was twice as handsome as
+he was otherwise. His every feature was lighted with noble passion. Who
+knows--perhaps the beautiful girl was thinking it would be no very
+pleasant future to be the bride of Gyali after such a scandal! Perhaps
+there returned to her memory some fragments of those fair days at
+Pressburg, when she and Desiderius had sighed so often side by side.
+That boy had been very much in love with his beautiful cousin. He was
+more handsome and more spirited than his brother. Perhaps her thoughts
+were such. Who knows?
+
+At any rate, it is certain that when Desiderius answered Madame's
+question with such calm contempt--"I cast him out, I did not kill
+him,"--on Melanie's face could be remarked a certain radiance, though
+not caused by delight that her fiance's life had been spared.
+
+Lorand remarked it, and hastened to spoil the smile.
+
+"Certainly you would have killed him, Desi, had not your good angel,
+your dear Fanny, luckily for you, intervened, and grasped your arm,
+saying 'this hand is mine. You must not defile it.'"
+
+The smile disappeared from Melanie's face.
+
+"And now," said Desiderius, addressing his remarks directly to
+Sarvoelgyi; "be my judge, sir. What had a man, who with such sly
+deception, with such cold mercilessness, desired to kill, to destroy, to
+induce a heart in which the same blood flows as in mine--to commit a
+crime against the living God, what, I ask, had such a man deserved from
+me? Have I not a right to drive that man from every place, where he
+dares to appear in the light of the sun, until I compel him to walk
+abroad at night when men do not see him, among strangers who do not know
+him;--to destroy him morally with just as little mercy as he displayed
+towards Lorand?--Would that be a crime?"
+
+"Great Heavens! Something has happened to Mr. Sarvoelgyi," cried Madame
+Balnokhazy suddenly.
+
+And indeed Sarvoelgyi was very pale, his limbs were almost powerless, but
+he did not faint. He put his hands behind him, lest they should remark
+how they trembled, and strove to smile.
+
+"Sir," he said in a hesitating voice, which often refused to serve him:
+"although I have nothing to say against it, yet you have told your story
+at an unfortunate time and in an ill-chosen place:--this young lady is
+Mr. Gyali's fiancee and to-day we had prepared for the wedding."
+
+"I am heartily glad that I prevented it," said Desiderius, without being
+in the least disturbed at this discovery. "I think I am doing my
+relations a good service by staying them at the point where they would
+have fallen over a precipice."
+
+"You are a master-hand at that," said Madame Balnokhazy with scornful
+bitterness. She remembered how he had done her a service by a similar
+intervention--just ten years ago. "Well, as you have succeeded so
+perfectly in rescuing us from the precipice, perhaps we may hope for the
+honor of your presence at the friendly conclusion of this spoiled
+matrimonial banquet?"
+
+Madame Balnokhazy's wandering life had whetted her cynicism.
+
+It was a direct hint for them to go.
+
+"We are very much obliged for the kind invitation," replied Lorand
+courteously, paying her back in the same coin of sweetness, "but they
+are expecting us at home."
+
+"Hearts too, which one may not trifle with," continued Desiderius.
+
+"Then, of course, we should not think of stealing you away," continued
+Madame Balnokhazy, touched to the quick. "Kindly greet, in our names,
+dear Czipra and dear Fanny. We are very fond indeed of the good girls,
+and wish you much good fortune with them. The arms of Aronffy, too, find
+an explanation therein: the half-moon will in one case mean a
+horse-shoe, in the other a bread-roll. Adieu, dear Lorand! Adieu, dear
+Desi!"
+
+Then arm-in-arm they departed and hurried home to Topandy's house.
+
+Madame's last outburst had thrown Desiderius into an entirely good
+humor. That was the first thing about which he began to converse with
+Topandy. Madame Balnokhazy had congratulated the Aronffy arms on the
+possession of a "horse-shoe" and a "roll," a gypsy girl and a baker's
+daughter!
+
+But Lorand did not laugh at it:--what a fathomless deep hatred that
+woman must treasure in her heart against him, that she could break out
+so! And was she not right that woman who had desired the young man to
+embrace her, and thus embracing her to rush on to the precipice, into
+shame and death, and damnation, if he could love really:--had she no
+right to scorn, him who had fled before the romantic crimes of passion
+and had allowed her to fall alone?
+
+At dinner Desiderius related to Topandy what he had said at Sarvoelgyi's.
+His face beamed like that of some young student who was glorying in his
+first duel.
+
+But he could not understand the effect his narration had caused.
+Topandy's face became suddenly more determined, more serious; he gazed
+often at Lorand.
+
+Once Desiderius too looked up at his brother, who was wiping his
+tear-stained eyes with his handkerchief.
+
+"You are weeping?" inquired Desiderius.
+
+"What are you thinking of? I was only wiping my brow. Continue your
+story."
+
+When they rose from table Topandy called Lorand aside.
+
+"This young fellow knows nothing of what I related to you?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing."
+
+"So he has not the slightest suspicion that in that moment he plunged
+the knife into the heart of his father's murderer?"
+
+"No. Nor shall he ever know it. A double mission has been entrusted to
+us, to be happy and to wreak vengeance. Neither of us can undertake both
+at once. He has started to be happy, his heart is full of sweetness, he
+is innocent, unsuspicious, enthusiastic: let him be happy: God forbid
+his days should be poisoned by such agonizing thoughts as will not let
+me rest!--I am enough myself for revenge, embittered as I am from head
+to foot. The secret is known only to us, to grandmother and the Pharisee
+himself. We shall complete the reckoning without the aid of happy men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE DAY OF GLADNESS
+
+
+"Let us go back at once to your darling," said Lorand next morning to
+his brother. "My affair is already concluded."
+
+Desiderius did not ask "how concluded?" but thought it easy to account
+for this speech. It could easily be concluded between Topandy and
+Lorand, as the former was the girl's adopted father: Lorand had only to
+disclose to him everything about which it had been his melancholy duty
+to keep silence until the day of the catastrophe, which he was awaiting,
+had arrived.
+
+Nor could Desiderius suspect that the word "concluded" referred to the
+visit they had paid together to Sarvoelgyi. How could he have imagined
+that Melanie, who had been introduced to him as Gyali's fiancee, had one
+week before filled Lorand's whole soul with a holy light.
+
+And that light had indeed been extinguished forever.
+
+Even if they had not succeeded in murdering Lorand they had made a dead
+man of him, such a dead man as walks, throws himself into the affairs of
+the world, enjoys himself and laughs--who only knows himself the day of
+his death.
+
+Desiderius ventured to ask "When?"
+
+He always thought of Czipra.
+
+Lorand answered lightly:
+
+"When we return."
+
+"Whence?"
+
+"From your wedding."
+
+"Why, you said yours must precede mine."
+
+"You are again playing the advocate!" retorted Lorand. "I referred not
+to the execution, but to the arrangements. My banns have been called
+before yours; that was my desire. Now it is your business to carry your
+affair through before I do mine. Your affair of the heart can easily be
+concluded in three days."
+
+"An excellent explanation! And your marriage requires longer
+preparations?"
+
+"Much longer."
+
+"What obstacle can Czipra present?"
+
+"An obstacle which you know very well: Czipra is still--a heathen. Now
+the first requisite here for marriage is the birth-certificate. You know
+well that Topandy has hitherto brought the poor girl up in an
+uncivilized manner. I cannot present her to mother in this state. She
+must learn to know the principles of religion, and just so much of the
+alphabet as is necessary for a country lady--and you must realize that
+several weeks are necessary for that. That is what we must wait for."
+
+Desiderius had to acknowledge that Lorand's excuse was well-grounded.
+
+And perhaps Lorand was not jesting? Perhaps he thought the poor girl
+loved him with her whole soul, and would be happy to possess these
+fragments of a broken heart. Yet he had not told her anything. Czipra
+had seen him in desperation over that letter: as far as the faithful,
+loving girl was concerned, it would have been merely an insult, if the
+idol of her heart had offered her his hand the next moment, out of mere
+offended pride; and, while she offered him impassioned love, given her
+merely cold revenge in return.
+
+This feeling of revenge must soften. Every impulse guided to the old
+state of things.
+
+Meantime the marriage of Desiderius would be a good influence. He was
+marrying Fanny. The young couple would, during their honeymoon, visit
+Lankadomb: true love was an education in itself: and then--even
+cemeteries grow verdant in spring.
+
+The two young men reached Szolnok punctually at noon.
+
+And thence they returned home.
+
+Home, sweet home! At home in a beloved mother's house. A man visits many
+gay places where people enjoy themselves: finds himself at times in
+glorious palaces; builds himself a nest, and rears a house of his
+own:--but even then some sweet enchantment overcomes his heart when he
+steps over the threshold of that quiet dwelling where a loving mother's
+guardian hand has protected every souvenir of his childhood,--so that he
+finds everything as he left it long ago, and sees and feels that, while
+he has lived through the changing events of a period in his life, that
+loving heart has still clung to that last moment, and that the
+intervening time has been but as the eternal remembrance of one hour
+spent within those walls.
+
+There are his childhood's toys piled up; he would love to sit down once
+more among them, and play with them: there are the books that delighted
+his childhood's days; he would love to read them anew, and learn again
+what he had long forgotten, what was in those days such great knowledge.
+
+Lorand spent a happy week at home, in the course of which Mrs. Fromm
+took Fanny back to Pressburg.
+
+As Desiderius had asked for Fanny's hand, it was only proper that he
+should take his bride away from her parents' house.
+
+One week later the whole Aronffy family started to fetch the bride; only
+Desiderius' mother remained at home.
+
+In the little house in Prince's Avenue the same old faces all awaited
+them, only they were ten years older. Old Marton hastened, as erstwhile,
+to open the carriage door; only his moving crest was as white as that of
+a cockatoo. Father Fromm, too, was waiting at the door, but could no
+longer run to meet his guests, for his left arm and leg were paralyzed:
+he leaned upon a long bony young man, who had spent much pains in trying
+to twist into a moustache by the aid of cunning unguents the few hairs
+on his upper lip, that would not under any circumstances consent to
+grow. It was easy to recognize Henrik in the young fellow who would
+have loved so much to smile, only that cursed waxed moustache would not
+allow his mouth to open very far.
+
+"Welcome, welcome," sounded from all sides. Father Fromm opened his arms
+to receive the grandmother: Henrik leaped on to Desiderius' neck, while
+old Marton slouched up to Lorand, and, nudging him with his elbows, said
+with a humorous smile, "Well, no harm came of it, you see."
+
+"No, old fellow. And I have to thank this good stick for it," said
+Lorand, producing from under his coat Marton's walking stick, for which
+he had had made a beautiful silver handle in place of the previous
+dog's-foot.
+
+The old fellow was beside himself with delight that they thought so much
+of his relics.
+
+"Is it true," he asked, "that you fought two highwaymen with this stick?
+Master Desiderius wrote to say so."
+
+"No, only one."
+
+"And you knocked him down?"
+
+"It was impossible for he ran away. Now I have done my walking, and give
+back the stick with thanks."
+
+But it was not the silver handle that delighted Marton so. He took the
+returned stick into the shop, like some trophy, and related to the
+assistants, how Master Lorand had, with that alone, knocked down three
+highwaymen. He would not have surrendered that stick for a whole
+Mecklenburg full of every kind of cane.
+
+Old Grandmother Fromm, too, was still alive and counted it a great
+triumph that she had just finished the hundredth pair of stockings for
+Fanny's trousseau.
+
+And last, but not least, Fanny, even more beautiful, even more
+amiable!--as if she had not seen Desiderius and his grandmother for an
+eternity!
+
+"Well, you will be our daughter!"
+
+And they all loved Desiderius so.
+
+"What a handsome man he has grown," complimented Grandmother Fromm.
+
+"What a good fellow!"--remarked Mother Fromm.
+
+"What a clever fellow! How learned!" was Father Fromm's encomium.
+
+"And what a muscular rascal!" said Henrik, overcome with astonishment
+that another boy too had grown as large as he. "Do you remember how one
+evening you threw me on to the bed? How angry I was with you then!"
+
+"Do you remember how the first evening you put away the cake for
+Henrik?" said grandmamma. "How you blushed then!"
+
+"Do you remember," interrupted Father Fromm, "the first time you
+addressed me in German? How I laughed at you then!"
+
+"Well, and do you remember me?" said Fanny playfully, putting her hand
+on her fiance's arm.
+
+"When first you kissed me here," retorted Desiderius, looking into her
+beaming eyes.
+
+"How you feared me then!"
+
+"Well, and do you remember," said the young fellow in a voice void of
+feeling, "when I stood resting against the doorpost, and you came to
+drag my secret out of me. How I loved you then!"
+
+Lorand stepped up to them, and laying his hands on their shoulders, said
+with a sigh:
+
+"Forgive me for standing so long in your path!"
+
+At that everyone's eyes filled with tears, everyone knew why.
+
+Father Fromm, deeply moved, exclaimed:
+
+"How happy I am,--my God!" and then as if he considered his happiness
+too great, he turned to Henrik, "if only you were otherwise! but look,
+my dear boy: nothing has come of him! _fuit negligens_. If he too had
+learned, he would already be an '_archivarius_!' That is what I wanted
+to make of him. What a fine title! An '_archivarius_!' But what has
+become of him? An '_asinus_!' _Quantus asinus_! I ought to have made a
+baker of him. He did not wish to be other, the fool: the '_perversus
+homo_.' Now he is nothing but a '_pistor_.'"
+
+At this grievous charge poor Henrik would have longed to sink into the
+earth for very shame, a longing which would have met with opposition,
+not only from the ground-floor inhabitants, but also from the assistants
+working in the underground cellars.
+
+Lorand took Henrik's part.
+
+"Never mind, Henrik. At any rate in both families there is a
+good-for-nothing who can do nothing except produce bread: I am the
+peasant, you the baker: I thresh the wheat, you bake bread of it: let
+the high and mighty feast on their pride."
+
+Then the common good-humor of the high and mighty put a good tone on the
+conversation. Father Fromm actually made peace though slowly with fate,
+and agreed that it was just as well Henrik could continue his father's
+business. He might find some respite in the fact that at least his
+second child would become a "lady."
+
+Desiderius had a joy in store for him in that he was to meet his
+erstwhile Rector,[74] who was to give away the bride. The old fellow had
+still the same military mien, the same harsh voice, and was still as
+sincerely fond of Desiderius and the two families as ever.
+
+[Footnote 74: The director of the school when he was educated at
+Pressburg.]
+
+Lorand was to be Desiderius' best man.
+
+In this official position he was obliged to stand on the bridegroom's
+left, while the latter swore before the altar, to provide for the
+bride's happiness "till death us do part," receiving in trust a faithful
+hand which even in death would not loosen its hold on his. He was the
+first to praise the bride for repeating after the minister so
+courageously and clearly those words, at which the voices of girls are
+wont to tremble. He was the first to raise his glass to the happy
+couple's health: he opened the ball with the bride: and one day later,
+it was he who took her back on his arm to his mother's home, saying:
+
+"Dear sister-in-law, step into the house from which your calm face has
+driven all signs of mourning: embrace her who awaits you--the good
+mother who has to-day for the first time exchanged her black gown for
+that blue one in which we knew her in days of happiness. Never has bride
+brought a richer dowry to a bridegroom's home, than you have to ours.
+God bless you for it."
+
+And even Lorand did not know how much that hand which pressed his so
+gently had done for him.
+
+It is the fate of such deeds to succeed and remain obscure.
+
+"Let the children spend their happy honeymoon in the country," was the
+opinion of the elder lady. "They must grow accustomed to being their own
+masters, too."
+
+But the idea met with the most strenuous opposition from Desiderius'
+mother and Fanny. The mother's prayers were so beautiful, the bride so
+irresistible, that the other two, the grandmother and Lorand, finally
+allowed themselves to be persuaded, and agreed that the mother should
+stay with Desiderius.
+
+"But we two must leave," whispered grandmother to Lorand.
+
+She had already noticed that Lorand's face was not fit to be present in
+that peaceful life.
+
+His gaiety was only for others: a grandmother's eyes could not be
+deceived.
+
+While the others were engaged with their own happiness, the old lady
+took Lorand's hand and, without a word of "whither," they went down
+together to the garden, to the stream flowing beside the garden: to the
+melancholy house built on the bank of the stream.
+
+Ten years had passed and the creeper had again crawled over the crypt
+door: the green leaves covered the motto. The two juniper trees had
+bowed their green branches together over the cupola.
+
+They stayed there, her head leaning on his bosom.
+
+How much they must have said to one another, tacitly, without a single
+word! How they must have understood each other's unspoken thoughts!
+
+Deep silence reigned around: but within, inside the closed, rusted,
+creeper-covered door, it seemed as if someone beckoned with invisible
+finger, saying to the elder boy, "one great debt is not yet paid."
+
+One hour later they returned to the house, where they were welcomed by
+boisterous voices of noisy gladness--master and servant were all merry
+and rejoicing.
+
+"I must hasten on my way," said Lorand to his mother.
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"Back to Lankadomb."
+
+"You will bring me a new joy."
+
+"Yes, a new joy for you, mother,--and for you, too," he said pressing
+his grandmother's hand.
+
+She understood what that handclasp meant.
+
+The murderer lived still.--The account was not yet balanced! Lorand
+kissed his happy relations. The old lady accompanied him to the
+carriage, where she kissed his forehead.
+
+"Go."
+
+And in that kiss there was the weight of a blessing that urged him to
+his difficult duty.
+
+"Go--and wreak vengeance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE MAD JEST
+
+
+Let us leave the happy ones to rejoice.
+
+Let us follow that other youth, in whom all that sweet strength for
+action, which might have brought a mutually-loving heart into the
+ecstasy of happiness, had changed into a bitter passion, capable of
+driving a mutually-hating soul to destruction.
+
+It was evening when he reached Lankadomb.
+
+Topandy was already very impatient. Czipra informed him she would not
+give Lorand even time to rest himself, but took him at once with her to
+the laboratory, where they had been wont to be together, to study alone
+the mysteries of mankind and nature.
+
+The old fellow seemed to be in an extraordinarily good humor, which in
+his case was generally a sign of excitement.
+
+"Well, my dear boy," he said, "I have succeeded in getting myself
+tangled up in a mess. I will explain it to you. I have always desired to
+make the acquaintance of the county prison by reason of some meritorious
+stupidity; so finally I have committed something which will aid my
+purpose."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Yes, indeed:--for two years at least. Ha ha! I have perpetrated such a
+mad jest that I am myself entirely contented. Of course they will
+imprison me, but that does not matter."
+
+"What have you done now, uncle?"
+
+"Just listen, it is a long story. First I must begin by saying that
+Melanie is already married."
+
+"So much the better."
+
+"I only hope it is for her--for me it is. But it is the turning-point
+of my fate too: so just listen to the end, to all the little trifling
+incidents of the tale--as Mistress Boris related them to Czipra, and
+Czipra to me. They all belong to the complete picture."
+
+"I am all ears," said Lorand, sitting down, and determining to show a
+very indifferent face when they related before him the tale of Melanie's
+marriage.
