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 Sarvolgyi 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 Sarvolgyi"s fixed stare that settled on Desiderius" face.
"My brother, Desiderius,"--said Lorand in a tone of unembarra.s.sed confidence, introducing his brother. "He heard from me of the ladies being here, so perhaps Mr. Sarvolgyi 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 Sarvolgyi, 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 Sarvolgyi, 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 rea.s.sured, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sion 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 a.s.sertion 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.