Part 16 (1/2)

”Believe me,” remarked her ladys.h.i.+p: ”if this man ever reaches h.e.l.l, they will give him a special room, so great are his merits. I have already grown tired of trying to reform him.”

”Has your ladys.h.i.+p 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 flas.h.i.+ng-eyed damsel.

The magistrate began to rise from his chair. (Her ladys.h.i.+p 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 ladys.h.i.+p 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 gla.s.s and calling on him to ”clink” with her, herself setting the example. She drained that sparkling liquor from her gla.s.s just as if it had been pure water. And those wines were truly remarkably strong. The magistrate could not refuse the appeal of her ladys.h.i.+p'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 G.o.dless fellow, destroying his appet.i.te 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 ladys.h.i.+p 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 ladys.h.i.+p 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 ladys.h.i.+p 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.”