+
+"Well, after you left here, they knowing nothing of your departure,
+Madame Balnokhazy said to her daughter: 'Just for mere obstinacy's sake
+you must marry Gyali: let these men see how much we care for their
+fables!'--therewith she wrote a letter herself to Gyali to come back
+immediately to Lankadomb, and show himself: they were awaiting him with
+open arms. He must not be afraid of the brothers Aronffy. He must look
+into their faces as behooved a man of dignity. To provide against any
+possible insults, he must protect himself with a couple of
+pocket-pistols: such things he must always carry in his pocket, to
+display beneath the nose of anyone who attempted to frighten him with
+his gigantic stature!--Gyali shortly appeared in the village again, and
+very ostentatiously drove up and down before my window, driving the
+horses himself with the ladies sitting behind, as if he hoped to take
+the greatest revenge upon me in this way. I merely said: 'If you are
+satisfied with him, it is nothing to me.' It seems that in the world of
+to-day the ladies like the man, upon whom others have spat, whom others
+have insulted and kicked out!--they know all--well, I had no wish to
+quarrel with their taste.
+
+"I determined just for that reason not to do anything mad. I would be
+clever. I would look down upon the world's madness with contemplative
+philosophy, and merely carry out the clever jest of annulling my
+previous will in which I had made Melanie my heiress, and which had been
+stored away in the county archive room, making another which I shall
+keep here at home, in which not a single mention is made of my niece.
+
+"The wedding was solemnized with great pomp.
+
+"Sarvoelgyi did not complain of the expense incurred. He thought to
+revenge himself on me. He collected all the friends he could from the
+vicinity: I too received a lithographed invitation. Look at that!"
+
+Topandy took the vellum from his pocket-book and handed it to Lorand.
+
+     DEAR MR. TOPANDY:
+
+     It will give me great pleasure if you and your nephew Lorand
+     Aronffy will accept our invitation to the wedding of my daughter
+     Melanie and Joseph Gyali, at Mr. Sarvoelgyi's house.
+
+     EMILIA BALNOKHAZY.
+
+"Keep half for yourself."
+
+"Thanks: I don't want even the whole."
+
+"Well, it just happened to be Sunday. Sarvoelgyi chose that day, because
+it would cost so much less to array the village folk in holiday garb. He
+had the bells rung, so did the Vicar: every window and door was full of
+curious on-lookers. I too took my seat on the verandah to see the sight.
+
+"The long line of carriages started. First the bridegroom with
+Sarvoelgyi, after them the bride, dressed in a white lawn robe, and
+wearing, if I am not mistaken, many theatrical jewels."
+
+Lorand interrupted impatiently:
+
+"You evidently think, uncle, that I shall write all this for some
+fashion-paper, as you are telling me in such detail about the costumes."
+
+"I have learned it from English novel-writers: if a man wants to
+convince his hearers that something is true history and no fable, he
+must describe externals in detail, that they may see what an eye-witness
+he was.--Well, I shall leave out all description of the horses'
+trappings.
+
+"As the long convoy proceeded up the street, a carriage drawn by four
+horses clattered up from the opposite end, a county court official
+beside the coachman, behind, two gentlemen, one lean, the other
+thickset.
+
+"When this equipage met the wedding procession, the lean gentleman
+stopped his carriage and called out to Sarvoelgyi's coachman to bring his
+coach to a standstill.
+
+"The lean man leaped down from his carriage, the stout man after him,
+the official following them, and stepped up to the bridegroom.
+
+"'Are you Joseph Gyali?' inquired the lean man, without any prefix.
+
+"'I am,' he said, looking at the dust-covered man with angry hauteur,
+not comprehending by what right anyone could dare to stop him at such a
+time and to address him so curtly.
+
+"But the lean man seized the door of the carriage and said to the
+bridegroom:
+
+"'Well, sir, have you any soul?'
+
+"Our dear friend could not comprehend what new form of greeting it was,
+to ask a man on the road whether he had a soul.
+
+"But the lean man seemed to wish to know that at any cost.
+
+"'Sir, have you any soul?'
+
+"'What?'
+
+"Have you any soul, that you can lead an innocent maiden to the altar,
+in the position in which you are?'
+
+"'Who are you? And how dare you to address me?'
+
+"'I am Miklos Daruszegi, county court magistrate, and have come to
+arrest you, in consequence of a proclamation of the High Court of
+Justice in Vienna, which has sent us instructions to arrest you wherever
+you may be found on the charge of several forgeries and deceits, _in
+flagrante_, and not to accept bail!'
+
+"'But, sir--!'
+
+"'There is no chance for resistance. You knew already in Vienna to what
+charge you were liable, and you came directly to Hungary in the hope
+that if you could ally yourself with some propertied lady, your
+honorable person might be defended, thus practising fresh deceit against
+others. And now again I ask you, whether you have the soul to wish, on
+the prison's threshold, to drag an innocent maiden with you?'"
+
+"Poor Melanie!"--whispered Lorand.
+
+"Poor Melanie naturally fainted, and the poor P. C.'s widow was beside
+herself with rage: poor Sarvoelgyi wept like a child: all the guests
+fled back to the house, and the bridegroom was compelled to descend from
+the bridal coach, and take his place in the magistrate's muddy chaise,
+still wearing his costume covered with decorations: they supplied him
+with a rug, it is true, to cover himself with, but the heron-plumed hat
+remained on his head for the public wonder.
+
+"I truly sympathised with the poor creatures! Still it seems I have
+survived that pain too.--If only it had not happened in the street!
+Before the eyes of so many men! If I at least had not seen it! If only I
+might give a romantic version of the catastrophe. But such a prosaic
+ending! A bridegroom arrested for the forgery of documents at the church
+door!--His tragedy is surely over!"
+
+"But according to that, Melanie did not become his wife?" said Lorand.
+"Melanie has not been married at all."
+
+Topandy shook his head.
+
+"You are an impatient audience, nephew. Still I shall not hurry the
+performance. You must wait till I send a glass of absinthe down my
+throat, for my stomach turns at the very thought of what I am about to
+relate."
+
+And he was not joking: he looked among the many chemicals for the bottle
+bearing the label "absynthium," and drank a small glass of it. Then he
+poured one out for Lorand.
+
+"You must drink too."
+
+"I could not drink it, uncle," said Lorand, full of other thoughts.
+
+"But drink this glass, I tell you: until you do I shall not continue.
+What I am going to say is strong poison, and this is the antidote."
+
+So Lorand drank, that he might hear what happened.
+
+"Well, my dear boy. You must dispense with the idea that Melanie is not
+a wife: Melanie two days ago married--Sarvoelgyi!"
+
+"Oh, that is only a jest!" exclaimed Lorand incredulously.
+
+"Of course it is a jest: only a very mad one. Who could take such
+things seriously? Sarvoelgyi was jesting when he said to Madame
+Balnokhazy: 'Madame, there is a scandal--your daughter is neither a miss
+nor a Mrs. She is burdened both by loss and contempt. You cannot appear
+any more before the world after such a scandal. I have a good idea: we
+are trying to agree now about a property; let us shake hands, and the
+bargain's made, the property and the price of purchase remain in the
+same hands.'--Madame Balnokhazy too was jesting when she said to her
+daughter: 'My dear Melanie, we have fallen up to our necks in the mire,
+we cannot be very particular about the hand that is to drag us out.
+Lorand will never come back again, Gyali has deceived us; but only tit
+for tat,--for we deceived him with that tale of the regained property in
+which only one man believes,--honorable Sarvoelgyi. If you accept his
+offer, you will be a lady of position, if not, you can come with me as a
+wandering actress. We can take our revenge upon them, for they hate
+Sarvoelgyi too. And after all Sarvoelgyi is a very pleasant fellow.'--And
+surely Melanie was jesting when two days later she said to the priest
+before the altar that in the whole world there was only one man whom she
+could deem worthy of her love, and he was Sarvoelgyi.--I believe it was
+all a jest--but so it happened."
+
+Lorand covered his face with his hands.
+
+"A jest indeed, a fine jest fit to stir one's blood," Topandy angrily
+burst out. "That girl, whom I so loved, whom I treated as my child, who
+was to me an image of what they call womanly purity, throws herself away
+upon my most detested enemy, a loathsome corpse, whose body, soul, and
+spirit had already decayed. Why if she had returned broken-hearted to
+me, and said, 'I have erred,' I should have still received her with open
+arms: she should not thus have prostituted the feeling which I held for
+her.
+
+"Oh, my friend, there is nothing more repulsive in this round world,
+than a woman who can make herself thus loathed."
+
+Lorand's silence gave assent to this sentence.
+
+"And now follows the madness I committed.
+
+"I said: if you jest, let me jest too. My house was at that moment full
+of gay companions, who were helping me to curse. But what is the value
+of curses? A mad idea occurred to me. I said: 'If you are holding a
+marriage feast yonder, I shall hold one here.' You remember there was an
+old mangled-eared ass, used by the shepherd to carry the hides of
+slaughtered oxen, called by my servants, out of ridicule, Sarvoelgyi.
+Then there was a beautiful thoroughbred colt, which Melanie chose
+betimes to bear her name. I dressed the ass and foal up as bridegroom
+and bride, one of the drunken revellers dressed as a 'monk' and at the
+same time that Sarvoelgyi and Melanie went to their wedding, here, in my
+courtyard, I parodied the holy ceremony in the persons of those two
+animals."
+
+Lorand was horror stricken.
+
+"It was a mad idea: I acknowledge it," continued Topandy. "To ridicule
+religious ceremonies! That will cost me two years at least in the county
+prison: I shall not defend myself--I have deserved it. I shall put up
+with it. I knew it when I carried out this raving jest--I knew what the
+outcome would be. But if they had promised me all the good things that
+lie between the guardian of the Northern Dog-star and the emerald wings
+of the vine-dresser beetle, or if they had threatened me with all that
+exists down to the middle of the earth, down to hell, I should have done
+it, when once I had thought it out. I wanted a hellish revenge, and
+there it was. How hellish it was you may imagine from the fact that the
+jovial fellows at once sobered, disappeared from the house; and since
+then one or two have written to beg me not to betray their presence here
+on that occasion. I am only pleased you were not here then."
+
+"And I am sorry I was not. Had I been, it would not have happened."
+
+"Don't say that, my dear boy. Don't think too well of yourself. You
+don't know what you would have felt, had you seen pass before you in a
+carriage her whom we had idolized with him whom we detest so. It
+destroyed my reason. And even now I feel a terrible void in my soul.
+That girl occupied such a large place therein. I feel it is still more
+painful for me that I perpetrated such a trivial jest in her name, in
+her memory.--Still, it has happened and we cannot recall it. We have
+begun the campaign of hatred, and don't know ourselves where it will
+end. Now let us speak of other things. During my imprisonment you will
+take over the farm and remain here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But you have still another difficult matter to get through first."
+
+"I know."
+
+"Oh dear no. Why do you always wish to discover my thoughts? You cannot
+know of what I am thinking."
+
+"Czipra...."
+
+"That is not quite it. Though it did occur to me to ask how could I
+leave a young man and a young girl here all alone. Yet in that matter I
+have my own logic: the young man either has a heart or none at all. If
+he has a heart, he will either keep his distance from the girl, or, if
+he has loved her, he will not ask who her father and mother were or what
+her dowry is. He will estimate her at her own value for her own self--a
+faithful woman. If he has no heart, the girl must see to having more:
+she must defend herself. If neither has a heart,--well a daily
+occurrence will occur once more. Who has ever grieved over it? I have
+nothing to say in the matter. He who knows himself to be an animal,
+nothing more, is right: he who considers himself a higher being, a man,
+a noble man, is right too: and he who wishes to be an angel, is only
+vain. Whether you make the girl your mistress or your wife, is the
+affair of you two: it all depends which category of the physical world
+you desire to belong to. The one says, 'I, a male ass, wish to graze
+with you, a female-ass, on thistles;' or, 'I, a man, wish to be your
+god, woman, to care for you.' It is, as I say, a matter of taste and
+ideas. I entrust it to you. But I have matter for serious anxiety here.
+Have you not remarked that here, round Lankadomb, an enormous number of
+robberies take place?"
+
+"Perhaps not more than elsewhere: only we do not know about the
+misfortunes of others."
+
+"Oh, dear, no; our neighborhood is in reality the home of a far-reaching
+robber-band, whose dealings I have long followed with great attention.
+These marshes here around us afford excellent shelter to those who like
+to avoid the world."
+
+"That is so everywhere. Fugitive servants, marauding shepherds, bandits,
+who visit country houses to ask a drink of wine, bacon and bread,--I
+have met them often enough: I gave them from my purse as much as I
+pleased, and they went on their way peacefully."
+
+"Here we have to deal with quite a different lot. Czipra might know more
+about it, if she chose to speak. That tent-dwelling army, out of whose
+midst I took her to myself, is lurking around us, and is more malicious
+than report says. They conceal their deeds splendidly, they are very
+cunning and careful. They are not confined to human society, they can
+winter among the reeds, and so are more difficult to get at than the
+mounted highwaymen, who hasten to enjoy the goods they have purloined in
+the inns. They have never dared to attack me at home, for they know I am
+ready to receive them. Still, they have often indirectly laid me under
+obligation. They have often robbed Czipra, when she went anywhere alone.
+You were yourself a witness to one such event. I suspect that the
+robber-chief who strove with Czipra in the inn was Czipra's own father."
+
+"Heavens! I wonder if that can be so."
+
+"Czipra always closed their mouths with a couple of hundred florins, and
+then they remained quiet. Perhaps she threatened them in case they
+annoyed me. It may be that up to the present they have not molested us
+in order to please her. But it may be, too, that they have another
+reason for making Lankadomb their centre of operations. Do you remember
+that on the pistol you wrenched from that robber were engraved the arms
+of Sarvoelgyi?"
+
+"What are you hinting at, uncle?"
+
+"I think Sarvoelgyi is the chieftain of the whole highwayman-band."
+
+"What brought you to that idea?"
+
+"The fact that he is such a pious man. Still, let us not go into that
+now. The gist of the matter is, that I would like to relieve our
+district of this suspicious guest, before I begin my long visit."
+
+"How?"
+
+"We must burn up that old hay-rick, of which I have said so many times
+that it has inhabitants summer and winter."
+
+"Do you think that will drive them from our neighborhood?"
+
+"I am quite sure of it. This class is cowardly. They will soon turn out
+of any place where war is declared against them: they only dare to brawl
+as long as they find people are afraid of them: wolf-like they tear to
+pieces only those they find defenceless: but one wisp of burning straw
+will annihilate them. We must set the rick on fire."
+
+"We could have done so already; but it is difficult to reach it, on
+account of the old peat-quarries."
+
+"Which our dangerous neighbors have covered with wolf traps, so that one
+cannot approach the rick within rifle-shot."
+
+"I often wished to go there, but you would not allow me."
+
+"It would have been an unreasonable audacity. Those who dwell there
+could shoot down, from secure hiding-places, any who approached it,
+before the latter could do them any harm. I have a simpler plan: we two
+shall take our seats in the punt, row down the dyke, and when we come
+against the rick, we shall set it on fire with explosive bullets. The
+rick is mine, no longer rented: all whom it may concern must seek
+lodging elsewhere."
+
+Lorand said it was a good plan: whatever Topandy desired he would agree
+to. He might declare war against the bandits, for all he cared.
+
+That evening, guided by moonlight, they poled their way to the centre of
+the marsh: Lorand himself directed the shots, and was lucky enough to
+lodge his first shell in the side of the rick. Soon the dry mass of hay
+was flaming like a burning pyramid in the midst of the morass. The two
+besiegers had reached home long before the blazing rick had time to
+light up the district far. As they watched, all at once the flame
+scattered, exploding millions of sparks up to heaven, and the fragments
+of the burning rick were strewed on the water's surface by the wind.
+Surely hidden gunpowder had caused that explosion.
+
+At that moment no one was at home in this barbarous dwelling. Not a
+single voice was heard during the burning, save the howling of the
+terrified wolves round about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+WHILE THE MUSIC SOUNDS
+
+
+At Lankadomb the order of things had changed.
+
+After the famous scandal, Topandy's dwelling was very quiet--no guest
+crossed its threshold: while at Sarvoelgyi's house there was an
+entertainment every evening, sounds of music until dawn of day.
+
+They wished to show that they were in a gay mood.
+
+Sarvoelgyi began to win fame among the gypsies. These wandering musicians
+began to reckon his house among one of their happy asylums, so that even
+the bands of neighboring towns came to frequent it, one handing on the
+news of it to the other.
+
+The young wife loved amusement, and her husband was glad if he could
+humor her--perhaps he had other thoughts, too?
+
+Sarvoelgyi himself did not allow his course of life to be disturbed:
+after ten o'clock he regularly left the company, going first to
+devotions and these having been attended to, to sleep.
+
+His spouse remained under the care of her mother--in very good hands.
+
+And, after all, Sarvoelgyi was no intolerable husband: he did not
+persecute his young wife with signs of tenderness or jealousy.
+
+In reality he acted as one who merely wished, under the guise of
+marriage to save a victim, to free an innocent, caluminated, unfortunate
+girl in the most humane way from desperation.
+
+It was a good deed,--friendship, nothing more.
+
+Sarvoelgyi's bedroom was separated from the rest of the dwelling house by
+a kind of corridor, bricked in, where the musicians were usually placed,
+for the obvious reason that the sun-burnt artists are passionately fond
+of chewing tobacco.
+
+This mistaken arrangement was the cause of two evils: firstly, the
+master of the house, lying on his bed, could hear all night long the
+beautiful waltzes and mazurkas to which his wife was dancing; secondly,
+being obliged to pass through the gypsies on his way from the ball-room
+to his bedroom, he came in for so many expressions of gratitude on their
+part that his quiet retirement gave rise to a most striking uproar,
+disagreeable alike to himself, to his wife, and his guests.
+
+He called the brown worthies to order often enough: "Don't express your
+gratitude, don't kiss my hand. I am not going away anywhere:" but they
+would not allow themselves to be cheated of their opportunity for
+grateful speeches.
+
+One night in particular an old, one-eyed czimbalom-player, whose sole
+remaining eye was bound up--he had only joined the band that day--would
+not permit himself to be over-awed: he seized the master's hand, kissed
+every finger of it in turn, then every nail: "God recompense you for
+what you intend to give, multiply your family like the sparrows in the
+fields: may your life be like honey...."
+
+"All right, foolish daddy," interrupted Sarvoelgyi. "A truce to your
+blessings. Get you gone. Mistress Borcsa will give you a glass of wine
+as a reward."
+
+But the gypsy would not yield: he hobbled after the master into his
+bedroom, opening the door vigorously, and thrusting in his shaggy head.
+
+"But if God call from the world of shadows..."
+
+"Go to hell: enough of your gratitude."
+
+But the czimbalom-player merely closed the door from the inside and
+followed his righteous benefactor.
+
+"Golden-winged angels in a wagon of diamonds...."
+
+"Get out this moment!" cried Sarvoelgyi, hastily looking for a stick to
+drive the flatterer out of his room.
+
+But at that moment the gypsy sprang upon him like a panther, grasping
+his throat with one hand and placing a pointed knife against his chest
+with the other.
+
+"Oh!"--panted the astonished Sarvoelgyi. "Who are you? What do you want?"
+
+"Who am I?" murmured the fiend in reply, looking like the panther when
+it has set its teeth in its victim's neck. "I am Kandur,[75] the mad
+Kandur. Have you ever seen a mad Kandur? That is what I am. Don't you
+know me now?"
+
+[Footnote 75: Tom-cat.]
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"What do I want? Your bones and your skin: your black blood. You
+highwayman! You robber!"
