amidst the bellowing of
long-drawn-out dirges; behind them marched the poet, with the
table-cloth tied round his neck by way of mantle, declaiming d--d bad
Alexandrine verses on the spur of the moment; while Master Jock himself
had shouldered a fiddle (he always carried one about with him wherever
he went), and was dashing off one _friss-magyar_ after another with all
the grace and dexterity of a professional gipsy fiddler, at the same
time making the two little peasant girls dance in front of him with a
couple of the heydukes.

At this moment the stranger burst into the room.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," he cried, "I have the honour to
salute you!"

The tumult instantly subsided. Every one gazed open-mouthed at the
stranger who had suddenly appeared in their midst, and saluted them with
such affability. Master Jock let his fiddle-bow fall from his hand, for
though he loved a practical joke to excess, he did not like strangers to
see him at it. But the new-comer was not a stranger for long, for the
jester, surprised at the sudden silence, looking up, and perceiving a
gentleman attired not altogether unlike himself, thought fit to come to
life again, and, springing from his bier, rushed towards the stranger,
embraced and kissed him, and exclaimed--

"My dear brother, Heaven has surely sent you hither!"

At this mad idea the laughter burst forth anew.

"Ah! ce drole de gipsy!" said the stranger, trying to free himself from
the gipsy's embraces. "That's quite enough; kiss me no more, I say."

Then he bowed all round to the distinguished company, wiped away all
traces of the gipsy's kisses with his pocket-handkerchief, and said--

"Do not derange yourselves on my account, ladies and gentlemen; pursue
your diversions, I beg! I am not in the habit of spoiling fun. I am a
true gentleman, who knows how to prendre son air in whatever company he
may find himself. I have the pleasure of introducing myself to your
worships as Abellino Karpathy, of Karpat."

And with these words he whistled into the hollow end of his cane, flung
himself with a noble nonchalance into one of the camp-chairs, and threw
one of his heavily spurred feet over the other.

This speech fairly astonished the company. Even Master Jock now sprang
from his seat, and, resting the palms of both hands on his knees,
regarded the new-comer with amazement, while the gipsy went down on all
fours and began sniffing around him like a dog.

At length