Part 61 (1/2)

”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 a.s.sured 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 br.i.m.m.i.n.g 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 nave wonder.

”Why, you know that.”

”Of course, of course. His possessions lie just where the corners of the great princ.i.p.alities 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 lords.h.i.+p has already doubtless found an excellent situation in the Princ.i.p.ality?”