+
+So saying, he tore the bandage from his eye: there was nothing amiss
+with that eye.
+
+"Do you know me now, herdsman?"
+
+It would have been in vain to scream. Outside the most uproarious music
+could be heard: no one would have heard the cry for help. Besides the
+assailed had another reason for holding his peace.
+
+"Well, what do you want with me? What have I done to you? Why do you
+attack me?"
+
+"What have you done?" said the gypsy, gnashing his teeth so that
+Sarvoelgyi shivered--this gnashing of human teeth is a terrible sound.
+"What have you done? You ask that? Have you not robbed me? Eh?"
+
+"I robbed you? Don't lose your senses. Let go of my throat. You see, I
+am in your hands anyhow. Talk sense. What has happened to you?"
+
+"What has happened to me? Oh yes--act as if you had not seen that
+beautiful illumination the day before yesterday evening--that's
+right--when the rick was burned down, and then the gunpowder dispersed
+the fire, so that nothing but a black pit remained for mad Kandur."
+
+"I saw it."
+
+"That was your work," cried the fiend, raising high the flashing knife.
+
+"Now, Kandur, have some sense. Why should _I_ have set it on fire?"
+
+"Because no one else could have known that my money was stored away
+there. Who else would have dreamed I had money, but you? You who always
+changed my bank-note into silver and gold, giving me one silver florin
+for a small bank-note, and one gold piece for a large one. How do I know
+what was the value of each?--You knew I collected money. You knew how I
+collected, and why--for I told you. My daughter is in a certain
+gentleman's house; they are making a fool of her there. They are
+bringing her up like a duchess, until they have plucked her
+blossoms,--and then they will throw her away like a wash-rag. I wished
+to buy her off! I had already a pot of silver and a milk-pail of gold. I
+wanted to take her away with me to Turkey, to Tartary, where heathens
+dwell; and she would be a real duchess, a gypsy duchess! I shall murder,
+rob, and break into houses until I have a pot full of silver, and a pail
+full of gold. The gypsy girl will want it as her dowry. I shall not
+leave her for you, you white-faced porcelain tribe! I shall take her
+away to some place where they will not say 'Away gypsy! off gypsy! Kiss
+my hand, eat carrion, gypsy, gypsy!'--Give me my money."
+
+"Kandur."
+
+"Don't gape, or tire your mouth. Give me a pot of silver, and a pail of
+gold."
+
+"All right, Kandur, you shall get your money--a pot of silver and a pail
+of gold. But now let me have my say. It was not I who took your money,
+not I who set the rick on fire."
+
+"Who then?"
+
+"Why those people yonder."
+
+"Topandy, and the young gentleman?"
+
+"Certainly. The day before yesterday evening I saw them in a punt on the
+moat, starting for the morass, and I saw them when they returned
+again--the rick was then already burning. Each of them had a gun: but I
+did not hear a single shot, so they were not after game."
+
+"The devil and all his hell-hounds destroy them!"
+
+"Why, Kandur, your daughter was mad after that young gentleman--she
+certainly confessed to him that her father was collecting treasures: so
+the young gentleman took off daughter and money too--he will shortly
+return the empty pot."
+
+"Then I shall kill him."
+
+"What did you say, Kandur?"
+
+"I shall kill him, even if he has a hundred souls. Long ago I promised
+him, when first we met. But now I wish to drink of his blood. Did you
+see whether the old mastiff too was there at the robbing?"
+
+"Topandy? A plague upon my eyes, if I did not see him. There were two of
+them, they took no one with them, not even a dog: they rowed along here
+beside the gardens. I looked long after them, and waited till they
+should return. May every saint be merciless to me, if I don't speak the
+truth!"
+
+"Then I shall murder both."
+
+"But be careful: they go armed."
+
+"What?--If I wish I can have a whole host. If I wish I can ravish the
+whole village in broad daylight. You do not yet know who Kandur is."
+
+"I know well who you are, Kandur," said Sarvoelgyi, carefully studying
+the robber's browned face. "Why we are old acquaintances. It is not you
+who are responsible for the deeds you have done, but society. Humankind
+rose up against you, you merely defended yourself as best you could.
+That is why I always took your part, Kandur."
+
+"No nonsense for me now," interrupted the robber hastily. "I don't mind
+what I am. I am a highwayman. I like the name."
+
+"You had no ignoble pretext for robbing,--but the saving of your
+daughter from the whirlpool of crime. The aim was a laudable one,
+Kandur: besides you were particular as to whom you fleeced."
+
+"Don't try to save me--you'll have enough to do to save yourself soon in
+hell, before the devil's tribunal--you may lie his two eyes out, if you
+want. I have been a highwayman, have killed and robbed--even clergymen.
+I want to kill now, too."
+
+"I shall pray for your soul."
+
+"The devil! Man, do you think I care? Prayer is just about as potent
+with you as with me. Better give a pile of money to enable me to collect
+a band. My men must have money."
+
+"All right, Kandur: don't be angry, Kandur:--you know I'm awfully fond
+of you. I have not persecuted you like others. I have always spoken
+gently to you and have always sheltered you from your persecutors. No
+one ever dared to look for you in my house."
+
+"No more babbling--just give over the money."
+
+"Very well, Kandur. Hold your cap."
+
+Sarvoelgyi stepped up to a very strong iron safe, and unfastening the
+locks one by one, raised its heavy door--placing the candle on a chair
+beside him.
+
+The robber's eyes gleamed. Sufficient silver to fill many pots was piled
+up there.
+
+"Which will you have? silver or bank-notes?"
+
+"Silver," whispered the robber.
+
+"Then hold your cap."
+
+Kandur held his lamb-skin cap in his two hands like a pouch, and placed
+his knife between his teeth.
+
+Sarvoelgyi dived deeply into the silver pile with his hand, and when he
+drew it back, he held before the robber's nose a double-barrelled
+pistol, ready cocked.
+
+It was a fine precaution--a pistol beautifully covered up by a heap of
+coins.
+
+The robber staggered back, and forgot to withdraw the knife from his
+mouth. And so he stood before Sarvoelgyi, a knife between his teeth, his
+eyes wide opened, and his two hands stretched before him in
+self-defence.
+
+"You see," said Sarvoelgyi calmly, "I might shoot you now, did I wish.
+You are entirely in my power. But see, I spoke the truth to you.--Hold
+your cap and take the money."
+
+He put the pistol down beside him and took out a goodly pile of dollars.
+
+"A plague upon your jesting eyes!" hissed the robber through the knife.
+"Why do you frighten a fellow? The darts of Heaven destroy you!"
+
+He was still trembling, so frightened had he been.
+
+The loaded weapon in another's hand had driven away all his courage.
+
+The robber could only be audacious, not courageous.
+
+"Hold your cap."
+
+Sarvoelgyi shovelled the heap of silver coins into the robber's cap.
+
+"Now perhaps you can believe it is not fear that makes me confide in
+you?"
+
+"A plague upon you. How you alarmed me!"
+
+"Well, now collect your wits and listen to me."
+
+The robber stuffed the money into his pockets and listened with
+contracted eyebrows.
+
+"You may see it was not I who stole your money; for, had I done so, I
+should just now have planted two bullets in your carcass, one in your
+heart, the other in your skull. And I should have got one hundred gold
+pieces by it, that being the price on your head."
+
+The robber smiled bashfully, like one who is flattered. He took it as a
+compliment that the county had put a price of one hundred gold pieces on
+his head.
+
+"You may be quite sure that it was not I, but those folks yonder, who
+took away your money."
+
+"The highwaymen!"
+
+"You are right--highwaymen:--worse even than that. Atheists! The earth
+will be purified if they are wiped out. He who kills them is doing as
+just an action as the man that shoots a wolf or a hawk."
+
+"True, true;" Kandur nodded assent.
+
+"This rogue who stole away your daughter laid a snare for another
+innocent creature. He must have two, one for his right hand, the other
+for his left. And when the persecuted innocent girl escaped from the
+deceiver to my house and became my wife, those folks yonder swore deadly
+revenge against me. Because I rescued an innocent soul from the cave of
+crime, they thrice wished to slay me. Once they poured poison into my
+drinking-well. Fortunately the horses drank of the water first and all
+fell sick from it. Then they drove mad dogs out in the streets, when I
+was walking there, to tear me to pieces. They sent me letters, which,
+had I opened them, would have gone off in my hands and blown me to
+pieces. These malicious fellows wish to kill me."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"That young stripling thinks that if he succeeds he can carry off my
+wife too, so as to have her for his mistress one day, Czipra, your
+daughter, the next."
+
+"You make my anger boil within me!"
+
+"They acknowledge neither God nor law. They do as they please. When did
+you last see your daughter?"
+
+"Two weeks ago."
+
+"Did you not see how worn she is? That cursed fellow has enchanted her
+and is spoiling her."
+
+"I'll spoil his head!"
+
+"What will you do with him?"
+
+Kandur showed, with the knife in his hand, what he would do--bury that
+in his heart and twist it round therein.
+
+"How will you get at him? He has always a gun in the daytime: he acts as
+if he were going a-shooting. At night the castle is strongly locked, and
+they are always on the lookout for an attack,--they too are audacious
+fellows."
+
+"Just leave it to me. Don't have any fears. What Kandur undertakes is
+well executed. Crick, crick: that's how I shall break both the fellows'
+necks."
+
+"You are a clever rascal. You showed that in your way of getting at me!
+You may do the same there, by dressing your men as fiddlers and
+clarinet-players."
+
+"Oh ho! Don't think of it. Kandur doesn't play the same joke twice. I
+shall find the man I want."
+
+"I've still something to say. It would be good if you could have them
+under control before they die."
+
+"I know--make them confess where they have put my money which they
+stole?"
+
+"Don't begin with that. Supposing they will not confess?"
+
+"Have no fears on that score. I know how to drive screws under
+finger-nails, to strap up heads, so that a man would even confess to
+treasures hidden in his father's coffin."
+
+"Listen to me. Do what I say. Don't try long to trace your stolen money:
+it's not much--a couple of thousand florins. If you don't find it, I
+shall give you as much--as much as you can carry in your knapsack. You
+can, however, find something else there."
+
+"What?"
+
+"A letter, sealed with five black seals."
+
+"A letter? with five black seals?"
+
+"And to prevent them making a fool of you, and blinding you with some
+other letter which you cannot read, note the arms on the respective
+seals. On the first is a fish-tailed mermaid, holding a half-moon in her
+hand--those are the Aronffy arms:--on the second a stork, three ears of
+corn in its talons--those are the High Sheriff's arms: on the third a
+semi-circle, from which a unicorn is proceeding,--those are the Nyarady
+arms; the fourth is a crown in a hand holding a sword--those are the
+lawyer's arms. The fifth, which must be in the middle, bears Topandy's
+arms,--a crowned snake."
+
+The robber reckoned after him on his fingers:
+
+"Mermaid with half moon--stork with ears of corn--a half circle with
+unicorn--crown with sword-hand--snake with crown. I shall not forget.
+And what do you want the letter for?"
+
+"That too I shall explain to you, that you may see into the innermost
+depths of my thoughts and may judge how seriously I long to see the
+completion of that which I have entrusted to you. That letter is
+Topandy's latest will. While my wife was living with him, Topandy,
+believing she would wed his nephew, left his fortune to his niece and
+her future husband, and handed it in to the county court to be guarded.
+But when his niece became my wife, he wrote a new will, and had all
+those, whose arms I have mentioned, sign it; then he sealed it but did
+not send it to the court like the former one; he kept it here to make
+the jest all the greater, thinking we stand by the former will. Then,
+the latter will comes to light, making void the former--and excluding my
+wife from all."
+
+"Aha! I see now what a clever fellow you are!"
+
+"Well, could that five-sealed letter come into my hands, and old Topandy
+die by chance, without being able to write another will--well, you know
+what that little paper might be worth in my hands?"
+
+"Of course. Castle, property, everything. All that would fall to
+you--the old will would give it you. I understand: I see--now I know
+what a wise fellow you are!"
+
+"Do you believe now that if you come to me with that letter...."
+
+The robber bent nearer confidingly, and whispered in his ear:
+
+"And with the news that your neighbors died suddenly and could not write
+another."
+
+"Then you need have no fear as to how much money you will get in place
+of what they stole. You may go off with your daughter to Tartary, where
+no one will prosecute you."
+
+"Excellent--couldn't be better. Leave the rest to me. Two days later
+Kandur will have no need to indulge in such work."
+
+Then he began to count on his fingers, as if he were reckoning to
+himself.
+
+"Well, in the first place, I get money--in the second, I have my
+revenge--in the third, I take away Czipra,--in the fourth, I shall have
+my fill of human blood,--in the fifth, I get money again.--It shall be
+done."
+
+The two shook hands on the bargain. The robber left by the same door
+through which he had entered; Sarvoelgyi went to bed, like one who has
+done his business well; and in the corridor the gypsies still played the
+newest waltz, which Melanie and Madame Balnokhazy were enjoying with
+flushed faces amidst the gay assembly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE ENCHANTMENT OF LOVE
+
+
+How many secrets there are under the sun, awaiting discovery!
+
+Books have been written about the superstitions of nations long since
+passed away: men of science have collected the enchantments of people
+from all quarters of the globe: yet of one thing they have not spoken
+yet: of that unending myth, which lives unceasingly and is born again in
+woman's heart and in the heated atmosphere of love.
+
+Sweet are the enchantments of love!
+
+"If I drink unseen from thy glass, and thou dost drain it after
+me:--thou drinkest love therefrom, and shalt pine for me, darling, as I
+have pined for thee.
+
+"If at night I awake in dreams of thee and turn my pillow under my head:
+thou too wilt have as sweet dreams of me, as I of thee, my darling.
+
+"If I bind my ring to a lock of thy hair thou hast given me, and cast
+the same into a glass, as often as it beats against the side of the
+glass, so many years wilt thou love me, darling.
+
+"If I can sew a lock of my hair into the edge of thy linen garment, thy
+heart will pine for me, as often as thou puttest the same on, my
+darling.
+
+"If, in thinking of thee, I pricked my finger, thou wert then faithless
+to me, darling.
+
+"If the door opens of itself, thou wert then thinking of me, and thy
+sigh opened the door, my darling.
+
+"If a star shoots in the sky, and I suddenly utter thy name as it
+shoots, thou must then at once think of me, darling.
+
+"If my ear tingles, I hear news of thee: if my cheeks burn, thou art
+speaking of me, my darling.
+
+"If my scissors fall down and remain upright, I shall see thee soon,
+darling.
+
+"If the candle runs down upon me, then thou dost love another, my
+darling.
+
+"If my ring turns upon my finger, then thou wilt be the cause of my
+death, darling."
+
+In every object, in every thought lives the mythology of love, like the
+old-world deities with which poets personified grass, wood, stream,
+ocean and sky.
+
+The petals of the flowers speak of it, ask whether he loves or not: the
+birds of song on the house-tops: everything converses of love: and what
+maiden is there who does not believe what they say?
+
+Poor maidens!
+
+If they but knew how little men deserved that the world of prose should
+receive its polytheism of love from them!
+
+Poor Czipra!
+
+What a slave she was to her master!
+
+Her slavery was greater than that of the Creole maiden whose every limb
+grows tired in the service of her master:--every thought of hers served
+her lord.
+
+From morn till even, nothing but hope, envy, tender flattery, trembling
+anxiety, the ecstasy of delight, the bitterness of resignation, the
+burning ravings of passion, and cold despair, striving unceasingly with
+each other, interchanging, gaining new sustenance from every word, every
+look of the youth she worshipped.
+
+And then from twilight till dawn ever the same struggle, even in dreams.
+
+"If I were thy dog, you would not treat me so."
+
+That is what she once said to Lorand.
+
+And why? Perhaps because he passed her without so much as shaking hands
+with her.
+
+And at another time:
+
+"Were I in Heaven, I could not be happier."
+
+Perhaps a fleeting embrace had made her happy again.
+
+How little is enough to bring happiness or sorrow to poor maidens.
+
+One day an old gypsy woman came by chance into the courtyard.
+
+In the country it is not the custom to drive away these poor vagrants:
+they receive corn, and scraps of meat: they must live, too.
+
+Then they tell fortunes. Who would not wish to have his fortune so
+cheaply.
+
+And the gypsy woman's deceitful eye very soon finds out whose fortune to
+tell, and how to tell it.
+
+But Czipra was not glad to see her.
+
+She was annoyed at the idea that the woman might recognize her by her
+red-brown complexion, and her burning black eyes, and might betray her
+origin before the servants. She tried to escape notice.
+
+But the gypsy woman did remark the beautiful girl and addressed her as
+"my lady."
+
+"I kiss your dear little feet, my lady."
+
+"My lady? Don't you see I am a servant, and cook in the kitchen: my
+sleeves are tucked up and I wear an apron."
+
+"But surely not. A serving maid does not hold her head so upright and
+cannot show her anger so. If your ladyship frowns on me I feel like
+hiding in the corner, just to escape from the anger in your eyes."
+
+"Well if you know so much, you must also know that I am married, fool!"
+
+The gypsy woman slyly winked.
+
+"I am no fool: my eyes are not bad. I know the wild dove from the tame.
+You are no married woman, young lady: you are still a maiden. I have
+looked into the eyes of many girls and women: I know which is which. A
+girl's eye lurks beneath the eyelids, as if she were looking always out
+of an ambuscade, as if she were always afraid somebody would notice her.
+A woman's eye always flashes as if she were looking for somebody. When a
+girl says in jest 'I am a married woman,' she blushes: if she were a
+woman, she would smile. You are certainly still unmarried, young lady."
+
+Czipra was annoyed at having opened a conversation with her. She felt
+that her face was really burning. She hastened to the open fire-place,
+driving the servant away that she might put her burning face down to the
+flaming fire.
+
+The gypsy woman became more obtrusive, seeing she had put the girl to
+confusion. She sidled up to her.
+
+"I see more, beautiful young lady. The girl that blushes quickly has
+much sorrow and many desires. Your ladyship has joy and sorrow too."
+
+"Oh, away with you!" exclaimed Czipra hastily.
+
+It is not so easy to get rid of a gypsy woman, once she has firmly
+planted her foot.
+
+"Yet I know a very good remedy for that."
+
+"I have already told you to be off."
+
+"Which will make the bridegroom as tame as a lamb that always runs after
+its mistress."
+
+"I don't want your remedies."
+
+"It is no potion I am talking of, merely an enchantment."
+
+"Throw her out!" Czipra commanded the servants.
+
+"You won't throw me out, girls: rather listen to what I say. Which of
+you would like to know what you must do to enchant the young fellows so
+that even if every particle of them were full of falsity, they could not
+deceive you in their affection. Well, Susie: I see you're laughing at
+it. And you, Kati? Why, I saw your Joseph speaking to the bailiff's
+daughter at the fence: this spell would do him no harm."
+
+All the grinning serving-maids, instead of rescuing Czipra from the
+woman, only assisted the latter in her siege. They surrounded her and
+even cut off Czipra's way, waiting curiously for what the gypsy would
+say.
+
+"It is a harmless remedy, and costs nothing."
+
+The gypsy woman drew nearer to Czipra.
+
+"When at midnight the nightingale sings below your window, take notice
+on what branch it sat. Go out bare-footed, break down that branch, set
+it in a flower-pot, put it in your window, sprinkle it with water from
+your mouth: before the branch droops, your lover will return, and will
+never leave you again."
