es. What if I speak to him, and he awakes?"

At this suggestion Lorand's two eyes became like fire. It seems as if he
were forcibly holding back the rush of a great flood of tears. Then
between his teeth he murmured:

"He will never awake again."

"Yet I would like to kiss him."

"His hand?"

"His hand and his face."

"You may kiss only his hand," said my brother firmly.

"Why?"

"Because I say so," was his stern reply. The unaccustomed ring of his
voice was quite alarming. I told him I would obey him; only let him take
me to father.

"Well, come along. Give me your hand."

Then taking my hand, he led me through two rooms.[2] In the third,
grandmother met us.

[Footnote 2: In Hungary the houses are built so that one room always
leads into the other; the whole house can often be traversed without the
necessity of going into a corridor or passage.]

I saw no change in her countenance; only her thick white eyebrows were
deeply contracted.

Lorand went to her and softly whispered something to her which I did not
hear; but I saw plainly that he indicated me with his eyes. Grandmother
quietly indicated her consent or refusal with her head; then she came to
me, took my head in her two hands, and looked long into my face, moving
her head gently. Then she murmured softly:

"Just the way _he_ looked as a child."

Then she threw herself face foremost upon the floor, sobbing bitterly.

Lorand seized my hand and drew me with him into the fourth room.

There lay the coffin. It was still open; only the winding-sheet covered
the whole.

Even to-day I have no power to describe the coffin in which I saw my
father. Many know what that is; and no one would wish to learn from me.
Only an old serving-maid was in the chamber; no one else was watching.
My brother pressed my head to his bosom. And so we stood there a long
time.

Suddenly my brother told me to kiss my father's hand, and then we must
go. I obeyed him; he raised the edge of the winding-sheet; I saw two
wax-like hands put together; two hands in which I could not have
recognized those strong muscular hands, upon the shapely fingers of
which in my younger days I had so often played with the wonderful
signet-rings, drawing them off one after the other.

I kissed both hands. It was such a pleasure! Then I looked at my brother
with agonized pleading. I longed so to kiss the face. He understood my
look and drew me away.

"Come with me. Don't let us remain lon