A genuinely welcome guest does not take his leave at nightfall; the
prefect's visitors therefore put off their departure till the next day,
for the evening before they had sat long at the card-table, whereat the
prefect had won back from his guests, and that to the last kreutzer, all
that it had cost to entertain them.
Fraulein Fruzsinka had played cards till daylight. She had at first no
luck whatever, willing as she was by some slight cheating, to bring it,
but since her fellow-players were ready to let a pretty girl have her
way, she won at last ten ducats. Mr. Laskoy, however, lost the whole of
his salary. But the money would at least be restored to him, for it was
the custom that whoever won most must refund the president his lost
money, in view of the possible wrath of that important official. The
master of the house smuggled the ten ducats through Fraulein Fruzsinka,
into the president's hand.
"Take care," laughed the girl, "Gyongyom Miska does not rob you on the
way."
"I shall hide it where no one can find it, in the lining of my cap.
There it will be safe enough. Besides, Gyongyom Miska is just now
prowling about the county of Somogy. Captain Lievenkopp himself, with
all his dragoons, would hardly succeed in driving him into our
neighbourhood."
"Ah, well, I only say, look after your gold pieces!"
The president laughed contemptuously. Lievenkopp was, it was well known,
one of Fraulein Fruzsinka's admirers.
The president and the judge drove together as far as the next post
station, where their ways parted, and meantime chatted amicably.
"Isn't our hostess a charming person?" began the president as they left
the inn.
"I don't say she isn't."
"I must admit you certainly show your good taste in that quarter."
"Surely only like any other?"
"Come, come, what avails evasion? When I look into the fair lady's eyes
I don't see the expression there, you do. Can you deny it?"
"Well, and if I have looked into her eyes, what of it?"
"Oh, we know all about that. Everyone knows that you and the lady of the
house were carrying on a flirtation whilst the sessions were going on."
"Did I flirt?"
"Most emphatically you did. I know everything. Last night, when I went
to my room, I heard voices through the door of our hostess' boudoir. I
waited in order to listen, and sure enough it was the prefect who was
holding forth angrily about you against a shrill high-pitched voice,
which was obviously that of your Fraulein Fruzsinka. Thereupon, the lady
retorted that there was an understanding between you, and that the
affair was quite serious."
"Bah! As if I meant to marry every girl to whom I have made a
declaration," laughed the judge.
"Aha, that would be quite as difficult to bring about as if Fraulein
Fruzsinka wished to marry all those who had courted her. It cuts both
ways. Yet she is a charming girl! If she could only find some good man
who would marry her. Why not you, eh?"
"Most certainly not. For if someone else marries her, I am certain that
she will be true to me. But if I, and not anyone else, wed her, then
sure enough she'll deceive me every day."
"But if you don't mean to, then it were surely a great mistake, besides
a mere quibble of words, to leave in the fair lady's hands a pledge that
could be legally produced as argument for the plaintiff."
"What do you mean?"
"Tut, tut. I haven't presided twenty years for nothing in criminal law;
I understand what tokens mean. What happened in the little ante-room?
What has the defendant to urge on his behalf?"
"Why, I only superintended the carrying out of the law from the window."
"And in the intervals taught your hostess how to conjugate the verb
_amo_, to love, eh?"
"Stated but not proven--but if it were so?"
"Consequently, the lady may be justified in urging: 'If he really and
truly loves me, let him give me a love token, a lock of his hair.'"
"Why not?"
"Exactly--now you stand convicted! Need I remind you that you only
sought a pair of scissors to cut off a curl of your hair, and while you
did that, your lady-love registered the blows for you as your _locum
tenens_. Yet you were giving the most dangerous blow of all to the
guileless loving heart which beat under your gift, for Fraulein
Fruzsinka hid the curl in her locket, and when we came away, I noted how
she leaned out of the window and kissed the locket over and over again.
Is the impeachment sufficient?"
"No, I won't admit it is. It's based on a false premise. Up to the time
when I went for the scissors, I grant you it was a sound one, but here
the facts alter. As I stood before the looking-glass, with the scissors
in my hand, who should come in but the Fraulein's' little black poodle,
and as usual he put out his fore paws caressingly. Thereupon, a
brilliant idea struck me. The hair curled as well round the poodle's
neck as it did on my head. No sooner said than done. The Fraulein wasn't
looking; she was too busy with the sessions, so quickly nipping off a
superfluous curl from the dog's neck, I slipped it into my lady's soft
hand; into her locket it goes forthwith. But don't betray me! For if the
Fraulein knew it, she would poison us all at the next dinner."
Mr. Valentine Laskoy was not given to groundless merriment, but he
could not fail to see the point of this jest; first that one of the
dog's curly locks had been transferred to the locket, and secondly, that
it had been kissed with transport by the owner. And thereupon he burst
into such a guffaw of laughter that the horses thought it was a volcanic
eruption, and began to shy and rear accordingly, so that the coachman
and the heyduke with him could not bring them to a standstill on the
bridge before the post-house, and the passengers were all but sent
flying from their seats. But at this point Mr. Laskoy had to get out to
await the companions he had left behind, who were coming on in the
coach.
"But don't say a word to anyone," was the judge's parting injunction to
his companion.
"Trust me! But, all the same, whenever I see a black poodle I shall
laugh at the thought."
And off went the judge, for his time was up.
At the bridge, where the roads branched off, Laskoy waited for the coach
to come up.
But what a time the coach was coming, to be sure! He could not imagine
what had happened to it. It was past mid-day, his ever-growing hunger
made the delay of the diligence all the more wearisome. But in spite of
it all, he waited patiently.
At last the famous vehicle came in sight, but only slowly, although the
road was quite good. What could have happened?