+
+The girls laughed loudly at the gypsy woman's enchantment.
+
+The woman held her hand out before Czipra in cringing supplication.
+
+"Dear, beautiful young lady, scorn not to reward me with something for
+the blessing of God."
+
+Czipra's pocket was always full of all kinds of small coins, of all
+values, according to the custom of those days--when one man had to be
+paid in coppers, another in silver. Czipra filled her hand and began to
+search among the mass for the smallest copper, a kreutzer,[76] as the
+correct alms for a beggar.
+
+[Footnote 76: One-half of a penny.]
+
+"Golden lady," the gypsy woman thanked her. "I have just such a girl at
+home for sale, not so beautiful as you, but just as tall. She too has a
+bridegroom, who will take her off as soon as he can."
+
+Czipra now began to choose from the silver coins.
+
+"But he cannot take her, for we have not money enough to pay the
+priest."
+
+Czipra picked out the largest of the silver coins and gave it to the
+gypsy woman.
+
+The latter blessed her for it. "May God reward you with a handsome
+bridegroom, true in love till death!"
+
+Then she shuffled on her way from the house.
+
+Czipra reflectingly hummed to herself the refrain:
+
+    "A gypsy woman was my mother."
+
+And Czipra meditated.
+
+How prettily thought speaks! If only the tongue could utter all the dumb
+soul speaks to itself!
+
+"Why art thou what thou art?
+
+"Whether another's or mine, if only I had never seen thee!
+
+"Either love me in return, or do not ask me to love thee at all.
+
+"Be either cold or warm, but not lukewarm.
+
+"If in passing me, thou didst neither look at me, nor turn away, that
+would be good too: if sitting beside me thou shouldst draw me to thee,
+thou wouldst make me happy:--thou comest, smilest into mine eyes,
+graspest my hand, speakest tenderly to me, and then passest by.
+
+"A hundred times I think that, if thou dost not address me, I shall
+address thee: if thou dost not ask me, I shall look into thine eyes, and
+shall ask thee:
+
+"'Dost thou love me?'
+
+"If thou lovest, love truly.
+
+"Why, I do not ask thee to bring down the moon from the heavens to me:
+merely, to pluck the rose from the branch.
+
+"If thou pluckest it, thou canst tear it, and scatter its leaves upon
+the earth, thou must not wear it in thy hat, and answer with blushes, if
+they ask thee who gave it thee. Thou canst destroy it and tear it. A
+gypsy girl gave it.
+
+"If thou lovest, why dost thou not love truly? If thou dost not love me,
+why dost thou follow me?
+
+"If thou knewest thou didst not love me, why didst thou decoy me into
+thy net?
+
+"He has cast a spell upon me: yet I would be of the race of witches.
+
+"I know nothing. I am no wizard, my eye has no power.
+
+"If I address him once, I kill him and myself.
+
+"Or perhaps only myself.
+
+"And shall I not speak?"
+
+The poor girl's heart was full of reverie, but her eyes, her mouth, and
+her hand were busy with domestic work: she did not sit to gaze at the
+stars, to mourn over her instrument: she looked to her work, and they
+said "she is an enthusiastic housekeeper."
+
+"Good day, Czipra."
+
+She had even observed that Lorand was approaching her from behind, when
+she was whipping out cream in the corridor, and he greeted her very
+tenderly.
+
+She expected him at least to stop as long as at other times to ask what
+she was cooking; and she would have answered with another question:
+
+"Tell me now, what do you like?"
+
+But he did not even stop: he had come upon her quite by chance, and as
+he could not avoid her, uttered a mere "good day:" then passed by. He
+was looking for Topandy.
+
+Topandy was waiting for him in his room and was busy reading a letter he
+had just opened.
+
+"Well, my boy," he said, handing Lorand the letter, "That is the
+overture of the opera."
+
+Lorand took the letter, which began: "I offer my respects to Mr. ----"
+
+"This is a summons?"
+
+"You may see from the greeting. The High Sheriff informs me that
+to-morrow morning he will be here to hold the legal inquiry: you must
+give orders to the servants for to-morrow."
+
+"Sir, you still continue to take it as a joke."
+
+"And a curious joke too. How well I shall sweep the streets! Ha, ha!"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"In chains too. I always mocked my swine-herd, who for a year and a half
+wore out the county court's chains. Ever since he walks with a shambling
+step, as if one leg was always trying to avoid knocking the other with
+the chain. Now we can both laugh at each other."
+
+"It would be good to engage a lawyer."
+
+"It will certainly be better to send a sucking pig to the gaoler.
+Against such pricks, my boy, there is no kicking. This is like a cold
+bath: if a man enters slowly, bit by bit, his teeth chatter: if he
+springs in at once, it is even pleasant. Let us talk of more serious
+matters."
+
+"I just came because I wish to speak to my uncle about a very serious
+matter."
+
+"Well, out with it."
+
+"I intend to marry Czipra."
+
+Topandy looked long into the young fellow's face, and then said coldly,
+
+"Why will you marry her?"
+
+"Because she is an honest, good girl."
+
+Topandy shook his head.
+
+"That is not sufficient reason for marrying her."
+
+"And is faithful to me. I owe her many debts of gratitude. When I was
+ill, no sister could have nursed me more tenderly: if I was sad, her
+sorrow exceeded my own."
+
+"That is not sufficient reason, either."
+
+"And because I am raised above the prejudices of the world."
+
+"Aha! magnanimity! Liberal ostentation? That is not sufficient reason
+either for taking Czipra to wife. The neighboring Count took his
+housekeeper to wife, just in order that people might speak of him: you
+have not even the merit of originality. Still not sufficient reason for
+marrying her."
+
+"I shall take her to wife, because I love her...."
+
+Topandy immediately softened: his usual strain of sarcastic scorn gave
+way to a gentler impulse.
+
+"That's another thing. That is the only reason that can justify your
+marriage with her. How long have you loved her?"
+
+"I cannot count the days. I was always pleased to see her: I always knew
+I loved her like a good sister. The other I worshipped as an angel: and
+as soon as she ceased to be an angel for me, as a mere woman I felt none
+of the former fire towards her: nothing remained, not even smoke nor
+ashes. But this girl, whose every foible I know, whose beauty was
+enhanced by no reverie, whom I only saw as she really is,--I love her
+now, as a faithful woman, who repays love in true coin: and I shall
+marry her--not out of gratitude, but because she has filled my heart."
+
+"If that is all you want, you will find that. What shall you do first?"
+
+"I shall first write to my mother, and tell her I have found this rough
+diamond whom she must accept as her daughter: then I shall take Czipra
+to her, and she shall stay there until she is baptized and I take her
+away again."
+
+"I am very thankful that you will take all the burden of this ceremony
+off my shoulders. What must be done by priests, do without my seeing it.
+When shall you tell Czipra?"
+
+"As soon as mother's answer comes back."
+
+"And if your mother opposes the marriage?"
+
+"I shall answer for that."
+
+"Still it is possible. She may have other aims for you. What should you
+do then?"
+
+"Then?" said Lorand reflectively: after a long pause he added: "Poor
+mother has had so much sorrow on my account."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"She has pardoned me all."
+
+"She loves you better than her other son."
+
+"And I love her better than I loved my father."
+
+"That is a hard saying."
+
+"But if she said 'You must give up forever either this girl or me,' I
+would answer her, and my heart would break, 'Mother, tear me from your
+heart, but I shall go with my wife.'"
+
+Topandy offered his hand to Lorand.
+
+"That was well said."
+
+"But I have no anxiety about it. Mountebank pride never found a place in
+our family: we have sought for happiness, not for vain connections, and
+Czipra belongs to those girls whom women love even better than men. I
+have a good friend at home, my brother, and my dear sister-in-law will
+use her influence in my favor."
+
+"And you have an advocate elsewhere, in one who, despite all his
+godlessness, has a man's feelings, and will say: 'The girl has no name;
+here is mine, let her take that.'"
+
+Topandy did not try to prevent Lorand from kissing his hand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Poor Czipra! Why did she not hear this?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+WHEN THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS
+
+
+The night following upon this day was a sleepless one for Czipra.
+
+Every door of the castle was already closed: it was Lorand's custom to
+look for himself and see that the bolts were firmly fastened. Then he
+would knock at Czipra's door and bid her good-night; Czipra reciprocated
+the good wish, and Lorand turned into his room. The last creaking door
+was silent.
+
+"Good night! Good night! But who gives the good night?"
+
+Every day Czipra felt more strongly what an interminable void can exist
+in a heart which lacks--God.
+
+If it sorrows, to whom shall it complain?--if it has aspirations to whom
+can it pray? if terrors threaten it, to whom shall it appeal for help
+and courage? if in despair, from whom shall it ask hope?
+
+When the heavy beating of her heart prevents a poor girl from closing
+her eyes, she tosses sleeplessly where she lies, agonised with unknown
+suspicions, and there is no one before her mind, from whom she can ask,
+"Lord, is this a presentiment of my approaching death, or my approaching
+health? What annoys, what terrifies, what allures, what fills my heart
+with a sweet thrill? Oh, Lord, be with me."
+
+The poor neglected girl only felt this, but could not express it.
+
+She knelt on her bed, clasped her hands on her breast, raised her face,
+and collected every thought of her heart--how ought one to pray? What
+may be that word, which should bring God nearer? What sayings, what
+enchantments could bring the Great Being, the all-powerful, down from
+the heavens? What philosophy was that, which all men concealed from one
+another and only spoke of to each other in secret, in the form of
+letters, which opened to erring humanity the road leading to the home of
+an invisible being? How did it begin? How end? What an awful
+heart-agony, not to know how to pray,--just to kneel so with a heart
+full of crying aspirations, and dumb lips! How weak the voice of a
+sobbing sigh, how terribly far the starry heavens--who could hear there?
+
+Yet there is One who hears!
+
+And there is One who notes the unexpressed prayer of the silent
+suppliant, One who hears the unuttered words.
+
+Poor girl! She did not imagine that this feeling, this exaltation, was
+prayer--not the words, not the sermon, not addresses, not the amens. He
+who sees into hearts--reads from hearts, does not estimate the elegance
+of words.
+
+In the same hour that the suffering girl knelt thus dumbly before the
+Lord of all happiness, that man whom she had worshipped in her heart so
+long, whom she must worship forever, was sitting just as sleeplessly
+beside his writing-table, separated from her only by two walls, and was
+thinking and writing about her, and often wiped his eyes that filled
+betimes with tears.
+
+He was writing to his mother about his engagement.
+
+About the poor gypsy girl.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the dim light of the beautiful starry night twelve horsemen were
+following in each others' tracks among the reeds of the morass.
+
+Kandur was leading them.
+
+Each man had a gun on his shoulder, a pistol in his girdle.
+
+Along the winding road the mare Farao, treading lightly, led them: she
+too seemed to hasten, and sometimes broke through the reeds, making a
+short cut, as if she too were goaded on by some thirst for vengeance.
+
+Among the willows, wills-o'-the-wisps were dancing.
+
+They surrounded the horsemen, and followed their movements. Kandur smote
+at them with his lash.
+
+"On the return journey we shall be two more!" he muttered between his
+teeth.
+
+When they reached the lair there was merely a black stubbled ground left
+where the hay-rick stood before.
+
+In all directions shapeless burnt masses lay about.
+
+These were the ruins of the highwaymen's palace.
+
+And the tears flow from their eyes, as they see their haunt thus
+destroyed.
+
+All twelve had reached the burnt dwelling.
+
+"See what the robbers have made of it," said Kandur to his comrades.
+"They have stolen all we had collected, the riches we were to take with
+us to another land, and then they have set the dwelling on fire. They
+came here in a boat: they found out the way to our palace. We shall now
+return the visit. Are you all here?"
+
+"Yes," muttered the comrades. "We are all here."
+
+"Dismount. Now for the punts."
+
+The robbers dismounted.
+
+"No need to tether the horses, they cannot get away anywhere. One man
+may remain here to guard them. Who wishes to stay?"
+
+All were silent.
+
+"Some one must guard the horses, lest the wolves attack them while we
+are away."
+
+To which an old robber answered:
+
+"Then you should have brought a herd-boy with you, for we didn't come
+here to guard horses."
+
+"Very well, mate, I only wished to know whether anyone of us would like
+to remain behind. Whether anyone's 'sandal-strap was unloosed.' Does
+each one know his own business? Come up one by one, and let me tell each
+one his duty once more. Kanyo and Foszto."[77]
+
+[Footnote 77: Pilferer.]
+
+Two of the men stepped forward.
+
+"You two will guard the two doors of the servants' quarter when we
+arrive. Death to him who tries to escape by door or window."
+
+"We know."
+
+"Csutor[78] and Disznos.[79] you will be in ambush before the
+hunting-box, and anyone who attempts to come out to the rescue, must be
+killed."
+
+[Footnote 78: Nightshade.]
+
+[Footnote 79: Swinish.]
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Bogracs![80] You will occupy the street-door, and if any peasant dares
+to approach you must shoot him: you alone are sufficient to keep
+peasants off."
+
+[Footnote 80: Kettle.]
+
+"Quite sufficient!" said the robber with great self-reliance.
+
+"Korve[81] and Pofok.[81] You must take your stand opposite the first
+verandah, near the well, and if anyone wishes to escape by the first
+door, fire at him. But don't waste powder.--You others, Vasgyuro,[82]
+Hentes,[83] Piocza,[84] Agyaras,[85] will come with me through the
+garden, and will stay behind in the bushes until I give the sign. If I
+whistle once, that's for you. If I can get in quietly, by craft, without
+being obliged to fire a shot, that will be the best. I have planned the
+way. I think it will succeed. So three will come with me, one will
+remain in the doorway. Have the halters ready, to throw upon his neck,
+drag him to the ground and bind him. The black-bearded strong man must
+be dealt with suddenly, with the butt of your gun on his head, if not
+otherwise. But we must take the old man alive, for we shall make him
+confess."
+
+[Footnote 81: Blub-cheeked.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Bully.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Butcher.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Leech.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Wild-boar.]
+
+"Just leave him to me," said a fellow with a pox-pitted face, in a tone
+of entire confidence.
+
+"I shall be there too," continued Kandur: "and if we cannot enter the
+castle stealthily, if some one should make a noise, if those within wake
+up, then the first whistle is for you four: two come with me to break
+open the garden door. Have you got the 'jimmies'?"
+
+"Yes," said a robber, displaying the crowbars.
+
+"Piocza, and Agyaras, your business is to answer any fire of people from
+the windows.--If I whistle twice, that means that something's up, then
+you must run from all sides to help me. If I cannot break open the door,
+or if those robbers defend themselves well, set the roof on fire over
+their heads and give them a dose of singeing. That will do just as well.
+Don't forget the tarred hay."
+
+"Ha ha! The gentlemen will be warm."
+
+"Well Pofok, perhaps you're cold? You'll soon get warm. Hither with the
+canteen. Let's drink a little Dutch courage first. Begin. Hentes. A long
+draught of brandy is, you know, good before a feast."
+
+The tin went round and returned to Kandur almost empty.
+
+"Look, I have hardly left you any," said the last drinker in a tone of
+apologetic modesty.
+
+"To-day I don't drink brandy. The private must drink that he may be
+blind when he receives orders, but the general must not drink, that he
+may see to give orders. I shall drink something else when it is all
+over. Now look to the masking."
+
+They understood what that meant.
+
+Each one took off his sheepskin jacket, reversed it and put it on again.
+Then dipping their hands in the strewn ashes, they blackened their
+faces, making themselves unrecognizable.
+
+Only Kandur did not mask himself.
+
+"Let them recognize me. And anyone who does not recognize me, shall
+learn from my own lips, 'I am Kandur, the mad Kandur, who will drink thy
+blood, and tear out thy entrails. Know who I am!' How I shall look into
+their eyes! How I shall gnash upon them with my teeth, when they are
+bound. How tenderly I shall say to the young gentleman: 'Well, my boy,
+my gypsy child, were you in the garden? Did you see a wolf? Were you
+afraid of it? Shoo! Shoo!'"[86]
+
+[Footnote 86: A favorite child-verse in Hungary.]
+
+Farao was impatiently pawing the scorched grass.
+
+"You too are looking for what is no more, Farao," the robber said,
+patting his horse's neck. "Don't grieve. To-morrow you shall stand up to
+your knees in provender, and then you shall carry your master on your
+back. Don't grieve, Farao."
+
+The robbers had completed their disguises.
+
+"Now take up the boats."
+
+Hidden among the reeds lay two skiffs, light affairs, each cut out of a
+piece of tree trunk: just such as would hold two men, and such as two
+men could carry on their shoulders over dry ground.
+
+The robber-band put the skiffs into the water and started one after the
+other on their way; they went down until they reached the stream leading
+to the great dyke, by which they could punt down to the park of
+Lankadomb, just where the shooting-box was.
+
+It was about midnight when they reached it.
+
+On the right of Lankadomb the dogs were baying restlessly, but the
+hounds of the castle watchman did not answer them. They were sleeping.
+Some vagrant gypsy woman had fed them well that evening on poisoned
+swine-flesh.
+
+The robbers reached the castle courtyard noiselessly, unnoticed, and
+each one at once took the place allotted to him, as Kandur had directed.
+
+The silence of deep sleep reigned in the house.
+
+When everyone was in his place, Kandur crept on his stomach among the
+bushes, which formed a grove under Czipra's window that looked on to the
+garden, and putting an acacia leaf into his mouth, began to imitate the
+song of the nightingale.
+
+It was an artistic masterpiece which the wild son of the plains had,
+with the aid of a leaf, stolen from the mouth of the sweetest of
+song-birds.
+
+All those fairy warblings, those plaintive challenging tones, those
+enchanting trills, which no one has ever written down, he could imitate
+so faithfully, so naturally, that he deceived even his lurking comrades.
+
+"Cursed bird," they muttered, "it too has turned to whistling."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Czipra was sleeping peacefully.
+
+That invisible hand, which she had sought, had closed her eyes and sent
+sweet dreams to her heart. Perhaps, had she been able to sleep that
+sleep through undisturbed, she would have awakened to a happy day.
+
+The nightingale was warbling under her window.
+
+The nightingale! The song-bird of love! Why was it entrusted with
+singing at night when every other bird is sitting on its nest, and
+hiding its head under its wing. Who had sent it, saying, "Rise and
+announce that love is always waking?"
+
+Who had entrusted it to awake the sleepers?
+
+Why, even the popular song says:
+
+    "Sleep is better far than love
+    For sleep is tranquillity;
+    Love is anguish of the heart."
+
+Fly away, bird of song!
+
+Czipra tried to sleep again. The bird's song did not allow her.
+
+She rose, leaned upon her elbows and continued to listen.
+
+And there came back to her mind that old gypsy woman's enchantment,--the
+enchantment of love.
+
+"At midnight--the nightingale ... barefooted--... plant it in a
+flower-pot ... before it droops, thy lover will return, and will never
+leave thee."
+
+Ah! who would walk in the open at night?
+
+The nightingale continued:
+
+"Go out bare-footed and tear down the branch."
+
+No, no. How ridiculous it would be! If somebody should see her, and tell
+others, they would laugh at her for her pains.
+
+The nightingale began its song anew.
+
+Malicious bird, that will not allow sleep!
+
+Yet how easy it would be to try: a little branch in a flower-pot. Who
+could know what it was? A girl's innocent jest, with which she does harm
+to no one. Love's childish enchantment.
