For some days the great circuit had been in full swing in the city. It
was a new institution, inaugurated by the Emperor Joseph, whereby the
lord-lieutenant or his representative, annually had to make a tour
through the county to procure information of all kinds, and refer the
same to the district commissioner, of whom there were ten in all
throughout the country.
The business was easily settled in some counties. But in that of Pesth,
which is as large as a German kingdom, the number of official
entertainments was so great that it demanded an ostrich's digestion.
These municipal officials, like the lord-lieutenant himself, must eat
and drink hard three or four days running, while, at the end, the whole
burden of the work fell on the substitute, the eldest and best qualified
magistrate. No one answered to this demand better than our old friend,
Mr. Laskoy.
When the circuit came to Szent-Endre, it was naturally the turn of the
prefect to give an entertainment. To this the imperial court secretary,
Mr. Mathias Raby of Raba and Mura, received a formal invitation in due
course.
As it was so great an official gathering, he put on his Viennese dress,
and arrived at the prefecture by twelve o'clock, the hour appointed.
He was received by a lordly looking lackey, who discreetly gave him to
understand that he was somewhat early, that the gentry were still in
council, but that till dinner-time, he might, if he would, go into the
garden where he would find Mademoiselle, the prefect's niece.
Raby instantly conceived a high opinion of the lady of the house, who,
thus immediately preceding a great banquet, could find leisure to walk
in the garden. She could not be wholly wrapped up in her housewifery.
But how find a garden he had never seen and seek out a lady who was a
complete stranger to him? However, help was nigh. Just as if it had
scented him, a black poodle came running down the corridor wagging his
tail, as welcoming the guest, and finally took the end of Raby's cane
between his teeth and drew him to the door that led into the garden.
Raby, seeing the dog wanted to play with the cane, let him have it,
whereupon the cunning little beast seized it in the middle and preceded
Raby down the garden path where Fraulein Fruzsinka was to be found. The
garden was laid out in the prevalent mode, in a maze composed of trees,
among which one had vainly sought for an outlet. There, indeed, Raby had
never found the lady on his own account, for she had ensconced herself
in the innermost recess and was reading, seated on the mossy bank.
She was no longer the Hungarian amazon who had worn the riding gear we
met her in, earlier in this story. She was now the Viennese "elegante,"
whose toilette proclaimed her the lady of fashion, with her
walking-stick, her elaborate coiffure, and lace ruffles, all
irreproachably correct. Nor were cosmetics and patches wanting that the
mode demanded, and she answered Raby's greeting with the prescribed
German formula: "Your servant, sir."
The poodle broke the ice, by running up with his cane and laying it at
his mistress' feet.
But Fraulein Fruzsinka picked it up gently and gave it back to Raby. She
held a richly bound book, Wieland's "Oberon," which she showed to her
guest.
Now with ladies who read Wieland you can talk of something else besides
ordinary themes. And in the first quarter of an hour of his conversation
with her, Mathias Raby discovered that his hostess was a highly
cultivated woman who could discuss the French philosophers as an
ordinary provincial belle might the latest fashion in head dresses, and
speak German fluently.
And her eyes, how marvellous they were!
They came out of the maze pursuing the talk on literature, and bent
their steps towards the flower garden. Passing the flower-beds, Fraulein
Fruzsinka betrayed also her knowledge of that "language of flowers"
which just then was the rage in Vienna. The young lady broke off a twig
of evergreen, and gave it to Raby, who well recollected the couplet
which set forth its symbolism:
"The evergreen is always green, although it blossoms never,
So may the friendship 'twixt a man and woman last for ever."
But there was nothing of the coquette about her; she made no advances
whatever.
The sound of the dinner-gong here breaking off their talk, his hostess
accompanied Raby back to the house, where the company were impatiently
awaiting them. The dinner was already on the table.
The Fraulein presented Raby to the other guests who all greeted him
warmly.
The meal threatened to be interminable, as course succeeded course, till
at last someone threw out a hint to the effect that a little exercise
would be good for the diners, who had a game of skittles awaiting them.
"Skittles," indeed, was as it were the word of dismissal, and the
suggestion nearly spoiled the proposal made by another guest that after
dinner they should have a song from Fraulein Fruzsinka on the
clavichord.
But the skittle players were in the majority though there was a keen
opposition.
Finally matters were compromised by settling that they should have their
hostess' song first, and then the skittles. At first a few of the guests
loitered round the clavichord, at which Fraulein Fruzsinka, with her
really sweet voice, was commencing a ditty. But you could not well smoke
there, so one by one they stole out into the garden where the skittles
were already in full swing.
Meanwhile, Fraulein Fruzsinka remained at the clavichord alone with
Mathias Raby, who from his knowledge of music could turn over for her at
the right moment.
The singer soon shut the music book, and rose impatiently from the
instrument.
"What people these are!" she exclaimed with a little irritated gesture
of her hands. "Not a lofty idea, not a noble aspiration among them, as
far as one can judge. And that is our world!"
Raby, who had the instincts of a courtier, sought to excuse his fellow
guests.
"Their own official concerns fill their minds entirely."
"Their official concerns indeed! Yes, I should think so! Did you hear
the anecdotes with which they regaled each other at table? Quite
frankly, with the most shameless cynicism. Yet they were all true. Among
such people as ours, ignorance, idleness and greed counter-balance one
another. Not one of them knows his business: each neglects his duty. But
see if there is anything to be got out of any official function, and
everyone is ready to seize it for himself."
