stole it?"

"But you're as big a fool as he, Palko. Any more?"

"More!--more! There's no end to them, of course. How do you suppose I
can carry the names of all of them in my head? Come, and look at them
yourself; you'll soon have your fill of 'em, I warrant."

Meanwhile the trusty heyduke had dressed his master, brushed him down
and smoothed him out, till there was not a spot or wrinkle to be seen on
any portion of his attire.

"But is there not some other, some strange, unusual guest, the sort of
man, I mean, who is not in the habit of visiting me? Eh?"

Palko regarded his master for a moment with wide-open mouth and eyes,
not knowing what to answer.

"I want to know," continued Karpathy, in a solemn voice, "whether my
little brother Bela is here?"

Palko made a wry face at these words, and dropped the velvet brush with
which he was just preparing to smooth out the collar of his master's
_mente_.

"What! that weather-cock?"

"Come, come! None of that! Don't you know that a Karpathy should always
be spoken of respectfully?"

"What!" cried Palko, "the man who insulted your honour so grossly?"

"What business is it of yours?"

"Oh, no business of mine, of course, not a bit! I am only a
good-for-nothing old heyduke. What right have I to poke my nose into
your honour's affairs? Make friends with him again, by all means! What
do I care. Kiss and hug each other if you like, I don't care. It was not
me but your honour whom the worthy man insulted, and if your honour
likes that, why, be it so--that's all!"

"Come, come, don't make a fool of yourself, Palko," said Master Jock,
more jocosely. "Have the comedians arrived?"

"I should think they had. There's that Lokodi with four others. He
himself plays the heroic parts; a spindle-shanked, barber's apprentice
sort of fellow, takes the aged father parts; and there's a matron, well
advanced in years, who acts the young missies. They are now making ready
to give a representation this evening. When your honours are all dining
in the Large Room they are going to act the _Marriage of Dobozy_ in
twelve tableaux, to the accompaniment of Greek fire, in the front room."

"But why in the front room, and not rather in the theatre?"

"It is too small."

"But there are only five of them."

"True; but all the heydukes we have must be there too, either as Turks
or Hungarians. We have already brought down all the costumes and weapons
from our museum of antiquities. The stud