+
+It would be easy to attempt it.
+
+And if it were true? If there were something in it? How often people
+say, "this or that woman has given her husband something to make him
+love her so truly, and not even see her faults?" If it were true?
+
+How often people wondered, how two people could love each other? With
+what did they enchant each other? If it were true?
+
+Suppose there were spirits that could be captured with a talisman, which
+would do all one bade them?
+
+Czipra involuntarily shuddered: she did not know why, but her whole body
+trembled and shivered.
+
+"No, not so," she said to herself. "If he does not give heart for
+heart,--mine must not deceive him. If he cannot love me because I
+deserve it, he must not love me for my spells. If he does not love, he
+must not despise me. Away, bird of song, I do not want thee."
+
+Then she drew the coverlet over her head and turned to the wall. But
+sleep did not return again: the trembling did not pass: and the singing
+bird in the bushes did not hold his peace.
+
+It had come right under the window; it sang, "Come, come."
+
+Sometimes it seemed as if the song of the nightingale contained the
+words "Czipra, Czipra, Czipra!"
+
+The warm mist of passion swept away the maiden's reason.
+
+Her heart beat so, it almost burst her bosom, and her every limb
+trembled.
+
+She was no longer mistress of her mind.
+
+She left her bed, and therewith left that magic circle which the
+inspiration of the Lord forms around those who fly to Him for
+protection, and which guards them so well from all apparitions of the
+lower world.
+
+"Go bare-footed!"
+
+Why it was only a few steps from the door to the bushes.
+
+Who could see her? What could happen in so short a time?
+
+It was merely the satisfaction of an innocent desire.
+
+It was no deed of darkness.
+
+Every nerve was trembling.
+
+She was merely going to break a little branch, and yet she felt as if
+she was about to commit the most heinous crime, for which she needed the
+shield of a sleepless night.
+
+She opened the door very quietly so that it should not creak.
+
+Lorand was sleeping in the room vis-a-vis: perhaps he might hear
+something.
+
+She darted with bare feet before Lorand's door, she carefully undid the
+bolt of the door leading into the garden and turned the key with such
+precaution that it did not make a sound.
+
+Noiselessly she opened the door and peered out.
+
+It was a quiet night of reveries: the stars, as is their wont when seen
+through falling dew, were changing their colors, flashing green and red.
+
+The nightingale was now cooing in the bushes, as it does when it has
+found its mate.
+
+Czipra looked around her. It was a deep slumbering night: no one could
+see her now.
+
+Yet she drew her linen garment closer round her, and was ashamed to show
+her bare feet to the starry night.
+
+Ah! it would last only a minute.
+
+The grass was warm and soft, wet with dew as far as the bushes: no sharp
+pebble would hurt her feet, no cracking stick betray her footsteps.
+
+She stepped out into the open, and left the door ajar behind her.
+
+She trembled so, she feared she would fall, and looked around her: for
+all the world like someone bent on thieving.
+
+She crept quietly towards the bushes.
+
+The nightingale was warbling there in the thickest part.
+
+She must pierce farther in, must quietly put the leaves aside, to see on
+which branch the bird was singing.
+
+She could not see.
+
+Again she listened: the warbling lured her further.
+
+It must be near to her: it was warbling there, perhaps she could grasp
+it with her hand.
+
+But as she bent the bough, a fierce figure sprang up before her and
+grasped the hand she had stretched out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE NIGHT-STRUGGLE
+
+
+The dark figure, which seized Czipra's hand so suddenly, stared with a
+blood-thirsty grin into his victim's face, whose every limb shuddered
+with terror at her assailant.
+
+"What do you want?" panted the girl in a choking, scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"What do I want?" he hissed in answer. "I want to cut your gander's
+throat, you goose! Do you want a nightingale?"
+
+Then he whistled a shrill whistle.
+
+His mates leaped out suddenly from their ambush at the sound of the
+whistle.
+
+At that moment Czipra recovered her self control in sheer despair: she
+suddenly tore her hand from the robber's grasp, and in three bounds,
+like a terrified deer, reached the threshold of the door she had left
+open.
+
+But the wolf had followed in her tracks and reached her at the door. The
+girl had no time to close it in his face.
+
+"Don't whine!" hissed Kandur, seizing the girl's arm with one hand, with
+the other attempting to close her mouth.
+
+But terror had made Czipra frantic: tearing down the robber's hand from
+her mouth, she pushed him back from the door, and with shrill cries
+awoke the echoes of the night.
+
+"Lorand, help! Robbers!"
+
+"Silence, you dog, or I'll stab you!" thundered the robber, pointing a
+knife at the girl's breast.
+
+The knife did not frighten Czipra: as she struggled unceasingly and
+desperately with the robber, she cried "Lorand! Lorand! Murder! Help!"
+
+"Damn you!" exclaimed the robber thrusting his knife into the maiden's
+bosom.
+
+Czipra suddenly seized the knife with her two hands.
+
+At that moment Lorand appeared beside her.
+
+At the first cry he had rushed from his room and, unarmed, hastened to
+Czipra's aid.
+
+The girl was still struggling with the robber, holding him back, by
+sheer force, from entering the door.
+
+Lorand sprang towards her, and dealt the intruder such a blow with his
+fist in the face, that two of his teeth were broken.
+
+Two shots rang out, followed by a heavy fall and a cry of cursing.
+
+Topandy had fired from the window and one of the four robbers fell on
+his face mortally wounded, while another, badly hit, floundered and
+collapsed near the corridor.
+
+The two shots, the noise behind his back, and the unexpected blow
+confused Kandur; he retreated from the door, leaving his knife in
+Czipra's hand.
+
+Lorand quickly utilized this opportunity to close the door, fasten the
+chain, and draw the bolt.
+
+The next moment the robbers' vehement attack could be heard, as they
+fell upon the door with crowbars.
+
+"Come, let us get away," said Lorand, taking Czipra's hand.
+
+The girl faintly answered.
+
+"Oh! I cannot walk. I am fainting."
+
+"Are you wounded?" asked Lorand, alarmed. It was dark, he could not see.
+
+The girl fell against the wall.
+
+Lorand at once took her in his arms and carried her into his room.
+
+The lamp was still burning: he had just finished his letters.
+
+He laid the wounded girl upon his bed.
+
+He was terrified to see her covered with blood.
+
+"Are you badly wounded?"
+
+"Oh, no," said the girl: "see, the knife only went in so deep."
+
+And she displayed the robber's knife, showing on the blade how far it
+had penetrated.
+
+Lorand clasped his hands in despair.
+
+"Here is a kerchief, press it on the wound to prevent the blood
+flowing."
+
+"Go, go!" panted the girl. "Look after your own safety. They want to
+kill you. They want to murder you."
+
+"Aha! let the wretches come! I shall face them without running!" said
+Lorand, whose only care was for Czipra: he quickly tried to stem the
+flow of blood from the wound in the girl's breast with a handkerchief.
+"Lie quiet. Put your head here. Here, here, not so high. Is it very
+painful?"
+
+On the girl's neck was a chain made of hair: this was in the way, so he
+wished to tear it off.
+
+"No, no, don't touch it," panted the girl, "that must remain there as
+long as I live. Go, get a weapon, and defend yourself."
+
+The blows of the crowbars redoubled in force, and the bullets that broke
+through the closed windows dislodged the plaster from the walls; shot
+followed shot.
+
+Lorand had no other care than to see if the wounded girl's pillows were
+well arranged.
+
+"Lorand," said the girl breathlessly. "Leave me. They are numerous.
+Escape. Put the lamp out, and when everything is dark--then leave me
+alone."
+
+Certainly it would be good to extinguish the lamp, because the robbers
+were aiming into that room on account of it.
+
+"Lorand! Where are you? Lorand," Topandy's voice sounded in the
+corridor.
+
+At that sound Lorand began to realize the danger that threatened the
+whole household.
+
+"Come and take your gun!" said the old man standing in the doorway. His
+face was just as contemptuous as ever. There was not the least trace of
+excitement, fright or anger upon it.
+
+Lorand rose from his kneeling posture beside the bed.
+
+"Don't waste time putting your boots on!" bawled the old fellow. "Our
+guests are come. We must meet them. Where is Czipra? She can load our
+weapons while we fire."
+
+"Czipra cannot, for she is wounded."
+
+Topandy then discovered for the first time that Czipra was lying there.
+
+"A shot?" he asked of Lorand.
+
+"A knife thrust."
+
+"Only a knife thrust? That will heal. Czipra can stand that, can't you,
+my child? We'll soon repay the wretches. Remain here, Czipra, quietly,
+and don't move. We two will manage it. Bring your weapon and ammunition,
+Lorand. Bring the lamp out into the corridor. Here they can spy directly
+upon us. Luckily the brigands are not used to handle guns; they only
+waste powder."
+
+"But can we leave Czipra here alone?" asked Lorand anxiously.
+
+Czipra clasped her hands and looked at him.
+
+"Go," she panted. "Go away: if you don't I shall get up from here and
+look out for myself."
+
+"Don't be afraid. They cannot come here," said Topandy; then, lifting
+the lamp from the table himself, and taking Lorand's hand, he drew him
+out from the room.
+
+In the corridor they halted to decide on a plan of action.
+
+"The villains are still numerous," said Topandy: "yet I've accounted for
+two of them already. I have been round the rooms, and see that every
+exit is barred. They cannot enter, for the doors have been made just for
+such people, and the windows are protected by bolts and shutters. I have
+eight charges myself: even if they break in, before anyone can come this
+far, there will be no one left.--But something else may happen. If the
+wretches see we are defending ourselves well they will set the house on
+fire over us and so compel us to rush into the open. Then the advantage
+is theirs. So your business is to take a double-barrelled gun and
+ascend to the roof. My butler and the cook have hidden themselves away
+and I cannot entice them out: if they were here I should send one of
+them with you."
+
+The robbers were beating the door angrily with their crowbars.
+
+"In a moment!" exclaimed Topandy jokingly.--"The rogues seem to be
+impatient."
+
+"And what shall I do on the roof?" asked Lorand.
+
+"Wait patiently! I shall tell you in good time. No Turk is chasing
+you.--You go up and make your exit upon the roof by means of the attic
+window: then you crawl round on all fours along the gutter, without
+trying to shoot: leave them to pound upon all four doors. I shall join
+in the serenade, when necessary. But if you see they are beginning to
+strike lights and set straw on fire, you must put a stop to it. The
+gutter will defend you against their fire, they cannot see you, but when
+they start a blaze, you can accurately aim at each one. That is what I
+wanted to say."
+
+"Very well," said Lorand, taking his cartridges from his gun-case.
+
+"You'd better use shot instead of bullets," remarked Topandy. "It's
+easier to hit with shot when one is shooting in the dark, especially in
+the case of a large company. A little _sang froid_, my boy--you know:
+all of life is a play."
+
+Lorand grasped the old man's hand and hurried up to the garret.
+
+There in the dark he could only feel his way. For a long time he
+wandered aimlessly about, striking matches to discover his whereabouts,
+until he came upon the attic window, which he raised with his head and
+so came out on the roof.
+
+Then he slid down softly on his stomach as far as the gutter.
+
+Below him the ball was in progress. The thunder of crowbars, the
+cracking of panels, the strong blows dealt to the tune of oaths; fresh
+oaths, thunder, pole-axe blows upon the wall. The robbers, unable to
+break in the doors, were trying to dislodge their posts.
+
+And in the distance no noise, no sign of help. The cowardly neighbors,
+shutting themselves in, were crouching in their own houses: nor could
+one blame unarmed men for not coming to the rescue. A gun is a terrible
+menace.
+
+Silence reigned in the servants' hall. They too dared not come out.
+Courage is not for poor men.
+
+In the whole courtyard there were but two men who had stout hearts in
+their bosoms.
+
+The third courageous heart was that of a girl, who lay wounded.
+
+As he thought of this, Lorand became the victim of an excited passion.
+He felt his head swimming: he felt that he could not remain there, for
+sooner or later he must leap down.
+
+Leap down!
+
+An idea occurred to him. A difficult feat, but once thought out, it
+could be accomplished.
+
+He scrambled up the roof again: cut away one of those long dry ropes
+which in the garrets of many houses stretch from one rafter to another,
+tied to one end of it the weight of an old clock lying idle in the
+attic, and returned again to the roof.
+
+Not far from the house there stood an old sycamore tree: one of its
+spreading branches bent so near to the house that Lorand could certainly
+reach it by a cast of the rope. The lead-weighted rope, like a lasso,
+swung over and around the branch and fastened itself on it firmly.
+
+Lorand looped the other end of the rope round a rafter.
+
+Then, throwing his gun over his shoulder, and seizing the rope with both
+his hands, he leaned his whole weight on it, to see if it would hold.
+
+When he was convinced that the rope would bear his weight, he began to
+clamber over from the roof to the sycamore tree, suspended in the air,
+on the slender rope.
+
+Those below could not see him as they were under the verandah, nor could
+they notice the noise because of their own efforts: the little
+disturbance caused by the shaking of a branch and the dropping of a
+figure from the tree was drowned by the shaking of doors, and the
+discharge of firearms.
+
+Lorand reached the ground without mishap.
+
+The sycamore tree stood at a corner of the castle, about thirty paces
+from the besieged door.
+
+Lorand could not see the robbers from this position: the northern side
+of the verandah was overgrown with creepers which covered the windows.
+
+He must get nearer to them.
+
+The bushes under Czipra's window offered him a suitable position, being
+about ten paces from the door, which was plainly visible from them.
+
+Lorand cocked both triggers, and started alone with one gun against the
+whole robber-band.
+
+When he reached the bushes he could see the rascals well.
+
+They were four in number.
+
+Two were trying the effect of the "jimmy" on the heavy iron-bound door,
+while a third, the wounded one, though he could no longer stand, still
+took part in the siege, notwithstanding his wounds. He put the barrel
+of his gun into the breaches made and fired over and over, so as to
+prevent the people inside from defending the door.
+
+Sometimes single shots answered him from within, but without hitting
+anybody or anything.
+
+The fourth robber, crowbar in hand, was striving to break down the
+door-supports. That was Vasgyuro.
+
+On the other side of the courtyard Lorand saw two armed figures keeping
+guard over the servants' hall. It was six to one.
+
+And there were still more than that altogether.
+
+The door was very shaky already: the hinges were breaking. Lorand
+thought he heard his name called from within.
+
+"Now, all together," thundered the robbers in self-encouragement,
+exerting all their united force on the crowbars. "More force! More!"
+
+Lorand calmly raised his gun to his shoulder and fired twice among them
+in quick succession.
+
+No cry of pain followed the two shots--merely the thud of two heavy
+bodies. They were so thoroughly killed, they had no time to complain.
+
+The one in whose hands the crowbar remained dropped it behind him, as he
+darted away.
+
+The man who had been previously wounded began to cry for assistance.
+
+"Don't shout," exclaimed the fifth robber. "You'll alarm the others."
+
+Then putting two fingers in his mouth he whistled shrilly twice.
+
+Lorand saw that at this double whistle the two robbers running hastily
+came in his direction, while the din that arose on the farther side of
+the castle informed him of an attack from that side too. So he was
+between three fires.
+
+He did not lose his presence of mind.
+
+Before the new-comers arrived he had just time to load both
+barrels:--the bushes hid him from anyone who might even stand face to
+face, so that he could take no sure aim.
+
+Haste, care and courage!
+
+Lorand had often read stories of famous lion-hunters, but had been
+unable to believe them: unable to imagine how a lonely man in a wild
+waste, far from every human aid, defended only by a bush, could be
+courageous enough to cover the oldest male among a group of lions
+seeking their prey, and at a distance of ten paces fire into his heart.
+Not to hit his heart meant death to the hunter. But he is sure he will
+succeed, and sure, too, that the whole group will flee, once his victim
+has fallen.
+
+What presence of mind was required for that daring deed! What a strong
+heart, what a cool hand!
+
+Now in this awful moment Lorand knew that all this was possible. A man
+feels the extent of his manliness, left all to himself in the midst of
+danger.
+
+He too was hunting, matched against the most dangerous of all beasts of
+prey--the beasts called "men."
+
+Two he had already laid low. He had found his mark as well as the
+lion-hunter had found his.
+
+He heard steps of the animals he was hunting approaching his ambuscade
+on two sides: and the leader of all stood there under cover, leaning
+against a pillar of the verandah, ready to spring, ten paces away. He
+had only two charges, with which he had to defend himself against attack
+from three sides.
+
+Dangerous sport!
+
+One of the robbers who hurried from the servants' hall disappeared among
+the trees in the garden, while the other remained behind.
+
+Lorand quietly aimed at the first: he had to aim low for fear of firing
+above him in the dark.
+
+It was well that he had followed his uncle's advice to use shot instead
+of bullets. The shot lamed both the robber's legs: he fell in his flight
+and stumbled among the bushes.
+
+The one who followed was alarmed, and standing in the distance fired in
+Lorand's direction.
+
+Lorand, after his shot, immediately fell on his knees: and it was very
+lucky he did so, for in the next moment Kandur discharged both his
+barrels from beside the pillar, and the aim was true, as Lorand
+discovered from the fact that the bullets dislodged leaves just above
+his head, that came fluttering down upon him.
+
+Then he turned to the third side.
+
+There had come from that direction at the call of the whistle Korve,
+Pofok, and Bogracs, who had been guarding the street-door and the other
+exit from the castle.
+
+At the moment they turned into the garden their comrade Foszto, seeing
+Kanyo fall, stood still and fired his double-barrelled gun and pistols
+in the direction of Lorand's hiding-place. It was quite natural they
+should think some aid had arrived from the shooting-box, for the bullets
+whistled just over their heads: so they began to fire back: Foszto,
+alarmed, and not understanding this turn of affairs, fled.
+
+Old Kandur's hoarse voice could not attract their attention amidst the
+random firing. He cried furiously: "Don't shoot at one another, you
+asses!"
+
+They did not understand, perhaps did not hear at all in the confusion.
+
+Lorand hastened to enlighten them.
+
+Taking aim at the three villains, who were firing wildly into the night,
+he sent his second charge into their midst from the bushes, whence they
+least expected it.
+
+This shot had a final effect. Perhaps several were wounded, one at any
+rate reeled badly, and the other two took to flight: then, finding their
+comrade could not keep up with them, they picked him up and dragged him
+along, disappearing in a moment in the thickest part of the park.
+
+Only the old lion remained behind, alone, old Kandur, the robber,
+burning with rage. He caught a glimpse of Lorand's face by the flash of
+the second discharge, recognized in him the man he sought, whom he
+hated, whose blood he thirsted after: that foe, whom he remembered with
+curses, whom he had promised to tear to pieces, to torture to death, who
+was here again in his way, and had with his unaided power broken up the
+whole opposing army, for all the world like the archangel himself.
+
+Kandur knew well he must not allow him time to load again.
+
+It was not a moment for shooting:--but for a pitched battle, hand to
+hand.
+
+Nor did the robber load his weapon: he rushed unarmed from his ambuscade
+as he saw Lorand standing before him, and threw himself in foaming
+passion upon the youth.
+
+Lorand saw that here, among the bushes, he had no further use for his
+gun, so he threw it away, and received his foe unarmed.
+
+Now it was face to face!
+
+As they clutched each other their eyes met.
+
+"You devil!" muttered Kandur, gnashing his teeth; "you have stolen my
+gold, and my girl. Now I shall repay you."