Raby held a brief for the accused.
"With us, offices of that kind are ill-paid. The official's salary is
scant; he has, too, a house and family to keep up."
Fruzsinka laughed aloud. "There is not a married man among all of them.
They are all a penniless lot who come to pay their court to me. Each of
them would marry me, were they not all afraid of me!"
"Afraid of the Fraulein? You must make a strange impression on them."
"Yes, think of it! Can you believe that anyone is frightened at me
because I wear a fashionable gown, read novels, am clever at music, but
indifferent to kitchen and cellar; thereat the wooer shudders. He says
to himself, 'he cannot possibly tolerate that,' and takes himself off
forthwith."
"On the contrary, dainty toilettes and culture bespeak wealth, and that
alone should be one more spur for the suitors, surely."
"Oh certainly, if they were sure that my uncle, who is rich, were going
to leave me his money. But that is a secret no one knows. There are two
things my wooer cannot find out, whether my uncle really loves me, and
whether I know how to flatter him well enough, so as not to forfeit his
affection. And truly I do not quite know myself."
"And that surely is not difficult to decide. For your beautiful
toilettes and good education witness sufficiently to his affection for
you."
"Ah, as far as my education goes, I have only to thank the gracious
Empress Maria Theresa, for I was educated at her Elizabeth Institute in
Buda, and my education cost no one a heller. And as regards my dress, my
uncle insists on my dressing well, in order to captivate each new-comer.
If it is an aristocratic cavalier who appears on the scene, forthwith I
must don my pearl-embroidered bodice and lace stomacher and the plumed
hat, but if it be an ordinary townsman, I wear the provincial dress of
the simple country girl. Yes, would you know everything at this, our
first meeting? And, indeed, as it is the first, so will it be the last.
But would you hear how that must be, come with me into my own
sitting-room, for here someone will overhear us."
Raby was already under the spell of the sorceress, and he followed her
willingly into her boudoir.
"You are not the first, dear Raby," pursued his hostess, "who has come
into this town vowing vengeance on us, to demand that justice be done. I
say 'us,' for as you see, I too am leagued with this confederacy. And
each of such emissaries in turn have I seen withdraw after a time, his
anger appeased. Now, once more, they hear that a man of iron has come to
set his foot down with inexorable rigour; he distributes the vast bribe
which has been offered him, among the poor, while to win him over, even
the great coffer is ransacked, but in vain. Thereupon, the authorities
bethink them of another treasure still, the prefect's niece. And they
trick her out as a fashionable lady, and leave her alone with the
incorruptible. You see I am quite frank! Do you not blush for me? I do
for myself, I can assure you. Take my advice, and fly from this place!"
"But, Fraulein, all you tell me does but make me still more determined
to pursue the purpose for which I came hither."
"I see you to-day for the first time; I know nothing of you but what I
have heard from your opponents; but what I have heard of you only makes
me take your side. You are no ordinary man. Go, I tell you, and save
yourself; flee from this place!"
"I save myself?"
"Yes, indeed! You cannot imagine how evilly disposed to you are those
among whom you find yourself. Indeed, they have threatened to take your
life."
What does she mean? Will she scare him away from the field of his
labours, so that intimidated by her words, he returns to Vienna? Or has
she measured her man, and seen that he is to be best caught by seeking
to divert him from his purpose? And does she know that for such a one,
the most powerful enticement of all will be to seek to turn him from
his goal?
Raby responded to the signal that his hostess made him, to come closer;
nay, he took the fan she held, and fanned her and himself with it.
"That is splendid; why it will make my stay here quite a romantic
experience," he said.
"You will rue it, however, and expose yourself to a thousand dangers
which you have not the power to withstand. I see you are confident of
your strength. But if you had to fight with someone, would it not
disquiet you to know your adversary was an excellent shot. Suppose the
moment you entered the field, someone whispered to you: 'Be on your
guard; your second is in league with your opponent, he has placed no
bullets in your pistol.' Would you not, in such a case, refuse to
fight?"
"But the case is quite unthinkable."
"So you deem it. But to prove to you, that I am not seeking, as your
enemies would have me do, to try and entangle you in my net, I will tear
asunder the snare already closing round you, and show you something
which shall enlighten you once and for all."
She went to her writing-table and took out of a drawer a letter.
"Say, do you know this handwriting?"
"Very well, it is that of the district commissioner."
"The note was addressed to me, in order to awaken no suspicion. Please
read it."
It was the letter which the district commissioner had written at the
theatre.
As he read it, Raby fairly crimsoned with wrath. He was thunderstruck to
find that his official chief, who had promised to support his mission,
should have a secret understanding with those whom he was pledged to
punish. Whom should he trust, if this was the state of things?
"Now will you not fly?" said Fraulein Fruzsinka. Her words urged him to
go, but her eyes held him back.
"No, indeed! now will I remain," cried Raby impetuously, as he rose to
go. And as if to prove that he had determined to do and dare all, he
hastily seized her hand and raised it passionately to his lips.
And she did not withdraw hers, but vehemently returned its pressure, as
if to say: "This is the man I have long been looking for!"
"Leave me now," she whispered; but her eyes seemed to say, "Come again,
soon!"
Mathias Raby knew now that fate had led him to a kindred soul at last!