On reaching it, he
must needs embrace Mr. Boltay himself willy-nilly, and insisted on being
conducted to the bride at once. The thought that this wondrously
beautiful damsel was ready to take him for a husband, made him
positively love her. Mr. Boltay was obliged to call his attention to the
fact that the marriage must be preceded by sundry legal and other
formalities, which the magnate, despite the fact of his being a member
of the legislature, had clean forgotten, though this only shows how
completely he was carried away by the idea of his own wedding. Karpathy,
therefore, had to content himself with requesting his future
father-in-law--who, by the way, was a good score of years younger than
himself--to keep the whole affair a profound secret in the meantime, as
he had his own peculiar reasons for so doing. Boltay promised, and only
after the magnate's departure, did he recollect that Teresa and Fanny
had demanded a similar promise of secrecy, so he told Teresa of the
coincidence.

This circumstance confirmed Teresa's suspicions. If it was for the
interest of both parties to keep the matter secret till the wedding-day,
Mrs. Meyer could not possibly know anything about it, and therefore she
must have another reason for coming here, for that she had a reason
Teresa felt quite certain.

It was only natural too, under the circumstances, that a certain
estrangement should gradually arise between Teresa and Fanny. Teresa
could not forget that Fanny was now the bride of a millionaire, and
Fanny felt ashamed to be as familiar with her aunt and guardian as she
used to be. "What will they think of me?" she thought. "They will put it
all down to vaingloriousness and affectation." Thus it came about that a
sort of cold reserve was observable among the members of the family.
Everybody seemed to be upon his guard; and they might have been deaf and
dumb for all that they said to each other at meals.

The person who observed this atmosphere of reserve and suspicion with
the liveliest attention was undoubtedly Mrs. Meyer. "The girl is not
happy," she thought. "They are too severe with her. Teresa is cold and
unsympathetic. The girl is bored, and feels wretched, plunged as she is
up to the neck in this overbearing rural felicity. All day long she
never sees any suitable young fellow of her own age, and the desires of
her heart are all the stronger in consequence. Yes, something will come
of this, I'm sure."

One day Teresa went to