+
+Lorand now knew that the robber was Czipra's father.
+
+He had tried to murder his own daughter.
+
+This idea excited such rage in Lorand's heart that he brought the robber
+to his knees with one wrench.
+
+But the other was soon on his feet again.
+
+"Oho! You are strong too? You gentlemen live well: you have strength.
+The ox is also strong, and yet the wolf pulls him down."
+
+And with renewed passion he threw himself on Lorand.
+
+But Lorand did not allow him to come close enough to grasp his wrist. He
+was a practised wrestler, and was able to keep his opponent an arm's
+length away.
+
+"So you won't let me come near you? You won't let me kiss you, eh? Won't
+let me bite out a little piece of your beautiful face?"
+
+The wild creature stretched out his neck in his effort to get at Lorand.
+
+The struggle was desperate. Lorand was aided by the freshness of his
+youthful strength, his _sang froid_, and practised skill: the robber's
+strength was redoubled by passion, his muscles were tough, and his
+attacks impetuous, unexpected, and surprising like those of some savage
+beast.
+
+Neither uttered a sound. Lorand did not call for help, thinking his
+cries might bring the robbers back: and Kandur was afraid the house
+party might come out.
+
+Or perhaps neither thought of any such thing: each was occupied with the
+idea of overthrowing his opponent with his own hand.
+
+Kandur merely muttered through his teeth, though his passion did not
+deter his devilish humor. Lorand did not say a single word.
+
+The place was ill-adapted for such a struggle.
+
+Amid the hindering bushes they stumbled hither and thither; they could
+not move freely, nor could they turn much, each one fearing that to turn
+would be fatal.
+
+"Come, come away," muttered Kandur, dragging Lorand away from the
+bushes. "Come onto the grass."
+
+Lorand agreed.
+
+They passed out into the open.
+
+There the robber madly threw himself upon Lorand again.
+
+He tried no more to throw him, but to drag him after him, with all his
+might.
+
+Lorand did not understand what his foe wished.
+
+Always further, further:--
+
+Lorand twice threw him, but the robber clung to him and scrambled up
+again, dragging him always further away.
+
+Suddenly Lorand perceived what his opponent's intention was.
+
+A few weeks previously he had told his uncle that a steward's house was
+required: and Topandy had dug a lime-pit in the garden, where it would
+not be in the way. Only yesterday they had filled it to the brim with
+lime.
+
+The robber wished to drag Lorand with him into it.
+
+The young fellow planted his feet firmly and held back with all his
+might.
+
+Kandur's eyes flashed with the stress of passion, when he saw in his
+opponent's terrified face that he knew what his intention was.
+
+"Well, how do you like the dance, young gentleman? This will be the
+wedding-dance now! The bridegroom with the bride--together into the
+lime-pit. Come, come with me! There in the slacked lime the skin will
+leave our bodies: I shall put on yours, you mine: how pretty we two
+shall be!"
+
+The robber laughed.
+
+Lorand gathered all his strength to resist the mad attempt.
+
+Kandur suddenly caught Lorand's right arm with both of his, clung to him
+like a leech, and with a devilish smile said, "Come now, come
+along!"--and drew Lorand nearer, nearer to the edge of the pit. A couple
+of blows which Lorand dealt with his disengaged fist upon his skull were
+unnoticed: it was as hard as iron.
+
+They had reached the edge of the pit.
+
+Then Lorand suddenly put his left arm round the robber's waist, raised
+him in the air, then screwing him round his right arm, flung him over
+his head.
+
+This acrobatic feat required such an effort that he himself fell on his
+back--but it succeeded.
+
+The robber, feeling himself in the air, lost his head, and left hold of
+Lorand's arm for a moment, with the intention of gripping his hair; in
+that moment he was thrown off and fell alone into the lime-pit.
+
+Lorand leaped up at once from the ground and, tired out, leaned against
+the trunk of a tree, searching for his opponent everywhere, and not
+finding him.
+
+A minute later from amidst the white lime-mud there rose an awful figure
+which clambered out on the opposite side of the pit, and with a yell of
+pain rushed away into the courtyard and out into the street.
+
+Lorand, exhausted and half dazed, listened to that beast-like howl
+gradually diminishing in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE SPIDER IN THE CORNER
+
+
+That day about noon the old gypsy woman who told Czipra her fortune had
+shuffled into Sarvoelgyi's courtyard, and finding the master out on the
+terrace, thanked him that he did not set his dogs upon her--did not tear
+her to pieces.
+
+"I wish you a very good day, sir, and every blessing that is on earth or
+in Heaven."
+
+Mistress Borcsa looked out from the kitchen.
+
+"Well, it's just lucky you didn't wish what is in hell! And what is in
+the water! Gypsy, don't leave us a blessing without fish to go with it,
+for fish is wanted here twice a week."
+
+"Don't listen to Mistress Boris' jokes."
+
+"Good day, my daughter," said the master gently.
+
+"Well he actually calls the ragged gypsy woman 'my daughter,'" grumbled
+the old housekeeper. "Blood is thicker than water."
+
+"Well, what have you brought, Marcsa?"
+
+"Csicsa sent to say he will come with his twelve musicians this evening:
+he begs you to pay him in advance as the musicians must hire a
+conveyance--then," she continued, dropping her voice to a tone of
+jesting flattery,--"a little suckling pig for supper, if possible."
+
+"Very well, Marcsa," said Sarvoelgyi, with polite gentility. "Everything
+shall be in order. Come here towards evening. You shall get payment and
+sucking pig too."
+
+Yet this overflowing magnanimity was not at all in conformity with the
+well-established habits of the devotee. Close-fisted niggardliness
+displayed itself in his every feature and warred against this unnatural
+outbreak.
+
+The gypsy woman kissed his hand and thanked him. But Mistress Boris saw
+the moment had arrived for a ministerial process against this abuse of
+royal prerogative; so she came out from the kitchen, a pan in one hand,
+a cooking-spoon in the other.
+
+She began her invective with the following Magyar "_quousque tandem_!"
+
+"The devil take your insatiable stomachs! When were they ever full? When
+did I ever hear you say 'I've eaten well, I'm satisfied!' I don't know
+what has come over the master, that, ever since he became a married man,
+he has nothing better to do with his income than to stuff gypsies with
+it!"
+
+"Don't listen to her, Marcsa," said the pious man softly, "that's a way
+she has. Come this evening, and you shall have your sucking pig."
+
+"Sucking pig!" exclaimed Mistress Boris. "I should like to know where
+they'll find a sucking pig hereabouts. As if all those the two sows had
+littered were not already devoured!"
+
+"There is one left," said Sarvoelgyi coolly, "one that is continually in
+the way all over the place."
+
+"Yes, but that one I shall not give," protested Mistress Boris. "I
+shan't give it up for all the gypsies in the world. My little tame
+sucking pig which I brought up on milk and breadcrumbs. They shan't
+touch that. I won't give up that!"
+
+"It is enough if I give it," said Sarvoelgyi, harshly.
+
+"What, you will make a present of it? Didn't you present me with it in
+its young days, when it was the size of a fist? And now you want to take
+it back?"
+
+"Don't make a noise. I'll give you two of the same size in place of it."
+
+"I don't want any larger one, or any other one: I am no trader. I want
+my own sucking pig; I won't give it up for a whole herd,--the little one
+I brought up myself on milk and bread-crumbs! It is so accustomed to me
+now that it always answers my call, and pulls at my apron: it plays
+with me. As clever, as a child, for all the world as if it were no pig
+at all, but a human being."
+
+Mistress Borcsa burst into tears. She always had her pet animals, after
+the fashion of old servants, who, being on good terms with nobody in the
+world, tame some hen or other animal set aside for eating purposes, and
+defend its life cleverly and craftily; not allowing it to be killed;
+until finally the merciless master passes the sentence that the favorite
+too must be killed. How they weep then! The poor, old maid-servants
+cannot touch a morsel of it.
+
+"Stop whining, Borcsa!" roared Sarvoelgyi, frowning. "You will do what I
+order. The pig must be caught and given to Marcsa."
+
+The pig, unsuspicious of danger, was wandering about in the courtyard.
+
+"Well, _I_ shall not catch it," whimpered Mistress Boris.
+
+"Marcsa'll do that."
+
+The gypsy woman did not wait to be told a second time: but, at once
+taking a basket off her arms, squatted down and began to shake the
+basket, uttering some such enticing words as "_Pocza, poczo, net, net!_"
+
+Nor was Mistress Borcsa idle: as soon as she remarked this device, she
+commenced the counteracting spell. "Shoo! Shoo!"--and with her pan and
+cooking-spoon she tried to frighten her _protege_ away from the vicinity
+of the castle, despite the stamping protests of Sarvoelgyi, who saw open
+rebellion in this disregard for his commands.
+
+Then the two old women commenced to drive the pig up and down the yard,
+the one enticing, the other "shooing," and creating a delightful uproar.
+
+But, such is the ingratitude of adopted pigs! The foolish animal,
+instead of listening to its benefactor's words and flying for protection
+among the beds of spinach, greedily answered to the call of the charmer,
+and with ears upright trotted towards the basket to discover what might
+be in it.
+
+The gypsy woman caught its hind legs.
+
+Mistress Borcsa screamed, Marcsa grunted, and the pig squealed loudest
+of all.
+
+"Kill it at once to stop its cries!" cried Sarvoelgyi. "What a horrible
+noise over a pig!"
+
+"Don't kill it! Don't make it squeal while I am listening," exclaimed
+Borcsa in a terrified passion: then she ran back into the kitchen, and
+stopped her ears lest she should hear them killing her favorite pig.
+
+She came out again as soon as the squeals of her _protege_ had ceased,
+and with uncontrollable fury took up a position before Sarvoelgyi. The
+gypsy woman smilingly pointed to the murdered innocent.
+
+Mistress Borcsa then said in a panting rage to Sarvoelgyi:
+
+"Miser who gives one day, and takes back--a curse upon such as you!"
+
+"Zounds! good-for-nothing!" bawled the righteous fellow. "How dare you
+say such a thing to me?"
+
+"From to-day I am no longer your servant," said the old woman, trembling
+with passion. "Here is the cooking-spoon, here the pan: cook your own
+dinner, for your wife knows less about it than you do. My husband lives
+in the neighboring village: I left him in his young days because he beat
+me twice a day; now I shall go back to the honest fellow, even if he
+beat me thrice a day."
+
+Mistress Borcsa was in reality not jesting, and to prove it she at once
+gathered up her bed, brought out her trunks, piled all her possessions
+onto a barrow, and wheeled them out without saying so much as "good
+bye."
+
+Sarvoelgyi tried to prevent this wholesale rebellion forcibly by seizing
+Mistress Borcsa's arm to hold her back.
+
+"You shall remain here: you cannot go away. You are engaged for a whole
+year. You will not get a kreutzer if you go away."
+
+But Mistress Borcsa proved that she was in earnest, as she forcibly tore
+her arm from Sarvoelgyi's grasp.
+
+"I don't want your money," she said, wheeling her barrow further. "What
+you wish to keep back from my salary may remain for the
+master's--coffin-nails."
+
+"What, you cursed witch!" exclaimed Sarvoelgyi. "What did you dare to say
+to me?"
+
+Mistress Borcsa was already outside the gate. She thrust her head in
+again, and said:
+
+"I made a mistake. I ought to have said that the money you keep from me
+may remain--to buy a rope."
+
+Sarvoelgyi, enraged, ran to his room to fetch a stick, but before he came
+out with it, Mistress Borcsa was already wheeling her vehicle far away
+on the other side of the street, and it would not have been fitting for
+a gentleman to scamper after her before the eyes of the whole village,
+and to commence a combat of doubtful issue in the middle of the street
+with the irritated Amazon.
+
+The nearest village was not far from Lankadomb; yet before she reached
+it, Mistress Borcsa's soul was brimming over with wrath.
+
+Every man would consider it beneath his dignity to submit tamely to such
+a dishonor.
+
+As she reached the village of her birth, she made straight for the
+courtyard of her former husband's house.
+
+Old Kolya recognized his wife as she came up trundling the squeaking
+barrow, and wondering thrust his head out at the kitchen door.
+
+"Is that you, Boris?"
+
+"It is: you might see, if you had eyes."
+
+"You've come back?"
+
+Instead of replying Mistress Boris bawled to her husband.
+
+"Take one end of this trunk and help me to drag it in. Take hold now. Do
+you think I came here to admire your finely curled moustache?"
+
+"Well, why else did you come, Boris?" said the old man very
+phlegmatically, without so much as taking his hand from behind his back.
+
+"You want to quarrel with me again, I see; well, let's be over with it
+quickly: take a stick and beat me, then let us talk sense."
+
+At this Kolya took pity on his wife and helped her to drag the trunk in.
+
+"I am no longer such a quarreller, Boris," he answered. "Ever since I
+became a man with a responsible position I have never annoyed anyone. I
+am a watchman."
+
+"So much the better: if you are an official, I can at any rate tell you
+what trouble brought me here."
+
+"So it was only trouble drove you here?"
+
+"Certainly. They robbed and stole from me. They have taken away my
+yellow-flowered calico kerchief, a red 'Home-sweet-Home' handkerchief,
+which I had intended for you, a silver-crossed string of beads, twelve
+dollars, ten gold pieces, twenty-two silver buttons, four pairs of
+silver buckles, and a scolloped-eared, pi-bald, eight-week-old pig...."
+
+"Whew!" exclaimed Kolya as he heard of so much loss. "This is a pretty
+business. Well, who stole them?"
+
+"No one else than the cursed gypsy woman Marcsa, who lives here in this
+village."
+
+"We shall call her to account as soon as she appears."
+
+"Naturally. She went there while I was weeding in the garden; she
+prowled about and stole."
+
+"Well I'll soon have her by the ears, only let her come here."
+
+Not a word of the whole story of the theft was true: but Mistress Boris
+reasoned as follows:
+
+"You must come here first, gypsy woman, with that scolloped-eared pig:
+if they find it in your possession, they will put you in jail, and ask
+you what you did with the rest. Whether your innocence is proved or not,
+the pig-joint will in the meanwhile become uneatable, and won't come
+into your stomachs. You may say you got it as a present,--no one will
+believe you, and the magistrate will not order such a gentleman as
+Sarvoelgyi to come here and witness in your favor."
+
+Kolya allowed himself to be made a participant in his wife's anger, and
+went at once to inform the servants of the magistrate, who was sitting
+in the village.
+
+Towards evening Kolya, in ambush at the end of the village, spied the
+gypsy woman as she came sauntering by Lankadomb, carrying on her arm a
+large basket as if it were some great weight.
+
+Kolya said nothing to her, he merely let her pass before him, and
+followed her on the other side of the street, until she reached the
+middle of the market-place, where many loiterers sauntered and listened
+to the tales of his wife.
+
+"Halt, Marcsa!" cried Kolya, standing in the gypsy woman's way.
+
+"What do you want?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"What have you in your basket?"
+
+"What should I have? A pig which you shall not taste, is in it."
+
+"Of course. Has not the pig scolloped ears?"
+
+"Suppose it has?"
+
+"You speak lightly. Let me look at the pig."
+
+"Well look--then go blind. Have you never seen such an animal? Have a
+look at it."
+
+The gypsy woman uncovered the basket, in which lay the unhappy victim,
+reposing on its stomach, its scolloped ears still standing up straight.
+
+A crowd began to collect round the disputants.
+
+Mistress Boris burst in among them.
+
+"There it is! That was my pig!"
+
+"As much as the shadow of the Turkish Sultan's horse was yours. Off with
+you: don't look at it so hard, else you will be bewitched by it and your
+child will be like it."
+
+The loiterers began to laugh at that; they were always ready to laugh at
+any rough jest.
+
+The laughter enraged Kolya: he seized the much-discussed pig's hind legs
+and before the gypsy woman could prevent him, had torn it out of the
+basket.
+
+But the pig was heavier than such animals are wont to be at that age,
+so that Kolya bumped the noble creature's nose against the ground.
+
+As he did so a dollar rolled out of the pig's mouth.
+
+"Oho!--the thalers are here too!"
+
+At these words the gypsy woman took up her basket and began to run away.
+When they seized her, she scratched and bit, and tried her best to
+escape, till finally they bound her hands behind her.
+
+Kolya was beside himself with astonishment.
+
+There was quite a heap of silver money sewn into that pig. Loads of
+silver.
+
+Mistress Boris herself did not understand it.
+
+This must be reported to the magistrate.
+
+Kolya, accompanied by a large crowd, conducted Marcsa to the
+magistrate's house, where the clerks, pending that official's arrival,
+took the accused in charge, and shut her up in a dark cell, which had
+only one narrow window looking out on the henyard.
+
+When the magistrate returned towards midnight, only the vacant cell was
+there without the gypsy woman. She had been able to creep out through
+the narrow opening, and had gone off.
+
+The magistrate, when he saw the "_corpus delicti_," was himself of the
+opinion that the pig was in reality Mistress Boris's property, while the
+money that had been hidden in its inside must have come also from
+Sarvoelgyi's house. There might be some great robbery in progress yonder.
+He immediately gave orders for three mounted constables to start off for
+Lankadomb; he ordered a carriage for himself, and a few minutes after
+the departure of the constables, was on his way in their tracks with his
+solicitor and servant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The spider was already sitting in its web.
+
+As night fell, Sarvoelgyi hastened the ladies off to bed, for they were
+going to leave for Pest and so had to wake early.
+
+When all was quiet in the house, he himself went round the yard and
+locked the doors: then he closed the door of each room separately.
+
+Finally he piled his arms on his table--two guns, two pistols, and a
+hunting-knife.
+
+He was loath to believe the old gossip. Suppose Kandur should, in the
+course of his feast of blood be whetted for more slaughter, and wish to
+slice up betrayer after betrayed?
+
+In the presence of twelve robbers, he could not even trust an ally.
+
+The night watchman had already called "Eleven."
+
+Sarvoelgyi was sitting beside his window.
+
+The windows were protected on the street side by iron shutters, with a
+round slit in the middle, through which one could look out into the
+street.
+
+Sarvoelgyi opened the casements in order to hear better, and awaited the
+events to which the night should give birth.
+
+It was a still warm evening towards the end of spring.
+
+All nature seemed to sleep; no leaf moved in the warm night air: only at
+times could be heard a faint sound, as if wood and field had shuddered
+in their dreams, and a long-drawn sigh had rustled the tops of the
+poplars, dying away in the reed-forest.
+
+Then, suddenly, the hounds all along the village began to bay and howl.
+
+The bark of a hound is generally a soothing sound; but when the vigilant
+house-guard has an uneasy feeling, and changes his bark to a long
+whining howl, it inspires disquietude and anxiety.
+
+Only the spider in the web rejoiced at the sound of danger! They were
+coming!
+
+The hounds' uproar lasted long: but finally it too ceased; and there
+followed the dreamy, quiet night, undisturbed by even a breath of wind.
+
+Only the nightingales sang, those sweet fanciful songsters of the night,
+far and near in the garden bushes.
+
+Sarvoelgyi listened long--but not to the nightingale's song. What next
+would happen?
+
+Then the stillness of the night was broken by an awful cry as when a
+girl in the depth of night meets her enemy face to face.
+
+A minute later again that cry--still more horrible, more anguished. As
+if a knife had been thrust into the maiden's breast.
+
+Then two shots resounded:--and a volley of oaths.
+
+All these midnight sounds came from above Topandy's castle.
