ed good quality--must be taken to be
such persons as your ladyship would not care about knowing."

"Excellent, excellent, my good friend! You shall make me acquainted with
those only whom I should like, and say nothing about the rest. Ah, you
know the world well. That is indeed good advice."

Mr. Varga looked beseechingly at Fanny, as if to insist that she was not
to praise him too much, or he should get confused again and forget what
he wished to say.

Then he took up the long list, and began to go through it, running his
finger along it, but so as not to touch the names, lest he might offend
their owners by such ignoble contact. Now and then the conducting finger
would pause at a name, and Mr. Varga would look up as if about to speak;
but in the very act of coughing to give the proper shade of respect to
his voice, he would look again at the name singled out by his finger,
think better of it, and tacitly schedule it among those who, though
blessed with all recognized good qualities, he did not think suitable
for his purpose. But as he drew near to the end of the list, he was
horror-stricken to observe how many names he had been obliged to pass
over in silence, and drops of honest sweat began to congregate on his
forehead as the index finger left ever more and more names behind
it--the names of people whom he always treated with the most awful
reverence, but not one of whom he would have recommended to the
confidence of his daughter, if he had had one. And he had now begun to
regard Fanny as his own daughter.

Ah! at last his long-drawn features grew round again with satisfaction,
and his hand trembled on the paper when it reached a name that it had
long been in search of.

"Look, my lady!" said he, extending the list towards her. "This
admirable lady is certainly one of those in whom your ladyship can
repose your confidence without running the risk of being deceived."

Fanny read the name indicated--"Flora Eszeky Szentirmay."

"What is this lady like?" she inquired of the old man.

"Verily, I should have need of very great eloquence to describe her to
you worthily. She is rich in all the virtues one looks for in a woman.
Gentleness and prudence go hand in hand with her. The oppressed and
downtrodden find in her a secret protector; for she does her good deeds
in secret, and forbids grateful tongues to talk about her. Not only is
it the hungry, the naked, the sick, and the wretched among whom she
distributes br