+
+Then a sound of heavy firing, varied by noisy oaths. The spider in the
+web started. The web had been disturbed. The stealthy attack had not
+succeeded.
+
+Yet they were many--they could surely overcome two. The peasants did not
+dare to aid where bullets whistled.
+
+Then the firing died away: other sounds were heard: blows of crowbars on
+the heavy door: the thunder of the pole-axe on the stone wall, here and
+there a single shot, the flash of which could not be seen in the night.
+Certainly they were firing in at doors and out through windows. That was
+why no flash could be seen.
+
+But how long it lasted! A whole eternity before they could deal with
+those two men! From the roots of Sarvoelgyi's sparse hair hot beads of
+sweat were dripping down.
+
+Not in yet? Why cannot they break in the door?
+
+Suddenly the light of two brilliant flashes illuminated the night for a
+moment: then two deafening reports, that could be produced only by a
+weapon of heavy calibre. So easy to pick out the dull thunder roar from
+those other crackling splutterings that followed at once.
+
+What was that? Could they be fighting in the open? Could they have come
+out into the courtyard? Could they have received aid from some
+unexpected quarter?
+
+The crack of fire-arms lasted a few minutes longer. Twice again could be
+heard that particular roar, and then all was quiet again.
+
+Were they done for already?
+
+For a long time no sound, far or near.
+
+Sarvoelgyi looked and listened in restless impatience. He wished to
+pierce the night with his eyes, he wished to hear voices through this
+numbing stillness. He put his ear to the opening in the iron shutter.
+
+Some one knocked at the shutter from without.
+
+Startled, he looked out.
+
+The old gypsy woman was there: creeping along beside the wall she had
+come this far unnoticed.
+
+"Sarvoelgyi," said the woman in a loud whisper: "Sarvoelgyi, do you hear?
+They have seized the money: the magistrate has it. Take care!"
+
+Then she disappeared as noiselessly as she had come.
+
+In a moment the sweat on Sarvoelgyi's body turned to ice. His teeth
+chattered from fever.
+
+What the gypsy woman had said was, for him, the terror of death.
+
+The most evident proof was in the hands of the law: before the awful
+deed had been accomplished, the hand that directed it had been betrayed.
+
+And perhaps the terrible butchery was now in its last stage. They were
+torturing the victims! Pouring upon them the hellish vengeance of
+wounded wild beasts! Tearing them limb from limb! Looking with their
+hands that dripped with blood among the documents for the letter with
+five seals.
+
+Already all was betrayed! Fever shook his every limb. Why that great
+stillness outside? What secret could this monstrous night hide that it
+kept such silence as this?
+
+Suddenly the silence was broken by a wild creature's howl.
+
+No it was no animal. Only a man could howl so, when agony had changed
+him to a mad beast, who in the fury of his pain had forgotten human
+voice.
+
+The noise sounded first in the distance, beyond the garden of the
+castle, but presently approached, and a figure of horror ran howling
+down the street.
+
+A figure of horror indeed!
+
+A man, white from head to foot.
+
+All his clothes, every finger of his hand, was white: every hair of his
+head, his beard, moustache, his whole face was white, glistening,
+shining white, and as he ran he left white footsteps behind him.
+
+Was it a spirit?
+
+The horror rushed up to Sarvoelgyi's door, rattling the latch and in a
+voice of raving anger began to howl as he shook the door.
+
+"Let me in! Let me in! I am dying!"
+
+Sarvoelgyi's face, in his agony of terror, became like that of a damned
+soul.
+
+That was Kandur's voice! That was Kandur's figure. But so white!
+
+Perhaps the naked soul of one on the way to hell?
+
+The horrible figure thundered continuously at the door and cried:
+
+"Let me in! Give me to drink! I am burning! Bathe me in oil! Help me to
+undress! I am dying! I am in hell! Help! Drag me out of it!"
+
+All through the street they could hear his cries.
+
+Then the damned soul began to curse, and beat the door with his fist,
+because they would not open to him.
+
+"A plague upon you, cursed accomplice. You shut me out and won't let me
+in? Thrust me into the tanpit of hell and leave me there? My skin is
+peeling off! I am going blind! An ulcer upon your soul!"
+
+The writhing figure tore off his clothes, which burned his limbs like a
+shirt of Nessus, and while so doing the hidden silver coins he had
+received from Sarvoelgyi fell to the ground.
+
+"Devil take you, money and all!" he shouted, dashing the coins against
+the door. "Here's your cursed money! Pick it up!"
+
+Then he staggered on, leaning against the railing and howling in pain:
+
+"Help! Help! A fortune for a glass of water! Only let me live until I
+can drag that fellow with me! Help, man, help!"
+
+A deathly numbness possessed Sarvoelgyi. If that figure of horror were no
+"spirit," he must hasten to make him so. He would betray all. That was
+the greatest danger. He must not live.
+
+He could not see him from the window. Perhaps if he opened the shutters,
+he could fire at him. He was a highwayman: who could call Sarvoelgyi to
+account for shooting him? He had done it in self-defence.
+
+If only his hands would not tremble so! It was impossible to hit him
+with a pistol except by placing the barrel to his forehead.
+
+Should he go out to him?
+
+Who would dare to go out to meet that demon face to face? Could the
+spider leave its web?
+
+While he hesitated, while he struggled to measure the distance from door
+to window and back, a new sound was heard in the street:--three horsemen
+came trotting up from the end of the village, and in them Sarvoelgyi
+recognized, from their uniforms, the country police.
+
+Then the bell began to ring, and the peasants came out of their doors,
+armed with pitchforks and clubs: noisy crowds collected. In their midst
+were one or two bound figures whom they drove forward with blows: they
+had seized the robbers.
+
+The battle was irremediably lost. The chief criminal saw the toils
+closing in on him but had no time to make his escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+I BELIEVE....!
+
+
+Day was dawning.
+
+Topandy had not left Czipra since she had been wounded. He sat alone
+beside her bed.
+
+Servants and domestics had other things to do now: they were standing
+before the magistrate, face to face with the captured robbers. The
+magisterial inquiry demanded the presence of them all.
+
+Topandy was alone with the wounded girl.
+
+"Where is Lorand?" whispered Czipra.
+
+"He drove over to the neighboring village to bring a doctor for you."
+
+"No harm has come to him?"
+
+"You might have heard his voice through the window, when all was over.
+He could not come in, because the door was closed. His first care was to
+bring a surgeon for you."
+
+The girl sighed.
+
+"If he comes too late...."
+
+"Don't fret about that. Your wound is not fatal; only be calm."
+
+"I know better," said the girl in a flush of fever. "I feel that I shall
+not live."
+
+"Don't worry, Czipra, you will get better," said Topandy, taking the
+girl's hand.
+
+And then the girl locked her five fingers in those of Topandy, so that
+they were clasped like two hands in prayer.
+
+"Sir, I know I am standing on the brink of the grave. I have now grasped
+your hand. I have clasped it, as people at prayer are wont to clasp
+their hands. Can you let me go down to the grave without teaching me
+one prayer. This night the murderer's knife has pierced my heart to
+liberate yours. Does not my heart deserve the accomplishment of its last
+wish? Does not that God, who this night has liberated us both, me from
+life, you from death, deserve our thanks?"
+
+Topandy was moved. He said:
+
+"Repeat after me."
+
+And he said to her the Lord's Prayer.
+
+The girl devoutly and between gasps repeated it after him.
+
+How beautiful it is! What great words those are!
+
+First she repeated it after him, then again said it over, sentence by
+sentence, asking "what does this or that phrase mean?" "Why do we say
+'our Father?' What is meant by 'Thy Kingdom?' Will he forgive us our
+trespasses, if we forgive them that trespass against us? Will he deliver
+us from every evil? What power there is in that 'Amen!'"--Then a third
+time she repeated it alone before Topandy, without a single omission.
+
+"Now I feel easier," she said, her face beaming with happiness.
+
+The atheist turned aside and wept.
+
+The shutters let in the rays of the sun through the holes the bullets
+had made.
+
+"Is that sunset?" whispered the girl.
+
+"No, my child, it is sunrise."
+
+"I thought it was evening already."
+
+Topandy opened one shutter that Czipra might see the morning light of
+the sun.
+
+Then he returned to the sick girl, whose face burned with fever.
+
+"Lorand will be here immediately," he assured her gently.
+
+"I shall soon be far away," sighed the girl with burning lips.
+
+It seemed so long till Lorand returned!
+
+The girl asked no more questions about him: but she was alert at the
+opening of every door or rattling of carriages in the street, and each
+time became utterly despondent, when it was not he after all.
+
+How late he was!
+
+Yet Lorand had come as quickly as four fleet-footed steeds could gallop.
+
+Fever made the girl's imagination more irritable.
+
+"If some misfortune should befall him on the way? If he should meet the
+defeated robbers? If he should be upset on one of the rickety bridges?"
+
+Pictures of horror followed each other in quick succession in her
+feverish brain. She trembled for Lorand.
+
+Then it occurred to her that he could defend himself against terrors.
+Why, he knew how to pray.
+
+She clasped her hands across her breast and closed her eyes.
+
+As she said "Amen" to herself she heard the rattling of wheels in the
+courtyard, and then the well-known steps approaching along the corridor.
+
+What a relief that was!
+
+She felt that her prayer had been heard. How happy are those who believe
+in it!
+
+The door opened and the youth she worshipped stepped in, hastening to
+her bed and taking her hand.
+
+"You see, I was lucky: I found him on the road. That is a good sign."
+
+Czipra smiled.
+
+Her eyes seemed to ask him, "Nothing has happened to you?"
+
+The surgeon examined the wound, bandaged it and told the girl to be
+quiet, not to move or talk much.
+
+"Is there any hope?" asked Lorand in a whisper.
+
+"God and nature may help."
+
+The doctor had to leave to look after the wounded robbers. Lorand and
+his uncle remained beside Czipra.
+
+Lorand sat on the side of her bed and held her hand in his. The doctor
+had brought some cooling draught for her, which he gave the sufferer
+himself.
+
+How Czipra blessed the knife that had given her that wound!
+
+She alone knew how far it had penetrated.
+
+The others thought such a narrow little wound was not enough to cut a
+life in two.
+
+Topandy was writing a letter on Lorand's writing-table: and when asked
+"to whom?" he said "To the priest."
+
+Yet he was not wont to correspond with such.
+
+Czipra thought this too was all on her account.
+
+Why, she had not yet been christened.
+
+What a mysterious house it was, the door of which was now to open before
+her!
+
+Perhaps a whole palace, in the brilliant rooms of which the eye was
+blinded, as it looked down them?
+
+Soon steps were heard again outside. Perhaps the clergyman was coming.
+
+She was mistaken.
+
+In the new-comer she recognized a figure she had seen long before--Mr.
+Buczkay, the lawyer.
+
+Despite the customary roundness of that official's face, there were
+traces of pity on it, pity for the young girl, victim of so dreadful a
+crime.
+
+He called Topandy aside and began to whisper to him.
+
+Czipra could not hear what they were saying: but a look which the two
+men cast in her direction, betrayed to her the subject of their
+discourse.
+
+The judges were here and were putting the law into force upon the
+guilty.--They were examining into the events, from beginning to
+end.--They must know all.--They had taken the depositions of the others
+already: now it was her turn.--They would come with their documents, and
+ask her "Where did you walk? Why did you leave your room at night? Why
+did you open the house-door? Whom were you looking for outside in the
+garden?"
+
+What could she answer to those terrible questions?
+
+Should she burden her conscience with lies, before the eyes of God whom
+she would call as a witness from Heaven, and to whom she would raise her
+supplicating hands for pity, when the day of reckoning came?
+
+Or should she confess all?
+
+Should she tell how she had loved him: how mad she was: how she started
+in search of a charm, with which she wished to overcome the heart of her
+darling?
+
+She could not confess that! Rather the last drop of blood from her
+heart, than that secret.
+
+Or should she maintain an obdurate silence? That, however, would create
+suspicion that she, the robber's daughter, had opened the door for her
+robber father, and had plotted with workers of wickedness.
+
+What a desperate situation!
+
+And then again it occurred to her that she too could defend herself
+against terrors: she knew now how to pray. So she took refuge in the
+sanctuary of the Great Lord, and, embracing the pillars of his throne,
+prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
+
+Scarce a quarter of an hour after the lawyer's departure, some one else
+came.
+
+It was Michael Daruszegi, the magistrate.
+
+The girl trembled as she saw him. The confessor had come!
+
+Topandy sprang up from his seat and went to meet him.
+
+Czipra plainly heard what he said in a subdued voice.
+
+"The doctor has forbidden her to speak: in her present condition you
+cannot cross-question her."
+
+Czipra breathed freely again. He was defending her!
+
+"In any case I can answer for her, for I was present from the very
+beginning," said Lorand to the magistrate. "Czipra heard the noise in
+the garden, and was daring enough, as was her wont, to go out and see
+what was the matter. At the door she met the robber face to face: she
+barred his way, and immediately cried out for me: then she struggled
+with him until I came to her help."
+
+How pleased Czipra was at that explanation, all the more because she saw
+by Lorand's face that he really believed it.
+
+"I have no more questions to ask the young lady," said Daruszegi. "This
+matter is really over in any case."
+
+"Over?" asked Topandy astonished.
+
+"Yes, over: explained, judged, and executed."
+
+"How?"
+
+"The robber chief, Kandur, before he died in agony, made such serious
+and perfectly consistent confessions as, combined with other
+circumstances, compromised your neighbor in the greatest measure."
+
+"Sarvoelgyi?" inquired Topandy with glistening eyes.
+
+"Yes.--So far indeed that I was compelled to extend the magisterial
+inquiry to his person too. I started with my colleague to find him. We
+found the two ladies in a state of the greatest consternation. They came
+before us, and expressed their deep anxiety at not finding Sarvoelgyi
+anywhere in the house: they had discovered his room open and unoccupied.
+His bedroom we did indeed find empty, his weapons were laid out on the
+table, the key of his money-chest was left in it, and the door of the
+room open.--What could have become of him?--We wanted to enter the door
+of the dining-room opposite. It was locked. The ladies declared that
+room was generally locked. The key was inside in the lock. That room has
+two other doors, one opening on to the kitchen, one on to the verandah.
+We looked at them too. In both cases the key was inside, in the lock.
+Some one must be in the room! I called upon the person within, in the
+name of the law to open the door to us. No answer came. I repeated the
+command, but the door was not opened: so I was compelled to have it
+finally broken open by force; and when the sunlight burst through into
+the dark room, what horrible sight do you think met our startled gaze?
+The lord of the house was hanging there above the table in the place of
+the chandelier: the chair under his feet that he had kicked away proved
+that he had taken his own life...."
+
+Topandy at these words raised his hands in ecstasy above his head.
+
+"There is a God of justice in Heaven! He has smitten him with his own
+hand."
+
+Then he clasped his hands together with emotion and slipped towards the
+head of Czipra's bed.
+
+"Come, my child, say: 'I believe in God'--I shall say it first."
+
+The doctor had not forbidden that.
+
+Czipra devoutly waited for the words of wonder.
+
+What a great, what a comforting world of thoughts.
+
+A God who is a Father, a mother who is a maiden. A God who will be man
+for man's sake, and who suffered at man's hands, who died and rose again
+promises true justice, forgiveness for sins, resurrection, life eternal!
+
+"What is that life eternal?"
+
+If only some one could have answered!
+
+The atheist was kneeling down beside the girl's bed when the priest
+arrived.
+
+He did not rise, was not embarrassed at his presence.
+
+"See, reverend sir, here is a neophyte, waiting for the baptismal water:
+I have just taught her the 'credo.'"
+
+The girl gave him a look full of gratitude. What happiness glittered in
+those eyes of ecstasy!
+
+"Who will be the god-parents?" asked the clergyman.
+
+"One, the magistrate,--if he will be so kind: the other, I."
+
+Czipra looked appealingly, first at Topandy, then at Lorand.
+
+Topandy understood the unspoken question.
+
+"Lorand cannot be. In a few minutes you shall know why."
+
+The minister performed the ceremony with that briefness which
+consideration for a wounded person required.
+
+When it was over, Topandy shook hands with the minister.
+
+"If my hand has sinned at times against yours, I now ask your pardon."
+
+"The debt has been paid by that clasp of your hand," said the priest.
+
+"Your hand must now pronounce a blessing on us."
+
+"Willingly."
+
+"I do not ask it for myself: I await my punishment: I am going before my
+judge and shall not murmur against him. I want the blessing for those
+whom I love. This young fellow yesterday asked of me this maiden's hand.
+They have long loved each other, and deserve each other's love:--give
+them the blessing of faith, father. Do you agree, Czipra?"
+
+The poor girl covered her burning face with her two hands, and, when
+Lorand stepped towards her and took her hand, began to sob violently.
+
+"Don't you love me? Will you not be my wife?"
+
+Czipra turned her head on one side.
+
+"Ah, you are merely jesting with me. You want to tease, to ridicule a
+wretched creature who is nothing but a gypsy girl."
+
+Lorand drew the girl's hand to his heart when she accused him of jesting
+with her. Something within told him the girl had a right to believe
+that, and the thought wrung his heart.
+
+"How could you misunderstand me? Do you think I would play a jest upon
+you--and now?"
+
+Topandy interrupted kindly.
+
+"How could I jest with God now, when I am preparing to enter his
+presence?"
+
+"How could I jest with your heart?" said Lorand.
+
+"And with a dying girl," panted Czipra.
+
+"No, no, you will not die, you will get well again, and we shall be
+happy."
+
+"You say that now when I am dying," said the girl with sad reproach.
+"You tell me the whole beautiful world is thine, now, when of that world
+I shall have nothing but the clod of earth, which you will throw upon
+me."
+
+"No, my child," said Topandy, "Lorand asked your hand of me yesterday
+evening, and was only awaiting his mother's approval to tell you
+yourself his feelings towards you."
+
+A quick flash of joy darted over the girl's face, and then it darkened
+again.
+
+"Why, I know," she said brushing aside her tangled curls from her face,
+"I know your intentions are good. You are doing with me what people do
+with sick children. 'Get well! We'll buy you beautiful clothes, golden
+toys, we'll take you to places of amusement, for journeys--we shall be
+good-humored--will never annoy you:--only get well.' You want to give
+the poor girl pleasure, to make her better, I thank you for that too."
+
+"You will not believe me," said Lorand, "but you will believe the
+minister's word. See last night I wrote a letter to mother about you: it
+lies sealed on my writing-table. Reverend sir, be so kind as to open and
+read it before her. She will believe you if you tell her we are not
+cajoling her."
+
+The minister opened the letter, while Czipra, holding Lorand's hand,
+listened with rapt attention to the words that were read:
+
+
+     "MY DEAR MOTHER:
+
+     "After the many sorrows and pains I have continuously caused
+     throughout my life to the tenderest of mothers' hearts, to-day I
+     can send you news of joy.
+
+     "I am about to marry.
+
+     "I am taking to wife one who has loved me as a poor, nameless,
+     homeless youth, for myself alone, and whom I love for her faithful
+     heart, her soul pure as tried gold, still better than she loves me.
+
+     "My darling has neither rank nor wealth: her parents were gypsies.
+
+     "I shall not laud her to you in poetic phrases: these I do not
+     understand. I can only feel, but not express my feelings.
+
+     "No other letter of recommendation can be required of you, save
+     that I love her.
+
+     "Our love has hitherto only caused both of us pain: now I desire
+     happiness for both of us.
+
+     "Your blessing will make the cup of this happiness full.
+
+     "You are good. You love me, you rejoice in my joy.
+
+     "You know me. You know what lessons life has taught me.
+
+     "You know that Fate always ordained wisely and providentially for
+     me.
+
+     "No miracle is needed to make you, my mother, the best of mothers,
+     who love me so, and are calm and peaceful in God, clasp together
+     those hands of blessing which from my earliest days you have never
+     taken off my head.
+
+     "Include in your prayer, beside my name, the name of my faithful
+     darling, Czipra, too.
+
+     "I believe in your blessing as in every word of my religion, as in
+     the forgiveness of sins, as in the world to come.
+
+     "But if you are not what God made you,--quiet and loving, a mother
+     always ready to give her blessing with the halo of eternal love
+     round your brow,--if you are cold, quick to anger, a woman of
+     vengeance, proud of the coronet of a family blazon, one who wishes
+     herself to rule Fate, and if the curses of such a merciless lady
+     burden the girl whom I love, then so much the worse, I shall take
+     her to wife with her dowry of curses--for I love her.
+
+     "... God intercede between our hearts.
+
+                        "Your loving son,
+                                                             "LORAND."
+
+As the minister read, Czipra at each sentence pressed Lorand's hand
+closer to her heart. She could neither speak nor weep: it was more than
+her spirit could bear. Every line, every phrase opened a Paradise before
+her, full of gladness of the other world: her soul's idol loved her:
+loved her for love's sake: loved her for herself: loved her because she
+made him happy: raised her to his own level: was not ashamed of her
+wretched origin: could understand a heart's sensitiveness: commended her
+name to his mother's prayers: and was ready to maintain his love amidst
+his mother's curses.
+
+A heart cannot bear such glory!
+
+She did not care about anything now: about her wound: about life, or
+death: she felt only that glow of health which coursed through every
+sinew of her body and possessed every thought of her soul.
+
+"I believe!" she said in rapture, rising where she lay: and in those
+words was everything: everything in which people are wont to believe,
+from the love of God to the love of man.
+
+She did not care about anything now. She had no thought for men's eyes
+or men's words: but, as she uttered these words, she fell suddenly on
+Lorand's neck, drew him with the force of delight to her heart, and
+covered him with her kisses.
+
+The wound reopened in her breast, and as the girl's kisses covered the
+face of the man she loved, her blood covered his bosom.
+
+Each time her impassioned lips kissed him, a fresh gush of blood spurted
+from that faithful heart, which had always been filled with thoughts of
+him only, which had beat only for him, which had, to save him, received
+the murderer's knife:--the poor "green-robed" faithful girl.
+
+And as she pressed her last kiss upon the lips of her darling, ... she
+knew already what was the meaning of eternity....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE BRIDAL FEAST
+
+
+"Poor Czipra! I thought you would bury us all, and now it is I that must
+give you that one clod of earth the only gift you asked from the whole
+beautiful world."
+
+Topandy himself saw after the sad arrangements.
+
+Lorand could not speak: he was beside himself with grief.
+
+He merely said he would like to have his darling embalmed and to take
+her to his family property, there to bury her.
+
+This wish of his must be fulfilled.
+
+It would be a sad surprise for his mother, to whom Topandy only the day
+before had written that her son was bringing home a new daughter-in-law.
+
+When Lorand had asked Topandy for Czipra's hand, he immediately wrote to
+Mrs. Aronffy, thinking that what Lorand himself wrote to his mother
+would be in a proud strain. He anticipated his nephew's letter, told his
+mother quietly and restrainedly in order that Lorand's letter might be
+no surprise to her.
+
+Now he must write again to her, telling that the bride was coming, and
+the family vault must be ready for her reception.
+
+And curiously Topandy felt no pain in his heart as he thought over it.
+
+"Death is after all the best solution of life!"
+
+He did not shed a single tear upon the letter he wrote: he sealed it and
+looked for a servant to despatch it.
+
+But other thoughts occupied him.
+
+He sought the magistrate.
+
+"My dear sir, when do you want to lock me up?"
+
+"When you like, sir."
+
+"Would you not take me to gaol immediately?"
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+"How many years have they given me?"
+
+"Only two."
+
+"I expected more. Well, then I can take this letter myself into the
+town."
+
+"Will Mr. Aronffy remain here?"
+
+"No. He will take his dead love home to the country. I have asked the
+doctor to embalm her, and I have a lead casket which I prepared for
+myself with the intention of continuing my opposition to the ordinance
+of God within it: now I have no need of it. I will lend it to Czipra.
+That is her dowry."
+
+An hour later he went in search of Lorand, who was still guarding his
+dead darling. The magistrate was there too.
+
+"My dear sir," he said to the officer. "I am not going to the gaol now."
+
+"Not yet?" inquired Daruszegi. "Very well."
+
+"Not now, nor at any other time. A greater master has given me
+orders--in a different direction."
+
+They began to look at him in astonishment.
+
+His face was much paler than usual: but still that good-humored irony
+and light-hearted smile was there.
+
+"Lorand, my boy, there will be two funerals here."
+
+"Who is the second dead person?" asked Daruszegi.
+
+"I am."
+
+Then he drew from his breast his left hand which he had hitherto held
+thrust in his coat.
+
+"An hour ago I wrote a letter to your mother. As I was sealing it the
+hot wax dripped onto my nail, and see how my hand has blackened since."
+
+The tips of his left hand were blue and swollen.
+
+"The doctor, quickly," cried Daruszegi to his servant.
+
+"Never mind. It is already unnecessary," said Topandy, falling languidly
+into an arm-chair. "In two hours it is over. I cannot live more than two
+hours. In twenty minutes this swelling will reach my shoulder, and the
+way from thence to the heart is short."
+
+The doctor, who hastened to appear, confirmed Topandy's opinion.
+
+"There is nothing to be done," he said.
+
+Lorand, horror-stricken, hastened to take care of his uncle: the old
+fellow embraced the neck of the youth kneeling beside him.
+
+"You philosopher, you were right after all, you see. There is One who
+takes thought for two-legged featherless animals too. If I had
+known,--'Knock and it shall be opened unto you:' I should long have
+knocked at the door and cried, 'O Lord, let me in!'"
+
+Topandy would not allow himself to be undressed and put to bed.
+
+"Draw my chair beside Czipra. Let me learn from her how a dead man must
+behave. My death will not be so fine as hers: I shall not breathe my
+soul into the soul of my loved one: yet I shall be a gay
+travelling-companion."
+
+Pain interrupted his words.
+
+When it ceased, he laughed at himself.
+
+"How a foolish mass of flesh protests! It will not allow itself to be
+overlorded. Yet we were only guests here! '_Animula, vagula, blandula.
+Hospes comesque corporis. Quae nunc adibis loca? Frigidula, palidula,
+undula! Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos._' Certainly you will be '_extra
+dominium_' immediately. And my lord Stomach, his Grace, and my lord
+Heart, his Excellency, and my lord Head, his Royal Highness all must
+resign office."
+
+The doctor declared he must be suffering terrible agony all the time he
+was jesting and laughing; and he laughed when other people would have
+gnashed their teeth and cried aloud.
+
+"We have disputed often, Lorand," said the old man, always in a fainter
+voice, "about that German savant who asserted that the inhabitants of
+other planets are much nobler men than we here on earth. If he asks what
+has become of me, tell him I have advanced. I have gone to a planet
+where there are no peasants: barons clean earls' boots. Don't laugh at
+me, I beg, if I am talking foolishly.--But death dictates very curious
+verses."
+
+The hand-grasp with which he greeted Lorand, proved that it was his
+last.
+
+After that his hand drooped, his eyes languished, his face became ever
+more and more yellow.
+
+Once again he raised his eyes.
+
+They met Lorand's gaze.
+
+He wished to smile: in a whisper, straining desperately he said:
+
+"Immediately now ... I shall know--what is--in the foggy spots of the
+Northern Dog-star:--and in the eyeless worm's----entrails."
+
+Then, suddenly, with a forced final spasmodic effort, he seized the arms
+of his chair, and rose, lifted up his right arm, and turned to the
+magistrate.
+
+"Sir," he cried in a strong full-toned voice, "I have appealed."
+
+He fell back in the arm-chair.
+
+Some minutes later every wrinkle disappeared from his face, it became as
+smooth as marble, and calm, as those of dead persons are wont to be.
+
+Lorand was standing there with clasped hands between his two dear dead
+ones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the morrow at dawn Lorand rose for his journey and stepped into the
+cart with a closed lead coffin. So he took home his dead bride.
+
+The second letter which Topandy had written to his mother, the sealing
+of which had sealed his own fate, had not been posted, and could not
+have prepared them for his coming.
+
+At home they had received only the first letter.
+
+When that letter of good tidings arrived it caused feelings of
+intoxicated delight and triumph throughout the whole house.
+
+After all they loved him still best of all. He was the favorite child
+of his mother and grandmother. No word of Desiderius is required for his
+heart was already united to his darling: and good Fanny was doubly happy
+in the idea that she would not be the only happy woman in the house.
+
+With what joy they awaited him!
+
+Could he ever have doubted that the one he loved would be loved by
+all?--no need to speak of her virtues: everybody knew them: all he need
+say was "I love her."
+
+It was certainly very well he did not send his mother that letter, in
+which he had written of Czipra and requested his mother's
+blessing:--well that he had not wounded the dearest mother's heart with
+those final words--"but if you curse her whom I love--"
+
+Curse her whom he loves!
+
+Why should they do so? That letter brought a holiday to the house. They
+arranged the country dwelling afresh: Desiderius took up his residence
+in the town, handing over to his elder brother his birthright.
+
+The eldest lady put off her mourning. Lorand's bride must not see
+anything that could recall sad thoughts. Everything sad was buried under
+the earth.
+
+Desiderius could relate so much that was pleasant of the gypsy girl:
+Lorand's letters during the past ten years of silence always spoke of
+the poor despised diamond, whose faithful attachment had been the sunny
+side of Lorand's life. They read the bundles of letters again and again:
+it was a study for the two mothers. Where Lorand had been giving merely
+a passing hint, they could make great explanations, all pointing to
+Czipra.
+
+Providence had ordered it so!
+
+After the first meeting in the inn, it had all been ordained that Lorand
+should save Czipra from the murderer's knife, in order to be happy with
+her later.
+
+... Why the gypsy girl was happy already.
+
+Topandy's letter informed them that, immediately after the despatch of
+the letter, Lorand would wed Czipra, and they would come home together
+to the house of his parents.
+
+So the day was known, they might even reckon the hour when they would
+arrive.
+
+Desiderius remained in town to await Lorand. He promised to bring them
+out, however late they came, even in the night.
+
+The ladies waited up until midnight. They waited outside under the
+verandah. It was a beautiful warm moonlit night.
+
+The good grandmother, embracing Fanny's shoulder, related to her how
+many, many years ago they had waited one night for the two brothers to
+come, but that was a very awful night, and the waiting was very
+sorrowful. The wind howled among the acacias, clouds chased each other
+across the sky, hounds howled in the village, a hay-wain rattled in at
+the gate--and in it was hidden the coffin.--And the populace was very
+suspicious: they thought the ice would break its bounds, if a dead man
+were taken over it.
+
+But now it was quite a different world. The air was still, not a breath
+of air: man and beast sleeps, only those are awake who await a bride.
+
+How different the weather!
+
+Then, all at once, a wain had stood at the gate: the servants hastened
+to open it.
+
+A hay-wain now rattled in at the gate, as it did then.
+
+And after the wain, on foot, the two brothers, hand in hand.
+
+The women rushed to meet them, Lorand was the first whom everyone
+embraced and kissed.
+
+"And your wife?" asked every lip.
+
+Lorand pointed speechlessly to the wain, and could not tell them.
+
+Desiderius answered in his place.
+
+"We have brought his wife here in her coffin."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+WHEN WE HAD GROWN OLD
+
+
+Seventeen years have passed since Lorand returned home again.
+
+What old people we have become since then!
+
+Besides, seventeen years is a long time:--and seventeen heavy years!
+
+I have rarely seen people grow old so slowly as did our contemporaries.
+
+We live in a time when we sigh with relief as each day passes by--only
+because it is now over! And we will not believe that what comes after it
+will bring still worse days.
+
+We descend continuously further and further down, in faith, in hope, in
+charity towards one another: our wealth is dissipated, our spirits
+languish, our strength decays, our united life falls into disunion: it
+is not indifference, but "ennui" with which we look at the events of the
+days.
+
+One year to the day, after poor Czipra's death Lorand went with his
+musket on his shoulder to a certain entertainment where death may be had
+for the asking.
+
+I shall not recall the fame of those who are gone--why should I? Very
+few know of it.
+
+Lorand was a good soldier.
+
+That he would have been in any case, he had naturally every attribute
+required for it: heroic courage, athletic strength, hot blood, a soul
+that never shrank. War would in any case have been a delight for
+him:--and in his present state of mind!
+
+Broken-hearted and crushed, his first love contemptuously trampling him
+in the dust, his second murdered in the fervor of her passion, his soul
+weighed with the load of melancholia, and that grievous fate which bore
+down and overshadowed his family: always haunted by that terrible
+foreboding that, sooner or later, he must still find his way to that
+eighth resting-place, that empty niche.
+
+When the wars began his lustreless spirit burst into brilliance. When he
+put on his uniform, he came to me, and, grasping my hand, said with
+flashing eyes:
+
+"I am bargaining in the market where a man may barter his worn-out life
+at a profit of a hundred per cent."
+
+Yet he did not barter his.
+
+Rumor talked of his boldness, people sang of his heroic deeds, he
+received fame and wreaths, only he could not find what he sought: a
+glorious death.
+
+Of the regiment which he joined, in the end only a tenth part remained.
+He was among those who were not even wounded.
+
+Yet how many bullets had swept over his head!
+
+How he looked for those whistling heralds of death, how he waited for
+the approach of those whirring missiles to whom the transportation of a
+man to another world in a moment is nothing! They knew him well already
+and did not annoy him.
+
+These buzzing bees of the battlefield, like the real bees, whir past the
+ear of him who walks undaunted among them, and sting him who fears them.
+
+Once a bullet pierced his helmet.
+
+How often I heard him say:
+
+"Why not an inch lower?"
+
+Finally, in one battle a piece of an exploded shell maimed his arm, and
+when he fell from his horse, disabled by a sword-cut, a Cossack pierced
+him through with his lance.
+
+Yet even that did not kill him.
+
+For weeks he lay unconscious in the public hospital, under a tent, until
+I came to fetch him home. Fanny nursed him. He recovered.
+
+When he was better again, the war was over.
+
+How many times I heard him say:
+
+"What bad people you are, for loving me so! What a bad turn you did me,
+when you brought me away from the scene of battle, brother! How
+merciless you were Fanny, to watch beside me! What a vain task it was on
+your part to keep me alive! How angry I am with you: what detestable
+people you are!--just for loving me so!"
+
+Yet we still loved him.
+
+And then we grew old peacefully.
+
+We buried kind grandmother, and then dear mother too: we remained alone
+together, and never parted.
+
+Lorand always lived with us: as long as we lived in town he did not
+leave the house sometimes for weeks together.
+
+The new order of things compelled me to give up the career which father
+had held to be the most brilliant aim of life. I threw over my yearning
+for diplomacy, and went to the plough.
+
+I became a good husbandman.
+
+I am that still.
+
+Then too Lorand remained with us.
+
+His was no longer a life, merely a counting of days.
+
+It was piteous to know it and to see him.
+
+A strapping figure, whose calling was to be a hero!
+
+A warm heart, that might have been a paradise on earth to some woman!
+
+A refined, fiery temperament that might have been the leading spirit of
+some country.
+
+Who quietly without love or happiness, faded leaf by leaf and did not
+await anything from the morrow.
+
+Yet he feared the coming days.
+
+Often he chided me for wanting to brick up the door of that lonely
+building there beside the brook.
+
+Lest my children should ask, "what can dwell within it?" Lest they try
+to discover the meaning of that hidden inscription as I had tried in my
+childish days.
+
+Lorand did not agree with the idea.
+
+"There is still one lodging vacant in it."
+
+And that was a horror to us all.
+
+To him, to us too.
+
+Every evening we parted as if saying a last adieu.
+
+Nothing in life gave him pleasure. He took part in nothing which
+interested other men. He did not play cards, or drink wine: he was ever
+sober and of unchanging mood. He read nothing but mathematical books. I
+could never persuade him to take a newspaper in his hand.
+
+"The whole history of the world is one lie."
+
+Every day, winter and summer, early in the morning, before anyone had
+risen, he walked out to the cemetery, to where Czipra lay "under the
+perfumed herb-roots:" spent some minutes there and then returned,
+bringing in summer a blade of living grass, in winter of dried grass
+from her grave.
+
+He had a diary, in which nought was written, except the date: and pinned
+underneath, in place of writing, was the dry blade of grass.
+
+The history of a life contained in thousands of grass-blades, each blade
+representing a day.
+
+Could there be a sadder book?
+
+The only things that interested him, were fruit trees and bees.
+
+Animals and plants do not deceive him who loves them.
+
+The whole day long he guarded his trees and his saplings, and waged war
+against the insects: and all day long he learned the philosophy of life
+from those grand constitutional monarchists, the bees.
+
+There are many men, particularly to-day, in our country, who know how to
+kill time: Lorand merely struggled with time, and every day as it passed
+was a defeat for him.
+
+He never went shooting, he said it was not good for him to take a loaded
+gun in his hand.
+
+At night one of my children always slept in his room.
+
+"I am afraid of myself," he confessed to me.
+
+He was afraid of himself and of that quiet house, down there beside the
+brook.
+
+"I would love to sleep there under the perfumed herb-roots."
+
+A life wasted!
+
+One beautiful summer afternoon my little son rushed to me with the news
+that his uncle Lorand was lying on the floor in the middle of the room,
+and would not rise.
+
+With the worst suspicions, I hastened to his side.
+
+When I entered his room, he was lying, not on the floor, but on the bed.
+
+He lay face downward on the bed.
+
+"What is the matter?" I asked, taking his hand.
+
+"Nothing at all:--only I am dying slowly."
+
+"Great heavens! What have you done?"
+
+"Don't be alarmed. It was not my hand."
+
+"Then what is the matter?"
+
+"A bee-sting. Laugh at me--I shall die from it."
+
+In the morning he had said that robber bees had attacked his hives, and
+he was going to destroy them. A strange bee had stung him on the temple.
+
+"But not there ... not there ..." he panted, breathing feverishly: "not
+into the eighth resting-place--out yonder under the perfumed herb-roots.
+There let us lie in the dust one beside the other. Brick up that door.
+Good night."
+
+Then he closed his eyes and never opened them again.
+
+Before I could call Fanny to his side he was dead.
+
+The valiant hero who had struggled single-handed against whole troops,
+the man of iron whom neither the sword nor the lance could kill, in ten
+minutes perished from the prick of a tiny little insect.
+
+God moves among us!
+
+When the last moment of temptation had come, when weariness of life was
+about to arm his hand with the curse of his forefathers, He had sent the
+very tiniest of his flying minions, and had carried him up on the wings
+of a bee to the place where the happy ones dwell.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And we are still growing older: who knows how long it will last?
+
+
+FINIS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Debts of Honor, by Maurus Jokai
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